Buck up, Nancy.

Today's a tough day. It's just tough. For no other reason than the fact that I just plain woke up. Nothing is going wrong, the kids are being very well behaved, I don't have any "outside the house" projects that need doing---it's just one of those days. I have them every once in awhile and I hate them. I don't feel like myself at all so this is an attempt to force myself to be myself. If you can wrap yourself around that one.

We just returned from a week-long trip to the beach with my family. It was pretty good. The weather was great and I got some great pictures. I will post them here eventually, but you can see a whole album of them on facebook. Now we're counting down the days until our final beach trip in September with Aubrey's family. Do you think this family loves the beach?

I got some killer deals at the outlets thanks to 60% off sales and coupons. I got some awesome dresses that my wardrobe so sorely needs. Three years of pregnancy and breast feeding means too many skirts and unflattering blouses. I've also lost weight so I need to to get a couple of new sizes...I am (drumroll please) a size 8 dress and a size 10 pants. I've still got some weight to lose, but we're getting there. Rubbing that in y'all's faces just helped make my day brighter!

I also wanted to share some self-portraits with you. I took pictures of some of my signature faces. As you read my blogs, you can imagine which face I'm pulling as I'm typing. Also, they don't make me look fat.

This is how I look when I thow my babies up in the air and talk nonsense. If you are 36 inches tall or shorter, this is how I look to you most of the time. Those are not crow's feet, by the way, they are laugh lines. I laugh. A lot. It's why I'll live forever.

I'm usually giving this look to Aubrey when he asks me to help him do something that will require me getting dirty or eating seafood.

This is me doing a math problem or trying to figure out why what I just said didn't make any sense. When I pull this face, you can bet whatever just happened is going into my Blonde Moments jar.

This is my whatever/mischief/I-don't-know-but-really-I-do look. It's my favorite look because with the slightest adjustment, it also becomes my you're-an-idiot look. If you are one of my peers, you see this several times on a daily basis. My mom has a 10-year-younger 8x10 of this look on her dining room wall, so apparently it's her favorite look too.

I know this was just a lot of utter nonsense, but I feel fortified for the rest of the day. Or at least until nap time.