Need some makeup tips?

This is what happens when a curious 2 year old finds some markers that her older brother and sister left where she could reach them!  I suppose she has seen me and others putting on our lipstick, and was trying to be glamourous too!  Luckily it was washable marker!

Our winter vacation is drawing to an end.  Well, poor Colin had to go back to school yesterday (it was extremely painful to set that alarm at 5 a.m. again!) but the other three don't go back until tomorrow.  Lazy days of lounging in our pajamas until noon are soon to be history, for now.  I have a long list of things I needed to get done, but for some reason, they have stayed undone.  I'm sure when I have to bolt out of bed to get everyone off to school I will get some new energy, right?  Right?

It has been incredibly warm here in Charlotte ... today it will be 70 for crying out loud!!  January?  Of course the last two years the month started out very tepid, but then we had some pretty serious snow and/or ice storms toward the end of the month.  Do I sense a pattern here?  This year I'm ready with the gloves and snow suits!

I have to mention here my disbelief and grief about the tsumanis that hit Southern Asia.  I consider that part of the world my pseudo home, since I lived in Japan, the Philippines and Singapore growing up.  I have walked on beaches in the P.I. that look very similar to those we see on the news.  I have been to those poor fishing villages and seen the poverty in which the people live.  I can't fathom the massive destruction and loss of life ... the hopelessness that they must be feeling.  I can only hope that the sight of a US Navy helicopter bringing food and water, or simply plucking survivors from the entrance to hell has brought some sense of optimism about the future for these people.  They have all been in my thoughts and prayers over the last week or so.  And the people who were vacationing in Phuket or Phi Phi Island and other places ... thousands of them are supposedly dead.  My heart breaks ... our little problems seem pretty pale and insignificant right now.