Remember how last night I was complaining about needing some style? So today after Jaylen’s soccer game, I went looking for some.

I ALWAYS do this. I neglect my poor hair to the point of desperation, then I go and get it cut off. And then I grow to hate it because I love it long.

I’m hoping this time I won’t hate it, because today I really like it. My hair stylist, Lisa (at This Is It in Covington, if you’re nearby) rocks and she is the only one I allow to come near my head with scissors. I’m so happy to have found someone I trust. She’s great.

Also got a brow wax. The last time I did that, Jaylen was a baby. He’s 4.5 now! And unlike last time, they actually look really, really good. lol.

Anyhoo. I ALSO bought some cute little baby pink “snakeskin” ballet flats (trust me, they’re cuter on). I guess it’s “Pamper Mommy” day today! I might just have to use my giftcards to maurice’s, too. Hrm …

I am such a loser. Can I just say that?

I’m sitting here watching What Not to Wear and updating the church’s website on a Friday night. Quite a wild life I lead, right? Oh, and I’m eating Cap’n Crunch - my fave - for dinner after 11 p.m. I just wasn’t hungry earlier.

So anyway. Here’s my issue. Or my current one. And it’s one that comes up every single time I watch What Not to Wear because it’s the same issue they have: I have no idea how to dress myself. I could definitely use a little Clinton and Stacy in my life. lol. I have this pear shape that is hard to dress - small on top, big on the bottom (big booty). And I have a bit of a tummy. I’m also picky. And I’m cheap. This does not equal options, my friends. I feel so lost when I shop, I do.

And really, if this is my biggest issue, I must certainly be very awesome otherwise, right?

I also want a new haircut. I like my hair long, but it’s in bad need of a trim. No, a cut. The split ends have split ends, and those split ends have split ends too. It’s BAD. Those cute little chic slanted bobs are on everyone’s heads around here and I have to admit, I love them. But I also love my hair long. I hate that I am so indecisive.

Ok. So it’s settled. I so need a stylist in my life. lol.

You know, I grew up being this clumsy, knobby-kneed little girl with glasses and braces. I’ve since ditched the braces and grown into my knees, but I’m still clumsy. Want to hear a really hilarious story wherein I embarrassed myself in front of the Memphis media? Good!

So yesterday I was in the ‘media room’ while at court, which is really the sheriff’s office’s new training room that was set up to accommodate the various monitors and equipment that our media visitors from the south (Memphis) would need to adequately cover the trial. My butt was tired of the wooden benches and I had no WiFi, so I decided to chill in the media room with the cool folks and just watch the trial on their monitors. No biggie. Did it several times this week.

When I get in there, one of the ADAs is making closing statements and I go to move a desk-chair over to where one of the monitors was. The desk-chairs are just folding chairs with a little writing surface on them. They are normally lined up in rows in the room, like a classroom, but they were folded up and put into three rows in a corner of the room. The chair I grabbed was right next to the lot of them. As soon as I sit down, one chair falls. I get up to put it back and another one falls. Then the whole row falls. As it’s falling, the second row falls. And the THIRD ROW. All at the same time! OMG! I was SO embarrassed! As my good buddy Justin said to me this morning, I just made an ass of myself in front of all of the Memphis media. And I did! A reporter and cameraman from each of the four news stations were there, as was my competition (a reporter from another paper who covers the same area) and agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). lol. It was SO LOUD and right in the middle of closing arguments! All I did was move ONE CHAIR that wasn’t even CLOSE to the stack! lol! I called one of my deputy friends and told him it was all his fault.

It was - literally - one of my most embarrassing moments! One of those hysterical embarrassing moments though, as opposed to those uncomfortable, wish-I-could-just-crawl-under-a-rock moments like when you find out your spouse is cheating or has left you for some skank.

And now that we’re all uncomfortable up in here … a divorce update. There is none, as always. Except that I have to pay even MORE money because this stupid state requires someone who has been a single parent - literally and figuratively - for nearly six years to take a parenting class before being divorced from the other parent who is only a parent in the biological sense. Oh, and I don’t believe he has to take the class. Ha. Thank you, Tennessee! I have paid for this divorce, for these kids (though now I’m receiving un poco money, hello garnishments!), I have to take this class now and you know what? Whatever. I didn’t want this initially, but I will be damned if I let this summer go by without getting this over with. This is just ridiculous.

You know what’s funny to me? Me. How I am now as opposed to how I was three years ago. When I talk about things, my friends and co-workers look at me funny and tell me they don’t believe I ever let someone bully me. Neither do I! What was I thinking?! And because I’ve already dealt with that from someone who shouldn’t have had that chance, I’m more apt to nip certain behaviors from people in the bud before they become problems. I don’t let people push me around anymore and I am not anyone’s doormat.

That said, even now, sometimes I’m still a clumsy girl who knocks about 45 chairs over in front of the worst situation I could possibly imagine. And that’s totally ok. But I’d still like Clinton and Stacy to visit - if I’m gonna knock down a plethora of chairs I’d at least like to look good doing it!

It’s been an exhausting week.

Monday the murder trial for the 18-year-old who shot and killed a state trooper began. I am very, very tired of writing about it now after four solid days of literally transcribing it. It’s so draining, which you would not expect. (Steven, if you’re reading this, you know what I mean.) The benches are hard, the breaks are few and far between and the testimony is usually boring. It’s just taxing to sit and write, write, write from 9 a.m. until the evening whenever the judge decides to recess.

Yesterday the teen was convicted of first-degree murder and today he was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after serving 51 years.

This week is also National Police Week with today being National Peace Officers Day and the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial here in Tipton County. After that hour-long ceremony and all week in court, I was done. I’m exhausted. I’m emotionally exhausted and physically exhausted. I am very much looking forward to a day off.

And we all know that I became an auntie again on Tuesday! Baby Caleb and his mommy went home today and are doing well. I’m begging for more pictures and can’t wait until I get to hold him in person in a few weeks. He’s so adorable!

I haven’t written much lately, and I apologize (for those of you who do check and who do care). I just really haven’t felt like sharing, just been in one of those moods.

Mother’s Day was ok. I got plenty of cards from the kids and even giftcards for my favorite store as well as a miniature carnation plant. (I’ve been really into plants lately.) My brothers and I went in on a massage, pedicure and manicure for our mom. I didn’t think she’d really go for the manicure, but Ryne insisted, so whatever.

We had company over the weekend and now have new flooring in the dining room and kitchen. No more of that ugly crappy brick-looking tile, it’s now laminate flooring.

On Tuesday night was the annual kindergarten “Down on the Farm” program for parents. It was pretty cute! Jaiden was a pig. She did such a great job! A few weeks ago she asked me if she could be in the drama club and I think that’s wonderful, we just need to check more into it. She will be out of school by the end of next week! Yikes.

Jaylen and Jenna are also gearing up for their end-of-the-year program, which will be this next Tuesday. Should be fun! Both of my older two are getting too big for their britches lately, they don’t want to listen to me. Jaiden’s been getting sassy and flat-out ignoring me and Jaylen pretty much refuses to go to sleep at night. It’s so frustrating. Last night he was up and in the bathroom just before midnight. MIDNIGHT! And he was so crabby this morning. Oy.

Jenna … she’s just growing into being two. Which means she’s getting more hellish every day. This morning she was in the bathroom and was supposed to be on the potty. She ran into the living room and said, “Nenna go’ed potty!”

“Are you sure, Jenna?” I asked. Sometimes she says she’s gone, but hasn’t.

“Um yeah, SHE’S SURE!” said Jaiden, who was just entering the bathroom. Jenna peed all over the bathroom floor! Oh my goodness! But I can’t complain because that is really one of the few accidents out of that child. She’s getting more and more chatty, too.

I am so excited for the weekend, just because I will not have to open up InDesign or take pictures unless I just want to. Ahh … weekend! Yay!

My sweet little nephew, Caleb Braxton!

My sister-in-law, Kelly, was due last Wednesday and yesterday when Caleb still hadn’t decided to come out, the doctor decided to induce labor this morning at 8 a.m. EST. Except that Caleb decided he’d come on his own! Kelly went into labor late last night and was admitted to the hospital. But because Caleb’s heart rate kept dropping, I’m told, he ended up arriving via c-section just before noon EST! The little man weighed in at eight pounds and measured 21 inches long!

This morning on my drive in to work I heard one of Kelly’s favorite songs (or it used to be one of her favorities), a song that always makes me think of Kelly - “Party Like a Rockstar”. And I started CRYING! My only reasoning behind that was because I was thinking about my sister-in-law and my brother, how happy this day will always be for them and how much their lives will now be changed. They’ve passed more than two decades of “May 13s” and never knew how special the day would be for them from 2008 on. Having children - especially when they’re still too little to talk back to you - is so amazing!

Congrats, baby brother and sister-in-law! And welcome to the world, Caleb! You’re late, dude (already starting to take after Auntie Echo)! ♥

After today I know why I don’t work from home. It’s because kids live here. And when they aren’t screaming because they’re fighting, they’re screaming because they just want to scream. It induces headaches nearly every time.

Jaylen and Jenna’s caregiver had the day off today, so the plan was that I’d work from home. In the morning we spent quite a good bit of time trying to get some files to Emily (first tried to FTP them, then gave up and burned them to a CD). We ate breakfast when we got back to the house. I worked on a few things, including laundry, and happened to open my iCal (calendar) only to realize that today was the last day for Pre-K registration. Oops. Thankfully I was semi-prepared for it, just forgot about it this week, so getting ready wasn’t a problem. It was actually leaving the house, of course.

Just before we left I heard Jenna in the bathroom. She likes to do things on her own and has been asserting her independence a lot lately, so I figured she was brushing her teeth or using the bathroom (she tries, but is not quite there yet). But no, she was making a mess. (She is two, afterall.) I use itty bitty ponytail holders for her fine hair and she spilled hundreds of them on the floor. She does this a lot. You might think I would have learned my lesson, but I have yet to move those stupid things up higher in the bathroom closet.

Oh, and of course she has dirtied her Pull-Up (and she was IN the bathroom!). It’s so dirty it requires a change of clothes and quite a bit of scrubbing. I wanted to leave the house by noon but that clearly didn’t happen. lol. Jaylen, who is addicted to the movie Cars, didn’t want to shut the movie off so we could go. He is not at all looking forward to Pre-K, which makes me doubt sending him, but I think it’s best to get him registered just in case. I don’t know why he doesn’t want to go, except that he’s shy and not really all that social.

Anyway. We did the whole registration thing (or application, as they call it). He has screening at the end of June. I’m nervous about that because he is a shy child and I’m not predicting he’ll test too well because of his shyness. The boy is VERY smart and knows everything on that aptitude test, I know. I guess we’ll see how well he does. I also spoke to them about speech therapy and once we get closer to school we’ll get all of that figured out.

After all of that, we went to two other schools for work-related things (pictures, actually). We grabbed lunch at Backyard Burger - my first and last time there - and headed back to pick Jaiden up early. We have company in town for a few days and they were here when we returned home. Since then we have just been hanging out, went to eat chinese and that’s pretty much it.

I’ve neglected to mention that I took Jenna in for her two-year well child exam last Friday. She was all smiles while her height and weight were measured, not as thrilled about having her temperature taken (she couldn’t figure out that she was supposed to close her mouth around the thermometer) and was thoroughly displeased with having her blood pressure taken. And they had to do it twice. That? Well let’s just say it makes Nenna mad. My smiley, bubbly, chatty two-year-old sweetie turned into a mute, disinterested and cautious little Nenna. She didn’t speak to anyone for the remainder of the visit, which concerned the PA we saw (who’s not our regular easy-going PA). The PA told me when we were leaving that I need to work with her on speech and with her colors (because she says everything is either yellow or pink). And um? Whatever, lady. Whoever you are. Nenna is very chatty and, I must say, is now speaking in complete sentences (though she still talks about herself in the third person). She knows the names of her colors; she just turned two two months ago, give her a break. Jenna’s now 27 lbs. and 35 in. tall, by the way. She’s in the 44th percentile for weight and 68th for height (how is it that, at 5′5″, I made tall kids? lol).

I mentioned earlier that she has been asserting her independence. Lately she’s been saying, “Nenna do it!” a lot. Nenna wants to take the pull-ups off. Nenna wants to try to dress herself and put her shoes on. Nenna wants to do all kinds of things. Last week she called me a ‘donkey head’ - did I mention that? lol. She’s more tantrum-y lately as well, but I suspect that’s just the two-year-old in her.

I often compare how I felt when the other two children were the same age and I feel much calmer this time around. Perhaps it’s because I’m older and wiser or because she’s the third or because I feel like I understand the reasons she does what she does. Or all of the above. I know now how fast they grow up, so I try not to sweat the small stuff and just enjoying the tantrums and the messes and the dirty diapers and the potty training because I know soon enough I will be signing her up for Pre-K, then college.

And for those of you still on your first child: it’s true what they say about how much more laidback you get after subsequent children. You live, you learn, you figure out what’s important and what’s not. I have to say that that’s also my favorite part of getting older - figuring out what’s really important in life and gaining more confidence the older you get. Now I believe those women who are 30+ when they say that this time in their life was much easier than the others (for the reasons I’ve mentioned).

Back to babies, though.

First, my other baby, Jaiden. She is doing well and looking forward to being six next month. She told me (again) today that her friend from school wants to marry her and “give her a marrying ring.” Um, okay? I told her that she was too young to worry about getting married and she said, “Well I’m almost six!” Ha. Ok. Try it. She is working hard in school and only has a couple more weeks left, then she will be with the other two all summer. I can’t believe she’ll be in first grade in August! Miss Jaiden has also been trying to exert some independence lately, which has come in the form of being sassy. She’s getting too big for her britches.

Today was my sister-in-law Kelly’s due date. She did not have a baby to celebrate, though. (Poor thing!) Instead she and her mother went to the beach, then those two, my brother and Kelly’s dad and stepmom went out to eat. We’re all eagerly awaiting Caleb’s arrival! Kinda makes you want to beat on her belly (okay, softly) and yell, “Olly, olly oxen free!” But we shall refrain from doing that lest she beat the living crap out of us.

Yesterday my other pregnant sister-in-law, Katie, found out that she will be giving me a niece in September! It’s really the year for girls, let me say (aside from Caleb, that is). I’m so excited - my first niece!

Yesterday my good buddy and partner at WMC-TV 5 in Memphis, Justin Hanson (who’s Emily’s cousin), interviewed me as a representative for my newspaper for a story he did on our Top Ten Most Wanted weekly feature which is published in conjunction with our sheriff’s office.

Here’s the story: www.wmctv.com/global/story.asp?s=8279858

And in doing the interview, I know why I’m in print journalism rather than in broadcast: I suck on camera! lol. Justin edited out my retardness for the most part, but you can still see me slouching and, if you pay attention, can still hear and see me swiveling in my chair. Ha. (This was at my desk, by the way.) I seriously bombed that interview. He’d ask a question and I’d stutter, then turn to Gwen for coaching. lol. I’m just not a good on-the-spot person and because I work with him just about every day, I know Justin interviews like I do: we don’t come prepared with questions, we wing it.

The Most Wanted program, which was started in late October 2007, has a 43 percent success rate thus far. That means that four out of every ten offenders featured is captured in some way - whether they are apprehended by the police or turn themselves in. It’s been a great benefit for our county.

Also featured in the video are Sgt. Billy Daugherty (and his LIPS! Ha!) and Deputy Chief Donna Turner of the Tipton County Sheriff’s Office. I work with these two quite a bit and they are wonderful. I’ve come to them with everything from keeping an eye on the house when we’re away to filing complaint after complaint about my apparent stalker to programming my police scanner and they are always, always there to help. I’ve found that with most - if not all - of the members of our local law enforcement agencies: they are always willing to help out, no matter how great or small the problem. Gotta love the po-lice (the sheriff teases me for saying it the yankee way lol).

Back to the video - yes, that is our ugly paneled office that used to be a bowling alley. And yes, I’ve watched it like a million times to criticize myself and to laugh hysterically at Billy’s lips! lol. What on earth possessed him to put in that shot of Billy’s lips I’ll never know, but I still think it’s hilarious. Can’t wait to call him up and tease him about it!

I’m unleashing the inner geek. (Wait, inner geek? Whatever. All-over geek is more like it.)

Lately I’ve found that I really, really enjoy copyediting/proofreading. It’s a very strange thing. It’s important for my job, of course, but I’ve also been proofing Darin’s sister’s essays for school in addition to the stories I proof for the paper at work. And, honestly, I know it’s really geeky, but I like it. In the past, when proofing, I would suggest an edit and would really have nothing to back it up other than what is common sense for me, but I’ve been doing some studying and recently purchased several journalism- and style-related books from Amazon, which have helped. Well, those and the Grammar Girl podcast (it’s awesome!). So now I can say, “We hyphenate ‘long-term care’ because ‘long-term’ is a compound modifier to care,” for instance. Really, I sound like Super Geek here, but whatever. lol. I think I like it so much because I have a tendency to point out others’ mistakes and with copyediting, it serves a purpose. Yeah, that’s it.

Wow. I actually admitted to the whole Internet that I am a super geek. Please pass the pocket protectors and tape for my glasses so we can make it official. Oh, and don’t forget the calculator watch.

To seal the geek deal a little more, guess what I got this weekend? A MacBook. Yeah baby! My hand-me-down Toshiba kicked the bucket (RIP) and so … yeah, it was time. I know I must have driven my coworkers and Darin nuts this week trying to make the decision between a Mac and a PC, a cheap “to get me by” model or the real deal. And obviously you see in which direction I went. I’m trying to get over the um, buyer’s remorse. It’s not that I am not absolutely thrilled with what I got - with a discount, too - but I just don’t like to drop any type of money. lol. (And thankfully I didn’t do too much spending of the tax refund this year.) But the shiny new Mac with the 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and the 2 GB of DDR SDRAM and the 160 GB hard drive and iPhoto and iChat and iDVD and iSight camera and all of that, it’s making it a little bit easier to swallow. I also got the new Microsoft Office 2008 for Macs - much prettier than the version I’m working with at work (we have five-month-old iMacs at work). Loveliness.

But um, do you know what the MacBook does not have? Yes, my friends. The shiny, pretty, super fast, super awesome MacBook does not have a dial-up modem. Rut roh. I completely forgot while we were at the Apple Store in Germantown, so we picked up an external dial-up USB modem from Best Buy. And the stupid thing didn’t work. [GRR!] So this afternoon I invested in an air card. Do you remember the scene from Sex & the City where Carrie/Sarah Jessica Parker sees the GORGEOUS shoes in the storefront window and says, “Hellooo, lover!” When I fired up Firefox after getting connected, that’s what it was like. Hola, faster connection! It’s been two long years, baby. TWO. At least we have DSL at work, but now … at home. Awesome. See, I live in the boonies and nothing is high speed out here except me running when I see a snake. It will still be quite awhile before we get high speed data services out here, which sucks, but not for me, not anymore. lol.

I’m a happy little geek right now. Now I can sit on the couch and blog - without a 50 ft. phone cord stretched across my living room (you think I’m kidding, that’s the funny part!). This afternoon I sat outside and checked my e-mail and MySpace while sitting in the driveway, on my dad’s tailgate.

Ahh - freedom! It’s so nice to finally be wireless.