My youthful acne, offset perfectly by my grey hair!

I got a new Mirena IUD on Monday. I feel like it's such a great birth control option, and I have always loved it. Almost from day one, five long years ago when I got my first one.

Not really loving it this week, though.

First of all, there was the removal of the old one and insertion of the new. Apparently, not usually a painful process. Well, it bloomin' was for me. My Mirena had embedded itself in my uterus, and they had to pull it out. You know that scene in "The Matrix" where they remove the "bug" from Neo? Yeah, it kind of looked like that. Foreign body covered in my blood, weird little tentacles and all. It hurt SO bad that I nearly threw up. It doesn't help that the vagus nerve is there, and stimulating it can trigger your gag reflex. Anyway, it was not a nice time. But putting the new one in was easy after that. Always a silver lining!

The day was really busy, too. I had to give a massage, then go to Dylan's sports day and have a house viewing (they are not buying). Definitely a day for very strong pain killers!

Now I am enjoying all the benefits of a fresh, and slightly stronger, dose of hormones. I am breaking out. It's freakish, because I haven't had acne problems since, well, forever. Not particularly troubled with bad skin even as a teenager. So the giant pimple on my cheek (of all the stupid places to have a pimple!) is completely driving me crazy.

On a positive note though, it seems like the new Mirena is getting my mood swings under control. Looking forward to brighter days ahead...

Argh!

I just conducted a little experiment with my kids. Dylan was swinging around a tape measure, and I have told him MANY times that it is dangerous. So I had him bring it in the kitchen. I got out a block of cheese and asked him how I normally cut cheese for him. "With a knife," he said, since he is a smart kid. Then I proceeded to cut some cheese with the tape measure. You know, to demonstrate how you can cut someone quite badly with that thin metal. Dylan just looked at me a little bit blankly and said, "Can I have that cheese?" Is it too late to turn down this parenting gig?

Makeup...

I have been thinking about makeup lately. More specifically, how the makeup trends change over the years.

Does anybody remember that line from "My Girl" when Jamie Lee Curtis's character is teaching the main character how to apply makeup? She says "You can never have too much blue eyeshadow!" I remember how it made me giggle, because I started wearing makeup in the 90's.

Funny, how you can always tell a 90's picture by the makeup. Because it was nothing special at the time, really. You went for nude colours on your eyes and cheeks, and VERY dark lipstick. That's just how everybody's face was, and it didn't seem like a makeup trend at all. Just a sensible way of applying the stuff. But now, that style of makeup sticks out like a sore thumb. Just as much as the blue eyeshadow of the 70's or the bubblegum pink lipstick and racing stripe blush of the 80's.

And now? Well, I'm too old now to be totally clued in to makeup trends. I guess only time will tell what the defining look of the Noughties and the teens will be. But I'm pretty sure one day we'll be able to look at photos and go "Man, look at that makeup. SO 2005!"

Deep and intellectual, huh? Pop culture is important, too!

In other exciting BLOG news, we are trying to plan a trip back to Utah for this summer. Any dates we should know about so we can try to accommodate?

Never going back!

I decided to make myself a circle skirt yesterday. I watched an online tutorial on YouTube and it seemed pretty simple. So a friend of mine came along for the ride, we went to Scunthorpe, and I got my supplies. A seam gauge, some new white thread, five yards of fabric. And some dressmaking scissors. Oh, the dressmaking scissors! They are perfection personified. Just using them makes me feel like a more confident seamstress. The weight of them, the size of the blades. The ease with which they cut through four layers of poly cotton blend-like a hot knife through butter! How did I ever use cheap Ikea scissors? Yeah, they cost me £20 ($30). And they were worth every penny. Seriously, I want to do more projects just so I can use those scissors some again! This is even better than the letter opener. Why am I such a nerd?

Little tea leaf!

Which is, of course, Cockney rhyming slang for THIEF!

Dylan stole just over £4 from his dad a few mornings ago. Of course, he got in trouble for it. At this point, "trouble" means that we will not be buying him any more World Cup trading cards for the next two weeks. Pretty serious stuff when you are six years old and World Cup mad!

It was really interesting, talking to him about why it is wrong to steal. He is still at that stage developmentally where he thinks it is only bad if he gets caught. Obviously, some people never get past that phase. I hope he will. We're certainly doing our best.

The thieving incident, combined with all the YA fiction I've been reading lately and the police helicopter circling Barton for about 20 minutes a few days ago, has me thinking about rebellion and anarchy. Weird connection, I know. But I was thinking about George Orwell's classic, "1984," and how "Big Brother is always watching you." And then it occurred to me that even if Big Brother WAS always watching me (and I live in England, so let's face it, he probably IS), I never do anything that would get me in trouble.

Is that a good thing, or is it a little bit sad?

Probably a good thing, right? It means that the government regime I live under is not overly controlling. It also means that I am a law-abiding citizen.

On the other hand, it sort of means that I am a meek little sheep, blindly being led and governed in such a way that I would never go against the status quo.

Hmmm...

Maybe I should stick to autobiographies for a little while. Imagination is going into overdrive.

Oh, and on another note:

The Urban dictionary defines "YOLO" as "Carpe diem for stupid people."

Just had to share, peeps. Because, well, you only live, err, carpe diem!

I don't feel that old!

I looked in the mirror the other night, and I saw my mother looking back at me. Only for a moment. I usually see my father (but more feminine!). And then I did a little mental maths to work out how old I was when my mom was my age. I was twelve.

I do not feel as old as I thought my mother was when I was twelve!

Maybe it is a little bit different for me, since my mother started having children when she was younger and I was 28 when I had my first baby. But maybe it's not.

I still feel like I am playing mom most of the time. I am so unsure of my parenting, and mostly feel as though I'm making it up as I go along. I still sometimes resent the way the children have taken over my life. I feel like I am still young enough to be out having fun, but I can't because of my kids. Did my mom feel like that at 35, too? If she felt that way with teenagers, how did she cope? Because I seriously thought she had it all together...

Hopefully I am fooling my kids into thinking I know what I'm doing!