Mustache Demolition

Adam has officially been growing his mustache for 44 days. But today, being the 31st of December, marks the end of the bet. It will be a happy new year after all!

We thought you all might want to celebrate with me and experience the mustache demolition for yourselves.



I'll put up some Christmas pics tomorrow! Happy New Year!

Just to Clarify...

I'm in a little bit of trouble. Recently I recommended the movie Juno. To me it was utterly entertaining, it was cleverly written, the characters were endearing and it was unpredictable.

That being said - it was a bit crude, especially in the beginning. The movie deals with a teen pregnancy, so the context leads to a little crudity. Adam and I felt a little uncomfortable, but the movie had so much more to offer that the crudity was easy to overlook. I've already seen it twice and I would see it again.

It is rated PG-13, would I take a teenager to it? Definitely not. Would I take my former ecclesiastical leader to it and his family, including his 80 year-old mother? Definitely not. (Feel sorry for my sister Annie.)

Who is this movie for? Mature audiences- maybe 30 plus years. A bunch of girl friends perhaps. Someone who likes independent films and gets bored with the big Hollywood formulaic movie.

I can't say enough about the great writing, the story elements, the fun characters, and the magnificent acting of Ellen Page. It made me laugh and cry. Adam loved it too, but we are a little different, so this movie may not be for everyone.

I still give it 4 stars.

I will now retire as a movie critic.

Merry Christmas!

3 year-old's vocab

Mom: When we get home we need to clean the house.

Caroline: Lame, Lame, Lame.

Mom: Do you even know the word Lame?

Caroline: Yes, Lame, Lame, Lame.

Mom: What does Lame mean?

Caroline: Clean the house.

New Favorite

Great movie!
The mustache man and I went for our anniversary.
(Just know it is a little crude- so it is not for everyone)

We all knew it was coming.....

Caroline's first attempt at cutting her own hair. She pretty much cut off her "piggy" (as she calls it) and made herself some nice heavy bangs. Then she took a chunk out from behind her ear. Luckily, my friend Melissa (a fabulous hairdresser) was able to help me in the time of crisis. We took a good two inches off the back and cropped it a bit- we will have to wait for the chunk to grow back in. Hopefully it won't be too noticeable. There wasn't much we could do with the bangs except angle them and pull some back. Her final look is in the corner. It breaks my heart. We worked so hard to grow out her bangs, but every little girl has a picture in their scrapbook that immortalizes their 1st attempt as a beautician. (I think I actually cut my Sister Katie's hair.) For what it is worth, Caroline cut her bangs pretty straight- at least she wasn't cutting Samantha's hair. (It was my fault for leaving scissors on the dinning room table. I was helping Henry with a project this morning.)
We will miss the "Old Caroline." The "New Caroline" will be with us for the next 3-6 months. It's a good thing we already took the family pictures. Never a dull moment.

Happy Anniversary.....

...your husband has a mustache! After 8 nice years of marriage - he wouldn't even shave it for our special day.

Eveing Gown Bunco

Ladies- grab those boas and tiaras and join us for the most anticipated night of the year, "Evening Gown Bunco."

Yes, I'm for real. I'm in a Bunco group- a mindless dice game that is really an excuse to get together and have fun. We play once a month and I was signed up to host it in December (why I signed up for December is beyond me.) Just two weeks ago I had to dress up as an Indian chief for a cub scout pack meeting- and remembered how much fun dressing us is - so Evening Gown Bunco was born.

Here's how it went down:

Miss Texas and Miss Manners showed up

As did the Ladies in Red

Then came the Boa Sisters


Followed by the Starlettes

My long lost high school friend Kerinne Nickerson (Clark) came as Miss High School Acapella- FYI- she normally doesn't wear her bangs in the 80's/90's claw.


We knew someone spiked the Shirly Temples when the decorations became head wear.
The night was so much fun and honestly, I'm glad it is done- onto Christmas shopping, my anniversary, and so much more.

Tomrrow on the Darowski Dish:

"Adam's mustache day 28."

Super Cool Stockings by Aunt Beth

Living up to expectations, here is today's Darowski Dish:

I always get compliments on theses beautiful hand stitched stockings Adam's Aunt Beth made for us. Just months after Samantha was born Beth had already given us her stocking. Thanks Aunt Beth!

Coming Tomorrow: "Evening Gown Bunco" revealed.

Manthers is on the Move

In trying to be consistent with my new blog title and due to some pressure from our readers in Argentina, I am going to try to post a little something everyday. We will see. So here's the latest Darowski Dish:

Samantha- We have now entered the messy baby stage. She moves, she puts things from the floor in her mouth, she eats finger food in the high chair (always a mess- thank heavens for dustbusters), and she prefers sucking her index finger. This is the stage where the house is never clean and the mom can't let down on defense. Manthers is still always smiley and ever so sweet.

Today, when I took the kids to get their flu shots, we predicted that Samantha would cry the most, then Caroline, then Henry, because logically we thought the older would be the toughest. It was exactly opposite. It cracked me up. Samantha smiled at the nurse, put on a concerned look when the needle went into her thigh, and the went on to suck her finger. Not a peep! Blessed third child. Henry and I figured out that his hurt so bad because the more muscle you have the more it hurts. Henry's man ego was satisfied by this conclusion.

Caroline- Is becoming ever so sensitive to others. Today when I explained to her that her dad broke his watch and we were going to buy him a new one she began to cry. Then she asked, "Is he broken hearted?" Ever so sensitive.

Henry- Keep this a secret. Henry and two friends from school have a secret strategy that always helps them win connect four. He also tries to wear shorts everyday to school.

Adam- The mustache is hideously ugly, but he is sticking with it. He is ever so proud that his last post yielded 15 comments. He bet me he could get at least 15 comments. But some people commented twice and others only commented to encourage me to come up with another post.

Laurel- Went to four stores today trying to make a certain child's Christmas wish come true. Don't worry though, with the help of Adam, EBAY came through for us and someone made a hefty profit.

The Mustache Era

Guest Blogger: Adam Darowski

I attended Duke Law School. While Duke is largely known for the success of its men's basketball team, it is also famous for having a terrible football team. Notre Dame, on the other hand, is a school with an excellent football tradition. It was with great anticipation, therefore, that I looked forward to the Duke - Notre Dame football game a few weeks ago. Duke was having a typical season, and entered the game with a 1-9 record. Notre Dame was having a shockingly horrible season, and also had a 1-9 record, one of the worst in that school's history. I thought Duke had a decent chance of beating them.

I work with an attorney who graduated from Notre Dame law school this past May, and I could not pass up the opportunity to have some sort of friendly wager on the game. We settled on a mustache bet. The person who's school lost would have to grow a mustache until December 31. Notre Dame prevailed 28-7. I am now 15 days into the Mustache Era.

Other than for a brief experimentation period with a goatee in law school, I have never in my life had facial hair. While many men still wear beards and goatees with dignity, the mustache, for whatever reason, seems to have fallen out of style. As you can see from the attached photo, mine is not very attractive (Laurel has called it "hideous" and "an embarrassment"), but the kids like it. I still have about 29 days to go with it, so I have not reached the half way point. I have learned that a mustache really does not suit me, not that mine has amounted to much yet anyway. It will probably need the next four weeks to come in properly. But at least my colleagues at work are getting a kick out of it. In hindsight, I should have just agreed to a lunch bet.

Henry rides large animals

Henry now goes by "Cowboy."

Finally, a new post

I know people have been getting a little tired of "Wedding in the Woodlands," so now I'd like to share some pictures from our Thanksgiving Holiday. Adam's brother Joseph and his wife Emily came into town from Michigan. Henry and Caroline especially had a great time with their aunt and uncle. Highlights from their trip included seeing the longhorns and Santa at the Fort Worth Stockyards, seeing the 1.2 million Christmas lights at the Gaylord Texan, and "Enchanted" trip to the movies (we all loved it!), Henry going 3-0 against Joseph in Madden '07 on Game Cube, and what turned out to be a cutthroat game of Four Square (yes, the game from kindergarten...its really fun to play as an adult). It was great to have some family in town for the Thanksgiving holiday.

My favorite things this Thanksgiving:

1-The children referring to our guests as "the uncles."

2-Adam's absolute determination to plan "two" fun activities a day.

3-Costco.

4-An "easy going" baby to balance out a "not so easy" big sister.

5-Getting to know my new Sister-in-law, Emily. She's great!

Wedding in The Woodlands

This past weekend we attended our 4th wedding of the year. My cousin Dante married his long time girl friend Lauren.

My parents flew in from Utah and we drove down to The Woodlands to attend the festivities. We enjoyed the company of my cousin Josh and his wife Emily. Henry was a little bummed that he wasn't going to be the ring bearer, but we explained that he was pretty lucky to even have the chance to be a ring bearer once.

Speechless

I came home to this. Grandma was babysitting. The truth is no one is ever prepared for what a three year-old can do. Notice her knee, she was using scissors to make her own cutoffs. And my quilt is now at the dry cleaners. We love you Caroline!

Close to Home

The other day, after I dropped Caroline off at her dance class, I stood in front of my car and visited with the other mothers. Looking past one of them I noticed two men dressed in full military uniform. They looked as if they were on official business. They were walking into an apartment complex, looking for an apartment. It reminded me of something I'd seen in a movie. My heart softened as I realized what their visit might mean. I thought of the person they were trying to find and what they might be telling them. It was the first time I have felt the impact of the war. It is so distant from my life. I feel blessed and selfish at the same time. What have I done for my country ? We have so much. I am ever grateful for the sacrifices made by the brave young men and women who are serving our country. Thank you.

Now, Some Pictures of the Kids

Here's a few pictures of our past week.

Caroline and Samatha were able to go to Adam's office and do some trick-or-treating. Caroline was a princess and Samantha was a lady-bug. Adam was an attorney.













This past Saturday night Adam and I were able to take Henry out on a special date to go watch and FC Dallas game. We had a lot of fun together. The girls had a baby sitter.










On Thursday we went to the YMCA Halloween party. Here you can see Henry dressed as the "Iron Man" and Caroline as a princess. They painted pumpkins, but the pumpkins didn't make it home- too messy!

Harvest Hoedown

At Caroline's school this past week they held their annual "Harvest Hoedown." Caroline dressed up in her western wear, they had a parade for the parents, and a carnival for the kids.

Citizen of the Month

Henry was awarded "Citizen of the Month" for his kindergarten class. Adam and I were able to attend an assembly this past Friday and see Henry honored. It was very exciting because Henry did not know he was going to receive this award. We are very proud of Henry and the strides he is making.

Curbside Check-in

My cool little sister Annie came to visit last week. On her way to the SLC airport she was running short on time and wanted to check her bags curbside. Unfortunately, she didn't have enough cash, so she and my sister Katie had a great idea, they would stop at the Wendy's up the street and ask for cash back at the drive-thru. Yes, it was a desperate measure, but it may just work. As Annie handed over her debit card to the cashier in the drive-thru she asked him if she could get some cash back. He looked a bit confused, and then he went and found his manager.

"No problem. How much do you need?" Said the manager.

Annie was relieved. Who knew you could get cash back at Wendy's.

Just then the manager handed her a Wendy's cash card. Oh....that's what cash back is when you aren't at a grocery store.

There was no time to worry about the fact that Annie would have to tip the curbside check-in guy with a Wendy's cash card, Annie had to catch her plane. As she pulled up to the curb she asked the curbside check-in guy if she could tip him with a Wendy's Cash card, and he said yes. Then he made up a song to taunt his curbside check-in buddies. It went like this:

"I got a Wendy's cash Card, I'm going to get me some Wendy's.... I got a Wendy's cash card, I'm going to get me some Wendy's."

Then Annie checked in, got on the plane and arrived in Texas, just in time for Caroline to give her a big hug and throw-up on her.

I'm becoming one of those moms

Today at Henry's soccer game I was cheering rather loudly.

Caroline took it upon herself to tell me to stop yelling. (She hasn't been her usual cheerful self these past few days since she threw up fifteen times on Friday.)

I told her I was a just being a cheerleader.

She responded rather angrily, "You're not a cheerleader, you are a mom."

Who is Iron Man?

>Guest Blogger: Joseph Darowski*

So as I was perusing the Darowski Family Blog I noted the question "Who is 'Iron Man' and what is my husband teaching Henry?" and figured I would go ahead and offer some insight (I also noticed the section about Karate Kid, and I've had a few recent conversations about that film, and specifically the "Put him in a body bag" moment (I note the arched eyebrows as key to making it hilarious)).

Iron Man is a comic book character featured in the Marvel universe of comics (Spider-Man, the X-Men, Captain America...). He was created by Stan Lee (who also created Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The X-Men, and many other characters) in 1963. Iron Man is really billionaire industrialist Tony Stark. His family made their fortune designing weapons. Tony Stark has no super-powers, but wears a suit of armor. Stan Lee was trying to make a member of the military-industrial complex, which was quite unpopular at the time, into a popular superhero, just to see if it could be done.

There is film version of Iron Man coming out next summer, with Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark. The preview looks fantastic, and can be viewed at apple.com/trailers/ .

The Iron Man song Henry and Adam apparently listen to in order to get pumped up is not actually related to the comic book character, though it is used in the trailer for the movie (and is a good song to get pumped up to).

*Joseph Darowski is one of Adam's brothers. Joseph has a Masters Degree is English from BYU and is currently in a doctoral program (American Studies) at Michigan State University. Joseph wrote his masters thesis about comic book super heroes. You may read Joseph's masters thesis here: http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/ETD/image/etd1515.pdf

"If worse came to worse we could just....

...eat Hermie. I mean if it were a real disaster." The kids looked horrified when Adam made this off hand remark. I reassured them that we would never eat Hermie. (We are currently working on emergency preparedness in our family. We are putting together 72 hour kits, or "Grab and Go" bags as they are also known. Just in case disaster falls upon us, we will have everything on hand if we have to leave in a hurry.)

Hermie is our family pet. I purchased Hermie this past Christmas after I had given a Beta at a white elephant party. The kids thought having a fish would be cool, so I bought one for our family too. I didn't know how much work it would be. Cleaning the bowl, finding it a babysitter when we go out of town, feeding it etc... Adam even comes home from work and makes the comment, "Is that thing still alive? I thought it would die after a month or two. I didn't know we were committing to so much when we bought the fish."

Then there is Henry who draws a family picture and includes a fish in a fish bowl next to the five of us. Then there is Caroline who sticks her hands in the water and over feeds the fish. Then there is the mom who has to clean the fish bowl every week.

Regardless, we are never going to eat Hermie. We may let it out in a river someday though.

Samantha's New Hairdo

Samantha finally has enough hair on top that she can wear a bow rather nicely. Do you like it?

How are your flu shots going?

So last night, after I got home from helping a girlfriend who was hosting and open house, my ever sensitive husband begins to ask me how I'm doing.

"How are your flu shots going?" he asks.

"You mean my allergy shots? They are going fine."

"Oh, I meant allergy shots." Then he thinks for a minute. "What really is the flu any way? I've never had the flu. Have you had the flu?"

"Maybe once."

"I don't know anyone who gets the flu. People only get colds. Why don't they have cold shots? I'm going to invent cold shots and make a billion dollars."

Though Adam has limited scientific background I think he is on to something. Once there was a school teacher who invented these alka seltzer pills you put in water and they fizz up and they are supposed to prevent the common cold. I think they are called Airborne. Anyhow, Adam's a lawyer and if a teacher can invent something like that why couldn't he? Anyone who knows him can verify how scientific he is.

Rough Day at School

Today at Henry's school the children dressed up as their favorite nursery rhyme character. Of course, I remembered this particular assignment at 7 am. This didn't give me a lot of time to throw something together. Henry mentioned something about being "Jack" from "Jack & Jill." We worked fast. I found an old t-shirt, grabbed some scissors and grabbed a plastic bucket from the garage. He looks good doesn't he. Don't worry I know Halloween is on October 31st. Henry wants to be the "Iron Man." Who is the "Iron Man" and what is my husband teaching Henry?

Sweep the Leg

If you appreciated my post titled "Random Dinner Conversations with Adam" then you will love this video. It is by a new group called "No More Kings" and it is based on the character "Johnny" from the Karate Kid. It takes about seven minutes, but is totally funny. You will also notice Mr. Belding, from saved by the bell, along with the real Johnny and Ralph Machio.

You can click on the above link or go to www.sweeptheleg.com

This post is dedicated to all you out there who watched the Karate Kid everday for an entire summer.

Manthers has a Tooth and a Tail

The angelic baby was fussy all weekend. She wasn't eating much and was making a weird whiny sound. She even woke up in the middle of the night. She was just out of sorts. I was feeling a bit sick myself so I thought she might be coming down with what I had. (I however, wasn't making the weird whiny noise.)

On Monday morning I kindly let her suck on my finger- it was then I discovered her first tooth! The weird whiny sound can now be explained along with her super slobber, and her excessive hand, thumb, and finger sucking.




Here is a pictures of sweet Manther's tail. She was born with a patch of hair that was longer than the rest. Isn't it weird? Maybe I'll put some beads on it before I cut it.


And here is a picture of some silly lady (Rebecca) trying to feed her watermelon.

Henry's Assignment

You are looking at Henry's first kindergarten assignment- a collage to represent who Henry is. Good work Adam! Actually Henry helped pick out the pictures, but I bet if Adam had to make a collage about himself as a homework assignment for Greg (a.k.a. Adam's supervising attorney), it would look a lot like this.

My Son the Exhibitionsit

Yesterday was a lovely day for soccer. Henry's team, the Dinosaurs, played their second game of the season. The game was at 10:15, so Adam had to start the pre-game ritual at 8:30. Their ritual involves laying out Henry's uniform and suiting him up to the song "Iron Man," doing a warm up in the back yard, and watching some highlights from the English Premier League.

As we were getting in the car to head to the game Adam expressed some distress that Henry wasn't really into his warm-up this morning. He's only 6, I thought to myself, we shouldn't put too much pressure on him. (But, Adam is reliving his childhood through Henry so I didn't say anything.)

Anyway, in the third quarter the game was tied 1-1. Henry was in front of the goal and shot the ball, the goal keeper caught it, but rolled into the goal. Score for the Dinosaurs!

Henry ran from the goal and did two consecutive front flip/somersaults as he made his way back to the midfield. The parents were laughing and cheering. I was slightly embarrassed that my son was so celebratory.

I asked Adam about this, and he said he did not tell Henry to do it, but Henry must have learned it from watching the famous goal-scoring celebration of a current Manchester United player, named "Nani". Henry's somersaults looked something like this.

Overcast and 78

I can do Texas, I really can! This is what I told myself today while walking Caroline into preschool (I was also extra happy there was no sweat dripping down my back). We have been having some exceptionally nice weather this week.

Also, as many of you know due to annoying encounters with people from Texas, Texas likes to think of itself as it's own country. Mind you a "sweaty country," but a country none the less. I think this happens partly because the children of Texas are indoctrinated at an early age. I've recently had to learn the pledge to the Texas flag because I get to do it with my cub scouts. (I'm a den leader-I've got the shirt and everything- lots of fun.)

The pledge of allegiance to the Texas state flag is:
"Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible."

I'm taking this pledge very seriously, and soon I will be one of those annoying people from Texas who like to brag about how wonderful it is here in Texas (however sweaty it may be).