Frozen fragments

I'm sure the "Frozen Fragments" title will be about as original in this icy week as "ice, ice baby." But I've been in the house since Monday, so my creativity might be a little stifled.

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Today is the kids' 4th snow day/ice day in a row. Overall, they've held up well. One saving grace was the fact that the slope of our backyard made a terrific sledding hill -- as long as they stopped themselves before hitting the neighbors' fence. I can't believe how many hours my kids and their friends spent out there sledding, with and without sleds. Here's the gang:

The boys tried to convince me to try a little body sledding myself. The results were less than spectacular:

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Annie and I cracked under the pressure of nature-imposed house arrest yesterday afternoon. She was teenager-cranky and I was in the mood to push buttons. So I highjacked her Facebook page and posted "Waaaahhhhh! I M soooooooooooooooo bored...so I'm b'in crabby to my fam just 4 fun." I thought it looked and sounded like something a teenager would post. She didn't see the humor in it, which of course made it all the more fun for me.

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I've often thought I'd like to push the pause button on the world so I could catch up on all the stuff that I never seem to get done. Well, if there was ever a pause button to be had, this ice storm was it. And guess what? I didn't get much done. Sigh...where's a type A personality when you need one?

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We're 9 days away from Annie & Robbie's birthdays. I guess we'd better be deciding how we plan to celebrate. I suggested Annie take a friend or two to get a mani-pedi and Robbie could have the bigger party this year. She protested, saying, "I don't want a big party. I just want to invite..." then she proceeded to name 10 kids. Clearly, "big" is in the eye of the beholder.

I think the deep freeze has gone to my brain because that's all the fragments I have today. Not enough? Visit Mrs. 4444s for more Friday Fraggers.

Not your typical blue hair

Yesterday, Mike turned 39. All day long he made a point of saying to anyone who called to wish him a happy birthday, "I can' t believe I'm 39, but Amy will be 40 in August!"

Yep. In just about 10 weeks, I'll enter a new decade of my life. I've been giving some thought as to how I'd like to mark the occasion. Back in February (when I was still feeling Go Red invincible), I talked about doing a triathalon. Calmer heads -- and too much chips and salsa -- have prevailed and that is not going to happen.

Then I went back to my idea about getting a tattoo. But I don't really know what I would have tattooed on my body. I could do the frog from my blog header, but what if blogging turns out to be like macrame? All the rage for a while until nobody's doing it anymore and one day I look down at my hip and wonder why there's an amphibian on it.

But there is something that I've been saying since before I was 30 that I'm going to do when I turn 40. I was reminded of it when Annie was talking about Katy Perry at the MTV Music Awards yesterday:

Katy's do was courtesy of a wig. But ever since I saw a gorgeous shade of blue in the haircolor swatch book about 12 years ago, I've said that I want to dye my hair bright blue for my 40th birthday. My hair stylist at the time would have none of it. A months ago I talked to my current stylist who tried to tell me how hard it would be.

"We'd have to bleach your hair first and then do the blue," she said, not acting the least bit interested in doing so.

For her part, Annie is mortified at the idea. But I am intrigued.

I think it would be a great little satirical jab at getting older -- you know, becoming a "blue hair." Of course, I'd have to get a very sassy short haircut to carry off the blue. (My sisters are reaching for their cell phones and computers to talk me out of it as I type.)

I'm sure there are other ways to celebrate milestone birthdays, but this one really appeals to me. And it would happen to coincide with the start of the Indianapolis Colts season, so it would be a two-for-one deal. But I am open to other suggestions.

I have until late August to decide...and to find a stylist who will do it for me.