Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Awake at 4:21 in the Morning

I'm awake at the gods awful early hour of 4:21 (too bad it's not 4:20, smoke 'em if you got 'em!) and I'm following up on blogs I've been neglecting while handling the holiday mess. Mrs. G has an affliction that I can COMPLETELY appreciate. MMMMM, Johnny Depp. Something about a cute, scruffy, rather scrawny (and oddly somewhat buff), shaggy haired brunette with deep dark penetrating eyes (sounds like someone I know in Real Life) that just turns my knees to butter and gets my head a thinkin' about the naughtier (and funner, as my kids would say) things in life. Yum Yum.

Usually, I don't like Mariah. She's all right as a singer, she's cute to look at, however I think she over does it, tries to hard really. In this case, I'll make an exception. Enjoy my Christmas wish.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Where oh Where Have I Been?

It's the holiday season which means busy busy busy. And then more busy.

Baking, shopping, wrapping, cleaning, travelling, gifting, visiting. You know, all that craziness.

I got the bee in my bonnet that I would make homemade breads on top of doing homemade cookies. My in-laws benefited from this, my mom however did not. I was just so tired after getting home from the in-laws that I said "I'm going to bed" and then the next day there just wasn't the time. Oh, we did manage to forget the camera at my mom's house, not that we were actually USING it or anything though. I *think* Jason *might* have taken some pics of the kids as his sis' place, but don't quote me on that, at all.

We've had crazy weather around here. The week before Christmas it was record freezing temps and snow snow snow snow and then more snow. Over Christmas we had RAIN and record HIGH temps. Go figure.

Our van is crying for repairs, however we won't have the money until we get our income tax return some time in February is my guess. We don't drive much, especially now that all the holiday visiting is all done, so she *should* (knock on lots of wood and say lots of prayers) ok until then. We have one trip to see Katy at the end of January and that will be all. I may ask my sister to borrow her car for that trip just to feel safer.

We still haven't done our gifts for the kids. They are all wrapped and under the tree. We were going to do them this morning, however the only kid that is awake at 6 minutes to 10 in the morning is Izzy. They did go to bed pretty late last night. Even Jason is still asleep.

Lately, he has been letting me sleep in, which is really nice, but it totally throws my schedule off. Of coarse, just having him home all day, every day throws my schedule off. He is getting very upset with being home all the time. Apparently, the kids and I are a lot to handle all day every day. Uh, yeah, DUH on that one! Hehe. I love the man dearly, but he was definately meant to be at work. Stay at Home Dad he is not.

James sees the psychiatrist this afternoon. It's just a med check really. I'm going to ask the doc about applying for SSI and if he feels James would qualify. We applied last year, and between the fact that our old case managers left the agency we had been working with for the past couple of years and not having any recent workups of James and all of that, it was denied. The application didn't even have the most pressing issues listed on it as reasons for applying. It was a debacle all around. Now that we are in the more intensive therapy program, and with James seeing the psychiatrist regularly, we are going to reapply.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. I will be back to posting regularly now that the hulabaloo has died down. Prayers and blessings everyone.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Thankful Thursday

I know I haven't posted this in at least a month. With the stuff that has gone on in the past couple of weeks, I have to wonder what there is to be thankful for. I know there IS stuff, but I wonder what to post here and what NOT to, ya know?

I'm thankful we are all healthy. We may all be getting over a pretty nasty cold, however none of us has cancer or is dying, as far as I know, so at least there is that.

I'm thankful we have a place to live and heat to keep it warm. It's a balmy 17 F out there right now, so a home and heat are good things to be thankful for. By the way, for you Canadian readers (or any who don't use the Farenheit measuring system) 32 F is 0 Celcius so that means that 17 is Negative something or the other to you.

I'm thankful we have food to feed us. Listening to children cry about being hungry and not being able to do anything about it does not appeal to me, so it's nice that I don't have that worry.

I'm thankful that even though it's much more modest than was originally planned, we were able to provide gifts for the kids to unwrap this holiday season. We didn't get Jason's bonus, but we were able to work it out to get them a few things each.

I'm thankful that Izzy is up and running around and acting the terror at the trying age of 2 1/2. When Izzy was 11 days old, he had an episode where he stopped breathing. He then did it again about 15 minutes later. He was rushed to the hospital, where he continued to do this through the night while in the PICU. Izzy was diagnosed with seizures, due to a bleed on his brain from the "trauma" (his head was ROUND as he didn't drop until he was pushed out, and the diameter was 14 1/2 inches) of his birth. His medication had to be increased at least once. He was on very heavy seizure meds until he was 9 months old. When we brought him to the hospital that night, we didn't know what was going on, we had to hope and believe that he would live, that they would fix our boy, but we didn't know that would happen. I have never seen Jason that distraught and worried in all of our life together up to then or since. It still hurts my heart to think of him, sitting in the hallway, while they tried to do a spinal tap on our tiny newly born baby and Jason crying and telling me "I don't want him to die, I just don't want him to die." I had to hope that he would be better because I just couldn't think of it otherwise. That was a very trying week, and I'll write about it all some other time. My point is this, while Izzy is a terror, getting in to things, running amok and creating absolute havoc, I am so thankful that he is here to do so.

OK, on that note, I'm done with this post for now. Prayers and blessings everyone.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Probed by Avitable via SciFi Dad

I'm playing along here. I said "interview me" so here are the "thought bending, mind probing" 5 questions that SciFi Dad came up with. By the way, he's funny and I recommend reading him regularly, hint hint Jason.

1. How often do you get google search hits from people looking for Cheerios?
I have no idea because my site counter doesn't tell me about google searches. I've thought about using one that does, but then I'm afraid I'd get sucked in by it all.

2. Share one of your experiences giving birth in haiku form.
I had to go look up the rules of a haiku poem, I admit it. Apparently it's 5-7-5. So here it goes.

Birth sees me induced
it always hurts and takes hours
when it's done, I'm glad

Not the greatest I admit, but hey, it follows the rules.

3. Have you ever been to the "thumbs down" next to the mitten?
I have never been out of the U.S. I have seen Canada from Sault St. Marie and I have seen Mexico from Arizona. I also have never seen an ocean in real life. I'm not well traveled.

4. Where would you move to if money and employment were no object?
Alaska or Australia. I think Australia is gorgeous, though the heat would get to me. Alaska has the perfect climate for me. Cold and more cold.

5. Are you really going to stay in and watch movies and order in Chinese on Christmas?
We've talked, and we may go out to the chinese buffet place in town we really like, other than that, yes, we really are going to sit at home and watch movies and eat chinese food. We do so much travelling AFTER Christmas, it's our treat to ourselves. Oh, the kids get to open their stockings and ONE gift from under the tree.

Do you want to be part of it? Then follow these instructions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

It's All Off

It all feels off right now, everything is what I mean. Jason was layed off from work, supposedly temporarily, though they can't say exactly WHEN he'll go back, on Friday the 5th. So he has been home every day since then. That certainly contributes to the feeling of "offness".

This past week I was HORRIDLY sick. I know it's a great excuse, unfortunately, it was TRUE. I HATE being sick. It sucks like nothing else. I have Jason to thank for that sickness as well. I didn't even kiss him and I still got sick! If I would have known I'd get sick anyway, I wouldn't have not kissed him. Yeah yeah, double negative and all that.

I couldn't breathe out of anything but my mouth. My lips got SO chapped from it too. I was sneezing and blowing my nose and just in absolute misery. Blech. I didn't feel like cooking, so the fam survived on either take out or boxed frozen crap. Either way, not what I would prefer to feed them.

I didn't talk to Jenn or Daisy much at all this week. With Jason being home every day, I took advantage and did a lot of sleeping. Oddly, that was a blessing. He does throw off my "usual" computer time during the day however. I'm used to getting up and turning on the comp and messaging on my regular boards and chatting with some friends and then getting to my housework and wrangling of the heathens. However, when I get up now, much too late in the day I might add because Jason is either super nice or just afraid of what might happen if he woke me, Jason is on the comp doing something with one of his games or something like that. Totally throws me off.

I love my husband dearly. I also really like him to have a job. Besides the obvious pay the bills reasons, there is the "get the hell out of my hair 5 days a week" reason. He is going stir crazy being home. He is finding out first hand how hard it is to keep the house clean and get things done with them running around like rabid puppies strung out on meth. Nice image huh?

I digress as usual. Today, he WASHED the bathroom ceiling. He needed something to do while I was ChaChaing and playing a game. He says he's going to paint it with the ceiling paint. I pointed out that I'd like the boys' room to be painted. We'll see how far that suggestion goes.

He's been helping out with craft time and the wrangling of the heathens. I told him to go out earlier today, spend some time alone, away from the house. He put me off. He said he'll go out on Monday. Um, ok. I have therapy at 1:30 so I certainly hope you are either home by then, or you can wait until after I get back.

I got a call on Friday letting me know that James is now in the more intensive therapy program. I know they do other stuff than "just" therapy, however I'm not quite sure WHAT that is yet. We missed his psychiatrist appt at the beginning of the month. I thought that it was on the 4th, turns out it was on the 2nd. Oops. It's now rescheduled for the 29th. I'm going to ask him (the psychiatrist) for a full report on what he believes James' diagnosies are so that I can apply for SSI once again. The first time was an absolute flop. It turns out that at the time I applied, the agency we had receieved services from before was going through a huge staff change and the people who were in charge of our case before left the agency. That means that the forms for the application weren't filled out and turned back in. Well CRAP. That was most of my supporting evidence right there!

It turns out that the closest in depth physio/psycho analysis is about 3 hours from here. It takes place over the period of 3 days. Good lord. I have Larry looking for one closer. When I meet with the young lady on Monday to start the paperwork for the new program, I'll ask her about finding one closer. I don't mind driving an hour or so, but not 3 hours one way over a 3 day period. Ugh!

I'm hoping next week is a little less "off". I'll try to be more faithful to my blog. I still have Thanksgiving pics to post, along with the pumpkin cupcakes from last week. Prayers and blessings everyone. I hope your week is filled with joy and happiness.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Honest Scrap Tagged

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Well, Sophie has gone and done it now! She tagged me. I'm supposed to list off 10 Random Things that are honest about me. I'm also supposed to tag 7 people to follow suit. I'll see if I can come up with that many! So here we go!

1. I'm bi-sexual. Honest to goodness. Everyone in my family knows, well at least kind of. I don't think I've ever come out and said to Jason's family (hi Marian and Audra!) and I KNOW I've never come out and said it to my mom (hi Mom!). I've dated men and women. I've been in caring and devoted relationships with men and women.

2. Angelina Jolie, to me, is the sexiest person on the planet. Johnny Depp is right there with her. Mmmmm mmmmmm. By the way, it's not just their looks that make them sexy. It's their attitudes, their behaviors. I feel that they are as true to their selves, their actual, grew up in hicksville selves as they can be given what they do for a living. I don't blame them one bit for not living full time in the states.

3. I hate James' middle name, I always have. It's Harold by the way. When Homer and I were picking out names for James, he got to choose the middle name. My choices to choose from were Larz (the drummer/guitarist/someone from Metallica), Wolf (cause he liked wolves) or Harold (which was his best friend at the time's given name, that he never used by the way). Given those choices, I picked the most "normal" one. When Jason adopts James, James has decided he would like his middle name to be Robert. Oh, and I wanted to call him Jamie or Jimmy, but again, Homer said NO. Grrr that man!

4. If Jason and I are blessed with another baby, we will name that baby Max. Maxwell David for a boy or Maxine Audra for a girl. I really like the sound of Izzy and Max together. However, given our traumatic history over the past year and a half, we doubt it will happen.

5. I got married on Friday the 13th. It has been the best day of my life since.

6. Jason is a great man. He likes to grumble and put on the appearence that he is angry and cranky, however all I have to do is make a funny face at him and he is all smiles. I'm definately the opptimist to his pessimist.

7. I'm going to paint my office purple. Even though I share the room with Jason, it's where the computer is, I'm painting it in the palatte of MY choice. Jason has agreed and really doesn't care as long as it isn't pink with green polka dots.

8. I'm all done Christmas shopping. I'm VERY happy about that. Now we can focus on other stuff all month long. I was able to accomplish the gift shopping along with paying the bills. Woohoo!

9. We don't celebrate Christmas on Christmas day. In fact, we order Chinese Food and watch movies all day, going no where and doing nothing else. I let the kids open the stuff in their stockings and ONE gift from under the tree. Otherwise they have to wait for Katy to be here AFTER Christmas. I'm evil like that, I know. Oh, I often take them shopping with me, so they have a good idea of what they are getting AND we don't believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, or the Easter Bunny.

10. I'm a Mt. Dew addict. I love the stuff. My day just isn't complete with out it. Don't get me wrong, I have come to really enjoy a good cup of coffee, however there is nothing like cracking open a Mt. Dew to help get me going. We drink it from the can, because I have been known to leave partially empty cans all over. Can you imagine how much would go to waste if we used bottles?

Now for those I'm going to tag. I hope I can come up with 7!

Mrs. G at Derfwad Manor
Brandi at My Mountain Morning
Nikki at The Martin Family
Liz at From Somewhere near Mt. Laundry
Meg at Life and Love in Our Home
Rambleman at Rambleman
Aimee at Momzoo

Sunday, December 7, 2008

I Laughed my Ass Off

I really laughed my ass off at this video, however, it's VERY VERY true. Enjoy.

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Almost Silent Sunday

We had our first "real" snow today. I had Jason take the kids out to play while I did ChaCha. They were all kinds of antsy, Izzy especially. So they bundled up, Jason grabbed the camera, and away they went. I think for a little point and shoot he got some really great pics of them. They seem pretty self explanatory, so enjoy! Prayers and blessings everyone, try to stay warm this week! Yes, I know Izzy's jacket isn't zipped up all the way, Jason has this thing where he's afraid to pinch him with the zipper.


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Friday, November 28, 2008

Black Friday

The only shopping I did on Black Friday was to go to Target at 3 in the afternoon to pick up Playdoh for Izzy, and some dryer sheets. Target had a set of Playdoh that came in a bag with 4 cans and 10 toys for $6. I also picked up a basic 4 can set of Playdoh, to start working with Izzy now. The one with the toys is for Christmas.

We put up the tree tonight. More accurately, I put up the tree. I put it all together and then strung the lights. I let the kids put all the decorations on themselves. Jason was in the living room to take pics, of which he managed quite a few of my rear end, and to help wrangle a very curious Izzy.

Katy and Emily did an excellent job of entertaining Izzy. Katy kept swinging him up on her legs, it seems to be a really popular game now. Emily spent some time playing with the blocks with him. Toward the end of their antsiness, while I was finishing up the last of the lights, they all decided to go spinning around in circles. It was a mad house I tell you!

First up was playing with the lights. At one point or another, I had everyone watching over my shoulder. I'm not really sure WHY that was the case, but what I was doing was interesting to all of them.

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This next photo is just a random one of me that looks really odd. Jason said he was trying to use the natural light, not the flash, and this is what came of it. I told him I looked like a ghost, but he missed the reference I guess because he was pointing the shadows BEHIND me when he mentioned a "ghost".

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It's now time to play Up, Up, and Away with Izzy! Katy did this with him for what seemed like hours, at least to her I'm sure, but was in reality only a few minutes. The other kids were trying like crazy to get Katy's attention while she was doling it out to the youngest of the bunch!

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Jason decided it was time to check back in with me to see what kind of progress I was making. After all, when my part was done, he could leave and go hide away from all the crazies somewhere!

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Emily took a turn with Izzy. Playing blocks seemed to entertain them both, for at least a little bit. I'm not sure where the other 3 disappeared to during this time. You'd think that they would have been shoving themselves in front of the camera!

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Finally we get to them freaking out like the crazies that they are! I'm not sure who started it, though I have a sneaking suspicion is was Jason and Izzy, but they all ended up spinning in circles so many times they couldn't stand up!

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I leave you dear readers with this thought. Even though the youngest and oldest may get along, there will always be strife in the middle, as can be witnessed by this telling photo. Prayers and blessings everyone, I hope you have a great and relaxing weekend!

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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The Day Before

I'm sure that you all are out there, just getting ready for the big feast that shall descend upon our country tomorrow.

Last minute cleaning and grocery shopping. Ironing and meal planning. Figuring out who is going to sit where at the big table and all of that stuff. Me, I'm trying to decide if I'm going to make a pumpkin roll or not.

Jason said Audra was bringing pumpkin pie. That's great, and I appreciate the contribution. My question is this, is it JUST the pumpking pie? Is it only ONE pie? Because if it is, that's not nearly enough dessert for everyone. After all, in my household alone I have 7. Yep, you read that right, 7. Emily is joining us for the holiday.

An accident occurded today. One that James almost took the fall for, but the girls got a fit of conscience and came clean. They were goofing around in the closet and Emily got knocked in to the window. The glass broke. Now, I'm not so angry about the glass being broken. Accidents happen. What upset Jason and I the most is that until it became apparent that James was going to get in trouble for it, they "didn't know how it happened".

After they came clean, I tried to explain to them that it was important to tell us what happens WHEN it happens and in FULL. We can't best assess the situation if we don't know all of the circumstances. They were told not to play in the closet. Jason cleaned up the glass. I'm clumsy and I would have cut myself at least once. He put plastic sheeting over it. Thankfully, when storm windows were originally fitted for the house, one was put over that window. It's not a window that opens, it is there for looks more than anything. I am going to call around on Monday and try to find out how much it will cost us to replace the glass.

I told Jason that I wasn't quite sure what Jenn was doing with her free weekend, but I hope she enjoys the time. He said she was doing a little jig and it didn't matter much because she was "free" for the four days. I sent an email out to the in-laws to let them know we were having an extra child in the mix. Jason jokingly said he wouldn't have said anything and waited to see if they noticed! Hehe, our house is RATHER chaotic, so who knows how it would have gone?

My darling 2 year old has taken to waking in the middle of the night and not wanting to return to slumberland until 2 or 3 in the morning. This is VERY frustrating to me. Every time, it seems, that I think of getting up and heading to bed, in walks Izzy. Jeez child!

I had the oddest dream this morning. For some reason, I was living in an assisted living home, one meant for the mentally challenged. I know I say it so PC, but saying "retarded" has always bothered me. In my dream, we all took the home's bus to the library. They wanted me to wear special shoes. They were supposed to make me walk "correctly" or something like that. I felt so out of place, so lost and confused. It's like I belonged, but I felt like I had another "life", one I should have been living. The final straw for me was when we were all getting ready to leave. Apparently we were picking up extra people there at the library and bringing them home with us. I had it, I couldn't take it any more. They wanted me to wear the shoes that I hated. They were ugly and uncomfortable for me. I told them I wouldn't be getting back on the bus, that I was leaving and going my own way. That is when Jason woke me up.

I told him about the dream. About how it made me feel so "broken". He said "Do you know the difference between Apple and Microsoft?"
"Uh, no"
"One reads the numeric code from front to back, and one reads it from back to front."
"So which one is back asswords?"
"Microsoft. Bill Gates did it as a way to avoid infringing on a patent held by Steve Jobs. It makes the computer run slower, but it also enabled him to get a lot of contracts and eventually knock out Apple as a true competitor."
"Um, ok"
"Jamie, you are like Microsoft. Your brain works just as well, it's just wired to run differently than other people's. That doesn't make you broken, it makes you different."

While that is an odd analogy. Though it makes a lot of sense. I guess my brain doesn't want to infringe on the patents of others. Maybe it allows me to be more creative. Maybe it keeps me overly optimistic when so much would bring others down. Maybe it allows me to look at my kids and really enjoy them running around and acting like true heathens. It certainly makes me who I am.

I'm having difficulty coming to terms with this concept of "true self". I'm sure there will be plenty of posts about it. I'm also sure there will be plenty of things going on that I don't post. At least not right away. They may feel to personal or too fresh. I may not have it in me to go in to it once again. Oh, and from this point on, my therapist shall be known as Deb, The Bitch. She pushes hard, and she expects something back, and I think that is good. It really makes me stop and think and respond in an honest way. That can only be healthy.

This won't be an easy road by any means. There is going to be a lot of stuff I don't want to own up to, I don't want to look at, I don't want to remember. That being said. In order for me to get to a healthy point, to be the best Wife and Mother, I need to be the best Jamie. And that is going to suck. And be so worth it.

Prayers and blessings everyone, I hope you have a wonderful and blessed holiday.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Guest Blogging this evening....Cereal Daddy!!!

Yes tonight you get to hear from the other half of the insanity as the Serial Mommy is driving around with lots of children driving her nutso. Why "Cereal" Daddy??? Because that's about what I can cook, I make pancakes, sandwiches, and a mean bowl of Cherios. So tomorrow is the day before thanksgiving and I'm wondering just how we are going to pull this one off. I know it will come together alright but it just adds to the confusion around here. I'm getting ready to (ahem) Enjoy 5 days off of work to spend with my loving family and I don't know if I'll be screaming for them to take me away for the nut house before I can go back to work. Hopefully Jamie will let me play lots of video games and read my book. Good luck with whatever you and yours are doing for this holiday, and pray to the gods and goddesses for our Heathen horde.

Peace and Love Peace and Love

Cereal Daddy

Monday, November 24, 2008

Being Shrunk

I went back to therapy today. As Jenn said "How did it feel to be shrunk?" I suppose that is a relevant term.

How did it feel, how does it feel? Odd, that's for sure. It's an hour, or little over all focused on ME. How I'm feeling. What I'm thinking. How I'm doing. I feel like I should be hanging up a mirror and admiring myself or something. It all seems rather narcissistic.

I have homework from therapy. I know, weird right? She wants me write letters to my mother that I would never send. Talking about myself as a child and how I felt and the needs I feel weren't meant and all of that. My initial reaction is to say no. I mean, after all, it's in the past, isn't that where it should lay? Last time I tried to get out my feelings about all of that, my mom and I didn't speak for almost 3 months. Yeah.

Apparently I have a low level of self worth. It seems to stem from feelings from when I was a child. Um, OK. Sure, I do buy it. However it all seems rather selfish to do all of this. What exactly will it accomplish. Obviously, I'm not sending the letters, or sharing them with anyone but Deb (the therapist) or Jason. I'll do it, but who knows where it will get me?

Apparently I'm not TRULY depressed. I probably have some depression, like borderline. I can see that. Also quite a bit of anxiety that may be masking itself as ADD symptoms. If that is the case, then I've been anxious my entire life. I suppose as we go along, we'll figure out which it really is, huh?

Therapy is a study in selfishness I am coming to find out. Or at least how I perceive selfishness to be. It's all self centered and self focused and Me Me ME. It's a bit sickening.

That being said, I realize the need in me to go. Jason is an amazing husband. Supportive, loving, caring, all that super good stuff. I can't get him to leave no matter what (that whole self worth thing again). Trust me, I've tried, he just digs his heels in more. Whatever is going on in this messed up head that is on my shoulders needs to be fixed before I actually succeed in chasing him away.

Well, I am off to knit or write or do ChaCha or something like that. Prayers and blessings everyone. I hope you have a wonderful holiday week.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Almost Silent Sunday

I'm going to admit that I've been slack. You are going to notice that suddenly I'll have posts for the past week up all at once. Sorry about that, but I've been in a funk, so here is something new.

Jason and I went out on Friday. The dinner was good. The symphony was boring. Not to mention the climbing 4 flights of stairs in heels. The seats were way far up, which in all honesty, isn't such a bad thing, at least as far as going to the symphony is concerned. That being said, the Kalamazoo Symphony leaves something to be desired. I don't know if half of them were sick or what. There around 50 string instruments. And then the rest.

Let me see. 2 Flutes. 2 Clarinets. 2 Oboes. 2 Bassoons. 3 Trombones. 1 Tuba. 2 Trumpets. 4 French Horns. 1 Percusionist, who only played the timpani. Yeah. I KNOW that with the symphony the strings will outnumber the rest of the instruments, but this seems a bit scarce to me.

So here are pics from the evening. Getting ready and all of that. No, I'm not sure why my face looks so white in the last two photos, I SWEAR it didn't look that way in the mirror in the bathroom. Ah well. No one said anything in person, so either they weren't paying that much attention or it really didn't look like that. I like the dress that I wore. Katie Ann saw it and said it would be perfect for her wedding if I wanted to wear it there, so WOOHOO on that, I don't need to buy a new one now. Looking at the pics, I don't look as pretty as I felt for some reason. Or maybe that is my perception. Who knows.

Here is the first. My hair, from the front/side, and my ever present can of Mt. Dew. I got the curls by putting it in bobby pins the night before and leaving it until about 3 in the afternoon on Friday. Hence the name "pin curls".

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Here are my clothes, all layed out on the bed. Don't mind the mess on the floor. I made the shawl myself. It has a crochet stitch that I took from a sweater pattern. I made up the dimensions of the shawl as I went.

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Here is the jewelry. What can I say, we took a lot of pics with the getting ready process. I made the brown necklace. The grey/black pearls are a gift from Jason last Christmas. I made the bracelet as well. That is mood beads. A cool thing I got from my day trip to Shipshewana. The earrings are gold and silver from Avon. The pin is silver and glass crystals that I have had for ages. I picked it up when we were doing the Renn Faire stuff for a summer (1/2 summer?).

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This is Jason. He got angry with me on Thursday night because I was on his case about what he was going to wear. I'd been asking him all week. I figured he'd better figure it out Thursday night so that it could be washed and/or ironed before we needed to walk out the door on Friday. Considering all of our "dressy" type stuff is in tubs in the basement, it was a good call.

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Here I am doing my makeup. Like I said, a lot of pics. If you look, my face is NOT all whited out. I don't know why it did that in the final pics. Kind of annoys me really. Oh well. You can see the back of my hair. It's not all curled because it's too short. I have discovered that while I would LOVE to have long sexy hair, it just annoys me as soon as it touches my neck. So long on top and tiered/layered/wedged in the back it is.

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These are the last two pics. The first is obviously just me. The 2nd is Jason and I. My sis did the honors. Pay no mind to my orangeish skin and white face. Jason tried to fix my face in Photoshop and unfortunately you can't just add red tones to just one part of the photo. Or so I understand. It was WHITER. Oh well.

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Prayers and blessings everyone, I hope that you had a pleasent weekend. Did you get your dinner stuff together for the big meal on Thursday? I bought the Turkey, everything else is being bought on Wednesday.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Funky Fun Friday

Jason and I went out tonight. We had fun, I guess. Word of advice, don't go to the symphony if you've been up all day chasing children and working and what not. There just isn't enough going on to keep your attention so you just sit and zone out listening to the music and find yourself sliding down in your seat and drifting off which isn't a good thing when you are wearing a knee length skirt and a pair of heels.

Well, now that I got past the run on sentence of the century, how was your week? Mine was off kilter if you hadn't noticed.

I got my flyer in the mail for Jo-Ann's and I got an email from Lion Brand Yarn. Oooh. There is a very simple pattern for a very nice scarf in the email. Oooh oooh the yarn for the scarf is on sale, 2 for $4! Usually it's $2.99 a piece. Woohoo!!! I'm going to make 2 scarves. One for my FIL for Christmas, and one for my Secret Santa for the 4 or More Mommies. I may do one for the Secret Santa for the March Mommies as well, but I don't know who I'm getting for that so I don't know if a scarf is right for them, they may live in Cali or Florida or some place like that! I may even do one for my dad, and I wonder if Sue wears scarves? I know Linda does. I won't be getting all of that yarn this week. Just the yarn for FIL and the Secret Santa.

Homer is out of work. I talked to him. I guess he's getting unemployment. Yippee for him. It does mean that the child support we receive will be greatly diminished, if we see it at all, go figure. Oh well, we've made it on tight before, we can do it again.

I'm looking at doing Angel Food Ministries for December. For $30, the box of food seems to be a good value. If we like it, I may get more the next time around. It would certainly help stretch our food budget and with the freezer downstairs, it won't go to waste.

I'll be contacting my case worker on Monday to let her know that we won't be receiving the child support. I also have to call the Friend of the Court to see if they actually garnish child support from unemployment. I have therapy on Monday evening too. I missed last week in favor of sleeping. Go figure.

I need to get the dining room cleaned up by Tuesday evening. I want to set the tree up then. Well, put it together and string the lights. Wednesday, I'll be driving to Muskegon to pick up Katy and Emily and then doing my last minute dinner shopping.

Emily is Katy's younger 1/2 sister. They share the same dad. She is Jenn's daughter. Chris cancelled on them for Thanksgiving, so I offered for Emily to come here if Jenn didn't have plans with her family. So Emily is staying from Wednesday to Saturday when I bring them both back up north.

Emily is related to us in a weird kind of way. It's almost like she is a cousin to the kids. But not at the same time. With Chris off living his own life, barely acknowledging his children, I feel like someone should be there to be Emily's 2nd family. Everyone has one, or at least they should. So Emily will be coming down with Katy for visits and that kind of thing. What's one more kid after all, right?

Prayers and blessings everyone, I hope that your weekend is filled with fun and family and all that makes you smile and feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Thankful Thursday

What to be thankful for today?

That I'm alive.

That I have a wonderful husband who loves me dearly even when he is out of cigarettes because he smoked them all too quickly and he KNOWS I don't pick up more until Friday when he gets paid and he is suffering from a bit of nicotine withdrawl and is being a pain in the ass.

For children with brains and mouths and thoughts and abilities even when they are using all of those to drive me absolutely bat-shit crazy.

For the ability to take care of myself even though I'm the world's worst procrastinator and I hate putting forth effort to do anything.

I'm just keeping it real here people. After all, life isn't perfect, and mine really is very far from it. Prayers and blessings all, I hope that you have a great weekend.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

I Know, I Know

So Nablopomo is sucking for me right now. Now, technically it says 30 new posts in the month of November, so I'll do a couple of makeups and we'll go on our merry way, ok?

A few things.

Today is my daughter Vyky's birthday. She is 14 today. I thought of doing a post just to her. I don't know if I will or not. It's still very emotional. I can sympathize with parents who have lost a child. Not having her near me, in anyway, is similar to her dying. However, I KNOW she is still out there. She's growing and learning and maturing. I wish I could see her, to hear what she thinks and has to say. I imagine she is amazing. And beautiful. It might be easier if I had a picture, however I don't. I've thought of writing to her dad and asking for one. I'm not sure if it is fear of him not answering, or fear of him answering that keeps me from doing it. I am sure that at some point, I will write it all out. Maybe even later today, but right now, at 4:16 in the morning, it's not happening.

My sleep schedule has been SUPER weird the past few days. I stayed up all night on Sunday night. I was told to call Jayden's doc first thing (8 AM) on Monday to schedule her an appt. By the time I was ready to go to bed, I would of had to be up in about 3 hours. I was having Jason wake me up before he left for work so that I knew I'd be awake. He leaves at 6:30 in the morning by the way. He would have woken me around 6. I napped on Monday during the day. Then at 6:30ish that night, I went to bed and slept til 3 in the morning. Last night, I went to bed at 9, and slept til 3 this morning. I'm hoping that tonight I can stay awake until at least 10, so that I can sleep a little later. It doesn't help that Izzy has been getting up between 3 and 4 every morning to come down stairs and crash on the couch.

Thanksgiving is next week. We'll have a big old dinner, lots of family time, a good time (I hope) will be had by all. Then the chaos of the "official" shopping season will begin. We are using Jason's Christmas bonus to do our gift shopping. I'll be working on handmade items as well.

The goals for this weekend are to get the house in tip top cleanliness shape for the dinner on Thursday. That means I need to work on the dining room every day this week until it's ready. It would help if Izzy would stop going behind me and taking all the books off of the shelves, but oh well.

I think that is all for now. Prayers and blessings everyone, I hope you have a great week.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Almost Silent Sunday

This will be Almost Silent Sunday at some point today. I did have "blah blah blah sunday blah blah blah" up here, but that was supposed to be a place holder, not a published post. Ah well. Please be patient with my "technical difficulties" :-D

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Random Saturday

The thoughts meandering through my mind went a bit like this today...

I see the signs all over town "Pray for our New Leaders" and I have to wonder if the "conservative" guys would have won would those signs still be up there? I would think that ALL political leaders need our prayers, especially with the way this country is right now, don't YOU?

I'm going OUT on Friday with my HUBBY on a DATE! Like DINNER and SYMPHONY!! I feel so GROWN UP!!! I know that's funny, however I actually had to go buy a dress. Why buy a dress? Oh come on, you know what stay at home mom's wear. Jeans on a dressy day. Yoga pants on a non-dressy day. Pajama pants on a "Why the HELL did I get out of bed" day. I don't see "DRESS" in there at all.

So many projects to accomplish. I was hoping that I'd have the curtains for the house made by now. Um, I don't even have the curtains for the extra doorway in the girls' room finished!

I've been thinking of a list of things I'd like to work on in therapy. Just so I can give it to her. Part of the paperwork was asking what I felt I needed services for. I also asked Jason to write stuff down. He sees things differently than I do after all.

I'm making beef stew in the crock pot right now. The left over pot roast from last night, some fresh potatoes, and fresh baby carrots, all cut up. YUM YUM. At least I hope so. Tomorrow night we are having a whole chicken. Then I'll boil the carcass and have a nice good chicken stock in the freezer. I want to look for a buttermilk biscuit recipe online and make some from scratch and make chicken and dumplings from the chicken stock and the biscuit mix.

I need to buy my turkey this week. That is quickly approaching and I need to be prepared! I also need to figure out what else I am going to be serving. It will be just Jason's family joining us this year. My dad and Sue are going to be up north with her family. Her parents usually go south for the winter, but didn't this year, so they are going to enjoy the holiday with them.

Jason was supposed to call his sister about Thanksgiving. Oh well, I'll remind him again tomorrow. I need to send out my annual "this is our holiday schedule this is what the kids are in to" email to the extended family. Coordinating Christmas dinners for us is a plan that takes a month's notice. It's also why we do NOTHING on Christmas day aside from rent movies and get Chinese take out. From the 26th to the 31st we are running all over the state like chickens with our heads cut off!

Tomorrow is Almost Silent Sunday and I told Donna (a mommy on the Four or More board) that I would post pics of my scrapbooking stuff. She's trying to find some sense of organization in hers. I can understand that. I'm trying to find some sense of organization in ALL of my stuff!

Jason said he WILL take pics of me all GUSSIED up on Friday. I made a necklace to go with it. I'm working on a headband and a shawl. I'm wondering if I should go with barrettes instead however. I'll argue with the headband a little longer and see what comes of it and take it from there.

I am going to research Craftacular as a possible Etsy store name. I can always go with JDR. I like that. Simple and concise. It also happens to be the initials for BOTH Jason and I, so it easily describes that it is OUR stuff.

Prayers and blessings everyone. Try to stay warm, unless you are to the south, then try to stay cool. It's supposed to be cold and snowy for the rest of the week. It's about time, is what I have to say about that!

Friday, November 14, 2008

You Might Not Know That I...

...Drive no more than 9 miles over the speed limit on the highway because I've gotten so many tickets I'm now paranoid, unless I'm in Chicago, then all bets are off
...have 2 close friends in real life and don't have the desire for more, unless I meet some of my "mommy" friends, as Jason calls them.
...wanted to name Jayden "Jaydenya" (say it with me...Jay-Den-Ya, mom claimed she couldn't pronounce it) and call her Jayd and my mom talked me out of it, and I'm upset because now Jayden is such a popular BOYS name
...grew up with a BOYS name and swore I'd never do that to my girls, and I did inadvertently
...usually read the first three chapters of a book, skip to the last one, read that, and then go back to the rest of the book
...have a very strange thought process and when you talk to me "in real life" I tend to not make sense unless I take the time to explain how my brain went from point A to China and then Antarctica and back
...started therapy yesterday, and I liked it.
...love mood rings and mood beads and all those cool things like that
...feel like I was born a generation too late because I love all that hippy dippy crap
...make jewelry that I give away or shove in a box and never see again, I don't wear it, I don't know why, though I really like what I make
...love to cook big big meals
...collect barbies, not like super crazy collect, but I own 3 that I won't let Jayden play with
...love the Dodge Viper and the F150 Ford truck
...owned a 2001 Ford F150 Extended Cab 4x4 Offroad with the V8 Titan Engine, and I LOVED that truck, and I gave it up for a mini van, which I don't really like, so that we would have more room for our family
...collect teddy bears, when I was little it was stuffed bears, now it is ceramic ones
...would rather have salt than sugar
...love to shop but hate shopping for stuff for myself, I always feel so self-conscious in what I am wearing
...really like classical music and Jason and I are going to the symphony next Friday for a grown up adults only date
...every one of my kids are named after a member of the family or, in some cases, two in some way or another
...recently discovered that I have A.D.D. and I won't be taking meds, at least not right now
...love nail polish and I own all kinds of "weird" colors
...think buffalo chicken ROCKS!
...talk to my ex-MIL on the phone more than I talk to my own mom, though Ma lives in Wisconsin and I see her maybe once a year
...can't accurately remember the birth stats of my kids...oops, there are FIVE of them after all
...think Sweetwaters is the BEST donuts ever ever ever made, hands down kicks Krispy Kreme's ass, and I know because we had a Krispy Kreme in town and it went out of business because Sweetwaters is 100 times better!
...was inspired by Miss Britt
...love shoes, all kinds, but I am cheap and won't pay more than $40 for a pair, and have only paid that much a handful of times
...love jewelry that I never wear, I have a whole jewelry box full
And I don't know that you...

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Thankful Thursday

This week I'm thankful for Jason.
For the kids.
For the house I live in.
You know, the usual crap.
For my friendship with Jenn.
And with Daisy.
That my parents are healthy and alive.
And Jason's folks too.
That our van still runs.
That we'll have money for Christmas.
That Jason's job gives him a Christmas bonus so I can have money for Christmas.
That everyone who can will be here for a huge Thanksgiving meal.

Prayers and blessings everyone. Remember to be thankful for what you have. Worrying about what you don't won't make it any easier on you.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Happy Birthday Katy Beth!!

Happy birthday Katy! I hope you have a really great day! I know you are at school today. I hope that the dinner you have is tasty and the gifts you receive are wonderful! We will see you at Thanksgiving and we will celebrate then!

Katy is 11 today. That big age of transition and growing. Being an almost teenager, as she reminds me, is full of angst and self doubt and fear. It is also a time of change and growing and learning.

Katy is a smart beautiful well rounded girl. I believe in her, and her ability to grow and adapt to the changes that will be coming in her life. As everyone who has ever been through it knows, teenagerness (is that even a word?) brings about so many changes in ourselves, in our bodies, in our way of thinking.

Katy has the support and love of a lot of people. I know she will handle the coming years with grace and dignity.

By the way, I'm not saying she won't become mouthy and moody and all that teenage crap that every parent dreads. I AM saying she is smart enough, and loved enough, and encouraged enough, to know that no matter WHAT she is dealing with, she KNOWS she has someone she can go to when it seems to be too much, as it will, even though to us adults it won't really look like too much.

Katy impressed a judge this year. He couldn't believe she was only 10 at the time. He felt for sure she was much older, simply on how she handled herself. He called her funny and smart and mature. She wasn't afraid to speak her mind and be heard. Now, if a girl of 10 isn't afraid to tell a judge what she wants, I really believe she will do well as she gets older.

I think the challenge for us, her parents, will be getting her to come out of her shell a little more, to, if not lead, at least not be so willing to follow. It has been difficult to teach her that she can say what she needs to and not worry so much about how who she is talking to will feel about it.

Prayers and blessings everyone. Remember to enjoy your loved ones at every age, for soon, it will be past and you will wonder where the time went.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

I Am So Tired

I am so tired of getting yelled at for my blog. Suck it up folks, I'm an adult, you are adults, put your big boy/girl pants on and BE adults. This is MY space, where I write WHAT I WANT! It is my way to let out steam, be creative, think things through, scream, yell, and holler in a rather HEALTHY way!

Two posts ago I mentioned In-Laws. I told Jason, just in case he caught some flack for it. By the way, I wasn't speaking of MY In-Laws, just in general. Firstly, I have NO problems specifying when I'm speaking of MY In-Laws. Secondly, I was actually thinking of how THEY may have been feeling about adapting to ME more than the other way around!

Jason asked me not to write about MY In-Laws anymore, ever. I told him point blank, NO. He got pissed. He doesn't ask much of me. I usually oblidge. I'm not going to with this. I will NOT censor myself, I don't give a flying rat's ass if the POPE or the QUEEN OF ENGLAND or THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES is reading. What you see is what you get. Niceness, meanness, snarkiness, all of it, 100% ME.

Jason is also ANGRY because I HATE to clean. You know what I woke up to this morning? My 2 year old destructo boy CLIMBING on the counters, getting in to the cupboards. Not to get anything to eat, oh no, that would make sense, but to throw SHIT on the FLOOR!! He wastes food like no one's business. There is NO way we would allow the older kids to get away with HALF of what he throws all over. Time outs don't work. Spankings don't work. Yelling doesn't work. Gently redirecting doesn't work. When I say I've tried it all to get through his thick ass head I mean I've TRIED IT ALL.

Yes I'm angry right now. I'm TIRED of getting yelled at for shit like this. I love my husband, I really do, but when he ATTACKS me at 5 in the morning, it kind of rubs me the wrong way! Just add a VERY naughty 2 year old and you've got one very PISSED OFF mommy!

I'm tired of cleaning up and it just being destroyed all over again. I'm tired of Jason cleaning up and it being destroyed all over again. Destroyed by the same person. He climbs over any gate we put in his doorway. We can't keep him in Lockdown the entire day. We can be in one room, he'll go to another and destroy it. Jason vacuumed the living room on Saturday. I didn't even get to SEE IT clean because by Sunday it looked the same as it did BEFORE he vacuumed. He said he vacuumed, I'm just taking his word for it because I sure as HELL don't see it!

Jason acts like I LIKE living like this. Um, hello dumbass, but NO! What the HELL am I supposed to do? I clean, I pick up during the day, I bitch about it, but I DO it! You can't even tell by the time you get home! The laundry I wash is overtaken by new dirty stuff. The dishes I wash are overtaken by new dirty ones. The spaces on the floor I clean are overtaken by the new dirty ones that Izzy makes. Trust me, I don't ALLOW him to do this. His nose finds that wall for GOOD chunks of the day. There is a REASON he still takes naps, so I can TRY to get stuff cleaned up! However, for as long as it takes to clean up, he's awake again and BACK AT IT!

Jason has spent days with this kid. He knows that you can clean spotless on Saturday and by Sunday it looks like you haven't cleaned in WEEKS! I enjoy a bit of chaos in my life, I really do. I find it calming. It reminds me that life really IS chaotic. Izzy takes that to the extreme.

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING he does, eats, drinks ends up on the floor. Books are on the floor. He goes through our shelves and tosses them ALL. Adult books, kids books, it doesn't matter, if it's on the shelves it goes on the floor. He takes EVERYTHING out of the baggies/boxes that I have it organized in. The kids school materials. His snacks. Boxes of cereal. Packages of pretzels. Coffee filters. ALL ON THE FLOOR. He POURS his drinks out, and if he can't get it to pour, he takes a drink and SPITS it out, on to EVERYTHING. Tables, books, couches, carpet.

He isn't allowed to play upstairs alone. Jason is trying to figure out how to hang an extra door. Why? To keep Izzy out of the upstairs bath and storage room. Izzy keeps going in to the bathroom and using the litter boxes like sand boxes. Throwing it ALL over, and in to the toilet and bath tub! He gets a bath everytime he does it, AFTER he gets a spanking (000h, the spanking word, wonder how many hits I'll get for THAT? Too bad I don't have one of those things that tells me HOW people found me) and standing in time out while it is cleaned back up.

Short of keeping the boy in time out and sitting in a chair at all times, what is there to do? He KNOWS he shouldn't be doing these things. He does it as quietly as he can. When he sees an adult coming, he runs FULL tilt in the opposite direction! He KNOWS! He still does it! NONE of my kids were EVER this destructive. NONE! It's not my parenting because that has been consistent. Jason follows my lead for the most part.

Right now, I need to go clean up the living room. Izzy has speech therapy this morning. I think it would be best to give her a clean floor to work with him on. Prayers and blessings everyone. I hope your spouses/significant others are more understanding than Jason is lately and I hope that your children are better behaved than Izzy.

It Has Come to My Attention...

That BlogHer is going to be in CHICAGO next summer! Chi-town is THREE hours from me, THREE HOURS!!!! Which means, I can go!!! Well, kind of. I wouldn't go the whole week, I don't think, maybe a long weekend.

Of coarse, I have to ask, can I even GO to BlogHer without being a part of the BlogHer network? I don't have the ads. I applied. I'm on the bottom of the list, the very long waiting list I'm sure.

Miss Britt has it posted on her blog. All about it. Now, I'm pretty sure I can party like the rest of them. I don't know most of them, though I DO read them, every gosh darn day for some! I wanna be part of the cool crowd MOM! Can I Can I Can I???? HUH HUH HUH????

Now, just to figure out HOW I'm going to tell Jason that I'm going to take a long weekend to Chicago to meet a ton of people I've never met (you too DAISY!) most likely by myself where he'll have to take time off of work and spend all that time with the kids. Wait, if I drive, I can bring the olders up to Linda in Wisconsin. Now THERE'S an idea. That will Jason home with Izzy.

I don't know how it'll work out, but now I have a focus, and I wanna go! I'll figure it out.

Prayers and blessings everyone. I hope you have a great Vetran's Day. Are you working today? Sometimes it's hard to figure out who works on Vetran's Day and who doesn't, ya know?

Edited to add, I'm a COOL KID now!!! I'm a BlogHer! Woohoo!!! Still no advertising, but that's all right. Now, I just need to get to the party....oh, and you can find me on the BlogHer network as, you guessed it, serialmommy. I know, SO inventive, right?

Monday, November 10, 2008

The Things That Come to Mind

I'm a thinker. My brain just doesn't shut off. I don't sleep overly sound. I wake up a few times in the night usually. My point is that I'm constantly thinking of things. Things I want to do, things I want to post, that kind of thing.

At this moment, these are things I'm thinking. Hey, it's Nablopomo folks, you should EXPECT randomness like this!

Jason needs to take more pics of the family. I need to take more pics of the family. We have a great camera but we hardly ever use it. I think a lot of the kids' lives are getting left behind as memories and not being documented. I'm never in the pics, nor Jason. So we need more pics of each other too. We used to take pics all the time. I wonder why we stopped?

Everyone has issues with their In-Laws. It's just how it goes. Why? I have a theory. We go all of our lives with our family. Our mom and dad and aunts and uncles and siblings and grandparents and cousins and what not. That is our family. When we become seriously involved with someone else, either in a very long term committed relationship or legal marriage, the other person's family is SUDDENLY our own. We have all these NEW people who have their own way of doing things, of saying things, of thinking and being, and we are told "This is your family now. Treat them as you would your own." It's SO hard to do that.

In your own family, the one you grew up with, your personalities may clash. Hell, they WILL clash. However, you grow up with "You can't choose your family". So you deal with it. You have your whole life to learn how to handle the clashes. You learn what to say or not to say, how to behave, that kind of thing. With In-Laws, you don't have your whole life to adapt. You are given no warning. You don't know if you'll clash or not. You'll be yourself, and find out that it rubs one or some or all of them in a way that you just didn't intend. You will go about doing your "usual" thing and find out someone takes serious offense with it. You weren't trying to upset or offend, you just didn't know. You are a stranger to them, and they to you. It leads to all kinds of stress and strife for your partner. After all, it is THEIR family causing the issues. Very rarely do we stand up and say "You know, I could of handled that differently and I take the blame. " It's usually more like "YOUR family is crazy/insane/stupid/etc..." Maybe if we all just stood up and said "I'm sorry I don't get along with so-and-so. I will try harder in the future." I think it'd bring a lot more peace to everyone.

I love to bake. I hate the clean up. I'd LOVE a Kitchen Aid mixer, one with a bread hook along with the mixing beaters. I'd make so much bread! It's a dream, on the list of things I'd like to get someday. Maybe with our income tax return this year. Maybe not, I don't know yet. I think it will depend on what else we need to pay, what else needs the money infusion. I know I have my sister's wedding that I need to set aside money for. The bridal shower, the dress, the bachelorette party, etc. It's a nice dream at least.

I hate to clean. It sucks. It almost seems like a pointless endeavor. I mean, why am I cleaning? It's just going to get trashed again by one of the kids, usually the youngest and the one that disciplining is least effective with. *SIGH* I KNOW it NEEDS to be done, but that doesn't make me more inclined to WANT to do it.

ChaCha. It's work. The people using it ask silly questions. Stupid questions. Lots and lots of sex related questions. Can people REALLY be THAT clueless about the sexual things they are asking, or are they just asking to see if they can get an answer? All the questions get answered by the way. Sometimes I answer questions, but more often than not, I send them off to someone else to answer. It's a way to earn some money from home and I'm not going to argue with it.

Why is life so tiring lately? Why is it wearing me down so damn much. Jason says it's because I'm tired. Why am I so tired I asked. He said because I take care of the kids all the time. I can very much see that. Oh, and the messy house makes me tired just looking at it. Go figure. Jason said if I spent 1/2 as much time CLEANING as I did BITCHING about cleaning.....yeah, well, not cleaning means I don't need to clean it AGAIN, so .

Prayers and blessings everyone. I hope this week finds you well.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

This Was Going to be a Different Post.

I'm not doing Almost Silent Sunday this week. I might put photos up later this week to compensate. This was going to be a different post. About accepting the things in others we don't care for and all of that. However, I'm making it short and sweet. I may come back later today, or wait until after midnight, and do the accepting post.

Right now, we have 1000's of troops deployed overseas. There just isn't anything to be done about that. I don't support the decisions of those in charge to send our troops out there. I think they were VERY misplaced. That being said, I DO support our troops. They are giving themselves to do what so many of us don't want to do, don't even want to think about. They are sacrificing their home lives, and some times even their physical lives, to go over, where they are told, and do a job that they have been told needs to be done.

All of these soldiers need our love and support. They need to know they are appreciated and cared for. Some of them don't have anyone sending them letters and emails and care packages. Why that is, I don't know.

For quite some time, I have been trying to find a way to match up with a soldier to show my support. To send those letters and emails and care packages. To let them know they are loved and cared for and very much appreciated for what they are doing. I finally found the place to do it.

Adopt a U.S. Soldier is what I found. They paired me up with a soldier by the name of Diana. I'll be sending her a letter later this week. I'm going to have the kids draw some pics of what they think soldiers do. I'll send a care package once a month.

According to the site, there usually isn't an overabundance of soldiers, however there is RIGHT NOW. Please, go to the site and sign up. Show our troops that they have the support, love, respect, and care of those they serve. After all, they are serving us. They signed up to keep our country free. No matter if you agree with where those troops are sent, they are doing it of their own free will. Our military is 100% voluntary. Show those men and women you appreciate the sacrifices they are making for us. Show them that you care.

Prayers and blessings everyone. Enjoy your freedoms. Show your support.

Make Up Post 101

This is the post to make up for missing out on Friday. I don't know why I didn't post on Friday. Oh wait, yes I do! It was an odd day, to say the least.

I had stayed up all night and I made the mistake of laying down on the couch to watch a movie, the 1st National Treasure. I fell asleep, and the kids let me sleep all day. James got food for Izzy. I think I woke up once to change a diaper. They trashed the house. Jayden ate way too much candy. James was on the computer the entire time. Well fuck me. When Jason got home, he was on the computer all night. Past midnight, so no post for me.

Today (I'm still on Saturday folks) was GREAT!!! I only spent about $30. I really didn't go to BUY stuff, it was more just to GO. Ya know?

I DID get some really great beads. I'm a weirdo, I KNOW. I got 6 mood change beads that I'm going to make in to a bracelet for myself. I got some really pretty blue and white glass beads that look like they have little flowers in the middles of them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with those yet, but I'll figure it out. I also bought a couple of multi strand clasps. They are pretty and the kind of thing I've been looking for.

Lately, I've been making barrettes. I was thinking about opening an Etsy store with them. I like the name Crafty Intentions, but I feel like I've heard it before in regards to someone else. I don't know if it was another Etsy store (I did a search and nothing came up) or a person's blog or what. I need to do more research to figure it out first. So I'm looking for suggestions on names. I don't want one that is specific to the barrettes because I'd like to eventually list Jason's Fimo creations and maybe some hand made jewelry. Did I post about this yesterday? I *think* so! Oh well, that is just how my mind works some times.

I am going to have Jason take better pics of the barrettes tomorrow, and have them in my hair, and in Jayden's, so I think that will be my Almost Silent Sunday post. Prayers and blessings everyone. I hope your weekend went well.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

I Know I Missed A Day.

What can I say? I missed a day. Maybe I'll post 2 posts for today. I'll probably do that at some point this weekend.

Later today (because it IS Saturday now) I am heading on a road trip with MF Jenn. We are heading to Shipshewanna! It's not a short drive from here, at least an hour, if not more. It really isn't about the shopping down there either. It's the point of getting out and getting away from the day, something I REALLY need right now.

This past month has been SO much. I'm tired and worn out and ready to throw in the towel, and the holidays aren't even here yet! Those mean travel and family and coordinating visits with about 12 billion people and driving and presents and wrapping and shopping and and and...well, you get the idea.

To add to it all, I think I'm going to open an Etsy shop. Keep in mind, I'm really no where near having enough inventory to be able to do that yet. I'm working on making the stuff now. I don't even have a name!

I've started making these cute beaded barrettes (is that how it's spelled? Could it be barettes?). I'll take a pic of the ones I have done when it is daylight out. The current pics I have now just aren't good at all. So far I have three barrettes made and I'm working on a fourth. They are going to be sold as singles, not as pairs. Each one will be unique. To start off with, I'm going to use only materials I have here in the house. I bought a package of 30 "blank" barrettes last week, so that is my goal to start with. I'm thinking that at some point after the holidays I may have enough inventory to start up the shop.

I'd like to also list Jasons Fimo sculptures. If I can get him to make me more of them. We tried selling them on EBay once. I think Etsy will be a more appropriate forum for sale of those.

This post will be short and sweet. I need to be heading to bed shortly so I can be awake by 9 so I can get ready to head out when MF Jenn gets here at 10. I'll be bringing the camera. I don't know what I'll be taking pics of, however I'll share whatever it is I do see! Prayers and blessings everyone, I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend!