Catching up with the Scrapbooking times

I am a woman with the best of intentions. I've always loved scrapbooking, and even before it was popular, I'd make fun little scrapbooks with my photos.

So here I am, decades *sigh* later with thousands (yes, I said thousands, much to my shame) of dollars' worth of scrapbooking supplies, and I'm still not even through my 10yo's first year. And we've done some seriously fun things worthy of being in a scrapbook!


A few weeks ago, we had to get a new desktop since the old one is also about 10 years old and making funny noises. I realized the wealth of pictures on that computer and the fact that it's a shame they're just rotting on the computer, much like the ones we have rotting in boxes. Then, our local grocery store announced that they will no longer be offering photo developing services. Well, okay. That saves me from printing the thousands of photos on our hard drive- sort of.

Around that time, one of my friends, who is a scrapbook queen, said something about the fact that she does all of her scrapbooking online. Then, she has them print and ship the album to her. It occurred to me that with all of my good intentions, that might be a good idea. My kids love looking at pictures of themselves, and I'd love to have scrapbooks now rather than later.

So I'm asking my online friends- do you scrapbook? Do you prefer paper or online? What services do you like the best?

My new grand master plan

I've decided to start a Christian nudist colony.

Now, I realize the whole, a bunch of people going around naked together thing might be problematic in the lust department, so I have a plan for that. We'll all wear veils. No clothes. Just veils.

Yes, my friends, I am catching up on laundry. I never really got caught up at the end of tax season, and then I went out of town last week, so now this week, I'm paying for it. I finally buckled down and made the kids clean their rooms. Good idea, except tell me, dear friends, what is the most common item messing up kids rooms?

Yep. Laundry.

And then, because with graduation this week, we have folks coming in to town, thus needing our spare bedroom, aka hubby's closet, I made him clean that room, too. Now, I don't know how long it's been since he cleaned his clothes, but I do know that out of everything I've folded tonight, hubby's pile is the biggest.

So I've decided. Life would be easier if none of us wore clothes. Of course, if we did that in the course of our normal lives, it might get a little awkward. I can't exactly walk to Safeway in my birthday suit. But if I lived in a nudist colony, everyone would be naked. So no one would care that we didn't have any clothes.

Think of what we'd save in these tough financial times: laundry detergent, fabric softener, water, electricity, the cost of the clothes themselves...

I'm telling you. This idea's a winner.

Signs I am losing it

Today's been an odd day... lots of weirdness, and, as you will see from my post, I think I may finally be losing it.

I'm taking a quick break from work right now, mostly because I know I have about ten more things I need to do and can't remember what they are. So I thought, genius that I am, that I'd check my email.

One message in particular caught my eye: A proper pushup. And I think, "YES!! I was just griping this morning about how I need a new bra." Now, I do not open spam. I would never open a message about undergarments because we all know that they are either viruses or from shady websites. However, I didn't even think about those things. I opened the email.

Fortunately, God loves me and knows that my brain is mush, so He saved me from getting a horrible virus. The email was from an exercise newsletter I signed up for, and it was about teaching me how to DO pushups. Yeah, you know the things I never did, which is why I need to WEAR a pushup.

I started laughing at myself, because I knew I was losing it, so I decided to blog about it. Started typing in my blog url, and um, well, I typed... "Signs I am losing it." FYI, it does not get you to my blog.

So make me feel better... what you have you done lately that made you think you were losing it? (And don't say nothing, otherwise, I may just have to kill you in my next book. :) )

Confessing my scary motivations

I'm going to make a confession. I already confessed on my friend Jenny's blog, so I might as well let everyone who thinks I'm so perfect know it as well. By the way, if you haven't read Jenny B. Jones, you need to. She's fantastic. Her blog is pretty funny too, so read her books, read her blog. You'll like her. I do.

Anyway, my confession...

You know that vacay I went on that I promised to post about and haven't yet? Getting to it, really, I am. Let's just get through the next few days. It's tax season. Well, I unpacked on Sunday or Monday. One of those two. Yes, it took me that long. And while I'm at it, my Christmas tree is still up. I had two ladies over for critique today, and I did not care what they thought of the crazy lady whose tree is still up. You know what? I have other things to do with my time. Sorry... little bit of a tangent.

I think my suitcase would have stayed packed indefinitely except for two reasons. One: small child was fighting me on putting her clean clothes away, so I offered her a race. If she could put away all her clothes before I got my clothes put away and suitcases unpacked, she could have some girl scout cookies. Despite my herculean task, she still lost. But reason number two is this: The girls and I were out of clean underwear.

Let's just be clear here. In our house, if I don't do it, it doesn't get done unless I turn into a mean nasty screaming harpy, and I'm really trying out the whole kinder, gentler Danica. Which means I'm stuck doing it all. And so, because I'm right off the busiest part of tax season, the laundry was piled everywhere. Some clean, some dirty, some I don't know what. However, because for whatever reason, hubby will fold all laundry but the underwear, and somehow the underwear got put somewhere weird, the girls and I were out of underwear.

I should also mention that I have intentionally purchased a month's worth of underwear for every member of our family to avoid such emergencies. But do the math. We left on our vacation nearly a month ago. I could not find our clean underwear. I knew I had a stash in our suitcases (I always pack more underwear than we need... just in case). However, that meant unpacking said suitcases. So I did.

Yes, this is what motivates me. The need for clean underwear. Otherwise, my suitcases would still be packed, full of laundry that I now have to wash or put away, depending on the suitcase (hey, I pack good... one suitcase for clean, one for dirty!). I have no idea what's going to motivate me to take down the tree... maybe there's a tree taking down fairy out there somewhere.

Dunno, but I am considering going out and buying the family more underwear. Obviously, a month's supply is not enough.

Just when you think you've finally got the juggling down...

You realize you forgot about your daughter having Brownies.

In case you've had a life outside Danicaland, I'll just remind you that it's tax time, and I've been busy-crazy. I'm finally getting my groove on and figuring it out. Today, I got kiddo off to school, got second kiddo off to school, paid her tuition for next month, buzzed by the bank for hubby, had an amazing Panera writing session (seriously, where's my endorsement $$), picked kiddo up from school, went grocery shopping so the family could eat while I'm working (and sadly, broke not only my budget, by my resolve to eat mostly organic. I will NOT read the ingredient labels this month), made chiro appointments for us for this afternoon, put away the groceries, cleaned the kitchen, paid the bills, called our financial advisor about moving some accounts, cleared up a mixup with the insurance company, dealt with all my email, checked the boards, caught up on blogs, and thought, wow, I'm doing so good. Look at all I've done. I'm finally on top of everything. I was just about to break out the Tim Tams to reward myself and I had an awful realization.

My older daughter has Brownies. This afternoon. During our chiro appointments. Oops.

The Infamous Danica

So I'm in round five hundred million six hundred eighty seven thousand and change of teaching tax related stuff to folks and new hire training. I'm starting to forget which class learned what and I'm having nightmares about not teaching someone something valuable because I thought I taught it to someone else. Anyway, I did another section tonight, and as my students left and the office guy closed up, he said, "So you're the infamous Danica."

Uh, yeah.

What exactly does that mean?

I asked him. And he said, "Well, everyone always talks about you." Uh, now I'm a little scared. He continued, "And when they do, they get this giddy little happy tone as they talk about you."

Now I'm really scared.

Infamous and I make people giddy.

Speaking of giddy, I'm exceedingly so, mixed with a quarter helping of exhaustion. First off, you should know that one of my wonderful, dear, beloved friends is coming to see me this weekend. Okay, her primary purpose isn't me. Her hubby bought a new truck from a place in our area and he wants to go skiing, so she's coming with him. We're getting a cabin for the weekend, the men will be skiing, the women will be indoors, BICHOK, drinking hot chocolate, giggling, and writing up a storm.

And for no particular reason, other than I had a small God nudge, I ended up calling another really good friend I don't talk to all that often, and she got all squealy and giddy when she realized it was me.

I should also mention my other friend and I got squealy and giddy as we planned our non-ski weekend. I was talking to That Man tonight about it, and he's like, "uh, honey, as soon as you two started squealing, I left the room, I have no idea what you two have planned." Party pooper. S'okay. We'll have fun anyway. Stinky boys in the snow, and lovely ladies in the warm cabin by the fire with hot chocolate.

So maybe my post should be about being all giddy and squealy. Because really, that's how I'm feeling, despite the fact I was up way too late last night having girl talk, giggling, squealing, and all that crazy stuff.

I am super tired. But super happy too. My friends get giddy over hearing my voice. In fact, my coworkers get giddy over hearing my name. AND, I'm infamous. Huh. Except I always thought I'd end up infamous for my homicidal tendencies, not for making folks giddy with happiness. Must work on that.

So proud of my little boy...

Dog, that is.

He's spent the past 7+ years of his life chasing squirrels. They taunt him. They torment him. And now that we're in the new house, they live above our porch and eat his food. He's been going nuts. Taking us with him.

But this fine, rainy morning, as I let him out to do his business so I could get back to bed, I watch a new scenario unfold. The dumb dog, running in circles, barking. The even dumber squirrel, sitting under the picnic table. I know what the stupid creature was thinking: when is that dumb dog going to shut up, and when is that even dumber human going to bring me my food? And I was thinking, that silly squirrel deserves to die, just sitting there. Except my dog was running the wrong way. Just as I was getting ready to open the door and tell the dog to get inside, he pounced. He came out of nowhere to land on the squirrel and WHAM!



I'm such a proud mommy. Really. My sweet baby finally achieved his lifelong dream. However, just as I always seem to be doing, I had a mess to clean up. Carcass disposal. I was afraid he'd eat it, or worse, bury it and then the kiddos would find it. And YUCK. So yeah, I spent a rainy morning picking up a dead animal.

Now that our doggie has made his first kill, he's very excited about a follow up. He hates rain and he really hates getting wet. But he spent all morning, outside, waiting for his chance at another. As happy as I am for the little guy, I'm really hoping it'll be at least another seven years.

Ahhhhh... my happy place is back!!

Welcome to the first weekend of being home in my new house without traveling or being sick. Today, I got some extra sleep, took a leisurely shower, and got a bunch of unpacking done.

That wonderful man FINALLY got my desktop out of storage. I unpacked my office and I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy. Instead of being randomly strewn about the house in haphazard piles, my books are neatly stacked in a bookcase in ALPHA order. *insert blissful sigh*

In addition, That wonderful man started putting together the new bookshelves we bought for the living room. He thinks we have room for one more, so I get to buy another one. I'm thinking I might actually have enough room for all of my books. Er, until I go shopping again, anyway. However, I may finally be able to get rid of some. The good thing about organizing as I unpack is that I can quickly spot duplicates. I just might be able to stop buying the same book ten times because I can't remember if I already have it.

The other exciting thing is That Man did not hook up internet in my office. At first, I thought, "That Stinky Man!" But then I got a little excited because I think I might try writing in my office sans internet for a while. I don't get as much done at home on my laptop because I'm always checking on work stuff, so I end up going to Starbucks to write. I literally write about ten times as much in an hour at Starbucks as I do all day at home. Maybe now that I have an office again, I'll be more productive and get back to hammering out the pages.

And if not, I'll still have a happy place, and I'll spend a lot more time at Starbucks. Either way, it's a win-win situation, don't you think?

Lots of whine, no cheese

At least I don't think so.

I'm exhausted. Had a long, fun trip. Have to pack tomorrow for the next one.

At the urging of some friends, I'm now on Facebook. If you are, too, come find me. :)

My body is so stiff and sore today. And I'm grouchy. And my house is a mess. Whine, whine, whine.

I have done a sum total of nothing today, and while that should trouble me greatly, I don't really care.

I think I'll go to bed now. Yep, a pointless post, except to let some of you know I am still alive. :)

Better things come to those who wait

I started to post a whiney post, because today was just sort of a blah day. But I wasn't feeling it, so I decided not to post. Then, I had to make dinner, which meant my evening walk to the grocery store. On one hand, I feel like a slug for going to the store every day. But it's good exercise, and it's kind of fun to also feel like a responsible citizen, not wasting gas (except my own, which I need to do more of!) and polluting the air.

On the way home from the grocery store, I saw something very cool. My first ever crime scene! It was so cool. The liquor store in the shopette must've had a holdup or something, because it was all taped off with crime scene tape and the cops were everywhere. I've never seen a real life crime scene that actually used the tape. I thought that was mostly in movies. So I was pretty jazzed coming home.

Then, as I put the groceries away, someone knocked on my door. It was one of my neighbors. She'd baked cookies to welcome us to the neighborhood. I've always wanted to live in a place like that! I've got a lot of cool neighbors. The kids are having a blast because there are kids everywhere. I've been walking to and from the school pretty much every day with one of our neighbors and her kids. I just love being in such a friendly place. Of course, this could be Wisteria Lane in disguise, but I'm going to continue thinking it's nice. Which reminds me, I had a super cool murder mystery idea. I wish I could write decent suspense. I just get too excited about the whodunnit part that I ruin it.

Finally, I got a little more unpacked and my house is starting to look less like a bomb went off and more like a place where folks can relax. I can actually see the top of my kitchen counter, my tables (yes! I have tables! kitchen AND dining room), and most of my family room floor.

Do I sound like I'm on something? I read over this and think, whoa! someone is way too happy for the grumpy day she had. But you know, I just am so grateful right now. My FIL and his girlfriend had dinner with us tonight and while the guys did guy stuff, I showed her what we'd done to the house and talked about the plans I still have. I'm so excited, because there's so many things I've always dreamed of doing and now I finally get to do them. Maybe it's silly, but to me, having a nice dining room where I can lay out our china and have a nice dinner is a super cool thing. I like having something in my house that's an escape from the every day.

Oh, and I have to say that I REALLY love having a place to send the kids when they're driving me nuts that's out of the way and I can actually have some peace and quiet.

The middle name game

Because I love Pammer, I'll play! And as you all know, I don't tag folks, because I have a few friends who get irritated with these things. So if you want to be tagged, you're it!

The Rules: (you knew there had to be some)

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.

4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.

5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

M- Meaty. I actually couldn't think of an "M" word that described me, but for some reason, meaty came to mind. Maybe because I have meaty posts. Yeah, that's it. :)
A- Angry. Well, I'm not really angry, either. But I don't have an "H" in my name, which would be perfect, since I'm typically homicidal. I guess angry is sort of homicidal, except that I think homicide is also fun, and has nothing really to do with anger. Oh well, at least I used "A".
R- Real. Finally a word that really describes me. And since living life openly, in a real way (huh, maybe I could have used "authentic" for "A"), is what I'm all about, I figure "real" is a good word for me. I like "real" better than authentic anyway. I'm more of a plain folks type anyway.
I- Inspirational. At least that's what I hope to be. I have to be taking up space on this planet for some reason, don't I? :)
E- Energetic. Well, that's what some folks think of me anyway. To be honest, I'm more exhausted than energetic. I think expending all the energy is exhausting. I think it's bedtime now, so maybe in the morning, I'll be less exhausted. :) At least until I start tackling these boxes.

That Jack needs some GAS!

I'm extremely depressed right now, so I thought I'd share the brightest spot of my weekend (besides taking possession of my new house, but that's not funny, so here's a funny).

I was trying to get to the store and home before all the guys did, since I had the key. And like a good little girl, I drove nicely through the parking lot going the RIGHT WAY. To reward me for following traffic rules, I see a parking spot, right up front. It's mine. YAY me. However, as I was pulling into said spot, another car comes tearing down the WRONG WAY, pulls in front of me, cutting me off, and takes the spot. And so, nice little Danica turned into gremlin Danica. Unlike my friend, Angela, who has been known to say, "Oh, Poor!" to jerks on the road, I am not a well-bred Canadian. Nope, I'm an ill-mannered American, tyvm. So I called the jerk a bad name.

As I'm driving past said jerk, angrily muttering about his driving skill, the baby yells, "That Jack needs some GAS!" God can be nice to me, even when I completely don't deserve it. Instead of my daughter sharing the obscenity that I called the man (which she has been known to do, since we're still working on curing Mommy of potty mouth), she spent the entire grocery trip, angrily talking about the Jack needing gas. And why did the Jack need gas? And obviously it was a bad thing since Mommy was so mad. Those Jacks!

So since I brought up being depressed, I should probably share and ask for prayer. During the last trailer load up at my FIL's yesterday, my dog disappeared. We'd thought he'd be safer over there since our fence was down at the new house. Well, he's gone now, and we have no idea where he is. We've posted flyers, asked neighbors, and pretty much searched everywhere. I've checked the animal control folks, and so far, they have nothing. The good news is, he does have a microchip, so if he's found by authorities, he'll be returned to us. But please, please, please! Keep him in your prayers. He's such an important member of our family and we are heartbroken. I don't think I've ever seen That Man so upset. Even though he's being all manly about it, you can tell he's really torn up by this.

In the meantime, get those Jacks some gas, because I'm in such a bad mood that I might just run them over!

(And I really apologize for not replying to posts yet, I'm just incredibly stressed with the move and now with my missing dog)

Why do we have so much stuff?

Just to give you an idea:

3/4 of our house was already in storage.

We've now filled my FIL's garage, his back patio, and while we have no furniture remaining in our house, I still have a TON of stuff to pack.

While I waited for That Man to hook The Mistress up to the Internet, I read an article in popular science. This family lived with the technology from the 1900s for a year. I've always thought that would be pretty cool. But today's events made me rethink:

1. My allergy meds didn't exist back then. The pollen and stuff, particularly with the recent rains, is making me miserable.
2. I'm depressed over having to use a cord to get online. Oh the horror of no Internet for a year.
3. I'm really enjoying air conditioning now.
4. Skillet meals: freezer to table in 15 minutes.
5. That whole indoor plumbing thing. I really, really like.

Still, I do think we have way too much stuff. Not only am I horrified at how much we have to move, I'm even more horrified at the thought of having to find a place for it all in the new house.

And yet, slug that I am, I refuse to part with my 50+ boxes of books.

Things that make me insane

Did I mention I hate this whole moving deal? I seriously never want to do this again.

Today, we had to be out of the house for the inspection, so I took the kiddos to the zoo. We had fun, despite the fact that I felt really guilty for not being home packing, which I couldn't have done anyway. And it was good, because they've been wanting to go to the zoo for a while now, and it's probably the chance to do before school starts. Next to the zoo is the museum, which has a cool outdoor water feature for the kiddos to play in, so when the zoo got too hot, I took the kiddos there. I scored mega mommy points today. :)

I'd hoped to pack in the evening, but I forgot that I'd agreed to go to a girls night out with some friends from work. You'd think I'd cancel, but you know, these guys, out of all of my friends here, have done the most for me in dealing with all of my health issues. Despite the fact that most of them are old enough to be my mothers, they are amazingly good friends. They don't just say, "oh I'll help you," but never get around to it, or wait around for me to ask for help, they jump in and do it. In many ways, they are some of the truest friends I have. Two of them are dealing with cancer right now, and the fact that they are more concerned with me than they are about their own health says a lot. I needed to go out and have fun tonight, because it's been a long time since I've done that. Just gone out to be with friends and have fun. Lousy timing, so I guess if I don't get anything done over the next few days, that's on me.

However, we did have a great time. We went to Happy Hour at Johnny C's (Italian Nachos, half price- we do it a lot during work) and then off to see Hairspray. I admit, I've been very skeptical of this movie. I LOVED LOVED LOVED the original. And to be honest, I have been disappointed with every remake of any movie I've ever seen. But morbid curiosity got the best of me, and I went with them to see it. WOW. The absolute BEST remake EVER. I honestly can't tell you which version I like best. They were both so different in good ways, and I very much enjoyed the new version, even if they did change a few plot points I liked from the first movie. But I think that added to the charm. Each had plot points I liked better, if that makes any sense.

The other thing I loved about the movie is that it reawakened something in me. I regained my love of character. I started looking at the depths of who the characters were, fell in love with them, and began to spin the writer's wheels of seeing how I could apply the characterization techniques to my own characters. I found myself itching to write, yet compelled to continue watching. Not that I have time for any of that in the near future.

Because, my friends, I won't be packing tomorrow either. I have a mandatory training for work lasting all day. And since I missed the last one due to the Dallas trip, I can't skip out. So my stress level is now approaching maximum capacity.

On top of that, I'm feeling frustrated by so many of the intricacies of moving. The inspection process is driving me insane. The pettiness of people is getting to me. And I'm getting really tired of being treated like I'm stupid. One of the parties acts like I'm the dumb little woman, incapable of rational thought and completely lacking in intelligence. Everyone else is treated with respect. Me, not so much. And sadly, I'm the one supposedly running the show. Although that one's driving me nuts too. I'm tired of being put in charge of certain tasks, doing all the necessary research, attempting to make all the arrangements, and then, after all of my work, having it completely dismissed as though I had the brains of a flea. But what do I know? Apparently, according to most of the people around me, absolutely nothing. And trust me, that is the quickest way to be added to the "must be killed soon" list. I am an educated woman with a slightly above average intelligence. I may not be the sharpest tack in the package, but I know enough to know that I can hold my own. But maybe we can add delusional to my list of faults. Gee, can you tell I'm more than slightly steamed?

So here I am, with d-day gaining on me, I can't sleep (BIG surprise, that one), and I'm so mad that I really want to hurt someone. Is it any wonder that I'm going insane? At this point, I'm seriously considering skipping the family fun bonding trip scheduled for next weekend, hiding in a cave somewhere, and biting the head off of anyone who disturbs me.

And you all thought I was a good little Christian girl...

Letting go

We move in less than a week. We are not packed. I've got to be out of the house most of the day tomorrow for inspection. I've had company the past two days who've had me running all over town. And I'm not allowed to lift more than ten pounds.

So could someone tell me why I'm watching a movie instead of working?

I promised the kiddos a movie, so when I got theirs, I saw one I wanted to watch, and got them both. I probably should have at least worked while the kiddos watched theirs, but really, who can resist Barbie in Fairytopia? Okay, so it's not a great literary achievement. However, when those two sets of big eyes look at me and say, "Mommy, please sit with us," Barbie in Fairytopia becomes the best use of my time.

I can't believe this will no longer be my house in less than a week. Worse, I'm going to be homeless. Okay, so maybe I'll only be homeless for a week. But a lot can happen in a week.

How fitting that I'm watching a depressing movie about letting go. I'm hoping it has a happy ending. It started out depressing, but since it's about her letting go, she'll let go and be happy, right?

It's odd, because I really hate this house. And while the new house is very much what I've always wanted, I still have this anxiety that I'm making a huge mistake.

I am really not ready for this.

Reclaiming Danica

Well, sleepless night turned to groggy day and groggy day turned into weeked of projects. I'm feeling the crunch of getting close to listing our house, so I'm working even harder than I probably should be. Especially since That Man is up to his eyeballs in projects for work that are keeping him from home. Ugh. But that means more money, right?

I spent the evening in the garden, planting flowers. Once everything was in order, the kiddos and I were one big, stinky, dirty mess. They bathed, I put them to bed, That Man came home from work (FINALLY), we spent quality time together (watching Cities of the Underworld ), and then, I went to get a little bit of me back.

Yes, my friends, I took a bath. And if I may, I need to just offer up one more prayer that in our new house, please God, please!!!!! let it have a master bath that is mine, all mine! with my very own bathtub. I hate having to scrub kid grime off before having my own soak. *sigh*

My companion for the bath was none other than....

NICK!

I have a lot of stories I could tell you about Nick, like the fact that a certain someone I know has already laid claim on him for her husband. Tee Hee. However, the most important thing to know about Nick is that Nick is actually a book. Reclaiming Nick by Susan May Warren . I have to admit, I was slightly cranky that it was such a long book. My bath water got cold. However, it was such a good book, I couldn't put it down. The dilemmas of life, I tell you.

Like all the books I enjoy, Nick's story had a happy ending. Nick was reclaimed, Danica was reclaimed, and we all lived happily ever after. Or not. I guess I won't find out the ending of my story for a while. Well, that isn't true either. I know the ending of my story. I get to spend eternity with God. It's the middle that I haven't quite figured out. And I'm extremely irritated with that fact.

Ah well, time for bed. Tomorrow, I'll get up and do it all over again. Anyone want to help paint?

Return of the absentee blogger

Had to run off to the other side of the hill again. The place of no high speed Internet (what is WRONG with them?) and until very recently, no stoplights (wahoo, we now have three!). My cousin got married, so I packed up the kiddos and left That Man home to work. He was grateful for the time away from the terrorists. However, he was mad that I also took The Dog. Apparently, he was lonely.

And since I have really nothing else to say, I'm going to leave you with a few fun photos of my little wanna-be cowgirls who spent every possible moment on a horse. And for those of you who aren't reading on my blogger account, I apologize for the fact that the pics and captions don't always line up well. I'm just too lazy to format for each account, so I only do it on Blogger.

This is Poppa and his girls. They spend the whole time following him around and begging to ride.

















And here they are in their wedding finery. They do dress up nicely, even though they headed straight for the playground as soon as we let them. But of course, the terrorist had to be a terrorist, so she ended up spending time in one of her usual haunts. I love that every place we go has a corner. ;)

However, every trip must end. Even though the kiddos were furious with me for not leaving them there, and the rest of the family is mad because we're selling our house to stay where we're at (as opposed to moving close to them), just in a bigger house, I'm happy to be home. Of course, it's now back to work as I try to get more of this crazy house in order. Ugh.

Once again, I have absolutely nothing to say

And again, I did absolutely nothing today. My allergies are driving me insane (Thursday's the big day! New drugs!) so I took the stuff that knocks me out. Once again, I spent the entire day laying around and napping. Which means now, I am not tired. Ugh.

I couldn't sleep last night either. I spent all night laughing my butt off over my last post. And then I started thinking about all the other hillarious bodily function moments in my marriage (like when I sprayed That Man's butt with disinfectant and I though he was going to kill me). Seriously folks, you gotta laugh at these moments, otherwise, you face a long, depressing life full of horrible sounds and smells. However, That Man is not amused by the fact that I choose to do so in the middle of the night.

Huh. My nose is getting itchy now. This might be a good time for the knockout allergy meds,eh? Sleepytime, here I come!

Invitation to NOT! puke

Today is a grand day in the Dream household. You see, with all our beds torn apart for the new carpet, I decided I should wash ALL of our beddding. Usually, mine alone takes a day. Since I had two days of no beds, I did it all.

However, I forgot one very sad fact of my life. Whenever I wash all of my bedding, someone ends up puking. Now, I can wash the sheets and no spewage. But when I do it all, WHAM! I did all three beds. *sobs hysterically* Please, Lord, I cannot take vomit and new carpet. It's bad enough chasing down the family to make them not eat, drink, or have dirty feet on my carpet. I cannot TAKE having to chase down potential pukers.

I just dealt with this, by the way. The other thing I do that makes family members puke is when I deep clean the bathroom. I do the usual cursory cleaning, but every once and a while, I get down and dirty, scrubbing every crack and crevice, then piling on disinfectant. I thought I'd do a deep bathroom clean the other day, you know, so that when I got my new carpet my whole house would FINALLY be clean (I know, stupid thought, given the state it's in now). That night, That Man spent all night puking and diarrheaing. ROFL... okay, I had to know if diarrheaing was a real word (it's not), so I decided to visit dictionary.com to find out. My favorite site. How awesome is it to be able to look up any word at will? Love it! Anyway, I have to tell you the definition of diarrhea.

Diarrhea: an intestinal disorder characterized by abnormal frequency and fluidity of fecal evacuations.

Why do they make it so complicated? It's just runny poop. And really, I didn't want to know what it was. I just needed a word for the verb of actively evacuating fluid fecal matter. Which really, you probably didn't want to know, but you ARE reading MY blog, so if I'm going to tell the story of how, after slaving away to make my bathroom spotless, including behind the toilet and that gross ring around the bottom of the toilet floor, I had to wake up in the middle of the night to listen to the sounds of That Man alternate between vomiting (see, a nice EASY verb) and actively evacuating fluid fecal matter, then guess what? I'm telling the story. With or without easy verbs.

My point is to tell you that the real reason I don't bother with cleaning my house, besides the fact that I have many other things to do, is that when I clean, members of my household inexplicably began spewing disgusting matter out of their orifices. Making everything I'd just done a waste of time, except that I don't want anyone else to get it, so I end up having to clean AGAIN. Actually, at that point, I'm so digusted, I grab some disinfectant, forget about scrubbing, and spray everything down. Twice.

So why? Why? WHY? Did I think it was a GOOD idea to wash ALL the bedding? And with new carpet?

Also, I know I promised pictures this morning, however, it took longer than expected for the carpet guys, so we've just finally got all the beds set up and I haven't bothered with anything else. At this point, my thingamajig that transfers the pictures from the camera to the computer is somewhere. I can't even guarantee it's at my house. It could have accidentally ended up in a box destined for the storage unit.

Ooooh! I just had a brilliant idea. Whoever dares spew on my new carpet or freshly laundered bedding will get sent to the storage unit. Yes! I am so brilliant. (So long as I'm not the dummy spewing)

Eight years of the life sentence served

I meant to post this yesterday, as That Man and I celebrated our anniversary. I asked him how he felt about the time he's served and he laughed. We didn't do anything special because he had to finish our floor. And yes!! It's done. Except he had to work late tonight, so I STILL don't have a stove. Ugh. Now I have to find something creative to make tomorrow night, since he's working late tomorrow.

It's such a toss up. On one hand, I really want to get the house on the market. But given that this is a very expensive process, I'm not saying no to the extra money. :) I got spoiled earlier in the year because he got a ton of overtime, and lately that hasn't been happening. Add in my not working because I'm on break, and I'm willing to be more creative in how we get our house sold. I'm just a bit sad, because we're planning to go out of town here in a bit, and I was hoping that we could have an open house then. Guess that won't work. Unless I get really busy and learn how to do a little carpentry. LOL

Speaking of carpentry, I skipped my planned bubble bath with a book because HGTV had Design on a Dime on, and the topic was creating a library. Definitely appealed to my nerdy book-loving self. Since That Man didn't get me anything for our anniversary, I think I'll take a rain check and he can make me a library in the new house. It only cost $999 and it looked fabulous! Definitely a fair trade off for what I did for him- I made dinner, bought him a card, took him out for ice cream, and then took him for a romantic drive looking at mountain properties. Tee Hee. What can I say? I'm spoiled.

Which is why, even though it is a life sentence, I don't mind serving it. I have to admit that I am a very spoiled woman. I think my hubby is probably the only man alive who would not only put up with my quirks, but encourage them. Not a bad deal, eh? Plus, he does kinda have a cute butt. (Do NOT look at his butt to verify this statement, or else I'll gouge your eyes out)

My plan for the next eight years is to continue driving him insane, convince him that I really do need more life insurance on him, add to my list of methods of homicide, and to remember that no matter how much I really want to kill him sometimes, he is the father of my dog.

Happy Anniversary, Honey.