Mom of All Trades

A Weekend Around Here

2009-10-10T22:29:00.002-05:00

I promised my sweet grandmother I'd post some of our weekend adventures.

I mowed:

Efficient, no?

Our new place came complete with our very own shopping cart. And yes, her shirt is on inside out AND backwards.

It also has a handicapped ramp. You do the math. (I'd run too, Penny)

Ah yes. Safety first!

Yep. Just another weekend at our house!

Yet Another Catch Up Post

2009-08-24T15:28:00.003-05:00

I think my enthusiasm for blogging has sincerely waned. Or maybe I'm just always busy. Or maybe I just have a hard time being all witty all the time. But before we hit the books for another semester, I will post a little something for my three readers.

We moved. In August, in Texas. Craptastic is the only word I can think of to describe that whole experience. I was watching two extra kids while we did it too. The new place is much smaller, much uglier and much cheaper. It's gonna be great!

K turned 9 on the 17th. My sweet low maintenance kid wanted a playdate at the splash park, all the ice pops they could eat and snickerdoodle cookies. Totally do-able. Even amidst moving chaos.

J got her ears pierced on Saturday. I can't believe she's getting so big. She's also super excited about starting Kindergarten. She misses the deadline for public school, but if I try and put her off one more year for homeschool it will not be pretty at all.

B can't wait for baseball to start. I can't believe it's already time to play again. Then I remembered, this is Texas, they play spring and fall because they have a general propensity for over doing everything.

I have 15 hours again this semester...but I only have three semesters left and it really does seem possible now. I just spent a small fortune on everyone's books so we should be all set...except for the starting part. I'm ready for having a schedule again, but not ready to lose all my free time just yet. I'm always surprised how clean the house is in the summer and how much we are able to go do and how much free time I have when we aren't in school!

Cheer Mom

2009-06-19T22:06:00.002-05:00

This post just cracks me up. I wrote it several years ago now, and I never really came up with a good ending, but it is still so darn funny that I think I'll just go ahead and post it now..now that I've lived through it and no one can really put a hit out on me:

I'm missing the cheer mom gene. In Texas, they take their football very seriously. Even high school teams enjoy a huge community following and the starting players enjoy celebrity just like what you see in the movie Friday Night Lights. And it almost goes without saying, Texas mom's take their cheerleading seriously.

D was a gymnast. I was happy in my little gymnast mom role, carted her to practice three days a week, meets on Saturdays, fundraisers every so often. I was content and life was grand. In 8th grade, D tried out for Cheerleading. D was a G-Y-M-N-A-S-T, she made the squad with ease. It wasn't really a big deal, practice after school, no more astronomical gym tuition and fees, no sweat. D decided cheer wasn't that big a deal and didn't try out for the 9th grade squad, but when high school rolled around, the lure of fame and fun was too strong.

I got my first taste of Texas-mom-cheer syndrome when D made that first squad in 7th grade. My hair stylist told me that one of the women who worked for her in the salon had a daughter who was an eighth grader had tried out for that same squad and didn't.make.it. and there was "a seventh grader" who DID. *Insert accusatory tone here* I've got pretty thick skin for stuff like that, too bad, my kid can do every tumbling trick in the book and she's just as cute as yours. I'm pretty sure my "it's a middle school cheerleading squad, not a big deal" attitude didn't help much.

Fast forward to tryouts in ninth grade. Girls are waiting to go in the gym, every single mom is there, in alllllllll her glory. I was lucky if I only had a small amount of puke or whatever on my shirt, and I'd barely made any effort to show up at all, I mean, really, you can't WATCH them try out, noooooo, you sit in the hall for "moral support". Excuse me, but my tender motherliness is directly proportional to my comfort level. Chasing two small children through the high school halls is not comfortable or fun to me. The mom who's daughter was jilted in 8th grade squad had been enrolled in a cheer gym and made the squad the year D decided not to try out. As I was pulling B off the top of a stairwell, I'm pretty sure I heard them saying something about having "seen it all" as far as girls who "deserved" to be on the squad not being chosen. *Insert more accusatory looks here* Both girls made the squad so bloodshed was averted for the time being.

But the first CPO meeting I managed to remember and make it to was my baptism by fire. My indoctrination and my wake up call that this.is.the.big.leagues.now.honey. I walked into the church meeting room, the smell of Chanel and hairspray nearly knocked me off my feet. As I scanned the room, I thought I might have accidentally stumbled into a Mary Kay meeting, but when I recognized the objects on the tables were not mirrors, but heavily "bling-ed out" designer handbags, and the bubbly blonde at the front asked me who my daughter was, I knew it was too late to run. It was like walking into the Twilight Zone, people. I'm telling you, it was like the high school popularity club on steroids, with money and bigger cars.

Nope. I don't fit in well with the Cheer Mom club. But I'm not worried, they've got more than enough "pep" to make up for my cheer mom slacker-ness.

Kidisms

2009-06-18T22:04:00.001-05:00

Somehow, B has inherited Grandpa D's love of WWE. The other boys liked the Monday night brawls, heck, they were real wrestlers and while they knew it wasn't real, they liked the action. But B's love is sheer adoration. He waits all week long for it to come on and watching him bounce on the couch and cheer for his man is waaaaay more entertaining than what my dad and I watched on Saturday mornings. ;O)

I love how J says "Hoo-ta" when she is asked where Grandpa L lives.

I also love to hear K watching Taylor Swift on YouTube and hearing her eclectic taste in music evolve. It's particularly entertaining when she tries to sing along with the girl who yodels.

Paula, Where Have You Been All My Life

2009-06-17T21:38:00.000-05:00

My Grandma G had a serious love of Julia Child. Used to crack me up how much she liked that lady. Now I sit and watch Paula Deen and Rachel Ray...and I no longer crack up. I understand the deep and abiding love of the cooking show.

Hubster always talks about the "PERFECT" blue cheese dressing he once had in a small town somewhere in Montanna. Well, tonight, Paula was making her signature blue cheese dressing and I decided to give it a try. If you've ever seen Paula in the kitchen, you will know that she is my kindrid spirit. She measures nothing. She goes by feel. She is a free spirit in the kitchen. Woman after my own heart. So the following amounts are approximate:

Paula Deen's Blue Cheese Dressing

3/4 cup good mayonaisse (not Miracle Whip, trust me on this)
1/3 cup or less of sour cream
2 tsp "Silly Salt" This is a Paula product, but I figured she had to start somewhere and picked up some Jane's Crazy Mixed Up Salt and figured Paula probably used it when she was not a TV star with her own product line.
a pinch of garlic powder
about a 1/4 cup of buttermilk
a goodly handful of Gorgonzola or Blue Cheese crumbles. (Queen Paula explained that Gorgonzola is more mild. This mildness however, does not ensure that your children will eat it...I'm just tellin' it like it is...)
Cracked black pepper to taste

Mix it all up and squish the blue cheese crumbles a bit as you do so. Let it hang out in the fridge a bit to marry all those lovely flavors. This was seriously tasty on the fresh salad I made. So tasty in fact, that the lovely club steaks* that came in our butcher pack were pale by comparison...and then I dunked the steak in the sauce and we were back in business. Hubster said it was the closest thing to that perfect dressing as he's ever had. I suppose the MT air probably made it taste better.

*Club steaks are a prime rib steak. We purchase our meat in bulk from a local butcher and these lovely gems are included in the mix. I pay a whopping $1.68 a pound and receive a 60 pound assortment of roasts, steaks, burger, pork chops, ribs, sausage and bacon. We've found this to be an extremely economical way to purchase our meats and love, love, love the quality and service. I even send their perfect, succulent, incredible smoked hams to family around Christmas on occasion. I always wear my waders when I go to make my order, because you never know when they will be washing out the kill floor, thereby creating "pink puddles" in the parking lot...gross, I know, but this is THE cleanest smelling butcher shop I've ever set foot in and I've set foot in many butcher shops over the years. Seriously awesome quality folks. Check out your local butcher and don't be afraid to break out your waders to get there.

Campbells Ain't Got Nuthin' On PW

2009-06-16T21:27:00.000-05:00

Pioneer Woman posted a lovely gazpacho recipe yesterday and we had some for dinner. It was sublime. I can tell we will be eating a lot of it this summer. Here's the short version of the recipe:

P-Dub’s Gazpacho
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 large red onion, diced
1 large cucumber, diced
5 ripe tomatoes, diced
1 zucchini, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
4 cups tomato juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/8 cup (more to taste) red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons (less to taste) sugar
Tabasco to taste
Salt and Black Pepper to taste

I chopped it all up, reserved a little of the vegetable mix and blenderized the rest. One tip, if you are in a hurry, go easy on the tomato juice and add a couple cups of ice to the blender. Your soup will come out chilled from the start. It is technically better to follow her instructions and let the flavors marry a while, but in a pinch, ice will do. It is important to serve it ice cold and honestly, the reserved veggies are a pretty garnish, but we liked the soup better without the big chunks, so I'll put it allllll in the blender next time. And there WILL be a next time, oh, yes, there will.

She Shall Have No Clothing for One Year

2009-06-15T21:10:00.003-05:00

K needed a new swim suit. Her friend who frequently gives us her hand-me-downs gave her a really cute one, but it was a bit...saggy in the booty area. I attributed this to the slightly rounder body type of her friend and a season of prior use, and I set off to buy her a new one at the Walmarts since Target had let us down on two prior occasions. We found one we could stand and I purchased a size 7/8. We brought it home and almost as an after thought, I told her not to take the tag off before she tried it on. Once the suit was on, she let me know that it was too short for her, as evidenced by the straining straps and 80's thong effect, and I set out to exchange the suit.

Did you know that your all night WalMart will not process returns after 10 pm? No? Well, don't try and do it at 9:55 either because even though a customer service clerk is there and clearly not headed home any time soon, they will not allow you to walk back and grab another size. One strike against JIT distribution strategies.

So I grudgingly purchased a second swim suit and brought it home. Now, in my experience with dressing children over the last 14 years, I have come to understand children's clothing sizes somewhat. Generally speaking, your child's clothing size will be roughly their age. So tell me, for the love of everything that is holy, WHY WHY WHY do they sell swim suits in size 4/5, 6-6X, 7/8, 10/12 and so forth? What do you do when you are 9? 7/8 splits you up the middle and 10/12 might look a little loose when you are dry, but the moment you get wet it will sag like your grandmamma's behind?

I don't even want to contemplate what purchasing jeans for her in the fall will be like.

My Project This Morning

2009-06-05T15:29:00.003-05:00

Sweet smelling, made at home for pennies per load laundry soap! Go check it out at my other blog:

Food Storage 101

Eating Yellow Snow

2009-05-05T17:27:00.002-05:00

Where I come from, snow cones are made by putting ground ice into a paper cone and pouring syrup over the top. They come in cherry or grape and usually, the only place you can find them is at the 4-H carnival.

Moving to the south has been largely unpleasant. Bugs the size of your fist, heat that will melt your face off and tornadoes...not very good selling points IMHO. But there are a few things that are awesome.

For instance: The Snow Cone.

When we first moved here, I ignored the little snow cone stands all over town, other than to wonder how in the world people could make a living selling crushed ice with purple syrup on it. One day, when it was 4,000 degrees out and my face was lying in a puddle in my lap, I figured some ice chips would be nice. So I became aquainted with the southern snow cone.

Here in the south, the snow cone is created by shaving a block of ice into a truly snow like consistency. Being from Wyoming, believe you me, I know snow. The snow is then packed into a heaping mound on top of a styrofoam cup and the snow mound on top of the cup is usually twice as big as the cup itself. Then you can have your choice of 1,000 flavors or flavor mixtures and you can even top it all off with chocolate, cream or whipped cream. It's more akin to a snow sundae, and soooo much tastier than the pathetic ice chips they tried to pass off as snow cones at the 4-H fair.

The trouble with snow cones, is that they are seasonal. While we would happily crunch ice chips in the middle of February in sub-freezing temperatures, Texans pull out their winter coats as soon as the temperature drops around 60 degrees. So sometime in October, the snow cone shacks all get loaded onto their trailers and go on vacation. There's probably a snow cone resort I just haven't heard about. But when May approaches, the kids and I anxiously await the appearance of our favorite white and yellow shack in the parking lot near the college. We drive past two other shacks to get there, but they carry genuine SnowBiz flavors...and snow cone connesours know that SnowBiz flavors are the best.

A couple weeks ago, we spotted the shack and we've been waiting ever since to see the signs go up on the outside. When they first open, they are only open when school is not in session. They claim it's because they can't make the kids work during school hours, but we all know it's really due to the fact that the entire high school would break the closed campus rules and go get snow cones during 8th hour. So today we anxiously waited for the clock to let us know that school was out for the day so we could load up and go enjoy the only thing that makes summer in Texas bearable: Banana Creme SnowBiz snow cones. Mmmmmmmm.

Fear not the yellow snow.

Farm-kins?

2009-05-04T14:17:00.002-05:00

B and K have a couple Web-Kins, but unlike their friends, their mother refuses to buy them additional pets for anything other than birthdays and Christmas because, really, who needs 27 virtual pets? Right?

B has a new idea: When Web-Kins get older, they should have babies. Then you'd never have to buy more Web-Kins.

That's probably not going to fly well with the marketing department over at Ganz, but I'm glad to see that the miniature farm we've got living in the backyard is making an impression. Sorta makes all the chicken poop, cow pies and neighborhood complaints worth it.

These Guys Are Amazing

2009-04-30T08:50:00.001-05:00

You have to watch this if you haven't seen it already:

The Bees, Part...Uh, Whatever....

2009-04-16T22:26:00.000-05:00

Our mail order ~~bride~~ queen arrived this morning. Mom of all Trades picked up her majesty and entourage from the Post Office. So later this morning founding us excitedly tromping down to the hive anxious to "install" her in place.

TaxiMom pulled off the top of the hive and remarked, as MoaT squatted down for a look-see, "I don't hear any noise." With a flat, "Oh, crap," MoaT carefully moves the frames to peek in between. I join her. We are very quiet.

No buzzing. No movement. Our bees have died. We are crestfallen. We look into the bottom of the hive and see the majority of them in a pile. A couple dozen are attached to the combs, a few are inside the hexagonal shapes.

MoaT and I sit while we talk through possible scenarios: Did they starve? Surely there was enough pollen available for food. Did they freeze to death over the weekend? They had been through colder weather already. Did something else kill them? Perhaps someone sprayed their fruit trees, garden, weeds.

On Friday afternoon they were fine. Now, gone.

MoaT sits and contemplates. I say, "Well, let's go."

"Where," asks MoaT. *TM is awesome in a crisis, part of why I heart her*

"Back to the computer. We'll see if we can't find some bees and order them," I reply.

We fire up the MAC and google. MoaT calls a number in southern Texas. Sold out until May! I remember when we looked for a queen most of the places had sold out of bees for the spring.

Our queen won't make the return trip to Georgia, nor will she survive without a colony to care for her. Her entourage aren't numerous enough to do that.

Our MoaT. She should have been named Gem. She comes up with the idea to post a note of Freecycle for anyone who needs a queen. Off she goes to her own computer to do that.

Our MoaT. She's also sneaky. She leaves the queen with me. That way I can feel guilty if she dies while in my possession. The real reason is because MoaT feels badly for those bees that died. I, on the other hand, do not. If I were pregnant I would cry. Once when TaxiDad, J and E came home with little bitty fish from fishing and they were using a hammer to bonk them on the head and kill them. I stood there crying and saying sadly, "Their mommies are wondering what happened to them." Yeah, I was pretty pitiful. They were just fish, and strangers because I had just met them . . .

Curiouser and curiouser . . . MoaT gets a bite on the Freecycle post. A couple out of Springtown are interested. After MoaT explains the saga of the bees, this couple decide that they will place the queen with a nuc (yes, nuc - it's like a mini colony) and in a few weeks will give the queen and nuc to us! *We made a bee friend in the process, I think I love her. She is also a second mom, I'm gonna call her BeeFriend, Hi BeeFriend!*

So off the queen and her entourage go!! Can it get any crazier than this?

Maybe we'll be beekeepers yet . . . MoaT and I just laugh. It's all we can do . . . except for me. I'm going to have a bowl of chocolate fudge ice cream. That always makes the situation a bit sweeter and cheerful!

*I wasn't laughing. I was so sad to see our brave little colony die. But I think BeeFriend is gonna make it all better. She and her hubby are nice like that*

Anyhow, here's a picture of us making some goat's milk soap. Our friend who lives in a hoity toity subdivision with fancy schmancy homes has "A little Captain in her". She volunteered to goat sit for her back fence neighbor. I was mightily impressed at her tenacity in learning to milk that goat. Good for you SweetMom! You rock.

Speaking of needing to practice her focus.....

The Bees, Part 3

2009-04-15T22:20:00.000-05:00

Last night Mom of all Trades went down and shook the remainder of the bees into their new hive, and stuffed the entrance with grass to slow any exodus.

Today around 1:30pm I went down to check on them. I called MoaT as I walked down so I could give her a blow by blow of the activity. At first there were about 2 dozen bees flying around the hive. As we talked and I looked around the hive I noticed there were more bees flying around. So I planted my bottom on a stump and watched the entrance of the hive.

I saw a chain, one by one, of bees coming out of one corner of the entrance, get its bearings, and then take flight. Then I noticed that the other corner had some bees doing the same thing. Well, that's okay, nothing to worry about, right?

It was then as I was describing to MoaT what was taking place that I thought I saw the queen outside, covered by a few bees. NOT A GOOD SIGN!! I gently moved the bees to get a better look. YUP, THE QUEEN!!

MoaT and I quickly hung up. She to find some screen to make a box/ cage for the queen, and me, to find a temporary container for the queen before she decided to fly off, taking the colony with her.

I found a partially empty orange juice container, you know, the individual sized one. I poured out the contents and hurried outside to the hive. WHEW!! She was still there, and not too hard to find. I scooped her and a few workers into the container and headed back to the house to put on my "bee suit."

MoaT arrived with screen, and 2 girls who, for some unknown reason, love to eat my apples!! There's nothing special about my apples, but for some reason that's what they want to eat when they come over.

Anyhoo, I found a little plastic container and cut out 2 sides, while MoaT cut screen to fit and taped it on. We were in business!! MoaT dumped the bees into the container and closed it shut, and attached some twine to secure it to one of the frames. I mentioned that they had no honey, and perhaps they were hungry. Maybe that was why the queen was out. No food and time to find another place to build a hive. So we found a container lid and poured honey into it.

We then skidaddled down to the hive and removed the top box with lid. We decided to clean out most of the comb we had gotten from the original hive and trash it, along with the brood combs. They had not been attended to, and were probably dead. We then secured the queen in the middle of the frames and placed the lid on top. MoaT slid the honey into the entrance of the hive.

WHAT A SIGHT!! They were all over themselves trying to get to the honey. It was gone in no time. While we watched them we decided it might be a good idea to feed them some more. We found ourselves headed back up to the house again in search for a couple more lids and a container to carry the honey in.

WE HAD A FEEDING FRENZY!! Not only did they climb into the lids, but into the container that held the honey. They ate so much that some could hardly fly. It was really interesting to watch. And watch we did for about 30 minutes. While there we observed 3 wasps, that we killed. The wasps would kill some of the bees and rob honey from them.

We'll check on them tonight. Maybe I'll get my container back. Certain my family would appreciate it since its the one used to serve syrup in when we have pancakes or waffles.

How fortunate we were that someone just happened to be there when the queen came out. And even more fortunate that we were able to capture her. We will probably need to mark her with some paint so she will be easily recognizable from the rest. But we'll do that when we're certain the bees are accepting the new hive as home and begin making comb.

Again, the bees were really docile. We even petted a few! Yes, petted.

Here's a picture of Her Magesty and our brilliant queen cage:

Can you tell which one she is?

Here is what we found when we brought her back down to the hive. From a few flying about to this in minutes....so luck Taximom actually saw her walk out of the hive!

To be continued....how else am I going to post with regularity and consistency?

Bee Update and Photo's

2009-04-14T21:55:00.000-05:00

OK. Taximom has been so good about writing up our saga I'm just gonna let her tell it...besides, she always flatters me shamelessly so it's good for my self esteem.

Some of you have inquired about the bees, curious to know how these guys have taken their world being changed.
Mom of all Trades and I left them alone for a while to see if they would settle into their new home. The weather forecast called for cold and rain, too. They did not. Arrghh!!! So we were back to square one with moving them, and also face losing what brood combs there were.

Sunday (March 15) afternoon we donned our suits and headed back to the pasture armed with our handy dandy handmade tools. We found lots of buzzing and quite a number of bees in the air . . . a good sign . . . they were still here. Unfortunately the majority were content with the old hive and had refused to move down into the new one. Carefully we unwrapped the hives . . . we had removed the top for the new hive and set the old one on top, and wrapped it in a garbage bag because of several days of rain were forecast . . . many were crowded around the original opening to the old hive.

The decision was made to tip over the old hive and get a better look. After determining that most had migrated back to the old hive, Mom of all Trades and I discussed our options and execution for each. One suggestion in the book calls for removing the bottom to the new hive and setting it on top of the old. The bang on the old hive to get the bees to move up. We did this for several minutes, but again we were doing this in the late afternoon and were impatient. Now, you might think that banging on the hive might cause the bees to become angry and anxious to stop the perpetrator. Not in the least. They will crawl to the top of the hive. With the old hive upside down (remember the bottom had been sliced off when the tree was felled), the theory is they would just crawl out of the old and into the new.

Knowing that this could take an hour or two, and Mom of All Trades and I were anxious to get them moved, so after about 10 minutes of banging and no bees leaving, we decided to get more aggressive. We rolled a large stump over next to the new hive, picked up the old hive with the opening down, picked up the old hive and slammed it onto the stump. WHUMP!!

Perfect! Quite a number of bees fell into the new hive - exactly what we wanted! After several WHUMPS we were able to remove the majority of the hive. About a quarter of them were on the ground outside the new hive. Bugger!!

We set the old hive down cut side up and attended to the bees on the ground. Scooping them up with wings from some bird that MoaT had, (sorry MoaT I can't remember what kind of bird), brushed them off into the new hive. Funny bees. They don't mind being WHUMPED, but being scooped up and gently dropped they did not. About half would fly around. Some of which were not happy and looking for a fight. Some tried stinging the wing. After scooping most of those on the ground we turned our attention to those left in the old hive.

We picked up the old hive and set it on its side on top of the stump. Using the wings we brushed the remaining bees out. Stubborn bees! About half of those took to the air as well. MoaT and I did pretty well with not getting freaked out over bees climbing over us. Pretty much because we couldn't see the ones on ourselves, and felt sorry for the other who had bees on them. Ignorance is bliss!!

We then took the old hive and using the log splitter split it into four pieces. This would ensure that the bees would not migrate to their old home, hopefully making their new digs look a little more attractive.

Monday, late morning (March 16) . . . I ambled down to look at the bees. A number were flying around and a few were going in and out of the hive. RATS!! A large number were all together in section of cinderblock that the hive sits on. Most likely the queen is in that mass and did not make it into the hive when MoaT and I moved the bees yesterday.

Looks like Part III entails moving the stragglers into the hive, and more research for MoaT and Taximom, as we try to figure out how to get them to accept their new home.

Photo's courtesy of K...who loving took 432 of them. All of my butt. I edited, and I am not ashamed.

Beekeeping is not a particularly fashionable thing, but I'll take looking ugly over looking like lunch to the bees.

Taximom, however, is cute as a button in her get up...

K needs to work on her focusing abilities..oh yeah, that would mean I'd have to let her practice...never mind.

Our hive is called an 8 frame medium. We chose these because we were pretty sure Taxidad and Hubster wouldn't be caught dead near the bees. And we don't like lifting heavy boxes full of honey, so we'll lift only sorta heavy boxes of honey ourselves.

There's our girls! Amazing isn't it? Totally freaked us out to reach in there and start pulling stuff out.

To be continued.....how's that for a cliff hanger? I promise, I'm writing it up now, but I'll use Blogger's super-duper auto-poster majic to bring it to you in bite sized bits. :O)

More Than Just Out of Order

2009-04-13T21:20:00.002-05:00

Yes, this post will be out of order, but after you read it, you may suspect I'm not just out of order, I might possibly be just a little bit out of my mind.

I promise I'll write an update post on the bees and set it to auto post too...with pictures....but first...

I picked up another hobby.

Please don't die from the shock. I need all three of my readers to justify my once a month writing fits.

Also, please don't die from the cuteness.

It started with an e-mail. Hubster was perusing Cr@ig$1i$t looking for a wood lathe and a drill press. He got...shall we say...distracted? Yes, distracted, that's what we'll call it. So he started last week e-mailing this person. The person said his listing was still available, that several people had called and said they were going to come get it, but no one had followed through. Then there was another e-mail when Hubster had the day off. The listing was still available. Hubster sent it to me...several times...and finally, I told him if he was looking for me to talk him out of it, he was barking up the wrong tree. He made me call Taximom and ask for her blessing...since it may potentially end up living at her house. Taximom, being the good sport and wonderful friend that she is, agreed...even after Taxidad gave her a look that I can only imagine was nothing short of "You have got to be kidding me." But he's a Kansas farm boy so we'll forgive him...he knows that of which he speaks. I've already talked her into the bees...and now this.

Finally, Friday afternoon I got a text while I was at the store picking up my free cake mix. (Thank you Duncan Hines. My hiney told me to tell you that.) Hubster said the listing was still there. I told him to call the guy back that we'd be there in an hour and a half.

When I got there, I was smitten, and I think you can imagine why:

She is a Jersey. And if you know anything about cows, Jersey's are sort of hard to come by. We've wanted one for years, but the current dairy market is severely depressed and this little girl was sent up the river instead of being fed to grow up and take her momma's place in the milking stanchion.

Now, for those who know me in real life, you might ask yourself how in the world we got her home, since we have to borrow Taxidad's truck all the time since we no longer own one of our own. I'll have you know that I rode home from the sale barn in grandpa's truck with a calf between my legs on more than one occasion. So I figured I'd pass the torch on to my own offspring. Yep, we loaded her in the back of my minivan:

Yes, that is poop on her hiney. If you don't know how bad calf poopies smell, let me assure you that they stink to high heaven. So we loaded her in the van, opened all the windows and drove an hour and a half to get her home. Brought back memories of my senior year, when I loaded my 4-H weiner pigs into the back of my 1972 Ford Pinto and took them home to the ranch. Good times.

She was a doll the whole way home and entertained the children with burping and farting games...B only beat her one round. She is also very smart...she pooped out the window at one point. Anyhow, we got her home and much to my surprise and delight, there was very little aftermath in my sweet little minivan and the good news is, we will not be having a cremation later this week.

Pretty sure my crappy neighbors will complain pretty soon, given that we are keeping her in the backyard with the chickens and all...but it's totally worth it:

If you haven't ever experienced the sheer joy and contentment of a bottle-fed calf chowing down her breakfast...well, you just haven't lived.

Dancing with Bees

2009-03-11T10:20:00.005-05:00

I've been buried with school, both mine and the kids'. But I decided I needed a new hobby anyway. The following is courtesy of Taximom, pictures at some point, but I'm not going to wait to get that done before giving you the scoop:

Most of you know that Taxidad collected logs off the new stake property
back in January. Unbeknownst to him one of the cut logs had a
beehive in it. The very bottom of it had been cut open, exposing
the hive. I mentioned it to Momofalltrades, knowing she was interested in her
own hive.

After looking it over and discovering that it was an active hive, Momofalltrades
went into action. She researched on the internet and public library
to gain insight on how to capture these bees and move them into a
beekeeping hive. (Sorry, Clean Queen, but Momofalltrades will be on my handcart team.)

Late yesterday afternoon we FINALLY had an opportunity to try and
move those bees. WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!!! After donning some makeshift
clothing and netting we went to work. I am certain neighbors driving
by thought the aliens had landed. I know one car drove by a couple
of times - I'm certain it was because they needed to make another run
to Wal-Mart.

Momofalltrades began pulling out honeycomb while I attempted to do some
filming. After pulling out as much as she could, I began cutting out
what remaining combs that we could reach. We were able to locate and
move the brood combs - they have the developing babies. The hive was
much larger than we thought (it's huge!) and FILLED WITH HUNDREDS OF
BEES!

The next step was to attach the combs to frames, which are then
placed into their new hive. The bees really did not pay much
attention to us as they clung to the combs as well as the walls of
the old hive. After securing the combs and placing into the new hive
we proceeded to scoop bees out of the old hive. It was so cool to
reach your hand into the hive and scoop what bees you could out, and
then brush them into the new hive. This was going to take a while,
and it was getting dark, so we switched gears.

We then flipped (gently) the old hive upside down and placed a
portion of the new hive on top of the opening, and then banged on the
old hive with pieces of wood. A large number of the bees attached
themselves to the bottom of the new hive in a cluster. Hopefully the
queen was in that group. If she moves into the new hive, the rest
will follow. After about 10 minutes had to stop. It was really
beginning to get dark, and that is a dangerous time to mess with them.

We ended up placing the old hive open end down and on top of the new
hive. Hopefully the remaining bees will migrate to the new hive, and
those responsible for caring for the brood will do just that, and
that the queen will like her new home. If so, then the move is
done. If not, then Momofalltrades and I will sell tickets for folks to come and
watch us for round 2 of Dancing with the Bees!

They'll Be Here All Week...

2009-02-04T21:14:00.004-06:00

Today in the car, J pipes up and says, "Mooooommy, I bvan sick!"
K replies, "It's CAR sick."
J: "I can't say aww(r)ah, so...no. It's bvan sick!"

We got a referral to an orthodontist right before Christmas for K during her regular dentist visit. Upon further investigation, the canine tooth we thought was pushing its way out behind her first molar turned out to be an incisor. Her canine teeth are growing toward one another and apparently, one of her permanent first molars has forgotten to show up to the party at all. So Miss K started her first round of orthodontia last week. We're just having Hubster's paychecks made out to Dr. Orthodontist for the next 4-6 years.

So today during lunch, B was telling me something about his drink choice and K kept having him repeat himself, finally, in frustration, he totally deadpans, "Mom, I think K needs an EARthodontist too."

Definition

2009-01-29T22:03:00.001-06:00

This was the quote of the day:

B: "Dad, I forgot, what does 'amnesia' mean?"

Impromptu Field Trip

2009-01-13T17:40:00.002-06:00

One of the best things about hs is the fun we have on Hubster's day off. He has Friday's off, so we hang. Last Friday, Hubster needed a piece of leather, so we went to the Tandy leather store and lo and behold, they had a museum in the store! My mom used to do some really beautiful leatherwork, so I was glad I brought the camera to show some of the incredible art we saw.

This immediately caught my attention:

Tell me that's not cool!

Yes, that is all leather.

It was too big to fit in my purse, or it would have come home with me...

Not a fan of the silver stitching, but LOOOOVE the birds.

I *need* the pheasant billfold for Hubster...how awesome is that thing?

If you don't think this didn't make me want to build something and cover it in giraffe printed cowhide...well, you'd be wrong.

It made for a fun afternoon.

Its Name Shall Be Monster

2008-12-30T09:00:00.000-06:00

So the dog I bought Hubster? Yeah, he's pretty much my baby. Oh, sure, I let Hubster take him to Kansas a couple times so he can fulfill his only goal in life, but aside from that, he's more than happy to stay at home with me where he can tunnel under the coop to get at my chickens, dig under the fences so he can roam the neighborhood, jump on my couches and sleep in my laundry room.

It's a life of unspeakable luxury. Any other dog caught trying to eat my chickens would be dropped off at the pound. Even using Gramma's technique of tying the poor dead chicken round the blood thirsty dog's neck only resulted in a fun afternoon of "play with the poor dead chicken tied round my blood thirsty neck". Wildly unsuccessful by any measure.

Anyhow. The stupid dog stays. What can I say? His ears are impossibly soft.

I am not an indoor dog person. We've had several dogs in our 13 year marriage, and not one of them has been allowed to sleep in my house. But as the temperature here in Texas reached a bitter cold 30-something degrees *snort*, I went out to get another log for the fire and the blood thirsty killer followed me to the wood pile so I could hear his teeth chattering. No, I'm not kidding. The blood thirsty killer's teeth were literally chattering.

So now he sleeps in the laundry room. Much to his credit, he NEVER potties inside. Ever. He will howl and bark and tear the door off the hinges to avoid pooping in the laundry room. I may have to spend a fortune remodeling the laundry room, but I will not be cleaning up blood thirsty killer poop. So there's something in his favor.

The problem I have is that he is as determined to tear crap up as he is to dig to china out in the yard. We've lost several pairs of perfectly good shoes due to his ability to hide them for a midnight snack, and it's become my morning surprise to go see what he's gotten his teeth into during the night. It's just like Christmas, only, it sucks.

He commandeered a scruffy old pillow for his sleeping comfort, and since he didn't tear it up, I let him have it.

Then one day, I decided to fold an old sheet in half, add another pillow and an old blanket, sew up the side and make him a little doggie bed. Before Christmas, I saw the nicest doggie beds at Sam's Club, but patted myself on the back for my superior thrift when I saw the price tag. Besides, I reasoned, it probably wouldn't fit in my laundry room space anyway. Then Friday night, he tore my thrifty little doggie bed open and pulled out the pillows. Traitor.

So, I reasoned, I needed to wash the cover anyway, so I'd wash everything, put it all back and sew it back together. I messed with it most of the day Saturday, but the clean bed was worth it.

Until last night. The traitor ripped my thrifty little doggie bed into bits.

So, I could go buy the really pretty doggie bed I saw at Sam's Club, but, I reasoned, it still wasn't going to fit in the space allotted. I really need to be able to walk between the freezer and the doggie bed. So I'd make him a new one...
I have yards and yards and yards of fabric that Gramma gave me for my inheritance, I'll just get some of the upholstery velvet circa 1970 and a bit of the big bolt of corduroy and make him a tougher version...a bed more fitting for a blood thirsty traitor. Now, this may surprise some of you, my three readers, but I actually built a house once, with my own two hands. I am familiar with the term, "Measure twice, cut once". I'm also famous for winging it. Working without a net. Flying without a flight plan. Sewing without a pattern.

I sure am glad I didn't buy him one of those beds at Sam's Club that would have only taken up half that space.

*That* ought to fix him for being such a blood thirsty traitor.

A Monster Post

2008-12-29T15:00:00.002-06:00

How about a whirl-wind catch up post? OK. Here we go.

A loooong while back I shot some darling photo's of J to serve as her new school year photo. Here are my favorites in random order:

And I had so much fun I dragged her sister out of bed and got this shot:

Over on the side bar in my Flikr stream are pictures from Halloween...we had Zorro, Princess Leah, and Snow White this year.

But my favorite thing from halloween was how J chose to rummage her candy haul:

Then I captured movie watching with Dad...I think they were watching Swiss Family Robinson, the giggles are because I scared the tar out of a little girl who was seriously engrossed in the show. (Note: We make it our policy to lock up all her clothes so she can never find them.)

I don't think I ever got around to posting pictures of the grand baby...yeah, she's only 6 months old now.

Aren't itty bitty baby feet just the best?

Back in November we had about three days of the most incredible colors, I got some very fun shots of the kids in the pile of leaves they made on the front lawn.

This wasn't my favorite of B, but it's grown on me:

I can't even begin to tell you how ticked off I was at the botched depth of field on this one. *sigh* I converted it to b/w and have it framed on my desk. I still love it. I just wish the focus on B's face were...well, there at all really...

Here are Thing One and Thing Two...of the baby shower fame:

That was a tough session. The only place in their house with any light was this tiny bathroom...but we managed to get some fun shots.

Then in early December, K had a *very* bad accident. She removed a bowl of Ramen Noodles from the microwave and lost control of the bowl.

I immediately began to use Hubster's cold laser on it and she was given a blessing. Today, two and a half weeks later, her leg looks like the tan peeled off, but no major scarring. It never even really got horrible looking after the blisters peeled off. Unfortunately, I didn't laser her toes as intensly as I did her leg. She will have scars on her toes, she still has open wounds across her toes, but they are healing. Here's a picture of the laser in use on the second day:

The very next day, my nephew graduated from Chiropractic College. He asked Hubster to hand him his diploma...it was very sweet...and I got to see my SIL...one of my very favorite people ever. Look at his cute little wife...aren't they just beyond sweet?

And I'll finish this monster post with a slew of Christmas photo's and a sentence that begins with a conjunction...just cause school's out and I'm feelin' lazy.

New Christmas aprons and comforter (on arm of couch):

Look close and you may be able to identify what we ate on Christmas Eve by the shmutz on B's shirt:

Shhhhhh.......

2008-12-01T10:40:00.002-06:00

Remember this:

My Fist Day?

Well, Saturday will be:

My Last Day

Sort of.

Community College is so yesterday....well...it's so Saturday...but you know what I mean.

So I guess they'll be giving me a little scrap of paper and sending me on my way. In January, I'll be joining Texas A&M university as a transfer student in their BSBA program.

But for now, I have to finish up this week with testing and other such nonsense and just because I am a glutton for punishment, I'll be throwing a Christmas party for 150 guests. Good thing they put me in charge so I can delgate rather than actually do any of the real work...phew!

Cat in The Hat Baby Shower

2008-11-06T09:13:00.000-06:00

There's a girl I know who's having twins. So when it came time to throw a baby shower for her, I kind of got a little crazy and we threw a Cat in The Hat themed party!

I started by downloading some Dr. Suess font and coming up with the invitations:

There are two things inside Tina's tummy,
so we're planning some food and some games that are funny.
Come bring yourselves, we know just what to do!
Come help us welcome Thing 1 and Thing 2!

and inside:

We've picked out a time:
and a date:
and a place:
...now all we need is to see your sweet face!

Though asking is usually a futility, we'd really appreciate an R.S.V.P.

I love that last part! I crack myself up sometimes!

Then I drew up a Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2 and scanned them in, printed them out so they looked like a book.

Now for the decorations. I was so lucky to have a partner in crime. A very peppy partner in crime. Hi Peppy Partner in Crime...you now have your very own spiffy bloggy name type thing.

Anywho. She got into the spirit of things...big time! I told her my idea to have huge kites and string kite string all over the hall and goldfish in bowls for the centerpieces and random word strips from the book on the tablecloths and the red box and as much stuff as we could dream up from the book. I think I said it pretty much like that too, I was so excited. Well, she not only took that gigantic run-on sentence in stride and pretty much just did everything I imagined, but then she came up with a ton of cute and creative stuff on her own! We had goofy Suess tables and pictures and lamps and flower pots and punch! Yes, we had Pink Yink Ink Drink and True Blue Who Goo...and they were really pink and blue!!! And yes, our friend is having a boy AND a girl! How cute is that!?! And of course, there was cake. Don't be fooled by the photos. The idea was to make it look just like the one in the book, so it's made to look like a two story. But I'm here to tell you, that sucker is SIX layers of white with raspberry filling and buttercream frosting, topped off with marshmallow fondant. Notice the clever painting of the window, complete with Mom's foot, rain, sidewalk, goofy Suess trees...it was SO fun!

So here's the tour:

One of the kites, with string:

We only invited fun people. Definately upped the level of silliness:

We hung the painted sheets over the windows, so we could have a wet, wet, wet day:

More fun people and silliness...we were making babies!

No goldfish were harmed in the making of this baby shower...really. I promise.

We just had so much fun putting this together! Now I'm lying awake at night imagining all the other fun book themed parties I could throw!

What HAVE I Been Doing?

2008-11-05T20:56:00.002-06:00

Lots. Plenty. That's for sure.

OK, I've been sitting here watching Grey's Anatomy and picking my toes. You caught me.

Actually I've been trying to keep my head above water...what with all the educational persuits around here. I've actually worked myself hard enough to earn a few days off, so I'll be posting some catch up action over the next few days..I think. So check in a few times and you might have something new to look at!

For now, here's a pic of my new do:

When I discovered that my ultra cool angular bob had been renamed the "Even-smaller-than-small-town-town mom's haircut" I drew the line and got something different. I don't love it as much, but it's better than being grouped in with the angular bob haircut groupies.

Picture Day 2008

2008-10-02T12:37:00.004-05:00

This morning was just cool enough that I decided it was a good time to get rolling with school pictures for this year. B needs a haircut, so his turn will be soon. I also want to do some location shots with all of them this weekend. Pretty sure I need to get some external storage ASAP! LOL

I'm also working on a baby show for a friend, I'll post all the details since I can hardly stand the cuteness. Cat in the Hat is the theme, and I've been busy, busy, busy. My family didn't know I can draw. Kind of funny that hubster has been married to me for almost 13 years and and I can still pull a surprise or two out of the hat!

So here are some of my favorites from this morning.

From New Uploads

Pretty sure this is my favorite:

From New Uploads

J Turns Fowah!

2008-09-17T20:49:00.004-05:00

So here is a little girl who has been waiting to turn "Fowah" for days and days. She is now big, according to her. So to celebrate her "bigness", she got a bike for her big day.

She's a tough read sometimes. She said it was just what she always wanted, but wasn't really very keen to get on it and ride.

If there is anything that will make your heart go pitter-patter like a big strong manly man helping a little bitty girl ride her bike, I'm not sure what it is.

But by tonight she was showing off for her friends. She fell off two or three times going too fast around corners. Tha's my girl!

I had to include this one. This is Queen of the Sunbeams. Never, ever has there been a sweeter, more dedicated Sunbeam teacher. This sweet lady sent postcards every week to her class members, scheduled playdates with them, and is just one of those teachers you pray your kids get. Here she is at J's party, which isn't really all that much of a stretch, until you consider that not only do we no longer go to church at the same time as she, but she no longer even serves as a Sunbeam teacher, she's in the presidency! Yet, here she is, hanging out with J, helping her turn "Fowah". How cool is she? I told you she is the Queen.

I made cake. Please don't fall over from the shock. My Grandma G and Nanna used to collect Jasperware Wedgewood China. Since I've already made one teapot cake, I wanted to try and change things up a bit, so I looked to the Jasperware for a little inspiration. It has a bit of a lean. Probably because of the twitch I've developed in my left eye as a result of all the "Fowah-ness".

I Should Post

2008-09-08T18:39:00.002-05:00

So I shall.

Today was the official start of home school. It wasn't bad, it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. It was also a rare day off for Hubster in which he had his eyes open and was coherent instead of catching up on much needed sleep. He was taking some on-line courses and after running back and forth between K's spelling, B's History and fixing the 'puter for Hubster, I think Hub got a good reminder of why I am catatonic by the end of a day. It's always good to let the Hub have a glimpse into my day to day life, it's usually good for a little forgiveness for the six foot tall laundry pile at any rate.

Sometimes it is hard to tell how much time I actually spend with my kids. I know that sounds strange for a home schooling mom to say, but I do. A typical day begins with breakfast, chores and then we move on to lessons. I shuffle between all three for about four hours, then fix a snack aka lunch, then I turn them loose to "self-study" which at this age, consists of reading library selections, drawing or other creative projects or play, and house keeping projects...depending on the day. It is during this time that I try and run errands, prepare dinner, tidy up and handle things that need done during business hours. After 4, the kids are free to relax, watch TV, play with friends and so forth, Hubster goes to work, and I sit down to try and study..or something. Four hours out of all that just doesn't seem like much. I guess we do try and read some during the late afternoon...but still. It is a strange thing to never be without them, and yet, some days, I feel as though I've hardly seen them.

I think my Managerial Accounting class is calling my name. I was pleased to be able to get this class on-line instead of Tue-Thurs as I had planned. Now I only go on campus on Sat mornings to suffer through PE. They don't call it that anymore, but my poor, sore legs and butt will tell you that no matter what they are calling it these days, it is still PE. But my poor, sore legs and butt will also tell you that they are still in considerably better shape than many of my classmates. The poor guy who asked to be my lifting partner disappeared after I leg pressed 140# 8 times. There was one poor girl who couldn't even finish the 8 reps with just the apparatus and no weight. I'll tell you that it is a sad, sad state of affairs when a 33 year old with a heart problem performs in the top third of a class of 20 somethings. No wonder we are all dying of diabetes and heart disease. If my poor, sore legs and butt will ever let me walk again, I think I may just have to commit myself to a somewhat less sedentary lifestyle. Maybe. As long as I can still eat cake.

My Next Project

2008-08-28T23:00:00.000-05:00

Honey Bees! No, I haven't lost my mind. I've been studying a lot and I attended a class. I have to wait until spring, but I'm so excited!

Here's the Bee lady

Isn't this the coolest thing ever?!

See? My friend Home School Supa Momma doesn't look scared at all!

There were several people who came to observe and only two bee suits. By the time it was my turn in the suit, the bees were unhappy, so I didn't mess with them, but my pictures are taken with a 50 mm fixed lens...so no zooming in on things. I walked right up to where the action was, with no suit and was completely ignored by the little stingers. I'm gonna be good at this, I just know it!

Baptism, Complete With Cake

2008-08-27T22:42:00.002-05:00

So here are the promised pictures of the momentous occasion.

My girls...D, J, K, and C (my daughter in law)

Hubster and the girl

Yes, I have been making cake all summer, so shut up.

With E. Yes, he's got a mohawk. He's always been a bit on the crazy side.

Squeaky clean with new scriptures and....cake, of course.

One with Taximom. I heart her.

Here's the cake before assembly...the springy-thingy's on the finished thing were totally awesome, but I just can't get over how good this thing turned out. I felt bad about the cake for S's birthday...I struggled with that one so much I changed recipe's and I'll never look back. I've been promised a second chance at a cake for her next year.

It's hard to tell but the colors are painted on with this wonderful sparkley dust, they were so soft and pretty.

I'm noticing that it's getting harder and harder to get pictures of ALL the kids together. Thanks to my friend for running my camera and doing a great job!

Music Randomness

2008-08-18T13:58:00.004-05:00

K turned 8 yesterday, and she also go to be baptized. Seriously, I've never seen so many people at a baptism. I didn't count but if there was fewer than 75 people I'd fall over from the shock, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it was closer to a hundred. I was overwhelmed with the love so many people showed my magnificent girly and our family.

I made cake.

I always make cake.

But now I'm tired. Maybe I'll get the pictures off my camera later tonight and then post them. It's raining right now, so I'd really rather be taking a nap. Here is some music for your listening enjoyment:

Brandi Carlisle

You'll recognize that from the GMC commercial that's been playing during the Olympics. I love it.

Also check out:

Priscilla Ahn

I make it a policy to get all my new favorite music from Grey's Anatomy and random commercials. Don't believe me?

Ben's Brother From a Dentyne Commercial..maybe..it was gum anyway. Gum sold buy a frog and an animated princess.

My current obsession with The Weepies sparked by my interest in their Jc Penny's commercial during the holidays.

The World Spins Madly On

Nobody Knows Me at All

Feist compliments of I-pod Commercials.

And Yael Naim .... from the Mac notebook commercial.

Perhaps the most interesting album I've found from my lame way of finding new favorites is the collaberation by Allison Krauss and Robert Plant called Raising Sand. The song that initially caught my attention? Killing the Blues ...another JCPenny commercial.

Now I'm just going to waste the afternoon refereeing fights between the restless inmates and surfing You Tube. Maybe I'll get ambitious and watch some more Olympic diving. Then again, maybe not. I promise I'll post pics of the lovely afore mentioned event soon.

PS: Try IZ too. I swear I heard that in 50 First Dates too...

What The Camera Saw

2008-08-06T23:47:00.002-05:00

Funky psychadelic fondant covered birthday cake a-la-alice-in-wonderland.

Hey, wait...this is not my child! No, I did not inherit any more children, I've been looking after a couple rug rats that belong to my sweet friend and giver of the rice seasoning, and she needs a blog name...and I suck...because I can't think under this much pressure. It'll come to me...give it time.

Anyhow, she was nice enough to let me borrow her kids this summer so mine wouldn't drive me up the wall.

And she has a pool that's less than 2 minutes from my house...lets just say that the arrangement has worked out "swimmingly" for us this summer...

Uh, anyway, sweet S turned 6, I was beside myself, so I made cake.

And took pictures. Because I can. My camera looks big and muy importante now, so people respect the camera.

Too bad I'm too lazy to photoshop out the red eye. That is a dang cute bunch of kids right there.

Fun too!

Her brother D made her this crown. I took an improperly focused picture. Sigh. I know how to fix that, and I practiced, but I lost my focus (so to speak) under the pressure. Someday I will learn to check ALL the settings. Sigh.

I love photoshop. I'm pretty proud of my handi work on this shot, but I won't detail the whole thing right here on the WORLD WIDE WEB. No one needs to know you just had a facial, an eybrow wax and lost some weight! Hey...what are friends for? I got your back *insert witty blog name here* I haven't posted an unedited picture of myself since I discovered LIQUIFY and the Self healing blemish remover. Better than lipo and a make up artist baby.

But her husband....he shall not be so lucky. The photoshop magic I run on this attractive photo will be to turn it into their annual Christmas card:

I'll teach him to fool around in front of *MY* camera. Bwaaa, haaa, haaa, haaa, haaa.

Good thing he has an incredible sense of humor...I'm afraid he knows where I live.

There was more than a little foolishness goin' down that night. Good thing we're all Mormons and didn't have any liquor around. THAT could have been UGLY...

Aren't these kids just darling?

Happy Birthday S! Not sure what we're gonna do when you guys go back to school this fall.

The Photog Begins...

2008-07-16T21:46:00.002-05:00

My newest child arrived yesterday. I'm so excited! These are some straight out of camera shots we took last night in between rain showers just before the sun went down.

I used to do a fair amount of film photography, but I'm not so much with the notebooks and the running back and forth to the lab to develop film. I'm all about the instant gratification of digital. And since my new child is the culmination of several birthdays, Christmases and Mother's Day with no presents...I'm about dang ready for some instant gratification.

Notice the sharp,clear picture of the "Gahteraid" mustache she's sporting? Classy.

I love me some bokeh.

My how tall you are getting.

And since I'm celebrating the end of shutter delay in my photography life, some action shots:

Focus is off, but this shot more than makes up for it:

I've missed far to much booty shaking in my pre-DSLR days.

But the best thing of all is finally being able to capture the subtle expressions that I've been missing all these years.

Garden Winding Down

2008-07-15T20:42:00.000-05:00

The hot hot hot Texas sun is doing it's thing on my garden and so we are just about done with fresh from the garden produce.

Gosh I love macro shots...

There will be more where that came from soon. My new to me camera should be arriving any day now. Thanks Brandi! Couldn't have gotten it done without your kindness and generosity. I can't wait to finally have the tool to get all the awesome shots that I see allllll the time but slip past my poor Cannon point and shoot. Shutter delay kills shots of fast moving children like nobody's business. Within the next few days, the blog will probably become just another photog blog! LOL Oh well, that will make the grandparents happy. And me. It will make me very happy. I'm always needing more outlets for my creativity.

More Fluff Balls

2008-07-14T20:34:00.000-05:00

The two hens I got from Freecycle like to set on eggs...a lot. So here's the newest batch of fluff balls. There are actually three, but one is already hiding under momma....like this one is trying to do...

Here's number three...look close...

These chicks are actually from my other hens...the surrogate momma is sorta scrawny and I'm not really wanting to pass along her gene pool, so these will hopefully be Aracauna crosses. I'm now finding myself in need of a new chicken pen...and my next big project will be raising some broilers.

Father's Day

2008-07-13T20:20:00.002-05:00

A bit late, but I should chronicle the addition of the latest family member here. Hubster has always wanted a German Shorthair Pointer. They are a sporting dog and not the most common thing to try and find. When you do find them, they cost a bit and then flying them to where you might be able to pick them up costs even more. I got lucky and found a man who had his dogs flown to him and then decided he'd like to have a litter...thus making it so he wouldn't have to have a new dog flown to him when his got too old for hunting. He ended up with 9, so he posted them on a little corner of the internet and with my supa Google skillz I found them and was pleased to see that he not only didn't want a million dollars for them but that he lived close enough that I could drive there and back in a day. So under the cover of a Boy Scout field trip, I loaded up the girls and went to pick him up. Hubster was not overly surprised that wanted to get him a dog for Father's Day, but was surprised that we actually GOT him a dog for Father's Day! He decided to call him "Q". Do you see it?

He could just as well have gone with "8", but then the Bond nod would be lost...

I don't generally care much about his hunting dogs, but I really, really love this one.

Look at those eyes. Now if he just won't eat any more chickens, I'll love him a whole lot more.

Bath Hoodie

2008-06-26T13:13:00.002-05:00

My Church has a wonderful program that promotes friendships and care for the needs of sisters called Visiting Teaching. Basically, every woman is assigned a partner with whom she visits four or five sisters each month. In turn, each woman also has two sisters who visit her each month...clear as mud? When B was born, my visiting teacher also happened to be my pediatrician. This sweet woman just loves children and had difficulty carrying pregnancies to term. She and her husband would have liked to have had a very large family, but they were so thankful to have finally gotten the two darling children they finally were able to have. So, on top of being a doctor and mom, she was my visiting teacher. Shortly after B was born, she made me one of these hooded bath towels. It always touched my heart that this woman, who could likely afford anything she wanted to give as a gift, chose to give us the one thing she was short on: Her time. I still have that gift and have used it with all three babies, it's in very rough shape now, but I'll never part with it.

Last night, at the ripe old age of 33, I became a grandmother. The situation is not the happiest, but we have hopes that it will improve. The mother is very young and has a string of psychological challenges. Long story short, it has been best for us to stay in the background as we support our son as he tries to cope with the situation.

At any rate, sad and worried as I am for the situation, I wanted to show our new grand-daughter that we do love her more than she may ever know, and wouldn't you know it, I thought of that gift given by a thoughtful and loving visiting teacher over 9 years ago. So I sat down this morning and made this:

The only thing I ever disliked about the one that was given to me was that the hood quickly became too small...I blame the kids for that. ;O) So I made this one adjustable. The buttons keep it small for now and when she's bigger, they can simply undo them and the hood will be larger.

I think it turned out really cute. I'm so hoping M will be able to bring her for a visit so I can take some newborn shots here in the next couple weeks.

And by the way, if you are over the age of fifteen hours old, you may not call me Grandma.

Bounty

2008-06-19T00:16:00.002-05:00

Here's tonight's harvest:

And there are a few more things waiting for us down there:

But the chickens are unhappy with the heat and are going on strike.

The Tail End

2008-06-03T10:00:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, Hubster and I decided that Commencement exercises were created by people who have two or fewer kids. It's fun to see her so excited to move onto the next phase of her life. She was 5 when Hubster and I got married, and her graduation marks the end...the end of something I can't quite put my finger on. We're the child support-ed, not the child support-er, so, it isn't that. The nest is obviously not empty, so it's not that. Maybe it is that the negotiations with the ex-spouse are officially over. That part hasn't been too tough for a while now, but even so, I guess it's just the idea that they are all adults now and make their own choices and be cognizant of everything that needs to go into and results from, those choices. I no longer feel the weight of being responsible for them pressing down on me.

Don't get me wrong, I've always felt that we were a family, I've always done for my step-kids as though they were my own, but I always did feel a deep responsibility to their mother. That sense of responsibility has really made a separation in the past couple of years. Teenagers are tough. I can't pretend I didn't wish on more than one occasion that their mother would have had to deal with them instead of me. Being the Disneyland parent sounded pretty good sometimes. But overall, I'm just glad to be moving into a new relationship with my now grown step kids. Instead of feeling compelled to teach, I am looking forward to sitting back and letting them come to me for advice. Instead of feeling the need to set guidelines and enforce rules, I am looking forward to letting natural consequences take over and leave me as the sympathetic ear.

I know it's not really the end of anything to me, but it still feels like a new beginning.

Horse Poop

2008-05-26T22:45:00.003-05:00

I grew up loving horses and having horses, I've always wanted kids, but never, in my wildest dreams, did I ever imagine waking up with horse poop in my bed:

Lucky for me it only looks realistic and the manufacturer didn't feel the need to make it smell realistic.

I Have A New Hobby

2008-05-23T18:19:00.002-05:00

My friend the Super Amazing Mary-Kay Lady introduced me to the world of coupons. I needed something more to do, what with me idling away all those hours picking my toes. So now, I spend some serious time clipping and snipping and reading ad previews trying to score some free toothpaste or make some change on deoderant. "Buying" free stuff and making money to shop just makes my girlish heart go pitter-patter.

We almost had a tragedy of the poultry kind today in the chicken pen. Four off the little fluff balls got trapped under the feed pan which then got half buried in dirt. Poor little guys were sweaty but OK when I discovered their plight and freed them from their eminent tomb.

I'm really struggling with finding my summer time groove. So many things I need and want to be doing, so little energy and motivation to actually do them! I putter in the garden...which is ROCKING this year! And I've managed to keep the grass mowed, but even though Hubster's ex will be in town in a week, and E will be here on Tuesday, I can't seem to motivate myself to get the house in order. Taxi Mom made me a deal of the organizational sort...trading off time at each other's houses to calm the clutter. Taxi Mom is the product of a military background...she married a military man...I would not hesitate to lick ice cream off her floor on any given day...I suspect she's being her usual wonderful self and just sees my plight and has vowed to help me out without making me feel bad. I won't tell her I know what she's up to if you don't...K?

My hometown got hit by a tornado yesterday! I told E I guess I'm glad I moved to Texas! We've only had to hide out once during our time here, and that was this spring when a huge hail storm went through. The tornado was headed right for us, but as they are wont to do, it dissipated before it hit town. Gramma said the sky was black, not the eerie green it gets when a tornado forms down here. I sure feel bad for the folks in Windsor who got hit. Dense population and intense storms are never a good combination.

I'll try and update with pictures of the garden and some non-sense of the kid variety soon. We've got plenty of that going on around here!

So I Lied...

2008-05-19T17:19:00.000-05:00

I have no idea why I procrastinate so. Finals went fine, and I've been picking my toes for two weeks now. Nothing goin' on round here. Well, unless you count this stuff:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Or this stuff:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

(Nothing like an AIRPLANE HANGAR in your HOUSE!)

Or this stuff:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

And just yesterday, this happened:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Yup. A whole lotta nothin' going on around here!

I Promise...

2008-04-30T16:16:00.000-05:00

I'll check back in after finals. I have two of them tomorrow and the other two are early next week. I finally managed to get ONE B on a calculus test! Go me! Now if I can just avoid failing the final, I'll get out of there with my precious, hard earned C.

Ruining Our Bad Reputation

2008-04-21T00:44:00.000-05:00

In the car as we pull into Church:

Mom of All Trades: "Wow! We are TEN minutes early!"
B: "Ohhhh cr@p."
D: "Yeah, we've got a reputation to uphold, don't we B?"

Singing Our Own Song

2008-04-08T11:57:00.000-05:00

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

It totally cracks me up that it sounds like she says "Evewy where we tease him!" I tried to capture some "Aaahhhhhssss cweam" goodness for everyone, but she enunciated today. That is one word that doesn't sound at all good in Texan...

The best one is "Jack and Jiwl wen' up-a-hiwl, fetch-a-pay-o-wader, Jack faw' down, bwoke him cw-own and Jiwl came barrowing af'er. Now him up a-fas'-as-him can go-o, wen' to bed and busted him head wif bin-awound-a-papah." But I could only get "Pock-a-Posey-Posey" uploaded before I ran out of bandwidth, so you'll have to wait on Jack and Jill until next month. Here's her version of Ring Around the Rosey, (with K in the background some):

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Happy Campers

2008-04-07T23:48:00.000-05:00

Now, how long do you think THIS lasted?

It was harder for Mom than it was for (most) of the kids.

How DO I Do It?

2008-04-01T22:13:00.000-05:00

I was asked that twice today. Well, actually, they asked how DO you do it...referring to me. I don't usually give it much thought, because frankly, a lot of days I just feel like a slug. I know I'm busy and all, but some days I just don't feel busy. And other days I want to pull the covers back over my head to avoid the busy. So here's how I juggle full time school for me and homeschooling two and a half kids: I've made friends with imperfection.

See, as a kid, I always had this feeling I could be perfect. I could do everything that was expected of me, some nice stuff for others and keep myself out of trouble. No matter what I did, I expected that I would be the best at it. Not being the best at absolutely everything was simply crushing to me. Yep. I put the fun in dysfunctional. Then I got married and unleashed my perfection on raising a family. And of course, being the second wife, I had to prove I really was the best wife. Too bad no one ever told me that life is a marathon and not a sprint. Over the years, I have found myself sprinted to exhaustion on more than one occasion. Lucky for me, I'm not dumb and I do have a lazy side, so I have learned to ease up some. Some. Mostly in the area of laundry and cleaning. Anyone who sees my house on a regular basis would never guess at the perfectionism that lies beneath this calm exterior. I have learned to step over the laundry piles and let the dishes sit in the sink out of sheer need. See, I figure that educating myself and my children, well, that's probably more important than folded laundry, and being calm and loving towards my kids is probably more important than my need for a clean living room with no PILES of stuff.

I'm not that fru fru high energy mom who hovers over her kids and fills their days with stimulating activity. I'm not that mom who does "school at home". I'm not that mom who volunteers for everything. I do what I do because of some simple time structure during my days, a little planning at night and a whole lot of breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. I try and handle certain tasks only on certain days and I don't beat myself up if I don't get around to them. I try and keep to a loose schedule to keep our studies on track, but I don't beat myself up (much) if we don't get as far as I'd like. I try to read my scriptures before I fall asleep at night. I try and do my studying the night before I have class and a few hours on the weekends. I try and have the kids help keep the living room from looking horrible and I try to keep the kitchen from utter chaos. I let the rest of it go. I get to it when I can. My neighbors hate me because I have the worst yard on the block. Oh well. I serve in my church calling and I try and find things to show my kids how to serve others. I guess if it bothered them that much they'd offer to cut my grass.

There are lots and lots and lots of things that I can do better. Being forced to embrace my own imperfections is a daily reminder of why I need to depend on my Savior. It's comforting to finally know that my imperfections are built in and it is not within my ability to perfect them through any amount of will power.

RE: The Heatherless Chickens

2008-03-30T18:48:00.000-05:00

They are pretty ugly, aren't they? They are called Turken's, but I think the official breed name is Hungarian Naked Necks. They are all little boys, included at no charge to keep a small order of little girls warm. I guess having "heatherless" necks makes them easy to tell apart from the girls. I'm thinking it also means a clear "target" once they reach 8-10 pounds.

The Little Red Hen

2008-03-23T16:18:00.001-05:00

I spend all day very busy, feeding the children, cleaning the house and washing the clothes. (Well, OK, maybe not so much with the cleaning and laundry but I feed the children at least ONE square meal every day.) When I ask for help cooking, "Not I" say the little ~~pigs~~ kids. When I ask for help with the cleaning, "Not I" say the little ~~pigs~~ kids. When I ask for help with the laundry, "Not I" say the little ~~pigs~~ kids. So when I said, "Who wants to help me go pick up my latest Freecycle find?", all the little pigs except one said "Not I", and frankly, the one who "WOULD WIKE TO GO HEWP" hasn't been the greatest traveling partner lately. The worst part is, the kid will not ease up off my back. She tells me that my precious Freecycle finds are "UGwy 'cause 'dem don't hab HEATHERS on dem necks!" I dunno. I guess she kinda has a point.

It Has to Be Said...

2008-03-22T16:04:00.000-05:00

Taxi Dad, I think your tractor's $exy. Especially when it's parked at my house. It told me it likes living here and saving me from copious amounts of physical labor. I give it the attention it needs and the challenge it craves. I'm sorry, I know it hurts being Dear John'ed by your John Deere.

And really, who would want to dig this:

with this:

when you can dig it with the help of a big, strong, tractor?

Little Known Nursery Songs

2008-03-19T19:26:00.000-05:00

We've been known to sing a rousing rendition of "All Around the Merry Go Bush" in this house, but when the "AB Song" goes haywire, you might want to pay attention. I had to drop D off at the airport today, so I ditched two children and J came with me and D for a little traffic filled adventure. On the way back, J's Cheeto's made a repeat appearance. It wasn't pretty. Good news though, she was just car sick, not sick-sick. And apparently, she was also inspired by the great orange globs of goo, for I heard the following being cheerfully sung from the back seat: "Now I know my ABC's, I can't hold my puke on me!"

Ahhhh, Spring Break

2008-03-15T00:21:00.001-05:00

And I'm working on a new project. You can see it here. I have always had a testimony of food storage. My testimony of food storage was formed long before I had the added benefit of hearing revelation from a modern day prophet. My testimony of food storage began each year as we drove our cattle to summer pasture so that our hayfields could grow to their full capacity; as I watched the grasses grow taller and taller, as I restricted my travels across our ranch so as not to trample the growing crop, and as I labored in the fields with my family, and other families in the valley, so that we could harvest the hay and make it available to our cattle all winter long. My testimony of food storage began as I pushed heaping shopping carts behind my mother and grandmother during our "stocking up" trips that took place 100 miles from our ranch; as I helped butcher the steer that was to become the little white packages that filled our freezer each year, and as I listened to my dad groan about the bill that came every September when they came to fill our 1000 gallon propane tank. I say I began with these things, because in the early 1980's, our valley was hit with monumental snowfall. That was the year that cemented my testimony of food storage.

That year the snow began early and piled up fast. Soon, we were not able to take hay to the cattle with our tractors. My grandfather went out and removed the hood off an old car, turned the smooth side down, and lashed the makeshift sled to the back of our ancient snowmobile. We couldn't carry many bales at one time this way, so feeding time took up the better part of each day. I thought we had it pretty tough, and then I went to spend the night at my friend Heather's house.

Each day we watched Heather and her brothers ride up to the bus stop with their mom on a sled behind a snowmobile. It looked like a grand adventure to start each day with a ride behind a snowmobile! So after school one day, I got to bundle into the sled with the other children and we started the trek to their home. They only lived about 2 miles from the highway, but their ranch did not have the benefit of the valley's protection. The windswept plain offered no protection from the driving snow, and the snow drifted all the way to the roofs of the barns and houses. Walk ways had been cleared but making your way from the house to the barn required snowshoes if wind blew in the trampled paths. The herd at Heather's house was much larger than ours, and to my delight, four large, black draft horses were employed to drag a huge sled out to the field to feed the cattle each morning; until I found out how that huge sled had to be loaded: one pitchfork (!!!) full at a time.

The ranch house was warm and snug, and it was at Heather's house that I tasted my first bite of homemade wheat bread. It tasted strange and not at all good to my white bread palette. Not even the homemade jam helped it go down. Good thing there was stew that night, because the next morning, there were buckwheat pancakes, and for lunch, wheat biscuits with gravy. By the time it was time to load my overnight bag onto the snowmobile sled and meet my mother at the highway, I was cold, hungry and tireder than I'd ever been before in my young life. I didn't know it then, but I learned a valuable lesson about food storage that day. Store what you eat. It wasn't until years later I first heard the expression to "Store what you eat, eat what you store." And I have to admit that my idea of food storage is much evolved from what I learned as a young girl snowed into a ranch on Wyoming. Even though I've left the ranch, I'm more passionate than ever about food storage. I'd love to get to the point that I don't visit the grocery store on a weekly basis, not only because I don't NEED to but because I won't WANT to. For me growing up, self-reliance was a way of life and I'd like my kids to experience that.

Summing It Up

2008-03-01T16:54:00.000-06:00

I found an interesting concept today over at Smith Magazine. They claim that legend tells of Hemingway being asked to write a story in six words. His response was "For Sale, baby shoes, never worn." So they've asked people to sum up their lives in six words. I planned on thinking on this over the week, but it came to me much faster than I ever anticipated. My submission? "I failed to plan and lived". And I'm not having second thoughts about it either. It totally fits. So what about you? Sum up YOUR life in six words and leave me some comment love.

See What I'm Up Against Here?

2008-02-27T20:39:00.000-06:00

This was around noon. I had to help her clean it off so Hubster could use his table.

And here it is around 6 this evening.

Such a busy little girl!

*sigh*

The Girl Moves Mountains

2008-02-24T18:47:00.000-06:00

Mountains and mountains of stuff that is.

She moved all these books onto this table in just a short time of quiet play. (And then promptly fell asleep on the floor, as you can see.)

Friday the tent was piled high all around her, taller than the purple rubbermaid chest at the right of the photo. This is after I cleaned it all up and she played yesterday.

And this table spent the better part of the last two weeks piled high with pillows, toys, books and other necessities of 3 year old fun. The mountain was so high it was well over the ends of the legs.

And I won't even go into the negotiations involved with leaving the house. She tried to take no less than 3 huge bags full of stuff to Taxi Mom's house last night. I actually had to carry a bucket to church this morning to contain the treasures and avoid a melt down.

This obsession with surrounding herself with all of her possessions (and as much of her sibling's stuff as she can snipe off with) tickles me and frustrates me all at once. It is so fun to watch her quietly playing. It is amazing that one little girl can be so industrious and move so.much.stuff. And it's too bad I can't harness this evil gift in reverse. All attempts at getting her to move the stuff BACK meets with much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Cookies For the Class

2008-02-13T19:39:00.001-06:00

One year, shortly after I was first married, OK, like within two months of being married, before I got all tired and crabby and no fun, the older kids and I made Valentine's Day cookies for their whole class...so like, 60 cookies, thereabout.

This year, I decided to make Valentine's Day cookies with the little kids. So like, 60 cookies or so.

Good thing they didn't have far to go to make it to the school. *cough*

Sweetheart Cake

2008-02-09T20:27:00.001-06:00

Sweetheart Cake , originally uploaded by yibbityibbit.

Is it sad that I practiced making my own birthday cake tonight? I have a good reason, this is my first adventure into rolled frosting. I've been watching Ace of Cakes too much. I've been lusting after that silky smooth finish. Yearning for those clean lines and sharp angles. There's only one problem: Fondant tastes NASTY. Well, OK, maybe there is two problems, butter cream tastes WONDERFUL. Particularly MY butter cream. My butter cream is more of an event...really. My headstone will probably read: Here Lies Mom of All Trades. She couldn't keep house worth squat but her butter cream was divine.

I could tell you my secret, but then I'd have to kill you.

Anyway. Not wishing to give up my butter cream tastiness, I used my now famous super Google skillz and came up with a lovely little thing called Rolled Buttercream. It is still lacking the creamy perfection of butter cream, but I was able to get pretty close to my signature flavor.

So I made myself a lemon cake covered with play-doh that tastes like buttercream. It is kinda pretty, all those clean lines and satiny smoothness. And I only swore once when I rolled it all out, smoothed it and polished it and my three year old punched her little fists into it, declaring it perfect and ruining all that satiny smoothness. Well, OK, I swore again when I rolled it all back out smoothed and polished it and tried to lift it onto the cake. They have you roll it on a board for a reason. It will not tolerate folding or lifting. It breaks in half. Once I followed the directions and rolled it out, smoothed and polished it for the third time, I found that it wasn't too tricky to smooth down the sides of the cake. Kinda fun. I used the recipe on Allrecipes. With my flavor modifications.

Have You Seen This?

2008-02-08T17:33:00.000-06:00

Glenn Beck on President Hinkley My SIL sent me this link and I think even those who don't like Glenn Beck will benefit from taking time to view this clip. A heartfelt tribute to a man who truly did set a wonderful example to people of all faiths; and humility from a man who makes his living arguing for what he believes is right. A great example of how humility is not a sign of weakness.

Making Home a Heaven on Earth

2008-02-06T09:41:00.000-06:00

If Heaven has laundry piles and dirty dishes, I'm in great shape. I finally cleaned my bedroom last night, and thanks to Chris' Year Off Blog I've been being a bit more motivated to do some purging. So I tackled my closet. THREE black trash bags FULL later, I have space to hang my clothes! You can walk in there! Best of all, I would actually wear the things that are in there! There was some seriously tragic 90's fashion going on in there. Best part of all is that Hubster was working last night, so ONE of those bags...let's just say it's not like the others! LOL There is some seriously tragic 80's fashion in that one. But don't tell him, m'kay? He's formed some pretty intense attachments to his old, torn up, ratty clothes. And I didn't even scratch the surface on his side of the closet. I'm gonna have to make it go away g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y. One day he will wake up and go to the closet to find his shorts that are torn up the side from the hem to the belt and I will feign ignorance. It's better if we don't speak of this again.

By Request...

2008-02-05T13:16:00.000-06:00

Here you go JD:

I had to put in bigger stakes yesterday! LOL

The Freak Show

2008-02-05T11:57:00.000-06:00

Being a second wife / step mother means being on display. Think about that for a second. Cookie had a post a long time back from the first wife perspective as she reflected on her widower friends. Divorce is a little like that. Imagine sitting in the stirrups,

Not those stirrups...

These stirrups.

Being part of a divorce equation is something like that. Someone else, someone for whom you don't have much natural affection for and who feels little to no affection for you, gets to look at your most private parts. And the lighting is usually less than flattering.

Now that I've seared that visual into your eyeballs, let me make you a promise. I will speak truth. But I will also display Hubster's ex as little as possible. I will do what I can to adjust the lighting to her advantage. This is my freak show. Being that my blog is my journal, chances are good that our mutual children will one day have access to it. So if you guys are reading this, make sure you understand that this is about ME. There are at least two sides to every story. This is how my role as a second wife and step mother have affected ME. There's plenty to gossip about, but I won't. Suffice to say, if you are part of a divorce equation, you might feel really smug when you hear stories about the other person's faults and shortcomings, but you can guarantee that if you are being told about those faults and shortcomings, you are also being told ON.

The smartest thing you can do is support your ex spouse in front of your children. Not only should you not reward your children for telling on the other parent, you should refuse to hear them gossip. Obviously, there are situations where danger should be reported to the other parent, but be honest with yourself, is it just that you disagree with it, or will it really cause the child lasting harm?

As a custodial step parent, I'd have to say the absolute most frustrating problem we have is the kids running to mom when they are mad at us or don't like the advice we've given or want to escape a responsibility we feel they need. Playing hero on a white horse can be doing your kids a real dis-service. You may win yourself some popularity points, but if you were really a good parent, you'd do what you could to support the other parent instead of positioning yourself as their "friend".

This is a major bit of advice I give to anyone considering a divorce, and it's a bit of a newsflash: Custody may not go the way you plan. You may have to get used to the idea that your spouse, not you, is going to be the primary guardian and you will have to be OK with what they decide. Even if you get custody at the beginning, the kids may choose to change that. And if you think primary custody is the equivalent of winning, think again. The primary custodian gets all the work of parenting, the non-custodial gets to be the FUN parent. It can be all too easy to be the fun parent when you don't have to make them into responsible adults. If you are thinking about getting divorced and you have kids, think about it some more...like until the kids are grown. If you can't even work out a compromise to get you through till then....you'll never survive being divorced.

And So It Begins...

2008-02-04T16:30:00.000-06:00

The sharing that is. The thing that convinced me is the tired, sick feeling I get after I've spent another long day in e-mail discussion with Hubster's ex wife. When I look around me and feel the isolation I've brought on myself as I try to find just the right words, knowing full well it will not make a difference. The guilt I feel when I acknowledge the fact that she has stolen another 4 hours of my life with my family...and I let her. The frustration I feel at knowing that some parts of this...thing...will never be fixed.

If you've never done what I do, you aren't going to understand. Let's make that very clear. The path of step mother / second wife is one that belongs to those who walk it. You might think you can imagine, but you just.can't. My dearest friends share this bond with me. I have been blessed with many friends, but my closest friends are the ones who walk the path, they couldn't be my closest friends if they did not. That in itself eats at me, that I am so profoundly changed by this that I haven't been able to feel that "best friend" connection to anyone who hasn't been twisted up the same way I have been.

It's hard to know where to begin, but I'll try starting near the beginning. Not quite the very beginning, but so near that it gives the beginning, middle and end definition, meaning and purpose. My mom would call it "knowing in my heart", since I've found the gospel, I call it a testimony. No matter what you call it, it gets me through the bad days. You see, I am really very lucky. From time to time, when I'm completely focused on discovering truth, the Lord whispers in my ear. On these occasions, He doesn't fill my heart, He doesn't give me a burning feeling. He whispers.to.me. Inside my head. With words. He used to do it when I was a kid too, before I found the Church. Hearing the gospel was like being reminded of that which I already knew. But there was no mistaking what I was told...what with the words and all. I was to join the Church and I was to marry Hubster. One of my closest friends once told me she never thought her marriage would be her refiners fire.I'll bet her mother knew. Mine did. But I'm glad I didn't. I might not have had the courage to do what I've done otherwise. And what is it I have done? I've married the perfect man for me, despite all odds. But more importantly, I've done what the Lord wanted me to do. And there is absolutely no doubt He has blessed me for it. In my more generous moods and times, I am also thankful for my refinement. But mostly, I cling desperately to the testimony I have that my marriage is endorsed by God. It helps me press forward in hope of making it through that round of the fire.

Neighborhood Smack Down '08

2008-02-03T18:43:00.000-06:00

I know you love hearing about my hood. A lot. All them pesky durn neighbors, and me, right there, in the center of their universe.

So today I come home and notice a piece of paper on the windshield of The Turd . Thinking that the kids were playing some kind of game I figured I'd get it off the windshield before the wind blew it to Louisiana. I opened it, and it said:

"Thanksgiving was over two months ago, lose the flag! Sincerely, The Yard Fairies"

I'd tell you what I said, but this is a family blog.

Oh wait. My kids will probably make sure everyone knows that mommy said a naughty word (or two, but who's counting?) by sundown, so I'll at least tell you that I wrote on that note in big letters with a permanent red marker. Something about kissing certain parts of my anatomy and staying off my property, and then I taped it to the windshield. And then I felt so mature. As you can tell, I'm the calm, cool, collected one in my family.

After a while I cooled off a little bit and since it is Sunday and I'm all tanked up from church, I decided to set a little better example for my fellow man.

So I broke the Sabbath and bought a great big poster-board.

Then I employed the cheerleader sign making skillz of D, and let me tell you, it was worth every penny of that $5,437.63 we've spent on cheerleading in the last four years.

There is now a great big sign in my yard that reads:

"Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. ~Love, The Family of All Trades"

It's as much a reminder for me as it is for them.

And by the way, the flag in question is one of those decorative flags. It happens to say "Welcome", it also happens to have sunflowers and pumpkins on it, it "feels like" summer-late fall. But because I don't "feel like" Texas has winter, and because it's not quite spring, and because my neighbors are jacking with me, I'm keeping it up. Until it disintegrates into dust. I swear Dad, Shoe polish is next. Amen.

I've Decided to Share

2008-02-02T00:18:00.000-06:00

Inspired by other delightfully funny and talented bloggy girls, I began this blog and tried my hand at coming up with witty ways to share my thoughts with no one in particular. I've always enjoyed an audience. I find them equally thrilling and terrifying.

Eventually, I shared my blog with my family and I'm sad to say that is when I stopped really sharing. I try and blame it on being busy with school and kids, but that's just a pack of excuses. There is a very, very big part of my life I've been hesitant to share. I've contemplated starting a second blog with more anonymity. One that couldn't be tied to me with proof positive pictures if someone I know in real life came upon it. But in my indecision, I've stopped being real and the flow of words has slowed to a trickle. I've made my decision, at least for now. I'm going to get on with being myself. This is my forum. I try to live my life so that I'm not embarrassed if someone takes a peek, but I realize that I can't control the way I feel about things, I can only control what I do with those feelings. I am one who has to share things that make me who I am. I have to share more times than my husband can handle hearing them. Some days, I have to share more than my friends can stand hearing. If my glaring imperfections blind you, by all means, look away. If my imperfections make you think you are better than me, fine. I can live with that. Maybe someone can learn from my mistakes. Maybe I will learn I've made more mistakes than I thought. Maybe I'll find validation. Who knows. All I can say for sure is that I have decided to share. Here. Where the world can see me.

TO BE CONTINUED...

The Funniest Thing I Said Today....

2008-01-31T22:25:00.000-06:00

Every once in a while I find words coming out of my mouth that I never thought I'd say. Today, it was, "Look, I just really need you to go pick up your stuff and STOP ASKING ME QUESTIONS ABOUT ELVIS ALREADY!"

The boy. He worries me.

The School Room

2008-01-21T14:16:00.001-06:00

I finally got around to re-organizing the school room. We had a fun new addition from Taxi Mom under the tree this year and I finally got it re-located to it's rightful spot. Isn't it beautiful? I have the best friends ever. Seriously.

She has all her babies in there and her chair and her grocery cart. LOL Everything she needs for hours of fun.

Stealing Shoes

2008-01-19T17:01:00.001-06:00

I went out to buy a bra today and as every girl can attest, I needed a little pick me up after THAT whole drama. So I found these:

K needed some brown church shoes, and these were $3.24. Things were definitely looking up.

Then, I found these...for $3.24!!! And since J has been clumping up and down in clogs in every shoe department we go past for two months, and leaving in tears each time when I tell her we are NOT buying them, I splurged. And I felt even better.

Then I reasoned that a girl needs some boots, it is winter after all. So I broke tha bank and bought these:

It was a real splurge. $4.37. The guilt was killing me. So I bought these:

For $3.24....and all is right in the world. *sigh*

And just as an FYI, Penney's is having their 70% off clearance sale too. I got two shirts for J...$1.24 each, one for K at $2.37, and an $80 winter coat for B that wound up costing $12.38 with tax. It would have been the deal of the day if not for the cherry covered rain boots.

Things That Need Re-thought

2008-01-14T10:35:00.000-06:00

OK, so I know you couldn't even see it if you wanted to, and I tried to blow it up in Photoshop, but it didn't work. But it makes me laugh every time I see it, so I share it with you here. This is a church building. The name of the church?

"Overcoming Faith"

If I'm lyin' I'm dyin'.

The Ol' Gray Mare..

2008-01-10T17:53:00.000-06:00

She is beyond ain't what she used to be.

When I was a kid, I walked everywhere. All over the ranch where I grew up, all over my hometown, to my dad's work, to the bus (which didn't stop anywhere close to my school...but that's another story), to the store, to my friends house, I walked everywhere. Probably had a lot to do with the amazing physique I sported during my high-school years.

So today, in anticipation of needing to take K to gymnastics, I went out to start "the turd".

And just so you don't think I'm being a pansy, I'll give you some long awaited photos, yes, I know you must be quivering with anticipation:

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And just so you understand that her ugliness is more than skin deep...

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And yes, these are actual miles. But we have no idea how many times that thing has gone around to these actual miles...

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There's not even anything to drown out my misery.

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Remember these images when you consider purchasing vehicles for your teenage sons, my friends. Remember. *end of PSA*

SO.

In all my wisdom and maturity, I decided to see if the turd was actually going to start, and lucky for me, I thought of it before we needed to leave for gym class. Now, don't die of shock on me here, but it wouldn't.start.

*GASP*

I know. I share your disbelief.

SO. I called my neighbors, and my friends, and I briefly considered posting a wanted ad on Freecycle. And then, I had an epiphany: "We could walk."

Albertson's is a mile from my house, I know, because I clocked it once to see how far I'd have to walk if there were ever a disaster and I couldn't drive to the store. Because I'm irrational like that.

Anyhow.

I reasoned that the gym couldn't be more than a mile farther than that, and no, I've never clocked that because I have the attention span of a flea and also because I wouldn't walk to the gym if there were a disaster and I couldn't drive there. Why I would decide to walk there with three children when there is no disaster, I can't really tell you, but I decided to do it.

I thought somewhere I remembered that it should take about 15 minutes to walk a mile, so if we were going to walk two miles, thirty minutes should be the minimum it would take to arrive. So I figured I'd leave an hour ahead of when we needed to be there and we could take our time if we needed.

Now the news that we were WALKING to the gym was met with uneasy anticipation from the other members of my walking party. When I discovered that my totally cool umbrella stroller on steroids was in the back of D's car, at the high school, which is NOT on the way, I almost called the whole thing off, but then the kids found the old umbrella stroller my totally cool umbrella stroller on steroids replaced. After nearly an hour and a half of "when are we going to leave" fun, I finally pulled out all the rest of my hair and just decided to leave. It was 20 minutes earlier than I'd planned on leaving, but I figured if we had time to kill, we could always walk to the college and pick up my text books, because if we were walking 2 miles, what was another 1/2 mile or so...right?

So we set off on our adventure. Let me first say, I hate Texas. More specifically, I hate that Texas has no sidewalks. None. Anywhere. Even along crazy busy highway type streets that people might want to walk next to since they are the shortest distance from most of the point A's in town to most of the Point B's in town. So we used the back streets and walked mostly in the gutters. Occasionally pausing to stare down drivers who drive to darn fast down subdivision streets.

At first, the kids were ahead of me and behind of me, and to the sides of me, and back and forth of me. But it didn't take long for them to figure out that the shortest path between two points is a straight line. They're smart ones, I'm tellin' ya. So we got to the end of our street and B started telling me that his legs were tired. Thinking to myself that we needed to be a little more physically fit, I may have actually muttered something about walking to the gym every week.

We walked and walked and walked and walked and walked. If you were to drive across Texas, you would pretty much think that Texas is flat, I should know, I used to think Texas was flat. But no. There are three big hills between here and the gym. And I'm pretty sure the gym is in a higher elevation than my house because there was not as much down as there was up. When we had gone nearly a mile, I found myself praying that there was a sidewalk over the bridge, surely there MUST be a sidewalk over the overpass, right? There sure is, and I'm here to tell you that it is all of 2 feet wide. I made the kids walk in front of me and hold onto the rail as cars went whizzing by. I did not notice that there are also very large cracks in that 2 foot wide sidewalk, that is, until I dumped J out of the stroller after the pitifully small front wheels of the crappy umbrella stroller disappeared in one of them. Another not so great thing about a 2 foot wide sidewalk with cracks in it and lots of cars whizzing by is that walking behind a 7 and 8 year old is by definition, frustrating. Did you know that a 7 and 8 year old are unable to regulate their walking speed? No? Well, let me tell you that they are completely incapable of walking one speed. One minute they are walking along, so fast that you want to reach out and nab them back because, you know, if a kidnapper has some kind of apparatus for nabbing children from a speeding car, I have to be there to protect them, and the next minute, they are stopped. Spitting off the overpass. And when you are walking with your head down panting and thinking positive thoughts that you will make it to the other side, you run into them, and they are not happy, and neither is the baby in the stroller who nearly falls out some more because of a crappy little thing called physics.

After we made it to the other side, I figured we were about half-way and so far so good, right? And I also reasoned that walking back streets instead of the main road would be better because we've always tried to teach the children not to play in traffic. Let me tell you that the back streets in Texas are not straight, oh no they are not. And they all run uphill. So after winding our way up, up, up through the back streets of Small Town, we finally reached a peaceful little neighborhood with a gentle downhill slope to get back to the busy road that runs in front of the gym. Hallelujah, there was ONE block of side walk right near the gym and we walked in JUST in time for K to start her class, thank goodness they were late starting. Total walking time: 1 hour and 25 minutes. Hubsters estimate of the actual distance between our house and the gym: 3 miles. Number of gloves lost between here and the gym: 1. Number of times I heard "My legs are tired": 437. Number of times I cursed the Small Town Texas zoning and planning committee: 623. Number of times I cursed The Turd: 623. Number of times I wistfully thought about my treasured "new camera fund" being added to my "pay the rent fund" and my "buy groceries fund" and my "keep the electricity on fund" and spending them all on some form of reliable transportation: 627.

If I can drag myself out of bed at all tomorrow, I'll do a special post to let you know what it probably feels like if you were to run your legs through a meat grinder and toss them into traffic before you piece them back together with scotch tape and put them back on. Or if you decide to walk your kids to gymnastics. Whatever.

And in case you are wondering how we got home, no, we did not walk. D gets out of school in time and gave us a ride, and honestly, she could have gotten out of school at seven pm and I'd have still waited for her to give us a ride. Thank goodness class starts next week and I won't get out early enough to walk to the gym ever, ever again.

Amen.

Senior Picture Day

2008-01-07T22:05:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T12:25:00.000-06:00

For anyone brave enough Click Here

Yes. It's me. I have talented and generous friends. LOL

What's Been Taken Apart At My House

2007-12-21T22:17:00.001-06:00

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Any guesses as to what it is?

It is Hubster's Grandmother's K5A Kitchenaid Mixer! They don't build them like that anymore. M was spinning some frozen butter in there a number of years back and stripped out that little reddish looking gear in the photo. It's called a worm gear and with my supa Google skillz I found out how to tear it apart and order the parts to replace it! Kitchenaid will not service these old machines since they don't have the newer safety regulation stuff on them. It has all metal gearing, and the new machines don't unless you drop some serious change on the professional series, so it is worth hanging on to! After the parts get here, I may just tear apart the other one that I've been using and see what it's made out of! LOL I'll re-pack the gears in it for sure, and maybe between the two of them, I can put off my quest for finding a 10 or 20 quart mixer. Hubster had visions of school lunch ladies running through his head when I mentioned purchasing a mixer that would have to live in our garage. He's such a good sport.

What's Been Put Together At My House

2007-12-21T22:16:00.001-06:00

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This is the cake I made for the Ward Christmas Party. So fun! The bottom is chocolate with raspberry filling, the middle is my famous Lemon Chiffon with lemon filling and the top is Hubs favorite, banana with allspice cream cheese filling. And it's all topped off with my absolutely divine butter cream frosting. MMMMMMM. If you look close, you'll see that the candies are covered with coarse sugar and there is a light skift of sugar "snow" on the cake as well. So pretty and such a nice change from flowers and fruit! We had about 190 guests and had plenty to go around!

My Brothers Are In Space

2007-12-09T22:24:00.001-06:00

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The AB Song

2007-12-09T22:22:00.001-06:00

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Tell Me About It

2007-11-07T09:20:00.000-06:00

While preparing dinner last night, K was helping and chatting with me. She said, "Mom, you know how sometimes things fall down even when you didn't touch them or anything?" "Well, I know why," she said. And in a somewhat hushed, conspiritorial tone, she told me, "It's because the world is spinning."

I was taken aback by this little reminder.

Despite my best efforts, there seem to be a whole lot of things in my life that fall down.

I'm glad to be able to remember today that these things do not happen entirely due to my own faults and weaknesses, some of them happen just because the world is spinning.

Too Soon?

2007-11-03T21:49:00.000-05:00

B, like most 8-something kids, is doing his best to convince me that "ain't" is, in fact, a word and its use is seriously too cool. I am very well aware of the fact that Webster's does now include "ain't" as a word, and "Ain't ain't a word so don't use it" doesn't really have a whole lotta credibility anymore. But, as his teacher, not to mention the person most likely to depend on his ability to someday sound intelligent enough to obtain gainful employment, I am doing my best to convince him that "ain't" belongs on the list of words that we just don't use in this family. The debate has raged for several weeks. So tonight he says, "Hey mom! Listen!" *singing* (cause he sings a.lot., like enough to worry his father) "Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me, I AIN'T the sharpest tool in the she-ed....See, it IS a WORD!"

Wonder if it's too soon to teach him about satire and derision. LOL

Since It's Been a Month and All

2007-11-03T13:55:00.001-05:00

Better post.
And since my mood is not funny-post conducive, was tagged back in September(!!!!!) by the lovely Miss Brandi so I'll play along in the interest of posting something of some kind of substance.

4 Jobs I've had:

*A Bookkeeper
*A Shoe Sales Clerk
*A Telemarketer
*A Ford Salesperson

4 Places I've lived

*Wyoming
*Texas
*That's all I got!

4 Favorite TV shows (currently on TV)

* Grey's Anatomy
* Desperate Housewives
* America's Top Model (re-runs)
* Flip This House

4 Places I've been on a Vacation

* Disney World
* San Francisco
* Arizona
* South Dakota

4 Movies I could watch over and over

* Harry Potter Movies
* A Knight's Tale
* Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
* National Treasure (Did you see there's going to be a new one soon?!)

4 Favorite Dishes

* Amish Chicken
* Funeral Potatoes
* Fish Tacos
* Pho or really just anything Thai.

4 Websites I visit

* The College (duh)
* Shade
* E bay
* Finetune

4 places I'd like to be

* in a completely organized and clean house
* on a plane to somewhere...anywhere
* On a boat to somewhere...anywhere
* On a bus to...well, I guess I'm not *that* desperate...

4 People I'm tagging

All four of my lovely readers. LOL

Let me know when you've posted your info, I read stuff, I've just been too lazy to post lately. LOL

What She Does When She Waits

2007-10-04T15:24:00.001-05:00

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Waiting for B and K during their home school gymnastics classes. Two hours every Thursday of sit and wait fun. Oh. Boy. LOL

Save the Pork Roast!

2007-09-15T23:07:00.001-05:00

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If you haven't watched The Wonder Pets, well, you just haven't lived. And you will also be unable to understand approximately 3/4 of what J is talking about these days.

So I was cutting the net off my pork roast this afternoon, and J was up on the counter watching. Pretty soon she says, "Mommy! What dat?"
"It's dinner.", I replied.
"No, what dat on it? What you cutt-inguh"
"It's some stretchy net they use to hold it together."
*GASP* *imagine the voice raising by an interval of approximately 4 octaves*
"Ohhhh, it stuck? Mommy, you hewlp it? You hewlp dat baby.....what dat ting?
"The roast?"
"Duh woast? You hewlp dat baby woast and sabe duh day?"

"Ummmmm, yeah, something like that......."

Where I Once Again Profess My Love of the Internet

2007-08-29T23:26:00.000-05:00

I love e-bay. My dad sent me this link and I nearly died laughing. Mostly cause I totally feel like that, in fact, if I had not been so worn out and were more creative, I would have totally blogged something like that while I was visiting my folks a couple weeks back. I guess C-town Wyoming isn't ready for the likes of us. I got more looks from people in that one Albertson's trip than I get in a whole week down here. (Well, unless we go on campus, which we did today and that is another post in its self)

And the "you've got your hands full" comment. Is that not the single dumbest comment EVAR? Is that code for "Holy crap woman, control your off spring"? Or is it more like "You poor thing, don't you know what causes that?"? The last time it was all sweet and fuzzy feeling was when K was just a babe and some nice old man said it as we both observed B as he busily waved and said "Hi!" to everyone we passed.

And I just got another Freecycle find! Some nice lady is giving away a whole bunch of sewing thread and notions. Since my grandmother gave me my inheritance in fabric during my visit, this will come in quite handy. Here is my response to her:
"Oh yeahy! I have a class tomorrow at the college from 9:30 to 10:45, I park in the south lot (across from JC Penny strip mall) and I could meet you there either before or after class? I'll be driving the biggest old hoopty ford bronco you've ever seen in your whole life. LOL It's brown and white and has no back window...you CAN'T miss it (unfortunately). If that doesn't work for you, let me know!"

How's that for a description? I really need to post a picture of this charming turd sometime. It is my turn to drive the turd. Now that D is back, Hubster and I are back down to one car and the turd between us. Why not hi-jack D's car you ask? Well, quite frankly, I'm somewhat lazy and I'm pretty much traumatized by all the dropping off and picking up I did over the years and seeing as how after school activities are notorious for saying they will be ending at one time and then not ACTUALLY ending until another time, (usually far, far later than the original time) and waiting with J in a car is enough to make Mother Teresa slit her wrists....well, I'll drive the turd.

Speak Texan Yank

2007-08-24T17:28:00.000-05:00

Just TRY to purchase a MACROeconomics book from a Texan. Go ahead. I dare you.

(Ya'll will be directed to take yer buggy back to Ramon but hurry cause he's fixin' to go to lunch over yonder and even after all that they will hand you a MICROeconomics book..several times...until you spell it.)

Last week they pulled all the Government books off the shelf. When I called to inquire as to why they would change books the week before class starts, I was told that the instructor had pulled the books because they weren't the Texas edition. I'm thinking my interaction today explains a lot. It would make sense to have the books in a language the students can understand. I won't be giving mine back. The Yankee version suits me fine.

Surfs Up, Dude?

2007-08-20T15:06:00.000-05:00

After a summer of slacking and a quick trip to see the folks...oh who am I kidding? I am a sucky housekeeper. If you are silly enough to eat off my floors, you deserve whatever disease you get. Oh, I'm real good at at baseboards, those are always clean. Ceiling fans too. And my own personal bathroom is usually in pretty good shape. But all bets are off when it comes to everything else. Flylady rocks. But I've been off the Flylady wagon lately. So I decided that the kids could help me clean the kitchen floor. And we weren't Swiffering this time, no, we were going to give it a good old fashion scrub down. K informed me that she loves scrubbing floors because she pretends she is Cinderella. Having already earned my wicked step-mother stripes, I knew exactly what to do. I got them started with a bucket of soapy water and some rags then ran in to buy a textbook I need for class. The last time I checked they were down to their skivvies sliding around on about an inch of water that is completely covering my kitchen tile. It's like an indoor Slip-an-Slide in there. And you know what? I really don't care. The floor will probably be very clean after that much water and soap. Wanna come eat off my floor tonight?

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Reasons to Smile

2007-08-03T11:58:00.001-05:00

The heavens opened up and Mamasita descended in the form of an angel...a well connected angel. Her cousin works for a plant that rebuilds air conditioners!!! Let there be AIR!!! Whoot! Given that the last few days have been beyond muggy and HOT, the children and I are overjoyed!

And here is today's funny things kids say, courtesy of little almost gonna be three J.

J: I wanna wotch Wion King, eese?
Me: OK, go turn on the TV and let it warm up and I'll put it on for you
J (a few minutes later): I wotch penguin show better mom
Me: Why do you want to watch that nasty thing?
J: Oh, my wife bettor I wotch dis.
Me: Your life will be better if you watch the Penguin show?
J (sighing): Yeah.

Someone really should *do* something about those public broadcasting service folks. KERA is turning my kid into a drama queen.

I Hate Life With No Internet

2007-07-28T18:20:00.000-05:00

Note to self: Don't forget to pay the cable bill. They shut it off right quick and in a hurry but it takes them 2 WEEKS (!!!!!) to turn it back on.

What happened during all this non-internet no-mans-land you ask?

Well, I stayed up half the night and watched Harry Potter the night it came out.

I read all four "Thousand Year" books by Skousen.

I read Harry Potter 7.

I canned two more trees worth of peaches.

I taught my neighbor how to can.

B broke his arm jumping out of a swing. (Not badly, just a taurus fracture)

Ethyl moved to Idaho. I may never recover.

What did not happen during this two weeks of non-interneted-ness?

My house did not get clean.

My kids did not read more. Apparently two or so hours a day is their limit no matter how bored they are.

My yard did not get all spiffy looking.

I did not die. It was touch and go there for a while, but I think I'm going to pull through.

Another Fun Filled Trip to the Library

2007-07-09T14:55:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I blogged a library trip. Here's how today went down:

Step 1, find library books. Gripe at kids until they find that last, stray book that was hiding in plain sight.

Step 2, climb in car that could be used to sear meat.

Step 3, realize I haven't filled out the book club forms correctly, roll down windows and tell kids to start coloring.

Step 4, speed down side roads to keep the breeze coming in. Air movement=good. Stop signs=bad.

Step 5, arrive at library and take kids and forms to information desk to redeem their reading progress for prizes.

Step 6, enforce strict limit of five books because the children, they just want to take one of everything home.

Step 7, shout/whisper at children to maintain the calm, quiet demeanor expected of library patrons.

Step 8, repeat step 7 ad nauseum.

Step 9, hide pool passes earned from reading books because mommy, she has issues with the public pool.

Step 10, witness B recognize his friends and excitedly rush to greet them.

Step 11, witness slightly older boy watch B do this and proceed to make fun of him.

Step 12, stare down older boy and shoot daggers out of my eyes while being grateful that my child, while loud and somewhat overly exuberant, is still innocent enough that he shows excitement over seeing his friends, (and that he didn't notice the older boy mocking him).

Step 13, head for check out desk. Notice new librarian lady and nearly die of shock when I notice the actual SMILE on her face.

Step 14, strike up conversation with nice new librarian lady and engage in small talk.

Step 15, watch smile on new librarian lady's fade as she announces $16 and .75 in fines.

Step 16, explain that I had called to renew books, and brought them back a day early even!

Step 17, watch new librarian lady be replaced by stern librarian lady to sort out renewal mess.

Step 18, repeat step 7 some more since step 13 is taking so long.

Step 19, repeat step 16 for next, even more stern, librarian lady.

Step 20, repeat step 7 some more

Step 21, receive stern lecture from stern library lady that I might check and make sure that I call on or before the due date to renew.

Step 22, explain that while my children and I may look like chaos, I do in fact, keep track of my library due dates and even have a special place for my receipt here, in my purse....see? Right here?

Step 23, exchange blank stare with stern librarian lady.

Step 24, wave to new librarian lady on way to door.

Step 25, Watch dream of having chatty conversation with new librarian lady go up in smoke.

Step 26, Pile bored kids into hot, sweaty car.

Step 27, Bribe them with free hamburgers earned from reading.

Step 28, wonder WHY they call it "fast" food, when in fact it is neither fast, nor food.

Step 29, Listen to kids whine and moan and complain about the unbearable heat and the "wind up my hair" all.the.way.home.

Step 30, listen to kids fight over who carries books in from the car.

Step 31, listen to K scream at her brother because she dropped her hamburger.

Step 32, collapse into heap from the heat stroke and stress and secretly wish the library delivered.

Growing Up Too Fast

2007-07-06T16:05:00.000-05:00

K decided she wanted her hair cut short. So she went from this:

To this:

And now I want to paste it all back on because she looks so big.

*sniff*

You Looking For ME?

2007-06-29T22:31:00.000-05:00

I don't suppose it's any secret that I get a kick out of seeing the searches people run and find my site...most of the time. I did find one that disturbed me very much and I have made changes to my wording so that particular phrase won't "find me" anymore.

But in the spirit of answering those who seek, here are some of the phrases and my response to them:

"how to know if transmission in my van is busted": If it won't go forward or jerks violently before going forward and sounds like an egg beater is loose under your floorboards, pony up the bucks cause you're toast.

"Step-kids driving me crazy": They all do it at some point so join the crowd sister. I'm toying with the idea of a blog dedicated to my step-parenting adventures. Surely someone should profit from my ~~trial by fire~~ considerable experience. I'm still sorting out what stuff is kid stuff and what stuff is step-kid stuff, but I think I'm going to live through the experience so maybe someone will be interested in my advice.

"Older stepchildren driving a wedge": Take their balls away, or tell your husband to grow some. Someone has to decide who's in charge and as much as you don't want to hear it, you aren't in the best position to gain control over the situation. 75% of second marriages fail. If you want it to last, you'd better hope you married someone with the intestinal fortitude to overcome "divorce guilt" and be willing to stand his ground with the children.

"guilt thinking about leaving husband": If you've got a kid, you'd better feel guilty. If he's not beating on you, then you have an obligation to make it work. If he isn't willing to work on being a decent person, guess what? Leaving him isn't going to make him be a decent person and you'll have NO control over what he does with your kids during his visits. Don't kid yourself. He is going to get visitation. You do not get to go off and make a new life with a new husband unfettered by the baggage you've created with the old one. Weekly visitation STINKS for everyone involved and anyone who tells you staying together for the kids isn't a good reason to stay together is only telling you what you want to hear or justifying actions they themselves have taken. Responsible parents find a way to get their act together and they SACRIFICE their own wants for the needs of their children. Period. If you don't have kids and you are miserable, admit you made a mistake and get out while you can.

And Finally:

"How to acknowledge step-mother on wedding invitations and program": It's actually very simple and not at at all uncommon in this day and age. You put Bride's parents: dad and step-mom, mom and step-dad, then grooms parents: Dad and step-mom, then mom and step-dad. If someone hasn't re-married, they should be listed individually. You may end up with four couple's names on the invites in addition to the bride and groom, and you may or may not even LIKE the step-parents in question, but take my advice: your wedding is your special day, not an opportunity to grind axes on strained familial relationships. You're smart to ask...there are probably other ways to put them on there, but the important thing is that you DO acknowledge them, and not just in the fine print, unreadable with the naked eye. Weddings are ripe with opportunity to hurt people's feelings. In order to have a peaceful day, do everything you can to make sure you are sensitive to your parent's new partner(s). Mom and Dad love you, but they also love the person they've chosen to marry. Photo shoots and wedding dances and seating arrangements are other area's you should pre-plan very carefully to avoid hurt feelings. I know it can feel like you aren't able to please anyone, but if you make a concerted effort to avoid hurt feelings it will be appreciated by everyone involved. I hope that your family and step-family can be as mature and understanding about your arrangements as you are, if they aren't, take the high road, do what you can and don't worry about the rest.

And yes, these really were word for word google and yahoo searches that directed people to my site, not just another opportunity for me to gripe about my daughter-in-law and her mother ripping my heart out of my chest and smashing it on the ground.

Ahem.

I think I really am going to start that step-parenting blog. I just love giving out unsolicited advice, at least no one can slap me over the internet.

Rain Pause

2007-06-29T21:45:00.001-05:00

The rain paused yesterday just long enough for the kids to play outside for a bit. If you need a cheap thrill for summer entertainment of the small person kind, make sidewalk paint by mixing equal parts of cornstarch and water, then adding food coloring. My kids used the brushes for about 30 seconds, then they just...well...acted like my children and got stuff all over:

Looking at that blue sky you'd never guess we're about to drown down here. Maybe I'll post pictures of us pulling out the Bronco, which is stuck. to the axles. in mud. in the front yard. Whee. LOL.

We Be Jammin'

2007-06-28T18:24:00.000-05:00

Peach season is here again! Somehow, my trees never manage to produce, but I have an abundance of friends with a whole lotta fruit and not much time.

We started with plums from Taxi Mom's neighbor's tree:

This is about a third of what we started with.

Then Mamasita's peach tree ripened so I spent the last couple days processing these:

Aren't they just so pretty with their peachy-fuzziness?

Here's some of what we've put up this year. (Check out B in the background! LOL)

The family favorite is the Spiced Peach Blueberry. It's divine on a piece of homemade wheat bread. I have one more batch from Mamasita's tree that is still ripening, but I think I'll be forced to make a cobbler with that. Taxi Mom and Ethyl's tree's are just about ready and Ethyl has some grapes that should be ready soon after. We've discovered that pooling our time and resources makes canning a lot of fun. Yes, we live on the edge out here in Momville.

Redneck Fashion Sense

2007-06-26T21:28:00.000-05:00

My kids are amusing at times.

Shortly after J was born, B asked me, "Mom, since J was born in Texas, does that mean she's a redneck?"

Well, judging by the looks of us walking into Walmart this morning, I think there's a strong possibility that we are all, in fact, rednecks.

We had exactly thirty minutes to drive to Walmart, buy diapers, milk and cereal and get back home so I could get ready to go to the office. I was wearing my pink loungy-type pants, an oversize t-shirt, no makeup and no bra.
J was attached to the end of my arm, happily skipping along because her mother could not think of an argument to effectively convince her two year old self that pink princess stocking hats are not really necessary during June in Texas. Along behind her came K, limping and hobbling and whining that her knee must have hit the couch harder than she remembered the night before because now, NOW, she could not possibly be expected to walk. B followed at a great distance behind, trying to forget that he knows us I'm sure.

At any rate. It looks as though I have a hat girl. J loves hats. I am hat-impaired. I have no idea what kinds of hats go with outfits and I have no idea where to find cute little girl hats. So insistent and profound is this new love of head coverings, I figure I'd better have an alternative to the pink princess ski hat if I am ever going to have any dignity at all taking J anywhere in public in any month other than January or February. Or October since this is my only alternative to said pink princess ski hat:

So since I am hat impaired, I let the hat diva pick. This is what she insisted on:

I'm pretty sure plaids don't go with stripes, but am I wrong in thinking that nearly anything is better than pink princess ski hats in June? We didn't get nearly as many funny looks and sly snickers walking from the back of the store to the front as we did walking from the front of the store to the back.

Things I Like About Texas

2007-06-24T09:25:00.000-05:00

As a Wyoming transplant, I've really held off embracing my new home state. Bugs, heat and wall to wall people aren't really a draw to make me claim this place as home. Plus, it makes for interesting conversation to say you are from Wyoming. Texas, not as much.

So here's what I DO love about Texas:

Parker County Peaches
NO Sales tax on food
Clothing can be purchased in-expensively
Snow Cones (shaved ice...they don't do that up north...you get ice crystals with syrup...soooo not the same.)
Sunsets (the whole sky is dominated by the sun as it sinks in the west. It sets the sky on fire and is an impressive sight to behold)
Full Moon rising (Again, huge and sky dominating when it's on the horizon)
Homeschooling (most HS friendly state in the nation, I believe)
The ability to grow a garden without a greenhouse
Fall
Taqueria's
Asian Markets
Thai Food
Tex-Mex Food (Uncle Julio's, Abuelo's, Rosa's)
Gibson's (We used to have one in the town I grew up in, here it's just great to be able to go to an old-fashioned department store and know that Wal-mart hasn't killed EVERY small business on the planet. Gibson's also has a more eclectic inventory)
Cable internet availability

Here's How We Pass Time

2007-06-15T23:01:00.000-05:00

J likes to pretend. More than my other two ever did, it is her "thing". She started this up on her own. I was so glad I got the camera and she did a repeat performance. I have NO idea where she comes up with "blow your head down" but it cracks me up anyway.

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And this is our cheer leading camp dollars at work:

The "cow" is hilarious. It's near the end but sooooooo worth the wait.

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I've also uploaded "MILK" and "Down to the River" to Dropshots. You can click if your eyes (and ears) can take any more.

Eye Contact

2007-06-15T14:08:00.001-05:00

I've been trying to find the words to articulate what's been going on at my house lately. Really, it's none of the cyber-worlds business, but I write about life. My life in particular, so if I get hit by a train or abducted by aliens my kids will have something to remember me by.

You may find it shocking to believe, but we be some pretty po' folks around my house. With the letters behind the Hubster's name, you wouldn't think that would be the case, but alas, it seems to be our lot in life to ride the financial roller-coaster of life each and every month.

That said, a good deal of this is directly attributable to the fact that Hubster and I strongly believe in my being at home with the children. Every once in a while, the balance of responsibility to the kids and financial responsibilities get out of whack and I go off the deep end. It usually goes something like this:

Me: "I need to get a job."
Hub: "It's going to be OK, I think you should wait."
Me: "If I get a job now the first check will get here about the time the world spins off its axis."
Hub: "What are we going to do with the kids?"
Me: "I'll get a night job."
Hub: "Will you make enough to make up for the hassle?"
Me: "Maybe I could get a really good job and we could send them to private school."
Hub: "Would a really good job be worth what you lose?"

And we go around and around. Wondering. Now what I'm about to say could really tick a lot of people off if they choose to take it wrong. So here's the deal: My blog, my words apply to MY feelings as they pertain to MY family and MY situation.

To me, putting my kids in school would feel like committing child abuse, each and every day. I don't think my friends are child abusers for sending their kids to school, I didn't feel like sending the oldest three kids to school felt like child abuse, but there is something deep in my soul that tells me I HAVE to homeschool these particular children at this particular time. If I put my kids in school I would literally have to shut off my feelings toward my children to overcome the feelings of guilt that would consume me. I might not have to move to Antartica, but I doubt I could look them in the eyes as I tuck them in bed at night.

Every once in a while the financial pressures make me think I have no choice but to put away my heart and soul and do what needs doing to help Hubster provide for our family.

So every once in a while I dust off my resume and apply for jobs.

And every once in a while I go to an interview.

I've never gone to an interview and NOT been offered a job.

This week was no exception and the offer is generous.

But for now, I know what the answer has to be.

I will have a lifetime of looking into their eyes.

Just When You're Trying To Be All Cheery and Stuff...

2007-06-11T15:12:00.000-05:00

I've been pretty patient lately.

Really, I have.

My van has been out with a busted transmission for almost three months now. I really, really, really hate being carless, but I figured summer would provide some relief because then I could use D's car while she's up visiting her mom, we'd get enough saved to take care of the tranny and all would be fine.

The a/c went kaput in D's car today. It was fading on Saturday, we recharged it this morning, but it didn't do any good. By the time I got to my friends to pick up the kids it was barely blowing any air at all.

There is no relief in sight.

Ever heard the expression "Loosing your cool"? That would be me.

Me and Nanny McPhee

2007-06-09T23:00:00.000-05:00

Love that movie. If you haven't seen it, you should, because there just aren't enough good step-mother stories in the world. I've decided Walt Disney had some serious mom issues, I mean, seriously dude, what was the last Disney Movie you watched when the mother DIDN'T die?

Disney Movie Recipe:

1 Dead Mother
1 Wicked Step-Mother
1 Oblivious Father
1 or more merry children who have access to unlimited resources, more freedoms than most adults and have no respect for authority.

Mix with generous amounts of beautiful animation, high-falutin' Hollywood voice overs and a cheap plastic product line to be given out at McDonald's and sit back while the cash flows in.

My own journey into step motherhood began at the tender age of 20. M, E, and D were 11, 9 and 5 respectively and we had a 50/50 custody arrangement with Hubster's ex. To say she was all up in our business was the understatement of the year. However, I had youth and skill on my side so i was determined to be the BEST step mother EVAR period. And also I had an insane amount of love and energy all bottled up inside. Well, you know how when you have your first kid you plan on doing everything right? Epidural? Not me! Breastfeeding? Absolutely! Perfectly co-ordinated outfits with shoes for a newborn? How could you not?! Right?! Yeah, well, it was sorta like that, only they were older and not having control over their whole universe made exerting my perfectionism somewhat frustrating and futile at times.

So for three years I immersed myself in kid stuff. I went to every ball game, program, parent teacher conference; you name it I was there. Then their mother moved 100 miles away, took D with her and the earth tilted off it's axis. Suddenly, I was in charge of the 200 mile car pool twice every week to get kids to and from "visitation", building a house, working full time and taking the boys to wrestling tournaments every.stinking.weekend. all over the entire state of Wyoming.

And then I got pregnant with B. On purpose.

Is it any wonder I nearly lost my mind? Me thinks not. My first foray into the world of the internet was to find some kind of help with this tricky step-parenting gig. I found a discussion forum with dozens of like-minded ladies and slowly began unraveling the way I really felt about being a step-parent. Basicly, it was kicking my @$$. I'm not kidding when I tell you that moving 900 miles from his ex was the best thing that ever happened to me as a person married to my Hubster. However, it also coincided with my crash into reality.

Suddenly free from the constraints of "the other woman" breathing down my neck and the constant fear and threat of litigation I scarcely knew how to behave. Slowly, I became a real mom, and while I'm not always certain that is a good thing, I do realize it is a normal thing. Reading other posts in bloggy land, I am reassured that the chaos that has descended upon my home is not limited to these four walls, but quite normal for households of every size, kind and circumstance. Finally being able to admit that my now teenaged step children were driving me absolutely ape and sharing that admission with other parents led to feelings of validation and camaraderie instead of accusations of inferior parenting. Learning that, admitting they were driving me crazy didn't mean I loved them any less, was terribly reassuring.

I now find myself at an uneasy peace with the kids' mom. Once I began to recognize that I was probably an insufferable snot in my pursuit of perfect parenting, I began tallying up all the ways she acted like a complete horses behind and I figured we're probably about even. Trust her? Depends on what for, like, she'll never be a gal pal, but since the weekly screaming matches have come to an end, I no longer feel like I need to be on my guard every second and I've even had a handful of pleasant conversations with her. There are area's that we have just agreed to disagree on, there are things we hate to admit, and there are things we would have done different but I no longer feel the need to discredit her facade which used to drive me over the edge. I don't know if she still feels the need to discredit and complain about Hubster and I at every opportunity, but I am relieved to discover that I no longer care. The kids, for the most part, seem to have a pretty realistic bead on where everyone stands.

I can't say that step-parenting has been my favorite thing. If I could have been the only momma I'd have done that in a heartbeat, I couldn't love my step-kids more if I'd have given birth to them myself. I think the step-parenting adventure wore an excessive amount of my "shiny" off. But it has given me some insights that I wouldn't have had otherwise, and some perspectives about marriage and divorce that only those intimately acquainted with divorce situations have. I am definitely not the girl you want to talk to if you are thinking abut leaving your husband. Or maybe I am. Depends on how you look at it. The Second Wives Club has gotten me through. How lucky I am to have found two other women who raised their husband's children with the ex noisily in the background. My time in boot camp is pretty much over. D graduates next year, and this year, our anniversary will mark the milestone of having been married to Hubster longer than the ex was. The kids still come home every now and then, now that they have a choice in the matter, and I guess that's about the best that a step-mom can hope for. Well, that and having your name appear on the wedding invitation. But who ever said rewriting fairy tales was gonna be easy...right?

Where The Creeping Things Are

2007-06-07T15:36:00.001-05:00

We've had a creepy kind of day.

K found this guy out in the driveway this morning:

Then, when they took him to the backyard to make him "comfortable" until they could take him down to the creek, she found this "little" guy:

He totally reminds me of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Then we slopped through school and went swimming. I love little white bottoms on top of little brown legs. But in keeping with today's creepy theme, here's a bug eye shot instead:

Sew-a-palooza

2007-06-04T15:12:00.000-05:00

I've created a new definition of insanity:

Spending two days glued to a sewing machine, barely stopping to eat or sleep, sewing adorable outfits for kids who'd rather be nekkid anyhow:

The polk-a-dotty dress is a K size version of the ones I made for J last week.

I need to go un-bury the rest of the house now, quickly before Cub Scout camp starts...

Another Garage Sale "Bargain"

2007-06-01T09:43:00.000-05:00

Hubster has been complaining about the TV.

"I think I need to go to the eye doctor...no...wait, the TV screen is fuzzy."

"Can you read that?"

"I can hardly decide what to watch, can't see the words well enough to see what's on."

He asked for $200 for a new TV. A 42 in 750 lb beauty at Best Buy. With visions of a 42 in plasma flat screen and a van with an actual working transmission dancing in my head I politely told him to forget it.

Anyway. I subscribe to Small Town County Garage Sale. It's like Freecycle...only...not free. It's how I found that great deal on the pool last summer. (And if I could navigate blogger and find that post I'd insert a nifty little link right about now, but since I can't and I need to finish this up sometime today I won't.) Long story short, I got a great deal on an inflatable backyard pool but got a speeding ticket on the way to pick it up...negating my savings entirely.

SO I found this great 36 in color TV for just $50.

Drove to Even Smaller Town Texas to pick it up. With Hubs car. The man laughed at me when I told him that the plan was to stick it in the trunk. SO the man and his 20 something son go in and get the TV. They were barely out the door of the house when they needed to rest. I'm thinking, "Man, that thing must be heavier than I thought", but after much huffing and puffing, they get it to the car, wedge it into the front door and into the gear shifter. Great. Only problem is that I forgot my bungee cords to tie the door shut with. SO they try to extricate the TV from the car. Pretty soon, the son says "I can't get it out!" Visions of me driving down the road with a 36 in color TV hanging out my door appear before my eyes and I panic. I climbed in the car and heaved that sucker outta there and I have to say, not as heavy as I had expected from the amount of huffing and puffing going on with my moving crew. So they put it in the back seat, after tearing half the vinyl off Hubsters back door handle/armrest thingymajig. And suddenly, I'm the proud new owner of a 36 in color TV set that takes up an entire back seat of a 1995 Nissan Maxima and as I stood there holding the car seat that is a nearly permanent fixture in said back seat, I realized I was going to have to put the kids in the trunk because I was not leaving them at the trailer park with Billy Bob, his son Jethro and their 4 large dogs. The kids, being scared of the dark, vetoed the trunk idea and squished their little bodies around the TV set and we set out for our illegal-in-the-state-of-texas-and-punishable-by-up-to-two-hundred-dollars-in-fines journey home. When we saw the friendly Texas DOT public safety officer, I just screamed "DIVE, DIVE, DIVE" and the kids threw themselves under the seats.

After we left Even Smaller Town Texas and the safety of the open road stretched out before us, I discovered why the moving crew was so out of breath. From the smell that was coming from the back seat, they probably had to have smoked 37 packs of cigarettes each...daily. So we rolled down the windows, kept a sharp look out for friendly Texas DOT public safety officers and meandered our way back home.

Once we got here, I cleaned off the entertainment center, removed the fuzzy TV,( and all the fuzzy stuff underneath it...eeeewwwww.) And decided to put the TV on the yard cart to bring it inside. Hubster was supposed to be going to work out so I thought a newer, clearer TV would be a nice surprise when he got home. The TV really wasn't as heavy as the moving crew thought, so I hefted it out of the backseat and onto the cart, removing the remaining vinyl on the door interior and silently congratulating myself on marrying a husband with some...shall we say muscles (since we don't want Grandma G's content filter to prevent her from accessing the old bloggy due to adult content) and that he raised boys into fine young men with muscles and also not smoking so as to negate all those muscles. Hubster pulled up right as B and I were dragging the cart into the house and took over the project, which included a bit of demolition to the TV armoire due to a miscalculation on the size of the new 36in color TV vs. the size of the armoire. So we got the thing into position, hooked it up and turned it on. What we saw was a sight to behold.

The top half of the screen was...shall we say, a bit more than fuzzy...a WY snowstorm would more accurately describe it. And the bottom half? Clear as a bell. Beautiful picture...if you happen to be standing on your head. Yes, the bottom third of the picture was upside.down. We stared. We hit the tv on the side. We waited. We sat on the couch. I called Billy Bob's wife and asked if there was any way to adjust the picture. They didn't answer the phone. I called the cable company to see if half upside down picture was part of the new cable line-up or some freaky cable outage. I wouldn't say that they hung up on me, but they did say they could send someone out to look at in sometime around the year 2010. As we waited, the picture did finally right its self and only the bottom fourth of the screen had wavy lines that made everyone on CSI have Jay Leno chins. I lit some candles to mask the stench and we waited a few more hours. Hubster very generously told me it was better than what we had and I DID, after all save him $150 in not allowing him to purchase the brand new, even bigger, non-stinky TV set, and by the time we went to bed last night, only a small, one inch or so wavy line section remained, most of the picture was on the screen and the guide menu was no longer distorted and wavy-lined into an unreadable mess at the bottom of the screen.

I haven't turned it on yet this morning.

But I have lit 3 $25 Salt City Candles and dug out my $25 vinyl repair kit to start repairing the OTHER damages my bargain has extracted. After I dump my $50 bottle of perfume on the sucker to try and eliminate the smokey bar room smell that now permeates my house, I figure I should still be about even with the purchase of the new TV set, and I will have saved myself the cost of tax.

Obituaries

2007-05-31T17:15:00.000-05:00

OK, so I know this is sort of morbid, but every so often I read through my hometown obituaries. My Gram does her best to keep me posted on who dies, but it seems I've reached a certain age where it's not just Grams friends and aquaintences that are dying. This activity invariably alerts me to one or two deaths that both surprise me and make me wish I had known soon enough to at least send a card. I'm not a good card sender. Ask anyone on my non-existant Chirstmas card list.

Reading through people's obituaries makes me wonder what people will say about me when I'm gone. Some obits are formal, just the facts and not even all of those. (Face it: People want to know how other people die. "Died at home" doesn't really cut it for me.) Others are as warm and generous as the people who they are about. I wonder which category I'll be in? Having the control issues I do, I can't pretend I'm not tempted to write my own obituary. Then the woman in me takes over and I want compliments and someone else has to GUESS at what I want to hear. Don't lie. We all do it. I'm pretty sure it's programmed into our DNA.

So I'm pretty much OK with someone else writing my obituary, but it has made me evaluate how I'm doing on life. We each leave our mark on the world as we pass through life, but it is up to us what that mark looks like and how long the impression lasts. More than anything, I want my children and family to know I love them and I'll try harder to spend each day erasing the mistakes I've made as I've interacted with them. I hope I can focus more on joy and less on circumstance. I want to be the kind of person that makes people feel better for having interacted with me. I think I've been guilty of letting my woes define me far too often. I've spent too much time wringing my hands over things I can't control and I'm afraid I almost let it change *ME*, the me I know I am, and the me I know I want to be.

I guess it's a good thing I've been given at least one more day.

What about you? How do you think your obituary will go down? Are you living your life in such a way that you will leave a lasting impression, worthy of warm rememberance?

E's Wedding

2007-05-19T15:41:00.000-05:00

Well, the wedding was yesterday. It was very nice. Don't know what else to say about it. Someday, I swear I'm going to write a manual on navigating blended family gatherings and events. I swear people can be so tacky and thoughtless. Thank goodness the Second Wives Club was in attendance to keep this second wife together. As an aside, I ended up wearing the gold dress I purchased for the wedding rather than the other one. I finally decided that I needed and deserved the confidence boost I get from that dress and given the lack of communication about the wedding and the fact that I was excluded not only from the invitations, but also from every aspect of the preparations, I didn't really feel like I owed anyone any favors. LOL Note to First Wives #437 in the second wives manual: Don't piss off the second wife. She is younger, thinnner and cuter than you and she *can* make sure you notice. *grin*

Here are some highlights for the fam:

The Flower Girl

The Ring Bearer

I think he just spotted her! LOL

Hubster...looking dashing and SMILING...in a PHOTO!!! (for once!)

My favorite bride and groom shot. How gorgeous are my grandkids gonna be?

This one CRACKS ME UP!!! Check out D in the background! ROFL!!!

Brother and brother from another mother...so to speak! LOL E's best man is the boy who lived with us the year after I had J.

Wedding party