it sure aint!

I gave up painting and took up embroidery. But I still can't make myself follow a pattern so I've only managed to learn one stitch. Oh well, I've made Ms Pacman, cupcakes, gnomes, and caricatures of my entire family with only one stitch.

A fella from work gave me some jalapenos and I decided to gut them, stuff 'em, bread 'em, and fry 'em up for dinner tonight. Being my usually clumsy accident-prone self I managed to splash grease all of my fingers and THEN get jalapeno juice on the same fingers. I read online that milk should neutralize the burning so there I am, standing in the kitchen with my red burning hand in a bowl of milk when Ani walks in the room. She stares at me for a few minutes, scratches her head (I can practically see her gears twitching into gear at moments like that). She goes to the cupboard gets down a bowl, poured herself some milk, and proceeded to sip out of it, all the while giving me encouraging smiles. She thinks I'm a nutcase.

In other news, we now have four dogs at our house. While we are technically still looking for homes for Three and Four (yes, that's the dogs' names), they have made themselves quit comfortable right here with us. Four is a mini-True in the making and lives and dies by Billiam's word. Three looks and acts exactly like Santa's Little Helper (if you aren't a Simpsons fan...well, you suck). Four dogs mean that I never have to use a blanket at night time, I just put my feet under a mutt. Four dogs mean at least a weekly dose of preventative flea meds. Four dogs mean that they eat better than we do most days. Four dogs mean our entire house smells like mud, hair, and drool. Four dogs mean lots of love. Awwwww.

I've been working. Alot. I haven't finished a book in months, I haven't written in even longer, my insomnia is now a joke because now I'm exhausted AND tired without sleep every day (yes, there is a difference between exhausted and tired). I've also managed to alienate people, earned some more frown lines around my mouth and eyes, and have gained eight pounds. EEK! Let me stop you before you think I'm one of those girls who is all "omgd I totally weight 100 lbs now. Puke puke puke". Nah, I'm cool with it as long as I get to keep buying a birthday cake every weekend....just to eat.

Ani started fourth grade! She's in the gifted program this year. That's m'girl. She's also about the funniest damned thing since Laurel and Hardy.

My dad has been staying with us for about a month now and the experiment is going quite well. He went home last week to pack up the remainder of his belongings and he left me a card on the table the morning he departed. It read: "You're a better daughter than I was a father, thank you. You have a huge heart and I hope that you get everything you deserve." Seriously, how freakin' heartwarming was that? He and Ani have bonded in a most interesting way. He plays Uno with her (until he beats her soundly and then she pouts and quits), he willingly dons top hats and holds fluffy stuffed animals while she pilots bed "ships" to sea, he even plays Polly Pockets with her (ummm well he did until she kicked him out because his polly pocket kept stealing cars and going on beer runs haha). She keeps him in line with a stern, "Grandpa, now you behave" and he's there waiting for her on the porch with True-be every day after school. What a pair.

In short - while there's not as much drinking and relaxing going on as there once was, life ain't half bad. It ain't half bad at all.

Riddle me this

Did this awhile back. A year, two years ago? Anyway, thought we'd give it another go. Three Questions: Ask me any three questions and I'll answer them. Pretty simple huh? Pick it up and do it on your blog as well. Ask away.

splashin' fun

The whole family went to an amusement/water park for the day yesterday. It was sooo good to get away from the stress at work and at home for a little while!

And now, Ani has her first day of school. I can't believe she is in 4th grade (the grade I was in when I met the lovely Liz, pictured above, along for the trip as an honorary family member).

There's changes brewing. I can feel 'em.

It's not that I want to be silent. It really isn't. There are just times when the words won't come to me. And then all I have left is point to point retelling of my days and right now? My days are all exactly the same. Wake, shower, eat, work ten hours, home, cook dinner, clean, fall asleep exhausted. This does not make for interesting writing. Maybe soon I'll find the words again. I sit here with the screen open staring up at the ceiling as if I could pull them from thin air. But there's never anything up there but cobwebs and cracked tile. Soon. I promise. More words.

“I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it.”--Audrey Hepburn

weekend adventures, family picnics, ahhh its looking a little better every day.