Woohoo!

I know most of you don't get this, but celebrate with me anyway!  I finished.  50,000+++ words in just under 30 days.  I have only written it, haven't read it yet.  I am certain there is much work to be done, but I did it.  And, no matter what happens from here on out, no one can take away those 190-200 pages of drivel.  They're mine, muhuhahahaha.  This makes 3 out of the past 4 Nano's that I have completed.

OK - I'm off to flip laundry and maybe eat some marshmallows and then to bed.  Wake me early if I'm rich and famous in the morning.  ;)

Let the frenzy begin . . .

Thus far, the only thing Andy seems interested in as far as potential Christmas gifts are, and I am SO not kidding, an Ove Glove and this.  Yep, that's my average nearly 10 year old at work.  Look at his face as he runs through the house delighting in the Christmas lights and thoughts of donning on a set of Ove Gloves and doing the dishes?  (I messed with the colors a bit because he was so much of a blur as to look like a ghost with his blonde hair and pale skin)

I had been thinking Lego's, but what do I know?

OK - that was my break.  I need to crank out just under 2800 words to finish my Nano novel.  Hope the holidays are unfolding in a more normal way at your houses.

I don't want to procrastinate, and, yet, I do . . .

I have less than two days to finish my novel.  I know this.  Yet, I have found every excuse NOT to finish.  Why do people procrastinate? Why do I procrastinate? The ideas are there, the words are there, but I have found every excuse in the book NOT to finish. Why am I sabotaging myself, when it's only myself that loses?  Gah ... 

I have a clean, beautifully (if I do say so myself) decorated holiday-ish house.  Like that could not have awaited until December 1 or beyond? 

OK - just had to come clean.  I'm off to try and finish this novel . . .

More to be thankful about . . . Amanda update

I copied this post from Joy's blog, Ray of Sunshine.  Please bookmark this site and keep up to date on Amanda's progress.  Please keep the whole family in your prayers.   

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

It's been three weeks.........three long weeks since I've heard my sweet daughter's precious voice. I lie here tonight snuggling next to her trying to quiet her restlessness and just be in the moment with her; trying to ease her confusion and frustration as to what happened to her. Does she truly understand? How can she; I still don't. I cry silent, hot tears lying next to her. What is she thinking? I wish I knew. I wish I knew how to reach into her fragile body and turn her voice back on, push the ON button for swallowing, and give her the strength to control her body without the aid of a walker.

She HAS come so far in these three weeks and for that I AM THANKFUL. I am thankful that she is a fighter with an independent spirit. I am thankful that she is making small improvements daily. I am thankful that she still works hard when her little body shakes with ataxia and is telling her to be done. I am thankful THAT SHE IS HERE!

And I am thankful for everyone of you out there who is sending prayers and well wishes to Amanda and our entire family. That is just the start of what I am thankful for. For years everyone has made fun of me for crying when I say what I am thankful for when we say grace before our Thanksgiving feast, well this year I will be crying again so pass me a tissue and tell me what YOU are thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Being thankful . . .

I just spent a wonderful afternoon with my parents, my brother, my sister, her husband and her children as well as my own family.  We are so incredibly lucky.  We have good health, terrific kids, we all truly like and respect each other AND we have so much fun when things work out that we can all spend time together.  Tonight was no exception.  The only thing lacking were our cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Duck - but we had them here in our hearts and in our lame attempts to put out street lights with lame lasers.  (Mr. Duck can answer any technical questions.)

My sister had surgery on Monday, and still traveled to see us this year.  We had a lot of fun with her this year watching the pain pills work and then wear down . . . shortly before we left, about ninety minutes after my sister went to bed, she came out to see why we were all laughing so loudly.  For a brief time, we convinced her that it was Friday night and we'd just spent the day at Disney without her.  Yes, we are mean like that.
Actually, she's doing really, really well and she finally worked it all out on her own.  

Andy stayed for a sleepover with his cousins.  We left my folks' house with what seemed like a lot of leftovers.  Thirty minute drive home with three teen-aged boys ... ehhh not so much.  They all just now stopped eating and went to bed.  I'm hoping for a sandwich in the morning. 

Pictures were taken, but the card is at Bing's.  I will post them as soon as we get them. 

In the meantime, thanks Bing and Pap for an awesome afternoon/evening.  There is nothing better than spending time eating and laughing and eating and laughing and laughing and laughing and, ooo, eating again.  I love you family!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. 

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Have you all met Clara?

I discovered these videos this weekend and I adore her.  In this video, she's 94 years old and still cooking and still funny.  I love her stories and memories.  She has a book out for the holidays this year.  I'm thinking of a few people who might be receiving this book this year. 

I'm just a poor boy . . .

Though I have abandoned you for now, I haven't really abandoned you.  I'm on a mission to provide you with interesting, useful youtube content until I finish this hellacious novel.  Yes!  I'm still having fundammit.  Yes! I will finish. 

Festival of Trees

My mom, Andy and I attended this year's Festival of Trees at the Orlando Museum of Art. Every year companies and people donate fully decorated trees to be put on display at the museum. The decorated trees are for sale and all proceeds go to the museum. They have giant trees, little trees, wreaths, and just about anything else holiday related for sale to raise money. (This picture is my favorite tree this year - a Paris inspired tree covered with stuffed poodles in fish net stockings. It was so fun.)

My mom and I have been attending this event for years. One year, we attempted bringing then 5,5 and 6 year old Ian, Tim and Danny. It was horrific and I vowed never to go with little kids again. I don't care if they do have a Santa and a kid area. There is just too much to touch and break and too much random space for running and yelling and, say, flopping down on the ground to show the world your impression of bacon cooking in a skillet.

The past two years, Andy has joined my mom and me. He's young enough to like it and old enough not to try to eat a glass candy cane. And, there's the appeal of a day off from school, lunch at the Panera cafe set up temporarily in the museum too. My mom's art teacher (Bing has a group of friends that have been attending this woman's classes for the last dozen or so years - they are an odd mix of women, but they have so much fun together.) met us for lunch and some of the tour. Let's just say Andy is a fan of Lynne the art teacher. On the way home he mentioned several times how she saw all the same interesting stuff he did, only she found it first.

The trees, as always, were amazing, sometimes over-the-top and mostly beautiful. But, upon leaving, my mom and I both commented on how scaled-back the whole event seemed this year. Even the people in a position to donate such big ticket items were cutting down a bit. But, I imagine the design firms, caterers, builders, etc who usually put in huge trees are feeling the effects of the economy just like everyone else. Still, I'm glad philanthropy is alive and well.

We had a great day. My personal favorite moment was finding this small arrangement with the three ornate gold ornaments. My mom has ONE such ornament. Hers originally held Avon bubble bath. During our formative years and beyond, my sister and I had monster fights over whose turn it was to hang the ornament on the tree. NOW that I live in the same town as my mom, I like to just head over to my folks to move the gold ornament randomly throughout the holidays. When I can, I take a picture and send it to my sister. Who says we have to give up sibling battles just because we're grown women with our own families? Hence this picture (nice hair, huh? Just add a big bow barrette and I'm Rosemarie from the Hollywood Squares - gah!) Waving at Lynne (my sister, not Lynne the art teacher) - lookie here! Three, count 'em THREE big gold ornaments!

My sister, Lynne, will be here for Thanksgiving with her family. Fortunately for me, Lynne will be recovering from surgery, so I think I can totally take her on the gold ornament thing this year. Yep, I think I win this year.  Can you smell the satisfaction? 

Ahhhh . . . tis the season. Anyone else feeling all warm and fuzzy?

I'm in template hell here ...

I spent a big part of the evening looking for a template I liked. I did something and now I appear to be stuck with the templates Blogger likes. Any help?

Go!!! Go!!! Go!!! Amanda!

Latest update from Joy. (I think I posted that Amanda is now at St. Jude.)

Amanda Update! Little Miss Independent shines again --- she is now in an enclosure bed (zips like a tent) b/c she was climbing out of the regular bed on her own. Still not completely steady on her feet so that wasn't safe. AND the speech lady got her to purse her lips and then pull back to a semi-smile yesterday. It's the little things!

Progress! Yay! Please keep praying for more and more little things.

Can I ask a favor?

I know many of you think the whole Nano thing is a weird way to spend a month of your life. But, I really love it. For me, it's a chance to do something I love, even if I'm not that skilled, and when it's done, it's done and it's mine and it's not related to anything or anyone else. I think after so many years of homeschooling, it's time I reclaim some things just for me.

So, in addition to this being important to me personally, I've also learned a lot about myself over the past three Novembers. One, I cannot think clearly when my family is floating around the house. I just can't do it. Two, I will find whatever distraction I can to avoid sitting down to write, even when what I really want to do is sit down and write. It's crazy. The house has to be picked up, the dishes done (or at least out of sight), the laundry going . . . I think it's a form of mental illness, actually. A normal person can ignore a sink of dirty dishes every now and then, right? Three, my weirdness is dragging me down - I'm behind on my writing this week because of my insane need to get everything else done first. Dan and Ian are camping all weekend. I'm hoping with half of the kids gone, I can get a lot done this weekend - half the drama, half the noise, half the laundry and no need to find a vegetarian option for dinner - that's several hours right there. Which leads me to my question for you?

For those of you who have blogs, may I browse your comments and borrow from them? If you have a blog that you're hiding from me will you please share it with the group?
I won't use any comments word-for-word or even in context and I certainly won't use names, real or online - I think I'm incapable of doing that anyway, but here's my promise. My book involves a blog and I'm hoping to use the comment section of the blog part of the book to boost my word count. It feels wrong to go to the many blogs I read to scan them for inspiration from the comment sections without asking permission. And, this book is going nowhere, it's just something I want to do. If you have objections OR if it's okay with you, please let me know via email (all4mine@bellsouth.net) or in the comment section.

Working title for the book? Split-Life Crisis. (But that's just for today, it changes daily.)

Better?

I lived with it for a week and the last background was too busy. What do you all think about this one? I'm not normal and can't be trusted to decide because my opinion changes every five minutes ... for now, I kind of like this.

Who is the person that is a step beyond the Dog Whisperer?

Please send that person to my house.

Scout is old. She's almost 12. But, she's an awesome, smart dog. Usually I only have to look at her or simply tell her what I want her to do and she does it. I'm a seriously spoiled dog-mom. I have taken her for granted since the day I house-trained her - yes, that's right, THE DAY. That's all it took. Honestly, no one has ever had a smarter, prettier dog - EVER.

But, she's turning into the pretty old lady rocking on the front porch. We built a new bigger cage for Jenny and Esme yesterday. They needed more room to run and be fat and whatever it is that they do. The bigger cage sits on the floor rather than on the old trunk I had them sitting on before.

The grid-thingies (sorry to get technical) surrounding the new cage are 18-24" high. The pigs are in (forgive me) hog heaven with their new space. Scout, however, is sorely confused. It's not like we have kept her from the pigs, but something about them being on the floor and hopping around freaked Scout out. She stood at the cage whining, tail wagging frantically and whining some more.

I can't read dog minds, but I think Scout thinks the pigs are puppies. We had a wild night here. Scout was pacing and frantic, the pigs were curled up fast-asleep in their little igloo. I finally got up this morning when Scout started barking in my ear - this is weird, Scout is NOT a barker. She led me to the pig cage. Ummm... yes, Scout, there are the pigs. She spent the morning pacing up and down.

Tim and Andy were up shortly after me. I went to take a shower and immediately heard Tim and Andy howling and screaming and laughing. I went back out to see what was going on. Scout had picked Jenny up (a la cat mom picking up a kitten) and taken her to a corner and had her in the corner, licking her and taking care of her. Weird, huh?

I tried the shower thing again. This time, as I stepped out of the shower, I heard all FOUR boys screaming and laughing! I rushed out to see what was going on and there was Scout, who apparently defied gravity and leapt into the new pig cage. She had settled into the cage and trapped the pigs in her paws and was grooming them.

And, so went the day. Scout is currently passed out cold with no signs of waking soon. I'm hoping she'll get used to this new set up. Funny, though, Tim and a friend came in this afternoon to tell me about a neighbor whose dog is about to have puppies in six weeks. I paused to consider it. I asked about the dog. English Mastiff. Ummmm . . . NOT happening here.

Cross your fingers that Scout settles down a bit tomorrow!

An oldie but a goodie . . .

I am actually writing! In the meantime, think about your Wednesday and your recycling.

Amanda update . . .

Just got this from Joy on Facebook. Please keep praying.

Amanda update: Joy Hall The BIG MOVE --we are officially at St. Jude. Praying that this transition goes smoothly. She vomited tonight after her first feeding w/o the slow-drip; it's more of a bolus/syringe now. However, Maggie and Sean got to see her (Ian was asleep)--- Amanda IMMEDIATELY went from standing with me to reaching for hugs from them. It was super sweet.

My great husband, writing, computers and other random observations

Mike is the best husband. Having three older teens in the house and trying to keep track of them and keep them on track is wearing me far thinner than I would have thought possible . . . Mike, while he's not here a lot, is not stoopid. He knows, I don't think he understands, how much I love November and the whole NanoWriMo thing. Sure, it's not for everyone, but it's something that I've grown to love.

As I was typing last night, I thought about how much faster I type on a keyboard than I did back in 8th and 9th grade when I was learning to type on a manual typewriter. It's a wonder books got written at all ... I have consigned myself to a sub-par class of wimps who would rather eat their own livers than write out a book long-hand or on a manual typewriter. As I was thinking about the manual typewriters, I was also thinking about how much time I can and do waste on the internet. I enjoy this time and maybe I come away marginally more informed, but dang, it's a lot of time just gone.

Mike stepped in this weekend to handle the cooking and basic laundry essentials while I wrote. I managed 5000+ words yesterday and, while they may not be the content of the next great American novel, I had a lot of fun. Today, Mike took the boys to Downtown Disney for a Lego thing. Dan refused to go, but apparently Mike left him with instructions not to bother me either.

I confess, I didn't write much. I moved things around and cleaned things that have been making me crazy for at least a year. I cleaned the bathrooms. I considered mopping, that counts, right? BUT, as I did these things, unencumbered by family, I was able to think things through and kind of make sense of them. Emphasis on "kind of."

We'll see, I'm off to type for an hour or so. I think it will make sense when all is said and done, but no promises.

A little more on Amanda . . .

Updates via Joy on Facebook:

Thurs. evening --- overall good day with improving physical abilities; SLOWLY coming along. Still nothing by mouth food-wise though. And then, I just found out that she vomited her last tube feeding and now she has a fever. :( Two steps forward, one step back. Fingers crossed this is NOT the start of pneumonia from possible aspiration of fluid. We continue to appreciate all the prayers and well wishes!

Fri. evening -- weird day; some vomiting and her heart was racing most of the day. We aren't sure why; maybe blood tests tomorrow. BUT St. Jude came to review her case and if she is medically sound she will move to inpatient rehab on Monday.

I haven't had any updates since Friday. I'm hoping they are having a quiet, somewhat restful weekend. Please keep praying, Amanda and her family still have a lot more in front of them. Pray that the road is short to Amanda's full recovery.

God bless AT&T . . .

So, we woke up yesterday morning and our internet was gone. Just poof. Gone. This does not happen often but when it does, my initial reaction is to crawl under my bed and curl up into the fetal position for a few days. I spoke to a nice woman Thursday morning. At least I think she was nice. I could only understand about every third word. I should have taken Spanish instead of French, I guess. Finally, though we worked through things. She was going to send someone to our house because she believed the issue was with the lines going to the house or the actual modem. The tech was scheduled to arrive between 1 and 5.

I woke up grumpy. Historically, I've not had great luck with folks coming to the house to "help." At 1:03, I changed my mind. All I can say is THANK YOU AT&T! I'll take the chance and sound like a dirty old woman, the man AT&T sent to repair our modem was a walking statue! He was stunningly beautiful. The body, the nose, the beautiful black hair, the deep voice, the gorgeous, unidentifiable accent. Really, it's not often such a beautiful person comes into our house. Not that we're hideous or anything, but this guy! Ummmm WOW. I'm considering breaking my modem once a week just so he'll come back. Next time, I'll bring a sketch pad.

Anyway, it was a good day!

(edited on 11/16/09 to include a fitting photo)

Amen!!!!

The latest from Joy, via Facebook:

Joy Hall shouting from the rooftops.......BENIGN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From what I understand her file was reviewed by the lead pathologist at the Mayo clinic so I trust that to be true. Now, to keep moving forward with her therapies to help her get out of this Cerebellar Mutism and Posterior Fossa Syndrome. She worked so hard today; I'm so proud of my little spitfire!

Amanda still has a long recovery ahead of her, but at least once she recovers that should be the end of it. I'm so happy and relieved and weepy for Joy and Colin. I'll bet they sleep well tonight.

If you want to check for updates, here is a link to Joy's blog .

Veteran's Day 2009

To those who are serving and those who have served, Thank You!

Amanda update . . .

Received this message via Facebook from Joy last night: Monday evening - a good day; got her a bath/shower and PT came and got her walking in the hallway with a walker. She was awake enough for me to read to her for a few minutes while she stared at the book. Little improvements! (still waiting on pathology results) AND she received a beautiful, amazing prayer quilt from our Good Shepherd friends.

Tues. evening - LONG day --- occupational therapy; speech therapy; and physical therapy. Unsuccessful at attempting to eat so back on feeding tube. Gonna be a long road. Moving to a private room hopefully. Emotional day for me to see her struggle like this, heartbreaking.

Keep praying that the new routine will help the whole family and that the wee baby steps keep coming and building! Still waiting on the pathology reports.

OK - everyone go hug someone RIGHT now.

Finally - Andy at Halloween!

I'm so lame. We got no good pictures of Halloween and I haven't had long enough to talk to my neighbors to get their pictures. Here is Andy's awesome Halloween costume taken early in the afternoon by my mom. He wore jeans for trick or treating and we secured the head squarely onto the body with wire ties for trick or treating as well. He looked awesome. I would not recommend this costume if the temps are going to be above 80 when you're trick or treating - Andy nearly melted away.

Wahhhhh!!!!!

I feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the stupid football!

I just wrote about 5000 words for my novel - they are gone. Gone! Poof! Like they never existed. I'm so depressed right now - they were pretty good words, too. It's too late, even for me, to start over. Tomorrow is a new day, right?

Ugh.

The downside to virtual school . . .

All of the older boys take their high school science classes through the Florida Virtual School or at the community college. Science is the subject I least like to teach as well as being my worst subject by far. I've been happy with the Biology and Chemistry classes at the Virtual School thus far.

Now, it appears we have "an issue." I had an email on Sunday when we returned from the beach informing me that Ian's most recent assignment had matched another student's assignment 100% and his teacher had given him something called an integrity ticket. (What the heck, if you think he cheated, just say "Cheater! Cheater!" But, that's neither here nor there for the moment.)

Now, I was right here when Ian did that assignment and I knew what he had written and I found it impossible believe anyone else on the planet would share his train of thought on this subject. At the time I was reading this email, Ian and Tim were off on a long bike ride.

When Ian got home I showed him the email and asked him about it. Tim was hovering around as well. We could not figure out what happened. Finally, we opened each of the boy's computer folders for Chemistry. Weird twins I've got here. They had both done completely different things for the assignment. But what are the odds that they would name their files the exact same thing? Pretty dang good if you're Ian and Tim, actually.

Ian attached Tim's previously completed assignment instead of his own and turned it in. Still trying to get in touch with the teacher and get the stain removed from Ian's integrity. Keep your fingers crossed!

New Look

Hot Bliggity Blog offers free templates for people who use Blogger. I love their backgrounds. I was bummed when my background suddenly disappeared. Whew! They had to move the codes for their templates and all is back up and running again. I like change - what do you all think?

I miss the beach already!

We spent this past weekend in Daytona. In a hotel. Full of magicians. Nothing quite like it. Ian had a blast. He got to hang out with some incredibly talented people and some other teens that share his interests.

There was NO WAY I was going in the water the high temperatures were only in the low 70's and it was REALLY windy. So I bundled up like I was going to the Alaska shoreline and followed the boys to the water once Ian got registered at his conference. Tropical Storm Ida was out there somewhere over the weekend and Danny had some great waves for surfing. Danny was smart enough to wear a wet suit. Ian and Tim were oblivious to the cold water. They looked like all the other tourists from Wisconsin and Maine and Nebraska. I sat there with my knitting covering my legs, hood up on my ginormous sweatshirt, eating chips and enjoying the people-watching.

Mike drove over after work on Friday. Ian popped in and out of the room between lectures. He really thrilled to get a chance to meet and talk with Harry Anderson. (If you're my age or older, you'll remember him as the judge from the tv show Night Court.) Ian went on to the evening lectures, Mike, the other boys and I headed down to the firepit near the hotel pools. My idiot children were swimming in the very freezing pool while, at the same time, I was considering knocking a perefectly nice old man out of his chair to get to the warmest possible spot by the fire. Mike stopped me. Go figure.

We spent some time talking to a fun family from North Carolina before heading up to the room. Our room was a suite. One room was 2 queen beds, then a kitchen, then a living room with a pull out couch. Andy immediately decided to make a nest in the hall closet. Smart kid. Ian had plans to attend a midnight lecture featuring Harry Anderson and some other guy who is really good at this stuff. Everyone else crashed and I spent the evening sitting at the kitchen counter writing my increasingly terrible novel and listening to the ocean. Ahhhh . . .

Saturday was more of the same. The only downside was that the "full" kitchen the hotel touted did not include an oven. So much for the lasagna I'd made before we left home. We struggled through though . . . practically pioneers, we are!

Not too many pictures this trip ... it's hard to work the camera with my beach mittens on. The top picture is of the moon the first night we were there. It was truly the most amazing moonrise I've ever seen! It started out orange - we initially told Andy it was one of the gambling cruises you see out on the horizon. But the "cruise" kept getting bigger and was floating in the air after about 30 minutes of watching. Finally, it started looking moon-ish. But even at full height, it was the shape of an egg - crazy!

When we arrived home on Sunday afternoon, the garden had taken on a life of its own. The cooler weather seems to be agreeing with it. Here are the first of our cucumbers - they are now in the fridge becoming refrigerator pickles. There are a lot more that will probably be ready to eat by this weekend. The tomatoes are doing well, peas, beans and the lettuce too. It's not quite as much fun as a puppy but, it's pretty dang fun.

Update on Amanda . . .

Please keep praying, thinking good thoughts and dancing naked under the moon - it all helps! Joy, Amanda's mom, is tired and discouraged and trying so hard not to be either. Here is the update she put on Facebook this evening.

Joy Hall Sun. afternoon--Amanda got moved to a regular room. She is still feeding through a tube but that is her only tube right now, phew! The doc. says she has cerebellar mutism; physical therapy daily and more attempts at being awake are the orders for now. No one prepared me for this -- I thought she would wake up; be groggy and in pain for days; and then be more like herself. I'm having a hard time staying strong.

Joy needs your prayers as much as Amanda does right now. Being the mom in this situation is exhausting - especially when you are still trying to keep three other children's lives as normal as possible.

Advice for husbands and sons . . .

that would be husbands and sons who wish to continue to receive hot meals, clean laundry and something beyond wire-barbed comments any time they say something.

If, you, the husband, come home and your wife is standing in the driveway waiting for the car keys: 1) Do not ask what's for dinner 2) Do not ask "Are you just going to pick something up for dinner?" 3) Do not ask "Are you going out like that?"

Flags a husband should be aware of: 1) If wife is in the driveway waiting for transportation, odds are dinner is up to you. 2) If wife is in the driveway waiting for transportation after being trapped in a house with four boys all day, she's most likely not heading out to pick up a home-style meal anywhere. EVER. 3) If you don't often comment when your wife is dressed nicely, DO NOT comment when she's standing the driveway, waiting for a vehicle in yoga pants and your 20 year old rugby shirt - bra optional. Really!!!

Let's say this woman returns home after being away for a few hours. Husbands, sons, boyfriends around the world, PAY ATTENTION!!!!

1) Never look at a woman as she walks in the door and say "Did you get a haircut?" and then say nothing after.

2) Worse, never look at a woman as she walks in the door and say "Did you get a haircut?" and then say after a full minute, "It looks good." Especially do not do this if you cannot meet the woman's eyes and address the "looks good" comment to the doorjamb behind her head.

3) Kids/boyfriends are you reading? If you notice a haircut and you have any interest AND you want food, "Did you get your hair cut?" and then walking away is not a good way to go.

Gee, think I got a bad haircut this evening?

Amanda news . . .

Amanda came through her surgery well. She's still coming out of the anesthesia, but all news in encouraging. The good news is that the MRI shows that the doctors got the tumor out!!! Hopefully the pathology reports will come back soon. Thanks for your prayers and good thoughts. Keep them coming!

Update from Joy: Thurs. PM -No real news. Basically the doc. says she is beyond anethesia recovery and now we playing the waiting game of brain surgery recovery. Very, very slight improvements today. I DID get her to open her eyes and repeat 'HI' to me, but the emptiness behind the stare kills me. I want my baby girl back!

There is something so wrong with this man . . .

Does he not know birds are evil? Does he not have anything better to do with is time?



Found this on the Regretsy website - the site for Etsy items gone horribly wrong. (Warning some objectionable and/or gross content on this site. Enter at your own risk and keep the kids away!)

I'm off to seal the windows and door frames against the impending hummingbird invasion.

Can anyone explain?

Have you all seen the commercials for the bath tubs for people who are likely to fall and hurt themselves getting into a regular tub? Love the idea. But, how does it work? I refuse to admit how long I have been thinking about this. I'm grateful that the commercials show people wearing robes stepping into the tub through it's side door.

But then what? Do you have to sit there all naked and shivery waiting for the tub to fill up? Because if you open the door, you're going to flood the bathroom. And, if this is the case, after you sit and shiver hiking your robe ever higher as the water level rises, you finally sink into the nice hot water sans robe and warm up and relax, what happens when you want to get out of the tub? Do you have to sit there shivering and naked waiting for the water to snake out? Do you put your robe on in increments? What if you took a bubble bath - if you put your robe on in increments, it would be wet and bubbly and useless when you finally got out and most likely you'd be freezing your butt off.

Can someone help me out here? I don't know why this is bothering me so much, but there it is . . .

It's officially November . . .

I'm 7027 words into my latest bizarre book. So far I'm enjoying this years endeavor MUCH more than last year's. The storyline is kind of weird, but the characters are cracking me up and that's half the battle. (Yes, I do sit here late at night laughing at what I'm typing.)

Ian is joining me in the Nano writing challenge this year. He was typing furiously yesterday afternoon and I stuck my head in to see what direction his book was taking. He waved me off muttering something about a "whimsical sex romp." Mike is going to be so pleased when he hears about this. :::sigh:::

Because it's November, the rest of my family decided to leave their brains back in October. It's almost like they WANT me not to abandon them. But, not really. It's more like they want to see how far they can push me before I start throwing things at them. Needy. Needy. Needy. Fortunately, for them and for me, I anticipated this this year. The house was clean, clean, clean on October 31. Meals have been planned and some even pre-made. School has been diligently outlined and scheduled. The older boys are on alert that there are NO last minute laundry requests, NO last minute shopping or running around because they forgot something. So far, so good.

Friday we are heading to Daytona Beach. Ian's big Christmas present this year is attending the annual Magic Convention there. I managed to score a really nice suite in the hotel where the convention actually is being held (as opposed to Mike and I trekking back and forth between the inexpensive hotel - which we really like - where we were staying last year to pick Ian up and take him back for various events). This year, I managed to get a rate close to the inexpensive hotel's rate. We'll have a full kitchen so meals are taken care of.

Daytona is definitely NOT even close to being my favorite beach. The main strip of Daytona always makes me sad. But it's a beach and I love the beach. We're not staying on a driving part of the beach, so that's good. My brother has graciously offered to take Scout for the weekend at his house. He's the only person outside of our immediate family that she doesn't try to attack when we're not around. One of Tim's friends is going to come check in on the guinea pigs. It's going to be nice to get out of town and away from the local pollen.

In other news, the garden is growing!!! We have baby tomatoes - not too many, it's been really hot. We have big and little cucumbers, assorted squash-y looking things and baby peppers. I'll get some pictures tomorrow. The sunflowers are bringing in the bees, which is great. We've been able to eat some of the lettuce we're growing too. The fennel and chard are actually starting to look like real things I planted on purpose. It's cooled off this week, so I am hoping the tomatoes, beets and onions start perking up a bit.

And, in garden-related, or not related, news. Remember that November 20 is Worldwide Overalls Day! Try 'em, you'll like 'em!

Amanda update

Please keep praying for Amanda! She underwent a craniotomy this morning and the doctors were pleased. Long surgery, long time to wake up. Tomorrow will be an MRI to see if the doctors were able to remove everything. They're hoping to have the pathology results by Friday. In the meantime, your prayers and good thoughts go a long way for this family.

Happy Birthday, Lynne!!!!

Hope you had a great day! Love you!