Thank goodness tomorrow is MONDAY !

Well, I just got done baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies and a batch of peanut butter crackle cookies. Lately, it seems like I've been baking cookies 2 or 3 times a week just to keep Jake's friends happy. Everyday, he comes home with Chrissy, his girl friend, and Summer, Chrissy's BFF, and various other kids. After being happily greeted by the dogs, they go straight to the kitchen screaming,
"Were home Mom! Got any cookies?!"
I'm not too worried about these girls getting fat, they're all almost anorexicly thin, blond, and gorgeous. Apparently, Hot chicks like hyperactive, silly guys like my son. Of course, he is terribly handsome and sensitive as well. He might be a little goofy, but I'm crazy about him too.

I've spent most of my day cleaning up from the weekend, and cooking. I didn't get my chili on to simmer soon enough , so I threw together some hamburgers at the last minute. After dinner, I put chili ingredients in the crock pot for a while and we'll have Chili tomorrow. It will be twice as yummy after the flavors have had overnight to blend in the fridge. While it was simmering this evening, Heather wandered into the kitchen and asked what that awesome smell was. I told her chili, and she begged for a taste. She concluded that it was, in fact, VERY delicious and she can't wait for dinner tomorrow night. I think I'll wait until after she's eaten her fill to tell her that it's venison. (he,he!)

I didn't think I'd ever get Jake and Heather off to bed. They've been staying up late and sleeping in for the past five days. They're going to be bears in the morning. It's been lightly snowing on and off all day, but it's not been heavy enough, or cold enough, to really stick and amount to anything. The kids are still holding out hope that things will change and they'll get a snow day tomorrow. NOT gonna happen. Thankfully! I'm about to loose my mind with all these kids. I need about eight hours of sanity and quiet tomorrow.

Well, like I said, My brain's been too frazzled to think of anything interesting to write about. I feel like a puppy chasing it's tail lately, and I'm just exhausted. I'm going to try and get to bed early tonight and catch up on some sleep.
Good night.

Love,
Susan

Ho,ho, ho, hum

I woke this morning to find snow gently falling outside my window. It's been falling most of the day, but with the temps in the mid 30's, it just turns to wet when it hits the ground. Now that the sun has gone down, it's cooled off considerably. My backyard deck has turned to ice and it's supposed to start snowing again tonight, so maybe, there will be a blanket of white in the morning.

The snow fit into my plans for the day nicely. Today, we put up our Christmas tree and decorated the inside of the house. Ohhhhhh . . .Ahhhhhh . . . shiny, sparkly, glittery . . . crap.

Ugh ! I've been Dragging all the huge plastic tote boxes up and down the stairs all day, along with all the dust and cobwebs. Not to mention all the itsy, bitsy fake pine needle foo-foos that get dumped everywhere. I'm just NOT in a Christmasy mood this year. Unfortunately, there's really no way to stop it, so we might as well get this over with. To be honest, I don't mind the lights and decorations as much as the insanity, stress, and greed that they inevitably bring. For now, the house looks bright and pretty and I'm not going to think about the rest. I'm just going to focus on my accomplishments and be content with that.

Last night, Roy and I took Heather and Ana to go see Twilight, the movie. I was a little disappointed. It was a very picturesque, romantic movie, but I just don't think it's possible for an hour and a half film to convey a story as complex and emotionally detailed as this one. I think a person would have actually had to have read the book to fully appreciate the movie. I don't know if it's true, but someone told me that the movie was originally four hours long. I would be interested to see that, if it were released on a home DVD.

Other than that, things around here have been sort of . . . I don't know, blah? I don't know what's up, maybe the lack of sunlight and the abundance of cold grey skies, but I've just been feeling so tired and worn out. I haven't walked the dogs as much lately and I'm starting to pay the price. They're feeling anxious and very discontent. Maybe, if we get some snow accumulation in the morning, I'll feel like getting them out to play. They just love a walk in the snow. I don't mind, as long as it isn't bitterly cold and windy.

The other night, we were over at Jasmin's house and her husband gave us some ground venison. Tomorrow, I'm going to try to make a pot of Chili with it. I've only cooked with venison one other time before, when we spent a summer in the mountains of Colorado, ages ago. I hope it turns out okay. Heather is already having an issue with eating "Bambi."

Well, I need to finish putting up the last of the snowflakes on the windows, then get myself off to bed. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Love,

Susan

Thanksgiving 2008

Whew! I feel like I should have been given a T-shirt that says: I Survived Thanksgiving 2008 !
For the past several years, it's become tradition for my family to meet at my older brother's house for the annual Thanksgiving gorging event, I mean, dinner. This year, the only one who didn't make it was my youngest brother. He's currently living in St. Louis and recovering from a hernia repair operation. I wouldn't think that driving several hours to pig out would be very beneficial to his recovery. God knows, it's not very beneficial to my waistline ! But, it's a sacrifice that I'm willing to make, you know, for the sake of family. (he,he) Actually, I was pretty good. It always helps when we eat fairly early, before my evening appetite has a chance to kick in. I did get an extra large helping of my favorite, my mom's oyster stuffing. I offered to take the leftovers off Mark and Lesta's hands, but Mark couldn't find them. (greedy little shit)

All four of my maniac children were there this year though, along with my very adorable, but slightly deranged grandchildren. And oh yeah, Nick and Jennifer brought the baby bunny that Heather has been dying to bunny sit. There were only a few times that I had to escape to the grown up table in the other room. (it gets just a little crazy with all my kids in one room)

We finally left about 4PM and Nick and Jennifer followed us home. Nick had plans to do some work on Jennifer's car, while Jen went over all the specifics with Heather on the bunny care. Thankfully, Jennifer got all teary eyed about leaving her baby at the last minute, and decided to call her dad and beg for a change of heart. The tears were more than he could take. So they took the bunny home with them. (Thank You, God!) Keeping the dogs away from that bunny would have been more stress than I needed.

Unfortunately, Heather now has it in her head that SHE wants her OWN bunny. She is determined to earn the money to get one. She went through the same thing with the hamster, which was crazy to start with. Heather has always had a phobia about mice, but she met a friend who had a cute, cuddly hamster, so she had to have one. She saved her money, we went to the pet store and bought it. She has had that hamster for almost 4 months and she is still afraid to pick it up and hold it. She does well to feed and water it. When she cleans the cage, I have to come and move the hamster for her. But you know, when Heather gets something in her head . . .

Well, I have to go deal with Jake and Patrick. They went downstairs to my art room and found a couple of 6 foot foam pool noodles and they are beating the crap out of each other with them. Peter is very worried about the whole thing. He knows that such rowdy behavior is not allowed, but he's too afraid of the giant noodles that go "thwack" to go down stairs and bark at them to behave. So instead, he's tattling on them. He's sitting here at my chair, whinging at me to do something. So I guess I better go do it. Wish me luck.

Love,
Susan

I'm such a dork.

Oh. My. God. Somebody just shoot me and put me out of my misery ! I must be getting old and senile. Ooooh, big surprise, huh? I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. And I was having a good day. Well, actually, it's still a good day, I can't allow my stupidity to ruin everything. I learned to live with it a long time ago. Besides, it's Roy's biggest source of entertainment.

Okay, here's what I did. I let our water get shut off. (Not one word, Chris!) I got an extension on the bill because of Heather's birthday, and I forgot to write the new due date on my calendar. So . . .while I was out walking the dogs, they shut off my water. I came home, fed the dogs, went to the grocery store to get some supplies for dinner, blah, blah, by the time I figured out what happened, it was too late to make the payment because the office was closed. So guess who has to get up early and go pay the bill? The kids don't have to go to school tomorrow and I really wanted to sleep in. Damn, I'm such a dork.

So anyway, that's just the beginning of today's insanity. When Jake came home from school he brought a houseful of friends with him to celebrate Thanksgiving break. (Jake will use any excuse to have a party. ) In spite of having a houseful of loud, rowdy teenagers and no tap water, I managed to cook a lovely pot roast dinner for everyone. As I was cleaning up, the stupid electricity goes out! Everyone got silent and I yelled,
"This is NOT my fault!"
I immediately looked out the window to make sure that every one's electricity was out. Yup, the darkness that resulted from the lack of street lights matched the pitch black inside our house.

Now, as you may, or may not have noticed on my lunar phases chart, tonight the moon was only 1% lit. So having no lights gave a new meaning to the word DARK. I grabbed my lighter and started lighting candles. While everyone else walked around with their cell phones open to light their way. (Thank goodness I'm a candle freak.) Strangely, I noticed that the sudden darkness didn't result in any complaints from the family room, where Jake and his girlfriend were snuggled together on the couch. Since lighting candles didn't seem to improve the the status quo, I sent them upstairs to hang out with dad, who is usually quite gassy after a pot roast dinner.

That's another thing. Without electricity and the hum of the computer and refrigerator, and sounds of T.V.'s and radios from every room, the world becomes strangely quiet. Olathe is the county seat of Johnson County, and since the old west days, it's been a major thoroughfare for trains. (you can't swing a dead cat in Olathe without it landing on a street that has at least two railroad crossings.) So as we sat in the silent darkness, the sound of trains passing only a few blocks away (Which we don't, normally, even hear) sounded like a low flying helicopter directly over our house. For a minute, everyone stopped talking and looked at each other as if to say,
"Is this more than a simple power outage ? "
Without electricity there's no immediate communication from the outside world, for a moment, we realised, we had no way of knowing how many people were without power or why. I walked to the front door and opened it. When I said it was 'just a train,' everyone breathed an involuntary sigh of relief. Still, Roy suddenly announced that he was going to take a drive and see how many people were affected by the outage. Heather and her girl friend decided to go with him.

While I sat with Jake and Chrissy by candle light I started to chuckle. I said, "This is great, I'm toting water from the neighbor's well (actually their outside water hose) to make dinner, and now, we're spending the evening by candle light without T.V., computers, radios, or any of our modern conveniences. It feels like we've gone back in time 100 years."
They both said , "yeah" in unison. Then Chrissy said,
"Kinda boring . . . and Jake added,
"Sucks. . ."

Eventually, Jake discovered the many wonders of hot candle wax to entertain himself with while he and Chrissy discussed how many new babies would result from this power outage nine months from now. (I gotta watch those two!! ) Shortly after Roy and the girls got back, the lights came back on. As if in celebration, they tuned the T.V. to a music channel and cranked it up louder than normal. (at least it seemed louder than normal.)

Anyway, life is back to normal now - well, mostly. I better get myself to bed. Tomorrow is only Wednesday, but it's going to be a LONG weekend this week. In addition to paying the water bill, I have to gather supplies and get started on our annual tradition of snowflake making which begins tomorrow, plus I will have twice the dishes and laundry to do ! UGH! I just can't get a break. Goodnight, and if I don't see, or hear from you before then, have a happy Thanksgiving !

Love,
Susan

The Circle of Life

Well, I'm sitting here this Monday afternoon, sort of at a stand still. I have things I could be doing, such as laundry, grocery shopping, etc, but I'm out of supplies and my hubby left the house this morning with all my money. Because of his work schedule today, he won't make it back in the direction of home until 3PM. So I have a lull in my day, which will be followed by rushing around like a mad woman, trying to get everything done at once. Oh well, some days are like that.

I finally heard from Nick over the weekend. He's been busy working some temp jobs and helping to pack. Jennifer and her family have found another house (With the same space, in the same school district, that actually works much better, financially, for them) and they will be moving soon.

The only problem seems to be . . . last Friday, Nick bought a baby bunny for Jennifer, and there are absolutely no pets allowed at the new house. So he called Sunday to ask if I would Bunny sit until they are able to move into their own place. (it could be quite some time before Nick and Jen are able to afford their own apartment) Now when they first adopted the bunny, they stopped by my house to show her off and I set them up with Princess' old doggie crate as a temporary bunny home for her. As Jennifer held Nala, the bunny, I noticed that my dogs were of course very curious about this little bundle of fur. Midnight, my little "romeo" dog, adores little furry things, he calmly sat with his head in Jens lap and licked the bunny's paws. However, Angel, who is a working dog with a very strong prey drive, knew exactly what Nala, was. Angel has chased more than her share of rabbits. As she sniffed at her, her ears and tail came to attention, and her eyes dilated. NOT a good sign. Heather desperately wants to care for Nala and she has volunteered to keep her in her room, where she already has a hamster. I'm not so sure about all of this.

I think that I may have mentioned, we used to have several turtle doves. This was back when Heather was younger, and we only had two dogs; Honeybear, my very loving and gentle Golden Retriever, and Guttenburg, a formerly feral German Sheppard. Two of the doves, belonged to Heather. Because of Guttenburg's prey drive, I was always careful to keep the dove cages out of Gute's reach. Even though Honey bear was a bird dog, I never worried about her.because she never showed any interest in them. One day, Guttenburg was at the vets office having some x-rays done, and Heather had the bird cage sitting on the kitchen table. We had to make a quick run to the store, and when we returned . . . we found a trail of gray feathers and both birds, out of their cages and dead. Honeybear, was sitting in her usual spot, just like always, looking sweet and innocent. As I surveyed the scene of the crime (and Heather sobbed uncontrollably) there were signs of a chase, a struggle, and tooth marks in the bodies. It was obvious that Honeybear was guilty. Although I have no idea HOW she did it because, the bird cage door was still closed and locked. I tried to explain to Heather that Honeybear was just following her natural instincts, but she wouldn't speak to Honeybear for weeks.

I don't want a similar drama replayed. Especially since Nala isn't mine. But Nick is desperate to find a home for the bunny, and Heather is determined to keep her for them. I'm used to chaos and insanity, and even occasional dismemberment, but Angel is Heather's dog, and I don't know if I could handle it if anything happened to alter that relationship. In spite of all my warnings, it looks like the two of them are determined to do this. so it appears that the circle of life (and death) can not be stopped. Just in case, I have recorded my objections here. Mark my words . . .

In other news . . . Today is beginning of a week, that traditionally marks the start of many annual festivities and celebrations. (UGH!) This year, it's more like a gauntlet that has to be run. The kids have only two days of school this week before Thanksgiving break begins on Wednesday. After that . . . LET THE INSANITY BEGIN !!! Family feasting, decking the halls with snowflakes, Christmas trees, and boxes of other dust covered glittery items. And of course, Black Friday, which I REFUSE be part of. However, I did promise to take the kids to see Twighlight, the movie on Friday. That'll be crazy enough. I also have to plan for the month that follows. Gingerbread house creation, and a bunch of other merry family activities, blah, blah, blah.

Okay, I really do have some things I should be doing to prepare for this week. I need to get my butt out of this chair and moving. Wish me luck . . .

Love,

Susan

Blah, blah, blah . . .

Oh my . . . would you listen to that? It's quiet. Well, almost. It's Friday night and things are finally starting to settle. The girls, Heather and Chloe, have finally decided to go do some drawing in her room; and the boys, Jake and Quentin, are doing God only knows what in Jake's' room. Roy is sleeping because he has a call at some ungodly hour tomorrow morning. So now, I can finally think. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.



My mind keeps reaching out in the direction of my oldest son, Nick. I haven't heard from him since . . .Tuesday? He called to get a phone number from me and said that he would call me back - he never did. I just don't have a good feeling about any of this. He and Jennifer stopped by the house last weekend, he is really feeling uncomfortable with the living situation over there. Not only is it uncertain, but Jennifer's sister is really making him feel unwelcome. Of course, the word is, she's a total bitch anyway. He's still head over heels crazy about Jennifer, but he just wants to be somewhere else.

I don't like feeling so disconnected from him, it feels unnatural. I'm used to touching base with all my kids on a daily basis. (and my oldest is 30) I just feel at loose ends not knowing if things are okay. I suspect he is pissed at me, I don't know.

Since the weather has turned cold, Jake has started bringing all his friends home from school with him to our house, instead of going to the skate park. This evening, he brought home five of them ! It gets a little crazy for a few hours in the afternoon, with a bunch of rowdy teens and five excited dogs. but it's also nice to get to know his friends. He has the cutest little girlfriend, Chrissy. Last week, Jake spent quite a few after school evenings at her house, and I guess Chrissy's mom decided that he was okay, and it's safe to allow her daughter to hang out here. That's good to know.

Since it's Friday night, Heather called to ask if her new friend, Chloe, could spend the night. After spending more time with her last weekend, I decided that she's a pretty good kid. She lives with her dad and brother (her mother passed away) and I think that she is just very used to hanging out with guys. Both her dad and brother are heavily into cage fighting on the weekends and she gets so bored hanging out at the gym with a bunch of sweaty guys. I suspect that I'll be seeing quite a bit of her. I think she really enjoys being with Heather and doing girl stuff. I think it's a good thing

Anyway, after school, the two girls went to Chloe's house to pick up her stuff, and Roy went to pick them up. Roy met Chloe's dad, and I guess they hit it off because he came home all excited that, "Van said he would get him tickets to the fights!" Oooooh, how nice, that's exactly what I wanted to hear! How exciting. Now, my hubby can hang out with the guys while I deal with the zoo! Actually, I'm not too worried. I don't see Roy as a cage fight kind of guy, but he's does get excited to check out new stuff, especially if it has anything to do with sports.

Well, I need to get some sleep tonight, so I better get myself off to bed. Goodnight.

Love,
Susan

Pre holiday Blues

I've been feeling very much like Cinderella lately. (Just to clarify, that would be pre-ball invitation Cinderella.) All cooking and cleaning, and mending, and care taking . . . sigh ! Damn it, I want to go to the Ball at the Palace !!! Of course, with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, that doesn't seem likely.


Why are holidays such a chore? I SO miss the days when Christmas was about beautiful twinkly lights, angels, and snow, hot chocolate and marshmallows, snuggling under a blanket on the couch to watch a whimsical Christmas special, nativities and Christmas carols, and the smells of pine trees, candy canes, and gingerbread. Of course, I work my ass off to make sure my kids have all those things, but I don't think they notice anymore, and I don't even get to enjoy them. There is always so much to do, so much stress and worry about gifts and shopping. When my kids were little, shopping for Christmas was fun. They didn't care what they got, they were just thrilled to discover Santa hadn't forgotten them.

Then they got older, they went to school and learned how to write. (damn public education !) They found out that Santa took requests ! At first, their scribbled little letters were so cute. . . until some jerk told them that Santa wasn't real. Suddenly, they got serious about making lists and comparing their Christmas haul with their friends at school !! All the pressure got dumped on Mom and Dad, and every year had to be bigger and better than the last. At this point, the only way I can top last year, is to buy them sports cars - and they aren't even old enough to drive !!!! Maybe that's a kids way of getting even with their parents for lying to them about Santa? They aren't impressed with twinkle lights and jingle bells anymore. Snow is only an excuse for a day off school, Christmas T.V. specials have been replaced by holiday movie releases at the mall with their friends. Christmas carols are lame, and they would prefer the scent of cold hard cash over pine trees, candy canes, and gingerbread.

My kids are barely teenagers and already they are SO jaded !!! Is early Childhood the only time when Christmas is magical ? Do we just get a few precious years and the rest is greed and memories? I want my Christmas warm fuzzies back !!!!!