Colds for all

Everyone in the family is either sick or getting over being sick. :( Two little girls down the street who got sick at the same time as the monkey were diagnosed with pneumonia so we took her to the doctor yesterday and (YAY!) she's actually getting better. Tonight we watched The Cosby Show after dinner (the first time for the monkey) and she loved it. She wanted to watch it again, "one more time mommy!" It was very cute.

Tomorrow starts our weekend, I'm very excited! When husband gets home from work tonight we will probably watch a Roswell episode or two before hitting the hay. Then tomorrow we begin shopping for new flooring tile for the entryway/kitchen/bathroom/laundry room (the new house we bought wasn't well taken care of and the linoleum that is everywhere is terribly chipped, scuffed, and marred). It's a project we've been saving up for and I'm so excited to finally get started on it! It's the last thing to be done in the entryway, the first thing to be done in the bathroom which needs a major overhaul, and the last thing for now in the kitchen although eventually we plan to completely remodel it. It's all about taking it one project at a time. Slowly but surely our poor little 1939 mill-family home is becoming more beautiful and comfortable. The hardwood floors we did (ourselves!) in the living room are particularly wonderful. :) Who would have thought that at 21 I would about to celebrate my 4th anniversary with my wonderful husband, have a lovely 2-year-old girl, and own my own home?

I'm the luckiest woman in the world, bar none.

Quote of the day

"If your idea of a role model is somebody who's gonna preach to your kids that sex before marriage is wrong and cursing is wrong and women should be this and be that, then I'm not a role model. But if you want your girls to feel strong and intelligent and be outspoken and fight for what they think is right, then I want to be that type of role model, yeah."

- Megan Fox


Well, that's my idea of a role model.

Editing posts to match my edited life

So, I found a site that actually changed my life. Which makes me a TOTAL loser, but I don't care. It's called Violent Acres, and you may have heard of it seeing as its been around for 4 years. I however, had not, and that is a horrible injustice seeing as had I discovered it earlier, my backbone would be stronger at this very moment. Not my physical backbone, although I'm sure you knew that. So check it out, but be warned, she is a BITCH. Seriously. She'll probably offend you. But I love her!


I have TONS going on right now, and I love it! We are closing on our first house in less than two weeks!! Needless to say we are freaking excited. We are also getting a puppy (which my mom thinks is the worst idea ever), a female black lab that we are going to name Keara (it means dark, which we think is fitting!) Also, today is mine and husband's 3rd anniversary! We didn't do anything for it today, but next week monkey is staying with her Mimi and we are going to the beach for 3 days. It will be the first time we have both stayed the night away from her, so it's going to be bittersweet.


Hopefully I'll remember to keep posting, if only for family to read! Lol.

Playing Catch up...

Long time no see!
Wow, it's been a while. So the monkey is 18 months old now...can you believe it? I can't. Not long until we're celebrating birthday number 2.
Texas is still the current plan...husband submitted his application for transfer and we are hoping to hear on it soon.
I decided (in order to motivate myself) that we won't remove my Mirena (aka. try for baby numero dos) until I've got my license. Husbands response to this epiphany? Let me play it out for you:

Me: "So, I've decided not to take the Mirena out until I get my license. There's no way I can survive with two babies and no way to get around."

Husband: "So, when did you decide we aren't having any more kids?"

Me: ".................... Ouch."

Husband: "Hahahahahaha....oh me."

That last part is embelished a bit, but whatevs. You get the gist.
And yes, I am 20 years old and still without ever having had a license. No real driving experience to speak of. Still in need of therapy (most likely) to get over the driving fears. But come on! Have a little faith husband huh?
Anyhoo.
I'm back to painting, and loving it. I've found a style I really like. I've never painted anything cartoony, it's always been realistic, even if it's kind of abstract...but this is a cartoony style and like I said, I'm loving it. I ran out of paper though. :( So I'll have to wait until this weekend to finish the one I'm working on.

Okay, well monkey just woke up, so I'm off!

Tim Burton's Wonderland

Um, how excited am I for this? Toooo excited. How much do I love Johnny and Helena together? Toooo much. From Sweeney Todd, to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Corpse Bride, and now this. They rule Tim Burton's world, and for that I will be eternally grateful. I have loved Helena Bonham Carter since I first saw her in Merlin when I was just a little girl. My dad loved the movie which is the only reason my mom gave in and let me watch it with him. It was a little twisted, but that's what makes it so great! Just like all the other films listed above. They all have that childlike, twisted frame of mind where the crazy makes sense. And Alice looks to be my knew favorite Tim/Johnny/Helena team film.

EDIT:

I'm pretty sad, I didn't actually enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Not that the visual effects weren't stunning, or that the acting wasn't right on par with what you would expect from the likes of Johnny Depp...I guess the story has just been told and retold so much that it has all become a little dull. Sad. Still! I do enjoy the books everytime I read them. Work of genius.

My own Stars Hollow

Have I mentioned yet my completely impractical infatuation with the Gilmore Girls?
I got my mom addicted too, which was fairly easy considering its a show all about mothers, and my mom now being a single mother can relate to a lot of it.
But the part I love about it is not so much the characters (although I adore them, especially the zany side-characters like Kirk, Patty, and Babette...yes, I said zany), not the characters, but really Stars Hollow itself.

This is Lorelai's house in the show, which is also rougly the same type of house I've dreamed of having since I was about 5. I've always loved a good wrap-around porch.
The town of Stars Hollow itself was just so quaint and whimsical...so well set up (obviously because it is in fact a set), I just want to find a place just like it and live there myself.

Some may argue that the only reason the town was so ideal was because of the controling, self-appointed town mayor/grocery-store-owner/chairman of the stars hollow historical society/etc. Taylor Doose,
(his character does drive me insane), and I have to admit that without him, this fictional town would be quite devoid of whimsy. He plans and produces all the totally awesome town events that everyone takes part in, and he keeps the town historical, which is annoying...but definitely as he puts it "part of the charm".

What I'm trying to say is, I want my own stars hollow, conneticut. I'll find it someday I suppose. I just wish it was now.

I would write more, but I got distracted mid-post by a cafe-press shop selling gilmore girls merchandise, and now the monkey's awake. Adios!

a little ho-hum and a little hum-drum

I'm missing my sisters today...a lot.
More than usual.
Which really, missing them at all is completely unusual, so missing them in the slightest would in fact be missing them more than usual, but you know what I mean.



For those of you who don't know, Bug and Nessy are in rehabs.
Yeah.
Remember how I said my family makes for good blog fodder?

Quick background:
my dad died in a car accident when I was 15, and none of us really handled it well. Que downward spiral through alcohol, then pot, then pills, then snorting oxycontin, leading to a full-blown heroine addiction.
Not me, obviously, the other two. I stopped at the second step, and then back-tracked to normal. Ahem...it is high school people.
Now don't forget that in reality this is a very long story that covers several years, and you got the very nut-shelled version.

My sisters are beautiful, wonderful people who got very, very lost. But they are doing really well now.
This is actually their second ventures into rehab. The first time they both went to separate 30-day programs which did a little, but mostly did diddly-squat.
Now they're in 15 month programs called Teen Challenge. One here in good old Washington but up north about 2 hours, and the other in Kansas City. Which Kansas City? I'm not telling. But either one is pretty far if you look at a map.

So anyway, when we were kids we were eachother's everything. We played together for hours on end everyday. We drove eachother nuts, but we were also eachothers best friends. And we had a great family. A mom who stayed home and did an amazing job keeping our family together, clean, fed, and happy. And a dad who worked tirelessly, only to come home and play with us until we went to bed. It was a charmed life really, although we didn't know it. The dream of the American middle class.

But when we were all grieving (badly I might add...as in we didn't grieve the way people are supposed to), we grew apart. We were all mean and hurtful, because we were hurting.
And after I moved out and got married, things got worse here. The girls eventually weren't going to school, stopped hanging out with old friends, started sleeping all the time, and had the worst attitudes ever. If they ever told us where they were going or who they would be with, which they usually didn't, there was a 99.9% chance it was a lie. Then Nessy turned 18 and moved out and got really bad, and Bug started running away...things just escalated until we finally found out what was going on.
Oh, and Bug is a diabetic so the fact that she spent inordinate amounts of time in the hospital wouldn't normally be odd for her, but it was always for really weird reasons. And then we found out and realized it had all been because of drugs. Even Nessy spent a lot of time in the hospital.
Looking back we feel blind. But the truth is, they were just really, really good liars. Drugs do that.

Actually, writing all this has helped a lot. I would write more, but monkey is awake and its time to head to Freddy's, so I'll bid you adeu. But before I do that, I just want to say that I love my crazy, insane, beautiful family with all my heart, no matter what happens. And that is saying something.