| Toni 的个人资料FIGHTING INSANITY照片日志列表 |  工具  帮助 |
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11月27日 FlurriesThey're predicting snow--SNOW--for Thursday.
Snow.
Now that I have that out of the way, I can give everyone an update on my favorite subject, the doll/mouse/treehouse. I've cut my hand up into a meatburger, but finally, after almost 4 weeks, I'm done carving. Now all I have left is sanding, staining, gluing, nailing...and then there's the matter of furniture. How in the world am I supposed to make that? And what would one expect a fairy/doll/mouse/possibly a frog or toad to use for furniture? Mia and I were out in the woods a few days ago gathering up acorn caps to use for teacups, but that's all I got. Any suggestions?
I've...okay, WE'VE gotten the tree up. It's pretty glorious. No really, it's sweet. This year we've used white lights instead of the customary colored ones. I usually insist upon the pinks and yellows and blues and greens...but we'd spent enough money on decorations, we had white lights on hand...so up they went. I managed to fit every last shiny, shimmery ball I had, along with a ton of other unusual ornaments, onto the tree...
Oh, gosh, THE TREE. I forgot to say. As I mentioned before, we went to the tree farm Saturday. We rode, we drank, we were merry. We picked out the most humongous tree we could find--a 10 footer--and slapped that bad boy on the top of my little Alero like that's where it was meant to be, and drove it back to our humble house, forgetting that our ceilings were only 10 feet tall...needless to say, we took a little off the top, and the bottom, of our precious tree. But it's up, and beautiful. Again, I will take pictures. I have taken pictures, actually, and am in the process of getting them developed by the photogeniuses of a backwoods Wal-Mart Supercenter.
Christmas shopping is at 65-70% complete. The gifts I have not yet bought have been intensely thought over and are sure to be purchased within the next 2 weeks. So not to worry, friends. I love you all and would never forget about you.
Cards, now, they are another matter. I spent hours lying awake in bed last night Christmas-card scheming. I've decided that this year, I will buy a bulk package of white cardstock and make my own by way of CARVING (see gashes from the dollhouse) into a linoleum block the shape of an ornament and basically making a custom stamp, if you will...anxious to see how this will turn out.
And that's that for now. Caleb has given Cheyenne and I the night off and we are headed to our favorite store, Michael's, to buy crafts, crafts, and more crafts--for purely presently purposes, of course. You all have a great next few days. If I haven't gotten around to reading and commenting on spacer's spaces, I will soon. I do have a dollhouse to work on, you know. 11月25日 Priceless.Commence Christmas season in 5...4...3...2...1...
It's official. We turned on our lights last night for the first time; Caleb spent all last weekend getting them up onto the roof and they do look spectacular. Our neighbors, of course, totally outdid us--not that it's a competition...but they're pretty anal about stuff (It's practically winter and they still water their lawn all day everyday--give it a rest, people). I think ours look pretty sweet anyhow.
We are off today to a tree farm to pick out the perfect Christmas tree. Hay rides, hot chocolate and a big hacksaw await us, as long as we're ready to spend $100+ on a big fat honkin' pine tree.
Last year we had a regular size one that we put on an end table in a corner of the living room. Smokey was the size of a small bunny rabbit then and wasn't a threat to the tree. This year I'm worried sick that he's going to knock that sucker down the moment we get it up. His favorite spot to lay, sleep, run through is, of course, right next to that end table in the corner of the living room. And he's gigantic; even when he's in a calm mood, his tail, OH GOD HIS TAIL, whacks things...it's painful if it hits you. He's a solid 110 pounds--that's 100 pounds up from last year! My goodness. My little Smokey, all grown up.
I'll never forget the day I got him. I sure wasn't supposed to. I saw free puppies at a grocery store parking lot. They were cute, but I wasn't sure about the background of these dogs--breed, temperment, and with small children in our house...then the lady told me about her sister. I'm holding a puppy (first mistake) and she tells me that her sister has labrador retrievers for sale, 6 weeks old. I think to myself, "It wouldn't hurt to just go look; holding puppies is fun stuff."
So I casually drive (because I am just looking, right?) an hour and a half away, on the other side of OKC, to this backwoods lady's house...and behold the most glorious tiny black labs you've ever laid eyes on IN YOUR LIFE.
I decide right then and there that Darcy needs a young stud to keep her company, and keep her from pestering Shadow all the time. Mia is pretty stoked about the puppies, and heads right over to a group of rowdy ones and starts chasing them, laughing and shrieking...she was so cute. She just loved them; the deal was sealed and I just had to get one.
"How much?" I ask the lady.
"$250.00" says the fat lady in the recliner, puffing away on her cigarette and smoking up the small room.
"Ooo..." I said. "Will you take $100?"
"No." She laughs. Damnit.
I look at Mia who is happily torturing a puppy in a corner of the room. I scan the area for the rest of the puppies--which one seems the calmest?
And then I spot a sleepy little thing under a table. That one. A boy dog.
"Huh! Never thought the runt would be the first to go!" Says the lady.
"This one's the runt???" I ask, filling out the check.
"Yep." Cough, cough, hack hack.
I get my dog and out the door we go. I'm having an out of body experience at this moment, and I'm not thinking at all of what Caleb will do to me once he finds out I've spent $250.00 on a dog we most certainly don't need. Conviently, I have a laundry basket with a cozy blanket in the car for the puppy to ride in.
The next two days are spent in total fear and anxiety; Caleb was out of town and I knew the minute he came home I was going to get it. What to do, what to do? Hmm...He can't get mad if I say I got this puppy for him as a Christmas present. Brilliant! Genius!
When he walked in the door, I had Cheyenne hide the puppy back in her room.
"Sit down on the couch, babe. We have a present for you," I said.
"Okay," he smiles, and he closes his eyes.
Cheyenne puts the puppy in his lap. The smile fades. He opens his eyes the puppy yawns and lays down in his lap.
For a moment, I think about running. Getting in the car and disappearing for a day, or a week maybe, until he calms down. But he never got worked up, never said anything...except, "Aw. The puppy breath!"
I let Caleb pick the doggy's name: Smokey. Little did he know how appropriate that name actually was.
Later on that night Caleb asked me how much I spent on the little guy. "$100" I lie.
"You spent $100 on the runt of the litter?" he asks. "Are you crazy? We don't have that kind of money to spend on a dog."
That's the story of Smokey. It's the worst stunt I've ever pulled. But I'm so glad I did. 11月20日 Full Circle Thanks to everybody for the dollhouse encouragement. I'm so totally stoked about it. Plans have been set into full-force motion; progress is slow but steady. It's all I think about lately, getting it done, putting it together. That's the bipolar in me talking, I just know it. If I set it down, I'm back at it, 5 minutes later, hacking and chiseling and carving, and sanding...but mostly imagining. The wonderful thing about this treehouse/dollhouse/mousehouse is the way I'm building it. Since it's made of small birdhouses, I take it everywhere I go. This way I am gauranteed to leave woodshavings in just about nook and cranny of our own life-size house. And I'm okay with that.
Caleb, I think, is getting a little fed up with my obsession. He doesn't like the fact that I don't get dressed in the morning and forget to feed the dogs, or change Mia's diaper...or run a load of laundry and let the dishes pile up high on the side of the sink.
Hey, I just can't help it. I would've loved to have something like this when I was...26.
And whenever I'm carving away, the thought enters my mind that one day, my GRANDCHILDREN might play with this. And I carve all the harder, which usually results in a nasty, splintery gash on the side of an otherwise perfectly pretty mouse bedroom. So I must take an additional 20 minutes fixing what was probably already fine to begin with...
Well, I'd love to write more except that there's only so many hours in the day, and I've got to get back to my project, my perfect Christmas toy...
Wait. There is one more thing I'd love to talk (ehem, GRIPE) about while I am taking the time out to write. Caleb. I got major beef with him, and a question for you guys. Let's just say, hypothetically of course, that a woman takes the hour and a half of alone time she has on a weekend and uses it to scrub clean every last square centimeter of 2 bathrooms, dust and vacuum the living room, and wipe down all tile floors in a hypothetical house. Then let's suppose that later on that evening her husband tracks in big honkin' shoefulls of red mud. Who cleans this mess up? Does the husband naturally assume that the wife will, since she's done it all day and she just loves being on her hands and knees with a rag and cup of soapy water? Or should the wife expect the husband will clean up the gross mess that he made all over her pristine floor?
Or, do neither of them clean it up? Until the next morning, when the wife says to the husband, "Gee, look at that red mud. Someone should clean it up; probably the same person that brought it in."
And then the husband says, "Maybe you should do it since you were the one to have supposed to clean the bathroom. And besides, I clean up all your messes, like the ones you've made this week and have been too busy with that damn doll house to pick up after yourself." DOH! I knew that would come back to haunt me!
This comment would deserve a hypothetical wet rag to be flung at the back of the husband's head, and the poor wife, naked, wet and freezing from just getting out of the shower, grabs a nearby T-shirt of the husband's and mops away the mud.
All's well that ends well...we're over it, I think...but I won't be putting housework high on my list of priorities until the dollhouse is done. Except maybe for a sloppy mud trail through the house every now and then. 11月17日 What the...?My Christmas list from the 5th grade:
Cheyenne's Christmas list this year in the 5th grade:
Ah, the joys of being 10. I mean, I was still playing with friggin' Barbie dolls at Cheyenne's age. I distinctly remember making elaborate "houses" for Barbie and her crew out of hardback Sesame street storybooks...huge houses that covered the entire floor of my bedroom. My Barbies were not called "Barbie" nor were they called Midge, Teresa, Skipper, or Christine. I blessed them with names like (no kidding) Charlotte, Miranda, Samantha, and my alltime favorite name in the world, Maryanne. (I'm not kidding about that one either.) I spent hours brushing Maryanne's long, luxurious bleach-blond hair, picking out the most fashionable non-whor-ish outfits, and getting her ready to go out on a date with Cody and the other girls. These dates usually ended up with Maryanne and Cody in the sack, while Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha lived it up cruising around in Cody's sweet Corvette, cooking gourmet meals in Maryanne's pink designer kitchen. My kid is not the slightest bit interested in these games. No. Instead, she writes not to Santa Clause this year, but directly to me and Caleb, asking specifically for anything from the Limited Too--gift cards are actually preferred this Christmas, as she does not trust me with the outfit picking process anymore. Geez. Mia, on the other hand, is in the truly fun stage of life where she can't spoil my Christmas dreams by asking for things I have no desire to play with. I am fully determined to design and build a fairy-doll-Swiss-Family-Robinson-Robin-Hood-Prince-of-Thieves-Ewok-village-treehouse/mousehouse out of many wooden parts and pieces. I have an idea in my head; nothing else will do. Picture this: Several open wooden "rooms", if you will, sculpted out of cheap unfinished birdhouses fresh from clearance at Michaels, carved and stained and attatched to actual branches that are firmly secured to a base made out of slice of tree. I, myself, can see it clearly; others have no idea where I'm going with this. Caleb, the love of my life, the man who understands me (scary) more than anyone in the world, DID ACTUALLY GET IT. Granted, it did take weeks of explaining over and over for him to grasp the concept, but yesterday, something clicked and he came home from a trip to town with materials I did not ask him to get but nevertheless needed, and he hypothetically put it all together on the kitchen table. Now we see eye-to-eye and are working towards this common goal of Mia's whateveryoucallit dollhouse. It's gonna be pretty sweet. I will take pictures with my disposable camera and scan them into the computer for all to see... Have a happy weekend you guys! 11月14日 I'll Never Be Ready I've heard from a few people who are absolutely thrilled by cold weather--a first sign of winter. When I lived in Florida, I suppose a short cold snap might have excited me. Now that I know what it means, here in Oklahoma--3 to 4 months of freezing wind and rain and ice, no going outside, muddy dog prints all over the house--I'm not so sure I'm ready for winter. Granted in some states, winter is worse. I shouldn't complain, but I'll take a green Christmas anyday; give me a fake lighted palm tree and I'll put ornaments all over it. I'm not ready for winter. Not at all.
This Christmas will be particularly hard for us. Cheyenne will be hanging out in West Virginia with her father and his side of the family. I've made up my mind not to biatch about him, per say, but the whole situation kind of gets me down. If you've been reading me for a while you'll know that I'm not too fond of sharing my child; I don't like her to leave, at any time of the year, much less my most favorite holiday of all. I know she'll have fun, she'll get tons of Christmas loot, and she'll get to visit with people she hasn't seen in years...but MAN. It's gonna be kind of quiet. And empty. Without her.
One wonderful thing about this time of year is SHOPPING WITH PURPOSE. I'm a woman on a mission when I head to the mall; I just love getting presents for everybody, and wrapping them in pretty paper. Oh, yeah.
Moving right along. Caleb left late this morning, pissed off and in a hurry. The boss is on the warpath, the job is stressing him out--I know that's a lot of why he's been a little tired and grouchy...but I can't help but think I'm ticking him off in my own special way, too. I'm pretty good at that. And what's the old saying? "If Caleb ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." Okay, I know that's not it exactly, but around here it is. Kind of glad he's going out of town--maybe he'll come back in a better frame of mind, and I'll miss the brunt of his bad mood.
Mia and I are holed up in the house at the moment. We've gotten our bath (yes, me included) and put on our warmest clothes, but I just can't bring myself to go anywhere yet. It's so flippin' chilly! I'd rather just play blocks and watch "The Little Mermaid" over and over again.
Okay well beyond complaining, I'm not very much inspired today so I'm out. Hope everyone has a great rest of the week. 11月10日 SHE DID ITWell, folks, do we all finally see what I meant about my style-stalker Britney Spears?
She cut her hair. She did it. Short, just like mine.
Now, granted, I did hack mine off a while back, and now it's a tad longer than Ms. Spears'. But...Point made, point taken, right?
Not only did she copy the cut, she also has bleached it back to blonde. JUST LIKE ME. Scary.
I wonder if I should get paid for being Britney's hairdo trailblazer.
There will be people out there that won't believe me. After all, my hair is shoulder length now, and if I were to go in for a touch-up, they would say that I'm the one doing the copying. Woe unto you people. It was my idea from the get-go.
It's not easy living life day to day and wondering "Where are they hiding?" Britney's stooges. I surely don't have bushes or trees big enough to hide a man with a camera anywhere near my house. My only guess is that they wait outside my neighborhood and catch shots of me out and about town. It's a little frightening at times--what if I accidentally ram my car into one of these guys, or hurl a laptop at someone?
Back off, Britney. Stop copying or start paying up. 11月9日 Get the Book Before I go on, I'll just say that I, myself, am buying THE BOOK for every punk kid I know for Christmas. It's so very entertaining; me and Cheyenne will sit around for an hour, taking turns reading different and disgusting historical facts to each other...
Good times, good times.
This weekend Caleb is going out of town--to a wedding! Alas, we decided months ago that I'll need to stay here with the three pesky dogs and make sure they don't tear up the furniture or crap all over the carpet...what was that other thing? Oh, yeah. The kids. Gotta watch them, too. Flying everyone down is way too expensive, and I am NOT getting in that car for another 20 hour driving adventure.
So, it's just me. And the girls. And the beasts. I've decided to make this weekend totally awesome by doing some early Christmas shopping; taking Cheyenne to malls she has never known...there's rumored to be one in Oklahoma City that has CARS in the food court that you can sit in while you eat your Chick-fil-A waffle fries. In this alleged supermall, there's also an indoor playground bigger than the Mia is used to going to; fun for the whole family. Now that's quality time--the mall.
Back to the subject of the wedding, a friend of ours, well sort of a buddy of Caleb's from way back, is finally tying the knot--this guy is such a sweetie; he let our entire family stay at his house in Mississippi for 3 weeks while Hurricane Ivan hit and bit our town a few years back. I will never forget his kindness; Mia was only 1 month old, and I was lactating and hormonal. He wasn't the list bit phased or skeeved out by my physical and emotional state--he made us all so comfortable. So congratulations to this man and his new wife.
Speaking of weddings, my sister and her HUSBAND (!) did make it back from their sweet honeymoon in Switzerland and Italy. Haven't gotten a chance to look through all the pictures, but the ones I saw were fabulous. I'm so glad they went, and that they went now; they're young and free and they really enjoyed themselves. No worrying about the kiddies (or the dogs!) back home...being fit and fabulous enough to march themselves up, down, over, around...
I want to one day be able to take Caleb on a trip. We've toyed with the idea of a cruise...you know, to Cozumel, the Bahamas...those type of places...but what we really want is Ecuador! The Galapagos! Chile! Peru! Other destination picks include but are not limited to:
Hmmm...and I did read somewhere that everyone must, at some point in their lives, visit a 3rd World country. So I'll pick one of those and add it to my list for a life-changing experience. If anyone out there has any insight as far as a vacation like that, I'd love to hear about it--have you ever been to a third world country, for vacation, church trip, etc? Where did you go? How did you get there? What was it like? And mostly, were you afraid? Curious. Okay. Enough ramblings for today. Have a happy Wednesday people. 11月7日 Recommended ReadingOkay. Been busy. But not busy enough to keep me from sitting down with one of Cheyenne's newest book, "OH, YIKES! History's Grossest, Wackiest Moments", by Joy Masoff, author of the bestselling "OH YUCK!"
Seriously, this book is just the shiz. I love it. I bought it for her before we took our trip down to Florida, thinking it'd make for some pretty interesting reading on the drive there and back. The last few days I have found myself sitting down with the thing every morning, flipping through it's pages...nothing can tear me away from this book.
Here's a few examples, just so you get an idea of how flippin' great this book is, especially for the 8-12 year old crowd:
Okay. Mia's waking up from her nap and I'd better get off this thing before she starts screaming bloody murder. 11月1日 Gotta Go Gotta Go Gotta Go Right Now Oh, wow. November 1st already? When did that happen?
I've gotta go to the bathroom, so this entry might be cut short.
We've had some company this past week--things have been busy.
The Wildlife Refuge thing was AMAZING. I can't wait to go back--there's not enough time in one day to cover all there is to see and do. Everytime we turned around we saw cool animals. Cheyenne and Caleb were like mountain goats, boulder-hopping and rock-climbing...it was just so flippin' splendid being outdoors on a beautiful day...
And then the cold came. The bitter cold.
Of course we would expect nothing less on Halloween, when our children are wanting to dress up in costumes often not well suited for the extreme cold weather. But we managed. Cheyenne went as a dead-cheerleader-thing, and Mia did indeed, at the last moment, put on her bumble bee costume. Caleb took the girls into town, and I stayed at the house and waited...and waited...and waited for trick-or-treaters. We did get 2 groups--for a total of 4 kids...eventually. Luckily, I didn't waste money on candy and instead bought granola bars--that way I wouldn't have to eat 3 full bags of Kit-Kats...it worked out well.
Halloween's not really my favorite holiday. I can't get into it. Mia's scared of it. And Cheyenne is, unfortunately, fast getting to the age where Halloween just gives girls an excuse to dress like whores. So, I'm really looking foward to Christmas...the one time out of the year where I get to go shopping, without the girl, for proper 10-year-old attire.
Today it really hit me that Christmas is quite close, and I couldn't be more excited. My husband rolls his eyes, but I just adore...what I really love is...I'm more than a little obsessed with...ornaments. Sparkly ones. Bright, colorful ones. Shiny ones. There is nothing on this earth, not even shoes (sorry Barnyardmama), that I go crazy for more than ornaments. I sweat...tears come to my eyes, seriously, when I walk through a stores Christmas section for the first time...my heart beats. I can't think of anything more wonderful...okay, maybe a few certain pairs of shoes. Does anyone else have this addiction, this unnatural need for sparkly Christmas decorations?
On the baby-making front...not so much. It's an on-going process, only to be perfected over time...a lot of time. Perhaps we should try 2 bottles of wine and 1 Angelina Jolie movie. It worked about 3 years ago. Somehow I don't think it will be quite that easy...sharing a bed with dogs and babies kind of throws a kink in our plans...ha! Kink! Get it? No? Oy...okay.
Our digital camera quit working on us, so we've been going nuts with those handy disposable box cameras...so far we have filled up about 3, lost about 2, and have plans to take 1 to the store tomorrow to be developed. Heaven only knows what kind of pictures we'll get back--whatever the roll turns out to be of, it'll be posted for all to see...as soon as I get them all scanned in--you know, the old fashioned way. Fun stuff.
I can't hold it any longer. Hope you all had a great Halloween and an even better November 1st. Happy Birthday to Jan and my Oma...Love you guys.
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