Glory Be To God!

We finally have our computer back! A very good friend from our online community sent us a new power supply and it arrived today. So I'm back! YAY!!! But it's now late, so this was just a quick post. I'll have to be more vocal at a later date..........

Back At The Library

Still waiting to get the computer fixed! So, at the library again to post. We have a friend (one of many from our internet community) sending us a power supply he happened to have lying around. Hopefully we'll get that soon and it'll fix the problem, and we'll be back in business!

In the meantime, we've survived the first week of school relatively unscathed. All the heathens had new principals this year, so things can get dicey, ya know. But, so far so good. There hasn't been any homework yet, so we're not completely "back into the groove" until we're managing homework AND chores every evening!

Not Gonna Be Sharing Much For Awhile...

Well, we've had some trouble at our home. We had lots of rain last week, and some got into the circuit box outside. So, Tuesday night, from at least 4am until we got up at 7, everything plugged into a downstairs outlet was flashing off and on - including our computer! So, once it was all fixed, the computer will no longer turn on. Joy. So, until we can diagnose the specific problem and then be able to afford to repair it - I'll be making the infrequent posts from the public library!

Best Vampire Book Series EVER!

Okay, I just finished reading Breaking Dawn - the final book of the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. I have to say I'm absolutely in LOVE with this series! The writing is amazing, the characters unbelievable, the world so alive! So, if anyone is looking for gift ideas for me in the future - a box set of all 4 books when it's available would be AWESOME!

For anyone who hasn't read or even heard of this series - a quick explanation. I'll try to avoid anything remotely resembling a spoiler, because (as anyone who knows me well will attest) I really prefer to let everyone experience the whole story on it's own!. In Twilight - the first book of the series, you have Bella, a sun-loving daughter of a broken family essentially banishing herself to the relatively sun-free small town of Forks, Washington where her father lives. She's fairly miserable and has a pretty low self-esteem. She soon meets and becomes emotionally attached to a boy (and by extension his "family") who has some pretty big secrets.

The book has been marketed as Young Adult, but I know MANY adults who have fallen in love with this story - and for good reason. The author herself mentions on her website that she really just wrote this story for herself, not really expecting it to become the sensation that it did. Written for herself - a grown woman! Therefore, I can see why it might appeal to an older set than "Young Adult". Also, she's a Mormon, so the content is really clean until the last book - Breaking Dawn. And even then it's just a few mild words and the sexual content is extremely tame - nothing descriptive. More like the good old days in movies where they couple might kiss and head to the bedroom and then the screen fades to black....... You know what's happening - but she lets your imagination do the work ;)

Anyway - I love it! The final book was awesome, I am not in the least disappointed! Thank you to Stephenie for the wonderful world she shared with us, and I can't wait for Edwards book to hit the shelf (Edwards book is Twilight from the guy's perspective....)

New Car!

Okay, any of our friends and family know that we have been driving the quintessential POS for about, oh, EVER. Our old 1994 Pontiac TransSport van, that we've spent 3 times it's worth just to keep running, whose A/C doesn't work AT ALL and whose power windows don't work and are stuck in the UP position - making it a veritable oven in this Texas heat. Well, it failed it's State inspection in March, so we've been driving around in at just waiting to be pulled over and ticketed. That never happened - HOWEVER, our apartment did tag it for towing, giving us until the 3rd to deal with one way or another. We've had no desire to keep this van, since it's in such bad condition and can't really BE maintained at this point. We've just continued in it waiting for CyberChaun to start teaching this fall (nothing's written in stone about that and we haven't wanted to count our chickens before they hatch - our luck runs in the bad direction most times....) But, under this new deadline, we went ahead and took the plunge and got ourselves a new vehicle! And here's our story:

We weren't sure what we wanted - except a van since we have 3 heathens and then they have friends........ But living in this city we drive by dozens of HUGE car lots of all varieties daily. So, first I did some searching of used vehicles online. I wasn't impressed but found a couple workable possibilities. But for some reason, CyberChaun and I have been drawn time again to this little Kia dealership next to our preferred gas station. So yesterday we decide to just go and see what they had in the way of used Kias. When we got there, we expected to look around, talk to the smarmy salesman/woman who tagged us, be laughed at (because our credit is sketchy at best and we have no down-payment and no one WANTS that van as a trade-in, and we're looking for a low monthly payment). Well, what HAPPENED is a bit different. When we got there, a salesman DID tag us promptly. He introduced himself and asked what we were looking for. We went inside out of this insane heat and we told him our stipulations. He was glassy-eyed for a moment, but then moved on. He noticed our wedding bands. Well, he soon used a Bible reference as part of his sales pitch and I mentally rolled my eyes. I'm thinking "He did not just try and use my beliefs as a means to sale me a car......" But he was. We talked about our credit and did some pre-qualifying. Turns out, our credit isn't good enough for a bank to finance us on a used vehicle. He explained this and it made perfect sense at the time - but I couldn't begin to repeat it now. So we're on to new cars. Eek! Expensive, serious depreciation, not the direction we wanted to go. But okay - let's see what the guy can do. We went out and took a test drive, and we joked around a little bit. The car was nice - we liked it a lot. Anything, of course, was better than what we HAD been driving after all..... When we got back inside, the guy was pretty sincere (after learning about our current vehicle) about getting us into a car SOMEHOW that fit our needs and our budget. And he worked pretty darn hard to do so. He couldn't quite get the payments down to our maximum monthly payment, but after a lot of rebates and simply knocking off a couple grand more (I don't think he made ANY money off us) he actually got it less than $50 over our max. So we took it. At this point the paperwork began, and we kept waiting for him to come back and tell us that the bank laughed. Or at the very least wanted a co-signer. The next shock came when he said - "it's done, I need your IDs and insurance". Blink Blink. Huh? Yes, absolutely went through without hardly a hiccup. So as I head over to his laptop to go ahead and replace the POS with this brand new vehicle on my insurance, I see something interesting. On his laptop are 2 David Crowder Band stickers........who listend to Dave Crowder band? Well, mostly Christians do. So I make a comment, and he's like "oh yeah! I've been to 2 of their concerts this year and plan on going to another one! They're gonna be at Six Flags with Skillet!" Skillet!!??!! I LOVE SKillet, and it's ANOTHER Christian band. SO here it turns out that guy wasn't just "using" our beliefs against us - actually shares them, and our rings just made him comfortable with sharing his thoughts on our situation. So we get everything taken care of (ouch on the cost of full coverage - it's been forever since we've needed that!) And the salesman goes to get the car ready to drive home! We of course then deal with the sales manager to sign all the dotted lines. When we go to pick up the keys, the salesman had made a quick cardboard sign he'd put in the front, saying "Congratulations! And God has blessed you!" CyberChaun gets into the car and turns on the radio, and guess what? It's already tuned into our favorite Christian Rock/Alternative station (which isn't the station that gets the most play in this area by a long shot - so it's really cool that the guy knew it)! So it was just pretty darn cool! And since everyone wants to know (pics will follow), we now have a brand new, midnight blue Kia Sorento!

Been A While.....

Sorry about that. See, we were without internet for about 2 and a half weeks. Not a very interesting story - just switching service providers. But now we're back up and running, so all's good! Not much to share at this time. We're just spending our time working, cleaning and playing. In a few more weeks I guess back-to-school activities will be beginning, and my mother will be here visiting as well. So, there'll probably be lots more posting happening then!

Be Still My Beating Heart........

Okay, I am SO FREAKING EXCITED!!!!!!! And it's so very cool to have this information before my husband ;) What information? Oh, I didn't say? So very sorry!

My excitement this day is over the news that a third installment of my ALL-TIME favorite game is in the works!!!!!!!!

Check THIS out!

If you're not a gamer......I pity you. However, I know you exist, so you can feel free to ignore this post and move on. The rest of you, however, my feel free to drool (just not on your keyboard - that could be problematic).

I really can't say anymore - I'm too excited for sustained coherent speech......typing......whatever......

A Plea For Help

There is this fun little site that my heathens (and I'll admit it - I like to play there, too) enjoy called Dollmakers. It's the new generation of paper dolls, lots of fun. I haven't been on in AGES - but decided to pop on today. On the main page, I see a link to THIS.

Now, I haven't checked it out completely, but so far it seems very legit. I encourage everyone to first check it out, then to give if you can!

That's it for today!

Yeah I know - it's been too long

So, it seems it's still hard for me to make time to post. I'll keep working on it, though. So, things are busy as usual. The Cyberchaun and Heathen number 1 are preparing to go on the church Youth Summer Camp. Which means I'M doing a lot of laundry and packing so that they have all they need. I've also been going through a lot of fabric - but that's something I'll talk about another day ;)

I did promise some pictures of awards and such, so that's what I'm doing today. First a picture of Heathen number 3 with her awards.



It's been too long now - I've slept a lot since then - so I can't remember all the awards she got. Obviously Math Wizard was one of them. I'm pretty sure that Sunshine was one as well - she's always happy (at school at least). Of course she got the Spirit Award - for wearing her uniform everyday (insert eyeroll here)

And now for Heathen number 2.......



Again, I can't remember all the awards. And I can't quite make out what that first one says......anyway - he got 5 of them.

That same day, Heathen number 3 and her Explorers group put on a play in the library. Here are some pics:







The blondie, of course, being mine. She was Little Red Riding Hood. I actually filmed it on my camera, but the quality is extremely poor, and I don't have a handy place to host it at the moment, so there :P

And now for Heathen number 1. We weren't able to go to her school awards due to work. She got an academic award and a Sports award. But we DID make it to her DukeTIPS award ceremony, and here is a pic from after the ceremony, and then one from around the UNT campus where it was held:




There are actually more pictures - of all the kids - but they are all on The Cyberchan's phone, and he has yet to pass them on to me :s

So that's it for today. I need to eat lunch and then get back to the laundry. It never ends..........

Better Late Than Never

SO it's taken me a while to have the time to get my pictures from my phone and get them hosted and then have time to make a post, but here I am! Today I'll be sharing with you some about my two youngest heathens. There has been a lot in our lives lately revolving around the eldest heathen, so they need some special time of their own. The school year is over, and one of the great things about elementary school at the end of the year is that there aren't finals, instead there are parties! YAY!!

SO, the last Friday of school (which is not to be confused with the last DAY of school) was what they now call Buddy Fun Day. Now, back in the day (cough cough) we had Field Day. And on Field Day they actually had little track and field events. The 50 yard dash, long jump. Along with some more fun events such as the three-legged race and the ever popular egg race. (You remember - the one where they put the raw egg in the spoon and you had to run without letting the egg fall out and break). Well, they don't do that anymore.

In this day of anti-competitiveness (because no one competes in the real world and everyone is a winner - what a disservice we're doing today's youth - but that's a rant for another day), they have changed it to Buddy Fun Day, where the kids are paired off with a peer and they run around aimlessly playing silly little games like go fish, or eating powdered donuts off a string, while getting rewarded for being polite (saying please and thank you) and for showing good sportsmanship (saying good job to your buddy or the pair who played before you, etc.)

I volunteer for Buddy Fun Day in some way every year. Last year was easy - I was the water station and simply handed out water to the youngsters. That worked for me because I am unashamedly lazy at heart. This year I had the station called "Football Flag Tag". Do not be fooled - the only thing it has in common with football is that one person holds the football. They both put those little flag-belts on. One holds the football -making them "it". They have to stay in a circle spray-painted on the ground while the football-less child chases the other and tries to yank off their flag-belt. It takes all of 5 seconds for most kids. So I did that all day - and got a pretty bad sunburn in the process. (Yes - I DID put on sunscreen! Apparently it just doesn't matter. Burning is my lot in life......) I got a couple pics of the kiddos that day that I'm sharing here:



That one on the left belongs to me. No, she doesn't have a strange skin-peeling disease on her face - that's powdered sugar from that event I mentioned earlier.......



My boy is on the right - isn't he handsome? I know - the hair. He has this really cute Pete Wentz haircut - that just looks like a bowl cut without the gel. I just didn't see a point in fixing his hair that day - it wouldn't have lived through the water games or the wind anyway.



And here they are together. Awwwwwwww........hey - I've got an even cuter one (although it didn't come out quite as good....)



They never really got the memo that they aren't supposed to like each other.......

Coming Soon: Awards ceremonies and last days of school!

As Promised....

I will now post some more pics of my oldest heathen. After walking 4 miles through downtown Dallas Arts District, she had the energy to primp up and go to the school's Spring Dance. Before posting these pictures, however, I must do some 'splainin'. You see, one might get the impression from the previous posts photos that my oldest child is somewhat, well, normal. Do Not Be Fooled!!!!

She is FAR from normal! But I personally consider this a very good thing - and I think she does, too! This child - in addition to making stellar grades, speaking more intelligently than most adults, reading at an undergraduate level, playing violin and singing in the church choir -plays video on both PC and consoles, listens to classic rock and alternative and punk, adores the fashions of the 80's *slight shudder* and likes Japanese Anime. In this vein, she has chosen a personal style that combines the cute hair fashions of Anime cutsie characters with some sort of mix of 80's/contemporary punk clothing. You've been warned.......


First, so you can see the Whole Outfit:



Now getting up close and personal:



And still beautiful after the dance:



And looking a little Andy Warhol-like:



There she is - my oldest heathen!

Sorry It's Been So Long

Really, I am. It's been a very busy time, plus I knew exactly what I wanted to blog about next. However, that subject required pictures to be loaded from my phone onto the computer, and then hosted, etc. And that took some time and effort. But, here I am now, with my next post complete with pictures! YAYNESS!

So, last Friday, my oldest heathen's art class went on a walking tour of the Dallas Arts District. My husband and I chaperoned. We walked somewhere around 4 miles that day. And I took pictures (although not enough of them-sorry!). What they did was divide the kids into small groups of around 9. Then each kid had to have their sketch book, a pencil, and this list of questions. The chaperones got a map. The map was numbered, and told exactly what order to do everything in. Then we walked to the numbered areas in order, and at each place the kids had to sketch what they saw, or answer a question about what they saw. There were 36 places in all, but I only got pictures of a handful, and we didn't have time to get all of them.

First stop was the Nasher Sculpture Garden. There they were to decide where they thought these people were going:




Then they were to "peek" inside the center and find a sculpture they liked and write about it.

They then had to note the balance used in the Trammell Crow Fountain:



Next is write what story they thought this sculpture was telling:



Next was to decide what this horse is thinking:



Sadly, my daughter's friend said it was feeling violated - due to the elementary children walking under it and exclaiming over it's anatomically-correctfulnes...... yes I know I just made up a word.......

Then there was the architecture of the Belo Mansion:



and the Cathedral of Guadalupe:



The picture of Guadalupe Cathedral is the first of these pictures that I actually took. I got that from one of the many skywalks connecting the various business buildings downtown. I apologize for the quality - it's a camera phone.....

Next they were to draw a birds eye view from the Sky Lobby in the Chase Tower. First - I took some birds eye pictures:





Then a couple pics of the Sky Lobby itself:




Then they were to find where rainbows begin in the Plaza of the Americas.....

There are a few rainbows on this ice skating rink:



And then I took a pic of the kids in our group inside a rainbow in the walkway:



My heathen is bottom left. What causes the rainbows? There are hundreds of huge prisms hung in front of all the windows high up in the tower ceilings and walls!

There is a sculpture garden themed around cancer survivors. One sculpture that I can't find a picture for is a 5,000 pound (I think) granite ball that sits in a depression with running water. It's too huge for any one person to ever be able to move, but since it "floats" on the constantly moving water, you can turn it, spin it, change it's direction. It's symbolic of man's fight with cancer. Very cool - if you're ever in Dallas you should definitely check it out! Another sculpture in the cancer garden that I DID get a pic of is a maze with people of various ages and conditions entering it - the maze being cancer - and some making it out the other side. Here is my heathen posing with a "survivor":



Next is another sculpture:



Who was the artist and what year was it made? Pretty simple.

*note* I've skipped a lot of things I don't have any pictures for - and will be continuing to do so. So if someone out there is actually counting and later says "there weren't 36 things in your list" - no there aren't I just didn't get pictures/couldn't find pictures of all things. *raspberries*

Moving on...

Next was my favorite thing - Thanksgiving Square. Now, that link will show some of the same pictures I have here - but I want to share the ones *I* took, so there.

Here is the Thanksgiving Chapel:



And the stained glass windows inside the spiral of the chapel:



Absolutely gorgeous! And quite a nice picture to come from a measly cell phone camera.....if I do say so myself.

And then a gorgeous mosaic outside the chapel:



Then on to this mural in a very boring parking lot:




Now for a couple random pics of my beautiful heathen:


sketching outside the Thanksgiving Chapel


sketching beside the mosaic

And here is the whole group at the end of the day outside the DMA



And that's my blog for today! Although it wasn't the end of THAT day. These worn out kids then went on to their Spring Dance that night - I'll be putting up the pics of my heathen decked out for THAT next time!

Free At Last.....For A Time...

Our church had our kids' Spring Musical last night. I was the Drama Coordinator. It's been a grueling couple of months to get this done, and it's over! The actors did wonderfully -really nailed their lines. The choir snag beautifully, and LOUDLY - which is not always the case. The loud part, not the beautiful part. Overall I was very pleased with the performances. I just wish we'd had about 2 more weeks to practice. The schedule kept getting changed on us. Not anyone's fault, really, this is just turning into the Year of Scheduling Conflicts. Hopefully next year will be better :P

I'm just glad to be done with this one for now, because I'm looking at a couple very busy weeks! It's the last half of the final 6 weeks of school. So, of course, there are field trips that need chaperoned, school dances, graduation parties, award ceremonies, the list goes on and on. And of course I'm somewhat in the thick of things. Why? Because I guess I really believe that playing an active role in my kids' lives will have an impact on their present and their future. At least I really hope so. See, my kids are special. Special to me, like I would hope everyone's kids are special to them. But a bit more than that, my kids are just plain smart. I don't know why. I don't think I'm all THAT much above average, the same for the Cyberchaun. We get our kids teachers coming to us saying things like "I don't know what it is you're feeding kids - but keeping feeding them because they are just amazing!" This from their 1st grade teacher (they all somehow managed to have the exact same 1st grade teacher....poor woman ought to qualify for some kind of state aid for that at least......) And my response is "I feed them junk and fast food, so I should continue with that, then?" She thought I was kidding......... (of course, they get less junk since The Pioneer Woman changed my life, but still.......) Now, my oldest heathen is scary-smart. I'm serious. I mean, she's not quite Ender, and she doesn't make straight 100% grades or anything. But anyone just talking to her is amazed at her intelligence, intellect, wit and wisdom. She's 12 - soon to be 13, and was offered the opportunity to take either the SAT or ACT this year with the high school kids. She chose the ACT - and made a 22 out of 36 - placing her in the 95th percentile with the high schoolers taking the exact same test - 98th percentile with other 7th graders taking it. She's just amazing. That would be so cool in and of itself, but add in that she's an amazing artist - already winning medals and awards at art competitions.

I get to bragging on her and people might think my other 2 heathens are getting slighted. Don't go there - I'm just getting started :P. They'll get their turns another day. Today was for heathen number 1 - why? Who knows. I often tend to go in age order on things that include all of them. Not always oldest down, sometimes youngest up. Which always leave the poor boy right in the middle.........Ree will have to clue me in on how to handle this dreaded middle-child syndrome.........

I Worked Today!

I don't suppose a lot of people get excited over that. But, you see, I work part time in retail. And the economy sucks atm. So that means people aren't shopping, so the stores not making money, so the bosses cut down on hours - which leaves me without work. So I got called this morning when someone couldn't make it, and yay - another 4 hours of work. Most likely the only hours I'll have this whole week.

I enjoy my work. I was surprised by that. Much like my issues with cleaning, I don't usually like anything that qualifies as work. I worked a little when The Cyberchaun (name to be explained later) and I were first married. But when I became pregnant with our first heathen almost 13 years ago, I stopped working. And haven't really worked since. No, we weren't so wealthy that we could afford to live on one salary. We just live in something very close to abject poverty because I believe that in the long run it'll be more important to my children that I was THERE than that they got to have STUFF. So, anyway, when the youngest heathen started Kindergarten, I filled out this one lonely application on a lark. I wasn't actually looking for a job. But lo and behold - I was hired! Hadn't been a member of the workforce in, oh 11 years give or take. Had NEVER worked in retail. But here I am - working retail for about a year and a half now, and I actually really enjoy it - who'd-a-thunk? Not me, that's who.

A Twofer

Hmmm.......two posts in one day. Likely to be followed by a dearth of posts for a few days or so. Did I clean today? Yes I Did - quite a bit. Got a little delayed by running out of laundry detergent and having to run to the store. Also by Guild Wars, Guitar Hero III (the good news is that I unlocked another achievement - Axe Grinder, for 5-starring all the songs on easy...... ) and Oblivion. But even so I managed to get 3 loads of laundry, the living room and office cleaned. Not too very bad......

So thing I failed to mention earlier is that - yesterday was my baby's birthday! My youngest heathen turned 7 years old this year on Mother's Day - my very special and precious Mother's Day gift. I have a special relationship with each of my kids, based on their own unique personalities and how they relate to mine. But my special connection to this one started much earlier - in the womb. See, when I was in my first trimester with her, I had some bad spotting with cramping. It being my third child I was enough of a pregnancy veteran to not fall into complete panic, but I was concerned enough to go see my doctor. The doctor (a new one that hadn't delivered my previous children) made all the usual noises about sexual activity sometimes causing mild spotting, and that all looked "fine." Well, two days later the cramping was worse and the spotting wasn't letting up. I wasn't feeling "fine" so I went to the ER. Good thing, because they quickly found that the fetus was trying to abort. So, I was put on strict bed rest for the rest of the trimester. I spent many days lying in bed begging God not to take this precious child away from me. She wasn't planned, but she was definitely wanted! I firmly believe that those months of living every day in fear of losing her created an unusual bond between us. When she was a newborn she'd stare into my eyes, and I'd swear she had a knowledge of what we'd endured together.

Now she's 7 years old, smart as a whip - particularly gifted in math, although she reads very well, too. And she's beautiful! I'll have to post a picture of her soon - maybe some from her birthday party.....that no one came to :( But that might be something for another blog....or not - who knows ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BANSHEE!!!!!!!




This is about a year old - I'll have some newer ones next time!

I'd rather be playing Guild Wars.......

Okay, so it's Monday. And the heathens have spent the weekend wrecking the house as usual. So I get to spend the majority of the day cleaning up. I hate cleaning. I know everyone says that they dislike cleaning - but I hate it so much that I really sometimes can't even force myself to do it. I know it needs done. I know I should have better willpower. But cleaning is brutal and boring and no fun and never lasts anyway. If I manage to complete a quest or mission in Guild Wars, or close an Oblivion Gate in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - those things will remain done tomorrow, and next week, etc..... But, I'll be cleaning instead. Sigh. Or I'll be trying to.

So, here's the thing. If any random person should stumble upon this blog (notice the lack of Capital letters - I'm not marking my own page to be Stumbled Upon - at least not yet!), I'd like to hear from you! What would you rather be doing instead of cleaning/working/schoolwork?

Welcome to the Insanity!

Okay, so I've been hopelessly addicted to The Pioneer Woman's blog, and now have been inspired, I suppose, to do some blogging myself. To be completely up front, though....I'm not anywhere NEAR as interesting, and neither is my life. I'm nowhere NEAR so good a cook either, or a photographer. And I'm just not that funny. So why bother to blog, you ask? I have NO FREAKIN' IDEA! Mostly because I just love to talk. I tried a blog a couple years ago based on my love of movies (and boy do I spend LOTS of time watching movies!) However, I found that I didn't always want to TALK about the movies. So I only posted sporadically, then sporadically quickly became not at all....... So I gave up on blogging. But Ree recently posted about how/why she started her blog. And I thought, "You know, maybe if I didn't try to limit myself to just one subject. Maybe if I just talked about whatever was on my mind that day, whether it be work, movies, games or one of my three Heathens (Ree has Punks - I have Heathens......I'm pretty sure they're of a similar breed, though......) And here I am talking about Ree (the Pioneer Woman) as if we were best buds. Indeed - she has no freakin' clue who I am! But, ever since the wonderful StumbleUpon tool linked me up to her site (and a scrumptious recipe for the Marlboro Man's Second Favorite Sandwich that my family begs me to make at least twice a month) she has been a major part of MY life. Now, she wouldn't know that because, alas, I am but a lurker, rarely if ever actually posting comments on her site. I know - how weird is it that I love to talk and am obnoxiously vocal in RL, but never really speak up on internet boards? But weird is my life, really.....

So anyway, I decided to give blogging another chance - keeping myself limit-free when it comes to topics. That said, I'll apologize now for the stream-of-consciousness insanity that will henceforth pour from my fingertips. Don't worry if it often makes no sense - it confuses me too.....

For now, it's late. I've spent a day working, delivering goodies to Safety Patrol kiddos at the elementary school (only to have some 6th grade heathens pilfer more than their share.....grrrrr). And then frying in the heat of my A/C-less van (with windows that don't roll down.......in freakin' TEXAS!!!!) Top that off with dealing with an almost 7-year old heathen with a dual ear infection. Needless to say I'm tired, and am heading to bed. But be it known that before I close my eyes and rest I WILL be kicking the husband off the XBox and playing some Oblivion before bed - because nothing brings sweeter dreams than closing another Oblivion Gate.......and then I'll probably read some more Enders Game........

(And in case it wasn't obvious, today's blog was brought to you by the word FREAKIN'!!!!!)