Right. So I’ve been gone awhile. Sue me.

First there was the work thing, in that I’ve actually been working, which, I know, was completely foreign to me last year, but wow, sort of a new trend for me it seems. Then there was the whole “yeah! I have mono!” thing which sort of sucks in a big ass way, and I couldn’t take any days off work so I had to suck it up and drink 7 x the normal caffeine I drink in a day to keep my eyes open, which is making me retain so much water I could double as a parade float, but hey, I’m here and sort of half-way functioning. Then blogger decide to change to google, which is really not a big thing, but I had to create a new account and passwords, and all that stupid stuff, which really took me about two minutes once I decided to do it, but up until then just seemed like such a hassle. I’ve got mono, leave me alone.

So, let’s see…

Christmas vacation with the family in MI? Yeah. Suffice it to say that, while it was nice to see my family, it was not so nice that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US caught a stomach bug and barfed for 36 hours. First day, husband. Second day, baby. Third day, no one! Forth day, 4 year old (and I should mention, he chose to wait until we were at a fancy dinner party, and barfed all over their basement carpet, down my sweater, and even past the waistband of my pants), fifth day started with oldest, then about 6 hours later, the 7 year old, then about 5 hours later, ME! 6th day, we drove home. Happy holidays, ya’ll!

Micro grade? A (hah! Suck it high-school science teacher that said maybe I wasn’t “cut out for science”)

New class? A & P I…Lots of memorization, and, check it, she marks off for spelling errors. THAT sucks. I use my spell-check way too much as it is…now I have to remember how to spell things like Endoplasmic Reticulum? What the hell? Lab teacher is awesome…number one, she’s a DVM, and, as anyone that’s been to my house can tell you, I’m a sucker for animals. Number two, she’s extremely snarky and completely anti-establishment, and that makes me like her just because. Lecture teacher is, I swear, trying to kill me. She mumbles. She mispronounces a LOT of words (like “cadaver” …it DOES NOT rhyme with McGyver…I’m sorry to be the one to tell you.). She told us that she’s an Endomorph, so no matter what she eats or if she exercises she’ll always be fat…that’s how she’s genetically programmed…BULLSHIT. She talks constantly about her husband and his diabetes, herself and her diet, her fair skin, her tendency to have heat exhaustion, etc, etc, etc…and about 90% of the time, her “stories” have nothing to do with the lecture. She does this weird ‘inhale through the teeth’ that makes this horrible squeaky-sucky sound every time she says something that she thinks is clever , funny, and, just for good measure, throws another in about every 5th breath. It’s a test of my patience, I tell you.

Oh, and still with the chronic hives. Yipee!

Worked out twice this week, which is two times more then I’ve managed to do in the last 4 months…shut up, I’ve got mono.

I know this sounds crazy, but I've actually been busy accomplishing things lately! No, nothing important like curing cancer or manufacturing a calorie free chocolate, but actual THINGS. Like things that have been clogging up my "to-do" list for the last 3 years, or jotted on little sticky notes taped to my fridge, and ones that I thought of in the midst of something else, and then actually remembered to do. Things like finally organizing the garage so that we can fit an actual car in it.

Re-doing the kids table


Dressing my daughter up like a horse

Giving my son a modified mohawk (thicker, not completely bald, he loves it)

trick-or-treating with 2 witches...the big witch

and the small witch...doesn't she look happy?

even more so when I tried to make her wear the hat.

a ghoul type thing

and Captain America...showing his shield

and in the classic crab pose.


so, see? busy. and that's only the things I have pictures of...if you could see the full list, I'm sure you'd be very very impressed, and everyone would want to be me. And then you'd probably feel bad about yourself, and then you'd be unhappy with me for setting such a high standard for stupid accomplishments, and then I'd feel bad for making you feel bad, but a little angry that you were taking it out on me, so let's just not go there.

Oh, and unknown bacteria? E. Coli. AND I figured it out, all on my own. This week...final in lab. Next week, final in lecture. After that I'm on Winter Break!!

We got our “unknown bacteria” assigned in class last night…4 weeks to test the hell out of it and figure out what it is. I’m nervous about it, regardless of the fact that the teacher assures us that everyone in the past has figured out theirs…probably because my only other experience with “unknowns” was in my high school genetics class when, since I was a *ahem* good student, the teacher thought it would be so funny to give me something that would mutate, causing me much grief and hours of endless research at the local university library trying to figure out what the hell I was looking at. Not one of my best school memories.

When crappy au pair got here, she missed her home very badly, especially the food. So, because I am just THAT NICE, I scoured the shelves at several different stores to bring home Thai food, and then I ordered some Thai red pepper seeds and planted them for her in a pot on the deck. Yes, I am THAT NICE. Anyway...look at the gross tomato worm that took up residence! See what happens when you're a horrible person? Your peppers get worms. Karma, bitch.

In all the chaos that has been my life lately, I found that I had too much energy to sit still, so I've been project-ing! No, not projecting, project-ing...as in, finally getting around to all those things I've wanted to finish/start/re-do around the house! Luckily (or maybe unluckily) I'm a note taker...I have more index cards with 'to-do' lists laying around then I care to admit, so I had plenty of projects to choose from...the drawback is, even if I thought of something I should do 8 months ago and by now it's completely slipped my mind, there's a DAMN note to remind me. Anyway...I finished the boys' room...which was really starting AND finishing, since I hadn't done anything except decide that it needed to be done...these are the pics, but they really don't do it justice. I don't know if the light was bad (it was at night) or what, but the colors don't really look exactly like it shows. I sort of divided the room, 1/2 is where the bunk beds are, and the other 1/2 I made into sort of a game-room/lounge area, since big-guy is a "tween" now and always wants buddies over to play playstation and such. The wall where the posters are is painted with magnetic paint (such a pain in the ass, and doesn't really work all that well...avoid it.) and I made the tables and room divider out of PVC and mdf board (tables) and fabric (divider). The boys wanted something "army" but there was no way I was going to camo the walls, so I went with a desert sand color on two walls and sort of a mossy green on the others...then I got them army-ish blankets for the beds and green stripe sheets. I picked up two storage trunks (wicker) with padded tops to sit on at Big Lots, and re-covered them with sort of a "woodsy" fleece that matches the walls, blue fabric, and sheets. Oh, and yes, that is my husband playing the playstation...he's the biggest kid of all. People think I'm joking when I say I have twin 10 year old boys, but really, I'm not.

The boys? They love it. And that's what counts.

New French au pair has arrived. The kids call her Nella, which is cute. Except she hasn’t been around long enough for them to remember remember, so baby girl asks 100 times a day, and little man asks but then doesn't really listen, so sometimes he calls her Banana and sometimes he calls her Vanilla. Close enough. I really like her so far. And I think she was happy to see me leave for work...the hardest part about the last place she was (aside from having to share a 1 bedroom apt. with a family when they were in ny and having to sleep on a cot outside the baby's room in case there was a noise) was the fact that the mom was a stay at home, so she said she often wondered why she was even there...you know if the kids have a choice they'll always go to mom. So, I left her for a few hours with the 2 little ones yesterday, kind of ease her into it, and when I came back she said things were "perfect", and in the time span I was gone she'd done the kids laundry, folded and taken upstairs, practiced letters with little man, made lunch, laid baby girl down for a nap, and was upstairs playing video games with little man (his favorite thing to do EVER), and who knows how much else. So I think the first couple of days, with me or dh there the whole time, she was feeling a little uncomfortable...like she should just hang in the background...so when we left, she finally had something to sink her teeth into. I like her. Hopefully I'll still like her in a month.

I did cry when crappy au pair left. Big fat tears of joy. Then I threw a party. With balloons. And copious amounts of vodka. She didn't even say goodbye to anyone (again), or wish big guy a happy 10th b-day or anything. Bitch whore.

Test was better than expected. I crammed my ass off, and it paid off big time. Note to self: perhaps it would be a good idea to read the chapters earlier than two nights before the test. I was seriously overwhelmed at the amount of information I had to digest...would have been a lot better if I didn't procrastinate so damn bad. Hopefully sometime this weekend I'll get a chance to start reading the stuff we're covering next.

Seen coming out of Walgreens last night...parked in the front row just outside the door was a huge van. In the driver's seat was a woman. A large woman. Our eyes met and I thought it was strange that she had the look of a deer caught in the headlights...sort of trapped and caught off guard. She looked away, and then I saw that she was holding a 3/4 full cake pan, eating with her hands. And I knew. I knew she thought I was judging her, mocking her, making assumptions about her life, her size, her choices. But really, it just made me a little sad. I wanted to knock on the window and maybe give her a hug, and tell her that she was okay. I remember that feeling. I remember hiding in closets and eating everything I managed to sneak from the pantry. I remember taking boxes of cake mix, and a cup full of water, mixing, and eating and eating and eating, and how ashamed I was that I was stealing food from my own house to escape the critical lecture I was faced with any time I ate more than she thought I should. And how you feel like stuffing yourself, or binging like that will make you happy, but all it does is make you feel like shit. Physically, mentally, emotionally...just shit. So I'm sorry I made eye-contact, I'm sorry the lights in the parking lot were so bright, because it's not bad enough to be doing it to yourself, it's even worse when someone catches you.

things have been crazy. between me working insane hours in the wee hours of morning and the late late hours at night, around hubby's schedule since we are sans child care for the time being, and trying to keep the house semi-organized...okay, well, not so much, but at least getting the kids fed and at school, sometimes fully dressed...I need a vacation. crappy au pair is still at the house, she locks herself in her room and disappears for days at a time, often showing back up at 11 at night, ringing the doorbell, which of course riles the dogs and wakes the kids...it's been great. and get this...the family taking her was bitching about having to pay for a plane ticket, and didn't want to house 2 girls while they waited for their au pair to decide where she's going (she turned us down again yesterday...just doesn't want to watch 4 kids), so they've been dragging their feet. now they say they don't want crappy au pair to come until next monday (23rd)...some crap about the wife not feeling well blah, blah, blah, but here's the best part...they bought her a BUS TICKET. How fing funny is that? A small part of me feels bad for her, because that will pretty much suck, let's face it. But the rest of me is screaming "HA. THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR BEING A BITCH, BITCH!". Like that. In all caps.

seriously...read this...the one titled "The house, we shall engulf it in flames, and then we will begin anew."

I fucking hurt myself trying not to laugh out loud.

okay. so we had our meeting on Sunday to get the process started to kick the au pair out. She was so strange. she was sitting there on the couch next to the counselor, but she wouldn't make eye contact with either of us...she was sort of staring off toward the tv (had it turned on to keep the kids occupied), and every time something was said to her, she would say "huh"? and it would have to be repeated. whatever. anyway, the counselor sort of lit into her about taking the car and not having a license and not knowing where the kids were and she was completely unfazed. Like "and? your point?"...unbelievable. then the counselor said something about how no other family was going to let her drive w/out a license and asked when she intended on getting it, and she said "I don't know." So the counselor said, well when I talked to you last Friday you told me that TJ was taking you on monday to get it and she blew up..."I DID NOT! You are making things up! I never said that!" on and on and on. So, the counselor, who kept her temper pretty well, said "well, you know, I DO take notes when I talk to au pairs, and I have it right here that you said that and then I said I found that strange because neither D or TJ had mentioned that to me". So she yelled at her some more (which, hello? this is the person that is going to get you into a new house...wouldn't you be smart enough to be NICE?) and then said, "no, I told you he was taking me to get my social security card" to which I butted in "NO. You've had that for 2 months." Bitch. (that part was in my head). So, carrying on, counselor asked her if she was serious about being an aupair...did she want to go to another family. She said no. So counselor said "well then you go back to Thailand", so then she pretended she didn't understand the question the first time and said that she did want another family, but one with one or two children only. So then counselor said "I have to be able to tell these prospective families about you...what are your good qualities?"...and she said "I don't know". so counselor said "you can't tell me anything you're good at?" and she said "no." So counselor turns to me and asks me, and I have to rack my damn brain to come up with something nice to say about someone I don't like and didn't take good care of my babies. Great. So then at the end, counselor says that according to our contract, she has to stay and take care of the kids until I find a new aupair...so I said, "If it's all the same to you, she'd rather stay with her friend, and we're uncomfortable and tense with her here, and we've already made other arrangements, so she can just move out now." So she packed her bags. Right before counselor left, she said to her "make sure you have a nice goodbye with the kids, since you've been a big part of their life for 6 months and we want to make this a smooth transition..." So, her friend pulls up in front of the house, she takes her bags to the porch and she says to me "thanks for everything" and slams the door. No goodbye to the kids or anything! Bitch. (that one was out loud, but she was already gone)

So, fast-forward to Monday morning, 7 AM...

Regional corporate manager calls me...sorry for the early call, blah blah blah...apparently she got an "emergency phone call" that was patched through to her last night at 10:30...some guy she didn't know claiming that the agency "kicked out an au pair and left her homeless"...turns out, au pair never mentioned to the friend she was staying with over the weekend that she was going to MOVE IN. Friend is also an au pair...when the host family saw that mine was still there, they asked why she hadn't gone home yet and she said "oh, because I'm moving in here for a few weeks till I find a new family" to which they replied..."Um, no you're not." So she spent the rest of the night calling other au pairs, having them call their counselors, and then when she couldn't get any takers, she started calling people she met in her English as a second language class...finally ended up on the doorstep of her teacher (wife of the guy who called) with a sob story about how they left her homeless and penniless, and could she stay for a few weeks and borrow some money. WTF? So, Regional lady says "you've been fed a load of crap" to the guy, and he tells her, "well she can stay here tonight, but she's not moving in with us." SOOOOO....since I'm contracted to her until I find another, and she has no where to live, I had to let her move back in. Counselor told her to stay in her room and out of our way since we'd made other arrangements and she didn't want her bothering us. So far I've seen her once. Although she did ask my husband if she could have her cell phone back. Um. NO.

So Monday, she was supposed to call us and tell us what time she'd be moving back...she called and said she would be home at 9:00 that night. Fine. So, I left oldest boy's last baseball game of the season to be home sort of on time...got there at 9:10...put the kids to bed...did some homework...cleaned the kitchen...went to the garage w/husband to finish the table I'm making...she finally showed up at 11:00! No fing phone call, nothing. So I called counselor the next day and said "this is bullshit. she has no respect for my time, I left my son's game early to be there, blah, blah, blah...tell me realistically, what actual responsibilities do I have to her? do I have to drive her to school? etc" and she said "um, I guess you sort of have to feed her, but other than that I wouldn't do a thing." So she's sort of an unseen creature that inhabits a room upstairs. She leaves us alone and we leave her alone. I imagine it will only be a short time before she completely loses her mind.

So, my way out, is to find a new girl as soon as possible. As soon as the new one is here, the agency has to provide other accommodations for this one. So that’s what we're working on. The one we're calling tonight is German, and, on paper, looks great...we'll see.

TOO. MUCH. STRESS. MUST. ESCAPE.

Oh! And also, my previously mentioned tromp through the field to collect wildflower seeds, landed me 6 more chiggers! Rock on some more. Damn I hate chiggers. I'd never had one in my life until this year, and boy do they itch like a son of a. They should be illegal, I've decided.

Oh yeah...and just because I'm having the best week EVER...of course I managed to kill the caterpillar. And it's getting cold out, and there'll be no more till next summer. I suck.

Still obsessed with learing to winter sow seeds? check.
Still adjusting to permanently muddy and mischevious puppy? check.
Still spending too much time at work not actually working? check.
Other than that, the whole world is upside down right now. Suffice it to say we have the universe's worst au pair ever right now and it's all coming to blows. We want her out three days ago, she wants out three days ago, and the agency (under federal regulation and quite fussy about actually following the "rules") can't make any final decisions until some head honcho gets back in country on Tuesday. Can you say "living hell"? Can you say "world's most uncomfortable living arrangements"? Can you say "oh my God, thinking about the fact that my little one's are at home with her right now makes me want to alternatively throw up and sneak home to punch her in the throat"? I can't sleep. I've been eating like crap. The closest thing I've had to real food in a week was a hot dog and 1/2 a hot pretzel with cheese at my son's baseball game on Wednesday. I've got the stress headache that just won't quit, and my belly hurts. Joy. I'm having sort of a freak out about the whole situation...not only because I hate her with a molten hot fire of a million hells, but because she's still there and I have to swallow back my vomit every time I see her. Also because there's no way to tell how long it will take before we get a replacement, so what the hell do I do with my kids in the meantime? It's going to be scramble city around here...but you know, I'd rather be stressed out and struggling to find people to help me temporarily, and have to talk my boss into fronting me some vacation days from next year to stay with them, and potentially work all day Sat. and Sun. to make up the hours, then to spend one more night with her under my roof. And my poor husband...not only does he have to put up with the palpable tension at home, and my raving lunacy about the whole situation, but, bless his heart (mark this day in history...I'm about to say something nice about him) he's just as upset/worried/anxious as I am. Normally I'm the one totally over-reacting and acting like a rabid momma bear protecting her cubs, and he's the one trying to reason with me and talk me off the cliff...but this time, we are in total aggreement. Which is not only uncommon, to say the least, but sort of scarey. Like if we both think it's this bad, then it is. We're not supposed to "kick her out" and she's not supposed to move out until after the meeting (Sunday) and the final decision (Tuesday, I hope), but she told the go-between that she had made a friend here locally that she wanted to move in with until they found her a replacement host family (actually, she said she was going to move in because they were going to pay her to help with their elderly grandmother, to which the go-between said, um, no, you're here under contract with the government to be an au-pair, and if you leave here you either go to another family or you go home) and we're going to tell her tonight that she should go ahead and move out now, and just come back for the meeting. Hell, if they call me on it, I'll just say we told her she could go stay there for the weekend, and she misunderstood. She's been playing the damn "Sorry, I no understand" card since she got here and getting away with way too much...it's about damn time we got some use out of it. Hopefully, she'll pack her shit, and I'll be done with her. If she does, I'm throwing a huge party tomorrow and you're all invited. Bring your friends, I'll even pop for the beer.

Ohhh...more flowers! www.wintersown.org will send you 6 free packs of seeds for a SASE!

So, here at work, we needed to get some roofing materials onto the roof...long story short, the city here requires that you put some sort of fencing around the roof air conditioners...they claim it's to make the building more attractive from the highway, but frankly, some of these places have just a chain link fence around them, so it's not like it has to be pretty, and it's not like you're fooling anyone, we still know it's an air conditioner, and who the hell, by the way, has ever driven by a building and said "gee that's a nice place...too bad those air conditioners are on the roof" but whatever. Anyway, so we had a wood fence around both of ours, and when we had storms earlier this summer they blew over and damaged the roof and now we need new ones. We decided to go with a white vinyl trellis mounted on a frame...looks nicer, wind can go through it, instead of blowing it all to hell, and it's a ton lighter then the wood. All good plans. The catch is, everyone here with the exception of me, is terrified of heights. So this morning, I had to stand on a pallet, on the forklift forks, balancing the damn trellis pieces while I got lifted 3 stories in the air. Then I had to maneuver the trellis onto the low roof (over the canopy of the door, sort of) without falling off. Oh, and the hook on the safety harness wouldn't "catch", so I was clutching the forklift with one hand and trying to move the trellis with the other. and it's windy. and the forklift sways. Oy. I'm pretty sure both my hands are bruised...they hurt. One from the death grip on the forklift, and the other from the damn trellis that kept catching on the roof flashing and I had to fight with. Now I have to do it again with all the wood for the frames, and then I have to step over the edging, to stand on the low roof and hand all the stuff up to the top roof. Mind you, my heart hasn't returned to it's standard rate yet and that was 10 minutes ago. and now my hands are all shaky with the adrenaline coursing through me. I'm making them go get me a new safety clip before I go up again though...since I know the wood will take two hands.

In other news...we just can't find any chrysalis from the monarch caterpillars...it's been bumming us out. So last night we emptied out the HUGE Costco pretzel container we've had sitting on our dryer to collect loose change, and turned it into a butterfly habitat. We hope. We put in perilite and potting soil, cut a bunch of milkweed, treated it with rooting hormone and arranged it in there, then we took the only caterpillar we could find last night and moved him into his new home. It looks like it will work pretty good, as long as I can figure out where to put the container where
#1. it will get sun
#2. the little one's won't pop the very sophisticated wax-paper and rubber-band top off
#3. the puppies won't knock over and destroy.

We've already talked to the kids about it (which, right, the kids would NEVER do something I told them not to...ha), so I'm mostly worried about #3. And remembering to keep the potting soil moist, and hoping the milkweed roots enough not to rot. Course if it doesn't, I can just cut off some more and replace...but I'd prefer not to. Being as it's just one more thing I'd have to remember to do, and lately, my remembering-to-do-things part of the brain has been overheating pretty easily.

After all the drama this year with the planting of the flowers and the re-planting of the ones I planted in the wrong place, and the subsequent attack on the flowers by the little innocent puppy and her best friend and previous plant attacking boxer, and the wiring of the yard to prevent another plant homicide emergency, you'd think I'd have just about had my fill of the whole flower thing. But you'd be wrong. I have developed an acute case of winter-sowing-obsession that has apparently taken over complete control of my frontal lobe and made it impossible to get anything else done. It seems, as of late, if I'm not reading about which seeds to try, I'm in the yard searching for seed pods, or at the store snatching seed pods off their end-of-the-year-almost-dead plants, or tromping through the field behind work trying to find seeds on wildflowers. I need professional help. And, *oh!* planning! what am I going to put them in? should I put them in this? or this? and where? over here? my husband thinks I'm crazy, and this time, he might be right.

Oh, and I got a 95 on my first micro test...4 more to go!

Nothing like a pair of jeans right from the dryer to knock you off your feeling skinny high horse. Note to self: Lay off the chocolate, and an extra 30 on the treadmill wouldn't hurt.

In other news, my first big microbiology test is tomorrow night. I'm sort of freaking out a little. I've gone through all of my notes and made study cards, and hope to read the chapters again tonight...so far, without taking notes from the book, I've got about 400 study cards. I think my brain is on fire.

Is it bad that I made my husband get out of bed last night at 11:24 to go search and destroy the LOUDEST CRICKET IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD that was chirping from somewhere behind the table in the living room? Seriously. He was THAT loud. It was actually pretty easy to convince him...I simply told him that neither of us would be able to sleep, since if I couldn't sleep I'd make sure he couldn't either. See? Easy.

It probably didn't help that I also made him go outside 20 minutes earlier to see how pretty the moon looked. I tried to take a picture, but the glare from the streetlights messed it all up. So, no picture for you. But, just so you don't feel bad, here's a pic of the little monarch caterpillar one week after the first picture...they grow up so fast *sniff* *sniff*




Seriously...plant some tropical milkweed somewhere in your yard. I'm having so much fun with this damn thing...Most of the big ones have fallen prey to the birds, I'm afraid, but we still have one big, two mediums, and last night I found probably 6 little babies...no bigger than maggots, hidden between the little blooms. And then, and THEN, we found a ton of eggs that must be ready to hatch, because they were bopping all over the leaf...imagine a leaf with 30 mexican jumping beans (mini beans, of course...the eggs are tiny) all attached. And, the kids think it's the coolest thing ever, thus, by the relative property, I must be the coolest mom ever. It's simple math, folks.

Labor day labor...Project: Girls' room.

The room, including 3 coats of paint on the bed, and a pink glitter glaze on the bed and dresser faces, took me three days to do. I scraped the popcorn crap off the ceiling...I hate that crap. Painted, ceiling and walls, primed and painted the bed (was red wood and black wrought iron), re-did the dresser handles, etc, etc, etc.

The girls love it, and yes, that's little man in the top bunk, but it's not his room...he just loves to be in pictures.

Oh, and I did go back and get a hot pink boa to drape over the white framed picture...just to tie it in with the windows...looks good, I think.

In other news...the au pair we have from Thailand is going on her first vacation. Normally, the au pairs we have had go to visit family they have in America, or they hook up with a couple of other au pairs and go see something together. Not this one. This one met a boy online, when she was still in Thailand, that she chats with all the time. And, yes, she's going out to stay with him for a week. Never met him, but they're "just friends" even though he's offered to pay for her plane ticket and let her stay at his place so she doesn't have to pay for a hotel. Don't these people have Dateline in Thailand? She cannot seem to grasp what a bad, bad, bad idea this is. I've tried talking her out of it, but what can I do? She's 24. She's allowed to spend her vacation how ever she wants. But damn. And she's told me, in the past, that she's a virgin and doesn't "do things" with boys because it would be disrespectful to her parents and she cannot do those things until married. Which is noble, sure, but I find it hard to believe that this guy is not going to expect "something" when he's paying for a girl to fly out to New Jersey and stay with him for a week. Call me a cynic if you must, but I just don't believe there's that many "nice young men" out there anymore that meet people online, flirt with them for a year, invite them down and foot the bill, and think they're just going to sit around and talk and maybe see all the great and beautiful sites in new jersey. So, there's a betting pool going on as to whether she'll come back at all. For all I know, she'll marry the guy to get her citizinship and never be heard from again. If not something worse. Oh, and when I walked past the computer the other day, they were chatting with the webcam on, and he was sitting there with his shirt off. That's a "look at me" if I've ever seen one, and I'm sure he thought he was impressing her/exciting her...not that he seemed to be much to look at. This should be interesting. It blows my mind. I mean, America is not the only place where bad things happen...bad things happen in Thailand too, right? I mean, she's got to realize that this is a potentially dangerous situation, doesn't she?

I always forget just how fast a puppy will grow...Sydney's looking long and lanky lately and it's such a change from the little ball of puff we brought home not too long ago. She's still insane though, so it's nice to know some things never change. She has this really adorable habit (only, not really adorable at all) of standing in her water dish and "digging" and "pouncing" all the water out onto the floor. Oy. Makes for a very slippery surface for the two kids that are always moving too fast to pay attention to such insignificant details as the current floor-slipperyness-quotient. There's a lot of slipping and sliding around the house lately, and much crashing ensues. Not to mention the fact that her paws are always dirty, ensuring that any water that may remain in the bowl once the digging and pouncing has lost its appeal is muddy and gross and even on the rare occasions that she doesn't accidentally step on the side of the bowl and dump the remains onto the floor (which is rare), results in little muddy footprints that are actually quite a handy little map, should one care to track the path of destruction that she has a habit to cause. Squeeky toy fluff here, crumbs from a stolen hot dog there, screaming child and victim of said crime against hot dog here, soggy smelly sock stolen from the laundry room there...it's sort of like my own little daily treasure hunt. It's fun, fun, fun. My DH is convinced she's cross-eyed, but I'm pretty sure it's just a little trick your eyes play on you when you're looking at a dog w/two different colored eyes. Though if she keeps smashing into furniture and door jambs at high speed, I may rethink my stance. DD #1 and I have finally got around to getting her into a harness and we took her and the boxer for a walk on Wed. and Thurs. morning before school. She seems to enjoy it...the boxer, while she loves to go for a walk, seems less than amused at having to stop every 5 steps to let us untangle the puppy. I do believe her herding instinct is starting to rear its head, which results in the said entanglement...she's forever circling around and going over and under the boxer...sort of funny to watch, but it does make the leash handling more difficult.