Went to church today....

And was not struck down by lightening as I crossed the threshold, fancy that! If ya'll haven't been with me awhile I'll let you know where the belief system goes in our house, there isn't one. My 7 yr old daughter is more religious than both my husband and I put together and multiplied by 10. We put her in a Presbyterian preschool and then an Episcopalian for a few months before moving here. Honestly I don't think either of those made much of a difference in her religious upbringing. I think moving to Texas where EVERYONE she knows goes to church. Except her. She's at an age where she wants to do anything everyone else is doing, including being either and Aggie or a Longhorn. Neither of her parents do sports and I think she's kinda peeved at us about it. There is nothing in this world that is going to make either of her parents sports lovers. Sucks to be her huh? My heart bleeds for her. No, really it does. So this is why I think she's interested in God and religion and what ever that entails. Which is a lot. Do we believe in heaven, other religions, do you be live in Jesus, and that whole ball of wax.

We are trying to raise a child that makes her own choice in religion and support it in whatever way we can. We may not be religious but we do believe strongly in religious freedom and tolerance. Strongly. In Texas people believe in religion. Religious freedom and tolerance not so much. This is highly irritating to us and we do our best to let our child know that there are all kinds of views and the other views are NOT WRONG. Just different. DIFFERENT ISN'T WRONG. Do you know how hard this is to teach a child? Yeah not so easy.

So tonight I took her and one of her favorite friends to his church. She expressed interest in going to church and I obliged. Call it an attempt at appeasing God, my parents gave me no religious upbringing but if my kid wants to go I'm not going to stop her. The hubby is off at training for 4 days so I'm solo for this wonderful event. This is what is commonly called the Rock and Roll church and the kids have their own class. They are dropped off in another room to do their studies and fun while the grown ups attend 'services' (yes, I went by myself, I'm flexible like that). This church is so made for our generation. It starts out with a full rock band taking up the stage, 3 guitars, basist, drummer, keyboardist, and 3 singers (2 women 1 man). They go through a few songs, all Christian rock of course, and it really is fine music, lovely voices! The words are all up on the 5 big screen projection tv's so everyone can sing along and boy do they! The music is loud so even if you can't carry a tune it doesn't matter, it's all good. After the music there are a few little skit like things on the tv's while they clean up the stage to ready it for the pastor. One of the skits is a bit from How I Met Your Mother, an absolutely FABULOUS show if you've never seen it before you really must sometime. It was a good indicator that they are very close to my own wavelength. The pastor then gets up and does the sermon. He was kinda lookin Gen X to Gen Y-ish. Beatles (Jonas Bros?) hair, full trimmed beard, t-shirt and jeans. No lie this was a vary casual church. Jeans and man-dles, t-shirts, hoodies, yoga pants church. Yeah the sermon wasn't very preach-y and really what I can deal with.

I am too much of a Christian novice to be able to handle the guilt churches. I have read the bible, I've even done years of bible study and gone to Jewish services. I am pretty well versed in religion for a non-religious person. I told ya, I'm very open minded when it comes to religion. I do not believe any 1 religion is the right one, just like I don't believe that any 1 pair of jeans is the perfect pair of jeans. Kinda depends on your ass now doesn't it? Why should religion be any different? Yes I just compared God to your ass, now you know why I was surprised by the lack of lightening.

One of the more interesting things I learned tonight is that, like most of my daughter's contemporaries, her little friend, N, is clueless that there are other religions and that not being a Christian is OK. He had made a comment that people in China don't believe in God. I told him that it was ok and there was nothing wrong with that and that there are people in China that believe in God. In fact, they are not wrong to not believe in God, in our country you have the right to believe or not believe or not have an opinion at all. I must remember to talk to his mom about that. I'm not sure if she believes in religious intolerance (I'm pretty darn sure she doesn't but I must make sure) and if not then she needs to know her son is being taught it in some way or form.

And this, my dear readers, is why my husband and I have never found solace in organized religion. Mainly because we have yet to find one, any one, that doesn't preach and teach some sort of hate or intolerance. Be it another religion to hate, gays, free thinkers, what have you there is always some sort of anti something going on. We just can't hang with that, it's not tolerated in our household. One of the things we taught the child a long time ago is now a mantra here, "different people like different things and it's ok".

Oh and I'll have you know, she didn't really like church. For whatever reason it didn't do it for her. Good thing too because I am so lackadaisical about going to church it may not happen for another 10 years.

YES! It's about flippin tme.....

I love many things about this 'little town' I live in. I use quotations mainly because natives here still, for whatever freakish reason, think this is a small town. It's the 7th largest city in the US. We ain't no 'small town'. As such they refuse change in like, a BIG way. Moronic, cutting off the nose despite the face in many instances that I won't bore you with. Rest assured, they do some stupid things city planning wise in the blind belief that this city is still a town. Right, whatever.

One of the things we just could not understand after we moved here was why in the world do they not have a bagel shop? Like none whatsoever. We came from the land of bagel store on every corner right next to the Starbucks and we never questioned it. Until we moved to the land of no bagels. 2 1/2 years it's been and we stopped questioning. They have bagel stores up in Austin so I know it's just a local retard thing.

It seems as though we've moved enough out of towners in though. Today, posted in our local podunk newspaper I found an article. An article stating that we have an Einstein Bros. bagel store opening locally. Wow, change does happen here! Slowly and a bit behind the times but it does happen. They even say it could be open in 90 days...wow a schmear in 90 days I am SO THERE. Mmmm cinnamon bagels.....

Proud momma

So the kid, the evil little mini me of her father, decided to go down the road of her forefathers and dig in her heals about a wee little thing at school. She comes from a long line of extraordinarily stubborn people, it's deeply ingrained in her father's bloodline. My blood has things like decision making issues, long showers, and a wee tad of super crazy. His has drama queens and stubborn like a rock. So far the kid has gone mostly his way. Both of us had opposite school experiences, I was a wunderkind that the teachers adored and school work came very easy to me. He was there, his mom was a school teacher so he had to at least show up. Schoolwork though, not his thing. He passed but sometimes it was iffy at best. Not that he isn't brilliant, he is (I'd never marry someone who wasn't, they wouldn't survive a day with me), scolastics though, didn't really float his boat until college and it's a miracle he survived that long.

I was kinda hoping that the kid would follow in my footsteps but this does not seem to be the case. She goes to school because she's a diva and all divas must have their fan base right? She hit this year, the first grade, and suddenly she had to work and really, what diva wants to work? The big deal in the first grade is the kids learn how to read. And the ones who don't learn to read to a certain level get held back that year and they mean business. The kid was not into trying and consequently, didn't pass the first level she was supposed to. We were stressing, the teacher had a talk with us before she failed the testing since she knew the kid was having issues. Apparently (and this is common with her) she knew how to do it but just didn't want to try. She would, literally, look at the first letter of the word and make up the rest of it. Sometimes she'd make up the whole sentence. Creative but not going to get her through the first grade. The teacher was frustrated because she knew the kid could do it, she just wouldn't. We made a deal with the kid, if she passed her reading test this time and the next time she would get a Nintendo DS. And yes we helped her and practiced with her every single day, she was not going this alone. She failed and the DS was a no go.

We then started the uphill battle. It was not a pleasant trip either and it took a helluva lot of effort on all our parts. I don't know how some parents do it because if we, lord forbid, had another kid that we had to help with their homework it just would not have happened. Every night it was a mental and emotional brawl dragging her through the readers that her teacher would send home. Sometimes she'd do so badly I'd write a note to the teacher to send home the same book the next night and a new one. Out of the three 1st grade classes that were located on her end of the hall each teacher had 1 kid that was at the failing level. They arranged it so that the 3 kids would move as a group alternating between the 3 teachers for their remedial reading group.

Mind you the words remedial and failing never ever came anywhere near me in any of my 13 years of public schooling. The thought, oh hell no. I was 4 when I taught myself to read. My parents didn't even know I knew how to read at that age. The hubby followed the normal age and knew how to read at age 6 or 7. Both of us are insanely avid readers too. I have been known to read 2000 pages in a weekend no problem. Our kid did not know how to read at an average level and even worse, didn't want to? I didn't get it but if that was the way she was going to play the game it was going to get ugly. And it did.

We don't usually bother spanking in our home, it's just not necessary and ineffective. Bribery works much better but there was a bit of forehead flicking going on when she tried lying to me while reading. Unless I was right over her shoulder looking at the words that were written she would try and make the sentences up rather than sounding the words out. That, to me, is lying and I was less that impressed. If I was going to have to spend the time and effort, if her teachers were even were going that extra mile for her, then I'll be damned if she was going to try that BS on me. It got to the point that when she tried lying she started flinching even before I came to look and see if she was lying. Not the best poker player since she'd give herself away.

It took maybe 4-6 weeks and she was doing better, not fabulous but she had sucked it up and decided that she wasn't winning the stubborn game. Plus if she really wanted us to buy her something she had to work in exchange for it. This toy was worth x amount of readers. We always gave her a choice of books to read to earn that particular thing that we knew was at a challenging enough level to be worth and effort. The hubby used to be a school teacher, you would not believe the childrens library we have at home. Thank God because it sure as hell has come in handy. At some point one of the teachers (the one that lives 2 doors down from us actually) wanted her to be tested because she was doing better than the other 2 kids in her group. Her teacher tested her and she was able to move up out of the traveling group and into a normal classroom group. We were very happy that she finally made it to the level she was supposed to be at.

However, being the mean evil slave driving parents that we are (only children do not always have it so great) we did not change the system any. We still worked every single night on our reading and, unbeknownst to me, the hubby had made another deal with the kid. A Nintendo DS deal that when she tested up another 2 levels on time she could get the pink one. She came home Monday night and told her daddy that she tested up and passed and that she wanted her Nintendo.

This morning he went to her teacher to see what kind of testing she did or if she did any at all. You never know with kids, reality, stories, the translation not always spot on and this is a DS we're talking about here. Turns out the teacher tested her 2 levels up. Yeah that's right she passed two levels at once. Apparently she was having such a good morning that the teacher decided that she'd try and see how far she got. I love her teacher, she really knows what is up with her kids and knows when the right time is to test them. Set them up for success as it were.

We are so proud of our little stubborn monster. With a little motivation and a lot of torture we'll have her reading 1000 pages a weekend in no time right?

Happy Fat Tuesday!

I'm sorry I have been ignoring you all, I've been doing this work thing and as annoying as it is it is a necessary evil. Regardless I still read all of your blogs (those of you who I know exist) and even occasionally get a chance to comment. For the past few days I have been spending my nights up late wrapping up bland hoops with beautiful new tape I got from Identitape and ooohhh it is so cool! I made a huge tape order with another hooping friend of mine and she did one up Mardi Gras fashion I loved so much I had to copy! I made 2 poi spinning hoops (basically small 31" diameter ones you use in your hands and spin) and covered them in the purple and green glitter tapes. One I added a twist of black hockey tape to so it was more sticky and the other I just ran the black tape along the inside to see if I liked that look better. I can't decide which one I like better so I will leave them like that, fraternal rather than identical twins!

I wanted to make another regular sized hoop and rainbow mirror tape it since the rainbow mirror looks so awesome moving in the sunlight so I did one up and then added a wide strip of fuschia wrap. It looked, no lie, like a stripper pole. I held it up asked the honey if it looked like a stripper pole, he looks up from the computer and says "Yup, just like a stripper pole" so I had to make some minor modification. I don't mind stripper poles it just wasn't what I was looking for. I then ran a strip of white gaffer tape (for added tackyness, it helps it stick to the person hooping) down the center of the fuschia and now I have dubbed it the candy stripe. See? Better than a stripper pole huh?




So for all of you who are into the Mardi Gras thing, this post is brought to you by someone who likes the colors but totally does not do the party thing! Oh and for those of you practicing don't forget Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. I work with a bunch of Catholics otherwise I would have no idea.

I had a day all to myself

And oddly, I had nothing to do. Normally I have 50 thousand errands to run and by the time it ends I'm ready to give it all up and move to the country. Maybe it's because I am finally done with all the friggin car dealerships (boy am I done with them), maybe it's the fact that the house is in some semblance of order (it's not perfect and I don't plan on it being perfect anytime in the near future). Today was a few quick short errands and then I camped it on the couch and let the dogs lounge with me. There was nothing pressing to do, no little things here and there that were imperative to get done. How...odd. I did call some people I had been meaning to call for awhile and that was nice.

It was kinda nice. And kinda boring. Sad that down time is not something my brain was looking for today. It's not likely it'll happen again anytime soon. I have hoop making stuff here but all of the pretty tape I've ordered is in Austin, waiting for me to pick it up tomorrow. And lets face it, the pretty sparkly tape is the fun part of making the hoop. Putting the hoop together takes about, oh 1 minute and once you done it once it's kinda lost it's novelty. Now once I get my tape tomorrow I'm going to go nuts. I have no less than 8 naked hoops in my room just waiting to be beautfied. That and almost 200 feet of tubing that is waiting to be made into naked hoops. Not today though, tomorrow I'll be set though!

Until then I will be watching Steel Magnolias on the Oxygen channel (my god why is it that you can have 300 channels and not a thing on to watch?) and listening to the dogs snore incessantly.

May your Saturday be more productive than mine but still lack all of the stress!

I stumbled across a website...

And found it so entertaining I had to post it up here. No it's not x rated or anything that 'exciting', but hey it has cool stuff to buy! I personally love the Ex Voodoo knife set, I have a friend who gave it as a shower gift to 2 guys she knew. She's now way higher up on my coolness scale, this as a shower gift? Brilliant.

The site is Perpetual Kid and OMSH had it on her blog with a link to this nifty little do dad,
Flexible chromatic USB hub

I want to buy usb's just so I have a reason to buy the hub. Sadly I have 1 'pen' drive and it's huge, 1T, so I don't really have a need for several little jobbers. Good thing I'm poor because if not my house would be full of this useless crap. And I mean FULL. Dude, they have a USB heating blanket so if you're cold at your desk you can plug it into your computer. I mean come on, it's on sale, everybody needs one!

I spent like 30 minutes flitting about on this site. They have so much stuff that I would buy just so I could have it. Really, Frogmen vs Radioactive Octopus, I am so all over that! The hubby and the kid would be fighting over this one I'm sure of it.

Like fighting an uphill battle

That’s up a very very steep mountain really, not a hill. In the snow, at night, in Nepal. Where no one lives and no one else there to help. Yeah that’s what it’s been like with the hubby and his desire to go back to work as a school teacher. You know, what he went to college for? Remind me some time to write a post on what I think of trustfund babies and how they respect the college degree that was paid for by their mommies and daddies. I paid for my college myself and guess what, I use my degree. I may be paying off the student loan until I’m 50 something but I earn a living with it and I earn a very good paycheck.

The hubby? His mommy paid for his teaching degree and credential program. He tried being a teacher for while and decided that he didn’t like it. Must. Be. Nice. Since then he’s been floundering. For oh, 8+ years now. Some jobs he’s liked, most he hasn’t. He’s been a corrections officer for a full year come March. A job I was not keen on him taking but he wanted to be a parole officer and this was the closest thing that was available. We’ve been suffering through his incessant whining about this piss poor paying job for oh, a year come March. It’s a shitty job , the hours and pay are crap, and I’m essentially a single parent 50% of the time. I also have an alarm going off in my bedroom at 3am 50% of the time. 4 days on 4 days off so it could be weekdays or weekends depending. He misses many of the regular things that go on at the kid’s school, like the conferences that are going on today. It’s at 5:20pm but while that may be ok for most working parents he’s on 12 hours shifts. 86 miles away. It’s total bullshit but we’ve had to tolerate it because it’s what he wants to do and he has, since 2001, refused to go back to teaching.

He’s applied for a multitude of other jobs like he had back in San Diego but as some of you might have noticed, the job market is crap. Now let me mention that our local school system is opening 5-8 new schools every year. Our local schools, like the ones our child is going to and will be going to as she gets older, are all brand new. The high school opened this past fall and the junior high will open this fall. Her elementary opened 5 years ago and was built to accommodate 800 kids. It’s at 1200. This fall they are opening a new local elementary. Needless to say I think they may be hiring a few teachers in our immediate area. Now that’s just our neighborhood, our local district is doing this kind of growth throughout so there are other opportunities if you just want to drive, oh 10 miles. Certainly there will be jobs closer than 86 miles away. Mind you, I’m just throwing a wild guess out there. Oh and did I mention that starting pay for a teacher here is 50% more than what he's making now? Yeah, don't get me started in the logic.

Now in order for him to teach here we had to pay money to the great (insert sarcasm here) state of Texas for them to tell us what other money they want of ours to get his teaching credential valid in this state. We didn’t have the ‘spare cash’ for awhile but it didn’t matter, he has to fill out the application to be evaluated and go through the paperwork bs and like I said, he didn’t want to. I’ll let him plead his case on that one, I am bored with the bull shit and he’s got his own blog. Our tax return came back this year and I told him we could use some to pay for the evaluation if he was willing to go through the paperwork and become a teacher again. If not then I’d take the $200 and spend it like a woman with a chip on her shoulder. This I am fully capable of doing.

I don’t know if it was the one year mark coming up next month or the fact that his job is beyond stupid and not really what he was looking for in life (insert way more sarcasm here) but suddenly he was willing to get back into teaching. Or at least pay me some lip service, who knows. He did make mention of it on his blog, which is a big step in the right direction, but who knows. He went through the application process and once we hear back from them we’ll find out how much more money they went and what tests they need him to take. Apparently that’s how it works, you pay them to evaluate your credentials and then they have a bunch of tests they say you have to take to prove, I don’t know, that you can write and add? They charge like $250 for each test or something so I think it’s just another way for the state to extort money but that’s government for your right? Like being the most underpaid corrections department in the US isn’t bad enough now you have to pay your way up out of the trenches of hell. Hey he voluntarily went down there so I can’t say that he didn’t ask for it. I’m just glad there might be a light at the end of a tunnel that I previously though wasn’t a tunnel. It had been looking an awful lot like a pit with nothing but a black bottom. With no light. No staircase either. It was very much like I had lost all faith in my husband's ability to be any semblance of a provider. Yeah, there might be hope for him yet. We’ll see, time will tell and I’m sure I will keep you all up to date with the trials and tribulations of this trip too. Lord knows he doesn’t listen to me anymore. Unless I bitch about him on my blog. That always seems to get his attention. I don't know why...

So I asked the hubby...

He was mentioning how I got several comments on that last post about nails, polish, etc and how we seem to all have at least a little bit of a thing for either toes or fingers being polished. Goes to show somewhere not so deep down we're all girlie girls no matter how impractical it is. I had to ask him though if he had a preference, polish or no polish, care or don't care. I was kind of surprised that he did have an opinion and that it was that he liked polish on a girl's nails. I've known this man for going on 20 years, you learn something new every day I suppose. Not only that but I don't have to feel too guilty about spending time and money on my nails now. Nifty!

Oh and btw Angie, the polish on these nails doesn't chip. It's the tips that they glued on that are white. The only polish on them is the clear coat and I doubt that'll do anything chip wise to annoy me. Barring ripping one of these puppies off (which hurts, I did that as a teen) the polish is essentially indestructible. And yes, the honey is still doing the dishes for me.

Did I ever tell ya'll?

(that's me with a beehive, front and center)

I'm sure I've used that blog title before since it auto filled so you'll have to tolerate my redundancies. Just remember that when you use the search in my blog function that I'm sure ya'll use. A lot. Or rather never so ignore my blathering please.

Anyway I'm going to take you back in time a bit. Back to this period in time. Oh yeah, Facebook has all kinds of these pics of me....

(that's me back and center on top of the car)
This picture was dubbed The Breakfast Club on Facebook



Back in the day, high school that is, I was a busy busy woman. Much like today actually. I don't know what I was thinking. Please if I can ever pass on any kind of wisdom it would be to take it easy. Life is just going to haul on past me at an insane pace if I don't slow down sometime!

Back in the day I was much like I am now, I didn't get all fancy except on a few rare occasions. Like the time these 2 pics were taken. You'll notice I was wearing make up in both. Mostly because I knew I was having my picture taken otherwise I don't bother. Even now. My one thing that I did back then and loved to do was have my nails done. It made me feel pretty so it was my one indulgence. To this day I still feel prettier when my nails are painted. Which is why it's a crying shame that I never ever paint my nails. Even when the kid constantly begs me to do her nails. I'm a bad mom. I still do her nails. Well the hubby does them more often (he's a real good daddy, he'll even paint his if she asks) but I will paint them on occasion too. It's just I don't like to do them anywhere near going to bed because the enamel takes so long to set. It'll 'dry' quick but when you sleep on them they'll get blanket marks in them and that drives me INSANE. I'm ocd, I have mentioned that I'm sure.

Today I took the day off and oh, there's a new nail place that opened near the house. Dude, we're in suburbia, I was stoked when it opened. The daddy was home to watch the kid so I took the opportunity to go out and get a full set put on. I haven't had my nails done since the era these photos were taken. Keep in mind I graduated in '91...

So now I am polished once again. And I LOVE it. It's the little things in life you know.

I totally forgot to tell ya'll!

I am such a bad blogger, I did not keep ya'll up to the moment on the evil car drama! We did end up getting the 05 Jeep Wrangler. Yup, the financing (miraculously) went through at an exorbitant percentage rate. Don't worry, we'll eventually refinance when the banks get their asses beat down. Damn tight ass banks. They never got what they wanted, they just made an 'exception' for us since we didn't have a monthly home bill in the hubby's name.

The hubby is thrilled, he finally has his Jeep back. He's been dreaming about it for years and now that we don't have anything like an imminent infant on the way like the last time he had a Wrangler I'm cool with it. Plus I can actually get in and out of it since I am no longer insanely huge and pregnant. I'm still bitchy but I'm not bloated so I can still get in and out of it. We need to get grab handles and side steps for us 2 short girls still but it's do-able.

Today the child and I went up to Austin to hoop so I told the hubby he could go paintballing and take the Jeep. The 4Runner is still with us until Tuesday so we girls took it up to Austin, it's a gentler ride to say the very least. He took the Jeep and had a BALL. It was perfect for ballin and plus it looks cool right? In paintball it's all about the fashion. I'm totally serious here peeps, ask any teenaged boy paintballer. You would not believe how fashion conscious they are, it's nuts. One time the hunny was on a paintball team and those whiney assed boys could not agree on what color pants they were going to wear as a team. It was one particular style all with a black base but there was some part of them that had color (red, blue, or gray). It would have been easier had a there been a group a girly cheerleaders picking out a lipgloss color to share. So to go to the paintball field in a kick ass cool manly car is a fun little thing for the hubby. He's not terribly vain but he's always been more fashion conscious than me. I like letting him take the cool guy car to the field.

Really truly and honestly though the fact that the hubby wanted a Jeep real bad was only an added bonus and not the real reason I got it. The real reason was that it was a 6 speed V6 that hauls ass and I can fit my hoops in the back. That Corolla had no guts whatsoever and I couldn't fit a damn hoop in it. Why in the world was I going to pay $1000 more for that wee little car? So I may not have a comfort cushy ride but my ride hauls ass and fits my hoops in it. Plus the hubby is peached. Really, what more can a girl ask for?

FatBabies for Valentines Day!

It's San Antonio Stock and Rodeo Show time and I noticed that one of our local boot stores was having a sale. Any excuse for a sale right? And then there were these Pony Girl posts about the boots she owns and the ones she wants, etc and I noticed her FatBabies and though ohhh those look way more comfy that my Ariats. Mine are more for just style, not so much that walking stuff right? I'm sure none of you women out there own shoes like that, ya'll are much more practical than myself. Especially when it comes to shoes right? OK we'll just go with that and move on to my boot envy. And not talk about how we spent more today in a 'cowboy' store than either of us would have ever thought possible oh say 3 years ago. The above photo is us indulging our not terribly spoiled I have no idea what you are talking about child. I was planning on getting her a pair of cowboy boots today (it's the only way to get her excited and shopping where I want to go, she has to get something too) and looked up in the Cavender ad today and noticed they had these insanely cute kid's FatBaby Kid's heart boots on sale. I showed her the picture and she was sold, so off we were to one of the local Cavender's, a very cool country clothing store. I think it's only in Texas but I could be wrong. We've got 3 here in San Antonio and I never go there, I mean just how many boots does a city girl need? For the record we're at 2 right now and I could have easily added another 3 while at the store.

While waiting on mommy to try on her boots the kid decided she needed a 'cowgirl' outfit so I told her to take her daddy over to the clothes and knock herself out.
She ended up with this get up:


Matching the new boots of course. The boots are damn cute with 4 little hearts on the back of the heel and the side formed into a clover leaf pattern. Every little girls Valentines Day perfect outfit right?



I did get myself a pair of course. It was a bitch choosing just one pair that did it for me. I already have a pair of pointy toed brown Ariats, pretty but not practical plus I wanted something more fancy yah? They had this pair of purple ones that I liked a lot but they were purple on the tops and the actual foot part was still a basic brown. I wanted something that was flashy all over so they stood out even when wearing jeans. While there was no lack of these at the store I narrowed my search by the ones that were comfortable and on sale. See how practical I am? It still left a huge playing field for me though so this is what I ended up with,
Ariat GemBabies



The box says they are a Brick Red color but you can't really tell because my floors are a cherry color. I'd actually call the color oxblood but that's because we were raised on Doc Martins and that's a Doc color. Red is my color, it's a power color and what I wear on the paintball field when I used to play. Other weenies wear camo to try and 'blend in', I wear red to let them know they are about to get lit up. Like I said, it's a power color. It's my color. Still and oxblood is just subtle enough so that I'll be able to wear them more often and not clash with every other color I wear right? They've got gems and rivets on them too so it adds..bling? The kid thought they were perfect and we all know fashion needs her stamp of approval before purchasing.

The hubby bought a pair of boots too you know. Ariat hiking boots, more his style since he doesn't do country fashion and I totally am on board with this one. He's just not country and I don't want him to be. I was just happy he found something there he thought was cool enough to buy.

And hey, did I mention I was almost the one who spent the least amount of $ there? The hubby beat me by a mere $5. It could have been waaay worse right? They carry a brand of jeans there that I had never heard of and were on clearance. For a mere $150. Criminy! I had to try some on (they aren't on their website btw) because they must give a massage or something to warrant that price tag. I was wrong, they didn't give me a massage but they fit awesome being a 93/7% blend of cotton spandex. I tried on this pair (which is on the brand website for $225, wtf?) which did not make me look as skinny as the model on the website but they made my ass look great (it must be that 7% spandex...). Not $150 great but if I had money to blow out my ass sure I'd get them. Has anyone else heard of this brand though? 7 for all mankind? It must be that I am just not in enough stores that sell jeans in the $200+ range. I'm ok with that though since I can't possibly afford those. Hell for that I'll buy a pair of Luccheses right?

Business cards, my severe lack of brain cells, the f-bomb, and bringing down the ‘hood

So my hubby is talking to me yesterday and were going over how the kid’s Valentines Day party at her school went. Apparently he met some kid’s mom who read his blog. And of course here’s me asking how in the world this random mom who we’ve probably never met before knew about it. Ha ha, funny me. Remember a few posts back where I was talking about calling cards, getting them and the kid wanting 21 of them to give out to ALL of her classmates? Yeah well I only gave her 8 and apparently that was too many. She didn’t write her own name on them and so these poor clueless kids (boys specifically, remember she prefers hanging with the boys, God help us) took them home. Their parents then get them and wonder what crazy woman is giving out her cards to 7 yr olds. Yeah that would be me. Remind me to never give the kid cards any more k? They need to teach common sense in college more nowadays because obviously when I gave birth I also gave up rights to my brain cells.
Back to the poor hubby and this woman, yeah so he comes home after that party (more than likely cursing my name but that’s the norm) and wonders, in all of his prison anecdotes, how many times he’s dropped the f-bomb. A few times I’m sure since he’s working at a max security prison and it comes up right? What I find funny is that he cared. He was worried what this other mother would think of it. Dude, isn’t that my job? Worrying about the Jones’, that should be the wife paranoia right? I must have checked my conscious at the door with my brain cells because that is the last thing I’m thinking about. I’m feeling guilty that these moms probably think there’s some old woman stalking their kids. Now there’s something to be paranoid about. The f-bomb? Not so much.
Let’s talk about the hood though, it’s probably a wee bit higher class of hood than we should be in so I think in general we are bringing it down. This incident is total proof if I’ve ever seen it. I mean dang, how many people dealing with max security convicts every day do ya think we got in our hood? One. That’s blue collar if I’ve ever seen it and we don’t live in a blue collar hood. I’m just waiting for the collar color police to come a knocking. One more incidence like this and it’s a gimme. Anyway, it’s not like I put his blog addy on my cards, I put my addy up and there’s two pictures of the kid on the sidebar. Yes, I don’t give out names other than mine but if you haven’t noticed it yet we’re paranoid people. We work on the “You’re only paranoid if they’re not out to getcha” principle. I love being the paranoid one, if Armageddon hits every person that knows us is going to show up on our front door and we’re going to make our own little Thunderdome. It’s gonna rock.
Still, don’t you think the f-bomb is like the last thing he should be stressing over? I mean have you read some of the shit I’ve written? Hell I've even put up video of a burlesque show. Of all the things to be self conscious about he's uptight about the f-bomb, what the fuck?

Because I like over extending myself

No really I don't but lately, or rather, this week, I'm really going for gold. I have things I need to get done like say buy a car, make sure the kid does her home work and gets fed every night, make sure the chinchilla has food (he ran out and we buy his food at the feed store), the dogs get food (I didn't manage to get that done but they have enough for breakfast on Thursday so they'll live), the mother in law's b-day present is bought, oh and the kid, I need to make all her Valentines Day cards for 21 classmates. Party is Thursday. This here is my list for what to do on Wednesday night. Overextended much? Yeah it's a mom thing.

I left work, stopped at the feed store and picked up the chin food. Headed out again and picked up the kid, took her straight to the place to get the mil present and then head home. I was going to stop at the pet food store for the dog food (feed store doesn't carry the kind I get for them) but that was just too much for me to take at that moment because I knew I had to get back home, check the kid's hw (thankfully she didn't have any) and finish the beef stew I had put in the crock pot this morning. Now there's forethought for ya huh? I even printed out the info the kid needs for her hw tomorrow night for her daddy while I was at work today. Damn I was on it! I even put on the right color scrubs today. Miracles never cease around here.

The biggie for the evening though was going to be the kid's Valentines Day cards. I hadn't started yet. I had everything I needed though, I bought the little blank bookmarks and I was sure I had red and pink ink and had to have heart stamps in my massively un-used stamp collection. What you see depicted in the pictures is only a fraction of all the stamps I could have used so I'm glad I didn't go out and buy anything else! Yes, I made Valentine's Day cards for a 1st grade class. I know they are all just going to trash them once they rip the candy rings off but I tried. They are book marks so maybe their parents will recognize that before it goes in the trash. If not it won't emotionally traumatize me. I could have actually gone a bit more nutty with them and make them insanely fancy with only a little more effort but again,the kids just want the candy. I used Stickles to add a bit of bling. The ribbon was Christmas clearance ribbon so it cost me like maybe a quarter in ribbon. The most expensive part was the bookmarks, 1 pack of 50 for $2.25 and I didn't even use half. They are cute though and most importantly, the kid has bragging rights to the fact that her mommy hand made her book marks. Don't think for one minute that the diva won't point that out to everyone.

That's not why I did it though! I needed to get back into the 'productive' groove with regards to scrapping. I love it and I haven't done it in a century so here's to seeing how this helps get me started again. Really though if I could just make it so I don't have to be in a car dealership 3 nights a week I think my life would be hugely better with respect to time management.

The car dealership saga continues....

I know you are all just dying to know what in the hey howdy hell the conclusion is to my car buying saga. In truth so am I. I know, I know, you all have real lives but this is all I got to entertain so here you go. So when the car dealership told me I couldn't have the Acura that they sent me home with on Saturday night I was pretty disappointed. It was a sweet car, a silver TL with leather seats (heated of course), Bose stereo system, sun roof, V6 engine and all the lovely stuff that comes with a sweet ass company car that this one started out it's life as. It was too old though (2003) and had 97k miles on it so the banks wouldn't finance it. You know how much it cost? $9000. We were putting a thousand down and only financing $8000 over 3 years. The banks wouldn't finance that? They wanted me to buy something newer, more expensive, and with less miles on it. Basically something that was worth more than what I was going to pay. So um yeah. Where is the logic in that? Fine, I told them to tell me what cars I could get and I'd choose.

There were 2, a 2007 Corolla S in white and a 2005 Jeep Wrangler in Silver. I had already test driven the Corolla the last time we were in and chose the Acura. I didn't like it. It was terribly uncomfortable, the seat was horrid. I don't know if it was me or the seat but my friend owns one and she's not built like me. She said the seat just sucks. Well I wasn't so enamored with the drive either. It was the first car the salesman tried to sell me and I got out of it and told him I wanted to try something else. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $14k for something I don't like to drive. What a waste. That'd be just a crying shame and I couldn't get myself to do it.

So let me just give you the back story on Jeep Wranglers. My hubby has always wanted one and when I moved back to San Diego (before we started dating as adults) I took him to the dealership and he got one. In burgundy. He loved the Wrangler but hated the color and I mean hated the color. Me? I liked it. Briefly. It was right after that we started dating and by dating I mean we got pregnant. Have you ever ridden in a Wrangler? Gotten in and out of one of those damned things? Are you 5 feet tall like myself? Add 9 months of pregnancy and that ever so smooth ride that you get in one of those suckers and you'll know why I detested that Wrangler. Plus I was not about to have my newborn riding in the back of a freaking Jeep. No way. I made him get rid of it. Mean evil girlfriend that I was I wouldn't marry the man and I made him get rid of his Jeep.

So when I went to the dealership on Monday they said that the only thing they had for me was the Corolla and I asked about the Jeep. They thought I was nuts, I mean I had a kid and a booster seat. This was a 2 door off road vehicle. It's a 6 speed, they actually asked me if I knew how to drive a stick. Oh pulease, I was raised on one. Learned to drive in a 5 speed truck and took my driver's test in one. I have only had an automatic for the past 5 years. The previous 14 have been with a stick, I think I can figure it out again.

Here's the break down
Corolla S : $14,000 2007 25k miles automatic 4 door 4 cylinder engine

Jeep : $13,000 2005 46k miles 6 speed 2 door 4 wheel drive (I don't need it but hey right?) in line V6


Really, they had me at the V6. I have one now and going back to a 4 cylinder would be painful. Really, painful. You can put me in something ugly, I don't care, but you take away my power and it's going to make me bitchy. I don't speed but damn it all if I pound on the gas pedal I expect a response. The Corolla did nothing. The Jeep I'm kinda worried about flipping but I know it won't. My hunny drives those things like a bat outta hell and they stick to the road. I don't drive nearly as maniacal and flippant as him. Oh and btw, when I called him to tell him that we had the option of buying another Wrangler and did he have a preference he said "Is that a trick question?". Poor guy, thinking I was messing with his brain. Because I do.

The question now is will they get us financing on it. The bank says yes but (oh you knew that was coming right?) they want a bill with my hunny's name on it as proof of residence. Not the mortgage with his name on it, not a credit card statement. No they want something like a cell phone bill, electric, cable, something that says you're in the house. This is after all the check stubs and w-2's and what not. The thing is the hunny doesn't do the bills, they upset him. I've always done the bills so when we moved in and I set everything up I used my name. Guess what? Most of those companies won't change or add his name. They'll put him in as someone who can call in for help but they won't put his name on the bill. The loan is now in a wait and see what other hoops they want us to jump through limbo. We can have the loan but we haven't signed on it yet because they are going to have to figure out what the hell they want.

If all else fails I was able to put him on the cable bill but it doens't come out for another week or so and we'll have to wait. If the dealership doesn't want to wait the 2 weeks then we'll do something else. Hell we've done this much so far and there will always be other cars. I'm tired of dragging the kid to dealerships anyway, I told them they were going to have to wait until it was convenient for us to come back in and don't expect it to be in the next day or 2. If they really want the sale they'll figure something out I'm sure. Since when was car buying more complicated than buying a frikin house?

Flustered this morning

Tuesday is Maroon, not royal blue....
This car dealership till the wee hours of a week night is taking it's toll. We have different colors of scrubs for every day at work. It's different every. single. day. Retarded but at least I can figure out what day it is by what is hanging in my closet. If my brain works that morning. It was 11am before I noticed I was in the wrong color today. Fudgecicles. That means I'm not just a little bit off but A LOT. Man I really have to get with it....

Bye bye 4Runner, may the bankers rot in hell

It really shows in my blog when I'm stressing doesn't it? Things have been crazy around here and it's driving me nuts. Homicidally so actually. Which would be fine if there were and actual person I could direct my homicidal tendencies towards but there isn't so I'm pretty much SOL. Hey I'm a chemist, I can hide a body like nobodies business and don't think I wouldn't have a BALL.

So here's the deal, I have a car, a Toyota 4Runner to be exact. I leased it in 2006, I haven't leased a car in decades. Normally we buy and then trade in after 3 years so last time I figured it'd be wiser to lease. Well nobody really counted on this financial mess the US and the car industry is weathering nor did I plan on my brain exploding a little over a year ago. Why oh why should this matter when talking about my lease expiration? Normally you're given a buy out dollar amount that is a pretty decent price. When the economy and car market isn't in record making bottom out garbagio. The price they want me to pay for my car is a wee bit too high considering and the banks right now will not finance anything that isn't worth more than what you are financing. No I'm so not kidding on that last part. And normally my credit would be fine and dandy so that it wouldn't matter but I had this brain explosion and when they say that one medical disaster is all it takes to wipe a family out they are sooo not kidding. You do not want to know what it costs to survive a stroke, it's a large dollar amount that is almost impossible to recover from. There's a sign, that light at then end of the tunnel? It was canceled, the hole you are in you will never ever get out of. I won't complain too much though, I'm alive and fully functional. My credit? Not so much.

So here's the deal, when turning in a lease or trying to buy it out at the end you have to go to a dealership and have the car inspected so that the bank knows they are loaning out money for a car that is worth what they are loaning. Well the lease end says I can buy it for 'x' amount, fine but the trade in value is what, like 2/3's of 'x' amount. Cars aren't worth crap these days and the banks will not lend out diddly squat. Mind you the same company (Toyota Financial) that sold me the lease and is putting that dollar amount on the car. So they are saying that I can pay 'x' for the car but since it is worth 2/3x then they won't finance it. OK then, makes total sense to me, yeah I gotcha. So I go in to do this song and dance and no one in the finance department has the time to speak to me. Some nice salesman that knows the song and dance had me do all the paper work and had the car inspected for me (yes, I just called a car salesman nice) and told me the finance department would call me the next day. So I wait for a call. And got none. So I call. No one in finance is available over the phone. OK so the lady in charge of leasing talks to me and tells me she's seen my file and that she'll get the finance guy to call me. That was a week ago. My take on it? They won't finance me. Fine then, Fuck'em. They can have the car back. Good luck selling that sucker for fractions of what it's worth.

No one is buying SUV's new right now, certainly not new ones. Even if they are buying they aren't buying used. No one will finance used cars anymore. I know, that's what I've been doing for the past 2 weeks! The car must be worth the loan amount and no used car is worth what they are selling them for, they wouldn't make a profit. I found 2 perfect used cars for spectacular prices, one was only $9000 and it was sweet. No go, can't get financing. Whatever. This last place I went to was super nice. They actually went to a bunch of banks to find one that would finance us (not easy, crappy credit right) and then told us what on the lot we could get. We couldn't get one that was inexpensive and older but we could get one that was more expensive and newer. Oh and we couldn't get one that was new, credit isn't good enough. It's like a twisted version of financial catch 22. The really sad part? With my income we can afford a decent car payment. But the banks, they aren't willing to loan.

Why oh why did Bush give the banks billions of dollars just so they could hoard them? You would not believe how busy these car dealerships are. People are buying, or trying to buy, cars left and right. I know, I've been out there all friggin night long. Once I found a place that found me financing all I said was show me which cars I can get and I'll pick one. Tomorrow I find out if the financing goes through. I had to come home and fax them pay stubs, w-2's, proof of residence bills, hell I'm surprised they didn't need birth certificates. If it gets me in a car, any car, though I'll do it at this point.

Ok and you want to know the really funny part? It wasn't something like a Hyundai or a Kia dealership that got me financing. It was Acura. I love this dealership, they totally have me for life if they can get me a car.

I must have one of those obsession things...

So the kid was taking a shower in our shower today. She never uses her bathroom for anything anymore, she's taken ours over. I think I've mentioned this problem before, no? So I wanted to make sure she made it out and clean in a timely manner (like less that 45 minutes) because she has that long shower gene. While I was in there I figured I'd be productive and organize under my side of the sink.

I have um, some quantity of stuff under there. Lets face it, there are some of us women who like product. Be it hair, make up, body products (that's the biggie for me) what have you, we women collect it like it's going out of production I swear. I organized mine though, it's all nice and neat and I even found some stuff I went looking for under there no less than 3 times and could not for the life of me find. Bonus right? My big thing is Bath and Body Works. If I go to pick something up and there's a sale I stock up. Then I forget what I already have. I have 2 bottles of Japanese Cherry Blossom body cream and 3 bottles of the shower gel in that scent too. It used to be my fav but it's changed. Now the hubby prefers Midnight Pomegranate, so does the kid for that matter. I have 2 shower gels, 3 body creams and 1 body spray of that. Oh and the hand wash! We love the foaming stuff so I've got 2 of those in the Mid Pom and 1 huge refill bottle of the Jap Cherry Blossom. I have a kid and a husband, we go through hand soap fast.



Now keep in mind I never buy this stuff full price, it's only when it's on sale for like 3 for $15 or 5 for $20, the good sales you know. That's when to stock up because you know, you never know when you'll run out of your 5 other bottles of shower gel right?



The only other thing I buy from them (and they have a ton of stuff to hoard, I mean sell!) is their lip shine. I even have the hubby wearing it. The almond one, not the minty pink kind. My favorite flavor though is the Mentha Cinnamint Lip Shine. Yummy! All of their mint ones are tasty but this one especially so. I don't actually have a stock of these, they are too expensive ($7.50). Only 2, 1 in my purse, 1 in my bathroom, and 1 back up. They are on sale right now so it might be time to pop in over there and see how much I can build up my stock....
I am not an addict!

A note for those who eat beef and McD's...

*Edited*
So Train Wreck told me this email was on Snoops and it's false. Since I am open minded enough to go and check it out Snoopes does have it and sure enough, they say it isn't true. I am including the link to the specific article
Snoopes
so if you're nosey enough you can check it out. As for us, we're not big Mickey D's fans anyway so it's neither here no their to us. Interesting read though.

This has been floating around the net for at least a few weeks now and I have decided to try and get on the bandwagon. I'm not a terribly Crunchy person, I recycle and we use cloth napkins, etc but I am not by any means a vegetarain. And nor will I ever be, I like my beef, it's good and it makes me happy (yeah go there, you know you want to!). We don't eat seafood, it grosses us out. Life is too short to try and make yourself love a food that just tastes nasty. For the fish lovers out there more power to ya, I'm a beef eater that occasionally eats chicken. We do eat at McDonalds on occasion, we have a kid and we work full time. Yes we eat fast food and don't start with me about the bad health issues blah blah blah. I gave birth to a stick, my kid could eat Micky D's 6 times a day and still not get fat. We just don't see the need to, we eat it maybe once a week if that. Still when I do buy my meat it's normally of the grass fed variety, it's about the same price here and I'm semicrunchy, it makes enough of a difference that I will pay the extra change. This current letter bothers me, I don't want my kid eating meat from South America. This is not good, both for our ranchers here and for the health of the US people. One big major health scare and Micky D's is going to hell in a hand basket but I tell you what, my kid isn't going to be part of that health scare. Nope, not in my household, we prefer Freddy's Frozen Custard anyway. :

To those of us whose living depends on the cattle market, selling cattle, raising the best beef possible… this is frustrating. This will keep us from ever stopping there again, even for a drink.

McDonald’s claims that there is not enough beef in the USA to support their restaurants. Well, we know that is not so. Our opinion is they are looking to save money at our expense. The sad thing of it is that the people of the USA are the ones who made McDonald’s successful in the first place, but we are not good enough to provide beef.

All Americans that sell cows at a livestock auction barn had to sign a paper stating that we do NOT EVER feed our cows any part of another cow. South Americans are not required to do this as of yet.

McDonald’s has announced that they are going to start importing much of their beef from South America. The problem is that South Americans aren’t under the same regulations as American beef producers, and the regulations they have are loosely controlled.

They can spray numerous pesticides on their pastures that have been banned here at home because of residues found in the beef. They can also use various hormones and growth regulators that we can’t. The American public needs to be aware of this problem and that they may be putting themselves at risk from now on by eating at good old McDonald’s.

American ranchers raise the highest quality beef in the world and this is what Americans deserve to eat. Not beef from countries where quality is loosely controlled. I’m sorry but everything is not always about the bottom line, and when it comes to jeopardizing my family’s health, that is where I draw the line. Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

David W. Forrest, Ph.D ., PAS, Dipl.

ACAP Department of Animal Science
Texas A&M University
2471 TAMU College Station , TX 77843-2471

My old hood, Shangri La?

Since leaving San Diego we have found both positives and negatives about where we live now. San Antonio is a lovely place but like every place out there it has it's drawbacks. Really though the only things I'd change about this place is 1) the drivers, they can't drive worth a dick out here, worse than any place I've ever driven (So Cal, incl LA, Nor Cal, as in SF, St Louis, Wash DC yeah nasty, NYC not as bad as DC, Boston, yup it's worse than Boston here, and a few other small spots in the US) and 2)I'd like it if my mom wasn't here. Maybe if she moved to the other side of the world or maybe just kicked off and died it'd be a better city. A better world for that matter but I digress. At times people ask, both from San Diego and not, if I miss San Diego. It's kind of well known to be a sort of Shangi La I think but not all of us have those feelings for the place.

The answer to that question is both long and short. The short, hell no I don't want to move back there but yes I do miss it. Terribly even sometimes. Since it is both mine and my hubby's birthplace it holds almost all of our family there. And as much as we love them we don't need the drama. The only family I will ever be happy to live near is my father and my nephew. Everyone else can blow. I am going out on a limb here and saying that, for the most part, my hubby agrees. He loves his mom dearly but she causes serious strife in his marriage so it's kind of a double edged sword. I love her too but there are dominance issues. Like why is it every time she flies out and stays she must rearrange the silverware drawer. Why? I don't know. I'm not even sure she realizes she does it every time she's here, must be a compulsory thing, who knows. Plus we have friends in San Diego with issues. Sometimes you want to be there to help them, other times we are super stoked we aren't there for the stupid drama. Lets face it, there's always super drama with some people.

There are other things, grander scale things, that keep me from wanting to go back also. Even if I was rolling in the dough (which we are sooo not) and had the spare cash to own a house/piece of crap that they sell there I think the most I would get is a vacation home. And only visit once a year for 4 days or less. Not worth it? Yeah see now you know where I'm coming from. The grander scale things are basically child oriented. Their school system there is in the toilet and the dh and I are big into public schooling, we don't like the segregation of private schools. Our kid is spoiled enough as it is and I don't want to make it worse. Even then the public schools down there are fraught with peril. Skinny image much? So Cal? Yeah my entire cheer squad was on crystal meth in high school. Lots of energy, no need for food, it was a popular drug in the popular girls crowd. Also you had to be skinny and blond. It's bad enough at schools across the nation, it's amplified in So Cal.

Other issues, you know the state is practically bankrupt right? They are giving out iou's for tax refunds this year. So not only is the economy crap but the government isn't giving you your money back. WTF? Oh yeah that's a great state to live in. They are closing schools. In San Diego the school system has to cut $33 million this year and they've figured out how to cut all but $7.2M so far. Holy crap what? The city of San Antonio 'found' $30 million last month. Found. In my hood here in SA we had a new high school open for us last fall, and a new elementary and middle school slated to open this fall. Our elementary just opened 5 years ago and they are already having to open a new one due to overcrowding. And people wonder why we love it here. We're parents, there's no question where you're going to find us. We'll be in the hood with the best schools whose houses are just a wee bit above our means. The shit we do for our kids I swear sometimes I just want to live out in the country, work in a feed store and home school my kid. Then back in the real world....

The San Diego hoods in general are apparently going down the tubes too:
Violence...has got to stop
Apparently the gangs have switched modes and titles. They are now called "Party Crews" and they go around competing with who can have the coolest, biggest house party. The parents of this latest girl shot and killed thought she was at home in bed. Oh Hell the fook no. Not on my watch, not my kid. Upstairs with her door open and we can hear her breathing. I think we mentioned we're kinda paranoid. This girl is the third one murdered in the last 2 months. As a side note you'll notice that Point Loma High is mentioned there, it's my alma mater. They aren't gang related killings, these kids are being shot after they leave the party. Ah the logic of teens.

My old hood has gone down the crapper. Do I want to move back there? No. It's not good for my child. If it's not good for my kid it's not good for my family and no, that is not by any means a Shangri La.

I was tagged again!

This time by Violet in the middle.
Here are the rules:
1. Go to the 4th picture folder on your computer.
2. Post the 4th picture in that folder.
3. Explain the picture
4. Tag 4 more bloggers.

So the folders on my desktop aren't organized enough to be counted well so I ball parked it and this is what you get!

2 of the 3 dogs here are not mine. Care to guess which ones? I'll give you a hint, all my dogs are black masked. It's a thing, we love it and so it is. The other 2 dogs in this pic are both fosters of mine. I had forgotten that I, for a brief moment in time, had 2 fosters at once. The dark brindle and white pied was my love Higgins who found his furever home in Houston. The other little beastie was Clara Belle, her furever home was found in LA so now she's a So Cal girl. And mine? That would be the poor Roxie who is forever getting squished out of her beds. Ah the rough life she lives here...

As for the tagging, well I will get to that tomorrow sometime. I lag so this will be a slower than normal process. Welcome to my blog...

Oy the kid is home sick so I am able to get to this in an efficient manner! For me that is, it's all relative you know!

I am tagging
Kim at Ramblings of a not so sane mommy, because I know she'll do it and I know she's got pics!

Lisa over at Trailboss because she's got all kinds of faboo pics. I'm going to make a random guess here that her 4th photo in her 4th folder will be either her grandbaby or one of her dogs. Just a guess though!

Oh and lets not forget Jaime at Have Inspiration Will Travel, I'm hoping her pic is one of her naked cowboy ones, you never know!

And last but not least I am tagging my hubby The Recalcitrant Beagle, because I know he has a TON of pics on his computer and the one that falls into this category very well may be mine since I have him download all of our pics on our computer. Yes that is why I so rarely have pics. I am too lazy to get them on to the computer.

Because I promised pictures!

I did and so I took some tonight. I also included the cute ass sign the kid made to hang up in the hood. Yes, I blocked out our address but if you really want it you could ask and I'd probably tell it to you. We have 3 paranoid dogs and enough weaponry and ammo you'd think we were waiting for armageddon. Because we are. That or Red Dawn, we are sooo set for Red Dawn....
In the mean time we have a snake to keep everyone away. Damn I think she was lifting weights while she was on her week long jaunt because dayum is she strong now. The kid only held her for a second and was like halp!

Update to the Update: FOUND THE SNAKE!

Yeah went upstairs and noticed something on the floor behind the cage. Lo and behold that little brat was trying to get back in her cage. And was resistant to being picked up. Actually gave chase, the nerve...
She is safely tucked back in the aquarium and I taped the top shut.

This just in....snake update o matic

We found snake poo. Yes I realize that these are details that not everyone wants to know. Welcome to my blog. But some of you are terrified of the fact that the possibility exists that one of us could wake up with a pink snake in their bed and not in the fun sexy way either. For this I let you all know the updates as we get them.

The dd was yelling about how there was snake poo in her room around noon today. I don't know how she found it, she was in there getting dressed and it was under her night table. I mean really how often does one look under their night table while getting dressed? Anyone? No? Exactly my point.

Now here's the deal, ya'll know what a 7 yr old girl's room looks like? How much clothing/stuffed animals/toys/crap they have tucked away everywhere? How many hidey holes those rooms contain? At least we have a starting point and hopefully (keep you fingers crossed people) she's still in there. As insane as that prospect sounds it's easier to search her room for a 4 ft pink snake that the house in it's entirety. Right? I have still yet to go in there and start tearing the place apart though. Lazy much? Yeah just a bit. It's Sunday!