My, How Time Flies!

I can hardly believe that it has been one year since our dumb ass cat has come to live with us. I can also hardly believe that it has been one year since my Brother-In-Law, Robert, passed away unexpectedly. Life is just that - unexpected. Emma is on hour 5 of a marathon nap. She may just sleep the whole night through. I'm sure we'll see that she's grown overnight. She's been goofy lately. Very goofy. She's also been totally worn out after school. Such a long day for her. She sleeps hard on the bus ride home. We had a pretty rough start to the school year, but Emma has since mellowed out pretty darned well. In fact, she just got "Student of the Week" for at least three weeks in a row! The only problem is there may be a missing library book (that we totally sent back!!) and the case of the missing snow pants (brand new!). Our baby just turned six years old. SIX YEARS OLD?! How the hell did that happen?! It seems like she was five forever. She made a really awesome five year old. We're pretty sure that she's going to rock six, though! Scatt, on the other hand has not fared as well. In the year since he has come into our lives he has been beaten up by the neighborhood cat-bully multiple times - twice really badly, and peed in our house THREE TIMES!! The first time was our fault, the second time he was recovering from a bad nose wound and just recently, come to find out, he is recovering from a big ol' gapping hole in his shoulder... so, I'm pretty sure his system is out of whack. Luckily, given the circumstances of his first inside pee, I was fully prepared for his last inside pee. I, again, was on the potty when he started circling. No problem... I sprang into action! I'd rather clean up a little of my piddle than a puddle of kitty pee! I very calmly chucked his ass into the shower. Ok, I sat him gently in the shower. He did his duty there and then I chucked his ass outside... Last summer he came back from a day of prowling with a wound to the inside of his eye that was so bad that we thought that he had lost his eyeball! A month or so ago he came home from a night out on the town with half of his nose ripped off! Holy cow! What do you do about that?! Well, according to the vet that we didn't actually go see, nothing. He didn't get an infection, luckily. Well, at least not from that. Now he has a dime sized hole in his shoulder that started out as a small bb-sized puncture wound. I must say, it is pretty gross - even by my standards. This poor little guy will be going to the vet next week. He's lost a good amount of weight, too. We thought that was due to his excessive whoring around as of late. Hopefully that's all it is. This damn cat is a real stressor! I have much more to ruminate about from the past year, but I'm too whooped for now.

The Year In Review

• US Men's Hockey - Silver I'm still a fan of Canadian beer and Canada geese
• Scott got his first deer - totally yeah!!! Meat in the freezer, baby!
• Haiti - no more needs to be said.
• Hello to Tristan!!
• Goodbye Midnight - the only Chow mix I've ever loved
• Goodbye to our amazing and sweet and wonderful smelling Bailey Black Dog. Oh my gosh how I miss him. I miss him so much. I miss having to call Scott to call the damn dog off while he's laying cross wise across my chest. Dumb ass dog! Scott loved him very much, and he loved Scott very much - but he was my dog. Bailey was my boy.
• Meggers and Marlie are preggers!
• Meg and Cory are engaged!
• Emma started Kindergarten and had her stage (ok, risers) debut.
• Good bye Robert, hello Scatt.
• Good bye Khodachrome
• Chilean Miners

so so much more... but I need to refill my champagne!

Happy Freakin' New Year - 2011 is going to ROCK!!!

Christmas Time and the Living is Easy, But the Travelin' Ain't!

Saturday Night. Christmas Night. All is calm, all is bright? Oy! After close to twelve hours of fighting on again off again with our wireless connection, I am finally snuggled in a flannel sheet clad twin bed next to my dear sweet hubby, also in a flannel clad twin bed in my old bedroom. The child passed out on the living room floor with her new Tangled horse, Maximus. Not the most cuddly of new toys... Last night I had to share said flannel clad bed with my dear sweet 5 year old. The dear child IS A BED HOG!! Tonight, I am exhausted, but of course I'll have trouble going to sleep. The kid was understandably up before dawn showed it's crack. I mean, before the crack of dawn! Yesterday I was a very patient and understanding mother and wife. I tend to freak out a little when we travel. I kinda hoped that we'd be on the road by say, 11am. That did not happen. I even posted on Facebook that I expected us to finally get around to leaving the house around 2pm. According to the clock in my car (which is 6 minutes fast) we left at 2:06pm. We rolled into my parents house around 6pm. Before we left I let my husband check, double check and triple check the house to make sure everything was off. I allowed our child to have a complete meltdown over which outfit she wasn't going to wear. I even made sure I laughed at the situation. Enough to keep me from going over the edge, but not so much to piss off the kid even more... I made chicken sandwiches for the road but forgot the salt and pepper - and napkins. I didn't freak out when it took us 15 minutes to get out of the gas station. I didn't freak out when the dog was whining and the kid was barking while hubby was in the beer store. We had Christmas burritos to look forward to - and I knew there would be champagne. We'll get there when we get there. The crazy kid greeted Oma and Papa wearing her dreaded traveling outfit and her reindeer antlers made in school of construction paper before she ran upstairs to change into her red velvet Christmas dress. The red velvet Christmas dress was made for me when I was Emma's age by my Mom. It is so pretty. There is a little white eyelet frock that goes with it - but Emma never liked that part of it. It looks too much like an apron. So, I have to say - I'm pretty proud of myself and my not freaking out! Saturday was mostly nice. My Father and I played a couple of games of double nines dominoes. Neither of us had played in years and years. I found out (like I really had any doubt) that my Father has no trouble calling me names and cursing at me. I kicked ass in the first hand - total annihilation! And, I did go on to win the game, too. I wonder if that's the reason my Daddy was cursing at me?! The child was pretty much out of control most of the day. I don't like the way she acts when she gets like this, but I completely get it. She's just so excited that she can't contain herself. The kid is in bed with me again tonight. Just since I started writing this, actually. Scott had lugged the sleeping kid up to her nest in Oma and Papa's room. She settled right in and seemed to be fine. Within an hour I heard the pitter patter of sweet little feet. She was headed right down stairs. I stopped her - what was I thinking?! She climbed right into my bed and snuggled in and passed out again. Sleeping this close to her and being as uncomfortable as I was did allow me to sleep lightly enough to hear all her nighttime mumblings. She talks a lot in her sleep. What I like the most is when she giggles in her sleep. She's a good, happy kid. Sunday morning when she had me up before dawn she did tell me that she tried to give me more space so that I would be more comfortable. Sweet girl! Sunday. Not a totally horrible day. Rough start... but, we dusted ourselves off and went on with our day, eventually. Mom made an as always wonderful breakfast. Emma, with her new notepad and pen in hand went around to take our egg orders. I was reminded of SNL's "Cheeseburger" sketch. We each ordered our eggs done differently - so we all got scrambled! Our eggs, that is! Scott and Jazzy and I left soon after. We spent too much time at the over priced and over crowded mall in Ithaca before making our way home. As we were cresting one of the hills before our home we witnessed one of the most beautiful wintry scenes. The trees were all white and frosty. It was still daylight - but not by much, and so cloudy and overcast that is was just grey. But, it all lent itself to the crisp frigid white trees. We saw a pick up pulled into a little driveway in the woods with a bunch of people just hanging out. Some were sitting on the tailgate and a few were just standing around. They waved vigorously to us. You could see that they were happy people. Happy people hanging out with people they love. It didn't matter where they were, it mattered who they were with. I miss my kid, but she'll be enjoying her winter break with with Oma and Papa. After all, I'm sure she could use the break from us! I'm just happy to be back home, mostly...more on that later.

A pEaCeFuL Day at Home with the Kid! hahahaha!!!

She actually let me sleep in. The dog was stretched out next to me, the cat never moved from his desk chair and the kid was playing Rudolph. When I finally woke up I called the kid in to see me. I asked her if she was a good girl. She said yes. I asked her what she was doing. She said playing. I asked if she had made a mess and would I freak out when I got out there. She said no. This might just be a pretty darned good day! I went potty, because you needed to know that, and went to the living room to survey the damage. "See... There's my sleigh. Nothing to freak out about, right?" You're correct, child. But, if my darling husband reads this he can freak out - because I'm running the washer and the dryer AT THE SAME TIME!!!! (Insert evil laugh here) Off to fold laundry now.

yup, I should be blogging

...but, I'm opting to sit in front of the tv and veg out. I'm tired, long day...

Productive Sundays DO Exist! Full Moon?

This has been an exceptionally productive Sunday. Let's attribute it to the full moon. Some very good friends of ours gave us a beautiful bed set for Emma. I was able to totally make over her room and I found un-found space for stuff. Emma has much stuff. But, now her stuff seems to be a bit more manageable - with more manageability to come! She took a very active role in the re-birth of her room. Man, that kid has got opinions! Wonder where that comes from?! So, the weekend so far...

• Cheese got cut without my assistance
• Jewelry has been purchased
• Puttering has been done
• Deer has been got
• Cappuccinos have been drunk
• Bed and dresser have been delivered
• Scott's desk has been relocated (the most emotionally charged event of the weekend!)
• Bed and dresser have been assembled and Emmafied
• Kid has been showered and put to bed with a bedtime story
• Cheesy New Wave music listened to

Yup, a productive weekend indeed. Darling Hubby has just finished making "Many Bean Ham Hock Soupish," and is in the process of baking his non-risen bread, fryin' up some smoked pork chops and re-heating some mashed 'taters. It looks like we will also be joined by some sauteed zucchini and steamed peas. I like my guy. I like him a lot.

We Miss You Bailey and Who Is This Kid?!

We lost our Bailey Black Dog six months ago today. We all miss him so so much. Jazzy is pretty mopey and sticks pretty close to us. Looking at his pictures helps me, but it just upsets Scott. Emma wants to take a picture of Bailey Boy to "sharing day" tomorrow. Actually she wants to take a picture of Bailey, Jazzy and Emma Kitty. I can see the scene unfolding... "Good morning class. Emma has brought us a picture today of her 'Running Dalmatian' Jazzy, her dead dog Bailey and the dead cat that she was named after." I kinda wonder what the teacher thinks of this child... Last week the kid brought home a piece of artwork. Apparently, they're learning about body parts, and she had to draw a picture of hands. I'm really not sure out of what blue yonder this came from, but she drew a picture of herself holding on to jail cell bars! What?!