Long Time No Blog

Holy cow, it's been a long time since I've blogged. It's not that I've had nothing to say. I ALWAYS have something to say.

Today is Saturday, and I've been watching cooking shows all morning. I think I'll make spaghetti as a result. But not the kind I saw on a cooking show this morning. I'll make the kind that comes out of the jar that you pour over the noodles. That's just called lazy.

Sarah has 1 month of school left. I'm telling you, I cannot WAIT until the girl graduates. She's got senioritis so bad it hurts ME to watch. She honestly should take a year off after high school and work. I think she's pretty sick of school, and maybe she needs a dose of reality from the work world. But, her Dad won't have that, so off she'll go to Ball State this fall.

It's been a wild couple of weeks. I had to go out on 3 serious losses last week - Louisville, Columbus & Champaign. Then this week I was off to Pittsburgh for a deposition. THAT was fun. Unfortunately, coming back from all that leaves the office a huge mess and lots of work to do in a short period of time. I'll have to go in today or tomorrow to finish catching up.

Back to the world of food TV and spaghetti....

Testing

testing blogger button

Yuki Feb 2005

Here's a picture of Yuki taken last week. He has a cold, which he so graciously passed along to me, just in time for me to go out of town on a mediation and a settlement conference. My nose ran the entire time. I got back on Thursday night, and only made it through 1/2 day at work yesterday because I couldn't talk unless I had a Kleenix shoved up my nose to keep the flood at bay. Even though he gave me a cold, I'll keep him anyway. He's a cutie.

If you don't like crafts, skip this entry. These are things we learned at last night's Close to My Heart party. 

I don't know how...

I am sorry - I don't know how to put several pictures on one post. So, the Christmas photos are individual posts.

Thank GOODNESS it's a new year! I'm ready for it!

CJ

 

 

Grandma and Yuki playing with the cement truck. See the Christmas tree mom made me on the kitty litter bucket? Now THAT'S CLASS. 

Matt and Elizabeth play with one of Yuki's toys while Butch (back of the couch) is just trying to stay out of the way. 

"Yeah? Watch me!"  

This turned out to be Yuki's very favorite toy. Even I thought it was pretty cool. 

But I want to HELP, Grandma! 

Isn't he cute??? This is on Yuki's 1st birthday. I love his hair. 

Butch knows how to keep toasty when it's cold out side. Just lay on someone!!! (In this case, Matt) 

Surgery, moving, and irresponsible daughters...

What a VERY busy month December has turned out to be! Here's how it all went down...

• My 11 year-old cat, Mocha got hit by a vehicle that was moving faster than he was. He had been missing for about 4 days before one of the kids in the neighborhood told me they saw a dead cat in the road. It was Mocha. I was devestated. I cried for hours. Even shopping didn't help much.
• My landlord sent a letter telling me my rent was going up $50 per month, and I had 60 days to advise if I was renewing my lease. My apartment is FULL of mold and mildew, Sarah and I are constantly sick, and he is completely unresponsive to most problems brought to his attention.
• Child support ends this year, and my income is going to plunge by almost 1/3.
• Most of the animals we have belong to Sarah and she doesn't take care of them.
• I'm paying out about $150 a month in pet supplies/meds.

So. while still grieving for Mocha, reeling from the rent news and mad at Sarah for not taking care of her animals, I, in one fell swoop, decided to move and get rid of all animals but my own. We have my boston terrier, Butch, and my skunk Stinker. I still have fire belly toads & Sarah still has her dumpy. We kept one fish tank. Life is so much calmer now. And, the new apartment is $30 cheaper than the old one even before the rent hike. Plus, I'm only 1.5 miles from work.

This brings me to Moving. Oh my gosh I hate moving. Apparently it took me three years to forget how much I hate it because that's how long it's been since the last time I moved. Thanks to Matt (Elizabeth's live-in) we got most of the stuff moved over T-giving weekend. There is still some junk over at the old place, mostly in the garage, that needs to be moved, and a pile of stuff to be thrown away. I spent 2 hours cleaning today. I'm sick of cleaning and unpacking....

December 1st I had surgery to remove a cyst on my right ring finger. Non-cancerous according to the doc. It's already pretty much healed. The worst part was the day after, when I ripped the stitches right out trying to put on my Tennis Shoes. OUCH!

Irresponsible children...Sarah STILL has not finished even ONE application to college. She drove over some rr tracks on the edge with a big drop off and popped 2 tires ($135 thank you very much). She had over 600 (YES - 600!!) text messages on her cell last month, and over 1000 minutes. Elizabeth went way over her minutes, too. ($275 - thank you). I have changed my plan so that won't happen again, but MAN! I gave Sarah certain items to complete before she flew out to see her dad for Christmas...were they done? No. Sigh.

That's all for today. That's ENOUGH for today. Time for sweet sleep where problems are forgotten and life is not overwhelming. Until I start to dream....

The condensed version

I just typed in a post about moving and dodge ball. When I tried to spell check it, it disappeared. Waaaaaa!

Oh well. In a more compact manner. I'm moving. Today is the walk-through and I get the keys. I'm going to start moving a some every day and hope to be in by the end of the week, but by 12/4 at the latest.

Dodge ball - I don't feel like typing it all again, but it has to be one of the dumbest games ever invented to play in the school system. And to base an entire movie on it is even dumber.

Finally - The Pacers disgrace themselves by fighting with fans. Ron Artest is banned from playing the rest of the season. But what will happen to the fans that poured beer on the Pacers, sucker punched the players and threw chairs? Too much testosterone that night!

Yuki and his VERY BAD hair cut sitting in a paper box... - Today, Yuki is 10 monts old. Woo-hoo!! 

Sarah - Halloween 2004 - Harry Potter 

Yuki @ 9 months 

Saturday....

Saturday! I love Saturday! Fun things happen on Saturdays.

Today, after doing the obligatory cleaning and a little bit of packing, I went to Debbie's for a birthday party. It was fun. I was exposed to foods I have not eaten before... We had Squirrel Stew. Yup. Squirrel Stew. It tasted like...turkey soup. (Thought I was gonna say chicken, didn't you?) We had boiled kale. (Isn't that the stuff they put on veggie trays for color?) It was actually pretty good. I think it had something to do with all the bacon in it. We hada cold green bean/lettuce/feta cheese/onion/mint dish. That was pretty good too. Then we had all the normal chips/pop/wine/cheese & crackers etc. And, of course, cake & ice cream. I felt like I was in the deep South there for a couple of hours.