CAUTION: Woman In Progress

I've had a decent couple of days so I'm tentatively feeling better. I've not stuck my foot in my mouth. I've been supportive and kind. I've stayed out of trouble and prayed. A lot. One of the better outcomes from the whole soul crushing experiences was my productivity level. Who knew stress made me so productive? It's the whole "trying to get my mind off of it" thing. I've shelved more books, trimmed more weeds (aka "weed eated") and washed more dishes in the past three weeks than I have all year. Not even joking. ;-) Meanwhile, my weight is pretty much stagnant at 250-ish. *le sigh* I can't even say that I don't know why because I do. It's called stress eating. The bane of an emotional eater's existence. But I'm okay with it for now. As I said the other day--"This too shall pass." One day my knees will simultaneously feel better, I won't be stressed and I'll find my determination again. Another...

You know how sometimes there's a person who everyone tells you is a monster and they share horror stories about that person and yet you think, eh, he/she can't be all that bad and you defend him/her even if it's only to yourself until one day that person is completely nasty to you and now you can't even look at him/her without recalling how truly horrible he/she treated you? Yeah. That. It's kinda soul crushing when you're confronted with the true colors of someone you really believed couldn't be as horrible as all that. It's happened to me a few times in the past month with a few different people. Hence, me not really being all that thrilled with life. Sad part is, these are people I'm in frequent contact with. People I really thought weren't as bad as others made them out to be. I honestly saw the best in them until they hit me upside the head with my rose colored glasses. And now it's misery to run into them because even though they'...

So. Life has been full of weird dreams and angst lately but I'm only going to share the happy with you today. And where does most of the happy happen in my life? If you answered: "In the kitchen" you'd be correct. I'll send you a virtual cookie. ;-) This happened Saturday night. "This" being roasted sweet potato rounds drizzled in a heavenly candy-like mixture of peanut butter and maple syrup. I don't really like sweet potatoes unless they are mixed with tons of brown sugar and cinnamon and topped with a brown sugar, oats and pecan mix and/or marshmallows. Whenever anyone on the nutritional circuit says to swap out a white potato for a sweet potato my general reaction is less than mature. (It involves calling them "stupidhead" if that's any indication.) Because ya'll? The only thing sweet taters have in common with white taters is the "taters" portion of their name. Oh, and they both grow in dirt. Otherwis...

This pretty much sums up how I feel about life at the moment. I'm faking it til I make it.

I think I may have broken part of the fancy grandfather clock we have at work. *sigh* This is why I hate being the only one responsible for keeping it wound and set. Flip side of that is that I'm the only one who (so far) knows that that part is broken. And I'm torn between confessing that I broke that part and just leaving it be. It still keeps time, it still strikes on cue--just the chimes are messed up now. Messed up, as in, it no longer chime on cue and when it does begin to chime it doesn't stop.  So I just had to shut the chiming feature off. Which is fine, actually, since it normally chimed every fifteen minutes--annoying. Oddly, nobody's noticed the lack of chiming. But see, here's the thing--the dumb clock didn't work for YEARS and the only person who cared was the Head Cheese. It was a gift from a rich family and while it is certainly beautiful, it's a little high maintenance so we were all a little relieved that it didn't work. And then some...

So, Alyssa turned five last Tuesday and had her party Saturday. Her theme, as you might recall, was Angelina Ballerina. Unfortunately, I'm a horrible aunt and FORGOT. TO TAKE. MY CAMERA. *facepalm* I know, I know. But I had to load up a ton of things in my car after very little sleep and complete brain fog. I'm lucky I remembered to grab her present! I didn't think about my camera until I was halfway there. Fortunately , Mama didn't forget her camera so maybe one day I'll have some photographic evidence of Lyssa's gorgeous party. So far, she's only shared one photo with me, though. Sis2 and Goofus built her a little "stage" out of a wood pallet and a sheet of plywood and decorated it with tulle and tissue paper flowers. The curtain behind her was a curtain panel that Mama and I picked up one day from WallyWorld and suspended with a tension rod. Believe it or not, Lyssa wasn't actually posing here. She didn't want her picture t...

So I've actually been dreading this weekend. As in, I wish I could skip it. Don't get me wrong, I really am looking forward to seeing the kiddos tomorrow. The birthday party though? I could skip it and not cry. I hate parties and most especially ones that include Sis2's MIL. But beyond that, I dread the day because it's going to physically exhaust me. I've got to get over there early to help Sis2 finish getting her house cleaned and decorated. But even before that, I've got to go home tonight and make chocolate chip cookie dough truffles. AND I've got to get my own house cleaned up before Sis1 comes to spend the night tomorrow night. Normally, my house wouldn't take two shakes to look presentable. But for some reason, I've just not felt at all like keeping it neat. I've had that church history project that I worked on and made a complete mess with. Up until yesterday, I had my sweaty and gross jeans on the dining room floor where I left them la...

I'm not stressed today. Yesterday? Yes. I was. The day before that, too. All weekend long before that, too. All last week? You bet. I'm sick of people making junk up and then making a big deal out of trying to make me feel bad. But today? I'm...indifferent. I was in a long meeting this morning that while boring actually ended rather fun when one coordinator told another much thinner coordinator to "eat a cookie." :-D  I may have laughed too hard but whatever. That's okay because I've often thought this person could benefit from a Snickers bar. Maybe she'd smile more. So that "eat a cookie" made my whole entire day. Then, because my whole day had gotten screwed over by that 2.5 hour meeting, I went my friends to eat lunch at the Union. We all ate salads and half a panini. YUM. Except now I'm hungry again. I do want to know one thing, though...Why is it that while trying to relay a funny story that involves a few details to set it u...

I don't have an actual subject for this post. Just some odds and ends of what's what in my world these days. The kiddos have reached a few milestones lately and although they aren't MY kiddos, I'm still excited for them. I know I mentioned last week that Alyssa started 5-K this year. Well, Goofus emailed me a photo of her first day of school. All the schools in our area wear uniforms. For Lyssa's district, the colors are black, khaki, grey and gold/yellow.  I'm not sure how Lyssa feels about uniforms but ain't she cute in her little black jumper and white blouse? Her backpack is pink Hello Kitty. Though you'll hafta take my word on the Hello Kitty part. ;-) Also note the little hand she's holding. That's Efan-man who is, apparently, having some minor separation anxiety issues since his sister has started school. Sis2 said he cries when Lyssa gets out of the car and he can't go with her. Poor baby. But Lyssa, she says, seems to enjoy...

Judging by the wind shakin' the trees and the thunder rattling the windows here, we might just get blown away today. Which is kinda appropriate since this was the song stuck in my head all weekend. ;-) I may or may not be back with a weekend review later. To be honest, the weekend was just too wrought with weird personal junk I'm not sure I'm read to share. But we'll see.

I'd blog about the past few days but I just got my blood pressure down. Well, that is, I'd HAD it down until I (finally) got a particular email reply I'd waited two days for. The thing was so full of BS, the stench of it is stuck in my nose hairs. Anyway, I can sum up the past three days with two words: People. Suck. Not that you, dear friends, suck. But most people? Totally suck. And my mother wonders why I'm a hermit...

No, I haven't given birth or adopted since yesterday. But I did have a funny moment happen Saturday when I was coming in to work. I was running late for my 10am shift and when I finally got there my student assistant, Em, was coming around the atrium looking for me. She'd gotten there early--or on time--and had been waiting on me to come unlock the department. So she runs to meet me and we walk down the hall together, chatting about my lateness and how much we'd both hated having to come in on a Saturday. When we rounded the corner to the side hall we met one of the custodians, Ms. A--a fabulously sweet woman, I might add. She and I usually exchange pleasantries when we cross paths. I love her because when she first came to work for the library, she came around to each department on our floor and introduced herself and made a point of being genuinely kind and offering her assistance should we ever need it. Most of the previous custodians barely deigned to give a grunt ...

Lookie what I got in the mail Saturday! Lyssa's birthday party this year has an Angelina Ballerina theme. I'd never heard of Angelina Ballerina until Sis2 started talking about what Lyssa wanted for her party this year. Apparently it's a popular PBS/Sprout cartoon about a mouse named Angelina who's all up in some ballet junk. Anyway, I thought this was such a neat and fun idea for party invites that I had to share. Meanwhile, can ya'll believe the baby girl is turning five?? AND, she started kindergarten today? I kinda need to sit quietly and cry a little now.

Also known as: "I spent Friday afternoon with mah babies and here's what happened." There was cake. Chawclit cake. "I ready party." Because cake is synonymous with birthday parties. There were also cookies. Eaten in a way that only a nearly five-year-old could manage. There was sass. And him. And then there was a tea party. And also drums at tea time. Because boys aren't usually allowed at tea parties so they don't know how to behave. And then there was this. And this: And I went home exhausted and utterly blessed with a good day spent among my favorite peeps. The end. ;-D

A quick quiz for all you fine upstanding folks. (Lurkers encouraged to participate--if lurkers exist here. Anyone?) No prize this time but have fun taking a stab at the correct answer. Things I've done this summer. Choose one: I have a) taken Libby outside wearing only my underwear. b) removed my bra while sitting in the car waiting for Mama to pump gas. c) worn tank tops to work at least every other day. d) all of the above e) none of the above Have fun guessing.

Ya'll. I had an angry cry last night when I came home. Like, a full on southern style hissy fitted angry cry. It wasn't pretty. Not that I can "pretty" cry ever. But an angry cry? Disgusting. Why all the fuss? Well, you may recall how excited I was to talk to the power company about that tree in my yard and how they'd promised to cut up the trunk into manageable pieces  after they disposed of the limbs and other smaller junk. Guess I shoulda asked him to define manageable. Cause this? Not so manageable. Or maybe it would be if I were, I dunno, The Incredible Hulk maybe??? *sigh* Notice, please, how thoroughly they cut through this ginormous tree trunk: So, I'm just, what? Supposed to use my magical powers to move this mess? There's only maybe three chunks that I might be able to move on my own. And that'll be a stretch. Exhibit A: My size 8 flip flop for scale. So yeah. Angry cry. I ranted and raved and...