.

Not much to report upon at 10 something in the AM...sittin' here with coffee in an attempt to wake up a very tired body. Between sinus meds and the early morning back on Wednesday catching up to me, zzzzzzzzz! I'm ready for Saturday and sleeping in a bit! At least, for as long as the girls will allow.

We got the girls' school pictures yesterday. First school pics!! :D How cool is that? Now I need to scrounge up some frames to put the 8x10's in...I know I have a couple frames around in the storage closet. Just need to dig 'em out. :)

Daughter #1 and I butted heads again this morning...mainly hormones, I think. She's crabby, I'm crabby... *grrrr @ PMS* I'm almost afraid to think what it'll be like around here in a coupla years when Daughter #2 begins this whole thing.

Didn't do a bit of writing yesterday. *facepalm* Yesterday would've been a good day to do so at the station as I had the place to myself. But I was kinda restless and couldn't really settle down to doing anything.

Have gotten some Christmas shopping for the girls done; not quite finished. Have to figure out what I'm getting my dear hubby...he's so incredible around here. Don't have tons of money to spend this year but I want it to be somethin' special.

*yawn* Okay, gotta make some coffee to take to the station with me, and attempt to get the fanfic writing braincells back online. Everybody have a good day. :)

Not so good to me. lol I could do with another hour's worth of sleep, or two. There is, however, caffeine for that so eventually I'll be good there.

Daughter #1 seems to be bug-free. Not finding anything in her hair, etc. So sent her packing back off to school today...*crosses fingers she doesn't bring anymore back with her when she comes home*

Daughter #2, however, is still exhibiting quite a few nits. They're supposed to be dead nits, according to the prescription treatment, but combing them out of her hair has been quite the challenge. So just in case, she is staying out of school again today for more treating, combing, etc. She's somewhat less than thrilled.

On other fronts, had a rather intelligent discussion with my twelve-year-old niece this weekend. She's a smart cookie. Without using the actual terminology, we talked about relativism on her level and it was interesting. Good talk, tho'.

Haven't done much writing at all. Which...with all this time off work, you would think the braincells would fall in line and cooperate.

Not.

Pittsburgh's loss to the Bengals capped off a perfectly weird week. *sigh* However, my brother is sharing my misery because his Cowboys lost too. ;) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (loving sister that I am.)

And now I must shut up and shut down so I can go to work. Everybody have a good day.

Well...it's been an interesting week. lol We've spent most of it fighting off head lice. *sigh* The girls brought it home from school and the past week we've been treating, doing laundry, bagging stuff up, etc etc etc. The washer and dryer have gotten quite the workout this week.

I think we've finally turned a corner and are starting to get the upper hand. PRAISE GOD! I will say this has been a horrible chore. lol I never had them as a kid, so it was also completely overwhelming at first. But I took the girls to their physician and they were given a prescription-strength lice-killer that we treated them with. And today, after having them sleep with shower caps on to try to limit the spread of the things, there were *none* in daughter #1's cap, and just 2 or 3 in daughter #2's (she's had the worst of it, so just 2 or 3 is a minor miracle). So we're getting there, I do believe.

As far as I go...I'm still trying to fight off the remnants of being sick last time; what I posted last time was the beginning of a week's worth of being down sick with the flu. Currently I just have some leftover congestion in my head and chest, resulting in a stuffy nose and a slight cough that is *much* better than the coughing I started with. So that's also "getting there."

Writing has come in fits and spurts and I really need a braincell or two to cooperate with me. lol Currently I have some SGA Season 1 DVD's in the player to try to coax such cooperation from the grey matter. :)

I hope everybody's having a decent weekend; mine is likely to be fairly quiet with the exception of bug-fighting and a trip to the grocery store. ;)

And that's the way it is in my corner of the world.

This time it is daughter-to-be #2 who brought it home and promptly gave it to me. So we are both home today from school and work, coughing, coughing, coughing. *sigh* Have already made myself throw up once just from the coughing fits. I don't feel nauseated; that was just...ew.

Tired of coughing. Have *just* gotten over being sick for 2 weeks from daughter-to-be #1 bringing it home. I think I must avoid my kids during the school year. LOL I've always been just one of those people that pick up everything that's goin' around.

On the adoption front, looks like the bit of red tape in my last post has been cut through, so just waiting to hear about when the last court date will be. :) I am hoping that I will be over this stupid thing by then.

Tired. But there's always NyQuil to help with that. :)

Hope ya'll have a good day.

Well... *Looks around and wipes the dust off.* Guess it's been a little while since I've been in here! LOL

School has started back up again, of course, and the girls are back at it. :) 4th Grade and 6th Grade. Busy, busy, busy. There was, of course, the rush for school shopping; clothes, supplies, etc etc. Talk about nuts. lol

The past week I've been fighting off this stupid cold...Sinuses packed, sore throat, sneezing, some coughing but more from throat irritation than chest congestion. Toting around Kleenex everywhere I go. Throat was sore enough that Sunday through Tuesday, I didn't leave the house. *Blah* Can breathe a bit better through my nose today but there's still a lotta congestion. Was suggested to pick up some Mucinex; I likely will do that at some point in time today.

Have been given the opportunity to do a little paid writing; it's the first time I've ever had anything like that happen! :) These are short little 1-2 minute scripts for a CD that is to accompany a book. :) 'Tis a very cool opportunity indeed!

And tomorrow, I am 43. Yikes. *facepalm* Today is the last day that my age is the answer to "life, the universe, and everything," thank you very much Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Where the heck did the year go??? LOL

What else...oh yeah, small snag in the adoption process, basically just a bit of red tape that's holding us up at the moment. We're hoping to have that resolved soon, and then we'll be back on track to getting things done. It would be so nice to have the adoption completed by Christmastime. :) *crosses fingers*

Other than that, not much else goin' on around here...just the usual day-to-day running around and the usual day-to-day exhaustion. lol Gimme a blankie and pillow and lemme sleep for a week. :) lol

Have a great day!

I'm still around. lol Have been a little lazy lately, is all. ;)

Crazy bit of a week, however. New sales lists at the station, yay. Not. :(

Today is Soon-To-Be-Daughter #1's birthday... :) 11 years old...I'm like...Lord give me patience, she's way too close to bein' a teenager already. LOL I'm not ready for that! :)

Tomorrow is the first court hearing to get the official adoption proceedings underway. For those of you who on my f-list who love the Lord Jesus and pray, please do so, that things will go smoothly and turn out as He wills. Big items are: What the court calls "Reasonable Effort" to locate the girls' fathers, neither of whom are known. And whether or not the court will order another home study, or if they will accept the one that was conducted by Children's Services when they were first placed with us.

Friday AM, I must go pick up my niece and bring her down here, as she's spending the weekend with us. Friday evening, there's a wedding rehearsal because my husband is best man in a friend's wedding.

Saturday IS the wedding, so that day is completely taken up with that.

Sunday, church in the morning, and then at 1:30 is the official "birthday party" for Daughter #1. 20-some people invited; we'll see who all comes.

Sunday night...total collapse. LOL

Well, it's only two pics. Others will follow when I get some cropping done, etc. This is my photo op with Jason and Rachel, and my 2nd season cast photo, of which Rachel's autograph completed. :) Big, so not dial-up friendly. ENJOY!

Oh, yeah...Rachell Luttrell said that we shouldn't "hold our breath" regarding an SGA movie.

*sigh* Knew TPTB would screw us over, yet AGAIN.

I hope SGU dies quick. Real quick. Nothing less than what BW and crew deserve.

Still here, despite the fact that Shore Leave is over. :)

Which, I must say, was an awesomely fun weekend. Jason Momoa and Rachel Luttrell were a riot, as Jason picked on Rachel almost the entire time. *chuckles* Jason was hilarious, despite bein' a little cuss-y along the way. Amazingly, in opposition to his tv persona as Ronon, Jason seems to be quite shy and a little nervous doing con stuff. The two of them acted very much like siblings throughout which was very cute.

The con opened up on Friday night with Robert Picardo (The Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager, and Woolsey from SGA) and Ethan Phillips (Neelix from Star Trek: Voyager) and OH MY GOSH talk about funny!! They ragged on each other the entire time while reading a "play" Mr. Picardo had written 'in character' for them to read. It was hilarious. All their sessions were very funny.

Same with Christopher Heyerdahl (Halling & Todd from SGA, John Druitt from Sanctuary, Alastair from Supernatural). I was like..."Okay, cool, Todd from SGA this'll be neat..." and *BAM!* He was absolutely funny, and personable, and very cool with the fans. All of them were very nice and cool to talk to in the autograph line...Jason was a little shy and reserved, but still nice to talk to. Asked him how long it took to get that tattoo on his forearm, and he said 7 hours! Oh my...you'd never talk me into goin' under the needle that long. LOL

Thanks to the freebie autographs the guests offered through the con, I got lots of autographs since I could afford to pay for a few extras. Soooo...I picked up a Robert Picardo autograph on a Doctor pic for my pastor, who is a good friend of ours that my husband and I have known for 20-some years and is an avid Trek fan. And I got one for me on a Woolsey pic as I'm the SGA fan; he got a bit of a chuckle out of it, actually. I got Rachel's autograph on the photo op I had with her and Jason, plus I got her sig on my Season 2 cast photo, which is now COMPLETE...and I got two more individual autographs from her for my girls, both of whom requested one from me. I told Rachel that we were in the process of adopting, and she congratulated me and was very enthusiastic about that. I explained that Teyla is my oldest's favorite character, and that made her grin too.

I picked up Christopher Heyerdahl's autograph as well; I held up the Todd picture I had and said, "my youngest is afraid of you, my oldest thinks you're cool." He laughed and asked me if they were boys, and he was somewhat impressed when I said "girls." LOL He was very nice in the autograph line, chattin' and laughing with fans, and all kinds of funny. One of our number needed to be in a wheelchair most of the time she was with us due to back problems; when she got to her photo op, Mr. Heyerdahl very graciously helped her out of the chair and over to the picture taking area, very gentlemanly and kind.

I got Jason's autograph on the photo-op, and on a single Ronon pic. The second time through, I gave him a pair of tagfics I'd written that were Ronon-centric. He thought it was cool that I did one on "Broken Ties," since that was one of his favorites to shoot. Rachel got tagfics based off "The Queen," and "The Prodigal." And Robert Picardo received one on "Inquisition," all of which have been posted up on LJ's Shep's_Atlantis community. :)

The second session with Jason and Rachel, however, was the piece de resistance...I got to ask a question, and I asked them (innocently enough), "Did either of you keep anything from the set?" And it came out in the course of answering that question, that Jason had taken the back of Rachel's chair, with her name on it! LOL It was the one thing she'd wanted to keep, and he'd snuck off with it. She was completely surprised by that and then proceeded to chase him around the stage! It was hilarious and I only wish I'd been faster with the camera to get some shots of it. I didn't mean to start a ruckus. Really. ;)

And of course, meeting some of my friends that I hadn't had a chance to meet face to face yet was also marvelous. Friday before the con we all ran around the Inner Harbor area, went to the aquarium there and took lots of pics, and saw the dolphin show which was also incredible. And of course, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. :D That was good stuff, although I did get a teeeeny bit sunburned as we ate outside.

And...today we're all just sacking out, watchin' DVD's. Tomorrow Shell and I board a bus at 7 freakin' AM in the morning to begin the return trip home. *sniff* :(

But a good time was had by all...and as soon as I get some of these pics cropped, I shall be posting them up! :)

SHORE LEAVE, SHORE LEAVE, SHORE LEAVE!!!

Suitcase is (mostly) packed. Just have to haul it downstairs now. :) Shell is here, the drive back from Syracuse Tuesday night was interesting since I was pumped full of coffee in order to stay awake after being stupid and staying up til 2:30 AM the previous night reading. LOL We arrived home at like 1:15-ish in the AM and went straight to bed.

Despite copious amounts of caffeine, I slept like a rock. Overslept, actually as my alarm went off for about 10 min. straight before my husband actually came upstairs and turned it off, then woke me up. LOL

Yesterday was a fairly routine day at work, despite wanting to sleep through it. :)

Today I'm semi-awake and almost human, and I still have a lot to do. :)

But YAY!! Gettin' together with an awesome group of people, most of whom I've known for years online, and some of whom I'm just getting a chance to meet face to face for the first time. :) Autographs, photo op, CHEESECAKE FACTORY!!! here I come. :D

Everybody have a fab weekend. :)

OHMYGOODNESS! Comin' right up on Shore Leave already. :) I'm not quite ready for it...still need to pick up a few things. All the sudden it descended on me last night that I have less than two weeks to do all that. ;) LOL

On the other hand...SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEness! Gettin' together with a buncha good friends down there, some of whom I've known for years online but haven't met face to face yet, and I'm looking forward to that immensely. :)

Of course, the con itself will be fun. :) The finishing touch on my SGA Season 2 cast photo will be Rachel Luttrell's autograph. :D Photo-ops with Rachel and Jason Momoa... :D Inner Harbor, the Cheesecake Factory...all that good stuff. :)

And, this year, my own digital camera!!! :D *chuckles*

Among Other Things:

Headin' up to the mall today to do a little shoppin'. Shorts for the girls, and I so need a pair of jeans for the con. I'm hoping I find a pair; at this weight I hate jeans shopping. Sooo...we'll see how successful I am. :)

Been put on FloVent Diskus as a controller med for the asthma. Fortunately my troubles are mostly in the spring/summer rather than all year 'round, cuz this stuff is freakin' expensive. 113 bucks and the insurance only paid 13 of it! Holy crow. But hopefully I'll only need to refill it like once this summer. *shakes head* However, the good news is that already I think there's some improvement, although the leaflet says it might take a week to two weeks to reach the full effect in my system. I'm just happy that so far, I've only needed my Albuterol inhaler once today. ;) The general idea is to get me away from using the inhaler quite so much.

Scribblin' has actually been pretty good lately with the exception of the last two days. Today might not be so much of a writing day, given the fact that I'm gonna be running around a bit. Signed myself up for the SGA ficathon goin' on over at shep's_atlantis. We'll see how well I do with that. ;)

And that's about all for the present moment. Everybody have a great weekend. :D

Just truckin' along here in the Land of Make Believe...*chuckles*

Soon-To-Be-Daughter #1 now has HER American Girl doll, and is also thrilled. #2 was kind enough to help by lending her 10 dollars. Now #1 is learning the meaning of paying off debts. LOL But both dolls are adorable. I can see why they're so popular, but it's still ridiculous how much they cost, along with all the expensive little accessories.

The girls are cat-sitting for some friends of ours who are on vacation this week; litter boxes and feedin'. And a few minutes of lovin', and they're gonna be paid for it as well, so they're thrilled. Despite the fact that the first day over there, #2 kept saying how "gross cat poop" is. LOL

Went to Curves again today; last week turned out to be a bad one for going in the mornings; we went once. Hoping to have the 3x a week down this week. #1 is coming with me, which is going to be good for both of us. :) I think we both really worked up a good sweat today, and my legs are not at all happy, so it was a good workout. ;)

On the writing front...still working on an extended Whispers tag, and Chapter 5 of Enemy is hangin' out there. Some lifetime I will have to get back to that. I need a really good writing day without distraction...yeah, right! LOL But I will see what I can do. :)

And coffee. :) Ahhh, sweet nectar. My morning is complete. ;)

Everybody have a good day!

Hi, all. *waves to the world* Good morning, afternoon, or evening, depending on what time zone you happen to be in while reading my ramblings.

'Twill be a short ramble; nothing of much import going on here presently. Soon-to-be Daughter #2 has gotten her American Girl doll; it arrived in the mail yesterday...she's thrilled. Amazingly, she saved up her half faster than her older sister, who is now impatient to get her doll, but she's got to wait til I'M ready with MY half to order hers...which is likely to be next week rather than this week. Payday and all that.

Went to Curves yesterday for the first time in MONTHS. We'll see how motivated (and patient!) I am to do the work I need to burn off the fat... :) And I SO need a new pair of sneakers. This may necessitate a trip to the mall, unfortunately. Danged small feet! LOL

School will be done on Friday; the girls have a half day. And so it begins... ;) lol We'll see how this all goes...Still have to look into a pool pass.

*yawns* and that's about it. Need more coffee. And for the creative braincells to wake up.

Well the birthday party was a success. :D I was glad of that. lol The only bad thing was that Mom couldn't come because she's hurt her knee and getting around is really difficult for her right now. :(

But the cake was just the right size...the kiddo made off with lots of loot. lol and I've discovered I adore Chocolate Panda Paws ice cream from Perry's. So that was all good.

Onward and upward...have been perpetually exhausted lately; so last night I went to bed early. Slept like a log and while I don't quite feel "caught up," I do appreciate the teeny bit extra rest. Might hafta do that again sometime soon. LOL After some more laundry, of course.

I've been happy to be logged into Facebook; it's been good to get into contact with some folks I haven't talked to in awhile. Including some cousins, etc that I don't get to see that often. Uhh, I guess that falls under the "other things" part of my title up there. Just one of those random observations as I'm currently talking to a cousin.

and COFFEE. Of course, the elixir of life, is right here and I'm happy for it. lol Been scribblin' along on an extended tagfic for Whispers; hopefully I'll get another good chunk done on it today; I'd like to post it sometime SOON. Enemy Chap. 5 is currently languishing, but I think I know where I want to go with it. Hopefully the caffeine will wake up the creativity as well as the rest of me. LOL

Nothing else too important going on...So move along, these aren't the 'droids you're looking for...move along... ;) And have a good day.

...in cleaning/prepping for the first birthday party. LOL Soon-to-be daughter #2 turned 9 on Thursday, but since it was a weeknight, etc, we decided to do the first birthday bash on Saturday (today). :D And there's probby gonna be around 20 some people here. lol

So we are bbq-ing today. Dish to pass kinda thing on the sides, but we've got the hot dogs, hamburgers, buns, tea, lemonade, baked beans, condiments, paper plates/cups/silverware (I think, silverware...I may have to check my cupboard!), there's a cake coming and ice cream in the freezer. Hopefully there will be salads or something brought by the guests as I suggested it. :)

Decided to take a short break before tackling the vacuuming of the living/dining rooms to check email, ramble on here a few minutes, and complain about said cleaning before getting back at it. ;) LOL

The downstairs bathroom is done, the kitchen is about as neat as it's gonna get, although I really need to mop the floor in there. Not gonna happen; not enough time. I've got a small small load of clothes currently in the dryer, and I have yet to inspect the condition of soon-to-be daughter #1's room (she's the messier one of the two), although she assures me she made her bed this morning. *chuckles*

FINALLY having my first cup of coffee this morning. YAY!!!!

And I have to remember where I put my socks down, because my toes are now cold and I could use 'em. LOL

That's all for the moment. Hafta report the results of the party...oh yeah, gotta blow up some balloons too. ;)

A bunny. *rolls eyes*

A little, fluffy, tawny colored bunny. With cage. And bedding. And food, and little water bottle. Gotta get the gnaw block thing tho'.

Originally set off to get a rat, which I was not overly thrilled about...*shudder*. The pet place we went to yesterday currently has no rats. (Whew!) But they DID...have free bunnies with the purchase of at least 30 bucks' worth of supplies.

The cage was 25.00. LOL Didn't take much to rack up the other 5 either. ;)

Sooo...we have a bunny. Her (we have no idea if it is a him or her, honestly but daughter #1 has proclaimed the bunny a "her") name is Myrrh.

Welcome, little Myrrh...you're adorable.

Darth Furball (aka my cat) is a little disgruntled that another creature has invaded his domain.

Daughter #2 has a turtle about the size of a 50 cent piece. Not quite as adorable, but in the few days she's had him, she's taken good care of him.

*waiting to see how long it is before they become *my* pets by default, i.e. I'm taking care of them*

Other than that, I have birthday things to do! Daughter #2 is turning 9 this week. I'm so disorganized...*facepalm*

Well, hubby and I are now in full legal custody of two girls. :) The court hearing today transferred custody from the state, to us, and we can now pursue private adoption through our lawyer. :)

PRAISE GOD for all He's done. :) We're not done, obviously, and there's still more stuff to do, but it's looking very much like we are on the road to having adopted daughters. :)

Seriously, may Jesus grant us the grace, mercy, and wisdom to be good parents. :)

As far as other RL stuff goes...well I need to do some grocery shopping at some point today. Dunno when that's happening.

And I'd like to do some writing today, since I have it off work (I normally would be there by now). So we'll see if I can prompt a braincell or two to come help me out. :)

All I can say now, is...wow. God is good. And wow.

*coughing my head off to you from my cloudy/rainy day in my corner of the world*

Seriously, what started as my nose gettin' all stuffy from allergies has turned into a full-blown cold. Coughing, mostly. The occasional sneeze. And no, no fever or other flu-like symptoms. I'm fine, thank you very much. Just mostly annoyed.

Mainly because the girls have their spring program at the school today, a small play (I helped 'em learn lines! That was fun). And here I'll be, trying not to disrupt things with a stupid coughing fit. *armed with my inhaler, DayQuil, and cough drops* Hopefully all will go well. Took NyQuil last night and slept fairly well. Woke up once or twice with a bit of coughing going on, but I actually feel somewhat well-rested despite that, so that's good. Well, as well-rested as I ever get these days. :)

My living room looks it should be declared a disaster area; MORE stuff that belonged to the girls has been dropped off from other sources, and so we have to comb through it all, find out what is "keeps," what is "toss" and what is "yard sale." That'll take awhile...trust me, my entire living room floor is COVERED.

Aside from all that, I guess things are pretty average around here. lol OH I found a new coffee creamer that I ADORE. It's a limited edition tho', so knowing my luck, I'll go back to the store and it'll be all gone. It's Carnation's Belgian Chocolate Toffee. It's fab. I should check today and see if they still have some and buy a bunch. LOL

Working on a fic, hoping it'll prompt the brain to produce more stuff. :) Yesterday I worked the AM shift and man...without distractions, it was amazing how much stuff I wrote. LOL :)

And that, as they say, is that. *wanders off for another cup of coffee with that lovely creamer in it...*

...more often, anyway. :)

So the girls are home and life resumes its new "normal." :) Apparently they had a good time, and all that, so that's good. And they both were glad to come home. And despite all the talk last time about peace and quiet, I was glad they were home too.

By the time I got home from working at the station, however, it was to find a MASSIVE Monopoly game in process. LOL The girls and hubby got playing before they had to come pick me up...and they played practically until it was bedtime for the girls and the board is still out on the table. ;) Battle royale! And hubby is gettin' wiped off the board. LOL

My blog, so I figure I can take 2.5 seconds to rant about allergies. They suck, and so do the sinus headaches they produce. I've finally picked up some Claritin-D, but right now my head is just pounding away. Urgh! 2.5 second rant over.

I did get the hair cut...not quite as short as I was originally planning, but this still looks good and it's easy to deal with, so that's all that I want, really. :) Unfortunately I'm like my Mom; my hair is thinning. *sigh* I feel like my cat sometimes...shedding. lol Rogaine for Women...does it work? Anyone know? Ahh well, there's always mousse and hairspray. ;)

Still waiting for my Shore Leave tickets. I've been informed by the Shore Leave staff what my number is, etc and they said they'd be coming, but I'm still waiting. *impatient*

And I'm actually writing!!! Well...I've started a prompt given to me by Karri, so we'll see how well I execute it ;) I've gotten a start...hopefully I shall continue today. :)

And...that's about it. The cat is nowhere to be seen, so I imagine he's up on my bed. Oddly enough, I think he's glad the girls are back, too. :)

Well the girls are off for an overnight at their aunt's. Their grandmother has flown in from Arizona and they're having a family get-together...one of the other grandkids is turning 16, so there's gonna be a 'sweet 16' party for her, etc. So now the house is very very quiet.

Did I mention peaceful? LOL Let me explain: The cat has decided it's safe to be in the living room. ;)

Seriously, tho'...it seems very weird not to hear the girls talkin' away. Seems like we're getting used to having them here 24/7. :) Which is a good thing. I hope they'll have a good time, and I hope the visit won't be awkward for them at all, given the current circumstances, etc.

At the same time tho', not a bad opportunity for a little martial time. :) Hubby's need attention too. :) I have the feeling that perhaps we'll spoil ourselves with some Chinese food, especially since I'm still craving it and I didn't end up getting it for lunch yesterday.

Hair Appointments! YES! I'm finally gettin' the hair chopped. :D WOOO! I'm more than thrilled with the prospect of having my hair done at last. Been putting it off way too long.

And yeah...eventually, there'll be laundry on the horizon.

What would be nice would be some writing on the horizon. My creative braincells seem to have shriveled up and died. :| But we'll see what Pecan Sticky Bun flavored coffee will do for me. :)

Happy Saturday!