.

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!

I think I want Chinese for lunch. That covers the Cravings part pretty handily. ;) Egg rolls, here I come.

Coffee...check. Got another mug's worth left in the coffeemaker before I have to go, and then of course I'll make up a thermos' worth to take into work with me. There's something about the water up there that kills the coffeemakers I've bought for the place, so I make-and-take these days.

Kitty...check, as well. He's parked on the loveseat next to me, purrin' away, actually. He's such a good bud. He's slowly getting used to having the girls running around here. Came up and curled up with me for a few minutes on the bed before my alarm went off, and that was nice; he hasn't done that in the morning for weeks. I think the trauma of having kids here is beginning to at last wear off.

Other than that...not much else to talk about. OH! Sunshine and a forecast of 72 today. ;) I can deal with that. WARMTH AT LAST! While weather might be one of those universal "casual conversation" things, I must say that I'm genuinely thrilled for warm weather the next few days. PSYCHED, PSYCHED, PSYCHED!

Unfortunately, I have to work through the best part of it. lol

Okie...off I go. Have a great day!

...More than just a Shakespeare reference!!

Seriously, this entry is much fuss over absolutely nothing.

And coffee.

Lots and lots and LOTS of coffee. Caffeine, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...by how many cups of coffee I scarf today.

As you can see...not much that's new.

Work as usual today. Hair appointment Saturday (YAY!!! Finally!). Girls are going to a cousin's birthday party Saturday as well.

Quiet morning...hence the "nothing" portion of the above subject title.

*cheers and swallows coffee* There's the Much Ado part. Maybe I should Ado more. *flings confetti all over and hollers excitedly* There. That's Much Ado.

*shakes head at self, mutters about needing more sleep, and shuffles off*

Except...I can't really call it daily, cuz I'm lazy and I haven't posted since Mar. 14th. LOL

But here I am...not exactly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (thank goodness!), but conscious enough to type a few insignificant words and let my flist know that I still have a pulse. ;)

Easter was marvelous. :) 'Twas fun to put together baskets for the girls, and do the jelly-bean hunt like when I was a kid...lol nobody liked boiled eggs in my house growing up, so we hunted Jelly-beans instead. ;) Besides, you can be more sneaky with jelly beans. ;) The service at church was fantastic too. As a friend of mine says, "God showed up."

The girls' grandma is coming in from out west this next week; so there will be some visiting with her I imagine. She's supposed to give me a call when she gets in and we'll make plans for all that. I guess she's out here for about a week. So that should work out all right.

My grandmother on my Dad's side is in the hospital with pneumonia. She's had lung problems, asthma and the like, for awhile now, and this has just knocked her outta commission a bit. But the doctor says she's responding to her medication well, and that's a good thing. I'm hoping to get out there to visit her this weekend.

And today is our wedding anniversary. Well. One of them. lol It's the 5th anniversary of our remarriage. Our original date was April 28th; had there been no divorce in there, we'd have been celebrating 19 years this year. That just boggles my mind. But we've arranged for someone to watch the girls for a coupla hours so we can go out to eat.

NEW TOY ALERT. Well...again, sorta. I got a new digital camera for Christmas...I'm just NOW beginning to mess with it. LOL I LOVE IT. :)

And that's about it around here. lol Hope everybody's having a decent day!

Well here we are...another Monday. Almost the end of March already. Good grief! We're already almost a quarter done with 2009 already. Okay...that's just scary. But as you can see, I'm still kickin' and screamin' so it's all good. ;)

In the Good Stuff category, things are progressing legally with the girls; it looks like the adoption should go through. All the lawyers involved have come to an agreement, so it looks like the girls will be staying here. I'm thrilled! And the girls have said they want to take our last name. *sniff* To me, that's pretty amazing.

Shore Leave...well the registration has been sent in. Still figuring out the details on actual travel...driving versus riding a bus, and all that and hotel stuff. But there's time to work all that out, which is good. :D Fangirl SQUEE!!! for finishing off my cast photo, and for meeting up with some pretty cool people this year from all over the country.

Is there more coffee? Coffee, please? *taps my mug* Somebody better start a caffeine IV and I'll just drag the pole around with me all day. LOL

Not much else happening in my corner of the world besides a lotta laundry. And a sleeping cat. ;)

Everybody have a good day!

Ok. So we have a bird building a nest in the chimney again this year. More specifically, in the woodstove pipe. It's in there flappin' around and makin' racket, driving the cat nuts. So I opened the woodstove door just a teeny bit to see if I could see where the silly thing was in there. Couldn't see anything except puffs of soot the thing was kicking around. So got a flashlight, tried to see better.

Stupid me.

Stupid bird flies right into the living room. The girls both screamed and ran upstairs. LOL Greg's working at the station today so that left little ol' me to deal with the crisis. Uh oh. LOL

Closed the room off so the silly thing couldn't get out of this particular room and escape to harder places to catch him in, and got a plastic bag from the kitchen. The bird was in the bay window, trying to find a way out (thump thump thump against the windowpanes) and the cat was immediately interested and on the back of the couch contemplating lunch.

Made the cat get down, and tried to catch the bird in the bag like a net to get it outside. No dice, but I'm sure I looked darned funny trying to do it.

The girls bring down a shoe box from a recently purchased pair of boots, and so THAT works much better...trapped the bird between the box and the window, and then eased the lid over the front of the box to trap the bird inside. YAY, success! Took the box outside, lifted the lid, set the bird free.

Y'know where the little bugger is now? Back in my woodstove pipe.

*facepalm*

One of my friends from my first online writing list (LOTR) has lost her husband to complications of cancer and pneumonia. He passed away last night, and I cannot even begin to imagine how difficult this is for her. Her own health issues make this doubly difficult and I must admit I'm worried about her.

For those who pray, please do. Thanks.

Well, I've survived the loss of all four of my wisdom teeth, along presumably with any wisdom they might have actually carried. ;)

Grace of God, seriously, that the worst thing about the whole experience was the novacaine shots in the roof of my mouth. Those stupid things actually made me cry. But between the laughing gas and the novacaine, the rest of it was painless, always a good thing.

So far, so good...I've not had any major swelling, no "chipmunk cheeks" and minimal pain, really...I've been getting by just fine on plain ibuprofen and have only used one of the prescription pain pills to let me sleep Saturday night. It's been aching, but nothing intolerable at all. I've been thanking the Lord that the actual event has not lived up to my anxiety of it. :) :) :)

Now it's just a matter of taking care of the sockets and trying not to disturb the blood clots. I've ventured to have a little coffee, FINALLY and even ate a little tuna casserole last night...soft noodles and all that. So far, so good. :) Little sore this morning but I've taken an ibuprofen and am sipping a little coffee.

Still...I do have today off from work, as Ashley (our "intern") is home over spring break and wanted to work some hours. I figured with my oral surgery, it was the perfect opportunity to get the afternoon off. :) So here I am. With some luck, I'll get some laundry and writing done today. :D

Everybody have a good day... Toodles!

Well this is it. Tomorrow I have all four of my wisdom teeth removed.

*gulp*

Stocked up on Carnation Instant Breakfast and I'm sure there will be a prescription for pain meds in my near future...yay for sleeping all weekend. LOL

In full big-baby nervous mode, in case you're wondering...LOL Got my whine on, yeah. ;)

Y'know, somebody seriously needs to invent a beaming machine like Star Trek's transporter or the Asgard beaming tech from Stargate Atlantis. lol Just extract 'em by vanishing 'em.

Anybody up to the task of inventing the darned thing before 9 AM tomorrow? ;)

As the title suggests, enter fangirl squee here in large proportions. :) Thanks to my lovely friends Misty and Karri who wandered all the way over to England for the Chevron 7.2 con, my cast photo is ALMOST complete. :) Joe Flanigan's autograph joined those already collected:





Is that not made of awesome, or what? :D :D :D SQUEE!

Thanks, guys!