Never a Bride

At least not any time soon, I hope. She's in my step-sister's wedding in a couple of months. She's 'flying the sleeves'. Totally taking her responsibilities seriously and stuff.




















I've never been in a wedding. Now two of my daughters will have been.

















Wordful Wednesdays: The Place to Be!

Birthday Fun

The morning started off quite differently from most mornings. First of all, Alexa was up when I went to wake her. As in out of bed already.

As a greeting, she said sweetly to me "I want presents." Gee, honey, is it your birthday?

She was very excited about having her picture taken.

After work, I went to the school to pick up Alexa and her friend who had conveniently missed the bus. Then to daycare to pick up the babies. Then by the house to pick up the diaper bag. Then to the gas station, because I was o-u-t of gas. Finally, Lee calls to say he's leaving work. We head to the friend's house so she can change clothes and we can get official permission from her parents for her to go.

We went home to pick up Lee and so Alexa could change her clothes, then we headed out for an exciting night of birthday fun!

Really, all we did, since it was sooooo late now, was drive through McDonald's and go see 17 Again. But she had a great time because she had a friend along.

After the movie, we dropped Lee and the babies off at the house, then we took the friend home. I realized we hadn't taken any pictures all evening, so I took some candid shots while driving. Ever see Stripes? That's what it was like, almost.

I have about 20 shots of the friend next to my daughter, hands-for-face. And this one. And one other, with her eyes closed. Anyway, here's proof that Alexa has a friend.

I Am Spam, Spam I Am

I do not heart Hotmail. Or any of the Windows Live Brand.

I don’t send spam. I don’t forward jokes to hotmail addresses.

I don’t know why they hate me.

I think it all started in March… (Cue misty clouds and harp music…)

It was time for the basketball tournament. Which, for a certain group of my family, meant e-mail trash-talk time. Four cousins, two spouses and a boyfriend, an aunt, an uncle, and said uncle’s brother and two sons. (Usually another cousin, but he was barred from the bet this year.) We make our picks, but that’s the least of the experience.

Knowing this event takes up a lot of mailbox space, I planned ahead. I had a hotmail account sitting unused for the past 2 years. It didn’t get any spam, so it was going to be perfect for this. I set it up on my cell phone, so I could access it anytime. Perfect. I’d get an alert every time I got a new message. (Man, did that get old fast.)

Of the 13 of us playing this year, there were a few who didn’t participate in the written debate. (About 5) Of the remaining 8, there was a firestorm of mail. About 2 weeks into the tourney, I deleted 800 e-mails one day. They still came flooding in.

Then, all of a sudden, my messages wouldn’t go out. Hotmail said I’d reached my maximum for a 24-hour period. Um, what? Ok, so I used other addresses. (I could work around this.) The next day, it tells me I have to verify I’m a person and not a spambot by clicking on this link and typing in this code. Which I did. But the maximum was still in effect.

Two things irritated me about this. 1. I wasn’t composing new messages. I was clicking ‘reply to all’. If they would just verify the headers…2. I didn’t set up a new account and send out that many e-mails. I jumped through their hoops and still, nothing.

Back to last week.

I sent an e-mail to my family, telling them about the birthday festivities. All the hotmail messages bounced. I figured it was just Hotmail acting weird. After all, I wasn’t getting any new messages to mine.

My dad never got his e-mail. He didn’t know about my plans until during the time to be there, so it was too late.

Yesterday and today, I get bounced back messages from my cousin, who I send about 1-3 messages every day. Have been for months. So I look into the message, because I’ve been getting stuff in my hotmail the past couple of days.

Now hotmail thinks my work address is spam.

I talked to our IT person. (Who doesn’t know IT.) I minimized the Question of the Day aspect and played up the “some of our customers use hotmail” aspect.

Turns out, somebody used our domain name to send real spam. And that’s our problem???

Lucky for me, I have at least a half-dozen e-mail addresses. Too bad the convenient ones are unusable.

Scanning

I spent naptime scanning old pics. Love this one from 2001. Hard to velieve she'll be 13 Monday.

Something From The Archives

Because I need to smile.

Am I Pregnant? Huh?!?

Yesterday morning, Lee came home at 4:30AM. (Some lame story about falling asleep on his friend’s couch waiting for somebody to do something. I swear the man’s narcoleptic!) I was in bed, peacefully asleep. I’d read blogs until 2. Then, Jasmyne woke me up at 3, crying because she couldn’t find her binky. So, at 4:30, I was really, really tired. (Uh, yeah, 2AM has been the norm since I discovered Google Reader.)

Ok, so he comes in, gets in bed behind me, puts his arm around me and rests his hand on my belly. He asks, “Are you pregnant?” Um, why on earth would you ask that? A thousand thoughts are racing through my mind. Does he think I’m late? – He keeps better track than I do. No, I’m not late. Is it all the “mood swings” I’ve been having? – Try not leaving me alone with the girls every evening, buddy! Is it because I’ve been complaining of more headaches recently? On and on.

“Do you feel something moving?” I ask. No. “Um, why do you ask?”

“Because I’ve been extra tired lately.” Is that all??? (He thinks we have this connection. As in, he could feel it both times I was pregnant with his children. He was hyper-aware of how I was feeling, even if we were both at work. Weird to me, but I actually believed him.)

“Have you tried getting a decent night’s sleep? Like, not on someone’s couch? As in, intentionally going to bed at a decent hour instead of staying out all night?”

“No, I guess I really didn’t think about that.”

WTF?

That Was Then

This was me, 3 kids and 100# ago. Dang, I was skinny. This is how I look in my dreams. Weird, huh? When i get down to my ideal weight, it won't be this small.

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Best meme ever.

Dodged That Bullet!

We were supposed to go to Dallas this weekend. For the whole weekend. To sleep on the prisoner torture device that lumpy mattress his mom calls a bed. Just thinking about it makes my back hurt. But we don't have to. Yaay for GSM!

Lee told me tonight that he has a GSM (General Store Meeting) at his job Saturday morning. They have them twice a year, the other one is around Halloween. They ususally start at 7AM. All the employees go, even the hungover (or still-drunk) ones. They last 2-4 hours and include games and prizes and stuff.

They have been on Dallas weekends before. That was a barrel of laughs. Me and our 3 kids at his mom's house. Without him. Not for nothin', but that's an ass-whippin' difficult at best. I much prefer to corral my heathens tend to my children in the comfort and privacy of my own home. Read: where I can be lazy about it and no one sees to judge me.

Here's where the disclaimer's supposed to go: Not that I have anything against his mom. And I guess I don't, per se. But she can be difficult, for sure. We won't mention the insanity, the medical issues or the drinking while on pain meds. Or just the drinking. My family growing up never drank. Ever. It was a traumatic event for my mom to go to the store and get a bottle of Kahlúa for a recipe. I'm pretty sure she sent someone else. And the mexican Vanilla? It was used sparingly because of the alcohol content. Can you hear my eyes rolling?

Lee's been stocking a bar for when we have a house. There are a good 30 bottles of liquor or wine around here. Unopened. About a third of them are whisky. Which neither of us drink, btw. What's that? You drink whisky? Well, stop on by our new house. Next year. 'Cause our lease isn't up until the end of March.

Aside from the GSM, Lee's working Saturday night. Which is fine with me. The more he works, the more I can blog and read blogs without getting 'that look'. You know the one. From the person who doesn't use computers and can't understand people who do. You'd think he'd have some clue. The man texts twice as much as I do!

Anyway, Alexa's birthday is Monday, so I wasn't wanting to spend all weekend in Dallas. Trapped in his mom's house. Did I mention she smokes menthol cigarettes? Usually in her room with the door closed. But what good is that when the central air is on? Yeah, didn't think so.

Then there are the bugs. Everywhere. Ok, I'm exaggerating. Everywhere except the microwave. Which she uses at a food storage device. Um, hello? Half a step to your back and there's the fridge. Ever heard of a little thing called salmonella? Didn't think so.

So, there's all that to look forward to next weekend. Plus the drama. Because he doesn't call her. Even to say "we're fine". He doesn't want to commit to something he can't finish. I think he just know he has committment issues. Serious ones. But he also has major communication issues. It's her fault. I've heard stories that'd curl your hair. Then straighten it. Then curl it back. Seriously, it's a wonder he's not a stark raving lunatic.

Thursday night, he's been invited to the Mavs/Spurs playoff game. With his deaf friend. It'll be interesting, I'm sure. I asked if he was planning to take on eof the cameras with him. You know, to see if he was really going to a basketball game. He said yes, but we'll see if he 'forgets' to take it.

Tonight, we had dinner with some customers from his store. They'd already sent necklaces home for all the girls. He's been referring to them as the girls' adoptive grandparents for a few weeks. I'd never met them until tonight. They're really nice. We had Outback. It was a pretty good evening. It's ending pretty typically. He went to go to the batting cages (it's always somewhere) saying he'd be back right after. That was 4 hours ago and he's not answering his phone. Like I told him the other night: His Loss.

Sisterly Love

My babies this morning on the way to the car. Taylar's in front, almost pulling. (You can tell it's her because of the single pony-tail. Jasmyne has the double, which makes the hood look funny like she has antennae or something.) I draw the line when it comes to her helping Jasmyne up or down the stairs, though.This is from two months ago. It's the background on my cell phone. I love that they usually ride holding hands in the car.

Bad Parent! Sit! Stay!

This drives me nuts. You wear a jacket. You let your kid wear short sleeves, shorts and flip-flops.

60 Years of Cousins

My cousins will be 60 on Monday. Apparently, I freaked out my aunt with this revelation. (It wasn't my fault! I wrote it on something she wouldn't have read, one of the cousins repeated it in an e-mail she did read, and voila, she feels old. Good thing I didn't mention the 125+ years it would be for all the girls, right?)

Anyway, the birthday BBQ was today at 3. Lee had to work from 10-5, so he was joining us afterward. I put the girls down for naps at 11:45. I was just about to give up on Taylar, when she fell asleep at 2:10. Hmmm... It's at least 20-25 minutes to get there. Less, if you're not herding toddlers to the parking lot. But I was. With only Alexa for backup.

I decided to let her nap a while and just be late. Not normally something I am fond of, but it's gotten me out of a lot of trips to Dallas, so who am I to knock it? The nap happens when the nap happens.

Jasmyne woke up a few minutes before Taylar. As soon as I tore myself away from blog-reading heard her, and was up and moving around, she pounced. First thing she did was growl at her sister. She's been conditioned to do this in the mornings. Taylar lounges in bed as long as she can. Jasmne does various things to wake her, but the growl is my favorite. Taylar was in some serious REM sleep, so nothing was waking her up right then. I picked out the girls' dresses and got my clothes on.

Before long, Taylar succumbed to Jasmyne's efforts. I asked her did she want to go to the party. That was all I had to say, she popped up and was ready to put her dress on. Did someone say poorty? I don't know where she got this accent from. She also uses it for our 'new coor' - the minivan. I wet and re-fixed the girls' hair, moussed mine and we were good to go.

Alexa had made a no-bake cheesecake during naptime. We were pretty set. We took the leftover colored mini-marshmallows and the pack of smoked sausage from Sam's for the grill. (Ha! And none of it came back home!)

The babies were out the door like a shot once I opened it. Except I forgot one minor thing. My purse. All I really needed was the keys and cameras, but it was faster to grab the whole thing. (I swear, it's about 10# or more!)

We were walking up the sidewalk when my phone rang. It wasn't Lee's ringtone, so I knew it was someone from the party wanting to know where we were. Yup, one of the twins. "So, we were just wondering how long you guys would be?" Um, didn't I tell you? We're not coming." "Oh, ok." Lighten up, will ya? I was just e-mailing you about it yesterday. "We're getting in the van now." "So, what time do you think you'll get here?" "I actually have no idea what time it is, so however long it takes you to get there from your house." Totally forgetting she just moved last week.

The rest of the conversation was kinda a blur. Jasmyne turned left instead of right at the top of the stairs and was playing prisoner with the guard rail. (Wish I had a picture - she had a bar in each hand and was rocking herself back and forth, yelling all the while.) I already had the million-pound-purse, the diaper bag to end all diaper bags and the booster seat in my hands. Now I had to grab her up, because she was really proud of her game. Plus, I really wasn't too sure about the sturdiness of the guardrail.

We got there, no incident. Carried all our miscellaneous crap in and joined the party. For the record, we were not the last ones there. The last blood-relations, but not the last guests.

Jasmyne was doing her best to disappear into my neck. I was wearing a tank top, but some lunacy inspired me to wear my hair down today. I never, ever wear it down. It's too freakin' hot! It was only 70 degrees out and overcast when we got there, but it had rained earlier, and was humid.

Anyway, there I was, hanging out at this party, dripping with sweat. (Some kind of punch line goes here, I just can't see it yet.) Everyone desperately wants to hold Jasmyne. She's not having any of it. I gave my aunt a mini-marshmallow to bribe her with, but it wasn't enough. Maybe I shouldn't have grabbed yellow, but I really wasn't looking.

We heard some mumblings about the fire being out of control on the grill. The burgers looked well done, come to think of it. My uncle later said he almost set the whole neighborhood on fire. Something about the whole grill being engulfed in flames. He does tend to over-exaggerate, though.

We ate at the 'big circle'. Jasmyne dropped raspberries and a strawberry on the carpet. Ugh! Taylar didn't want much besides chips, but I coerced her into eating some healthy options. she changed her mind and ate other things. Jasmyne gobbled up a bunch of fruit and sausage. And somehow I managed to keep them away from dessert. How'd I manage that? I mean, good planning, Mom!

Jasmyne finally let people hold her.

Partly because I told her I wasn't picking her back up. Taylar decided she was a butterfly and ran around flapping her arms. Well, except for the 4 times she hit her head over the course of the afternoon. Everyone kept messing with Alexa for having "I Love Boys in Skinny Jeans" written in marker on her pants leg. There are so many things wrong with that...

We watched an episode of Backyardigans on the portable DVD player I'd packed. Poor anyone who was too close to us. Lee finally called at 5:45 that he'd just left work. Really, really not bad for him. He came out and only had to call once to ask if he had the right street.

I think we ended up leaving around 7. Lee stopped off for gas, but I didn't know where he went until 2 hours later, when I checked my phone. I'd come straight in with the girls and all the stuff, turned on a movie for them and started in on the dishes everyone had left me through the day. Lee put the greasy pans in the water in the sink with everything else, so the first thing I did was dump the water.

Lee really enjoyed Bolt. Well, the first half. Then he got hungry and made a can of soup. The babies needed a snack. Taylar wanted the jalapeno pretzels I was eating, so I let her have some. Jasmyne wanted some too. I must love her more, because I didn't give her any. It wasn't but a minute of two before someone needed a "cup with milk in it". Hmmm...

The movie ended, we put the kids to bed and Lee went to go pick someone up from work and take them across town. Good for me, because I got to catch up one of my Google Readers and write this horribly long, boring blog. Yaay, the end.

No, They Aren't Twins

Whether I dress them (mostly) alike, or not.

Something Old, Something New

This foto was definitely funky. And it's from the 80's, so also a flashback.

These are all my cousins on one side of the family. It cracks me up every time I look at it.

Go here, really:


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Happy Tacks Day!

Wising you a day free of stress and IRS payments!

Personally, I'd rather be poked in the eyes with tacks than pay taxes...

Do I Sleepwalk? Or Do I have Someone On the Side?

Last night, Lee was supposed to bring me a burger. We talked at 9, when he was leaving work. I fell asleep around 10:30 waiting for him to come home. At 12:15, I woke up and went looking for him in the living room. Not there. I looked at the dining room table. No fast food bag. Hmmm. So I started calling his cell. (I'm a stalker like that.) No answer. No answer. No answer. Finally, he answers. Yes, he was here. I was asleep, he left. Where's your sandwich? Oh, you were asleep, so I sat in the chair watching you sleep and I ate it. No, I didn't put the bag in the trash. I took it with me. Hmmm...fishy. I'm leaving here soon.

12:45 I still wasn't back to sleep. I called him back with more questions. Same answers, still not making sense. We don't like the same burgers, you see. 1:30 still awake. Lee's still not home. I give up.

4:30 My cell phone rings. Can you come unlock the deadbolt? Hmmm... If the deadbolt is locked, how were you here at 11? Did someone lose a piece of salmon? He's still adamant that he was here. And ate my burger. Whatever. This is not one of the battles I'm choosing.

7:15 Taylar: Daddy is that you? Is that you, Daddy? Great, now he's never gonna believe I don't have a guy on the side. It's an ongoing thing. He comes home and the door's unlocked “Your man leave and you forget to lock the door behind him?” I forget to boil eggs because I'm so mad at Big Sister for not being where she's supposed to be and I have to go driving around hunting for her “You have your man over and forgot to boil eggs?” I make plates for the babies and either put more or less than he thinks they eat (and he ends up being right, damn him) “Do you even feed the girls when I'm at work? Or does someone else do that?” Jerk.

Anyway, so either I sleepwalked and locked the deadbolt behind him, he locked it from the inside at 11 and climbed out a window, or I let my 'other man' out and bolted the door behind him. No way is it possible there was no burger and he really didn't come home because the door was double-locked by Alexa when she came in behind the babies at the beginning of the evening.

I still want my burger, though.

Non-Easter Easter

Sunday, Jasmyne slept in until 9. And since we were up until almost 2, so did Lee and I. He went about making 'the weekend big breakfast' and Jasmyne and I snoozed some more watched some DVD or another. Everyone knows you don't cook bacon naked. Everyone except Lee, apparently. A mistake he's sure to never repeat.

Alexa and Taylar came home while we were eating. They'd had bunnies for breakfast and weren't hungry. (Bunnies are the ultimate in Easter Sunday breakfast. You take two canned biscuits per bunny. Cut two ear shapes out of one biscuit, leaving a triangular shape for the head, and assemble them on the cookie sheet kinda like a snowman. Bake and add butter. Nostalgia! Yum!) We ate, then started getting ready to go.

Alexa was taking out the trash. Sometime previously, someone fell asleep and let his ice-cream melt couldn't finish his ice-cream and had thrown it away. The same someone who bought the store-brand trash bags. So we had a trail of vanilla through the dining room and a little into the living room. Lee stayed behind to clean up as I loaded the girls in the 'new cor'. (<=Taylar-ism) It was quite a bit cooler than the previous day, so Lee also changed out of his shorts into jeans. (I noticed hours later.) Good thing it took him so long, though. Taylar was stomping in puddles and caught one with a muddy bottom. We had come prepared, though. I locked the girls in their baby prisons buckled them into their seat-belts and took off the muddy sandal, wiped down the foot and shoe with the ample supply of baby wipes.

We do nothing in small measures around here. Our 'diaper bag' is a huge tote. It carries a full box of wipes wherever we go. None of this sissy 'travel box' stuff. In fact, Lee brought out with him a bowl full of cantaloupe. Not the small bowl. The one that held the whole cut-up melon with room to spare. Know what? It wasn't even conspicuous in the bag. Nevermind the 10 diapers and dozen fruit bowls/miscellaneous snacks that were in there. And the jackets: 2 hoodies.

So we were late again, by the time Lee got out there. We pulled up to the theater a minute or two after the show was supposed to start. Lee let me and Jasmyne out to go buy tickets, while he parked with the other two. There was no line, because who in their right mind goes to the movies at noon on Easter Sunday. Us, that's who. The show: Monsters vs. Aliens 3D. We don't go to the movies very often, so when getting our tickets, I just told her the ages and let her figure out what tickets to sell us.

Jasmyne and I had a minute to try and reach the water in the mall fountain as the rest of the fam came in. As we were walking in the door to the theater, I casually mentioned to Lee over my shoulder that it was nearly $50 for the tickets. FOR A MATINEE??? He took my credit card receipt and went back to ask the girl at the counter. Yep, $9.50 for each of the 3 kids, and $10.00 for each of us. I told you we should have gone to the Movie Tavern, it's at least $2 per ticket cheaper, but you didn't listen... (More, since they weren't showing 3D.) He pouted through the whole movie. Refused to wear his glasses. Oh, well. Shoulda done the homework yourself if you had such strong opinions. Jasmyne also refused to wear her glasses. Shock! She slept through half of the movie.

After we got home, he told me he didn't want to see 3-D in the first place. He said he told me that, but I still contend he had that conversation in his head. I put Taylar down for a nap while he picked up McDonald's. We ate while he got ready for work. He left for his evening shift. We thought about going outside, but somebody woke up cranky. I suppose that should have been a bigger push for getting some fresh air and exercise, but we ended up just being bums.

After Lee got home from work, we watched Twilight. Kind of as a peace offering on my part. I really didn't want to watch a vampire movie after dark, but it wasn't bad. (Thanks a lot Stephen King! We could have watched it the night before if not for your Salem's Lot.) He'd brought home Olive Garden for himself. Since I can't stand don't like Olive Garden very much, he got Taco Bell for me. Not much open after 10 on Easter... He stayed awake for about 10 minutes after he ate. I watched the whole movie. Alone. Again.

Saturday-In-Between

Saturday was a great day. (For me.) Had some interesting fun during naptime. (Serioulsy, it was about 11-12 times for me. It'd been a while since it was that good.) Bought a new dress in under 5 minutes. And then went to my mom's for Easter Dinner. (No sister in sight.) Ahhh, Nirvana.

While Alexa and I were power-shopping, Lee was not getting the girls ready. I didn't fuss at him once, so blissed out from the naptime fun, was I. (I'm usually flipping out, in tears due to anger, etc. by now.) We hurried to get the babies ready. I got ready. All that was left was for Lee to get ready. We left him to throw his clothes on. No big deal. I called my mom from the car, left her a message that I realized we should have been there 10 minutes ago, but we were leaving soon, honest. As soon as Lee came outside.

Dinner was all ready when we got there, except for putting the potatoes under the broiler for 5 minutes and we were going to eat first. But maybe the kids were going to want to snack on their goodies when they were done hunting. Wouldn't it be better if they were already full? Ok, we'll go now.

We took a few pictures before starting out. Jasmyne wasn't happy at all. She's still afraid of Grandma and Grandpa. Lee took the camera that takes good video and I took the one that takes good pictures. Jasmyne was trying to hide in my skirt, but quickly realized this was the fun game from yesterday and got into it. She even let Grandpa show her where some eggs were.

Taylar was running back and forth having a great time! I didn't see much going on with Alexa. She was kinda helping Taylar. She's good like that.

More pictures, and we went in to eat. Mom had the cutest tea-light holders out on the table. I took a picture, of course. We ate. And ate. The babies were being very vegetarian, much to Lee's dismay. He's very much a carnivore!

After supper, we went in to the living room for fun and games. The eggs were split the long way and had a clear plastic band around them. Mom said they were all over the house after last week's mayhem, so I removed them from Taylar's eggs as she opened hers. She took all her candy and put it in the cello bag my mom was holding. Jasmyne didn't open any of hers. She just played in the mess after a basket got dumped. Alexa got a 3-D globe puzzle. She started working on it in the middle of the chaos. Apparently she wasn't in to the movie. (Lee brought Indiana Jones 4, something step-dad would like.)

I took lots and lots of pictures. Together, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, we took 113 pictures and 22 videos. My kids will never have to ask me for stories of their childhood – there'll be picture storybooks out the wazoo!

We left Alexa and Taylar to spend the night and to go to church in the morning. Jasmyne fell asleep on the way home. More fun ensued and we made chili dogs as we watched Quantum of Solace. Well, I watched about 95% of it. Lee watched 30-40% before he passed out.

Super-Good Friday

Good Friday was the egg hunt at daycare. I left work at noon and rushed home to get the Jello-beans I'd made the night before. And then rushed to the drugstore to pick up a couple of boxes of Capri-Sun Only to get there and realize that naps start at 12:30. I was 2 hours early. (WTF, memory?)

Ok, so I went to Wal-Mart instead. Traffic between Wal-Mart and Target and the mall was almost like Christmas shopping season. My favorite. But I went anyway. Stopped at the bank for quarters on the way, thus starting my camera-phone dialog with Lee. I snapped a pic of the rolls of quarters and hit send. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Well this one was technically worth less than a thousand: went to the bank and purchased 2 rolls of quarters, like I always do. Although my actual text would have read: got quarters. (You know what word's starting to sound weird to me? Quarters. Even though I don't say it aloud as I type, I hear it in my head. - Does anyone else do that?)

On to Wal-Mart. Pre-packaged Easter baskets for Sunday morning (pic dialog x 3 – I only bought baskets for the babies, but switched one out for something better)? Check. Overly-large stuffed animals? Check. Easter baskets to use for the egg hunts because one cute milk-carton crocheted basket and one purple trick-or-treat bag just aren't good enough? Check. Milk, which we're out of and need desperately and I told Lee not to get any the night before when he was out because I was going to get some at Wal-Mart tomorrow? Nope. Forgot that one. Oops.

Next, to Jack in the Box drive-thru for some lunch. (Pic dialog re: sliders) Then home to put all the loot in the closet and get my laptop. I would eat my chicken fajita pita on the way there and should have enough time to at least start an intro blog before time for the kiddies to wake up. The timing was perfect.

I took both cameras, because I've discovered the new one takes horrible videos. Bad sound, bad picture quality. And I haven't figured out how to make it snap a picture when I'm ready. I always have to wait until it's ready. *sigh* How many pictures have I missed because the girls just don't understand “Don't move”?

Jasmyne saw me much earlier than I had intended. Since she'd just woken up from her nap, she was clingy and whiny. I love that part of naps. Anyway, the next bit of afternoon was spent lugging her around. wishing her legs were long enough to touch the ground. I'm really not one to spoil her like that around the house. She cries at least 10 minutes every night while I'm cooking supper. I'll pick her up only long enough to put her in her highchair where she can see me and test gravity with play with her toys. (Point, where are you?) We were sort-of in public, so I spared my ears a little and schlepped her to and fro carried her, as requested ever so politely. They were on minimal staff, so I got the enjoyable task of keeping an eye on Taylar's class while the director got the eggs together to hide. Yippee!

It was snack-time before hunt-time, which was a great idea. Some of the parents sent plastic candy-filled eggs instead of boiled ones as instructed. We didn't need the kids snacking on those! Jasmyne's class got Fritos for their first “course”. I was glad I came to monitor my kids' sugar intake. I don't let Jasmyne have corn chips. She really doesn't have enough teeth for them. Luckily, she was still on my hip, far away from the offending chips! Taylar's class got big spiral Cheetos, an M&M cookie, a couple of Jello-beans, some Wavy Lays, some mini-marshmallows in spring colors and a butter cookie with strawberry filling. I declined the second cookie for both girls. Taylar wanted more chips, so she used Jasmyne's unattended napkin as her own personal buffet. I took the liberty of throwing out some of their snacks when they weren't looking nutritionally enriching their baby diets. They were none the wiser.

Finally, time to hunt eggs. Jasmyne's class went first. Three kids, 5 or 6 dozen eggs on a sloping 3' swath of grass between the chain-link fence and the sidewalk. I only took one camera out with me for some reason. It was her first-ever Easter egg hunt. *sigh* I took lots of pictures and a few videos. Just not good videos. I also convinced the teacher to bring the kids in early and leave about half of the eggs outside. Jasmyne had filled her basket about half-full. She was having fun shaking the eggs! (She still doesn’t know there was anything inside worth taking out.) I only had to show her once that she was supposed to pick up the egg and put it in her basket. After that, it was a game to see if she could throw each one in a little harder than the one before. (Seriously, what does a 1.5-year-old know about eggs+delicate=be gentle??? For that matter, what does a 3-year-old know about that? The same nothing, that’s what!)

We waited while the next older class did their hunting. Then I carried Jasmyne on my hip and we took pictures and videos of Taylar’s hunt. She’s the youngest in her class – just moved up in fact. So she was slow to get to the eggs. (Either that, or her classmates really resembled the way vampires scale walls in the movies.) She only ended up with 7 eggs, but she didn’t know her classmates had out-hunted her. Besides, their class only had boiled eggs to hunt. One girl in that class decided to pick a yellow dandelion and skip the eggs. To each her own, I guess. Taylar had a great time, as did Jasmyne. As soon as we got back in from the hunt, we packed up and high-tailed it outta there left quietly.

Lee was home when we got there, so I made him come out and help carry stuff in. The girls got to sit in the living room with their favorite baby-sitter while Lee and I had a ‘discussion’ in the other room before he went back to work for the second shift. Alexa came home and interrupted our conference, needing the deadbolt opened. Like it woulda killed her to wait outside 30-45 minutes. It was a nice day out. She had some room-cleaning to do, however, so she was out of earshot for the remainder of the discussion.

We girls were left on our own for the rest of the evening. I caught up on some blog-reading. And we ate what we wanted for supper. Whatever that was.

Cast of Characters

I've been drafting an inaugural post in my head for weeks now. I keep changing my mind about what to include. I'm not inviting my family to this new blog, I expect it'll occasionally be TMI for them. As for anyone else, I'm sure there'll be the occasional over-share, but for the most part, I'm just planning to be me. A sarcastic drama queen, mother to three drama princesses.

Who are we? We're your typical family, of course! There's a twelve-almost-thirteen year old daughter, Alexa.










There's a three-year-old daughter, Taylar.










And the baby of the family, a 17.5-month-old, Jasmyne.










The daddy in our story is the biological father of the two younger ones, and also my high-school-swetheart. He moved up north while we were still in school, but came back after more than a dozen years and we ended up together again. Our relationship is very unusual and very rocky, but nevertheless, I love him with all my heart. His name is Lee.











And me, a thirty-three year old single mom. Type 2 diabetic. Living my life looking for the next blog inspiration. I recently acquired a new nickname, courtesy of Taylar. She tried pronouncing Jennifer, but came up with Jenner instead. I thought it cute and kept it.

I blogged on Yahoo! 360 for a year, then switched over to Multiply about a year ago. I took an unintentional break from blogging starting last summer, with a few exceptions. It's time to get back to it. It's a great release!