For the love of randomness

Don't you know how I just LIVE to never be expected, as random as I can be at all times. So random, it's predictable!
I have no clue what I'm yapping about though. The point is simply, that I have random photos to share today.

I might have mentioned my most perfect hot cocoa ever? This is it. Those are perfectly formed teeny tiny itty bitty chocolate chips all over it. Then it's got that super delicious thick layer of cream and beneath all of that, the second greatest cocoa ever had by me. Ranking behind my super special hour long hot cocoa. It takes forever to make, but what a treat! :)
Anyway, my birthday cocoa for all to see.

This was actually taken on my birthday as well. It turned out to be one of the foggiest days yet here, one of the foggiest I've yet to see. One that would shut Texas down, well...slow it WAY down anyway. Here? Nope, we were speeding down the A11 without a second thought. It slowed down to 60 a few times, but not much and not for long.
Anyway, this is a road near the house. It is the back way in, often times I pick the boys up from their long day at school and drive around the village a couple of times until they pass out. Otherwise they are SO tired from the day at school they fight and fight and it is a nightmare and it is already so late when I get them, it's pointless to get them to sleep then, and well...let's just say I want a drink or five by the time I DO get them in bed. So...I drive them slowly, silently until they pass out.
This is the road that Kade and I will go down everyday when he starts full time school in September. That is assuming he gets into our catchment school which I hope he does.

This, also the same day obviously. This is further down the road where I got a peek at the sun! It popped out for just a minute, hello there friend! Oh how I miss you! COME BACK!!!!!
Anyway, I've been wanting to get a shot here at just the right time of day and I think this worked. I've seen some heavy-ish fog with some strong sun before in Texas, but it was always morning, not really this thick and well...just different. haha!
This is sunset. Sunset at --- gasp! 3:30 in the afternoon! Don't you think that'd drive you batty? It's kind of rough about now, but...hey I'm optimistic when no one is looking, and just keep telling myself that spring will soon be here, we're closer to it now than we were a month ago. When it is here, I'll probably let the boys stay up till midnight if the sun doesn't go down till 11PM b/c we'll be outside every waking second I'm fairly sure. My already limited computer time will come to a halt b/c I'm so sorry and I love all my peeps, but this pasty Texas gal needs some rays!!!! So do the boys, their little above the bum tan line is long since faded. I loved that, so cute. As bad as Co is about clothes now though, I doubt he'll have one this year!

Our first commercial advertisement. Yo Rice Krispies people!!! Here's your 2009 model, we'll have some Izzy tunes too and make you a good ol' commercial, photo shoot included at no extra cost.
They've all, oddly, gotten hooked on rice krispies lately. Apparently Co decided to have himself a bowl. He poured it right over the top of his fruit loops...and the table...and the chair, and the floor too.
Sadly, Chops is not so much into plain kid cereal and well, it was just too damn cute to even get mad at Co for it. So hell... it's one of those times, I let them make a mess. It all cleans up and a big crazy rice krispie mess on a Sunday morning is a good memory to me, I'm sure it will be for them too.

On that note. I bid you all GOOD NIGHT! It is 10:30 PM. It is silent except for the ticking of these damn keys. I have no laundry to do. I have no dishes to wash. I'm already showered even.
I.
am.
going.
to.
watch.
an.
entire.
movie.
in.
SILENCE!
uh, except for the movie sound of course. but a WHOLE movie and mike better not interrupt me, but he will i'm sure! just because.

Note to self...

Do not dry fleece material in the laundry-mat dryer.
I made a resolve as I needed to take the bed linens up to wash, that I'd just take every last stitch and give myself a damn break from this never ending laundry nightmare for a few days. Many of you know that laundry is my nemesis anyway, now add in a damn washer the size of a bucket and imagine my predicament.
The nightmares of drowning in oceans of downy, being chased and attacked by body-less clothing. It is just too much sometimes.
So I loaded my poor car to the top with EVERYTHING, even if it might be clean but didn't have a soft fresh feeling to it, it ALL went. I spent a few hours, so happy to be gawked at by the amount I had to bring in, but this is what happens when I go on strike for 48 hours damn you single people who wear ONE uniform all week and (ew) reuse your towels 8 times w/out washing. BITE ME!
I worked hard, got to read my book a bit, which is grand as it is getting to the really profound parts now, and I have nice clean clothing all put away neatly. It's a dream come true.
However, I learned the hard way...that sweats, and super soft fluffy wonderful fleece blankets and scorching hot laundry-mat dryers, are not meant to work together.
Now all my wonderfully soft fleece is crunchy and smells like burnt plastic.
That's special.

*sigh*

Since I have so much spare cash flying around, now I can go replace all these blankets. JUST great.

I give up. I'm just laundry cursed and that is that.
We're retiring and moving somewhere warm year round and going nudist. We'll air dry after a shower and rough it and just sleep on the damn ground. Call first before you come over, or you'll be cursed with your own slew of nightmares for eternity. ha!

I am sure I am typing and reading like a madwoman, I'm too tired to even be humorous.
Off to bed and more laundry nightmares. Now I'll wake up sweating to the image of fleece trying to crunch me to death in my sleep.
Great.

the reaction will be funny

how many people are shocked by my previous entry. haha.
i'm good at that. but for real.
i've been shocked at the shocked reactions i've gotten thus far for it.

Good-Bye Mr. Bush

Well, I'm not really going all on or off about politics b/c that would be idiotic of me. I'm not, like my friend Nicole, tattooing a photo of Obama on my rear end. Okay she's not...yet anyway, but I'm not that passionate at all about it.
However, I will say that for awhile I was a fan of Mr. Bush, but seriously...how can I be anymore? So with this...I bid you farewell kind sir.
It was....familiar I guess I can say. Sort of like a deja vu?
At any rate, I figure a good long vacation on that big fancy ranch in Texas with that big fat bank account will do a body and soul good.
Hey! How many of my friends, friends of friends, loved ones etc... etc... have lost their job, their home or had to go on government assistance just to keep from starving? Right.
Yes, please Mr. Bush and well hell, let us add in the other people who I'm loathing at the moment...MR. and MRS. OIL TYCOONS, please enjoy your luxuries while the rest of us flippin starve (and no flipping is not the word I wanted, but I will censor myself). I AM passionate about this.
Love how people like to GIVE BACK. Ever notice how it is that the people who seem to have the least are the ones that give the most???? I've noticed it.
I shall not go off on a tangent though. NOpe.
I just get sick over all I'm seeing everyone go through. Don't think we're not affected though, please don't. We are, just as much...the only thing we've got securing us is Mike's choice of career many years ago. Good one on ya honey! I can't imagine some of the uncertainties so many of my people are going through. It affects my business too b/c don't we all know how much of a luxury photos are. *smart ass smirk* So we all have to cut back, live lighter and try harder.
I agree it is good for us sometimes.
I agree that MANY MANY of us got ourselves into this mess. Greed.
I agree, that DUH if you only make $40k a year, you really ought to get the drift that you cannot, in fact, afford to buy a $275k home with no money down. DUH. Stupid. DUH. Many should've used their BRAIN. Just because the bank will GIVE it, doesn't mean you should TAKE it. Just as...Mr. and Mrs. Greedy Bank Tycoons sit around over a cocktail with Mr. and Mrs. Oil Tycoon and Mr. and Mrs. Greedy Politicians laughing at all the poor peasants eating bread and water.
Well, ya know what? Perservere! Perservere damn it! Good news is...WE CAN LIVE ON BREAD AND WATER! We might even thrive on it! What do you think THOSE people would do in many of our shoes right now though?
Yeah, let us see how far they'd get. Wouldn't it be neat and nifty to have a little button to just give those folks a reality check whenever we deemed it necessary. New law. Anyone with $XXX in their bankroll, has to be open to a middle or lower "class" person's reality check whenever we see it fit. Yep. I think it would do the WORLD some good.

At any rate. I should ask this of Mr. Obama. Once the really really important stuff is underway. Ya know, war stopping, recession ending, history making etc... etc....
can the military have a raise please????
Hey it's worth a shot right?
Oh hell, while I'm at it. Even as much as I really dislike taking them, I could do up some MEAN family portraits! I mean...seriously. Really. Seriously.
Well, lucky for me, people still experience milestones and still love to have photos. Phew! Things might slow down, but I'll always be here, camera ready. They always pick back up again. :)

At any rate, a historical day is upon us. Sleep well all, look forward to new beginnings. Let's hope that he IS the right medicine for this sick, sick economy (among other things) and that he can right some of the wrongs, fix some messes and move us forward instead of us always seeming to go backward and further in the hole.

Welcome new Mr. President. Welcome.

What a difference a day makes

I've been in such a foul mood lately. Who knows why, I think it has even been since Christmas, just escalating day by day. So much that I seriously can't figure out WHAT it is/was for and really pissing myself off all the more because it WILL NOT GO AWAY!!!!!

Well last night I went to sleep before 10pm. I woke up at 6 this morning, sore from sleeping so long, but feeling a bit better, still wishing there was not so much to do today and those darn kids would sleep till nine just ONCE! Regardless, up I was and in the shower. A shower first thing in the morning???? Yes, it's a great thing and always improves my mood where a nighttime one just does not.

Off to school the boys went happily and I came back home to figure out which of the 50 things on my list were going to take priority. Since this 2.5 hour school day thing stresses me out so much. I just can't do anything in such a small amount of time! If there are a bunch of little somethings, which there always are, sure I can get them done but the anxiety over what is most important etc... freaks me out all the more.

So, I took the dog for a walk! Definitely needed to be done as it is, but my car is still filfthy and I have yet to make a grocery list as we're going straight from school to get that taken care of. Yuck.

Oh well.

It was lovely out this morning though. We went a different route and my how much more relaxing! It was a small road between two small village, no one else and maybe 3 cars passed the whole time. It was a balmy 36 degrees out, which I must say how funny I've changed so much already! The birds were singing, not just chirping annoyingly. There were pheasants scurrying everywhere and the weather was just gorgeous.

Since no one else came by, my dog didn't try to eat anyone, there was no human/canine wrestling match to keep him at my side etc... so that was very relaxing too.

It was nice to get to just take the time and really SEE our village. There are some exquisite homes here with breathtaking gardens. Our village is certainly not the nicest of all and is very much a tiny one as we don't even have a school and most small ones do but when you take the time, it is a very beautiful spot indeed.

My Online Score!!!

I've been searching for a dining table for ages, and have not had an easy time of finding one I liked. Call me picky. It's not really what I was looking for, but what a steal!
All at once I found 4 table/chair sets that I liked in the right price range (i.e. CHEAP) and this is the one I went to see. In PERFECT used condition!
I'm so proud of it! It added one more star to my "world's greatest shopper" badge.
:)

thirty. one.

i'm not sure why it is. turning 30 was absolutely nothing to me. no big deal at all. BEING 30 is not old, its not that big of a deal. when someone asks your age range, you say, "i'm 30." however, seems that NOW i have to say, "i'm IN my 30's."

somehow, that is a smack in the face, reality bite...holy crap. i'm IN my thirties! thirties???? seriously?

am i ever going to actually FEEL my age? i mean its great that i don't feel as old as i am, if that ever really makes sense. just meaning, i feel like i should just be....24 or something. i don't feel mature enough in my mind, settled enough or whatever you want to call it, to be IN my thirties.

never the less, time apparently doesn't seem to care if i want to push 'pause' on aging until i feel that age.

unfortunately.

so far, i've had a pretty nice day though. today was school day for the boys. so i dropped them off and went into norwich to meet a friend for a coffee. i joked with mike it was a long drive for a coffee which i don't even drink. ha! i did actually have one though, once the taste of my gum (which does NOT mix well with a caffe latte mind you) wore off it wasn't too terrible.

i got to check out the city centre and some of the shops there. very neat, very affordable stuff to! i even got to step foot in an h&m. a lifelong dream of mine...okay, maybe just a past couple of years dream of mine. regardless. i got to.

finished it off with one of the greatest hot cocoa's ever with the tiniest of chocolate chips on it, such a pretty cocoa, i had to take a picture of it. :)

when i picked the boys up from school, they both sacked out in the FOGGY ride home, and have taken a long nap, which i've just now looked at the clock and should go wake them up because they will be up till midnight if i don't!!!!

anyway, hopefully mike brings me some form of chocolate and some firewood for my birthday. that'd be just perfect.

he got me a card yesterday, laid it on my pillow. it was a very very sweet card, that even down to the feet comment, was sweet. but the foot comment, that was just sneaky to toss in there!

at any rate.

yay me. another year survived. can't complain about that.

but do i REALLY have to be IN my THIRTIES?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

i don't WANNA!!!!!!!!

*sigh*

oh well.

with that, i shall leave you with a few photos of my beautiful children. if i did nothing in this world worth a damn in the past THIRTY ONE years, it'd all be worthwhile for the great things i did do by having my angels. :)

yeah...they're still being pretty good! much easier to talk nicer about them (is that mean even?) when they are being so nice.