running barefoot through the chaos

ChaChaChaChaaaanges......

2010-09-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

There have been many. Divorce,forclosure, busness failure, house hunting. Not all the change has been negative. There has also been laughter, togetherness, tenacity and possible future relationships. Kids seem to have so much resilancy. Not only do they make it though, they make it through joking. With all the things I put them through I really do think that they will thrive and adapt. They are tough. They are loved. I'm trying to relearn allowing them to fight, scream and make a mess. It isn't easy after so many years of trying to stop and muffle it but we are having a good time. Hopefully sometime soon I am able to be here with them more, have us fall into a routine and make some wonderful memories.

Spring....

2010-04-22T05:41:00.001-07:00

Viva thinks about me

2010-04-22T05:39:00.001-07:00

I started working in a restaurant again and have to accept this crazy schedule that keeps me away most nights for the past two weeks. I came home after another double and found this in the refridgerator.

Today...

2010-02-25T11:25:00.001-08:00

What can make you feel your years. Your baby getting older. 7 years ago today I was waiting to greet my surprise baby. I love her and what she brings into our lives (a lot of laughter and kisses). I look at her now, my baby, how big she is getting. Happy Birthday Viva Divine Inez Scully!

Throwing DOWN on the rink....

2010-01-20T18:15:00.000-08:00

(On way home talking about the 'almost rumble' at the skate rink.)
Gavin: It would be cool it I had a ray gun and pointed it at them and froze their pussy and....
Me: What?!
Gavin: Froze their pussy.
Me: What?!
Gavin: You know, their group of friends.
Me: Their POSSE!

Merry Christmas all!

2009-12-25T12:30:00.001-08:00

Caviar

2009-12-04T05:31:00.001-08:00

Our clown fish are on their second batch of eggs. I've been stalking the tank the past 3 nights. I guess I got the lay date wrong cause they still haven't hatched. I can see straight through the sac and can see their two huge eye. I'm hopeing they were waiting for Friday night so the kids can see them before they become food for the rest of the tank. One day soon I hope to set up a nursery so that we can attempt to raise some fry and support my new expensive habit.

Ophelia's good week

2009-11-14T07:02:00.000-08:00

Ophelia had two pretty good days this week. The biggest is that her artwork went school, county and is going on to state in the Reflections contest. Gavin's photograph won first place in the school grade. We went to the ceremony and Ophelia was thrilled to get a medal. Now all three are planning on entering in all the catagories next year :)
The next day she brought me her IOWA test scores (let me interject that although I am very happy I do not like all of the testing that students do. They should be learning subjects, not how to test)
ANYHOW, she scored in the 97% overall with a 94% in math and 98% in science. (she also has a 99% in reading). She scored 88% in Language Arts, imagine if she could spell :)
If she can just pull up her report card up it will be awesome! Going to find a way this weekend to reward her!
Okay, just my happy mommy post.

Chooooo Choooooo!

2009-11-09T18:31:00.000-08:00

Kat came down to do the vendor mart at the school with me and as she completly understands (cause she says she knows what she's getting into when she is dealing with me) our day took a different turn. We decided the mart was not what we wanted to do about an hour into it so we packed up and headed to meet my parents up in Chattanooga where my mom was taking a conference. I haven't been there since I was a little tyke and after just too few hours I know I definately want to take the kids back. It is an adorable little town with plenty to see. We only explored the Chatt. Choo Choo and had some Mongolian at the aquarium area. Anyhow, can't wait to get back up there and see what there is to see!

October

2009-11-03T20:43:00.000-08:00

October flew by way to fast. This is one of my most favorite months of the year. Flu took away most of the good parts but we did manage two of our favorite activities, Halloween (of course) and the Zombie Parade. We also hit the L5P parade for the first time and it was alot of fun. I don't think the kids have ever had so much candy. Ophelia, my first masterpiece, turned 11 this year. Wow, I am over half way finished raising her! I hope that I have done a few things right. She is getting so big and I am so impressed with her ability at everything she works at.

Halloween this year almost failed us but despite the rain we braved the neighborhood. I loved both of the girls' costumes. Viva is a mad scientest and Ophelia was Cleopatra. Gavin was a bleeding chest and mast but he was with his friend so I don't have any pictures of him :(

Well, that's about it in a nutshell I suppose. Looking forward to trying to get stuff done this month and making the best out of what is left of the year.

Where was I heading???

2009-09-16T17:03:00.000-07:00

I seem to have one fatal flaw...I take up too many, well, ideas. I want to create so badly that my fingers itch. But alas, paralysis takes me over and I have done nothing. Well, nothing but buy materials. I have the makings of so many awesome projects your head would spin. Am I knitting? sewing? crochet? paint? montage? magnets? bags? 3D? making furniture? Where is the little angel that can take away all of my problems and free some of my time while at the same time give the energy and motivation to bust out some work?
Even if I did have all this free time how would I spend it?

He had it coming...

2009-09-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

me singing: He only had himself to blame.
If you had been there,
If you had seen it!
I bet you you would have done the same...
Viva: I wouldn't....only if they had been doing the spread eagle.

Civics Class 101

2009-09-09T18:25:00.000-07:00

Today Ophelia and I flexed our civic muscles and joined a counter protest against Westboro Baptist Church. Who are they you ask?? You can find them at
www.GodHatesFags.com
and read this little snippet from my friend Randall's blog
"OK, Westboro Baptist Church, lead by the Rev Fred Phelps. They are a cultist ,extremist Christian organization that originally hated just "fags". And at first they wanted to save them, that was about 1993. They shout things unsuitable at funerals, once only those of homosexuals and people who die of AIDS. Now that hate has come to include Jews, ... Read MoreIsrael, and America. They believe America is the last stand, that it is here not Israel that the lord will return and because America is run by fags and jews and about everybody else is going to Hell. Now they protest soldier's funerals, and notably Corretta Scott King. We were protesting hate, A lot of the people were gay Christians and they didn't want them there with the message they had about God's love or hate. They offended a lot of people, I mean people were doing double takes in their vehicles. We had truckers and construction workers, not known for their support, honking for us. They were dragging the American flag around on the ground
It was obvious only a few minutes that they were not the brightest stars in our sky. Someone from our camp yelled something across the road and one of theirs (albiet a teen) yelled "Stop judging us!!!" :) :) Good thing I wasn't drinking anything. Another time someone from us yelled "Jesus was a jew!" And someone from them: "No he wasn't! The jews killed Jesus!"
Apparently they don't inform theirs to well. I made sure Ophelia knew exactly what was going on and by the second stop she was making her own poster.

Amazing Ukraine artist

2009-08-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

She is on Ukraines Got Talent. Someone sent me this link and I put it to the side for a couple of months and was amazed when I actually watched it. Definatetly worth it.

I've struck gold!!

2009-08-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

Gavin's teacher is everything I could of asked for in a teacher....and more. She treats them like adults (they can go to the br as they need, eat when they are hungary and drink when they are thirsty. They can even chew gum), She has set up her classroom to resemble a home (pillows, tablecloths, lamps instead of overhead lights, she cut the legs off of the computer desks so the kids are sitting on huge floor pillows comfortably). They all have a cleaning job and one kid actually is the TA. They clean their own room, she handles all problems herself (no princilpal referral in 8 years!) She doesn't keep them at their desks, they move around the room and have lapdesks. She stressed teaching for comphrehensive instead of memorization. I just can't quit gushing over her. She is also the most sugary sweetness of a Southern Woman I ever met. She is everything I think Gavin needed and I am so happy he was lucky enough to end up in her classroom. She seems to be one of those people who really love what they do and want to keep doing the best way she can. All of this at the same time that I have become weary of how my kids are being taught at school. If I can push for some outdoor classroom time.....

My banging basil chicken bake...

2009-08-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

Over dinner tonight Viva kept insisting that Gavin would want his hot sauce. He informed her that he didn't need to use it on every meal. After my wise crack that he "didn't have to marry it" ( a conversation from before). Gavin said "ummmm....I might". they proceeded to figure out his unusual matrimony to the hot sauce. Then how to have baby hot sauce. The end result was that he had to be careful not to use to much of his wife and that they could have a baby by either buying a baby bottle or putting a drop in a bottle and adding another drop every so often so the "baby" grows.

School 09-10

2009-08-10T07:36:00.000-07:00

We went through the first week of school last week and everything went great. Viva didn't get into any trouble and Gavin only a tad (2 points worth) Gavin is even still saying that his teacher is nice (I don't see how he can think otherwise, she is the most sugary sweet woman I've met!) Ophelia is already trying to organzie herself so she can get all A's this year.
I picked up a homeschool for free book yesterday, not that I think I'm capable of homeschooling them. I'm considering it as extra learning during slow times. The middle school that they will be attending seems to drive alot of people I've come across into homeschooling so I'm just checking it out now. I've two years before I have to worry about it but I'm pretty sure I can bribe my kids into an extra class or two.
I also picked up a really fun looking book called Altered Curiosities. It is completly up our alley and it also has a resin teaching section. There is a bird feeder in there that will probably be the inspiration for our first project..
Viva lost her first tooth last wed at school and Gavin lost another one during Purple Rain Sat nite, we had to stay after to find it. Now that I have this bood I have some ideas on what to do with all of these teeth!

Viva on the Mine Train rollercoaster

2009-08-09T20:26:00.000-07:00

The password is what

2009-08-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

You ever have one of those movies that you have been obsessed with since a kid? Well I have been a fan of Prince since I was 7 (thanks Claudia!). Of course I was pretty young when it came out, I can remember when we rented it the babysitter trying to cover my eyes while Prince was running his hand around Patricia Katara's nether regions. Tonight I got to see what i couldn't at 7, Purple Rain on the big screen. It was even better cause I was watching it with other people who could quote every word. We were singing, applauding, dancing and the biggest scream was the butt shot during Baby I'm a Star.
I brought all of the kids and they actually loved it also. Ophelia asked for the soundtrack on the way home! A sidetrac of seeing it as an adult was realizing that the dad was the only person in the whole movie who had any acting skills.

Home again!

2009-07-22T07:10:00.000-07:00

Finally have the kids home. It has been a long summer for all of us but they got a lot of time with family, mainly PaPa and MaMa. Just got home last nite and spent the morning laying around with Viva until the other two woke up. I did finally get something done.
(drumroll........)

yep, finally, feast your eyes on the musical stylings of Viva Snyder!

Balls...

2009-07-01T05:39:00.000-07:00

Was the entire conversation from the mall to home from Gavin. Apparently he has a whole wealth of jokes about his two best friends. Snuck some video but posting that would probably be really wrong.

Summerness.

2009-06-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

Apparently I have become to lazy to write and especially to post pictures. Today is Father's Day and my Dad's birthday. Lucky for me my dad is up here so I can spend it with him. I'm not sure yet what we will do but I hope he enjoys the day.
This summer had been so quiet for me. Ophelia and Gavin have been at their dad's and should be going to camp one of these weeks. Viva had been in Fla at my dad until Fri night when she came back with Daddy. I was going to keep her here but her cousin in going down there and although Viva is a little young for her hopefully they can keep each other company. I also can use what time I can get for myself. Other than all this, quiet summer. I'm sure the fall will be as hectic as always to I will take this.

This morning during breakfast....

2009-06-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

I heard Gavin talking to his Papa about our go-cart race yesterday trying to defend his near win (2 strangers beat him) "I would of won if there had been no one else" Words to live by?

"Why do you like plants so much now?"

2009-05-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

asks Gavin.
"I just think it'll be cool to grow food and take it in and eat what you grew. Don't you think?" answers mom.
"Naw, unless we can grow ice cream!" replies Gavin.

Gavin again

2009-02-25T17:44:00.000-08:00

We are watching a movie with a Michael Jackson impersonator and I went to show the kids what he really looks like. They were amazed at the before and after pictures, how a good looking man can turn into what MJ has become. Gavin stared at the picture for a second and said "I would keep it a secret that he's not a girl".

Still horrible about this!

2009-02-09T17:49:00.000-08:00

Anyhow, lately Gavin has been throwing some funny ones out there. The other night he was trying to convince me that he had two stomach, one for his dinner and one for the dessert. That's why he can be full of dinner but still have room for dessert. I was trying to get him up this morning and he told me that it was cold but he was trying to fart because it activated a force field around him to keep him warm.
Viva is going to be in her school talent show this year. She is singing 'We're Not Going To Take It" dressed as Dee Snider. I'm desperately trying to get all of the lyrics in her head now. I cannot wait!!!! O and G wouldn't do the show this year :( I tried to get O to do the Flobots 'Handlebars' but it was a no go.
The other day I was so happy for Ophelia, she was invited to join Duke University's talent search program. Basically it is an extra gifted program through them for students who scored in the top 5% of their grade (I'm guessing in each school). She wants to do it and I hope she can keep up and not lose focus on it. Gavin was in his Boy Scout pinewood derby and won second place for his age group. He was so happy because it came with a trophy.
I was trying to show them a little of their family tree today. I had spent the day with my great Grandmothers' nephew's daughters visiting Grandmother Randal's sister-in-law who is 96! I actually had a great time. I really appreciate more the importance of our elder family members. I just wish that I had done more about this for the past few years. Anywho, she gave us alot of stories about our family. I miss Grandmother Randal and wish I had more of her history in hand.
Well....rambling as that was....i guess that is it for now.

Viva says...

2008-12-23T15:52:00.000-08:00

she's half vegetarian.

Why I hate the holidays

2008-11-28T16:10:00.000-08:00

http://kdka.com/national/walmart.worker.trampled.2.875727.html
I hope everyone of these people are identified and thrown under an angry crowd.
This is exactly what Christmas has come to mean for America, discounts and consumerism. All anyone thinks about is what they are going to get and what they can buy. Greed. Consumerism. You would think that Christmas was invented by the retailers because I can see no other motive in the people who celebrate it. People actually walked PAST this man lying on the ground dead so they could get their fucking tv's. Yes this is an extreme example but I see more examples of this kind than any other. This is exactly the spirit that I HATE about the holidays. I've considered for a few years not celebrating the holidays but have held off 'because I have kids' but I think that I might decide to go ahead and stop. I don't need the stores to tell me when to buy something for my kids.

Btw... there was a feakin cell phone video taken of this guy dead and being worked on. Who the hell is out doing that?? This person was a temp and now is dead. He wasn't even supposed to be at work today.

Consumerism is the equation of personal happiness with the purchase of material possessions and consumption.
In economics, consumerism refers to economic policies placing emphasis on consumption. In an abstract sense, it is the belief that the free choice of consumers should dictate the economic structure of a society

Hope those people are happy with their tv.

Gems

2008-11-28T09:45:00.001-08:00

http://writtenonthecity.com/

Godzilla

2008-10-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

Ophelia said to me yesterday:
"I wonder if it freaked people out when they saw a huge man crawling up the Empire State Building?"

A few days ago I was in a really bad mood and was straightening up the pantry closet and Gavin saw the Lucky Charms and sang a little song praising them. I almost snapped at him because I was in such a bad mood but I turned around and looked at him and had to change my annoyed face to a happy one as quick as possible. He looked exactly how I wish he was all the time. Not only was he singing, he had his arms spread out and his face lifted up and looked so confident, exactly how I wish he could feel and look all the time. I really do hope that he comes out of his shyness some. I was so happy to be able to enjoy that little moment though.

Whirl winds

2008-10-15T18:52:00.001-07:00

I guess I'm not going to be so good at keeping up. Let's call it a lack of time. Time is worth more than gold around this house. At the moment i'm also trying to follow the pres debate on the news beside this window.
I've always been against over scheduling but each fall I always fall for the "ohh!" factor. Also with 3 kids, sometimes it is easier to just put all of them into whatever the one wants to do. Last year I made a rule that it could only fall on 3 days of the week and the other 4 had to stay open. This year we have accidentally spread to 4 days activity. Mon is soccer for Ophelia (sat game) and tues Gavin and Ophelia have chess after school. Wed we found an awesome home school science lab that provides lab classes each week. Thur is violin. Gavin, poor boy, couldn't play soccer this year because of the casts on both arms or we would of had him in soccer and he was slated to start guitar this year also.
Anywho, we did take our first vacation together (me and the kids) in years. We went to Williamsburg to see the colonial side of things. Since we were so close we went up to Washington DC, visited the monuments, the Natural History Museum (Hope Diamond) and the Space Museum. We also visited Mount Vernon, Washington's home. We left Washington to go to Charletteville to visit Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home) and Ash-Lawn Highlands (James Monroe's home). Both very interesting and I feel that this was a vacation well spent. We learned alot and had a lot of fun together.
Ophelia turned 10 last week and we spent the prior weekend with her, grandma and I in New York City! We played total tourists visiting the Statue Of Liberty and Ellis Island, hanging in Times Square. We also caught a production of Hairspray! which we all loved. The whole purpose was to stalk Jerry Lee Lewis. I paid over $300 for our tickets and guess what!!??? He only played like 20 minutes!!!!! I was PEEVED! But alas, it was great and I did see a legend. I need to be happy for that I suppose. Okay, can't do both anymore. That's about it. Hopefully I will make a picture blog that I keep trying to do in my head (where all good ideas die).

Why I'm voting Republican

2008-08-29T12:37:00.001-07:00

Gavin is full of them

2008-08-27T04:53:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago the topic turned to Viva having godparents. Ophelia asked if they had any and why not. During the explanation and other questions I mentioned Viva's christing and Gavin asked what that was. Then asked what a baptism was.
Me: Baptism is the whole water and the church thing.
Gavin: Oh!Oh! I've done that! With the apples?

Tues: During Spanish class with Senora Delilah
S. Delilah: Okay, we are going over family names. Madre, anyone want to guess what this might be?
*Me leaning over to Gavin: Look at he word and figure out what it sounds/looks like.
Gavin: Maid!
Me: Almost.

!!!!!

2008-08-14T05:15:00.001-07:00

On just a chance glance at my computer and I'm off to NIN show. I haven't seen them since I was a kid and actually can't really remember any of it so I was super excited to go. I should of bought tickets before but i'm a very last minute sort of girl. One of my acquaintances here on Myspace wife bowed out and I jumped on the ticket. The show was definatly on my top 3 shows of all time. I had forgotten what true showmanship was until last nite. It's like waking up. Every number they did and every light they flipped was awesome. I was very surprised at how much small detail and just packed with acts that leave you awestuck when usually bands just sprinkle it on you. Anyways, it was an experiene and I regret every show i've missed by them thru the years. The band was awesome (especially the drummer) and I could of stayed there all nite, I was sad it had to end. I didn't take a camera because i thought i would be stopped so this is all i have. :(

(probably my favorite part of the show)

(hurt)

Last read

2008-08-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

I just finished Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama. The book was amazing with a statement on trying to find oneself while trying to lift up others. He really got me in the book, which I decided to read after hearing some statements others accused him of writing (that were not in there). I would recommend this book to anyone, there is no politics in it, just his struggle to find himself and a great journey he had on the way. Also through the book I found two interesting things, one is the most amazing tree ever. It is called the baobab tree and it is found in Africa. It can hold over 32,000 gallons of water to survive a drought. Some are believed to be over a thousand years old!

and the other interesting thing i looked up was on the Masai tribe. Here is a picture and also a video of their jumping dance

Brainquest game

2008-08-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

is what we are playing right now. Ophelia's questions was
What type of reflex cleans your nose?
Gavin yells out "Finger!"

whooooo!!!

2008-08-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

The opening ceremonies for the Olympics last nite in Beijing were so worth waiting for! I have been so excited for the stadiums that they built for the event. They are amazing and so creative.

And the Nestle showed so well during the ceremony

The show was so good, I could rewatch it over and over. Anyways, minus the idiot commentators who didn't shut up for 2 consecutive moments, it was unforgettable and I hope it made an impression on my kids also.

this one was the most "how the hell' part of the show. all of these blocks you were sure had to be controlled by a machine but it WASN'T!

And also.

2008-08-07T20:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some shots from our first day at school. You can't tell by my pictures but they were actually happy and excited. This just shows how much they like me taking their pictures :(

Viva walks like an Egyptian into the first day.

They didn't want Viva's Egyptian pose and she got upset.

I got his mom!

Ugh! (She really didn't want her pic done!)

Hey!

And this is Viva's first day outfit.

Prescription of PS and milkshakes

2008-08-07T19:56:00.001-07:00

Gavin was prescribed playstation and milkshakes yesterday when he was casted on no, not one, but BOTH arms. He fell off the playground zip line and school and buckle fractured both wrists and a big bump to the noggin. This is our first run in with broken anything other than egos so it's been a trial that I hope we don't have to repeat. While he is happy with the prescription, he is very unhappy at missing soccer this season and having to put off his guitar lessons (having just gotten his guitar and amp the night before). The other stinky part is that he chose one red cast and one black cast so I continually feel I must offer up the fact that we don't watch football to everyone that comments on his casts.

*I had to do the picture when he was asleep cause he wouldn't let me get one today.
On a different note.... less than 24 hours to the opening of the Olympics!

Whew!

2008-08-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

2 days of the new school year and it's wonderful. the kids are loving school and Viva comes home everyday from K with a huge smile and a "Wonderful!" answer to how was her day. When i get on George's computer I will get some pics up from the first day of school.

Only 8 hours and 30 minutes..

2008-08-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

till I am taking the kids to school. Summer is over and school doors are opening once more. I envy the moms that have the patience to home school but I am not one of those. Viva is starting K this year. My last one........ They are all excited and couldn't sleep, I just saw the boy a moment ago. We did school supplies today and backpack are awaiting! I guess I should go to bed since this means I get up every morning from now on also. :(

How do I love thee....

2008-08-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

Let me count the ways...
1 Beautiful Beaches

2. Tasty food

3. Amazing Ruins

4. One of a kind restaurants

5. Out of the way lagoons

6.Cenotes

7. Underground caves

8. Coral

9. Interesting cemeteries

And so much more. We thought that we would be done with the Yucatan with this trip but there is so much more to see than we could cover in one short week. We know more now and can plan better for our future trips to this area. The first day was spent crawling out of the swamp of an airline into the heat and after leaving our stuff at the resort we went to Playa del Carmen for lunch and browsing. I was sick almost immediately but did have the best Pico ever. This has to be the easiest place to score. Everytime I left Gyorgy by himself he was offered something. It was several days before anyone approached me though. I can't figure that one out. Anywho, the next day we sat through tropical storm Dolly so we decided to go to Cancun.
Nothing there to talk about except all the rain I guess. We went to bed that night in dismay thinking that the rest of our vacation would be spent drowning in the downfall. Much to our surprise the next morning was beautiful. We decided that this day would be Chichen Itza since that was the reason we came back. We drove away from the sunny beach 200 km inland....back to Dolly. Yep. It's me you know. Chichen Itza was pretty dissapointing. We waited a hour to get in and it wasn't really anything like what we expected. It was very landscaped and VERY crowded. Everyone was standing around clapping trying to get the Kulkukan temple to respond with this squeaky sound. Well, after the fury of the clouds opened upon us we decided we had seen enough. It just wasn't what we had expected. We left and took a wrong road and ended up on the road to Coba. Fortunatly Gyorgy wasn't cranky enough to turn down this opportunity. On the way though, we noticed a cemetary and stopped to look at it. They do not do them like we do here in the states. Their's are much more interesting. BUT as we walk in the first one I happen to look in has 2 skulls! One a couple of 'houses' later had a body in a bag! Apparently they feel more like they still have their dead with them if they can visit them. No one I asked had heard of the bodies being exposed like that so this is something I want to look into more. I found them on my top 5 most interesting parts of my trip. Well, Coba is everything you might expect from visiting a ruin. It is still very wooded with just a path cut through from ruin to ruin. It had alot of buildings also and we were able to climb a 42 m high temple!!!!! Talk about trembling legs. The next day was spent as Xcaret which is sort of a cross between a zoo and an amusment park. The have all sorts of fun things to do in here. The best was the ball game (pretty much like hockey with a flaming ball) and their Mayan village, the church and the cemetary.
Anyhow, that is probably enough for right now.

Almost gone...

2008-07-28T06:38:00.000-07:00

the summer. That was very fast, especially when school now starts back in August. Not even half the things that I wanted for them to do have been accomplished. Ophelia and Gavin are with Glen and attended Camp Toccoa this past week. Their first camp. I haven't spoken with them yet, been out of town (next post) and Viva has spent one more week with Grandma and Grandpa, but i've missed them terribly and can't wait to see them. Hopefully we can squeeze some more fun into this short summer. I'm also counting on some pictures from everyone's week. O and G went armed with three cameras and instructions that they must be in at least 15 pictures of each roll of film. I don't want pictures of other kids or of walls. I'm excited to see what they come back with!

All butchered

2008-07-15T18:20:00.000-07:00

I’ve never really been a nurturing kind of person. My kids are pretty lucky they’ve made it this far. Lately I’ve had the urge for living things around my house. I’ve gotten my first houseplants (other than that poison sumac plant when I was 8) and two fish. This is pretty major for me since I hate tending things and get pissed off all these years when they all die. So far I’m doing pretty well until I visited my front yard today. Because of my hatred on spending money on stuff I feel I can get for free I have several transplants in my yard. From one source this year I was so happy to score bamboo, some gorgeous ferns that I can not even identify (stands tall and grows out in huge arcs), toad lilies and some lizards tail. Well, today my husband who is apparently completely blind decides he was to ‘help’ with the yard. I see the weeds that pass for grass cut and I am happy. I go on my daily walk to check out my plants that I have tended for the past 4 months and find that he has cut down my toad lilies so close I can’t even pick out their bases. Then after bitching about those I run in the house to save the dinner I had been working on since last nite. I go back out to dump trash and decide that going to look at everything else will cheer me up and I walk up the hill to find the dead bodies of my ferns scattered everywhere and only two lizards tail still standing and torn up pieces thrown nearby. . . I know they are only just plants but I’m pissed. He shrugs and says they will come back but I am still pissed. The ferns will not be back this year, I just had the first baby come up two weeks ago. Even if they come back they will not get as big before its over. And the toad lilies will not bloom. 4 of my blackberries died. Ugh! He also went machete happy and cut down several limbs and small trees, just leaving their carcasses where they land. This is not the help I was wanting!

Trickles of memories

2008-06-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

When I was pretty young one of my friend's sister sat us down and got us to memorize the lyrics of a song that I had never heard. For some reason (I was probably six) that song has always stuck in my head. I only heard it once that I can recollect...we were at a boat show and it came on over the speakers and I sat on a shelf trying to listen to the song over the noise of shoppers. Today for some reason that song popped back into my head and I realized that all i have to do is google the lyrics and I found this....

Now my mission is complete. I had to put it somewhere.

today

2008-06-17T22:12:00.001-07:00

:(

and also today.....

:)

(after over 60 years together!)

SUMMER!!!

2008-06-12T19:06:00.000-07:00

What do you do when you do when your friend comes to visit??? Make stuffed animals.

This is Till,

he is my lyricpet and that is Rammstein's song Seeman (Sea man you pervert) on his tummy. I just wish I could insert a little music thingy so when you poke him in the eye he sings. :( Someday, someday. I'm actually up here in Ellijay this week working and have been hooked up with a "Villa" (hottub!) of my own while we are here. I'm up here by myself and am supposed to be studying for my adjuster exam (the book is bigger than a dictionary!) but instead I am taking my newly taught semi sewing skills (Thank you Dusti) and making pillowcases, handbags and lyricpets. Am I ready for the exam? No. BUT...I have seen a brand new baby deer out of the 50 i've seen in this valley and I saw a mom falcon teaching her babies to fly! The downside of this place is that the entire ga population of flies seem to reside here.
The first few days my parents and kids were here and then they picked up my niece whom I was glad to see.
She got to go to the pool for the first time and my kids always love having her around.
Wow, in just two short weeks Viva finally learned to swim. I don't have any pictures of her doing so unfortunately, I will take some though and post at another time. She is not completely proficient at swimming on the water but now that she FINALLY started swimming under the water she is a little dart and will now even come up for a breath and go back under. Ophelia is getting to be a stronger swimmer every season. She can fetch rings from the bottom for over an hour, I couldn't tire her out and believe me, I was trying. Gavin is getting much better also and will do flips and such. He still looks like a gasping fish when he comes up from swimming under the water but he is MUCH stronger now. Other than that we have been to Tanglewood Farms and we also went to see the Sound of Music at the Towne Lake Arts Center which was awesome. They were sooo good and I was not expecting it to be that professional. Even the littlest kids could sing. Lizel was especially good. We've swam our heads off and lots of visiting. They are in Fla and Toccoa right now and for the next couple of weeks in Fla which is good because I am working! Business has grown enormously and I can concentrate on that for a second. I can't wait to have them back though so we can have some more summer fun. Tons of stuff planned.

Winding up

2008-05-27T17:34:00.000-07:00

As the school year is winding up and things have been busy. We had the last soccer game and awards ceremony. The kids had a lot of fun in Upwards this season and they both received a soccer ball from the league. Wow, next year I'll have 3 players...how will i cope??
Ophelia had her spring violin recital and did a good job. One whole year! Viva just started piano lessons because I am bartering with a great teacher. Maybe I can find someone else to barter with for Gavin's guitar lessons. School is almost over, 3 more days.
Our pool finally opened so we will be there almost every day! We went to a play at the Towne Lake Arts Center, The Sound Of Music. I didn't really expect it to be so great. The singers were first rate and they did an absolutely superb job putting this play on. We cannot wait for the next production, Beauty and the Beast.
One quick funny, we were passing some converted lofts and they kids were talking about how big they were and Gavin says "Yeah, they are like 3 books big!" I half puzzled over this until about 5 minutes later when he said "See, 1, 2 3 windows, 3 books." Then I realized. I could not stop laughing. Ophelia taught Viva a catwalk and she loves making us all laugh showing off her clothes.
That's about it for now I guess. I need to be studying.

What do you want to do with your life???!!!!

2008-05-12T18:34:00.000-07:00

I wanna rock!

These two lines changed the way I saw music when I was only about 6. I had never before seen a man with ratted hair and more makeup than a geisha and I was hooked! It was an accident that I saw it since my parents were very against ‘heavy metal’ which is what they had this labeled as. We were actually being babysat by my uncle and waiting on the video for When Doves Cry to premiere. Right before it came on was when the video for We’re Not Going to Take It aired. I can remember my uncle being grossed out and even though we were recording the station so we could get the Prince video he tried to fast forward it. I spent many of my childhood years only getting to watch about 3 minutes and 20 seconds of it before it started skipping and jumping around in fast forward. I didn’t care, I still had the first 3 bars and sang it all the time. I could recite the whole daddy spiel and did so constantly. I was in love with a song.

Still I wasn’t allowed to listen to metal or glam, none of it. In 5^th or 6^th grade I heard Pour Some Sugar on Me and was hooked again. I was always trying to get someone to buy me the Hysteria tape. Sometime in my early teens I started swaying that way in my musical tastes and when I was a teenager, a boyfriend introduced me to Death and Pantera. I plunged myself in to the deep dark depths of metal music and still wallow there today. I’m sure my mom looks at her kids wandering how they both could of ended up like we are. I would be disgusted if my kids grew up to listen to country music and wore overalls and crocks. Poor mom. Last week I showed my children the video to We’re Not Going to Take It and they too became hooked on men in hairspray and full makeup. We probably have the most views in the world on youtube for this video right now and my littlest one walks around singing it constantly. *wipes proud tear from eye.

La La La La

2008-05-07T20:04:00.000-07:00

As of today this is my children's future dreams:
Gavin: Teacher then dentist then doctor and also a treasure hunter. (He scratched the doctor when I told him he'd have to dig around in nasty mouths as well as clean ones)
Ophelia: Gemologist, fashion designer, violin teacher and starting a band with her friend.
Viva: Tattoo artist and make lots of money.

I am so excited for the summer. I have all sort of plans for me and the kids. They are big-time trying to make wares to sell at LEAF Festival. We are going to have a blast. It actually just happened last weekend also but the tickets were sold out. We did go out though to the Shriners Circus and had a great time. The first thing we rode was the Spaceship 2000 a.k.a. the Gravitron in my day.

Ophelia hated it but Gavin and Viva had a good time. Viva is fearless, she even rode the rollercoaster by herself!

Oh!

2008-04-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

Funny you get so busy and forget what you start...or maybe that's just me. Some notables over the past few months. Viva made me a corset out of manilla paper the other week. She had taped a couple of sheets together but after fitting it on me she decided she wanted to make it a jacket instead. She came back a few minutes later and had two holes cut into the paper. It actually made it look sort of pre future chic! Then she came back with it a little bit later and had drawn a scene on the back. She said "The good thing is that these are washable marker so when you want something new I can change it." :)
Ophelia made it into AIM which is honors classes when you are in elementary school. I'm so happy for her. She is doing very well in school and is a avid reader just like I was. She is especially into Harry Potter, reading all the books in like a month and then wanted to re-read them. I put my foot down on that one. She got a fish for doing well in school and named him Harry Potter and even walked around for a moment with a scar drawn on her head!
Gavin is back where he loves...soccer. He loves sports and is actually pretty good at whatever he tries. I want to get him back into gymnastics also so he can be good at something that is just him. He is also doing pretty well in school, getting almost all outstandings on his last RC. He's a goofy little guy! He's very physical comedy. If he did comedy, he would be the guy falling down and tumbling to get laughs.
I am wanted for a movie so I hope that I will be more diligent in writing about my life with my kids in the future. We will see.

Firsts

2007-11-11T19:21:00.000-08:00

I'm actually copying this from my myspace site. I wrote this yesterday or the day before and it is what prompted me to come here and do this.

Sappyness

I have been looking around the net and reading some articles that are up today and found one about a 95 year old woman named Amelia Lopez that has a blog running. She talks about her life and the differences between then and now. It made me think of my great grandmother and how I would give anything to have her memories written down somewhere to read and pass on. All my life I meant to do this and also had wanted to make a video tape of her talking but of course never did. She died a few months ago and I sit and go through her pictures wishing we had labled the back of them because I'm not sure who that is standing next to her on vacation. There are so many stories she told that make me smile when thinking of them and there are so many stories that I know I can't remember the whole thing, or who it was. She had a steel trap for a mind. She would start a story with what day of the week it was and the weather. In another 2 months she would of been 100. She lived through huge changes in our world and had opinions on all of it. I'm just rambling because I miss her and wish I had taken more time to be with her and listen closer.