My Flower Bed

Well, I said I would post pictures of the flowers I was able to grow this year, and here is what I had so far... I was ACTUALLY able to grow flowers! First time for me! lol I've tried growing stuff before, and usually failed, but this time, I had success! I grew more green stuff than anything else, but I managed to get some pictures of the flowers as they bloomed.

This first one is the very first flower that popped up. I forgot what it was...

These bachelor buttons actually looked purple in person, but turned up looking blue for the camera.

I thought these were going to be red until they opened up. No red flowers this year...

Girly Girl

I guess the teenage years are starting early? lol Nah, I've just got a little girl with a lot of spunk! :-) Just a short post with some pictures. On a shopping trip, our daughter just HAD to try on the different hats, so I got pics of her. She's such a girly girl, and I never really cared for pink until she came along. Now I love it almost as much as she does. lol Purple is still our favorite color, though ;-)

Farrar Arts Photography

My best friend Tahnee has decided to start a photography business, and OMG... She is SO AWESOME with photography! She took pictures for me on one of her visits to Perryville of my daughter Tricity, and they turned out SO BEAUTIFUL! Here are a few.

She's been a photographer for a few years, but she's always been into it as long as I can remember. She also has a Bachelor in Arts, so of course she knows what she's doing. Just click the images for a larger view.

It's Been a While - Update

I don't even know what order to put things in, since it's it's been so long since my last real entry... I guess I'll just write things as I remember them. My memory isn't the greatest, so I guess I'll just start with the most recent news for our family.

Adam got a job! I'm so happy for him. He isn't starting out with that many hours because some bonehead told the manager that he was still in high school. (Does he really look that young? LOL!) At least he'll be working, though, and when they are ready to give him more hours, he'll already have a position there. He's a cook at Pizza Hut. Tonight was his first night. Granted, it's not the best of jobs for a grown man, but it's a job nevertheless, and I'm so happy for him :-)

Poor Tricity, though, she's had a fever for the past couple of days. It goes down with medicine, but after a few hours, it comes back. Of course you wouldn't know it by the way she's acting. lol She said that nothing hurts, and she acts just fine. We took her to the hospital last night. Of course we waited about three and a half hours before they would even see her - nighttime at a hospital in a small town, how busy could they be? They said her right ear was just a little red, and tried to pass off some medicine to give her that was so bitter that it would make you puke. We tried that medicine before. Been there, done that, and I told them there was no way she would even take it. Even I wouldn't take it. Then they gave her this other kind that I thought was pretty good, but we still had to fight with Tricity to get her to take a dose... She's getting better now, though. I'm so relieved. I'm always sad when my baby girl isn't well...

Today is my mom's birthday :-) I got to go over and see her for a while. I should have baked her a cake, but I didn't think of it... And I got her a card I thought was funny, but I completely didn't get the joke like I thought I did until she explained it to me. It had balloons as the party guests with faces and everything, and it said 'Happy Birthday' and something like 'and the room fell silent as someone thought they heard a pin drop' and I was thinking... Oh, I get it... Everyone's quiet because you came into the room and it's your birthday so they stopped celebrating... haha, funny... But then mom explained it's because they are balloons, and a pin? Pins pop balloons? Then I busted up laughing because I realized I was wrong, but I finally got it. lol Sometimes, I can be an "air head". Get it? Balloons? Air head? :-p

As for me, I got to go to my first writer's meeting. I'm the first virtual member, I suppose, since it's held in Cape, and I can't go there for the meetings, so I'm stuck here in Perryville... My bestest friend Tahnee set up her camera and mic for me so that I could see and hear what was going on, and I had mine on too, so they could meet me and I could participate as well. I thought it was fun. I hope no one minded. I even got to participate in my first writing activity! We were making pass-around stories, where every person starts their own story and then we pass them on to the next person, and everyone keeps adding a little bit more to the stories. We used to do that all the time in high school, so it was a nice refresher and homage to that time in my life. We had a lot of fun with our stories back then :-) This is what I wrote for my first story in the group:

'Today was a hot and sticky, with the humidity as high as it was. I never did like the humidity. I could take the heat, but the humidity always hung thick in the air and sometimes even made it hard to breathe. The weather was much more pleasant when it was crisp and dry. Luckily, I wasn't out for long. I just wanted to go out to my garden and see if anything new had grown overnight. I walked under the trellis, my hand lightly brushing the daffodils as I passed. A flower bed had bordered my garden, and the flowers were already in full bloom, with bursts of color like bits of confetti, and when the breeze blew their scent my way, the smell was absolutely delightful. I smiled. I loved my garden.

The tomatoes were particularly plentiful this year, so I always had at least two or three ready just about every day. I gathered them up and stuck them in the huge pockets of my apron. There were some bell peppers and cucumbers ready to be picked, as well. I was so involved with what I was doing that I hadn't noticed...'

Let's see... My real life flower bed turned out great. I guess I need to make a separate post for that one so I can share some pics...

The 4th of July was a lot of fun, too. I'll have to make a post with pictures for that as well...

Of course we've been doing a lot of swimming, and I WAS making a video of that, but I always get sidetracked by something else and never finish all of the things I've started... I'll get it up though :) Speaking of... Can you believe how this HEAT is this year? It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't so humid, but the humidity is killer!

We also went to a Renaissance Faire with Tahnee and her fiance James. Tahnee let me borrow one of her costumes, and she made a new one for herself this year. When I get those up, I'll post pictures of them, too. We're supposed to be going to a Pirate Fest (hopefully) with her in September. I can't wait to dress up for THAT!

Tricity's birthday was great. HOT, but great. Yet again, I need to put up pics.

hmm... let's see... what else has happened? Time goes by too fast, you know?

I've finally come up with a solid idea for a novel. I wanted to make a story involving real witches, but I wanted to keep it interesting, as well as keep it real. I don't want to give too much away because I'm always paranoid someone will steal my ideas, but I think it's a good idea, and I can't wait to write it. I'm just now getting started with it.

Come on, lottery! I actually won $4 about a week back. That's usually the highest I ever get :-p Any time now, I'll hit that jackpot. Then we can finally take care of things... Some of the first things I'd like to do is get insurance, get my teeth fixed as well as my family's teeth... Get our living will made and have our funeral arrangements taken care of, and then build my dream home, take vacations, and start a business. As long as I have my dream home, I'll be happy :-) Anything I want to do for fun will pretty much be built into my dream home. A grotto and solarium, a crafting room for Tricity and I to do all of our arts and crafts, a playroom for her with a ballpit, lifesize dollhouse, etc., a small home theater, an exercise room, a small skating rink, a gocart track, my mini farm with goats and chickens, my greenhouse, orchard of fruit trees, an office/library, Adam's massive garage and workroom, an outdoor kitchen, and other things :-D And it's going to look like a castle, too, because that's my style. lol

I've started a collection... Among my grandmother's and Adam's grandmother's things, there were a bunch of Avon bottles. No, I'm not collecting actual Avon bottles, lol, but I'm collecting the ladies they have. There are perfume bottles that are shaped like women of all different kinds (and I have a guy in a tuxedo, too) and in different colors. I'll post a picture of those when I get them all together. I guess you kind of have to see them to know what I mean :-)

Another thing I guess you could say I'm collecting is... mustaches... lol They are stick-on mustaches that I've been getting out of quarter machines. I slap them on, take a picture, and then pretty much put them back in the plastic ball I got them in, and stick them in the dashboard. One of these days I might show you a few... hahaha (doubtful :-p lol)

We had a little bit of extra money a couple of weeks back, and we went to the mall in Cape Girardeau and got a few things. Adam got some spike earrings, and I got some rainbow hair clips. I would have gotten red, but since my hair is red now, it would have pretty much just blended in... So I got some rainbow ones. Just like everything else I've been talking about, I'll have to show you some time.

As I stated, I have a webcam now. Me and my bestie Tahnee have been video chatting lately :-D we did it by accident one night and just kept it on, and had so much fun that now. So now I had to go out and buy a camera so I could have my video on, too. There's some special effects that we've been playing around with to make each other laugh. Sometimes I swear my soulmate was made into my best friend.

Let's see... what else? :-D

hmm... I hurt my toe a while back at the thrift store. I was opening a drawer looking for toys, and ran my toe right over, ripping the nail halfway... It's just about grown out and healed up now, so that's no longer a big deal... Just something that happened during the time I wasn't posting.

Adam's niece, I suppose I can call her my niece, too :-) , works at McDonald's, and it's fun to go through the drive through and see her once in a while. I've only got to see her once, but it's amazing to think that she's so grown up now. It reminds me that he and I have been together for five years, as of this month, actually. When I knew her, she was just a pre-teen/tweenage girl, and now she's already been through a serious relationship and is even past being a freshman in high school. And then I get to thinking - wow, my baby girl Tricity is already four, now! How can time go by so fast when it used to drag on when I was younger? It's not fair... I want more time in my life...

Two of my cousins are having babies. My cousin Luella is having a girl, and my other cousin is having a boy. They are even due around the same time. Maybe like a week or two apart. I'm really excited for them, but man... I wish I could have another one so bad... The whole time I was growing up, I'd never imagined it would be me who was the one to blame for not being able to have kids with my partner. I always thought that if that was going to happen, it would be the guy's fault, but it's all because of my hormones being imbalanced, and it messes up my system. I wish I could afford hormone therapy, but we don't have that kind of money...

My friend Tahnee is opening up her photography studio. Yay! I'm so excited for her! She's a fabulous photographer! She took some of Tricity for me, and I was in love with her work. I'll have to post a few some time, if I haven't already. Sometimes I'll backdate new posts about past events to when the events actually happened, and then you'll see them before posts like this, where I talk about updates.

Now that Adam is going to be working again, he mentioned that maybe we can put Tricity back in gymnastics. Man, that would be great. She talks about it every once in a while, so I know she remembers it. We just didn't have the money to put her back in, but it was a great way for her to work off some of that energy of hers, and hopefully she'll be better at listening this time, too.

I think that's pretty much all I've got for now... I'll work on getting those pictures put up and doing more updates, but I can't guarantee anything. Life just gets so crazy sometimes! So until next time... Ta!

Early Birthday Prezzies

Well I'm a redhead again. After five years without dying my hair, I felt like having a change, so I bought the cheap ones this time, and dyed my hair red as a birthday present to myself. If Adam gets me anything, he can get me the expansion pack for Sims 3. I didn't get any pictures of it yet since I haven't fixed it since taking a shower... lol Plus I'm not too confident on taking pictures of myself, to be honest...

I got a package from my Aunt and Uncle yesterday. They got Tricity a Disney Princess swimming suit for her birthday with a swimsuit cover. It's SOOOO CUTE!

Mom also got her a Tinkerbell swimsuit that maybe she can wear tomorrow if they set up the pool. I don't have it with me (she's going to put it on when we go over there), so here's a picture I found online of it:

She got her some other things for her birthday, too, but I'm not going to spoil the surprise just yet until after Tricity opens them ;-)

For me, they sent me another fairy from the Flower Fairies collection. I got one for Christmas that is a mistletoe fairy, and this time, I got the Iris fairy with a little garden orb and some mini watering cans. I love it. Mom said "Keep it up, and you'll start a collection!" and I said "I hope so!" I love fairies :-)

Lastly, I made Tricity a bracelet for herself. It used to be mine, but she liked it, so I took off some beads so it would fit her, and then I retied it so she could have it for herself.

Mayfest - 2010

Well I forgot to tell everyone how Mayfest went, so here are some photos. There were a lot more, but I didn't want to take up too much space, so here were some of the highlights. :-D It was such a BEAUTIFUL day, and the weather was perfect. It was sunny but cool, so we could wear long sleeves without sweating. I was so glad we waited to go until Saturday.

First we went to the Craft Fair, and we didn't find much to buy... I got ideas on prices for necklaces, though. I never really know what to price my necklaces as, but going to craft fairs always gives me an idea on the price. Then we happened to find a Scooby-Doo denim skirt for Tricity. It was a regular blue jean skirt that someone sewed a tie-dye looking ruffle on it, with a Scooby-Doo print. It was only $5 and you KNOW we had to get it. Adam was excited, being the big Scooby-Doo fan that he is :-) lol

Then we went to the 'sand art' booth, and we let Tricity pick out what she wanted to do. She picked the elephant, and I helped her fill it up with the sand. She scooped, and I held the funnel.

And then here she was showing off her work of art. I plan on hanging it on her shelves with her other special stuff.

From the craft fair, we walked on over to the rides. We were just going to play games, because later that day, she was going to come back to the carnival and ride rides with her cousins. Here she is picking up fish (they don't use ducks anymore, I guess?)

She played a lot of games and got about 3 stuffed animals as prizes. She also got a tiara, a sparkly baton, this dolphin, which was as tall as her, and this very noisy trumpet that Adam didn't want her to pick out, but I let her get it anyway  ;-)

For every game, she won a prize, whether she won the game or not. These carnival people were so nice. I remember when I was a kid, if you lost, you lost, but she always wins something :-)

After the games, we went to Pizza Hut. I guess it was my Mother's Day dinner? lol It was just a day early. (I also got two tomato plants, a new memory card for my camera, and rechargeable batteries. No surprises, just things I needed... :-( and then we went over to my moms and they cooked for us. That was the best part :-D but anyway-) Here is Tricity drawing on the place-mat (and the table) at Pizza Hut:

We went back to the rides later that evening and teamed up with my brother Tommy and his wife Mary, and they had Jolie and Khloe (Devin stayed home with Grandma). Here was Tric and Jolie on the planes. Man, did she look serious or what? She actually started crying after this, because she thought she was going to fall when the plane would rise and drop...

After that, they rode in a car together, and she really started to cheer up after this and enjoy the rides. She was still too little for the swings, the tilt-a-whirl, the ferris-wheel and stuff like that, but at least they had quite a few rides for the little kids :-)

Then they rode these bucket things, and man... Khloe LOVED them and did NOT want to get off!

After that, they got on the carousel. Jolie and Khloe sat on horses next to each other with Mary holding Khloe, and Adam put Tricity on a horse, and he held onto her. (Here, you can see the Scooby Doo skirt, too)

Then they rode the carriages, which is very much like the cars only it's girly, and Jolie rode by herself while Khloe and Tric shared a cart.

They rode one more time on the bucket ride thingy, and then we only had two tickets left, so Adam took Jolie with him to ride the tilt-a-whirl. After the rides, we saw our friends Buddy and Julie there with their two boys, and I got a picture of Tricity and Gabirel.

We got a funnel cake, some cotton candy, and went home. It was a good time. I think the kids had a lot of fun together :-) We could have stayed even longer just to talk and hang out with people, but I had to get to work that night. I think Jolie got a few more tickets after we left and rode the bigger rides. I felt bad that Tricity was still too little to ride them with her this year, but maybe next year she'll be a little bigger? She's just so tiny. Plus, after her reaction on the planes, I thought maybe she would have a queasy stomach when it came to rides like Adam does. Me? I got a stomach of steel. Anyway, it was a perfect day :-D

I Just Can't Make Cheese...

Well I had finally tracked down some rennet tablets at our local store, and it was cheap, too! (I had no idea what price to expect.) I couldn't wait to try making cheese again, and this time, I knew not to heat it so high.

Anyway, to make a long story short - the cheese sucked... I think I know what I did wrong... I didn't crush up the rennet well enough because I was going to grind it into a powder, but I accidentally added the wrong bowl to the milk and- plop! In went the rennet before it was ready... I also think I didn't add enough citric acid, and then I didn't let it sit long enough before I scooped out the curds... So instead of making mozzarella, I made ricotta. That's what I'm calling it from now on. Ricotta. It's pretty much made the same way, but it won't turn into mozz for me. For now, I'll just have to keep dreaming about it...

Speaking of dreaming, I had a dream afterwards, though, that we had goats and used them just for cheese and butter, and then we bought our milk at the store instead. I know you can drink goat's milk, but for some reason, we didn't do that in my dreams. I asked Adam his opinion on it, and he said he had no problem with goats, because they also take up less room, and because he knows how to raise them. Plus, I remember goat's milk tasting sweeter when I was a kid. Like me, I guess he really didn't have much knowledge on dairy cows. lol So now, maybe one of these days, we'll have chickens, goats, and rabbits. Maybe a cow and a pig every so often to slaughter.

Beef Jerky Gun

Yay! I just got a beef jerky gun, like this one:

That'll be the next thing I make home made. I made fruit leather in the food dehydrator, which turned out rather nice. I've also made strawberry and apple crisps, but they weren't as tasty... They were good but not AS good. Now I'm going to try my own jerky. I also got more stuff to try making cheese again, and some homemade ice cream mixes.

This weekend is Mayfest. If Tricity is good, she will get to go (so we tell her. lol She'll go either way.) She's been a brat all day today, though, yelling back at us and running off in the store. Usually she's a good girl when we go out in public. She's going to be four going on fourteen.

Anyway, it's a short message. I just wanted to share that we'll be making jerky soon. (Or I'll be the one making it, rather... lol) If this turns out good, just think of all the different flavor combos we could make! Taco jerky, pizza jerky, turkey jerky,,, Wish me luck! :-)

Cows Eat Grass, Duh

Adam and I had waffles this morning for breakfast when we got home. I, myself, used my homemade butter, and he decided to use the stick butter from the fridge. I said "What, my butter's not good enough for you?" He said "It's good..." and I said "But what?" He said "It's just when it melts, it looks like milky water." I scoffed. "Well that's because it's REAL butter!" I told him. "It's made from cream. You know what yours is made with? Vegetable oil, and a crap load of other stuff!"

I ate my waffle and when I was done, I stated "You know, if we ever get a home of our own and we get a milking cow, you're either going to have to eat my butter or do without, because not only is it better for you, but it's free." And of course he had to argue like always, and he said "It's not free! You have to pay to feed the cow." I said "Cows can eat grass! What do you think they call organic farming? They eat grass, and then they eat hay in the winter." At least I hope what I said was right. It won the argument for now, anyway. lol Tell me if I'm right or wrong, please. He seemed to think that you have to feed them cracked corn, and some kind of mixture of stuff made with molasses. Can't they just eat grass and hay?

Anyway, Mayfest is this weekend. We actually have money to buy Tricity a bracelet to ride all the rides this year so we don't spend a fortune on them individually. Now it's only a question of if she'll get to go with her cousins or not. For now, I'm falling asleep on the laptop and need to go to bed, now. Sweet Dreams everyone :-)

Scooby-Doo Birthday Party With a Friend

Tricity went to a birthday party for my friend Amber's daughter, Aydiah. She turned 6, and it was a Scooby-Doo theme! It was a pretty cute party, but Tricity was the youngest, and with the monster, the mean yelling actors, and the screaming kids and them popping tons of balloons, it scared her... It was all just a little too much. I enjoyed it, but I felt bad for Tric...

What they did was scout around for Scooby Snacks, and then ended up at the ice cream parlor. They met the ice cream shoppe guy who made yucky ice cream combinations (played by Amber's youngest brother Scott), and then there was the mechanic who wanted to buy out the ice cream shoppe and expand his garage (played by her other brother Jeremy), and the last one was the cranky librarian who didn't like loud noises of the rowdy kids at the ice cream shoppe, or the loud sounds of the garage. The monster showed up, and they had to search for clues. They popped balloons to find pages from books about being a monster and scaring people, that were found underneath the librarian's desk. The monster showed up again, and the kids captured him, revealing that it was the mechanic who planted the clues and chased away the people so the ice cream shoppe would run out of customers and have to sell to him.

After the whole skit and games were over, the kids were given 'yucky ice cream' to make with toppings such as mud (chocolate syrup), mouse brains (cherries), worms (gummy worms), and all kinds of other toppings. We had to convince Tricity that the ice cream really wasn't yucky, and she got in a better mood after that. She had ice cream with strawberry syrup, a cherry, and gummy worms. I had mine with chocolate syrup, cherries, and bananas! :-D Then we all had cake, Aydiah opened her presents, and the kids played. Tricity really started to enjoy the party, but then it was time to go...

We got Aydiah a Littlest Pet Shop set, because that's what she likes, and she was excited when she got it (which made me so happy), and some silly string that she really liked. We also got her some play dough, which she wanted to play with, a disc shooter that her brothers liked, and some 'noise putty' that sounded like farts when you squished it into the tube, and the other kids really liked that one. lol I'm glad I picked out some gifts that were well received!

I still can't find my camera, so I didn't get much pictures. I had a good one of her smiling in the 'mystery machine', but it turned out blurry, and the one that wasn't so blurry didn't have her looking at me. It's tricky to get any good pics on a phone camera, you know? Anyway, I think the party turned out to be a success, and here are the pictures: