how hulking am i!!!

Your results:
You are Hulk

Hulk 95% Supergirl 87% The Flash 80% Wonder Woman 77% Green Lantern 70% Iron Man 70% Spider-Man 65% Catwoman 65% Robin 64% Superman 45% Batman 45%

You are a wanderer with amazing strength.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Just joined Twitter. LiverJones... Ya know, just in case the trite,
self-centered bitchy blogging isn't enough.

I'm tired... Anyone know if where I can get a snooze button for the
kiddos?

Sent from my iPhone

Duncan: but Dr. Sues isnt't out here
Esther: maybe he was tooken by aliens...

Sent from my iPhone

Are they cute or what?!!

The Amazing Chicken-coop building machine i married...

Moving day, moving day, every chicken's moving day!!!

Old House:

More recent old house:

And brand spankin' new house!!!

Removing the Curse

So, in light of all the shit that has bombarded us in the last week and day (Esther just barely missed being blinded in one eye today with chicken wire, and then later was hit in the other eye with the swing)...

Ben and I are going to go perform a bit of curse removal magic... the best and only real magic i know. you know what i'm talking about...

Google: How to remove a curse...

I am now googling how to remove a curse... Why? you ask.

Well because adding to the liturgy of last weeks run of bad luck - saturday evening Asa fell off the porch step and sprained his arm. He also, now has an ear infection. Esther has temporary hearing loss from her ear infection (which, thankfully seems to be clearing up). And yesterday Asa, after an abnormally long crying jag, was stung on the foot by a wasp... sending him into an even longer, angrier, fit of outrage and pain.

Poor buddy.

Anyone know a good psychic who can help us to remove a curse?

Evolution of my hair

As of this morning... When will I ever learn to stop trusting ben with
scissors?

Evolution of my hair

I feel the need to post a "doing better so please don't worry update"
so you won't, you know, worry.

Everyone is still sick but seemingly on the mend more or less... No
one went to the ER yet at least. And I'm ordering myself to stop
having a nervous break down.

I'm working from home tomorrow and that shoul eliminate some work
stress at least (fingers crossed anyhow).

So as long as we can keep moving in this general direction I think
we'll be alright.

If anyone can teach me some good anti-anxiety yoga poses and deep
breathing techniques that'd be very welcome.

Sent from my iPhone

losing it...

i think i'm starting to come apart at the seams... the shit is hitting the fan all over the place and i just can't keep up. just when i think it really sucks, it gets worse...

and the truly fucked up part, i feel as though i have absolutely NO right to lose my shit... because i'm not the only one on the front lines. Ben is right down here with me, covered in shit too... and what's he doing? smiling. telling me he loves me... sneezing a lot (because he has a cold)

at least i have him.

Ben, if you read this (which i doubt) i am so very, very, very and publicly thankful for you. and i'm sorry i don't handle these crisis situations with as much stoicism as you.

Cherry on top

Now Esther has a severe ear ache. She and I have been awake since 2am...
Please somebody, make it stop!!!!!!!!

Sent from my iPhone

The extrememly rough week...

First on Sunday evening i completely lose my shit and breakdown crying in front of EVERYONE... i hate that. i also blame crazy pms and stupid hormones...

Then, Sunday night just before bedtime, Esther has an accident with the hammock...

fat lip, scrapes on her face and nose...

she's fine though...

Then midway through my work day on Monday i start feeling really awful, turns out i have some sort of stomach virus... I spent the better part of Monday and all day Tuesday quarantined in the camper trying really hard to not dehydrate myself.  it's now Wednesday morning and I've finally turned a corner... i can leave the bathroom anyhow... and aside from a splitting headache (probably because i'm dehydrated)... i think i'll survive.

However, Ben and Asa both have colds. There was little sleep to be had last night as Asa was coughing a good part of the night which always makes me anxious.  And Ben is exhausted from worrying about me, sneezing incessantly, and also not getting any sleep

and this morning Esther woke up hacking too...

So, hoorah for us. if we come through this ok, i'll be extremely thankful...

The tortures of living in one of the smallest houses known to mankind:
1) the "cry it out method" is an absolute joke.
2) when one of us gets sick we have to run away from home in order to
get any rest and to avoid contaminating everyone else
3) my children will be the ones on the playground explaining to all
the other kids what sex is...
4) sometimes I think my children are so abnormally small because they
can only grow as big as their environment allows... Forget genetics
and the fact that I'm shorter than 90% of amrican 12 year olds.
Sent from my iPhone

Stomach flu

Not sure if all the hate and frustration led to the flu or vise versa.
It may not even be the flu, but whatever it is it's got my number...

Sent from my iPhone

hate and hormones...

i'm so full of hate, anger, frustration, and debilitating self pity these days. I think it's even poisoning my system and making me physically ill.

My natural response to stuff like this is to run away. I want to run away. I want to browse craigslist for a house in arizona, alaska, peru, the yukon... i want to run away so desperately i can even feel myself packing up the house, the kids, ben... and running away.

Any judgment i ever made on people who stayed in their hometown i completely take back. It is so much harder to settle home than anywhere else in the world.

oh, and Esther had an accident involving the hammock, Pirate Ian, and the unforgiving ground... she has a fat lip, some scrapes, and some dirty which might be permanently lodged in her nasal cavities... but other than that she seems alright.  I however, am waiting for the preschool to call social services...

Does anyone have these shoes?

How do you like them??

Testing iPhone posting to blog

the romantic getaway...

 We left the kids with my mom at 10am on Monday morning. Drove to Miah and Ceci's to feed their bunnies (they were in NY for a few days and we trade bird and bunny sitting). I also had to do a conference call for work at that same time... so that was pretty funny...

We left m&c's and drove to the city. We went to My Thai for lunch. DELICIOUS!!
Then to the Charles to see Kick Ass. AWESOME!! (plus we were the only ones in the theater. double bonus).

We then drove to Annapolis. wandered.
went to the best store/restaurant on the face of the entire planet. The Big Cheese. If we ever follow through with that wedding thing they will be doing the catering.

We stayed at a Gibson's Lodgings.
We slept. in the same bed. all night. slept in. didn't get out of bed until almost 8am.

True romance always involves cheese.

no title idea...

This blogging thing is a double edged sword. I mean i started it as a means of keeping in touch with friends and family far away... but it has sort of morphed into an online diary of sorts... a diary which i assume is constantly being dug out from beneath the mattress and read by all sorts of people... most of whom i think i know... but still...

and so i end up censoring a lot of what i write here (i know hard to believe, right?) which also makes it less... cathartic... but who has time to keep the masses updated on things like the kids mile-stones and my dorky haircuts AND keep a journal of all my inner woes, annoying guilt over packing Esther peanut butter and jelly for lunch AGAIN, and how i feel about my husband at any given time. (Hi Ben! I love you honey!!)...

most of the stuff i've been dealing with lately i'm not comfortable writing up here for everyone to know... suffice it to say it's the normal stuff (feeling like a bad mom, bad wife, bad employee, bad cook, bad, bad, bad...).

I'm hoping all of this is just because our family of four and the six toaster-sized chickens are too cramped in this tiny monopoly-sized house and it will all get better as soon as the weather warms up (we hit another chilly spell) and we get the chicken coop moved.

I'm also hoping that today's (and all night's) child-free foray will give Ben and I the recharge we need to jump back into parenting with gusto and affection. Going head-to-head with a stubborn 3 year old while listening to the constant tea-kettle screams of a 15 month old quickly whittles you down to the core (where you're a shriveled, angry, blackened stump of a human being anyhow...).

For those of you constant asking me "why have kids?" - i still answer with "i don't really know yet" (except some of us still believe that the Natural Family Planning method might yet work...)

As seen on facebook...

Last weekend was Fairie Festival. all these pictures were on facebook so i'm sure you saw them already... And i'm sorry i'm so belated in posting anything on here... and also sorta sorry all of the pics i am posting are of me, i wasn't wielding the camera and someone is going to do something else with some of these and the others so i wasn't sure what i would be able to use i opted for some presumably safe ones

... It's been a busy few weeks. Here's hopin' it's smooth sailing for a little while and hassle-free.

chicken names

ok. so we've officially named the chickens now that we can kinda tell them apart. And sorry to all those who voted because we chose some names that aren't on the list. But i just couldn't help myself. i went with the pun names.

Eleanor Roost-evelt
Emily Chickenson
Artemis Fowl
Feather Lochlear
Henrietta the eighth
Lay-Lady-Lay

i crack myself up. seriously... wiping away a tear of mirth even now...

more random posting...

Attended the Creative Alliance Marquee Ball on saturday night. Thanks to my father-in-law. Art lover and benefactor extraordinaire.

Had to share the killer dress i pilfered from my cousin's closet (hi Jessie!!! Thanks!!!!!)

sorry about the poor quality...

woodland elf and a plug for the FF

This year's Fairie Festival is fast approaching. It's a pretty fun time if you're into the festival thing. food, funny people, and lots of lunatics dressed up like mythical beings.

YES I KNOW I'M A DORK!!!!!!!!

anyhow, i'll be there with my mom and sister who have their own booth this year and will be selling they're beautiful wares.

For Festival Details go here

my very first microwavable meal

It's true. i've never had a frozen microwaveable boxed meal before today. It was an Amy's Tamale. not bad...

... no time for love doctor jones...

Chickies are here!!!!

 Ben picked our girls up from the feed mill yesterday evening. We got them all settled in to their new little home and watched as the promptly fell asleep. I guess all that frantic peeping during the car ride home really tuckered them out.

 

We have them nestled into a box up in the loft so that Asa doesn't try to squish them all by climbing in their  box with them and Esther doesn't love them to death. We're going to give them a couple weeks up there until they can hold their own better then we'll move them down on our level and teach the kids or Esther, at any rate, how to handle them.

They're super funny. The nod off and then jerk their heads up like "don't fall aslee.... WAKE UP!" too funny. And they poop on each other while they're sleeping. If i could i would have slept in the loft last night just to keep an eye on them. They make all sorts of weird noises other than peeping and i swear a fist fight broke out around 10pm... but when i got up there they were all just looking at one another like "did you hear that? it wasn't us..."

Hillbilly Baby Swing... just add bungee cords

Trampoline Hair...

Only one more day to vote!!

Looks like our winners will be:

Franchesca with 10 votes
Isadora with 9 votes
Eleanor Roost-evelt with 7 votes
Then a tie between May Bell and Artemis Fowl with 6 votes each

And finally the last few are all tied as well with 5 votes each
Lydia
Sylvia
Emily Chickenson
Sacagawea
Mrs. Darling

Unfortunately Dottie Henson and Loretta Lynne were the losers.  For those of you not aware, Dottie Henson was the main character from A League of Their Own. And Loretta Lynne is the coal miner's daughter  - country singer and best movie ever...

Help break the tie between the last 5 names so we will be able to name our chickies tomorrow when we pick them up!!!!

Attempting productivity...

It was a busy weekend... sort of.


Sunday found Ben, the kids, and myself picking ooogobs of dandelions in the yard and we began a giant batch of dandelion wine.

We also went to TSC (Tractor, Supply, Company) to buy chickie supplies. We got their space all set up. We also sat starring at the bin full of day old baby ducklings for like 37minutes trying not to buy them. They are so damned cute. like fluffy tennis balls. We decided that if we can manage not killing the chickies we'll opt for ducks next year.

I also finally got around to dying some roving for a couple projects my mom and sister are working on. And now the dye is stuck in the creases of my fingernails and making it look like i brutally murdered and tore to pieces an entire herd of cattle...

pictures to follow... not of the cattle but of the wine and wool and chickie brooding pen.

the fearless-ness of youth... and insane ability to climb stuff...

Pictures from Easter....

(photos courtesy of Oma)

Esther hugging Uncle Eric, or almost...

Asa on the trampoline...











Sisters-in-law...in dress...

Sweethearts...

Forsythia bush...

Esther and her new friend, Rebecca.

Me... in mom mode... (and yeesh, my slouching problem is getting worse with old age...)

Brothers and sisters are for loving...

i like to squish them into the jogging stroller together and take walks along the driveway and down to the water...

I also think it's good for teaching them personal space and boundaries...

First Dates...

Hannah paid.

i-phony

Yes. i know i'm terribly behind the techno-curve but here i am all bleary-eyed from staring at my new i-phone pretty much for the past three days straight.

Still trying to figure out how to blog on it.   Christy said something about e-mailing my posts to blogger... i'll figure it out sooner or later.

So the whole purpose behind getting the iphone was that i would be available pretty much all the time for work e-mails, phone calls, tech support, and yada yada.  I also get the rfp's right as they come out so there's that too. Unfortunately this means i have to be much more vigilant about keeping my phone about my person. Anyone who calls me on a regular basis knows i hardly ever answer the phone.  The reason for this is not so much because i don't want to talk to you, or because my hands are full of screaming babies (though that does happen too), but more because i don't know where my phone is.

And since warmer weather is here and this means shorts and tanks and skirts and things without pockets, the real crux of the matter is where am i supposed to put my phone? Duh! a purse.  I have never really carried a purse. I've had a backpack, a briefcase, a messenger bag, tote bags, re-useable grocery bags, and diaperbags... but never a purse. I guess the closest i've come is one of those travel money pouches fat white american's get when they travel to europe for the first time.

So if anyone has a good stylish but not too stylish suggest of a good purse or purse manufacturer can you steer me in the right direction?  It should be small so it can be chucked in the diaperbag but big enough for the phone, my wallet, and a knife. And preferrably with a long strap so i can wear it across my body (messenger bag style).