Happy Anniversary to my blog!

It's been over six years now. Started 8/20/2005.  And while an awful lot has changed since then... most of the changing these days is being done by my crazy-gorgeous, creative, intense, and oh-so-violent kiddos.

so anyhow. happy anniversary.

Come-on Irene...

so... how'd everyone do?

We're on day 2 without power and will likely be out power all week according to BG&E. No biggie. We've got the outhouse and the spring. We'll be entertaining ourselves by eating everything in the freezer all week...

I came to work today with all our empty water bottles to fill up and take home. We may need to go to my brother's house tomorrow so we can all shower... though, i'm considering just taking some soap (yes, eco-friendly-style) to the res. and just scrubbing the kids clean there.

I'm also charging all of our electronics here at work today so that we don't go crazy without our digital-video-child-restraining-device and cell phone.

And... well... i guess that's it. I'll let you know how we fair after day 7 no power...

sleepy monkeys... and superman

Look Out Atlanta!

Did i tell you i'm going to atlanta this weekend? i didn't? Well, guess what! i'm going to atlanta this weekend!

Two of my bestest friends (and heros) from college live in atlanta.  It's been far too long since i've seen them and i miss them somethin' awful.  I'm a terrible long-distance keeper-in-toucher.  I really don't like talking on the phone, though maybe if my children stopped shouting and running around like maniacs TIMES TEN when i'm on the phone it'd be easier... But seriously, i suck.  I try to write letters, like pen to paper, stamps and the usps style letters... but after about two cards into a new pack of stationary i end up stopping because i'm too busy or i forget who's turn it is or i lose the stationary... and e-mail is usually fairly consistent... but still, things get away from me and i just stop... so the only real way to talk to me seems to be in person or over gchat when i'm trying to avoid more productive forms of being...

Anyhow, this is going to be a fan-freakin'-tastic weekend.  Both H and K play on roller derby teams and they are both playing in bouts back to back on Saturday so i'm super psyched that i get to see them both play.  And other than that we're going to catch up on each others lives, drink a bunch of beers, and hang out. Oh, and i'm going to sleep past 6am.

Yippeeeeeee!!

Oh. these are my fantastic friends:

Aeon Flex

Agent Maulder
and be sure to check out the Atlanta Rollergirls

restless

i wanna buy this and take the kids on a very long road trip to places where the sky is bigger than it is here... where we will see no one, swim in every marginally clean water source we can find, sit around fires in the evenings, sleep in a big heaping pile, forget about money and responsibility...

Today just will NOT end...

Oh-my-flaming-hell, the day just will not for-the-life-of-it END...

Stop toying with me you stupid clocks!!!!!!!!!

what's wrong with me:

i want to make this a list of things that are wrong with me... but i'm not sure my brain is organized enough today to actually make a list... i know, i know, i hear you thinking "Libby, not make lists???!!! quick someone call a medic!!!"

but seriously... i'm a crazy person. have i told you that before? i am... i'm crazy.

i can't wait for summer to be over... and yes, months ago i couldn't wait for the weather to be warm...
is there a place in the world where it's perpetually fall?? i wanna live there.

soooo. let's see... where was i... oh, right. crazy.  aside from feeling supremely disorganized (despite the wall and left half of my desk at work being COVERED in sticky notes), i'm also feeling supremely dissatisfied... with what, you ask? well, EVERY-FREAKING-THING.

work is a bugger... i hate the emr. i hate having to smooth feathers... i'm not a feather-smoother, just ask my kids... i'm mostly a numbers in columns and rows and "isn't that pattern interesting" person.

my husband wants to move to japan... probably without me and the kids...

and i can't seem to eat/cook/freeze/can the super influx of veg in our house which makes me feel ridiculously guilty...

also, the araucana chicken has stopped laying eggs because we took her clutch away and now she's depressed and mad at me...

sigh. i know... i'm a whiner. i'm sorry... i'll shut up now.

Our new kitty

My little princesses

Yay for Change!

"Affordable Care Act Ensures Women Receive Preventive Services at No Additional Cost"
to read the whole article, go here...
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2011pres/08/20110801b.html

philippines?

 I just e-mailed my 3rd cousin (????) on my maternal grandmother's side to see if she has any open teaching positions at her school in the Philippines...

in your face... with a face...

this is the expression i make when someone says "look sexy"... funny, huh. i guess in my mind, sexy and vapid are somehow tied together.

To camp or not to camp...

We're supposed to go camping in Cunningham Falls this weekend. The kids' first ever camping trip. I have been really looking forward to this. But now, we're being thwarted by a major HEAT WAVE!

Can i just say that i hate heat waves. HATE them. Despite being one of the many people who suffer from seasonal depression disorder and get the winter blues, i actually love winter. I love snow. I even love feeling cold... well, more like, i like feeling cozy when it's cold out. Winter backpacking, rocks! Even when you wake up and you're too afraid to take off the three pairs of socks you have on because it feels like your toes have fused together and are probably black and about to fall off from frost bite and it stings just to look in the general direction of your feet let alone walk on them...

So... do we go camping in the heat? or do we cancel the reservation, take the financial hit (have to pay for tonight and a cancellation fee because it's so close to our arrival) and spend the weekend at home, upstairs, in the kids room because it's the only place that has A/C...

OR MAYBE!! WE COULD HIJACK MOM AND DAD'S CAMPER WHILE THEY'RE OUT OF TOWN BECAUSE THEY HAVE A/C. --- before you all jump on that, the camper hasn't been serviced in ages and i don't think it'll be up for the trip honestly... AND ben hasn't ever driven it... i wonder how much it costs to rent a camper...

I'm not so worried about the heat really, except for sleeping in a tent at night and feeling gross so not sleeping (and with small kids it'll be extra awful) and nap times. The A/C in our car only works marginally well so i don't think it'll be very good for helping them to sleep during nap time....

any ideas??

Peas in a Pod

Happy Birthday Gregor Mendel. You're cool.

Most giantest sunflower ever!

i'm such a bad blogger these days. i keep hoping to get better at it or more interested in it but it's really not happening. I know i need to start posting more pictures and longer posts... but i feel like i'm fairly ADD right now and can't read more than  few sentences, let alone write more than few.

Let's see, what's new...
I have a new first cousin, once removed. Annabella Gallagher.  I have yet to meet her but she's super gorgeous in the photos i've seen.

I have a new niece, she has floppy ears, a cropped tail, and answers to the name "Freya".  Also, super gorgeous.

Also, my folks have a new pup (i guess he'd be my brother), Thor. He's like preacher's mini-me. All white and bull-doggy.

I rode my motorcycle to work for the first time today. Very nerve wracking. Let's see if i can safely get home from work and we'll look into making this a more common occurrence. Still not feeling super confident, but i think in my case, that's a good thing.

Ben also started seeing my (and Terri's) acupuncturist.  I'm super excited for him, and for us.

OH, and i turned 31. It was a very strange birthday. I feel like everything i set out to do didn't quite work out. I won't go into much detail, but there was a very fun moment where I walked 2 miles in a DELUGE in my new hat. it was probably the best moment of my birthday. I was sorry to not get to share it.  I also got to spend some good time with my favorite, j.  She and i had some good times and good talks... definitely needed talks.

All-in-all i'm feeling restless. I want to get up and go. change jobs, change states, change countries, move on... get up and go. I want adventure and life and movement...

have decided (recently) to give up coffee, ibuprofen (unless absolutely necessary), and buying alcohol for the house (the occasional beer drinking outting is fine).

i guess these are it for the updates. hope someone out there still reads this pathetic blog...

oh wednesday that feels like monday... and is stupid

I feel like doing something profoundly stupid...
also the inside of my head sounds like "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"

and i hate stuff.

the grumpy depressed post...

I don't know what's wrong with me... (again).  It could just be today... being trapped inside on a beautiful day. Hating my job...

I'm day dreaming of greener pastures, the always greener kind. Trying to come up with various schemes to live a more exciting, international, worldly, intelligent life.

Feeling depressed about how horrible people are to each other and wanting to weep over it. I won't share why I feel this particular way except that I feel like I've heard the worst stories this week much of which has to do with work and the kinds of situations the mobile crisis team gets dispatched to.  One story in particular keeps creeping back into my head and it makes me want to scream and go crazy myself... (that story wasn't a mobile crisis story though, i think that one was on the news or something).

Maybe I just can't wait for the weekend to start... or maybe i'm just chemically imbalanced today... i didn't get much sleep last night. Stayed out late having a good time with the 'ecis at Rocket to Venus (our new thursday night post-trapeze haunt).  But I got up with Asa at 4 this morning and everything has that slightly too bright almost thick feeling about it... like i'm walking around in a dream...

The weekend promises to be a good one. Mike Roy and his beautiful family are coming to visit us for the first time.  Mike knew Ben back in the Berma days and still writes and produces his own stuff (extremely talented!).  We're hoping our kids hit it off and we might be able to pull off the double family vacation someday.

Casey and Andy (sister and brother-in-law) are also in town this weekend. Super excited for sister time. Andy's dad is fulfilling a life-long ambition to hike the AT and they're bringing him to the hollow for a night and a shower :).

And hopefully, considering my brother now lives in the area, there will be a massive amount of exploding things and food galore.

And then i only have one day of work next week, and then my birthday. the big 31... how did i get so old??

Does anyone else have an internal age? like when you picture yourself or listen to how you talk to yourself in your head? I think my internal age is 16...

I'd like it if i could cheer up before the big weekend fun hits... maybe i just need a good nights sleep... or a popsicle... or maybe just some shenanigans...

Coming soon: photo of libby in her matching motorcycle jacket and helmet... can't miss me, if you see me around DON'T HONK AT ME, i'll crash... and then you'll feel really bad.

Survival of the flighty-est

So i did it. i survived my first 7 day, single-parent stint!  And with bells on, to-boot!

Ben went to Arizona. Left last Tuesday at like 6am and came home last night around midnight. I have to admit, i was definitely tentative about him leaving but we both know he needed it and with all our talking about the desire for him or all of us to move abroad, or some strange arrangement, it makes  sense to test these single-parenting waters...

So anyway... it was exhausting. but it was also kind of awesome. There was no having to agree on things or having to divide my attention between kids and ben... it was actually supremely easy, or easier than i though at any rate. I hope i'm not tempting fate by saying all this... that would be really awful.

Anyhow, that's all i have time for as i'm off to ride around in a police car with a heavy-ass Kevlar vest on in hot, humid summer weather...

Summer mornings 2