is it just me?

is it just me or have things been sort of off kilter of late? everyone i know seems to be feeling just a little off. And weird things keep happening, keys being locked in cars, people getting sick but seemingly just for a moment, sleeplessness and weird dreams, surreal moments...

Almost Boring-er-est

Check out my brother's blog. http://almostboring.tumblr.com/
(you get to see Asa on the can in the outhouse)

Ben's Bday Sooprise deets

Ben's 30th is coming up. I'm having a sooprise party for him on saturday the 8th. If it's a sooprise, why am i posting it here you ask? well, because he never reads the blog.

Anyhow, you're all invited:

When: Saturday 10/8/2011 7pm-9pm

Where: Patterson Lanes (duckpin bowling)
(it'll be $20 per person, but the snacks i bring will be free!)

Bring: yourself, someone else if you like them, beer if you want it (no hard liquor allowed), food if you want it.

I will be getting pizzas and bringing cupcakes.

see you there. e-mail me if you have questions.

dear work...

Dear Work,
  i hate you. don't get me wrong. i love having the haven of my office. i even love that the work i do has an impact on populations that could use an impact. and to be truthful, i do love some parts of you.  but taken as a whole, i hate you.

90% of what my job has been over the last 18 months isn't even what i was technically hired to do.  it was part of the package, i know. it was contingent on my taking a position here... i get that.  but that 90% i hate. and when reviewed on ONLY the 10% with the suggestion to DO MORE, i want to lose my freakin' mind!

also the 90% that i have busting ass over is constantly under fire. i'm sorry. i can only take so much... and for some reason today is not a day i can take much at all... who knows why.

so here we are... it feels like an impasse. it may not be... and i am (believe it or not) taking steps to make it not an impasse.  but i am looking at my life and considering running away to the philippines to get away from you. that's a really long way to go to run away from a JOB.  i've ran away from boyfriends and ex-boyfriends and enemies and my own past to places much much closer and yet, dear work, i feel the need to go to the completely opposite side of the world to escape you.  and why do you think that is? because when i leave here, i take any semblance of functionality with me. that is not a threat, it is simply that i am a lynch pin and partially out of spite and partially because i just cant take the pressure, i want to remove myself... and let it fall apart. it would be satisfying and the relief i imagine i would feel i cannot even describe.

so i'm hiding.  door closed. breathing deeply. trying not to "take it so personally" as you say... because hell, it's just what i've dedicated 1,954 hours of my life to. i'll try really hard to not take it so personally.

f.u.
-L

Esther's summer adventures

pictures courtesy of Oma. Thanks Oma!!

Pictures of my Fellas and food.

Took Asa out for the biggest cookie we could find after getting a shot and blood drawn at the pediatricians

That's him saying "HUUUUUUGE"

Thanks Oma for the Panera gift card that made this event possible. I'd also like to add he only ate about 3 bites of the cookie before he got sugared out. sooooo mommy had to eat it.

We changed things around a bit this year and instead of my mom watching the kids wednesdays so both ben and i can work, we have asked her to watch our kids one time a week for a couple hours so we can go out, or stay in, or make out, or make... in?

We splurged on our first two dates and ate out. Our first date was to A-town bar where we bought big bottles of beer and two greasy sandwiches and drove to the river to eat them in the back of the pick up. The second was a bit more classy at Tokoyo Diner where we ate a LITERAL BOAT LOAD of sushi (man, i kill me!) I think this week we'll go all out and stay at home folding laundry and arguing. 

Pictures from Libby's Summer Adventures

The first derby match i ever saw - actually this is them warming up - Atlanta roller girls

lounging in a pool in Decatur, GA (for like 8 hours straight)

amazing spider in K's garden

Weird kitchen gadget i bought for K at an antique store

My not-so-mild-mannered-alter-ego having morning joe

K, trying not to blush

K, blushing

Saving the day in urban Decatur, GA... 

reliving our youth... 

Asa in Pittsburgh, PA they got their faces painted at the Carrick Corn festival. THANKS TITA!!

Waiting for the Atlanta Roller girls to play the NC Roller girls

Still waiting, but sooooo cute while doin' so.

why won't this damn thing work???

The Atlanta Rumble B's waiting to kick ass!

Visiting our Uncle and Aunt and three awesome kids in Blufton, SC 

We really were conjoined twins in some past life i think.

The Techno-shuffle

so last night a VERY exciting thing happened to me. Ben, my mom, myself, and the munchkins went to the Tapulanga Foundation Fundraiser (yes, this is the foundation that i'm hoping to help write grants for and would take our little family on a temporary hiatus to the Philippines for a matter of months...).  As a part of the fundraiser they had a raffle and yours truly WON an ipad2 16gb.  I KNOW, RIGHT??? 

anyhow. Although being SORELY tempted to keep it, i'm considering selling it and using the profit to 1) purchase a ZTE Peel and monthly fee ($29.99 contract free) to upgrade ben's itouch to an anywhere txting machine (and wifi hotspot) and 2) upgrading my iphone 3g to something grander -- keep your fingers crossed that when the iphone 5 comes out the 4g goes down in price significantly.

any advice??

new favorite online shopping!

Kaufman Mercantile
Appree
MoMa Store

(or should i say "window" shopping i can't afford anything...)

the slow and painful blogging failure...

I just want to justify why i don't post much any more and when i do they're lame... this may seem defensive on my part (it is), but i really just want you to know that i do care (mostly) and i'm sorry (sort of) for not posting more often:

stresses of posting...
1) no internet at home (at mom & dad's home next door, yes, at our house several feet away, NO... stupid)
2) my iphone is becoming increasingly slower so i don't update from there very much, also typing on there gives me thumb cramps
3) i don't take photos... and even when i do, they suck
4) i usually post at work (like right now) but work is also quite busy these days and one day i'll probably be reprimanded for it, though i consider it the new "smoke break" considering i don't smoke anymore.

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