We don't beat our kids, really

Em is sporting a lovely shiner this morning, thanks to her idjit daddy. He was pulling a computer keyboard of out the desk and it was hung on something. Any intelligent person would have reached in and freed the cord by hand, but instead, he had to yank the entire keyboard. The cord came loose and the keyboard went flying, right into Em's face. One swollen nose, one cut, one very black eye, including a bruise on her actually eyeball.


I missed the entire incident, but Em assures me that daddy snuggled her (I cried on his shirt, she says) and he put an ice pack on it, so he felt appropriately parentally guilty. Which is good, because I want to paste him one for giving my bay-bay a black eye. Good thing I love the big lunk.

I keep debating sending her teacher an email, just because when asked, both girls usually say something like "Daddy threw the keyboard and it hit her!" Teacher is going to think the manwhore just randomly tossed computer parts around or something. lol

I was off at my friend D's house when the incident occurred. She is suffering from a stomach virus this weekend, which sucks anytime, but sucks donkey balls when you are single and don't have a spouse to send to the store for gingerale and saltines. It sucks even more when you have 5 horses depending on you for their food and you are so sick you can't drag yourself out to feed them. So, she called me and asked me to feed them. Apparently I'm the only person besides her that can deal with the idjit pony and the new horse. I was quite happy to help, and even stopped at the store for real gingerale (that actually has ginger in it) and crackers and bananas.

I haven't heard from her today, so I'm guessing she's feeling well enough to throw feed at the horses today.

Taking myself seriously as a writer

I'm taking the first steps down that road. I have faxed my application to join the RWA, which is the professional organization for romance writers, and when I get confirmation from the national organization, I will join my local group. Then in February, I will be going to their yearly members writing retreat. There will even be a real live editor from Harlequin there. EEK! I am not planning to have an appointment with her, though, because I don't think I'll have anything finished by then.

But, it is a major step down the road to becoming a writer. The "real" kind, with published works.

Still, for some reason, I dither and delay about opening up that word document. I spend way too much time everyday talking myself into it. It's almost like I'm afraid someone is looking over my should and thinking I'm being silly or something. Still, I've got almost 70,000 words of one novel written, even though I intend to go back and edit, edit, edit. Must finish first!

I suck, like big time, damn

I was climbing down the bunk bed ladder after tucking El into bed tonight and bumped the shelf on the wall. It fell, ripping the nails out with it (and I didn't even hit it that hard WTF?). On that shelf was their snow globe collection and two little angels someone gave them as babies. All broken, except one snow globe. How it survived, I have no clue.

Their floor is covered with glass, water and glitter, and I can't finish cleaning it until the water dries.

My name is complete and total mud. They cried, I cried. It was a bad night all around.

On a positive note, snow globes can be repaired. For the low, low price of $30 a globe. Two of these things cost less than $2, and one was only about $10. Only one of the big Disney ones is worth even considering having it repaired. But, no one, except maybe Bill Gates, would spend $30 fixing something that cost $2. I just can't, no matter how much they cry.

So, we will be making a trip to some store, some where this weekend to see if we can find some snow globes that will be suitable replacements, without spend a fortune.

And I suck. Really and truly. And I'm still crying. Dammit all to hell.

Rain, rain, go away!

Come back again another fucking day! I swear, I think that nature is trying to make up for the drought we had last summer. But why can't it do so on Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun? It has rained pretty much every Tues and Thur, or at least during the night before, since Xmas. And Tue and Thur are my days out with the horses. Kind of hard to play with horses in the pouring down rain, or if there is mud up to your knees.

And it's raining today. Buckets of rain. And it's supposed to rain on Thur, too. More buckets of rain. I'm beginning to think that it will be spring before we get much accomplished with the horses. Fucking crazy Southern weather.

On a related note, I'm getting tired of being cold. We've had our 3 weeks of winter. Enough now.
Also, I think that one plus side to living up north is probably the snow. At least if there is snow on the ground, it makes the freezing ass cold temps seem worth it. But what is the point of having highs in the mid 20s if there isn't even any snow to play in? You just freeze as you look outside to the brown grass in your yard.

Houston, we have poop

Probably entirely TMI for my dear readers, but I am excited in only the way the mother of a diaper wearing child can be excited. So far today, we've had no pee accidents and even, dare I say it? Poop in the potty!

The power of the Thomas the Tank Train bribery toy is awesome. One entire day with no wet undies wins the boy child one Percy playset, complete with train, building and some track. Cost to me, $15. That's like half the price of a case of diapers, or the same price as a pack of pullups (which are merely diapers in another, more expensive form), so if it motivates him to potty train, then it is $15 well spent.

So far, this venture has cost me $10 for another Percy train to get him to actually pee in the potty. Still, I figure that even if this costs me three or four or even five or six train toys and sets, in the long run, it is cheaper than two or three more cases of diapers.


And, love of the train set has prompted not just pee, but poop in the potty as well, so it is money doubly well spent.

We won't mention the fact that two hours later he pooped again, this time in the undies. One poop in the potty is a start.

Too much furniture!

If we put any more furniture in our den, the room is going to explode. We now have not one, but two desks in here. We added another one this weekend to hold the kids' computer. Every bit of wall is now covered. It makes me twitch some, but really, I don't know how else to arrange it. And one day they will be gone, and the house will be empty, so I would rather it it be too full now.

If you hear a crash from your closet

You would do well to hope it is the skeletons trying to escape or some gay person trying to come out. That would be much easier to deal with than the crash in our closet this weekend. Apparently the hooks that hold up the shelving were feeling their age, and they all broke on one side. Only the top shelf right up at the ceiling that holds the manwhore's hat collection didn't fall. All of my clothes and all of his clothes in the floor and spilling out into our room.

So, we went to one of the big home improvement stores yesterday and drooled over closet systems. In the end, I declared that it would be foolish to buy a whole new shelf system when we could just replace the hooks on the one we have. So, we did, and added some stackable shelves, a shoe organizer, and a set of drawers. Our closet is now neater than the bedroom. We can actually walk in there, all the way to the back wall, for the first time in years.

I think part of my spring cleaning will be to clean off the top shelves and organize up there. We have so little storage space in this house that we really shouldn't waste what we've got.

To inject a bit of humor, while vacuuming the floor, I pushed back the hanging clothes on the other side and say something brown and fuzzy moving against the wall. I jumped about a foot and was on the verge of screaming and running when I realized it was just the tail to the manwhore' Cowardly Lion costume. Why does he have a Cowardly Lion costume you ask? Well, it involves work and a Halloween contest...

Is it a barn or Peyton Place?

No, I will not be the go between between you people!!!!! Put on your big girl panties and work it out like adults.
Le Sigh. Seriously, this is why I don't like people, generally and tend to be a hermit. My kids are into horses. The neighbor's kid is, too, and she owns a horse. We asked them for a recommendation for a riding instructor and they sent us to the lady that boards there horse. I've gotten to be friendly with both of them, and as I've mentioned here before, I've got the chance to lean Parrelli horsemanship with D, without having to shell out big bucks for a seminar or the Parrelli materials.
But now, D and L are not getting along so well. L has pulled away and it has hurt D's feelings, and they won't talk it out. But I'll be damned if I'm going to be the one to tattle on them both. Fuck that, just because I'm friends with you both doesn't mean I'm going to be your go between. Grow up, deal with each other and leave me out of it!

This is why I take my calcium

Yesterday, it was warm and very windy. I've been cleaning house like mad, including washing pillows and suck, because El is sick, yet again. With it warm and windy, I decided it would be a good day to save some electricity and hang towels and quilts and stuff on the clothes line. Well, warm and windy in Jan in the South means eventually it will rain and probably storm. It finally started to rain while I was cooking supper and since I still had things on the line, I went running after them. On the way back in the house with an armload of wet blankets, my wet shoe met wet linoleum, and I went flying. I slammed into the counter and then into the floor and landed on a pile of wet laundry. Whilst laying there contemplating the possibility of broken parts of me, Em comes up and hops in her chair at the table and asks "Is supper ready yet?"
Supper was not ready yet, and after deciding nothing was seriously injured, I drug my aching self off the floor and finished. I ached all over for the rest of the evening, but today I don't seem to have any injuries other than a bruise on my leg where it hit the track for the sliding door.

And my oh so thoughtful manwhore didn't bother to offer to help me up, and never asked me if I was ok, and throughout the evening afterwards never asked how I was feeling. His only comment was "I guess we won't be having sex tonight?" Um, no asshole, we won't and maybe not again this week or next week. Bitch.

As for El, the rapid strep test was neg, and the pediatrician thinks there is a good chance she has mono. As in, the kissing disease that teenagers usually spread around like wildfire. WTF? Obviously it spreads in other ways besides kissing, but still. The ped says that it is much easier on little kids than teens or adults, so that is good. If she's still running fever by Fri, we can take her back in to draw blood to check, as it was too soon to do so on Mon. We only need to know for sure because she rides horses and can't risk a fall when her spleen might be enlarged, which usually happens with mono. Whoopee.