I think my horse has gone bonkers

3 days in a row, Maggie has attacked someone. Twice she has gone after the barn manager and today she went after her former owner (who is now boarding her horses at the same place we are). Yesterday, D, the barn owner/manager called me all huffing and puffing and told me that Maggie had gone after her when she was carrying hay to the mini horses. Maggie bit D's ear and then turned and kicked her twice. Today Maggie went after her former owner (who owns the minis) and knocked her down.

We're all just flabbergasted because she has never acted this way before. My kids won't be getting back on her for a while, until we can do some ground work with her and figure out what the hell is up with her.

Winter

I'm done with it. I'm tired of being cold. And I'm tired of days on end of low-lying, gray clouds. I'm ready for warm breezes, sunshine, buttercups and butterflies.

That is all.

Dogs and cats

It is so funny to watch the dogs and cats interact. The dogs both seem to have terminal adha and the cats, of course, are calm and aloof. When they are in the house together, it is quite the scene.

The dogs: Omgomgomgomgomgomg petme petmepetme! AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! You petted me. Oh look, a catheycatcomeplaywithme. Playwithmeplaywithmeplaywithme! I'm gonna poke you with my nose. Play with me, pleaaaaaaasseeee! Play with me! I'm gonna poke you again, whoah! Don't hit me, I'm gonna go away now.

The cat (hasn't even noticed the dogs yet): Open the door bitch. What do you mean you haven't gotten my food out yet? The service around here is severly lacking. Oh now you decide to feed me. Let's go, bitch, hurry up, can't you see I'm starving here?

The cat notices the dogs: What do you mean poking me in the butt, bitch? Can't you see I'm demeaning the help here? Oh no you did not just poke me again. Bitch, I will cut you if you don't leave me alone.

The dogs: Sheesh, can't even ask a fellow to play without getting smacked. We'll just go sulk in the crate for a bit.

The cat (has forgotten about the dogs): Hurry up, bitch, I'm starving here. Let's go. Finally. Move so I can eat and don't let this ever happen again.

Dinner time at my house

Yesterday as I was surveying the pantry trying to decide what was going to be for dinner, I realized that I had the makings of white bean chicken chili. Yum. I love it. I would love to know how Ruby Tuesday's makes theirs because it is delish and mine is never quite the same. I'm always tinkering with how I make it, too, trying to get it just right.

So, I set out the basic ingredients:















Then I got to chopping and cooking.
Everything in the pan at last and let it simmer for a while. It smelled yummy, of course. Excuse the mess on the stove, it bubbled over a bit.




The result topped with cheese and sour cream like any good chili should be:


The reactions (Ignore the manwhore in the background. He knows he'd better fucking eat what I put in front of him if he wants to stay on my good side, ie get laid ever again. This isn't his favorite meal either.):

Ellie wouldn't even taste it. Feel that disgust coming through the screen?


Emma says she tried it and I think she ate a bite or two. She mostly ate bread.

And the Samster:

He's not so sure about it, but wait....

A clean spoon! He didn't eat an entire bowl, either, but he ate about half of it. He's got a cold, so he's off the hook.

Oh well, more leftovers for me.

Happy America!

Good luck, President Obama!

I'm so verklempt, I can't think of anything else to say. Happy history making day to us all!

A shout out

I want to give a nice little shout out to my cousin Jennifer. She has been designing my banners for me. The extent of my website design skills is limited to downloading free wallpapers from other places, so I bow to her ability to make banners to match for me. Rock on wid' yo bad self, girl!


And when I am a published writer, I'll be calling on you to help me design an actual website.

Welcome to the 21st century!

AKA, Guess who finally got a digital camera? From now on, my blog shall be made much more interesting with the addition of many more pictures! Yay! See, look, the dogs:

What shall the future hold?

My house is too big.

I've come to this conclusion today. 2000 sq ft for a family of 5, plus 2 dogs and 2 cats. Doesn't sound so huge, does it? Big is relative, though. My house is too big for me to get the entire thing clean all at once and it's driving me crazy. I can't even get the motherfucking kitchen decluttered without someone coming behind me and making a mess. Today I realized that the walls in the kitchen are dirty, the doors are dirty, the door frames are dirty, stuff is dusty. But, I couldn't get into that because I really needed to run the vacuum first. And then I noticed the dirty door frames in the den. The bathroom sink full of toothpaste. The spots on the carpets.

The list is endless and it will never be completely clean unless we move out and start over. And I'ts driving me up a fucking wall these days. Honestly, it hit me today that I am overwhelmed by the dirt and clutter. It's not nasty, CPS is going to take my kids dirt, just needs to be cleaned and decluttered dirt. And I just want to cry. Then I want to send my kids to Nana's for a week and spend the whole time cleaning the entire damned house from top to bottom. Maybe I could get it done in a week.

Damn, even the dogs have a sex radar.

Who knew?
The manwhore and I were having a hug and kiss in the kitchen one night this week and we hear, "Grr, Woof!"
The dogs were in the crate and we look over at them and they are both glaring at us. We hug again and again "Woof! Woof!"
Kiss and get barked at more. We even tested them. Stand close, no barking. Hug, small bark. Kissing, more barks.

Damned dogs, can't even make out in the kitchen without interference.

Proud mommy brag warning!

I have several things to brag about all at once.

Report cards came home yesterday, and of course my little angels did very well. They don't get grades, but check marks on skill accomplished and they both got all of their skills checked off. Yay!

And, in our district, kindy students have to be able to read a list of 100 sight words at the end of the year to pass to 1st grade. Mrs. S. tested the class on them in Dec to see where they are. Emma knew all 100 words (not surprising because she is freaking reading up a storm) and Ellie only missed 17 of them (and her reading is improving daily)! Yay for my little smarties!

And, we went to the Y to swim last night and got stopped by a lifeguard who told us that the rules for the pool had changed and all kids under 13 had to be swim tested before they could get in the water. Two of the lifeguards told us that they knew our kids could do it, it was just a formality for us.
The swim test was to jump in (could not sit down on the edge and slide in) the lap pool at the deep in where it is 10 ft deep (!!) and swim all the way to the other end without touching the side. Both girls looked at the bottom of the deep end and were really nervous. (And I totally understand, because I'm an adult and I know that water is nearly 5 ft deeper than the top of my head and I've never been in the lap pool because of that.) The lifeguard let the manwhore get in the pool with them and with a little encouragement, they both jumped in and swam all the way to the other end of the pool and passed the test.
I'm really proud of them for that, because the lap pool is long and I'm not totally sure I could swim the entire thing without stopping for breath. But I'm fat and out of shape and my kids are neither.

So, yay for report cards and swimming tests!

Mothers

We've all got one. Can't live without her, literally, at least until they manage to grow babies in a test tube.

Don't you just love how they can manage to be so insulting without quite meaning to be?

Case in point, apparently my mom and dad, a cousin and her hubby and aunt and uncle attacked my grandmother's house and cleaned and organized it from top to bottom. I made a comment that I should hire J, the cousin, to come organize my house. I've got clutter, I know this. I admit this. Mother said, "You couldn't hire J. And dear, your kitchen wasn't cluttered, it was dirty."

WTF? It was not. But, I have spent two days this week decluttering and organizing my kitchen. And I'm not done yet. Damned woman.

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year's to you all! I wish health, happiness, no financial worries and just an all around good year to you all.

We got off to a roaring start with everyone, even the kids staying up until midnight. The adults enjoyed a glass of sparkling wine (not champagne since it came from Australia, not France) and the kids went to bed at 12:02.

Today we starting off the New Year with a traditional Southern meal of pork, black eyed peas, greens, rice, mac and cheese (for the kids), cornbread and some non-traditional cheesecake. It all has some meaning, but no one can remember more than luck (blackeyed peas) and money (greens).