There's something in the air......

No it's not the smell of poop...although that may be lingering around in some areas of the living room. EWWWWWW!!!!!!

I think it's the sound of grunts and groans, whistles, and the loud SMACK as bodies collide with great force.... *no it's not sex either*...it's FOOTBALL!!! Camps are in, high schools are having two-a-days, colleges are practicing again, NFL is on ESPN and the Fantasy mags are out on the shelves. WHOOooo HOOooooo!!! I'm not really excited or anything.

I LOVE Football season. I'm not that into college, but totally into pro. My husband and his buddies have ruined me though. They got me to play fantasy football in their league. This fall will be my fourth year to play. I think.....hrmmm, I can't remember how many years I've played. I'm an idiot. ...

I used to have my favorite teams that I cheered on and watched. Now I know all the players, their positions, their stats...it's pathetic. I'm so competitive. I've done pretty well each year...last year was not the greatest, but it was okay. I didn't have such a great draft but this year I feel it's going to be much better!

I can't wait for preseason to start...Brad and I are even talking about going to some of the games this year. We are so close to some of the venues. I've never been to a pro game but he has. We can go to Cleveland, Cinnci, Pitt, Charlotte... would be so cool!

Also, I am not preggers this year....the past two years we've had to schedule our draft around my due date. Too funny!! The guys are not too sympathetic about a babys arrival. Somehow it has always worked out though. I was soooooo pregnant last year when we drafted. I can remember wobbling around the house and trying to find a comfortable position on the couch to use the laptop. It was not a pretty sight. I kept having to get up and go to the bathroom....I'd yell at Brad..."how much time do I have til it's my turn?" He would laugh at me. Hooray for not sharing a bladder anymore! Hooray for Football!!

A Story for Your Reading Pleasure

The Big Blue House
(This story won third place at the local arts festival, I hope you enjoy it!)

I didn't fail to notice the bright yellow line wrapped around my favorite house during that summer, I just didn't know what it meant. At eleven years old, I was too young to be concerned with things like that. I noticed it, it puzzled me, I moved on.

I had first noticed the house because of its color. It was the shade of a spring day sky, baby blue with neat white shutters. It looked fresh between all the other ordinary white homes surrounding it. I always smiled to myself when I passed the Blue House. I would imagine what type of people lived there and what they did. I thought they must be very cheerful and happy to have painted their house such a wonderful color.

The yellow tape stayed up around the Blue House for most of that summer. I wondered if the people who lived there were doing construction on the inside. The yellow tape said "Caution", I thought it meant to watch out for falling boards and nails and stuff. I wondered if the house was empty. The yard was unkempt, and the grass began to grow to an uncomfortable height. The blue had begun to lose its warmth, its cheerfulness. It was if that one yellow stripe across all that blue was sucking the life out of the house.

I wondered about the Blue House and its occupants all that summer. Every time I rode my bike past I would look to see if anything had changed. Nothing ever did. It was a mystery. Fall eventually came, the yellow line disappeared, and my thoughts were on school again. I pushed the mystery of the Blue House out of my mind.

A couple of years later, I became friends with a firefighter. He had the most interesting stories, and my friends and I would always beg him to tell us about the cool things he had seen while performing his duties as a fireman. It was during one of these stories that the mystery of the Blue House was revealed.

My fireman friend asked all of us if we knew the blue house on Factory Street, by the high school. Of course we all knew it, especially me. Thinking of it always brought back the wonderment of that summer. The freedom I felt riding my bike and the new worlds I explored through the books I read. I had discovered the public library that summer, and it was on my journeys to and from the library when I would pass the Blue House. My friend was going to tell us a story about my favorite house and I was very interested.

It seems I was right about the occupants of my Blue House. They were an older couple and had lived happily in the house for many years. They spent much of their time to themselves, and their neighbors only saw them once-in-a-while. When the house became quieter than usual that summer, the neighbors thought the couple had gone on vacation. It was only when the smells began to drift out of the house that they became concerned. They could only ignore them for so long.

When it became too much for them to bear, the neighbors called the police. They were worried, something was terribly wrong. The police arrived and were surprised when the husband answered the door. Everyone thought the old couple was gone. The old man seemed confused by the police. He told them everything was fine, there wasn't any need for alarm. He knew the yard needed work, but his wife was sick and he had been spending all his time taking care of her. The police were very polite but insistent. The old man would have to show them around the house. They wanted to make sure there wasn't any kind of health hazard. As the officers were led through the house, the cause of the smell became evident. The fire department was called in to help. The police didn't know what to do. They had never had a situation like this before.


When the firemen arrived, the smell was so strong, they had to put on their gas masks. It was the middle of July and the smell hung thickly on the air. It was worse inside because the heat had been left on. The firemen made their way up the stairs with their masks and their big rubber coats and boots. They trudged down a hallway to the old couple's bedroom. There they found the old woman laying in the couple's bed. She was covered by an electric blanket turned all the way up. A lone chair stood at the side of the bed and was surrounded by stacks of papers, books, magazines, and beer cans. The husband had sat there

drinking and reading to his wife for days on end. He explained to the fireman that his wife had become so cold he had turned on the heat and covered her with the blanket. He said he endured the heat because he loved her and knew she was sick. He wouldn't leave her side for anything and had to be forcibly escorted out of the house by two of the police.

You see, the man's wife was dead. She had been dead for several weeks. The husband couldn't accept the fact she was gone. He tried to keep her warm, and read to her from that chair all day long, every day. The worst part of the whole story was what they saw on the bed. There was a definite indent on the husband's side. He had continued to sleep with his wife every night.

At the end of this tale everyone in our group let out a disgusted groan, everyone but me. I had learned the story about the Blue House and I could never think of it in the same way again. It wasn't gross or disgusting. Instead, the story touched my heart. I could not imagine the loss that man must have felt. What did he think when all those men came into his blue world interrupting the fantasy he had created for himself? I thought what a strong love he must have held for his wife. I hoped one day I might have someone who would love me with that much intensity.

I never found out what happened to that man. I hope he had friends and family to help him cope with his grief. Sometimes, when my family would drive by the Blue House, I would catch a glimpse of an elderly gentleman working in the yard. I truly hope it was him. I want to believe he came back to his house. That somehow, the happiness of the house was able to work its magic on him again, to bring back that person who had picked out that wonderful shade of blue.

Everybody Poops

Check it out, it's Kenzie and me at the stables. She loved the horses and I think it would be very cool if we got her riding lessons when she gets a little older.

We had a lovely time that day, and both girls were so worn out from our activities (we went to MickeyD's...UGH..afterwards) that they slept the whole night through.

Yes, I did say: THE WHOLE NIGHT THROUGH!!!! Can you believe it! Finally, Lyanna is sleeping through the night. (now that I wrote it she will probably wake me up about 20 times this evening.) It has been so wonderful to sleep the whole night without dragging myself out of bed and sleeprocking my children back to sleep. The wierd thing about it is....now that I'm getting a good whole night's sleep, I am more tired during the day. I truly believe my body has become used to the sleep interruptions. It's just going to have to adjust itself again.

Now that I've spoken about the good things...let me tell you about Kenzer's new favorite activity. She has become aware of poo poo in her diaper. She doesn't like it there. She won't tell you if she's pooped. These three things combine to create a huge poop catastrophe.

The girl digs the poop out of her diapers and then freaks out that it's on her hands and starts trying to wipe it off on anything that she can. This morning was the worst yet. I put her in her crib so I could take a quick shower. Made it through the shower, checked on her, she was okay. In the time it took me to get dressed she had pulled off her diaper, smeared poo across the whole top of her mattress, her blanket, her Tigger, her bear, her Boo, and Jeff (her Wiggles doll). She had also managed to cover her arms, feet, and legs. It was soooooooooo disgusting!!! Considering that I had just showered....I had to carefully remove her from the corner of the bed she was cowering in...trying desperately to GET AWAY from the poop....and place her on her changing table. Wipe her down the best I could and get her to the tub. Then I put her in the other crib with Lyanna while I stripped everything off her bed and washed them. I hope this stage doesn't last very long.... we have bought the Potty chairs..Please pray for us. Pray hard that potty training works, FAST. I seriously don't want to do that again any time soon.

The rest of the day was rather nice. I had the babysitter come so Brad and I could go and look at the proofs of the pictures we had taken of the girls. The pictures were awesome, too bad there was only one of them together. So...we are going to have another sitting. I hope that Kenzie is more agreeable this time. She was the main problem last time. She just is so curious about everything and wanted to check all the stuff out in the studio.

Came home and the girls were napping....so visited with the sitter *so nice to have some adult conversation* ...sent her home and went out and messed around in the garden. No ripe tomatoes yet....I am trying to be patient.

Brad came home and ate dinner then was off again. I actually got the girls to go to sleep before 9 pm and I have had the entire house to myself!! AWESOME!! I miss quiet time like this sometimes. I don't miss living alone, but I do miss the quiet time.

Oooo A new Meme!!

So I saw this one on E-dog's blog and I am going to do it. I didn't even read through the whole thing I just copy/pasted cause I am kinda bored and the hubby is watching some really stupid movie on T.V. "Soul Plane", if you haven't seen it, you aren't missing much.

1. The book nearest me: I am desperately looking around for a book......the one that was downstairs here on the desk I carried upstairs yesterday, I think...so...my daughter's Baby Einstein book: "Who Lives In the Pond". A delightful tale about Tadpole and his friends he meets as he swims around his pond looking for his mom.

2. Stretch our your left arm, what do you touch? A "One Step Ahead" magazine. Describes itself as: Thoughtfully Selected Products to help with baby...every step of the way!

3. Last thing watched on television? In Cold Blood: Started it last night but didn't get to finish, I was too tired and had to go to bed.

4. Without looking, what time is it? 10 p.m.

5. What is the actual time? 10:04..damn I'm good!

6. With the exception of the computer what can you hear? The television*that stupid movie* and the air purifier upstairs.

7. When did you last step outside? Hrmmm...probably around 8:30. I took Lyanna out to walk in the grass.

8. Before this survey what did you look at? I was reading my brother's blog: Terhune's Tangent

9. What are you wearing? A green Grateful Dead t-shirt and cut off jeans

10. Did you dream last night? Yep, sure did and it was a good one!

11. When did you last laugh? About 15 minutes ago while rocking my daughter to go to sleep.

12. What is on the walls in the room?Sheesh..pictures: A floral, needlepoint my mom made, landscape, calendar..etc... I'm in the kitchen there is way too much crap in here on the walls.

13. Seen anything weird lately? Not that I can think of right now...

14. What do you think of this quiz? It's decent enough to waste some time on.

15. What is the last film you saw? Started "In Cold Blood" last night. Actually finished: Crash. Gone to see at the movie theatre: "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith". Don't laugh..yes it's actually been that long.

16. Tell me something we don't know. Coffee makes me physically ill...It's a tragedy cause I love it.

17. If you could change one think about the world, what would you do? One think? Think? That is almost impossible to answer...there are too many thinks I would change.

18. Do you like to dance? I absolutely LOVE to dance. I took ballet, tap, and Jazz for 11 years. I used to go "clubing" 3 - 4 nights a week. Hrrmmm...wonder how much weight I could lose if I started doing that again.....

19. George Bush? Redneck bully

20. Imagine your first child is a girl. She is and I love her dearly!

21. Imagine your first child is a boy. He would be an awful cute boy.

23. What would God say to you when you reach the pearly gates? Welcome, welcome! Ya'll sure took your time getting here.

24. 6 people who will do this quiz. Anyone who bothers to take the time to read my blog and has one themselves?

I am alive!

I am alive and sort of doing well. We have been plagued by many computer problems for the past month. The hard drive has crashed on us twice, but I think we have it up and running again. Thank goodness we have an external drive that holds all our photos and writings! I haven't been doing much writing with the computer down. Just been feeling a little under the weather lately. Nothing majorly wrong...just got a case of the blah's. I started writing for the 100 day writing challenge, then got very discouraged with the crashes and haven't done anything else.

My parents were here all last week. We had a really good time together. They had a lot of good times with the girls. I know it's hard for them to be so far away from them. It's hard for me too because I miss them. It was kind of a crazy week, the girls both were sick and having guests threw them off their normal routines. I took Kenzie to the doctor on Tuesday I believe... she just started crying and crying and crying and crying and wouldn't stop. That was not like her at ALL!! Doctor checked her all out and finally decided she had a viral infection and a bad bad tummy ache. Took care of that and then Thursday night Lyanna broke out in hives and turned red and swollen. I thought she was having an allergic reaction to peanut butter so off to the emergency room we went. She did have a reaction, don't know for definite what from, but we got some good meds for her as well. Now they are back to normal and being their cute little selves.

It has been so hot here. Every afternoon after their naps I have been letting the girls swim in the little pool we bought them. It's an inflatable pool about 10'X3'. They love it! Lyanna sits in her little boat and walks around, and Kenzie splashes and plays with her cups.

Those of you keeping up with our garden: we have our first little green tomatoes!! There are about 5 of them growing now. The cabbages are also doing very well. I just don't know when I'm supposed to harvest them. Hopefully I won't have another "broccoli" episode.

We took the girls to the Columbus Zoo this past Saturday. Oh my Goodness it was HOT!!!! The hottest day we have had so far t his year, we are at the zoo. The girls had a really good time though. They saw the Elephants, tigers, gorillas, apes, snakes, manatees....and other assorted animals. Kenzie was in awe of the aquarium fish. She thought those were the coolest.

Thursday and I am once again sooooo far behind!

Well happy Thursday all. Once again I have neglected this blog to the point it's almost rediculous. BUT I have a good excuse this time. Our computer crashed and we had to reboot the hard drive. I HATE doing that. Now I have to go out and find all my software for all the stuff I do and re- download it. Such a pain in the butt...

This past weekend was my 36th birthday. It was an okay weekend. Brad and I had Friday night alone. We went out to the hanger and washed the airplane. It was nice and sunny and we had a good time, although my arms and legs were hurting after that. Then we went out to eat at the Brewery. YUMMY! There was a whole lot of festivities downtown this weekend because of the 4th and the place was packed. There was also a wedding party/ rehearsal dinner taking up the whole back of the restaurant which was interesting. Brad and I got some good people watching in.

Sunday was the birthday. Brad did so well on the gifts this year. I got an i-pod shuffle, a pair of Tevas, a new movie to watch, and a new Vampire book to read. I was really excited about the i-pod but now I have to go and download some tunes. The shoes kick much ass as well. Tevas have got to be the most comfortable sandal in the universe. You put them on and it's like walking on clouds. I can't believe there is only one place around here that sells them. Craziness.

The Fourth of July was nice...rainy..but nice. We had our church pic nic. Not many folks showed up because of the weather, but it was fun. Kenzie ran and ran and ran. She has more boo boos now than she has had since she was born. She is the runningest fool ever. I was exhausted from chasing her around and carrying the baby at the same time. After the pic nic we took the girls over to Grandma and Grandpas and had a nice evening at home. Went out to watch the fireworks at 10 and found the perfect spot to park and watch.

Been cleaning up around the house today. My parents are going to be here tomorrow sometime and are staying for a whole week. I'm looking forward to having more help with the girls and just getting to spend some time with my family, I miss them lots and lots. Can't wait for them to get here.

I am working on the 100 day novel challenge. I am so far behind though because of the computer crashing I don't know if I am going to make it. I'm going to have to have a couple of totally inspirational days for it to work. Bleh!!! When I get myself more organized I will post what I have written and linky to it. Is supposed to be suspense/horror type story..we'll see where it goes.

The garden is kicking much ass. But..there will be no pictures of the awesome broccoli...I am learning, I am learning.... I didn't harvest it soon enough and it bloomed. So disappointing..but I have three other plants to perfect my timing.