My first act of celebration in the new year was to get rid of some crap that really needed gotten rid of and help my kid make a clean start.

Which, of course, is just a more elaborate way of saying that I spent the minutes just after midnight changing a diaper.

This has been another segment of my wild and crazy life. Happy new year, everybody. :-)

Belated Halloween pics under the cut! :-)

But first, here's Kaylee with her current favorite toy-- Chris's cell phone.




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Chris still hasn't decided on a costume. lol

We're heading out to visit his family and friends in a few hours, and then we'll come back to town and hang out at my parents' house for a while handing out candy.

We got Kaylee a little spider costume which is the cutest thing in the world, and I have a makeshift version of a Joker costume-- a white scrubs top, purple-and-green striped tights, a greenish wig, and some face paint. There will be pictures later.

Hope you're all having a great day!

Since Chris is working, I'm over at mom and dad's and we're ordering pizza. :-)

Also, one of Kaylee's top teeth came in. Just one, making this little point. I have now nicknamed her Fang.

Chris and I are probably going to stay up until 3 or so watching M*A*S*H (we just got the fourth season on DVD). Wild and crazy, that's us. ;-) What are you going to do?

The M*A*S*H marathon will have to wait until Chris gets home, though, he has to work until 10:00. In the meantime, I'll write, or go through my music collection and make some mixed CDs. Dunno yet.

We actually have a nice amount of spare money for once-- hooray Christmas presents-- and that of course means character portraits. *plots*

I should post something deep and meaningful, but instead I'm just going to squee over the fact that when I was looking through a Valentine's Day aisle, I found raspberry Hershey's Kisses. Candycandycandy.

Happy New Year, everybody. :-)

Well, the running-around for the day is done . . . went to visit my parents, my grandmother, and Chris's family. All before 2:00, because that was when Chris had to be at work.

And we're probably going to be unconscious for a good long while tomorrow, because we stayed up until 3 in the morning last night (Devin brought over Dawn of the Dead and The Hills Have Eyes for nice cheerful holiday fare). Pictures from last night and this morning under the cut.

( 'Twas the night before Christmas and my brother was reenacting a scene from Trilogy of Terror because he's a freaking psycho )

Had a lazy day yesterday. Chris worked on a puzzle-- the guy's an addict-- while I read him some short stories by William F. Nolan and Jack Ketchum. Then we went out and rented some movies. He hadn't seen any of the Highlander movies in a while but he'd liked the series as a kid, so we rented the second and third ones (nobody had the first) and ohmygoodness. Scenery-chewing and dorky eighties-movie special effects and just so much fun. :-D

In holiday-news, I was thinking about doing that meme where you think up ten things, big or small, that you want and see if anybody sends/makes them for you, but I could only think of two-- fanart for Karavan's Mirror, or donating some money to any of the charities on my sidebar. So instead of scrambling frantically for eight other items to pad the list, have a stocking to fill. *s*

( my xmas stocking )

I also got a Christmas icon from iconseeyou. Hee.

ETA: Here's the post where I got my icon: over 200 of them; something for everybody. :-D

Stuff from the Halloween party under the cut. :-)

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Yesterday, going to work was fun for once. I was almost late because of wildlife.

I saw a couple of blurs race across the road, and drove forward a bit further and paused. A few seconds later, the blurs are back-- two raccoons, bounding across the street, chasing each other. They tussle in the ditch for a minute, and then back across they go. At this point I put on the brakes and just sit there watching as the one chasing leaps from the street all, "Death from above!" into the ditch and lands on the other one. Then they both seem to realize, "Oh crud. Headlights." and dart off into the trees.

:-)

Speaking of crazed animals, our Halloween party is tonight. Expect pictures, once I recover from the anticipated hangover (Chris's cousin is bringing Jello shots, and I have a bottle of amaretto).

On the bad side: Got another rejection slip in the mail today. If at first you don't succeed, drink some margaritas. ;-)

On the good side: Second chapter of Karavan's Mirror is up.

And in other news, our Halloween party is this Saturday. The house is scary but not in a good way; I have part of a costume and Chris has none; and we have no food. We're so organized it's inspiring.

Found this star chart that Kath had done for me for my twentieth birthday-- eerie little thing, really. LOL


Stephanie is a Sun Sign Libra, which makes her basically a kind and caring person, charming and creative, with a love of luxury and a flair for artistic pursuits. Librans are blessed (cursed?) with the ability to see both sides of every argument, so she may have a tough time making a decision. This gives her a strong sense of justice, but makes her want to argue
every point just to be sure all the angles are covered.

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Weather permitting, we'll be heading to the Kansas City Zoo on Saturday (kindof a one-day-early Mother's Day thing). :-)

Went to Chris's parents for Easter, and watched our nephews and neice hunt Easter eggs on the front lawn. :-) By the time we left, it was really hot out and the a.c. in the van is crapped out, so we had the windows down. I got inside and walked by a mirror, and . . . well, imagine a brown string mop, flipped and twisted in ways that show up in a toy poodle's worst nightmare. That was my hair.

In less Medusa-like news, I've been thinking about starting an icons/headers section on my website . . . some from movies, but also some featuring character portrait art (if it's all right with the artists) and novel quotes. So Kath, if you have any ideas about what icons or livejournal headers you'd like to see, bounce them my way-- one with Trader featuring "Desperado" lyrics is already on my list. Heh.

First I have to learn what I'm doing with brushes and fonts and whatnot, though. Wish me luck. :-)

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody! (or Anti-Valentine's Day, for those of you who are inclined to wear black, snark at too-schmaltzy romances, and consume extreme amounts of chocolate. Aka, me in high school. ;-))

In lieu of a list of resolutions, I'm going to post a quote that I've always liked . . . it's attributed to Mother Theresa. Seen parts of it on a wall hanging, and one of these days I'm going to buy that. But for right now, here's the full thing:


People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered . . . forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives . . . be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies . . . succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you . . . be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight . . . build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous . . . be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow . . . do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough . . . give the world the best you have anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway.

Happy New Year!

I'm celebrating by . . . umm . . . well, sitting here in my pajamas and checking email and wandering around Elfwood. I live such a thrilling life. ;-)

Anyway, I found an Elfwood artist named Felix Lavallee, whose work is just too good/funny. Check out some examples here, here, and here.

Gift cards galore this Christmas; Chris and I can now eat out for a little while without spending any money. Yay. (which works out well, because soon we'll probably get tired of leftovers) :-)

Also got some books-- Chronicles of Narnia, a LOST novelization, and a Descriptionary. I also got the Calvin and Hobbes collection (heavy, heavy thing. But very cool). Chris got some TV series-- the first season of Rescue Me, the first three seasons of American Chopper, and Band of Brothers. I'd seen a couple of episodes of American Chopper, but none of Band of Brothers; like it a lot so far. Will add the book to my amazon cart.

Chris's parents also gave me a neat little purse/writing case. So Chris and I went out driving last night and I tried it out. It's a habit for us . . . he'll drive around country roads at night and I'll sit next to him scribbling notes.

The Christmas dinner we held for our families went well-- we basically went into a cooking frenzy from the time we got back from his parents' house at 1:00 until people started arriving at 5:30.

He went back to work today, which is why I'm online/writing, and I have to go back to work tomorrow. Joy. But it's been a good break. Hope the same's true for you guys. :-) Later!

It has started. I just heard a Christmas carol on the radio.

Chris has asked me a few times what I want for my birthday . . . wasn't entirely sure, until we heard an ad on the radio.

We're going to go here.

I've never been to a Renaissance Festival before; this is going to be so cool. :-D

Woke up and went to my parents' house, then to my grandmother's house, and then to Chris's parents' house. LOL Busy day.

Got the second season of Quantum Leap on DVD, a photo-clock, a couple of books, and my grandmother gave me cash as a gift, which I promptly used to get some of my amazon.com wish-list items.

"Imagine" is on the radio and my best friend and I just finished up a really good segment of our latest novel and I am a content person.

Purrrrrr.

Happy holidays, everybody!!!