Demolition Crew in the Hizzouse!

So....we got this odd thingy in the mail today. It said, "Build your very own cat." I followed the instructions step by step exactly the way it said to and this is how it came out. I think I messed up, can anyone out there help me with this one?

Moving on, Jason is doing much better today now that he can feel his face. You'd be surprised at what a nuisance it can be when you mean to say, "Hello there old chap, isn't it a lovely day? Fancy a stroll then? There's a clever lad." And it ends up coming out a glassy-eyed head-cocked tremulous smile that's all chin, teeth, and drool. Thank goodness he's past that and back to being all British again just the way we like him. Thanks, friends out there who have been asking about how he's doing and supporting me as well. It's great to have people in my life who I can play around and laugh with to help me be me. You know who you are and I appreciate you very much.

Zombie

Poor Jason had his wisdom teeth taken out. Oh, and yes, he consented to this photo. Even made a crazy face for it. Anyhow, yeah, he's doing really well. Much better than I did! Probably because mine were all sideways and cemented in my jaw and his just went 'BOOP' to the distant, tiny applauding of the tooth faerie. Also, he has me to cook for him. Not only is his food much better than what I had, but I know exactly what is and isn't impossible to eat so he doesn't have to learn it the way I did. We even rigged up a great system that injects water into his mouth so he didn't have it dribble down his chin while his lips were numb like I did.

50 million screaming fans are never wrong

I had a wonderful day. It's great coming back and resuming my regularly scheduled life. Most people aren't fans of their routines I've noticed, but mine is great because it provides hecticness and breathability and for the most part I can shuffle things around to fit what I can most productively do into any given time slot. For example, if I feel chill I can do homework or watch a movie and sew in that space. If I feel bouncity and energetic, I can cook or clean while dancing to music. Something always needs to get done and I am happy to do it, no matter how much of a freak that makes me....beyond the obvious already in progress. Either way, today I felt like seeing people and lucky me, that's exactly what I got to do! Church in the morning, rehearsal in the evening with my improv troupe. I was going to take pictures at rehearsal, but whenever it's really good and fun (like tonight was) it totally slips my mind. Not such a bad thing. As I was pulling away I remembered, however, so here's a picture of my rearview mirror faerie that I got in San Fransisco this Summer and just put up. I didn't have her up for a while because one of her wings broke off, I fixed it, it broke, fixed, broken....etc. So I fixed it again and surprise surprise, it fell off again. Time to get some heavy artillery I guess. It's a sad day when superglue fails you and your faerie is left with only one option: To fly around in sad little concentric circles because you can't steer effectively with only one wing.

It's Crazy, I know.

Today we made the trek back to Kansas City. I love car rides with my family so much. Torturing the girls, taunting cows, listening to music then butchering it by screeching the lyrics as loud as possible...we're a lot of fun if you're into that sort of thing. No? Cool. Well I love it. Anywho, on the way up the girls were teasing me about how I always have to get Starbucks when we travel, so to mess with them (and because I wanted it) I said, "STARBUCKS RUN!" the instant we got into the metro area and pulled off the highway to a known Starbucks location (they may have a point...). As we pulled into the drive through I was asking Jason for his order as he was giving it to me and both children were yelling for ice water. Somehow the guy got our items correct and we pulled forward, but when we got to the front it was a young lady who handed us our drinks. As I was reaching up to take the waters, she said, "Derrick says these are a present from him to you." I laughed and said, "Thank you!" and saw a young guy inside the shop smile in my direction. He said, "You can write me a thank you card if you'd like!" I said, "Sure!" So while we waited for my mocha he located a large piece of paper and a sharpie, then the girl handed them to me. The paper was already folded and 'Thank you' had been written on the front, so I drew a dorky smiley face, wrote a message of thanks for the water on the inside, signed it, then handed it to Jason and the girls to sign just as we got Jason's americano. I passed back the card and sharpie and we continued on our way, the girls teasing me about my fancy coffee habit the whole way home. When we got back Brianna wanted to test out her bike for the first time, and she rode it without training wheels for a short while! Yay Bri! We decorated the tree this evening, just in case there were any lingering doubts that it's almost December. The girls posed as you see in the picture and Jason said, "Are you gonna let them do that?" Well of course! Anyone can get bland posed pictures of their kids. Seriously, they're a dime a dozen and not interesting to look at. Someday my girls will look back on this picture and laugh and we'll talk about how well it captures their personalities. What on earth could be better than that?

The New Leftovers

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving. There were 18 people at the house...only seven of us were family. Yikes. I'm surprised the house didn't explode! We did the meal thing and after everyone left we opened a few Christmas presents since Bob won't be back before then. Bri got the best deal, though. We took her to Wal-Mart where she was allowed to choose a bike! Leigha got an ipod/CD/radio thing, Jason got a book and a hitch for his vehicle, and I got my favorite thing of all. Gift cards! The gift of shopping! I can dig it. Now that the actual meal is behind us it is full tilt Christmas time. Here goes nothin'...

What's his last name?

Happy Thanksgiving, all. We did not celebrate today because Aaron has to work, so our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of frozen pizza and the Spongebob movie. Hoping yours was better and ours will be better tomorrow. This year, I am thankful for:

-The standard issue items such as family, food, friends, etc.

-My new car

-All the fantastic people I have befriended this year

-Losing people in my life who were not fantastic

-The reaffirmation that there is always, ALWAYS a way

-My magical sewing machine of magicalness

-Flight benefits

-My purple sharpie

-Chuck Taylors

-And always, always for my sense of humor that can get me through ANYTHING.

Merry Thanksmas, everyone!

QT hearts U!

Travel day, travel day, la la la la laaaaaa! The girls and I hung out and packed today, then when Jason got up we headed down to Sheila's. We stopped at the QT on the way and surprise, surprise, they have pumpkin pie and whipped cream in their fridge! Hilarious! But hey, if you forget your dessert you know where to go now. We drove down, had dinner, watched a movie, then the girls went to bed...so Jason and I snuck out and went to Wal-Mart, dredging up a multitude of memories from when we were in high school and the only place to hang out was Wal-Mart. Ugh. The best thing about going to small-town Wal-Marts now is that even when I don't have purple hair people stare at me. It's readily apparent that I don't belong, so I welcome the staring. Exotic flowers like me don't blossom in small cages.