Life's been good to me so far

We're back from Boca Raton (since late Thursday night). It was pretty good. The kids and I glutted ourselves on delicious and very pimped out free breakfast every morning and went swimming every day. I felt I was friends with the omelette and pancake chef guy by the time we left (laughter and tips each morning...he cooks better than I do).

The noodle fish in it's native habitat.
The first day at the pool I got to be the mom of the four year old girl running around the deck with a pool noodle between her legs telling everyone to look at her giant penis. *headdesk*

I drank rum every night (free bar, and kiddie drinks and snacks, every night from 5:30-7:30). I took them to the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center one afternoon - it was totally worth it as a FREE trip that involved seeing injured and rehabilitating sea turtles up close, their amazing butterfly garden, lots of (outdoor!) aquariums full of great exotic things like urchins, starfish, sea horses, etc, and climbing to the top of their 40 foot observation tower that sways in the breeze...but it also turned awful because it was a 100 degree day and we didn't realize the reeeeallly loooong boardwalk was ONE WAY...until we got to the end of it. Everyone was bright red from near heat stroke and long past done by the time we got out of there (nevermind that we'd guzzled probably a gallon of water combined and poured that much on our heads, as well).

A and A went by themselves to see the extended version of The Lord of the Rings (1, 2 and 3 are upcoming, this is around the country) in theater. Neither Grant nor I wanted to spend our one evening together in a FOUR HOUR LONG MOVIE we've already seen. They came out FLIPPING THE HELL OUT about the EPICNESS of it so large, loud and surround-sound. G and I were actually able to lock the bedroom door and make some private adult time happen while they were gone, and the three littles watched Noggin. Other than that evening he was doing team building and social activities with/for the company, eating dinner with them, etc.

I managed to get three social studies quizzes taken (well) online and do/email my 3 page paper for SLS, and I got a callback on the first Craigslist job I sent a resume in for, while we were there :) I also got all my studying and homework for algebra done within the first 36 hours we were back. Understanding algebra is a whole new world for me over here, I'm really glad I'm doing this now before my older kids hit higher level math.

( Camera Phone Pics from Gumbo Limbo; 9, 8 of which are far too big )

I felt pretty isolated while we were there (when I didn't feel like a boss for all that was getting accomplished), on my own with the five kids without Grant or my sister/friends in town or even internet access most of the time. I mean you talk to strangers in the pool but come on. Still, I've had to deal with hotel withdrawal from the first morning I woke up with everyone wanting to know what was for breakfast and what we were doing that day O_o Seriously, I could use some automatic maid service around here.

I'm currently having my first IUD period and, well...it's pretty horrific. Both in pain and debilitation levels and in blood loss. I mean...this is carnage. I spent all of yesterday dizzy and weak trying to just lay around as much as possible :/ I'm having to deal with things like "Oh I bled through all that onto the van seat...and...the chair at Starbucks...this is awesome...." I changed clothes 3 times yesterday *sigh* I had to sit on a fucking folded towel to ride with my sister to Whole Foods (because we don't have time to hang out, like, ever anymore). I thought I was going to have to take oxycodone to sleep last night - it actually hurt badly enough that I was wondering if I had perforated or something - but my wonderful and open minded husband helped me with alternate pain relief, if you know what I mean. And if you don't you probably don't want to.

Supposedly a lot of women's bodies adjust to the IUD within some variable number of cycles and then this shit lets up a little. That would be nice... I mean I don't have any other complaints here, I had no cramps or spotting between periods and still started on time as I would have normally. But, uh....sheesh. The last time it was this bad was when Dama was down last year and I was just LAYED UP by it, but that only lasted one or two days and we're on day 3 of insanity here now. I'm so thirsty it's impossible to drink enough.

This is my new fb profile pic, taken at Cauley Square by Grant.


Pics from the TLC end of the year pool party that I talked about in the last entry, stolen (with permission) from Cybele's facebook :)


cake Annie and Sophia made.


Annie and Sophia :)


My daughter in the purple shirt.


Outdoor living room.


The other 2/3 of Aaron's "gang", the Ninja Dolphins.


He thinks it's hilarious that someone else who went tagged this pic of him "that crazy guy" on fb.


All pools all the time.

I don't know who these TLC kids think they are even having an end of the year party; they've already had one more "meeting" (Christina's birthday party, at her house) since and are resuming meeting at the library on Friday afternoons for the summer :p

Since we've been back, my broke ass has scored an espresso maker and a stair climber for free (freecyle and a neighbor giving away). I've gotten to a point in my coffee consumption where I can clearly no longer afford to depend on Starbucks alone (plus I can use almond or coconut milk at home), and I've wanted a stair climber ever since Aaron and I went to NY last summer and I realized how woefully hard stairs are for me and how nonexistant those muscle groups are in my body.

Grant is considering a way higher paying job that is almost impractical it's so far away...he'd be driving half an hour to take 2 trains O_O But...it's a $20k a year leap, with a solid company, and the guy is talking about commuting reimbursement and 2k-3k a year raises. Still health care industry, which seems to be the best and most solid for IT down here (digitizing records, having to keep up with new HIPAA laws, and Obama funding). The job Grant has now straight up doesn't pay enough; it's a great work environment and it's a huge blessing that it's close but there's very little opportunity for advancement, no raises, and we're basically just digging ourselves a deeper and deeper hole the longer he stays there. I mean we can barely scrape by with enough side jobs done for other people, but those are inconsistent and it's a stressful situation. We aren't willing to move for the job (we love and own this house, and we love where we live and don't have any desire to live in Ft Lauderdale).

THEN AGAIN, the company Grant works for has acquired land to build this massive huge expansion that's like 3 times the size of the currently existing facility...so maybe he will have room for advancement there if he waits it out. If we can manage to wait it out. We don't even know how long that will be, I mean a year seems conservative and it's not like anybody has even said he can count on it down the line...the dude offering him the far away job is a former supervisor from the job he lost in January, who also left that company they were at together. Grant DOES love listening to audiobooks and NPR and things during a commute (enough that he misses it sometimes, though he says it's outweighed by being home so much more).



Alright, I don't know what today has in store for us...probably Grant and Shaun will build more of Kristin's chicken coop and I'll do more editing and rearranging of my short stories (which will soon be available for e-readers!!!) I think for now I may join Elvis on the bed for a nap. The King has the right idea.

I think I'm gonna get to a point that I post here and it cross posts to the blog, so both places get all the entries. For now this is all that's happening (lj only).

Bizarre experiences in blogging:

1. David, my old friend who recently got back in touch? He's living with his brother and sister in law on the other side of the country. Botched surgeries came up in conversation and David said, "Yeah my friend had a sponge left in her during a c-section in Boston" and the sister in law said (this is paraphased) "Wut you know altarflame?" Basically she was reading my lj the whole time we were going through our myriad fiascos that year! She educated him on booju, which makes me lol forever at the craziness of our small small world.

2. Apparently my grandfather is reading with a great deal of skepticism (this is me waving at you, Pa!). My mother keeps calling me saying things like, "Pa printed out pages of your journal and highlighted parts that he thinks mean you and Grant are in trouble", and "He doesn't understand how you can afford x, y and z". Pa, print and question all you need to, just stop sending her my way about it so I don't have to hear. Or, write me an email, I am always happy to talk to you. I love you but this thing where she calls me up because people are up in arms and want further explanations is getting annoying.

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Grant has two very promising interviews tomorrow. He also has a job lined up to start February 1 if they both fall through, and nothing else comes up, but we are really hoping something else does work out because the fall back job - though positive in some ways - also has some issues.

Overall I am feeling pretty good about money. With the Carmax check for the Prius cleared we've been able to pay December, January and February's mortgage payments and catch up the electric bill to a zero balance and do all sorts of things we've been putting off (like getting 5 birth certificates at $45 per copy so that they're here for school records in a few months, and spaying the cat). There is still a lot left for living off of and getting a less cool second car, and Grant is making more money at his part time job than usual as the guy is being nice giving him extra hours while he's "unemployed".

Grant is also being nice - awesome, in fact - giving me many hours each evening to focus on market research, combing agent listings and crafting query letters. I really appreciate this as we aren't usually in a situation, with available time, for it to be possible, and we may be back in a place where it isn't again soon. For now, though, I am making really exciting progress.

Writing a query letter to an agent is like writing a research paper for school - they want to know comparative titles in the genre as well as what makes your book different from the others already out there in that genre. They want a tantalizing description of your work that would be appropriate for the back of the book on a shelf. They want compelling bio information and proof that you are marketable and they want it spaced properly, and it has to all fit on one page, with a wowing sample attached. It is really exhaustive work rewriting and editing queries for a project for the first time (or in this case four completely different projects), BUT - I have a lot of hope about it, because once you have that first draft at a point you feel good about, you can basically just customize the queries you have written to send out over and over to different people. So even assuming the agent I am querying first here rejects me, it will be a simple thing to keep sending queries out to new people constantly until someone eventually accepts something.

I'm grateful for email - this was a much more time consuming practice (as in waiting for replies) as well as way more expensive, when it all had to be done through the post office.


I've lost 13.6 pounds this month. Still holding strong with Eat to Live. ETL kind of flip flopped with writing and is now the thing I'm 2nd most excited about, because I plateaued for a few days. Then I lost another half pound, though, and am hoping I'm out the other side of the dead spell and about to see daily decreases again...I'm torn every day between not being able to WAIT for it to be February so I can eat what I want to eat, and really not wanting it to be February yet because I need to lose way more weight before the end of January :p Grant being home is wonderful because he cooks all kinds of awesome things for the rest of the family and I don't have to deal with that; but it's also terrible because he COOKS ALL KINDS OF AWESOME THINGS FOR THE REST OF THE FAMILY! He made these tantalizing loaded potato skins today and I had to ask Aaron to eat one, and moan, and tell me about how awesome it was so I could live vicariously.


Today was a day for reorganizing the library with extra shelving units we brought over from Grant Sr's (things we left there when we moved out that have been sitting empty) - our books had exceeded shelving capacity. It was a day to listen to a lot of Sublime and Prodigy. G and I took just Ananda and Elise out for a bit, and when they were all in bed the two of us went for one of our late night, half hour long power walks... one thing I really love about Bob living here is being able to do things like that.

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Kid Updates:

-Ananda is 5' even now, suddenly curvier, and basically has her earbuds in and a book in her hand 24/7. She does all of her chores without complaint and looks forward to Annoying Orange updates on Fridays. She does a lot of independent Abeka and Kumon schoolwork and is frequently either carrying, playing with, reading to, or helping Elise...otherwise she's locking her out of her bedroom.

-Aaron has found some new friends down the block and is over there with them everyday now. It's an 11 year old girl and 8 year old boy who seem REALLY nice (way nicer than the bullying across the street neighbor that is the bane of this property...) They play basketball and box ball and dodge ball and man hunt and sometimes 1-3 other kids from around here join them. This has totally revitalized him - he's like a different kid all of a sudden. He was having sleepovers twice a month with some friends and having Darian over here or going to PATH every week, but clearly he needs a lot more kid time with kids who don't make him miserable. I think he felt trapped in our yard like he had to hide behind the bushes by across-the-street bully kid :/

The two of them have had their biking horizons expanded to include a great big 6 block grid, when they're together, and are loving it.

-Isaac has regressed to a level of misery and nonsense that has me wracking my brain like "IS THIS A GLUTEN ISSUE? IS THIS SOME UNDER STIMULATION? WHAT IS THE PROBLEM I THOUGHT TYRANNY WAS PAST!!!" Basically he cries about everything, often for long and exagerated time periods, and he is randomly mean to his siblings again, and...I don't know. Maybe it's just the Isaac cycle I used to always talk about in a downswing and I should be thankful it's been so long. Perk: He's more affectionate than he has ever been.

-Jake is wonderful. He does his chores consistently and relatively easily, now, finally, and he tears up big plates of raw vegetables and loves doing schoolwork and is generally the freaking bees' knees. He's good to our pets and to his siblings and still has this grumpy edge and scowl of doom that are to die for adorable.

-Elise is a nightmare at bedtime, and extremely hyper/loud sometimes, but she's talking more everyday, and she's ADORABLE, and I can't believe she's really the youngest and getting so big. She talks about wanting to go to school everyday and plays independently or with Jake and Isaac (unless she's harassing Annie) constantly. She's VERY strong willed and stubborn.

The three little kids are always doing something together. Today they each had bags full of random things and were pretending to travel and have travelling adventures, all day. Last night Jake and Isaac had an epic plastic sword fight battle while she stood by dressed as a princess and cheered them on alternately.

Alright, I am OUT. It is way too late and I'm far too tired.