Oh my god. A blog. That is mine. MY BLOG. WHAAAAAT?

Y'all, seriously, I completely forgot I had a blog here. It's been what, 6 years? A lot's changed since then. A lot. Damn.

Where do I even begin?

 Found out my oldest had a bad thing happen, court happened, oldest was hospitalized for a while, got kicked out of our old house and forced to move into a different house, both my dogs died, decided to divorce, my mother in law died, got kicked out of THAT house and forced to move back in with my parents because I'm a fucking cripple living on SSI, my oldest baby is now Sam and is engaged, my youngest is 9 (and is NOT engaged, haha), I have another dog, a cat, 2 snakes, bunch of fish... Ueh. 

Had knee surgery, blood clots in my lungs, was hospitalized, put on blood thinners, now anemic, having another surgery soon on my uterus, have all my follow-ups to see if the clots are resolved, if my heart damage is healing, if my lymph node in my chest is still swollen or if it's cancerous.

 So, there's an extremely abridged version of my life's happenings. Fortunately my mom is amazing and helps me out a lot. Also, I miss my sisters. :(

 Does anyone even still use this? Still read it? I have no idea. If you're there, hellooooooo!

Forever Ago Today (and stuff)

Well holy crap. It's been forever since I've posted anything here. I'm not sure if I've got a lot to say, or nothing at all. Let's see..... I'll start with this - Lori moved out in February. I was having a lot of problems, and a lot of problems with Lori. She knows I still love her, but I just couldn't have her here anymore. Fortunately where she's finally ended up is someplace she can finally be self sufficient, support herself and have a life of her own, a life that doesn't revolve around a family with 2 kids. I'm proud of her. Sarah ended up finishing the 7th grade with 2 F's. I'm not sure if she needs to retake the classes in lieu of two of her electives, or if they'll be in lieu of two of her 8th grade courses, or what. Especially considering she only failed the final quarter of both classes. Who knows, maybe because it was only a quarter she won't have to repeat the classes at all. I suppose I'll find out when I head to the school to do her enrollment stuff. In the meantime, Sarah and I have had a LONG talk about her responsibilities as far as school is concerned, and that I'm happy for her she finally has an excellent, active social life, but it absolutely will not interfere with her school work any longer. She's completely on board with that, thankfully. :) Joseph is.... Joseph. He's a toddler. He's growing fast, learning faster, cute, smart, funny, and a holy terror. He's terrific, loving, giving, caring, generous and wonderful, and at the same time hits and kicks and screams when he doesn't get his way. WOW toddlers are SUCH an oxymoron. He can mostly say his ABC's, count to 12, and speaks in (more or less) complete sentences. He seems to be offended by consonants, but is still pretty coherent and understandable. Yay! James is now on days with ADT, and it's working out so beautifully. He works 4 days a week, 10 hour days, and the schedule is nearly perfect. It allows him just enough time at home to be comfortable without us getting tired of each other, and just enough time at work that he's not getting burned out. It's also nice having him home in the evenings and getting to go to bed with him most of the time. I did miss that while he was on nights. Wes, Aubre and Wes' son have been coming over quite a lot lately. I've definitely been enjoying their company and so has Joseph. While Wes, Aubre, James and I hang out, Joseph and Wesley are busy playing with/harassing/torturing/fighting with each other. They really are best friends. It's adorable. We've been gaming a lot; mostly D&D. Playing, making characters, talking about playing, oh my god it's like my life suddenly revolves around gaming again and I'm not sure how to react to it. Haha. OH, and Magus got me a WoW gamecard, so I've been enjoying that too. Man did I miss WoW. I even made a new toon on the ALLIANCE side. *le gasp* We'll see how that works out. *snicker* James and I saw The Avengers in the theatre for our anniversary. Holy... holy shit yous guys, you GOTTA see it. Seriously. It's FUCKING AMAZING. Of course... it's been out for so long that you've either seen it already or you're not planning on it. So I'm a little late on this one, I know. It's still amazing. I also want to go see Prometheus, hopefully we'll be able to do that next week. I've heard mixed reviews about The Amazing Spiderman, and haven't decided whether or not I want to see it in the theatre. I know I will NOT be seeing it in 3D, so that diminishes the expectations of the film significantly. Meh, I'll probably wait until it's out on DVD. SO... They've (more or less) announced the finding of the Higgs boson. When the announcement first happened I was so happy I cried. Seriously. This is such a huge step for people, and for physics, and potentially opens up a world of advancement. We are truly living beyond the industrial era now, and I can't wait to see what happens as science advances. :) Hurm.... my fingers are tired, and my brain is tired, so I'm going to stop here and potentially write more tomorrow. BYE.

What a world, what a world...

To ring in the new year, Ohio had a 4.0 earthquake, Japan had a 6.8 earthquake, thousands more blackbirds died in Arkansas, and there was a huge fireball visible across 3 states (not in that order, of course). 2012 is the end, man, so everybody get down, put your head between your knees, and kiss your ass goodbye!

Or not.

The new year here hasn't been nearly as eventful. James worked, Magus worked, Joseph slept, Lori passed out and was sad she didn't get any champagne, and I decided to buy TOR. Well no, that's a lie. I decided I liked it enough that I might buy it were the option available to me, and James informed me I don't have a choice - he's using his Christmas money to buy me TOR AND Skyward Sword. It's very sweet, and very rare that he uses his money on anyone but himself, so I'm feeling a bit honoured right now. :) Of course, this does mean that I'll have to get a subscription which costs the same as WoW, and I have no hope of ever playing WoW again, but... Oh well, sacrifices, you know?

A little about my TOR 'toon, because I can: Her name is Shi'luun and she's a Sith Sorceror, level... almost 11. Haha. She's going to be Lightning spec'd, mostly because I'm not interested in heals and I'd have no idea how to play the Madness spec. Plus, DPS FTW! And my companion makes it pretty easy for me to solo group areas and quests. Of course, I'm still only level 10 so it's hard to say whether or not that will continue to be true, but groups are pretty easy to find either way. There's always someone lfg, and it's great that the people who play TOR are, so far, very nice. General chat isn't full of bullshit, spam, and insults. Woo!

I'm going to be playing with James, so uh, my current toon will soon be no more since it's currently on HIS account, BUT, the new toon will probably only have a *slightly* different name; the rest will be pretty much exactly the same. Wish I hadn't used my good name on James' account! LOL.

Ok, this post was going to be longer, but alas, I have to go to the market. I am in dire need of diapers and apples.

Baby, baby, baby OOHHH!

Bet you sang that in your head, didn't you?

This has been a hell of a year. To hell with a recap though - I don't believe in that shit; even if I did, I certainly can't remember enough for an accurate recap of 2011. Suffice it to say, the year was kind of crap and hopefully next year will be a bit better.

James has applied for a promotion with ADT, and is interviewing on Monday. I'm not sure if the position is actually management or just the highest level of customer service, but either way it's an improvement over his current position (higher pay too, woo, hope he gets it!).

Sarah's been doing everything available for her school's Theatre program. 2 plays (they're currently rehearsing the 2nd, actually), drama club, Performance class, and she's applying for the Thespian society. I think I know what she's going to be when she grows up! LOL

Joseph just turned 2, and since his birthday his vocabulary has absolutely exploded. I was worried about him, he wasn't really saying much, but now he repeats just about everything. Which.... may be a bad thing, come to think of it. O_O We'll have to keep an eye on our language for awhile!

We had to ask Lori to move out. It's not fair, and I feel bad having to do it, but what it came down to was considering a combination of our finances and Sarah's emotional state (she's been having some problems lately), and we decided it was best if she left. We're giving her a month so she has some time to try to make arrangements, and I hope that she can. I feel bad enough as it is.

So, James convinced me to try SW:TOR. I played a bit on his account this morning, and will probably play more while Joseph is napping, just so I can get off of Korriban and really get the story going (I'm playing a Sith Inquisitor) and will decide how well I like it once I'm off-world. So far it's not too bad, honestly, and while it will never EVER replace WoW for me, I'm giving it a fair shot. :) The only problem I foresee is that should I actually end up enjoying it, there's no way we can afford for both James and myself to pay the monthly fee. Which is why I stopped playing WoW in the first place.

In other news, I want WoW back. Good lord do I want it back. I miss it so much, and with all the new content I want it even more. *sob*

Magus has been up here playing Skyward Sword a couple nights a week for the past couple weeks. It looks... just... outstanding. The controller is a little buggy sometimes and has to be re-centered often, and it doesn't always move the way you want it to, but all in all the concept is so sound that the minor bugs can be overlooked. The puzzles are great, true Zelda form, and the story so far, while... minor, relatively speaking, is on par with the other games. Bravo, Nintendo, you've done it again!

Uhh. I don't really have anything else to say. Lame update, I know; lot of words but nothing of substance was said. There shall be more in the future, never fear! The blog shall rise again! Or... something. Whatever.

Hope everyone had good (decent?) holidays. 2012 is just around the corner! EVERYBODY PANIC!

:P

Current Status: Alive

(but just barely)

Where do I begin? I know, I'll start with the bad stuff, that way this post can end on an awesome note.

My left knee is failing in the worst way. I've got 2 tendons that don't want to work anymore (and possibly some ligaments), and every time I step wrong, turn wrong, move wrong, LOOK at it wrong, it hurts and then goes out. I was playing with Joseph earlier today, bouncing him on my legs, and suddenly PAIN goes flaring through my knee. I think I was making a horrible face, because Lori told me I shouldn't do that anymore. I did it anyway. Hah.

Sarah's just getting over a horrible cold, that both James and Joseph caught. James is absolutely miserable, and yesterday slept for almost 12 hours. That, of course, meant he couldn't sleep today, and just went to bed an hour ago. Poor guy. :( Joseph, on the other hand, was sick for ONE DAY. Yesterday he had a really runny nose, didn't eat anything and took a 3 hour nap, and today he's mostly better. Kid's got a killer immune system. BUUUUUT, he's teething, and has been for the last week. He's like a demon. A cranky, hungry, tired, indecisive demon who's always chewing on his hands. *sighs*

Fortunately I'm not sick yet, and neither is Lori; hopefully it stays that way. I can't afford to get sick right now, not with as much as I have to do.

We got our "new" couch (read: James' parents used to own it, and gave it to us to replace the couch that literally fell apart) recently, and it's HUUUUUUUGE. I'm pretty sure it was designed for a room shaped like an egg. That or the biggest living room known to man. It's not an L couch, but it's not a straight couch either. It's curved like 3 sides of an octagon, which means it's really obnoxiously placed, and it has a giant ottoman that fits with the curve perfectly. The ottoman opens for storage, which is cool, but my god, there's no space left in my living room at all. It's like someone came in, took a look around, and decided that oh no, all this space isn't necessary at all, let's just fill it up with useless random crap until your (my) head bursts!!!!! But it's huge and comfy and I guess that's what really matters right now. XD

Our car is fixed, to the tune of over $500. Ouch. Hopefully it won't fall apart again anytime soon.

James has pre-ordered SW:TOR online so will probably be playing officially by the 15th of December, and he's also picking up Skyrim soon. No Yule gifts for him! Bah-humbug. I still don't have any of the games I want, nor will I be able to get any until after the first of the year. No pre-orders or anything. I have too many gifts to buy. I still need to buy for the kids, and Lori and Magus, and James' family, and my family, and oh my god there's still so much to dooooooooooo!

There's a squirrel outside foraging for nuts in the leaves, right behind me next to the open window, and it's very distracting. I've seen some *very* fat squirrels this year. I saw one that was the size of a cat, holy crap! I've never seen one that big! O_O

I'm about to clean my dining room, finally. As soon as Joseph is asleep (assuming he naps at all today) I'm going to start tearing everything apart in there, organizing and tossing and putting away and generally making it awesome. I hope. There's not really a lot in there, but it's all BIG stuff, and covered in spiderwebs next to the back wall/door/window area. Ew. I wish I had a giant extendable Swiffer thing. That'd be much nicer than the broom.

I just read a book called 2012: The War for Souls, by Whitley Strieber. It was a bit squicky, and a bit typical, but not bad all in all. The beginning annoyed me because it confused the hell out of me, but I soldiered on and discovered that all in all, it wasn't too bad. It's about aliens, parallel worlds, souls, and the connection between worlds that saves everyone. Except the aliens. It's... it's a weird book. I recommend it, if you're not opposed to a bit of gore here and there, and overdone concepts and the supernatural don't bug you out.

That's about it, I guess. Nothing exciting going on here.

Life Take Two

Since I haven't written anything here in quite awhile, I figure I'll go ahead and make an extended post about what's been going on here.

Nothing.

The end.

No, ok seriously, there's very little to actually say. Sarah's doing well in school except for a couple of teacher-student misunderstandings, and got a D in one of her classes thanks to that (damnit), but that's forgivable. I don't expect her to be perfect. Hopefully, though, she'll remember to do her damn homework, ALL of it, from now on.

Joseph has been growing and learning and learning and growing. His vocabulary has hit about 30 words, but a lot of them see very irregular use. I can't wait until he's older and can decipher his speech a little better. To where "fffvvvvvit" is actually "vitamin" and "beep" is actually "truck" (he doesn't say beep for cars? i don't know why), and "nums" is NOT synonymous with both food *and* drink. But for now, it's all good.

James is getting on well at work. Still not getting paid enough, but who the hell is these days? As soon as we start getting his bonuses again, we'll be good to go. Uh... James works, yay? LOL nothing really to say here, it's work. He sits, answers calls, and comes home. Woo.

Lori's finally got a job, at a local mall. She recruits people to take surveys. Haha, she's like a telemarketer that stares at you rather than calls you. But hey, it's work, it's better than she's been able to find for the past 2 years (which is nothing, hah).

Me, well.... I've been okay. Saw my sistah Lindsey the other day for the first time in like, a year, and am really happy about that. Love you, Lindsey! I've been really irritable lately though, because I'm getting tired of having a house so utterly full of people. For such a tiny house, a lot of people live here. Sometimes it's not so bad, but frankly, most of the time it kind of makes me want to tear my hair out. It's a little better now that Lori's got a job, and I've been trying to make the best of it, but it's getting harder and harder the more time goes on, especially with how much the girl talks. Fortunately Magus is *very* out of the way and takes care of his own space, and he helps us out with financial stuffs when we need it (like when the car broke and cost $500 to fix, thanks for the help sweetheart), so having him here is easy-peasy.

I've been taking care of a bunch of housework in preparation for getting a new couch, and managed to fuck up my knee somehow. I don't even know how, just suddenly felt the urge to pop my knee and when it wouldn't pop the pain got progressively worse until I could barely walk yesterday. Today's a little better, but it keeps having these pain flare-ups and going out so I lose my balance. Even so, it's very satisfying to have done all the work I have. Although you can't even really tell anymore; it's amazing how quickly this house goes from mostly clean to FUCKING TRASHED. *growls*

Uh. Not doing much gaming right now, I've been too distracted by life. A little sad, but hopefully things will slow down soon. O_O

I guess this wasn't really that extended, huh? More when I have more to say, I guess.

Live Long and Jello.

I have no idea....

God, what am I doing? I have no idea what's going on these days. I've been so damn busy my days are sort of running together. Today is my daughter's 13th birthday and I'm very, very scared because ... well, because she's a TEENAGER now! *le gasp* I've managed to keep her alive into her teenage years. Well, now that the easy part's over... hahaha.

We're about to get a new couch. This one is completely broken down, to the point where I can barely even climb out of it when I want to stand up. Tuesday, woo!

Got back in touch with an old friend, went to see her last night. Felt good. I missed you, babe! Sorry I've been so busy!

There are a ton of games coming out and a ton more I've just discovered are coming out that I want to play, but can't afford *any* of them. Worst - with a 1 year WoW subscription you get DIII free, but I can't afford the stupid monthly charge (which is why I haven't played in... 8 months or so). Rawr!

Um... my son's almost 2, and sometimes he acts like a 4 year old and others he acts his age. It's a little disconcerting to have a baby who I have to keep reminding myself is only a year old so I shouldn't expect so much of him. Sarah was the same way, though. Geez it's hard having smarty-pants kids. o_O

James has had several days off (yay for PTO) and has been working on the kitchen for me. He's done a BUNCH of dishes and cleaned off the stove, which was CAKED with stuff from I don't even know how long ago, and is going to clean the counters. I still have to do the floor though, haha. Thanks James! *MuAh*

So I just saw this thing on cultural diversity and stereotyping for Halloween and I'm just blown away by the ignorance of some people. The whole debate is whether or not some costumes are racially insensitive (geisha, arab terrorist, etc) and my opinion is this - IF IT'S NOT YOU THEN WHY DO YOU CARE WHAT STEREOTYPE SOMEONE IS MAKING FUN OF FOR HALLOWEEN? I mean, does anyone REALLY think that anyone who dresses as a stereotype for halloween honestly believes that it's the way ALL people of that particular culture are? No. Fuck off. Grow some balls. A spine. SOMETHING, but quit getting all fucking crybaby because you're Japanese and someone's a samurai, or ninja, or geisha, or what-fucking-ever.

The end!