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just checkin' in here. believe it or not, i am not trying to avoid posting. i am aware that i need to get back to my blog challenge but i have been too busy the last few days to really focus on my dream wedding. so, we will return to our regular programming shortly.

Let Me Get On With It

Today is Day 7 of the blogging challenge however because i skipped yesterday i'm on #6. i have been procrastinating doing this post because, honestly, this question completely overwhelms me. just the word "pet" sets my head spinning but include in the same sentence "love" and "keep" and my mind is running a cazillion miles a minute which increases my heart rate, brakes me out into a cold sweat, and almost sends me to bed with an anxiety attack. read on and perhaps you will get the idea.

#6. A Photo of An Animal You Love to Keep As a Pet.

what is this asking anyways? is this asking for a photo of a current pet? or this asking for a photo of a dream pet? i have developed quite a love/hate relationship with pets in the past 5 years or so. mainly because of these...

yes i know. they are super cute and fun and a joy and blessing and my little miracles but they are WORK. these critters require everything a pet requires; to be fed, sheltered, showed affection, and kept updated on their vaccinations. by the time i'm done caring for these gals and a dude, i'm out. i don't feel like i've got leftovers to spend on a "pet". so we don't have any right now.

of course, we recently moved so there is this. yes, it is really ours...pretty, eh?

we have plans for this, which i will refer to as the "back 5" which is really probably closer to 7. let me specify...acres. it just sounds better to say the back 5 or the front 5. there's about 10.5 all together and part of the front 5 has been designated for the garden. most of "OUR" plans are really SUPERMAN's plans. his big dream is to get one of these... sometime i'll show ya' how superman looked AFTER he held this guy...

he would also like some of these...




and maybe these...

We've briefly discussed this:

i'm not sure if he's keen on it though.

can you hear me moaning with excitment yet?

this is the ironic part. people who grew up with me may tell you its seems crazy that i'm anti-pet now. thats because my whole life from the time i was 12 to 21 basically revolved around animals and my love for them. but honestly, now, i can't remember Why.The Heck. i liked 'em so much.

back then, i showed sheep with the FFA...i think the most sheep i had at one time was 20 or so, after the lambing.

i obsessively, compulsively, would NOT give up on getting a job as a veterinary assistant. i was determined that i would be a veterinarian.

i lived and worked on a government operated sheep ranch for two springs and a summer. its amazing that i didn't morph into a sheep, i loved 'em that much. actually, i'd like to think i was a pretty darn good shepherd (there's a difference between a sheep herder and a shepherd). i was literally a sheep midwife, having delivered somewhere in the range of three to four hundred lambs.

so what? my priorities changed. i decided to go on a proselyting mission for the church i am devoted to instead of pursue vet school. can you believe i was assigned to Australia, one of the world's top producers of lamb meat and wool. when i go home a year and half later, though i didn't change my declared major, i did change the emphasis of my major from vet tech to food industry (primarily studies in human foods) in order to marry superman. within 18 months, i became a mother. my prioritys have became serving God and my family.

now, i am feeling compelled to say that our "pet history" has not been great; perhaps interesting though.

our first pet as a married couple was a coati mundi a.k.a south american racoon. yep, his name was taz, short for tazmanian devil, cuz he acted like one. we kept him for about a year until he decided to jump on Q.'s head one day and superman thought maybe it'd be safer to sale him. yes, superman has a fascination with exotic primates. this is one of those things i found out AFTER the honeymoon...i think? maybe not...heck i don't remember.

That is THE TAZ. the actual one. in our smalltown backyard tree. this is NOT A JOKE! Our first venture into pet owner's territory was a testosteronal, hyped-up exotic animal who was neurotically attached to superman. remind me to write about him sometime. he's got a great story.

Next, we dabbled in fish for a bit...that was neat until superman discovered the not-so-joys of cleaning the tank every month. when Q. decided to clean the tank herself by pouring a bottle of cleaner in, it almost killed the algae eaters. i mean, one was dead and somehow superman revived him. guess he got him outta' there in the nick of time. thankfully, some nice people at church had a need for the algae eaters in their own big, empty tank. the other fish had gotten sick and died of who knows what.

then superman brought home thomas, named for thomas the train (Q. was obsessed at the time). turns out thomas used up all his 9 lives within a year (no kidding that cat was into all kinds of trouble) cuz one day he turned up shot and very dead. needless to say, that was sad for the kids. ('cept i don't recall audi crying at all). Q. still had dreams about thomas long after he was gone.


our last walk into pet-hood was with me-me, a crazy jack russel mutt puppy the runts and superman begged, cajoled, and finally caved me into accepting when i was hugely pregnant with sunny. the proof about how much we DISLIKED her is in the fact that i have not one picture of that maniac dog. shortly after we moved to the missouri countryside, superman decided he'd had enough of her dragging in the neighbors' belongings and shredding dirty diapers all over the front 5, that he, well let me just say, she doesn't live with us anymore...NO! he did NOT shoot her...she's just...gone. all kinds of stuff can happen to a dog in the country. just ask the neighbors.

i have one runt in love with these. we were so happy when gramma decided to give hers to someone else (p.s. this is not the one gramma had):




we've already been promised one of these (he's actually probably needing to be picked up anyday now):

AND finally last but not least, our most interesting, upcoming new pet project will be this (once again, this is no joke*cringe and a hard swallow*):

THIS, my friends, is a story for another day. just one more to add onto the growing list that i will have to do once this 30 day thing is over. maybe i should just stick with this? do you think i can get away with it?

More of Me Yippee!

#5. A Photo of Myself 2 years Ago

oh Yes am i excited about this one! Not the best photo that's out there of me but that might have something to do with my "condition" (insert sarcasm). two years ago i was around 30 weeks pregnant with my #4, sunny. good grief i was large. and i look really happy about this photoshoot too...completely superman's idea *rolling my eyes*, of course i am grateful now because i don't think i have many pictures of myself recently, let alone two years ago AND definately not when i was in this "condition" with sunny. you know when you have your first kid, you take thousands of pictures to document every little thing about your pregnancy and then of the baby and all the cute faces and stuff it does but by the time you get to #4. well, you've given away so many brain cells to the other ones that you're either too dang tired, forgetful, or lazy... more than likely a combination of all three. the end

My #1 Gal Pal

#4. My Favorite Photo of My Best Friend

"it's been said that everlasting friends can go long periods of time without speaking and never question the friendship. these types of friends pick up like they just spoke yesterday, regardless of how long its been, or how far away they live, and they don't hold grudges. They understand that life is busy...but you will ALWAYS love them." anonymous

this gal has been in my life for almost 20 years. she has been there for me no matter what or when or how. she loves me for me and knows me straight through. she is the sister i never had. this picture shows how beautiful her outsides are, but her insides are even better. love ya' girl!

Day 3 of the Challenge

My Idea of A Perfect First Date

my thought is that i've been married for almost a decade so i gave up first dates A.whiiiiile ago and my next thought was to try to remember all the "first dates" i've been on in my short life and decide if any of them were my idea of perfect for a first date. my very first date ever definately missed the mark (though my friends had good intentions) and after that the "firsts" all seem alright. i think what this comes down to is whether you like who you're on the date with and THAT is what makes it perfect.

Mrs. Foodie?

Today I will be discussing food and my relationship with it. Actually, i'm just being cheesy...#2 is Something I Ate Today. There it is. Down there. Chex Muddy Buddies. I decided i was going to make these on my last grocery trip because i had a swagbucks coupon I could spend on Chex cereal. i saw the recipe on the side and thought this would make a great afterschool snack. I made this batch up and took it to a pot-luck lunch surprise 5oth birthday party for a friend. And mates! did it go over well! If you like chocolate and peanut butter and have a sweet tooth in general, then this will be your love handle's best friend.

To Get Back Into the Habit

The other day i was talking to my friend Alida and i told her i needed to start blogging again. She had done a 30-day challenge and i thought this might be a good way to help me get back into the swing of things. i used to love to write and i thought, egotistically speaking, that some of my stuff was kinda' funny. Over the past year or so I feel like i've lost touch with that side of me and am hoping to test it out again. I am going to say upfront this is going to be cheesy (i think Alida used the word LAME-O), 80% self-centered, and if everything goes well, hopefully habit forming.

K; #1. A Photo of Myself and How My Day Went

Alright there I am, up there...this is a really recent picture. Now about my day.

there's a short version, a short version with highlights, and the loooonnnggg version. one, two, three eeny miny moe and the short version with highlights is the winner.

there's the average daily stuff, like taking two hours to really get out of bed, feed the runts, clean up poo, mop up food, and run late getting to where i need to go. later, it was cook some dinner that didn't sound appetizing then overcooking (even less appetizing...actually it was better than expected), make the pile of clean laundry bigger, listen to the runts fight in the bath, and ask them fifty times to get in bed.

next, is the extra-ordinary, above average not-so-daily stuff such as, superman asked me on a lunch date! we went to this place called Sweet Greens, a small town version of SouperSalad, small town inflated prices included, then he suggested we go take a walk at the park. Afterall, it was too gorgeous outside to be inside soooo...romantic, right? plus, while the dinner was overcooking, the runts were outside, barefoot, picking weeds and piling them on my front porch because they wanted to make me a bouquet (okay i made up that last bit about the bouquet).

then there's the out-of-this-world-i-can't-believe-it-finally-happened stuff like my #1, Q., biting into a homemade pretzel and crack! oh no she's screamin' like a baby with her head tilted back "Well don't swallow it! Spit it out! Spit it ALL out!" then her seeing the blood and "I'M BLEEEEEDIIIINGGG!" at about 100 decibils higher than she was screamin' a second ago. is my #1 really this old?

Bottom Line: My day was above average for exciting, below average on stress, and pretty much fine by me.