A Year Later

Okay, I just ran across this blog and realized it was exactly one year ago today that I last posted. So, how about an update?
We're all doing okay. It's still hard to think that Mom has been gone 2 1/2 years. So much has changed and yet, still the same. I went through the old posts again and remembered her. It's so nice to see her words/comments and think of her. No wonder I miss her so much! She said so many supportive comments that I wonder how I felt like I was always doing the wrong thing all the time. I'd sure love to hear a few words of encouragement from her today, but I read the old ones and pretended they were new! :)
I'm still writing and still wondering about that fabulous elusive job. But I did fall into Teaching in Graduate School and I'm still teaching. I do love it, but the pay could be wayyyy better in a "real" job, I know. Still, some things you do for love, not money, right?
Cary and I have settled into our own home, but still hoping for kids of our own. We are still trying with our Art and that's what's important, too. Rachael is 18 and living her own life (without me) and that makes me sad, but it's the way of the world.

A Long, Long Time Ago

I used to blog here and I nearly completely forgot about it! I don't know if ANYONE will ever read this stuff, but it's precious stuff to me. My mom passed away a year and a half ago today. I've been thinking of her so much. I remembered something she said to me and then I vaguellllllly remembered where, so I searched and searched--and voila! Blogger! And I actually remembered the password; can you believe it? So, I'm thinking of updating this site. I think it would be great, but Mom's not here to add her HEEEEEE comments anymore. Sad, huh. I enjoyed reading her comments so much. They reminded me what it felt like to have her call and say, "I was thinking of you and wondering how you are." Thanks Mom, I've been thinking of you too and I know you are doing wonderfully well.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Halloween

Halloween's acomin'!!!!! I can't wait. I don't know why but All Hallow's Eve has always been my favorite holiday. Is it because you can dress up like a princess and people toss free chocolate at you? Hmmm....maybe I should seek a therapist about this. Plus, I love witchy stuff wayyyy too much for a confessing Christian. Anyway, the last couple of years we went to Guthrie for a Scottish Fair they hold at the Scottish Freemason Temple. So cool. I hope they'll have it again this year. Sometimes, it's way too cold to be running around regimental under the old kilt, if you know what I mean. We took Rachael to Tulsa for her first Scottish Games and Gathering. She and I bought matching celtic knot rings and wove hairbands in the craft tent. She seemed most taken with the Scottish Fainting Goats, even though none of them keeled over while we were there. We missed a lot of the cool stuff but managed to torture her for about 4 hours with the Ceiledh ("kaylee" = concert) but we enjoyed the dancing (Hey, Cary and I even danced a jig) and the last band really rocked. The Elder's singer is actually from Ireland and Rachael had to have the entire band's autograph which we thoroughly enjoyed asking them for!!
We also took her this weekend to a Midnight Matinee at the Broadway Theater here in Edmond. The play was called "The Passion of Dracula" and of course, afterward we again got the entire cast's autograph. I'm gonna have to get her a scrapbook, I guess. It was the first play she'd been too and I think the only thing holding her eyelids open at 2 a.m. were the stars in her eyes. She's going to be in Drama next semester (if her grades hold up). I think I'm as excited, if not more than, she is. She's currently at the Oklahoma State Fair with her "friend" Donnie and his family. *sigh* He's cute too, I know why all the girls are vying for him now.
Well, I always wondered why parents can't shut up about thier kids all the time, now I know. It's like every other thought in my brain is about her. I love having her around although I need to cut this off and do some writing while she's out of the house. I haven't learned how to concentrate with distractions yet.
Mimi, I just wanted to say that your comments ALWAYS count, even if the numbers don't roll up on the counter. Hope you are all doing well. Love ya and I'll talk to you soon.

Changes

Well, they say life is about changes right? Recently my niece Rachael has come to stay with us and though the circumstances are not ideal, secretly I couldn't be happier. We all know that my sister (Rach's Mom) has had one tragedy after another to deal with and she's really seeking help this time, so we're grateful and hopeful that everything works out well. In the meantime, Rachael has brought immense joy to my life (as usual!) and brightens my afternoons (she's not exactly Ms. Mary Sunshine in the early mornings though! heheheh sorry Rach!). My husband and I moved into our "office room" and Rachael has turned my pretty yellow bedroom into a glittery/hot pink/stuffed animal/sponge bob pillowed /Napolean Dynamite-postered teenage domain! But its her space now and I only hope she can forgive me for infringing on her closet since there's no where else to store stuff!
We got her enrolled in school and luckily she's been able to join a few classes like art and choir, next semester DRAMA! yay! These are opportunities that her old school didn't have, so I hope the fact that its a larger school won't be too hard to get used to.
My biggest fear is that I'll be so strict with her that I'll freak her right out, but Rach understands that this stuff is kind of new to me too, right? One thing I want to be is fair. Firm but as fair as possible. Consistancy, right Dad?
Well, wish me luck!
On another note, Cary and I have started school again also and this semester we have two classes together! I'm really excited about next semester, I think I'll be able to start teaching some classes-English Comp. probably. I start my tutoring position soon and I look forward to getting back to the kids. I don't know if I'll be at the same school this time or not. Cary job's are going well. He's designing lots of features for The Vista and publishing 1-2 political cartoons a week as well. He's still drawing caricatures at Frontier City until October and he's still loving it! He's had quite a few offers for freelance work this week and so he's darn busy what with all this going on! Don't worry though, he still has plenty of time to help Rach figure out Pre-Algebra! lucky him...
I guess thats about all my new news. I need to get busy on my homework, fun fun, fun on a Saturday night, huh?!
Love you guys and I hope to hear from you soon!

Crazy

Hey you guys, Sorry I haven't posted in a loooong while.

I've had loads of company since Rachael was here. First my mother, father and brother-in-law came to visit for a few days. We went to Pelican Bay, Frontier City, and the Zoo on our whirlwind last vacation before school starts. Lots of fun but totally exhausting. Plus, I felt really bad cause Cary had to work all but one of the days they were visiting. We did play lots of poker, though. Texas Hold 'Em is soooo addictive, now if only we could play with 'real' money!

After my housefull left, my Godson came to visit. I ended up back at the Zoo again. We had lots of fun! I lucked out too cause the Zoo has Wayback Wednesday's and it only cost me 3 dollars for admission and all-day tram tickets for the both of us. We used the extra dough to buy some nectar and fed the Lorikeets! I'll post up some zoo pictures soon! Gerik got caca'd on by one of the lorikeets and I got pecked on the finger by one really aggressive bird, but other than that the other ones were docile and flew right up to you. They ate right out of our hand--so cool!

Gerik's momma is my best friend and her life is full of so much drama that even I get exhausted from it all. (Sorry Mary, if you're reading this) But I had to share this because really it's too funny! So Mary's current man is a really nice guy, but lets just say that he has some Expensive Habits. It's more that he's not matured yet. And to be honest he is 11 years younger than her. So the potential for relationship "issues" existed long before the actual issues appeared. After nine months of on-again/off-again, she's finally had it with the whole thing. I say this with my lips clamped tightly together because I've heard this song before. But here's the funny part, every time things get a little rough, Prince Charming runs over to his Mama's Castle, we'll just call her the Queen for our storytelling purposes okay. So tonight, the Queen takes it upon herself to come over to Mary's house and tell her off. Okay, I've heard of mama's boys, but this is really too much. When she told me about it she was laughing but I know that she was deeply offended. The Queen told Mary that she should:

A) Not try to change Prince Charming into something he's not--( excuse me? get your driver's license and a GED is NOT trying to change someone, it's just a suggestion for improvement!) Apparently, the Queen feels that Prince Charming is NEVER going to change his ways. What an opinion to have of your own son !

B) Clean her house--(oh yes, you heard me right!) I have it on good authority that the Queen's castle is ten times worse than Mary's, too. She said Mary needed to get a steam cleaner! hehehe

C) Put Gerik on medication for ADD. (Well, this suggestion might not be completely wrong, but what say we get the boy diagnosed before we start drugging him up?)

D) That Mary needed to call Prince Charming and apologize immediately for everything. (Huh?) The Queen told Mary that she needed to have a nice long talk with Prince Charming because talking things over is a "Caucasion thing" to do. (Excuse me? Apparently, Seminole/Creek American Indians don't discuss things over with each other--who knew?)

Why Mary didn't throw this Queen out on her royal ass, I will never understand. She said she just laughed because she was so shocked. The idea that this woman thought she could tell two grown people how to manage their lives is astounding. The nerve of her is daunting. Would you want a woman like that for a Mother-in-law?

I told Mary that that should have clinched the whole topic for her at once. Tied the whole relationship up in a nice little package with a pretty little bow. Nice and ready for the trash.

Bless her heart.

I Have Decided. . .

Hey everyone, hope you're have a good day. I just decided that there must be a "reason" why I haven't found a job yet. It's not as if I haven't been looking, so there must be some kind of divine intervention going on. . . I decided to concentrate a lot of energy into my novel and the new screenplay.
The novel is still stewing around in my brain, but I've made a lot of progress on the current screenplay and I'm pretty excited about it. I think I will go ahead and take another screenplay class this fall before concentrating on my novel, which will be my Thesis. The screenplay (don't want to give too much about it away) is a sequel to one of my favorite movies as a kid---those who know me well can try to guess which one. I don't want to tell the premise yet because then it's easy to lose momentum with a long-term project like this. But I did want to say that this project will be a collaboration between Cary, Amy, and me. I've never really worked on a group project like that so I hope it will be a good experience.
I must say that Cary and I often collaborate our "thinking" on projects together, but usually it's just kicking ideas around-this time we're actually both going to do the writing. Amy will be one of our Idea people, I don't know how she'd have time to hands-on write stuff out, after all she's mothering four kids right now!
Well, I just wanted to update everyone and let them know that I'm still around. I'm still writing, and I'm still looking for gainful employment. I think maybe the Universe is telling me to focus on my writing for right now because I have a bad habit of flitting around things. I don't spend enough time on any one thing to become a quote/unquote expert on it-except for my passion for good stories. Finally, I have found the thing I want to do for the rest of my life. I want to become an expert at my craft.

My niece Mimi

Hey Mimi !!! So glad to hear from you! Just wanted you to know that *some* of us still remember how you sing. . . If I remember correctly, it was LOUD. :) hehehe. Enthusiasm goes a long way, anyway. I love this picture of you, I think you were about 3 here.

So, I was thinking about silly Granny stories (sorry, Mom-Rachael started it!) and I remembered the Awful Clown Fiasco. Mimi, I don't know how well you remember this but Mom had hired a clown she met at the GROCERY store for your seventh b-day party. The guy (I Swear) was drunk when he showed up. He was NOT a Happy Clown and he made all your friends unhappy. He couldn't do balloon animals or tricks, he opened all your presents for you, "helped" you blow out the candles, he even cut your cake!!!! I can't remember how exactly, but he made you cry (go figure) and this picture is of you trying to be really brave.

You could hardly smile at the camera-*poor thing*. We all tried to make the best of it, but really the guy was a real downer. To make matters worse, he wouldn't leave. Finally, A.D. had to take him outside and tell him to go home. It was only funny because it was so very sad. The moral of this story is "never hire a clown from the grocery store." Mimi, I love you and I hope you enjoyed this one!