No, I didn't drop off the face of the earth. Honest!

Yes, I have been lazy and haven't blogged for over two weeks. I know.
No, you can stop reminding me.

Not that anyone really HAS mentioned it. Therefore, maybe no one READS my blog very often. :P
Good thing that I don't just blog for the RAGING AND WILD DEMANDS of my readers.
(Though, really, if you WANT me to blog about something, lemme know. I can cater to some whims!)

I have totally and completely given up on my NaNoWriMo this year. Yeah, I'm not motivated.
And life is blowing up in little ways.

My kids have NO DESIRE to go to storytime. What's up with that??
(TMI ALERT: My period came and made me go all sorts of crazy. Enough so that as I was LECTURING the children about the sorry state of their shoes in their closet [i.e., that they weren't PUTTING their DANG shoes in their DANG closet ... so they can't FIND their DANG shoes. And I was TIRED of it] that Michael sent me for a time-out. In which I totally emptied the medicine shelf in our bathroom cupboard and reorganized it. So we didn't go to a science exhibit and Wal-Mart in a bigger city. But we went to a closer Wal-Mart. Didn't buy anything. And I did tell the kiddos that I was really tired of the "gimmies."
(Srsly, my daughter always asks what we're going to buy her when we go into a store. And I told her, point blank, that when she does that, I don't want to buy her ANYTHING. EVER. Yup. That's some GREAT MOTHERING TECHNIQUE. I know that Dr. Phil is going to have ME start doing his show for him. >.< NOT.)
Someone griped at Michael's work that Micheal's had the work truck for a long time. (It was supposed to be until he passed the Engineering License exam last Spring. Which didn't happen.
So... well, we'll be a one-car household for a while.
I think that I've gotten most of my grieving for my lost independence for the next six months out of the way.
It still sucks ... since it cuts into what I'd LIKE to be ABLE to do.
At least now I have an excuse for being such a homebody. Oh well.

My aunt had her toe removed. And now is back in the hospital after a weekend at home (because her doctor wouldn't okay her going into an assisted living facility STRAIGHT from the hospital. And this he put the kibosh on AFTER my mom jumped through all the hoops to get it worked out so that my aunt COULD go straight to Assisted Living to recuperate. Since my aunt doesn't heal quickly and gets infections easily).
After she's done in the hospital, she'll be in Assisted Living to recuperate now.
This has been quite the fiasco.
Especially since we were going to spend Thanksgiving with my folks. Now, our plans are a little changed.
But, hey, on the plus side, I'll get to go out and get a pedicure with the womenfolk on Black Friday. That'll be nice. (Reminder to self: Shave legs well. Just in case.)

A couple weeks ago, Michael and I had a little bit of a date night -- we helped with the Youth temple trip. We didn't get to spend a lot of time together, but it was good to get to the temple.
We did family portraits for Christmas presents last week. Shhh!!! It's a surprise. (Sorta. My mom knows that she's getting pictures. But I told her to act surprised anyways. ^_^)

The missionaries are coming over for dinner tonight. Costco lasagna, salad ... and something for dessert. Exciting. I need to do the dishes.
And, once the roads aren't so icy, we'll drive into the next town to return library books and pick up my hold. That's what I get for procrastinating. I should have done it yesterday. Oops.

Yes, we did get some snow. Crazy! I only noticed as I answered the phone this morning. The kids hadn't looked out the window at all.
It's only like ... maybe a half-inch? But the roads are icy, so all the schools in the area are closed.

I put flea medicine and a STINKY flea collar on Diana-cat. (We could only find dog flea collars ... what gives, Target?? Is there some anti-cat sentiment???)

I don't want to do the dishes. Or fold all the laundry.

I had a weird dream the other night. I had watched "Every Little Step" about the making of and the Broadway revival of "A Chorus Line," which had Tyce Dirorio (From SYTYCD, the choreographer? Ring a bell?) auditioning.
But, in my dream, he and I were just chatting. He was charming, in a non-threatening-type of way.
Which was better than the dream I had had the night before that ... Fuzzy, but full of dread. And a car. Hm.

A couple weeks ago, Bruise was being bossy ... telling Michael that he was driving the wrong way. Yup, the four-year-olds are total backseat drivers already.
So Michael and I told him that if he wanted to be bossy, we'd drop him off and let him walk home.
"No! Don't doo dat! I'm widdle and I don't know da waaaaay!" was Bruise's plaintive response.
Then he corrects Michael (who was already headed the right way) on which way to go home. :P

A couple days ago, I noticed that Bucket has a chip in her front tooth.
"Bucket, how'd you get a chip in your tooth?" I asked.
"Um ... maybe one got stuck there?"

I love my kids.
"Why are yoo laffin', Mommy?" "I'm just so happy ..."

With the snow, the kids went out in it. I went and took pictures after I got them bundled up and grabbed shoes and a jacket. And my camera.
All they wanted to do was to throw snowballs at each other.
The snow, sadly, was too fluffy for snowballs. But, hey, we looked at tracks that people had made. We saw that Michael walked out to the mailbox. And I pointed out the tire tracks from the truck. Bruise loved seeing his own "twacks!!"/footprints in the snow.

I taught the Beehives at church last week. I got a night's notice. And, since I sat in the Laurel's class last week (and they were a lesson ahead), it didn't take too long to prepare. We got through the lesson. Even with two of the girls being a TERRIBLE DISTRACTION. I was REALLY ready to just tell them, "SHUT UP or go sit in the hall. And I'll have Sister _ go get your parents, if you can't sit still and quietly."
Because THAT'S going to be all conducive to the Spirit, right??? *glowers*

I think that really sums up the last couple of weeks. Life threw up, I quit NaNoWriMo (on purpose this time), lost my running buddy (her life got busy), I need to finish cleaning and run an errand before this evening. (Wish me luck, driving in the snowy-ice.)

And I need to get ready for the holidays. *sigh* I love the holidays, don't get me wrong. But I'm still a little sad that I don't have all the presents bought and all, I have no idea what to get for Michael, and we'll be down to one car. Which does bum me out a little. Oh well.

I'll work at being thankful. After I get the dishes done. ^_^