There was a improptu backyard football game at my house this afternoon. Watching my boys and my husband play, I was reminded of how incredibly fortunate I am.  Fortunate to be married to an awesome guy, and even more fortunate to have such wonderful kids to raise..... Just sitting at the window, watching my boys play....good times.  Really good times.

My kids got their school pictures back today..... This is our daughter, Shea-Ann.  She just turned 12... This is our son, Davey.  He's 10. This is our youngest, Jacob.  He's 8. Those are my kids!  

12 years ago today I was again doing my part for the world population. Shea Ann made her debut at 1623 on October 17th, 1992.  She decided that she wanted to try coming out one foot and butt first, causing quite a stir amongst the medical staff as she had been head down only a week before.  So, I ended up with an epidural in the OR having a C-Section.  It was the weirdest sensation...I could feel things going on in my belly, but it wasn't exactly painful.  I felt...

My daughter will be 12 this month.  She's in the midst of puberty, and we're all having a hard time with it.  Her dad especially. See, when he left to do a year in Greenland last summer, he left behind a pleasant girl who, even though she was showing some physical signs of maturity, was for the most part good-natured and sociable. He came back to a pimply faced, 'A' cup wearing, armpit shaving, growling monster of a child who will bare her teeth and snarl when asked what she want...

I wrote an article about people having nasty houses (and I mean filthy houses): Link It got me thinking about my pet peeves around the house are. I don't like a dirty tub.  I have to take a bath in a clean tub...and I get so paranoid about it that often I'll wipe out the bathtub before I run a bath, just to be sure it's clean. I don't like it when the cushions on the couch are haphazardly tossed all over.  I'm just not comfortable sitting on a messy couch. But my absolute...

I've been watching this show on Lifetime called 'How clean in your house'.  These 2 British women go into people's houses and clean up after them, all the time making clucking noises and disparaging comments about "filth" and "pigstys". And they're right.  I'm not the worlds best housekeeper, but I'm not filthy, nor is my home dirty.  I can sleep at night knowing there are a couple of plates and a mug in the sink, and I don't freak out over a little dust... sometimes my&nb...

...is my two front teeth!  (well, one front tooth) Jacob Solomon, September 18th, 2004. *sigh*...I do love that little ol' boy.....

Here's our new house..... This is the tree that's in our front yard...the one that the poo flinging squirrels hang out in: And this is the Jeep that we got for $800....: I'll take more this weekend...but we're pretty happy with our small-town vanilla life!

Jake lost his upper front tooth today.  He lost a lower one last week, so now he looks like a pro hockey player when he smiles. He's pretty proud of his gap..and school pictures are coming up at the end of the month, so we'll have a permanent record of how he looked when he lost his teeth.  I'm a bit sad about it - he's my little guy, the baby of the family, but he's growing.  He's the last kid I'll get to see lose his teeth ... it's just kind of poignant. In other news from ou...

I'm mean, and my kid hates me. Why, I hear you ask?  Am I forcing him to get shots?  Am I making him shave his head? Pulling his teeth out with pliers? Could I be taking all his toys and games away on a whim because I feel like it? None of the above. I'm making him put his socks and shoes on and go to school. Yes, I the meanest mom in the whole world. *sigh*...welcome to Monday morning, Karen.

My almost 12 year old daughter saved up and bought herself 'The Sims' for PS2 a couple of weeks ago.  I watched her playing for a bit this afternoon.  Her characters were being retards...one of them overflowed the toilet, then slipped in the water on the floor and hit their head, and the other one caught themselves on fire whilst using the stove.  She didn't try to save herself, she just stood there and burned to death. I asked Shea if her characters were..."all there".&nbs...

....I was laboring with Jake.  Right around this time in the afternoon I was at 7 cm still, I had been stuck there for most of the day it seemed.  My doc had agreed to turn down the pitocin whilst he went off to a wedding (I encouraged it, don't worry), and when he came back at 4ish he turned it back on again.   About an hour later I declared I wanted some more morphine, so the nurse checked me.... and I was at 8 so they couldn't give me any more.&n...

I'm pathetic. I have no kids at home tonight.  My daughter is sleeping over at a friend's house, and my boys are sleeping over with their buddies across the street.  I have freedom, more importantly freedom on a summer Friday night. I could go downtown to a bar, I could go to a movie, I could call my friends and go drink and dance at a club...the small town of Rapid City, SD, is my oyster.  I don't have to be home at a certain time, I could roll up at 7 am and no-one would k...

I wrote an article a while ago about my retirement dreams ( Link ). Lonesome and I have talked about my dream extensively since then.  He wants to do it too! He said that he'd like to go into town once a week or so for supplies, but apart from that he'd be happy living in the sticks.  I said that I wanted to 'get away from it all' every day, not just on vacation.  He even agreed to keeping chickens and hasn't put up much opposition to the pig idea either.  He suggested th...