Chatty

In which blogdom utters in surprise "She LIVES?!?!"

My computer is still wonky and I don't think there is any hope for the likes of it at this point.  Just when I finished my "camera fund" I have to begin a "computer fund."  argh.  Nevertheless, I want to blog so I am taking a giant leap of faith that the computer will play nicely, not shutting down before I get to blog.  A BIG gamble, let me tell you.  The current time frame between sudden shut downs is about 4 minutes.  And you know how chatty I get--- 4 minutes ain't much.  But maybe if I save it every 3 minutes, I can beat the system?  We shall see.

One of the biggest tragedies of not being able to blog easily (or well) is that these last three weeks have been some of the most excited, busy weeks of our entire summer.  So much we have done, so many pictures I have taken.  About 20 minutes ago, (after the second random shutdown of the afternoon) I tried to get the pictures off of my camera (Matt said he thought he had fixed the computer problems, so I had hope) only to be told that I didn't have enough memory left to save that many pictures.  Guess how many were on my camera?  From three weeks?  Any guesses?  426.

426 pictures that I would love to share with you but can't.  Do you see how agonizing this is for me?  Here is a rundown of a few major happenings these last three weeks and a bit of jabber on the current goings-on.  I am chatty, I know.  Pictures forthcoming, someday.  I hope.

What has happened in the last three weeks?

~ Matt took a day off and we went to the fair as a family and ate cotton candy.  And when I was putting Judah's shoe on him (for the twentieth time!) Adele' wandered off and got lost.  When I found eventually found her, I wanted to just go home and never see a fair again.

~ We lost an 8 year old and got a nine year old.

~ We lost a one year old and gained a two year old.

~ Matt and I marked our 10 year anniversary two different days and two different ways, with a treehouse and boat.  Both were divine.  

~ I had the last yard sale of the season and earned $108.00 to go toward school books, which I still have not bought.  (Now that I have some money, it will happen THIS WEEK!  Not that I can stall any longer anyway.)

~ Thanks to members of the family who shall remain unnamed, we often have several dozen eggs that fall through the cracks as to  how old they are.  I, on the other hand, ALWAYS mark the dates; which is why it is so horribly cruel that I was the one to bear the stench of a rotten egg bomb blowing up on me.  It was the NASTIEST thing I have ever endured (and I have endured many a nasty-thing.  TRUST ME.)  Oh.my.goodness.  You have NO idea.  (gag.)

~ I started to re-do the school room.  The goal was to get it done before school starts but I have had a few major setbacks.  The biggest being~ when I tried to paint over wallpaper, the wallpaper peeled onto my paint roller.  So I peeled a layer of  wallpaper off and then another layer and then another layer and then it started chipping away at sheet rock.  I tried to paint over it, and it didn't work.  More wallpaper pieces would come off.  It was in tears that I realized as I worked into the morning, that I would have to get creative with that wall.  Either spend more money to re-sheetrock, spend more money to put up paneling or spend more money on more wallpaper.  But I don't WANT to spend more money.  So I am going to try something entirely different.  I am scrounging up all the old maps I can find and I am going to paste them up all over the wall.  (Anyone have any old maps, by the way?!)  It will either turn out amazing or horrendous, and I am not sure which at this point.  Wish me luck.

~ I made soap for the first time ever.  It stunk.  (NOT in a good way.)  I think I might have used rancid essential oils or something.  (They were old.)  But even still, I had great fun and I learned it was far easier than I have worked myself up to assume.  I am excited to get going with it.  I have lye and coconut oil already ordered.

~ We hunted and hatched our own Monarch butterflies.  That is always so thrilling.  I love August just for monarchs.

~ Our house currently stands on only two solid sides--- the other two have huge holes in the basement foundation wall.  The house is piled up on two sides with dirt mountains and then deep dirt caverns, exposing the foundation and the embarrassed, holey cinderblocks left standing.  We have the crazy and daunting task of re-doing two sides of our foundation and somehow living in it, open and exposed, with four bouncing children until it is done.  Daunting doesn't seem to quite cover how I feel about this.  

~ We have two picnics coming up- poor planning on my part- because now, instead of beautiful green grass and pretty flowers they get dirt mountains and deep dirt caves.  

~ I got two amazingly long letters in the mail IN ONE DAY, one included handmade goodies (swoon) and I haven't been able to make my feet touch the floor since.  Does it make me a loser that I love snail mail that much?  If so, I totally am.  A loser, that is. THANK YOU LEAH!  THANK YOU AMY! for making my day.  Heck, my WEEK!

~  Thanks to a school room vomiting wallpaper, pencils and books from Friday, a yard sale on Saturday, two birthdays on Sunday and a foundation repair on Labor Day (and into the unforeseeable future)...this house is in a state of mass pandemonium.  Don't judge me.  And NO SURPRISE VISITORS- do you hear?!?  And oh yes-  let's not forget the dead skunk somewhere over in the field which is saturating our upstairs with skunk stench as we speak.  Lovely.

Now would be a good time to visit someone....will anyone take in a poor, struggling and overwhelmed woman for a week or so?  Have mercy on me!

No seriously....PLEASE?!

:-)