Odd Bird, Good Duck...

Mosquito's are the devil, always have been, always will be. There are several other bugs I feel this way about, but these are the ones driving me up a wall right now.

Sunday night, my younger brother and his family came over, we sat outside around the fire pit and roasted marshmallows and re-initiated dads fire pit for the new season. we weren't out that long, or so it felt but it was long enough for me to get 5+ bites on each leg and at least 2 or 3 on each arm.....

This, on top of being the first night with my CPAP machine might explain why I'm awake now at about 2:30 and can't fall back to sleep, and am quite cranky despite what feels like some decent sleep, despite it only being about 3-4 hours.

( Speaking of my CPAP machine... )

Today mom and I went shoping. She had a coupon for Bath & Body works, and wanted to check out the pinata's that the 5 Below had. She let me have one of the mini candles she got, it's the Limoncello, which is OMFG orgasmic (to me anyway). I got all my niece's and nephews their birthday gifts too, so that's something off my personal list of things to do! I always have that tiny little moment of wishing I could get them something better, but in general, I do pretty good for what I can afford.

Mom was reminded as we were looking at lip stuff that she had something she'd grabbed for me at work and had forgotten to give me the day before...


it's a key-chain(I collect key-chains), shaped like a golf ball....


That's a lip balm XD.It even has a nice little inner lid to keep the lip balm better contained in it's half of the inside! This is a good thing, since I have a tendency to forget(avoid) my potted lip balms, since the having to apply them with a finger annoys me.

This key-chain/lip balm is a giveaway type thing from the rehab unit at the hospital my mother works at. I haven't tried it yet, but it smells really good when I open it, very vanilla-y.


I meant to share this at Easter, but it kinda got lost in the shuffle of things. This was my "big chocolate bunny" in my basket. Mom got me the phone more so cause it was purple than it was a phone. They didn't have any purple chocolate cats. The name and location of the place is written on the label in the second pic. They've got a lot of neat stuff, of what I saw of what my mom had, and hearing what my aunt got her family. We've got alot of places that do handmade/customizable chocolates and candy around here.

This was ok, it's a white chocolate, which is my least liked, but for white chocolate, it was ok. I prefer dark


I kinda wish they'd have made a thinner shell, and then just filled it with dark chocolate, than just this really thick shelled thing they did...but it was still really cute.


And to round up the post, proof that the cats can all be not only in the same room, but on the same bed, and no one will 'melt' despite what Puddums might say ;D

I'm hiding out from yard work ;)

Not that I mind doing yard work, to an extent, but I just don't have the energy right now.

The squeak my new chair makes when I rotate in it is confusing the bejeebers out of Duchess, though the fact that my brothers dog is here today probably doesn't hurt that.

I found out today that the seemingly random aches and pains the my niece started complaining of regularly a couple weeks ago are looking like she's inherited RA from her mother. My mother and brother missed the sarcasm dripping from my voice when I responded with "fun  times".

I'm mourning my diet.

Mourning the fact that I have to change my eating habits...

Mourning the fact that aside from working on eating something when I first get up, I haven't really succeed in getting anywhere...

But I have gotten better at eating when I first get up, and I have been drinking mostly Crystal Light and water, which is a lot better than all the juice and soda that I was drinking before.

But I still feel bad that I haven't done better.

<.< and we won't even talk about the exercise part...

And now I need to tell my bed to stuff it and go find something to ignore the call to nap.

So, my family being us, we have what I call "floating Christmas" meaning we figure out the best day as close to actual Christmas that we can all get together to exchange gifts and just get to spend a bit of time together. last year it was the day after New Years, this year it was the day after Christmas, fun.

while I'm sure I'll talk about our adventures some in the next fapchat, but at the moment I'm done in from the "get the house clean/get the gifts wrapped/mom's crazy ass schedule stress", and the looming "crap we're hosting the new years party" stress to really want to do much more than show of my pretty sparklies and squeal about them, so

( My sparklies! )

I should really be sleeping, my brothers leaving sometime tomorrow morning, I'd like to be up to say bye to them.

There's nothing quite like a police person cracking your back door open and calling through the house at just past 6 AM to wake you up before you're really ready to wake up....

Apparently my grandmother decided to....I don't know, go for a walk? walk home herself? and in the rain too. One of the neighbors saw her, I'm not sure how far down the road, but I assume in the general direction of her own home.

*sigh*

Grand-mom's here this week, cause she just had cataract surgery on her one eye, and with that, comes a series of drops that have to be applied  3 times a day, with 5 minutes in between each drop, and we want to make sure those get done right and all.

So now we apparently have to keep the house locked down to be able to go to bed, or do something as simple as take a shower and not worry that the old woman has gone wondering off down the road.

*sigh*

So, after talking to mom, my brother will have to have his gallbladder out, just not immediately. that's nice, gives him time to clear a good time for it and get things sorted out with work and whatnot.

Last night after helping my dad dig down the hill for the propane, my uncle took it upon himself to cut down a large chunk of the bushes in front of our house, even though mom and dad had decided to hire a guy to come out and take them out. So now, there's ten times more sunlight coming through my windows than before, because my room happens to be in the corner of the house where the bushes had to come out. it feels weird, because I'm used to a certain level of brightness in my room during the day, but overall I'm glad, and I really hope that once the problem that causes the leak in the bedroom below mine is fixed that whatever is planted back into that area is very low lying plants. Not only because I like a sunny room, but because now I can actually see things outside my windows besides bushes XD.

*sigh* and now its time to don my "yard-working" clothes and trudge out to schlep bricks and sand to help my father finish laying the paver stones for the propane tanks. joy.

I had fun, my family keeps getting bigger, which I suppose is a good thing.

My eldest brother and his wife and kids came up to see us the day after Christmas, and stayed for a week. at thanksgiving, because I let him and his family use my room, every time he and I were in the room at the same time, he'd thank me for letting him use my room, the bed was comfy, but the room was awfully purple. so this time, a few days before they were to come up to visit, I went through and gathered every purple thing I could and put it in my room. pity is I didn't take a picture like I wanted, but it was fun. they got her on Friday night, and it took him till Sunday night to notice. I'd say I'd take it another step and paint my walls purple and get purple carpet but, as much as I like the color, I don't like it that much. and the fabric that I draped everywhere, which was how I got the majority of my room turned purple, that kind of thing annoys me, it only passes in my closet as a way to hide my storage area in the side I leave open most the time. It was fun, the whole barrage of "paint your room green" has gone up, but it was fun, and worth it.

if people beg me enough I'll set the fabric back up and take a pic, but you gotta beg.

as for my growing family, I have one cousin who's due any day now, her due date was the 27th of December, and as of right now, we've not gotten a call saying she had the baby yet. and we'd better or I'll poke my cousin-in-law, cause he knows I need to know, I've got a bib to put a name on.

another cousin, she announced on Christmas Eve that she was pregnant, this will be their second. I swear, theses people don't want to give me a chance to work on my own cross-stitch projects, they keep having babies and getting married.

I did manage to get one thing made, two actually, but I can't say what they are, cause one person hasn't opened theirs yet, yes Becca, that'd be you, Stella got the other one. its not a cross-stitch though, but it is a crafty thing. I'm having a real slacking on the picturing of my crafts...when you open it Becca take a pic for me will you.

anyway, that's all I can think of that's new, I've got loot shots, cause its just something that seems to have become a tradition, not sure how, but its fun.

( The Loot )