Just set up a site feed but I am not sure what it does

New Friends

I have been inviting new friends to come and join us is our little wonderland and hopefully they will. Both of you have administrative control on this account so you can invite who ever you want also. Only requirement is that they be female and actually want to contribute. Due to the new additions I have to change tehname of the blog. Both are younguns and don't want to be grouped with whiney old ladies. New Title under consideration is Wisdom of the ages - Whiney Old Women and some Younguns. Feel free to submit any other title for consideration or if you get an urge change them everyweek and keep it interesting. :0)

Target : Lullaby Club

Target : Lullaby Club

This is the Target Registry. I have made the registries go as direct as possible but if they don't work just type in her name and run the search

Walmart.com - Gift Registry Details

Walmart.com - Gift Registry Details

This is the Walmart Gift Registry

Correction

I have been informed that I got it wrong. Miss Emily will here on the 19th not the 16th

Gosh I can see that baby clear as day...and it's neat to see it, even though you know I frown on such interventions...(ultrasound)... As self-appointed god-aunt, I feel more bonded to the wee one.

More Baby Stuff

She is due on May 16 and being a poor unwed but loved college student and mother she is accepting all gifts. Wants me to post her registry to the blog and I just might. Oh well that is as exciting as my day gets. April would not allow the doctor to actually tell her the sex but he did write it down on paper for great grandma. PAper is now sealed in envelope waiting for mailing. Unfortunately the doctor did slip a couple of times and besides I already know its a girl, so why would I worry. You get very strange looks when you tell the doctor you know its a girl because you spoke to her in the dream. I gues it is a little weird but at least they can talk at 2 which make them far more interesting dream companions.
Sweet Dreams everyone.

Babies and more Babies

Spent this afternoon at the baby docs with April, She finally had her first ultra sound. As far as we can tell Miss Emily is doing well. She worked very hard at moving about to avoid clear pictures but we did get a few. I am poting one below it is of course fuszzy and hard to read. Top left og picture is where the top of her head is and you can see both eyes nose and the arm and hand she has stuffed in her mouth. If even with this help you can't decipher move to the right and back up a little,:-_|

The Yellow Brick Road

Ah...Tiles and babies! Have lots to say, but Darrel is off today and we are going down the yellow brick road to Wichita for a day of shopping and freezing. (High expected of 19 degrees today - wind chills below zero!) Will blog when I get home, provided I'm not too worn out and dazzled by the Wizard!

hm link didn't work...trying again

I click on the link button here on the Post screen, then type in the link, but when I go to preview, the link is gone..what's up with that?

Yes, Julie, is preggers with her sweeeeetie new husband, an internet 'find', and they are deliriously happy after eighteen months of marriage. My light in the darkness. Sue, my other sister had a mastectomy a year or so ago, and is having chemo/radiation, and will not be getting pregnant anymore in her lifetime. Yes, you learned to tile on our floors and I watched and learned, then consulted with Les as I did my first job (the showroom floor- link below) This is the main downstairs bathroom yes, where they tiled to drywall originally (idiots). I have replaced the rotten drywall and falling-off-tile with wonderboard and doing a Southwesternish style design with 2x2 buttercream and wisteria (cream and purple) tile. I will post some pics of other stuff as I shoot new things I make (too rare these days). Love your nostalgia stories, the pony at five is precious. The nasty diapers though, yuck, I get po'd when ppl leave cigarette butts on my 'parking lot'. On Mondays there are at least 15 cars usually for Charley's class, so it really is like a parking lot. Trying to organize the driveway to indicate where people should park......it's interesting.

If I remember correctly it was doing floors for you that I learned to tile. Which sister is getting older and is preggers? Julie?
You should post more pictures to the blog you can even sell your stuff here it will take html. Considering putting up a few items myself. We always like seeing pictures of your pottery. Dona has as much pf it as I do and she makes more money you might even get her to buy some. Bathtub surround in the downstairs bath?

Day was fairly uneventful, yelled at one customer. It was kind of cool he was driving too fast and didn't code in at the gate properly, I took a short cut through a corridor and cut him off at the pass. Stopped my little golf cart right in front of his car and made him stop while I yelled at him. They act like it is such an inconvenience to code every car at the gate and yet they don't want me to let unauthorized people near their storage. They don't seem to understand that they can't have it both ways. In order for security to be effective everybody has to foolow the rules. I realize the bar stays up for 10 seconds and they get impatient, but get a grip for gods sake. Also a a few people with dirty diapers this week. Who in their right mind throws dirty diapers on the grounds of a storage facility, out their car windows or anywhere else but the trash. Thats why God made ziplocks so you don't have to smell them on the way home. Its tacky. Not to mention being a bio hazard. Corpus Christi has such possibilities but the residents seem to delight in throwing as much trash as possible on the streets. It doesn't make sense.

Did i mention I am tiling my bathtub surround? Been falling down since before 1997 (!) and it's probably one of the most conservative designs I have ever come up with. Almost halfway done now, I'll photo it when I'm done.

It's my sister's birthday today. She is 24 weeks pregnant and huge, my brother sent me a movie file but I havent' gotten it to run yet. She has court today too, some divorce BS involving money of course. My mom wanted to wear party hats into court, make faces and sing happy birthday to her. I wanted to go too!!!!

Puzzles and Life

When I learned to tile, and did my showroom floor, I felt it was intuitive and natural, and like a puzzle. Then, working on the Tempe Project, I *loved* putting the tile panels together in their proper layout and my boss, an anal retentive photography artist, was happy that I was able to put them together, because even with a paper tracing of the layout, and the painting and texture on the tiles making it obvious, she just didn't have the knack for it that I did. My puzzle at the moment is how to make what I do pay more money...and how to juggle what money I do have creatively. Also, how to play the court game.

Oops and Bugs

I hate bugs Ants invaded my sugar glider cage today. Good old fashioned fireant. Had to raid and everything. Sugar gliders fine. Onery as usual currently chewing and climbing on hubby. Living on land that was a dairy for 50 years has its disadvantages even if it is a beautiful new building.

-DeeT's 70s Page

-DeeT's 70s Page
Oops was because yesterday I promoted that web site and yet I never put the link on the page.
Heres to trying one more time.

OOps

Puzzle Me This..

Okay, B - If life is a puzzle, I've decided mine must be one of those abstracts that has no straight edges to help you figure it out. I think the lesson there is that I"m not SUPPOSED to figure it out! Just enjoy the pretty shapes and colors - even the dark and scarey ones.
Paragraph a day, huh? I didn't know we had a quota. Okay - so I probably knew and subconsciously decided to use my selective memory to forget. I seem to be getting increasingly good at that and at procrastinating. I viewed my move to Colorado as an opportunity to change a lot of things about myself. I think the universe decided I wasn't going so I would be forced to make the changes on my own and quit looking for reasons to do these things - just DO THEM!
Everything here is covered in snow and ice and it's bitter cold. Looking out the window, it's pretty, and I try to appreciate its beauty, but DAMN it's cold! Months ago my chickens and ducks quit laying eggs. Oddly enough, now that we are in the heart of "real" winter here, they are laying eggs like no tomorrow. Gives me hope that spring really is just around the corner!

70s or Bust

I have been thinking about using this space to record memories, maybe someday my children will run across it and find me hidden away in these bits and pieces of nonsense that I record intermittently in my cyber brain pad. Things like the things I remember most from childhood and perhaps thanks to the people who raised me for giving me the various qualities that make me alive. My. Favorite early memories are riding the horses with my parents. We had two horses, my mothers named copperbell and my fathers named KIngfish. King fish was a huge black horse. Stallion in my young mind. The earliest pictures of me on the horse are when I was about 1 and while I do not remember that excact day I do remember many others. The pasture where they were kept was located at the foot of South mountain in Phoenix. We irrigated it monthly and I just loved playing in the knee deep water, Which as I think of it now must have been chock full of horseshit, but that never registered with my child's mind. The irrigation came out of a cement mount at the back of the field and I used this as a small slide. The cool water running down my summer tanned thighs.

Other days we would ride the horses up the mountain. I would be mounted in front of my father, my favorite place to ride and I remember an intense feeling of comfort, warm snuggling into my fathers white t-shirt. There was a small store built of stone at the foot of the mountain where we would stop during every trip for refreshments. You remember Astro Pops Those sharp pointy long lollipop with the spiral colors and the wax base. If you sucked on them just right you could stretch the end and create curled designs with the pointy tip. Writing about it now reminds me of how sharp those things were. We weren't allowed to run with sissors but we always ran with those things in our mouth. I don't remember much of the actual rides other than the store and the ongoing presence of cactus and scrub brush. The desert is pretty in its way but it is rough everywhere, I prefer soft forests filled with moss nowadays. My parents had friends that lived up in the mountains I believe the lady's name was Barbara. They had this triangular leather chair that I always got to sit on inside their mountain home. The seat had Indian designs and it always made me feel important. Like I was sharing some ancient secret with the mountain. I believe this house is where I received my first true scare but I can't remember the exact location. The man who lived there took me into the back room of the house and gave me a penny. The lights were dim and off the top of dresser he took a small black box. He told me to put the penny on the square when I did what he asked this skeletal hand came creeping out and snatched the penny away I jumped and screamed and it stayed with me for years even after I discovered it was just a harmless Halloween toy.

In addition to the horses I was surrounded my other animals when I was young, My first dog was Choo Choo and then the was Gigi my grandmothers dog that lived fro most of my young life. Their were the rabbits who kept breeding and eating their young. This was one of those hush hush things with the adults in the house but even at 2 or 3 I was stupid when something was there one day and they are all gone the next you know something happened no matter what your parents try to dish out to keep from upsetting you. In addition we had cats, chickens and of course horny toads and lizards.
But I must admit the crowning moment of my childhood was getting a pony for my 5th birthday. A beautiful Shetland named butterfly all brown and tan and entirely mine. I rode her in parades and up the mountain. My Nino also gave me a pair of handmade silver spurs to where on my cowboy boots. I still have the spurs but I lost the horse in the divorce.

While I would have preferred to keep both the horse and my father I have to thank them both but especially my father for my love of the outdoors and my love and fearlessness of most animals.


On another note: While searching for my childhood TV Favorites I ran across Dee T's 70s Page. Filled with music from all your 70s favorite TV Shows, commercials and more. The reason I was there was for HR Pufnstuf. One of my childhood faves. Go listen to a few she has a remarkable collection. Brings back some nice times when the world was a much simpler place.


Hands are going have to quit typing now

Puzzling isn't it.

I agree Mish, I haven't been doing my paragraph a day either. It is very hard or I am just very lazy but life seems to get in the way. I wake up every morning with all these new ideas running through my head. Things I am going to do, new books to write, web pages to work on and somehow something always manages to come up and I accomplish nothing. I am very good at nothing. One of my other problems lately is puzzles. My daughter and her boy gave me a cool Wizard puzzle for Christmas and it has been my downfall. What started with wanting just one puzzle because I hadn't done one in years has now become 4 different puzzles in the last 4 weeks. Just today I spent 5 hours working on this incredible fairy puzzle (which I am sending to Dona when I am done so it can torment her too. ) Husband is beginning to think I have gone insane, as I keep choosing harder and more annoying (as he calls them) puzzles. I pick them for the picture, just because one was a 1000 little itty bitty pieces of snowy trees doesn't mean it was pretty when it was done.

I am not sure what it is about puzzles that attracts me. Could be the fact that they are the one place in life where I can make everything fit. But it is also soothing to sit and stare at edges and patterns and take meaningless colorful blurs and watch how they grow into a recognizable form. Kinda like raising children but cheaper.

After a month of doing them non stop I have decided that life is like a puzzle. Things happen daily which seem to have no relevance to my life, changes, disasters, happy and peaceful moments, things that just a month or year ago that I would have never considered are now foremost in my thoughts. The changes that we make in life, who we love, where we live, what we want to be when we grow up, How we respond to the world around us. Things that seemed so unfair at the times that they happen but made perfect sense 10 years down the road. All of these things are the pieces to my life and I can only hope that at the end of my days the picture is complete and worth the effort it took to put it all together., and of course that I have not lost any of the pieces under the table while I was working on it.:0)

In the meantime I am going to enjoy fitting the pieces together and having one thing I know I can accomplish. I am not buying anymore, I promise, (at least not until I finish the current one)

Okay, so much for the 'paragraph a day' goal.......AHEM..... anyway...guilt trip over, I am feeling better....maybe it's just the 'manic' side of my 'mood disorder', but I wake up the past few days without so much of that heavy feeling in every cell of my body, and I don't feel so much like a dark cloud is following me around. I can come up with a couple theories as to this phenomenon, but I don't want to dissect it too much, I'd rather just enjoy it. I have only cried a few times in the past four or five days as opposed to intermittent bawling throughout the day, for months. And the crying jags are shorter. So, tonight I am off to karaoke or at least have fun with the girls. Wish you both were here to join in.

Sorry, didn't mean to alarm you. I told Brandy the story, I just made a stupid mistake, and let my 14 year old daughter drive up north of my place, past four houses on our deserted dirt road. She told my extranged, who called and bitched me out. He will probably use it against me, but maybe it precipitated him actually trying to negotiate a deal with me finally! We shall see. She's been driving for two years and is PERFECTLY SAFE. Anyway, I am an idiot for letting her do it, but not for the reasons HE states...sheesh. And meanwhile, here at Mishy's, the dark cloud is dissapating and I am feeling better. Strange, not sure what it is, other than time. Six months now....

I haven't disappeared, My son took over my office for the week and I never got to the computer. I had forgotten how exhausting having kids around can be and they are full grown . Not sure how I survived their childhood. Dona - The pictures are beautiful and I will just have to come and visit on vacation. If you buy a farm there I will still have someplace to come and live when I get old. Maybe I will have Sundays off by the time you get here so that I can come down to SA to see you.
Enjoying the last few days of no children again. Sex is much better after they move away from home. Joshua went home Sunday. I miss him but after 4 years of living somewhere else he is definitely his own man and not mom's little boy anymore. Still nuts for anything with a motor. Went go Carting and took him to the bar to play pool. Being in the bar with his parents was a first for him and he was cute about it. Both of them have grown up well and I am very proud of them. On the baby front, Daughter had her first appointment with a real doctor today. It is amazing all the tests they put people through now a days. I understand that medical malpractice causes it and I wonder if we don't ultimately cause ourselves more pain by requiring doctors to be perfect. All I know is that when I was pregnant it wasn't' such a hassle. And it was much cheaper. After going through it with her today I once again think Mishy is right and if I ever had another child (God Forbid) I would have it at home like she did. At any rate the doctor was nice and the service exceptional. Actually made it to an examining room before the appointment time. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time today. A very strange experience seeing it from the other side. It seems like such a short time ago I was holding April in my arms and now it will be her daughter I will be holding. Very very weird. And in some ways enlightening. I feel the same watching my son with his girlfriend. Young romance looks so bizarre seen through the lens of a 22 year marriage. I just hope I wasn't that whiney, though I probably had my moments.

Just for the record I am officially calling this one a girl. Her name will be Emily Marie and she will be welcomed.

Rocky Mountain High.....

Mishy - That all sounds ominous, but hope it isn't serious. Keep us posted. Returned from Battlement Mesa, Colorado on Saturday night. Fell in love with the area, the climate, and the people. Now that I know I WANT to move there, I'm holding my breath until we find out if Darrel is offered the job or not.
Have not been able to get Brandy via YM or email since I returned and I'm begining to worry. Not like her not to be online or answer emails at all. Hope everything is okay. (Amazing how the older we get the more our minds seem to gravitate to all the WORST possible scenerios!)
Looks like I"ll be making another trip to Texas in a couple weeks, but it'll be a fly in, spend a day or two, and turn around and drive back trip, so B will have to come see me this time!
Unexpectedly had to work today, since my sister called last night and she had the flu so I had to go in and open the bar this a.m. So, I'm still sitting here looking at all our luggage, still packed. Guess I will go unpack in hopes of having to "re-pack" (for good!) soon

Okay, the hearing was continued....Judge had some conflict, we convene on Feb 4 at 3:30pm. I will report an incident that happened this weekend later, I screwed up and gave Gary some ammunition to use on me. We talked on the phone and he said he would 'give me an offer this week'. I am waiting....

Today I feel strangely better, not sure why. The constant 'dread' feeling in my gut has lifted a bit, it was going away quite well up until I read that custody evaluation. Friday at 10:30 is the hearing, and I am taking photos of my cleaned up house, and going to list a few 'activities' that I have participated in with my children lately. Have at least Cyndi and Doreen going with me to the hearing. Trying not to stress about it, I know it won't help. I don't distract myself with games, like Brandy (you too Dona?), I prefer to chat and flirt on yahoo adult chat, which is a bizarre new world for a newly almost-single Mishy. Have gotten more than a few meals bought for me, and have met guys that are actually pretty nice, some that are ok,and a couple that were kind of creepy. I am cautious about meeting, so far so good, and Cyndi and Doreen and I watch out for each other. I am cleaning out the studio here, it is looking GOOD! Not quite sure how to orchestrate the pickup of junk for Gary and the kids. I don't want Gary here, so I am thinking I will move it all near the gate, so he can just grab it there. There are probably two fifteen foot truckloads AT LEAST, with stuff from the studio areas and the house. Good thing I have time to clean it all up now ey?

Picture of my Babies as promised

One on the left looking at you is Riley my new baby. One on the right with the white spot is my half- Blind Ruby.

Fire

I love competent repair people, now if I could just find some. For the 3rd time in 3 months my neon lighting has gone out and today it not only died in the exact same place they fixed 2 weeks ago but it started a small fire. Thankfully God was watching out for us and we discovered it before it became a full blown inferno. It is not a good thing to see smoke drifting out of the roof of your house. If I ever build my own storage unit it will not have neon!!!!!!! Neon is pretty - expensive, annoying and faulty. Oh well at least I don't have to pay for the repair. Very nice thing about working for the storage company if something breaks you just call someone else to fix it and send the bill to the main office. The free rent and utilities ain't bad either.

On the sugar glider front , My new baby has finally made friends with the bitch from hell. Now she follows him and protects him. Only took four days of listening to them screech. It was worth it as they are adorable. Ruby the older one doesn't run around as much now at night when I let her out which sucks, she just snuggles up to Riley. I kinda understand as I am that way with the hubby. Actually took pictures today promise to get them up soon.

Spent all morning and part of the afternoon cleaning house, for such a small house I takes a long time to clean. All visions of Christmas are now back in boxes waiting for the next commercial escapade to reappear. Still have my bedroom and the office to do before Joshua gets here. 1 Day left to finish but I think I can handle it.

Another Day In Oz...or close to it

You both sound as if you had FAR more productive days than I did. My morning was spent having my large and sagging boobs squished between hard cold steel and hard cold plastic. Yep...another yearly mammogram done and over with. It seems that's how I truly gauge time passing any more. The heck with holidays, birthdays, anniversaries...if I haven't had a mammogram, then another year can't possibly have passed.
Can't think of any entertaining bar stories for you at the moment, Brandy. I know I have some, they are just currently buried in parts of my brain I don't care to access right now. I do have one question, which is bar related. Why do men think standing across the bar from you and "blowing" you kisses with their lips is inviting, attractive, and/or erotic?? I don't mean husbands - Darrel can blow anything he wants at me, anytime he wants. I mean men you barely know, or know not at all. And this particular man (using that term loosely, of course) knows my husband well and still seemed to feel that standing behind my husband's back and doing it would be even more arousing to me. I know the bar is in Oklahoma, the spawning ground of every hick and hayseed to ever suck oxygen, but damn.....do I really look that ignorant??? Or desperate??

As usual Mishy you did great but then we knew you would. Have fun tonight with the girls. Dona is definately better than I at correcting for grammer etc... But then you are better than me also. I admit I am the only one in the group you can't or should I say won't spell correctly. If I could type as fast as I think maybe then I would spell correctly, then again maybe not. Luckily Blogger now has spell check. Now if it would only do my grammer for me too.

Life here in storage land is wet and cold and slow. I don't know why people don't want to move in the drizzly nasty rain. Haven't had any amazingly stupid customers today so no good stories to tell. I wish dona would get back to telling stupid OK Bar stories they are always amusing.

Have a new sugar glider. We finally have a boyfriend for Ruby. (the other glider) Unfortunately Ruby takes after my side of the family and is the bitch from hell to the new little guy and keeps trying to eat him. My breeder assures me that eventually (As in sometime next century they will get along and grow to love each other.) (isn't that sweet) Even better they will make babies which I can sell for lots of money. This is all of course providing that Ruby doesn't have Riley for a snack before that happens and that my children don't abduct the babies before I can sell them. Will post a picture of Both soon.

My son is coming on Saturday. Hurray. Haven't seen him since last christmas and I do miss him terribly. I may someday have to move back to Phoenix so I can see both my kids when ever I want. Its just that there is so much family in Phoenix that I feel like hiding everytime I am there. I love them all but they live way too much in the real world and I just don't know if I can bring myself to go back to it. Moving back home is like trying to step onto a moving roller coaster while its upside down in the loop. Very hard thing to do.

Oh Well it is 6:00 Oclock now and I get to go do my nightly trash pick up on the lot. Get to see what interesting things my customers left me today. Just in case anyone is interested the top 5 things left on the street of my storage facility are:

1: Trash - Useless nasty Cups bottle and foods - They must think I enjoy touchy slimey old food since they leave enough of it.

2: Clothes Hangers - Yes you really do have fewer after you get into that new house

3: Used Q-Tips - I don't understand this and I don't think I want to

4: Pennies - This one is okay but I would prefer 20s

5: Kids Shit - Lots of toys hats etc... Apparently these things roll under the car and get left when the parents drive away. Luckily they have not actually left any children at this point.

Yes I do live an exciting life can't you tell.

Thanks Dona, for your comments, very much appreciated. I faxed Brandy a copy of the seventeen page document, so after she has time to review it, and my response, I'd love to hear if I addressed the issues clearly. I still feel like I was hit by a truck, or maybe just kicked hard, while I was down. Today, I decided to rally back, so I did this response, faxed it to my attorney, worked with both my ponies (they are doing better!) and am loading up a glaze kiln. I think I need a nap. Taking girls with me tonight to teach throwing at a shop nearby, and then back home to spend the night and ice skate at 5:30am. Lucky me :-)

Editorial Comments

Hello Mishy!
First, let me say that your final draft looks absolutely EXCELLENT and Brandy will tell you I am a real pain in the ass when it comes to proof reading. It's very concise, direct, seems to address the issues (I assume, having not read your evaluation), sounds heart felt yet not emotionally overreactive or defensive. I can only say that if I were in some similar "battle" I would want you on my side! (Brandy will also tell you that being 1/2 Irish, 1/2 Italian, and menopausal, I don't have a clear-headed, non-emotional cell in body or reaction in my system.)

Second, as to your comments to our I/M - I turned 46 LAST month and haven't been able to drink any liquid at night without having to get up and pee for a few years. I guess I will use the same excuse for that I do for my short, stubby Hobbit legs, my tendency toward a round, global body, and my hairy ass (fondly referred to as my "Bunny Butt" by my husband) - it must be in my genes. When in doubt, blame your parents. (When unable to lay the blame at the feet of your children.)

Revised, still editing, but pretty much done maybe...

I have read and re-read the custody evaluator’s report, attempting to see it objectively, if possible and not be completely defensive and respond from the feeling of being attacked for my very personality. I understand, and have known the possibility of my experiencing a mood disorder, but I have never felt the need to seek counseling or medication for it. I feel that I am a functioning adult in life, and have a valuable role in society and in my family, and I don’t feel the need to medicate myself to function more traditionally. Prior to current circumstances, when my family was here at our home, I would get up in the morning, help my children prepare for school (make them breakfast if they wanted, help them pack lunches, gather school work), take them to and from school, sometimes attend field trips, or after school activities, and support the girls’ active skating lives. While they were at school, I would try to get pottery work done, and do what housework I could do, in between my work and taking the children to and from school and activities. I felt interested, and curious about my sons activities, although I did feel somewhat alienated from them more recently, which I attributed to normal teenage tendencies. I regularly washed all our dishes in the home for the past three years, by hand, I am not sure why Mr Lowe reports he was responsible for all the housework and dishes, that is simply untrue. I realize that my personal tolerance of messiness is greater than Mr Lowe’s and I tried to keep at least the kitchen counter fairly cleared off and the dishes caught up, as well as attempting to keep the laundry caught up as well. It is true in more recent years, as I was working part time (some years) and trying to build up the studio, that the housework would fall into further decline. I attributed this to the fact that I have not been very good at recruiting the children’s or my husband’s help with housework, feeling like I didn’t want to stress Mr Lowe out as he has always kept a demanding schedule and resists doing housework, and I could not seem to encourage the children to help, without their responding to me with resentment, no matter how nicely I tried to ask for more regular help.

As we work through this emotional divide, I reflect on my behavior and try to understand the children’s feelings of being neglected. I have to be honest, I cannot stop thinking that Mr Lowe’s anger and disappointment with me, as a partner, has reflected on the children’s attitudes. I understand that I may just be wrong, and I am willing to admit that they have these opinions honestly, no matter how they were influenced in the past. I am certainly willing to be evaluated, to determine if there is the presence of a mood disorder, if the court advises.

As for the state of my home. I wish to emphasize, I do NOT feel like it being ‘trashed’ is okay. I thought Ms Miholich was clear that I had left the house as it was left for me, when Gary took the children and moved out, to illustrate the conditions they participated in here! I lived here, with my family of six, why is it that suddenly I am held FULLY responsible for the home’s condition while we were all here? I too, would prefer a neat and picked up home, sparkly clean, but with six people living here, and not much help, that was impossible. At this time, my home is being cleaned up, my children can report that various ‘trouble spots’ have been focussed on, that the ‘trashed’ areas have been cleaned out, and that my home is not strewn with papers, clothing or filth. The children participated in some of the cleanup, and seemed willing and comfortable contributing. Ms Miholich is welcome to come inspect anytime and I am happy to provide photographs, showing the progress.

In my opinion, Mr Lowe should be held equally responsible for the cleanliness and maintenance of our home, as he was here, living with our family, during the time he is reporting. I was at-home, but with the understanding that I was attempting to build my business, while also being available to the children. Therefore, I would often interrupt my work, to attend to the children’s needs, compromising the professionalism of my studio, for the benefit of my family. In addition, Mr Lowe has had his mother’s possessions and many shelves of his excess musical gear, cluttering up my studio, also rendering it, less professional and business-like, for all this time. I have asked for him to help clear it out, so that I could clean and organize my business to make more money, and help more financially, but, typically, over the years, he has always kept himself too busy and overwhelmed with the music store, to work on much of anything around the house or property. He also was not willing or able to financially invest in maintenance or upkeep. I tried not to be resentful of this, but I will admit, it was frustrating and disappointing, to have little interest shown in helping with things around the home and property that I am proud of.

To address the uncomfortable issue of my body odor, I’d like to say that this has been an ongoing problem for me in my adult life. Even when I use alumina-based deoderants, I often end up having strong body odor before the end of the day. I work outside, in the heat, and in the setting of a pottery studio, where there is inherent dust and dirt, in the work. I do shower regularly, although not always every day. It is becoming clear to me that my preference for non-alumina based deoderants, for health concerns, might better be put aside for the comfort of those around me. Unfortunately, I don’t smell myself often enough, so I forget to take steps to be sure I am not offensive to others. However, I don’t feel that having pottery materials or hay on my clothing or hair is something that should be an issue in this custody case, considering where I live, and what I do! I encourage my children to bathe regularly and brush their teeth, and I always have. I am sorry to be perceived as a bad model in this regard, and saddened that Mr Lowe and the children couldn’t find a way to bring this to my attention in a more loving, subtle manner, I have taken steps to remedy that perception.

Mr Lowe’s claims that I should have attempted to ‘keep my part time teaching position, in order to keep health benefits’ confounds me, as my part-time teaching position was not offered to me the subsequent year, and it never carried benefits for myself or my family. No position I have held has ever given my family health benefits. I would also like to address the claims that strangers stayed in our home, and were not introduced to the children. I can recall three instances where I had friends or associates sleeping in our home, but in each of these cases, the person staying was introduced to my children, and well-known to me for several years or more, with no danger posed, even remotely, to my family or home. When the nude models are used in my studio, I always take steps to protect the children from seeing them, and even took extra care when I was made aware of my childrens’ feelings about the nudity here. I run an art studio and in this business, to create wonderul bronze statues, such as the ones outside Dr. Glassman’s office, the practice of creating life drawings or sculpture to a live model is not uncommon.

Okay, sitting here re-reading this custody evalutaion. I see four pages of "Mr Lowe this, and Mr Lowe that" describing our family history (his point of view) and under "Mother" I see a list of six points (from my point of view, totally, maybe a page....Sheeesh

Ok, you old ladies.... I can suck down the red wine with the best of 'em but I don't get up and pee in the middle of the night, and *I* will be 46 next month!!!! Can either of you boast that many years???? Huh??? Old??????? Old ladies my ass....(and it's a fine one, I'm told)

Typical Old lady IM

The below is an actual conversation - the only changes are a quick
spell check - Do we have an exciting life or what

faeriequeene2000: yes, it really sucks. Wide
awake at 4 or 5. I have to work tomorrow so I probably won't be able to wake
up.

faeriequeene2000: good you got out of it.

faeriequeene2000: drinking a glass of wine in hopes that will help. Instead
it will probably make me have to get up and pee at 4 or 5

dragonez: I do that alot now adays myself



faeriequeene2000: me too. More
and more all the time. It sucks. Big time.



dragonez: Want a new online game to obsess over



faeriequeene2000: joanne is having surgery next week because of it. She had
a hysterectomy years ago too. All the innards tend to start sagging with age
when there's nothing in there anymore. Having her bladder put back up where
it belongs. Something else I have to look forward to. Yes. Then I can have 1
more excuse not to blog.

faeriequeene2000: 2 degrees here at the moment.

dragonez: It is cold here to it is down to 47

faeriequeene2000: grouted the floor yesterday. Love it. Darryl loves it too.
said he wishes we could do the whole house with it. At least he said that until
we grouted. Now says if we ever build a house (which we never will) that's what
we'll have. Only got up to 22 all day, so 47 sounds pretty damned good

dragonez: Personally it was cold and wet and windy and if it were 2 I would
have an excuse to take the cloak out of the closet

faeriequeene2000: save the cloak for our Christmas spiriting.



dragonez: the it will be very long because I will be a stooped over hunchback
from staring at this stupid puzzle for too long upstairs



faeriequeene2000: I will be stooped over from age and life-sucking children.
which means I'll be able to pass for a gnome



dragonez: That could work for both of us



faeriequeene2000: April still with the boyfriend? Is she getting plump?



dragonez: Plumper by the minute, Pretty soon we will have to baste her

dragonez: Still with boyfriend he is behaving and they are looking a t a house



faeriequeene2000: know what it will be yet?



dragonez: I am going to blog this whole conversation and then go to bed. I will
title typical Old lady IM

dragonez: I am guessing girl

dragonez: Considering Emily or Madison Marie



faeriequeene2000: we've had much better conversations. But it's typical. goodnight!
love you. I like both. I can pretend the Marie is after me.

Dead Hours

Okay, Brandy - you are definately spending way too much time surfing. I know what you're up to. If you are busy surfing, you don't have to actually WRITE!! Of course, I've been up since 5:00 and have managed to play several games of Text Twist, Spider Solitaire, Freecell, and any other thing I can find that requires minimal brain activity.
These are my "Dead Hours." I always manage to squeeze at least one hour a day in, and if left to my own devices I can spend up to 8 "Dead Hours" at a time. Okay - so I have a tile floor to grout, a ceiling to finish painting, a dresser to finish stripping, and the dust bunnies in my house are now large enough to crawl out and demand feeding. Like always, I'm sure all these things will be left until the day before I move (if I actually move) and I'll whine and bitch about how much has to be done and how tired I am, and how hubby can manage to keep busy doing everything except what NEEDS to be done. This won't stop me from going back to my games, switching all but one brain cell off (that means you can use the other one today if you need to, Brandy), and "killing" a few more hours.