Meditation one: On how little people (toddlers) can make the most noise out of anyone.

My answer? I figure it's their job to make you deaf early so you don't have to listen to whining when they're older.  OR it's so they can sneak into the house undetected as a teenager. (Boy, I'll have my hands full with that baby in 16 years!)

Meditation two: Sweeney Todd: who was the craziest, most messed up character? Mrs Lovett, who baked the people into the pies? Sweeney Todd, who killed them on a vengeful, mad spree? Judge Turpin who wanted Todd's wife, sent Todd away on a false charge for 15 years, rapes Todd's wife at a party, raises Todd's daughter as his own, then later wishes to marry the 'daughter'? OR that guy who, after glancing at Johanna (Todd's daughter) decides he's going to "steal" her?

My answer: Obsessions are wrong and lead to disaster.

...

(That and Turpin was probably the most messed up.  Todd could be forgiven his rampage on account of being falsely accused, learning about the fate of his wife and daughter.  Times were hard, Mrs. Lovett was just being frugal (albeit disgusting).)

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Meditation three: If Global Warming really does exist, why in the world have we been buried in snow and sub-zero temperatures (save the last 2 days) all year?

My answer: Global warming will only be seen as a threat by me when I have to wear shorts all winter and protective sun-proof suits all summer.  Living in MI, that's probably never going to happen.  If we continue to go in the direction we're headed, places as far south as Kentucky will experience a permanent freeze (ice age anyone?)  So, yeah. I figured it was a myth.  My heating bill increase proves it.

Take care!

School side: Progressing nicely through 3rd grade, having no more difficulty with times tables, or division.  We're done with basic adding and subtracting of fractions and decimals (including those that carry over or borrow in add- and subtraction). 

We found a gem of a science book for less than $3, it's 'old school' hardcover and looks like something we would have used at public school back in the day.  It's called Exploratopia.  We've decided to add that book to our long list of things we need to learn, but it's so fun and Diana loves it, so it's no burden.

Reading is above average for her age, writing could use work; however she's practicing her cursive and is getting better.  She now has an actual pen pal that she can write to (the old-fashioned way) that she met at a baby shower.  We look forward to that experience.

Social studies is scattered, but well retained.  She enjoys learning about history and what life was like before the invention of the INTERNET or TELEVISION!  It fascinates her, LOL.

We are working through 2 workbooks for 3rd grade, and content-wise, she is halfway done, which puts us right on track to finish before she turns 8 in June.

Work-wise: Hubby (aka Voldemort) has a job working for an owner-operator who owns a small fleet (I know, sounded shady to me too at first, but...) and has been working for this guy (let's call him Bill) since the end of December.  Bill has made into my list of favorite bosses and I'll tell you why.  With the amount of (let's call them doody-heads) my hubby has worked for in the past, it takes a lot for me to like a boss anymore.  Now why, you ask, do I like Bill? What makes him so special? Well, get this:  the first week of work Volde got paid for... he didn't even work! Bill was waiting for shipments to pick back up again, and didn't want Volde going anywhere else for work, because (Bill's words now:) "(Volde) drives a truck better than anyone I've ever interviewed for this position."  Not only that, but during an insurance headache (wether or not his insurance had the right kind of worker's comp coverage) Bill still paid Volde.  THEN, in mid-January, during a shorter extra run Volde took on during that big northern snowstorm, Volde was run off the road with the truck by some hit and run drunk.  The damage to the truck?  I thought for sure Volde was going to end up unemployed AGAIN.  Nope!  Bill had a guy fix the damage - didn't even charge us for the cost of repair or deductible or anything (unlike the Romanian owned company guy who withheld a paycheck for damage... grr!)

Life-wise:  With the joblessness and unemployment during the recent months, we were cut off of cable and internet (sob!) and just this afternoon got hooked back up (yea!).  So we're able to resume all our internet learning activities, and I can blog more frequently.

I'm writing a book.  I've been working on it for a while, and I'm actually working on a second one (ADD much? Yeah, I know)  One's just a fictional account, the other is a fantasy with unicorns and such.  I'm hoping to get them done and "good enough" to send out to publishers sometime within the year.  That's my New Year's Resolution.

The baby is getting cuter by the second.  He's not much of a talker yet, but he's getting his point across.  He will point, I will ask what he wants (i.e. juice? book? upstairs? outside?) and he will shake his head yes or no.  I then repeat the word so he hears it often and will eventually use it.  I've been caught once in a while forcing him to talk by withholding the object I KNOW he can say, until he says it.  I feel a little cruel in doing it - then I think about my GF's now 5 yr old who still can't speak correctly at all (Me wan it.  Me wike dat.  Me no baby.) and I really don't want to deal with that sort of thing at such an age (no disability exists in that child or in mine as far as we know). 

My baby still loves hair.  He got a big boy bed for Christmas, and learned to open doors.  Folks, that means his butt is back in OUR BED!  EVERY NIGHT, because if we leave the gate anywhere like his room, he'll climb over it using Diana's bed (she is phasing right now where she still doesn't feel it's necessary to have her own room because it's upstairs and she feels segregated from the rest of us and all that - whole other story!) OR he'll get into rooms he shouldn't.  If our room has the gate, he will head for the kitchen, the laundry room, the bathroom, outside, things like that...  We're stuck for now and just have to wait the phase out.

I'm glad to be back on the blogosphere.  I'm really looking forward to reading and commenting on my friends' blogs, and seeing how things are going for everyone else.  Best wishes and thanks for reading!

Well, surprisingly I did not land the 'mart' job!  I must've screwed up something in the second interview, but I'm not sure what I did wrong...  No matter, pick myself up and try again, right?  How many times did Edison fail before he got something right???

Food stamps are finally here! Yea! We can eat again! The best part? The card is retroactive from October to the present!! Woo Hoo!

We're still unemployed. :''(  Volde's job may or may  not happen because of an idiot giving a bad reference, even though the law states that person was only supposed to verify employment, not offer opinions or lies.

Anyhow, we've been focusing on getting workbook work done and over with.  We're doing all the easy stuff, and will work on the hard stuff after the Christmas holiday stuff is over and done with.  She's even taking work to bed with her so she can get more done ;)  I love that kid!

We walked to and from church this past Sunday, and Diana brought along a plastic bag.  I had no idea what she was doing with it, I didn't suggest anything, but she decided to pick up the litter we found en route to the church!  She was doing the community a favor, helping the earth, and making her world a more attractive place to be in.  She did it to boost the look of our neighborhood, which is a major city!  I was so proud of her for coming up with this on her own!  And needless to say she was supervised, so we weren't picking up anything dangerous or anything.  Just candy garbage, papers, etc.  No butts or glass bottles (the bottles were all broken anyhow, and we weren't prepared for that...).

I'm proud to have her in my family.

After so much headache, heartache, wallet-ache (I can invent works, too!!) and loan-from-family-&-friends-ache (see, did it twice!) it looks like a wonderful job is on the horizon for our family!

(SIGH of relief)

In addition to the fact that I've already interviewed with a "mart" company for the holiday season (TWICE!!) and they've checked my references, there is a good possibility that I will get some work to supplement our income of zero dollars in the past few months. (Other than gifts from friends, family and church members...)

PLUS, today, Voldemort went on a job interview for another trucking company because he's not worked since just before the election.  This one is a dedicated route, and pending his drug test and corporate approval (because the job's through an owner/operator with more than one truck) he'll get the job.

What it means: We'll be able to pay back the nearly $4000 we've had to borrow between our friends and family over the past year.  ($700/month rent, $100-$300 per month for heat and lights in our crappy rental house that has more drafts than a draft pick for a football league, $200/month for car insurance that we legally HAVE to have on our car... we've not been in trouble long, but it's obviously been expensive!).

We applied for food stamp help in the middle of October and have heard nothing.  They're "really backed up" and our caseworker has been on vacation for the last two weeks.  We're busy "starving to death" because she needed a vacation?!?  Unbelievable!  Thank God for our church family and actual family, or we would have actually starved to death.  Their guidance and willingness to help us obtain food bank info really saved us.  That and the groceries, ;)

Hopefully we'll still get approved for food stamps, because it will mean that we can catch up faster, instead of spending our money on food right away, we can fend off the utility wolves, you know?  We also would need to use some of that money for gas or bus tickets so we can GET to work, you know?  Not to mention uniforms and stuff like that.

Even if we don't get approval, hopefully we'll manage.  Our family will just have to wait for that money, though it makes for an awkward Christmas season...

IF anyone has resources this Christmas season, please consider donating to things like "Toys for Tots" or something like that.  I know our kids have only $100 spent between the two of them with a points reward gift card - from Volde's moving days when he would OTR and stay at a hotel.  When you look at toy prices and look at $50/kid including tax, we've ended up with 2 decent toys per child, and no stocking stuffers.  I may have to tell my eldest that there is no real Santa this year so she's not wondering why she got next to nothing for Christmas this year, or wonders what she did to upset Santa... (And she's been SOOOO good!!!)

Is it better to believe Santa stopped loving you, or know there is no such person, and your parents did their best?????  I mean... neither one's got the spirit of Christmas in the message.  Which one is the right thing to do?  Wait and see? Hope someone at church magically hears the spirit and shows up with a bag full of toys for them?  Or do I contact my local toys for tots program and see if we qualify?  Tons of unanswers.

Hopefully, something works. I just hope we don't have to ruin her Christmas by telling her on that day, should she ask.  Maybe we will get an armfull of presents from a well-wisher, or maybe the family will cover for us by getting stocking stuffers for THEIR homes, so we can  pick up the gifts and visit for a while... You never know.

This is my adorable Chinese Crested Powderpuff puppy when we brought her home.  Tallulah loves my kids, and loves to be right by my side all the time.  I'm hoping to eventually find one of those carrying cases at the Salvation Army one of these days.  She's so quiet and demure all the time.  She accepts pets from everyone, and is just a wonderful animal.

The other pics I have of her include her "sister" Kei, who's a (comparative) giant.  They love to chase eachother around the yard and wrestle!  I adore those pups.  BUT all the good pics are on my phone and I don't have unlimited texts (wah!)

I was searching the 'net today for grooming information, or breed info, or any info on Chinese Crested Powderpuff dogs in general.  I found almost nothing.  There's the AKC and UKC standards on the respective home pages, but nothing much about personality.

I'm dedicating this page to my Tallulah for just such a reason.

She's fantastic with kids.  You would think that a small breed dog would not do well with a toddler.  However, she's extremely food motivated.  A toddler running around does nothing if not dribble food everywhere.  Ergo, toddlers = food = why growl at him for pulling my ears or hair?  She loves to go out adventuring with my 7 yr old.  White dog. Adventuring in the yard with a tween who loves to dig up worms and pretend to be an explorer.  White dog = loves to get dirty = lots of grooming.  I'm considering grooming her to look like a hairless, but will wait until the frosty weather passes in about six months (lol).

She fears almost nothing.  Big dogs make her nervous, but only during that initial meeting.  Small dogs she's instantly friends with.  She's afraid of loud traffic, and living in the city, she just has to get over it. She is making progress. She's afraid of tall strangers, unless she's picked up.  She seems to just tolerate the strange people, then gets caught giving them kisses before they stop petting her ;)  She loves to chase the leaves blowing around the yard, and loves to make me nervous by running off.  She only ever runs to the front door, and I think she does it to see that look on my face.  The, "oh my goodness, I thought you were gone for good" look.

She still has double canines, but until they give her trouble, the vet thinks it's best to just leave them be.  It's awesome, and I will get a close up sometime - she looks like the angry wolf from The Neverending Story, lol, except white ;)  Plus, she's still only 10 months old this month.  She's got time to lose them.

She doesn't eat much, less than a half cup of puppy food, but I'm sure that's inaccurate, since Dexter finds every excuse to share his food with her, and she finds every excuse to snitch it. "What? I'm not supposed to eat the nugget in his hand?"  or "I thought that hit the ground already."  Always with that look of, "What? I didn't do it" thrown in for good measure. Frankly, I don't know how much food either of them is getting.  I assume since neither one is losing weight, it's all good.

She's just as happy snuggling on the couch under the blankies as she is on the floor cuddled up next to our feet.  She's extremely smart, and will do anything for attention (like run off, haha!)

As a breed, they are great with kids, a pain in the behind to groom, easy to train but stubborn.  They will make their own entertainment if bored.  They are easy to keep in a small space, but still need a sweater to get through the colder weather.  My particular pup's ears do not stand up, which is considered a fault (I've heard.  I don't see how that faults a dog.  She is still beautiful to me!!).  I did read a site where someone detailed the process of taping the ears to get them up, but I think I'm past that deadline, and I honestly don't care about perky ears, lol.  They aren't a dog that belongs outside.  Hawks, larger dogs, owls - the outside world is fraught with danger.  They also absolutely require grooming.  You have to clip the paws so snow balls don't gather between the toes, and so they get better traction snow or not.  They require clipping around the behind, so feces aren't tracked through the house.  Everything else is open to debate on a Powderpuff.  I am kinda loving the shaggy look, but am happy to make a change once in a while (half the fun, IMHO).

The main drawback would be the attachment level to the owners and family.  She HATES to be alone.  She's anxious whenever we leave her, so she needs to be crated or she will destroy stuff.  (I still haven't owned up about the Wiimote nunchuck cord getting chucked - but I know who did it, and I know I have to replace it before Volde misses it!!).  If you're a SAHM or a bachelor or bachelorette, widower, or retired, this is the breed for you.  The kids thing is the biggest draw for me with this breed.  I've never seen such a small dog be so good with kids!

I'll put pics up later, hopefully... ;)