Politics: Have just told dad Fox News isn't allowed to be watch in our house, he said he didn't mind watching the Communist News Network for a little while instead. Both with smiles on our faces of course, even though I am literally the only non-Rush Limbaugh watching member of my family they are pretty nice to me about it. :) Oh except let me tell you a story: at Target the other day my dad was paying via debit card on one of the little card reader machines. He grumbled while he was doing it, "Why can't they make these all the same! Make it easier for me!" To which I said "If you want thousands of stores nationwide to adopt the exact same payment machines, that would require some kind of REGULATION, would it? You wouldn't want that, now would you?" and smiled. He growled a little at me, under a genuine smile, and then said "Well at least the manufacturers could get together and make a simpler design..." at which point I cut him off and said "But what you really want is each manufacturer following their own sets of rules so they can compete to have the most User Friendly Machine out there, that is the heart of capitalism dad, what are you really asking for?!"... knowing he was caught again, he finally admitted he was just a grumpy old man. I conceded, we were happy. :)

Christmas: It happened, did you notice? My dad and husband are both so worried about me being pregnant, they've had me sat in a chair most of the time. yesterday I sat in the kitchen and ordered David around while he made his family's traditional Christmas dinner: Roast beef, gravy, roast potatoes, roast carrots & parsnips, onions, brussel sprouts, yorkshire pudding, broccoli, cauliflower. I'm the only one who likes swede, so we didn't have it. Gifts were great, the Nerf machine guns being the favorite by far.

England: my dad broke down crying over Christmas dinner about how worried he was over me, and how he wants me to get to England ASAP to sit and rest, be taken care of, and be watched by the medical team that will eventually deliver the baby. He'll miss me of course, but he, David, and my inlaws are all pushing for me and the boys getting out of Dodge as soon as I have a visa. David would stay behind for a few months to finish out his work contract, to pack everything up, to do the shipping, to just sort everything out. So... we're thinking about it. And I may be high tailing it to England in as little as 4-5 weeks. Which is just... surreal? I think thats the best word. Surreal.

Congratulations! Your request for the removal of the conditional basis of your permanent resident status has been approved. You are deemed to be a Lawful Permanent Resident of the United States of America (...)



I am celebrating with a beer and black and white cookies :-)

Me is lawful! Me is happy!

I am looking forward to a quiet life. Not a "quiet in the home" life, I know my day to day life will still be as boisterous and busy as it is now. But a quiet environment in which to lead this boisterous life.

I am looking forward to living in a village with zero fast food shops, and more biking & walking paths than roads. I am looking forward to having to drive 30 minutes to get to my nearest McDonalds. I am looking forward to the lack of highway noise at night, to looking outside in the evening and seeing millions of stars not hidden by city lights. I am looking forward to growing vegetables in my back garden, to walking down to the pub and sitting by the river in the afternoon, to walking my children to school every day on a quiet street, to Sunday roast dinners with my husband's grandparents who have grown into my own.

I am looking forward to escaping from convenience, from constant highway billboard advertisements and neon lights, from packed traffic and endless shopping malls and thousands of places in which to empty your wallet.

I suspect that life in a small village will grow tiresome at some point, but I even look forward to getting sick of the peacefulness. What my life needs right now, and has needed for some time, is a big old set of brakes put on. And I am so looking forward to my unquiet life being nestled into a peaceful place, and the breathing space that will afford me.

Ten weeks and counting.

is anyone local a member? I ahve my eye on a Pentax DSLR that would fit my extant lenses and I want to check it out. They have a great price on it! ($399)

Let me know.

xo

So I just saw the following on Beauty's wall on Facebook. No idea what precipitated it, but I am not going to complain. (because it is FB wall, once must read from the bottom up.)

~~~
Friend: That is true, it all makes sense now. I want to meet her too, I've heard lots of nice things!
7 hours ago · Comment · Like

Beauty: Becaaause. Where do you think I get it from? She wants to meet you, by the dubs.
7 hours ago

Friend: Oh my god. Why is your mom so cool?
7 hours ago · Comment · Like
~~~


YAY! I'm coooool! I'm cooooooooooooooool!

:: does happy dance ::

The thinking process used as you consider how uncomfortable your next gynecological procedure will be.





(I think I am very funny.)

I don't think I can do justice to this story, but I'll try...

My darling eveofdstruction called me this morning to tell me about a conversation she and ramonarjona were having with their daughter.

Said offspring was watching a kidshow which centered around a wedding, what it was like what to expect. In the show, the father was saying, and it all ends with a big kiss like this, and then dips the mother into a spectacularly swooping kiss.

The parental units said something to the effect of, "but you don't really see anyone kissing like that, do you?"

"OH YES!" responds the child, "Auntie and Matt. I sneaked up on them and saw it!" And there was much giggling about her knowing this secret thing about us.

Personally, I am delighted to set an example of adult affection for the kids, and apparently a rather memorable one at that.

Plus...

she didn't make barfing noises at us like my daughter, who has also taken to telling us we are going straight to hell because of our incessant PDA*.


:: giggle ::

*"public" in this case being my very own kitchen.

Fortunately that last journalled day did get better, in that eventually it ended.

We live in an apartment. Have done, in various places, the whole 5 years we've been in the US. And I've lived in plenty of other apartments in my pre-David life. And I have never, ever EVER had more obnoxious, lousy, poopface neighbors than I do right now.

Remember last summer Philip went up to my neighbors and casually threw into the conversation "my mom totally hates your dogs"? These are the offending neighbors. And I don't hate the dogs. I hate the people.

They have 2 small yippy dogs. They are *Never* walked. Literally, have never been outside unless they are in a crate. They stay crated indoors mostly too, the only reason I know this is because their incessant barking for attention comes from one place in the corner above my bedroom, and I can hear the jerkpeople kick the crate every so often and SCREAM at the dogs to shut up.

These dogs were barking from 4am - 8am, NON STOP, for a few weeks over the summer. After a few complaints from me, that stopped. I suspect they just moved the crate up a floor so I couldn't hear them (they live in a 2 story townhouse thing above my bedroom). but now they bark past 10. Every night. For at least an hour. Last night they barked from midnight til 3am. NON STOP. NON FREAKING STOP.

And when the jerkpeople can bother to pay attention to the poor animals, it is only to scream at them to "shut the fuck up!!". I can hear them screaming at their dogs from several rooms away in my apartment. It is disgusting.

On top of that, they listen to mega loud TV til midnight or 1 every night, so that I can lay in bed and hear every word of the movie they are watching. I've complained all I can complain, but will still do it some more before we leave. I just do NOT understand people who would PURPOSELY have two dogs in an apartment, when they clearly hate the dogs. Why do you even have them if you crate them up, never take them outside, scream at them, and let them bark for hours on end?

It is just evil.

I'll be glad to be living in a place with no one above me. I hope those people have loads of STDs that make their lives horrible. I also hope no one ever tells taht woman how ridiculous she looks wearing pants that tight and short, so that she can continue walking around every day looking like a misshapen sausage with shoes.

Item: a certain someone has been attempting to trade information on my birthday. However, he had the date wrong. Not mentioning any names, but he left an identifying paw print. *ahem*

Item: wow. it must be the 21st century. I just got friended on FaceBook by Matt's ex-wife.

Item: Had a fantastic weekend. Deep spiritual practice with gorgeous women. I read some things I'd written, and a photographer asked if I would collaborate with her on a book. HOLY COW!

Item: Also from the weekend... I promised to live big, to fully give my gifts and express myself. When you see me not doing this, you have my permission to kick my ass. Please.

Item: It is warmer, but still too damned cold.

Item: I am redecorating my computer space so that it is warm and pretty. I deserve a nice place to work in. This is another result of my weekend.

Item: On friday night, Matt and I will be attending a group for couples' spiritual practice. My friends Gary and Deborah run it, and it will be fabulous. We are both really excited.

###

There is probably more to say, but I can't remember and need to go jump in the shower so I can welcome my Matt home.

xo

On night 3 of David being gone this week.

The highlight of my day was sitting in the parking lot of the grocery store. Philip in the backseat inconsolably crying because he suddenly realized that yes, actually, he would miss some friends when we moved. Henry screaming at the top of his lungs beside him yelling that he didn't want to go grocery shopping he wanted to go home! now! And me, quietly and vacantly staring ahead in the distance, feeling the darkness swell under my eyes, feeling the vomit well up in my throat, just deer-staring in to the blank beyond waiting for everything to just go away, waiting for some loud noise to startle me out of my fog of denial so I could drag both screaming kids into the 12 degree weather to buy food.

That was pretty much the best part of the day.

I tweeted today. Did you?

• Immigrating to UK in 11 weeks, whilst 5 months pregnant. A: How did that happen? B: Can I do it all in 11 weeks? C: Wish I could drink.
• 140 Christmas cards done, 2 UK passport applications mailed, and 2 children completely neglected. Today was a success.

Done tweeting!

Of course I'm posting every day. If you've missed the last 2 days it is simply because I used invisible ink and/or you are suffering random blindness.

David reorganized our computer life over the weekend, buying a thing, then replacing a thing, then doing some spells, then configuring another thing, and all I know is that every single one of my bookmarks is POOF gone and it made me want to murder him. Will be using google bookmarks from now on. If I can stop shedding bookmark tears long enough to say goodbye to my bookmark past and start all over again. Pissed off!

Philip is registered to start scouts in England in the spring. Beavers, I think its called at that age. This will make me the favorite child, since my father is a lifelong scout, and at 65 still a Pack Leader. His most favorite part of going to london was getting his photo taken with the Baden Powell statue. So yes I'm breaking his heart by moving, but my boys will be in SCOUTS. So there.

11 weeks. ELEVEN weeks. How the hell am I going to do all this?

(The answer is (apparently) sleep a lot, never do the dishes, bathe once a week, let the place look like hell, and let go of the internet for days at a time. Works for me!)

Cleaned out the boys room. I hate clutter. HATE it. In a big family full of clutterers and excessive toy buyers and "keepers".... I'm the rare one. The only one who thinks less is more, prefers much fewer toys, doesn't have massive Christmases or birthdays, and frequently throws stuff away or gives it to goodwill.

This weekend we took 4 FULL garbage bags of toys out of the kids room for charity and/or trash. Felt SO good. Keeping the kids with fewer toys means they don't get attached to clutter, and they don't mind parting with things. They keep their precious items, but the "junk" that accumulates, they can just let go. Feels good. Hope they keep it up as grownups.

Christmas cards done. All 140 of them.

I'm tired. Aiming for bed before 9pm tonight. Gotta go get some stuff finished if that is to happen...

So I forgot to first empty the camera on Saturday and because of that I did not bring it with me when we were out which means no photos on the 12th. But as I like those posts I decided I will make a 13 of 13 then instead :-) Of course I forgot about it again until afternoon ...


happy crocheting little snowflake princess

( here is the rest clickedi click )

Oh, you were wondering what happened to the Snow Princess?
She fell into her mum's make up kit :-D