Rain Puddles and Special Moments

I played in puddles today. It rained most of the day up at my parent's house and my daughter was outside in it helping Grampy plant trowels in the garden. Yes, you read right. Trowels. So after she came in all wet, I decided on an impromtu puddle-jumping session. Now, normally I'm a bit picky about the puddles I jump in, but I wasnt' today. The biggest puddle was the dip in the gutter at the end of the driveway. So my mom, my siblings, and my daughter and I were splashing icky water all over each other until we were completely soaked, and we didn't mind a bit. The pants I have all are a bit too long, so they hung partly over my feet and acted as perfect scoopers to send big waves of water when I swung my leg through the water. It was fun! Their dog Miko, a white Miniature American Eskimo with a curious patch of yellowish fur low on his back, was more gray than white by the time we were done. So while the kids trooped into the house for baths, I gave the poor dog a bath with the hose outside. He did not appreciate that AT ALL. And he kinda looks like he's been through a losing battle with a blender. All his fur is matted so bad you can see clear down to his skin. Poor puppy.

Anyway, so that was probably the highlight of my day. Earlier we watched a movie I've added to my Must Get list. It's called Leap Year and has Amy Adams and a guy whose name I cannot remember, and it was really cute. So I now have 5 movies currently on my list, at least until I remember any other ones. Blindside, Shrek 4, Benny and Joon, Leap Year, and the new Alice in Wonderland. I just saw that one with my sister-in-law this week and I liked it. I don't like most of Tim Burton's movies, and I haven't seen a lot of them, but I love Johnny Depp so I went for it. Johnny Depp may just be my favorite actor of all time. There is not a role he cannot play, and the more crazy and over-the-top, the better. He is simply amazing. And freaking hot as well, which only improves things.

Also today I made chocolate covered strawberries with my sisters and youngest brother. We had fun, and it has been decreed that I am the master at chocolate covered strawberries and making garlic bread (yes, the garlic bread was a completely random point, but I made that tonight too and I have my own "secret" recipe for the perfect garlic butter topping). Also, I have invented a new delicacy. Strawberry Volcanoes. That's when you cut the tops off of strawberries, put a circle of melted chocolate on a flat surface (like a pan or something), set the berry flat side down on the chocolate so it covers the bottom of the berry, then with a spatula or fork or whatever, drizzle chocolate over the top of the strawberry generously. It kinda looks like a volcano. And Chocolate Strawberry Mountains are just the topless strawberries dipped in chocolate. Hey, the more chocolate the better! But none of this cheap, crappy chocolate you get in the baking aisle that come in those plastic bags that have pictures of different candies on the front. You must use a really good chocolate. My favorite is the plain chocolate Symphony bars. Hershey's chocolate chips or bars, or if you're of a mind to be a tad more expensive, Lindt Extra Creamy bars would probably work fabulously as well. Add that chocolate to perfectly perfect strawberries, and you have achieved heaven in a candy.

Let's see, other than that, I went to the store with my mom and sisters today and finally bought a new floofah (my lingo for loofah). One of the dogs chewed up my old one two weeks ago (the turds) and I've been needing to get one ever since and I finally did! And I got an extra for my travel bag. Yay me!

Oh, and I have two more things to report. The first is that when we were out playing in the rain today, a train was coming by the house. My parent's house is right across the street from where the train tracks are, and my daughter loves to watch it go by. So my dad took her over closer to the tracks to see it better, and it was just the perfect photographic moment. It was raining, so the light was soft and pretty and bright colors stood out great. They were holding hands and watching the train, and one thing that is kinda cool is that my grandpa, my dad's dad, loved trains. He had a model train set put up in a room in their basement with a whole landscape that he built, and it was wonderful. Trains were his thing. So we got a great photographic moment there. Grampy and granddaughter watching the train go by, holding hands. It was so cute. I think there's a good Father's Day present right there.

The last thing is that my hubby got a letter today. It's a letter that he wrote to himself Senior year of high school for an assignment that they said they would send out five years later. That would be now. After quite a bit of pouting and threats, he finally let me read it. And although I am sworn to secrecy about what it says, it made me smile. In it there is one part that says that he doesn't care about anything else as long as he's married to me and keeping me happy. It was kind of a blast to the past to our dating days, and I miss those days. We had lots of fun and we didn't have to be adults yet. I was talking to my mom today, and if couples didn't have to worry about money, marriages would be so much easier. It's being the adult that sucks when you get married, not the marriage or your spouse. I've said before that I was completely ready to be married, even though I was only 18. And I was. It was being a responsible adult I wasn't ready for. Bounced checks and car payments and overdue rent. The love, however, I was always ready for.

And on that note, I'm going to do my calendar (what exactly is the point of calendars if you don't write down what you do that day? Calendars have kind of become my mini diaries) and read the next chapter in my scriptures (I'm on David and Goliath, I'm excited) then kiss my husband and go to sleep. Sounds like a plan to me.

Random Random Random

Today is the funeral. I'm all dressed up and stuff, except for the socks I'm wearing over my nylons so they don't get dirty or snagged. And I haven't done my makeup either, perhaps I should go do that.

You know, sometimes funerals can bring families together, and sometimes they can reveal just how crazy some family members are. This funeral is doing both. It's kinda weird.

Last night after the viewing we went with my huband's family and his aunt and a few relatives visiting from out of state. We went to Olive Garden, which is FANTASTIC in every way possible. I had the Manicotti Formaggio and the Tuscan soup. And the breadsticks, of course, which would have been incredibly worth it just by themselves.

Earlier yesterday I got two books from the library full of cross stitching patterns and designs, and I'm in a cross stitching mood now. I have tons of thread and cloth, so I'm excited to start on that.

I just finished watching an episode of NCIS. I'm pretty sure I've decided that NCIS is my second favorite TV show. Stargate SG-1 is my favorite, and I think MASH has the number 3 slot.

I am completely going with any random thought that enters my head right now, are you enjoying it yet?

Yesterday I finally typed up that idea for a muse that connected A and C. It thought it was rather interesting, although I'll have to go back and add in a bit more finesse and detail when I'm more awake. Have I explained what muses are yet? I don't think I have. Ok, my muses are when I come up with an idea for a story. I see them in my mind like scenes in a movie, and I just write them down and then I either come up with the rest of that story later, or I tweak it just a bit to implement it into a work in progress. I've had lots and lots of muses, and I get them from all sorts of places. I tend to get some good ones when I shelve books at work. Either titles or author's names with strike me in a way that works with whatever I'm thinking about, or it'll just sorta fall into my head and play out. It's kinda fun, and really interesting, and I love to write them down and play the weaver when I string them all together to make something.

I have such a sweet dog. He's a black lab mix, his dad was part boxer, and while he looks every inch a black lab, he's taller and has longer legs than most other labs. He's got a big chest that tapers at his hips and his legs are pretty slim too. I think that's the boxer coming out in his genes. He's not at all partial to strangers, but once he checks you out and knows you're a friend, he'll love you forever. He loved to be petted and scratched and played with, and he equally loves just curling up next to you and sleeping. He's so cute, and such a handsome dog.

Ok, I need to go finish getting ready. We need to be at the church early to practice a song for the family choir. Hopefully this day will go smoothly and everyone involved will be comforted. And I hope your day goes well too. Happy Wednesday all.

Tantrums and Trenchcoats

You know that wonderfully euphoric feeling you get when everything in your life is going right and perfect and there's nothing that can take it away? Yeah, me neither.

I witnessed the funniest and most pathetic thing today. A fully grown, mature (sometimes), thirty year old woman throwing a tantrum. A thirty year old woman!!! Have you ever seen a seven year old throw a tantrum? They throw something, they stomp around the house making as much noise as possible without saying a word, and they look at you as if you are the stupidest and most inconvenient person they have ever seen in the universe. Yeah. Thirty year old woman. It took every fiber of my self-control not to laugh when she threw the remote then went stomping away with a "bite me" scowl on her face, looking for all the world like an infuriated seven year old trapped in a grown up body. I never knew such a short person could make so much noise stomping around like that.

Another funny thing today? Ok, so you remember that vanity publishing company that I sent my manuscript to? I got a package from them in the mail today. (Go figure, I was expecting an e-mail.) They said they would be pleased to publish my Work (with a capital letter) and they included a very nice summary of my book. I blushed a little. Want to know what the going rate is to get your book published with a vanity publishing company? $11,500. Yeah, my jaw dropped too. And that's for a soft cover and the smallest type font available! I don't make that much money in like 3 years (not kidding), an I'm currently the breadwinner while my husband is looking for a better job! I am trying to think of a very nice, eloquent, polite way to say, "Are you fricking kidding me?!?!?!" I'm not getting very far. So far I have "Dear Publisher,". Any suggestions?

Sooooo . . . I'm giving serious consideration to just finding a printing and binding company and doing it that way. Like how people do their family histories and sometimes kids in school do a school project and they print it up and they each get a real book of it? Yeah, that. I don't really care if I get it for real published, I really don't. The money would be fabulous, but I've never wanted to be famous. That would be so stressful and awkward. I just want my book. I want to hold my book, have it in my hands, printed and bound and real and looking like I just bought it from a bookstore. There you go, deep wild fantasy moment. And then I want to do the same with all the rest of my books! I want a whole shelf of my own books that I can read when I want to without having to do it on a computer. Because oftentimes I completely forget what I have written, and I can actually be quite funny and witty sometimes! I always get a little tingly and warm inside when I can read my own words and laugh at them. Ok, a lot tingly and warm.

Ooh, this is random, but guess what? I have a trenchcoat! You know like in the movies, the butt-kicking sexy chick has a sexy black trenchcoat that goes to her knees and just looks sexy? I have one! I got it on sale at Walmart! It's actually a little too small for me, so I can't button it all the way up and I can't fold my arms because the shoulders are too tight when I do that, but since I like it better unbuttoned anyway, I don't care! I feel dangerous when I wear it. I think sometime soon I'll have to put on one of my pairs of black boots and my trenchcoat and sunglasses and just feel all dangerous and cool and sexy for a minute. I'm weird, I know. I'll just sit here in my weirdness and be weird.

Ok, I think I'm done prattling on for now. Actually, I can think of lots more things to prattle on about, but I'm not sure my poor audience wants to listen. And I'm trying to go to bed at a decent hour (yes, before 2 in the morning is considered a decent hour for me). Last night we had to stay up late and finish washing our laundry. We were trying to get it all done so my sister-in-law could use the machine in the morning. At about 5:30 a.m. I decided that perhaps I should try to get some sleep before the sun rose and our daughter came bouncing into our room as cheery as a chipmunk on drugs. I did fall asleep, because the next thing I knew I was being rudely awoken with and elbow in my ribs, a knee on my bladder, and a very loud chorus of "Mote! Mote!" ringing in my ears. So while our bouncy daughter scrambled around on the bed and on my kidneys looking for the remote and insisted that we watch Mickey (or just about any kind of cartoon featuring a character that was friends with Mickey Mouse) I unfortunately woke up a little more and seriously considered murdering the dog. There could not have possibly been something outside that would inspire such loud, persistent, OBNOXIOUS barking! It wasn't even his frenzied barking at the mailman! It was this booming bark every other second like he was trying to perfect doggie Morse code! GAH! I very nearly got out of bed to order him to be silent using very strong language and possibly a threat to his treat supply. But at that point it was somewhere around 7 or 8 in the morning. I did not have the oomph. And I had a two year old kneeling on my ovaries. The dog should be very grateful.

Anyway, I'm really leaving now. It's 12:52 and I have to get up at 8:30 tomorrow to get ready for work. Have a lovely day! Or night. Or afternoon. Or whatever. Tomorrow I will aspire to be happier than a seagull with a french fry! Byez!