Blogging Blah Blah Blah

Sorry for the infrequent posting, folks. It's ironic that when all is going well and I am very happy with the way my life is going, that I have very little to say. I post on holidays and about the kids and an occasional news story, but otherwise I'm not posting at all . Therefore, I'm taking a break from blogging again. I still read blogs every day (see my links on the left), but I'm too involved in real-life activities and no longer feel the need to sort my emotions online.

I'll even give you a general update in all areas of my life, one last time.

R and I are doing very, very well. I know I posted about thinking about breaking up with him a few weeks ago, but things have been sorted out for the better since then. Plus I was also finally able to let go of some negative emotions toward him that I had harbored for a long time. That's definitely a good thing and very freeing for me.

The girls are doing very well in school and in their after-school activities. They seem happy, healthy and well adjusted. I am very lucky. Girl Socuts is going well for both of them and Lauren is playing basketball now.

I've slowed down on the bellydancing for the past few weeks - I've been busy with other things, plus I broke one of my smaller toes, so dancing on it has been out of the question for a while. But I'll get back into it after the holidays.

Work is going very well - I've been given more responsibilites and was a stand-in supervisor while my boss was on vacation last week (more by default than anything else), but I got a personal email from the president of the company thanking my for a my diligence on some stuff, so that's good .

I've been more involved in practicing Wicca recently. Wicca has been my belief system for the past 19 years, but I haven't been very diligent in meditating, learning herbology and geology and performing rituals and such. I've studied and gathered knowledge here and there over the years and have found great local resources for various things. I've also gotten over a few fears in this area - ten years ago, when my mother called herself a "witch," it used to make me cringe, just because of the negative connotations associated with it. But now I call myself a witch with no shadows of negative feelings at all. I also think that Wicca and paganism are much more accepted in general now, in no small part due to shows like Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed, Harry Potter, and the various cartoons and such that feature pagan characters and ideas. I'm still not "out of the broom closet" in a few areas - at work and in Scouts - but that's not out of embarassment on my part, but fear that other people's ignorance will lead to negative judgements of me and impact my life in ways that would be unwelcomed. Overall, I am looking forward to delving further into my spiritual path and seeing what new revelations it brings.

That has been my life in a nutshell for the past few weeks. Hopefully, all aspects will continue as they have been.

Happy holidays to you and yours!

I've Been Everywhere, Man...

Well, mostly in the South, Southwest and the coasts.



create your own visited states map

And honestly, I have no interest in visiting the mid-west, except Montana and South Dakota.

Here are the countries I've visited - doesn't look like too much like this, does it?



create your own visited countries map

I once asked my dad where all he had been with PsyOps and Special Forces while serving in the Army and presented a map. He looked at me and grinned but wouldn't tell me anything (it was classified). Then I asked him to point to a continent he HADN'T been to. He looked at me and grinned again. I looked at him incredulously and said, "You've been to Antartica?!?!" He smiled again and said, "We refeuled there once." And walked away.

My dad is Joe Cool.

Happy Veteran's Day

Thank you, James (my grandfather, above), Dad, R, and all the veterans out there (including me! :)

You all make this world a better place.

The Day After

Blogger died when I tried to post the rest of this so I'll try this again... (I have no idea why this is showing up as a hyperlink either)
Lauren has been studying Ancient Civilizations in her Gifted and Talented Language Arts class, so she wanted to be Cleopatra for Halloween (this is after deciding against a goth teen and Princess Leia), so we did some research and I made this costume for her. The cartouche on her belt even says in "Lauren" in hieroglyphics.

Thank Isis for sewing machines and hot glue guns.

Since I am a big dork and like to do themed Halloween stuff, I was a Cleopatra's Mummy. (get it? har har har)
Ashyn, on the other hand, always bucks the trend. Last year we were vampires and she was a witch. This year, we were Egyptian and she was Elizabethan (and rather rumpled after running around on the playground at school).

But I was still her Mummy.

We went traipsing around the neighborhood with my close friend and her three boys and they got lots of loot and were very happy. One enterprising dance instructor even dropped her business card into their bags along with some candy.

It was fun, but... ugh, my feet hurt.