Mother Unexpected

Can you tell that I was pregnant?

Hold the phone. You heard me right. I was a pregnant bride. Wasn’t really planned that way, honestly, it was barely planned at all. I wasn’t prepared for the shit storm that it caused either. It’s funny how everyone else seems to have a say in something so personal.

There were a lot of things going on in our life. We found out we were pregnant with K-Kitten in February, we were looking for a home to buy for almost a year and being pregnant kicked that hunt up a notch. We had just found a nice little home on a half acre of land and put in an offer. After fighting back and forth offer after offer for another home we seen this one and decided it was worth a try. They were asking 65k which was outside of our budget, but we decided all they could do was tell us no. We offered 60k if they would put 3% toward our closing. They accepted.

Just after we found out they accepted our offer we got a call that my Mammy (my paternal grandmother) was on her way to the hospital. To make a long and agonizing story short, she had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and she never got to see her great-grandbaby. The day of her funeral… we signed on our house.

The next day Father Unexpected and I were sitting in my Mammy’s house and looking through her old pictures and things with my parents when we started talking about our plans to get married. We had been together for 8 years and it never really came up in conversation, mostly because it didn’t really make much difference to me if we had a piece of paper or not. FU suggested that we get married. I was completely opposed to the idea at first. Not only did I not want to get married only “because I was pregnant”, but I didn’t want to get married pregnant. Especially 7 months pregnant, I felt ugly and not at all bride material.

The Kiss

Finally we decided that we would go ahead with it. All I wanted was pictures and a dress. My mother made my dress for me just like I always envisioned that she would (although I had to rethink the style). In total we spent two weeks and $600 on our entire wedding. We had a very small ceremony at our state park where we grew up and an open reception/pot-luck at my mom’s home after. Our wedding ceremony lasted all of 10 minutes and I think that only one of us said vows. We didn’t record it, as this was something that apart from photos we wanted to remember ourselves.

I remember when we were planning everything that I got to where I didn’t even want to tell anyone that I was getting married, because of the conclusions everyone went immediately to. I’ve never had more people ask me if “I was sure” that I was doing the right thing. Just because I was pregnant didn’t mean that I didn’t love him the last eight years of my life and that it made getting married any different. We just faced the facts that paternity paperwork doesn’t exist when you’re married, and with a dependent there was no tax problems as a married couple that we would have been faced with had we been married without a child.

Now can you tell?

Why didn’t you wait? That’s probably the biggest question I get asked. I didn’t wait, because we didn’t want to. We didn’t want the added stress of having a new baby in the house and trying to plan something so monumental. We wanted to do something just for us before the baby arrived, we wanted to have this moment after so much heartache, if only to reconfirm our already unwavering love for each other.

Would you do it again if you could do it over? Yes, in a heartbeat. K-Kitten got to be a very big part of my special day. We danced with our unborn daughter at our wedding…. how much better does it get?

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My dedication to NaBloPoMo sucked this weekend. I just don’t do responsibility well on my few days that I have so few. I’m going to try to figure out a way to write the posts and schedule them for next weekend. Sorry, I’m pushing myself to do better

Already a gamer at heart.

It’s been hotly debated for… well, since I started playing video games at the tender age of 3, about the effect on video games and television on children. It’s one of those things that people tend to either be on one side, the other, or straddling the middle. You either feel that no television/video games should be seen by children, that it’s perfectly fine for children, or that there might be some things that can wait a while. I’m firmly on the fence about the content debate, but weather I would or wouldn’t allow K-Kitten to watch or play video games? I fall square on my ass in the YES camp.

When we are talking about content, K-Kitten will be much older before actively playing  a zombie game, not necessarily for the gore or violence, but mostly due to the fear factor. I can remember watching my dad play Doom when I was little. I LOVED doing anything with my dad, I was a daddy’s girl after all, even if it scared the be-jeebuz out of me. The gore never bothered me, the guns and shooting never bothered me, it was the monsters! To this day, those monsters still creep me out. Let me guess the list of baddies that will attack our young when we let them play video games.

Violent video games make children more violent adults. I can agree that there may be some violent play in your house, I can remember playing “Mortal Combat” on the trampoline with my cousins, but I think there’s a big difference between conscious play/roughhousing and actual violence. I never remember anyone being hurt playing our game on the trampoline or playing G.I. Joe using the culvert as the “trenches”. Looking at the statistics juvenile violent crime rates have been going down since 1993. Children are much more aware of the world around them than we might think, trying to protect them from ever seeing violence may leave them unprepared for the real world. Unfortunately, our world is filled with violence and hate.

Video games aren’t teaching our children anything worthwhile. Games aren’t the same as they were when the only place you could find them was the arcade. To play most video games now, even simple made-for-kid games, it requires a wide skill set and knowledge. We’re not talking about just hand-eye, but all forms of thinking as defined in Bloom’s Taxonomy. You have to memorize special key sets or combinations, work through elaborate puzzles and riddles, move quickly and deliberately, re-evaluate and create strategy, and apply personal sets of skills to complete tasks. Doesn’t sound like the brain will be gathering any dust to me.

Our kids will become social hermits and never leave the house again…. worse yet, they’ll never move out of MY house! Lets see, I can see how some children honestly would stay locked up in their room playing video games for the rest of their life. I could have probably done it, but I personally see a few fatal flaws. I didn’t have anyone that would cater to a self-destructive lifestyle, and life really wasn’t that boring. As a matter of fact, even when I was playing video games, most of them were Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) where I made some life-long friends, I think that counts as “social”. Some introverts may even call the interactions they have in their online worlds are more satisfying than face-to-face interactions, the relationships that can be formed can be just as integrated and intimate. There’s a real danger of pathological gaming, but in a study of 3,000, 90% of them did not show signs of pathological gaming or addiction.

Too many children are uninterested in technology, especially girls. I work as a computer network technician and I face that fact every day. I’m working in a male dominated field and it doesn’t appear to be changing fast. I want K-Kitten to grow up exposed to technology, to the fun and entertainment it can provide, to the intricacies and work it can perform. I want to teach her the difference between simulated violence and the horrors of real violence. I want to be close as she embarks on her own moral and personal building journeys. It is our job to teach, guide, and protect, but it’s not our job to shield them from all of life’s horrors and disappointments. Our goals as parents are to raise well-adjusted, independent, strong adults.

Since K-Kitten is a girl, I think it is especially important to show her the world from a different perspective (I’m not talking pink and frilly here people). I’ve worked my whole life proving myself, in my field of work, in my competence, and in my skill with everything from cars to writing. If playing video games is something she likes to do, we’re going to do it with her. Besides, research suggests that playing age-appropriate video games with daughters can make them happier, more connected, less aggressive, and less depressed.

Yup, we totally did Star Wars for Halloween.

Much like a soccer mom, but without the minivan and the mother-of-the year award. With all the concerns over all the not-so-nice-stuff that they say video games cause, people act like you’re a horrible mom for playing one of those violence inducing, fat-making, video things. Really, I just don’t get it. I wouldn’t take my kid with me to Mardi Gras and bar hop, but I just don’t see doing an independent activity from your child as all that harmful.

Father Unexpected and I have a large gaming background. We both played MMORPGs (like Everquest and World of Warcraft) heavily, and enjoyed PC gaming together for several of the early years of our relationship. At some points online interaction was the only means of communication as we were both working extensively (and he was able to utilize the internet while at his job) and it was more personal and immediate than e-mail. I had never heard of texting and cell phones were too expensive. FU didn’t even have one at the time.

When we first moved in together we bought a Playstation 2. I was a big fan of Kingdom Hearts at the time and played it through. FU played it some, but we never even bothered to buy a second controller to play together. We still had enough resources to play PC games together in the same house though. At one point when I was in college, I can remember playing Everquest for 8 to 12 hours a day, working my part-time job, going to class, then playing some more and sleeping here and there when I felt like it.

I’m sure a lot of people would say that I had an obsession, that it was unhealthy, maybe even call it an addiction. The fact of the matter is, I really liked the game. I was a poor, college student that would rather pay 15 dollars a month playing a video game than 10 dollars a day running the streets like my other peers at the time. I was younger, a little stupid, and had the time to kill. I got older, bills started costing more, gaming happened less. Eventually, I stopped playing because it cost too much and I just didn’t have the time to kill that I used to. Addicted? I think not.

I think it’s generally accepted in society that fathers will play video games. I think it’s viewed as a man’s “thing”, sitting on the couch playing video games while the wife cooks. Did you know that women gamers are trying to tip the scales? There are now more women playing pc/web based games than men. In my house, FU is more likely to be cooking dinner while I play the 360, I’m a horrible cook. But because I’m a mother, a working mother, that plays video games (that don’t exist on facebook) I’m more likely to be shamed and frowned at. I guess I’m supposed to be selflessly doing laundry, while playing patty-cake, while cooking, while vacuuming, and at the same time changing a diaper to be a “good mom”. Oh, how I hate the “good mom” card. The fact that I play video games alone is enough to be forever marked with the “bad mom” tag, let alone the fact that I play video games while K-Kitten is home and playing just fine by herself for a while.

Now, on the other side of this coin. I don’t play video games from the time I get home to the time I go to bed. We have much cooler things to do, like go outside and play tag while there’s not snow on the ground. Do I have better things to do besides play video games? Actually yes, I should be doing things like laundry and dishes, but really… I’m never going to be caught up on either of those things, I’ve faced the fact that I’m a horrible housewife and have come to terms with it. Father Unexpected may come to terms with it in the next 16 years or so. In light of this though, I actually had someone say that I shouldn’t be playing video games because my daughter “needs me” and they’d suck me into a black hole or something. Lady, there is no black hole, I know I tried to find it after entirely too much alcohol in college… and my daughter needs to not grow up like you. While she pretend cooks me a big meal, I’ll play my video game, then have imaginary cookies thanks.

Will K-Kitten be playing video games when she gets a little older? Hell yes! We will be playing together I’m sure. We’ll talk more about that tomorrow.

There is nothing wrong with a parent doing something that they liked to do before they were a parent. I’ve not neglected my daughter by not giving her my undivided attention for 30 minutes out of any given day. I get to bond with my husband over something we both enjoy. I get the satisfaction of doing something completely non-work (outside or inside the home) related for a little while.

And getting to dance around the living room, laughing, pointing, screaming “BOO YA! HEADSHOT!!” after sniping FU from across the map?

EPIC

I’ve been missing in action for a while now. I’ve been stressed beyond imagination and trying to keep my life together enough to get by. I really should have been writing all this time, since these trials and tribulations are actually the things that I need to get off my chest. I’ve mentioned before how tight money gets at my home, and how I’ve been trying anything to make more.

I already work a full time job outside of the home, my husband does too, but our expenses and debt continue to climb even when we budget and try to make sure we live within our means. I wonder sometimes if it’s just me, and other times I figure that it has to get this way for everyone at some point or another. Life just has a funny way of doing that to people.

I’ve started to reach out to the search box on the lovely internets and find my niche of money making goodness in the world. Some ventures have been more lucrative than others and some have brought me nothing but grief so far.

Starting your own business.

Here we go. My biggest and most stressful venture so far. Starting my own business at home to hopefully make a long-term change from full-time work outside the home mom to work at home mom. I’ve invested several hundred dollars so far, gotten my doing business as license and tax papers, and started its website. I’ve rebuilt the website twice now, trying to be cost effective I’ve done almost all of the work and research myself. It’s hard. I knew it would be hard, but even then, I still don’t think I had any idea of what I was getting myself in to.

I’ve converted my dining room into an “office”. My dining room table is my work area, I have a sewing machine in there and all kinds of ribbon and stock for making my bows and dresses. I’ve tried to dabble in etsy.com and eBay. So far I’ve made about 100 dollars in sales and I’m facing my first state sales tax remittance.

I hope to be turning a real profit within two years. We will see how that goes.

Making money online.

This is something I’ve done for a very long time now. It’s never been particularly rewarding in the way of fundage, but I’ve made some money, so it counts. Mostly I earn enough to get free books or other used items for free. It’s enough to curb my “need to spend” at least temporarily. Here are a list of the sites that I actively use (I’ve tried a ton) to hopefully help someone else out that may be interested. Disclaimer: These are referral links. Referrals help you earn more, you don’t have to sign up under me, but I appreciate anyone who does (and you will someday appreciate anyone who would be kind enough to sign up under you).

• ChaCha! – Referral email : kkittensmom(at)yahoo.com – Depending on job, earn .10 – .20 cents answering questions or .02 for transcribing them. I’m not terribly active since my daughter was born, but I’ve earned over $50.
• InboxDollars – Earn money for reading paid advertiser emails, doing offers, and surveys. Cash out at $30 – I only do emails so it takes me a while, but I still cashed out my first check last week and I’m already back to $8. Sign up for a $5 dollar bonus.
• Swagbucks – This has become very popular lately! You don’t really earn money, but points. Earn them for doing offers, searching the internet, and daily activities. Even watching videos! Earn a $5 Amazon gift card with as little as 450 points (I’ve gotten 5 of these already, it helped pay for Christmas last year).
• Points2Shop – I really enjoy this one. Again you earn points (or cash on their sister site cashle), by doing offers, surveys, and playing games/contests. 1 point = 1 cent. You can save your points and spend them on anything from amazon.com! Which is just amazing. I’ve gotten three free books from amazon using this site. They have an amazingly active community and lots of people are earning a ton of free stuff! Offering 250 points to new sign ups.

Utilize your Smartphone.

If you have an iPhone, like to travel, and have a little spare time every now and again, you should check out the FieldAgent app. Clients add jobs to the service and Agents (you) can accept the jobs and earn money for completing the tasks. I really hate to give this one away, as in my area the fewer agents there are, the more jobs there are to complete for yourself (yeah, I’m a little greedy). However, it does require travel, some require purchases, and the app can be flaky.

The best part is, after your jobs are cleared, there is no minimum pay out. Have it sent to your Paypal as soon as you earn it. It takes usually about 24 hours to hit your paypal account. I’ve been using this app on a regular basis for about two weeks now and have already made over $100. Most jobs pay an average of $4. Disclaimer: I earn nothing for referring you to FieldAgent. They have no referral incentives. I’m simply sharing this as I believe this is an amazing opportunity to make a little extra cash if you’re lucky enough to have some jobs in your area.

Trying to make it all work.

Now I come to the really hard part (not going into making my husband spend less), keeping track, staying legal, and not getting lost. You can have too much to do and not enough time or patience to do it. If you’re really looking at earning a little extra cash with little to no investment, it can be done. If you’re looking for a handout, you’re just not gonna find it. Especially not here.

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So tell me, what do you do to earn a little extra money? Do you have any great sites you’d like to share? Have you had any experience with any of the sites that I’ve mentioned. What are your favorite ways to make and save money?

My brother-in-law’s wife is four months pregnant with their first baby. Over the weekend, Father Unexpected and I drove the hour upstate to visit with them. It was a relatively pleasant visit, but I found myself extremely distraught by the fact that she’s pregnant. I’m not sure if it’s her nonchalant demeanor or the fact that she and I come from completely separate worlds (even though we share a heritage — our parents (at least one of them) are from the Phillipines).

Father Unexpected and his brother are both polar opposites as well. FU wouldn’t be able to hold on to a nickel for longer than an hour and would have no recollection of what had become of that nickel the next day. His brother on the other hand, could eat for six months off of that single nickel. Sometimes I think that I would get along better with his brother than he does, but I tend to try to ally myself with his wife.

I want to reach out to her and offer my support during her pregnancy, but I fear she does not seem to want it. I fear for her experiences to be had, although I can not prevent them only encourage her to seek the information and make up her own mind. FU and I have prodded as much as we feel comfortable and hope they’ll reach out to us again for information or support. I just wish I had some of the resources they have available.

Larger city, more birth choices, he has a good job and plenty of rental income, she has the mere choice to make of where she would like to go to have this baby. Being from another country however, I do not think she’s even considered this fact. It makes my heart ache. I find myself craving another pregnancy. I want to do it again. I want to do it all over again, I want to do it again even knowing all the disheartening things I’ve learned since K-Kitten was born.

K-Kitten (Toto) With Dorothy and the Scarecrow -- Halloween 2010

Then I remember: We do not have the luxury of “spare income”. We don’t have 20+ rental homes and the ability to move or buy a new home on a whim. We barely make ends meet as it is. We barely keep the lights on and the mortgage paid. I don’t want to have to work two full time jobs with two children, I want to be able to stay home if we ever have another child. I want to get to see my children grow up, and not watch from my computer screen across town at work.

Hopefully someday soon I’ll be able to get happy about wanting another baby again. Right now, I want, but can not allow myself to have. I wish it were not so. I’m so painfully aware of everyone having babies soon and I crave to be them. I must be crazy, because I hated being pregnant.

Maybe it’s just the onset of the holidays and family being around more. Maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment. I hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween. Now it’s time to get ready for Thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankful for this year.

I find it funny that all the stores are already lining their shelves with “gift ideas” and decking the halls with decorations and ornaments. I remember when this sort of transformation at least waited until Thanksgiving was over. It already has begun to make me uneasy.

Christmas is a holiday that I’m fairly unexcited about. I’m not all that religious, so the religious implications mean little to me. I do however believe that the closing of the year and the beginning of the new is something to be celebrated. Looking at one’s past and hoping to the future with family and friends. Enjoying each other’s company and reveling in life.

We do give gifts at Christmas, if only to put smiles on faces and express some sentiment. My husband and I do not give gift cards or hand out money, we would rather make a gift or pick something heartfelt and useful. This year, however, is proving to make that difficult. Since K-Kitten has entered our lives, I have trouble looking beyond her and looking at my wonderful family. They have done so much for us in the past year, so much so that I do not believe we would be in any position to talk about Christmas gifts if they had not.

It puts me in a predicament. What do you do or give to someone that you feel you owe so much to? When you have so little to give and so many that need and deserve the recognition. I know K-Kitten will have anything and everything she could possibly need, I need not worry about that, but what can I do to show my gratitude and humbleness.

I feel as though they will feel like we’ve been accepting hand-outs without any kind of appreciation. I want to get them all something that has meaning and will show them how much we really care about them and all they do. I know that does not mean we have to spend the sparse amounts of money we have, but I don’t know what to get them anyway. I don’t know what I could make, buy, or otherwise that would be a fitting gift.

I know they will love and cherish anything we might give them, but I don’t know what will satisfy me. What will satisfy my need to show them how loved and appreciated they are! They deserve so much more than I feel I can give or express.

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Sorry it’s been so long since my last post. Money woes and birthday plans have stolen away my time. I have many ideas for some new topics of interest and assure you that my bloggie self will return with regularly scheduled programming soon. In the meantime, any ideas?

Today I turn 24 years old. I’m not exactly sure what time anymore, but I’m sure it was during the wee hours of the morning (I’m just difficult like that). Unfortunately, my birthday has gotten off to less than stellar start. The motherboard on my desktop died, Father Unexpected has to work a 24 today, and I’m just in one of those moods.

Got home from a nice weekend back home in po-dunk, we went for Father Unexpected’s family reunion. We got to visit with a lot of people that we’ve not seen in years. One of our visits were to someone we hadn’t talked to since we were still young, stupid, and not always as happy.

The last time we seen this man, he was still a police officer in the town I lived in. I lived in a little one bedroom project apartment all alone, even though Father Unexpected and I were together some of the time there. One night I get a knock on my door and it’s some rather large black woman, drunk and screaming. She went on about how I was sleeping with her husband and that she was going to kill me, proceeded to throw a beer bottle at me about the time I slammed the door, leaving a nice big dent in my metal door. I call the police and sure-nuff here comes Taylor (our friend).

I’m very shaken at this point, crying, confused, and although I knew no one could get into the apartment without me knowing, and I had a gun if they did manage to do so (I’ve seen four police officers in another building try to take out a door, they just managed to effectively strand the people inside by messing up the door so badly). He arrives, sits down, and keeps going on telling me not to cry, he even manages to get all tore up and cry a bit himself.

He says that he’s going to get FU and he’ll sit outside in his car until he arrives (I had said I tried to call him and couldn’t reach him). He called the police department for the city where FU lived and had them go to his house and retrieve him from bed and send him there. How embarrassing! But at the same time I think it was one of the nicest things that anyone had ever done for me.

Now he’s disabled and still the same bubbly Taylor we all remember. He didn’t even know FU and I were still together, let alone married with a little girl now. K-Kitten had a ball sitting in his lap and making the man in the wheelchair play oopsie with her.

Now of course I should be tellin’ a birthday story, but honestly, unless I was drunk, I don’t have that many. Even those, you probably wouldn’t care to hear.

I can’t wait to get home today and spend the rest of my birthday with the best birthday present ever! My darling daughter, K-Kitten! I have a ton of new pictures of her, but they’ll have to wait. Until I get a replacement PC, or a replacement motherboard at least. Maybe I’ll be able to afford one by the end of the year. Yay for being poor!

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Anyone got a spare motherboard? Anyone else have a birthday today? Fun stories to tell about your past?

Father Unexpected took 80 hours of vacation time in anticipation of our trip to Chantilly, VA that didn’t happen. He’s been holding in some hostility toward my company for that, since that was all the vacation time that he had available to him. Essentially, he’s taken all the vacation he’s earned over the course of several years, just so he could stay home while I had to work. Now let me qualify that statement: He didn’t even take any vacation time when I was on maternity leave immediately after K-Kitten was born. He was back to work for his very next shift a few days later. The reasoning behind this was: We wanted to have a REAL vacation this year as a family.

Chantilly was supposed to be just that. Our vacation, anniversary, a new experience, all wrapped into one neat little convenient package. Since the training was canceled because of a new agreement that I felt I was being pressured into signing at the last possible minute (and refused to sign for that reason), I feel as though partially it’s my fault that he had to essentially waste all of his vacation. I know that, however, it was not my fault and although he’s been in a bad mood, he doesn’t necessarily mean to make it feel like I have been the bane of his very existence the past week.

We’ve both been a little curt with each other this week though, we really needed this vacation. With K-Kitten and work and all of our recent changes and accommodations we’ve had to make in our lives recently, it’s been hard on the both of us in our own distinct ways. I’m a fixer and he’s a dirt-kicker.

Fixer – Always tries to find a solution that fits the problem exactly. Gets by with whatever is available and tries to discover new and inventive (ie: crazy sometimes impossible schemes) ways to rectify a bad situation.

K-Kitten and her Daddy!

Dirt-Kicker – Those that define themselves by their bad (or good) luck. Often shake their heads and blame the cosmos for their misfortune (or less often windfalls). Resign themselves to their fates more-or-less. Sometimes with a last minute valiant effort to “save the day”.

Well, my dirt-kicker is off on his valiant escapade right now. He packed up last night and left, determined to do something for his vacation, “since everything has been telling him he’s not destined to do a damn thing.”

I kissed him and sent him on his merry way. In a mood like that, there’s no point in me stopping him. Even now, there’s only a 50-50 chance that he’ll come back in a better mood than when he left. Not to mention the fact that he has to go back to work tonight at midnight for a 24.

Ah well, I hope he has a good time none-the-less. I hope he gets some of whatever he needed to do out of his system. I just think it’s so funny at how completely different we are in just about ever aspect of life. It’s hard for me to fathom being this upset over not having to work and still getting paid (but I’ve also not had a vacation in four years, I guess it’s all a matter of what you can personally accept). He’s gotten to spend a lot of quality time with K-Kitten, although he would have liked to have gotten to spend more quality time with his motorcycle me-thinks as well.

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Are you and your significant other the same or polar opposites? Do you feel like sometimes you’re guilty when you know you’re not? What kind of person are you? Feel free to make up some more “types” as I certainly made those up

We should be in Chantilly, VA right now. But we’re not.

Last Friday was just one of those days — you know, the kind that just couldn’t possibly go right — and after a long battle with work, they decided to cancel the training and in turn cancel the trip all together. So here are FU and I ready to take off on a 9 hour drive in 48-hours and suddenly we’re not doing anything. Monday will be the same ole’ shit.

Not to mention, FU took ALL of his remaining vacation time from work so we could go to Chantilly. Now his shifts are filled, we can’t change that, and it ultimately means… we don’t get a real vacation. Again.

Later that night I go out with one of my co-workers and his wife and we have a genuine good time. Some alcohol was involved, but mostly it was just good company and good stories. The live mariachi band helped lighten the mood too. FU called me and told me to find a hotel we were packing it up.

We left for Gatlinburg, TN Saturday morning since we had a little extra money for our Chantilly trip and had a dog sitter all lined up for Sadie anyway. It’s only a 2 hour drive, but it was better than nothing. We came home late Sunday with way too many new baby clothes and K-Kitten got LOTS of happy baby compliments. Which just made me an uber-proud mommy.

I go into work yesterday half thinking they would have came up with an evil conspiracy plot to fire me by now, but they haven’t and I am grateful. Although, the reasons behind the canceled trip are less than encouraging. I get home yesterday FU decides to take his motorcycle out (since he’s on vacation, and he’s selling it soon) and K-Kitten and I had a grand time.

She started saying “ba – ba – ba” and smacking her lips, so here I’ve been running around the house like a lunatic ba-ba’ing and popping my lips. I love it. I’ve just had a particularly stressful few days and would have really liked and preferred to be writing this blog from the comfort of our lovely hotel in Chantilly. Oh well, Murphy’s Law right?