For those Americans on my flist:

Happy Thanksgiving!

And, for those non-Americans on my flist:

Happy Thursday!

I have two 20 pound turkeys cooked, rested, and now waiting in the refrigerator to be warmed up just before everyone gets here for supper. I have 2 gallons of fresh collards prepared, waiting to be warmed up also. I have tracked down every mote of dust in the house and shooed it out; every piece of clothing has been washed, dried, folded and put away; the less-friendly cats have been demoted to my bedroom for the day; the friendly cats (Puss, and Boots, lol) have been bathed and are now sporting their new Thanksgiving collars.

Kids stayed at Mom's last night. Christal (my niece) was over there and they begged to go. Which gives me time to get everything set up without the help of tiny hands. Though, Katie did cook the collards, literally. She rinsed them, she washed them, she cut them (with her little safety scissors), she added water, ham and spices to the pot (with me measuring it all out), she stirred in the collards, she checked on them every time the timer went off. And, when I told my mother-in-law that I had the collards ready, she announced loudly, "MAMA! I DID THE COLLARDS!" Heh.

So far I have fifteen words down for my MTYG assignment. Go me. *snort* Hopefully tomorrow I can work on it. The kids are spending the weekend with my brother and his family, and the hubby has to work half a day tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to a big pot of coffee and my computer. I also have tons of flist catchup to do, meh.

*hugs all*

Katie (my 3 year old daughter) got a balloon at the church's Halloween Party/Fall Festival the other night. The helium has since died, and she's still toting it around. She has it wrapped in her hooded towel and is calling it her baby. *snorts* She wanted me to remove the string so it'd have a 'belly bean like me', so I did so, but in order to get it off I had to take the towel off and she screamed, "MOMMY! THE BABY NAKED NOW!"

*five minutes later*

Katie just informed me that she wants me to make another baby. *blinks*

...

Hahahahahahahaahahahahahahaha NO

In other news, the first practice went well Friday. We basically listened to the song a few times and everyone got to provide input on how they'd like to arrange it. At the moment it's looking as though one of the male altos will be doing lead vocals with me, thank God. The music director had us go through it once, and the only way I could actually sing was to sit down and close my eyes. Everyone in the church is so encouraging, though, and even when I know I've messed up they focus on the positive. Awesome. :)

♥

1. Nags Head, NC, bay-bee. Spent a week there with the kids, mom, my aunt & uncle and a family friend, and a grand time was had by all. Got back last week.

2. Kids decided to contract explosive diarrhea while at the beach, which means the last week of my life has been spent up to my ears in dirty underwear and whines of stomachs hurting.

3. Kevin'll be going back to school tomorrow (good lord willing and the creek don't rise), and he has over two.hundred.seashells to share with his classmates. He also has a bag of sand, a photo album of beach pictures, a clump of seaweed, a neat piece of driftwood and some sea oats that he collected. I've made him promise not to share his diarrhea experience, however.

4. SugarPlum, I received your package, and I love it immensely. I feel so bad for not getting in touch with you, but I will be emailing you later today. If Ya-Whore will let me log in, that is. *endless hugs and kisses* I ♥ you

5. I have lost an astonishing thirty pounds over the summer. Woot!

6. Less than two weeks till the Boys' album. And I'm so damned tempted to go listen to all the clips of songs, but, no. I want to be surprised and experience them all firsthand in my car in the mall parking lot after buying the CD, thankyouverymuch.

7. When I got home from the doctor yesterday, there was a teensy black kitten hiding under the old trailer in our yard (the trailer belonged to my great-grandfather, he lived in it after his wife died, and now it's a combination bird nest magnet/junk place). Kitten has been 'rescued', fed, watered, spoiled rotten in less than 24 hours, and my son has named him 'Captain Jack' *smirk*

8. A tip: When your children are suffering from upset stomachs and you've just realized they have no clean underwear in the house, there is nothing wrong with fashioning a makeshift garment out of a gallon-sized ziploc bag and letting them play in the bathtub. Nothing at all. (Except, of course, when the ziploc explodes *shudders*)

9. Since I've been MIA for a while, if any pictures, stories or news have occurred in the past couple of weeks, please drop me a link here. *bats eyelashes hopefully*

10. Captain Jack has barricaded himself under my bed and, to quote my son, has "barfed grass in your shoes, Momma" *forced smile* The little shithead darling

*smooches*

Kevin started school today. He's four years old, and there's a program in the state called HeadStart (it may be other places, I don't know), and it's kind of like pre-kindergarten. They don't do the typical coloring sheets and writing of letters and whatnot. The parents had an orientation week before last, and they gave us a sample of a day's curriculum. A child wants to sort colors? Open a bag of m&ms and give him/her several bowls. Basically, it's learning through play. And, despite his misgivings when I dropped him off this morning (*cough* he bit the teacher's assistant on the hand when I was leaving*cough*) and the fact his Nana (my mom) has said loudly all summer long that she doesn't want him to go, when I picked him up this afternoon he was brimming with details of his day. His new best friend? A boy named Isaiah, who is perhaps one of the most gorgeous little mulatto child I have ever seen. I was proud of him, because his teacher said that he went to the potty throughout the day whenever the need hit, he took a nap after lunch, and he was inquisitive and played very well with the others. I did have misgivings about the playing well with others part, considering that all he's ever had to play with was his sister and once a month or so his cousins (they're all way older, though). All in all, a good day for him. He was so exhausted he went to bed straight after he had his bath, and didn't even stay up to catch Home Improvement and he loves that show. I did get a picture of him this morning before we left for school, but I'll post that tomorrow.

And *mini squee* I heard the Boys on the radio after dropping Kevin off at school. The radio station was doing a Backstreet marathon, and they started with Inconsolable and played back -- Incomplete, Drowning, The Call, Show Me the Meaning, I Want It That Way, Backstreet's Back, I'll Never Break Your Heart and, finally, As Long As You Love Me. Who rode around for the entire marathon so she couldn't miss a song? *raises hand* Who cranked the volume so Katie could dance in her car seat? *raises hand higher* Who had her father-in-law looking at her like she was crazy for circling his side yard four times so ALAYLM could finish? *waves hands crazily* Who is starting to get her squee back over her Boys? *jumps up and down*

Also? me_and_thee gave me a great idea for a new fic, damnit yay!

Worked some more outside. I planted some of the irises that I pulled up earlier this week, and cut some of the blooms to bring into the house. Also finished putting the bricks around my flowerbed at the front steps, which I hope the hubby will help me finish over the weekend. I want the bricks to be somewhat buried in the ground with just a little bit of an edge showing above the ground, if that makes sense?

Also took a couple of pictures of the irises -- This is the flower bed, post-thinning. The bedraggled looking things directly behind the irises are the daylillies, I think I may have waited too long before planting them. Whoops.

This is a close-up of one of the irises, and is also the picture I used to create my new icon:




*g*

I spent most of the day outside with the kids, trying to get my flower beds in order. They've been ignored too much in recent years, and I decided it was time I get off my ass and try to clean them up a bit. The result? My neck is sunburned (I was wearing sunscreen and it was cloudy, wtf?), my legs and back are aching like never before, I have three blisters on my fingers from pulling honeysuckle and weeds, and it took me thirty minutes to scrub the grime from my fingers.

But the irises that my grandmother planted 20-odd years ago have never looked better, in my opinion. And I cleaned up under the crepe myrtle, planted some day lillies that my aunt gave me, and tomorrow I plan on clearing out the old rosebush that my great-great grandmother brought over from Germany.

Note to self: Must start on sparklyglee prompt.
Note to self: Must pick up where left off on slashfic25 too.
Note to self: Procrastination is a bad thing.

♥

I just wrote this, it's been nagging my ass for weeks now, so I finally sat down and cranked it out. Not beta'd so any and all mistakes are my own and if you spot any, tell me nicely and I'll fix it. :-)



Title:Stay There Forever
Fandom:Backstreet
Summary:Nick looks back on years of friendship and love as he tries to move on without Kevin.

( I should have asked you how you knew to not douse your crotch in aftershave, especially when you helped me after my ball-burning fiasco )

Took a bath with the kiddies last night. They proceeded to dump half the water onto the floor, and I, being an idiot, completely forgot. As I stepped out to get a towel, I skiied across the floor, into the hallway, and collided with the hall closet door. I now look like I went a few rounds with the hubby (and not the good kind of rounds, either). The best part? Katie screamed with laughter and begged me to do it again, as the hubby cackled from the bedroom.

I feel so loved. *snort*

Gotta take the kids to the library so they can turn in their coloring sheets. The library's running a contest where kids do coloring sheets of Cat in the Hat, and the grand winner gets a copy of Cat in the Hat and a plush Cat. Sweet. And everybody that enters gets a free meal at McDonald's. Woot!

Get your own valentinr

Don't feel obligated, though. *shifty eyes*

--

Kids didn't come home, the lady never showed. But I'm hoping she'll come by today. If she hasn't gotten here by lunch time, I'm calling her office to complain. Because, damnit, I want my kids home. At this point I'm willing to do anything to get them back, short of committing a crime. (Though, that is an idea... j/k)

--

Thanks to everyone for their sweet and loving comments. You have no idea how much it means to me. *huggles and loves*

P.S. - I so want to write a CUDDLES (Howie/Brian) short story based on this song...

sweet_sugarplum (aka My Plumsie) has written one of the best AJ/Brian fic I have ever read... I Dare You. It is absolutely one of the most... I can't really describe how wonderful-gorgeous-beautiful-perfect it is. Please go read it, though. Because it made me feel tons better. :)

/pimp

---

Kevin goes for his "assessment" tomorrow morning. *bites nails* And the woman comes tomorrow afternoon to check the house. *crosses fingers* Hopefully, everything will go okay and I'll have my babies home this weekend. Because, God, I miss them so much. *sigh*

Today's picture

Dishes? Hubby's going to do them tonight *g*
Loved on Plumsie? Check
Talked to DS? Check
Work on icons? Check-kinda. Fiddled around with some new styles.
Work on layout? Check!
Work on crossover fic? *hides*

Can I just saw what a kick-ass idea pop_newsletter is? So far it's just mod posts and general info, but holy crap am I excited! *bounces*

I need new icons... Hmmm...

Today's picture

I have actually started that story that I was so unsure about. More details later when I know them myself.

---

I created a new header and customized the layout of my sweet_sugarplum, go check it out and tell her how gorgeous it is! ;) I also created a matching icon for her. /pimping

Cars has been "misplaced" by the evil DVD-stealing elves. *innocent* Apparently the children think that, simply because they've watched nothing else since Christmas, they can continue watching the movie until the end of time. Honestly, I have no idea where it could be. *cough*Hiddeninfilingcabinetbehindpornos*cough*

I need some Justin facts. And I'm too lazy to go searching myself. Just the basics, y'know? B-day, height, junk like that. What kind of movies, music, etc. he likes. It's all for fiction research. It's not because I love like him at all. I swear.

Kevin tried to tell his father, but... Daddy won't hearin' it

If I hear the phrase "Katie did it!" once more, I may have a conniption.

...and he finds it neccessary to spout off useless Nascar facts as we watch.

Hubby: If a car blew tires like that on the last lap, they'd stop and have a green-white-checker finish...

Me: Uh huh.

*few minutes later*

Hubby: Y'know, with the new points system, it's impossible for there to be a three-way tie...

Me: Thank you, Mr. Nascar. Now shut up and watch the fucking movie?

Okay, I did it. It's all set up, and my first post is open to the public. *snort*

msu365

Friend if you like, it doesn't matter to me. I'll probably do a link to it from this journal when I update, so... Whatever.

--

My head cold is clearing up, though I'm nearly deaf in both ears now. And my cough is getting terrible, yuck. I would say what I was coughing up, but I don't want to gross anyone out. Thankfully, the only thing the kids have shown is runny noses. I certainly don't want them to get as sick as I have been.

Oh, Happy New Year!
♥

Happy New Year, y'all...

My New Year's Eve celebration? I wrote online with Plumsie, and didn't even realize it was midnight until Hubby came in to give me a New Year kiss. Whoops.

Like a few others on my flist, I'm going to be doing Project 365. I've set up a different journal altogether just for that, and once I have that ready I'll link to it from here. Yes, my family will undoubtedly be reading it, so be nice. ;) More on that later.

I'm all antsy over the reveal for SeSa. When does that come out, exactly? I want to gush about my story and the person who wrote it for me. *sigh*

I've still got the damn head cold, but now it's moved to my ears, which means I can't hardly hear anything except what I'm focusing on. Which is a really good excuse when Hubby asks why I didn't ____ (fill in the blank).

Yesterday we had Kevin's birthday party at Pizza Hut. It was a joint party with one of his (eight) boy cousins on Hubby's side, and it was pretty fun. Except for the not-able-to-hear part. Will post pictures later.

Now we're off to the in-laws for the afternoon.

♥

I really need a mental secretary to keep my husband and previous boyfriends separated in my memory...

( handjob? )

Eh...

** I was looking through wallpapers I made, and could not remember whether or not I had posted them here. There's only two; one BSB group, one Nick...

ETA: I forgot that photobucket's a whore about image size, uploaded them to my domain

( here )

** Almost finised my req fic. Just have to writethehotsexpart and get my beta to give it all the once-over. I hope to have it all finished and presented by Monday, then I can get started on SeSa.

** I printed out the NaNo certificate on cardstock, had my mother write my name (she does calligraphy), and framed it to hang on the wall. *giggles* Hubby looked at it, then at me, and smiled a little, then said, "Is that all you get? I mean, one month of typing your fingers raw, cursing me and the kids and everybody else, and you get such a lovely piece of paper!" Bless him, he tries to be supportive. *snort*

** The weather has been crazy this week. It's freaking December now, and it's in the seventies outside. *sigh* It's supposed to drop from the current temp to around thirty-something tonight, and it's all windy and stormy looking outside. *pouts* Is it so wrong that I want to see a little snow?

** My son has now watched the Peanuts Christmas Special five times. Today. Hee.

*squee*

Kind of. Been sick as a dog, bleah. Have three days' worth of catching up to do on the flist. Not to mention three days' worth of NaNo to catch up on. *growls at flu*

Plumsie, I missed you terribly.

( word count )

In other news, I've purchased a gift to give Brian when I go see him next month. I went shopping with my Mom on Sunday and saw something that I just had to get, so she loaned me the cash to buy it with. I'm just hoping all the things I've read about meet and greets after the shows are true, and that I'll be able to see him to give it to him.

Hubby was injured at work yesterday, poor dear. Sliced his pinky finger open on a piece of farm equipment, requiring 8 stitches. It's so adorable/amusing how much of a baby he can be when he doesn't feel good. But he's a trooper. After going to the Emergency Room and getting stitched up, he went back to work for the rest of the day, and stopped at the store to pick up something quick for dinner so that I could write. Bless him.

I'm addicted to Sims 2. I created a new Brian, and Howie (who had klled three wives) has fallen in love with him, and his wants are all centered around Brian. They're living together, and when I was playing them earlier, they were making out on the bed. *giggles*

And that's about it. Have been doing tons of laundry and getting the house clean. Trying to figure out how I'm going to arrange the living room for Christmas.

Toodles!

Got my SeSa assignment. Nothing too harsh, thank goodness. Will work on that once NaNo is done. Speaking of NaNo, I really need to get my file off the laptop so I can update my word count. I have no idea how many words I've written (I stay away from the word count feature in Word, for sanity reasons.), but I'm still plugging away. I write on the laptop so I won't be tempted with Sims 2 and the internet during my writing time. Which seems to work pretty well, as long as I have plenty cigarettes, soda and music to fortify me. Hee.

And that's about it. I'm getting ready for my friend's birthday party tonight, which should be fun. (Should be, doesn't necessarily mean will be) I'm actually curling my hear, for reasons even I don't know. Meh, it's nice to dress up once in a while.

Will be back soon with a real update. Toodles!