Yes I am alive...

I am a bad blogger. A bad blogger in that I have not posted for the greater potion of a calendar year. But I have an excuse! Since my last post my son was transferred to his technical school in Gulfport, MS,

In the Classroom

I can make things!

and we made a few trips to see him,

I started seeing another doctor and had another surgery which I am still trying to recover from,

Told ya (and yes, those (14) wires are embedded in bone)

celebrated my son graduating from his tech school and coming home for a short visit, saw my nephew graduate (with Honors!) from high school,

SURPRISE! Look who made it home for your big day!

sent my son off to his first permanent duty station clear across the country, sent my daughter back to school as a Junior and went back to work, but not before learning to crochet.

Saw my little girl apply her skills:

And made a road trip to see my nephew begin his college career.

Road Trippin' to Savannah

Hopefully, I can get myself in gear and start posting again. Hopefully.

Happy Halloween, y'all!

*Photo "ghouled up" courtesy of Picnik

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Happy 1st Birthday, BTK!

Do you KNOW how hard it is to get a cat to wear a birthday crown? No? Let me tell you, it's ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE. The only reason we were able to get this shot is because BTK was more interested in his birthday seafood feast. Poor Sissy. She worked so hard on his little crown. Of course, if the local pet store had any party hats for cats, this probably would have worked out better. But they don't carry any. HELLO. You carry fifty bajillion costumes for dogs (court jester, hot dog, etc.) but you don't have ANYTHING to celebrate a birthday?! What kind of people are you? AND, almost 90% of your store is dedicated to DOGS. You have one meager little shelf of craptastic cat stuff and everything else is for dogs. Don't get me wrong, I like dogs. But BTK is not a dog. As we were leaving, I made the comment to Sissy that "apparently, BTK should have been born a dog." Thank goodness BTK didn't hear me.

So, Happy 1st Birthday to BTK and his brother Big Stuff who lives with Niece and Nephew. I have also posted evidentiary photos of exactly how hard it is to get BTK to wear a birthday crown and hold still for pictures*. And how weird are we for singing Happy Birthday to a cat?

* No BTK's were harmed in the taking of these photos (even though it looks like he's being choked!) Do you see the evil eye he's giving us? NOT HAPPY!

It's Scary ... and it smells good!

I bought it to freshen the air. I've found out it has a greater benefit. Apparently, it scares the bejeebus out of people because it's motion activated. Nephew and Marv were both caught quite by surprise at a most inopportune moment. Score!

Big Weekend in Little Town

First, let me apologize for the lengthy post. My fams was lambasting me for not having posted in a few days.

So this weekend we finally celebrated the Nephew's 17th birthday (they were on vacate last weekend...LUCKY!) and his actual bday was this past Tuesday. Anywho, on Saturday the sisters and I took off with the kids to the mall (or I guess I should say MALLS because we had to go to both ... both had Charlotte Russe [can you say "student discount"? Much love to CR!] for Sissy but only one had Justice for Niece) for some BTS shopping. I still CANNOT BELIEVE I went out to the mall(s) on TAX-FREE weekend two days before school starts for most of the free world. Sissy gets to start on Friday. Who starts school on Friday?!

Niece and Nephew spent the night with The Family that evening. To tell you the truth, I don't think they had much choice in the matter. Sister D practically threw the boys out of the car when we got back from the stores with a quick, "Okay, see you later...have fun...miss you" a wave and a cloud of dust. Apparently, the boys were in fine form. I know this because Sister L refused to ride any further in the car with them and we couldn't very well leave her at the mall (although I don't think it would be so bad...there's a CinnaBon -- 'nuf said!)

So, Birthday boy awoke to the smell of bacon (mmmmm....BACON) and had a strawberry muffin set ablaze right under his nose with all of us crazies singing an award-winning version of Happy Birthday at the top of our lungs. Needless to say, it wasn't one of his finer moments.

The day moved on and I took the kids to "town". It took about five minutes to go 'round town, but the most exciting part of the whole trip was the kids getting to see a real, original WalMart. Seriously, this thing only has six check out lanes (don't get excited -- only two were open). The kids had never seen anything less than the "Super-Duper We've Got Everything Under the Sun" WalMart. Our other adventure in town was me straight up messing up Scootie's game when he tried to get a phone number from the cashier @ Taco Bell. He WAS NOT HAPPY. Oh, wells. I needed my Chalupa and some caffeine.

Next up on the schedule was the "OFFICIAL" celebration complete with homemade German Chocolate cake (thanks to Sister D, aka Nephew and Niece's Mom) and some ice cream (thanks to Edy's) with another great rendition of Happy Birthday. After the festivities, we ran by the old house to check the mail (thanks US Postal Service for putting my old address as my new address. I guess that means the carrier has to take the mail out and then put it back in again? And for this, they are complaining that they may have to close some offices?!).

Back at the house, we just vegged out, except for Sissy. She proceeded to follow Billy The Kitty (BTK) around with the camera. Yes, I know I nicknamed the kitty after a serial killer. I'm sick like that.

The Prodigal Son Returns...

Last night, Scootie returned home for the first time since Sunday. That means he has spent a total of about 8 hours at the new house since we moved. But, I can't blame him. We did move him all of 20 miles away from his friends. Scootie and Nephew spent the day Tuesday celebrating Nephew's birthday (Happy 17!) at the Vans Warped Tour 09 . Picture lots of sweaty teens listening to lots of loud music and trying to get free SWAG. Scootie came home with this pic of him and The Millionaires and a pair of signed underwear (I DO NOT want to know!). They had a great time and came home safe so that's all that matters, I guess. More to post later.