The elephant story in the room

Today I shall break my nine month silence for no other reason than-- Heeh, why not? It wasn't like I was monking it (the verb) on purpose or anything.

I guess it's possible, however, that I've lost my more flowery presentation style while off non-blogging. But I figure now that it's been this long, very few will see my soft re-entry into posting and I can quickly slip back into the blog waters like a svelte Olympic diver-all pointy toed and serious. Bloop.

Aaaand, now that I've managed to liken myself to an olympic monk in a few short sentences, I guess I'll get to the real reason for being here. Showing off my offspring!!

Yes, I wanted to post a blurb of Big G's writing on my blog so I'll have a mini journal of this stuff and also so grandmas and friends alike can take a peek at what he's working on this summer. I read the first 15 pages of his book (on his laptop-not by feather pen) this morning and really loved it! Forget, I do that he has such a way with words and vocabulary! He's just thirteen but already can really describe and develop characters and events that seem so mature. I shall make great effort to cheer him on to completing this one.

Here's the very beginning of his book which I'm not sure if he's named yet, but is about a group of elephants who practice "Timbo-Kwon-Do" and are called upon to use this ancient elephant art form for the greater good or something totally awesome like that. Teeheehee.

I'm going to say goodbye for now up here because below this cut-and-paste-in my font gets all messed up if I try to type and it looks like a continuation of the story. It's fun being back though! Hope to see you 'round the blogs this summer!! ~Shan

Prologue

Dawn was arriving in the jungles of Africa, awakening wildlife to its majestic scenery. Monkeys were screeching, birds were squawking, all unaware of the events of the day. In a sun filled clearing, a lone male elephant treaded through the lush, green grass, searching for a drink. His long trunk guided him with the scent of clean, life-giving water. The elephant pushed on, unaware of the figures surrounding him. Hidden by the thicket, they closed in on the unsuspecting mammal. They stopped at the edge of the bracken, and paused. All was silent, except for the distance sounds of wildlife. Sensing that danger was near, the elephant froze. Their was a moment of silence... and the elephant hurled his five ton bulk into the bracken, accurately sending a man flying with a thrust of his foot. He was perched on his back feet, his front feet still outward from the strike. He backflipped through the air, with impossible agility for the largest land mammal in the world. When he landed he struck again, knocking another two figures away with a double punch. The male elephant was more than twice the men's height, and they stood no chance against the amazingly powerful animal. One by one they were sent flying from a kick or punch, their weapons cast away into the dense African woodland. Once his work was finished, the male elephant relaxed his bulky frame, and continued his search for water.

** Jamey just shared cloud technology with me so now I can put up the first six chpts. he's gotten done ;) Here's the link: http://cl.ly/312J1N1D0L320A233q2Q

If you give a Shan a toilet...*

(this toilet knows what it's capable of)

She's gonna want a new floor(without duct tape on it) to seal it to.

If you let her pick out a new bathroom floor..

She's gonna want the claw footed tub painted a fresh new color.

If you are already removing the tub for flooring..

She's gonna want you to go ahead and take the cabinet with the mauve countertop out too.

Since you are changing the color scheme this much already...

She's gonna want to paint the whole room.

While shopping for a tiny patch of flooring and new paint, Shan's gonna see the carpet samples....

Then, she's going to want to use your tax refund to get new carpet in all the rooms upstairs.

But, while cleaning the dingy base boards...

She's gonna want to paint the trim in each room.

Painting the trim is going to be so easy without worrying about making a mess on the old floors...

She's gonna decide at least one more room needs painting.

With all the room rearranging, painting, and garage sale gathering and sloughing going on...

you'll somehow end up with another set of bunk beds. (???)

So alas, what is the lesson we all learn at one point or another in our lives...

Replacing a toilet can be QUITE an ordeal!

A guilty Grinch grin is forming across my face as we speak.

Kinda reminds me of the time I needed a new oven...

* This, of course, is a play on the well known Children's book 'If you give a mouse a cookie..'

Slap those thighs

Not a morning person? Then you are sure to have kids who are.

Who needs coffee really. Oh yeah...me.

Just Illin' and cold chillin'

First signs of life: Day two-the orneriness returns.

And story time humour for couch bound youth:

And finally, when your sick you can sleep most anywhere.

Be warm and well fellow bloggers!

(Facebookers click on 'View original post' for videos)

Lava: It's not just for video games

Here's a little experiment for the scientifically minded folks in the audience (read: grandparents and cousins). Ratchet had a much anticipated school project due to erupt this week, so of course we took some snaps and did a little trial run before hand to get a feel for the explosive power we were working with.

Here is the volcano in it's dormant state. The natives are busily going about their lives completely unaware of what's brewing at the base of this beast.

Here's Ratchet proudly standing behind his volatile creation.
And here's our practice run the evening before the natural disaster was to take place.

Speaking of natural disasters, you'll catch a glimpse of our torn up kitchen in the middle of its makeover. It's not an attractive sight right now but I am using my swanky new stove and microwave-which helps keep me chipper sans countertops. OH, and please turn the sound down if my constant noise gets bothersome during the pre-eruption. I am annoying! Here's what happened to his actual volcano at school on Thursday. Yay for extra credit!

(p.s. Any young kids (or middle aged men) who want to make your own version: We forgot to mention that we also added a couple squirts of dish soap to create a foamy effect ;)

Just like a home schooling mom without all the kids to teach!

I'm becoming so natural from the neck down I can hardly recognize myself! I just made my first batch of homemade laundry detergent and am now clearly unstoppable. Just point me to the patch of land you want vegetated this Spring. I'm a true pioneer. I've made soap with these hands! Is there anything coming in between me and a complete organic vegetable garden now?!

Oh yeah, all that wormy dirt touching work and such.

Ok. Coming down from my high now. Maybe my first batch of detergent doesn't make me entirely hearty and self sufficient but it was a super cool feeling while it lasted. And I do love my new detergent recipe! My gal pal Tab gave me a jar of this laundry soap at Christmastime and I just fell so in love with its crisp fresh scent and washing power, I had to find the goods to make it myself.

All that's needed is:

1/2 cup Borax

1 cup Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda(no picnic to find, btw.)

1 bar of Fels Naptha soap-grated (So awesome but equally hard to pin down in your everyday store.)

essential oil (optional ingredient: I used Lavender this time to see what happens.)

It is supposed to weigh in at just a fraction of the cost of store bought brands and you can sass it up anyway you like with essential oils (though while making it I found it to smell great as is.)

It is Michelle Duggar's(mother of 19 and local celeb.) recipe that Tab shared with me. I made four batches tonight which totals around 160 loads. I should be set for a while!

And now I've got plenty of time to sing this:

I'm easily impressed with myself it's true. This will no doubt keep my negative self talk at bay until well into next week!

Look out world! I'm every woman.

Talent Show: Day 5

Talent is as talent does:

Well, now, any of you who know my hubby also know he really has no talent to speak of. ;) Poor guy, I know. Since we couldn't think of anything good enough to compare to some of the previous entries, I just decided to post one of his recent attempts at "entertainment" where he is showing us one of the ways he makes music with his computer.

Like I said, not exactly dog ventriloquy, but it is something. (Wheeze!)

Talent show: Day 4

Ever since we started the talent show entries the dogs have been hounding me to get in on the action. You know how camera hungry small dogs can be. So while we round up Jamey's entry, we thought it would be a good time to put in a little Christmas number the T & T (dynomite) recently worked up. Of course, when it was my idea to finally film it they totally gave me the disinterested faces of teenagers. Whatever lickies.

So here they are without their Christmas hats or spirits (a contractual compromise):

Tiki and Tulip

Trust me, I've been this ridiculous for years. ;)

Talent Show: Day 2

He speaks Whale....

I especially like the note around second 52 if you have the higher reaches of your hearing. If you don't, your dog might perk up unexpectedly there and that would be fun to watch too. ;) This is one of his favorite things to do so I have several of these vids in my collection. Don't worry, I'll stop after sharing just the one....for now. Baha

Talent show: Day 1

I've decided to do a video talent show since I've built up quite a repertoire in my files. My oldest, always eager to please, volunteered to go first. (Ok, he's at school, but he WOULD have no doubt volunteered had he been available.)

Ratchet is in sixth grade and writes better than many a college freshman! He worked this little piece up for a quick homework assignment. I was astonished at the content in what seemed like busy work for him. I made him read it to me again for the camera since he had included character voices and everything. :) His literary talents are emerging!

(If you are seeing this on facebook, you'll probably have to click on the link that takes you to my blog to watch any videos.)

I'll be back shortly with the next entry!

Homework for the long weekend

"You've got big dreams? You want fame? Well, fame costs. And right here is where you start paying ... in sweat! "

Test on Tuesday people!!! ...2,3,4...

A horse is a horse...

Of course.  Of course.  

But when you use Mane 'n Tail, 

You might become one as well!

Hope your day is as voluminously full as mine! :D (Whinny)

Thursday in the big town

I've got a few tidbits to share before I head off to bed and lose it all.  I want to remember this day and the simple pleasures it gave me before I sleep and it becomes, well, yesterday. 

This morning, a.k.a. trash day, I planned to position myself at the window in clear view of the can at the curb outside.  This was not hard for me as I am usually at this window enjoying 1-3 cups of coffee and the company of my computer friends most a.m.'s.  My plan was to watch the "waste team" as they came across the poster board you may or may not remember from Ratchets cowboy b-day party.  It looks a little something like this:

And it was sitting next to the black can waiting to be disposed of.  Now, I ask you, what regular human could resist picking up this poster with an adult sized hole sitting atop a goofy picture and NOT immediately put their head through it?  It just isn't done.  Knowing this and hoping not to be disappointed, I carefully peeked out the window.  There were two guys there hanging from the back of the truck so I was encouraged.  Then the one closest to the curb hopped off and methodically went for the can, first tossing the top bags until it was lighter and then lifting the whole can in.  Then, still lacking enthusiasm, he grabbed the extra stuff including the poster board and tossed it all into the back of the truck.  

"Wait."  I thought, as he looked at what he'd just thrown.  Then YES, he pulled the stiff board back out of the trash and popped it right onto his head to show his partner!  I thrilled as I watched them smile at each other.  I kept watching and sure enough, the first dude wore the thing around his head until the next stop where he proceeded to get out and stand perfectly still, hands supporting the sides of the picture until the driver of the truck noticed him! Finally, after giving him a good look and laughing with the buddy in back, he jogged around to the passenger side of the trash truck, opened the door and tossed in the poster for safe keeping.  I LOL'ed and clapped with glee inside my house knowing Jamey's silly poster will live on another day.  It was so fun giving those dudes a little lift in their stinky stanky Thursday run.  I sighed thinking that was really all I needed to happen today. Then, I instantly wondered what we could do next week to surprise our hard working trash getters.  Maybe it was a one time thrill for us all. I supposed a live possum surprise wouldn't thrill as much as frighten/annoy, so that big guy under the house may have to wait.  Whatever the case, it was good not-so-clean fun on this particular morning. 

After school, my boys and I went to the park and enjoyed the perfect Spring day.  There is a creek running along beside it and they both took off their shoes and waded through until their feet were bright pink and nearly frozen.  I sat on a rock at  the edge of the water like the lizard that I am, and just soaked in all the Lithium my brain could process.  Dude, what a rush.  Dandy, normally physically challenged by any new terrain, was amazing as he took to the cold rocky surface like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings.  He had all fours down at several points, but kept this determined look mixed with wonder on his face as he maneuvered the rocks awkwardly with his bony tender frame.  After about 45 minutes, he announced from the middle of  the stream that he wanted to stay there[with his Precious]forever.  Baha.  The sunshine was affecting us all apparently.

When it was almost time to get back home for dinner, Ratchet decided to ride his bike up the hill toward home and Dandy stayed for one last hurrah on the playground.  While The D was messing about, we ran into one of Ratchet's favorite teachers of all time (from Kindy and first grade).  We rarely see her but have been following her blog and praying for her as she has been battling cancer for over a year, and has been a huge inspiration to hundreds of people she's encountered along the way.  

Her daughter took this picture of us today and she put it up on her blog just for my big boy to see and to leave a special message to him.  It pained me to hug her goodbye as the doctors have given her only a couple months and I wasn't sure we'd get to experience her delightful personality and smile again this side of heaven. If the Lord chooses to heal her and keep using her to his glory on earth, there will be a huge celebration of this wonderful lady, no doubt.  She simply glows with the love of Christ and I felt blessed to have seen her on this perfect Spring day.

Now though, it is midnight and my Thursday has officially ended- therefore so must the story. I hope you all have as wonderful a Friday as I enjoyed today.  And may the weekend give you cause to be wanted by the sheriff fer all that fun your a havin'.  XOXO

Oh what a night!!

BUT NOT in that Frankie Valli seventies song way-- if anyone is now humming that old tune to themselves and imagining circling the skating rinks in their minds like I am.  Perhaps you don't think in song.  Anyway, the particular night I'm speaking of was last night, and now that you mention it, it did seem to be cruising along like a well oiled wheel on a skate. R.E.M. sleep was fully in place with all the cartoon peaceful sounds of sleep going on around us. Honk-shoo. Honk-shoo.  Delightful.

Then, at 3:00am.  Violent muffled screams went off in my head.  I proceeded to apply them to my dream and continue sleeping.  But wait, I know that voice.  It is the something's-not -right-in- my-life banshee call of the 6 year old.   Ok. So I folded myself like a rusty arm chair and started the getting out of bed process.  I shuffled along resembling Tim Conway doing his old Mrs. HaWiggins bit and began closing in on the door at the end of our small bedroom. 

Suddenly, and it always is, WHOOSH! Jamey is up in his wild check the house frenzy, racing past me headed for the stairs.  "Oh." I thought to myself. "(yawn)He's on the case."  There I wisely froze out of his way for the instant that he'd be brushing by.  Then, he reaches the stairs mumbling something about tripping the alarm.  "Alarm? I wonder what that is?" I began thinking to myself with incredible precision.  We don't have any sort of alarm, so I make a mental note to ask Jamey about this later when down he goes into a ninja crouch at the foot of the stairs.  I continued to stare at him fully trusting he knew something I didn't as he ducked and stepped in slow motion over and around the space in front of him on the first three steps of the empty staircase.  Meanwhile, the screaming continues overhead.  Now Ratchet is awake and calling down to us dutifully from the landing above.  "Dad? Dandy needs something." He states, trying not to sound annoyed.  

At this point Jamey has only made it a few more steps up because he is having to climb through all kinds of invisible laser beam trip wires to get to his son-who's clearly in danger.  Instead of blazing past him to the bellowing child or asking what the heck he's doing, somewhere inside me I start to suspect something funny is going on.  Much too tired for such things now, I make a note to laugh hysterically about it in the morning, and head to the restroom.  

Once Jamey finally realizes he's not on a mission impossible, and finally makes it upstairs to trouble shoot, he manages to handle the situation ,which was of course not a situation at all.  Dandy, in his own convoluted dream sequence, thought there was no light on in the upstairs bathroom or anywhere else (though there were) and had begun his own not so silent alarm process.  So many alarms, so little wakefulness between them.  Poor chaps.

Bad sitcom completed, to bed we headed to resume the blissful descent into nigh nigh.  Wait, no.  Is that another murderous scream?  I'm afraid so.  This time Dandy was violently complaining that the air vent was too loud in his room and he couldn't hear his cd properly.  Really? Wow. Good times.

Next it's the chihuahua's turn to shine.  Tulip, who is now awake and curious in her room, suddenly needs to see her mommy and begins feverishly trying to claw the door down between us crying loudly.  I get back up, this time feeling jittery and weak from low blood sugar.  I go for my glucose tabs beside the bed, but in my loosey goosey state I dropped and clumsily lunged at the huge bottle causing a loud maraca sound to scatter across the room as I caught them again.  Jamey did no leaping this time but no doubt would have if I'd waited until he'd drifted off just a little further.  I went in and shushed the dog once, but a half an hour later she was back at it begging to come in the rest of the house.  This time I just opened the door and she shot straight to the warm spot between us in the bed-the very reason why both dogs get shut in another room at night in the first place.  But, you know, because it's THAT kind of night, instead of nestling down to sleep, Tulie begins an elaborate self cleaning process with all kinds of smacking and kicking about, shaking the bed with each move.  OH MERCIFUL NOT QUITE DAY it was annoying!  

So the dog was sent packing back to her assigned room where she chose to save her own life by shutting it until morning. Bless her little tan hide.

This morning after waking to an even worse blood sugar spell and resting it off, I finally managed to pull it together and work in one huge chortle over Jamey's nocturnal stair maneuvers.  Sadly, he was in no mood to fully enjoy his own antics, so I am forced to share my sighting with you to get it all properly off my chest.  Whew!

 Oh, and just in case you're wondering, I did get J's permission to make this report. You see, when it comes to my amusement (or taking on imaginary intricate security devices to save a child in crises), my hubby is always there for me!  

Life is goood. Dreams are better. :D

  

*Had to rush this to post to remain timely and fit in a quick trip out of town.  Please forgive blatant errors in writing tenses and such.  !SKNAHT

I smell drama

What chemical reaction suddenly caused my candle to turn Roman and start hosing the place with wax and sparks?  It was close to the bottom so I suppose it found the end of the wick, but where does the plastic effect come in?  Candles are way up there on the list for fire starting so I'm sure this is completely normal for some demon spawn variety candles, but I've never seen the likes of one of these before. Have you? 

All in a days play

Todays excuse for not blogging lately:  I can't type very well while wearing knit gloves on my frozen mitts.  

 Ok, no, that's not really it, though my mitts are definitely frozen.  I guess I'd just rather not be the prime talker, as my self edit button is usually on the fritz, and I say far too much without it. Boring boring snoozerville of a girl you don't have to write EVERY single thought! (oops)

Soooo....today to break the ice a bit both here and between my fingers.  I think I'll show you a couple of things from last Saturday.  Saturday was a wonderfully Christmassy day indeed.  Let me set the stage a little bit for you.  

I awoke after having slept in just long enough that the piercing morning light coming through my East facing window didn't get the chance to actually burn a laser sized hole right into my brain via one of two vulnerable eye sockets.  So far, so so good.  

Then we chatted a bit over coffee (and breakfast by hubby--always nice) with our in house guest, Travis, who will soon be mentioned at length in a whole 'notha entry. 

The morning flew by both peacefully and in an instant as Saturday mornings, heck most mornings, tend to do.  The boys played video games while I tidied up a bit and listened to this on my headphones.  Not the most interesting book I've ever "read", but the author was really able to describe life as a stay-at-home mom to a tee from several different perspectives.  So much so in fact, that I found myself agreeing audibly with some of the lines in the book like they were coming right from my own bank of thoughts.  But anyway....

Next, the kids and I made our second annual gingerbread house together. And here she is in all her candeliciousness.  

I probably should have made more of an effort to cover the plastic base now that I'm looking at it with fresh eyes with you.  But, oh well, it's still quite cheerful.

Then, with fire in fireplace and The Santa Clause II cued up (it chokes me up EVERYTIME- Darn you Tim Allen!), we began putting up the synthetic tree together.  Sigh.

I realize I might need to improve on my 'Jesus is the reason for the season' pre-Christmas teachable moments.  But I figure we can make time for plastic Santa movies and trees this early in December without much harm done. 

My afternoon soon migrated back to the kitchen where I had shortbread and sausage balls to prepare for our traditional post-parade party at Casa de Beck Bleu.

Oh but the parade!!!!  I mustn't pass by it so quickly.  My hair was not quite as ready as I needed it to be (read: soaking wet fresh from the shower) so I sent the boys down the street ahead of me so that they wouldn't miss anything.  Our house is two blocks up the hill from downtown so we are just naturally included in any event that clogs up our main street and we never need to hunt for parking.  We just step out and enjoy!  

As I knew from past experience that finding my three guys in a mass of people wouldn't be easy, I decided just to take in the small town crowd as a whole experience and walk the downtown area as if I were in a movie.  Here's what it was like only much less dizzying in person:

   

I love this town!!  We may leave it someday, so I try to find these drinkable moments and just hang on to them the way I do with my kids sweetness at every age. Delicious! 

This was a perfect day in almost every way!  Family fun, festivities, fires, fattening foods, farades (ahem). What more could one ask for on a Saturday in early December? I can't think of a thing. Thanks for reliving it with me.  

A Tale of Two Parties

Eeks!  How is it I remember blogging about something that happened BEFORE I ever had a blog!  Are blogs like cell phones and Diet coke now?  We can't seem to remember how we did things before they came along?  I can almost swear I blogged about Dandy's birthday party last year because it was a crazy day where I gave his party and attended two others plus an entire parade!!!  That was a day etched in my mind and my camera!  I must have emailed my tales to people before blogging because I put those events together somewhere.  I just know it.  

Well, anyway, I'm going to try to push past this and do a little compare/contrast with my birthday boy's 5th and 6th  parties now that I'm actually blogging outside my mind.  I am right?

OK!  So.  Dandy, our little party planner extraordinaire, likes to plan his birthday celebrations well in advance.  We've known all year, for instance, that his number six party would be a "blue" party with an underlying "Thomas the Tank Engine" theme.  Easy enough, we made it so.  

Here we have things like: blue rice krispy treats, blue chips, gummy bears and m&m's in blue, blue dip for the non blue veggies, blue chocolate dipped pretzels(not pictured because I forgot to get them out), blue filling in the non blue tortillas, white cheese and white cheese dip ( I just didn't have the heart to soil the cheese dip after everything else was doused in food coloring.) 

And then we had the Thomas cupcakes, stickers and gifts to round out that portion of the theme.

Yes, he was one happy party host, walking around handing out spoons and stickers with a most hospitable air.  There was no room for blue moods by the time this party started.

We had trains coming and going for engineers young and old to busy themselves with.

And my sweet sister-from-another-mister, Arlynda and her family even came up from Tulsa!  :D  (We have always been twin-like in our looks and sillies.  HI ARLY!)

What I have failed to mention or picture in this happy go lucky post is that while everyone was blueing it up heartily, slowly the children were dropping like flies.  Two kids left early with stomach aches (NOT caused by my colored food-I promise!), and then one of my nephews fessed up to his tummy woes but couldn't bring himself to leave while the leaving was good.  About an hour later.....we saw the party again....all..over.. the..floor.  Yep, after so carefully keeping the fluorescent punch in restricted areas away from the carpet-- hurl happened.  And it wasn't train colored.  

Did I say up there I was going to compare and contrast two parties?  Do YOU have all day to read this blog entry?  Did you check out after the first picture realizing this is just another had-to-be-there post?  That's what I figured.  And I'm supposed to be washing my dogs for Thanksgiving travels!! That is, no doubt, the reason I'm still here. 

Ok, instead of changing the title of this post (which would be the logical choice),I'll just show you what last years party looked like so I can say I included it.  It was quite the Festivus of Verdis if I do say so myself.  Which would you rather eat (or hurl)?  Green or Blue?   

    

As you can see, our adorable Dandy is a colorful chap at any age!  Happy birthday big D!  I'm hearing talk of Red and Orange for next year so we shall see. We shall see. 

Have a great week and Holiday weekend everyone! I may not see you for a while! 

WFMW: Clean to the MAX!!

[The much more famous Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer hosts many useful tips on her site every Wednesday.  I thought I'd add one of my own.]

Ladies,

Do you ever find your floors in need of an overnight-sized clean.  Do you want to give them that extra level of protection they deserve so that they don't embarrass you when company shows up at the door.  

Then pop a giant maxi on your Swiffer* and get to work!  No need to buy expensive goes-with-the-product pads when you probably have a hospital flow level maxi right underneath your bathroom vanity.  With this special moisture locking core you can be sure to catch any awkward leaks.

Now that's protection that'll keep your floors fresh all day! 

*Swiffer has not been successful with tampon use.  Tampons however may be used for spot treatments and/or cleaning piano keys. 

Now only 13 shy of an even 100!

As I was stumbling through a hideous pile of leather and man-made materials this past weekend, I thought it might be fun to share with you one of my secret shames of the material world.

 

Yes, I'm afraid 87 is not only the year I graduated from high school, it has also become the giant, and to some, ghastly number of mediocre shoes I own.  While sitting atop the lurching pile on Saturday wondering which poor soles should stay and which should go, I realized each and every little(ok, hoofer sized)pair of my shoes has healed it's own place in my slowly swelling heart. 

 How do I send any one of you away oh faithful land-foot separators?  Even you, denim buckle top with the dog chewed  corner sole?  We've had some good times together.  Remember when I slipped off of you sideways, scraping the whole piece of thick skin from my heal?  Then I sort of flapped it back on hoping for reattachment. And it mostly worked!  Yeah, that was a scary messy day that I'll not soon forget.  

And you, you sneaky cross-trainer.  It was you I chose to wear for a simple backyard frolic- right into  the hole that broke my ankle. So much for the "sensible shoe" label doctors try to give you. That time we had to hop back into the house so I could take a quick bath and good-foot-it over to the emergency room for x-rays and a big black boot. 

 And don't even get me started on you slippery little flip flops! Of which one of you, who shall remain nameless, contributed to the porch slipping wrist snapping fall of '04 that kept me from getting my first foster baby(later to be known as Dandy) for six weeks!

 I'm not mad at any of my darling shoeys though.  We've had some blistering good times together.  I've definitely had my share of  tall shoe incidents as well.  I've done many clever wipe outs with subtle ground level changes underfoot. 

 But nothing can match the exhilaration  of strolling through a store with several inches added to each leg, peering over the tops of other shoppers in wizard to hobbit scale.  It's gloriously powerful.  I like to help the small bare and hairy footed shoppers reach things on the tippy top shelves while strolling down the toilet paper aisle.

But enough about me, let's get on with my collection shall we?  Here's a little rounder of some of what I like to call my "Barbie Shoes", although I feel certain their sheer size alone would disqualify them from anything so feminine sounding.  They are all however properly bedazzled and ball gown ready.

Here's a pair I'm pretty proud of.  What makes these twins special is that they are not twins at all but merely siblings!  One is a whopping size 10 while it's mini-me is merely an 8 1/2.  I discovered this one day at church while at first thinking my shoes were a little small, then later, re-looking and finding them actually quite roomie!  BAHHA!  I still wear them though because I am able to reach across size lines and set my mind somewhere in between.  I know, how very big of me. 

Here are some other groupings of Shan shoes:

We have the winter line.

A colorful batch of flip-ems. 

A motley mix of useful and uglies.  The ones I tend to live in are the tall dark blue flips with turquoise swirls.  Got them at an outdoor store several years ago and they may  actually never wear out.  May they never!

And here are some of the more closeted ones(poor dears): 

In my way of wanting to start new fashion forward trends, I toyed around with an idea this weekend to keep my footwear looking fresh on a shoestring budget. I find it to be quite gangsta. 

It's right up there with my earcuff and rubber tie ideas. Is it not?

And now I'll leave you with the five year old Dandy modeling one of my boots to give  a feel for how Gandolfian my shoes actually are. 

How many wizard or barbie sized shoes do you have?

Picture this...And this...And while you're at it, this.

Since I've been an inattentive Shanslander lately I thought I'd go through my piccys and give you a huge smattering of them.  I'll try to keep my discussions to a minimum and give you a broad range of events that I might have blogged about had I not been so busy being "oot and aboot" as our Canadian neighbors would say. 

Let's start off with a couple of trips out with my friends.  In celebrations of various sorts(and trust me I'm not even sharing all of them).  I found myself twice recently at the same place called HUGO'S, which I hadn't actually been to for years.  

First was Becky Bleus Birthday Bash(a nice alliteration for the English scholar that she is).  

(Becky)

(Trish, Jenna, Becky)

We saw a movie afterwards so this was our attempt to get a picture of ourselves in the theater.  I had to concentrate really hard to include the others in the shot because I kept just taking pictures of my own giant melon.

(Jenna, Trish, Becky, Shan)

Let's keep this rolling to the next visit to Hugo's which was last week in celebration of our dear friend Shelley who is moving to New York in 4.6 days.  BOO!  Why do people leave?  BOO!! BOO!! 

(Sweet-n-Shelley)

Trish, extreme social butterfly, literally can manage to make it to ANY event you are able to schedule.  She is a Clockstopper (and an extrovert with a capital E) and always manages to be enjoying herself in the midst of it all!  Just when I get cocky and start thinking I can do this, something switches off in my brain and I dart for cover bolting the door behind me.  

Oh yes, I wasn't going to start rambling was I?  Here's the second group with Trish and Shan as common denominators. 

(Joy, Hannah, Shelley, Tab)

(Trish, Deanna)

(Hannah, Joy, Tabs, Shelley)

(Trish, Me)

And then Jamey decides to take his turn as a socialite.  Sunday night he went out with 7-ish dudes and then brought them all home for a movie afterwords.  I had to speed unload and reload the dishes all the while tap dancing with rags on each foot to quick clean the floors for the "surprise" drop-ins.  I really should do more daily maintenance.

(Todd, Jamey, Vance)

This is how I distract people who are trying to look at a neglected part of my house.  "Have you seen my lillies? Aren't they pretty?"  casually scooting them out the front  and away from a dusty piece of furniture. 

(Asiatic, Calla)

Of course, we could just move out to the prairie and no one would ever drop by to see us.  This is a house on ten acres we looked at last week.  BAH-HA!  I think it's funny too.  Get a load of the mow job we'd be taking on.  Oh, and I might not be able to stay there at night either which would be tricky.  But the view was delicious indeed!  Too bad the house was a little small.  It was almost perf.....OK! I know you are still laughing at City Mouse.  I can hear you!!  

So there's yet another haphazard wrap up. Can you tell I'm a procrastinating poster?  I guess I like to do my blog newspaper style and give a little synopsis of my world at large.  Tomorrow I've got about 14 things to do so it's possible I'll be rambling again soon at a blog near you.  You want to keep up, but not THAT close? Alright, I understand. ;)  Signing off.