"What happens?" ....you ask?   LIFE, it happens. lol

For anyone looking for my weekly post on "Created To Be His Help Meet", it just isn't here yet. My dad came over this morning, and he spent the whole day on my computer. So, I kept busy with other things and let him do his thing. I should have my post up tomorrow though, as I don't anticipate any difficutlies in getting online.

Keeping busy wasn't hard today. I took some advice from the lastest book that I am reading, "Making Your Home a Haven: Strategies For The Domestically Challenged", and I took another look at my kitchen cabinets. As Cyndy suggests, my kitchen would work so much easier if things were organized by how I use my kitchen, and not restricted to the way I filled up the shelves when we moved in. I definitely understand her points, and it was good to finally know how I use my kitchen, having had plenty of time to see how I would be best served by my space. Add to that the fact that I bought two drawer organizing trays at the dollar store the other day, and I was set to go.

First, I went through my utensil drawer, and I inserted my baskets, placing my needed things inside of them. Since my stuff wasn't sliding around, I could fit my foil, wax paper, plastic wrap, and baggies in the drawer again. Yay! I should mention that I only have 3 drawers, and one is VERY skinny. So, maximizing my drawer space is imperative. Next, I re-organized my cupboard where I keep my glasses. To say that I store my glasses there is... not completely true. I also store medicines, plastic cups, funnels, measuring cups, a hand mixer, waffle maker, and DD's school supplies in there. lol Today, I rearranged everything, changed the levels of the shelves, and put everything back in an amazing order. I boxed up my little griller and my electric can opener, and they are going down to the basement with my extra utensils. I also took a shoe box and put all of our medicines in the box, so I don't have to break my neck trying to fish individual bottles off the top shelf.

After all of that was done, I was able to sit down with my packaged that arrived today from Timberdoodle. DD's workbooks from Rod & Staff came in today, and I just love what I see in them. There isn't anything too fancy about the booklets, but the learning pages are just what DD will love. I had to laugh when I saw a page where you have to number each stage of a situation. There was a picture of a baby chick coming out of an egg, and adult chicken, and then a chicken prepared on a roasting platter. I just cracked up with laughter. DH was slightly agast, thinking that we'd never get DD to eat meat again, until I enlightened him that I already told her where meat comes from. My sister won't prepare a whole chicken because she gets grossed out by knowing that it was a live animal at one time. I think that is so completely silly (might I say "dumb"?) that I refuse to raise a daughter who can't make a simple meal because she'll only touch meat that no longer looks like an animal. It's foolishness.

DD and I took some time to use her alphabet flashcards today. She has the uppercase letters down very well. Today, we worked on her lowercase letters, most of which she could identify. Afterward, we made our way to the kitchen table, and she practiced writing the letters "E,F,G,H,I,J & K". She is doing very well, though she keeps trying to write her "J" backwards. Oops. lol She'll get the hang of it. Since she is doing so wonderfully with her letters, I am going to teach her how to write out the rest of her first name, and not just the shortened version that we normally call her. She loves her name, but it is long, which makes it hard to remember all of those letters.

While DD was working on her pennmanship, I sat down to write to my mom. I picked up a pretty card from the dollar store, and I decided to write a bit of a letter in it. I also wrote to my grandma in Florida. I miss having other women around. I do have my sister, but we are not like-minded in many things. From time to time, I really just long after being able to have a really open conversation with someone who really understands where I am coming from, and isn't always critical of my decisions because my love of God is so unpopular.

I admit to having poor eating habits today, though not in the way that some might expect. I don't think that I ate anything today, until 3pm. Then I had a modestly sized tomato. Yes, I ate it like an apple. lol For dinner, I ate conservatively, and I am well under my calorie requirements for the day. I don't really care though. I haven't been feeling like eating lately. Every time I eat in the evening, my stomach gets upset. I don't think that I have an ulcer or anything, but the thought has occured to me. Or, maybe it is just the Lord being kind to me and answering my prayers to take the strongest tempation of food from me. lol I don't know. I just feel better.

After dinner this evening, I spent some time scrubbing the kitchen, and I bleached my sink. Having had time for dinner to digest, I pulled out my rowing machine and exercised for a short time. My knees have really been bothering me lately, but a little exercise feels good. Hopefully this will help my back from hurting so much when I wake up in the morning. Besides, I'd really like for my clothes to fit better (aka- looser). :o )

Oy. Ok, I know that I've rambled myself silly. I just don't have anything pressing to say today. I'll do that stuff tomorrow. So, I'm off to stick DD in bed, and then watch "House" tonight. I sure hope that all of you lovely ladies (and you guys, too) have a wonderful evening. God bless you and yours.

Oh, just a final thought that I'll leave you with. I talked with my dad today, and he actually carried on a biblical conversation with me, and then said that I was right! Wow. Then, he stayed for dinner, and he said the evening prayer with us. Wow.

*tired laugh* It's already tomorrow, and I should be in bed. In a few minutes, I'll take a book and make my way in there. I won't be sleeping though. DH is up, thinking that he is going to watch the episodes of "24" that I taped for him while he was working on the car. So, since I have time to kill while he is being a goober, I might as well use it here. :o )

My house is a wreck. We are in this cycle, where nothing gets done on the weekend, and I spend the rest of the week making the place "right" again. Of course, it only takes me the first couple days to get things all in order, but those next days are so precious because I know that the place will be wreaked again on Saturday. It begins on Friday night, after all is cleaned and sparkling, DH comes home and the whirlwind hits the house. *chuckles* You would think so. By the time I get up on Saturday, there are cups, empty pop cans, books, errant clothing, toys, pillows, etc. all over the floor. If it isn't plates that are in the wrong place, it is a pizza box or something else that is slightly gross and needing to grow legs to walk out to the trash. It makes me feel like a poor "keeper", but I've learned that if I don't go with the flow and just chill out, I'll go insane. So, I let them wreak the house for 2 days, and I get five days of peace. At least I stay busy for a couple days, and on the other days I can adopt projects to do, because the majority of the work is done.

Well, obviously today was Monday. This is HEAVY work day, but it didn't work out like that. While I was at my dad's birthday party, my aunt and uncle asked if DD and I would go to a birthday party for her cousin, who just turned 2. I couldn't very well so 'no', not after DD heard the dreaded words "Chuck E. Cheese". She flipped off the ceiling of the outdoor tent, and wouldn't hush up until we were leaving the funhouse. Oy. lol

Today was a very rainy day. It also happened to be my dad's birthday.

Yesterday, DD and I spent some time with paper, glue, cardboard, markers, and crayons, making a birthday card for "grandpa". DD wrote "Happy Birthday Grandpa, Love ----" on the inside of the card, and colored in a sailboat that I had drawn on the front. She did such a good job with her writing. Of course, I still had to spell the words out for her, but she knew all of her letters, and wrote well enough that one could read the card without difficulties. I think that is pretty good for a little girl who just turned four.

DH worked real hard on the car yesterday, trying to fix it well enough that we could travel to the marina for my dad's party today. While we were returning videos the other night, the tierod end broke as I turned into the parking lot. DH called his mom for help, but she wouldn't help because she was already in bed. So, we walked over to a store and tried to find some steel clothing hangers. They only had plastic though, so DH ended up using whole bunches of picture hanging wire, and he drove us home at 10mph. We all breathed a sigh of relief when we made it home, and then he wrenched on the car the next day. Now we find that our sway bar links need to be replaced too. Yay.

Thankfully, the car took the trip to the marina well, so we were alright. As usual, I was feeling a bit tense, but tried to smile it away so no one would know. I really don't like being around my dad and his girlfriend. I can't help but hate seeing them together. Add to that the fact that my dad always invites my ex-best friend, and I was a bit wound up. I don't mind seeing my old friend, but he doesn't have any fondness for me, and I spend the whole time feeling as though he's going to lite into me at any moment. So, I smile until my face hurts. Lucky for me, my dad doesn't know how to grill, so I was able to do the cooking today. It gave me a chance to participate in a little small talk, but stay removed enough from things that I wouldn't feel like bailing out.

DD had a real great time at the party. One of my dad's friends has quite a few kids, and she just loved running around with all of the boys. At one point, I did have to apply some band-aids, but she was made well by a tweety bird sucker. :o )

By the time that we all piled in the car, the three of us and the dog, I was tired. Apparently I wasn't the only one, because both DD and the dog were passed out in the backseat. lol Who would have thought that grilling would be so exhausting? lol Numerous times dad and his girlfriend tried to shoo me away from the grill, saying that I was "working too hard". Little did they know. lol The girlfriend and I did talk for a bit, while we were putting everything away. She still acts like she expects me to take her head clean off. I don't really get it though. It isn't that I am mean to her, or even that I don't like her. I've told my dad to share these things with her. The point is, she is not my mom. I'm never going to be comfortable with any woman sleeping with my dad and trying to call my sister "daughter". This isn't something that is particular with this one person. I am very loyal to my mother, and to my familly in large. My dad may want to pretend that his girlfriend is part of our family, but she isn't. He won't even do the right thing and just marry her, instead of causing her to live in sin. He may not care about God, but she professes to be a Christian. Maybe that is what bothers me the most, that she will try and have theological discussions with me on what is right and wrong, while fornicating with my dad. That's just messed up. I know that not one of us is perfect, but the hypocrisy just makes my head spin. I am always pleasant though, even when I don't feel so pleasant. For example, why would they think that I would ever want to see them making-out with each other??? Does it take a rocket scientist to understand that I'm not going to feel ok with that? Are they such little hormonal rabbits that they can't wait until I'm not there? I don't know. I want to relieve some of the tension between us all, but I can only do so much when folks act like I am a big meanie, and they do things that sting at my most vulnerable areas. Silly goats.

I wish that my former friend and I could get along better. I know that it doesn't mean anything to him to be a friend though. I guess I just feel bad that there is such bad vibes between us. It is sad. We used to get on so well together. You would think that things would be so much easier because we are both married now, and both very happy. I don't know if he'll ever look me in the eye again though, all because I chose not to date him. *sigh* That was so long ago, and I wish that it would just die. I'd like to be able to stand and talk with him and his wife, and just have fun, smile, and laugh. At the least, I'd just like to feel that he doesn't harbor ill feelings toward me. I know that I hurt his feelings, and it wasn't my intention. I never meant for any of the ickiness that came about.

Goodness, this is a whole bunch of negativity, isn't it? lol Interesting, for the celebration of a birthday. My dad gave his toast this evening, about how family is great, but extending his "family" with chosen friends was so much better. Did you hear that stinging sound? That was his words hitting across the side of my face. I'll bet that he didn't mean to say things just the way that he did, but his words do echo so true in the mix of things. I can't even count how many times he has ditched me to go spend time with his friends. I just don't like to be reminded that I have no special favor because I am his child. If it weren't for the fact that DD had such a great time, I would chalk the whole event up as being pretty depressing.

Alas, I had better run. The news is on, and DH wants my company. I'll come running. I do have a special place of favor in his heart............