I Made Soup and I Still Like Barbie

I used to be able to get writing jobs fairly easily. I was hooked up with a big network of moms and I'd just pitch things to them. Later I was hooked up to a big blog network and I just sort of spread myself around pretty well, making a little more, a little more, a little more ... and then it was gone. I've applied for 3 jobs in the last few months and no one wants me anymore. They all say they are looking for a different tone, etc. I can write in a different voice or style, but when I really think about it, I know I want to be me when I write, not some face-less writer who really isn't telling you anything. So many places don't tell you anything anymore. Have you noticed that?  Just a bunch of words strung together in a pretty fashion with no new idea or no real content. Very odd, that is. I want to learn something new either about myself or the subject or the writer. I want to connect. Is that wrong? I thought that was the whole purpose behind blogging in the first place.

In other news, I made some Chicken Soup for my sick husband  last night and it very well might be the best Chicken Soup of my life. It's all downhill from here folks, I've hit the Chicken Soup Peak. ;)  I am going to write it out and get it up at an old food blog that I started forever ago and am pretty sure I'd like to give another go. I love to cook.

I'm going to use my camera every day. Every ding dong day. I used to be that way. I got this yesterday. Tree Moss. It's pretty stuff. Robin and I used to use it in our Barbie houses when we were kids. We were Barbie-girls. I've never understood Barbie-hate. I guess it's because I realized that she was pretend and I did not want to look like her. I missed the whole Barbie ruined my self-esteem boat.  I simply thought she was fun.

Here's the moss....

This came from the bottom of the Christmas tree my husband cut down for me. Sarah and I were watching a movie, he opens the door and shoves this 12 foot tree in the door. It's now about  4 or 5 feet shorter, still not decorated, but it sure is pretty. I missed trees like this when I lived in Chico. I'll post pictures of it tomorrow.

I Really Kind Of Like It Here

It was a dark and stormy night... and it still is. The tree out front is whipping around and the rain is hitting the side of the house. I hope Sis the hound is in her dog house.

One of the many perks involved with moving back to your hometown is that you run into a lot of "old friends." Some are friends-friends, some are acquaintance-friends, and others are just familiar faces you used to know.

Today, I ran into a friend from the 6th grade. He and I attended Bogus School, a one-room schoolhouse back in...well it was a long, long time ago. While we were students there, he "went" with my sister, Robin, then later, at the end of the year, he "went" with me for about a week, so this was a boy that I kissed when I was 11. John is good friends with his son and I recently spent the day with the son when he helped John get in a load of wood. His son is a really nice guy, works hard, very friendly.

Anyway, this guy, Richard is his name, looks very good, hardly aged at all. I knew it was him from halfway across the front of the store, which is not the case with many old friends. I will look at them for the longest time and then think, oh yeah, that's so and so. Richard has a new baby, only 3 months old, and he's a Grandpa. I have to say this - congratulations to Richard and his lady, but oh man I hope I do not have any more kids at this age.

I walked him over to his car, way across the shopping center, over to where his dad was just coming out of Carl's Jr. Now his dad, I hadn't seen his dad since back in the 6th grade days when he had all kinds of long, curly, dark hair. I remember we used to spend the night with Richard's sister, Sara, and listen to their dad's records. Richard's mom would make us ebelskeivers (sp?) for breakfast... that reminds me, I still haven't used my pan. Richard and Sara taught Robin and me how to build forts and pee outside. It was at there house that we first spent time around animals like chickens and turkeys. And I have this clear picture in my mind of what Richard's fingernails looked like as a kid. Yes, I know that's an odd memory to carry, but I've carried it all these years. I mentioned it to John and I'm pretty sure I got one of those My Girlfriend Is A Weirdo looks.

I love living back here. I really enjoy running into familiar faces, feeling ties to a place again. I lived in Chico all that time and never really felt like I belonged there, never felt any ties to the location, although I did meet some wonderful people while I was there, like Max's teachers. My boyfriends, my best friends, they were all people whom I grew up with up here. Every day something happens that makes me feel more sure that I did the right thing moving back.

Teri's Photo

This is my cousin Joy, my cousin Teri, my sister Robin, and me in Carlsbad, CA, probably in 1978. Joy is littlest, I am biggest. I was 12 and that was the first swimsuit that I was allowed to pick out for myself. I thought it was the coolest suit ever.

I remember the day this photo was taken. My cousins, sister, and I played outside in the sun, danced - Teri remembers learning how to do The Bump from my mom. I think we did some running in the sprinkler, something I still love to do.

My sister and my youngest daughter look just alike in this photo. Robin would have been about 9 here. Look how we all have matching legs here. My brother, he has the same legs, too.

Something about these old photos that I've seen on Facebook lately, they remind me that I sort of lost that girl along the way. The girl in this picture, she was so excited about starting jr high. She had no idea that it would be two of the worst years of her life. Darn jr high.

TGIO - Thank Goodness It's Over

This post brought to you by Max's sweet little feet. How cute are they? He is the only teenage boy in the world who never has stinky feet. My weekend was.... on the exhausting side. I have some things to figure out, but I feel like it's going to work out okay. I am trying to keep a level head, think it through with my brain and not my heart. These are not always easy things for me to do. I'm a go-with-the-gut kind of girl. My gut is just saying, "Ouch. I hurt. Stop stressing."

I did a bunch of baking and cooking today. A lot of fun. I couldn't do my work for awhile, there was a problem with whatever allows us to put up photos. In the long run, it worked out well because I had time to do fun stuff. I made up a cookie recipe and a granola recipe. Both are good. I love granola. It's so pricey though. Have you ever noticed that?

I put some organic fertilizer out yesterday. It smelled like cow poop. The kind that I remember from when I was a kid and cows were still allowed to eat grass. These days, you drive by a stock yard and about pass out from the stench because they feed them things like rendered animals. It's not natural and the smell that comes out of them is the most basic proof of that. Poor cows.

We used to use cowpies for bases when we played kickball. The old dried out ones, not the warm and juicy ones. Eww. I can also remember my sister and I throwing it at each other.

That was so much fun, moving from the city to the country. Absolutely the very best decision my mom ever made. Thank you, Mom. I love you.

My beautiful sister got bit by a dog last night. On the face. Mom called and told me today and I'm afraid I fell apart. (I'm so sorry, Mom!!!). It happened when she was petting the dog and then she laughed. She thinks that she startled it. I kept picturing my beautiful sister laughing her wonderful laugh, her hand on the dog, and then the horror of the bite.

She had to have 14 stitches and 12 shots. She sent me a photo on the phone and it's on her chin, down below the corner of her mouth, a crescent shape of swollen stitches. Damn.

I usually do not say this, but I am very glad that this weekend is over. Now, I'm going to give Max his medicine. Goodnight.