Mike comes home tonight. In fact, he should be here any minute. Finally, sleep will be mine! I had taken to medicating myself in order to sleep.... which sucks because I couldn't get out of bed on time in the morning.

Ian cut a little girl's hair in school yesterday. *snickers* I really did try to be angry.

In other news, going shopping for snow boots this weekend for the kids... WINTER!! :) YAY! I get to buy things like SLEDS and SNOWBOARDS for Christmas this year. I'm so excited!!

For those of you that love me a whole lot - I want a Nano for Christmas.

Okay. My sister just brought over balloons and cake. She's awesome.

Today was the worst birthday of my life. I've got all of these personal/medical issues that made me ucky. My husband is out of town and forgot to call me. My kids didn't remember.... AND I got home to find that they had let my dog eat a pair of my shoes (and of course they couldn't be the ones from Target... oh, no!) I'm sad and resentful and I really just can't wait to go to bed tonight.

Work was great, though. The pastry chef made me some yummy-ness and Michele and Bradley sang to me and had the candles and everything. Very neat. That accounted for all of 20 minutes in my day.

Over the last week I have been through a lot but I'm on my way back to normal.

On to another bit of weirdness: I somehow managed to find Kelsey from PackBell on MySpace. Crazy. She's still with John and living in Dallas.

And, just because I like to share, I have a few small addictions. I love Crunch and Munch, rum raisin ice cream, and PostSecret

My dog is so damn cute.

I didn't realize until today how much I need some form of normal in my life. I hate upheaval. I stayed in bed until eleven today. I want Michael to come home. I don't know what I'd do without Megan.

On another note, my sister was arrested for a DUI and possession last night. She's eighteen. Thank goodness it happened before she actually hurt someone or herself. Now maybe my parents will wake up and realize there's a problem.



Wild West Day is tomorrow. It's an event to support all of the local schools. There'll be hayrides and ponies... games and giveaways. The boys are so excited to be going!

It's getting cold here. I closed my windows last night for the first time since I've moved here. When we left for work, there was ice on our windshield and driving in to Beaver Creek this morning we saw snow on some of the peaks. I'm really excited about the cold... nervous but excited. There will be snow on the ground by Halloween and the first heavy snow will hit before Thanksgiving. The colors are starting to turn. I can drive through the valley and see yellow and red brush mixed with the green pines and aspens. I can't wait for the aspens to turn, though. If I can, I want to drive up past Sylvan Lake after the turn and see them all... that's where the largest aspen grove is, which happens to be the worlds largest living organism (thanks to their root system). There's so much to look forward to this winter and I'm almost wanting to slam on the brakes for fear that it'll happen too soon. :) Christmas is right around the corner... how'd that happen?

I don't really have much to say today. I'm just a little bit bored. I have stuff to do but it's all so menial that I have no desire to begin. Isn't that awful? I had a good weekend. We went to the BBQ/Barn Dance on Friday with the kids. We stayed and ate some pretty impressive barbeque but ended up leaving before the dance really kicked off because there was a severe thunderstorm warning. Severe here is actually severe. It's kind of weird. When we visited Las Vegas last there were storm warnings and it felt like drizzle to me compared to the drops that come down here. When they hit your car they sound like pebbles instead of water. Saturday was my day to turn in to a vegetable. I did nothing but catch up on sleep and watch TV. I was actually a little ashamed of myself. Sunday Mike and I hung out and had my sister and niece over for dinner. She broke it off with the new guy, which is fine. So long as she's happy I can support it. :) That's it, I guess. More later this week, I'm sure.

So... my dog cries at night. I'd think this normal for a puppy. When they have to pee they cry to let you know and then you can let them out, right? Right. No. Not my puppy. My puppy wants to play! It's my own fault. Since we're crate training he sleeps all morning until the kids get home. They take him outside and play all afternoon so by seven he's exhausted. We go to bed around eleven or so... yeah. So he sleeps until about one or two. Mike has been so incredibly tolerant, too. It's so funny to see him deny how much he loves this dog while he has a big grin on his face every time he looks at Pagan.

Yesterday I took Pagan to visit my sister and my niece. They're doing so great! Hannah got all of her hair cut off and now she looks like a pixie with her big, green eyes and her stick-out-a-little-too-far ears. Megan is doing well, too. She's dating this guy that makes Michael seem like a saint when it comes to ornery, which is awesome. Just what she needs. He's got three kids, too, and they're all little hellions. Cute, sweet hellions... but still. Anyway, my dog LOVED Fiona (her dog) and started rolling all around and jumping back and forth. It was so cute. Unfortunately, though, 'Ona thought that Pagan was one of her chew toys and after being all sniffy for awhile tried to eat him. *sighs* Poor Pagan just wasn't the same after. His poor tail was stuck in down mode.

I haven't posted a lot about the kids lately. Matt and Zach both have love interests now. Sorta. Zach is all bothered over this girl named Iris. He's going to, supposedly, ask her to the barn dance on Friday. Cuteness. Matt got all flipped out over a girl while he was at his eighth grade team building excursion at Sylvan Lake. Her name is Catherine and she played with his hair. How awesome is that?? He said he completely freaked out because no other girl had ever touched his hair but me. Boys going in to puberty are hilarious. Ian is Ian. He's crazy. I found out that Megan has known his teacher for a couple of years. Small world... well, small town, anyway. I love it!!

Pagan is very, very cute. He's so cute I'm even forgiving of the messes he leaves for me to clean up. Plus, he won't go potty in his crate so... half the battle is won!

I haven't posted anything about Katrina. I don't really have a good reason for this. I think about Katrina a great deal. Mike, the kids and I watch CNN for updates constantly and I'm always reading about it. Mike has family there. Some of them were stuck in attics. They still can't find four of the cousins. It's a tragic thing. I cry sometimes when I read about the horror that those people are going through and, while it is difficult for me to understand why they remained in the city despite the mandatory evacuation, I still cannot forgive our government for its lack of response to the disaster. Is there any real excuse? Something solid that says "we let people die for *insert purpose here*"? Are my expectations of our government just too high? That we save our own... that we look after our own??? It's shameful.

See? Isn't he the cutest wittle puppy EVAR?

I think I may be going out to Denver tomorrow to adopt a puppy. Maybe. If she's still there. I'm really excited about this dog thing. I call it a dog thing because I'm definitely a cat person. Dogs freak me out a little. They're more like children than cats are. Cats, you feed 'em. You scratch 'em. You pay attention when they want you to... they'll tell ya. With dogs it's like a constant maintenance thing. You have to take them out and walk them, clean up after them, comb them... bathe them *wrinkles nose*. But, still... I'm excited. I want to go get her right this second!! I promise to post pictures when I get her home!!