In Which LLA Attempts To Dip Her Toes Back Into the Blogisphere....

Mother's Day Pedicure, originally uploaded by lla.

Because that's the way to win your hearts back, right???
With a really bad pun, and a picture of my Fred Flintstone feet???

That's what I thought...
I mean, truly, who could resist *that* combination...

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Hey Y'all.

It's me.

LLA?
(or Miss Cookie, if you're nasty...)

You might remember me, I used to actually post stuff here, and occasionally you found it funny enough to comment and things?

Yeah. Again, that's what I thought.

It's OK. Neither Flickr nor Blogger recognized me either.
Maybe it's my cool blue toes* that render me incognito????

Anyway - I really am trying to come back. For some reason, I'm just finding it difficult to get the BFC party started...

Where'd I go? Honestly, nowhere really. I just had a six-week period that was insane crazy busy. Nothing bad, but I realized it was potentially overwhelming. And in keeping with my New Year's resolution to "Just Be OK With Things" - I knew that something had to give. And the logical choice was blogging/blog-reading.

Sounds crazy, I know, to give up something that I enjoy. But long-time readers of BFC know that I have "issues." Many, many issues with many, many things. And that my blogging issue is that I get hung up on being the kind of blogger that I want to be. I knew that with everything else going on that I wouldn't be able to write the kinds of posts that I wanted to write, or respond to any comments the way that I wanted to, etc. etc. etc.
Even though I know that no one expects that kind of stuff from me. Except for me.

So - instead of trying to squeeze blogging in, and being unhappy with my efforts, I decided to take a little break. Better to miss it, than to continue and not find the joy in it - or so my thinking went.

In retrospect, it might have been nice to say "Hey - I'm taking a little break here, talk with you later and I'll be back!"

Except, we've all visited blogs where the authors keep making these big huge deals about how they are going to be taking these BIG. DRAMATIC. BREAKS! Only to be posting more frequently than ever a mere 36 hours later**.
What's up with that, btw? How am I supposed to miss you if you won't go away???

So.

Anyway...

The crazy tumultuous stuff is over.

Volunteer obligations are over, Over, OVER AND DONE! (Can you tell I'm excited by this???) And now it's back to the regular old tumultuous stuff that makes up my life. But for some reason, it's been hard to get back into the swing of it here. And I don't know why.

So - here I go, making the plunge (or dipping my toes back in - I guess it remains to be seen which it is...) Because while I feel pretty darn sure that I've not been doing anything particularly interesting, or crafty, or blog-worthy - I have missed it here. So I want to come back.

If you'll have me.
Me, and my Fred Flintstone feet...

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*I'm sporting my Mother's Day pedicure - wh00t! I'm not 100% sure about the blue toes. Sometimes I look down and I think "oooh! cute!" and other times I look down and think "what was I thinking???" I am certain about one thing, though. I'm pretty sure that I am either too old, or too uncool to be truly rocking the blue toenails. But it's fun for a change....

**It goes without saying, Dear Reader, that of course I don't mean *you*

Isn't It Ironic...

I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about when I allude to the "domestic perfection blogs" - 'cause I'm sure you've stumbled across them, too.

You know the ones that I mean - the ones where you stop, and you inwardly sigh. The blogs where the homes are so gorgeous, and the recipes and the crafts always turn out perfectly, the decorating is impeccable, and the children are darling and adorable and never burp in public*.

In case you haven't noticed this yet, *this* is not one of those blogs...

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Yesterday, I wrote:

And really, when you think about it - sweet and fun (and squeaky clean)?
It's not a bad way to start off the year...

And I wrote it in all seriousness.
Because I do believe that.
It's just that the reality around here? It's a little bit different.

Let me tell you how yesterday shook out. (Please see "Editor's Note" below)
Dig if you will the picture....

I'm getting Schecky ready for school. He's fed. He's dressed. His teeth are brushed, his shoes are on. All that stands between us and the door is combing his hair.

Which I do.

GAH!

BUGS!

Yup. The Scheckster has head lice.
(His school has had a horrific problem with them this winter, and so far, he'd dodged that bullet. Our luck, it seems, had run out. GAH!)

So I jot an email to his teacher letting her know not to expect the boy, and race out to the drugstore to buy some de-bugging stuff.

That was Thing Number One.
(Not to be confused with ThingOne)

Thing Number Two -
(Not to be confused with ThingTwo)

I return home from the drugstore, to be greeted at the door by Bubba, bearing bad news. His father had just called: Gaga, Bubba's last remaining grandparent, had just passed away.
(This was sad news, but not wholly unexpected. She was doing fine when we saw her at Christmas, but in the first week of the New Year contracted pneumonia, and deteriorated shockingly quickly.)

I come in the house, throw Schecky in the shower to get him started with the debugging process, and walk Bubba to his car.

When I notice that my car - which was FINE for the trip to the drugstore - now has a flat tire. This is my car which I just got new tires for in November. This is my car which we need for the drive up to Tennessee to be with family.

This is Thing Number Three - the thing that threatens to send me over the edge.

I indulge in a moment of self-pity: "It's hard trying to be an optimist when life keeps kicking my ass," I inwardly grouse. "It's not even Nine Freaking O'Clock!"

Then I tell myself to snap out of it.
I remind myself that none of these things are earth-shattering.
Frustrating, yes. Some of them emotional and sad, yes.
But none of them are devastating.

I remind myself of one of my favorite pictures on Flickr - and I carry on.

And I spend the rest of the day making travel plans, dealing with the tire, and de-lousing my child. (and let me just say - that's a WHOLE LOT OF LOVE right there.)

And there is a light at the end of the tunnel, you know?
Bad things really do tend to happen in threes - so there was none of that pesky "waiting for the final shoe to drop" nonsense.

And there's this:




Many of you already know about my so-called luck with fortune cookies. Those that don't, you can educate yourself here.

This was a nice one to get today.

And it's particularly apt. I'm notoriously bad at asking for help, and even worse at accepting it. So this is a good reminder for me. I might even have to frame it.

And now we're off to Tennessee.
Be back soon...


***Edited to add:***

I told myself that I wasn't going to blog about this. (Which just goes to show how much my word to myself means...) But I think I'm already in a position to laugh about this.

And so please know that this is how you should read this.

I'm not looking for sympathy, or to whinge on about how bad I've got it.
It's just a somewhat wry reflection on life here at the House That Crazy Built.
(And would you look at that? It's the bossy little voice! Now it's telling you how to read my posts. Gah! Stupid bossy little voice...)

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*And yes, I know, I know - those blogs are every bit as much a fantasy as the Pottern Barn Kids catalog. It's just the face that these bloggers choose show the world. I know that. But sometimes I do buy into the fantasy that somewhere, somehow, someone has managed to achieve the wholly, truly gracious life.

Diversions...

I spent the entirety of yesterday in front of the computer, working on Christmas shopping.

I love the idea of online shopping - but I always seem to idealize it in my mind. I forget that online stores run out of stock, or are designed poorly, or freeze up, etc. In my mind, online shopping should be easy-peasy-mac-and-cheesy every single time.

Suffice to say that when this is not the case, I get really frustrated.
Really, really frustrated.

Yesterday was one of those days.

Seemed like teh internets was just out to get me.

Everything was slow, I had a damn near impossible time finding THE ONE THING that Schecky asked for*, lots of things were out of stock, one website kept crashing my computer, blah blah blah, on and on...
You know the scene too well, 'cause sadly we've all been there.

I had to keep reminding myself that as frustrating as all that was: it didn't suck as much as actually having to GO to actual physical stores (only to deal with slowness, out of stockness, and - sweet cracker sandwich - parking lots! The horror!)

And when reminding myself of that fact wasn't working to take the edge off my frustration, I allowed myself a little fun...

These are the sites that kept me from becoming a total Grinch yesterday...

Enjoy!

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Make-a-Flake - I love the look of paper snowflakes, but have never been that great at creating them... This site, then, is the answer to my problems! Virtual snowflake cutting - with the ability to preview often, and undo any unfortunate cuts. Love this site!

We Hate Sheep. We Love Holiday Sweaters. - heh!
3togetready introduced this to me, and it's HI-larious. You get to design your own tacky holiday sweater, or you can view the gallery of other unfortunate sweaters that other people have designed. (I swear, I think I've seen some of these sweaters modeled by some of Bubba's relatives!)

And, finally, Threadless has just released the last 18 designs for their $10 tee-shirt sale. I like the one that says "The Internet was closed so I thought I'd come outside today"

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*Lego Set 6210 - Jabba the Hutt's Sail Barge. Virtually impossible to find. In addition to scouring the web, this also required calling every single Toys R Us in the metro Atlanta area. I learned that customer service at Toys R Us in Atlanta is truly, wholly sucky.

EDITED TO ADD: I've managed to get my grubby little paws on a Jabba's Sail Barge - or it least it will be in my grubby little paws when it arrives in the mail. I managed to find a seller on eBay who seems really nice (I hope!) and only had to pay $20 more than I would have paid had I been able to get it from the Lego website.

In one way, this absolutely appalls me - y'all know I hate spending money. But when I consider that pretty much every other seller on eBay has DOUBLED (or more) the selling price AND I don't want to spend another whole day trying to track one down? Well, in that light, it seems like more and more of a bargain!

Thanks to all you sweet peas who did some searching for this item for me - that is just the nicest thing (and a perfect example of why I think bloggers are just nicer than you average bear!)

Do You Want To See Something Really Scary???*

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Although, according to Schecky - it's not scary at all. In fact, I think he said:

"Mommy! That's not scary at all! That's adorable!"

And if you could have heard the indignation in his voice when he said it?
Well, it would have cracked you up too...

What *is* really scary is just how much I've got on my plate in the upcoming two weeks...

Ay yi yi...

I swear, I need to go back to work (and get a full time job, while I'm at it!) so that I can quit volunteering for things!

Wish me luck!
:)

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*Quick! Name that movie....

Song for the Day...

Because I'm Awesome by The Dollyrots

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Why?

Because we all need to remember just how awesome we are.

(and because I wasn't sure if everyone had gotten their daily recommended dosage of snark today...

I do love snark.)

Cool New Toy...

Squeee!*

Beki just turned me onto this hip new toy.
Apparently, all the cool kids are using it already.

Which probably means that I've jumped on the bandwagon just in time to hear the trend pronounced dead.

Oh well...

Look how cute!
Did I already say "Squeeeee?"

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"Spell with Flickr"

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*GeekyMom has reminded me of just how fun it can be to take time out and squeal when something makes you happy...

It's Always Something....

Schecky looked at me earlier in the week and asked:
"Why is everything in this house always broken?
Or breaking?*"

Out of the mouths of babes....

And, sadly, I didn't have an answer for him - although, in a strange way, it made me feel a little bit better... Just to know that I wasn't alone in feeling that way sometimes.

In a 99 year old house - nothing is easy.
Ever.

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I am trying very, very, VERY hard to maintain a "glass is half full" attitude - but my patience is being tried...
Now the computer is having "issues". And Bubba says the prognosis is dire...
(so, it seems that once again, I may be enjoying an "enforced absence" from teh internets....)

Sigh.

It's always something, isn't it???


Ah well - on the bright side - there's a shiny new, non-wobbly ceiling fan in place. And it only took 5 days to get it up and installed and working properly! :)

That was 5 long days though - since I had to shut off that electrical breaker until I got the new one up and running. And that breaker, it turns out, is an important one. It has *all* the ceiling fans in the back of the house on it. So there have been no ceiling fans - and therefore no breeze - in any of the bedrooms. During this week of record-breaking temps here in the ATL. Is my timing awesome, or what???

Also on the bright side - are you sitting down? - I actually picked up my knitting needles this week. Nothing to report at this time - but YAY! I actually started something... (and hadn't completely forgotten how to knit!)

It's not all sucky here in the House That Crazy Built. It's never *all* sucky... but sometimes it's harder to remember that than at other times. We've got what I hope is a lazy weekend planned. That's good. That makes me happy...

And one more thing that makes me happy:



Schecky has built this ginormous LegoCity. And during the day, when Schecky is at school (because Scheck doesn't like it when people mess with LegoCity) ThingTwo likes to come in, settle down among the buildings, and just sits there. Attempting to look regal and menacing. I call him "The Terror of Tiny Town," which he seems to enjoy... It cracks me up...

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*He was looking at the big, gaping hole in the kitchen ceiling. Where there was supposed to be a ceiling fan...