Rub-a-dub-dub Two babies in the tub

*chuckling* Weren't we cute? This pic was taken right before she tried to push me into the water I'm sure.

I can see that my sister and I are going to start a pic posting war now *lol*. It's fun and amuses me.

When we were younger, our mother started this game with us. You know that old Bugs Bunny cartoon where he gets captured by the Indians and they're gonna make stew out of him? He's hoverring over the cauldron, sticks a toe in, and makes a fuss about how hot it is. Well, my mom would run us a hot bath and we'd do that....make like Bugs in the stew pot with lots of hoopin and hollerin. It was so much fun back then. I'm really surprised my sister never threw carrots and potatoes in the water when it was my turn *lmao*.

War of the Weeds

I spent about 5 hours in the garden yesterday. It looks SOOOOOO much better. We pulled out one weed that was about 4 feet high. All of them were taller than my knees. It was horrendous out there...a huge battle...little weed bodies strewn everywhere. I filled 15 five gallons buckets, packed to the rim with weeds. There was a very pretty ivy vine growing in the garden as well. I took some cuttings in the hopes of getting them to grow inside. I love ivy. I've always thought it was very pretty. The beans and 3 rows of peas now have sticks and strings. There's only one little section of peas left to weed...about a third of one row and then I can run the string for those rows too. So we saved the garden. YAY. We have 4 rows of corn, 3 rows of beans, 6 rows of peas, 3 tomato plants (cherry, big boy, and roma), and 2 green pepper plants (although neither one has any peppers on it), two rows of radishes, 1 small row of carrots, and what looks to be 1 watermelon or squash. Steven ate one of his radishes yesterday "in an effort to thin them out, yeah, yeah, that's what it is". *lol* We have tons of pea pods. Oh yeah, he ate one of those too. The corn is about 2 feet high, the beans about a foot, and the peas...wow....some of them are about 3 feet high. They're going to totally take off now that they're weeded and on strings. None of our mound stuff came up, so I'm going to plant some more seeds today or tomorrow. We still might be able to get something of a harvest from them before winter comes. I'm going to plant pumpkins too. The girls want homegrown pumpkins for Halloween.

and so it goes

Well, the weenies are still irresistably cute, and the garden is still growing weeds very well. We've had two more ripe cherry tomatoes, and yep, I ate them both in secret today *laughing*. Truth be told, noone else in the family likes tomatoes, so they are ALL MINE. I waterred today, and I'm hoping to get back out there to weed here in a few because I really do want to save the garden. We have some really cute little pea pods already, and the corn is over a foot high....this all in two weeks since we started seriously weeding.

But you see.....I haven't gone back out to weed because there's always laundry and dishes and dogs to walk. Oh, and don't forget the PLAYSTATION. *lol* I've never had one before, so it's a new toy for me. We have Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 (bought it used off ebay), and I LOVE IT!!!! I never thought I'd like a game like that, but it's totally sick (in a good way and incidentally a term I learned to use that way from the game). Steven, my fiance, just wants to be like Mike *lmao*. You see, we've been trying for a week to get the "Sick" score in the Hanger. You have to get 75,000 to get that career goal. We've been getting 20,000 consistently, but we just couldn't seem to get any higher than that. And then BLAM....last night I became MIKE *lol*. I totally nailed it and got 128,000 something. It was absolutely a beautiful thing to see. I tried to play again this morning in between cleaning both dog kennels, waterring the garden, doing 3 loads of laundry, and two sinks of dishes. Well, I'm back to sucking.....with a score of 2436 *laughing*. Steven has already laid claim to the playstation for tonight. He wants to beat my score. I've been teasing him all day that he just wants to be like Mike.

and the Garden Grows

So.....in the world of gardening....who knew??? I'll just admit right off that this was my bright idea. With a family of five, I figured "Hey, let's plant a garden. It'll save us so much on fresh produce, and home grown stuff always tastes better. It'll be good for us to have a family project. The girls will learn about keeping a garden (shouldn't everyone know this?). " Those are all sound reasons, right? Well, "Let's plant a garden" is a whole lot easier SAID than DONE as the saying goes, but let me start at the beginning of this story.

We have a pretty big back yard. We decided to clear a large area for the garden. We figured we'd put it out back by the detached garage, thinking that would be the best place for it as it's the least travelled. So out we go with the hoe because we live so far out, it's impossible for us to rent a tiller because we'd have to rent it for two days and who wants to pay over 200 just to till up a garden. So we have shovels and rakes and 1 hoe and out we go. It took us 3 weeks of BACK BREAKING labor to get that ground cleared of weeds and rocks and nails and all sorts of crap that is anyone's guess who put it all back there. But after three weeks, and a gazillion bug bites later, the ground's looking good and clean and done up in nice little rows and mounds....so we decide to actually plant. The girls' godmother brought (brand spanking new from the store mind you) over two shovels, a rake, a garden bucket, and 5 little sets of personal small garden tools (a little spade/shovel thing and a rake), and a whole bunch of seeds. So, we lay all the seed packets out and "planned" where we were gonna put everything. We even drew a little diagram. Well, 3 seed packets later, we've used up half the garden space and only planted corn and beans. Now we're standing there holding about 15 more seed packets going "We need more space. There's no way we're gonna have enough room. Let's plant and then start tilling up more space (yes, still by hand). " We get the peas planted, and we're now out of space except for the mounds. So at this point, we have 4 rows of corn, 4 rows of green beans, 6 rows of peas, 1 pepper plant, 1 big boy tomato plant, and 1 cherry tomato plant. Now we're standing there looking at the seed packets, looking at the mounds, looking at the shovels and rakes and hoe.....and we all let out a collective SHUDDER. This is where the rationalizing starts *laughing* because we're all just so ready to try and clear more ground right? We decided to plant partial packages of each of the mound veggies/fruits, plant the carrots and radishes along the fence (because whoever lived here before us had a dog and there was a really nice long bare spot cleared from all the doggy running), and then wait until the next weekend to clear more space. It all sounded good, and we got that much done and then decided to wait until the next weekend to clear more space. Now....when we planted each row, we put food in first, covered with dirt, planted seeds, covered with dirt, and then waterred. It was a tremendous amount of work because of the lack of a tiller. But we were happy. We had our garden, all with it's nice neat little rows and mounds and the shiny new sprinkler going. It was very rewarding to watch the water spraying gently over the dirt. The next weekend, however, came much quicker than any of us were ready for. Our blisters and sun burns still hadn't completely healed. We decided to wait one more weekend. The next weekend came and went. *laughing* Nobody wanted to go back out there for round 2. So here it is a month later and we never did clear more ground. The garden has been getting waterred regularly....but the weeds have too. The garden is CHOKED with weeds, so I've been forcing the very reluctant troops to go weeding with me every weekend. We've almost gotten it looking presentable. The plants have trippled their size and are now bearing the fruits of our labor. We got our first edible veggie yesterday....a nicely ripened cherry tomato. It was quite delicious. Yum Yum. I really do adore home grown stuff.

The girls have been saving their apple seeds and avacado pits and basically just anything that has a seed or pit in it. They want to grow it all *lol*. When they bring me little bags of seeds, I point to the shovel and hoe...and they walk away. The other day, the youngest, brought me the seeds AND the shovel. Damn it. *lol* So, we planted her little apple seeds in a styrofoam cup in the kitchen window. If anything comes up, we'll actually try to grow the little tree and plant it. The winters get bitter cold here, but they grow cherry trees just down the road a pace....so I'm thinking the tree might live through the winter if we keep it in the house until it's big enough to put outside in the ground. And they all planted grass in little styrofoam cups they decorated. They all love their little plants now. It's really kinda cute.

Well, I'm off to go weed some more and try and whip the rest of the garden into shape.

Puppy Pound

Okay, so now we have 2 weenie dogs. Oscar and Riley. Oscar was such a little angel, never barking. Now Riley comes into the picture, who is a barking machine let me tell you....and now aaaaaallllll of a sudden, Oscar's just as bad as she is. She's teaching him all her bad habits. The go into little weener attack mode when anyone comes to the door. It's kinda funny for about the first 2 seconds *lol*. Oscar also now gets up on the back of the couch like he's a cat (thanks Riley) to which Bandit (the actual cat) is very DISPLEASED. When we give the dogs treats, Riley sits on hers and steals Oscar's...never really eating either one of them. She just doesn't want him to have one. She steals his toys, pushes him off my lap when he's having a "mommy nap", and steals his favorite blanky too. He's a quick study though and has now successfully stolen 3 bones back from her and pushed her off me twice. *laughing* Their antics really are quite cute...and now that Oscar's stopped trying to hump her with every breath, they're becoming fast friends. The sleep together during the day. They even eat and drink together without Riley hogging it all. We haven't tried putting them in the same kennel at night yet, but that will be soon. Oscar's kennel is pretty big and even with both dogs in there, Riley will still have more room than she does in her little one. We're hoping to fence a section of the backyard for them as soon as we can find some fencing to do so. We live in a semi isolated area. The hardware store in the next town over doesn't have anything and the same with Walmart. Oh, I do have to tell you.....Oscar never begged before either. Riley, however, can sit so damn pretty and hold the pose for days. Oscar is now doing it as well......because they've learned that we're WEAK and we'll crack before they do. I mean, come on, when you have a twin set of weenies sitting up on their hind legs, both tails wagging, and looking at you with desperate eyes......who can resist that?????

Thank you

Thank you, everyone for your words of welcome. Look at me, having blogged multiple times today.

And thank you, Shelley, for helping me with the phrases and stuff to set the blog up. (See, we can be nice to each other too *lol*.)

Innocence of the Demon??

Now see, here I'm going to tell you all the COLD HARD TRUTH of the demon child I grew up with. I was such a sweet thing, as you can see by the pic. My sister, Shelley as the world knows her, was not so sweet. Again I refer you to the picture which of course has not been altered at all. You see, while she's sweet and loving and caring NOW, I know the truth of the child and there was no innocence in that devil baby *laughing*.

When we were younger, I of course was the sweet one. Still to this day, I'm often referred to as "the good one". My sister, however, well, let me just say that you should be sitting down for this because every single kitten squeezing, fork stabbing, wagon throwing word of it is the honest truth *swearing an oath on my cherished kitties*. We were typical sisters, fighting like cats and dogs every chance we got. A few times, we even invented things to fight about, as is the nature of rabid little beasts that have been caged too long. A few horror stories I still carry with me to this day...and I will share the terror with you here today.

When me and my sister were little, and she'd be mad at me for something, and when she couldn't catch me, she would grab one of my kittens and squeeze it till it screamed JUST to make me cry. And I did...every time for I loved my little furries. I still adore animals (except for spiders...if they invade my space, they are FAIR GAME for annihilation). We have a house full of critters here what with 2 cats, 3 hamsters, 1 guinea pig, 3 fish, 2 frogs, and a weenie dog. Oh, and not to forget the one man pig and 3 little she pigs as well.

Now for the fork stabbing portion of this miniature memoir. When I was about 10 and she was about 11, we were sitting at the table one afternoon innocently eating lunch. The only thing I remember from that lunch was the mashed potatoes. We had been fighting off and on that day, and she said something that made me mad while we were eating.......so of course it's only natural that I had to retaliate, right?? Knowing full well there would be retaliation and completely not caring, I picked up a fork full of mashed potatoes and flung it at her....hitting her right between the eyes. I laughed uncontrollably until the demon spawn let loose her immediate and infinitely worse revenge...stabbing me in the thigh with her fork. This is where I stopped laughing. And yes, while it hurt, I was determined that she was going to take the fork out, not me. So what do I do upon her refusal to remove the implement of sibling endangerment?? I stand up, step over to her, and proceed to pommel her screaming at her to take it out. My mother comes in to see what all the ruckus was about only to find me hitting her because they NEVER catch the first one who did it *lol*. Mom started pounding on me yelling at me to let her go, and I'm still pounding on her refusing to stop. Mom finally got us to stop and everything was kosher for about 1 or 2 seconds until I showed her the fork glaring back at us, still lodged in my little innocent leg. It took a few minutes to fully explain everything that had happened. I don't remember any further punishments either for myself or the leg wounding spawn, but I never threw food at her again. *laughing* It's hilarious NOW, but back THEN, not so much.

So, I've shared with you the kitten squeezing and fork stabbing parts of our past. Now one last story for today. See, there was this wagon wheel incident too, that I just must share because I feel like justice was served to me that day *snickerring*. Again, we were fighting and like would usually end up happening....if she couldn't catch me to hit me, she would simply throw something at me. I was pretty quick what with being pretty athletic and a tomboy back then, but every now and then she's find her mark with whatever thing she found to hurdle towards me. On this particular day, I was busy running away when she spotted the infamous bronze covered wagon book ends. She grabbed one and went to throw it at my retreating back, when justice struck hard and swift. Her finger slipped in between two of the wagon wheel's spokes and instead of flying across the room at me, it cut her finger and she dropped it screaming. Not that I would wish ill will on her, but I was damn glad at the time because that thing would have hurt like hell had it actually hit me *laughing*.

So, there's a little about my sister. And yes, I fully expect retaliation as she has stories about me too, but let me just say that NO, I did NOT smear catnip all over her parakeet that my cat killed while we were at school one day....nor did I pomel her every day. *lol* Honest. I was, and still am, the good one. Just remember that when you read her next blog.

From HERO to BUTTHOLE in 6 seconds flat

So it's like this....

Last night my fiance, sweetie pie, darling, dear was my hero for giving me his last two cigarettes when he went to bed. How loving and caring and thoughtful, right?? That's the image of him I went to sleep with. Then reality struck this morning and he quickly went from being my hero to being a butthole, and it only took him 6 seconds to do it. You see, he has 3 children, all girls, all little monster mongrels, and I love them dearly. But oh how love is such a fleeting thing when you've had no nicotene for the 4 hours you've been awake. Now here comes the buttholio part. I called him to let him know I was going to go get gas in my car and then head to the grocery store in 108 degree HEAT to get some dead animal fleshy products for him and his little carnivores to eat....and what does he tell me????? He bought a pack of cigarettes this morning and took them to work with him KNOWING full well I was out and me and the children were caged together in the house. So of course I haaaaad to let him know he was a nicotene hording child endangerer *laughing*. Not so needless to say, the children are still alive and I now have my smokes and they have meaty things to eat that do not require cooking and therefore generating even more heat because I think my sweat is sweating.

um...MOO?

Under duress and fear of limitless naggage from my sister, I'm starting this blog. I always seem to struggle with the getting started part of summing myself up in a little box, but here goes nothing: