Fridge Friday!

Are you kidding me! I love this! Is there anything MORE up my voyeuristic alley?! Some genius thought up the idea of Fridge Friday. Here's the deal, every Friday you post a picture of your fridge. Add it to the Flickr group. And no sprucing it up before hand.

So here is my first contribution...


I grocery shop on Wednesdays so we've already gone through 3 gallons of milk, 1/2 dozen apples and oranges, a bag of salad, etc. I can't figure out why we have 3 open bottles of Ranch. We never use Ranch dressing. I don't even know where they came from! You can see some of my bulk buying, three margarines, 4 cream cheeses, etc. By Tuesday this thing is pretty much barren. I wish Chowder would get the basement fridge door fixed so we could use it. I hate having to go back out for milk. We go through 8-10 gallons a week but can fit 6 maybe 7 in the fridge.


This is out fridge freezer. We also have a big chest freezer in the basement that holds the bulk stuff. When I make my menu, I bring whatever I'm going to use for the week to the upstairs freezer. We may or may not have an addiction to edamame.

So are you going to play?

Poo Update...I can't make this stuff up.

Last night after Chowder and I got home from looking at dining room tables (and going out for a beer and hot pretzels) I was walking up the stairs to go to bed. And there smack dab in the middle of the 11th stair was a little turd of poo. Still fresh.

Yes, this is the life I always dreamed of.

Today's Post is about Poo. Not the bear. You've been Warned.

Let me give you a round up of my evening:

5:30p go to sit down on the toilet to do my business in the downstairs bathroom. (Wiping with Clorox wipe first, of course because I live in house with 4 males and I'm tired of sitting in male urine. As a matter of fact one of my lower points of mothering involved me falling to my knees crying and begging my husband, and my then 10 yr old son who were innocently watching a football game, to please love me. "Why WHHHHYYYYYY don't you love me? I am your mother! your wife! Why don't you love me?! And don't tell me that you do love me, because if you did you wouldn't make your dear wife and sainted mother sit in your urine! Loving me does not involve leaving your pee on the seat to have me sit in it! I'm begging you to please love me and respect me enough to pee in the toilet!") Anyway, I'm sitting down and then I look over at the wall next to me and right in my face is a huge clearly defined hand smear of poo.

6:30p After I finish scrubbing and fumigating the bathroom walls, I take Ladybug upstairs to take a bath. I get the tub ready and go to put down the lid on the toilet so I can sit down. And there on the toilet seat? that's right another smear of poo. and on the floor in front of the toilet? You bet. A big glob of poo.

6:45p I barely have time to take my rubber gloves off when I look at the joyous and endlessly proud look on the face of Ladybug. I coo at her and then look into the tub. What's that floating in the water? bobbing in and out among the boats and bath toys?

Lazy Post

Here's some more pictures from our winter's respite we've had this week. And also the reasons why I want to stay here in this house. This is my neighborhood. I absolutely love it here. Yes, there are problems but nothing beats the people.

This the kids with our neighbor Ainsley. She's 4 and the kids have a great time with her. I know you have seen pictures of her before.


This is the famous Sr. Jeanne pushing Ladybug. On the porch in the background is Ainsley's mom and my other neighbor Carol. She's pregnant after a brief bout with infertility. Luckily they found her issues right away. She will be giving us one of 3 new babies that will be making appearances on our block this year. YAY!


This is Keira, Ainsley's baby sister. Adorable!


And their pug, Presley...


and our old man, Fargo (just turned 12! yikes.)


Jellybean, Ladybug, and The Meatball...



And Chowder, Ladybug and I (taken by Jellybean, who also is responsible for the new pic of us in my sidebar.)



Last night we had thunder storms(!) and a deluge of rain (which probably washed away all the bulbs I planted on the slope by the school entrance!) and today is grey and rainy...sound like a good day for a nap. So, here I go.

Peek-In-Monday...

Ugh! Sorry, I'm late today. I have a lot on my plate this week. I'm trying to help start up a school and a brand new church start up and get ready for school and.... I'm not usually so busy. I try to limit all of the big projects I involve myself in, But I really believe in all of these so it's going to be a hectic couple of months.

On the plus side, it has been 65+ degrees outside.

*deep breath* I'm actually going to do it...

A year or so ago, I requested information from St. Mary of the Woods on their Women's External Degree program. I swooned and fell in love. Nothing touches my spirit like education geared toward women. I loved my all girl high school and love that this is primarily still an all women's college. Their distance learning program was set up in 1973 for women just like me. Just paging through the beautiful brochure, I felt so at home and so drawn...but also so unworthy. My attempts at writing my essay for the application started at pathetic and moved on to reeking of desperation.

In the sixteen years since I quit college and became a teen mother, I have been unable to shake the judgment that society had put upon me. I thought I had risen above it all and told society to, in essence, "Bite me." But, it turns out that is not the case. I internalized every disgusted look and every sigh of disappointment. And when the time came to express myself as the self-confident, self-reliant, self-appreciative woman of purpose and humor with endless possibilities and capabilities that I thought I was, my facade that surrounded what I really thought of myself shattered and I was left with the aforementioned pathetic desperation.

So, I put away the glossy course catalog and my application forms and thoughts of finally getting my bachelor's degree. Then, this past week on the way to my brother-in-law's house in Indianapolis, we drove through Terre Haute. As we drove past the exit, I was pulled off the highway like there was a string tied around my heart. And on New Year's Eve 2007, I made the most important resolution I have ever made. One that I am destined to succeed at. I will be attending St. Mary of the Woods College this year. I will.

I just made my first step. I registered for the Open House that will be held January 14th. I know once I talk to these women and they talk to me, we will figure out how to make this happen. My stomach is churning and my chest is fluttering and my eyes are watering. It will probably take me 10 years to finish, but this time...I will

Of course I know what that song is!

As I said, My son has chosen to rebel against me in the two most hurtful ways.

1.) He refuses to recycle.

2.) He plays Motley Crue and GNR

it hurts so bad.