She Thinks She's SO Sneaky..

The other day Sophie was trying to apply lip gloss to pretty much any surface she could get it to stick to (this explains why our minivans side window has been a tad bit "cloudy" lately..) and when I explained that if she didn't stop I was going to have to take the lip gloss away (the horror!) she quite snippily replied..
"Well, I don't want you to take it, so I'm going to go hide it.
DON'T follow me.. and DON'T look in my jewelry box."
I hope she's always this easy to figure out.

Well LOOKY There!

I hesitate to even state that my computer might actually be fixed for good this time.. in fear I just may jinx it.. but I'm gutsy like that.. and going to share that it has now been up and running for almost 4 days straight. I'm a little giddy.
It's like having a new baby in the house-- minus the diapers. Everyone wants to sit by it and play with it.. marveling at the miracle it truly is. I'm not proud I've now been sitting at it a full hour this morning.. the hour I'm usually making beds and starting laundry.. but again.. baby analogy.. and we all know those things can't always get done for the first little while. I just want to bask in the pleasure of it functioning a little longer before getting on with my day. Who knows.. maybe I'll jaunt on over to Facebook, check the weather report, download pictures from the last SIX months, or just look up cute shoes and bathing suits. The possibilities are endless. Ahhh. Being unproductive is SO relaxing.

SIKE.

Whadda' ya know.. crashed again.
Those guys at the repair shop have hardly earned their computer geek status. Bad glasses alone, apparantley do not a skilled- techy make. (Kiddin' nerdy dudes. Don't go erasing my identity now..)
I actually think it's a bung-computer issue, more than a they're not-nerdy enough issue.. but I find mocking others somehow eases my frusteration.
So it's back in the shop.
With the nerdy dudes.
We can only hope for the best.
If it never runs again.. it was sure fun while it lasted.

Well HELLO There!

No really. It's ME! KATY!!
(Did you wet yourselves just a teeny bit??)
And I'm not even at the public library! I'm in my very own house.. on my very own chair.. in front of my very own.. wait for it.. PROFESSIONALLY REPAIRED, no-joke, computer!
I've never felt so high.
It has been OVER 3 months.. as in.. maybe even 100 days, since I have had any real kind of consistant cyber-world access, and I kinda feel like the 5th grader that moved away for her Dads job that didn't work out so has moved into Grandmas house back in her home town, showing up at middle school hoping her old friends let her sit at the lunch table! Do you even REMEMBER me?? Does my family look VAGUELY familiar?? Take a minute.
It'll come to you.
Oh the moments I have missed!! The posts that have past me by!! Is blogging even still a THING?? Are there new trends and fonts I'm behind on?? Am I allowed back in??
I feel, so, BEHIND. But I'm a fighter..and determined to forge ahead.. not dwelling on the past (or even really making a fervent effort to catch up on yours, or mine.. cause that's just overwhelming-- and a given that children would miss feedings, and underwear would not get washed.) SO! I'm startin' fresh!
Join me.. won't you??
(Unless ofcourse, a newer, even cooler girl moved in on my side bar slot on your own blog, ya know, while I was away.. and you must choose to leave me behind. Understandable. Hurtful.. but understandable.)
But being that it has been, winter.. and it is still, COLD.. ya really haven't missed out on much from me. Lots of driving Jesse to school.. searching for the perfect work-out pant, watering the chickens, and singing Taylor Swift songs really, really loud.
WOW. Maybe it's an O.K thing I haven't been here to bore you to falling tears.
So for now.. I will just delight in the fact that I will have access to all of YOUR adventures.. and leave you with some of the things that have come out of my kids mouths lately that entertain me WAY more than the Redbox rentals I've been checking out.. (Example: 2012. Really? Honestly if that limo, or plane, barely missed one more falling building or piece of flying schrapnel, I was gonna lose it.)
So here's just a few of my latest favorites:
(Note.. I'm not forgetting that I have a son Jesse.. it's just that being 13 and all, he prefer I don't quote him so much.)

Sam, while lacing up his shoes for school, casually asked,
"Mom, do you know what a 'pimp-slap' is?"

Bo, when asked by his brother why he felt he should be allowed to play such mature games on the X-BOX, responded:
"I don't know. I just like them. Don't judge me."

And Sophie, when questioned about her possible need for a fresh pair of undies, replied,
"I don't know Mom. Smell if they smell JUICY."

On that note..
real glad to be back.

FYI

Driving home through our festive little town the other night..
Sophie informed me that.. and I quote:
"Children that make bad decisions go to juvie."
Just so you know.

And Like THAT.. It Was Gone.

So my computer was up and running, for roughly 3 hours.
Don't get me wrong-- it was a great 3 hours.. but a short 3 hours.. and now it is over.
I think it's trying to mess with my head.
So here I sit.. once again bitterly typing out words with one cramping finger.. once again getting behind on life events.. and once again feeling disconnected from my ever-so-entertaining blogworld family!
But alas.. at this juncture (I don't believe I've ever actually written out the word, juncture. It is a word, right??)
we're finding cash for Christmas gifts trumps cash for computer tech.. so if ya all could just hang in there with me and keep the computer faith til' January.. I can promise you less bitterness, more posts.
So for tonight.. Instead of blogging late into the night-- I may comfort myself by indulging in an old habit and watch "Cougartown".
(Afterall.. I am now 38, and striving for Cougar status at all costs..)
For now I will just leave ya with Sophies latest life observation:
While pointing out that she did indeed have the hiccups, she asked,
"Mom, remember when Sam had the hiccups?"
To which, although uncertain of what specific case she was referring to, assumed he had at some point in his 10 years in fact had them,
I ofcourse answered,
"Yup."
"Yeah," she continued.. " I think I caught them from him."

WHERE To Begin??

If "absence makes the heart grow fonder",
you all are LOVING me by now.. RIGHT?
In reference to my recent blog-hiatus.. let me just say this:
We all have trials in life.. (I have personally dealt with a slightly over-weight childhood, divorce, death,and varicose veins.. to name a few..) but I do declare that being without decent, full-size screen, internet access, for roughly a month.. has been one of my toughest.
Okay. Divorce and death were tougher.. but you get the idea.
After living like pioneers with two crashed computers for the last month, who knew disconnecting the battery from the laptop would make it all better??
(Well, apparently my darling out-of-town guest, did. Hala-ler-ya!)
So although our main computer (ya know, the one with all the photos of my 4 kids childhoods, and everything I've ever written on it..) still sits, crashed..
our laptop is here in front of me, fully functioning, all lit up like my Christmas tree!
(So in the holiday spirit of things.. can I get a
"HARK! The Blogworld starts to sing..
GLORY! Katy can write more THINGS!" )
I know. I'm much more giddy than you.. but it IS, exciting.
So.. again.. where to begin?
I'm guessing with my trip to Chicago for my dads 70th birthday, that included not only ME.. traveling all by myself for hours-- (loving every magazine-and-novel-reading-filled minute I might add. Ahhhh. Me time. Getcha some.)and not only getting a free ticket for letting them bump me to another flight (cause why NOT get bumped.. when it equals simply MORE, ME, TIME..) but taking a train into Chicago like a savvy and unafraid suburban-ite, meeting a new BFF while doing so.. and then walking through the buzzing night life of the Chicago streets(with my lip gloss I'm SURE shimmering in the street lights like your regular Sex and the City star..) to the fab hotel where I found my profoundly adorable family awaiting my arrival just as the elevator doors opened. And while that WAS a lovely beginning to a fun-filled evening of fancy food and great company.. I should move on to the real news maker of the weekend. Would it startle you if I mentioned that I ended up in ambulance??
I thought so.
Would it startle you MORE if I was in the ambulance, because while walking along Lake Michigan the next morning with my precious sister.. just a chattin' and a walkin' and a walkin' and a chattin'.. my same precious sister went to walk down closer to the lake.. and didn't see a cyclist coming straight for her at 30 miles an hour? He hit her really, really, REALLY, really, hard.
Watching the bike hit her square on, the cyclist flying into her body, and her body go down so fast, and so hard onto the cement.. and blood start to pour from her head.. sorry-- getting gory-- but it was just terribly, awfully, horrible.
So one broken thumb, four staples in the head, and a super sore existence still today.. I'm one grateful sista' that she is, in fact o.k. She doesn't feel good.. (and we kinda had to make just a little fun of the way she walked thereafter)
but she is, o.k.
Not the weekend report you were expecting now WAS it??
So. In other news: I am on the very CUSP of turning 38!!! (WHAT? Two years from 40 you say?? OH. I hadn't noticed.) At least I have my sweet St. Louis friend and her family here to celebrate with us! Par-TAY. So I will go back to being a hostess.. (instead of an over-eager Blogger who can't kill the need to play catch-up with the newly functioning computer and my world of cyber friends I've missed so dearly!)but I will leave you with Sophies latest words as she jumped onto a blanket I had spread out for her on the couch for her morning ritual of eating a little cup of dry cereal (don't judge me.. she does oatmeal, occasionally.) and watching a good Dora or two..
she literally squealed in delight at the anticipation of the coziness ahead and exclaimed:
"It's so much fun being ME!"
May you all have fun being you tonight!