ah, classic snl.

anyway. my youngest son has an imaginary friend. it's a bat. as in, flying nocturnal mammal. this bat has parents, that are dead sometimes, but usually just hang out on his bed upstairs (apparently.). . . . lol

i've been getting out a few times lately! yay!

probably going to the anker on monday night, for poetry-ing

i desperately want chocolate or carrot cake and coconut milk.

matthew is loving school, and is in the highest reading group in his class. too bad they had to cut the advanced reading program this year :(

i might possibly have a babysitter. maybe.

went to the first meeting of the social women's group i joined. it was fun, and i got to eat junky food! yay!

yesterday i did absolutely nothing productive, other than finish another graphic novel. i love the library. such goodness.

now i'm cold. woooooo and i need to make some lunch. and finish laundry, and take a shower.

i sort of wish winter would hurry up and get here so i can up the sheets all over the place again and stay warm. blech. but i don't want to be cold! waaaaaahhhh

anyway. it's time to get off of here. curse you, jacob, for introducing me indirectly to kongregate. i love flash games. matthew likes it a lot too. lol

wwwwwhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee oh, the pirate's life for me .. .. well, the married life.

Xp

it's a sure sign that i haven't been feeling up to par when i haven't taken real pictures of myself for ages. huh. i need to get dressed up and take care of that.

anyway. i decided to turn the radio on right away after breakfast today instead of remembering in the middle of the day that i love our local kmre. rowan likes listening to it with me. boy loves his trumpet music.

first song played was 'isn't it a lovely day?' by ella fitzgerald and louie armstrong. sort of perked me up, you know? first thing in the morning is a bad time for me usually, lol.

i've been knitting up a storm again lately, as well as sewing. thank you hirtzenocker so much for all the yarn and burlap; kids and i have been going nuts with it :D also, in case i never did thank you for it, thank you kythrah for the buttons and thread and stuff! they're awesome and i am much obliged. :D

i've been a bit out of touch lately, with everyone and everything but i think i'm finally pulling myself out of it. hung out with THREE different people last week and the week before. whoa. human contact outside of the people i live with! woohoo! i even went out for drinks one night!

wow.

today rowan goes to the dentist for the first time ever. last week he went to the doctor for the first time in like two years. had to get caught up on vaccinations, to my horror. those people are so forceful and won't really take no for an answer. bleh. poor kid screamed. they told me at least seven different times he would need to take kid tylenol for fever and soreness, but he never did break a fever. his behavior for a few days afterward was extremely erratic and nuts, but other than very minor swelling he had no intense reactions. hooray for a healthy boy. i was also told by the doctor to get him flu shot-up. i don't know about that. bellingham doesn't really seem like the type of place this would happen, but sometimes kids get taken away from parents for 'endangerment' or something if they don't get all the doctor-recommended junk. bleh. anyway, boy needs a new toothbrush and i'm curious about the health of his teeth, so to the dentist we go.

time to buckle down and get some serious projects going on. at this point in my life, i need more stimulating things to keep me busy than just organizing the household. sometimes i think about women who do everything i do, with parenting and all, and still hold down a job somewhere or something. i can do more, and i should be doing more. life is a balancing act. it's the third major scene in the cinema of my run-time on earth and it's boring as hell. lol.

oh well time to take stuff back to the library and get a few cans of food at the discount store.

woooooooooo

i hope everyone has a happy and productive week. email me and encourage me to do more stuff or ask me to do the same for you. motivation is great with encouragement.

why does the thought of hanging out with actual people piss me off so much?

lol.

so today was matthew's last day of school.

he brought home his report card.

it was fantastic. his reading 'level' doubled this past semester.

he's at grade level standards for some stuff, and exceeds standards for everything else.

*SQUEEEEE*

goodness gracious i'm so proud.

in other news, thank god the school year is ended. bleh.

lots of fun stuff going on this summer, including a visit from me mum.

woohoo! summer time.

sometimes, it just takes half a bottle of hard cider and a freaking sesame seed bagel with cream cheese to cheer me up.

1. Your Middle Name:
2. Age:
3. Single or Taken:
4. Favorite Movie:
5. Favorite Song or Album:
6. Favorite Band/Artist:
7. Dirty or Clean:
8. Tattoos and/or Piercings:
9. Do we know each other outside of LJ?
10. What's your philosophy on life?
11. Is the bottle half-full or half-empty?
12. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?
13. What is your favorite memory of us?
14. What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
15. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
16. You can have three wishes (for yourself, so forget all the 'world peace etc' malarky) - what are they?
17. Can we get together and make a cake?
18. Which country is your spiritual home?
19. What is your big weakness?
20. Do you think I'm a good person?
21. What was your best/favorite subject at school?
22. Describe your accent:
23. If you could change anything about me, would you?
24. What do you wear to sleep?
25. Trousers or skirts?
26. Cigarettes or alcohol?
27. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together? (If you have no idea, just say something crazy, it'll entertain me!)
28. Will you repost this so I can fill it out for you?

so last night, Guy Mechanic comes and puts the new fuel pump and filter in the car, fixing its major problem. so today, matt takes rowan and me to Whatcom Falls Park for a meetup.com meetup (that didn't end up happening).

soon after we arrived and tumbled out of the car, there was a HUGE DEER just sort of standing around, pretty near the road. anyway, i saw it, then pointed it out to matt, and we pointed it out to rowan, who was already on the playground with some other kids. i got the camera out to try to take a picture but it was so far away Teh Camz started doing digital zoom which always looks crappy so i gave up.

it was very pretty. the other kids there started running toward it, and of course rowan followed so we ended up walking across the whole field following him. the deer had run off into the bushes by that point.

we were inspecting said bushes when matt asked rowan "where did he go?" and rowan said, "the kangaroo when to his home!"

much lols were had all around.

so tonight. pizza, again. on another boughten crust, whole wheat, covered with olive oil.

leftover sauce and toppings went on top after being heated in the preheating oven.

BUT. i sliced the crimini mushrooms, after washing them. in a saute pan (frying pan, lol), i put some water, about two tablespoons (the rest) of balsalmic vinegar, a little salt, and some dried rosemary leaves; heated it up.. put in the mushrooms and let them sort of simmer until the mushrooms were cooked through, and shrunken. put on top of the rest of the toppings and cooked it for about 15 minutes.

mmmmmmmmmm good stuff. added nutritional yeast and dried crushed ancho chilies to the top right before DEVOURING it. so much pizza ...

again, would've been good with salad. (my excuse is i'm saving our greeeeens for veggie sandwiches tomorrow)

oh the foods. this requires amazing salsa to go on top, and lettuce wouldn't hurt either.

i soaked 2 cups of dried pinto beans overnight, and cooked them for some hours, probably two, in salted water. they were totally soft and falling apart. then i drained them and put them in the fridge, and saved the four cups or so of liquid in the fridge too.

i boiled two mediumish size yams til they were all soft, then i peeled them and mashed them in a big mixing bowl with the pinto beans from the fridge.

i cut up the leftover halves of onion and red bell pepper from last night into wee pieces. i cut up a HUGE clove of garlic into wee pieces too. (i ended up using 3/4 of this mixture for our very hungry family)

i cooked two cups of brown rice in the bean liquid with a bit of powdered vegetable stock and some cumin.

i heated safflower oil in a big ol' frying pan; when it was hot i threw in the garlic, stirred it around for a few moments, then added the onion and red bell pepper. stirred it around for a few minutes, til the onions did their transparent thing and added a splash of salt and some cumin. stirred around for awhile.

then i put in the beans and yams, and stirred it allllll up. let it heat through. serve on top of the rice with awesome salsa on top of that. we have started getting our salsa from the place with the best salsa bar EVER, banditos burritos. incredible stuff. super fresh and ultra yummy.

it was incredibly delicious and filling and hit that mexican-y food craving spot.

would've been good with more beer, but it was all gone ;.; ... salad would've been good on it too, but eh i was so tired from making everything i didn't want to mess with it.

this made approximately 8 servings. i'm talking, Very Hungry People and Growing Boys servings. so actually about ten.

:)

take one store bought pizza crust, whole wheat organic goodness, brush it with olive oil as per instructions on package. as a matter of fact, follow all instructions on packet.

take a good sized onion and red bell pepper and cut them both in half and put the other half in the fridge. cut a smallish eggplant in half and put the other half in the fridge.

cut up into small pieces the clean eggplant, a tomato, and the red bell pepper. toss with olive oil and a little bit of salt and a lot of dried rosemary in a pan and stick in the oven preheated to 350 for about twenty minutes.

mix a small can of tomato paste and a small can of tomato sauce with generous equal parts black pepper, thyme, basil, oregano; smaller equal parts salt and crushed red pepper/cayenne pepper. whip it up all real good in an oven-proof bowl/container and stick in the oven with the eggplant stuff for the remainder of the time (15 minutes?)

mince onion and put in heated oil in a frying pan on the stove, saute for about seven minutes, add minced garlic, let get all aromatic and delicious looking-tasting.

boost oven temp up to pizza cookin' degrees.

take it all out/off of heat and put on top of pizza in this order: sauce, eggplant stuff (make sure you stir it after you remove it from the oven), and top it off with the onion garlic. pop it in the oven for 14 minutes or so. when it's done, let it sit for about 5 minutes, then cut it up and eat it with nutritional yeast on top.

it was delicious with mexican beer mixed with a generous amount of lime juice.

epic pizza dinner. i recommend eating it with a good salad, even though i didn't.

so this morning, matt and i were being lazy in bed, cuddling. i said, "you should give me the day off. i deserve it." (day off as in from being a mom/housekeeper/etc.) jokingly, mind you. mostly.

and he says, "when i do give you the day off, will you do something other than sleep all day? like, actually DO something?"

i almost cried but it did remind me how much time i spend doing pretty much nothing but feeling sorry for myself and playing dressup on gaia.com....

lol.

i do spend a lot of time in my head designing clothes/art projects, though. visualizing for the future. that sort of thing.

i'm productive in my own way. heh, tell that to the mountain of dishes in the kitchen by the sink!

oh golly was i sick last week.

so sick. in bed for four days sick. still recovering sick.

but enough about that.

since that kicked my ass so hard, i'm trying to pay super attention to what i eat and how i spend my time. it's working. i've been doing really well so far this week.

i'm making bread for the morning, and staying up entirely too late while i wait for it. i think i'm going to let it rise overnight in the oven and hope it's good in the morning.

does anyone know of any good boardgames to invest in? we've got quite a collection of kids' games going, but not many good grown-up ones. (the one we do have is scrabble)

blarg.

i do enjoy a good game of dominoes, by golly.

i made brownies again. i've been eating only one a day. WoW.

i am awesome. i also checked out some books on sewing from the library.

woot.

i am alive :)

01) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
02) What was your dream growing up?
03) What talent do you wish you had?
04) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
05) Favorite vegetable?
06) What was the last book you read?
07) What zodiac sign are you?
08) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
09) Worst Habit?
10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
11) What is your favorite sport?
12) Do you have a Pessimistic or Optimistic attitude?
13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
16) Do you have any pets?
17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?
18) What was your first impression of me?
19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22) What color eyes do you have?
23) Ever been arrested?
24) Bottle or can soda?
25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
27) What's your favorite place to hang out at?
28) Do you believe in ghosts?
29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30) Do you swear a lot?
31) Biggest pet peeve?
32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
34) Favourite and least favourite food?
35) Do you believe in God (or the Flying Spaghetti Monster/Chthulu)?
36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

you know there's something either incredibly wrong with the world, or amazingly balanced when someone makes a video game putting sonic the hedgehog in the middle of camelot.

with a magic sword..

so i made an awful pincushion today.

it's just ugly fabric and weird thread. it serves its purpose beautifully.

i also made rowan a 'sling' for his 'baby' it's some sort of beanie baby lizard thing, and he has been carrying it around for about a week. so i made him a carrier for it and it turned out pretty well.

sometime i'll post some pictures.

i need a seam ripper. not badly yet, but i do need one.

bicycling improves every time i take the chance to ride it. rowan LOVES sitting on his tricycle a few feet ahead of me on the sidewalk and keeping me from doing much on it, though.

so, i'm going to a burlesque show monday. man, am i excited. oh man, the excitement.

i'm going to start trying on outfits soon. i only have a limited number of articles of clothing to work with, but i want to 'dress up' for the occasion.

i think i need to add some stockings to my wardrobe. i have two skirts, both black. and a purple-ish shirt i'm thinking about wearing. i find it pretty hilarious how modest my tiny collection of clothing is. the more risque' clothes i do own, i never wear. oh god and i still own makeup but i haven't worn any since i was in MO last summer, i think.

wow. yes, i am actually a woman, but i don't define my femininity by covering my face with chemicals or the fabrics i wear.

i define my femininity by my VAG, folks. it's had BABIES shoved through it. *mad laugh* it is awesome, as are my boobs.

'nuf said.

so i got a desk yesterday. it's all set up with my stuff and sewing machine/supplies.

i read the instruction manual.

i sewed a little belt-pouch thing out of a pair of matthew's old pants; they're still usable for cut-off shorts this summer by one of the little boys!

*squee*

it's a plain jane grey rectangle pouch with two little loops on the back but i'm so proud. *sniff sniff*

i feel incredible. FINALLY made something.


WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

i need to do this every day.

<3

for real.

on tuesday, i walked to matthew's school, then to rowan's school, then back home. then, a couple hours later, i walked to matthew's school to pick him up and he and i walked home. it's about a mile, one way, so i walked almost four entire miles that day. now, that's after spending most of the winter walking no further than a few blocks to the library maybe once every couple of weeks. so, basically, very little stamina for that sort of walking.

so i spent wednesday in severe pain from muscle fatigue (i guess) and yesterday involved more walking to and from schools although i did make sure matthew rode the bus home. ugh so tired.

anyway, my butt is like half the size it was before tuesday, which is amazing, and the rest of my body seems to be contracting 'okay, so you're exercising now, i can dig it, "foop"; slimmmmmmness.' wicked awesome to say the least.


so james found a place to live, in the neighborhood, which is cool. he's moving in with our friend michael, so i hope that works out well for both of them; michael thinks it will. :)

i'm making all sorts of plans and stuff, and am actually doing things to make them happen which is awesome. drawing, teaching kids stuff, socializing, do-it-myselfing, cooking and making meal plans. and now, exercising.

in the very near future i will have a bicycle and a helmet so getting to and from the school and grocery store will be much quicker, and still all exercise-y.

growing up. learning from mistakes. WEIRD, let me tell you. pinpointing the mistakes my parents made from the perspective of being a parent myself and not making those same mistakes with my kids. hopefully. lol. not like, "oh i hate my parents for doing this, this and this to me, leaving me unable to cope with adult life"; more like "hmm, this is why i couldn't figure out how to care for myself for so long .. this is what i can do to help my kids learn to take care of themselves" ... "cool" ...

my god i'm still having as much fun as i ever have, i'm just living in a tidy house and being a good parent too! amazing. responsible adults aren't boring, they're just cool in a different way. w00t.

oh golly i think what is next is giving up coffee. not hard, i should say. i've cut back and it was black this morning, so that's a good sign.

I LOVE YOU! yes, all of you.

.amber.

i spend a lot of time reading livejournal. almost every day, i read everything. sometimes i miss a few days, and i spend even more time catching up.

i have a few friends, an am also a member of a few communities.

but rarely do i post anymore, and even more infrequently comment on others' journals.

i just wanted you all to know that i <3 you, and care about you. i'm not the best at correspondence, or keeping in touch, but i think of you often and wish you well.

that pretty much applies to most people i've encountered in my lifetime...

so there.

i'm doing well; whipping my butt into shape and responsibility. the few responsibilities i do have are parenting, keeping house, and organizing life. organizing life is probably the easiest due to my nature, where keeping house is the most difficult. BUT i have created a weekly schedule for myself to remind myself what to do and give myself a break in between things, like sweeping, that i don't want to do every day (at this point). i keep my (our) house neat and tidy and organized. i know where most things are (even most of the kids' toys! holy cow.), and enjoy being home.

since i've accomplished that, i feel more confident in my ability to socialize and become more active in school, neighborhood, and other local organizations and activities.

i am interested in 'going back to school', but i would much rather 'apprentice' somewhere or something. well, more like, i want to meet and befriend people whose experience, wisdom, and knowledge base could help me become more of the 'renaissance woman' i feel i have the capability to be. i want to be one of those people for others, too.
...............................
last night i went to the 'lettered streets neighborhood' potluck dinnner and met some cool people. mostly the older populations, but there were some awesome younger people there as well. of course, the older people were cool as well, and very nice.

it is sunny today! i'd almost forgotten what a bright sunny day looked like. it's probably very chilly outside, as it tends to be when the sky is clear, but sunshine is sunshine and i loves it.

also last night i had a fun time with my gentlemen friends and husband watching 'reefer madness, the musical' which i had never even heard of previous to last evening. it was incredibly hilarious, and a fun time. next time shall be even more enjoyable :) thank you, michael, for bringing teh movie and snacks :D

......................

anyway. <3!

http://www.marijuana-uses.com/essays/002.html?

long and verbose, but i know there are at least a few on my FL that enjoy that sort of thing.

worth the read, whether you partake or not.

interesting perspective from an interesting mind.

*glee*