Ummm...HELLO?!? People who work at TNT!

The people who watch TNT during the day are probably people like me: Moms who are home with or without their kids, love 'Law & Order', and absolutely, positively cannot stand Soap Operas! So WHY ON EARTH are you suddenly programming freaking GOLF TOURNAMENTS during our Prime Time hours???

We can't stand Golf Tournaments, either! Besides, there is the Golf Channel just for that specific reason! To show golf. All the time. Twenty-four seven. All golf, all the time. Not to mention ESPN and ESPN 2. Plus Channel 26 (on my TV) that, I have no idea what it is, but it always has sports on. Mostly basketball, but, seeing as how the San Antonio Spurs have just recently reclaimed their title of World Champions of Basketball and are entitled to a little time off, probably wouldn't mind sitting down and watching a golf tournament themselves. So use Channel 26 even! Use all 4, PLUS interrupt the SOAP OPERAS for Christsakes! They provide nothing valuable to the community at all. At least we can learn some scientific stuff with 'Law & Order'.

Or...at the very least...couldn't you please, PLEASE wait until 'Charmed' is scheduled? Then interrupt all you want, by all means!

Please, please TNT...I beg of you down on my knees...bring back my 'Law & Order'. Otherwise I'm just forced into doing things like laundry and cleaning bathrooms and mopping the kitchen...and I've really had enough of that.

It's quiet again!

Aaaaaahhh! The girls are having their turn with Nana and Pop, so it's just me and Ethan here during the day. Life is so quiet with less than 3 children!

I'm going to spend this time trying to catch up on all the little projects I have going...a purse for a swap, curtains and things for my new studio, some little embroidery things for the laundry room.

Yes, I am going to decorate the laundry room! That poor room always gets neglected so I'm going to spruce it up a bit to be like the rest of the house. Steven painted it my yellow color (Sherwin-Wiliams Buttery) and added a big, tall cabinet. And, just because we don't have enough other things we need to spend money on, the old washer and dryer were dying a slow, painful death; so we put them out of their misery and got new ones. So now I'm doing a series of little vintagey looking embroidery patterns...the ones with little kitties, ducks and even elephants doing chores, specifically laundry. I also need to make curtains for the laundry room. I have the fabric-a laundry related pattern-but that's gonna take some thought...meaning math...with all the measurements and a thing to put the rod through and all that. So of course, I've been procrastinating. However I didn't waste any time in taking down the old curtains and using them in a crazy quilting project! lol! They were just the PERFECT colors!

Speaking of crazy quilting...it's something I've been wanting to really learn how...

*BREAKING NEWS***THIS JUST IN*
A few minutes ago I sent Steven an email about what I wanted for my birthday. It is something I found that is in the 'calamitykim' shop at Etsy. I think he found it, because I just got the little thing that pops up to let you know you have a new email, and it's to Steven's account and it's titled "Receipt for your payment for item # blahblahblahlongstringofnumbers". hee-hee!

*Back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Speaking of crazy quilting...it's something I've been wanting to really learn how to do for a long time, and I took a class on Saturday about it, with the GREATEST SEWING TEACHER EVER! I've taken lots of quilting and sewing classes so I know. This woman was great! Her name is Bobbie, and I took the class at Quilter's Point. The class was full of a great group of women, which is normal, but usually the teacher has no sense of humor what-so-ever. But Bobbie is a HOOT! A few of the ladies were super funny...LEAH..."hold me closer Tony Danza"...and I was cracking up all day long-which is something I really needed! I'm still laughing right now. And Bobbie was wonderful, and patient and kind! By the end of the class everyone was at a different stage, and she didn't even care. She just went around the room checking on everyone individually and helping with whatever they needed at the time. It was just great all the way around.

When the class was over I went out to sign up for another class she is doing, but she said she didn't want me to "waste my money on that class and not get anything out of it" because she said I already knew everything. She has another one though, in a couple of weeks that I asked about, and she said that one would be good for me because I would learn some new things. So, I'm going to take that one.

So this should have you all up to date with what's going on around here. Ethan and I are just gonna chill out this week, and he is going to let me work on things, right??? Maybe I can bribe him with the 'Harry Potter' movie....

Conversations with Claire

*I'm in the kitchen emptying the dishwasher and Claire is in there talking to me, doing the 'potty dance'.

Me: Claire, do you need to go to the bathroom?

Claire: No, I just have a gas bubble, and I'm trying to pop it.

Getting through...

...but it's hard without Gayla. Gayla would call me at least once a day, sometimes more. And now, every time my phone rings something happens in my brain that makes me think she's "come back", and I get all excited thinking it's her, "Finally!", then realize it isn't....

Today I was in my favorite art store, Stamp Antonio...carrying my purse and so many other things someone finally just felt sorry for me and brought me a carrying basket so that was completely overflowing. Then I hear my phone ringing/singing, "We represent the Lollypop Guild, the Lollypop Guild, the Lollypop Guild...", instinctively thinking it's Gayla and thinking, "It's about time!", dropped everything on the floor because I was so excited, and it was Allison. Not that I don't want to hear from Allison or anything...but, it hit me really hard today. Steven, Ethan and Claire were next door to where I was waiting for a pizza and when I got over there Steven asked if I had heard from Allison, who went to see the new Harry Potter movie with a friend. I told him yes, but I thought it was Gayla, then start crying....

Of course, I've thought about changing my ring tone, but: 1) That was the ringtone she knew, and she won't know the new one; and 2) 'The Lollypop Guild' is just too perfect for us! lol! If you ever wonder what Ethan looks like, he's the red-headed boy who isn't too keen on singing "We represent the Lollypop Guild..." with the other boys. Even the attitude!

I do ok most of the time, but anytime my cell phone rings the tears start to flow. She even changed her cell phone service from Sprint to Verizon, for ME! Her whole family-mom, sisters, everybody-had Sprint. When we moved to San Antonio, she changed to Verizon so we could talk as much as we wanted. Friends like that don't come around very often.

Anyway...not much else going on. We did get a new washer and dryer, though. So I guess things can get pretty exciting around here every once in a while. OH! And my 'new' office is just about done. Walls are painted, shelves are done...I just need to get everything organized and put away. Mom recovered the seat of my chair and I need to finish painting it. (It's primer gray right now. Just gotta spray paint it white.) I also need to spray paint a little bar stool thing white, and I'm making a padded cushion for that. I'm also working on a curtain to cover up the very bottom shelf of the bookshelf that houses one of only two electrical outlets in here, so it'a a jumble of a mess and needs to be covered up.


Oh, how could I forget about this? Talk about some excitement...this is a picture of one of our neighbors having their hot tub/jacuzzi installed. By crane. Over their house. I hope you can make it out-I was taking pictures out of my bedroom window on a very gray, drizzly day.

My best friend in the world just died.

Very suddenly and unexpectedly. And calling her just a "best friend" doesn't seem right...she was more than that. It's not fair that we weren't sisters. Because if you say something about your "sister", people get it. (Plus, most sisters probably don't love and care about each other as we do.) If it's just your "friend", it's not that big of a deal. But she was a big deal. And I don't know what I'm going to do without her for the rest of my life. We figured we'd be old and senile, sharing a room in the nursing home and beating each other with our canes! And if we weren't senile and still remembered we were friends, we'd just hit the other old people with our canes! lol!

She didn't just leave me...she also left a husband and two sons. One starting high school next year, and one in middle school. I really don't know how they are going to do without her!

My eyes hurt so much I don't think I can make any more tears. I miss you Gayla, and I'm not accepting this and I want you back.