one of my new favorite photos.

sometimes she's a brat.  she can be a drama queen.  she sometimes needs what she thinks she need right now no matter what.  sometimes it game after game when i just want to go to sleep.  she's way to obsessed with david bowie.

but she's also a little bit of nerd (just like i was), loves big-eyed hoot owls and hello kitty faces (just like i do), always looks cute in her glasses (i wonder when she gets that from) and always has a picture or a pencil or a mcdonald's hello kitty (that's the same as one she already has) ready to give.  plus she's the only one in my family i've ever been able to talk about pokemon with.  she also give great hugs (those sometimes with a little too much force) and has the greatest little girl style ever (i mean, check out that shirt, big girl sizes plz?)

she's my baby sister, my little bugaboo, and i love her.  :D

a bugaboo blog.

just had the longest non-tantrum related conversation with my little sister in EVER.

and it was pokemon related!!  :D

she's getting so big, it's awesome.  she was having trouble with the new pokemon game i bought her for her birthday.  when she started playing the first day she got it, she forgot to save the game.  so when she called and asked me why she couldn't find her saved game, i was sure i was gonna get a phone tantrum.  

but she was actually really good and really smart about the situation!  i told her how to start a new game and told her to call  me when she was ready to save it.  when she called it took her a minute to get what i was saying (i was telling her to look for the 'x' button, and she didn't know if i meant on the screen or on the actual ds), but she finally found it.  that's when i realized there was an *actual* problem (apparently in heart gold, you have to erase the saved game or you'll never be able to save.  i bought this copy used at the flea market, so there was a game already on it. . .)

again, i was sure i was in for baby rage, especially when i told her she would have to start over *again*.

but she didn't.  i explained to her that i was going to look online to find out how to delete the old game and that she'd have to start over and asked if that was okay and she was totally fine.

she did have to give the game to mom to erase it (you have to hit three buttons at the same time and her little fingers didn't reach) but she was very mature about it!  or as mature as you can be about a pokemon game.  :D

i bought her this game because i have the corresponding game.  since she's getting way better at reading i figured she would actually get into the story of the game this time instead of wandering around in the grass whacking pidgeys for fun.  and since i have the other game we could trade and battle and all that fun stuff.  i'll probably have to set her ds up to work on wifi the next time i'm there, but that's no biggie.  i'm really excited, i hope she gets into it.  i'm gonna have to make a special bug trip though, she has to beat a few gym leaders before she can play online, but we'll figure it out.

peace.

a kitty blog.

so, my days have been a little lonely as of late.  chris has to work, phil goes out and does stuff and even phil's kitty damien has business to take care of pretty much everyday.  so yesterday, while visiting my lovely family, i stole a kitty.  i stole him and brought him home with me.

yes, that was dramatic.  :P  that's not really how my life is, but it's how i justified bringing home a fluffy kitty!  

now, every time i asked bug if i could take a kitty home with me, she would get very upset, even though all the kitties live outside and she hardly every sees them.  mom, however, would like very much to have a smaller number of cats, so she was all for it.  once i got the o.k. from phil, planning began for the kitty smuggling operation.

step 1:  find the kitty.

this proved harder than we thought.  dad had already taken down there winter house on the back porch, so the kitties didn't spend as much time there.  it was a waiting game.  our objective, dr. who, came into sight shortly after dinner and i lured him into the laundry room.

step 2:  find suitable kitty transport unit.

originally a picnic basket was chosen to transport dr. who 'wizard of oz' style.  this was deemed a bad idea when mandy mentioned the last time kitties were transported they pooped all over.  i also didn't want him to feel so contained.  we opted for a laundry basked with a sheet over it.

step 3:  remove the kitty from the premises.

 the main objective here was to get the kitty out without bug noticing, as she didn't want me to take any of her kitties.  after chris and i were secured with all our belongings in the truck, mom snuck out the back door with the kitty basket.

step 4:  keep kitty calm.

dr. who was obviously not happy about being in a basket and not knowing where he was.  i had to stick my fingers under the sheet and into the basket to pet him.  we made a stop for gas and he was particularly sad, so  i lifted up the sheet to show him that i was there and he snuggled up to that side of the basket.  finally he calmed down and i guess went to sleep.  he stopped wiggling around anyway, and would just occasionally sneeze and meow.

step 5:  introduce kitty to new environment.

i can imaging dr. who's shock at leaving a familiar laundry room, being in a dark place, and then being let out of the dark place into some other place that he didn't recognize.  at first he wouldn't leave the bed, but as soon as his feet hit the ground he was all over the house.  he was a brave explorer just like the real doctor!

he spent the night in our room, the bed wasn't quite big enough for everybody, so the doctor finally took to sleeping under the bed, which is where he is right now.

he's chillin.

now we only have to worry about damien, phil's cat.  they have met, they didn't fight, but i did have to supervise a very intense staring contest.  i feel it's probably in the best interest of both kitties for the doctor to stay in the room until damien decides to go outside.

so yes.  kitty.

sleepy.

peace.

a drama baby blog.

i just had to share this story with you guys, cuz my little bugglette is the biggest drama queen i know.

so, if you happened to read my blog over at bugglette's about bug's episode of craft rage you have a setting for this story.  i mentioned we had to find her some glue to use on her foam polar bear kit.  well, she was looking for her glue stick, which she had loaned to chris the night before when he was gluing some game pieces together.

in bug's exact words:  'chris left the lid off and when i found it it was all dried up so i threw it away!!'

well, while in my room today, next to the game pieces chris was working on, was a perfectly fine, lidded glue stick that wasn't there before (considering i don't own any glue at all, i also borrow bug's school supplies).  the same one bug had let him use.  he had picked it up with all his stuff when he brought it back to my room.  :P

my little drama queen, instead of just saying that she couldn't find it, told a whole story about how chris had ruined her glue stick.

i told mom and we both had a laugh about it.

peace.

a photo.

a photo i took of bug today at freeman lake. a little editing, i think it looks nice.

walmart, fireworks and the emergency room.

oh how your day can change.

got off work last night, normal as can be, went to walmart and to shop for a cookout today, took an awesome picture of a bra someone had abandoned in the tomatoes. good times. didn't find everything we needed at walmart, so we went to kroger. had us a cart with some paper plates and a cabbage, was about to put some tasty looking day-old donuts in there when mandy's phone starts ringing. it was dad, didn't answer it in time, we figured he just needed something from the store.

what we learned was there was an accident with some fireworks over at my uncle's brothers house, where mom, all three kids, deb and art were. everyone is fine, but mom and lily got burned and we need to meet him at the emergency room. soni tries to run off with the cart of paper plates and cabbage out a door that wasn't open. after a 'just take your purse!' and 'that door's not open!!' we make it back out of krogers and to the van and head off to hardin memorial. we were vaguely freaking out, but if dad says they're fine we are inclined to take his word for it, and make it safe and sound and with no speeding tickets.

we head into the emergency room and they aren't there. we run back outside and call dad back to find out we beat them all to the ER. the house they were at was in irvington, and they were driving back to hardin county. dad was coming from our house. we see art's van pull up, they see us and pull up where we are. mom gets out first, and she's holding a dish cloth or something on her stomach but isn't too upset. she shows us the burn and parts of it were black, the rest was pink and shiny. lily is sitting on deb's lap, she's calm and we couldn't see the burn. it turns out it went from about her armpit and went down her side. nobody said bug was burned, but when she got out she had a big spot on her leg and arm, but they're not as bad. she has had some spots on her face that didn't look too bad.

deb is upset. she's trying to tell us what happened and is getting emotional, but trying to stay calm since lily is in her lap. bubba's fine, but he wants to make sure everyone is alright, he's very protective of his big sister and loves his aunt lori. we all get inside, dad hasn't gotten there yet and mom's asking for him. i wait outside for dad to get there and we both go inside with everybody. there's all sorts of paper work and stuff going on, bug's a little antsy, and i take her to the bathroom.

now bug will throw a fit if she stubs her toe on something, because it just hurts so bad. but here she is with all these burns just calm as can be. when we're finished in the bathroom and about to go out, she looks at me and she says:

"tiff?"

"what is it, toad?"

"i saw it coming. i saw it but i couldn't move out of my chair."

"you saw it coming at you?"

"yeah."

"then you're a lucky little girl that somebody was there to get you, huh?"

"yeah."

and that's all she had to say about it. when i talked to chris later he said she was probably in shock, since it all happened so fast.

but everybody got bandaged up (of course it still took hours since it was the ER), and got to go home. i spent most of the time with bubba playing with the wooden toys on the wall, the ones where you can move the balls around the tracks ("this one is me, this one is you and this one is lily bug. this is us in space!") and we colored some in the special 'trip to the hospital' coloring books. deb had to go outside and smoke her first cigarette in years, though. it was all pretty emotional, really. when art first saw my dad, he went right up to him and said 'albert, i'm so sorry.' he was really quiet the whole time, i think since dad wasn't there he was supposed to be the man of the group and protect his wife and little girl. deb was upset because she was off from the fireworks and she didn't know what was happening. dad was upset because he had been at home and not at that house with them. they were all kinda bummed because not one of them had wanted to go to that house at all.

so this is what actually happened though, as i've put together from all the accounts:

they were at the house of a friend of art's brother. they had a little bar-b-que and were doing fireworks for the kids. and these were pretty big fireworks. bug and lily were in chairs near the house and mom was standing behind them. deb was kinda off to the side. they shot off a bunch, but one apparently misfired, but the people setting them off didn't see it or know what happened, they actually kept setting them off. the misfired one headed for bug's chair, just as gina (art's brother's wife) was coming out of the house. gina saw the firework and snatched bug out of the chair, but bug was still hit a little bit, mainly with sparks or spray from the firework. the firework ricocheted off the chair and hit lily. lily's clothes actually caught fire, they had to throw them away at the hospital (she left wearing a tank top soni had on under her own shirt). mom grabs lily and basically smothers the fire, and either she got hit by an after shot of the firework or the flames on lily's clothes burned through her own shirt (her shirt had a burn hole in it) and got her on the stomach. my mom said it felt like she'd been shot, and she thought that she might be on fire, so she hit the grass (with or without lily, i'm not sure, but she did grab lily after it happened. mom asks deb if the babies (meaning the kids) were all right or to get them, but deb was so far away she didn't know anything had happened. after all this chaos ensues.

it's horrible that these things happen, but you kinda see what these kids are really made of. mom ran with bug into the house and said that she smelled like smoke, so she started spinning her around and looking for damage. but bug wasn't screaming or crying, she just kept asking mom if they were okay. i think the whole time in the ER she was more worried about mom and lily. she was acting very mature for age, i think, because i'm sure all those burns hurt, but she knew they weren't as bad as what mom and lily got.

lily came out of the ER with a nice does of codeine, so she was a happy lily. a very happy lily.

today has just been helping out, making sure they're not running into things with their burns, soni got the job of changing all the bandages since she's the best at it. lily's changing did not go well, she was pretty upset about, but then again she has a second degree burn down her side. i also got a good look at mom's, it's pretty gross but it's also shaped like a bean which makes me giggle. bug's got her big ones covered up and cream on the one's on her face.

it was all pretty traumatic, but everyone seems in pretty good spirits and in a lot less pain then i guess there could have been. so that is my tale.

everybody had a great independence day, but please for my sake be very cautious! those fireworks are still explosives! just prettier! and if you don't know how to handle them go watch some on t.v.!! i love you all and don't want anybody to get hurt!

peace and love. :3