Suspense

I don't want to keep my loyal fans on their toes regarding the happenings in my life, so here's a quick update. I'm busy. That's why I haven't written.

Morgan takes up every waking moment. She won't let me work, and I need to put in 32 hours a week. She won't let me sit, because she wants me to play with her. If I get settled down with a toy, she loses interest in about 5 seconds and moves on to something else, most likely something at the other end of the house, and most often it has an outlet attached to it, a sharp edge, shoelaces, or a precious photo adhered to it. What a stinker. She reminds me sooo much of the dog when he was a pup. If I was outside planting flowers or something, Cooper would be able to sniff out my hand oils, and he'd follow right behind me and rip it out of the ground. They just KNOW.

Sabrina and Matt just moved down the street, and other than the fact that Sabrina keeps popping over to visit only partway through Morgan's nap, and the dog freaks out and wakes her up, it's been fine. Now that it's spring it's been snowing, so the dog can't be outside, which is why I have to mess with his panic disorder. Normally he'd be outside, because I can't deal with his excessive blond hair ALL over everything. Yesterday I had Morgan on the futon with a bag of fruit snacks, and she started gagging. Turned out she'd dumped some of them out, and as she'd picked them up and popped them into her mouth, she started choking on the nasty bits of Cooper's backside that had adhered to their sticky surface. Didn't taste much like strawberry anymore, and her gag reflex clenched in protest. Yes, Cooper has apparently been sneaking onto the futon again. I thought we'd had that habit broke. So now it's piled up with various objects to hinder his inclination.

This week Morgan has started to do a couple of new things. First, when asked, she will show you where her belly is. We work on that at bath time. I am also working on nose and eyes, but I think the belly was the easiest, because it is something she can look at. I am happy with our progress. Also, because of our scrapbook weekend, she'll walk up to me, put her finger to her lips, and go "shhh". I certainly hope she isn't trying to shush me, but I think it's funny that she remembers us doing that. Let's see, she's also been walking up to Cooper lately, pointer finger extended, and starts giving him a tongue lashing. I think it is in response to my constant beratement of his poor manner regarding the food bits on the kitchen floor, the constant barking, and the general interference with my daily routine. He isn't allowed on the kitchen floor, throws caution to the wind and goes in there anyway, because the small square of cracker is worth more than the reprimand he'll get from me. Whatever.

Yesterday we made her first fort. I through a comforter over a chair and the couch. She LOVED it. She played peekaboo, went back and forth under it, layed on it, pulling the blanket down, etc. It was such an easy piece of entertainment. It wore her out, and she went to bed for the night shortly thereafter, making us both happy campers. Love her to death, but also enjoy those few precious moments to myself, when I don't have to work anymore, and can do what I want. It normally involves cleaning something as well, which I HATE, but it has to be done, and I feel much better when I can relax in a cleanly environment.

I have recently started scrapbooking and putting premade pages for sale on Ebay. I am not as skilled as some of the other artists on there, don't have the time to put in the quality an extensive artistic elements that some of them use, but I am getting better. I have never been detail oriented, but certainly appreciate it when I see it, so am working to do better. The problem is that I got a lot of neat stuff at the scrapbook convention, but am hoarding it, because once I use it, it's gone! I need to think instead of the wonderful product that will come from it's usage. I, of course, save the best stuff for my own projects. Last night I just finished a Mickey Mouse page, and since it's been 15 years since I myself have been there, it'll go on Ebay. I just have to wait until after Easter weekend to list it. Nobody bids on stuff on a holiday, and it is best if your auction ends on the weekend, because that's when the most people are sitting at their computers surfing the net. Anyway, my current goal is that the Ebay thing funds my personal scrapbook obsession, because that would be great. It can get expensive!

Alyca gave me a screaming deal on a Quickutz press and some alphabets, and I am already running with it. I am currently trying to get some additional shapes, including a multi-layered bottle cap shape set, a belt buckle, and a butterfly. I like the multi-dimensional shapes, as well as the tags, fasteners. I am sure they will come to great use.

Anyway...... Steve and I are doing a quick pause to get our finances in better order. In looking we have really seen how important to our financial future it would be if we were able to keep our current home, so we are trying to ensure that this happens. We really do live in a nice place, and it wasn't until we were looking at others, and contemplating selling it, that we truly appreciated what we already have. So we want to keep it. Sabrina and Matt signed a one year lease on their duplex, so maybe we will move on in a year, so that they can in turn move into this house and rent until Matt gets done with his schooling and they get a better, more substantial, and supportive income. In the meantime, it's nice to have family nearby, it's been years since that has been the case, it will also be something I have to get used to, and it will also be great to utilize the new babysitter that I now have down the street. It will be nice to actually have some time alone to get some work done.

Speaking of which... I'd better get back to it. Teletubbies is almost over...