Look what I got!!!!

(Ok.... Why did that post so dang huge?!?!) Anyway, Barefoot Gardner awarded me with this, this morning. Thank you!!!! (Something to do with the fact that after reading my blog, her winters don't seem so bad. *wink*)

I'd like to pass this on to Whim. The every day battles this woman fights are amazing. I hope she continues to make much progress in these battles and soon begins to see that she really IS winning the war!

To Mom. All the lovely pictures you post, Mom. And how incredibly much you care for your friends there in Hawaii.

To Dirk-Star. Such a biting wit, this man has. His political & social commentary is spot-on, as a rule. And he's not afraid to say what's on his mind.

And last, but certainly not least, to Gardener Greg. Another man with some very thought provoking posts. He shows a gentler side of political & social commentary, but still manages to strike at the chords that ring so vibrantly true.

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Yet again, it is -45 deg. outside this morning. One of the neighbour boys said it got down to -55 overnight. I wouldn't be suprised. The weather forcasters said it might happen. Of course the "high temp" for the day is predicted to be a range of -15 to -35 deg. F. *sigh* And y'all are SUPRISED when I say that -15 feels warm?!?! *grin* It's all relative, as I keep telling you. And not relative only to place, but relative to time as well.

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Third morning in a row, this morning, I was awake before my alarm went off. Sunday I woke up at sometime after 6, lay there for a bit with my conscious-brain coming "online". Dozed back off then was up at 7:50 and unable to get back to sleep. I was supposed to be sleeping till 9 am that day.

Yesterday (Monday) I woke up to the sounds of DH puttering around in the bedroom, getting ready for work. I don't usually hear him, as I've taken to wearing earplugs in order to get a better night's sleep. Evidently, at some point during the night I'd taken them out. So I heard him moving about & making noise. Of course he also didn't realize that I'd taken my earplugs out, or he would have been much more quiet than he was being. And, on top of that, his truck wouldn't start so he was pissed & slamming things around once that became an issue as well. So, I was up at approx. 6:50 with DH, instead of sleeping till 7:45 as I'm supposed to on school mornings.

And this morning. I hear a faint knock on the door. First thought was that I'd overslept my alarm clock again (it happens occasionally, now that I'm wearing earplugs) and the neighbour boy was knocking to see if DD needed a ride to school. It was actually DD knocking on my bedroom door, saying that DH's best friend was on the line asking for daddy. I told him that DH had already left, from the looks of it, and he needed to try DH's cellphone. It was 7:11 when Dh's buddy called. *sigh* I crawled back into bed, after sending DD back to bed as well, but couldn't get comfortable enough to doze back off. *big sigh*

I really hope I get a better night's sleep tonight, or I'm not going to be fit for anything, by the weekend.

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Speaking of getting a better night's sleep. DD sure as hell better wake up on the right side of the bed tomorrow! She was in one hell of a mood this morning. I got home last night to find that DD & her best friend had gotten into a container of chocolate & marshmallow snack-mix I'd made this weekend & eatten half of the stuff for their afternoon snack. (This, after I'd sent a smaller portion with DD for dessert for school yesterday.) So, I told her that TODAY she wouldn't get any candy or any such thing at all. I gave her the option of raisins or a couple of prunes for dessert instead. (Gotta balance all that chocolate somehow!) She got all snippy about how sorry she was (I'll bet!) and why wouldn't I just let it go (Um?!? DUH!), and she didn't want raisins OR prunes because they're both nasty. Ok. That's fine by me, but that's a skimpy lunch as far as DD is concerned. Finally she deigned to have raisins and I sent her in to get dressed while I packed the rest of her lunch, knowing that the neighbour kid would be here any minute.

Of course, DD still couldn't find her snow-pants. Who knows what she did with them this time. She had them Friday when I took her to school. I thought she came home WITH them. But they're nowhere to be found. (And I highly doubt she looked in the school lost&found yesterday as she was supposed to.) On top of that, she was missing her gloves this morning. *sigh* It's -45 deg. outside. HOW do you misplace something like snowpants & gloves in this weather?!?!?! Of course, I was supposed to call DH & ask if somehow her gloves had wound up in his truck. And somehow he was supposed to get them to me if they WERE in his truck, in time for DD to go to school with them.

(I can't figure out how she thinks this is supposed to work.... He sticks his hand through the phone-lines & hands me the damned gloves?!?!? Never mind that he'd taken his truck to the shop for some work, first thing this morning, and didn't have access to it by the time I called him, anyway.)

Anyway, after ransacking her trashed room (she was laying belly-down on her bed, saying she was looking under the bed) myself, I went & retrieved MY best pair of gloves for her. Which she promptly tried on, then pulled off & threw on the floor yelling at me because they're too big. Ok. I took them back because I CERTAINLY don't want them lost because they're too big. I gave her my other pair of gloves, one of those "one size fits all, stretchy" pair. She hates those, and refused to wear them till I threatened to kick her butt if she didn't put them on.

THEN we had to fight about her wearing a scarf. I'd made her a lovely purple scarf on one of my knitting-looms. She never wears it because she claims it's itchy. I'd also made myself a blue & bronze (Ravenclaw colors!) scarf on my knitting loom, using the same kind of yarn as in DD's purple scarf. For some reason she developed a preference for my scarf, saying that the one I made her was too scratchy. So, I've let her use my scarf, and I've been wearing hers. Well, this morning when I insisted she put her scarf on, she got all snippy, did a half-assed job of throwing it around her neck, then when I insisted that she wrap it better then that, she took it off & threw it on the couch. Fine. She hasn't been wearing it for the past several weeks anyway, so I'll take it back & wear it myself. *shaking head* At which point, of course, she threw off her hat, kicked off her boots (oops, had put gloves, just realized my error) & stomped to her room screaming about how mean I am and how she's NEVER going to school again, and if I send her out there she'll just FREEZE to death!

*rolling eyes* Dirk, your "offer" of $50 per child is sounding better & better! She finally wound up slamming out of the house without scarf, no snowpants, jacket zipped MOST of the way up, hat on her head, & my thinner pair of gloves on her hands. And sat out in the snowbank across the road, waiting for the bus, for the 7 more minutes it took for the bus to get here.

Needless to say, the yelling arguement we got into has left me with a scratchy throat this morning & pissed at her. And, to top it off, DH isn't returning my call to see if he made it to work ok this morning, and to ask if he recalls seeing her gloves at all last night or this morning. *sigh*

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I think that about covers it for today. The dogs are begging to be let outside for a moment to do their business, so I guess I'd better publish this post.

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EDITED TO ADD: Well, guess who's taking a forced day off work!?!? My car won't start. I went to start it at 10:45 this morning so that it'd have 15 minutes to warm up before I left for work, and it grumbled & sputtered at me the first 3 times I cranked it. The last two times of that try, it refused to even sputter for me. Tried it again 15 minutes later (after letting my boss know I'd be late today) and it sputtered the first of two tries, the second time it wouldn't even sputter at me. Another 15 minutes later, a "grr, grr" and that's it for the first try, the following two didn't bring any sounds at all. And this most recent try, after letting it sit for a half hour, didn't result in so much as a click. No grumbling, no sputtering. Nothing. Nada. Zip, Zero, Zilch!

Guess who needs a new freaking car?!?! Yep, it'd be me. Just like it's ME who's not making it in to work today. *sigh* Thank the gods for sick/annual leave! I've, fortunately, got 170+ hours available, should I need them. I just hope I don't have to use more than 6 of them before we leave for Anchorage next week.

Ok. I've gotta go get myself some lunch, now that I know what my day's looking like. And then maybe I'll settle in & watch some TV (prerecorded episodes of Stargate Atlantis, especially!) and finish up that afghan I've been working on.

Oh, and damnit! I'm not getting my sister's birthday present sent out today either. (I left the house without it yesterday, and the roads were so iffy that I wasn't going to turn around & retrieve it.) It didn't go out yesterday, and it won't go out today now. I guess it'll probably be a little bit late. (BUT, IT IS COMING, Shelli!)

And, I don't get to go vote today. Not unless DH wants to take me back over to the voting place after he gets off work. Which I highly doubt he will. *sigh* Dang. I really, REALLY wanted to vote in this one!

Have a Blessed Day!