David is back in school, starting 7th grade in about 17 more days.  He has lots of fun planned for the remainder of the Summer, like a week at a sleep-away camp in WA state.  Thanks to his Uncle Po and Aunt Taya!

Brian starts a new schedule at work tomorrow.  They are working 6am – 6pm with a 30minute lunch Mon-Sat! OK, once again, HOLY CRAP! They are so busy at work the boss offered them a $1/hour incentive to get them to go with the new 70+ hour work week. Frankly we could really use the money, so I’m not complaining, perse, but I do worry about Brian. As it is, he is so tired all the time, all he’s going to do now is come home, eat, shower, go to bed.  Which sucks for both of us, but it’s supposed to be temporary. We’ll see…I’m kinda hoping it goes so well that the boss let’s the guys keep the extra dollar an hour.  **keeping fingers crossed**

Rochell is finally getting the house process going.  There was a hold up with the mortgage (loan officer is truth be told), so Mom went another way. So now we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel and it looks like she will be able to get into her new house, next door, before the snow flies. YAY!

I took a bad spill at the grocery store, where I work, last Monday. BADLY sprained my ankle. I don’t know when the last time was that I was in so much pain.  The pain has subsided for the most part, but the range of motion hasn’t.  Stiffness and swelling are still a battle. But I’m getting there.

The Library continues to keep me busy. I’ve wrapped up my first Summer Reading program and there were lots of lessons learned. In fact, tomorrow when I get in, I need to write those lessons up so I remember for next year.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading and reviewing on my book blog.  I love having access to books before they are published, being in on the sneak preview. It’s a blast and I’ve been fortunate to read some really great literature…a couple of stinkers too, but the good is far outweighing the bad! If you want to check it out… www.novelgoddess.com

That’s about it for Mott, North Dakota. Life is different here, not better or worse, just different!

http://novelgoddess.blogspot.com/

I was thinking about it last night…how lazy I’ve been about blogging. I tried to convince myself that I hadn’t been “lazy” perse…just nothing to blog about!  So how could it be that in Vegas I blogged on average about 3x a week and in Mott, I’ve been lucky to blog once a month?

Sincerely, there just isn’t as much going on.  In Vegas there was traffic to comment on, and interactions at stores to witness and write about.  Nothing that exciting goes on around here.  The inhabitants mostly know each other and are friendly towards one another; so there aren’t the anonymous, rude exchanges that were a daily occurrence in Vegas.

Time, lately, has been filled with reading, work, cooking and sleep. I don’t remember being as tired last Winter and I am this winter.  I wouldn’t say I am depressed by the weather, but it is conducive to wanting to snuggle in bed with my hunky hubby.  I will also say I’ve noticed that once it starts to get dark out, I shut down and think in terms of getting ready for bed…does that make sense? Summertime around here I’m up and going until 9pm and not in bed before midnight…winter I crap out around 6pm and am in bed by 9pm.

And then there is Facebook…I do spend time on facebook when I probably should or could be blogging. Especially since my posts on my blog show up on Facebook.

So basically there is no excuse! I miss blogging and need to get my butt back in gear and get on it! So until next time…sooner than last time, I promise!

We finished with the Basketball Season for the 6th graders, then between studying for tests (David’s), work, and getting ready for the holidays…it seems there is never enough time to do the stuff I want to do. Add to that the stupid things my laptop it doing now a days, and I’m totally hosed.  I need to get it into repair, but that’s in Bismarck, which is a drive I prefer not to make when the roads are icy!

I need to finish making Christmas presents.  Once again, “best laid plans…” and I didn’t get some of them finished in time to send and arrive by Christmas…there is always next year for those…right???  I still have time to finish the projects for the folks who will be here for Christmas. In the meantime I need to bake goodies, keep up daily chores, OH and cook and CLEAN for the company we will be having.  I look at the calendar and think…9 days left, then I stop and think 9 DAY LEFT!!!! Thankfully between now and Christmas I only have to work 4 days so if I can quit procrastinating, I should be fine…HA!

Actually, if I were really smart I would be taking advantage of my current state of insomnia and would be knitting or baking or something more productive than playing on the computer!  Oh well, tomorrow is a day off…I can catch up of my sleep between loads of laundry…ROFL!

If I don’t post again before the holidays…MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

I also needed a DVD reader/writer.  My old one just stopped recognizing anything I put in the drive.  I usually back up to DVD, especially pictures, and that’s hard to do if you can’t read or write to a DVD.

While the place I took my laptop is an authorized Toshiba repair site…they didn’t have parts for my laptop on site and then the parts they ordered from Toshiba were back ordered…UUUGGGGHHHH!

So now I need to get back in the mode of posting…I’ve been away from it for so long now.  Pictures and thoughts to follow on various topics…I’ve been quiet too long! LOL

Life has been busy…but not really eventful enough to trigger a blog post.  Know what I mean?

Let’s see…a life update would be…hmmm…

Rochell and Gram left North Dakota yesterday, heading back to Vegas. Rochell put her house on the market while she was here, and has had two offers…the first being a total LOW BALL! Their offer was $70K below the asking price.  Now that wouldn’t be such a huge chunk if we were talking about a million dollar house, but it was equivalent to about 35% of the sale price.  A second offer did come in and it was much more reasonable…once everything was said and done, though, the financing fell through! UGH! Back to square one!

Sonya has her dog grooming business and shop off the ground. She is doing so well and everyone is so proud of her. Her decision to move herself and Cameron here, permanently, was the best decision she could have made.  Cameron is just thriving. Lots of friends, Varsity and JV Football, driver’s permit, working at the drive-in, and just as happy as a clam. It’s so nice to see it, and see it on a daily basis.

The house is coming right along.  Furniture is finally here and just really makes the whole house. Artwork up on a lot of the walls. I still have one console table to assemble and a large mirror to hang. I did finally find a GE washer and dryer that will fit in the laundry room space and the dryer will vent out the right side…they won’t be in for another week, though.  So I’m still hanging out at the laudromat…but it’s not the end of the world.  I do need to take pics and post them. All I have left to do is start unpacking my scrapbook stuff, and any remaining boxes are things that will ultimately end up in the garage…which is next on the “Honey-Do” list. We need to get it done before snow flies or we will have to wait until spring.  But it will be an expense…so we wait and decide to try and do it ourselves to save money knowing it will take longer, or hire someone and just get it done at added expense. UGH, decisions, decisions.

That’s about it…not much else going on other than loving life in ND. It’s so laid back, sometime to the detriment of getting things done, but if you know that, then you can figure out how to accomodate it. I am looking forward to Winter and all the projects I want to tackle when it will be too cold to hang out outside.  Can’t wait to hunker down on the couch next to the fireplace and watch the snow fall out the windows.  We are probably closer to those days than I realize.

You all have probably already figured out that I enjoy blogging.  What you may not know is that I really enjoy reading blogs, especially those of my friends and loved ones.

Here is where the frustration comes in.  My baby brother has a blog.  He has a blog that is my all-time favorite to read!!!  I’m torqued that he hasn’t updated said blog for over 3 months!!!!  I check it daily, hoping for a new post…but everytime I head over to “Poor Yorick’s Almanac”, I am met with the same, tired post about giving his brain away!  I’m sick of it! I’ve even posted a comment about it being way past time for a new post! I think if you are going to have a blog, you need to either post or get off the net!  So this is my attempt to kick him in the ass!  I know he reads and comments on my posts regularly, maybe instead of posting a comment to my post, he can spout off about what a snot his sister is on his own blog????

COME ON PORTER, I AM ISSUING A CHALLENGE, POST ALREADY!!!!!

I love you little brother!!!

A magazine dedicated to Artful Blogging???  Hmmm, sounds intriguing!!  WHO AM I KIDDING…It’s right up my alley!  I couldn’t wait to get it home and check it out.

I poured over it for about an hour and wasn’t able to get very far because I had to read every word and examine every picture!  Their tagline said it all, “Visually Inspiring Online Journals”…and it is very inspiring and I still have 3/4 of the magazine to read, examine, and be inspired by!  If you enjoy blogging, like I enjoy blogging, I HIGHLY suggest you check it out!

The highlight of my day…yes, something actually did hit higher than Artful Blogging on my excitement scale…as I was saying, the highlight of my day was babysitting Miss Piper Z!

Piper’s sister was having a Thanksgiving Extravaganza at preschool today and, of course, Mommy wanted to be there to experience it.  Mommy blessed me with the opportunity to spend some very special one-on-one time with Miss Piper.  Man, it’s been a long, Long, LONG time since I’ve had the opportunity to spend some time with someone so young…it reminded me of how much fun babies and toddlers are!

We played on the floor having all kinds of fun, until all of a sudden Miss Piper started crying…out of nowhere! She’d just been sitting there watching the DoodleBops and next second she was crying. Then she started crawling down the hallway and into her bedroom.  WOW, I’ve never seen a kid so adamantly express it was time to go to bed, NOW!  So I put her in the crib, she assumed her sleeping positions, let out one last, exhausted cry, and closed her eyes.  I was flabbergasted!  Most kids fight SO HARD to stay up…not Piper!

Christmas is coming up, maybe there will be another preschool opportunity for Mom and babysitting opportunity for me on the horizon…hint, hint, MOM!!!  It was a good day! LOL

I hope you like the new blog.

I should be back to posting my usual non-sensical (sp??) ramblings soon. I also have images I want to share from Laguna that need to be downloaded from the camera and uploaded here. Oh and there is also my venture into the boudoir photography business. And…and…aw hell, there was something else I was going to mention, but that train left the station without me. Old-Timers is kickin in.

Anyway, I will post more later!