I can't believe how time has flown! I leave in 8 days for London/Kenya! It's crazy soon. I have almost everything I need, so that's good. But we are having a party this weekend so I'm more "clean clean clean!" than "pack pack pack!" currently. However, I have already decided that I will be over the 23kg (50lb) weight limit for Kenya Airways, and have come to terms with the fact that I will be paying 50EUR ($77.50) each way in overage charges. I don't know how they expect you to pack everything you need in 50lbs, that's impossible. It's not like it's just going for a week! Doesn't work like that! Oh, by the way, all of you that want to call or email me--email is fine, and I will probably be able to check it every two-ish weeks (I will NOT be checking YWS). Calling probably won't do any good, and if you call my number and cost me a bajillion dollars there will be death lol. Texting is free though, so you can text me and if I have service I'll text you back, but before too long I will be getting a phone from Kenya and I'll give the number to those who need it.
Anyway, news from the homefront. Braylynn is growing like a weed and is now 4 1/2 months old! It's crazy how big she is! And she's just as adorable as ever! Tramayne and I are still together (....I realize I never update this thing, but I honestly cannot remember what my last update was and what you know/don't know). We were pretty sure there for awhile he was going to get a job two hours north of here, and that was a bit scary. One of those things that is a great opportunity but if he didn't get it I wouldn't be upset....and I'm not, other than I know he really was hoping to get it so I feel for him.
I will be published again this fall, a poem and a short story. In fact, they are probably both on here and I should probably go remove them but....since the damn editor refuses to answer any of my contact attempts I guess I'll just leave them for now. I entered them in contests, and won second place in both--receiving $300 (my main purpose in entering) and then was asked if it would be okay if they were published so it was just an extra to the contest, which is pretty cool. I also received second place in the English Essay of the Year award for 300+ level classes, but I only got a book for that one. Though, that one was just to prove how wrong the grade I received on that particular essay was. I proved it, and I'm happy.
Gosh, what else is going on. I'm not too sure. I have a whole slew of writings to put on here, but I'm forever too lazy! Other than that, I think that pretty much covers it!
Kwaheri!
ANYWAY, this weekend was wonderful! Friday night I went to the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert and they rocked my socks off. I have never screamed at an orchestra concert as much in my life!
But, the big news came on my birthday! My birthday was on Saturday, and I got the best present anyone can ever get on a birthday: baby! [b]On December 29th at 11:32am, Braylynn Alexandra entered this world at 20 1/2" and 6lbs 14oz.[/b] She is precious and beautiful in everyway. Plus she made her mommy happy by coming before the end of the year (yay tax break :)) even though she wasn't due until the 5th!
She is truly a blessing! Now she and I will share this birthday for the rest of our lives :) Even more special then the bond we already had!
But, I just got home Monday and I'm going to be rather busy here for the next little while so I'm pretty much going to be MIA around the site. I'll pop in every once in awhile to check out whats going on but won't stick around for any length of time, and probably won't post much either. Sorry! Things have to settle down here a little before I can get back into a routine!
Thank you to all of you who wished me a happy birthday! I most definitely had one! :D
Now onto Kenya. The elections in Kenya were on Tuesday, and many believe they were rigged (and there is some kind of proof to this matter). So, opposition groups and supporting groups have begun a tribal war-like chaos. 300 people have been killed since Tuesday and it's not getting any better. The scene has become much of that of Somalia....roadblocks, roads closed, soldiers in parks, burning, hackings....it's crazy. CI hasn't started pulling people out yet because the manager lives in Kenya so they can monitor it really closely....but I feel like they SHOULD be pulling people out because the violence is less than 2 hours from them. If it comes their direction they won't have enough time to get out of there. Over 100,000 people have already fled their homes, many have crossed into Uganda. Kenya is usually known as a place that TAKES refugees, not that creates them. It's making me a bit nervous, to say the least. If it keeps getting worse I may go back on my booking...but right now I'm just going to watch it to see where it goes.
Nothing much has happened in the last few weeks. I got moved, kudos to my parents for driving 10 hours to help, and it's hot....exciting, right? Vacation was nice, last one coming up next weekend. I'm going to take Chase down to the lake for the first time this weekend so I suppose I'll see how he does in the water. He's such a good puppy, I think he'll be fine. I'm looking forward to it. It's sad that summers almost over though....not that you would know from the 100 degree temperatures. Speaking of which: do not leave your children in the car. I've ranted enough this week, that's all I'll say about that. Poor kid.
Well I finished up my first round of PT. Bad news? It did nothing. Good news? I can stop paying for it. I'm going to have to have exploratory surgery (puke), which means how long I'm out depends on what they find (puke again) so I have no idea what's going on. It will probably be in the next month, just waiting for a call from the doctor to schedule it. I thought about doing it over Christmas instead, but they seem to think it's addiment to do it now based on the fact that it would get worse before then. Eh, whatev. I had to drop off of riding, he said I would have no problem getting up on the horse but could only walk without it being too much pressure on the post-op. Could be a six week out, and that really sucks. And I'll have to have more pt afterwards and since I'm no longer anywhere close to my old PT center, I'll have to switch centers too =[ Hmph. I suppose it's all good, I just need to be ready for Kenya next summer....and I really don't want to spoil my week in Mexico in the spring either. I'm still a little nervous, though.
Anyway, that's pretty much everything that's going on. I'm working on reading some Beowulf, so I should probably hop off here and do that. As soon as I finish I get to move on to GLASS by Ellen Hopkins! Wooo! Been waiting for months for that to come out =]
Peace homes.
Things going on..........
I have to leave in about two hours to go take Chase to Moscow for a few days =( and then I'm leaving tonight (with two passengers in two) for vaca. I'll be back Thursday night, but I have two different doctor appointments that night too so I'm not really here. Then Friday morning I'll be picking Chase up and moving! But I'll be back the next week to go to another doctors appt. You know, I've never been to the doctor this much in my entire life...I come from the "suck it up, breathing isn't important" view of life, which I agree with, but lately between eye doctor, regular doctor (Kenya shots), dentist, Orthop, and (mostly) PT I feel like all I do is go to the freakin' doctor. And it's just going to continue at least through Christmas. Six weeks laid up during soccer season? Spectacular.
Last night I babysat for my sisters friends wedding, 9 kids one hotel room. The only cartoon channel they had was Cartoon Network, so I flipped it on and was surprised by a japanese anime show called "Bobobo-bo bo-bobo" (no, I'm not kidding). Supposedly, the show as so scarry it would "knock your socks of, beat them up, set them on fire, and buy you a new pair" and throughout the show they said things like "let's call Changchangchang-chang chang-changchang" and "we could call it "Nanana-na na-nana" while fighting with extra long tongues and nosehairs. Aside from having the worst animation I have ever seen in a cartoon and being severely retarded, it was actually mildly amusing (ranking somewhere close to three dudes and a puppy).
I am ready to go back, I'm really very bored. My last day of work was Wednesday, and although I'm a little relieved not to have to deal with it for 11 hours a day, I'm already missing the checks. I've got less than half of what I need for next summer, unless we don't go to London (which is apparently possible at the moment, and also a retarded decision that I probably should have excepted to happen, past experience tells all). But, without london I've got a little over half of what I need so that's good (it'll be better if I can find the other half somewhere =]).
There was a picture in national geographic (and other mags) some years ago in Sudan during the famine of a starving child, probably about 1 1/2 to 2 years old, who was crawling to a food center about a mile away and a vulture was a few feet back from the child, waiting for him to die so he could feast on him. No one knows what happened to the child, not even the photographer (who killed himself three months later due to depression). This picture did three things for me: made me cry, made me yell, and made me scared out of my mind. First, it's the worst thing I have ever seen...it's so horrible. Second, I know a photographers job is to blend in to the scenery and not get involved, be seemingly unnoticed, but how is it you can see a child starving so badly that a vulture is waiting for him to die and not HELP HIM?!?!?!?! Thirdly, I know that where we are going things aren't this bad, but I'm still a little afraid that we will see things like this and I don't know if I can handle it. Hmmmmm.
Anyway, I suppose that's all there is for now.
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