7 trips to the goodwill, 4 dumpruns....

and we're still not done with the frackin' packin'!!! Seriously! how much stuff can one family have????!!!! and how much bubble wrap does it take?!?!?!?!
Actually, we've "purged" quite a bit...the kids have a fantastic attitude about the whole thing, and LGK? He kicked ass and cleaned the kitchen! you should see the range top - which is to say, you actuall can see the range top - for the first time in a while
In other news...worked my last shift @ Shennanigans last night...a few tears were shed...And Wednesday night a few drinks were had...a few songs sung (G&R anyone?!?!) and a few lapdances given....boy are my legs sore!!!
tee hee
ok
back to packin'.
see you Utards next week!!!!

by the way...this

is the best packin'/movin' music!!

"outted"

as Alana puts it "LGK outted" us. No sense trying to keep it on the DL anymore (and I wrote to my dad's family so they wouldn't find out here)so....yep, we're loadin' up and heading back to the Mother Country. Next Sunday's the day....
and can I just say that it's fracking AMAZING how much CRAP we've accumulated in this house in 10 years!!!????!!!! Purging has been long overdue but as we pack we're getting rid of a ton of junk (considering we're moving into a smaller space upstairs at my Oma's house we have to!)
The folks at goodwill get excited when they see me coming with yet another load of stuff every day.
To answer some questions that I've been getting a lot:

No, we're not selling the house yet. Or renting it yet. Time is of the essence with this move and I couldn't possibly wrap my brain around getting the house rent-ready or ready to be put on the market in 3 weeks. So, we'll regroup in a few months and LGK may come up and finish up some projects and we'll put it up for sale. We'd rent it if we knew someone willing to live down here/work on it...(hint hint PettenClaibornes)

Ringo found a new home, with my boss Tom. He's got 10 acres, 2 other big dogs to play with and Tom lets him sleep on the bed. My guess is that he's in Dog-Heaven!

Yes, we will still be homeschooling (are you kidding? the fact that LGK is self employed, the kids are homeschooled and I can waitress anywhere are what make it possible for us to move right now)

The kids are excited to move. As Max so eloquently put it the other day "Mormons can't be any worse than Rednecks"
and LGK is excited too, I think. Regardless, he's the best husband in the world...and the best friend I could ever ask for or hope for.

That is all for now. gotta go pack some more

all work and no blog make Rachel something something

so,
long time no bloggy.
I've got news. And I'm going to post it. Soon. There are some folks I still want to tell in "person" so they don't read it here first and get all butt-hurt
so
news soon.
but not today.
suffice to say, things at the Kade compound are tumultuous but not in a bad way.
So with this stress I found some solace in the following..... a little tidbit that I discovered last night (watching Buffy season 6 finale).
I've always loved Sarah MacClachlan and she did a song of this that I LOVE!
Those of you that know me, know that I'm not overtly religious or spiritual and you may find it curious that I would be so moved by a prayer...but as far as saints go, Francis has always been my favorite (I remember a neat statue at a church in NM when I was a kid, and he had a little bird on his hand and a lamb by his feet - and it was so cute!!! that's the extent of my religious-ity)
But I want to share the following with you (my 3 loyal readers) because it's helping me right now


"Prayer of St. Francis"

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

A very merry un-birthday to me!

Yesterday, Saturday, we celebrated my early birthday (as I will be heading Utard-way next week to visit/care for my Oma and that will be coinciding w/ my big three-five)
**just got invited to Burt's for my b'day!!! perhaps I won't be sitting alone in the dark after all!?!?**
anyhoo, yesterday....
Had a lovely breakfast, complete w/ facon bacon *Yumm*
Went to see Hellboy II *AWESOME*
and received some loverly gifties from the fam including:
A "slightly sinister" crafting/knitting book



a GIANT bottlecap shaped tin bar sign (soon to be painted with my logo and used as a sign for my booth!) proof that you really CAN find anything on the ebays.

a couple a DVD's; ONCE and SWEENEY TODD

A new red "swade" slipcover for my beat up old wingchair

and a badass customized pair of extra high top Chuck Taylors...(black, with red leopard print tongues, red laces and b/w skully insides!!!) that LGK designed and had custom-manufactured for me here
KEWL!!!

and then we had SLURPEES!!!!

What more could a gal ask for for her birthday I asks you!?!?!

anyhoo...that's the update for the weekend. I'll be offline for the next week. Headed to PDX bright and early Monday morning, flying to SLC and I'll be back NEXT monday. Oma's house is actually still "hardwired" - so absolutely NO internet connection - not even modern telephones...she's got these crazy old rotary phones from the 40's...can't even hook up an answering machine to those bad boys...they're Old School!
Thanks for the happy/healing thoughts kids...see you next week.

Introducing.......Big Mobey!!!

I know he'll take this picture and photshop the hell out of it (perhaps adding a fur coat?) but can I just say *swoon*?!?!

isn't it ironic?

doncha think?
no black flies in my chardonnay today...but a couple of things that strike me as silly/ironic
My daughter, who is not much of a "self entertainer" is trying very hard to keep herself occupied while her big bro' is at grandma's house...Mom & Dad are both working on business/crafty stuff so I asked her to find a game to play. What does she choose? The Planet Earth DVD game - cool game but it definitely assumes that you've just watched the documentary...and it's on a highschool level...did I mention that she's 8? So, yeah, she doesn't know any of the answers...so, she's constantly asking for help and telling the TV that it's stupid.
And another thing?
strangely enough, I sell more dogtags than just about anything on etsy. And I'm in negotiations to do a line of dog tags for karmacharms.com...
so, I thought if I'm going to be a dog accessory designer/manufacturer my dogs should probably sport some right? Ringo, good boy that he is, is dutifully wearing his (doesn't even notice it to be honest) Fergie on the other hand? HATES IT!!! he's growling at it, biting it and frantically rolling about as if he's posessed, trying to get it off.
(have I ever mentioned that some of my main reasons for gettting a "Wergie" or a little dog were that I wanted to pretend to be Paris Hilton and dress him, and carry him in a fashionable handbag? (maybe it was a biological clock thing now that I think about it...) Yeah, he won't wear clothes either. And when I tried to put him in the gorgeous gold-tone carryall that I got for him last summer (for my birthday no less) he screamed like a demon and bit me. I gave the bag to my friend Ashley for her ferretts. pooh

And on another note, thanks to the friends who've shown support & positive vibes regarding my family/Oma issues. We're still waiting and seeing. Thanks though.

the fourth of July and trying to relieve sadness with baking...

a day of celebration...a day when the locals have an excuse to lounge in their "yards" (and I do use the term loosely...does a conflagration of cynderblocks, burrel wood statuettes and a Chevy Nova bumper qualify as a yard or garden??) wearing naught but their Walmart shorts, Curslite (that's Coors Light) in hand, as junior sets the county ablaze with contraband fireworks...the neighbors are playin' horseshoes and subjecting the entire neighborhood to their "classic rock"....A day when free candy is to be had by the grocery bag-full at the local "parade" (again I use the term loosely...not a float to be seen, but MANY log trucks, tow trucks & rodeo queens from far and wide) and a day when the best view of the local fireworks is from the highway..sitting on the hood of the car and watching the heavens 'splode...
OK that last part is actually kind of cool.
While I find it hard to get too jazzed up about this, Independence Day...(I've been reading some revisionist history which has illuminated for me the fact that the revolution as well as most of our country's exhalted history has perhaps been skewed in the telling...really it's all been about rich whitey all along - SURPRISE!)
I DO get a kick out of the fireworks, and surprisingly enough our little corner of nowhere has one of the better displays I've ever seen.
We'll be bbq-ing at the in-laws this afternoon...not necessarily because it's the 4th but because relations (a cousin and the great grandpa) will be in town. I'm making split pea/low-fat guacamole and the house smells great right now...Oatmeal cookies in the oven too. Thank goodness it's not too terribly hot today 'cause I had a sudden onset of domesticity and I was gonna turn the oven on regardless...
The past few weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster. My Oma is not, as some of you may have gathered, doing well. And I'm far away. And helpless. I don't know what's actually going on with her and while all I want to do is fly there (on a metaphorical white steed) and play Florence Nightengale....there's nothing I can really do. I feel some kind of need to "see her one more time"...but as my mother lovingly pointed out, maybe it would be better to keep happy/healthy memories? It's been weeks of tests and unanswerable questions. Weeks of "wait and see" and we still don't really KNOW anything and it's making me crazy and OH SO tired (yes, I am generally a tired girl but this is REALLY draining).
My son wants to know what's going on. I don't know what to tell him. I don't want to be alarmist but he knows I'm crying several times a day so he wants to know what's up. He's so mature in so many ways...but he's also SO empathetic/sympathetic and I don't want to put him through too much....Much in the same way my mom is still trying to shelter me.
I've never been exposed to much death. I've been very blessed and very sheltered. I was protected from my Opa's passing when I was 12 and I have only happy memories of him really. There was a girl in highschool, a casual friend, who committed suicide and I went to her services...that really hit a lot of us kids hard...and it definitely influenced my attitudes about mental illness and suicide (that's another post maybe). Our friend Scott took his life several years ago now...and I didn't get to say goodbye. Nobody did. My friend Gina's husband died unexpectedly last year and while it made me very sad for her...I was more than a little bit appalled by the vultures and drama-whores that surrounded her..I couldn't be a part of that, and as a result I don't think I was "there" for my friend. Something I will always regret a little.
Part of me wants to say goodbye to Oma. I've been calling her more often and trying to stay cheerful when I'm on the phone with her. I've run the gamut of emotions off the phone though. I started practicing telling myself that she's "dying". It could be days, it could be months... so much depends on whether she'll take treatment or if the treatment works. I don't think my mom was really willing or aware of how bad it was until she went to see her.
She may have to go to a care center or a hospice or whatever they are called.
I hate that idea. When I did CNA training I swore to myself that noone I loved would ever be in one of those 'horrible places'...but in reality, what can we do? I used to think the families of those poor old people were so heartless, letting strangers care for their family...but again...what else can we do? I can't take care of her. Neither can my mom.
I wish that my romantic ideas of death and passing could come true...but I just don't know it that will be the case.
I think she's ready to go. I think she'll see Opa and that makes her (and me) happy.
I'm very glad and lucky that she and I don't have any issues. I don't have to "make peace" with her about anything before she goes...I just wish I could help. But I can't so I'm making cookies.