Jerrett and I both have November birthdays. His is the 12th and mine is the 28th. So it’s the time of year when family and friends send us crazy birthday cards and I thought I’d share a couple with you.

The above is a picture of a bunch of clowns - on the inside it says, “You can just tell we’re family” and then my sister Tory added, “I don’t see you and I in this photo, did we miss the call?” She’s a nut and I laughed so hard my sides hurt after reading it. It’s funny because I use a ‘circus freak’ analogy when talking about the hight difference between myself and the rest of my family - I’m over six feet tall - my dad and mom…they do good not to require peddle extensions in their cars. 

I remember when I was about 14, I got a card from my mom in the mail that had a picture of a big nose on the front of it - I thought to myself, “What in the heck!?” Then I opened it and I still remember what it said - and it’s words EVERYONE should live by. “You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friends nose” - truer words have never been printed. 

Which leads me to this jewel. When I saw it, I got a bit weepy. I don’t think we realize how quickly they grow and change - but it only took this card, personally created by my dad and step mom, for Jerrett’s 14th birthday this year:

See what I mean? Look at him. He is SO adorable! The first thing John said when he saw it was, “Wow, two belts, so this isn’t a new thing?” Jerrett is standing in the living room of my dad and step mom’s house, behind him on the floor is the train he would play with for hours and hours. It had smoke. Real live smoke. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. Of course, as every good ‘ole Texas boy should be, he’s wearing Wrangler jeans and I’d be willing to bet, that’s one of those crazy canvas shirts that were so popular back then. I don’t know. He looks so sweet and innocent

Anyway, so those are some of the cards from this year. I’ll post some more, as they come in I’m sure.

I write you tonight from Safari, because Firefox 3 has still not addressed the problem of the spell check on the fly problem with Wordpress. Until yesterday, I was blissfully using FF2 on my desktop machine, but I started getting some random wonkiness from one of my FF Add-Ons and when I went to see if there was a new version, I was instructed that I sucked for using FF2 and that if I wanted to use my really awesome add-on, I had to get FF3. Lame-O me forgot about the Wordpress issue and blindly downloaded FF3 - then came on over to post about my stupid face rash and realized I was not being spellchecked - and those of you who know me (meaning, those of you who talk to me on IM) know exactly how frightening that can be.

So, here we are in Safari - because the on-the-fly spellchecking in Safari actually works. Thank you Safari.

Ok, so a few things first, I have a few new favorite songs to share with you, so open your iTunes now and start downloading them.

• Relentless by Jason Aldean - Side note, this song is not only fantastic, he’s hawt. Married, but still hawt.
• Let It Go by Tim McGraw - This song is pretty deep and hits me right there, with regards to the topic we don’t discuss here.
• Love Story by Taylor Swift - She’s a really talented artist and wow her messages are often pretty deep.

Those are my weekend iTunes purchases - I am in the process of compiling a list of great songs I can listen to while driving to California in a few weeks. Oh, I also got the Blue Oyster Cult song that prompts people far and wide to demand “More Cowbell”.

Alright - now on to the ‘Ouch - My face hurts’ portion of tonight’s program. It seems that I might have gotten ahold of something on Saturday morning that caused a catastrophic allergic reaction - and by that, I mean my face puffed up like a puffer fish and my lips started to split open. Now, as I sit here, it feels like my face is going through that 24-hours-after-a-sunburn phase of healing. It feels dry, gross and it freakin hurts!

I ended up taking Benadryl Saturday night in order to try to curb the pain/swelling - I mean, after all, my anniversary was already shot all the heck. Right?

Anyway, I am doing a bit better today I think. My skin feels real rough around my chin and dry - wow, I am scared to open my mouth for fear it’ll crack something and I’ll have a Joker-like opening in place of my normal Brandy-sized mouth.

By the way, so far so good on the medical front - I have decided to change the tag name of the category that contains most of my medical stuff..:)

(I am listening to Relentless right now…Wow, this song moves me…I’m not sure why, but it does (It might be because he’s hawt tho - I will admit that))

I’ll check in later in the week - surely something will happen between now and then that will be blogworthy…I hope…

(I talked to my dad tonight too - which always makes me a little giddy - I miss my dad a lot)

(Because I won’t be able to blog tomorrow, sorry folks!)

Let’s see.

• I think the happy pills finally kicked in…I needed them to really bad, especially this week.
• Came to the realization that people with their minds made up won’t ever change their opinions, no matter how many facts you present.
• Orange juice is good. I’ve been drinking the crap out of it this week.
• The almonds I blogged about the other day are tearing up my mouth.
• I figured out why I can never do some of those really cute hair styles with the front and sides pushed back - it’s because I’m tall and spend a lot of time looking down…not good for the do.
• One of the blogs I read is written by an attorney back home and this week, he did a ‘play by play’ of this case he was watching (open to the public) - and in the end, the guy got 120-life…isn’t 120 years more than a life?
• I was kind shocked that there wasn’t more ‘backlash’ in the community (you know what community) about that preacher in Texas (who had once been a minister in my home town) who was being investigated for Child Pornography whilst simultaneously being approved by a branch of the same Governmental Body to adopt two infant children from Ethiopia with is wife. He was indited a few weeks ago by the FEDS.
• I need to go to the eye Dr. real soon. So does Jerrett.
• I am washing a load of jeans right now. This is the first time I’ve washed a full load of nothing but jeans since probably March.
• I got three new planters for the plants on my counter in the kitchen, but didn’t get any potting soil. Now I have three empty pots and three plants that are overgrowing their current pots.
• Getting things done is rewarding, plus it gives me an exhilarated feeling.
• Firemom successfully made red icing today for Firetruck + Fire Helmet cookies. Shes so Martha.
• I bet the breastfeeding community is stoked about Novembers W Magazine cover. It shows Ang breastfeeding one of the twins.
• There are a number of topics that give me TiredHead. Today, I’ve managed to get involved in discussions that center around three of them.
• Theres a crazy rumor going around that it’s going to be in the 70’s on Saturday. If that’s the truth, then I am so going to the Zoo.
• Tomorrow is my infusion day, I am not looking forward to it - I’ll post some pictures some time of what my arms look like…I look like a drug addict.
• I cut my fingernails last night but didn’t file them, so when I went to scratch my side just now, it hurt like crazy.
• I have cooked three times this week, that has to be some sort of record.
• There are a lot of readers who are local, but none of them ever comment.
• Two loads of laundry down, three to go.

So, yeah - not all that exciting - but not that boring either.

So, there’s been a lot going on here - and I just haven’t felt like blogging. To be honest, I am totally drained by the end of the day and in the morning, I spend so much time trying to talk myself into staying up rather than just going back to bed, that I don’t have time to blog then either.

Keeping with the random wonkiness that is my life, Jerrett developed a sudden and extreme allergy to cats. This has been pretty devastating for him because he loves his cats more than anything in the world (well, not more than XBox 360, his new Laptop or Ham & Cheese Hotpockets…but they come in a close fourth…). At any rate, he’s not happy. I, on the other hand, spent the entire weekend vacuuming the world, washing everything possible and scrubbing floors (did I mention laundry? Yeah, I did a lot of that too!). I am sad, of course, I love my kitties. They are like the answer to my secondary infertility (thirdary? Is that a word? What do you call it when you’ve had two, but can’t have another? Whatever.) Anyway, he puffed up like a bullfrog, so we put the cats outside - and until today, they’ve been ok. Those of you back home may not be aware, but here in Arizona, they don’t have actual ‘fences’ - they have cinder block walls all around the perimeter of the back yard. It was odd when I first saw it, but I am getting used to it now I guess. So, as I was saying, the cats had all stayed in the yard for the past three days…then today, Jerrett calls me at work, “JAXON IS MISSING!!!!” - apparently, Jax went off to do whatever it is that boy cats who have been fixed do…I am certain he’ll be back…but its sad, because I know he could really be gone and he’s the oldest of our lil guys.

Things are not looking up at John’s work. It seems that with the reduction in production, the need for a Six-Sigma Black Belt trained Process Improvement Engineer is…well…drying up with the production. I figured it’d eventually come to this, because the housing market out here is just awful. I admit I worry, because his line of work is so specialized…and coveted when the economy is slipping but recoverable - not so much when businesses are dropping like flies and they can barely afford to keep the production staff they need to continue to offer their product. It’s a double edged sword.

Oh! I randomly heard from the lady that lived next door to us when we lived in Malta…that was strange. We hadn’t talked in almost three years and then *BAM* - she calls. Apparently, the housing market isn’t as bad there as it is here…there is a new subdivision in town and they are building a new school to support the students. It’s odd to hear that, because there was talk of just shutting down the 5 room school in Malta and busing the kids to Dekalb, where the Jr. High and Sr. High school kids went. Anyway, that’s pretty cool I guess. I don’t know if I ever shared this with you guys back home, but Malta was smaller than Boyd. They didn’t have a single traffic light, nor did they have a store of any sort. The town was so small, in fact, that they didn’t offer mail delivery if you lived in Town. You had to have a PO Box and come pick up your mail (but only during business hours, because the place was locked up tighter than a drum at 5 PM). I wonder how all that’s working out for them now?

So, that’s basically it. We’re hanging in there, but things aren’t looking good. With John’s job and whatnot, we might be exploring our options…again. God I hate this.

I mentioned, in previous blog entries regarding my visit with my parents back in Wise County Texas, that my dad was a complete jerkface while I was there. In his defense, he’d had all his choppers pulled and had them replaced with two metal spikes that hold his brand new choppers in…and because he’s such a colossal baby when it comes to pain - he was really in a bad mood. He couldn’t eat, I’m shocked he slept, since he’d been camped out in the Lazy Boy with the dogs in the living room for my entire visit, plus, he’d managed to somehow wrench the tendon that runs down the back of your ankle (Achilles I think he said?) and he was in an aircast/walking cast for most of my stay (or, I should say, he was supposed to be…*sigh* men…). At any rate, he was an ass, but he had a good reason, so the assholiness is a bit more forgiving than it would have been had he, say, just been an ass for no reason at all.

Anyway - so one night, I am sitting in the living room, we’re watching ____ (Pick one, its all they watch: Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Animal Police, PRCA Rodeo (I know it wasn’t The Bold and The Beautiful or The Young and The Restless, because dad was home and well, “I don’t watch that shit!”)). So we’re watching T.V. and dad yells from the living room to the office, “Hey Soretha!!! We got any ice cream” (Now, my dad is a total redneck, so you have to imagine it will all the correct redneck annunciation and emphasis on the wrong parts…so “Soretha” comes out more like “Sooooooo Retha!” - he really draws out the “So” part - and it’s not even pronounced that way. Anyway, I digress…) She answers, “Yeah! In the freezer” so I happen to say, “Mmmm ice cream, that sounds good” and dad (who hasn’t managed to get up and fix a plate of anything for himself since I got there) goes into the kitchen and makes not ONE bowl of ice cream - but TWO! One for me and one for him.

It totally freaked me out! It was like I was back in that parallel universe I talked about a few months ago…with the Twilight Zone Theme playing in the background…

I looked at my dad and said, “I am SO going to blog about this!” (of course, he has no idea what a blog is, even though he has this super fantastic new 20 inch wide screen HP Laptop with built in 10-key (drool)).

So, Dad, I blogged about it (and FYI, this is a blog. Blog is short for “Weblog” it’s kind of a public online journal where everyone can read your most inner thoughts, then make fun of you).

As for the rest of ya…dad started feeling better the day before I left and wasn’t quite the jerkface he’d been in previous weeks. He got appropriately mushy when I left and has called a few times (because he misses me so much…I just know it!) since I got home.

Anyway, I meant to blog about this while I was there, but totally forgot - so I did it now Yay!