what to do? what to do?

I've been away from here so long that I don't quite to know what to write.

Me, who can ramble for screens and screens about, well, nothing. Blocked.

I suppose I can tell you about the kiddos.

Stinkerbell is LUVIN! soccer. It suits her never-be-still-crawl/run/gallop-all-day-drive-everyone-crazy urges to the TEE. She starts the game as goalie and usually plays the 1st half there. Then Coach moves her to offense. This amazes The Mighty Hunter and me. Neither of us have ever played soccer. We know only the basic of basics about the game. Her ball-handling skills are already equal to the girl they call "Power Foot". She usually plays all but 15 minutes of the game.

I guess this makes me an official Soccer Mom. Is this a good or bad thing?

Lucky is almost 8 months old. He was evicted from his carrier-style car seat last week. I got the Britax Marathon at Target for $40 LESS than everywhere else! SCORE!!!

The Mighty Hunter is getting ready for hunting season. He always plows a place and plants a "green field" in the pasture where his grandmother lived. He's been working on it this week. To aid in his deer food plot farming, he has purchased a chisel plow ($500), $300 of fertilizer and seed and a leveling bar ($200) to pull behind his Rhino ($89/month). Don't let anyone tell you that deer meat is free or cheap. They LIE.

Yes, we eat deer meat, sorry PETA. We used to take it to butchers for processing and packaging. Several years ago, we bought a meat grinder and can now make our own hamburger meat. Typically, we save the tenderloin/back-strap and cook it as a roast (very tasty.) The hamburger meat is very good for chili or spaghetti or lasagna. It's fat content is too low to make it good for actual, you know, hamburgers.

Our stupid puppy, Jake, stuck his head under the garage door the other night. And, the garage door closed on him. No, it didn't kill him. But I feel certain he gained a healthy fear of getting squished by it again. When I told The Mighty Hunter about it, he rolled his eyes and said, "of course, it didn't kill him. We haven't spent enough money on him yet." Now, for those of you whose hackles are raised over our garage door not stopping or reversing when it hit the stupid puppy... I know we seriously need to change the opener. It's hard for me to shell out the $400 for a new opener right now. I mean, a girl has to have a new pair of purdy boots for fall and winter. sheesh.

About accessories, I'm in search of a new diaper bag/purse. I am sick and tired of the one I'm using now. It's a bottomless-pit backpack. It's ugly and dirty. I just can't find the perfect bag. I'm very particular about this kind of thing and would rather use the dirty, tired bag longer than is proper, than to blow money on the wrong one or the not-quite-right one.

Many of you have left comments welcoming me back to this little suburb of Mommy Bloggyville. Thank you so much. I even had 17 hits yesterday. I have truly missed being here with y'all.

Many of you have asked about my mom's condition. She left the hospital almost 3 weeks post-op, after spending 13 days on the in-patient physical therapy floor of the hospital. She still has some weakness on her left side. She is walking with a walker. She experiences dizziness that is causing her difficulty in moving around, but this should correct itself with time and therapy. She left the hospital with a cold and cough, which is still plaguing her. She has not begun her outpatient therapy yet because of the cold, which has weakened her a LOT. She will recover fully, but it will take some time and a lot of work on her part. She is determined and has an incredibly positive attitude. The attitude thing is not her natural way, so we're really surprised and pleased about that.

Again, thank you for your prayers, messages and comments. You're all very good friends.





After these messages, we'll be right back...