• Things are going really well lately. The weather is beautiful, the flowers are blooming, people seem happier, and everyone in my family is getting along really well. I certainly cannot complain!

• I’ve been playing a game called Animal Crossing on the Gamecube lately. I absolutely adore that game. It’s not only sooo cute, but it’s just so much fun! I’ve not got it hooked up to the Net, but I can imagine it’d be even more fun if it were.

• I dyed my Mom’s hair earlier. It turned out really nice. Better than usual for some reason. I think they changed their formula or something because the color of the dye when it was in the bottle was orange instead of the usual brown. Thank God her hair didn’t turn out orange! Hahaha     

• I’m now a Moderator of the Beta Testers Group on MyOpera. This happened a while back, but it’s been so long that I’ve written anything on my site; I’m catching up.

• Not only am I a Mod, but one of the Mods of the site contacted me and asked me to write up a quote as to why I like My.Opera so much…and also to include a picture. They are making a brochure and they want to include me in it. How incredibly awesome is that?! Seriously!!! I know it might not mean much to many, but to me it’s a huge honor.

• Lonnie is in bed behind me snoring right now. Poor guy. He’s been drumming for the church three days a week…and then another church in our area was basically begging for a drummer, so he offered his services to them as well. He’s been not only busting his ass with work, but he’s also been spending SO much time between the two churches. He’s flat-out exhausted.

• Our landlord came and rototilled a huge section of our yard the other day, so now it’s time to plant that garden. I dislocated my shoulder about two weeks ago which resulted in massive pain and a condition that I cannot remember the name of. So I cannot be out there using the ho or anything like that. It’s a total bummer. I was SO looking forward to doing all of that by myself. But now I’m going to have to rely on my family to help me.     I hate that. Oh well…once it’s been hoed up, I can plant the seeds and starter plants, water it, pull weeds, and all that sort of thing. I just have to take it easy with my shoulder.

• My feet are absolutely frozen solid. I can’t even believe how cold they are. I mean, they’re usually cold, but this is ridiculous!

• I’ve been playing a game on Facebook called Farm Town. Holy cow!!! I love it! It is SO much fun. If you have Facebook, I really recommend trying it out. It’s a bit addicting, but in a totally fun and harmless way.     

• I suppose I’ll wrap it up for now. I have some things I’ve got to do…like tend to my farm in Farm Town, catch up on My.Opera alerts, do some Photoshopping, and do a bunch of other junk. Have a terrific day!!!

• I’ve been doing SO well lately. I guess it’s been about a week and 1/2 now. It’s like I’m so happy and nothing can bring me down…not that I’d want it to. I just feel so emotionally free to be me and feel less bogged down with a ton of emotionally draining stuff I had gotten used to dealing with. Now that I’ve no longer got that issue in my life, I feel like I could conquer the world!

• My coffee today is SO good. This time I am drinking Bella-Vista Blend by Starbucks. I know it’s Starbucks, and Starbucks tends to taste a bit burned, but I’ve noticed that this higher quality stuff they’ve been putting out lately is truly delicious. I also strayed from my usual Hazelnut Coffee Mate Creamer and am now trying Vanilla Nut. It’s so tasty and a wonderful trade-off from Hazelnut.

• My landlord came over the other day and plotted out a big area where he is going to rototill a spot for us to plant a big garden. I seriously just cannot wait! It’s been so long since I’ve grown veggies. I will be spending so much time outside…which I normally do in the summer, anyway. We plan to grow carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and a bunch of other tasty stuff. It’ll be so awesome. My Mom is really good with canning, too, so she can bottle a bunch of it up so it’ll last us a really long time. We’ll grow lots of cucumbers as well so that she can make pickles. Mmm…homemade pickles are the best!

• Lonnie’s 32nd birthday was on the third of March. He said it was one, if not THE best birthdays ever! He not only got a lot of gifts, but I baked him the cake he really wanted and we all spent a lot of time together as a family. For dinner, my Mom bought a couple Dominoes pizzas, so that was a treat, too. We very rarely eat out at all. It’s just too expensive. I will be blogging lots of pictures that I took on his birthday. One of the gifts he got….the one from my Mom…made his whole year! I can’t wait to post the pictures of him opening it. I’m not going to say what it is. I don’t want to ruin it. Hehe

• I am on Facebook again. I know I swore that I’d never go back there, but oh well. One of my best friends, Jenn, kinda talked me into it. Well, not really talked me into it…but just hearing about how much fun she was having over there made me want to give it another shot. I’m so glad I did, too!!! I not only hooked up with my brother, John, there…but I am talking with my best friend from High School, Tera, again!!! It’s so awesome to be talking with her! I’m going to be going back to Billings, MT next summer, so I will get to see her again, too. Not only that, but I’ll get to see Casey, too!!!! I’m SO excited!!!! So much to look forward to!

• The person I had posted about before - ‘Kristy’ - she left a message in my shoutbox on My.Opera today. I was a bit…uh…stunned, to say the least. I’m not going to respond. As I’ve already stated, she’s dead to me. It was a nice message and I suppose I appreciate her attempt, but I just wish she’d move on for once and for all. I never even talk about her anymore…rarely think about her. I wish she’d just do the same for me. I feel so much more mature and emotionally stable now than I did when I was friends with her…I have zero reasons to rekindle anything with her. I feel like responding to her message would be the start of words being spoken back & forth and that’s simply not something I want…ever again. I was wronged and that’s the end of it.

• Speaking of the rest of the story…The great Paul Harvey died on March 7, 2009. He was 90 years old, so I’m happy that he lived a long and full life. He touched so many people’s lives, too. I remember watching his crotchety little speeches at the end of 60 Minutes when my parents were watching it when I was a kid. He always caught my attention. He will be missed by many, no doubt.

• Why does my daughter talk SO loudly when she’s on the phone with her friend?      Doesn’t she realize that the phone amplifies her voice and she doesn’t need to do that?! GOSH! How irritating. I’ll have to go ask her AGAIN to tone it down a bit.

• Lonnie is going to be heading to the grocery store in a little while. Better him than me. I absolutely detest grocery shopping. He’s nice enough to go do it for me most of the time. He also says that he’s more productive when I’m not with him, anyway. I tend to get him side-tracked. I also take pictures of everything, so that probably annoys the heck out of him.  

• I’ve made a few more really good online friends recently. I feel so blessed to be in contact with so many truly good people. I can’t tell you how many people wrote to me to ask me how I was doing after the “break-up” of my ex-friend and I. People I never even used to talk to. Apparently she’s done this to quite a few other people that I was unaware of, so now it’s almost like we’re forming an “Ex-Wives Club”….    
  I don’t say negative things about her, really. I simply speak my side of the story. There’s nothing good to come from defaming her. I just find it so interesting that this is a cycle which has apparently repeated itself quite a few times. If anything, I feel sorry for her. It’s obvious that she’s quite unhappy with herself. I hope that she will one day learn to stop pretending to be happy and learn to truly be happy. I, myself, feel truly happy at this point in my life, and lemme tell ya’…it’s a magnificent feeling! I’m sure that if she were truly happy with herself, none of this stuff would ever happen again. So, my wish for her is true happiness.

• Sorry I keep going back to talking about that situation. It’s weird how it keeps popping into my head as I type this. Perhaps I subconsciously wonder if she’ll read it or something, and maybe it’ll help. Not a clue, but I wish it’d stop. Like I said - I really AM over it. There were a few days where I was sad and felt like I missed her, but those days have long passed. Now I’m enjoying my life to its fullest.

• Okay - ENOUGH about that crap. I promise.

• I’ve been taking lots and lots of pictures, but haven’t had the time and/or gumption to get them resized and posted. Some of them are pretty awesome, too. As usually, there’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that…just whatever. I’ve snapped a few of random people as well, so I will be getting back to my Random Person of The Day© posts. I always did enjoy those.

• How can my feet possibly be this cold? I not only have socks on, but I also have my tootsies in my foot warmer/massager thingy. They’re still freezing. I must have the worst circulation of anyone I know.

• It’s odd that my circulation is so bad. I’ve been working out lately! Lonnie used his Christmas money from his grandparents to buy the family a membership to the local Rec. Center. They have a full gym with all the machines a person could ever want or need, a big pool with a slide and everything, hot tub, indoor track, basketball courts, rock climbing wall, FREE classes - such as Yoga, spinning, aerobics…etc. They have a bit of everything. It’s amazing. The cost is only $30/mo. for the family…but since he paid for a year in advance, he got a better deal. So anyway, I’ve been using it. I’m getting this old, flabby body into shape! I want to be able to post a picture of me in my bikini this summer and not feel totally self conscious about it. I normally pack on weight in the winter….always have. That’s a given for me. So now, I’m in the process of removing it. I love working out, too. The more energy you put out, the more you get back…and that feels great!

• I’m still having back/neck pain issues. Pretty bad ones, too. It’s preventing me from doing some exercises that I would really love to do, but that’s okay. I will slowly work up to them. My doctor referred me to a pain management clinic, so I should be getting in there any day now. I’m just waiting for a phone call from them. I’m very excited. If I can get this pain under control, I will feel so amazing!

• We’re still going to church every Sunday. I actually enjoy it quite a bit. Our pastor is a really personable and funny guy. He’s always telling stories that get the whole congregation laughing our keisters off. He makes learning about the Bible fun…and that’s a rare thing. I’ve only been to 3 or 4 churches prior to this one, and they were all so boring and bland. No life in there, really. This one is full of life and the people are so friendly. They’re not freaky, either. I don’t like the ones where people go nuts raising their hands, crying…all that. It makes me SO uncomfortable to be around this. The people at this church are just regular people like you and me…and are there to get a good message.

• It still feels weird for me to say that I’m going to church. I NEVER would have thought that I’d be saying that. I’m glad I am…it just takes me back a bit, though.

• Lonnie is looking at a Jack Russell Terrier online right now. These people are moving and can’t take their dog with ‘em. He’s 5 years old and is free. I don’t want a Jack Russell, though. I like them - very smart dogs. I want a Toy or Tea Cup Chihuahua and that’s final!      I won’t be happy ’til I get one! We can’t have a dog in this house, anyway, so the point is moot.

• I suppose I will wrap it up for this edition of Random Randomness©. It’s been SO long since I’ve posted one…feels weird to do it again. I’ll try to get better about posting over here on my site, but no promises. Take care, everyone…thanks for dropping by!

I’m not in the mood to bullet point all of my babbling, so I decided not to create Random Randomness© this time. I’ll just type in paragraphs like ‘normal’ people do.

I’m doing fairly well lately. The flu came and finally left. My whole family is recuperating nicely. My Mom & daughter still have a cough, but that’s it. Their lungs are doing their best to repair themselves.

I weighed myself two days ago and was stunned…in a bad way. I don’t know how it happened, but somewhere along the way, I gained ten pounds! Needless to say, I almost had a nervous breakdown when I saw that and have been on the straight and narrow ever since. I’m just baffled as to how it happened. I hardly ever even eat…and when I do, it’s not generally fatty/high calorie foods. I swear - I could walk past a cupcake and gain two pounds. It’s so not fair. I think what happened was that I wasn’t getting the exercise my body was used to while I was sick, so everything I ate just sat on my gut and thighs. I’ll lose it and everything will be okay, but ’til then, I’m completely disgusted with myself.

In other news; I have an appointment with a new doctor in the morning. It’s concerning my neck/back injury. I had found a really good doctor in St. Helens, Oregon…but then something happened with my insurance, so I had to stop seeing him. I’m not happy about it at all, but there’s not much I can do at this time. I figure I’ll go to this new doctor tomorrow to see if she’s any good…and if so, maybe I can transfer my care to here in Vancouver. It’d be nice to not have to drive over and hour just to see the doctor. I definitely need one, though. I’m in a massive amount of pain lately. I’m okay…same ol’ junk. I flared it up, though, by lifting something I shouldn’t have lifted. Since then, it’s not been the same. That’ll teach me! (maybe)

I’m going to be baking cookies today. I feel like a horrible person. I signed up for a cookie exchange in December and my friend, James, sent me some totally awesome cookies. I was supposed to have sent him his cookies a long time ago, but failed to do so. So that’s why I’m baking cookies. I feel like I should bake 3294873 cookies just to make up for being so late. I seriously feel so crappy about it. I hope he can forgive me.

I need to get back to mailing cards and letters to my friends. I haven’t been doing that, either. This whole being sick thing brought everything to a screeching halt. I also think I’ve got some depression issues going on. I’m not interested in doing the things I used to love to do. I don’t even feel like making cupcakes! You know that something’s up when I say, “Meh” to making cupcakes. I’m on anti-depressants. Maybe I need to have my dosage increased. It’s been a couple years with no increase. I’d assume they lose their effectiveness over time. I’ll bring it up to the doctor tomorrow and see what she thinks. Something’s gotta give, though. It’s not cool to feel this way all the time.

Wow…I feel like such a whiner. All I’m doing is griping about stuff. I think I’ll go ahead and call it quits for now. I don’t want to come off as emo or something disgusting like that. Have a lovely day!

• I just got home from the mall. My son asked me to give him a ride, so I agreed. I have no problems giving him rides to places he wants to go - especially when it’s raining outside. He asked me if I wanted to go in with him and look around, and I said I didn’t. I could tell he was disappointed, which shocked me, so I changed my mind and told him I’d go in with him. He’d gotten some Christmas/birthday money from a couple of his grandparents, so he was dying to spend it. He got a Zelda wallet, a keychain, and a tobacco roller.

• My feet are cold. I wonder where my slippers are.

• I couldn’t find ‘em and didn’t feel like going downstairs, so I just asked Sunny if I could borrow hers. She said, “Sure!”

• My slippers are way more cozy than Sunny’s. Now I feel guilty for her lack of coziness. But hey - I let her choose out of the entire section and these are the ones she went with.. So nevermind. No more guilt. Besides, hers cost twice what mine did!

• I’m doing the Master Cleanse Diet. This time, for 5-6 days. So far, it’s going very well. I’ve had 6 what I like to call “Lemon Cocktails” so far, and four bottles of water. When I say “bottles”, I’m referring to that enormous bottle from my last blog entry. So yeah - I’ve taken in lots of fluids today. I LOVE the flavor of the Lemon Cocktails, so this is working well. If I start to feel hungry, I go drink one. Then I come back upstairs and chuck a bunch of water. No more hunger. The hunger will be there for the first 2-3 days, but then it’ll be simple. I should know, I’ve starved myself plenty of times in my life. This is the first time I’m doing it in a healthy way. It feels good to know that. My kids and Lonnie need me, after all.

• I’ve been getting at least one Christmas card per day! Today I got one from Casey!!! I was so excited. The card was so cool, too. It was black with silver on it…totally hip and stylish. She said on Twitter that she got mine today, too! I hope she liked it. Mine was more cute than stylish…hehe. Matthew said that his family got mine today, too!!! I am loving this! I’m going to continue to write to so many people after the holidays are over. They’ll probably be sorry they ever gave me their address.

• I need to call my Dad tomorrow. I didn’t talk to him at all last week! That’s a first time in a very long time that a week’s gone by without talking to him. I HATE it when that happens.

• I don’t think I’m going to take my multi vitamin while doing this Master Cleanse thing. I don’t want to do something wrong. I’m following the instructions to the letter.

• I dropped into Bath & Body Works while we were at the mall. I sprayed a sample of one of their holiday perfumes on myself. It’s called Warm Vanilla Sugar®, and I LOVE it! I sprayed a spritz on my wrist, took a whiff and went, “Ahhhhhh”…so then I sprayed my neck, too. Mmmm…I can still smell it. I love it! They had matching hand lotion, so I used that as well. It’s only $26.50 for 2.5 Fluid Ounces…that’s a very reasonable price. I wish I had it. I’d go buy it up STAT! I adore smelling good. It’s so important to me. I hate to smell overly perfumey, but I love to have a hint of, “Mmmm…she smells so good!”

• I have no idea what to make the family for dinner tonight. I don’t want to make something I really, really like since I can’t eat it, but I want them to have something they enjoy. Hmm…I’ll think of something.

• Lonnie’s sicker than a dog today. He’s been all Hell bent on getting super healthy lately. Well, he went a bit too far this time and over dosed on vitamins. Now he’s paying for it. He feels horrible. Headache, body aches, nauseated….the whole niner. Perhaps this will finally teach him to chill out when it comes to his body. You just can’t go taking 320483 different types of vitamins and vitamin juices…etc., and expect to feel wonderful. It doesn’t work that way. I feel really crappy for him, but GOSH!!! It’s his own doing.

• The shorter French tips are working out so much better for typing. I can handle this much better. They look way less cool and sexeh, but better than nothing.

• My right shoulder is KILLING me today. I keep getting a total cramp in it. I need to use the percussion massager on it. I wish Lonnie felt more up to it. That’d be lovely. That’s okay, though. I can do it myself.

• I wish Sarah was online right now. We were going to webcam tonight! I wonder what she’s doing. Probably the usual - being the best wife and mother known to man.

• Today is the anniversary of my ex’s death. I can’t believe how well I’m doing. I must be learning to get over it. I haven’t even cried once today! That was another reason I started The Master Cleanse Diet today. Symbolism. I’m cleansing myself inside and out! It’s just one more way for me to rid myself of him & his horrible memory.

• I suppose I’ll call it quits for now. Have a wonderful day/night, everyone!!!

• I got all my Christmas cards sent out tonight! I couldn’t have done it without the help of my beautiful daughter, though. She’s the one who actually ran them to the box while I video taped her doing so. We’re a tag-team of jolliness!

• Lonnie’s in some serious dental pain again. It makes me so sad. I wish there was something I could do. The last time, he had four teeth pulled on the right side of this mouth. This time he has a molar on the bottom left that’s really bothering him. He’ll either have to get a root canal or have it pulled. Either way…ouch.

• So, I found out earlier today that Pownce will be shutting down. I cannot even begin to explain how angry this makes me, so I won’t even try. All I will say is that they are money hungry sell-outs who should be ashamed of themselves.

• I’ve decided to do Christmas Cupcakes this year instead of Gingerbread Men like I did last year. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them yet. I’m either considering a standard frosting with standard decorations on them, or I might use Fondant and do something super adorable with them. The latter method will take much more time, so I just don’t know. I have a HUGE list of people to make a cupcake for. I’ll just have to weigh the pros and cons.

• We just ran out of coffee creamer. Now I’m steamed.

• I got some women’s daily vitamins earlier tonight. Lonnie sent me to Walgreen’s to grab some for him, so I figured, “What the heck?!” and grabbed a bottle for me, too. They were on sale, so they were super cheap…err…inexpensive. They’re Walgreen’s brand, but hey - same thing as the other junk they charge out the buttocks for, right? I’ll let you know if I notice a change in energy.

• I hate it when I’m sitting on the toilet peeing and I reach over to grab some toilet paper and I suddenly notice that there’s hardly any left. So then I have an angel on one shoulder and Satan on the other. The angel is saying, “Just use the last of it and replace the roll. It’s the right thing to do.” But Satan, he’s a big jerk who’s saying, “Leave two squares on the roll so the next sucker who uses the toilet has to replace the roll!” Well, it must say something about my character that I’ve never listened to Satan. I always change the stinkin’ roll…begrudgingly, of course.

• I’m sick and tired of people thinking that my son and I are either boyfriend/girlfriend or brother/sister. I know I should take it as a compliment…blah, blah, blah. I don’t, though. I hate having to explain my relationship with strangers. What the heck business is it of theirs? Next time I’ll just say, “My boyfriend? Is that what they call pimps nowadays?”

• No, I’d never really do that. GOSH!

• Speaking of “Napoleon Dynamite”, he was on TV again last night. My son was watching it. He used to loathe the movie. Now he loves it. How does one go from hating something to loving it? My theory is that he’s heard me doing Napoleon impressions and making reference to the movie SO much that he had no choice but to watch it a couple times just to see what the heck I was on about…which resulted in his enjoyment of the movie! Mission accomplished!

• I got an email from someone asking if I would be willing to link to their site if they would link to mine. After looking at their site in detail, my thought was something like, “Mmmm…..I think I’ll pass.” It’s a gaming site. Not like the cool kind of gamers….like the Pogo type of gaming. Flash games. First of all, I rarely play those things myself, and even if I did, how the Hell is having a link to my site on a site like that going to benefit me? HE is clearly the one who would benefit from it…not me. So nah - I’ll pass. I didn’t even bother to email the guy back. Rude, perhaps. But I figured that if I emailed him, he’d email me back again with reasons why it really would work…etc. Meh…nope. Not biting.

• I ripped my French tips off again today after being on my computer for ten minutes. I don’t get it. I used to be able to go literally months with those things on and type like nobody’s business. Now when I have ‘em on, they drive me freakin’ nuts. I just can’t take it. They last two days and then BAM! I snap and rip ‘em off…which, I might add, hurts like the dickens.

• Where did the term, “Like the dickens” come from, anyway? I’m assuming it’s an English thing. Silly blokes.

• I need a coffee refill (imagine that), so I shall return briefly…

• I’m back. Don’t get too excited. You might fall backwards off your chair and break something vital…like your CPU.

• I don’t like Beck one bit.

• It’s 3:50AM right now. I swore I was going to try to get on a regular schedule today. Darn it. I blew it again.

• Maybe I should go lay down in bed and attempt to sleep. I mean, an attempt is better than nothing, right? I have to be up in a few hours to wake my daughter up for school and whatnot, though, so it just seems kinda stupid. As soon as I fall asleep, it’s time to wake up. Duh. What’s the point in that?

• Our house is 3/4 decorated for Christmas. We have so much stuff, we have to decorate in shifts. Tomorrow should be the last day and then we’ll be done. It’ll look so jolly in here that Santa, himself, would be like, “Wow. These people need to learn moderation!”

• I’m feeling so sorry for Lonnie and his pain that I’m going to get off of here and go offer him a massage or something to take his mind off his tooth pain. The poor guy. It’s like just as soon as one thing is taken care of, something else pops up. I feel so helpless. All I can do is be supportive and sympathetic. At least I’m good at those things.

• Have a wonderful day, everyone! Remember to be nice. Santa sees everything you do.

For those of you who are unaware, I have finally written and posted the story of what I went through with my ex. Some of you might know bits and piece, others might have no idea that any of it ever even happened. Sadly, it all did happen and I live with that fact every single day of my life.

As time goes on, it gets a little easier to deal with, but it’s certainly not something I will ever truly get over. I don’t think that’s even possible…nor do I think I’d want to. I know that sounds odd, but the fact that I have these memories causes me to appreciate things I would normally take for granted. Soooo, that being said, I’d not change any of it. Not one bit.

If you would like to read my story, there is a tab at the top in the little menu bar thing called My Tragic Story. Unfortunately, there is no way to leave comments in that section. I hate that fact and will be looking into a fix for it. In the mean time, if you would like to comment on it, feel free to leave them here on this post or even to email me at karen@karenschronicles.com