I Don't Know About You, But I'm Feeling Twenty....One

Um, no. You most certainly do not. 

Not that anyone has this year. 

Last night after work we picked up my grandma and then headed to my parents house. My mom had put together a yummy delicious picnic style meal- grilled burgers, hot dogs, potato and macaroni salad, chips, homemade pickles. The works. 

Not to mention the cupcakes. Oh the cupcakes. I never knew a pumpkin cupcake could be so good. 

My family is awesome, so I'm now the happy owner of a curling iron wand (which is so much better than a curling iron. I've been lost without one since moving in with Jarod. But no more!) and a bundt pan.

Which means I can now make this.

Butterscotch Sticky Rolls. 

Yeessssss.

First thing...well, not first thing, I got up and got ready first, but second thing this morning after I wiggled back into bed for a few more blessed minutes of sleep (does anyone else fix their hair and makeup and then climb right back into bed? Just me?) my hubby rolled over and said Happy Birthday. Which is amazing really. The man doesn't wake up, and if he does, he never pieces together what day it is or anything significant. 

And while a dragon would be magnificent, I would settle for a dog. Dogs are almost as good. 

Today is going to be crazy busy. I work till five, during my lunch break I have to try and sneak in and get my drivers license renewed, because they think you need a new one when you turn 21. 

And then....the moment we've all (I've) been waiting for...

Jarod and me are going to town for no other reason than to have fun. No machinery parts, no errands, just dinner at a for real sit down restaurant (Applebee's here I come!) and then we are going to watch Ben Hur. 

Which I think will be really cool. Chariots, sibling rivalry, troubled past and all that. 

So, that's gonna be it for now. I wont bother showering you with empty promises to blog more. I'm trying to embrace the concept of under promise and over deliver. We shall see. 

Have a lovely day everyone!

Ain't He Precious?

The question really is, who am I referring to with that title?

Him?

 Him?

Or him?

And the winner is....

HIM!

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the little guy. My hubby brought him to me during lunch break. 

It all started with a phone call that said I had a present. I figured it was for my upcoming birthday, so I asked if I could open it, to which the reply was "its not wrapped". So at lunch Jare goes to his pickup and returns with this little guy and drops him in my hand. 

Jarod informs me that his name is 'im. Because he found 'im. 

But my doppelganger has declared his name Frank. 

I don't know what I'm calling him yet, I just know he's a cute little bugger. 

Right now he's at work with me, in a kids Halloween bucket we use for decorations at times. He's being kind of wiggly. I can't wait to get him home and create a nice little home for him. 

HELP!

Hi guys!! I'm in a pinch here. I have this lovely idea for a character, but she has no name. And I just can never really get going until the character has a name. I've kicked around so many, but none have really stuck. They're just too...normal. 

So, I'm turning to you, my lovely readers, and begging for some ideas. 

Here's a little bit of a blurb on her to possibly help spark some genius, and I'll post some picture inspiration below that. 

Alright, she has red hair that she usually wears in braids. And she's very flamboyant and spontaneous. Like one morning she would wake up and say today I'm a gypsy and do her hair and outfit accordingly and possibly even start looking to buy a motor home and go traipsing across the country. When she was young her mom was an aspiring musician and ended up becoming an alcoholic so her dad said that they needed to get some help or she had to leave and the mom decided to leave, well that really bothered this girl that her mom would willingly leave her and her twin sister. So this happened when she was like six and I'm thinking when she was 13 or so her dad remarried and the woman he married felt threatened by the way this girl mothered her sister so they really didn't get along at all, and I'm thinking when she turned sixteen and was legal to drive and get a job and such she just left. One of her quirks is that she always looks at the missing posters on store bulletin boards so see if they ever tried to look for her. So she is kind of an emotional basket case sometimes but she tries to suck it up and be strong that's why she pushes her happy go lucky side so hard. Also she has hyperthymesia which is like photographic memory, only real and proven. So when a person hears dates or times it randomly pulls up very vivid memories from their personal past that has to do with those dates and times. It's not controllable and makes it hard for people to be social and relate to the present since they're constantly watching their past like a movie. She's also got OCD and ADHD tendencies which is annoying because she's highly detailed and highly bored all at once. So she gets hobbies and gets really good at them then gets sick of them and moves on. So like painting, violin, etc. I think for the story she might decide to dabble in detective work on a whim and accidentally get caught up in something much bigger but I'm not sure what yet. I asked my husband and he just smiled and said he was going to take a shower and my sister liked the idea but wasn't sure about a plot. Anyway, she knows this guy, I think he might be a cop and he wants to date her but she is romantically clueless and totally misses it and is just his friend even though he cares and worries about her and puts up with her silliness and tries to keep her in the now. And she has some awkward girl friends who feel bad for her and try to set her up on blind dates and she always botched them bad and yes I am kind of excited about her.

I think she just generally has a fun, innocent look. Her clothes change all the time, so sometimes she's punk, sometimes she's chic, retro, etc. Whatever fancy strikes her. Her hair isn't a real bright, harsh red, its maybe just a bit redder than say, strawberry blond. 

Anyway, she needs a moniker, a John Henry, a name.

Thoughts?  

Let's Review

Hello guys! Since so much has happened lately, I thought I would take some time to jot you down a post in regular language and just give you an update. 

First off, I got married. Which means changing names, which means my life for the last few weeks has been a whirlwind of paperwork. I went a week without my drivers license because I had to send it to the social security office to get my updated SSN. So I drove very  carefully. I now have said license back and am able to finally....still drive carefully. *eh hem* Just a few more forms to fill out and change and I'll be known as Madeline Wilson anywhere and everywhere. 

I've also been buried under thank you cards, trying to get them all sent out to everyone. Tomorrow is our three week anniversary *Yay*, so I feel like I'm really late getting those out. The hubs says I'm insane. Which is highly possible. 

Work is sad, as two of my coworkers will be leaving and moving on to new things in life the beginning of next month. 

Next month I'll be 21, which means I'll have to change my drivers license, I can purchase a handgun, and people will ask me if I drink, to which the answer will still be no. I don't feel like I should be that old yet. Strange. I feel like a very mature 12 year old. 

I purchased Allegiant while on the honeymoon and made it halfway through it so far. It's hard to watch movies your hubby don't like when you're at work all day and with him in the evenings. 

My garden looks really dead and really alive. Half of it gave up the ghost and now I have nice little pots of dirt. But the other half. Oh that other half looks wonderful. We've already eaten some lettuce and radishes from it, and the zucchini, peppers, and tomatoes will be ready any day now. My neighbor is awesome and said we could come get some sweetcorn. Score!

I forgot Jarod's wedding present with my mom the day of the wedding, so he still hasn't gotten it. Oops. 

All of my clothes found a home upstairs in the bedroom, actually in closets and drawers instead of boxes, and I didn't have to throw away any of Jarod's stuff to make room. The Maddie cave is only partially assembled, but I'm working on it. I've decorated the house some. It's not like the pictures I showed you guys yet, but I'm working toward it. I don't want to go too crazy in a rental house, as there is a possibility we may be moving out soon. I still want a puppy. 

It poured here all morning long and I loved it, and now it's all nice and sunny and I'm thinking it would be a good time to go get the mail.

The rest of the wedding pictures arrived, and they look absolutely gorgeous. I'm so happy.

Jarod and I decided that we would like to try making our own shampoo, soap, conditioner, etc. So, upon researching some recipes I found that they all call for Coconut Oil, so I purchased a big jar of it and....It's sitting on the shelf virtually untouched, but boy does it smell good. 

Jarod is a lovely test dummy for food. I've tried all sorts of things out on him. Some he's liked, others...not so much. But that's ok. He is well fed. I'm too well fed. I'm going to work on that. It's hard to be a good little girl when I have all this fabulous cooking and baking equipment and groceries on hand  to make awesome recipes I discover on Pinterest. 

Something keeps coming right up on my front step and eating my flowers. Three times now they have grown back, and three times something has bit them off at dirt level. Poor little flowers. 

Oh. And guess what. I have a character idea. Like, a living, breathing, needs to be written character idea. So. You know what I'm gonna do? As soon as I get finished with work and dropping off some paperwork?
I'm going to write her. 

Chapters on Adventure

(South Dakota Badlands)

And then came the wedding, and my what a day, seemed like so many things just weren't going there way. Keys had gone missing, props, and some help, but all fell into place, went off with no hitch and calmed down the race. 

(Yellowstone Park)

The ceremony was splendid, down by rivers bank, with perfect love weather, and friends all around. Once I do's were pronounced, rings given, and kissed, they went off for eating, dancing, and bliss. Her mom was all frazzled, trying to keep things all right, but everyone was helping, and there was no plight. 

(A real gun that looks totally steampunk at the Cody firearms Museum, and a tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in Thermopolis) 

Then off for farewell, to far off lands. Grabbed bags and provisions and and headed off on a mission. They only forgot a necessity or two, but with stores along the way they were able to make due. 

(View in Yellowstone)

(Wonderland Cave in South Dakota)

Through lands of dry, jagged, castle walls made of rock, to lush green landscapes with animals by the flock. They stayed at quaint little cow towns, and poked at the bison. Rode jeeps, and watched gunfights, and explored the museums. There were 4-wheelers, and jagged steep mountain paths, and all along the way the two had a blast. There were guns that looked steampunk, and pools orange and blue, hot mineral springs to jump in, but the smell...whew! There were geysers to take pics with, and dinosaur bones, gigantic turtles, and a deep dark tunnel full of stalagmites. 

(Giant tortoises eating at Reptile Gardens and Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone)

 There were no regrets, no problems, no fights, they loved each other, they're married, everything was alright. 

(Old faithful geyser in Yellowstone Park)

And They Lived Happily Ever After....

 

Another Chapter

Parts One, two,   three , four.  five.  six. and seven. and eight, and nine. TEN. and Eleven , Twelve.  and then 13.

It seems like just yesterday they were strangers at best, but its eleven days to happily ever after, you know the rest. Dresses, shoes, vests, ties, and coats, were all done and ready, just waiting to go. 

The pictures were planned, the food was all ordered, decorations were purchased, and packaged and sorted. Kids trinkets were waiting for the littlest guests, baby pictures were floating around in a whimsical mess. So many preparations, and so much left to do, but it seems they were able to breathe, think things through. Things were going just fine, they'd be ready on time. The honeymoon was planned, and booked in advance, eight days off of work, they jumped at the chance. 

Aside from wedding plans, other things were afoot. Summer was in swing, with fair plans, and heat. The garden was growing, except what they had fried, when they accidentally used too much insecticide. She planted some flowers in pots round the house, to brighten things up and add a little flounce. 

They moved more furniture in, and she did some decorating. It made her so happy, how things were appearing. The colors looked lovely, such cute little nooks, one afternoon took four tote boxes to haul all her books. She's trying to gather all her music and movies, all the scraps of stories that can't be left behind. 

It all seemed so unreal, like it couldn't be true. "Who would have thought it would be me and you?" The world like a dream, or a dream of a dream, but the reality of it all made her burst at the seams. 

When it's all over, she'll display all the pics, after they get back from the honeymoon that is.