So we’re moving.  Not far really. Around the corner.  I’m thrilled and dreading it.We’re no strangers to moving.  In our marriage we’ve moved…..12 times.  Most of the time by the seat of our pants. This was everything we owned when we arrived in Africa.  But there were plenty of moves before that.  Thankfully, most of them have been documented in one way or another.  In the late 90′s we lived in San Antonio, Texas in an awesome….trophy….lodge….room (above a 4-car-garage).  Or at least that’s what it was before we moved in.  You could see the faded spots where the trophy heads had once hung on the old knotty pine.  Mildly creepy…..

Moving to Chicago in the winter was fun fun.

I did some crying there.  But we had a killer apartment.  Actually, it was a piece of crap, but I fixed it.  And then the Mary Engelbrieght Home Companion Magazine came and photographed it. 

Later on we moved to a different apartment.  It was boxy and ugly and new, but old enough to be UG.  That’s the one HGTV filmed.And also forced me to make a complete donkey out of myself on camera.Later on we moved to Africa with our dogs and two bins.  First we lived in the horse paddocks.And then we moved to the strawberry farm.(Sorry, I drew some of these last night and I was delirious).

This cottage started out really really really really white.  So I painted it and covered a bunch of gnarly furniture in scraps from the store.

Before

After
After that we moved to the beach. I loved it the most…….(even though our cottage was attached to the home of a lovely 95-year-old woman who would come to the wall and holler my name at the top of her shaky voiced lungs).And now we’re living in an apartment that I really do love.  So does Siegfried. Lots of dancing areas.Unfortunately, we have to climb scary stairs to get to it (which is not easy with accident prone babies). Also, our downstairs neighbors HATE us.  We hear from their cleaning tools every day.But Siegfried weighs like 40 pounds and he falls down A LOT. On a side note; I’ve been wondering lately if I have Motown Tourettes Syndrome or if its all in my head.  I feel like this phrase is one of my most commonly uttered statements, and I definitely say it in Diana Ross’ voice (from Keep Me Hangin On?).  But the question is, do I say it out loud?  My other phrase is….

Not the “Ka-razy!” part but the backup-singers “Yes he do!” (From The Payback).  Maybe I have Motown Backup-Singers Tourettes??? And there ain’t nothing I can do about it??

If so, its all my dad’s fault.  When I was a teenager he would wake me on the weekends with our African Drum and a chant of….…which is the ridiculous phrase all the back-up Drifter’s sing in Save The Last Dance For Me (You can Dance! You can Dance!)

Aaaaaanyway, We will be moving in the middle of February. I’ll let you know how that goes.

I made it! To my computer!  All by myself! Finally!!!!!

I hope to never be away that long again. Forgive me, my dozen or so readers! I have been all over the place.  And because I haven’t had time to use my thinking abilities, I thought I’d just illustrate my recent activities.  So I drew out a fabulous masterpiece and then immediately erased it.  I haven’t been THAT angry in hours!  Blasty-pants!  Blasty-pantalones!!!!

Anyway, I’ve been doing all sorts of crap.I haven’t worked at the store much, just a few hours here and there to straighten up after the mayhem.  But our lease is up in February so I’ve gone and found us a new situation and so on and so forth. None of this will make any sense because I can hardly see a thing through my red, angry eyeballs.I’ve been trying to clean and prepare for a big nasty move down the stairs.  I’m a chunker.  I like to get rid of the things.  And play Words with Friends.  I lose almost 100% of the time.

I went on a plane to go see my family WITH BOY.  Even with the layovers and the diaharra (I refuse to spell that word correctly) he did great!  And this is where my deleted drawing goes.   AAARRRRGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then the day we were supposed to fly out, a giant wall of dirt came flying at us (which happens a lot in West Texas), so all the flights were cancelled.And so I stayed another day. My little sister had a baby 15 minutes before I had to leave!  Yay Mel!  Way to push!

Ok, I feel better now. A real post in the near future. I promise.

Poor Dark Knight. He can’t take me anywhere.

Early Morning Denial

First Cup of Coffee

Second Cup of Coffee

Third Cup of Coffee

Relaxed (circa 2007)

Relaxed (circa 2012)

Watching Boy (in his Elmo jammies) snuggling with The Wump

Finding a Poop-Nugget on the Living Room Floor

Realizing that I’ve Just Put an Entire Dishwasher Full of Filthy Dishes Back in the Cupboard.

That Two-Minute Dream I Have During Nap Time Where I Look Great But Can’t Quite See Myself in the Mirror and I Keep Moving My Head Around But These Weird Blobs Are Blocking My Vision and I Get All Mad About it and Keep Yelling, “Slam-a-co!” (slam-uh-coe)

3.5 Seconds After the Kids Go to Bed.

I have no idea what that phrase means but it seemed like a good enough title for this post.

As many of you know, I’m a……displayer….of….things….?  I’m a showroom stylist.  That sounds better and cooler.  The most awesome store in the world (which I happen to work for at night) is closing its doors.  People want to do new things, you know? Its been a lot of years and a lot of fun and a lot of backbreaking work. Heaven.

So now I’m trying to decide what to do with my 2 hours of free time per day.  My very most totally favoritest thing in the world is this blog.  I love doing it. For no particular reason.

And I’ve discovered that some people out there write blogs and then other people give them money to continue. I’m not sure who these other people are.  Probably people with money.  Like, say…..cheese-makers. I could pitch that real good.Surely there is a cheese-maker out there in need of some advertising.  Advertising to all….10 of my readers.

So, I’m not a computer genius and I can’t quite figure out how to count my blog-hits.  I have several county-type-thingies installed on my site but they all say something different and I’m starting to believe they are “feeling” oriented as opposed to factual.

So I thought I’d go out on a high-school nerd limb:If you are a willing reader of this blog, will you let me know?  You can either add yourself into my little Google Followers display of popularity (on the sidebar over there. To the right.), oooooorrrrr, you can just leave a comment, like, “Hi, I’m bart from Idaho,” except maybe don’t call yourself that unless its your real name and your real state, and in that case….weird.  Or, you can email me at creativedevolution@gmail.com .

I am just curious. Do I have more than a handful of readers or should I keep my day job (which is now painting…)

Thank you!

Violet