About

Meeeeeeee...
It was a dark and stormy night. Ok, I don't know that that's true. Actually, I was born at 7something p.m. in August, so it wasn't dark. But it WAS night. And New Jersey. I crossed the bridge and moved to Philly when I was 18 and The Girl was about a year and a half. We more or less stayed there for the next 13 years. I got married to her dad, had another kid, got divorced, and moved a couple more times. A little over a year ago, I started dating My Fella, and in the spring of 2013, decided to move in with him. In The Sticks. Over the past 13 years, I'd become quite fond of Philly, so this is pretty drastic for me. And hivey. And stuffy. Because, evidently, I have allergies. Good to know.

Love Park

I love: Cops (the show and what-city-I'm-in's finest), all things retro, and raspberry margaritas. A LOT. And hats.

My turnoffs include: people who stop and stand in doorways and Agent W's refusal to stack her pots inside each other in the cabinet. God I hate that. But not as much as people who stand in doorways. I REALLY hate that. 

My Peeps...

The household. Sorta. You'll see. 

The Girl is 15 and I'll admit, probably the child most people wish they had. Don't get me wrong, everything she says ends in "aahhh" as in, "I AMAHH" and "I WILLAHH" and "I KNOWAHH," but all in all, she's a really good kid. When I decided to move to The Sticks, she opted to stay in Philly with her dad *sniffle* I miss her more than she misses me. She'd been accepted to a top high school (accepted? Yep, that's how they roll in Philly. More on that here) and she REALLY wanted to go. Her dad's a good dad, so I had no worries there and it IS a really good school. So my options were: be totally selfish and tell her she had to move because I would miss her or face the fact that she'd become what I'd intended when I was raising her in her formative years: an independent being who made (mostly) good life choices. Crap. Was that what I'd intended? I think I meant for her to be dependent and needy. Right? No? Oh. So we swap kids every other weekend and for two three-week blocks in the summer. She's into One Direction, Dr. Who, Downton Abbey, Loki, and science. Oh, and cats. So. Many. Cats. Her idol is Stephen Hawking and she plans on attending Cambridge and MIT. I can't even make this up. When I was 14...well, let's just not talk about THAT.

What a NERD!!

The Baby is not a baby at all. But he's still the youngest, and until and unless that changes, he's "the baby"...at least when he's not around to hear! He's actually 12. Unlike his sister, he couldn't wait to get outta Philly and, specifically, their school. For having been raised in the city, neither kid is particularly "cityfied" and he'd been having some issues socially. Mostly that [most, but not all of] his classmates were a bunch of little hoodlums. Of course, it was far worse in his mind than in reality. He had "enough" friends, but the bullies kinda made him blind to that. And it took it's toll on his self esteem and his grades. Now we're here, and things are drastically different for him. He made a new friend immediately upon getting on the school bus his first morning and does nothing but sing the praises of his new school and new classmates. He's into the same stuff as any 12-year-old boy: Xbox, Minecraft, and his new bike.

Sometimes it's better not to ask.

My Fella puts up with me in exchange for real food ;) No, really, he indulges me and my crazy and sometimes, I'm not even sure why. I often think it's gotta be tough to live with me...I "face" my canned goods, for Christ's sake! He even lets me watch TLC's Friday Brideday. He doesn't even bother to pretend to pay attention, but hey, you can't have it all, right?

Our three beasts otherwise known as Boots, Cat, and Fujin. Boots belongs to The Baby, Cat is mine, and Fujin is My Fella's. Each of them drives me crazy. But they're cute and stuff, so I guess they stay. The Girl has her own cat, too. Boots' brother, the aptly named Shenanigans, who lives with her in Philly.

BESTIES!!!! From left to right: The Baby, Boots, Cat, Fujin, Shenanigans

Besties that'll probably be mentioned with some frequency.

Agent W is one of two of my oldest friends. We met in 7th grade. I'm her rock. Alright, probably not. But I AM the Laverne to her Shirley. I often think she, too, must be hard to live with. She doesn't even stack her pots and pans! Can you imagine?! And yet, we once lived in blissful harmony for three whole weeks. Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated! 

Agent S is The Girl's bff's mom. That's how we met. The girls attended school together, but also played soccer together. THAT'S actually where we met. The boys (yep, she has a son The Baby's age, as well) also went to school and played soccer together. All these years later, I couldn't tell you whose game we were actually at. But we met. One day, we'll go on Flea Market Flip together and kick ass.

This blog...

I'd always wanted to start blogging, but I was a single mom working three part-time jobs and attending school full time. Who has the time for blogging?! But when I moved, I left my job, took a hiatus from school, and well, really, the kids are pretty self sufficient at this age. So I went back to cooking regularly, had time for my crafty DIY stuff, and even the time to blog. So here we are. Bloggy, blog, blog, blogging!