New Starts

Ah, New Year’s Eve.  The night to make promises you don’t intend to keep and drink till everything’s shiny and wonderful.

Unless you’ve got kenders.  Then, until they crash, you get to listen to “NO!  Mine!” tantrums, and tattling all while trying to clean house and take your mind off that pesky missing husband.

I know what you’re thinking.  “Oh, come on, Alex, once they’re in bed you could have SOMETHING to drink.”  Tell me, how pitiful would that be?  Sitting in my front room drinking a delightful non-alcoholic treat cross stitching while the dog tries to dig out that enticing smell from the couch and Beckie asks me questions about whatever mindless program is on the TV.  Besides, I don’t drink when the spouse isn’t here.

But enough “woe woe is me” crap.  I’ve got a pile of good intentions for the new year.  I’m sure that you do too.  Mine are so terribly common…  Ha ha.

1.  Lose some weight.  Donovan says he’s happy no matter what size I am (suuuuuuuuure) but I need to lose some because it’s making my constant pain worse.
2. Move to a better/cheaper place.  I HATE this apartment.  I’ve already got something in mind, but I need the taxes to be deposited before I can make an offer.
3. Get all the little kids (2 and 4 footed) house broken.  I think this one’s self explanatory.
4. Find a dependable babysitter.  I’ve been back in Vegas almost 6 years now, and have yet to find a sitter that is available when I need them.
5. Take a ceramics class.  But to do that I need a sitter.
6. Re-start my clothing and gift company.  I had to close it down because no one was buying.  This time I need a stock built up, and some really great pictures, along with an amazing web-site. 

I’d love to go back to school, but right this moment I doubt that I can.  Marion’s too little, and there’s always that VERY slight chance that we’ll get transferred.

It’s hard to make plans when our future is so murky.  I mean, next week we could get orders to join Donovan.  Or I could win MegaBucks.  Both are just as likely to happen at this point in the game…

Is this thing on?

Okay, this is me and I’m going to blog.  Hopefully it will help with all the insanity that is our family situation.

My name is Alex.  I’m closer to 40 than 21.  My husband has been in Germany since May 2009, we haven’t gotten permission to go.  The reasons are myriad and convoluted and at least once a month make me cry.

I’ve got 3 kids –

Beckie is 11 and high functioning autistic.  She likes reading way past her bedtime and hates going to school while it’s still dark.

Caelen is my only boy.  He’s 4 and also autistic.  He also goes to school and right now we’re working on potty training.

Marion is my youngest and is 2.  She is completely main-stream (we don’t use the word “normal” at our house).  Some of the things she does make me look at her and say "What are you doing?!?"  She usually answers "I no no, Mommy".

Vaca is our little dog.  She’s a chi-weenie and bent on rabbit hopping across me and my bed as soon as I get comfortable every night for the rest of my life.

Right now we live in Southern Nevada, less than 15 minutes from the house I grew up in.  We’re a Neo-Pagan family; I’m a conservative Wiccan, my husband is Pagan.  Our kids are learning about other faiths besides our own to try and nip any budding intolerance in the bud.

I’ve been involved with Renn faires for most of my adult life.  My kids have been to war and lived to drive me nuts.

I’ve got some pretty solid political beliefs that will usually offend either the left, right or both (women have rights?  Gasp!  Are you sure about that???).

So, sit back, relax, and get a glimpse into my personal insane asylum.  Hopefully it’s interesting.  Or it could be a snooze fest…