the space natives played an awesome show then we went back to the hotel room that andy rented and shaun passed out and had to be drug on and off the elevator by the rest of the band and myself. oh, and this is before the reverb was no more

What a great weekend. The climb/hike on Friday really set a high bar for weekends. I am still amazed at how clear the sky was for us on Friday. Great hike!

We had a blast hanging out with Frankie and Mandy (and the kids) on Friday on their way to the beach for the Thanksgiving week. Check out the zip line fun in the album below:

Uncle Frankie and Family visit

Frankie and Mandy left after going to Miles’ karate practice. I stayed home and started working on the deer sausage chili. There was some football to be watched too! We got to watch UNC beat BC, that put us in the championship game before we even played Virginia. We took care of business against Virginia and now we are headed to the ACC Championship game vs. Ga Tech. It should be a great game for the Tigers as we attempt to avenge the early season loss against Ga Tech, the only Coastal division team we play every year. December 5th at 8pm is the game time. Next Saturday will be a trip down to Columbia to take on our arch-rivals, the South Carolina Gamecocks. That game is never overlooked and should be another classic battle. We are going to be heading over to Michelle and Jason Collins’ place for the game. I think chicken wings should be on the lunch menu .

Saturday night, we had friends and family over for a drop-in party celebrating my birthday. I am blessed to have such great friends. Mom and Pete came up with Amy (in her new Chevy Equinox). We had “make your own pizza” with the chili. Tricia also had an awesome coconut cake per my request ready. Served with some ice cream, it was the best! The funniest thing was we had candles for the cake other than a “5″ and a “8″. Good thing 5×8= 40! Worked out fine. We all had some laughs playing Catchphrase, the ladies beat the men 7-4. Good job ladies, even if you did cheat .

Today, everyone piled in the van for worship with Freedom Fellowship. Hannah and Nathan Harvell came down from North Greenville University to join us for worship and lunch at Fatz Cafe afterwards. It was good to spend time with them. We have been planning a Sunday to get together with them and it worked out that Mom and Pete were here too. Hannah and Nathan’s parents have been missionaries in the Philippines for almost 20 years. Their Mom, Jill, grew up across the street from our family back in Sumter. Her parents are like Grandparents to me. Glad we could take them out for a lunch treat. The shrimp and grits were perfect today!

After Fatz, we went to downtown Greenville for a quick Mast General Store trip. Amy and Susan chipped in very nicely on a new pair of Merrell brown leather shoes for me. Clearance price and their gift left me with only $29 to pay for a $120 pair of shoes. Thank you, thank you!

This afternoon, I went to a meeting at Freedom Fellowship to discuss being called as an Elder for the church. We have a great group of men prepared to serve and lead the church. Please pray for me as I start this service, pray for our church and our community. It was a very meaningful meeting and I was honored to share a small bit of my testimony with the men. I am honored to be called to serve God’s church and look forward to what God has in store for Freedom Fellowship. I end this weekend with a sense of purpose, a sense of pride (my Tigers) and some sore knees and leg muscles (the climb). But, I enjoyed every minute of it! Thank you God!

See ya!

Cupcake towers and pullapart cakes make a child’s birthday memorable.

Torres de quequitos, y pasteles pullapart se hacen inolvidable a un cumpleaños de niño o niña.

This five-year-old birthday girl celebrated with a small pullapart cake (made of 9 cupcakes), and 75 mini cupcakes – perfect for her friends’ smaller appetites.

Esta cumpleañera de cinco años celebró con un pequeño pastel pullapart (de 9 quequitos) y 75 quequitos mini – perfecto para los apetitos pequeños de sus amiguitos.

This seven-year-old´s birthday had a Halloween theme, and seven cupcakes were grouped together for his birthday wishes.

Este cumpleañero de siete años celebró con un tema de Halloween, con siete quequitos juntados para los deseos cumpleañeros.

I was conceived on November 22, 1946. It would have been my White Polish-American Mama and Daddy’s 16 wedding anniversary.  I’m sure they were so poor working for greedy Jews who only paid Daddy minimum wage, that they had no $$$ for an anniversary present but to give their sex and physical love to each other. 

Here is a beautiful song: Having my Baby. And we can add the word “White” before baby and sing, “Having my White baby.”

A baby is something so sacred, for my Mama and Daddy thought they were presents that came directly from God.  And they were not to be taken lightly.  No do I think “all” Whites are qualified to have children. I have met very few in my lifetime.  At least not from my standards, (or even Hitler’s)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY8ERjz96HA

Can you imagine what that meant to Mama, already poor and hungry, already breastfeeding 7 others and working full time and taking good care of Grandpa, Russian Polish General, to spread her legs once more, knowing she was as fertile as all the earth could possibly be.

You see, a woman usually can’t get pregnant while nursing, and no sooner my Mama stopped nursing, at two years, Boom,! another baby was born.

Please do not be offended by blacks in this video as there are not many.  I can rarely come across a song that is pure White and that is “liked” by our Whites since all of our inventions, music, holidays, religions etc. were forked over to the Jews for non-White distribution. Now the non-Whites curse at us and say, “You Whites have no culture!”

1990. Big Sis broke up with her boyfriend (who often imitated Steve Urkel, if that tells you anything). She was pregnant again, mean as hell, and wanted to get out of Mississippi. So she went to live with an aunt in Chicago.

November 22nd, Thanksgiving Day. The phone rings. Big Sis had given birth to a beautiful, “lil’ red thang”…but her focus was on getting back home before Aunt V’s dressing was all gone. The baby’s name? Mickylelia (blah, blah, blah). There were, like, 4 names given to this poor child…because Big Sis let a cousin choose the name (of a supermodel) for the baby.

April 1, 1991. Aunt Tee died unexpectedly. And the family brought her back to Mississippi to be buried in the family plot.

I remember hearing the car pull up outside. Momma started crying. I just looked at her and said, “Here they come!” A big smile came across her face…like sunshine on a cloudy day. She hugged and cried with everyone as they came through the front door. Big Sis came in sobbing. She placed the baby carrier on the couch and then rushed over to Momma’s waiting arms.

I walked over to the couch and stared at the baby for a few seconds. This was our first meeting. She was so tiny! And I thought she looked a little bit like a lighter version of me (but nobody else saw it). And then, she opened her mouth and showed us how LOUD she could cry. Now that I think about it, it seemed like she was always crying.

I’d gently rub her eyebrows to put her to sleep. But as she got older, Momma quickly discovered that singing was the best way to get her to sleep at night.

When I was a little ba-by, sittin’ on Mama’s knee, she’d fold me to her bossom and sing this song to me…”Don’t you cry, m’honey! Don’t you weep no more! Mommy only loves her ba-by! All the other blackbirds sleepin’ on the floor…Mommy only loves her girl!”

I went away to school. When I’d call home, Momma couldn’t hang up without letting her talk to me. She’d sing her phone number to me (in the tune of the Jenny Craig theme song) just like “Grandma” taught her. And she always asked the same questions: “Where you at? You at school? You at Tougaloo Cottage?” (ain’t that cute?!)

A lot of things have changed since she was in elementary school…

I haven’t heard anything about her coming home with some little boy’s money in her pocket in a long time. And she’s somebody’s mom now.

But I can still hear her singing songs with her grandma. I can still see her orange face…stained with spaghetti sauce (her favorite). And I can still see that lil red thang in the baby carrier on the couch…

Yesterday we celebrated Benjamin’s 5th birthday…with a Bigfoot party!  As you can imagine, it is impossible to find Bigfoot-themed party goods.  So, we improvised.  We decided to decorate our home as if it were a forest–fall foliage, pine garland, etc.  We bought an autumn leaf tablecloth & dark brown paper goods.  And, for the centerpiece I used the mushrooms my mom made for my 2007 Fairy Birthday party, along with acorns, seed pods and walnuts, etc. I had on hand.

We bought these wall decorations and placed them on the french doors that lead from the living room into the dining room.  Notice the apples and pears?  Yea, I know they make no sense…these trees don’t bear fruit while they change color in autumn, but hey…they set the mood, didn’t they?  Oh…sorry the photo is blurry (I couldn’t use the flash because it bounced off the plastic.)

Michael is responsible for this great sign–isn’t it cute?  It leads guests into the dining room and warns against the possibility of a Bigfoot sighting.

On the opposite side of the living room, on the side that faces the foyer, we hung greens.  Oh & yes…we’re going to keep them up through the holidays–adding pine cones, etc. to the garland.  Do you see the balloons in the foyer?  Yep!  I made Bigfoot balloons!

I figured since the Hallmark store didn’t offer me Bigfoot balloons (go figure?), I would go ahead and make my own!  So, I raided the wiggle-eye box and found some large ones…I used a black Sharpie to draw on a goofy nose and finally, added a white felt growly-looking mouth!  Funny, eh?

Benjamin also requested a party hat…so, I used some thick felt and made him this one…

Inside the dining room we pushed together two long tables–to seat eight–and I made a “centerpiece” of mushrooms and other goodies.  The tablecloth was bordered with autumn leaves–it was very pretty!

And Dad used our chalkboard to wish Benjamin a “Happy Birthday.”

I bet you’re wondering about the cake, aren’t you?  Well, in the same way it was nearly impossible to find any Bigfoot-themed party decorations you can imagine how difficult it was to find a Bigfoot-themed birthday cake!  So, we purchased this Bigfoot action figure and we improvised.  The other day I visited the Wal-Mart bakery and I chose a cake from their catalog–the “Over the Hill” cake.  Why did I choose the “Over the Hill” design?  Well, because the scenery was perfect!  We plopped our Bigfoot on it and we had the perfect Bigfoot birthday cake!

Bigfoot fell over minutes after I snapped this photo & he took out the tree behind him…oops!  The cake was delicious nonetheless!

As for gifts…Benjamin received so many thoughtful presents!!  Nana & Pop got him a Tonka Rescue Helicopter, Aunt Nee Nee got him a Fisher-Price digital camera (Note:  He’s already taken over 200 photos!), Aunt Nikki & Uncle Keith sent a cool book from Colorado, “Aunt” Kristin got him the Playmobil Coliseum (about which, he screamed!!) and aside from the annual gifts of a new snowsuit, boots, underpants, gloves, and socks…Maw Maw & Paw Paw got him a Playmobil Road Maintenance Truck & Street Sweeper.  Maw Maw also bought him a doctor dress up set and she made Nappy Bear his own little hospital gown–his tail even sticks out just like the real thing!  Benjamin was ecstatic and loves every single gift he received!!

Michael & I gave Ben his gifts earlier in the morning (to cut down on the chaos).  We bought him a guitar case, guitar accessory pack (strings, a strap & picks) and a guitar stand.  We also bought him the Richard Scarry game I mentioned in an earlier post and the book, Richard Scarry’s Cars, Trucks & Things That Go.  He was very excited!

My baby boy is five-years-old now!  It’s hard to believe.  But, listening to him accept his gifts so gratefully and commenting, “This one is wrapped nicely,” warmed my heart.  We’ve raised such a sweet little boy…I could not be more proud of him.

He is Romain,my boyfriend(mon bebe adore). Today is his birthday.25 years old

Je t’aime beaucoup,mon petit

ANY person celebrating their special day from:      

November 22nd – December 21rst

Playful and full of energy, Sagittarius natives are expansive, philosophical, and optimistic. Learn more about this fun Sun Sign!

Inquisitive and energetic, the Sagittarius is the traveler of the Zodiac. Their philosophical, broad-minded approach to life motivates them to wander far and wide in the search for the meaning of life. Extroverted, optimistic, and enthusiastic, it can be almost impossible to keep the Sagittarius down. They love change. In fact, change is essential for this sign to feel their best.

Read More HERE!

Hi,

Why, hello, blogging universe! How’s it been going? Good, I hope? Unfortunately my normal time spent obsessing over you has been neglected, thanks to, as I have mentioned a thousand times before, good ol’ NaNoWriMo. I apologize for that, if you care, but all this writing is quite miserable lately. My characters are crap, my storyline is crap, my sentences are crap, etcetera. It’s the sort of ordeal when I think all it’s doing is leaving me a worse writer. And like I don’t like writing as much as I did going in. Oh well, I guess. It’s hard to describe how fantastic it feels to be writing–here, now–out of enjoyment and choice, as opposed to “ugh…okay, word count….678 words..ugh….come on, Naomi, hold it together only another half hour to go.” as it has been all week. I’m in the home straight for all of that though, hallelujah.

Right, now moving on. Thanks to the time gap since my last writing(November 12th? Whoa. I left for en eternity…) and to everything that’s happened in between, I guess I’ll just jump from topic to topic in some sort of Minutemade Lemonade-enduced frenzy. Ready, Set, GO.

Okay, where to start? Ah, how about last Saturday. I went to a sort-of-friend’s birthday party. I say friend, but I honestly don’t like her much. That’s sounds cruel, and yes it is, but we don’t talk very often. I don’t talk very often to most people, and therefore I can say how my opinion of a person may be difficult to read. The party was themed as an 1800s(or possibly 1700s….or 1600s….or ignorant) Tea Party(yes, seriously). The theme fell to pieces, although some people showed up in some cheap dresses. I was offered to wear one, as I think the girl was quite desperate to see me in something other than jeans and t-shirts. Dresses don’t work on me. They ended up giggling and dropping poor uses of innuendo at every turn and making those prank calls to people on their contact lists, which in itself is illogical, but somehow they seemed to gather some enjoyment from it. Also, after failing at answering truthfully in a game of Truth Or Dare and playing a game of Wii Fit with a friend and the birthday girl’s 6-year-old brother, my finest anti-social moment so far got to shine. While the others when Hiding and Seeking, I plopped myself out on the bed, grabbed her copy of Taylor Swift’s Fearless and flipped through on a “good lyric hunt”. Yes, I really don’t understand why I thought it a good idea to do such a thing, but I did.

PS; Sadly, the best lyrics are in You Belong With Me, and only because they’re relatable. I like metaphors and poetic-style stuff. And the best of those is “It rains when you’re here/and it rains when you’re gone”. I can’t remember which song that’s from, and I don’t particularly wanr to. But it’s not really like I’d find anything really outstanding, is it?

Okay, next thing, would be school. This week was our first full week since mid October, which is quite irritating. I need my sleep. A few days ago in English we read a few memoirs by Tumon Capote which were interesting. I can’t say I’ve ever been a big fan of memoirs. Life doesn’t have a plot. Memoirs don’t have plots. And what is a good story without a plot? And, of course, we had to make our own. After long verbal fights and headaches from this, I took a short, mundane(but real) setting, and created a story from it. Oh yes, I lied, basically. As a friend said to me online a few days ago, those really are the best kinds. And, guess what, I got a whole four and a quarter pages from a lie. Social Studies lately is making me fall asleep and/or hate this country to pieces, I’m afraid to say. I had a test on the Revolution on Thursday and, God, was studying for that pure torture. Sooo many names, so many battles, sooo much cramming needed. As I sat at the back of the classroom, with my pencil suffocating in my grip and “Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Yorktown” flashing back and forth in my head, I came to the realisation that “if she’s asking me for a French general’s name, I swear I’m just gonna walk out.” She didn’t, though, so unfortunately I did not get to have my diva moment as one might have hoped. Science we’re currently doing some properties of gases and it’s alright but rather repetitive. I wanna move onto the Table Of Elements, damn it! Math is currently hypotenuses of 30/60/90 and 45-45-90 triangles. I get it, but my teacher is just awful and it’d totally make sense if you didn’t get it(which is the case for the majority). No, Mister, whatever array of numbers you decide to put on the board certainly is not 6th grade math, nor is it 7th, or for all that I know, 8th. If you want us to write equations the length of the Great Wall of China, you could go ahead and teach us, right? And he calls this is the basics.

Okay, my writing was just begging for a new paragraph there, though it wasn’t necessary at all. In Espanol we’re started to write poems for the pictures we took ona a field trip a few weeks ago. Last time I checked, poetry was all about metaphors and beautiful language and all that jazz, not using online translating systems to compile 8-10 lines of crap, but hey, I could be wrong. Let’s just say I don’t really think I’m learning anything from that. Tomorrow or more likely Tuesday for Health, my group are doing our project on Stimulants. Have I mentioned this before? I can’t remember. But, as always, my group isn’t exactly the best; There’s me, and there’s the kid who does nothing and doesn’t know how to even when he wants to, there’s the friendly but careless guy who will just talk to the others most of the time but at the end of the day gets a little work done, the annoying popular guy who likes to irritate everyone else, and the stuck up super-competitive “Go go go go go” sort of guy. We shall probably survive with at least a 70%, but my whole class is sick to the core of Jeapordy games so I can’t help but think we won’t hold attention for very long. And lastly, in gym we’ve started to do badminton. I like the game relative to most others but I’m awful at playing. I’m the one who stands at the back of the group, and lunges slightly but misses whenever the birdie comes in my direction. The others say I’m kind of good, but the haven’t seen me put myself into it, really, and then they’d see how much of a failure I’d be. I gave up trying on Friday, but hey, at least we’re at the end of the “Chumps” court, so there’s not that much room for humiliation against the nerds and giggly girls.

Of course as the whole world knows, Thanksgiving’s next week. My school gets half of Wednesday off and it’s a tradition for that morning to be spent having a little 8th grade-vs-teachers football game. The day before last we got given our roles, after giving our recommendations. From an outsider’s point of view, it’s really good because everybody gets to play to their strengths; The sporty people get to play, them, um, cheerleaderish girly girls get to dance, the musicians and actors get into the halftime shows(last year they played Teen Spirit and I died of happiness <3), anybody who loves attention gets to be a super fan, and for everyone else who can’t do anything gets to be in concession. Yes, that’s where I am! Oh, my uselessness makes me so happy sometimes. I get to do nothing with my two friends and all that stuff. It’s actually something to look forward to!

Next thing. Last time I blogged, I believe, I was struggling my way through Great Expectations, yes? At last I finished that, and then I moved onto Oliver Twist. Considering my opinion of the latter, I don’t really understand why I chose that but it was okay. The pace was strange compared to the movie and the characters weren’t as good as Expectations but it was easier to handle and the plot twisted and turned a bit more to my liking. Currently I’m reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and it’s absolutely fantastic. The main character is really realistic compared to the book’s contemporaries, and I like the sci-fi genre in general, and I think the idea is really interesting. Some plot twists later have become obvious to me, I think, but it’s definitely one of the better books I’ve read so far this year and everyone should totally buy it.

Oh, and lastly; music. Only Revolutions by Biffy Clyro hasn’t arrived yet. In fact, Amazon sent an e-mail last week that said it may not get here until Christmas. There’s no way I can wait that long, so I switched an order to Best Buy and I’m hoping that may arrive in a month or so if they’re being nice. I’m trying to avoid the band so the Biffy-less days go by faster but it isn’t working too well. Hank Green(of Vlogbrothers) new CD This Machine Pwns N00bs arrived a few days ago, with the special Pre-order signed guitar pick, and it’s funny and catchy and everything I would expect of it. Lately I’ve been listening to some different stuff, and it’s been quite an interesting time for my music tastes…I’m still really loving Arctic Monkeys and have been listening to Whatever People say I Am That’s What I’m Not on repeat all week and it might just be overtaking Humbug as far as my favorite AC album goes. I’ve lost the CD pamphlet, though. I have terrible luck with CDs. I like The Beatles lately and was listening to Abbey Road earlier and it’s good. I should probably get another Beatles album for Christmas. Magical Mystery Tour, perhaps?  Also I still quite like Ellie Goulding and Under The Sheets is brilliant but I can’t buy it cause I live in this country, The Cure, The Flaming Lips, Josh Woodward, Morissey, Oasis, White Lies, and in particular Turin Brakes. Go listen to Fishing For A Dream. Yes, I don’t know how, but I’ve actually found a sappy folk song I really love.

Oh, and my guitar lessons are going well. My teacher is completely insane of course but it’s all good. I’m starting with Wake Me Up when September Ends. I haven’t liked Green Day in a year or so but it could be worse. Also, yesterday me and my teacher had a competition to guess how old Elvis Costello is and I totally won. He’s 55. Hoorah.

Have a nice week, everyone?

- Naomi

Trips to Vegas never get old….

And I absolutely LOVE the beauty of the Paris Hotel & Casino…

En todo cumpleaños tiene que haber unas velas a la altura de la ocasión:

Dupa o noapte de “studiu” intensiv am ajuns la concluzia ca e nevoie de nasterea oficiala a Chici Productions.

Pentru cunoscatori… welcome

Pentru necunoscuti….. se aplica regula 1

Pentru cei ce au ceva de spus…. vorbiti cu Tiny pentru drepturi de contributor pe blog.

so…. Happy B-Day Chici Production

After the supervision ruth and I set off to the emergency unit. It is Susan´s birthday, and we had promised her to visit her. Janet stayed at home with our individual case adviser, a person who is especially assigned by the youth welfare office to help children and their families to cope with different problems in education, at schools and with authorities. Janet would not be able to manage the situation of meeting her sister, as she had to cope with her own problems.

Susan showed some appreciation of the presents we brought for her: some new pieces of clothing and a portable radio-cd-player. She had already attended us and welcomed us cordially. We were spending about twenty minutes in her room which she was sharing with another girl. Still, she was not willing to leave the unit with us, although the wardens would have allowed us to do so. She seemed to feel protected in some way in the emergency group. After all, maybe she felt just embarrassed by the situation and guilty, although we did everything not to give her any reason for that. Everybody tried not to talk about any critical topics, so you could really call it small talk. How are you doing, have you made any new friends, what about school. What else could we have mentioned without hurting. Susan did not show any signs of distress due to the fact that Janet did not accompany us. We only mentioned that she is not well.

Susan told us that her room mate had visits by boys and smoked in her room; something which really irritaed us. Asthma had been diagnosed with her since the very day when we took custody of the girls. The warden had noticed what was going on and put an end to it.

The social worker in charge for Susan told us that Susan had been beaten by a class mate. Otherwise she was calm and adapted well to the group.

On the way home we tried to explain the situation to each other. What we had not wished for had now taken place. Susan was now in the company of youngsters who had been taken into custody for different reasons, and were spending sometimes only a few days in the emergency unit. Was anything going wrong at her school? Was she well? What did she feel and think about? For the first time, we noticed that we were not responsible any more and didn´t have any influence. Back home, I would have contacted her school immediately and would have put everything right. We were out of power now and not any more part of her development. We were happy that her social worker in charge was reacting very professional, as well as sensitive, also in relation to ourselves.

What stayed was a vague feeling and the certainty of not being able and not being allowed to do the best for Susan.

'Birthday party with crayons'. Photography by Elin Parmhed. All rights reserved.

Also part of The SQUARE project. The pic that is. Not the crayons.

Wow, I feel soooo great!!! I had the most delightful birthday (Nov 17th) with my mom and my closest friends, with loving birthday wishes (Dumbledore even made an appearance courtesy of Dão!!) from family & friends here and abroad. Thank you all so much for thinking of me on the day my New Year started!

And now I’ve been working on 5 songs, different producers, different vibes, yet all very close to my spirit. There is so much love around and inside of me, it’s like watching and creating a dance.. It’s all coming together and it makes me so happy!!

But last night I also made some actual, factual, tangible moves at my friend Irina’s birthday bash. I ended up getting salsa dancing pointers from Jef the salsa pro… So much fun! I’m thinking I’ll have to join them on Thursdays shakin it, just my kind of thing!

Tomorrow I’m starting my new part time temp office job, exactly what I need right now to juggle the Passion and my rent.. I’ve been meeting up with people online and offline about my music, these are exciting times for me! There is so much magic in the mundane if you only open yourself up to see it! So I’m trying to pour those sparks into my songs every free second I get.

Keep an eye out for the sparks lighting up your day eager for you to see them!

And maybe Al can help… )

Thank you Greg, for pointing me to this magical song with your amazingly smoldering bass shining thru on the Al Green rendition
Ms. Sexy… Keep playing as you are: I hear ya!

We had a fun time with friends on jason’s birthday. Though it was 3 weeks ago, I decoded to still post it on here. Enjoy the pics!

… I was born.

I turn 22 on the 22nd. Yay.

That said,

Featured again on Intent.com’s Best of the Week. This week it was Unplug and Recharge, which is EXACTLY what I plan to do this week!

Otherwise, we lost Big Game. I have no words. Toby Gerhart is a god. Andrew Luck had no Luck. That’s about it.

Okay. Birthday shopping time.

Logan is 6 today

Heute, vor 4 Jahren, wurde die XBox360 in den USA und Kanada zum ersten mal verkauft. Also, Happy Birthday 360!

-Fenrol

This is Li Li celebrating her 1st birthday a year ago:

The children in True Children’s Home care gather together for every child’s birthday.  They usually celebrate at a local park, and always have big beautiful cakes.  This is Li Li with her foster mom.

So much has changed for our little girl in the last year.  I’m so glad we got to celebrate her 2nd birthday with her.  A few months ago we weren’t sure we were going to make it to China and back in time.

Li Li really enjoyed her family party yesterday.  She lights up with attention and performed well for her family, some of whom she’d just met.  It was fun for me to watch others delight in her and spoil her with love and gifts.  She enjoyed openning a few gifts to start, but then just wanted to play with them.  She particularly enjoyed wearing her new sunglasses and we had a hard time getting her to finish opening her big pile of presents.  After taking a break for cake, she was ready to finish.

Li Li playing with balloons and her great-aunts.

Koen - man enought to enjoy pink balloons too.

We had to have Chinese food.

Papa and Mama made Li Li a panda cake.

She loved the dress-up clothes Koen got her.

In a whole different world for this birthday.

Can I eat it yet?

Happy 2nd Birthday Liliana!

I texted West Coast while high last night. I know I said I’d never smoke weed again, but oh well. I was in a really good place last night.

He looked great for the dinner but I didn’t see him at the dance. So I told him he looked good and that I was too high to worry. He didn’t respond, but there’s nothing I can do.

Tomorrow is the boyfriend’s birthday. He managed to get some weed from a friend so I have to think of something else to buy him. He’s turning into kind of a big stoner, which isn’t good because his grades are suffering anyway… but that’s not for me to worry about, it’s his cross to bear.

My grades are what I need to worry about. I spoke with the advisor for students with disabilities on Friday, and he told me he could help me with classes that I don’t have the energy to wake up for. Sometimes I feel so weak that I can’t get out of bed, and he said that it counts as a disability. So what that means is I’ll get to live in a single next year at no extra cost and that my professors will all be notified that I have some debilitating illness that prevents me from having perfect attendance.

My attendance is near perfect, but I don’t want to drop from being an A student to a B+ student just because of depression and anorexia.

I weighed in, and my BMI is 18.4. I’m underweight, but barely. I mentioned last time that I’m doing the “Skinny Bitch Challenge” and that I’m liquid-fasting right now, so I’m hoping to see that number go down soon.

I set a goal at 95. That’s when I’ll be able to smile again. Not so thin that I black out while walking, and not fat enough to invalidate any fleeting moments of joy I might experience.

I’m feeling really tired, but I’m going to go into town to get a gift for the boyfriend later. I’ll need more coffee first I think.

In my family, most birthdays are in November and KarmaFree Cooking is certainly not the exception… and in the midst of all this traveling I completely forgot to celebrate it accordingly.

I just can’t believe this little blog has been 2 years in existence.  This really is one of my true joys and sources of pride.  

And now that Thanksgiving is approaching I want to give you great big THANKS and please continue your support.    I really would like to give a shout out of THANKS to a few key souls who were and still are instrumental in the birth of KarmaFree Cooking and it’s version in Spanish, KarmaFree Cooking in Español:

My friend Ana Yolanda – for always believing in me and encouraging me to bring my cooking to all of you, even if she is not a vegetarian, yet… 

My friend Kathleen – who had a blog way before I did, but inspired me to have my own by sharing with her readers some of the recipes I shared with her…  I hope you’re doing all-right.

To Josy LaTorre – Josy is a well-known vegetarian in Puerto Rico, having a weekly column in El Nuevo Día newspaper and weekly radio show spreading the word on the advantages of a vegetarian lifestyle.   She has interviewed me in her radio show and encouraged me to start the Spanish-version of KarmaFree Cooking.  She’ll be soon releasing a book on her views on vegetarianism and I wish her much success with it…

And last but certainly not least, I want to thank all of YOU who read this blog periodically… without you, this would just be a project without purpose.  Your comments, your questions and your words of encouragement give me the motivation to continue providing you with my recipes and commentary.  It’s rewarding to learn that my recipes and stories help and motive many of you to start and stick to a more vegetarian way of living.

And for those of you who are new to this neighborhood, here you can have access to the most popular posts in the last few years:

French Onion Soup

Comme Çi Comme Ça Salade Niçoise

Eggplant Parmesan Sandwich

Brown Rice Krispies Treats  

Hummus Sandwich

You can subscribe to e-mail alerts every time I post something new in KarmaFree Cooking

Puedes también leer todas mis recetas y comentarios en español visitando KarmaFreeCooking en Español

Wham-a-lamma-ding-dong, baby, my blog stats tanked over the last couple of days. Everyone must have been as busy as I was. Either that or esoteric discussions of khipu appeal to very few peeps.

So, just what have I been up to these past few days? On Thursday, Hubby and I attended the funeral of our brother-in-law’s mother. The funeral took place in a gorgeous Catholic church done in a Romanesque architectural style, complete with vaulted ceiling and columns that looked like a cross between Corinthian and Ionic. I’ve always been impressed with Catholic statuary and art. This church had a number of fine statues, plus a Black Madonna, direct from Poland, I believe.

Because of the space and construction of the church, the acoustics in the church are great. Our brother-in-law served as cantor for the funeral and we had a rare opportunity to hear his beautiful voice. When he sang for our wedding some two decades ago, he did so with a couple of other family members, so this was the first time I’d ever heard him sing solo.

In the late afternoon, when Young Son returned from school, he and Hubby took off on a trip to my sister’s so they could go deer hunting. One of Hubby’s sisters decided to stay for a couple of days after the funeral because of her long drive. She and I hung out most of the time she was here, with her staying over night at our house because we had empty beds.

Thursday evening we went to visit another of Hubby’s sisters (Hubby has three sisters) and we had a late supper at Famous Dave’s. Daughter couldn’t go with us for this outing because she had band practice.

When we returned, we found Daughter in the middle of making “faux mousse” for a class the next day. Faux mousse is simply chocolate pudding mixed with Cool Whip. Strangely, only about two people in her class had ever heard of mousse, let alone faux mousse, which tends to be a staple on restaurant buffets. Everybody liked it though and the gigantic mixing bowl came back empty after school on Friday.

While Daughter was introducing classmates to faux mousse, my sister-in-law, her parents and I went to St. Cloud. The parents had a meeting to attend and my sister-in-law’s car needed an oil change. After her car was serviced, we went to Bonnie’s Spinning Wheel, a local yarn shop that is filled to the rafters with luscious skeins of every conceivable color and fiber. I picked some out as a birthday gift to my other sister-in-law (the one we had visited the previous night).

After retrieving the parents, we ran a couple of other errands, then headed home to pick up Daughter, who was home from school. We had dinner at Perkin’s, where I ate pot roast that was to die for.

On Saturday morning, my sister-in-law left. She wanted to get an early start on her long drive home. I caught up on dishes and started the laundry. In the afternoon, Daughter and I got a ride from Hubby’s parents to the birthday party for his sister. (Are you keeping track of the sisters/sisters-in-law in this post? It’s hard for me to keep this general, but clear.)

As we approached my sister-in-law’s house, Daughter said, “Are the boys here?” I thought she was talking about my nephews, but it turns out she was talking about Hubby and Young Son. We didn’t expect them back from hunting until Sunday, but sure enough, the car they had taken was in the driveway. Woohoo! They were home early!

We had a lovely birthday party, complete with Dairy Queen cake and a meal of grilled chicken, Caesar salad and garlic toast. I mention the food because within these past few days, starting with the post-funeral meal, I have eaten more food than I thought was humanly possible and it was all delicious.

Visiting and eating. That’s what’s been going on in my life.