If you've missed me, it is because I've been everywhere else.

Dear blogger,
I have neglected you through the month of November , and into December.
I started to upload pictures, I started to write down thoughts to share.
but I failed.
I got lost somewhere between ;
sleeping too many odd hours, Ri working so hard, all the drama in everyone elses life, fall tv,hanging with the kid, and the doldrums of day to day housewifey crap.This is the time of year when the budget starts to get tighter, time starts to get shorter,and everything starts to just feel rougher.
So I took a break.
Plus,
blogging got replaced by the instant gratification of sharing my day to day instagram, facebook, pinterest, tumblr you know- the rest of the net.
In fact, i never even posted my Thanksgiving and Veggie Sunday pictures.
.. and I didn't take all that many.
and now, blogger-er, YOU didn't save the code I had all over the draft post for a thanksgiving post.
So , you get a link to my FB album


-- you can always look for babyhellfire on instagram ,too.

After thanksgiving.- and a bunch of random things, I forgot to tell you(and don't feel like telling you now- lame.)
Rory was in the local Holiday parade, with Girl Scouts:



























..... yeah I gotta a bunch of pictures of that on my camera.

Went on a field trip with her class, and found out Rory has more than one boy wrapped around her finger.
I am not sure if she is a flirt, or a tomboy.
I now realize she plays starwars on the playground with the boys- while wearing sequins and sparkles


Ri has spent his time off cooking for Steve, or Nikki , or Jess- or just me. and its been nice to spend the whole morning with him. He took some of his paid time off for thanksgiving it was much needed ... but the day to day grind came back all too soon :(

Then we got a cold.
there was a bunch of drama of all sorts with pretty much everyone we know.
Rory's progress with reading has completely backslid, and she almost seems disinterested in it(which truly breaks my heart )

Rory had a stomache bug last week, '
then it rained crap-tons, and the leak over the laundry room got worse, and now the whole place smells mildewy.ugh.it almost matches the smell of the peice of junk broken window van out front...

then we had to take Rory to the er
when she fell at girls scouts and sliced her ear open on a table
6 stitches.

... then, this morning the cops shut down our route to school, because they busted a methlab RIGHT NEXT to her school!!!!!!!!

10 days to xmas and we haven't even got a tree, or ANY gifts.
To top it off, we had another week of " Oh crap, Ri only gets paid every TWO weeks, and we paid off the wrong thing early" Empty bank account Belt tightening mishap. Fun stuff that.
- even funner when you are using your last bit of money at walmart, and end up behind the crazy coupon lady, with over 50 items in the ten item or less lane.
Sometimes,
just sometimes
I question nonviolence.

It will be better,

Rory is healing amazingly and in a super awesome mood.She ROCKS at the ridiculous math problems she gets (1st graders to algebra now , WTF?!)
they are having their final day before holiday break tomorrow- and they are celebrating with a PJ day, and watching Polar Express.Rory learned to blow a bubble the other day , thanks to some gum Val brought her:
and we had a super awesome night eating popcorn and watching holiday specials.

Ri worked an extra day this week , so we should be able to get our tree , and start our shopping. SOON! :)
Things are improving,I even seem to be getting sleep on occasion.

I dunno.
I'm still not feeling blogging.
Sorry for my absence, but I don't even know if I'll go back to regularly blogging or just stick with the rest of the net for a bit longer.


Who knows.It been hard not to be grumpy and hermity- and when I haven't been i have been busy and social with real life people.. weird. I know.


You're honestly just lucky I ran out of tv and dishes for a second.
Oh.
and if you are wondering, I am still blonde
Mostly
.
I am going to go drink more coffee,
pin more things,
and catch up on more tv,
maybe even sleep.

PEACE AND TOFU CHICKEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE

"I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb... and I also know that I'm not blonde." Dolly Parton

Whoa. Where have I been?
For some reason, I actually thought I had already blogged about Halloween.. instead I realize I am far behind.

I didn't even post after we went trick or treating downtown.
We met up with Lissy an Nico and walked over the bridge.
Nico wouldn't wear a costume, and didn't care for anyone wearing a elaborate costume for that matter. He did like some of the candy though- I completely failed to take any pictures of them Trick or treating the shops.
We pretty much just went from store to store and headed back.
I did get pictures on the way back over the bridge.


Nico was a bit scared going over the bridge on the way, but on the way back he was brave and wanted to walk himself.

Rory didn't wanna wear her butterfly costume, Since we were going downtown she wanted to wear her pirate costume ( pirates are sort of a big deal in St.Augustine)
, she carried her treasure box as a goodie bag , and got lots of ooos and ahhs over it .


Trick or treating the neighborhood was after school Monday, I made some yummy soup with lots of spinach, woke Ri up to hand out candy to trick or treaters, and headed out with Rory..
but it was early, and boring with just her. So we stopped by the neighbor girls house, and asked if she could walk with us. Which ended up being perfect for her parents , because her older brother was going out with his friends.

Trick or treating is soo much more fun with friends.

We went all OVER the neighborhood- until their little bags were weighed down and they were both getting tired
They were soo polite,.
There are soo many cool /nice people in our neighborhood- people that go all out for Halloween with whole big goodie bags and decorations, and little old ladies who stopped the girls to oo and ah over their costumes.
People really loved Rory's butterfly queen costume.
Most people told Rory's friend Summer she was much to pretty to be a vampire, though :)

Jackpot:

It is a good thing Rory is a good candy sharer, I haven't felt like she has been gorging too much on it.
Though she did get a bit sick. .. but we all started to get fevery and congested one after another.

I finally got my tire back from the bike shop that was fixing the bearing, the ride is soo smooth and nice--
I just all around prefer my beach cruiser to Jess' street bicycle , but it was nice to have and not feel trapped without my ride. Ri& I went downtown and rode all over with Nikki one morning.
It was super windy- standing on top of the bridge made me feel like I could blow away.


Last Wednesday Rory came home sick, and then I got sickugh. Whatever it was was short lived, a fever for a day- but we are all still a bit congested

On Sunday Rory lost her 1st tooth!!!!:It took all Day- We were hanging out with Steve and Jess and she kept wiggling it, the one behind it was coming in , and pushing on it and really starting to hurt. I ended up wrapping it in a damp cold cloth and letting her listen to the radio, and pulling, and it came right out..
and she said " It didn't hurt that bad at all!!" she was so worried, I think it hurt more in her mouth than coming out.
The tooth fairy brought her a Sacajawea Dollar - Which was doubly exciting because her class is studying Native Americans for social studies, so she had extra incentive to bring it to school to show her classmates.

- OH, I also did something over the weekend.

I bleached my dreadlocks..
or Ri bleached them for me.
Poor guy.
I have been wanting to dye them. I was looking at darker colors, but Ri convinced me to go blonde, I have never had blonde hair, and it damaged the crap out of my hair the one time I bleached my bangs, but I guess with dreadlocks that ISN'T as much of a concern,
so now seems like the best time to try it.
But, blonde meant 1st stripping out all the color. 2bottles of not cheap stripping , powerful dye- we'd read lots of info on dying dreads that suggested I would only need to coat the individual locks.. that wasn't the case. I had to send Ri out to get another bottle to SQUISH and work the bleach into each one.
Then do it again this week to add some actual blond color over the YELLOW stripped color.

I still need to take a pic of it now that it is less canary yellow and a bit more blond. I didn't notice much difference but Ri says it is less yellow.
I still jump when I walk past my reflection.
It is totally weird.
Everyone seems to LOVE it though. I have never had so many people stop me to compliment my hair.

Monday morn Ri got into a very minor car accident coming off the bridge of lions. Curse the traffic under that bridge, it is such a nightmare.
He is ok, the van is running.. but it broke the back window, and half the bumper will need to be put back on somehow.
Cars just stress me so so much. I hate them!
I am glad no one was hurt.. but the whole " this was a minor accident , No Big Deal" attitude freaks me out even more. Cars are never safe. I wish we just didn't need them. (not that I am saying bicycling is safer- HELL no, not with all the cars out there . lol.


Other than that the last two weeks have been , well- they have just been.
I've been in my head a lot, not really in the place to be blogging. I haven't talked to many people either.
I have spent more time trying to make sure I have time with Ri.
the rest is pretty same old, same old.
clean, clean, hang out, pick up kid, dinner , bed, smoke too much.


Rory spent this afternoon at her friends house, she had a blast- obviously, because she came home and went right to bed. She will probably wake up early (and she has already been doing that with the time change.. so I expect her up at 5am at this rate.)
.. so I should probably go to bed.


PEACE AND TOFU CHICKEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE

I don't need a costume.I am mother effing majestic, man

ok.
I've been,
I've been busy,
I've been lazy,
I've been cleaning,
I've been making messes,
I've been troubled,
I've been blessed.
I've been up and down and back and forth, but I haven't been blogging.

I got to a place that I wanted nothing more than to disappear... a few times.
I pushed people away, and felt really hurt when no one was around
... then struggled with whether I wanted to push them further away or get back to good at all.
Dark dark place.

I'm not doing well with having so much going on.
.. and, YET. nothing going on.

ANYWAY!

Last time I blogged, Lily was over - her Dad picked her up Friday afternoon,
Thursday Morn we went to the pier to play a bit with Ri's mom :

Lily was really good, but she was soo ready to go by the time her Daddy picked her up.
I was glad to be done. I was soo glad for weekend. and to not have to worry about anything.
..
but my weekend was not my savior.
We still had so much to do with Halloween coming.
.. and the van broke down
..and all his friends came over to fix it.
..and Rory needed a costume
..and Lissy Came over to paint me the cat for Pin-the-tail on the cat, and couldn't finish it.
and stupid crap bothered me.
...
and I just wanted to crawl back into my bubble of solitude.
and I was irritated with Ri.


Ri ended up getting a ride to get Rory a costume.
She finally settled on a butterfly one,
I painted the cat Lissy drew and spiffed it up
(and Rory painted too:)


-sigh-

Val took me to the gym on Tuesday,with her sis Cortni and friend Soup-
I was really nervous at 1st, but it was actually really fun.
We went to lunch too. So nice to get to chat with someone, to get out of the house and not feel soo lonely.
I even felt amped after the gym and talked Ri into going on a bike ride around the neighborhood..
Oh, by the way, in case you are looking for a place in the neighborhood:



Val ,Cort and Soup - and I all had soo much fun we decided to try the gym again Wednesday
..but none of us actually felt up for it, plus Cortni said her ovaries were falling out.
So we decided to walk St.george street,
Soo many awesome amazing shops.
and we had lunch at the Taco Shop


Val got me this AWESOME wrap skirt/dress thing.. that I pretty much want to wear all the time. I will get a pic of me in it , eventually.(When I am not feeling so mopey).



We BSed all over St.George street, and the weather was perfect.
Oh, and we got flicked off by a crazy old lady.. (since we weren't going fast enough , and she was behind us- as we got stuck at the drawbridge. HA!) Watching her get pissed made it all worth it.

Ri's buddy Jay came over and watched Walking Dead with us- I totally can't watch walking dead alone, I have to wait for Ri to get home. lol. Jay just got back form Hati, he planned on staying longer, but came home sick. So keep him in your thoughts.
We had meant to ( or been invited to ) meet up with him for a few other times this week, but have been slacking

And I am Super sleepy,


Rory brought home this Awesome school pic the other day, I didn't plan on ordering any- but this sample pic is so great. I might need to order some LOL. You can even see how loose those front teeth are, ALL her front teeth are loose now, and that bottom tooth is almost gone.

Rory has been awesome. She has had a few more playdates with her friends, and is trying to plan sleepovers. I am frightened, but I can feel the age is upon us.

Friday was sorta crazy-
She had the character parade that morning and got to wear her costume to school.



(She added to the head piece, the flower hairthings Val bought her, plus some pipe cleaners Jess gave her)- Oh and I adjusted the leg pieces because they didn't fit right

.. and one of her BFFs in class was also a butterfly with pipe cleaner antennas, they were soo cute together.
- I was so worried she would have the some store bought costume as other kids- but she didn't :)
The fall fest was that night. I was soo worried about the cat game- my oil paint mistake had started to weep in the drippy humid weather, and I didn't know if it would hold up, but it seemed to do alright.
Ri took us, me thinking we could just run through the booths, and get him home so he could sleep..
and I was wrong.
Poor guy was soo tired and grumpy, and it was soo crowded this year , there were soo many booths Rory wanted to do all of it (they had some really cool things, a dunk tank, feather hair extensions, face painting, all sorts of games). We ended up there until 6:30. Poor Ri felt like he was going to fall over. .. and he still needed a nap before work at 10 :( .

This morn Ben & Ileana stopped in for a minute since they were in town,
soo good to catch up with up them- but I'm sad they didn't bring their little girl. Hope we will get another chance to hang out soon.

We had to shower and run to Rory's girl scout party.
They danced and sang to celebrate Juliette Low's birthday


it was windy and cold, but Rory eventually warmed up dancing. And she won a cute button in the raffle.
I loved you could spot all the scouts from her school because they had feathers poking out of their heads LOL.

Feeling super lazy Ri ordered us dinner

Noobs always gets the best fortunes


Mine is pretty fitting though.

My thoughts are turning to dishes now.
Tomorrow, trick or treating the stores..
then the kid has school and neighborhood trick or treating.


-I need a drink.
I really hope she gets some good candy.

PEACE AND TOFU CHICKEN GREASE,
BABYHELLFIRE