It's like this...

I’ve been toying around with different ways to earn my keep here online and there is a massive amount of information on how to do just that. The problem is that most of them cost you money to begin with and I’m more of an ‘I can do this myself’ kind of girl. Just point me in the right direction and I’ll read and study and learn it all by myself. This past week I’ve felt like I’ve gone back to school and am studying full time! (Oy vay such a headache I’ve got!) I’ve created a SAT prep blog and an SEO marketing blog where I shamelessly promote books and learning courses and the like. I’ve made a little bit, which has only whetted my appetite for learning more. Now I’ve ventured into ebay and came up with a great idea that I hope might fly. It’s here on ebay if you’d like to see my latest endeavor. Ah well, this is keeping me off the streets and mostly out of trouble.

I spent an inordinate amount of time in my vehicle today. I waited for The Boy while he had a job interview to work at the Fair starting next week. It was a very long wait. I sat there reading a book, not realizing that my headlights were on. When I tried to start the suburban all I got was click…click….click. Not a sound you want to hear when turning the key in the ignition. As the clicking was happening, a group of four gangsta lookin' kids were walking past me. One of the kids asked me if I needed a jump and did I have cables. I said yes, I did. He said they'd be back in a few minutes. I waited. Standing next to my upraised hood with jumper cables in hand, I wondered if I'd been stood up. I wished my beautiful blond daughter was there like the last time I had a dead battery. The gang of four finally came and jumped my vehicle. I slipped the driver a five dollar bill, thanked him profusely and then said "Please tell your momma that she raised you right...

My newspaper editor sent me an email saying the following: We got lots of spam.... ...but no Pam. Sadness consumes us. This would mean I have been neglecting (horribly, woefully and awfully so) my column writing of late. I've been so busy writing articles and web content for OTHER people that I've let go of my own writing career. Not good. I need to find a way to get back on that horse, so to speak. My muse seems to have abandoned me in all the stress of my life. Who could blame her? I'd abandon me too, but I have people that depend upon me so here I'll stay I 'spose. I'm ok. Just in a funk. Now, back to writing more ezine articles on how to play the game of pool. Billiards. 9-ball. Could anything be more boring? I think not.

Life is continuing. I think. Bumps and bruises are all a part of the journey.

Today we took the girls down by the Orting river and picked large amounts of blackberries. I'm quite certain that the girls ate more than they picked, but that's what childhood is for, right? We picked so many that I froze some, made two blackberry pies, plus a rather large blackberry cobbler. Here's our day in pictures. And yes, it is delicious.

Lance and I took the girls to the Pierce County Fair today. The Boy slept in and didn't want to go and The Girl is still up in Seattle, so it was just the four of us. Horses, and doggies and kitties and cows and crafts and carnival rides. Lance and Ally took the rock'o'plane ride together. They had fun, even if the ride wasn't Allison's favorite experience there. Here's Ally and Ash with a cow and her calf. Ashley was a bit nervous getting that close to something that wasn't formed into a Big Mac yet. Yee haw! Games were played and stuffed animals were won. Before this picture was taken, only Allison had won a stuffed animal. Ashley desperately wanted one, but the game required two hands to play and she simply couldn't manage it. Ally said she would play the game again to win her sister a big stuffed animal. Then she leaned into me and said quietly, "And if I don't win, Mom, I'll just give her mine" My sweet, preciou and giving 1...

Nothing to report. Nothing going on. Oh wait, The Boy has a girlfriend. And The Girl is preparing to empty our bank accounts as she gets ready to leave for college. The two remaining younger girls are once again sans cousins. We've had cousin Nicole living with us for the past year or so. Ok, it was only a week or so. Or longer. I've lost track. I tend to do that a lot lately. Lose track, I mean. Hubby has been working a bit of over time, I've been spending hours on the computer with my writing and we've turned two house cats into outdoor cats due to their inability to understand that peeing on human bedding is a no-no, that puking up on carpeting is verboten and that soil in pots with plants is not the place to do your bidness. Since Twitchy (an unfortunate creature born of Uncle Daddy and Auntie Mommy) and Mommy have been put outside, there have been no more bio-hazard incidents within the house. We're still feeding them and loving them when we're ou...

Hubby surprised me with a beautiful day at Mt. Rainer ~~picnic and all! Just the two of us. It was so nice up there, I could have stayed all day, but he had other plans~~a delicious dinner at a fancy restaurant. Here's a slide show of the pictures we took today. Our dinner ended with burnt creme on the house at the restaraunt. They even served it to us on special plates.

Twenty years ago today I married my best friend. The man with the kindest most gentle heart. Today we celebrate twenty years of love and struggle and growth and laughter. Twenty years ago these two young kids had no clue what was about to happen to them. Someone should have warned us! Now we have teenagers, and mortgages, and car payments and teenagers, and pets and piano lessons and teenagers. Did I mention teenagers? No one stepped up to tell us all these things. Well, one person did tell Lance not to marry me. No, make that two people. I suppose they were trying to help, but since then both of the naysayers have been divorced and we're still going strong. We have been blessed. Did I mention teenagers?