So I participated in Shortmama's Spring Swap!

Look what I got from Lacey over at the The Fowler Family

I love little beauty goodies and I got a box full of them! Wonderful scented candles, seeds to grow bell peppers, lipstick, hand sanitizer, nail polish, cushy socks, mascara, hair goodies and a beauty book! What a fun swap package! Go over and check out Lacey's blog to see what I sent her!

A Short Post

I had so much fun with Mamarazzi's swap I have decided to do another one, fly on over to ShortMama's at a Family of Shorts and get involved! You never know you could be paired with me!

These are a few of my favorite things...

I was a part of Mamarazzi's Favorite Things swap this week, during the swap we were paired up with another blogger. We were supposed to fill a box with our favorite things, it should reflect who we are as people and as bloggers, it should be a box we would be thrilled to open. I mailed it This week to my swap buddy Roxane from It Really Is, All About Me.

I got her package on Tuesday, she is a planner and knew she would be out of town, so she thought ahead and mailed her package on Friday before heading to DC. I don't plan ahead quite the same and I got it to the post office but missed the Saturday truck, so I have been waiting for confirmation from Roxane that she received my package. I thought it would be fun to publish our post in a similar time fashion.

This was sitting and waiting for me Tuesday

Just a peek inside

Look at her attention to detail! So cute!

1. Seven with Brad Pitt, yummy! Nothing with him in it could ever scare me.

2. Roxane said every queen needs a mirror, every good Wikked Stepmother needs a mirror also!

3. Eyelash curler, wonderful beauty pick and one of my favorites. If you aren't using one go out and buy one... right now!

4. A guide to visiting Disney World, so many fantasy, reading it is like a mental vacation.

5. List, list, list, lists, living with adult ADD has make me a compulsive lister, I love pretty paper to list on.

6. Lavender body wash, smells great and so relaxing!

7. Burt's Bee's energizing soap, I had never used this before the swap and I have found a new favorite, I love the smell and the way it makes me feel so clean!

8. Oops, I mixed up 3 and 8... 3 was a box of nerds... hey if you are what you eat (I am cheap and easy)

9. Burt's Bee's chapstick, love, love, love it!

10. Chocolate

11. More chocolate

12. A brown Pashmina, apparently Oprah owns one also, I am styling!

13. A little gnome friend who is now living in the Pothos of friendship!

Mid-Term

I have reached mid-term in my classes. Today I have a test, a home care/plaque control assignment due, extra credit on dental cements and 3 labs due. Tomorrow I have a test in my Integrated Science class, Thursday I have a test in my Introduction to Dental Assisting class.

I have so much I want to update you guys on, Mamarazzi's swap is this week, I can't wait for my swap buddy to get her box! I can't wait to share all my favorite things. The Rapscallion was sick last week and stayed here on Wednesday, usually my one day every other week that I have time to myself, Dear Hubby stayed home to take care of him. I have had more work done on my tattoo, once it stops feeling flaky I will get you guys some pictures. Loads of dental facts I would like to share, I got to observe a dental office on Tuesday, it was awesome!

I will update by Wednesday, sorry this is short and for the absence I will make it up to you

Favorite Things

I have joined Mamarazzi's Favorite Things Swap!

I will be partnered up with another blogger and swap a package with our favorite things. I am excited to be a part of this for a couple of reasons:

#1 Dandelion Wishes is a blog I have enjoyed for while, Mamarazzi is a strong woman and I respect her for organizing this swap after everything she has been through this year.

#2 I love the sense of community that blogging and the Internet can have. I love meeting new people, hearing their stories and getting to know them. This swap really is one of my favorite things!

I will update more as more becomes known to me.

Merry Christmas Y'all

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Goodnight!

I will be back to regular blogging after the holidays, just needed some time to focus on the family. Also the Rapscallion is on track break so that makes even completing a thought when he is around a challenge!

Love, peace and family from our home to yours!

Then I Shall Live

I have been asked to contribute a guest blog for AmyK at http://ithenshalllive.blogspot.com/ it should appear on Saturday but in the mean time go over and see all the cuteness that is happening over there.

Leaving on a Jet-Plane

The Kidlet is leaving tomorrow for a trip with Bio-Mom to visit her family, he will get to see his grandmother, great-grandmother and Aunt. I know he will have fun but I will miss seeing him everyday.

The trip was planned during our custodial time and over Father's day. Since he won't be with us Dear Hubby took him to dinner last night and then they watched the movie that the Rapscallion bought him for Father's Day. I gave Dear Hubby a gift certificate for a massage, so maybe he can relax a little. Since we are kid-free I was thinking about going camping this weekend but I need to see how my own father would feel about that.

I was on a media-fast for most of the last 2 weeks, I found that I was spending a little too much time online getting this blog off the ground. I needed some time away to regroup and get my thoughts in order. I am feeling much clearer now and will be back to regular posting next week.

I did wash the Rapscallions blanket that he will take with him, hopefully it smells like my house and he will know I miss him.

We Have Ways of Making You Talk

I was given a gift certificate for a pedicure from Dear Hubby and the Rapscallion for Stepmother's Day. Yesterday I redeemed it, I am now the proud new owner of sparkly blue toenails and soft heels. The woman who gave me the pedicure was, um, nice? She was very odd, she told me all about her abusive traumatic childhood, she spent a good portion of the pedicure talking with a coworker about how slow the salon was and trying to decide if they should cut out early to hang out at the pool, drinking and maybe getting high. I try hard not judge but this woman was in her mid 50's, she is my mother's age. Nothing she said or did really bothered me until she asked if I had kids.

This is always a hard question to answer for me. I usually answer "yes, my stepson, we share 50/50 custody" now maybe that isn't the best but it is my answer. I feel a little weird just saying yes, because I am a terrible liar and somehow I think they might know. Also I am proud of being a Stepmother, I chose to be a part of this life. So I gave my answer and she of course asked another odd question, she asked for Bio-Mom's name. While I may be willing to talk about my life for all the world to read, I try to respect those around me a little. Luckily I was saved from this question by her coworker who felt the need to chime in how bored she was and her desire to go home.

Her questioning wasn't over and she hit me with my next favorite Stepmom question "Are you going to have kids of your own?" I know this question isn't restricted only to stepmotherhood, somehow you reach a magical age where people find it perfectly ok to talk about the activities going on in your uterus, awesome.

As I previously stated I am horrible liar and completely non-confrontational, so I answered. Dear Hubby and I are in fact TTC, we are the first in our group of friends to actually TRY to have a child, in our group of friends there are 3 stepdaughters, 1 stepson and 1 baby who was a surprise to her now married parents. TTC hasn't been as easy as they make it look on television and while Dear Hubby and I want to try to have another child we also agree that if it is not meant to be we have a wonderful life. I am willing to have some medical help with TTC but I personally have drawn the line at anything I deem too invasive. I respect any woman's choice to seek medical help with her desire to have a baby, I am not against medical procedures like IVF but just not for me.

So when my pedicurist insisted, INSISTED (!) that I have a child no matter what (!) I was confused. This isn't her life to live and why was she getting so emotionally involved? We had never met before yesterday, it is my body and what is so wrong with not wanting to have kids? What if I had answered that I was Childfree by Choice? Why can't my involvement with the Rapscallion be enough, what about all my dear friends who can't have kids? Why is it that people think they get to have an opinion about my uterus and what I do with it?

But those are hard answered when someone has something sharp near your feet.

Tools of the Trade

Since I was a kid I have often kept a notebook with me to write down things that happened so I wouldn't forget, I am a storyteller and this blog is my way to develop that part of my personality. I have a wonderful leather bound notebook that a wonderful friend gave me for Stepmother's Day, it came in a care package that she mailed from the UAE. Since receveing it I have carried it in my handbag everywhere I go. Before that I had a small 3 inch notebook, I often still use this one because it is easy to carry when I am not carring a purse, it fits in my pocket nicely. Rarely I will find myself without a notebook in a situation that is so overwhelming that I feel like I have to write down what is going on for future blog enteries. In these situations I try to find anything to write on. I have things written on the back of a junk mail envelope, on napkins that I accidently washed in my pocket and lost that story. Last night we went out to a karaoke bar, I had only brought a small clutch so there was no room for a notebook. Honestly I didn't think anything interesting would happen, boy oh boy was I wrong! I have 3 or 4 "song request" slips from the karaoke bar. I just jotted down small tidbits and as fast as I could write another character would cause a scene. I will fully describe everything for you guys once I have had a chance to descipher all my chicken scratched notes.