Ex_Goat_Milker's Xanga

Once upon a time part 2

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:34:53 GMT

While Danielle continued to talk with her hands she slowly became aware that all was not well in the land of Xanga.

There were changes taking place, some were helpful and assisted Danielle as she spoke. Other changes were just for the enjoyment of the other inhabitants. Some of these changes were for the safety of the citizens of Xanga, but within months the changes vanished and the leaders of Xanga claimed no knowledge of them. Soon the changes no longer assisted Danielle and most of them were frustrating as they had no real importance to the community of Xanga, but were merely "fluff".

Danielle watched as the walls of Xanga became higher and many of the gates disappeared making it extremely difficult for her friends outside of Xanga to come and talk to her. She, her mom and sister had many meetings discussing the changes that were taking place and wondering what they could do. As taxpayers they hoped their voices might have some weight behind them. But alas, the non-taxpayers were more numerous and drowned out the voices of those who supported them.

One day Danielle's sister moved to a new land, a land that their mom had found. A land where you could speak easily and friends who were not a part of the land could still come and visit. Danielle started to visit this new land as well and slowly found herself moving some of her belongings over with every visit. She decided that this living in two different places was not going to work and so resolved to make her permanent home in the land of Wordpress. You can now visit her here http://www.exgoatmilker.wordpress.com .

Once upon a time...

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:53:42 GMT

in a galaxy far, far whoops wrong story line here.

Try it again, shall we?

Once upon a time, there was a girl who wished to be more in touch with a distant friend. The friend kept in touch with other friends in a land called Xanga. The first girl was called Danielle, she thought long and hard before deciding to visit the land Xanga. She suffered all sorts of harassment from her closest family members. She assured them she did not plan on becoming a citizen of the land, merely a visitor. Her family continued to warn her that if she was not careful she would be "sucked" in to the land, never to be heard from again.

As the days passed Danielle enjoyed speaking with her friend and hearing the news. Suddenly, she found her sister had also begun to visit the land of Xanga, but this sister was soon "sucked" into the land of Xanga and became a full fledged citizen! How Danielle mourned for her sister, wondering why she had left the kingdom of Nonbloggers to become a Xangan. Before much time had elapsed, her own mother had taken the oath and was an active participant in all the Xanga rituals.

A day came when Danielle's sister and mother approached her, they wished to tell her that things were not as bad as they had thought, that things in the land of Xanga were worth participating in. She slowly began one fine day in May to let her voice be heard to a small gathering in Xanga. To her surprise she found that her words flowed out quickly, that speaking with her hands, which up until this time was considered drudgery, was indeed a pleasant thing to do.

As the months passed she had several people outside of her small group ask to be included. It was indeed a hard thing to be asked to voice her thoughts to others. To people who may not know her, to people who may not understand her. The last day of August that year she spoke for the first time publicly, it was so well received that she has continued until this very day.

To be continued...

A little redecorating.

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:06:59 GMT

When we moved into our home eleven years ago we knew it needed a lot of work. It's previous owners had not kept up the house or yard. Many things needed to be replaced and it all needed to be repainted. Since many of these things were huge (carpets, windows, blinds) we had to wait before we could start remodeling the bathrooms, bedrooms and kitchen areas.

This afternoon we were supposed to head to a friends house for a birthday party, but due to illness in their home it was canceled. We decided to still go out, but to head to IKEA and purchase a few things for upcoming projects instead.

You know, I love that store, I do! It's so much fun to browse through and their products are very easy to assemble. Well, we got a bit carried away and when we had brought our purchases home we couldn't help putting them together. One by one we assembled them and were amazed with how beautifully things were coming together. We finally finished and I thought you all might like to see the rooms we redid.

Ready...Steady...GO!

First up was our main bathroom, this was scheduled to be started next week on my dad's day off, we couldn't wait and bought all new fixtures, lighting, towels, you name it, we bought it.

Next up was our school room, many of you will remember the bookcases we put in last year, but the rest of the room just was not working for us. The couch and desktop just didn't seem to fit in, there was not enough lighting so, voila!!!

The boys were taking a breather here before we tackled the BIG project.

THE KITCHEN!!! You have heard my mom and I talk about the kitchen before, it just was not designed well. We have also wanted a farm house sink since I can't tell you when. The cabinets were oak, but the finish was worn off of most of them and we decided today, why not just replace them? IKEA had all the necessary items, and we had gifts cards, so we splurged a little.

I caught my mom doing the dishes. What do you all think??? Should we have done the counter tops in black, or should we have gone with a more striking color, such as red?

Last, but certainly not least was the boys room. It took a little longer than planned when I decided to free hand the squid onto the wall. They both seem to like the finished product.

Okay, okay, okay so after the point where I said " It's so much fun to browse through and their products are very easy to assemble." its all made up. But we did have fun, and we enjoyed pretending. What a fun way to spend an afternoon!

For Bren, with love.

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:01:22 GMT

Love, Cheryl, Corin and Dani

So untrusted...

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:04:13 GMT

that is how I feel right now. Will you believe that my mom changed her blog password yesterday? She changed it JUST for today. Something about not wanting her daughters to hijack her blog, or something like that. I wrote to Corin last night voicing my indignation at the insult. I shared with her how I know I wasn't planning on hijacking mom's blog, but now that I couldn't I wish I could. I tried yesterday afternoon to figure out the new password. I tried until Xanga would let me try no more. Sheesh, the trust in this family! I did have one other way to get the password, but as it was a pretty low route to go I avoided it, I have SOME pride... at least for now.

So why would my mom change her blog password for one day? What possible reason could she have for fearing her daughter/s would hijack it? Hmmmmm??? Maybe this, or these six posts? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Naaaw, couldn't be that! And this one, now this one was a total fraud!

As my nephew Dexter would say Ay, yai, yai, yai, YAI! The trust in this family, it seem to have vanished.

Well, since I can't hijack my mom's blog for the above stated reasons, I'll just have to shout it out from here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Please click on the above text and wish my mom a happy birthday, also tell her she should trust her daughters more, thank you.

My sewing machine

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:28:20 GMT

A year ago I was blessed with this sewing machine, it is a Janome Heart Truth 2008 (HT2008) sewing machine.

Since blogging about it here I have received weekly hits from people looking for info about it. I wanted to share a little of my own personal experience with this machine for those poor people who innocently stumble into my weird ramblings. You poor, poor people!

What initially drew me to it was that it was very similar to my mom's New Home machine that I learned to sew on. It turns out that Janome bought New Home several years ago. The fact that the machine was white and red also was a bit of a draw

   It comes with fifty different stitches, your basic running stitch, locking stitch, a couple overcasting stitches, button holes, zigzags as well as some nice decorative stitches. I didn't want a machine with a ton of features as I mainly do garment construction on it. Janome has also made it so that both the New Home and Janome sewing machine feet are interchangeable, this was great news to my mom and I. We now only need to buy one specialty foot to share between our machines.

It is very simple to thread the machine as well as to wind and thread the bobbin.

The Janome is very quiet which makes it very enjoyable to work with. Maybe all sewing machines are quiet now, I don't know. After using my mom's twenty year old New Home for years it was a huge change to use such a quiet machine.

   I have made several skirts and blouses, as well as several odds and ends on the Janome and it has breezed through them all. For Christmas I made my mom and sister knitting needle holders, at one point I needed to top stitch through ten layers of fabric plus two layers of batting. Most people at this point would have changed needles from the basic 12 to at least a 14, I didn't. I honestly didn't even think about it as I was almost done with my project at this point. It sewed smoothly through, and thankfully my needle didn't snap under the stress.

   I have not had any problems with this machine and hope it lasts at least twenty years ( My mom's twenty year old New Home is still going strong). So my dear Google searchers, I hope this will help guide you in your purchase. Please let me know if there is anything else you would like to know about this machine and I will do my best to get back to you.

A relaxing afternoon

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:49:48 GMT

Will asked to play a game this afternoon and we settled on Blokus.

I love this game!

Trying to find the perfect piece.

Hoping it will fit.

Squeezing odd sized pieces into places that look impossible.

Waiting for your opponent to make their move.

Beating the socks off your brother

Don't worry, I made it up to him with a batch of Buckeye Brownies, thanks Kelli for this awesome recipe!

A study in Dexter

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:32:19 GMT

My nephew Dexter, how I LOVE that boy. He's got these eyes that he can flash at you (we call them crazy eyes) and then... it's like nothing ever happened. Kind of like the look above. This afternoon I was taking some pictures of him, trying to get a smile when my sister says, "Dexter, give Aunt Dani your crazy eyes!".

Here he is preparing, workin' up the smile to go with them. Are you ready for this? I don't think you are. I think you all need some time to prepare for the upcoming sight. Okay, you can scroll down now.

FLASH! There they are! These are actually pretty mild as far as some of his crazy eyes go, check out those brows. Too funny! And then...

He threw in one of these. I refrained from throwing down the camera to hug him, he knows how to get his aunt to laugh.

The left eye, not to be outdone took its turn as well... Don't hurt yourself there buddy!

Back to his normal self again, like nothing ever happened. The only thing that could give it away is the group of his grandma, mom and aunt all wiping tears from their eyes from laughing so hard.

I love you Dex!

I done been tagged!

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:42:14 GMT

   My friend Sarah over at My Hands Full tagged me with a 7 Random Facts tag. So I sat down last night and typed out the first seven things I could think about myself. I then realized how weird I am    Here we go...

1. I love leaving weird messages on my sister and brother-in-law's recorder (they screen their calls). Does anyone remember the Bud Ice commercials? The penguin used to really unnerve my sister, so now when I can't think of a good message I fall back on "dooby-dooby-dooo"

   2. I stabbed myself with an X-acto knife a couple weeks ago. Note to self, when the aforementioned knife does not easily slide into its case, do not, I repeat, DO NOT push harder. Bleeding will ensue and said bleeding is hard to stop.

   3. As of a week and a half ago I have been a bridesmaid three times. Argh, the curse be upon me!

   4. When I was little I wanted to be a veterinarian, that was until I found out they also had to put animals down. I couldn't handle that part. How was I supposed to know I would go on to live in the country, own and care for animals and even have to put some of them down?

   5. Grammar is not my friend, grammar and spelling that is. Okay, grammar, spelling and the English language in general are not my friends.

6. I was away from home more than half the month of October, this does not include errand days and the day I spent at my sisters. We need to do that again Corin, minus the surgery part, I'll even bring my own Dew.

7. When I was seven I had my head split open by my broom wielding sister. Now when she says I'm being weird, or remembering something wrong I just remind her whose fault that is, she then threatens to beam me again.

Okay, I think that is pretty random, hopefully there are no repeats, and I will even tag two people who came readily to mind.

Corin, because she LOVES to be tagged
   and
Christina, because she has been harassing me about my lack of blogging

Thanks Sarah for the tag!

Quicky post

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:38:35 GMT

I'm here. I'm alive.

Okay, so I'll give you a bit more info. This month has been crazy busy, like chicken with their head cut off busy.   The first two weeks I spent in my friends Eric and Lisa's home lending a hand, I came home for the weekend in the middle of those two weeks.

This past Monday I went over to help my sister at her house since she was recovering from gall bladder surgery, after all surely she was going to need a hand.   I figured I could lend a hand with the kiddos, maybe do some laundry or cooking for her... well she felt so good we both ended up working together most of the day.   My brother-in-law bought a 24 case of Mountain Dew for me, I have no idea how many of those he expected me to drink in one day, but I tried not to disappoint

  The rest of this week I have spent trying to get back into the groove of our home, some cleaning, a little cooking, laundry and a smidgen of bike riding with my mom. One of our neighbors is also away so lots of watering and cat feeding.

Friday, my mom and I went out to do the big shop, I got to chauffeur my mom around. Her shoulder has been sore and driving seems to aggravate it , there were no screams (she asked how many she was allowed), floor stomping (what did we do with that second brake pedal? ), or pulled out hair, I don't even remember her saying "BRAAAAAKE!!!" (her favorite thing to say when I was first learning how to drive). We spent about an hour of that day at our favorite stop, Jo-Ann's, this time though only about five minutes of our time there was spent looking for things for ourselves, the rest was spent in preparing for an upcoming church event.   We're in charge of the book binding booth and needed to pick up all of the supplies, I hope everyone enjoys it, otherwise we'll have paper coming out our ears for the next ten years.

This coming week will again be busy, I dread thinking about tomorrow as it will be full, not impossible full, just super busy full.

Aaron's fifteenth birthday is this coming Tuesday, but I will be leaving Tuesday afternoon for an event I will share in a moment. My parents decided to bump up his annual family party to the day before.   So tomorrow I will be making him a cake, packing for my trip and heavily watering the neighbors yard.   I'll also be doing the usual  Monday things lunch, dinner, vacuuming, watering my orchid, which is a month old and I still haven't killed it, woo-hooo!!!

I have a very dear friend who will be getting married next Saturday.   I have known this friend since she invited me to her eleventh birthday party, so we're just shy of fourteen years of friendship.   Her dad was in the Air Force, so her family moved... A LOT!!!   A year and a half after meeting, her family moved to England, then a few years later Oklahoma, then Texas, now they're up in Washington (there were a few mini-moves in there too from house to house).   Anywho, she asked me to come up and be a bridesmaid which I was super thrilled about.   This Tuesday I'll fly up and stay with she and her family until Sunday afternoon when I will fly home again.

So, I am alive, just busy. Like no time to post pictures busy