Tue., Sep. 11

Sixth anniversary of 9/11. Every anniversary of 9/11 is the easiest way for us to remember how long it's been since we left Oceanside. Six years now. Hm.

Tell me again why we got a dog? I spent my first hour of this day cleaning up after Jabba's "gastric upset". He was in his kennel and had diarrhea! Poor little guy. So I had to bathe him and clean out his kennel (Thankfully it's the kind where the tray comes out.), and scrub the floor. (sigh)

I vacuumed the upstairs today and did laundry. I have no laundry to do tomorrow. While I was preparing supper I talked to Mom for a long time. That was good; I was in need of a Mom-fix, I guess. ;) I pulled a dozen weeds out of the back yard while we talked, as well. There are lots of tarantula holes in our back yard. And I think tarantulas are nocturnal, riiiight? So it freaks me out to be taking this tiny dog outside to potty after dark. Just thought I'd mention that. Might have to research some methods of removing tarantulas from one's back yard.

There is a BEA-U-TIFUL, petite, moth (It might actually be a butterfly; the antenae do not appear 'feathered'). perched here on the desk. Its wingspan is no more than 3/4", but its color is a solid pale teal green. Mmm! God's variety in nature (like thousands of different kinds of cactus...).

As promised, here are pictures of Natasha's haircut. Her hair is giving us fits lately. It is coarse and thick and has a MIND OF ITS OWN. The top layer of hair is the blonde you recognize, and straight as straw, but everything under that is darker and almost curly!! Blowdrying it does not help; I tried. Well, at her last haircut the stylist and I talked a long time about what to do to make it not look so strange. (LOL) We decided to try 'stacking' the under-hair and leaving the top layer a little longer. In my imagination it looked fine, but in real life it didn't work well. It was okay for the first couple weeks, but since top hair grows so much faster than under-hair, the past four weeks or so it has looked almost comical. I've just been waiting for an idea, and/or for the situation to become desperate enough to do something about. Yesterday was my breaking point. I didn't even care about not being able to take her to have a professional do it, as Jeremy suggested. It's not like she has a complicated hair style; she has complicated HAIR, that I know more about than the stylists.... So I was willing to give it a shot. What I did was to actually layer the ends, even more than the 'stacking' from last hair cut. We're still deciding if we like it or if I should work on it a little more, which is my plan for tomorrow. ;) The very top layer is cut pretty straight across the back and looks rather 'hacked', so I'll soften up the look of that and see where that puts us. This is a girl who is COMPLETELY UNINTERESTED in spending ANY time fixing her hair. She combs it in the mornings, and if it receives any more attention at any point in the day it's because she was instructed to give it more attention. So whatever the 'cut' is that we stick with has to work as a "comb-and-go" cut.... [LOOK at that chin-thing she's got going on!! That is Jeremy's chin!! All day long!!]

I keep trying to take pictures of Jabba that give a good size comparison, so you can see how tiny he is. (Jeremy didn't feel good this evening; he didn't even eat supper!) During Jeremy's quiet time upstairs the children and I lost Jabba! We couldn't find him anywhere downstairs where we thought he was. When we did find him, he was perched up here on sleeping Jeremy. The thing is, Jabba can't get on the couch by himself (Nor can he get down by himself); he's too small!! So he had to have maneuvered himself up onto the couch because of the way Jeremy's shoes were stacked in front of the couch! Jabba REALLY likes Jeremy.

Here is a shot of the new hole in Justus's head. The picture does NOT do it justice. Looking at it in real life almost turns one's stomach, the wound is so deep. I mean, you can't see his skull or anything, but it's far more than a superficial scratch.... Clearly, he is feeling better now!! :) That, or he's just really proud of his wound!

Oh, and after all that drama on the phone with the VA yesterday, where they cancelled the lost check and reissued it as a direct deposit to be received in our account "within five days"...? Yeah, that check arrived today.