The Long Silence... an Explanation.

Yo ho ho friends and family. It has obviously been quite awhile since I have last spoken to you all. Last you heard I had many papers left to go. As of right now, I have one left for the year.

So, the quick update and explanation of my distance. Lots of papers to write, and a new job to boot. I am working at a 'nursery' (aka daycare) here. It is a daily experience. There are many things that I would change, but it is a lesson instead in keeping my opinions to myself. It makes me often miss Christi. I daydream about an early childhood center with her...

Anyway, on top of that, I have been really really sick. I am still not entirely over it. It started with the flu (or so I'm told) and happily moved into my chest and made a home there. I still hack and cough things up, and I still feel like there is a tight band around my chest. I make it through the night without coughing, which is an improvement. For a while, I thought I was fighting off pneumonia.



And while all of this has been going on, Kelley came for a visit. We had grand plans to post blogs while she was here; you can see how well that worked out. I am hoping that she still will help me post at least 1 blog. Until then, enjoy the few pics.


I don't want to post too many on the off chance that she will still post a blog with me here about her trip. She and Stephen spent most of their time together, as I still had school and I still had to work while she was here. (Insert sappy face sucking here...)


She and Stephen spent lots of time exploring London: she now has seen more of it than I have. Lucky for me she took lots of pictures, so I could see things too. She saw awesome changing of the guard stuff... I hope she tells all of you about it.

Mother's Day came and went, and it was a hard day for me. I feel it on a daily basis not being closer to Tristan. It doesn't get any easier the longer it has been. It just aches in my chest all the time. (And no, it ISN'T the cough!) I'm sure some of you will say that I brought it on myself. I'm not looking for sympathy, just commenting on the falsity of the 'it gets better with time' statement.

Related to this, it is definite that I am coming home for a visit this summer. My plane flies into El Paso at 10:45 pm on the 17th of July, and I leave to come back at 10:45 on the morning of the 7th. I'm grateful for the chance to spend time with Boo. And I will spend my entire 34th birthday on a plane. I won't even get home until the day after my birthday. Lucky Stephen... he can forget the day and it won't be a big deal at all.

While I am in the States, Tristan and I will be staying at Mom Holen's house. The plan is to go crazy with seeing everyone. I am not going anywhere or doing anything that doesn't involve spending time with the people I love. And Tristan's 7th birthday. I'll have my old cell phone number while I am there, at least until the beginning of August. I would love to see everyone. I am really looking forward to seeing people. But most of all, I can't wait to hug my little boy (who is not so little and graduated from 1st grade yesterday.)

Hope this fills everyone in on what is going on in my world. I hope to get back into the swing of posting, especially as there is so much I could be telling to you. One more paper to go, and then it is just the day to day things. Hopefully there will be a post from Kelley soon, and I intend to force Ashley onto the computer to fill you all in on what is going on in her world too. She has been a busy little beaver lately too.

kisses, and missing every one of you...

Captain Bubbles. Topic: Birthday on Mars

April sixth, 2008: First mission, wake up. It is a difficult task, but the Captain can handle it. Oops, she fell back asleep.... OH NO! The base has been infiltrated by aliens! They're approaching the bed, AND THE CAPTAIN IS STILL ASLEEP!!!! They've climbed aboard the bed, it looks like a tag-team attack, and... whats this? They're CUDDLING THE CAPTAIN! She's not going to be sleeping on the job anymore, I can tell you that much! Alien M has decided the situation looks Under control for Alien S, She goes off to cook, oh watzitcalled... Ah yes! Breakfast! Some strange alien custom that is quite wierd but very appealing. Captain Bubbles thinks she might get a few more minutes of shut-eye, but guess what??!! It's snowing!!!! Snowing? It's never snowed on the Captain's birthday, she really is on an Alien planet! [Dum dum DUM]






Strange ways in the Alien Homebase. Breakfast included Quail Eggs... They tasted fine, the Captain didn't detect any poison.... So far, so good. No assasination attempts, and a hot yummy breakfast in the tummy. The aliens brought over recruites... The Alien Crew is what I'll call them. They were watching the Captain.... she could feel it. They did bring peace offerings though, Books, the Captains' soft spot. Even Alien M and Alien S gave Captain Bubbles this strange offering... she soon found out it was because she was getting OLD! Well, Older.

Bubbles sat with the Aliens for a communal dinner, they were quite nice to have around. They had Spaghetti, With Asparagus! 'They must be buttering me up for something', she thought. 'How could they know my favorite dish?? Oh ya, I told them. Now it's time for Cake?' It was a marvelous cake, with Ducks and Frogs and Trees and a giant river, there were flowers and little penguin decorations for the Captain to eat. Yay for the Captain, she should do this getting older stuff more often. It pays well! It was a magic cake, after eating it, everyones mouths turned GREEN! and Blue, and it was so strange! Thankfully nothing was toxic, the Captian checked. The books were addicting, it's only two days later and Captain Bubbles has finished two of them!





















Overall the Captain was pleased, besides being older, she's still alive, in good health (maybe a little fat from all the food there was) and has come to the conclusion that maybe she should have birthdays with Aliens more often!



















Alien S.



















Alien M.


Captain Bubbles!

The Story of Mr. Dan, Mr. Man, and the Girls.

Once upon a time there was a Girl who moved so very far away from her family and friends, and she missed them very very much.

She lived with a lovely man. Mr. Man, as a matter of fact. He was sweet and kind, and took very good care of the Girl. But he, too, lived so very far away from all of her family and friends.


Even the younger Girl, the daughter-Girl, was sometimes sad at the sheer distance between where she was and where everyone else was.



All of the friends and family missed them too, and for most of them, it was a very sad thing, but there was nothing that they could do except threaten to kidnap the daughter-Girl and to send little packages that reminded Mr. Man and the Girls that they were loved, adored, and missed.

But for some of the friends and family, there was a PLAN brewing.

You see, Mr. Dan was a teacher. He taught other kids that were about the same age as the daughter-Girl. And Mr. Dan thought that those kids needed to SEE THE WORLD. (And learn about Shakespeare.)


So Mr. Dan made arrangements for those kids to see the world... and he made sure they started right near the place where Mr. Man and the Girls were... in London!

Everyone was so excited when he told them. Mr. Boo wrote letters and drew pictures and packed them very carefully into a package for Mr. Dan to bring. Ms. Christi went shopping for TONS of frivolous things that the Girls missed from home and packed them carefully into a package for Mr. Dan to bring. Mr. Zach made sure to drool on everything that Ms. Christi bought before it was packed, just to make sure that he sent his love too, then helped to pack it all into a package for Mr. Dan to bring. Had more people known about Mr. Dan's trip, he might not have had room for his clothes at all. He might have had to wear the boxes of macaroni and cheese and cans of green chile , Ranch dressing powder, and enchilada sauce as trousers and wrap them in the wax paper to keep warm.

It was cold and rainy when Mr. Dan and his kids arrived. They were 24 hours too late for the snow, and it might have been a good thing, too, as desert coats are not as warm as coats of wool. It didn't take long at all for Mr. Dan to to boot the kids to the curb and want to meet up with Mr. Man and the Girls. He even set a place - Piccadilly Circus.


What with travel time and Mr. Man and the Girls trying to walk to Oxford Circus, it took a while before the meeting-up actually happened. But when it did, there was lovely goodness. Everyone was so Happy to see each other! Mr. Dan and Mr. Man shook hands, very proper like. But the Girls squealed and hugged and chittered in delight.


It had been a long trip for Mr. Dan, and it was lunchtime, so the group of chittering, excited Girls and the two very accommodating Misters went to Chinatown for lunch.


Chinatown was fun. The daughter-Girl particularly liked the roasted ducks that hung in each and every shop window, commenting on their delightful crunchiness and utter uselessness as creatures of the wild.*


After a delightful lunch in which Mr. Dan and the Girl exchanged bags of goodies (the Girl sent tea and English biscuits and Ms. Christi sent Malt O' Meal) and Mr. Man artfully ate not only HIS lunch, but also Mr. Dan's (without his even noticing, actually,) the decision was made to take a tourist-y type trip to the London Eye.


Mr. Dan was scared.

Mr. Dan had grave misgivings about the safety of said Eye, and about his inherent ability to remain cognoscente during it's uppermost route. But the Girls were persistent, and when Mr. Man bought the tickets, there was no backing out for Mr. Dan. All he could do was grin and bear it.


Once Mr. Dan, Mr. Man, and the Girls were in the Eye, daughter-Girl kindly offered to hold Mr. Dan's hand. She is a sweet one, that daughter-Girl. Mr. Dan thanked her, but decided to be VERY brave and said that someone had to take many pictures or no one else would believe that he had actually managed to do it.


Mr. Dan got more and more brave as the Eye circled, and soon, with only minimal moral support from Mr. Man, was looking out of the glass wall.


And only moments after that, Mr. Dan was an old pro, taking pictures and chit-chatting, and not bothered by the height in the least.


They saw many things from the sky.

They saw Parliament and Big Ben...


... and buildings with green tops.


But no matter how much Mr. Dan tried, he just could not see Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Mr. Man couldn't see his mum's house either. So they were both disappointed. The Girls weren't disappointed, though... they had Mr. Dan and Mr. Man to look at.

After the Eye, the quarto were almost out of time for their visit. They decided to go for a walk. They found, to daughter-Girl's delight, the soldier who never blinks or moves. She was sad that he didn't have on the clothes she'd imagined him having, and she was far too well behaved to go and try to make him react, but she watched and giggled at all of the other people who stood in front of him making silly faces or doing silly things to try and get a response. They didn't... he never moved a muscle.


After a few short Underground rides, and a bit of coffee, it was time to say goodbye. Everyone was sad, except daughter-Girl, who instead really was hoping that she would know some of the kids that Mr. Dan was meeting, and even more secretly hoping that Mr. Dan would have her talk to the other kids. But alas, that was not to happen. What WOULD happen, however, was that daughter-Girl would take her own train home (the first time by herself, even) earlier than Mr. Man and the Girl, and that Mr. Man would leave his 'brolly in the coffee shop, thus requiring a return trip.

It was a wonderful day and a wonderful visit. And the most exciting thing for Mr. Dan? Says he, "I'm actually going to make it into your blog?! Wow!"

THE END

*Ashley's favourite animals are ducks, and she was actually devastated by the windows of roast ducks. She absolutely refused to go into and eat at any of the shops that had roast ducks hanging in their window.

FROM THE DESK OF: New Mexico

FROM THE DESK OF: New Mexico
[NEW MEXICO, THAT PLACE YOU'RE NOT AT, REMEMBER?]

Dear Ashley,

This is New Mexico. We took a vote and decided that you need to come back or there will be serious s**t.
We were going to send you a "we miss you" card on a cow, but Bill Richardson was like, "no". Hater.

Aaaanyways, since we don't have anything better to do, we might have to build a ship out of cactus, sail to England, and steal you. We don't really know where your house is, but we're sure the British won't care if 2 million New Mexicans on a ship made of cactus float into their harbor unannounced and ask where you are. We bet s**t like that happens in England all the time.

Or you could just come back.

That would be better, to be honest; but if you want to force us to cactus-ship-building, we will do so.

Seriously.

Love,

New Mexico.

P.S. No, really.

P.S.S. If we accidentally land in France or Spain, we're gonna be freaking pissed, so hold up a sign or something so we know where you are.


(Myspace comment sent from Beka to Ashley, 3-26-08. Oh no! Beware of the Cacti boat!)