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It's been a while, hasn't it?

Strangely, holding down a couple jobs and being a mom has kept me busy. You know I don't like being busy due to my natural laziness. I enjoy activities mingled with time to sit and think and not be running around, so I take those moments when I find them.

Now is one such time, although I am multi-tasking by also cooking dinner. I know you're impressed.

So, because of the time gap, this post is going to be newsy.

First of all, thank you, Magazine Fairy, for the Better Homes & Gardens subscription. I love to look through those glossy pages and fantasize about decluttering my house and making it two-page-spread worthy. It may never happen, but a girl can dream.

And now, an announcement: I'm having a grandson! It's a boy! I admit I was kind of hoping for a granddaughter because a) she would be the oldest daughter of an oldest daughter of an oldest daughter of an oldest daughter of an oldest daughter (all living), and how cool would that be? And b) cute little girl clothes! But I am thrilled to contemplate loving and spoiling a little grandson this year. Sian and Nathan won't tell us the name they've picked, but that's ok. I wasn't planning on monogramming anything yet. But I'll start loading up on diapers and onesies soon.

Poor Sian has been so sick. She's still able to function because she only took one class last semester and goes to her part-time job in the afternoon, after she's got her morning sickness a little more under control. Finals are over, so she's looking forward to the day she can quit her job in preparation for giving birth. But the girl is nauseated just about all the time. She says her growing baby bump is worth it, though, and I totally agree. I went through that six times, and I wouldn't give any of them back. Most of the time.

My son-in-law, Nathan, switched his major from applied physics to computer engineering, and he's loving it so much more. He's very brainy, which is totally the type of guy I expected Sian to marry. He works as a tutor in the computer engineering department, and he's very much in demand because he has the ability to explain concepts clearly while also being encouraging to his tutees. He's not at all condescending. He is also taking very good care of my pregnant daughter, so I love the guy to death.

Gabrielle got herself into the honors program at her university and even wrangled a scholarship, so she's pretty happy about the decreased financial burden. She's decided to switch from video game design to animation because she loves the animation side so much more than the coding, although she is good at the coding part, too. She designed a new lynx mascot for Husband's elementary school, so that's something else to put into her portfolio. Every time she comes to visit, we sit and talk and she shows me her newest stash of funny memes she's saved for me. I usually end up laughing so hard I can't breathe, which delights her. I think my kids find it gratifying to see me gasping for air and making little squeaky noises, unable to talk, and wiping tears from my eyes because I find something so ridiculously funny.

Gab would really, really like to meet Mr. Right. For some reason, she tends to attract the boys that turn into stalkers almost as soon as she says something nice to them. I keep telling her that she's just been unlucky that way, and that there really are guys who aren't creeps out there. There are, right? It's been so long since I've been in the dating scene that I don't know how difficult it is anymore. Do the kids still date? Or do they just "hang out." Or "talk," as in "oh, I'm talking to someone right now." Sophia is "talking" to a boy right now, but even she isn't sure if they are dating exclusively or what.

Speaking of Sophia, she's done a splendid job of saving money to go to England this summer. She and Elannah are planning to go and spend a few weeks staying with each of the aunts and uncles that they have scattered around England and Wales. Husband and I have been encouraging the idea because when else will it be so convenient for them to travel like this? Plus, with all their aunts and uncles and cousins willing to put them up and show them around, it's the perfect way to get an up close and personal look at the land of many of their ancestors.

Elannah just took the silver medal for humorous monologue at State drama competitions. (I have to get her to perform her monologue again so I can record her and put it on here.) She's nearly finished with her dental assistant certification, as well, which means she can take our dentist up on his offer to let her do an internship to complete the program. After she graduates from high school, she's planning on going to Dixie State University, which has one of the best dental hygienist programs in the country, despite its reputation as a party school. She and Sophia are both going there, so they'll room together and keep each other out of too much trouble. Elannah may or may not go on to dental school, while Sophia plans on majoring in business marketing.

Joseph is doing so much better. The poor boy has been through the wars with his eczema, allergies, asthma, and anxiety. We recently saw an expensive allergist, and she put him on a regimen of salt baths and salves that has almost completely healed his skin. It's so wonderful not to see him scratching and scratching at open sores all the time, and he can finally sleep at night. We also found out that he's been using the wrong inhaled steroid for his level of asthma for his entire life. Once that was fixed and we got the right medicine (for which the doctor also gave us a coupon for a free year, which is fortunate because this stuff is tres expensive!), he's barely needed to use his rescue inhaler, which is a huge improvement. While he is very allergic to environmental allergens (trees, grass, weeds, etc.), he's not allergic to soy, dairy, eggs, or nuts. That's a huge sigh of relief. Now that we're getting his allergies, asthma, and eczema under control, we can work on getting his weight down. His weight ballooned after he had to take several courses of steroids for severe asthma attacks, and he's very self-conscious about it, poor kid. I'm sure losing weight will boost his confidence and help get his social anxiety more under control.

Little Gary is his bright, resilient self. He is finishing up fifth grade, and he's excited to finally be at the top of the heap in his elementary school next year.

Husband has been making flutes. He's perfected a template, so he can finish a PVC flute in about 90 minutes. They have good sound and are in tune, so once he figures out how to reduce production time even more, it might be lucrative for him to sell them. He's enjoyed doing that.

As for me, I won't be crying when the school year is over. Driving a preschool bus is probably one of the easiest jobs in the world, and my bus aide and I get along very well; but, like any job, it gets a bit tedious after a while. I'll enjoy taking a break from that for the summer. I plan on writing a book over the summer, so it will be good mental exercise, and then driving the bus again in the new school year will be a nice change.

I have kept up with writing work to a certain extent. I just completed a manuscript evaluation, commissioned by someone who somehow heard about me and tracked me down on behalf of her husband. She paid me what I asked for, as well! Regular blog writing for my main client is on hold, however, as they go through a management shakeup. My brother no longer works there, and my liaison also moved to greener pastures. I've never met or talked to the guy who was paying my invoices, and last I heard, he was trying to save his job and figure out what he does now that everything's gone topsy-turvy. It makes me quite glad I don't work in the corporate world. I haven't looked very hard for more freelance work. I've been tired.

The best news for me is that I have been losing weight. My friend and health coach signed me up with the program I'm doing, and while I was a little skeptical that it would work for me (one of my core beliefs was that it would work for everyone else except me), I had seen her and others lose weight and then keep it off for years. So I tried it, and I've now lost 15 pounds in the first 30 days. I'm pretty happy about that. I have a long, long way to go, but this has been positively easy. I'm never starving, I don't have to count calories, and I don't have to do strenuous workouts. When I sat down and calculated my weight gain, I was absolutely stunned to find out I'd gained 60 pounds between 2010 and now--just eight years--and I was already about 30 pounds overweight before that! That's horrible! I believe it started when Husband was diagnosed with leukemia and I started really stress eating and my adrenal glands cracked under the strain. After that, things were just even more out of control, and I quit trying, except when I did some crazy diet and then gained the weight right back. I hated looking in the mirror. I hated buying clothes. I even got to the point, sometimes, when I was convinced that I was so ugly that going outside would be a travesty against the other people of the world. That was the devil on my shoulder, I know, and I fortunately didn't fall for that particular lie--at least not for very long--but I was disgusted with myself and my body and had no idea what to do.

So this is definitely a positive step for me. I sleep better now (Husband says I don't snore anymore), I have more energy, and my clothes are getting pretty loose. I'm still fat, but I'm also excited knowing the fat is steadily coming off. By the end of the year, I should be forced to buy a whole new wardrobe of skinnier clothes. I might not hate looking in the mirror, either.

Marmite, our dog, is currently our only pet. The three cats either disappeared during the Great Cat Lady Debacle a couple years ago (I'll explain more about that later, hopefully) or died of old age (Myles). Joseph is definitely allergic to cats, so we won't be getting any more of those. Fortunately, he's a lot less allergic to Marmite, who is a schnau-tzu (shih tzu/mini schnauzer mix), who has hair, not fur. If we tried to get rid of Marmite, there would be a rebellion and revolution the likes of which have not been seen since 1776. Not that we're going to get rid of him. He is beloved. I've said multiple times that Marmite better never die because I just don't think any of us will recover from that.

Oh, we do have a goldfish that Elannah won at a fair about five years ago. Somehow, that little tiny fish has survived and thrived. He's grown pretty big and has lovely, flowing, transparent fins. But if I didn't feed him and clean his bowl, he wouldn't have lasted this long, since everyone else forgets to take care of him. He has not been named. He is, simply, Fishy. He lives on our kitchen shelf, and he gets very excited when he sees me. If it's a he. It might be a she. I have no idea.

So that's the news, minus the small details. All the main headlines are covered here. If you got this far, well, hello! I'm impressed! And I hope you have an absolutely wonderful day.