Domesticated Bliss

So Connor has been screaming and hitting and clingy all week. I don't know what happened to my Mr Independent. But after him getting up screaming at 4 am this morning, I'm SO over it.

So I had Clinton take him to the after hours clinic and it looks like he's got an ear infection in both ears. Hopefully that'll solve the issue and it's not some annoying phase.

Clinton has been super pissed that his battle axe hasn't come in. When he wanted to buy it, I told him to let me look for one, check and make sure the site is legit, etc etc. I was told to bug off that he would do it himself.

Well after watching him send email after email today trying to get info on where his axe is, I asked him to let me try something. I checked the Better Business Bureau and a couple complain sites and apparently the site he bought the axe from is a scam site. So they took his money and won't be sending any merchandise. There were 3-4 complaints every month for the past 3 years about this site.

Of course, he's extremely pissed at himself. He's called the bank to see if they'll undo the charge. I doubt it as it's not technically fraudulent. But I'm trying very hard to be the nice quiet wife and not being upset at him for spending money online when he barely knows how to turn a computer on.

Cassandra's birthday party is Sunday and we've done jack crap to prepare compared to previous years. We'll still have food and family so I guess that's what counts.

So..I've been kind of "borrowing" an internet signal from the neighbors across the street for two years now. Well, they finally got smart and put a password on it. Heh. So Clinton and I did some calling around for pricing on internet. We settled with AT&T. They had someone out here in less than 24 hours and had internet and cable put in for less than the price Comcast was charging for just internet.

So...no more stealing, and it's nice to have a steady signal. Cassandra is flipping out with all the cartoon shows to pick from.

Her birthday party is Sunday. I'm so not ready for it, but at least I've got 85% of the cleaning done.

The Daugherty house has been absolute chaos the past couple days. Connor caught Cassandra's cold and he's PISSED about it. I refuse to pay a 35 dollar copay for them to tell me to give him over the counter drugs. The only thing they can treat is a bacterial infection with antibiotics. However...he's one...so trying to find a medicine with a dosage for him is difficult as hell. We talked to a pharmacist and she said "Um....give him benadryl?" Seriously...there has got to be more to pharmacy school than counting pills.

Anyways...between trying to give him tiny doses of medicine meant for six year olds, cleaning up vomit all day, and listening to him cry nonstop cause he doesn't feel good, I was about to snap. Clinton brought home a video game for me trying to cheer me up. It was Neverwinter Nights 2. I'm not really a D&D person but it has been a distraction.

I finished the new Kim Harrison book in less than a day. Good stuff. Got my mother-in-law reading them now too.

I'm trying to half heartedly console Clinton as his battle axe has not arrived yet.

My sister is going through absolute hell at her work. They fired four managers and basically gave her all their workload. Apparently she did snap and hid under her desk in tears. I told her next time things get shitty, do what I used to do working in the kitchen. Bust out with some 80s love songs. Cause nothing cheers a person up like Chicago and REO Speedwagon. So of course we had to bust out with a rendition of You're The Inspiration to cheer her up.

So...I let Clinton buy his battle axe. Why do you ask? Especially since I put my foot down and all? Well...he played dirty...

I woke up from my afternoon nap (Connor's and my favorite part of the day) to this sitting next to me.

 

Totally cheated, going straight to Aphrodite like that. But, it's absolutely gorgeous and I love it.

The faery ritual is now written and the Aphrodite ritual is about 75% done. Both kick a lil ass if I do say so myself.

Zinny says:

I am the zombie MASTER

Michelle says:

You might have to fight my husband for that title. Sometimes I think he really is preparing for an invasion

Zinny says:

I'll axe fight him

Michelle says:

Clinton said he accepts your challenge but since he has a loving family to provide for, he can only accept a knife fight til first blood from the torso.

Zinny says:

 I'll agree with that since we'll need the knowledgeable to survive during the apocolypse

 

 

Clinton: "You need to buy me a battle axe."

Me: "What? Why? I just bought you a new dagger at Convocation."

Clinton: "Baby, if zombies attack I need to be able to defend you. Knives are great but if I am going to do a good job of keeping my lovely wife safe, everyone knows that you need a battle axe. I need one for our survival."

Me: "You practiced that didn't you?"

Clinton: "Maybe a little."

Me: "You're totally picturing the scene of River in Serenity, where the door opens and you're standing in the middle of dead bodies holding a bloody axe."

Clinton: "Heh....yeah....except I'll have a penis and be in full riot gear."

Me: "I'm not buying you a battle axe."

Clinton: "Fine. When the zombies come stumbling across our lawn, I'm going to say I told you so."


And this is what happens when I leave my husband unattended for a weekend with his zombie movie collection.

So during my drunken revelry on Saturday, I volunteered to write a faery ritual for the coven this Saturday. My knowledge of faeries is craptastic. Luckily I've got a great research library. It's the Waldenbooks employee still in me that collects massive amounts of books.

It's weird tho, how when I get a stack of research books in front of me, I suddenly develop ADD. Kids, tv, internet, food, nap time, ....hell even something shiny.

I did get quite a bit of stuff done last night though, except not exactly what I was supposed to be doing. Aphrodite has been screaming in my head ever since we talked about doing another public ritual that I need to do one for her this time. Public wise I've done Apollo, Dionysus, Athena, Elementals, and random Wicca...but I have yet to give Her her due and she's not letting my head rest until I do.

I was up until 2 am last night jotting down notes and formats. I know she wants it sexy and fun with a touch of reconstructionism. I can barely sit down without the ideas screaming in my head to write more. Hopefully once I get it done, I'll finally get some rest. I'm not complaining too much though, She does deserve it.

And it's back to work I go.

Ahh...so for those of you who couldn't go, or Zinny and Chaz who just indulge me by listening to me rant. Here's my rundown of Con this year.

For starters, it was fanfuckingtastic. Partly because I got a weekend away from the children, and the other part because it's been awhile since I got to be in ritual space. I don't think our coven had done anything since Mabon.

I got there Thursday evening and was given the BEST birthday present EVER. The Cosmic Eye in Wyndotte is going out of business and my coven girls went in search of something Greek for my birthday. Tell me this isn't the most gorgeous statue of Poseidon you've ever seen.



The first class I went to was Jason Mankey's Aphrodite class. All of you know she's my patron Goddess, but it's always great to learn new things. And learn I did. It was a fantastic class. Informative, fun, and best of all, not a boring lecture. Nothing is worse than a class that sounds like someone is reading from Walter Burkert's book (love the book, but in my head I can hear the wheezy monotone old man reading it aloud). I love hearing about my Goddess in a non Wicca whitewashed way. I'm too creative to be a reconstructionist, but I can't stand how Neo-Pagan's today pidgeonhole Her into a simple airheaded love Goddess. It was defintely a relief to listen to someone who knew all her sides and depths.

There was one moment in the class where the presenter was telling the myth of Adonis. He told the ending that after Adonis died, he still got to spend time with Aphrodite in the underworld. I mentioned aloud, mostly to myself and Mara that I swore there was a flower involved after he died, and some guy goes "NO! That was NARCISSUS!". Well duh, but, I still swore there was a flower in the Adonis myth.

Mara, of course, had a grand old time ribbing me about getting a myth wrong. SO! Naturally I looked it up when I got home and FOUND THE DAMN FLOWER!
From Edith Hamilton's Mythology: "Aphrodite in her winged car high over the earth heard her lover's groan and flew to him. He was softly breathing his life away, the dark blood flowing down his skin of snow and his eyes growing heavy and dim. She kissed him, but Adonis knew not that she kissed him as he died. Cruel as his wound was, the wound in her heart was deeper. She spoke to him, although she knew that he could not hear her:-"

"But down in the black underworld Adonis could not hear them, nor see the crimson flower that sprang up where each drop of his blood had stained the earth."

Now I feel better and stick out my mental tounge at the snotty man in that class. ;) Thankfully Jason also nicely ignored our giggling.

We spent Thursday night catching up with each other in our hotel room.

I got up Friday morning and took Raven Kaldera's Myth Astrology class. It was extremely informative, however, my level of knowledge in Astrology is so little that most of the class went over my head. I can't recall from memory which house is what and what planet in what house is supposed to mean. I did find the storytelling while doing divination fun. I have the Mythic tarot deck and when I give readings, I always tell the myths the cards show to help make it easier to understand. I also found it intresting that Raven mentioned that a child born the same day and year as my child might not also be autistic, but probably has similar learning problems. It's be an intresting study.

Dawn and I then took a long break together, catching up, and hunting for food. I hadn't seen her since last Convocation and missed her dearly.

I did attend the Pagan BDSM class. Fig gave me a lecture before the class started that I had to be on my best behavior because he was still holding my fun in the Sex Magic class FIVE YEARS ago against me. Kara and I scare one Sex Magic teacher and I get labeled for life. You know, I don't think Donald Michael Craig ever did come back to Con.

I did behave tho! There was only minimal cuddling and joke making. The class was more of a discussion panel anyways. Sad. I was hoping for some new pointers. ;) Michelle looked gorgeous though.

After that class, Dawn and I went to the hotel bar. We talked about going to the Baphomet ritual, but instead we got drunk and closed the bar out. Yay. It's been so long since I got away from toddlers and had a good drink fest.

Eventually I'm guessing we made it back to our rooms. Cause I passed out, apparently even sleeping through the sex going on in the room.

We got up the next morning and chased the hangover away with coffee. We attended the Fey of the Underworld class, which I must admit was a little disappointing. Maybe we were just all strung out and cranky or that guy really was as flakey as we were seeing. He went off talking about Fey Wells. I asked him what a Fey Well was. He responded by telling me the benefits his pumpkins get from his Fey Well. Mara then asked again but for like a dictionary definition and how you would make one. He responded by describing what his looked like. So we gave up. Still don't know what one is.

We then did a guided meditation to the Fey Underworld. The presenter played a drum along with his guided imagery. However he never described what anything looked like, which is something that could be more for us to use our imaginations, but he told us we were walking down to the Underworld door and proceeded to do a 15 min drum solo. Mara whispered "I'm tired of walking". heh.

So then we get to this Fey Underworld door, he tells us we hear someone on the other side, and then tells us to turn around and leave. I was like WTF. We spent 20 mins getting to a door just to leave? We laughed a lot afterwards that it was like giving the finger to whoever it was who tried to talk to us, "I'm alive bitch, watch my ass as I walk away".

I then went to Jason Mankey's Pan class. I figured 1) it was Greek and 2) it would be good intro for the later Pan ritual. The class was very well done and informative. I don't actually know much about Pan besides the few myths, so it was nice to get a broader knowledge. Though, I do have to say, poetry when you're hungover is somewhat torture lol. I'm not much a prose or poetry person anyways. When I do my Greek rituals, I tend to read the Hymn, and then write my own.

I tried to go to the altered states class but my body told me it was nap time. So I took a nap before going down to the Tempest Smith Foundation raffle. I didn't win anything but the song sung for Denessa and Annette's grief had me in tears. I think if I ever lost Clinton I would be comatose. I can only imagine that kind of pain. It was still beautiful though.

Susan and I then went to the Pan ritual. Which was also fanfuckingtastic. It was exactly my kind of ritual. Greek, sexy, drinking, and praising. I'm sure Pan was very proud of the ritual they put on. The Nymphs were gorgeous and very well in character and the energy was amazing. Susan and I definetly got into it. If Clinton had been at Con, we definetly would fucked like rock stars afterwards.

We then took that Pan energy to the bar where were attracted many other people to join us. The masquerade ball had nothing on the party we had going on. I did have a couple people come up to me at the bar who attended the Pan ritual who said, "You know Michelle, I remember the Baubo ritual you did." (Baubo was a woman who met Demeter while she was in deep grief after losing Persephone and flashed Demeter her vajayjay to make her smile). One part of my ritual was taken from a fantastic book and was a penalty game. It's like musical chairs except if you're "out" you had to tell a raunchy joke or show a body part. It was hella fun and sexy. They told me I should do that ritual at Con, which spawned a conversation of whether or not Con would allow nudity like that.

We then closed the bar down again. A waiter came up to us and told us the hotel restaurant is always quiet and boring and thanked us for the laughs. Said we made his night, which made me wonder how much a perv he secretly was with how ranchy we were.

I left early Sunday to be able to spend some time with my Clinton before he had to leave for work. I love my kids, but was glad for the break, but I always miss Clinton when we're apart. It's nice to be back home with him.





 

TWO DAYS! I'm going crazy with the waiting. Mandy and I have been emailing back and forth our excitement and impatience that is Convocation. I have finally kicked the cold Connor gave me and I'm SO READY for a break.

I got to go out yesterday for the first time in almost a week to go shopping for odds and ends that I'll need to take with me. I ran out of shampoo and Clinton's dandruff shampoo makes my head itch. I got some new makeup and munchies.

I've been pouring over the class schedules and I'm having a really hard time this year making up my mind on which classes to take. There are two on Thursday that are really intriguing.

Michelle Belanger: The Rite of Seven Gates
Descend into the underworld through a ritualized process as described in Walking the Twilight Path (Oct ’08). This is an intense guided journey. This is a closed door ritual.

&

Jason Mankey: All Acts of Love and Pleasure are My Rituals:
Worship of Aphrodite in the Ancient World Aphrodite is beloved in the Pagan world, but how was she really worshipped by the ancient Greeks and Romans? In this workshop, we'll explore Aphrodite's origins in the Middle East, and how the once former protectress became the goddess of love and beauty. The workshop will also explore the idea of "Sacred Prostitution"" and look at how it was applied to the workshop of Aphrodite. Whether you are a lonely heart looking for the goddess of love, or one of her many priestesses, you're bound to learn something about Her at this workshop.

I'm defintely leaning toward the Aphrodite class, cause Yay Greek...but I do love Michelle Belanger. I'm defintely going to Jason's Pan ritual. It'll be intresting to see how he does his Greek rituals. More Pagan or Reconstructionist. The tarot classes look fantastic too.

Thursday can't come fast enough, yet I still have so much to do.

So our Anniversary trip fell through. However, that means I get to go to Con. As much as I'd love to spend a weekend alone with Clinton, Convocation is a good second choice.

I'm getting so excited already. The theme this year is the Devil card, so there are a lot of darker classes, which is a nice change. I'm very excited about Jason Mankey's classes.

Maybe it's just this side of Michigan, but I haven't really found many other Greek pagans. I'm very intrested in his Aphrodite class, see if his research is close to mine. Plus a Pan ritual is very intriguing.

Discussing it brought up a conversation with Clinton last night, remembering my last Greek ritual where I made a marshmellow bull, slit his marshmellow throat, and drained his "juice" on the bonfire. I thought it was brilliant, Clinton thought it disturbing.

Michelle Belanger's classes look really good this year too. I thought she was amazing last year.

Only about a month left. Whoohoo.

I'm still in recovery. My living room looks like a toystore threw up in it. The kids got SPOILED this year. Though my sister reminds me this happens every year.

It was the year of dump trucks for Connor. He got 4. He's finding it hysterical to run people over with them while laughing like a madman.

Cassandra is having a huge issue with sharing. If Connor even gets near her area she starts screaming "Swiper no swiping!" at him.

Clinton and I are discussing an Anniversary weekend getaway in Feb. Whether I do that or go to Con...I SO need the break.

So Clinton outdid himself for Winter Solstice this year. He made a turkey dinner that I think would have shamed most 5 star restaurants. He was so lovely all day too. Let me take a nap and kept being all romantic (which for Clinton is a little odd).

We had his mother and stepdad come over for dinner as well. They brought the most fantastic wine and cookies. It was so nice and the kids were actually really good.

We let the kids open their Yule presents and Connor went buttnuts over his dump truck. He kept ramming it into things and falling down laughing.

Cassandra got a baby doll and she immediately stripped it naked and told it to go night night. It was pretty funny.

It's nice to have a family day because Christmas gets crazy with visiting all his family members.

And I have to cut this short cause Connor just chucked a My Little Pony at me.

So Clinton couldn't wait til Sunday to give me my Yule present. He got me a Nintendo DS (pink!) and all the accessories with the new Harvest Moon game. I'm sooo excited.

My Mom told me she'll get me the Final Fantasy Revenant Wings game for my birthday.

Yay!

He got his mp3 player early as well, so we're both pretty happy. We made Christmas cookies last night, peanut butter with hershey kisses in the middle. And we're having a turkey dinner for Yule.

It's going to be a good holiday.

And of course Convocation in Feb!

So it's Thanksgiving and I'm curled up in bed sick. Cassandra and I have to stay home today while Clinton and Connor visit family. It's a little depressing but at the same time it'll be nice to have a little quieter home.

Cassandra and I spent yesterday on the couch. She watched those old claymation Christmas movies and I read webcomics online.

I finally got the tree up. Clinton bought me a new one this year. It's big and fluffy and I love it. My sister was here this weekend and we had a great time.

Time for more medicine and maybe work on Clinton's scarf some more.

So I had Monday all to myself. Clinton watched the kids and I holed myself up in my room with Final Fantasy X-2. Clinton knocked on my door with a surprise. Apparently while I was hiding from the screaming monsters, he found my aquarium setup in the basement.

He asked me to watch the kids while he ran an errand. Then he came home with a new baby turtle!!! I know some of you remember poor Theseus, my painted baby turtle, who passed away after my roomates didn't feed him while I was gone to some funerals in FL.

He didn't get me another painted turtle, a red eared slider, but he's growing on me. He's super tiny and cute. We named him Frodo.

The poor baby freaks whenever someone walks by the tank.

The kids are doing well and we're preparing for Connor's baby blessing and birthday party next month. Clinton has made an 8ft tall fog breathing dragon out of drywall. I helped make a couple of coat of arms, and Clinton is making some battle axes. My lil knight is turning 1. It's bittersweet.

Not much has been going on here. I dealt with sick kiddies last week, this week it's been Connor teething and left over stuffiness causing him to not sleep. We've finally got him settled.

We've spent the past two mornings catching up on yard work. It got BAD. Like "that white trash house" bad. It's finally looking back to decent. I felt bad cause we had the kids out playing in the yard with us this morning and the mosquitos swarmed their faces in minutes. I didn't think it was bad and didn't get bit but those poor babies got eaten. I'm expecting swollen eyes soon.

We're preparing for our yearly trip to FL in August. My Mom and I are beyond excited. I'm just praying the flight goes well. We all have seats together and at least Clinton will be with me.

Clinton and I have been trying to have more couple time. Between him being away from the house 12 hours a day for work and me being worn out by two children, we tend to ignore each other at the end of the day.

This week we've been playing Lego Indiana Jones together. We really should stop playing games together. He's video game "special" and I end up yelling at him when he can't figure out how to make his guy walk straight. We've somehow made it work though. I burst out laughing when during Lego Indiana Jones, he was playing Short Round and died, before I could sigh he busts out with "I comin Dr Jones". I went "You so didn't just do the accent."

We both can't wait for The Office to come back on. We rarely find a show we both like.

I can't believe my little man is going to be one next month.

So we went to see Indiana Jones last night. I thought it was great but I've only casually watched the previous ones maybe twice. Clinton on the other hand is quite the fanboy so he was kinda "eh" about it.

When I saw the shape of the crystal skull, I thought, surely they aren't gonna go there. That's quite a bit of fantasy. And of course they did. Though I also swore in The Prestige surely they weren't gonna go there...way off the realistic mark. And they did...but that movie was great.

It was nice to get away from the kids for a bit and have a date.

I swear the kids woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. We got up at 6:30 and it's been screaming and crying ever since. Connor went back to bed just now and Cassandra is pouting in the corner cause I won't get her her fourth cup of water in an hour.

I love them to pieces but these are the times I wear my iPod and dream about being on a boat in the Caribbean.

Least I got Litha to look forward to. A whole day of sun bathing, drinking, dirty jokes, and ritual. I actually usually forget the summer sabbats. I think I go into a heat coma or something, but I'm excited this year.

So much going on and yet not much. We had Cassandra's IEP yesterday and got her therapy goals for preschool set. All her new teachers/therapists loved her. Connor also got a lot of attention as he was banging his fists on the table and grunting loudly as he does.

We had Clinton's mother, stepfather, and two of Leslie's kids over last night. Clinton bought us the Wii Fit so we were all falling all over the place playing that. I'm determined to lose this damn baby weight. Two kids in two years fucks the body up.

I've got FOCAS Litha on the 15th. They made it on Fathers Day but Clinton was insistant I go because he knows how much I love getting together with the coven and going to public rituals.

Mandy is leading ritual for our unofficial coven/group of random practitioners on the 27th. She's never written or lead ritual before so this will be fun to see. She just got her first step into becoming a shaman so I wonder if we'll see some of her sweat lodge stuff.

MEC sent me a flyer for their events. The woman who does the Peruvian Fire Rituals at Con is COMING TO JACKSON. I live in the middle of nowhere so I screamed at Clinton he better take that day off because I'm not missing something that good in my own town. I usually drive over an hour for FOCAS stuff.

They also had the Con teachers listed and Michelle Belanger is coming back next year. More squealing and dialing Mara's number. We have girl crushes on her and two years in a row just made our day. Not to mention her classes are amazing.

They had ads for their Samhain Ball and the MI Witches Ball but I dunno if I'll do any of that stuff. I tend to stick with events with people I know.

So we're heading to FL in August to see my family. My Dad is beyond excited and I'm nervous. My Dad and I just started talking and the thought of spending 3 days with him in his house with my kids is freaking me out.

At least we're doing Connor's birthday with my Mom.

We went to the BBQ at his Dad's house yesterday. Nathan couldn't come to MI until next month but he called everyone.

We played outside with the all the kids and most of us got a little wasted. We also got to meet Leslie's new boyfriend.

Clinton starts vacation today so we have a whole week free to do whatever we want. Problem is we can't seem to decide what we want to do. Not a big shock though, cause it's Jackson and there really isn't anything to do.

I celebrated Mothers Day on Saturday because Clinton had to work on Sunday. It was great. He let me sleep in, brought me breakfast and coffee in bed, took care of the kids all day, and took me out to dinner. The only bad thing was Cassandra walked into my Mother-in-law's pond and all the screaming and grabbing at her to yank her out freaked the hell out of her. It took until almost midnight to calm her down.

Sunday was okay. The good part is they let Clinton go home five hours early. The bad part was my Mom totally ruining my day. I'm no longer dealing with it.

Clinton and Josh decided to take down one of our trees this morning. Let's just say it was like an episode of Home Improvement and I almost lost part of my house and had a heart attack. Clinton at least had the common sense to call his uncle who removes trees for a living. It's down safely now.

Cassandra and Connor are good. We should be deciding the details of her preschool goals next month.

My life hasn't exactly been journal worthy intresting lately. We've kept Cassandra's speech therapy going every week. She also goes to an Autistic playgroup Tues mornings. Cassandra was accepted into an inclusive Autistic preschool. They only allow 8 kids and she is one. This is good because it's intensive on exactly the kind of therapy she needs. I'm very excited about it.

Connor is trying so desperately to crawl. He's also VERY boyish. He's violently slamming anything he picks up, he screams just to hear himself scream, and kicks and punches when you pick him up. He exhausts me. However, Clinton is so proud of his "manliness".

Clinton and I are great. We've been pouring over catalogs and stores picking out stuff for our gardens. We prepared the front spots for flowers and the spot in the back for vegetables. We've gone through my Pagan gardening books and his mother's books to see which flowers best pick those spots and which I can use magically.

We've been playing Lord of the Rings: The Third Age together on Gamecube. He's forced to play Idrial the elf and constantly yells at the Goblins to "kiss his tiara's ass". Much fun.

I did Beltane for our coven and went to FOCAS's Beltane. Both were great. Apparently my spell for the coven is working wonders. Miss Mandy even got a date from it. Whoot.

I'm going to FL in August for Connor's first birthday. It'll be nice to see my family for once.