Cast of Characters

• the quiet one- dear hubby, the long suffering man.  he's gonna show up a lot. sometimes good, sometimes with a rant attached, 'cause he's human and so am i, but i love him an awful lot.  God only knows why he puts up with me
• fairypunk- entering the dreaded teen years and dragging me along kicking and screaming.  you know that saying "you pay for your raising"?  yeah.  just like that. (mommy, have i told you i was sorry lately for all i put you through?  i am.  really. really.REALLY sorry.)  favorite colors are hot pink and lime green.  she's kind of a spectacular kid.  she wears lime green doc-esq boots to school and has a brand new feather-y fascinator for her hair tomorrow.
• pirate- 8 year old boy, love narnia, ships, outdoors, bugs, smelling bad, trying to make mommy lose her mind, animals, science, gregorian chants and metalica. he's dyslexic, add, off the wall and super intense. he's hysterically funny, but sometimes i have to see him through someone else's eyes to remember that
• monkey princess- 5 year old, into all things pink and girl.  dances in a tutu on thursday afternoon then plunks her pink frilly little tush into a mud puddle before i can get it off of her and into the wash. so smart it's frightening.  her nose and cheeks are covered with freckles, but she'll tell you they're angel kisses that her daddy's momma gave her in heaven before she left there to come live with mommy and daddy. 
• sweet sister- is graduating from college this summer.  she's bar none my best friend.  my right arm. she spent her junior and senior years of high school practically living at my house (thank God for the family farm!) and everything i did she did right along side me.  she knows my kids better than i do sometimes and she definitely knows me better than i know myself.  she's the nerdiest person i know, but it's a dirty-nerdy.  i always know i can ask her anything and if she doesn't know the answer, i know she'll research it 'til she finds the right one.
• baby sister is a freshman in school.  she's 13 years younger than i, and i used to get dirty looks when i'd take her out for a stroll.  i used to sing her to sleep every night (and she still loves me anyway!).  she's the cool sister.  the one that creates outfits that are absolute works of art.  she wears vintage hats and her hair color is subject to change like light hitting a peacock's feathers.
• unk- my kid's favorite uncle and my favorite brother.  he and his wife (aunchairty) live out of state and we don't get to see them nearly enough.  
• daddy- my hero.  fixer of all broken things, knower of all unknown, builder of all projects, willing to drop anything he's working on for anyone that needs a hand.  never met a stranger, never at a loss for words, and more importantly, never without a funny one-liner.  best quote ever: "time wounds all heels".  he's mended broken hearts and broken fences at the same time and once explained the inner workings of a carburetor, centrifugal force and  quantum physics on a 45 minute car ride home from my boyfriend's house.  yeah, he's just that cool. he wears cowboy boots, even when he was behind the pulpit.
• mommy- wow.  there just aren't even words.  she has a direct line to God, like none i've ever seen.  her greatest desire was to raise her children to love and follow Him.  she is mother to we 4, and countless adopted daughters and sons.  the chorus that will rise up to call that woman "blessed" will be deafening. she is wise beyond wisdom. kind beyond caring. she loves beyond pain.  and goodness, has she seen pain. she's absolutely the wind beneath my wings.  she is the best friend of many many people and she loves them all.  i only hope that someday i will be like her.
• the grands- just turned 90.  poppa bought the family farm on his 35th birthday, and the legacy that he's built here has touched hundreds of lives. they're sort of a quiet couple, and the wit is so dry that sometimes you kind of choke on it as it goes down. i am honored to be their caretaker, but sometimes, it's just plain hard. but they're very forgiving and they love me anyway, and really, what more could you ask for?
• chelle- slightly more mature friend, in that she has a real job, with a real paycheck.  single mom, 2 kids, 3 years away from empty nest.  has new pad close to the farm with a back deck just for grown ups.  super artistic, incredibly intelligent, very witty.  also, not above kicking my tookus to make me do what needs to be done.  every one needs a friend like her.
• stace & #2- stace is my partner in crime these days.  she and #2 are the parents of my other 2 sons.  their boys are at my house as often as we can get them here.  they sandwich pirate in age, and they're just fun to watch.  plus, stace and i get to jabber over coffee or potting soil or milkstands and that works out well for all of us.
• me-well, yeah.  i'm just a character all to myself.  i have lots of people in my life.  all of them are friends.  a lot of them have been best friends at some point or another.  that's not an exclusionary term in my book, but an inclusionary one.  i guess i kinda see them as crayons.  how can you pick a favorite crayon?  they're all beautiful, but you don't really want to use a blue (no matter how pretty it is) to color the grass green, it just won't work.  so, i guess different chapters of my life have different friends.  or maybe, it's just different coloring pages. i dunno.