In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

So a proper update on the new home is in order I think.

Since moving in two weeks ago, I have more or less settled in. Here's some better photos of my decor:

The living room:

The kitchen:

and I got this wicked magnet for the fridge:

And the bedroom/office because it's huge and I'm making it 2 rooms:

I'm still waiting for the pull-out couch I'm stealing from Mumsy (there is an absurd total of SEVEN sofas in her house), which will go where the fainting couch is now, and then I can move the fainting couch into the bedroom. I'm getting another one of those room dividers as well (when I'm not so intensely poor with the expenses of moving and settling in), and possibly taking one of the desks from Mum's house.

I found this awesome little garden area down by the creek:

I'm setting up my archery target there. And the ground curves up to meet the hill in such a way that I can shoot my crossbow there without worrying about killing anyone by accident! :D

I should mention my neighbour.

HOLY CRAP.

I had met him when I first looked at the apartment, but I guess in my excitement at looking for my own place, his appearance failed to fully impress itself upon my vision. I was reminded on the day I moved in, and have been infatuated ever since.  (The move-in actually came to a complete standstill when me, Mum, Stepmom, Lil Sis, Big Sis#2, and my friends C. and M. came face to face with Adonis-Neighbour in the driveway. Dad, Lil Sis's boyfriend, Big Sis#2's hubby, and C.'s boyfriend could only stand back and feel inadequate).

Sadly, Adonis's girlfriend is just slightly prettier than the average supermodel, and she also lives upstairs.

BUT

last Friday, Adonis and I were chatting in the driveway and he informed me that his girlfriend is moving out at the end of the month.

.......

I made some apple pie to share with him, you know because I'm neighbourly like that.

ALSO I GOT ANOTHER CAT.

note how adorable and innocent she looks there at the shelter....

Poison Ivy is about 5 months old. I had originally planned to get a cat the same age as Harleyquinn, but when I went to visit the lady I got Harley from, I just fell in love.

They’re still fighting a bit. Also Ivy is just as demented as Harley.

here she is stalking Harleyquinn from the top of the closet door

And Ivy likes playing with the toy basket.

Not the toys. Just the basket.

.....In other news, I have turned into possibly the biggest loser ever gotten so involved in church things that it has more or less become my social life.

I hang out with the pastor and his wife on Tuesdays (it's like a book club/group therapy session and I'm actually amazed at how much I enjoy it). I spent most of yesterday outside the church painting children’s faces for free at Applefest. I also help with the girls ministry (it's basically like brownies and girl scouts) every Wednesday night--I have been assigned to the six and seven-year-olds.

FUNNY STORY.

I rarely had moments in my years of nannying wherein I lost control of my children. But that was because the children knew me, and knew to fear the Mich-Is-Getting-Pissed tone. A group of seven-year-old girls who barely know me? Not so much.

So last week, approximately 45 seconds into our lesson on kindness, one of the children declares that she has a mighty need to use the restroom. And obviously the other three girls also had to use the restroom. Since the group leader was still trying to set up and get organized, she sent me to take the girls to the loo.

I attempted to contain them. I attempted to keep them quiet.

They were LITERALLY scaling the f*cking walls.

They'd gotten so worked up after that, we couldn't keep them focused for the rest of the evening. I went home and prayed that the Lord please make me barren.

I joined the women's ministry as well, and we had our first get-together last Saturday. And now I am somehow in charge of planning the next outing. Pastor's Wife and I decided that horseback riding must happen in the near future, so I'm planning a trail ride. The two of us are possibly dangerous together, because we have also started organizing a "70's party," and instead of doing this, say, on a Saturday night,

we thought it would be best if it happened during a regular Sunday service.

Oh and we found these on Tumblr, to put on the windshields of the annoying people who park illegally in the church lot:

Mumsy is absolutely horrified that I'm getting so involved in church. She thinks I drank the koolaid and that I'm going to turn into some mindless Bible-thumping fool.

....so naturally, whenever she verbally pursues this notion, I put on this glazed expression with a manic smile and tell her she should really come to church and accept Jesus as her saviour, so she can be saved just like me.

Since Mumsy does not comprehend sarcasm in any shape or form, this usually freaks her out enough to change the subject.

She's not doing too well** with the whole living alone thing, but she’ll just have to get used to it because I ain’t moving back. I always thought I'd go crazy living on my own (like how I did when I was house sitting), but I FRIGGING LOVE IT. I guess technically I'm not alone--I have the cats, and it is nice knowing that there are people right upstairs. And my head is actually in a good place now. Learning to budget my money, however, is still a work in progress.........




**Mumsy claims she is not as scared at night as she was for the first few days, but whenever I see her or speak to her now and she mentions things like having dinner with friends, or needing help cleaning out the house to sell it, she throws out remarks like, "not that you'd bother coming down to help," or "I guess I'll just have to go on my own," etc. etc. I know this is just an evolved form of her usual strategies for ensuring compliance, but it's annoying. Especially since I have in fact gone to see her and help her out EVERY WEEKEND since I moved, and she has not so much as attempted to plan a visit to me.

You know, when I heard that Eddie was pregnant, I told her to abort! ABORT, ABORT, ABORT!

Some sneak-peek photos of the apartment (I'm not done decorating, and I am still in desperate need of more furniture):

the kitchen and living room, and the candles in my fireplace

And a close-up of the fireplace, because I rule:

.............................................................................................................................................

....I wasn't going to post this because I was kind of ranty and ravey when I wrote it, but I feel the need to say it.

Recently someone insisted on getting into an argument with me about abortion.

I don't like arguing. I especially do not like arguing about that kind of subject matter (where everyone has a very strong opinion and an equally strong belief that their opinion is infallible).

I am not pro-choice. I am not pro-life either. I am pro-we-should-never-have-had-the-need-to-invent-this-in-the-first-place.

But of course it's a bit late for that.

I guess I am also both pro-choice and pro-life. There are very valid points in the arguments for and against them, and I have seen extreme cases on both sides.

I know someone who was raped and had an abortion and felt totally fine with it and has since also gotten past the rape. I know someone else whose mother almost aborted him after she was raped, but changed her mind at the last minute, and his father (his mother's husband) has always treated him like a son and they have a great relationship, and his mom also managed to heal from it and accept him as her son and not her rapist's son.

I know someone who had an abortion because she had to choose between treating her leukemia or having a baby, and she ended up beating the leukemia and now many years later has 3 happy, healthy children and is still healthy herself. One of my best friends (since we were babies)

 is the daughter of a woman who was encouraged by all her doctors to get an abortion so she could begin chemo for her breast cancer. She refused, because she wanted her baby. She died only a few months after my friend was born.

I know several people who have had multiple abortions because they refuse to use condoms or go on the pill (this makes me so angry I can barely form words).  I know a girl who had an abortion because a pregnancy would have disrupted her plans of joining the army (which was the only way she would be able to go to college) and even though she had been totally ok with it and had considered all her options, she ended up sinking into an epic depression afterwards. 

I had a friend in college who got pregnant and her family kept telling her abortion was murder, but she was manic-depressive (among several other things), in an abusive relationship, and anyone who knew her could have told you that she would not have been mentally able to carry a child for 9 months and then give it away. She was already suicidal. So she had the abortion, and now over ten years later she is in a healthy relationship with a nice guy, and seems to be managing her emotional issues pretty well.

There isn't one right answer to this debate.

Do I want kids? F*CK NO. But could I have an abortion? Probably not. WHICH IS WHY WE USE CONDOMS AND BIRTH CONTROL PILLS. Or in some cases, the morning after pill, because accidents do happen, and there really is no need for them to turn into accidents that lead to you begging Lil Sis to push you down the stairs several months later.

In the cases of things like treating serious illnesses, that is no one's choice except the woman who MIGHT DIE if she does not have the abortion. 

And as for rape cases, it is my opinion that anyone who has not been raped should shut the fuck up.

Ok I'm done.