Easy Bake Oven Saga

I thought the harmonica was bad. I thought wrong. These days my youngest sister has taken to the Easy Bake Oven, and is always baking. Always. Goodbye, harmonica and recorder. Hello, mostly baked goods. She has found her way into her bestfriend's brother's heart with her goodies. He is just 7 years-old, and can't get over how good at cooking she is. He even proposed, so the old addage "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach" is true. Apparently. So now I need to learn to cook and bake...

Anyway, how can you resist a miniature person who looks at you conjolingly while offering something they baked "just for you"? Ugh, she would make the Grinch's heart grow ten sizes.
Everytime I succumb I wonder if I am going to die. After all, how safe could it be, baking in a plastic oven with a light bulb? Olivia and her cakes of doom...

To Be Continued...Maybe. I just ate another of her cakes.

Harmonica...O how I hate thee!

Here's a pointer for all you would-be, should-be, might-be parents. Don't buy an eight year old a harmonica. My mom made that mistake, and Olivia decided to wake me up playing something a cross between the Mexian Death March and a cat in the trash compactor. I jolted awake, looking like a creature from Shelley's imagination, and behaving like Queen Latifah in "Bringing Down the House."
For a moment, I thought I was dead, but I realized that if that was somebody's idea of a heavenly chorus, they needed lots of help.
Olivia just beamed at me, "I hope you like it because I wrote it for you."
What can you say to that? Really. I just melted into a puddle, and smiled at her, and told her thank you....that I loved it. Can God really hold that teeny lie against me? And I really did feel warmer to it after she told me about it.
I passed mom on the way to the blessed shower, and grumbled, "Was it YOUR idea to buy her that noisemaker?"
She just grinned, and told me that Bethany and I had both had hormonicas.
I told her I didn't remember that. Perhaps I blocked it out.
"I do," she said with emphasis.
I later learned Olivia had dropped it on the street, and it fell apart, nearly getting run over. It survived. Mom put it back together like Humpty freakin' Dumpty, and now as I write this, Olivia is sounding like the Little Engine That Couldn't.

I'm Official, and Possible Plans!

I survived the midnight shift, which I fully expected to do despite my co-worker's attempts to worry me with her harrowing story of crashing her car on the way home after her first midnight...
I believe that the last five minutes of the shift lasted longer than the entire shift did!

I am now official staff(!), and will work my first "real" shift Saturday. Fox and I have plans to see each other before I head in for the evening since that's our usual day to spend together, so I am looking forward to that. I get along with the kids well. One calls me her "new best friend" or "twin" since we have so many similarities. The first day I earned one of the boys respect because, in his words, I'm "quick with those comebacks." The youngest likes me, I think, because I give him attention, something the older kids don't do. The others like me well enough, especially the gamer because a) I can rock on Guitar Hero, and b) I "blend in with the residents."

I really like it there, and hope that I can stay on long-term. I also hope that once Fox and I solidify our wedding plans that I will be able to focus my hours toward the mornings. I know they are hard to come by, but I would hate to be married to a man I never see as he works five days a week, all mornings to evenings, and currently my schedule is predominantly evening!

I am also rather excited, because if my younger sister and I can get the money together, and I can get the time off, we're thinking of doing some traveling next month before the semester starts. Summer break doesn't last as long as it used to, I'm afraid.

Kaiology 101

Hello! I’m Kaitlin aka Kai, and welcome to my space!

I am a twenty-nothing soon-to-be wife who finds amusement in everyday life, and life lessons in everyone I meet.
I am a Christian, and God is everything to me.
I’m a daughter.
I’m a sister.
I’m a friend.
I’m in love with my best friend Fox, and consider myself blessed to be marrying him September 19, 2009.
I’m a reformed doormat.
I’m mildly OCD.
I laugh whenever possible--even if it’s at myself.
I’m a militant pacifist.
I tend to be sarcastic.
I tend to be a little eccentric, but with everything from royalty to cattle rustlers in my ancestry, I could hardly be faulted.
I’m as unique as I am average.
I’m childlike, not to be confused with childish.
I’m awed and excited by the smallest things.
I don’t believe that anything or anyone is “ordinary.”
I read the works of Shakespeare by the age of eleven, THEN Nancy Drew…I still haven’t quite figured that one out.
I’m a story teller, and am writing a novel, well, two to be exact.
I love art--photography, drawing, painting, jewelry-making, crafting, upcycling, basic metal work, etc.
I have too many passions and only one lifetime…My main focus, currently, is psychology and troubled youth counseling.
I own more records than CDs.
I love movies!
I love to watch old black-and-white movies with the sound turned off so I can make up the story with my sisters.
I’m outgoing and reserved.
I’m a realist and a dreamer.
I love children, and they seem to love me.
I am rhythmically challenged.
I cannot cook to save my life…or yours, but I’m working on it!
I tend to view the world through my camera’s lens.
I love the rain--the sound as hit’s a metal roof, kissing in it, dancing in it, walking under trees as the raindrops slip through the leaves and branches.
I love storms, and watching them from a window.
I love to swing, especially by the river.
I love ice cream.
I love fireworks.
I love cotton candy.
I am even starting to like anime thanks to my nerdy mister and friends.
I like video games like Guitar Hero, Phoenix Wright, and Touch Detective.
I’m proud to be an American, but I’m not proud of my government.
I’m anti-war.
I love searching for the truth and finding answers to difficult questions.
I am a melting pot, but predominantly Cherokee and Irish.
I was once stalked by a butterfly.
I died nearly five years ago on Mother’s Day.
I speak Spanish fluently in my sleep.
I can’t wear watches because those that come in contact with me for extended periods of time stop working.
I can do what Mario Andretti can…in a golf cart.
I’m simply complex and naturally inquisitive.
I’m a helpless optimist and hopeful romantic.
I’m a rebel without applause.
I’m down to earth.
I view myself as a work-in-progress, and am constantly working to improve who I am.
I always see the good in life even when its misbehaving.
I want to make the most of my life and help others make the most of theirs.
I sometimes turn Southern when I become angry...and start dropping G's left and right. For example: "Guessing" becomes "guessin'" ironically, however, foreigners have asked me if I am from their countries…
I can never stay angry, and always forgive.
I'm insulted by stupidity.
I’m extremely empathetic.
I can lend an ear, as long as I get it back.
I’m honest and loyal to a fault.
I want to make a difference because a difference was made in me.
I’m me because everyone else was taken.
I would rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I'm not.