So today I managed to catch the child of the infamous neighbors of Isaac out and about without his parents. I've been wanting to catch him to have a small talk with him, but, of course if his parents saw me doing that, they would make a fuss. Luckily, he's allowed to wander the neighborhood as he so desires, even if he is only eight. We had a small chat which took the better part of an hour, mostly on what's acceptable and not acceptable. It took some time to get him to talk, but that was to be expected.

Not only does the kid not get punished at all for the bad things he does, as we all figured, but that's the only way he gets attention. His parents don't give a shit about any of the good or normal things he might do and pretty much ignore him except when he's pulling things like he did with the firework. So that's how he's getting rewarded. Sadly, there's not much I can do about that. I would love to go try and pound some sense into his parents, but I don't think the law would look on me favorably. I also found out that he got told to do focus on Isaac's house. I'm sure they're not used to the resistance they've gotten from us, making that house a primary target.

Drake doesn't really seem to actually want to hurt anyone, at least. He asked if Puppet's all right without prompt. I just have to work on snuffing his tendencies to try and do the things he has to do to get his parents' attention. It's probably going to take awhile, but I did let him know that he's going to have to deal with consequences here. I'm hoping with a steady stream of consequences, he'll stop his current habits. The last thing I want is for him to turn out like the rest of his family. Luckily, with his parents letting him wander the neighborhood, it should give us ample opportunity to actually influnece him positively and give him some of the attention he really should be getting from them.

The biggest problem will be those parents. They won't appreciate it when they find out about it. I'm sure Drake won't be telling them on his own, but the less he does, the more suspicious they'll get, at least after awhile. I'm going to just have to keep a close eye on the entire situation as best I can. At least we have many eyes and ears all over the neighborhood. It makes it much easier. I do think I'm going to get him a water gun to give him after a bit more so he can take time some days to get involved in the ever-going water and goo fights when he might feel like it. I'll happily listen to any suggestions as well. What I could really use is a positive influence for Drake from someone about his age. He could really use an actual friend. I don't know if he's really had one before.

Other than that, things are going well. Doug has been complaining about the cold. Today's high, after all, was only 73 degrees. I had to let him pull out the electric blanket last night since it got down into the forties.

What an annoying pair of weeks. Perhaps January will just be a fluke month and February will start the year looking up. We can hope, of course with the sentencing of a pair of friends coming on Monday, it isn't likely, but we can still hope. Many could use for something to go their way.

But, for something good to focus on, Sierra is almost a year old. I'm pretty excited for her first birthday, even with everything going on. I've been out shopping almost daily, and that does not mean I bring something home everyday. Just because I go window shopping for kids does not mean I have to buy things. Doug will try and tell you different, not that he isn't just as bad as I am. That will also mean one of my three years is up. Only two more to go after this Thursday, but that's still more than half, but I'm getting there.

Children just grow up too quickly. It's hard to watch sometimes. Sierra's almost taken her first steps, she's working very hard on it, and Jamal's getting close to kindergarten. I need a good spell to slow someone's aging, but then what parent doesn't?

I suppose I should find something constructive to do, something to distract myself from everything happening. I'll be going shopping, again, and back to the hospital tomorrow. Doug's not looking forward to it, but it bring adventure into his life, and who can live without adventure?

Christmas is done and things are still wild. I've been working on preparing for a party for timorrow lately. Mostly it includes buying the necessary snacks and drinks and prepping the punch and other snacks, but it's still work. It's even more when you count the number of people involved, not that I mind. I like to keep busy.

Christmas was wonderful, as it really always is. Watching everyone open presents is a joy, especially those from Mikel, except mine. I always worry about my present from Mikel. Jamal had a great year. My mother got him a toy motorcycle, which he completely adores. All the easier for him to copy Mikel. My mother needs to work at being more subtle. Santa brought him a lot of cars for Christmas along with a couple large track sets. He's been enjoying them a great deal as well.

Sierra's been hiding in her set of tunnels that she got. She's taken to hide and seek and loves to crawl in and out of them to hide from people and sneak up on them. She has no lack of players, either.

It's been a good season. Flu season has avoided us thus far, which makes me very happy. I hope it stays away. Sometimes I almost feel like counting down the weeks until the season has passed us buy and we don't really have to worry about it. Here's hoping it stays away from us this year. We certainly don't need it.

With that, I should go to the store. We're supposed to get more snow tonight, another 3 inches. Of course, the last time we were supposed to get 2-4 inches of snow, we got a little under a foot. I'd rather stay in and not drive through that.

Everyone have a good night and happy New Year.

So this week finished our final heat filled energy sucking addition to the house for the winter. Doug is thrilled, and that's all that really matters. Our garage is now heated. I've been actually planning on it for awhile now, so I've been saving up for it. Doug pays little attention to the finances, so it was a good surprise for him. We'll call it an early Christmas present, not that it counts against the other presents he's getting. But the garage is now toasty when we have plans to go somewhere, which makes it easier on the heater of the car, it not needing to warm up to run hot air, which makes it even easier on Doug. Considering the arctic blast that is supposed to come through Saturday night or Sunday, it's a very nice addition. Doug still have his shopping to go, after all, and I think he might get the bad luck of winter deciding to come and stick around for awhile, which will make his shopping all the less comfortable. I do love watching him get ready to go somewhere, though. Even when it's just half of a block, we drive, and he takes fifteen minutes to get put together at least.

But, Christmas. I'm completely finished with my shopping, of course. I finished early last week, which makes me happy. I've always been an early shopper, I've had some presents for months, and it does me well. I just have to worry about driving Doug places if it's too cold so he doesn't have to worry about taking care of the car himself when he gets out of wherever he goes. I'll just go to Barnes and Noble when he's shopping for me and find a book to read.

Everyone's been extremely busy with Christmas coming up. It's a good stress relief for a lot of people, even most of those who want to grumble about it. Note, people who might want to try and get me into trouble, that I said most, not all. There's just something about this time of year that gets under people's skins here. It's good for the soul... most souls.

I think that's enough. I should go work on catching up on some things I need to do for our roleplay. Stay safe.

I think things are finally starting to calm down a little from Thursday and Friday, well, for most of us. Bait's coming over today to finish my Christmas lights up on the roof. I paid him extra money to make sure he did mine first. I like to be prompt. Yesterday was spent getting some of the snow off of our roof to make it safer. Of course, our way of getting snow off the roof is to send Mikel up there, him always being willing, and have him shove the snow off with a shovel.

This led to all sorts of excitement yesterday. Doug, Tripper, Jumanji, and Amber, just to name a few, were the victims of a bunch of wet snow coming down on them from above. Mikel enjoyed his job far too much. I didn't have to pay him, however, and now the roof is prepped for Bait to do his job.

There was a grand snowfight last night as well. Who knows who started it, but it started at about one in the morning and around three blocks were included in the warzone. This will make it quite interesting when we get more snow. It was good to see so much tension fade, though. It's as though the snow was almost purposely sent to us Thanksgiving and the day after. It's a shame that it will be melting here in the valley, and probably mostly today. Maybe we should make a trip tomorrow to higher elevations and take advantage of the added snow. Well, some anyway.

Breakfast smells like it's just about done, however, and so I should go see to it. I have many mouths to feed, and they get into the kitchen if it takes too long. I won't go into what happened last time that happened. Maybe I should get Penny a good heavy rolling pin. Hmm.

I just got back from the store. Since Doug is asleep, and I was still awake, I decided to pop out to do all the candy shopping I needed to do for him. It gives me plenty of time to stash it all away where he can't find it. He'll be searching for it, especially after reading this, but I'm not going to let him find it.

We've apparently started a Christmas war, if you ever thought such a think could exist. I bought a special bag from Hallmark, a No Peeking bag. It doesn't say that on the front. It simply says "Ho ho" many times. Well, I put it some tissue in it, put it where I knew Doug would find it, and then proceeded to be patient.

Just a few days ago, my patience paid off. The sound of police sirens followed by a voice telling the peeker to put the present down and back away slowly went through much of the house and naughty Doug was kept from trying to peek. So, what did he do yesterday? He came home with a pair of jingle bell earrings, which I flat out refused to wear until he used Jamal against me, and then I said I would wear then in the house. Then I was reminded that it was the day to take Jamal out Christmas shopping. He did not want me to take the earrings out of course, and so I ended up going out with them in.

To make things even better, word got to Mikel to come to my house, and so he got to see them. So I owe Doug. Yes, I do. I just have to figure out exactly what I'm going to do.

But, first things first. I need to go hide this candy, and then I suppose I'll sleep.

And now that I have made a long comment on Gayle's journal, I will now make a short update before I head to the hospital to await the arrival of my little brother or little sister.

Life has been busy, as always. The house is still full with people running in and out of it almost constantly. Markez has become especially adept at this and causes a lot of trouble. I've noticed he ends up over here a lot when he's hyper.

I think that's planned.

But I should go. I have to be there, after all.

It's a good thing we've driven everywhere today. We were prepared for the snow, or at least as prepared as we can be. Doug is never completely prepared for snow, and it's going to get worse for him, the poor thing.

He can hope that the -7 degree low forecast for Tuesday night is lifted a little, or a lot, before Tuesday night gets here. Winter is certainly giving us a nice preview, and it's a year when we aren't supposed to have much in the way of winter. We have the war starting to spark up between those who want a cold and snowy winter and those who want a warm and dry winter. Personally, either work for me, though Jamal would like the snow, I'm sure. I see children fighting with their father in the future over how winter should be. It's amusement to look forward to at least.

I almost hurt John last night due to him calling a twelve year old he arrested a little shit. I don't think he'll be making such comments in front of me again, or at least anytime soon. The next time he does, I will hit him happily, the asshole.

And then Mikel almost hurt him later for, again, being an ass.

He just knows how to make friends and influence people.

So there's my life lately. I'm still working with this kid who I can just see is going to find John to be a target. I can't blame him, of course, but I'd rather he not end up arrested.

Now I must go comfort Doug and make him hot chocolate.

I have been told that I must make a new post. I suppose it has been a long time since I've made an update, hasn't it?

My life simply has been amazingly busy. I haven't had much of a chance to settle down, rather I seem to be running everywhere at once. What with work and taking care of those I have at the house, it's been a very busy year, not that I mind at all. I like to be busy.

I haven't been feeling the best recently. I can't exactly explain it, but at least I've been on the mend. I think it will be a little while still until I'm a hundred percent again, but I will certainly get there, I know. I have a lot of work to do, I can't let things like this hold me down.

I've recently gained a new child into my household. He's only fourteen years old and has already been faced with more problems than anyone should ever have to face in their lifetime. He has yet to tell me much of anything that hasn't been recent, but I'm slowly working on that. I have an ass to kick, and that might well help gain a little more of his trust. It's obviously something difficult to gain. I have this feeling that he's going to make a game out of pickingon poor Doug, however, so we'll see how that goes. He's my new challenge, and a greater challenge than any I have yet faced. But I'm Bree, and Cheyenne is such a great help as well. We'll manage, I'm quite sure. The poor kid could certainly use it.

Mikel's been hyper ever since Halloween night. This has made for a noisier neighborhood, especially with him feeling better, but it is nice to see him acting much more himself again. Most people around here seem to be on the mend one way or another, and it's good to see that since holiday seasons also tend to help people a great deal and that's still coming up. This is a good time of year.

Now, I'm going to go order out for dinner. I'm in a good mood and Pizza Pipeline has excellent sandwiches, something Doug should be thanking them for time and again.

As a little break from my life which has become a little busier lately, I'm going to do one of these. I'll do Nadine later, and I'll also write out an update later as well. But I have to get back to that busy life here soon and don't have time for too much.

When Gayle adds me to sharionaq, I'll move this over there. But, for now, this is the only place I have to post it.

( Bristara Blooddawn )