Since I've been gone

We still don't have Internet. Or cable. Or furniture in our living room. And I am not sure what's more alarming. That it's been over a month of us living like glorified frat brothers circa 1982. Or that I am pretty much OK with it. See that trap door over there that leads to a deep, dark abyss of nothingness? Yep. Right there. That's where the judgers can ever so kindly go. In other words...don't judge me for embracing and being OK with our cableless, internetless, and furnitureless life. Want to know something even worse? I have a giant pile of clean laundry in my living room. Ya know, where the furniture should go if we were normal adults. And I catch Apple and Bobo playing King of the Mountain on it approximately 58.4 times a day. I should probably fold it and put it all away. But then what would my dogs play on? I'd have to buy them toys and stuff.

Here's a little photographical update of what's been going on around these here parts. It's true that my blogging has gone to the wayside. But I have been tweeting and Insta'ing like no one's business. But I make it everyone's business. Or whoever wants it to be their business.

Oh and I lasted ten days sans Facebook. But I went crawling back. For good reason.

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Since I've been gone

Some things

So I deactivated my personal Facebook account the other day. And I think in doing that I deleted my Facebook page for this blog as well. Oops.

And guess what?! I don't miss it all that much. I definitely do not miss reading other folk's updates. I figure that anyone I am super close to would find me IN REAL LIFE if they had something super important to share with me. Right? Exactly. Well. Let's hope anyway.

I do miss updating my status. Random things. Things I find funny throughout my day. Facebook allowed me to air my attempts at making my life appear interesting and/or funny. Which it totally is. Or is not. I suppose that is up for debate. Sometimes I think I was successful at humoring people. But I am sure there were a few folks who thought I should take my feeble attempts at a comedy act on the road......and leave it there.

And to those folks....well you're getting a break from me now, aren't ya!? Are you enjoying this slight reprieve from an over sharer? You're welcome. I am sure I will be crawling back. You can't be rid of me forever now.

I sorta ditched the blog inadvertently too. That wasn't so intentional. Just sorta happened. I've been in a funk lately. My grandma died last week. Combine that with the fact that I am almost 110% convinced that I have every symptom of PMDD....well yeah, it's good I didn't get my blog on. What have I been doing in my offline time? Googling the symptoms of PMDD. Amongst many other things. Is their a diagnosis for a person who Googles too much? I think I have that disorder.

My grandma was awesome by the way. Seriously the coolest lady ever. We had the same middle name. We shared some quirks and similar interests as well. I loved her. Everyone who met her loved her. You just couldn't not love Charlotte Jean Cooper.

On a related note: dementia sucks.

Below are some picture of her and I together on my wedding day. She didn't always look so frail. For being barely 100 pounds, she sure did pack a punch. And then there is a little piece of her obituary. Followed by a view of Fox Lake. The home where she dwelled for most of my 28 years. I took it the morning of her funeral, from the place where she always perched her petite frame. Without fail she would be there every morning I'd wake up at the cabin. She'd be sipping a cup of coffee (from a clear mug) and smoking a Misty 120. I know. Smoking is gross. But I sure would give anything to walk down the steps of the cabin and catch the waft of her cigarette burning. Just one last time.

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Some things

Dog Mamma

That's right. We celebrate me around here on Mother's Day. No. I haven't ever felt a contraction or carried anything in my womb for nine months (that I know of)....buuuut I do have an undying love for my pupper pups. That borders slightly on the unhealthy side. And they love me quite unconditionally too. I AM their mother. 

They even get me presents. By way of their father. Who may or may not think gifts from your dogs on Mother's Day is a bit silly. Yet does it regardless.

This year the pupperonis outdid themselves. They unleashed their ol' mamma in the Home Depot garden center, where she promptly spent a couple too many dollars on pretties for her patio. I haven't potted them yet do pictures forthcoming. I love them. They love me. And of course I lurv presents. Combine that with getting to spend some quality time with my parents (my mom graduated college yesterday btw--so proud of her magma cum laude status), naps, a trip to the dog park, time with friends, a super successful grand opening for Pet Evolution (I cut the the ribbon and shmoozed with Woodbury mayor)...well the weekend was quite swell.

My kids are naughtier than your kids. 

How was yours? Do tell.







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Dog Mamma

DMV

You know that sound you make when you exhale a deep breath out of a barley parted mouth? Kinda like a muffled trumpet sound. Yeah. I just made that noise. Inadvertently. At the DMV. And there is someone sitting right next to me. I feel like I need to tell him that my mouth made that noise. And not my butt.

Why am I at the DMV, you ask?

Several reasons.

I needed to update my license with my new address. Reason number one. I attempted to do that yesterday. But Sharon at the Washington County DMV informed that my license was suspended. Shit. After some further investigation we learned it was because I didn't pay a ticket I got last summer. I remember the ticket. I was speeding and instead of giving me a ticket for speeding he have me a ticket for false information on my license. And no. The false information was not my weight. It was my address. It was the address I had five years ago. Like five moves ago. What can I say? I am lazy and never change that shiz. But a liar I am not. So I confessed that I didn't live there anymore. I figured Officer Joe Shmoe would go easy on me. I had napping babies in the car.

Fast forward to now and apparently my license has been suspended since last October. Unbeknownst to me. Oy. I swear Jesse paid it. He didn't. It happened all around the wedding. I blame that. But it's still inexcusable despite my attempt at making them. Because this has happened before. But I got caught. And arrested. In Georgia. I may tell you that story sometime. But probably not.

So I am here at the DMV. I tried to go yesterday but apparently it closes at 1:30 on Wednesdays. And by 1:30 they mean 1:30. Not 1:41. When I arrived. So back I went today. To pay my fine. And reinstate my license. And get a copy of our marriage certificate. And change my name on my newly updated and reinstated license.

I am waiting. And waiting. And. Waiting. My number is C235 and C234 is being helped right now.

Stay tuned.

Oh. Joyous day. They need to take my picture. And I look like death. Who decides to not shower on license picture day?

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DMV

Did you win?

Hey you. Have the heard the news? We announced those winners for the of the blog design giveaway. I couldn't hop online at all on Monday to reveal the winners so I had Emily Basil hijack my blog and direct you to place where all was revealed. What is you? Maybe. One of you have snatched up your prize (Emily from Dashboard Diary). But we had a second person win too. That's right. We decided to give it away to another person as well. Holla! Better go check it out on The Blog Tap. And while you're there be sure to link up your blog for yet another awesome blog design giveaway. That's a grand total of THREE blog design giveaways from Miss Emily. Hey. Don't thank me. I am not the one doing the designing. I am just the bearer of this great news.

Now. Whatcha waiting fer? Go link them shiz up. 

Oh. And Mike and I did another practice drawing for the grand opening of Pet Evolution this weekend. Just making sure it all goes off without a hitch, ya know? And for your viewing pleasure I took a video of it.

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Did you win?

And The Real Winner Is...

Hi there faithful Our Crazy After readers Emily from Hope Squared here.  I have broken into Lo's blog as she is currently unable to share the exciting news about the Blog Design Giveaway with you - you know the lady has got to work or something responsible like that...but first I just wanted to note that she's pretty brave to give me free range of her space. No! just kidding - Lo is far to nice to play tricks on!   Plus I fear that she is a much more strategic prankster and I am not sure I am ready for that.  But  I will share something cute with you - because I can't resist to show this handsome dude off and there is clearly too much dog talk and not enough feline loving. 

OK so I am clearly not here to talk about my cat {even though he IS ridiculously cute} I am here is to tell you that we drew a winner last night!!!! Are you super stoked?  Was it you?  Or you?  Or even YOU?  Well you are going to have to visit The Blog Tap {click this link} to find out who the lucky person is.  So what are you waiting for??  Your personal invitation has been delivered.  And there are a few other surprises too...

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And The Real Winner Is...

And the winner is....

OK. That was a bit of a tease. I don't have a winner for the blog design giveaway. Not yet anyway. But I will have one for you on MONDAY!! And maybe something else too......

In the meantime. Here is a little video of Mike and I doing a make believe giveaway. His big grand opening for Pet Evolution is next Saturday (mark that on your calendars, local folks), and for the last month people have been making $1 donations to a few no-kill animal shelters in the area. Each donation gets their name in a drawing to win various prizes from the store. We decided to do a practice run at things to assure that the real drawing will go smoothly. Because heaven forbid we have a botched giveaway drawing, right?

And here's the thing. I am probably never going to do a vlog. It makes me nervous. I am a total goon, and the world doesn't need to be exposed to that. Buuuut I have no problem videotaping other people and exposing them on this here blog. I am nice like that.

Oh, and did you like the update on Slim Jim Louie? He is still hanging around. I need to do my final chapter of the Tail Of Slim Jim Louie. Here is part one and part two if you want to get caught up.

Happy Friday, people. I am happy to announce that the suburbs have not eaten me alive yet. But I still need help unpacking. Who wants to come over and help me? I will make beergaritas!

Linking up with...

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And the winner is....

The name game

Sometimes Jesse and I will play the name game for our future children. No. I am not pregnant. We've done this pretty much forever. I am sure we aren't the only couple that does this so I carry no shame with this harmless go around.

A recent name game conversation:

Me: I like the name Jacoby.
Jesse: That sounds ignorant.
Me: Ignorant? What?
Jesse: Yes. Ig ig. (We tend to find the oddest ways to doubreviate things--double abbreviate)
Me: It most certainly is not ignorant. We can call him Coby for short.
Jesse: My child will not be called Kobe. (Of course he has to bring a sport reference to the table. This is my husband after all.)
Me: Well what about Colby? Colby Cooper Jerle. CCJ.
Jesse: I knew a Colby. He was 400 hundred pounds and everyone called him Cheese.
(30 seconds later)
Me: Ohhhhh. I get it. Like as in Colby Cheese.

As for the moving. We are completely moved out of the Inglewood compound. But we continue the unpacking at the new abode. It seems endless. I swear I threw away a whole ton of shiz before leaving. But apparently not enough. Every box I open? Mooooore shiz. Go figure. I did, however, manage to sell or give away all of our furniture but our bed. We didn't really have nice stuff. Lots of hand me downs. We were basically at a furniture status above that of a frat house. So now we have no furniture. Which is only slightly worse than what we had before. I have been perusing Craigslist. Because that's where grown ups go to shop for furniture, right? Exactly. Nobutseriously. We went to some legit furniture stores and everything was so not my scene.

It's time for dinner. A late dinner.

Jesse: Do you want pizza rolls or just pizza?
Me: Probably just pizza since we had pizza rolls last night.
Jesse: We should probably go grocery shopping.
Me: Yeah. Maybe. But I am probsbly not getting off this bed tonight.

Ohhhh and finally. Kristen over at Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (the very first person to ever ask me to guest post) made me this little side by side comparison of Bobo and Doby from Harry Potter. The resemblance is uncanny, no?

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The name game

Hope Squared Blog Design GIVEAWAY!!

Hey all! I am super delighted to bring you a fun little giveaway I have been working on with my girl, Emily. Of course there is a bit of a catch with this giveaway. It's only open to blogger who have less than 100 followers. I want this to help someone who is just starting out in this big, bad, blogging world. A person who wants to give their blog a new look, but can't afford the costs of a professional redesign. 

No other strings attached. Just comment on this blog post and we will draw a random, lucky winner next Monday, May 7th. No need to like me on Facebook. Or Twitter. Or Instagram (@lojerle). But of course feel free to do so if you genuinely like me, and want to keep up with my every waking moment. And why wouldn't you, right??? And most certainly be sure to tell me a bit about yourself in the comment too. What do you blog about? Why do you blog? I especially want to hear from the people who are first time visitors. I have been slacking with my blog comments as of late (I blame the move to the burbs) so hopefully this will be the kick in the pants I need to start visiting new bloggers again.  

Oh and feel free to tweet all about it. That will get you a second entry. And even if you have more than 100 followers, I'd be tickled if you took the time to tell some of your smaller blogger buds about it via Twitter or your own blog. 

Here is Emily, telling you a bit more about herself and her awesome, mad sweet skillzzz.

It's all about to get crazy up in here!  My name is Emily and I blog over at Hope Squared. But before you get all excited about a free blog design - let's get our facts straight - I am not a professional designer! There I said it.  It feels good to be open and honest about this.  But I have learned a few HTML tricks in my young blogging career.  In the past year - I have been fortunate enough to have a few brave souls let me tweak their corners of the inter-web and practice my new self-taught skills - why don't your check them out and decide if a blog design by yours truly is something you're interested in winning.  I'll wait patiently while you judge me. {click the picture to be directed to the blog}

Whatcha think?  Let me tell you - I have signed up for a blog design course for the month of May and am ready to put those newly learned and refined skills into practice. So are you ready to get intimate and let me tinker with your blogs insides?  I hope so and hope you win this fun giveaway.  I am all about bloggers helping bloggers - so let me help you help me help Lo!  Win-win-win. If you're in then I am excited to work with you - because nothing makes me happier than landing on a blog that looks good, clean and fresh.  I mean we shouldn't judge books by their covers - but let's get real, we all totally do.  I am not claiming that a fresh design will make your blog grow overnight (it would be awesome if it did) but it might attract someone to stick around?!  Plus a fresh design is like a new pair of underwear.  We all know what that feels like, am I right?  Good luck from one newb to another.

And last but not least, be sure to check out my post from yesterday (this is Lauren typing again btw). Keep this family in your thoughts and prayers. And for the love all that is good, spread the word, and help stop the hate. ◦

Hope Squared Blog Design GIVEAWAY!!