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ASIA'S BULLETIN!
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You'll never guess what Devin's planes are made out of. Talk about improvising... can you guess? Yes? No? They're cow bones, vertebrae scavenged from the desert, to be exact. My kids are as weird as I am - we like to hike around in the desert and bring home fossils, rocks, and bones, which we store in the garage. We even anonymously donated a cow skull to one of our neighbors front yard displays that had real antlers and an oval rock for a "skull". We removed the rock and replaced it with a cow skull one evening, and giggled like crazy over what their reaction would be when they saw it the next day! (we asked them a week later and they actually said they thought it was very cool) Bet you wish you had us for neighbors, huh? LOL!!
R.I.P. Donald E Lemmon, Jr. Beloved Father and
Husband 9/4/68 - 6/10/06
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5/10 - Ok I guess I am too lazy to update here anymore since I update on Facebook all the time. I have made my posts public so everyone can see them and nobody has to request me as a friend. It's set up so you can read, and not make comments. Because you already know that (a) I'm very shy and sensitive, and (b) people on the internet can be very, very mean, SO... I don't want to friend tons of people I don't know and wind up with mean comments on my FB page. Repeat, I am not accepting friend requests from anyone I don't know, apologies in advance! So without further ado, you can keep up with my idle yipyap over HERE! (I'm listed under "Asia Lemmon") You have to have a Facebook account to read it, but doesn't everyone have a Facebook account these days? (haha, this coming from the person who doesn't even have a cell phone LOL!)
4/15 - Catty's growing up so fast! She just turned 6 last month, but I think she's going to be taking all 3rd grade classes in the fall except for homeroom, lunch and gym. She's been taking second grade reading and math, and I just got her report card today and she scored 100% (A+) in math, and 98% (A+) in reading, even with all the other kids being 2-3 years older than her. So I don't see any reason to hold her back in the other classes like spelling and phonics, when I just use that stuff to test Devin anyway, LOL! The 2nd grade teacher won't support a complete grade skip (remember Catty already skipped one grade by starting K a year early, so this is her second grade skip) because she says the boys are too rough with their kickball, dodgeball, and language. But academically she sees no problem with it. So I think this compromise should be approved! I may have gotten waylaid in my plans for taking over the world, but now that I have a Catty, my plans are back on track, muahahahaaaa!!! *rubbing hands with evil glee*
And not only is she smart, but darn if she isn't the cutest thing on two legs! She blew the judges away last weekend at her second (and final) pageant of this year during the interview with her funny answers. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" "A paleontologist and a vet, so I can dig up dinosaur bones and bring them back to life, except for the meat-eaters, because they would try to eat me and turn me into CHICKEN!" "What would you do with a hundred dollars?" "Buy another hundred dollars." LOL!
Miss Cutie Patootie walked away with the crown for "Best Talent/Personality"! Catty is such a lucky girl - she has it all, beauty, brains, and personality! I can't wait to see what she does when she grows up! (I'm pretty sure she won't be following in MY footsteps, hahaha ;o)
03/24 - I took the kids to Mexico for a week. We got ripped off at the Cabo airport when we arrived. We got robbed in the Vegas airport when we got back. I got Montezuma's revenge so bad that I couldn't get off the pot long enough to take the kids to school for three days. But other than that, it was great. :\
3/1 - Well, it's finally been verified by the press - I got into porn because my parents pushed me too damn hard and I couldn't take it anymore. I'm being shown as the potential downside of that "Chinese Tiger Mom" who went viral for writing about how she pushes and pushes her kids beyond all limits. Here ya go. Please ignore the comments below the article - people online are stupid and rude when anonymous. I only read a few comments and that was more than enough for me - they didn't even get that my DAD is Japanese, not my mother, so obviously they know nothing of which they speak!
2/13 - It's funny how strong I managed to be for four years after Don died, but then this last year has just been so hard for me. It's like I finally ran out of gas and I'm so worn out from everything. Getting sober has been hard - every couple months I stumble and pick myself up again. I've never failed at anything in my life before, so not getting sobriety right on the first, second or third try has been incredibly frustrating and upsetting to me. I just keep plugging away at it, going to my AA meetings and doing my best. I've also been suffering from depression and got put on Zoloft for that. I want to be with Don, but that's not an option because I have these two beautiful kids that I adore and am responsible for, so I'm just here treading water... doing time... waiting. That's the depression talking. I used to be such an energetic go-getter, waking up eager to carpe-the-diem and I was always glad to be me. Now I miss me. I hope I can find me again one of these days...
1/27 - I just spent the last two days with Playboy magazine for an upcoming "Where are they now?" - type article. I'll let you know when it's coming out when I find out. This is a picture Catty took of me before heading out to dinner with the writer. Catty watched me getting ready very intently - she'd never seen me use curlers before, so of course I had to curl HER hair too... AND paint her toenails when I did mine... takes me a lot longer to get ready these days, LOL! But it won't take me any time at all to get ready for this blogtalk radio thing I'm calling into this Saturday at 10pm Eastern http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ejandthebear. No idea what's that's about, but they caught me on a good day and I said sure I'll do it... we'll see what happens!
And in "strange but true" news... we have (had) these two identical maine coon cats, named New and NewNew. New adopted us by coming in our cat door whenever he wanted, but sometimes he would leave for weeks or even months at a time, I suppose to go back to his other family somewhere. Eventually New left for so long that we thought he wasn't coming back anymore, so we found NewNew in a shelter and adopted her because she looked exactly like New. But she didn't work out so well. She loved people, but hated all my other cats, and would chase them and fight with them and make them pee on the carpet in fear. Nice, huh? So after a couple of months I took NewNew back to the shelter, knowing she'd find a good home because she's beautiful, and does love people. This was like two months ago.
Fast forward to last week, and the kids and I dropped by the shelter just to play with the kitties and walk the dogs, and who do we see in a cage but our beloved New! OMG!! We quickly scoop him into our arms, pay the $50 and bring him home. There was some confusion at first because they said New was a girl, when I paid to have him snipped, so I know New is a boy. So I was puzzled at who this identical cat was, but I know now they made a mistake. This is DEFINTIELY our New, and we just happened to find him at the shelter in time to bring him back to our home! Yay!
But here comes the weirdest part of the story - the very next day after we brought New home, guess who comes walking in the door? NewNew!! WTH!?!? We took her to the shelter two months ago! (which is way on the other side of town, a 25 minute drive at least!) How on EARTH did she get all the way back to our house and how long did it take the poor kitty to walk here?!? My god! I don't want to take her back to the shelter after what she's been through, so I'm letting her live in our backyard, where she gets her own food and water and doesn't fight with the rest of my cats inside. So all's well that ends well! Yay!
1/13 - WHOO-HOO! After some technical difficulties, we are up and running at our new host! YAYYYYYYY!!!
12/19 - Ok, I like adventures, but this was TOO much! I took the kids up to our log cabin in the mountains hoping to find a little snow so we could try out their new sleds. No snow at the base of the mountains, but maybe a patchy inch here and there as we drove higher up the 5 miles of dirt road. I was disappointed until I pulled down into our (VERY steep) driveway. There were a good 4-5 inches of snow gathered in the valley where our cabin was! So much in fact, that I stopped the car about halfway down, not wanting to get stuck in it. So the kids went sledding, made snow angels, had a snowball fight, put food out for our deer (we have a motion sensor camera that takes pics of the deer when we're not there), warmed up by the fireplace, and had a blast! Then I noticed snow was starting to fall, and I did know there was snow forecasted for that evening, so I said it was time to go. We packed up into the Jeep and headed out.
Or tried to, anyway. I couldn't get back up that steep driveway no matter how hard I tried. There was ice under the snow and we just kept spinning our wheels in every direction. PANIC! I got out and hunted for a back road out, and I found one, but a tree had fallen across it, and I couldn't budge it. I had no shovel to shovel the driveway, the mountain is NOT in cellphone range, and I didn't know WHAT to do. Finally I decided we had to walk for help and hope we could flag down a passing car before making the whole 5 mile trek back down the mountain with a 4 and 5 year old in tow. (not likely - there's not a whole lot of traffic on a remote dirt road with just 14 log cabins that already had their water turned off for the season)
So I packed up a little bag of snacks, a small bottle of water, and put on the kiddy carrier for later use, but I made the kids walk at first for as long as they could. They both sulked and cried as we trudged through the snow, and I wasn't thinking very cheery thoughts myself. I had visions of my car being stuck up there for the entire winter if we couldn't get it towed out before this snowfall that had just started. I pushed away thoughts of us getting too tired to make it to the village at the bottom of the mountain before dark - I didn't DARE think about that possibility!
After miserably marching and marching, Catty pointed out a driveway that had its gate open, and I saw tire tracks in the snow. I was torn between leaving Catty to flag down any passing motorists while I went up the long driveway, not wanting to tire the kids out more with a useless walk if nobody was home and missing a chance at help in the meanwhile. But in the end we all went up to the cabin together, and thankfully a guy was there, and get this - HE OWNED A SNOW PLOW!! He had a Scout with chains on the tires, and he took us back up to our cabin, plowed out our driveway, and then drove my Jeep right up and out of there! HOORAY!!! Hugs all around!!! I cannot tell you how grateful and lucky we were to find a guy at home in his cabin with no water and no electricity who happened to have a snowplow, HOLY COW!! What a superhero he was to us! Thanks, Jerry, you're the GREATEST!!!
p.s. Will never go to the cabin, or at least down the driveway, if there's any snow out, ever again, PROMISE!!
12/16 - Two things - I'm feeling better now (I was in and out of the hospital for a while there). And two - Don's best friend has offered to host my site for free. Soooo... hang tight while we move! And I might just have to keep blogging now, we'll see ;o)
12/04
- I'm really not feeling well. Maybe I got whatever Devin's had recently (poor kid).
I answered a phone call and laid down on the cold kitchen floor,
too weak to go further. My little angel Catty brought me a
pillow & a blanket, then a present from the Xmas tree and
set that beside me. As a final attempt to make me well, she got
some throat numbing spray and spritzed me in the face with that
a few times. My face is feeling much better now.
p.s.
This server runs out at the end of December. My host has been
awfully generous to me over the years. but all good things must
come to an end. I've been making some half-hearted attempts at
looking for a new host, but it's not worth a whole lot of money or
effort since I've been retired for so long. This site IS my
baby though, so I'll see what I can do!
p.p.s. I tried to use a new text editor to update this blog and it made my post quite wonky. Need any more evidence that I code from scratch? LOL! I'll fix it when I feel better - I can't do it right now, sorry. (Funny barriers above, massive linkage below - I CAN fix it, but I just feel very poorly at the moment!)

11/12
- I found out something nice today - I still look pretty much
the same as I ever did if I actually put in a little effort.
I've been living in a ponytail, gym shorts and sneakers for so
long I can't believe I even remembered how to put makeup on
anymore! Recognize this
face? Still no wrinkles - yay for being Asian! :oD
p.s.
To all my Asian friends: see if this doesn't bring back fond
childhood memories - High
Expectations Asian Father. Some of those had me ROLLING (of
course it wasn't so funny when I was a kid and actually living
it, but NOW I can find it amusing. For my white friends, now you
will know why I grew up to be such a neurotic perfectionist!
("Do you love me?" "Hm, what were your grades
again?" DOH!! SO TRUE!!)

11/07
- Here's a tip: if you let your kids make necklaces and
bracelets out of macaroni, don't let them swim in a hot tub
later. I just noticed they're wearing only bare strings now. And
I guess the other hotel guests are swimming in a tub full of
pasta. Oops!

11/1
- I was telling Catty about the myth that only a virgin princess
can see a real unicorn (where everyone else will only see a
white horse). Catty remarked with a smirk - "I guess
Rapunzel can't see unicorns." LOL - leave it to my 5 yr old
to spot the ho who puts out before marriage in a fairy tale!! I
had to admit she's right - that prince wasn't climbing up there
to play checkers, was he!
Dangit, blogging is a hard
habit to break after so many years! I admit I think about things
I want to share on here at least every few days, and it doesn't
help that you guys keep emailing me and asking me to come back!
Darn you!!
09/19
- ROAD TRIP!!! So impromptu, we didn't even bring a change of
clothes, so we wound up scrubbing socks in hotel sinks and
stuff, LOL!! We started off by driving 90 minutes north to our
cabin to winterize it. We slept there, and woke up bright and
early looking for an adventure. We drove to the Kanab mountain
range, and set out to do some hiking. At first the kids were
like this,
but by the time we reached the top, only one kiddo was left
standing. And for the climb DOWN... well let's just say it's
a good thing I spend 6 days a week in the gym, because I was
carrying close to 100 pounds of kids the
whole way. Other hikers were taking pictures of the mom
carrying her 50 and 40+ lb kids down the mountain, LOL!!
But
we're just getting started! We leave Kanab and drive a hour out
to Zion national park, where we stop to pick
apples so we can bake them into a homemade pie when we get
home. YUM!! From there we visit the Best Friends Animal
Sanctuary in the city of Kanab and thankfully escaped without
adding any more critters to our menagerie. Now I'm thinking
about heading back home because we're still a good two hours
away, but no, the kids want "MORE ADVENTURE MOM!!"
So Mom fills up the tank and we head out to the very
beautiful Lake
Powell. Do my kids enjoy the view? Do they want to go
swimming? No, they're just excited that they get to sleep in a
hotel room, and that they were able to set up a tea
party between The Mad Hatter, Santa Claus, Blue's Clues and
Lightning McQueen. I should have tried harder to overhear the
dialogue, I bet it was quite entertaining, haha! So the next
morning we say good-bye
to Lake Powell and head for home.
Along the way we
stop at an old
pioneer fort and the kids got inducted as Junior
Park Rangers(note their badges) which totally made their
day! Final pit stop was taking Woody
and Jesse to a local fishing hole to feed the fish, and then
it was back home to feed all our pets and bake up some homemade
apple pie.
And with that... I believe... I may have made
my last post to this blog. I think over the last... wow - almost
15 years - I've taken this journey as far as it's going to go
publicly. You watched my career in porn unfold and grow and then
end as I morphed into a happy housewife and mom. There really
isn't any interlap left between the old Asia and the present day
Asia, and my kids are pretty much old enough to start their own
blogs now (actually Catty's had her own blog for a while) I
think I've done all I can do to try and break the sterotype that
all pornstars are bimbos who also make lousy moms. So perhaps
this is a good time for me to wave and wish you all a fond
farewell. As a female I will reserve the right to come running
back here screaming "Wait!! I've changed my mind!!",
but I've actually been turning the thought over in my head for a
while now, so it's not a sudden decision. I don't want to get
all sappy and start snivelling over my keyboard now, so I'll
just say "Thank you. For all the love, friendship, help,
and company you've given me over the years. You've been a HUGE
part of my life. Thank you." XXXOOO and with much love -
Asia
09/20 - p.s. Feel free to help buy up the last of
my autographed
stuff for sale - it just occurred to me that it would be
nice to have a real guest room that isn't filled with porn on
one side LOL!!!

09/07
- Ahhhh! So proud of my little monkeys! First of all, check out
how cute Catty
is in her uniform!.
But I am also super happy that my little girl who was already
skipped a grade last year, got skipped another grade this year
for academics (reading and math). She'll stay in 1st grade for
non-academics, to stay closer to her peers age group-wise (she's
only 5), but then get bumped up to second grade for reading and
math. I'm so happy that her school is so flexible! I think that
is a great way to handle things!
And Devin started his
first day at Montessori school today Yay!
Not quite as photogenic since he's not attending a private
school with uniforms, LOL, but boy was he proud and happy to be
going to a real school like his big sister! :oD And after his
day was done, the teacher came out to my car to tell me she was
"very impressed" with Devin and he's "very
smart". I admit I was thinking, "who - my son??"
because I only have Catty the Baby Einstein to compare the
little dude to, y'know? But the teacher said he spent most of
the day curled up in the reading corner with books and reading
toys, just reading quietly to himself, and they don't have many
just-turned-four-yr-olds who do that. So good job Devin!!
So
proud of BOTH of my kiddos!!! XOXOXO!!!

08/29
- Last night I was just surfing around the net and I came across
something mentioning glamour model Lorissa McComas, and I
thought, "Oh wow, I haven't heard her name in years - I
wonder how she's doing?" So I do a quick search to see, and
I find out she passed away at age 38. WTH?!? How sad!! With the
advent of the internet, I suppose this probably has happened to
many of you - you look up an old friend only to find they've
passed on suddenly. But I had more surprises in store for me. I
haven't kept in touch with the adult world since I retired seven
years ago, so I dropped in to the Dead
Porn Stars site, which keeps a running list. How convenient,
huh? I was just shocked to see how many of my peers have died
since I retired! Good bye Missy, Buck Adams, Anna Malle,
Lorissa, Teri Diver, Marilyn Chambers, Chloe Jones, and John
Dough. The oldest of them (Marilyn) was 56, but most of them
were closer to my age. I'm dismayed, deeply saddened. That seems
like an awful lot of deaths of people who were too young to die.
:o( I'm thinking of all of you today!!

08/18
- Here comes a rant that's been 20 years in the making. But I
think it needs to be said. I ran away from home because I
couldn't take it anymore, the beatings, the pressure, the
control, the punishments. My life wasn't my own to live! And yet
I felt guilty. I was ashamed that I wasn't the daughter they
wanted me to be, that I wasn't smart enough, good enough,
perfect enough. I sometimes joked that karma was going to bite
me in the a$$ one day and give me a daughter just like I was,
and wouldn't that serve me right!
Well karma DID give me
a daughter exactly like me. In every way. And she is the most
amazing gift ever. And it makes me look back with sadness, that
my mother took a beautiful gift like Catty (me) and just broke
me with years of abuse. I wanted to be a writer - no. I wanted
to be an artist, no. I wanted to be a musician, also denied. My
mother's plan was that I would go to college and major in
business, end of story. I got no say in my own life. I was
beaten and punished if I didn't fall in line with her demands.
I had so many talents - I've sold my artwork for
hundreds of dollars and created all the graphics on my site from
scratch. I've performed original musical pieces in my movies and
I wrote the opening/closing theme song for a radio show out of
Vegas. I've written articles for regular magazines, and
thousands of people every day still read my blog even though I
retired over half a decade ago. Business was never my thing - I
had so many artistic and creative passions, but I never got to
use them the way I could have if I'd been given a chance.
I
don't regret my career in porn - it afforded me many
opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise. But it's a shame
that I was pushed so hard as a child that porn seemed like a
better place to be. Karma has given me a daughter just like me,
and far from it being a bite in the bum, it's the best gift I've
ever gotten. I understand my little girl like nobody else, and
it feels like I've been given a chance to see what I could have
been if I'd been allowed to grow and blossom; maybe even
encouraged and supported.
I remember when I was a
teenager, my mother slitting her eyes at me and hissing, "You
are not going to win this war!" and me breaking down in
tears and crying, "But why does it have to be a war??"
Why indeed? I still have no answer for that. I am grateful for
the chance to relive this in a more positive way. I think maybe
my mother just didn't know what to do with me because I was a
clone of my father. My father is the smartest person I've ever
known, but very likely Asperger's - he has never had any friends
in his whole life, and spent all his time in "the batcave"
with his computers. I can't say I'm a whole lot better in the
social department, and my kids and I have always had our own
computers - one time I said, "Catty, can you imagine
sharing your computer with Devin?" and she was HORRIFIED at
the thought, LOL!! My mother could not relate to me - she was
annoyed that everything academic came so easily to my father and
me, but she had to work very hard for it. My mother knew I was
extremely bright, but after about 4th or 5th grade her only way
of keeping me motivated was punishments and spankings, since she
couldn't actually do the work herself (she was German; English
was not her native tongue). So Catty has a distinct advantage
with a mother who "gets her", and is determined to
stay on top of everything academic right up until the end - I
can and will do it all right alongside her.
Well thanks
for listening to my rant. I actually feel a lot better now. I
really needed to get that down on paper (screen) and just get it
out of my system! The resentment has been building up for a
while now!

08/06
- Happy birthday to me... my birthday present to myself this
year was inviting an ex-boyfriend out to visit for the weekend.
Should be a pretty good present, LOL... forgive me if I'm
slacking on responding to birthday wishes over the next few days
;o) Someone came into the chat room and wished me a happy 38th
birthday, and I was like "Wait, isn't it 37...? I think?
Me2!! Help me out! How old am I this year??" I haven't
actually celebrated a birthday in so many years that I've
stopped paying attention. Short of milestones like 30, 35, 40...
the rest of them just kinda blur together. Especially since I've
been a widow since I was 32. Yikes! But yes, I have confirmation
that this is, in fact, my 37th birthday. However you can't make
fun of me for getting old, because if you know who I am, then
you're old too, so nyah, nyah, nyah! LOL!!!

7/21
- Catty got a new kitten! So now we have five. The original
foursome,
and the new one, who is cleverly disguised to look like the
other orange ones, so our neighbor who hates cats won't know we
got another one! Catty's kitty has very special markings -
here's the left
side and the right
side! Can you see the heart she has in her fur on each side?
Isn't that cool?? Catty calls her kitty "Valentine",
or Val, but Devin came up with his own name for her - "Love".
<---- I think that's an awesome name, but I like the name
Catty picked too, so I call the cat Valley or Love. I don't mind
having a cat with two names. We still haven't given the LAST cat
a proper name yet. Yes, I am a true "Crazy Old Cat Lady"
at the age of 36! Woot!
p.s. Regarding my last post
about the mysterious plant, thank you to everyone who emailed me
that it was "Astragalus"! I love that you're all as
geeky as me! :oD

6/29
- I was afraid the little cabin with no electricity we bought in
the mountains might have been a big mistake, especially when a
pipe froze over the winter and we STILL have no water. (it's
been a real PITA trying to get someone up there!!) But we've
been going up every weekend with no water and no electricity,
and we've been having a blast anyway! It's the bestest sanity
saver ever from the heat of the desert - and I'm really enjoying
bringing out my inner hick, LOL!!
I'm chopping firewood,
lugging up water from our little river,
clearing branches and weeds from our super-long driveway,
sweeping out the cabin, and basically being Pioneer Mom every
weekend. I even bought railroad ties and stakes to hand-make
steps down the slope to our river! We've got about 30 acres of
property for the kids to hike
and explore,
plus there's a tire
swing and a small guest
house that the kids have turned into their private
clubhouse. It's so wonderful
up here that even going potty outside doesn't bother us!
There
are some strange plants
up here - anyone ever seen these funny things with little bags
at the base that pop when you squeeze 'em? (the bags are about
2-3 inches long) I guess the coolest thing of all is, literally,
that the cabin is only about an hour away from the 110-degree
desert, and twenty minutes further up the mountain, the kids can
do THIS
in the middle of summer! Yeah, SNOW!!
So a big huge
happy RAVE for our little cabin in the woods, despite having no
electricity or water. Or maybe even BECAUSE! :o)

6/15
- So... Devin and Catty started summer school today. Devin was
nervous about it, but Catty and I told him how awesomely
super-duper fun it was going to be. I was happy that Catty and
Devin were going to be in class together, so she could look out
for her little bro. (this being his very first school
experience) Then the teacher said "Oh, but Catty's been
moved up to the 2nd-4th grade class!" and I had to ask them
to hold Catty back in the K-1st class so Devin wouldn't freak
out at being left alone with all these strangers. (Devin's about
as social as I am, the poor kid!) But once Devin saw letters,
numbers, and books everywhere, he grandly announced, "Mommy
you go now! You go 'way!" and he happily settled in to
reading next to his big sister. Everything seemed to be ok, so I
let the front office know to call me if they needed me.
It
took 39 minutes for the school to call asking if I could come
get my son. DOH!!! Didn't even make it an hour!! He was just too
excited. He wouldn't sit still and was disrupting the class. So
much to explore, so little time!! Oh well. He's still young
right now, so we'll just try again next year. No big deal!
Catty was thrilled to be bumped up to the 2nd-4th grade
summer school class. I wondered if she would feel out of place
as a 5-yr old in a room full of 7-9 yr olds, especially when she
knew that her old classmates were back in Devin's class, but she
told me she LOVED her new class. Lots of hands-on science
experiments, which does sound fun! And I must say I'm jealous of
Catty's wonderfully outgoing and friendly nature. She's so
bubbly and loving to everyone she meets. Where Devin and I see a
room full of scary strangers, Catty just sees a whole lot of new
friends. I wish I had one tenth of her confidence and charisma!
Lucky her!

6/10
- Four years ago today my husband's shi**y driving left me a
pregnant widow. Don, you know I love you and I always will - but
instead of crying over this day and what cannot be, I choose to
celebrate how far I've made it on my own. So yay me. :o) Still
missing you, Don!!

5/24
- My loyal assistant dictator me2 flew out for the weekend, to
help me and the kiddos with setting up our new log
cabin for summer usage. It's just a little cabin, super
cute, with no electricity. Me2, being a super handy geek of all
trades, set
us up with a solar panel (he's working on the panel on the
ground - not the skylight in the roof) so we'll have a bit of
emergency power. Cool! Then while Catty and I went exploring
the mountainside, me2 figured out how to turn on the water that
had been turned off so the pipes wouldn't freeze and burst over
the winter. We were super-excited to finally have a working
bathroom! Until... hey, what's that sound of running water
outside? Oh look, there's water pouring
out of the left side of the house! WTH!?!? I am so bummed!!!
I guess a pipe burst over the winter even though the previous
owners said they winterized it?? I talked to my real estate
agent today, and he's in talks to see if they can get this
repaired for me. BOOOOO!!! Fingers crossed the previous owners
do the right thing and take care of this!

5/16
- All is well in sobriety land. I don't even think about
drinking anymore, except to occasionally be surprised that I
don't think about drinking anymore! After several years of
thinking about drinking all the time, it's nice to have my brain
all to myself again! And I am very, very happy to report that my
posts have led two other people to give up drinking as well, and
a third is seriously contemplating it. I am SO happy that owning
up to my own problems is helping some other people find their
way too! I know that my quality of life is 100% better now, and
I wake up so happy to have a clear head and a positive outlook.
If I'm able in some small way to help others find health and
happiness again, then YAY!!! This stinkin' blog has been
worthwhile after all! WOOT!!
Now here's some news that
will NOT make you happy - there will be NO pics of me with my
60-day chip, so just forget about that right now! (yes, I've
gotten a lot of emails with hopeful suggestions for the 60-day
chip picture - no pressure, right??) The 30-day pic was just a
fun spur of the moment thing. I'm not going to make a habit of
it. I can only imagine what sort of flying flaming gaping anal
shot you'd be expecting for my 1-year chip! ;oP Besides, I'm not
even going to be here on day 60 anyway - I'm gonna be in Hawaii
with the monkeys! Celebrating with a virgin daiquiri! Yum!

4/29
- I got my 30-day sobriety chip from AA today! WOOHOO!!! It
feels so good to have my life back again! I took a pic to share
with you guys, but I have to stress I mean GUYS. Because it has
recently come to my attention that there are more women than men
reading my
blog! Neat! Anyway, at the end of this sentence you will
find a link to a silly ADULTS-ONLY pic of my AA chips for 24
hours and 30 days.
Hee hee! :oD

4/25
- What a glorious day we had! It's summertime in the desert
already, so we put on our bathing suits and headed for the lake!
(disclaimer: If you're hoping for a pic of me in a bathing suit,
forget about it! I am hoping to be able to share some before the
end of the summer though!) Ok! Gotta love having sand and snow
in the same
pic! Here's Catty showing off a pretty
rock she found. She took even more glee in finding a bird
bone and a rodent jawbone and insisted on bringing them home
with us - she's determined to become a paleontologist one day!
Making the "Shirt
of Shame" to discourage naughtiness in my kids was a
total FAIL - it's Devin's favorite shirt and he begs to wear it
all the time! DOH!! Here's a sweet pic of the best
friends together. And finally... you might recognize someone
in this
pic. Yup, it's Catty! No idea who that other person is. ;oP

4/20
- Thank you so much to everyone who emailed me with support and
advice and shared your own stories with me! That's exactly what
I needed to hear!! I was so scared about making the post below -
I had it sitting on my computer screen for a full day before I
finally shut my eyes and hit "post". Then I hunkered
down and waited for the fallout. I've been so ashamed of myself
for a long time now, but I've never lied about anything before,
and I needed to come clean now. So there it is. AA is going
great! Sobriety is AWESOME! Thank you for your support and kind
words!!!

4/14
- Ok, true confessions time. Four years ago, my husband died
suddenly, leaving me 8 months pregnant and with a one year old
baby. Shortly after his death, I found out we were broke. As my
world fell apart, I found a family willing to adopt my unborn
son. In the space of about a week I'd lost everything but Catty.
Left all alone in a state where I knew nobody, I started
drinking, and heavily.
As time passed I managed to pull
the pieces of my life back together, (including keeping my
little guy, obviously!) but I continued drinking to kill the
pain. After about 2 years, I decided it was time to kick the
booze habit, but that's when the NEW nightmare started - I found
out I was physically and mentally addicted. I've spent the last
two years trying to quit in every way I could think of, but I
just kept falling off the wagon. I'd get so angry and frustrated
with myself, which only made me drink more to forget how much I
hated myself for drinking. Then I'd get determined to stop
again. Then I'd fall off again. It's been a horrible two years
for me.
I LIKED drinking. I liked how it cured my social
phobia. It cured my perfectionism, it made my mother's nagging
voice in my head shut up so I could finally relax and be at
peace with myself. It slowed my brain down enough so that I
could feel "normal". For the first time in my life my
brain wasn't always on hyperdrive, finding things to worry,
stress, and be paranoid about.
Rest assured whatever
stereotypes you have of an alcoholic mom envisioned right now,
that wasn't the case here. No blackouts or accidents or puking
or anything big and dramatic at all. My first priority has
ALWAYS been my kids (the defense would like to present Catty's
report card as evidence, your honor)(O's and E's = A) I
always carried around a breathalyzer at home and another in my
purse to make sure I never got out of line. But I was drinking 7
days a week, which was no good. Most of all, it was starting to
wear me down physically, and as a single mom, I can't afford to
play games with my health.
So I finally took the
scariest step you could ever imagine for a social phobic who is
terrified of strangers. I joined AA. Man, I sure would have
liked to be drunk for that first meeting, haha! But it's the
best thing I could have done for myself. It's awesome. Being
around people who know exactly what I've been going through, who
have made it to the other side - it's exactly what I needed. I
attend several meetings every week, and I don't even think about
drinking now. I think about how much I can't wait to get my
30-day chip, and then my 60 and 90-day chips, then one year!
(I'm in week 3 of sobriety right now)
I've been so bored
and lonely out here in the desert, but drinking sure was a
stupid way for me to while away the time. I am thrilled to have
the old me back - yup, the one who is a perfectionist and a
workaholic, and I'm glad to have my brain back on hyperdrive
again. My mind is buzzing with all the things I'm excited to do
now that I'm back in the saddle again, and I'M JUST SO HAPPY!!
The nightmare is over, and the rest of my life is beginning!
WOOT!!
p.s. Sorry, I still don't believe in God. That's
actually not mandatory for joining AA ;o)

3/16
- With the kids home for spring break all week, Mommy decided
spur-of-the-moment to toss everyone on a plane for a
mini-vacation to Salt Lake City! Bad timing. Hailstorm here in
St George, snow storm and zero visibility in Salt Lake City. And
I HATE flying, especially on tiny puddle jumpers. I was SURE we
were going to die, POSITIVE. But somehow we made it, and the
kiddos, of course, LOVED the
snow. Next day, we hit the
zoo. Most of the cool animals were hidden away because of
the snow, but we found other ways to enjoy
the zoo! This is Catty doing her impression of an elephant
poop. LOL! A little grocery
shopping to stock up our hotel room, and then off to the
dinosaur
museum! Catty was in her element, because she wants to be a
paleontologist
when she grows up. Finally, a visit to a working
farm, and then mommy realized she'd forgotten about the time
change, and it was a mad scramble to get to the airport on time.
We made it with 4 minutes to spare, *PHEW!*
So that was our little holiday! Much fun!! :o)

3/04
- Happy Birthday, Catty! I can't believe you're FIVE! That's
like, a whole HAND of fingers!! Catty, you're the most amazing
thing that's ever happened to me, and you're the reason I'm
still sane after all these years of living alone in the desert
after Don died. I was gifted with a beautiful, brilliant little
girl who not only never had any terrible twos, but no terrible
threes and no effing fours. You have been nothing but a joy, a
delight, my other half, and my partner in crime. You make me
laugh, you make me think, and you make me feel like I'm a great
mommy. Thank you, and I can't wait to see how much MORE fun
we're going to have with every passing year!!
p.s.
Catty, because you can do darned near anything, please tell the
weatherman that it is NOT allowed to rain in the desert on
Saturday when we are having your birthday party. Mommy rented
two great big bouncy houses for our backyard, and she is NOT
going to be happy if she has 18 screaming monkeys stuck inside
our house because of rain!!! AKKKKKK!!!
p.p.s. Only 5
out of 18 people have RSVP'd, but that's a whole 'nother rant...
did I spend too much on goody bags, or will there not be enough
of them? Should I have only gotten one bounce house instead of
two? Is it THAT hard to make a quick call to say 'yay' or
'nay'?? Bleah!! (parents, you know what I'm talking about, and
non-parents, now you can laugh and feel smug! ;oP)

2/23
- I know you've all forgotten that I used to be an adult film
star, hahaha, but I just wanted to let you know that I've added
two new items on my Asia
stuff sales page! (Do I need to specify THAT LINK IS NOT
SAFE FOR WORK?) One item is a beautiful cherry-wood encased
poker set with Asia Carrera poker chips, and the other is a
3-pack of Asia posters. Of course I autograph everything! Ok,
just wanted to give a heads up on that, since I don't think I've
added anything new in what, a year or more? That's all! Carry
on! :o)

2/17
- Wow, not much change in this house between last
February and this
one! LOL!! I know it looks like I've kept them chained there
for a year, but actually today was the first time they've sat
there together like that since the last time, so I took a pic
when I got deja vu. In the first pic Devin was just scribbling
at 2, but now he's actually writing at 3. Last year Catty was
spelling words in her book at 3, and this year it's
multiplication at 4. Devin has a new milestone to share - he's
reading
now! And he's not only started several months earlier than
Catty did, but HE TAUGHT HIMSELF! On his computer, he goes to
sites like Starfall and SuperWhy, and he just sits there soaking
it all up - I haven't done anything! Devin's very big on "No,
I do it MYSELF!!", so hey, whatever works little buddy! He
just took a reading test and scored 1st grade, 6th month! Go
Devin! Oh and have you seen this
adorable face of his?? Yeah, unfortunately I haven't had
anything to do with that either, as you can see! LOL!!

2/13
- My first husband, director Bud Lee, is in the hospital after
having a heart attack. This is his third one. He got three
stents put in. Bud and I have always, ALWAYS been so close. I am
just shattered right now. My kids call him Grampa Bud. He
sounded so weak on the phone... ugh... PLEASE think good
thoughts for him, I would be so lost without him!!!
UPDATE
- Bud is out of the hospital and back home now to recover!
YAY!!!! Thanks for all the prayers and positive thoughts!!

2/12
- Wow, such a FAIL day for me as a mom... took the monkeys to a
birthday party at a kiddy play place, and Devin tried to play
Skeeball, but he wasn't strong enough to roll the balls all the
way up. So I called Catty over and asked her to play Devin's
game, explaining that she had to try to get the balls into the
holes at the top. Well she'd never played before, so she hurled
the ball overhand, like a baseball, and it hit Devin squarely in
the mouth. OMG!!! I swept Devin up and ran for ice and towels,
and my shirt was just covered in his blood, it was so awful. I
was so afraid to look inside his mouth, I can't even tell you!
UGH!! Finally we get the blood to stop flowing and I peek in
there, and one of his front teeth has been knocked out of
alignment (the teeth I paid a fortune to have crowned just a
year ago) and his lip is split and he's in a lot of pain. I
don't know what to do! I tell Catty we have to leave the party,
and I drive with the kids to our pediatric dentist, only to pull
in and find out they are closed on Fridays. GAHHHHH!!! All I can
think to do is to take Devin into the Natural Foods store right
next to the dentist and I buy him some frozen yogurt to numb his
mouth a bit, and that seemed to help some.
As we were
driving home, I started to cry a little because my boy was so
hurt and I wished I could do something more to help him, and
Catty said, "Mommy, I would give you a hug but your shirt
is all bloody and I don't want to get it on my party dress, so I
will blow you a kiss instead", which made me smile. When we
got home, I gave Devin some kiddy Tylenol for the pain (I wasn't
sure if that was the best thing to give him, but that's all we
had in the house), and he asked for a Cars band-aid, so I put
one on him. We all had a good laugh over that!
Brave
little guy. He's got a big fat lip under that band-aid, and one
of his teeth is a little wonky now, but I guess he'll be ok.
Rough day, though. Glad it's over!!

02/10
- Just a quick note to say thanks to everyone who sent
suggestions on what kind of kitties New and New New are! The
general consensus seems to be that they are Maine Coons, which
happen to be big, beautiful, sweet and affectionate kitties, so
that seems about right! THANKS!!

02/09
- We've just played a mean trick on our kitties and I can't stop
laughing... Well is it even possible to play a trick on four
cats?? I think it might be - let me fill you in! Here's a pic of
our
four kitties. Three of the cats are mother and sons, and one
is a stray that adopted us. His name is "New" (thanks
Catty LOL!) I'll let you guess which one is the stray, haha!
So I took the kids by the animal shelter the other day
to drop off some extra pet food we didn't need, and of course
they wanted to go in and see all the animals. No sooner do we
walk into the cat room, when both the kids start wailing, "MOMMY
NEW KITTY IS IN A CAGE! MOMMY THAT'S NEW, HELP HIM!!" Well
I'll be darned if that cat isn't the spitting image of our cat
New. But crap, we've got four cats already, and truth be told,
that's really two more than I wanted in the first place. But I
couldn't split up the identical twin kittens so we had three,
and then the stray adopted us (and learned how to use our cat
door and sleep on our bed!) so here we are with four. Trying to
give myself an out, I told Catty "Well if you win a trophy
at your pageant tomorrow we'll get that kitty, ok?" And you
can guess how that ended.
So we've brought home "New
New Kitty" (She doesn't have a name yet - Catty wants to
call her "Baby Annika" after my sister, but I said
that name's too long. To be honest, I can't really tell the
difference between the cats so I'm just calling them both "New"
for now LOL) But what's so hilarious is watching the reaction of
our three orange kitties to this new one. New's been a part of
our family for a couple years now. They're totally cool with
him. So they see the new cat and they don't even look twice,
lalala... then they catch a whiff - "HEY WTH!?!?!" and
suddenly they're hanging upside down from the ceiling doing like
42 double takes between the two identical cats with their hair
standing on end and trying to figure out what the heck is going
on. It's SO FUNNY!!!!
Catty is convinced that the two
kitties are really brother
and sister, and maybe they are, who knows? Two beautiful
long-haired stray kitties who look like twins? And they're not
scared of each other at all - only the orange cats are going
"Dude, WTH!?!" But that's our laugh of the day - we've
adopted a shelter kitteh that has our "homeboy kittehs"
doing huge amounts of double takes as they try to understand how
New can be in two places at once, and why one of him smells
completely different... LOL!!!
Does anyone know what
kind of cat New and New New are?? I'm not having any luck trying
to figure it out by googling, dangit! But they are the sweetest,
most affectionate cats ever, which is crazy since they're both
strays! They are AWESOME - total lap cats and they come when
called - so unusual for kitties to begin with; I can't
understand how these two wound up homeless!!

01/19
- Awwww, I'm a gramma! I was cleaning out the big fish tank,
when to my great surprise, I saw some tiny little buggers
scooting around the back of the tank! Our first babies! Look,
they're the teeny-tiny little white guys to the far right HERE
and HERE!
I don't have any idea how many there were originally, but I
managed to save 4 baby cichlids from becoming Oscar and Pacu
snacks, and now the babies are thriving in a smaller
tank (bottom left of the tree, by the corydoras). SO CUTE!!!

01/12
- I was trying to think of a game that I could play with both
Catty and Devin together, but the difference between age 3 and 4
is a lot, especially with Catty being so quick at everything.
Then I came up with an idea - I made up a new game! I wrote all
the letters of the alphabet on squares of paper, and had the
kids race for who could show me the sign language for each
letter first. Sounds fun and easy, right? Well my kids are
(surprise!) both just as competitive as their mom, and the first
round came
to blows. DOH!!! Ok, separate the kids and give everyone
hugs, and then we try again. I have to laugh at how the game
turned out... I gave Catty a chance to redeem herself at the
very end, but... you'll just have to watch
and see what happens! Poor Catty! Hahaha!
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