St. Muppet's Day?

I had to share this for the upcoming holiday! Enjoy! :)

Mind Boggling Rhythm

Wow!  Just...
:: mouth gapes open and a girl whose tongue is normally otherwise hinged in the middle is at a complete and total loss for words to describe the awesome that this is made of::

Havana Good Laugh

I make no apologies for the title.  I promised months ago that there would be more puns around here. :)
Here's my Video Wednesday offering for the week.  If you've stopped by this blog more than twice, you ought to know the drill by now.  Set drink down.  Take a bathroom break.  THEN press play.  Enjoy. :)

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!!

Sometimes my train of thought derails at the speed of light (usually with no survivors).  Every once in a while though, one of of those tangents leads to a phenomenal discovery of which I had been previously ignorant, and the newly unearthed epiphany thereof leaves me squealing with glee and/or babbling incoherently about aforementioned phenomenal discovery to anyone and everyone who is brave enough to stick around and attempt to decipher what I'm saying.  (Such event is happening even as my fingers fly over the keyboard now, so if you've managed to follow the content of what I've just written thus far, CONGRATULATIONS!  You win! :D)

For those of you who are looking around for the evidence of a caffeine overdose, relax.  You won't find anything.  Blame my iTunes for this latest bouncing around the room like a ping pong ball in a hurricane effect.  I had it on shuffle.  It came to "Seize The Day" from the movie Newsies.  I Googled Newsies just to see what came up.  It's not caffeine.  It's the music!  Music does this to me!  Phenomenal discoveries of music I love being turned into better versions of themselves in the form of BROADWAY MUSICALS!!!

THIS

IS NOW THIS!!!!

***Somebody pass me a paper bag before I hyperventilate! :D :D :D :D :D :D***

Links, Jenny.  Give the readers the links!  Focus!

Here is the official WEBSITE.  Here is where you can get the collector's edition DVD of the 1992 movie, if you have $50 bucks to burn. (I do not.  I will have to pray my VCR and/or VHS copy of it do not die on me.)  Here is a wikipedia article on the real life Newsboys Strike of 1899 that inspired the story.  Here is a photo from this NY Times article that I was going to link anyway (see!  I sourced!!) showing the main group of the Newsies cast.  

D'aww!  Cutie Pies!  :)

Now, the only down side to all of this is that it's running on Broadway.  You know, in NYC.  Which, according to Google maps, is 916 miles (15 hours and 35 minutes) from here, straight up I-85 N and passing through 6 states.  Hmmm.  Current circumstances afford me neither gasoline nor airfare for such an endeavor.  POUT.

So I guess I will have to sit tight until either a) somehow I miraculously get together an all expenses paid trip up to NY to see it on Broadway, or, b) stalk Ticketmaster/The Fox Theatre/Broadway Across America's websites and figure out a way to snag tickets if when it comes to Atlanta.  Sigh.  So much of my life recently seems to be made up of having to wait for things.

Until I find a solution, I'll be listening to the new OCR album.  In between Steam Powered Giraffe songs.  (Because I'm nowhere near finished being addicted to their music.  Probably ever.)  But yeah, pretty sure I can make room for the Newsies soundtrack!!!

Did you think I was going to tag a Music Mondays post and not leave you with a song?? :)

Here is my favorite song and dance number from the '92 movie, "The World Will Know":

And here it is given new life and amazing sound by the Broadway Cast!

And just because I can't stop, here are two more that I adore and will be singing at the top of my lungs for the next few months. :)  GORGEOUS!  Enjoy!

"Seize The Day"

"Once And For All"

Mockingbird (Mocks Your Need To Go To Sleep)

I'm still working on everything that I told you about in the post from the other day, but I had to share this because of how utterly absurd it is!

Here in the Southeastern US, we skipped winter entirely and are breaking records left and right for unseasonably warm weather (6 straight days of temps above 80 degrees F, and it's March!!!), as well as for pollen count.  I read somewhere that 1,500 was dangerously high/piratically highjacks your sinuses.  Atlanta last week had 9,000 something.  No lie.  But as insane as that is, that's not the absurd thing I wanted to share with you...

This is a Northern Mockingbird:

We have our own resident mockingbird.  This bird is hilarious.  The pair moved their nest to the front sasanquas after the overgrowing one in the back patio area was cut down.  (We did it in the winter while they were gone, so don't worry about any eggs or baby mockingbirds.) But before they moved, that tree grew right outside of my mom's room and the male would sit and learn the ring of her telephone.  Then later it would warble an imitation.  She would hear it from the kitchen (also near the tree) and run upstairs thinking it was her phone.  Mom would arrive upstairs to find the phone hadn't rung at all- no messages or call backs or anything- and the mockingbird would pretty much cackle at her from his sasanqua outside her window.

This went on for months until finally mom stopped using that phone line and just has her cell phone instead, and eventually Gran did decide to cut down the tree before it took out the corner of the porch.

The bird would also mercilessly taunt my cat through the storm door at the front of the house.  We'd open the big front door and let Ashley bask in the sunshine and watch the outside.  The top of the storm door is wiring and mesh, and the bottom is glass, of course, so Ashley could hear and smell everything outside, but there was no getting out to it.  Ashley'd be laying there soaking up a sunbeam and the mockingbird would hop right up to the glass and "meow", "hiss" and cackle at him, fanning his tail-feathers the whole time in an obvious show of "Nyah nyah, you can't get me!".  No matter how Ashley would growl, hiss, carry on or bat at the door, that bird wouldn't leave him be.  He couldn't catch it, and it knew it!

Now that he lives in the Sasanqua tree at the front corner of the house, he happens to be more or less directly below my bedroom windows.  He shows up in the spring, and stays until October or so.  I don't know where he vacations, but he always comes back to us.  I know it's the same one, because he has a distinct little white blotch under his right eye and he is fiercely territorial of that tree.  Every spring I watch him dive-bomb other, younger males in the yard and giving them what for.  (He always wins.)

Last April when I was sewing for the Hydrangea Festival, he arrived from his vacation, staked out his tree and proceeded to tell the entire world that it was springtime.  Loudly.  And with gusto.
He serenaded me from 6 a.m. each morning, all throughout the day and well into the evening before finally settling down around 9:30 p.m.  He did this daily, even as I was getting last minute things together on June 1st.  (Every bit as loudly as in April.  And with twice as much gusto.)

This odd, early spring weather has brought him back and he's so blessed excited about BEING A BIRD(!) that he hasn't shut up since we got home at 7:30 tonight! (I have no idea how long he'd been going before that- we were gone all day.)  I recorded this at 11:50 p.m.  It's 5 full minutes of audio- him just going to town.  Check it out:

It's now after of 2 a.m. (yeah, I'm up late working again; not that he's letting me sleep anyway...) and I think I only caught his warm-up at midnight, because the repertoire that's happening outside my window at this very moment is unbelievable! LOL

According to this Wikipedia article, "Northern Mockingbirds, in addition to being good mimics, are also some of the loudest and most constantly vocal of birds. They often sing through the night or when the moon is full."  NO FREAKING KIDDING! o_O

December Gratitudes

Or: "Bye, 2011.  Don't let the door hit you on the way out..." :)

I don't think it's fair to try to weigh out all of the things that happened in a year and then stamp it as either  a "good" or "bad" year.  The last month of 2011 saw me crying both tears of pain and tears of joy.  I had some truly wonderful days, and some days that I wish were only a nightmare that I could wake up from and forget.  I think, finally, that I'm learning to live One. Day. At. A. Time.  This is not to say I don't set goals or make plans for the future.  Of course I do.  But isn't life less about trying to forget a "bad year" and remembering all of the "good times" no matter what year they happened in?  And creating more good times to look back on?  I had so much to be thankful for this last month of 2011.  I'm looking forward to my blessings in 2012 as they unfold.  God bless us.  Every one.  :)

• 12.31- Goodbye, 2011. I learned a lot and I'm ready for a fresh new start!!!
• 12.30- Day off from work=more productive clearing out at home! Also, Friend Christina takes me to the gym and I discover that I really like it
• 12.29- The truth has set me free. Grateful for family who love and support me. Lord God, hold me together and bring beauty from the ashes
• 12.28- Friend Christina helps me get some things sorted and cleaned out. Both of us make like Allie Brosh and CLEAN ALL THE THINGS
• 12.27- Sweet friends and customers made work today really nice
• 12.26- A morning shift at work so that I can spend time with the kids and their new toys. :)
• 12.25- CHRISTMAS! My Jesus was born to set me free!!!
• 12.24- Grateful for my family. Seeing the kids after family kept them all week while I worked and spending time with my Dad's side for Christmas
• 12.23- While Christmas shopping, found Cute Gremlin #4's birthday gift on sale. Felt good to be shopping savvy. :)
• 12.22- Bestie sent me goodies from River Street Sweets in Savannah!!!!!
• 12.21- Christmas shopping :)
• 12.20- Spring stuff has arrived at work! I got to display lovely garden accents and it brightened my day
• 12.19- God's grace to stay cheerful at work after hard weekend
• 12.18- Spending time after church eating pancakes and reading a wonderful letter from England
• 12.17- The prayers of friends and family as my world began to crash
• 12.16- Talented friends
• 12.15- discovering a link to a blog that compares the SEC teams to Muppets
• 12.14- another full day at work
• 12.13- Completely and utterly Graced by our church family
• 12.12- Tree is finally decorated
• 12.11- giant pot of clam chowder
• 12.10- same as yesterday
• 12.9- Full and busy day at work
• 12.8- Lovable, loud, ginger friend has a birthday today
• 12.7- Eldest Cute Gremlin is officially a teenager
• 12.6- The Christmas tree is up!
• 12.5- The fun involved in trying to outdo a friend with funny Star Wars youTube vids via Facebook
• 12.4- Seeing friends at a wedding gig
• 12.3- An old and dear friend called me on his birthday to catch up :)
• 12.2- My warm coat
• 12.1- Great day at work

2011- In Review

In retrospect, I suppose 2011 has been better than 2010.  In some ways, much better.  In other ways, not much at all...  Here are some major points that happened:

January- March:

• My professional camera went missing and then was found.
• My blog hit 1,000 page views! :)
• Cute Gremlin #4 turned 3
• We got snowed/iced in at the house for 4 days and everything got organized and sorted! (For a little while, anyway.)  Plans for redecorating/renovating my room were begun.

April- June:

• I participated in the A-Z Blog challenge,  nearly tripling my followers list! :D
• I spent time at the beach and with good friends
• Cute Gremlin #3 turned 6
• I turned 30

July-September:

• I got to return to the beach :)
• I made many more blog friends, and my page views topped 10,000! WOW!
• I got to see "Wicked" at the Fox Theatre!
• Cute Gremlin #2 turned 11
• I began to set some strong goals and plans for my future, even in the midst of much uncertainty.

October- December:

• My blog page views have now surpassed 25,000!!! Amazing!
• I participated in NaBloWriMo
• I began the 52 weeks of mail project, and pen pal-ing.
• I got a job at Hobby Lobby- a direct answer to prayer!
• Cute Gremlin #1 turned 13
• The Cute Gremlins had a wonderful Christmas
• [Update: what I originally wrote here has been removed for revision/prayer/privacy/etc] The Lord is my Rock and my Refuge.  I am clinging to Him and He will never fail me.

As my current Facebook status reads:

Dear 2011,

It wasn't your fault.  You tried to be a good year and gave me all your 365 days to live in.  So, thanks.

Dear 2012,

BRING IT ON.  I'm ready for you.

Love,

Jenny

I'm still writing letters and trying to get caught up on blogging.  I'm sticking to plans that I've made:

• Growing my income with Lucy Jane and Avon, etc.
• the 2012 A-Z Blogging Challenge in April
• saving up for my England trip in June of 2013 (more about that in another post soon!)
• Spending time with my kids and creating a happy and healthy life for them.  Plans for trips to the park and local attractions and events, church events and other fun things.  We're going to be fine.
• Most Importantly: reading my Bible every day and following the Lord wherever He leads me.

Happy, happy New Year, everyone!  2012 is going to be wonderful!

Love to you all,

Jenny

Happy Christmas

It's Christmas Eve.  I am alone, in my room, perched precariously on one side of my bed, typing out a quick post so that you all don't think I've forgotten you.  The other side of my bed is filled with letter writing supplies, clean laundry that I haven't had time to put away yet, wrapping paper, my "to do" notebook, and other assorted ... stuff.

In the floor by my bed is a pile of gifts still to be wrapped.  I also have to work from noon until 6 tonight.  After I bake a batch of cookies as a gift for a family member I will see at 7:30 tonight, after work.  (They don't read this blog, so it's ok to mention it.)

I'm down from 40+ hours/week to under 30 on next week's work schedule, so I'm hoping to grab a few hours to seriously sit down and get all of my blogging news caught up.  Frank's had about a dozen adventures that need to be blogged still, and I've had more awesome mail, Music Mondays, book recommendations, and general life news to share that I just can't seem to get to unless I'm falling on my face tired and then the posts come out all disjointed and lame.  And I can't give you lame posts, dear readers.  That would be bad.

I hope you get what you want for Christmas.  I hope you spend the day in company with people you love and who love you.  Actually, I hope that's what you want for Christmas.  All the other stuff is just extra.  I love each and every one of you.  Remember that Christ is why we celebrate the season!  Love came down to us!  Emmanuel - God with us!

Blessings, warm fuzzies, love and twinkle lights.  Those are a few of my wishes for you, not just today and tomorrow, but for a long time to come.

See you soon.

Merry, Merry Christmas.

Love,
Jenny

Feeling Thin (but not the skinny, cute kind) and 52 Weeks of Mail, Week 1

I'm sorry to have to report that I have been having the worst day ever, emotionally.  I mean, there wasn't any bad that happened today; in fact, a lot of it was good or even pleasant.  But I'm not functioning up to speed.  I feel like Bilbo Baggins describes in The Fellowship Of The Ring- thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.

Haven't heard back about the jobs I applied for last week.  Still fighting a change of season cold/sinus infection.  Needing to get to the chiropractor and talk about the X-rays she took last week; back still hurts plenty and she says she can't get my muscles and spine to let go of the stress tension they are holding. (Really?)  On my face at God's feet over my marriage.  Behind on everything- Lucy Jane work, photo work, house work, laundry...

Then mom drops this bomb on me that she's gone and bought a new bed for Jennifer (that she neither needs, nor asked for) and now my Friday tomorrow- the last day that I have to work like a mad thing and turn my to do list around before Jake is back in town and I have to face all of those emotions, etc.- now I've been told to clean the girl's room out from top to bottom so that this new bed can be moved in.  Where is the old bed to go?  In the attic.  Up here, with me.  Like everything else in the house that isn't wanted or suits her purposes.  It just gets shoved up here.  When can I actually have a bedroom up here???  I'm already drowning in stuff that I don't know what to do with and so overwhelmed at having to deal with it all.  I don't want to have to work around a bed frame too!!!  But I'm told to not even BE here when it's all moved- that I'm to take Gran, Jennifer and Emily to the mall to get them "out of the way".

Mom's afraid Gran will not want the beds moved around and people moving big, heavy stuff up her stairways.  I don't want it, either, but I can't tell mom that.  I tried, and she's all "Why not?  This is a great thing I'm doing for Jennifer, just go with it.  What's your problem?" 

 Only not in a nice way like that.

I'm emotionally bankrupt right now, y'all.  I seriously am.

Broken hearted and so low the last few nights that I saw the early morning hours come and go, and felt so defeated that I couldn't raise my head.  These are the moments I am clinging to the Lord for all I am worth.  I know the truths, but I'm still fighting the lies.

Whatever my personal issues are right now, I do try so hard to stay upbeat for my friends and for you, dear readers.  You have shown me all kinds of support and love, and most of you I have never even met face to face.  As I am walking through this valley in my life, just be patient with me and don't give up on me yet.  I have a lot of good to offer.  If you read back over some of my past posts, you'll notice that I'm usually pretty hilarious. :)  I often share the humor that comes with being a mom of 4:

Charles: "Stop that, Emily. You're not the boss of me.  Mama is."
Emily: "Yep, Mama.  You're the boss.  Come downstairs and play now."

One thing that has really helped me to cope with the stress and taking deep breaths to stay calm, is to write letters.  Amazingly, I don't write anything about my personal life or the way everything in my world is crashing down around me.  I write about how beautiful GA is in the fall and how much I love living here.  I write about how I'm passionate over my photography, and music, and costumery and sewing.  I write about how one day I hope to travel to other parts of the world and learn other languages and cultures.

The pen gliding over the paper smoothes my ruffled feathers and brings my blood pressure down out of the stratosphere.  My heart still aches, but then it is for the dreams and goals I long to meet, rather than the crushing disappointment of my current circumstances.  No, writing letters doesn't get the elephants sewn, or the dolls made, or my junk from college listed on Craigslist and Ebay.  It doesn't sweep the floors and get the laundry folded.  My bed is still vast and empty when I can't keep my eyes open any longer, and have no choice but to collapse into it.  But as I crawl under the covers, it's with the "I've done something worthwhile today" feeling, and I go to sleep imagining how happy many different someones will be when they get a pretty, handwritten letter in the post, instead of bills and junk mail.

How glad I am for this project!  It is bits of blue sky peeking out from behind grey rainclouds.
This is the lot that went out today, plus the Peacock Fairy package to Sarah. (I didn't get a picture of that.)

As I said, I have a list tomorrow that defies the laws of time and space.  It ALL has to be done by 7 p.m. Sigh.  Off to bed I go.  A happier post tomorrow night that promises good things (read:Giveaway!!) for Saturday.  Goodnight, my dears.

What's In Your Mailbox? Part 2: Pen-pals, LWA and World Post Day

Welcome back!

Today is World Post Day! (Like, letter post.  Post Office post.  Not blog posts. Or mailbox posts.  Or other kinds of posts.)  I'll get to that, but before I do...

Yesterday I admitted my deep, dark secret of stationery addiction/hoarding.  Today I hope to redeem myself a bit by telling you all about how I'm using those pretty papers.

A little backstory/history blurb about my past:
When I was 9, my parents made the decision to move us from Virginia to Georgia.  All of our family (both sides) is down here, and Dad was finished with school at CBN University (now Regent University).  He got his master's there in Broadcasting/Mass Communications.  My mom's dad and her mom's mom had also both just passed away that year, and she wanted to be closer to Gran.

In Virginia, the grades go 1-4th for elementary, 5-7th for middle, and 8-12th for high school.  My best friend, Kevin Thomas, and I were all excited about moving up to middle school.  At the end of the school year, Kevin and I exchanged addresses and promised to stay in touch.  I loved that boy so much.  This was twenty years ago, remember.  No internet, which means no email.  No Facebook. (Not that a 9 year old today has any business being on FB anyway, but that's a rant for another time.)  No cell phones.  Even home phones were out except for rare occasions, since there were long distance charges that applied.  Paper, pen and a stamp was the most economical and practical way for us to stay connected.

How I loved finding his letters in the mailbox!  As a few years passed and we moved on into the world of hormones and teenage-hood, I got over my broken heart of him being not only so far away, but the fact that we would only ever be "just friends".  (Ah, those sweet puppy-love crushes!) :)  We wrote to each other a few times a year, but like everything else in life, it got harder to find time.  Eventually it was only a Christmas card.  Much later, after I married, I found a box with some of our childhood letters and wrote a few lines to him to tell him of all the things I'd been up to since we were last in touch.  I sent it to his parents address in hopes that they still lived there.  They do, but I was crushed to find out from his mom that a few years before that, just after college, he had been killed in an auto accident.  I appreciate her taking the time to write to me and send me his obituary.   His parents were always sweet and good to me.

The one thing that stayed with me through all of that, though, was my love of writing and receiving letters!  As a high schooler, with a "long distance" (by a few hours) boyfriend (who is now husband), I lived for checking the mail.  Jake's love letters smelled like his cologne and were full of "I miss you"s and plans for holidays when we would get to see each other again.  I wrote to him every day and mailed off an envelope at least once a week.  (Obsessed much?  Yeah, I was!  In my defense, there was news of other mutual friends who went to school with me, and descriptions of our band shows and practices in all of those letters.  So it wasn't as mushy as you might think.)

As my friends and I parted ways to go to college, those letter writing skills came out in full force!  There was a particular set of friends whom I wrote letters with.  Letters went out from my post office (only 2 miles away, remember!) to OH, TN, NY, and FL all the time.  Recently, all but one of those has moved back to GA, so I stopped writing for a while.  Then I made some friends (long story) who live in Leeds, England.  One swaps packages with me: English Cadbury Turkish Dairy Milk bars!!!  I LOVE getting that box in the mail every few months!!!  I send him Twizzlers candy in return. :)

Missing writing to my friends in other states, and wanting to 'meet' more people from around the world, I was getting kind of glum about the growing collection of stationery that wasn't being sent out.  Then, I was offered a helping hand through a random Facebook post.  As I mentioned yesterday, I LOVE Crane & Co. Stationers.  I love them so much that I follow them on Facebook.  Here's the link so you can 'like' them too!  In late August, they offered to be pen pals with anyone who would send them a letter!  So I did!  It was so fun to get a reply a few weeks later.  They had (have) several hundred letters pouring in per week and are still posting photos on their FB wall of "letter of the week" and stacks they've received that will be replied to over a weekend.  If you want to write to them, the address is Crane & Co. Penpals, 44 West 28th St., 8th floor, NY, NY 10001.

In early September, there was a FB wall post from Crane thanking the Letter Writers Alliance's blog for helping to spread the word about their Pen Pal program.  Wait, what?  There's an alliance for letter writers??  I have to check this out!  So I followed the link to the LWA and fell in love.  A membership to this fine organization is a mere $3.  Membership with a set of LWA stationery and a badge along with a membership card is only $12.  (I answered the call to feeding my addiction getting more stationery, and got the $12 membership.)  It's a lifetime membership, so you don't have to ever renew it.  You get access to exclusive LWA stuff on the site, like member merchandise and pen-pal swaps.

Thinking about pen-pals prompted me to do a Google search about it.  I found all kinds of sites, and some Facebook pages, where you can swap addys and then write to your heart's content!  I was in letter writing paradise!  Here is the main one that I used to get started: Maarten's Snail Mail Pen Pals Online.  You can search by country (or state, if you want to write within the USA), browse the new and updated ones, or just find some at random.  I've sent out to half a dozen places in the UK, 3 to France, to various places in the US, and as far as Australia and New Zealand. :)  See how one random thing on Facebook can lead to all kinds of fun?? :)

Now I've read on the LWA's blog about today being World Post Day!  In it, there is a link to a Facebook page for this project:

Am I participating?  Well, of course!  I already am, since I send out so many letters every week! :)
I'll have a button on my right sidebar that links to the Facebook page up tomorrow.

What about you?  Where do you send letters to?  I know this will help with my stationery collection.  Cure it?  Nah.  Not even close.  But now I'm involved in sending them out for others to enjoy as well. :)
And admitting you have a problem is the first step. :D

What's In Your Mailbox? Part 1:Stationery Addiction

Confession: I am a stationery hoarder.  I have been since I was old enough to write. (1st Grade, people. 1st Grade!)  It started with Lisa Frank kits. Do you remember those??  I had stationery sets with
Roxi and Rollie:

And with this guy:

After that I couldn't help myself.  I am a complete stationery addict.  I'm always finding notecard sets, pretty papers with matching envelopes, and desk accessories that I can't live without.  Michael's has notecards that change out every season in their $1.50 impulse racks near the registers.  Ross has an entire section in their Housewares department of boxed stationery sets for $5 and under.

And then there is Crane & Co., a glorious stationers who have a store at Lenox mall, where I used to shop after class during my college days.  Crane is where I got my feather quills and inks, seals and sealing wax. They no longer carry these old fashioned items, as they are specialty and not often in demand, but heavens, how I made use of it when they did!  I still use them for fine papers, though, when I can.  

Here is an amazing online supplier, Nostalgic Impressions, for all of those lovely writing tools of yesteryear.

My point is, there are a million and one sources for pretty papers, and all of the accoutrements that come with.  (And PENS!  I'm a pen addict too!  I must have at least 500 pens to choose from.  No lie.)  Add to that, my post office is literally 2 miles away (5 minutes by car!) from where I live.  This is an intoxicating combination. :)  Very recently, I rearranged things in my room and finally got all of my writing things together at one desk.  Are you ready for this?  (Please don't judge me.)

It looks all innocent on the outside:

On top is my new Wicked mug which, instead of being used for tea like I had originally intended, has been on hand to catch the latest group of pens.  This represents about 1/100th of the pens I own.

Inside the desk reveals the fact that I have stationery issues.  Many, many issues.

Yep.  All of the section on the right is packs of notecards.

The drawers reveals my box of seals and sealing waxes, and a couple bottles of ink.  And more pens.  And a special item of interest that will be explored in tomorrow's post!

It doesn't end there.  The shelves behind the doors hold even more papers, and another 5% of my pens.  (The rest are in other drawers and spaces in my room, and there is about 10% of the total collection residing in my purses.)

So now that you've seen the proof that I need a 12 step program, the question is, what am I doing with all of it?  I'm so glad you asked!  I am using it.  Perhaps not as fast as I am accruing it, but it is serving its designed purpose.  I'm writing letters!  LOTS and LOTS of letters!

And with that, dear readers, I leave you until tomorrow's post, where I will explore where those letters are going, events tied into it, and more!

Happy Saturday!