HEEHEE!

Okay, serious now...

Never leave me alone with a digital camera...

I was thinking of getting several new tattoos over the next few years.

1) To expand the one I already have of angel wings/halo with feathers falling out that I designed in memory of my father, James Henry. I'm thinking of putting his name under the wings with clouds around it. This one already sits boldly on my upper right arm/shoulder.

2) Disney related flowers; a tat I designed of lillies with the classic Mickey Mouse ears in the center, coming out of the little stems. I've been inspired by Walt Disney since I was a very little girl, and it's what drove me into art. Thinking of putting this on a hip.

3) The rampant lion of Scotland & the key of the city of Valdres, Norway. I'm Scottish and Norwegian in my background, so I'd like to put something on my ankle to honor my heritages. If I do the rampant lion only, I'd like an excerpt from the Bible that means a lot to me; "And you shall overcome thy adversaries as a roaring Lion."

4) A X cross of a pencil and paint brush below my neck/just above my back. I've been an artist since I could hold a pencil, my life is dedicated to creating things. It's what gives me purpose in this life.

5) The latitudes and longitutes of where I grew up in Arena, WI and Verona, WI.

While I was babysitting my niece Josephine yesterday while Niki ran some last minute errands, the little gal toddled up to me while I was drawing/watching TV with her, and put her little hand on my arm and looked me in the eye and said, "Maahi!"

"Maahi" is her word for "Auntie Mandi."

It was, I think, her way of saying "I love you."

And I picked that little girl up and hugged and kissed her 'til she laughed like crazy. Then we played scoot around on the floor while Auntie Mandi pretends to be a bear. Then we took a nap on the middle of the floor -- by we, I mean her.

Then Kurt came home and she sat on his lap and snuggled.

I'm so blessed to have such a darling little soul in my life. I really am the better for her.


Mandi

Okay, here's how I think this should work...

Email me with your name and address you'd like your card mailed to at "MandiOwnsU@aol.com" If you'd like to include your username on LiveJournal, that'd be awesome, too, just so I know who you are, but if you would prefer I not know, that's cool, too. Whatever you're comfortable with is A-Okay by Miss Mandi.

Please label the email as something like, "my address," or "holiday cards" or "Mandi, look here, bewbies!" And I'll get right to it, especially if it's the last part. ;)

I will make your card and send it to you in a matter of days.

Also, I will try to respond to your emails just to let you know that I received them and your request. If you do not hear back from me, just drop me a comment here and say, "hey, doofus, something's wrong with your email!" And I will jump on it like a beast.

If you don't want to email me, that's okay, too! You can leave me a private message on LJ.

And lastly, PLEASE DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE TO BE ON MY BUDDY LIST, IN MY "INNER CIRCLE," HAVE TO SEND A CARD IN RETURN OR ANY OTHER SILLY THING TO RECEIVE A CARD FROM THE MANDINESS. Anyone is welcome, I love, love, LOVE giving cards, so please, just ask for one simply to make me happy. DO eeet!

Alright, ya'll.... get to it, I have a segment I need to write that I've been procrastinating on, as you've probably guessed. See ya soon!

Love,
The Mandiness

PS - Remember, there are two cards you can request, or you can request both if you like!


Brokeback
Tinkerbell

I was just wondering... If I make my own holiday cards, (as I do every year), would anyone out there be interested in receiving one from me? If so, let me know here, just a basic yay or nay, and I'll put up a locked up entry later, where only I can see your address/response, and I'll mail out a "happy holidays" card some time in December.

Thanks! Happy Turkey Day a little early, in case I don't talk to you guys before then.

Love,
Mandi

ETA: Don't feel shy. If you even just peek at my entries now and again, please feel free to step up and request a card. I LOOOOOOVE sending out holiday cards, it's borderline neurotic. :)

I just got on eBay and bought up a bunch of fragrances that remind me of my childhood, early teen years and the start of a new life with my partner, Kurt. They say that our sense of smell is the most raw, real and uncensored sense we have; it brings back memories in a flood with very little editing from our brains. It can remind you of people, places and times gone by with one little whiff.

I think of all my senses, I value my sense of smell most of all for that very reason.

I remember falling in love with Bath and Body Works in seventh grade, specifically the pumice scrubs in Sun Ripened Raspberry and Seaspray. Those products in those fragrances remind me of middle school, a slightly chaotic time. I learned about Bath and Body Works by sharing Sun Ripened Raspberry lotion in the girls' locker room after gym class. I'd never felt something that divine, and I've been hooked on that store ever since.

The smell of B&BW Liquid Talc in Freesia reminds me of the moment I heard my favorite auntie had passed away. I bought some at the mall with my parents, and we came home and received a phone call that she had gone Home; I still can't smell that stuff without a pinprick of sadness and hearing my mother wailing in the living room.

I bought "Limelight" and "Strawberry Lemonade" shower gel and lotion online, which reminds me of my carefree days playing with my friends Jennifer and Stephanie, who always smelled of it. They're twin sisters, and teachers now. It's so strange to think back on when we were just tumbling around in gym class to the Macarena on the radio.

Kirsten smelled like B&BW Honeysuckle. I bought her some for her birthday and she went nuts with it. She also smelled like Clinique's oily skin formula soap. Kiki's mother used Clinique and nothing but, so that's how I remember her.

Heidi, my other hetero-lifemate, smells like Biolage shampoo and conditioner. I smell it every time I hug her and have just associated that smell with her since we met in second grade. She could go for days without bathing and still smell so damned good. (I should probably hate her for that, but I can't.)

Best of all, there's Kurt, my dear Kurt, who always smells like brown sugar and good, new leather. It's so strong or I'm so into it that I can smell it even as he's coming down the stairs to kiss me hello when he comes home from work. He wears Homme Sport by Chanel, which is almost as divine as his natural scent. Still, nothing's better than when he's just waking up, me curled around his back and smelling the scent of his slightly messy hair. That's my favorite fragrance in the world.

I also bought a house oil fragrance called "Pink Hyacinth," which is the fragrance that reminds me of my first apartment with Kurt. I burned that oil to rid it of the old smell when we first moved in, so I associate the beginning of my new life with that fragrance.

My college days were filled with the fragrance of Back To Basics Green Tea shampoo and conditioner and Bath and Body Works Crystal Blue Waters. I showered sometimes twice a day, for stress relief, and my dorm always smelled of Lysol Crisp Linen disinfectant spray.

Right now, I'm burning a "Dancing Waters" candle, also from B&BW, which just makes my house smell, as I call it, "cleanly lived in." I'm not partial to it right now, but maybe in five years, I'll be fondly remembering sitting at my computer in my duplex with my family, smelling that candle.

So... now that my little tirade is over, I ask you... what are your favorite fragrances and what do they remind you of?

Just your friendly neighborhood fanfic writer with a little public service announcement.

Please, if you're thinking of getting a pet, think of adopting one from a rescue shelter.

There are so many wonderful animals waiting for a good home, you never know just where your next little soulmate with four legs, (and sometimes less), might come from.

I adopted Kuu from a friend of a friend who couldn't keep her any longer, and she is the little love of my life. She's always happy to see me, she's a cuddle baby and "talks" to me. My next tattoo is going to be a little drawing of her on my left hip, "her" place, where she sleeps. (I have no idea how this is comfortable for her, but she likes it just fine and complains when I move her.) She loves to be a little turd, and is right now standing on my coffee table, which I've told her thousands of times not to do, just to get my attention.

Doober is my big lap baby, part wolf, at 120 lbs, who just got back from surgery, (he's one hurtin' little cowpoke), but he was adopted from a family who no longer wanted him and thought it would be "cheaper to put him down than to board him" while they went on vacation. (Needless to say, Kurt was there in a damned hurry to get our baby.) He wants nothing more than to be with his "pack," and loves his daddy and mama more than anything.

And if you're looking for a specific purebred animal, one in four shelter animals is purebred, you're bound to find exactly who you are looking for.

And once you bring home your new friend, please have them spayed or neutered. An accidental litter means you might be finding homes for a bunch of kittens or pups that could have gone to a shelter animal in need.

I can't tell you how fulfilled my life has been because of my rescue critters. And the truth is, I didn't rescue them, they rescued me.

I am now back as part of the daily rat race! Yes, good friends, Mandi is finally employed again! Hurray!

Don't worry, this won't mean less or fewer or lower quality updates... It just means Mandi will have money in her pocket to buy a paid LJ account! Whoopee! :D

I was telling TrekFan about it briefly, but I have the most awesome-sauce boss; he's funny, he's kind, he's compassionate... Best guy you could ask to work for, and better yet, they're PAYING me to work with him! Truthfully, I'd volunteer to work with a fella like him. I'm baking cookies for the staff on Sunday to bring on Monday morning, I like my co-workers and boss so much!

We have two resident cranes that live across the parking lot near the pond, and they come wandering around; I saw them yesterday flying overhead, they're beautiful! We also have a deer that cruises around every now and then, but I haven't seen her yet. Hope to. We also have big spiders that live in the outside window that have holsters and six shooters, so thank God they're outside! Top that off with a little hornets' nest on the opposite side of the building and you have my happy little workspace. I couldn't have asked for a better one, I am so ridiculously happy here.

So I just wanted to let everyone in on the good news. Thanks for the prayers and well wishes!

Love to all,
Mandi

I've been writing most of the day, getting my updates ready for My_Lil_Darlin, all lined up nice and pretty...

But I can't stop writing.

My fingers hurt, ow.

I'm up to Sequence 10:8 right now.

Ow. Ow. OW.

Goodbye, George Carlin.

I love you.

Mandi

I'm a very happy, sexy, beautiful size sixteen. And I sometimes need to remind myself of that, but most of the time, I know. :)

I just emailed the Mary Kay website and said that, hey, I'm so glad you have models of all different ethnic backgrounds, ones with freckles, of different ages..

But can we get some women of size in there, too?

I'm on some quest to make us big girls more visible.

I was deeply inspired by the size sixteen Miss Universe candidate from England, (I think that's where she was from), and now I've made it my duty to runway walk through my life and shut up the morons who think beauty only comes in a tiny size.

Well, guess what? I'm big, I'm beautiful, and I'll maul your ass over if you ain't feelin' me. (Well, I won't because I'm also a very nice person, which is where true beauty is, but I'll at least make you feel bad for being a jerk to me and my big sisters.)

I just want to tell any other big girls out there that it's okay to be big. It doesn't make us ugly or fat or icky. We don't HAVE to change to be beautiful; we already are, and unless we start standing up for ourselves, no one else is going to. The fashion industry won't.

Did you know the average woman today is a size twelve? And yet, all we see are size six models? Ladies, does that make any sense? Why would you buy clothes to fit someone who is a size six when you're... not? I don't.

The only reason I encourage anyone to lose weight is for health reasons. That's the reason I did, was to avoid diabetes and cancer... but aside from that, I'm not concerned with the status quo. I don't care if people think I'm fat; and if I am, so what? I'm comfortable in my own skin, and truth is, not to be arrogant, I think I'm quite lovely.

So girls, get out there and be visible. Don't hide yourselves. Show off the beauty you were born with. After all, beauty doesn't come in just a size six.

Your BIG sister,
Mandi

Mandi's mini vacation!

I went to the RendezVous, a big flea market excursion on the Wisconsin/Iowa/Mississippi River boarder with my family this weekend... Boy howdy, what fun!

( RendezVous )

I had three skin tags burned off of my eyelid on Monday, and they fell off today. (More like I scraped one off, the other two fell off naturally... I'm not a patient patient... play on words.)

Truth is, I kept them for so long because my father had them, too, and keeping mine made me feel like in a way, I was being like him. And then I realized, I'm so much more of my father than just skin tags on our eyelids. I have his ears, nose, lips... I really do look a lot like him, I don't need skin tags on my eyelids to look like or prove I'm James Henry's daughter. And more importantly, I'm like him in the ways that matter, not only in my physical appearance; I have his rowdy sense of humor, his dedication to his family, his artistic hand... I'm happy because he left me not only with his beautiful physical features, (pardon my arrogance), but with the qualities that really matter.

So I bought myself a new eyeshadow and lipsticks that only cost pennies on eBay to wear once my eyelid heals. Can't wait to use it. I wonder how I look in a muted blue/purple and mauve lipstick.

And Sequence 10 will be up soon, Jude is working away on it, she just had a few timeline questions. Make sure to thank her for her keen eye to detail; she really is amazing!

Mandi

I'm getting rid of junk while we wait on our next update. I've got the wedding written, and even Sequence 10 started!

I need to get rid of junk. I'm weighed down by it. I have way too much stuff than is necessary, even in a large duplex that we all live in, I just don't need so much stuff.

And it makes me feel bad to have so much when there are others that have so little. So I'm giving my stuff to Goodwill and hoping that someone who needs it, finds it. And really, I keep my things in good order, I take good care of them, so I hope they are very useful to someone else.

Personally, I love Goodwill. I love recycling, I love supporting a place that gives back to the community and helps others live independently in the community who otherwise might not have that chance. It just makes me feel happy all over.

So I urge you all to go through your unused goods, clothes, furniture, whatever, and donate it to your local resale shop like Goodwill, St Vincent de Paul's, whatever. It really does make a difference in the world.

I'm having a minor surgical setback -- I'm still in pain and the stitches are not healing properly...

But I'm working on the wedding scene, which makes me stupidly happy.

Using LOLObama icon.

Well, I'm back from surgery.

I'm done throwing up the anesthesia.

I came out completely healthy, (they were looking for uterus polyps), which I'm very grateful for!

So now it's just laying around watching daytime TV and feeling sorry for myself... oh, and writing my J/E wedding and drawing pictures, when I can sit up again.

Mandi