ACK! The water stopped running in my areogarden. The booklet says if the light is on, then the water should be running. I checked the arm and the bowl per the booklet. Troubleshooting #3 says the pump may be broken. yikes. So I emailed the customer service.

I wonder what I should do in the meantime...? Will my plants be okay?

Here's today's photo:



And here is the chamber where water should be running...

The present from Katey turned out to be a cute little book called The 60 Second Procrastinator by Jeff Davidson.

It's filled with bites of wisdom to bash the inner procrastinator. I LOVE IT! Thank you, Katey! http://www.women-ink.com/about.htm

Did I tell you guys about my library trip... once I checked out a book called "How to Stop Procrastinating." I returned it three weeks late, unread. blech. So then I checked out a book called "Think and Grow Rich" and ended up spilling hot tea on it at Starbucks and having to buy the book. sooo... I think I grew $15 poorer.

LOL! Such is life. And no wonder I need Katey to spur me along. She's a great cheerleader as I run along in fits and spurts trying to push my creativity onto the paper to grow an idea into a book.

Speaking of growing...lookie at my plants:



They are really bushing out, huh?

I'm starting an Artist Way circle. At least I'm hoping too. I've been a long time Artist's Way follower and have been to several workshops and retreats to hear Julia Cameron.

Here's the scoop for any other Houstonians out there if they want to join us: http://artistsway.meetup.com/184/?gj=sj6

The Dollar Tree Christmas by James and Jessica Trapp

On the first day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
and an Air Freshener from The Dollar Tree.


On the second day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
2 Purple Gloves
and an Air Freshener from The Dollar Tree.



On the third day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
3 Big Bins
2 Purple Gloves
and an Air Freshener from The Dollar Tree.



On the fourth day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
4 Falling Pans
3 Big Bins
2 Purple Gloves
and an Air Freshener from The Dollar Tree.



On the fifth day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
5 Plastic Blings
4 Falling Pans
3 Big Bins
2 Purple Gloves
and an Air Freshener from The Dollar Tree.



On the sixth day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
6 Sprayers Spraying
5 Plastic Blings
4 Falling Pans
3 Big Bins
2 Purple Gloves
and an Air Freshener from The Dollar Tree.



On the seventh day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
7 Dawns a-Soaping
6 Sprayers Spraying
5 Plastic Blings
4 Falling Pans
3 Big Bins
2 Purple Gloves
and an Air Freshener from The Dollar Tree.



On the eighth day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
8 Cows for Milking
7 Dawns a-Soaping
6 Sprayers Spraying
5 Plastic Blings
4 Falling Pans
3 Big Bins
2 Purple Gloves
and an Air Freshener from The Dollar Tree.



On the ninth day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
9 Ladies Spongies
8 Cows for Milking
7 Dawns a-Soaping
6 Sprayers Spraying
5 Plastic Blings
4 Falling Pans
3 Big Bins
2 Purple Gloves
and an Air Freshener from The Dollar Tree.



On the tenth day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
10 Boards a-Heaping
9 Ladies Spongies
8 Cows for Milking
7 Dawns a-Soaping
6 Sprayers Spraying
5 Plastic Blings
4 Falling Pans
3 Big Bins
2 Purple Gloves
and an Air Freshener from The Dollar Tree.



On the eleventh day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
11 Lighters Lighting
10 Boards a-Heaping
9 Ladies Spongies
8 Cows for Milking
7 Dawns a-Soaping
6 Sprayers Spraying
5 Plastic Blings
4 Falling Pans
3 Big Bins
2 Purple Gloves
and an Air Freshener from The Dollar Tree.



On the twelfth day of Christmas
my true love gave to me:
12 Shoppers Slumming
11 Lighters Lighting
10 Boards a-Heaping
9 Ladies Spongies
8 Cows for Milking
7 Dawns a-Soaping
6 Sprayers Spraying
5 Plastic Blings
4 Falling Pans
3 Big Bins
2 Purple Gloves
and an Air Freshener from The Dollar Tree.



Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas from Trapp Manor!

Lookie what I got in the mail:

A BIRTHDAY PRESENT from my coach KATEY!

http://theauthorscoach.ninelivescoaching.com

Oh, this is killing me. I wanna open it! I wanna! I wanna!!

My son tells me I should wait until Friday. But should I? It's from Powells. Definitely a book. Ooooooooooooooh, I lOVE books.

*breathing breathing* I know... I'll go take a picture of my tomatoes to distract myself:



Ah, better.

Can you see all those black spots on the white? Those are gnats. Dead gnats. Yuck. I just cleaned them off 15 minutes ago and here they are back again. I guess that's the reason Sur la Table was only selling the models in black. I don't understand where they are coming from. My kitchen isn't dirty.

I've been researching all day. Whew! I think I'm making progress though. I didn't make it to the museum as I had hoped, but I did go to the local library and plan to update the first 100 pages of the wip as much as I can before I get to bed. I'm learning all sorts of cool things about how the people made medieval paint.

Now if I could just find somebody to show me how to put smilies in my blog. LOL!

I've been doing research and cleanup on my manuscript all day. It's frustrating to spend so much time learning little details about medieval life, yet fascinating at the same time. I've been wanting to snatch myself baldheaded on medieval painting techniques and supplies and then I found this website: http://rourkevisualart.com/

TONS of great information there! And David seems really nice too.

Tomorrow I'm heading to the Museum of Fine Arts and hopefully can find someone to help me with a lot of my questions about paints and painting.

Here's today's tomatoes:



And the pamplet said it was time to prune them--so here they are post pruning.



They look a little nekkid, don't they?

Oh, rah, rah, rah. More freakin' computer stuff. My new camera hosed up already--I returned it. The new one has an issue too. I can't figure out how to sign into one of my accounts because it tells me my email isn't recognizable. It's like everything just takes 3 to 5 times as long as you think it should with a computer. Some days I think my novels would get written faster if I wrote them on roles of toilet paper. Some critics would probably like them better that way too, so it would be double duty, ykwim?

Anyway... that's not why I came here to blog. I came here with a grateful heart (which was slammed by not being able to get into my account at first) for my friend Mel in Australia who is on a yahoo loop with me. She sent my son two 20 shilling coins that feature the platypus. He had a big report to do for school. Here is a photo with the Platypus he drew and all the pictures he cut out. He worked SO hard on all of it. (Insert proud mom smile here.)



So... the coins came today and The Jamester was THRILLED. He was literally glowing he was so excited. Worked out very well because I was able to take the coins to school during their class Christmas party. All the kids thought he was majorly cool for receiving mail from down under. They took turns passing them around, all very keyed up about it and his teacher was, like, "WHOA! That is AWESOME!" (I LOVE her! He's been blessed with great teachers.)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, Mel!!!! You made my son's day. You made his report special. He's so jazzed about the whole deal, he started planning his fourth grade animal report. He kept the coins close all day and fell asleep holding them. It really meant a lot.

I have so much to say on here that I feel a little overwhelmed with where to start. Geez... I warned everyone that I was sucky at keeping up with daily postings, I'm blaming this on my camera. I was going to post daily pictures of my new tomato plants and when the camera messed up, I got discouraged about the whole mess.

Anyway, here's today's plants:



Can you believe how much they have grown! WOW!

Other news: Friday is my 37th birthday. Woo woo! I guess that explains the chin hair, but when does the acne go away again? Anyone? Anyone?

I talked to a lady the other day about bioidentical hormones.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeell...Remember that old joke about the man and woman who go to the doctor because he's in bad shape. The doc pulls the lady aside and tells her that it's all up to her. If she'll get up every morning, give her husband a good massage, cook him a five course meal three times a day, cater to his every whim and need then he'll get over his illness. If she doesn't, then he'll die by the end of the year.

When she goes back to the waiting room, he's on pins and needles. He asks, "What did the doctor say?"

And she answers, "He said you're gonna die."

Ba Dum.

So... I talked to this lady about these biohormones.

And she told me I was definitely not going to get any better.

Well, not exactly... actually, she decides (for all practical purposes) to diagnose me over the phone (oh, you definitely have XYZ), tells me that blood tests, etc aren't accurate then wants me to set up a five hour exam that cost thousands and thousands of dollars that include a menagerie of blood tests (uuuuuh... I thought you just said they weren't accurate...) that my insurance doesn't cover.

Anyway, the whole used car salesmen thingy started ringing in my ears. And, guess what... this body I've been dragging around for 37 years isn't getting any younger. So whatever. I'd just like to see my skin clear up.

Anyhow, after the sticker shock on the price, I decided that whole laser thing was cheap and I could definitely tolerate the pain. If I had thousands of dollars just laying around I'd be on a fast plane to the Caribbean. Or England. Or Australia.

'nuff for today.
jes

Busy, busy week. Haven't been on line much. I've gotten a lot done on my wip which feels good and today I (ta da!) organized my office. I'm a mess with paperwork. Need a secretary.

To reward myself, I went SHOE SHOPPING. My plan was to buy a pair of practical brown boots for winter. But then I sat down next to a lady named Chris, who talked me into buying some magical summer black patent wedges with leopard print. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, they are adorable. I was going to take a photo but all my camera's are messed up at the moment. (Grrr!)

I got boots too, but I think I'm going to return them--decided they really didn't look that great.

I just started watching The Dog Whisperer. I'm hooked. And Jack is too funny. Mostly he ignores whatever is on, but as soon as The Dog Whisperer comes on, he sits up, very alert and watches intently. It's hilarious.

Off to bed.

Happy Thanksgiving! Here's a snapshot of James and me at the parade. It was supposed to be a family picture with all three of us... but my mom's photo skills, er...um...yeah. Well, you get it.

And just ignore the freaky, detached alien hand, huh?

Fun day today. Went to the zoo with a friend and her kids. Baby elephant. Two baby giraffes. The weather is GORGEOUS and I love the zoo! My friend and her girls are wonderful too. An all around great day.

And... good news about the AreoGarden...

I retract all that stuff I said about their customer service. I got a lovely email from them:

Hello Jessica,

Thank you for your email.

Regarding the 'add water' light on your AeroGarden, it sounds as if the float that monitors the water level is stuck. As you look inside the garden bowl, you will see a small tube with 'Fill to Here' printed on the top - the float is inside of that tube. You can loosen the float by straightening a paper clip and pushing it into the hole at the top of the tube. Wiggle the clip around until the float is dislodged and the 'add water' light goes off.If the light is still blinking, please call 1-800-476-9669 and a customer care agent will be happy to offer other solutions.

Thank you,
Tracy L.
Customer Care

So, I was able to get my garden running. (Thank you, Tracy!) I plan to take a daily photo just for fun. Photobucket is down so I'll post it later.

Okay... it's later. Nov 21st AreoGarden

WHAT A WEEKEND! My husband's B-Day party. Friends over for the weekend. Ren Fest.

Whew.

So, today my new AeroGarden arrived. It's a all in one, indoor kitchen vegtable grower that is supposed to be easy--no weeds or dirt and it shows you when to add water and plant nutrients. Sorta like Gardening for Dummies or SpaceAge Gardening. I had seen one at Sur la Table, but they only had them in black (grrr!) and I wanted a white one, so I ordered it direct from the company. I thought it would be fun because I've had no luck at all growing tomatoes at home (although my neighbor grows beautiful tomatoes.)

Anyway... here's the saga:

Unpacking it:



Then I set it up with the Cherry Tomato kit--which included two reds and one yellow tomato seed pods plus four "space savers." Looks pretty cool, huh?




The "low water" light (a small red light on the front) was blinking so I added water--the water started running through the pods--makes a nice sound. But the low water light didn't go off. (Grrrr!)

I called customer service... was left on hold for a long time, (grrr!) so I left a message and decided to try emailing them. The website doesn't have a specific edress to contact them even when you click the contact page. (grrr, grrr, grrr.)

Anyone else frustrated with today's "customer service" departments? It's more like you push 15 buttons and then talk to someone in India. Oh, wait, that's insurance companies.

Back to gardening...

Now, I don't know if I should add the nutrient pack or not. I read the manual and didn't see instructions on what to do if the low water light doesn't turn off. There is definitely plenty of water. And I turned it on and off several times. Hit the reset button. What else is there? Am I missing something? What if I have to return the thing for a new one?

Well. Phooey. I realize that if this is the worst thing I have to deal with today, that the day still gets marked down as a success... but grrr on hassles.

Today's moral dilemma: A box shows up on my doorstep. It's not something I've ordered. Do I open it? Hmmmm... might be a Christmas present for me.

So, no, I shouldn't open it.

But... I'm no good at waiting.

And if I don't open it now, my husband will get home and HIDE the box. Then it will be a whole month before I see what's in the box.

So, yes, I should definitely open it.

Or no.

Or yes.

I glance at the invoice. Doesn't look like anything for me.

Ha, I'm safe. No dilemma.

So I open the box.

And guess what is in there?

NEW BOOTS! My husband has ordered me black lace up Harley Davidson boots!



OMG! And they fit. I LOVE 'em!

So... okay... now I've snuck into my Christmas present. Do I wrap them back up, pretend I didn't see them? Do I pretend I just didn't know, just opened the box up accidentally? Do I tell the truth--it was a BIG FREAKIN' BOX and I'm like a bad kid who can't wait?

Oh, delimmas, delimmas.

He said he's coming home early.

What should I do? Wrap them back up or leave them out?

Brrrrrrrrrrrr... the weather turned cold. I bought a new pair of fuzzy pink pjs the other day and its nice to get to use them.

I don't watch much TV, but I managed to catch the last Dancing with the Stars show. WOW, WOW, WOW! Emmitt Smith. Mario Lopez. Whew. I see this morning that Emmitt won. (Congratulations, Emmitt!) But I don't see how anybody picked a winner. Emmitt's smile. His charm. His wide, wide shoulders and fancy feet. And that one-arm lift. Then Mario--his out-and-out intensity and passion, his flexibility, those gorgeous dimples--not to mention the mouth-watering cut of his arms, that bad-boy stuff and just amazing dancing. Yum. Just yum.

WHEW! Definite inspiration for my writing.

I keep wondering (and this is only a philosophical question)... Do problems cause complaining? Or does complaining cause problems? Or both?

You ever know people who seem to whine and complain about everything? Their lives aren't perfect--heck, they might even have *real* issues to complain about--but they seem to dwell on the negative. They complain and resent their kids, spouse, house, pets, bills, job, co-workers, neighbors, position in life, etc, etc. It's like they live to complain.

But--here's the odd thing...I've noticed that for this sort of person their life never gets any better--no matter what new job or new house or new car they get. In fact, it seems like their life gets progressively worse. They file for bankruptcy. They get divorced. They loose friends. Their house becomes a pit or they loose it altogether. And on and on and on.

The reason I've been wondering about this is that it strikes close to home:

There have been times in my life where I have gotten myself into a downward spiraling hell because I have dwelled on the negative. I haven't counted my blessings. I haven't seen the positives, the beauty of life, the miracles or the thousands of helping hands. So... I've grumbled and complained--and guess what?--the circumstances all got worse. Much worse.

One time when I had reached a real lowpoint, out of sheer desperation, I began to take daily Gratitude Walks. This was a 20 minute spiritual fast from negativity. I would start at my front door and begin to mentally list all the things that I was grateful for. At first it seemed like a big stretch to think of anything--"I'm grateful for legs that walk. I'm grateful I got to eat this morning. I'm grateful I haven't killed myself yet."

Then, slowly, my gratitude muscle seemed to get stronger. "I'm grateful for where I live. I'm grateful for a husband who loves me. I'm grateful my mom lives close and helps me with my son. I'm grateful for the sunshine. I'm grateful for clouds. I'm grateful for purple flowers."

You know... when you stop and look around there are things from the silly and mundane to the wondrous and miraculous to be grateful for.

And you know what else--every single time I've forced myself away from the negative and began to feast on the positive, my life improved. My marriage improved. My relationships improved. My house became cleaner and more organized. Even my bank account improved.

Which leads me back to my original question... and I honestly don't have answers. It's just one of the many things I ponder.

Oh, how I want to rant today. And you know what about... about fun. Because I think that fun gets a BAD rap.

Based on the divorce rate, the number of issues at schools, etc, I think families are in serious crisis.

Now...I have this theory, and it may be way off base, but here it is: part of the issue is that fun and leisure and pleasure are so judged and discarded by society as unimportant.

People don't spend time with their spouses, their kids, their neighbors, their friends just hanging out laughing. nope... it's all work, work, work. Dad's pulling overtime, Mom's pulling overtime, then on day's off it's work, work, work at home to catch up on all the things that didn't get done. And... geez... the billion activities some parents put their kids into. I've seen some families where the kids don't get any down time. They look exhausted.

All this running around makes humans eat junk food and fast food, which puts their bodies into some sort of crisis mode because they don't get the vitamins they need.

Emotionally they are defunked from dealing with one stress after the next.

And spiritually... well, heck... many churches don't seem to be about giving people something that lifts them up and gives them hope.

People aren't nourished... not spiritually, emotionally, physically, or mentally.

And don't get me started on the over-commercialization of holidays which leads to financial crisis and more stress and more work. When did we become a nation of more, more, more and never satisfied with anything?

It's more important to a child to sit for a parent to play a game of uno with them than to get the biggest, latest, most special, popular gadget on the market. It's more important for a husband and wife to sit out on the porch with a glass of wine and make out than to buy a new 60 inch flat-screen TV (which often they don't have time to use because they have to work more overtime to pay for it!)

But, nope... fun gets a bad rap. Relaxation gets a bad rap. Between our Internet, blackberries, cell phones, pagers, etc, etc... people are just on, on, on all the time. Working. Doing something that is urgent. There is no time left for quietness. No time left to play ball with your kids. No time left to have sex all afternoon.

I don't know why feeling good is looked on with such suspicion. I think people owe it to themselves this weekend to just RELAX. To talk. To read. To have fun with friends. To do creative projects at home and enjoy life.

Just my 2 cents..

Today has been scatterbrained. Kid lost his shoes, had to chase all over town to find them. On the good side...I FOUND my car keys. (WAHOO!) I really thought I'd lost them for good. They were--duh--in a jacket pocket.

The weather today was wonderful. Perfect. Fabulous. I walked a lot and just enjoyed the sunshine.

A friend emailed me this photo from a Halloween Party that we went to. We had a blast. Total riot.



Here's another photo of me dusting my husband, the pirate...

So glad my husband is BACK AT WORK today. He's had a miserable flu and I'm sucking down vitamins to prevent myself from getting sick. The kiddo was sick the week before. All of us went to bed last night at 7 or 8--just too tired to go any more.

Other news: My emailed crashed. My computer is dying. I've LOST my car keys... like, lost-lost them, not misplaced them. ARRRRRRRRRRRGH!

I have a recipe for Cold "Cure" Tea that I made this morning-wish I would have been able to make it 2 days ago:

1 lemon
1 orange
2 large cinnamon sticks
2 Tablespoons of cloves
1 can frozen concentrated apple juice
2 pieces of ginger the size of a man's little finger
10 cups water

Cut lemon and orange into slices. Boil lemon, orange, cinnamon sticks, and cloves for 30 minutes. Peal and slice the ginger and add it to the mixture--boil for 20 more minutes. Remove from heat and add the apple juice to sweeten.

I'm planning to slurp a ton of this over the next 3 days and give it to my husband too. It seems to help.

Happy Halloween!!!

Well, I'm totally freaked. Today I had my chin hair zapped off. HOLY MOLY! That hurt like a son of a gun. I'm sick of feeling like a billy goat though. It's like one turns 30 and hair starts growing in wierdo places.

Then, when I got home, someone from Time called me about my rant on this http://home.houston.rr.com/jesicatrapp/articles.htm

Actually, my rant on Fred Head was a big push for me to start this blog. Some days I just want to yak my head off and I thought I was going to blow a gasket when I read his comments about writing romance.

Anyhow... daily life:

You know what I hate? dusting. I honestly thought that laundry was at the top of my list of things I disliked. But no. Dusting is definitely the winner. Those duster things make my kid and husband sneeze. So I bought a pack of Pledge wipes for the furniture.

WELL... turns out, we've got about a billion wooden surfaces in this house. I think the worst part about dusting is that the house doesn't really look much better when you are done. Oh, sure... YOU know you've done something. But it's completely invisible to everyone else.

Anyhow:
Yesterday: Restart airfilter machine thingy.
Weekend: Search for a replacement for the Kirbysaurus. That thing is more than a vacuum cleaner... it's a full body workout.
Monday: Get airducts cleaned.

Next time I dust, I'm taking before and after photos just to prove I've done something.

I just wrote a post then accidentally deleated it. Grrr. I guess I haven't figured out this blog thing yet. I've got to figure out how to set up a profile and stuff.

Yesterday as a pain. Today wasn't shaping up much better until I came upon a BRILLIANT plan. My kid daudles sometimes in the morning. Moves like a slug. Stares at his breakfast instead of eating it. Anyone else have daudlers? It's enough to make a parent want to snatch themselves bald sometimes.

So... he missed the bus.

This is usually a point of extreme unhappiness in our house. (Gotta figure out how to put in those smilies too.)

But today I thought... hmmmmmmmmm... I was planning to put away laundry and clean the bathroom and NOW I have HELP! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

So... we got those chores done in record time and still made it to school on time. The bus comes much earlier than you have to leave if you are a car rider.

So, now those chores are done so I can walk the dog and then settle into writing.

I have a blog! I've been thinking of starting one for a while, but couldn't figure out what to put in it. The way I see it, the most interesting blogs are the controversial ones, but *shudder* I'm not really interested in being a beacon of controversy. A lot of writers have blogs about writing... so I can't think of much there that hasn't already been said.

Plus I can't spell. Totally suck at it. I'm half dyslexic and the doctor tells me I have ADD... oh, look there's a chicken...so sometimes I can't focus very well. In other words: I've been afraid that I'll just look like an idiot.

Whatever. I'm not here to defend my intellect. I'm just here to be me. The naked me.

I've had an online journal for a while in another forum. But it's about a specific topic--not that I don't blather on about stuff. But also... PEOPLE CAN'T MAKE COMMENTS. And I kinda like that fact. So, shut up! Don't leave a comment. It's my darn blog. Go away.

Oh, wait.... I was just kidding.

Really.

Please leave comments. Unless they aren't nice. I don't like people who aren't nice.

Anyhow... welcome to my yik-yak. This is not a blog about writing or publishing. This is just me and life and all the nutty stuff that happens. It's boring. I'm going to be bad at updating it. Get over it.

How's that for a nice defensive opening. LOL!