Thank you to everyone who has been sending good thoughts. Thankfully things have turned out okay - it is still a crummy situation but we're able to relax for now.

My dad talked to Bobby, Sheena and Taylor. They are all fine and safe - Sheena & Bobby's side of the story is that when Sheena's parents found out about the heroin they lost it and started a fight and kicked them out. Sheena refused to leave without Taylor, and Taylor didn't want her mother to go without her either. Bobby had enough of the fighting and took Tay to the car & Sheena then went with them. They wanted to bring Tay here, but in the heat of the moment they ended up just leaving to go wherever it is they are now. (Dad didn't mention where they are exactly.)

Sheena and Bobby both want to go into rehab and were looking this morning for someplace they can go - but all the centers are closed for the holiday weekend and the earliest they'll be able to get in is Monday.

Sheena said she hoped nobody called CYS, which dad told her the truth that we did call them because her mother said to & that was the advice of all the police and other folks we talked to about the matter. With everything her mother was saying we were all worried sick but as it turns out her mother is a drama queen. I'm frustrated with her that she put us all through this - but it is what it is. But at least Sheena knows CYS was informed and that she can expect they'll be investigating; she isn't too upset over it, she knows it was done out of concern for Taylor and that we were all worried sick because of everything we were told by her mother.

So, we've all heaved a sigh of relief. There is still a lot to deal with because of all this, and it's going to be a long road. But at least for now we know that everyone involved is ok and safe. Niece may well end up staying here on an extended visit, or maybe my brother will finally be able to get custody. Who knows. But the main thing is she is safe, and we'll be getting to see her again soon.

Am I the only one who's obsessed with Wizard 101? I started playing last week, and I gotta say I love it. I've never been one for such games, but I was bored and thought I'd at least try it out... and now I adore it. I just wish I had the money for a paid account so I could access all the areas and features... but oh well. There is a lot you can do under the free accounts, so until I can justify the price tag of a membership (about $80 for one year) I'll be fine with the limits put on the free accounts.

Niece went home a little while ago. I'm glad she stayed a couple days longer than expected. I wish she'd have been able to stay longer though.

Boyfriend is at his dad's which means we won't be able to talk much till he gets home. *sad* I won't call while he is at his dad's. But at least he finally has a cell phone... so I can call if I need him. He only has a prepaid phone though, so I can only call if I really need to. Otherwise I have to suck it up and deal with missing him. He's coming home tomorrow, not like I have to go without talking to him too long. But still... we're so attached that even one day feels like forever.

I am going to try to get some more swatches done for the polish blog in the next day or two, and I want to get more items photographed and listed in my winkelf shop. I'm not sure what I want to list next though. I need to go through everything and figure that out.

Anyway, I have some cleaning up to do, niece and I made a bit of a mess in the kitchen LOL but it was fun. Now the not-fun stuff needs to be taken care of so that I can relax a while.

Niece dad and I went to the auction today. Saw some adorable bunnies, but of course we don't have money for another pet right now. We walked around the flea market outside the auction a bit too, niece got some pokemon cards and a little foldy fan, and I got a fan too because they were pretty. I also got a parasol, which is equally pretty. It may not block uva/uvb rays like those fancy shmancy parasols that cost a fortune, but it provides some shade and it's pretty. We also got a spinning wheel for my sister, who is now insisting that she and I share it. It would be great if I could figure out how to use it. lol That is the problem with buying old stuff - instructions are not included. I tried looking online for some instructions, but couldn't even find a spinning wheel that looks like the one we got. So, oh well. My sister is coming over at some point this week, maybe she can figure it out.

Niece is supposedly going home tomorrow, but we'll see. She was supposed to go home yesterday. In all honesty I wouldn't care if she spent the rest of her summer vacation here. At the moment she's getting on my nerves a bit, but I'm PMS-y so getting on my nerves is an uber easy task for anybody. So..

Boyfriend's been getting into fishing lately... a LOT. On one hand it drives me crazy - he'll be gone for 5-6 hours at a time, leaves in the middle of the night to go fishing... every day. I miss him. I miss getting to talk to him about anything other than fishing. But on the other hand... he doesn't smoke at all when he's fishing. And it's making him happy. He hasn't been so happy in a long, long time... truthfully I don't think he's ever been so happy. I like seeing him happy. Even if that means I hardly get to talk to him and when we do talk it's mostly him talking about fishing and I just listen and pretend I'm interested.

Anyway. It's nearing bed time, so I best get going so I can get ready for bed and get the little one ready too.

I'm bored out of my mind. I'm feeling tired and run-down and just overall "blah" right now. Niece came over last night and spent the night, and then this morning SIL came to visit and niece wanted to go home with SIL to visit with her and she's going to spend the night there to get to see her daddy a while too. Tomorrow we're going over to visit and have supper, then we'll bring niece home with us and someone will be coming to pick her up. I can't wrap my head around why she is not spending more time visiting us - it's summer vacation. She doesn't have school or anything, she could spend more time here than an odd weekend here and there.

I somehow managed to get poison ivy. No idea when where or how... all I know is it itches like mad. I noticed it yesterday, when I was getting ready to braid my hair in the afternoon. It looks better today - I did a lot of white-lighting last night, and whenever I'm not too distracted by anything else I keep up with it. I haven't had poison ivy since I was a little kid. I'd thought at first maybe I'd gotten it from the dog, she rolls around a lot when she's out for walks; figured I'd gotten it from petting her after a walk. But, it's on my wrist not on my hands. There's some ivy on the hill by our driveway and I tend to take pictures there, so I'm thinking I was probably lying down to take a picture of something and didn't notice the poison ivy.

My friend Julie made a logo/banners for my WinkElf shop for me. She still has one more to make that she'll get to on Monday. I am really happy with them - I wanted to pay her for the work or send her some free earrings or something, anything, but she just wouldn't have it. So I'll accept the fact that she did this out of the kindness of her heart..... but I'm like my mother, I'll find a way to give her something in return for her work, I'll disguise it as part of a birthday present if I must but I will find a way. I'm not used to people doing nice things for me and not expecting something in return, it's odd... and it feels wrong. I know it's not wrong - but it's so unusual that I can't seem to make it make sense in my mind.

Well at any rate I have some stuff to do today but first I need to eat. I think some ibuprofen couldn't hurt either, this headache is horrendous and it's starting to turn into a migraine. If I take some ibuprofen now it might help keep it from getting too bad.