Hey again! I know in all of the whole blog paperwork mess I promised to “take things slow” and not “jump ahead”. But…

Just hear me out, okay?

Even though I said I’d take our blogger-reader relationship slowly as we gradually get to know each other more I think we should have a fan name. (that’s what followers can call themselves for the specific blog or podcast they follow).

Something like Grace Groupies or Blogheads. My friend listens to a podcast and it’s fan name is Critter, so it doesn’t have to have Grace or Blah Blah in it. It could be Goats because goats are cool. Let’s brainstorm and come back to it okay? You can always comment any good ideas.

Anywho, I’ve recently discovered a cool thing called Word Avalanche. it is an incredibly contrived setup for homophonic punchlines (it uses the same sounding words in confusing ways)!

Example #1

Clue: Three friends draw each other

Andrew drew Ann and drew Drew, and Drew drew Ann and drew Andrew, and Ann drew Drew and drew Andrew

Example #2

Clue: A genuine god does bad things in this place

A sincere sinned seer sins here

Don’t you see how wonderful these are????? How did I not find these sooner?!

I also recently saw baby Groot. omygoshomygoshomygosh!!! Now you must be thinking: oh so you are re-watching all of the Marvel movies, cool! But no. I haven’t seen most of the Marvel movies. I haven’t seen “Endgame” or “Civil War”. Heck, I haven’t seen even one of the “Captain America” movies. BUT I’m working on it. My mom highly dislikes them so I can only to watch them when we are having the rare family movie night that doesn’t include her. I’m in the middle of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, SO DON’T YOU DARE SPOIL ANYTHING FOR ME, OR ELSE…

If this relationship is going to work I need to be completely honest. I also haven’t finished Stranger Things. Please don’t be mad. My mom just isn’t a fan of sci-fi, and since Doc is awake while I usually watch tv it gets… challenging. All of the blood, gore, and horror stuff isn’t really his favorite, so yeah. But I’m on season 3 episode 7 “The Bite”. I hope that I’ll finish by the time season 4 is out!

I should probably go. it’s quarantassover (quarantine+passover) after all.

BYEEEEEE

-Grace

P.S. If you come across a good word avalanche or create your own, make sure to let me know!

Oh hello again, I’m so glad you could make it.

Since I’ve introduced you to Doc, and a little bit of Millie, and obviously me, I think you should meet the rest of the inmates in my personal asylum.

Name: Brad Topliff

Age: Old

Alias: Dad

He enjoys annoying his kids, writing, annoying his kids, joking around, being beaten (by me) at Exploding Kittens, annoying his kids, playing games, but he really enjoys surpassing his limit of dad jokes. No seriously, it’s driving me crazy. I’m not sure I can make it past one more day with him spitting out dad jokes like nobody’s listening. 

Name: Jenn (with two N’s so don’t you dare only add one N) Topliff

Age: 44

Alias: Mom

She enjoys baking, cooking, not needing to tell people to add an extra N to her name, changing Doc’s poopy diapers-that may be her favorite thing to do, and relaxing far away from her kids and any responsibilities whatsoever, but very close to wine and a nail salon. 

Name: Hazel Topliff

Age:10

Relationship: Sister

Hazel enjoys, wait a minute, let’s brainstorm for a second, what would any average 10 year old girl enjoy? Hmm… Glitter, rainbows, sugar, unicorns, narwhals, and unicorns. Oh, and glitter rainbow unicorns. She likes cross country running, soccer, and art. Coloring, painting, mess making, beading, any art projects. Bonus points if the art involves cross country or soccer!     

Finally Doc!

Name: Cannon “Doc” Topliff

Age: 2

Relationship: Brother

He enjoys Elmo, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, thingies (gummy snacks), tea parties, blueberry bars, gagoos (crackers), using the cake baking game on my ipad (Cake Doodle). If any of these things are mentioned, I can guarantee that Doc will have googly heart eyes. He really likes to line up his “guys.”

Doc is an artist extraordinaire with an obvious eye for color. Age 2 and he’s already the young Picasso! I seriously love him to the death and even when all he remembers how to do is scream and hit people, I will love my little brother forever.

Doesn’t seeing Doc make you want to just hug somebody? Too bad we have to stay 6 feet apart from each other! Well, the more air hugs the better!

Anyway you still haven’t met my dogs yet! 

Drumroll pleeeease!

*pause as audience drum rolls*

Is that all you’ve got?

*pause as audience gives a frustrated sigh and drum rolls slightly louder*

Introducing… 

Millie “the barbet” Topliff!

Name: Millie

Age: 6 months

Relationship: Sister (sort of)

A fun-loving dog with a certain playfulness and rough personality. She can’t resist a tug on the shirt or a nip at the hand. Always looking for ways to earn treats but rarely earning them (the little rascal!).She has a never ending limit of energy, love, and excitement. Her “witching hour” (when she is the most hyper and crazy) is around the time my mom is the most stressed, switching from answering work emails and cooking dinner, when Hazel and Doc are running around which isn’t good when she is hyper because she feels the need to chase them which makes Doc start to scream and Hazel joins in on the loud fest creating the ultimate annoyance that will break us all. Yay witching hour!

Then there is Scruffy…

Name: Scruffy

Age: 4

Relationship: brother (sort of)

Scruffy thinks of himself as the leader of the Topliffs, the king. But little does he know he is far from it. In real life he thinks of himself like this:

He is grumpy a lot, always barking at the front door, or Millie, or Doc, or really anything that doesn’t appease him. On an average day in my house you can find him either growling at something or napping on the living room couch. On rare days he just growls. He is what people call a resource hog, oh look Millie has my bone (it was actually Millie’s in the first place.) well darn you Millie that bone is mine now. Doc did you just take the toy that mom and dad bought for you but I dubbed mine? Well, mine now. Yep that’s about right. If you have it then he wants it, and if you don’t have it then he does.

Anyway, since this next person/owl had a very important role in my life I think you should meet my biggest fan and childhood hero, Introducing…

Name: Bla Bla

Age: unknown

Relationship: my first ever doll and friend.

Bla Bla has always had an important role in my life. Though her given name was Prudence she will forever be known as Bla Bla the owl. When I slept at night the “Bla Bla Fairy” would come at night and leave me extra Bla Blas. I would go to bed with 2 Bla Blas and wake up with 6. She comforted me when I was little, at night, and protect me from “the monster under the bed.”

The name for this blog is in honor of her, It makes sense for those who don’t know about Bla Bla and think I came up with the name solely because I am a very smart genius, and it also makes sense for those who know about Bla Bla and think I’m a genius for coming up with name AND it serves as an inside joke.

There are so many other people that make everything possible including:

Kim Caberera, a kind , funny, and truly good person. She takes care of Doc. The words that come to mind are understatements, wonderful isn’t enough to describe her wow factor, and awesome is too blank. I honestly don’t know what we would do without her.

My grandparents, Nana and Poppy, (Carol and Jim), who have shown kindness and generosity (they gave me the laptop that I blog on, THANK YOU!!) they are proud of whatever I choose to do and love me. (I have that effect on people.)

Andie Whittaker, the awesome, rockstar, crazy, daring person that came to us that one average (big surprise here) rainy (I know right!!!) day, the first day that we had moved, we sat there, on the floor coloring in our secret invisible coloring books that had fascinated us since hour 1 of the 10 hour car ride from California to Portland. You wowed us from the start, Andie. Those trips to the roller rink and secret Powells trips may have saved my life.

If I mentioned everyone else that I was grateful for I would only be talking about people, and this blog’s name would have to switch to People I’m Grateful For.

That’s all I’ve got in me right now, Thank you so much for reading! See you next time…

CONGRATULATIONS! you’ve reached day forever and a half of quarantine! Have you started to feel stir-crazy and squirmish like you’re tied to a chair and there’s ants in your pants and the whole world is just outside your grasp but you can’t reach and everyone around you is feeling the exact same way so you and the people you’ve been stuck with for forever and and a half are having a big ol’ anxiety fest?

Welcome to the club! 

Since our old pal quarantine has decided to stick around for a while I’ve decided to start a blog. But Grace, why did you decide to start a blog? Great question, inner-self. Maybe I’m an amazing genius and the world deserves to know about my greatest (and not so great) triumphs and tragedies, maybe I don’t know, or maybe it’s a secret so crazy that the world would tear itself apart if the secret were revealed (I’m personally voting for the last one). But Grace, if you’re such an “amazing genius”, then why don’t you know? Well inner-self aren’t you feeling curious today… Great question, glad you asked.

Today has been normal so far. Play with Millie (my messy, playful, handful of a dog, and newest addition to the Topliff family…because the world TOTALLY needs more Topliffs right now). I played with her until her paws were messy enough to coat our entire downstairs floor with dirt, so probably about 20 minutes.

I had a tea party with my two-year-old brother, Cannon Doc Topliff. A tea party with Doc is basically taking the miniature pumpkin themed tea set I have and, while he sits on my lap, I hand him the tiny pitcher of milk and I hold the jar of sugar cubes (because he lost both of my–as he says– “pun-kin tea cupths”). Then I say “Cheers?” and he says “okay.” And we together say “dink” at the same time.Then he complains about life and how unfair the world is. Or wait, maybe that was me. That’s all I’ve got for today. Let’s meet again tomorrow. Same time, same place? I’ll be here.