A castle divided

A truce has been declared between the two warring kingdoms; however, each side has really just retreated to further strategize the final victory. Amidst this seemingly peaceful time, Price Mack was injured during a practice joust. Due to the strained relations between Prince Mack’s parents, Prince Charming was unaware of the sustained injuries to his son until a few days later. It seems a travelling physician was in the area and attempted to heal Mack; when his mother found out he was from our kingdom, she thought it prudent to inform his father of his injuries.



Prince Charming summoned his son home for further observation. During this visit, it was discovered that Mack had been given a Magical mirror in which to surreptitiously communicate with his mother. When Prince Charming discovered it, war was yet declared on the neighboring kingdom. In a moment of rage, Belle’s fury got the best of her, in which she sent her own declaration of war to the neighboring kingdom. She also spoke most unkindly to Prince Mack.



Unbeknownst to Belle, storm clouds were brewing. Although she had apologized to Mack and the family had a delightful time celebrating Prince Shut Up’s fifth birthday, a maelstrom was about to be unleashed. After the safe return of Mack to his kingdom, the princess requested, rather boldly, that her prince increase his level of fatherhood and take the reigns over his son’s healing. She had heard bad things about the bleeders in the next kingdom, and demanded better care than what was being provided. Prince Charming reminded her in no uncertain terms that he was the leader of ALL in his kingdom. She had no right to declare war nor did she have any right to direct dealings with his children. Oh, that is right – she was a mere WOMAN. Apparently King Crabcake failed to remind her of her place.



Now Princess Belle is torn: let’s not forget about Prince Shut Up and his future. Is it better to raise him with an ogre on a daily basis, or dare she risk running her own Kingdom and accept that her former Prince Charming will take her son away from her however the decree is written? She hopes the ogre comes to his senses.

WAR!

Dear Readers,

You may have noticed there has not been an entry in over two years.   Unfortunately, war has erupted in the Princess’ kingdom.  In a previous post, I mentioned Prince Mack.  There is also a Princess Snickers.  Both are the darlings of Princess Belle, but alas, they are not “hers.”  They are from a previous union between her Price and another Princess from a neighboring land.  While there have been minor skirmishes, in general peace existed between the two.  Not a year after the new castle was built, Prince Mack decided to make this is full-time place to train with the knights and take full use of the scholars available to him that were not available at the other castle.   Princess Snickers was happy at home, and that was OK until we realized there was no skill training being given to our princess.  One cannot simply sit around and look cute, especially when there is no dowry to be given.   Their royal coffers have been squandered, so both will need build their own fortunes.  Not an easy task, but THIS princess is rather modern and thinks Snickers can be taught to manage a household which will mean learning things like…. MATH! As the other kingdom did not like Prince Mack's departure, and Princess Belle's meddling in Princess Snickers' training to be a well-rounded princess with great skills to rival any prince, war was declared.  Prince Mack was lured back home and is now trapped by his wicked mother, and Princess Snickers sits, secretly wishing to be given an opportunity like Mack but alas, does not want to envoke the wrath of her mother and the consort.  Despair has fallen onto Belle's kingdom. 

As the war wages, Princess Belle and her charming Prince are spending all of their resources reclaiming what is theirs.  Alas, the old castle stands in disrepair, waiting for skilled tradesmen to be hired.  Princess Belle realizes that other priorities are coming first right now, but she is determined to proceed with repairs, even if it means doing some manual labor herself.  Yes, this is a true scandal, but the Belle has always fought the restrictions placed on her due to her station in life, when it suited her purpose. 

The tale begins again….

How the new castle came to be

Last spring, on a glorious Easter morn, the Prince found a new castle that he wished to acquire. Alas, others had forces stronger than ours, and we could not take the desisred fortress. The princess, however, had an eye out for greener pastures and found an even more desired location (by her)... AND IT HAD A MOAT AND DRAWBRIDGE! Ok, so the "moat" only surrounds 2 sides of the castle and the bridge (aka driveway) does not go up and down, but it's close:

The prince loved the princess so much, he gathered his forces and was able to acquire this glorious castle for his lovely Belle. She was SO thankful and so busy that she has not been posting stories on her blog. Alas, plans to sell off the original castle have not come to fruition, so the princess seeks to vent her frustration and anger not at her truly wonderful Prince Charming but needs an outlet as the days of Prozac and Strattera are drawing nearer.

The princess has a new castle!

I cannot believe I haven't posted for almost a year. I will write an update soon on my new wonderful castle Prince Charming allowed me to have. It's wonderful. Unfortunately, the old castle is still in our possession. More to come later. Ta ta!

The Plague hits the castle

The morning after the Princess’s little soiree, Queen Lakeview looks at her and says, “Your eye is really red. I think you have pinkeye!” The Queen is known for being a bit on the dramatic side, so the princess just chalked it up to the visit to a smoky pub on the way home from the restaurant (the little berg in which we were staying did not have a smoking ban). Luckily, the princess had brought along Prince Shut Up’s prescription antibiotic eye drops from his last round of pink eye (two weeks ago) and used those. By Monday she felt so bad she took the prince to his caretaking establishment and went to urgent care. She received not only antibiotics, but also prednisone (three days, 30 mg) to kill the two week old cough that two boxes of Mucinex hadn’t eradicated (but did help her sleep). The pink eye was "just" a manifestation of her cold/secondary infection.

While I will never promote the use of drugs for anything other than it’s intended use (to do so would be illegal), let me give other dethroned princesses out there a little tip: you can clean an entire house in one day while on steroids and without a little one underfoot. When I say, "clean" I mean closets, drawers, under beds, cabinets, etc. etc. It was the most work I have ever accomplished while taking a sick day in my entire life. :-)

The princess gets a tiara

OK so maybe I didn’t get my crown totally back, but for one day, I did get to wear a beautiful plastic silver tiara covered with gaudy plastic “jewels” designed for a 6 year old’s head. Princess Belle had a “milestone” birthday and and was given a lavish soiree for the event. The King and Queen even watched Prince Shut Up for THREE WHOLE HOURS so Prince Charming and I, accompanied by our court (ten friends), could have some adult conversation that was not interrupted with, “Crayons do not belong in our ears” or “Spoons are not used to fling food on the wall.” As we returned from our early evening out, we spent time with the little one, then put him to bed and continued with festivities. These, of course, were much tamer than earlier milestone birthdays before children were in the picture but still much fun was had. The princess really, really needed this!

The leaning tower of pizza (boxes).

I’ve always been somewhat of an environmentalist, even before it was “cool.” I remember Woodsy the Owl telling me “Give a hoot – don’t pollute” in between my cartoons on Saturday morning. Unfortunately, the lovely berg I live in does not have curbside recycling so I have several blue bins in the garage, and every other weekend or so I take everything down to the local center to empty my #1 and #2 plastic, cardboard, newspapers/magazines, glass (sorted by colors), aluminum and “tin” or bi-metal cans.

Well, when it’s warm that is what I do. When it’s 20 degrees, the princess doesn’t like getting her hands cold so she lets it stack up and hopes the Prince takes care of it for her (which he often does, when it falls over into the main walkway of the garage).

Imagine my surprise when Prince Charming announced, after making one of these runs, that he was building a rack to hold my bins (and had picked up a few more at the recycling center). I’m thinking… hmm… there are HOW MANY projects started? Are you serious? One more? BUT I chose to be right not happy (as you cannot be both, I often tell my Prince) and I smiled and said, “Wonderful!”

The plans were drawn up that night, and the rack was built AND COMPLETED the next day! Prince Charming and the eldest offspring (I shall call him Prince Mack) put together a very study rack which hold 4 bins (two on top, two on bottom) with the option of adding another shelf if the Princess deems it necessary.

I am shocked but pleasantly surprised.