two lives way too short

Yesterday evening in a town nearby 2 teenage girls were hit by a train. Not just hit and thrown, hit and drug a quarter of a mile. These girls were in 8th grade, 13 and 14 years old. Their life just started and was cut short . There was a 3rd girl with them that got out of the way at the last second. No one knows right now, or no one is saying what happened. I have heard a few people saying they were wearing IPods, but it is hard to tell what happened and I guess it truly isn't any of my business. I just hate this for the families and the friends. I can not imagine how the parents must feel. Someone said today one of the girls had a younger brother that she took care of all the time and he was going to be devastated.............I can not imagine and I don't want to even try. I know there were grief counselors and Pastors at school today and I bet that was one miserable place to be. Rest in peace girls.

Doggies

I was over at Ree's blog seeing her great pictures of her animals and it made me want to talk about Ashes. Ashes
is a 'neighborhood' dog. She actually belongs to someone about a mile away, but every night she makes her rounds through 3 or 4 neighborhood homes barking at the door until someone throws out food. She ends at our house every night and sleeps (and craps) in our garage. She is getting to be an old dog but she is the happiest dog I have ever seen. She wags her tail and her entire body wags. The last month or so Ashes has been going downhill fast. She doesn't want to get up in the morning, she is losing weight like crazy. This has always been a good sturdy chunky dog until lately. Now she doesn't even get up to pee, we just notice it running out from under her when she sleeps. We had some carpet in the garage to wipe our feet on, but that is going to have to go soon because Ashes has ruined it. I love this dog...she is happy no matter what and I can see that she is still happy, but look at these eyes and tell me this dog isn't suffering.


And her once chunky happy wagging body

Yep those are chucks around her to soak up her messes.......I love this dog and hate to see her like this. If I could only get her owner to do something.

snow day

Wow we woke up to a little ice and snow and the birds around here are hitting my feeder like its an all you can eat buffet bar. We have a little tiny red headed woodpecker that looks so funny after seeing those big old woodpeckers everywhere. I have been trying to get pictures of the birds but they are on high alert and I can not sneak up on them.
When I went to bed last night I told my son and his friends that no one was to go anywhere this morning until we saw if it really snowed and got icy overnight. I got up early and saw that it was slick and laid back down and dozed off about 10. At 10:30 the doorbell rang and guess who..one of my sons friends who had gotten up and snuck out after I fell asleep. His car was in the ditch at the bottom of the hill. He and Mike got it out with our 4 wheel drive and he parked it out of the road down there and walked back up. I love these boys, but they think they can do anything.

Manly Men!

Now about my dear hubby. (yes Kim, I also am competely blessed) My husband is the real life Mr. Fixit. He can fix just about anything and if he can't he will know someone who can. I have mentioned before that we have a lot of teens around our house and they know that if they have car problems Mike will help them fix it. Quite a few of these kids come from homes that don't have a lot of money and car problems can be catastrophic on their incomes but they know Mike will help them if he can. He also has a group of people I call his LOWS......Little Old Women! These women are widows that know if anything goes wrong Mike will fix it for them as cheaply as he can. Sometimes I get frustrated because he can spend his two days off a week (we are both off Sunday and Mondays) doing things for them, but in the end I know how wonderful it is to have a husband with a big heart. We will never be rich, but we will be together and happy as long as God sees fit. My parents love my husband like he was their own child and he does things for them whenever he can without complaining one bit. I think he actually likes it! They say you marry someone like your father and I really did.
I do home health work and I have told my husband before problems my patients are having with wheelchair ramps or doorways not wide enough and sure enough he will show up with some lumber when I am at work and proceed to fix whatever the problem is.....he is just that kind of guy.
My husband lost both of his parents to cancer (one was 57 and one 60) and I think that has helped me cherish each day with him.
Let me say that he has his faults.....his socks are always laying wherever he takes them off and he can NOT throw anything away. He built us a house 9 years ago and already the basement and attic are full of his "treasures" which is his word for what I call junk, but I know deep down inside that those are small small things in the big scheme of things.

Long Weekends...or rainy days and Mondays

I love the fact that no one in my house has to wake up early tomorrow.......Thank goodness for holidays. My husband and I are off on Mondays anyway, but it is nice not to have to wake the kids up early for school. It is now 1:30 in the morning and I am not in bed. Thats ok for tomorrow but Tuesday morning is really going to suck big time. Tomorrow I hope to have time to tell you about my husband . He is one heck of a great guy and I don't spend enough time talking about him!

S.A.D.

Have you ever heard of S.A.D.? This time of year I understand how people can get completely lost in a world of gray, boring misery. I sat for a solid hour yesterday and watch some freaking squirrel with OCD rebuild his/her nest. He (or she, who the heck knows without getting way too friendly with a wild squirrel.) would go out on a limb, chew off a stick, go back and stick it in his nest over and over and over. After I realized I had been watching him for an hour and was completely engrossed in this nesting thing of his I thought maybe it was time I got out and did something so I went to a basketball game. I watched kids run back and forth, back and forth and try to put the ball in the nest....err I mean net for a couple of hours. Today I am watching it rain. When my daughter gets home we are going to sears to pick up a toolbox my husband ordered so at least I have something to look forward to. My house looks like it was home to a wild party in the last few days and my laundry is way past needing done, but for some reason I don't care at all. I could lay down right now and sleep for another few hours or watch the deer eat acorns out of the yard but I don't think I can handle the excitement. I did hear rumors of snow in a few days, but the weather forcasters in our area can't tell me what it will do tonight with any accuracy at all so I don't believe them when they say snow Monday and Tuesday. It is 60 degrees outside now and has been that much more than it has been cold this winter. I don't like cold weather but I do like a little snow so I can watch the idiots that think they can get up the hill by my house slide in the ditch over and over. They do it every year. We make popcorn, and listen for cars all everning. I do believe I need a life!

New years resolutions

Ok, so I admit it, I don't really make resolutions anymore. Why sit and promise things to yourself that you are not really going to do and make yourself a complete liar? I have thought about some things that I would like to do this year, but that will be my only promise to myself, that at some time this year I will make an effort to try a few new things.
The first thing I would like to try to to get healthier. I don't want to swear I am going to walk miles every day, or even that I will never eat sugar or chocolate because let's be realistic..........Not going to happen. I might as well promise myself that I will give up breathing, or some other important thing.
The second thing I would like to do is get my life organized. For me that comes under the same thing as never eating sugar, not going to happen, but I could do a few small things to help. I found out years ago that I have some major ADD problems and organization is a completely foreign word to me. I can look at people houses that have it all together and I can not for the life of me figure out how they do it. This year I would like to get a few things straightened out and make my house a little nicer and less embarrassing for my daughter to bring her friends home to. My husband and I built this house ourselves and I love it, I just can't keep it clean.
The third thing I would like to do is to get out and do some things with other people. I have a few friends but I stay pretty well self contained in work and my family. I love it that way, but my kids are getting older and soon I will have to do something different. I always went to ballgames and sat with my daughter but lets face facts here, she is 16, the only reason I should be at ballgames is to hold out dollar bills when she walks by on her way to the concession stand. She always graciously asks if I want to go, but it is easier to stay home and just hand her money on her way out the door, but I really love to watch basketball and football games.
I guess to sum up this long rambling post............Happy New year to all and may this be the best year yet!