This, that and the other stuff

Let me start by saying a big Thank You to Kimmy for this award. Kimmy is quickly becoming a "must read" blog. Her humor, taste in authors and the fact she likes chex cereal covered with chocolate and peanut butter makes her very smart in my book. She and I would get along well IRL because we would both read Jodi Picoult books with our mouth full of muddy buddies..and I'm sure she could whip up something good in her blender to wash it down with.(I also have a teenage daughter who could keep an eye on her children) I plan on passing this along to a few people in a few days....but today is too busy to sit around and wait on my dial up to let me read some blogs.

Yesterday was a busy day. It was the kind of busy I like. I worked a short day, came home and took a shower and then took off to my next appointment. To get to this appointment I had to drive down this road...which at one time I am sure had gravel on it but now is just a muddy path. It also rained all day yesterday.

I had to drive quite a way out this road and it is lonely. Very few houses or people and I never met another car. I did try to get these two inhabitants to stop and chat for a few minutes but they gave me that "deer in the headlight" look.

My final destination. Yes, this is where I was headed for my appointment. I'm sure some of you right now are saying "some people have all the luck and get to go see the most interesting things." Those of you not saying that are probably saying something like "Why would you ever want to intentionally stop at a place like this?"

This, my dear friends, is where my accoun$ant/income t$x preparer lives. I will say that you could not find a nicer bunch of people to do your taxes. They make good money doing this, but I guess they have other things to spend it on. You would not believe how many computers, printers, copiers and fax machines are inside those walls. The man who owns it is getting older and his health is declining. He is a veteran and fought hard for our country. He also makes sure all veterans who live in this area have a military funeral and he fights for veterans rights. Sometimes you have to believe that you can't judge a book by its cover...but at the same time you don't really want to touch that book.
Now I am off to try to get a hair cut. I have a funeral to go to tomorrow and I need cosmetic intervention. Have a great day tomorrow!

The month that should never have been

I'm tired of January and everything that has happened this month. I feel a little out of sorts and I'm afraid to answer the phone when it rings because who knows what might happen next. Saturday my friend buried her husbands mother while her husband was still in intensive care, but he was improving. Saturday night he started taking a turn for the worst and over night last night he too passed away. He left behind 2 children still in grade school and one step son who is 19. These children lost their grandmother and their father within a week. My friend has my cell phone that I left with her a couple of weeks ago and I need to call her but I'm afraid she is finally getting some rest that she truly needs. Weeks in the intensive care unit, even if you aren't the patient, is exhausting. Grief is exhausting.
Yesterday some of my husbands Little old Ladies stopped by to tell us one of their sisters in law had passed away. I didn't know this woman well, but she lived near and I did know who she was. My moms sisters and brothers just returned last night from Princeton WV, where they buried the last of my grandpa's sisters. They are all feeling a little lost since that part of their life is over now.
My dear son is with his girlfriend today at her grandfathers funeral.
Oh February...please be gentle.

My turn

My very good bloggy friend Kim over at lifeafter has tagged me to do a meme. I will try my best. I am never very good at these things because it gives me a subject and I have to think about just that subject.....ADD people are not good at rules.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BLOGGING? I started blogging on October 12, 2006. I never really meant to get into the blogging thing but somehow did, and I do enjoy it even though I know I'm not good writer...I just type what comes to mind.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START A BLOG AND WHO ARE YOUR MENTORS? I think I just lucked into finding someones blog and just enjoyed it. I don't really have any mentors because that would mean I am a serious writer and I'm not. I enjoy dozens of well written blogs, and some not so well written ones. My mother was an English teacher at a different school than the one I attended. That fact made some teachers expect more from me than I was capable of delivering. I always did ok but if I didn't do perfect I would hear "and your mom is an English teacher, you should know better." That and that alone was enough to make me quit trying. I was always one who did the exact opposite of what people told me to do. Remember when you had your children and the doctors said no hanky panky for 6 weeks....that was the best aphrodisiac in the world for me... how dare they tell me what I can't do. SH loved doctors to tell me that;-)

ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE OR JUST DOING IT FOR FUN? That is almost funny...again, I do not pretend to be a serious writer and I know my limitations...which are many so I am just doing this for fun.

WHAT THREE (3) THINGS DO YOU LOVE ABOUT BEING ONLINE?1. I love that I can write something here and people from all over the United States (and a few other countries) read it. It is amazing to me that I can type something here and someone can read it in NY 5 minutes later. 2. I love being able to put pictures and stories about the people I love on the internet and sharing them with my blogging buddies. 3. I love meeting new people through this blog. I could sit here in my underwear (which I don't do I promise) and talk to people and not get arrested like I would if I were to talk to people while I was in my underwear in umm, a shopping mall.

WHAT THREE(3) THINGS DO YOU STRUGGLE WITH ONLINE? 1. The knowledge that I censor myself because there are some people who might read this that do not have the same sense of humor I do and would not find some stuff humorous, or even clean. I know a lot of people that, if I wrote what I wanted too, would get upset and probably never talk to me again. I don't have anything bad to say about anyone who would read this.... but I do have a certain Jr. high sense of humor sometimes that would probably turn some people off. 2. Writing stuff that I think someone else would enjoy reading and not bore them to tears. 3. Finding the right balance between sharing and overstepping my bounds with my families privacy. I would share everything and it would not bother me one bit but my teens...they seem a little more private than I am at times.

Monkling and Ann Marie...of either or both of you read this....your turn.

The way it should be!

DS is home for a few days. The small city he lives in had a major water line break a few days ago and he still doesn't have any water. He decided to come home last night so I could do his laundry so he could shower and shave. It is so much fun having him home and everything, once again, feels normal.
I got up earlier than DS to go to work. There are a few dead giveaways that let me know he is home.
1. PS2 and DDR in the family room floor.
2. Laptop also in family room floor, with a phone cord strung all the way across the room.
3 Toilet seat up...why can they never put them back down?
4. Clean laundry all over the dining room. I washed his laundry and put it in the dryer this morning and he got it out before he left for work...and crammed it all back into the laundry basket he brought it home in and put it in the dining room. Then, if I had to guess, dug to the bottom and got out work clothes...
5. Koko (the dog) is beside herself with joy...one more person to drop scraps.
6. One more person to tell me he loves me every day.

I asked you all last week to pray for my friends husband...and a few other people. He is doing better, they found out he has lymphoma but that is not horrible news, at least they have something they can treat. He is off the ventilator now, doing better, but not great just yet. His mother, who also had cancer, passed away yesterday morning. My mothers aunt also passed away yesterday.
My husband has to go to court in a few weeks for a wreck he had when he hit an ice patch last week. He didn't get hurt but busted an electric pole. DD hit a curb and busted one of her new tires. I put new tires on my van last week and since then haven't had any trouble on these snowy mornings. January is almost over and I will be glad to see this one go.

Tomorrow!

Updated Tuesday..Today is the big day....Good luck whymommy...so many in the blog world are cheering you on today!!

Tomorrow is the day...the day for new beginnings for whymommy. Whymommy is having her long awaited surgery tomorrow to get rid of this beast we call cancer. I hate cancer so much, but the only thing we can do is to wish whymommy well and tell her we will be thinking about her.
If you have a moment please go to whymommy 's post and wish her well....she has a heck of a lot of people out there wishing her well....good luck!

This, that and the other

I'm editing to add this....you ever make a meal and think as you are cooking it "maybe I should just go ahead and put on the sweat pants before I start eating?"

I thought I would just post a few pictures from the last month. I am finally getting this new computer figured out... or at least as close to figured out as my middle aged brain can.

My DS and his main squeeze...

This is my main squeeze....one of the few times lately when he was just sitting and relaxing. Notice the lump of doggy laying beside him... she is always just sitting and relaxing. Her head is hanging off of the loveseat but she doesn't care as long as she doesn't have to get up.

The two most wonderful girls I know. These two make my heart melt a little every time I see them.

DS talking to his main squeeze...which is what he did over the holidays when she was at her parents house and not with him.

Last but not least my DD. She was very sick by this time but I think she looks great... heck she always looks great...youth is such a wonderful thing...at times.

Houston we have a problem

I woke up this morning with a raging headache. I hate mornings when I wake up like that because those headaches do not go away....until about 2o minutes before I go to bed. I do not usually take a large amount of pills but on headache days I sometimes over do it. This morning I woke up and took a couple of ibuprofen...then a bit later took my daily water pill. I went on to work where my headache raged all day. My job isn't loud or too stressful unless it happens to be a day where a patient is having a bad day then sometimes there is a little stress. Today wasn't a stressful day but the headache raged on...and on. I remembered to take my other pill my doctor is letting me try to see if it helps with my ADD tendencies as soon as I got to work. About noon I decided to try a few more ibuprofen (or 3) but those didn't help at all. When I got home from work I was tired, hungry and headachy so I took 3 or 4 a couple more ibuprofen....nothing. I remembered this evening to take my other ADD helper pill and then about 8 I decided to take some tylenol pm. If I can't get rid of it I will sleep through it. I didn't realize how many pills I have taken today until........... I picked up a couple of hot tamales, popped them in my mouth, grabbed a glass of water and swallowed them down without chewing. I may need to think about my headache plan. The good thing is that my headaches like that are not something that happens too often. Now I need to try to eat a couple of hot tamales and actually chew.
Anyone who read yesterday's post and said a little prayer....Thank you. My friends husband is still in pretty bad shape and no one knows for sure if he is going to make it, he is doing a little better. His mother was taken to a hospice house yesterday because she slipped into a coma, which is horrible but she has had cancer for awhile so it wasn't a huge shock to the family, but sad none the less. The doctors there gave her 24 hours this morning so it looks like he will not be able to be by his mothers side. My mother also called me yesterday to tell me her Aunt is in the hospital and isn't supposed to make it to the weekend. When it rains it pours. I think I handled all of that well... but what gave me the headache was when SH called me late last night to inform me that he was on his way home from work but he was side tracked by an electric pole...which he hit with his car head on. He is fine, but the pole was in pieces and of course the explorer took a pretty good hit, but wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been and of course since he was ok..... I was ok...except for this darned headache...now where did I put those hot tamales.

this, that and the other

This morning we woke up to a little snow. It wasn't a lot of snow but the road was icy underneath it. This is a view down my driveway. The road I live on is almost two lane...but not quite. You have to be careful when passing someone because as you can see if you get off of the road it is straight downhill into the woods...no guardrails. Icy snow makes me nervous for the same reason, I don't look forward to seeing if I can make it without going over the hill.

My dog likes the snow for a few minutes at a time. I'm not sure why but she always puts her face in the snow and runs around.

And finally...this is one of koko's puppies. His owner brought him back this weekend to visit with us. He made himself at home on the kids family room couch and marked his territory on my DS's coat. He was the smallest puppy and we called him dozer because from the time he was born he would stick his nose under the other puppies and wiggle himself down deep under them for warmth.

Those of you out there with a few minutes I would like to ask you to spend a few minutes to pray for my friends husband. She is such a dear person and I love her to death and her husband was having trouble a couple of days ago and they found out it was crohns. By the time they figured out what it was he was so full of infection and his intestines were about all dead. Last night at 4AM his heart quit but they got it going again...His mother is dying of cancer and asking for him but his family is afraid to tell her...she has only a short time left and hasn't eaten for 3 days. Needless to say this family has more than they can handle right now....

January in all her finery

Friday morning when we woke up it was 6 degrees. We were at the hospital that morning and the car was covered in frost and the doors were frozen. Today it is 71 degrees and sunny outside. It isn't supposed to be this warm in January. I know it won't stay this warm but warmth brings out weird things. Those of you who read my blog last summer may remember this....

I walked out my door and this 10 foot long 5 foot long black snake was wrapped around my porch post. Today, in early JANUARY I saw what I am sure is this snakes brother up the road. DH saw it first and told me it was there striking at cars but by the time I went through it was squished by the edge of the road. That family does not stand a chance around here. I think they should all go south for the winter......and stay.

Crime and punishment

A heinous crime has been committed. I am playing amateur detective and gathering evidence to use in the Myers family court of law.
The first piece of evidence.... this is the birdfeeder that usually sits on the pool deck.

The second piece of evidence...tiny little bird feathers spread out all over the sidewalk and driveway in front of the house.

The accused.....just look at that face..does that not look like the face of a killer?

update

After 24 hours in the beautiful Cabell Huntington spa hospital DD is going home. The doctors say that although the strep is getting better the terrible swelling in her throat will be there for awhile. She is infected with mono and there isn't anything they can do for that here. She is going home on bedrest and orders to drink as much as possible until her throat gets well enough to get some food in....pictures later if she is willing.

Too good to be true

I knew it was too good to be true. To make it through all of those holiday parties without getting the Wo*d family Christmas plague of 07....need I say more, other than mine seems to be easier than the other ones...if there is such a thing as easier. Be back when I can sit here more than 2 minutes without running to the bathroom......

A whole new world...

Happy New Year to everyone. Let's all make this one the best ever! To all the people I have "met" this past year on blogs and messengers....I feel so blessed to have you in my life.
I finally broke down and bought a new computer to replace the 7 year old monstrosity I had before. I finally figured out most of the problems I was having while trying to learn the new vista crap. I am now going to learn how to download and resize pictures so I can get back to the old business of blogging. Now if someone comes up with some way to get high speed out here in the country.