Where am I?

I have been a horrible blogger. I don't have know what my problem is, other than I just don't have much to say. A few weeks ago I was having major computer problems and I did a factory restore, so I lost all of my pictures, links, blogger buddy sites etc. I'm working on getting them back.
The last few weeks have been a little busy. I got a hair cut I hate, took care of itchy, sick dogs and met one of my favorite bloggers, Monkling. I had never met any of my bloggy buddies (the ones I didn't know before they started blogging) and I must say it was nice. I like being able to put a face with the stories. We didn't have a lot of time to talk, she had been on the road a couple of days and was just passing through, but we did talk a little and I got to meet her husband Frank. She brought me a nice bottle of wine, which I am saving for a special occasion.
The next few weeks are going to be much slower than the last few have been. I think I need to start looking for another job, though I hate to. I like the job I have where I can almost choose the hours I want to work. The problem with my job is that I have so few hours right now it just about isn't worth it. I've been half way looking for another patient but I'm not too sure that's what I want right now. I am thinking about a job with benefits...retirement....etc. I'll just have to wait around and see what happens. Jobs are so scarce right now it may not matter.
I shall be back, probably with pictures of something. I haven't been taking too many lately and I want to get back to it.
Have a great week.

Scenes from the country

I have very little to say. Life is rolling along at an alarming rate. My aunt died a couple of days ago very unexpectedly. She was having a quick surgery on a vertebrae...and then leaving for the beach a couple of days later. She never made it to the beach. She loved the beach. My aunt's funeral is this week, but she is being buried at Arlingt#on National cemetery so burial plans are on hold. They are just saying her ashes will be buried at some point in the next few months. She had the bad luck of dying when the Kenn3dy clan needed Arling$ton and I'm sure it is busy there.

Dearest Daughter is chugging away at college. She seems to be enjoying it, though she would never admit it. She and a few friends work out at the student rec center after classes a few times a week.

Superhubby is super busy. Work is keeping him busy and then he has to fit in all of those little old ladies, most of whom I am super mad at right now. It's a long story, but one I should tell you all one of these days. I'm sure you would be mad too.

I finally got my camera back out and took a few pictures. This one is of a couple of the thousands of things my husband has in the woods behind the house that no one will ever use. He just likes to know he has them... whatever floats his boat I guess.

This one is of the creek near one of SH's little old ladies houses where I helped him weed eat, plant, paint and trim hedges yesterday.

I hope everyone's September is starting out the way ours is. The temperatures are wonderful, the sky is sunny and life is good.

Another first...

Today is the first day of school around here. Today is the first day of school in 16 years I didn't have to get up early, make sure the new school clothes were perfect, and wave goodbye as someone left for their first day of school.
I thought I would be sad.
I thought it would be hard.
I thought wrong.
I think it isn't bothering me too much because it hasn't really sunk in yet. It's just another summer day here. I slept as the buses ran, I slept as the mothers handed their new kindergartners over to the teachers, I slept as those mothers (and fathers) went home with tears in their eyes to watch the clock. I slept as this years seniors walked in and took over the school.
I enjoyed sleeping until 9.
Next Monday will be DD's first day of college. I wonder how she would feel if I decided to follow her to school with a camera, like we did during kindergarten? I think I will have to let her go alone, she isn't 6 anymore.
Today we were going to go to DD's college and buy her text books. I know the general rule is to wait until after the first class to make sure the Professor wants you to have the books. I thought that since this is her first year we should go ahead and get the books so she would feel prepared.
Then we looked up the prices.
I know text books are ridiculous. I know book stores OVERCHARGE for these books. I remember my sons freshman year and his books were usually around 400 dollars each time.
DD's are considerably more.
They are so much more that we are going to chance her not being prepared her first week and order them from amazon, where we can get a discount of about 300 dollars, even after paying for quick shipping.
Maybe she find out what degree you need to run a college book store.

The best....and the worst of nature.

Last night my son noticed this.....
In this picture it looks very small, but in real life it is a hornets nest the size of a basketball.
Being the great mother that I am, I gave my son my gun (yes I have a gun....I'm at home alone A LOT with very few neighbors.) I'm sure you are all clicking over to find the site where you can vote me Mother of the Year....I'll wait here until you get back.
Alrighty then...are you back?
After shooting at it for quite awhile (and 3 speedloaders worth of ammo) he realized that he wasn't going to be able to knock it down with my handgun. He could hit the nest, which would just put a hole through it, but he couldn't hit the tiny little limb it was hanging on.

He got a 12 gauge shotgun and continued to shoot at it for awhile, knocking more holes in it and REALLY upsetting the inhabitants, but never knocked it down. I think the whole idea of the thing was to have an excuse to shoot guns, which we almost never let him do.


In other news....this very wet summer we have been having is annoying but it is doing great things for my garden. The corn is 9 feet tall and we had the first ears off of it yesterday.

I have watermelon of many different sizes from this cute little tiny one... I think that's a very dirty penny down and to the left of the watermelon. I didn't realize it was there until I was editing the size of the picture but it gives you an idea of size.

Up to this oddly shaped one, about the size of a football.

We also have dozens and dozens of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. The zucchini are blooming well but not growing yet and the cantaloupes are just the size of a golf ball.

I hope everyone has a great end of the week and here's a wish for a DRY weekend. I know the rain is keeping everything very wet and green, but we need a break. Just a couple of hot weeks and then bring it back...please.

A walk down memory lane....

The weather outside is wet...again. I think we have a chance of rain all but one day of the next 7. I'm pretty sure keeping our pool open is just a waste of money. It will probably be shut down if the weather doesn't improve in the next week.

Being home alone on this wet, dreary day has me walking down memory lane. I am so thankful for my kids and the time I have had being their mother. I got lucky, I had two kids who have never really given me any trouble. Those kids are turning into adults and I am proud of who they have become and can't wait to see who they will be.

I remember the old days when they spent a lot of time doing this....

I remember all of the fun times they had acting silly together.

And I remember the times we spent as a family, just enjoying each others company.

Now they are growing up. My DD is the same age I was when I got married and DS is the same age I was when I gave birth to him. I guess it's true that time flies when you are having fun.

Wet n wild

Once every summer we get a major storm. We get lots of little storms but this was one of those special storms. Meteorologists will tell you how all the conditions have to be right and everything must come together just perfect before you get that one big storm. I have my own way of predicting a major storm. This time we had all of the criteria. The first thing that must be in place is a planned outdoor activity. Saturday was the outdoor bible school picnic that Superhubby and I were assisting with. SH loves to make giant bubbles and small kids love to play with those bubbles with SH.
The second thing we had in place was the fact that the county fair started Saturday. It always alternates between being horribly hot and hard rains that leave the entire fairgrounds a mud pit.
Since both of those things were in place Saturday it was inevitable that we would have one of THOSE storms.
Superhubby and I took a quick drive a couple of hours after the storm passed. We ran into a lot of this....

And quite a bit of this......


We ran out to Vesuvius and looked at the spillway. This usually has a trickle of water and when the summer gets dry nothing comes over it. Today it would have been good for white water rafting.

Quite a few people are still without electric. I am thankful that this time it wasn't us.

My softhearted (don't tell him I told you that) husband sat on the porch and watched the hummingbirds trying to drink during the rain. He quickly fixed it so they could sit on the feeder and not get wet. Some of them were a little freaked out by the umbrella but they quickly got over it.

Now the sun is shining, our corn is trying to stand back up after the wind blew it over and the pool could actually be warm enough to swim in sometime this month. Life is good.

The one with no name

I have no name for this post. My imagination is tired...along with my body.
I love my new high speed. I don't "surf" the web enough that I notice a huge difference until someone sends me a link to something. I never clicked links to videos because that would mean the computer would be stuck downloading for 2 hours or more. My uncle sent me a link today and I clicked it, watched the 1 minute movie and was finished in under 2 minutes. I think I'm gonna like this.
Now the important thing.....click this link and watch this commercial. Some of you may have seen it, but I hadn't......I'm still laughing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PHnRIn74Ag

Just because Monkling did it....

Since I saw the sky picture that Monkling posted on her blog I thought I would post the picture I took while we were in North Carolina earlier this summer. I am nothing if not a copy cat.

Today I am cleaning my computer desk because I AM GETTING HIGH SPEED INTERNET TODAY! It doesn't take alot to excite me.....

Time to play catch up

I've been such a bad blogger. I have been visiting facebook for alarming amounts of time. Most of the problem is that with dial up I get tired of waiting for things to load, especially pictures. There is a possibility that I will have high speed in the near future, but I'm not sure yet. I refuse to pay the prices that the ONE AND ONLY COMPANY in this area charges for high speed. My ds will be moving back into our home for awhile and he wants high speed. We are debating right now whether we can stand the 70.00 a month bill. It just makes me mad that they charge that because they know we have no other choice other than dial up.
A few things going on lately.....kittens. The kitten I rescued last year had these under my computer desk. I have a home for one and now need to get the other two placed, as soon as I am sure they can eat well on their own.

DD's high school graduation was a wonderful event. I'm so proud of her. She has already had her college orientation and is now getting herself ready to start that next phase of her life.

This picture is more like DD and one of her very best friends. They both cried during their graduation speeches but recovered quickly.
This is my favorite part of graduation. Some of their teachers from grade school through high school come up on stage and sing "May the good Lord bless and keep you till we meet again."

It's a special moment that always brings a tear to my eye.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and I will be back on a more regular schedule..soon.

A few pictures from our week at the beach. I will add more as soon as I can get my attention off of facebook long enough.

The view from our deck.

The house we rented for the week.

The dolphins playing in the water by our house.

vacation

My family and I are on vacation. There are over 30 of us here in N.C. watching the waves roll in. I will have many picture soon.

Life lessons

Our garden is very slow getting started this year. I'm pretty sure the weeks of rain that made us put off planting it didn't help. Now we have sunny warm weather and the seeds are in the ground.

This picture was taken right along the side of our garden. This does not bode well for future plant development. Deer tracks before the plants even break the surface usually means they know its coming and are just waiting for the munchies to show up.

A few things to look for in the woods....

This is what we call multi floral roses. These were brought to the U. S. by farmers many years ago to be used for a natural fence around their farms. Most of them didn't find out until much later that they spread like wildfire and you can not stop them. They are taking over a lot of farm land.

This, on the other hand, is something we like to look for in the woods. I know they may look like the other but they aren't. These are wild blackberry vines. I LOVE wild blackberries. They are so sweet compared to tame berries. These particular vines are behind our garden. We very seldom get many berries off of them because every time superhubby goes out to look at them there are snakes under the vines. Superhubby works pretty hard through the week and it's up to me to get the berries before rain or deer get them. I don't get them because I DON'T DO SNAKES. EVER. AT ALL.

Those of you who have "known" me for awhile may remember this....

This is what happens when birds build a nest on your porch. This is also one of the times I didn't get a choice when it came to NEVER BEING AROUND SNAKES. About 3 seconds after I snapped this picture the snake jumped off of the hoe and took off into my husbands car. We (and I say that in jest because I just stood back and cringed) spent the next hour or two trying to get it out. The snake was going to be thrown into the woods so it could run away but since it escaped we (again with the WE) ended up having to cut it in half to get it out of the car..... Which is why, if I have any choice, I DO. NOT. HAVE. ANYTHING.TO.DO.WITH. SNAKES.

My friend Lewis

This morning while I was out picking dead blooms off of my flowers I met a new friend. His name is Lewis.

He didn't actually tell me his name, he's more the strong silent type, but I guessed it first try and he never said I was wrong. He just watched me from his post top.

I've learned that Lewis isn't much for conversation. It's cold here this morning and Lewis just wanted to lay in the sun getting warmed up while I worked on the flowers. He didn't even reply to my offer to get him some good lotion to soften up his skin. I think Lewis looks a little wrinkled. I'm pretty sure laying in the sun isn't the best thing for his skin.

Well Lewis, it's been nice meeting you. I hope you stick around and don't get eaten by the big snakes that are usually hanging around just out of sight. Very small things seem to disappear about this time of the year. Good luck Lewis and I'll see you tomorrow morning.

Question of the day

Every February this comes up in my flower bed. I don't remember ever planting it and I really have no idea what it is.

It comes up faithfully as soon as we get a day over 50 degrees. Frost never seems to bother it. Now it is a clump of ugly brown. It always dies out by the end of May. It will soon disappear and hide out until next February when it will peek its pretty little head up out of the ground again. Rest up little flower.....I will need you again next year to remind me that spring is, once again, on its way.

This week is going to be crazy. I have many dentist visits scheduled and am going to be enduring a lot of nasty dental stuff. The next weekend is DD's graduation party and her graduation. Then the next weekend I will be laying on the beach. That, my friends, is what keeps me happy.

Spring has sprung!

A few pictures to make up for the fact I really have nothing to say.
This picture was taken at the Huntington museum of Art. Every year a local tv station does "Best of the class" where Valedictorians from all the area high schools get together and tape some stuff that is shown on the tv station during commercials all spring.



Finally the rain eased up enough for Superhubby to mow the lawn. The flowers are blooming and the garden needs planting, but it isn't quite dry enough for gardening.

I love the green of everything this time of year. When it gets hot and dry outside my yard looks bad. We have clay instead of good dirt so the grass has a hard time hanging around when it gets dry.

If you look close you can see the perpetually shedding dog in the door. He has nose prints on the glass all of the time. I usually put a screen in about this time of year but he will tear it out if someone pulls in the driveway or another dog dares to come pee in his yard.

I haven't swept the carpet for about 5 days so today I swept the dining room, family room and living room. I emptied the canister on the vacuum 3 times, each time it was full of dog hair. I do love this dog but can't wait until my son finds a new place to stay.....that allows dogs.

FRIDAY

I just got home from work. I love coming home from work on Fridays. Today will be extra special because I haven't seen superhubby this week! He will be home tonight at some point.
When I got home the answering machine was beeping. I always take the dogs out and fix myself a pepsi before I push that button, just in case I need to call someone back. The message on my answering machine wasn't for me, or for anyone in this house. Someone dialed the wrong number and left a message. I think, though I couldn't tell for sure, that the message was for the callers mother I couldn't tell because the caller had been crying and as the message went on she went into a complete sobbing meltdown. I heard something about needing to borrow a vehicle and something about a wedding and then the sobbing started. I couldn't understand much after that but I did hear "I'm sorry," "I love you," and what I think was "I need you." The caller was obviously in some distress and needed someone. It wasn't a local number so I'm not calling back. I'm afraid calling back to tell them they dialed the wrong number might push her over the edge. I'm not sure which would be worse, the embarrassment of knowing you poured out your heart to a total stranger or wondering why the person you reached out to didn't call you back. I am making up stories in my head. Could it be a young woman who left home and now needs her mother to help her? Did she get mixed up in drugs and that is what the "I'm sorry" was for? Is she married to a man who treats her bad and she needs her mother to help her?
I could go on and on, but I need to quit. There isn't anything I can do to help....I hope someone does.

Cramps

My mood is better than the last post. I am still a little upset with the old ladies, but I'm trying to be understanding. Superhubby has been slowly working through the little old ladies lists and he should be caught up sometime in 2011. No, I'm not bitter, why do you ask?

Tuesday he left for work at 6AM and got home at 10 PM because he had to stop at one old bats ladies house. Yesterday he got home from work before 5 and I was excited. He sat down on the couch and I ran to shower because surely he would want to take me out to eat and shopping. I got out of the shower, got ready and could not wake him up. He finally woke up about 7:30 and had to go mow a little old ladies yard before dark. It would be so easy to get mad at him but he is really in a bad spot. He wants to help them and they do play on his sympathy. They call and whine about being old and too poor to pay anyone else to do stuff (every one of them live in LARGE houses and drive Cadillacs...every single one of them.) They all also have many rental properties they rent out. These people are not poor, but they can sucker superhubby in. They all love superhubby and tell me how much they rely on him and how he treats them better than their own children/grandchildren do. He does have one little old couple who treat hubby like he should be treated. They call and ASK if he can do something and if he charges them 50.00 to do a job they always pay him extra because they know his work is worth much more. I love this couple and they actually do treat us both like family.
I started this post to tell you all that I am in a better mood and over the whole old lady thing, but obviously I'm not. I think that it's because it is raining and is supposed to rain for the next 5 days...flooding rains at times. I also have cramps. I think cramps excuse us from about anything. "I'm sorry officer, I didn't mean to run over the old lady but I have cramps." Forgiven!
Now I must go build an ark, and gather up two of every animal. Well every animal other than snakes, I hate snakes. Rats too....and bears because they scare me. Alligators can swim can't they, so they don't need an ark. Maybe I will just go clean off our pontoon boat and eat some chocolate.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Blowing off some steam

Days like this I wish I was back here, soaking in the pool and listening to the waves.


Superhubby has been helping his sister and her husband today on a problem they are having with their house. The rest of his little old ladies are not happy that he put off their problems this weekend to do this. I am not happy that they are calling here and almost acting like I am to blame for them not getting their stuff done. I am a litle grumpy today and most of it stems from them calling and complaining. I warned superhubby he needs to call them and tell them he can't get it all done at once, or I will and not in nice terms. ( had to stop typing and answer the phone...little old witch lady at 10:20 at night wanting to try to catch superhubby because she thinks I won't tell him she called. I tell him, he just doesn't always call them back when they want to be called.)
Reason number 2 I am in a bad mood....the dog on the left. This dog has a sudden competition with a neighborhood dog.


I let Roscoe outside and he pees on every blade of grass in the yard and as soon as I bring him in the neighbors little dog comes flying up the road to pee on every place Roscoe pees. The entire time the other dog is outside Roscoe howls and cries. This evening he started something completely out of character for him...he pees on things in the house. This dog has been trained since he was a small puppy and will NOT pee in the house if it kills him. This new pee thing is driving me and DD nuts. I am pretty sure the neighbors dog is a male, if it was a female I would think it was in heat and that is causing the problems. I need to get a good look at that dogs plumbing before I lose my temper with the one in the house.
Tomorrow is Monday and maybe this week will be better....but probably not. Every little old lady Mike knows has a list of things they need done and none are willing to wait. So, how was your week?

day 1

One more reason why we don't normally stay in "resorts." This bottle of water, if opened, would have cost us 7.00. We are ok drinking out of the tap(-;

Day one of being alone and it isn't too bad. I think it would be easier if I had closer neighbors. Right now if I go outside and scream someone would probably eventually hear me, maybe. They would probably dismiss it as a coyote howling and not bother to check it out.

I have books, tv and a messy house that needs a good cleaning. I'll probably tackle them in that order.

I think it is getting close to time for me to take my book and go to bed!

the silence may kill me...

A few more pictures from Florida. I had a lot of fun with my camera while I was there.
This is the sunrise outside our hotel room. I'm not a big fan of sunrises because that means I must be up early, but I never sleep well away from home so I got to see a few sunrises.


This is the pool at night. The purple lights changed to about 5 different colors over and over all night. It was beautiful and peaceful to watch.

Next week is going to be a test for me. Superhubby has to work out of town all week next week and DD will be on her senior trip. I have NEVER been alone for very long at a time and I'm not sure how I will handle next week, but I'm sure I will get through it just fine. I've been thinking that I could spend the week spring cleaning, since no one will be coming home in the middle of cleaning a room and complaining, I will probably be lucky to clean a couple of rooms, I don't get motivated easily(-'

Florida

We had a nice trip to Florida. We flew into Miami and then took a cab to Hollywood, Florida. Our cab driver was an elderly man who obviously had a series of strokes. He couldn't speak and he drooled the entire time he was driving along at 80MPH. The only cool thing about him was his name......Fritz Excellent. That was really his name.
We stayed here.....
While DD got her award and gave her speech.....

The view off of our balcony.....

and straight down to the pools.

We did have a nice time and DD decided she loves flying. I'll try to post a few more pictures when I get some time.

Prom pics

So Grand march is over and the prom is about to begin. I am home packing for our trip. I'm so ready to head south. I'm not sure if I have a horrible cold or allergy problems but I should figure that out in about 12 hours.

This dress, which seems to be straight really isn't. The seamstress saved us what she cut off and we were all surprised. She cut off a two inch wide stripe all around the bottom and it was 22 feet long....... the dress looks so much smaller around the bottom than that.

I hope everyone has a great Sunday... "see" you all next week!

I've been away from this blog awhile. Life is busy right now, though it will slow way down in a few months. We are preparing for prom which is in 3 days. We take off for Florida and my daughters scholarship presentation in 4 days....etc. I'm on the phone now, reminding my son to pack up his stuff so he can stay here with the animals while we are gone. When we get back from Florida we have about a week and a half before DD leaves for her senior trip. If DD and SH are out of town the same week I could quite possibly lose my mind...not that I do much with it anyway.

Now I must run and shower. Tonight we are going shopping for prom makeup and trying to decide whether she needs fake nails or just a manicure. DD is exhausted right now from everything going on. I'm not even going to try to remind her to slow down and enjoy this...things are different after high school. She will find that out all by herself soon enough.

The murder on the Knob

It was a dark and not really stormy night. The moon was casting shadows through the pine trees in the woods all over the Knob. It was eerily silent outside.

Inside, however there was a party going on. The sticky chickies were rocking to various songs by the Dixie chicks and doing the chicken dance (which is quite funny with no arms.)

Somehow during the party an intruder made their way inside. The intruder was obviously not a big Dixie Chicks fan. The next morning when I awoke I found that the entire sticky chicky population had been murdered.
This poor guy was stabbed to death by a toothpick. I never knew sticky chickies bled chocolate.

I tried to quickly hide the evidence because getting the police involved would have been a major pain. Just for future reference...sticky chickies covered in chocolate blood are some good sticky chickies.

This is the murder weapon before I licked it clean got rid of the evidence.

This little chicky was obviously killed by a whopper cannonball. I got rid of this evidence as well.




This poor little chicky was hung by the neck by a strawberry twizzler. I quickly cut him down and gave him mouth to mouth, but it was too late....and I accidentally bit his head off.

So now the chickies are all gone and all that is left is the little piles of sugar on the countertop where they were dancing.

I really need to get a hobby to keep me busy when Superhubby goes out of town to work...