Don't blink!

Life.....

2010-10-23T16:31:00.002-04:00

I decided to come and check my blog....I couldn't remember what it was called. I am just lucky that when I typed in blogger.com it came up on its own. I haven't updated for 9 months and truthfully...the last 9 months have been very calm. Superhubby got transferred temporarily to a shop a few hours away. He is gone all week and just home on weekends. I truly miss him but have been trying to sneak up there once a week and spend the night with him. I think we are starting to see the light at the end of that tunnel. We are hearing some talk that they found someone else to take that over so he can come home. It will probably still be 4 or 5 weeks, but thats ok.
Today is football day. I worked all day but managed to keep an eye on OSU, who kicked Purdue's butt! Now its Marshall, who will probably get their butt kicked.....again. Those are the only two schools I care about and thats because those are where my children go to school. The kids aren't excited about football, but their mamma sure is.
Now I must go rest a bit before tackling this mess I call a house. I'm not sure what happened but it looks like no one has cleaned for a month or two. Who's job is that anyway? They should be fired. Oh...wait.....NEVER MIND.

Hello....is anyone out there?

2010-01-20T13:26:00.003-05:00

It's me....remember me? The person who used to write a blog here, at least once in a while.

I kind of miss blogging and hope to get back to it at least some. I know there is probably no one still checking in but if I keep at it a few may show back up.

A few changes that have been made since the last time I talked to you...

My daughter decided to try to ~~slide~~ drive in the snow........

My old kitchen /dining room color (which for some reason I liked a few years ago) has been changed. I know this isn't a very good picture but it is the same room as below, just a different wall.

Now its this color, which I love. I also love my little table that superhubby built me. He built me the shelf a few years ago and I saw a table that matched....took a picture and voila....he built me one.

I hope to be back in a few days....Have a great week.

Where am I?

2009-09-27T22:57:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-01T19:05:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-08-19T11:29:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-07-29T21:18:00.002-04:00

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....

2009-07-25T18:32:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-13T15:40:00.002-04:00

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

2009-07-09T16:40:00.002-04:00

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....

2009-07-06T08:40:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-29T18:01:00.002-04:00

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.

2009-06-15T19:44:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-04T11:14:00.001-04:00

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

2009-05-21T15:45:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-18T10:45:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-16T23:17:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-05-11T13:27:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-08T14:34:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-30T16:50:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-26T21:06:00.004-04:00

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

2009-04-20T21:32:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-04-14T14:32:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-10T18:20:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-04T21:03:00.004-04:00

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!

2009-04-01T10:58:00.002-04:00

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

2009-03-24T15:59:00.004-04:00

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...

Bewitched

2009-03-17T14:22:00.002-04:00

Did you ever watch Bewitched when you were young (or Sabrina for you younger people?) If you did, tell the truth....didn't you wish you could snap your fingers and make a unicorn appear, or clean your room without actually having to clean it? Today I think I finally figured out I could have special powers.
I came home from work and had my lunch , (lasagna!) my purse, a can of pop, a bag of cat food and my phone. When I stepped out of the car I realized I had put my house/car keys in my pocket and there was no way to get them out without putting everything down. Right at that very moment the garage door opened. I knew no one else was home and that no animals could reach the opener in the garage. Once inside the garage door the kitchen door is easy to open. I had finally done it...learned to use my amazing bewitched like talents. I had dreams of cleaning my entire house... winning the lottery....filling up my bank account with one twitch of my nose. I was excited.
So far the nose twitch hasn't cleaned my house and I'm pretty sure my bank account is still small. I'm going to go practice.....and get that garage door opener out of my purse where it could possibly be pushed if you were to lean on your purse just right against the car.

We made the news...again.

2009-03-12T14:08:00.003-04:00

I heard a report on the news today that named the top 5 happiest and top 5 saddest states. I remember 3 of the happiest states to live in were Hawaii, Idaho and Minnesota. 3 of the saddest states to live in were Kentucky, Ohio and WV.
I live in the little red box (in Ohio). My husband works in WV, I work in Ohio and my son works in Kentucky. When I need to run to Wal mart, I go to Kentucky. Bigger shopping trip needed?..WV to the mall. Short quick shopping trip? Go the the mall in Kentucky. Want to go out to eat? Seafood..go to WV, steak?..Kentucky. (Don't ask me where I need to go to work on my punctuation, all 3 states have colleges nearby.)

My point is that I live in the middle of 3 of the top 5 saddest states to live in. I could have told them that years ago.

Dreams

2009-03-11T07:28:00.002-04:00

I'm sure I have mentioned it a ~~thousand~~ couple of times in the past but I'm going to do it again. Superhubby has a bunch of little old ladies that call all of the time, wanting him to do some odd jobs for them. One job he does quite often is to clean out their rental houses when the renters move out. Renters tend to move without taking all of their stuff. Most of the time the stuff they leave is stuff that isn't worth moving, but someone has to get it out of the house. Last weekend we cleaned out a house in town where the people left ~~124 whiskey bottles~~ some treasures. Sometimes cleaning these houses out makes me a little sad. This one wasn't too bad but I did find a Christmas list a little girl had made. I wonder how much of this she got for Christmas since her parents obviously spend most of their money on whiskey.
Here is her list, spelled just like she had it. She is either very young with very teenage dreams or she is a teenager who will not graduate from high school anytime in this century. While you are sitting around with nothing to do, figure out these words. It's kind of like a brain teaser.
1. mackup
2. heirspray
3. blacfingernel polish
4. selphone
5. camara
6. bodyspra
7. jeens
8. bedroomsoot
9. gormboy intindo ds
10. fack tatttoos
11. nose pirs
12. a peair of boots
13. a woolit with monny into it
14. ohio stat rug
15. bunny rabit
16. bracilit
17. nedkeles
18. jumprop
19. eres pers

The high price of love

2009-03-04T19:09:00.003-05:00

Look at this face again. This beautiful little face. I love this doggy like he was my own. My son loves this dog like it was his child. Even the gravy on his nose is cute.

Guess who woke up this morning puking again.

Guess who had to go to the vet....AGAIN.

Guess who is costing me more than my children in doctor bills lately.

Stupid dog. Stupid cute little guy.

In other news, we finalized the flights and hotel rooms for my daughters scholarship presentation trip. We are going to have a wonderful trip and stay in a hotel way more fancy and expensive than we would ever stay in ourselves. After the winter we have had going to Ft. Lauderdale in April is a dream come true.

Other than the dog.....life is good. But it has been a rough day all around(-;

This is prom jewelry. It is much more dazzling in real life.

Only one more to go....

2009-02-23T11:48:00.002-05:00

Saturday night was the winter homecoming at my daughters school. It was the last homecoming for DD and, according to her group of friends, it sucked. New DJ that did not understand dance music. They decided, after an hour and a half of the Eagles greatest hits, that they would be better off just going out to eat and coming home. Now we only have ONE MORE DANCE to go, the PROM. When DD gets home from school we are planning to go to the jewelry shop and find the right jewelry for the prom. Last week we went to the jewelry shop and they didn't have prom stuff in yet, but promised it for today.
The next few months are going to be extremely busy for my daughter. The day after prom we fly out to this place. This is where the scholarship foundation for the big scholarship she won is flying us to for their meeting/scholarship award dinner. We come home a few days later and she has about a week and a half before senior trip, which takes her back to Florida. Then there are the dozens of graduation things...best of the class etc. and then the week after graduation we head to the beach.
Superhubby is working out of town until at least Wed. night. I have to get used to that. I would be fine if someone in this area didn't have a gun last night. Someone, I have no idea who, decided about 11 last night to just sit outside and shoot a gun over and over for a couple of hours. There is one house I can see from my house and it wasn't them. I think it was up the hill through the woods somewhere. Someone new moved in up the road last week and it could have been them. I don't think it would be a great idea to go ask someone you don't know to quit shooting their guns. They may not be happy with someone else making suggestions.
Now I must go, not because I need to clean (no..not that) I need to go back to facebook. I have become a word challenge junkie.

The doggies

2009-02-08T08:20:00.002-05:00

So, I have these two dogs. I love my dogs. They are, in most ways, good dogs. This one actually belongs to my son. He is the surviving dog of two my son bought almost a year ago. The other died of parvo in November. This one survived but is going to be an expensive, high maintenance dog. His name is Roscoe. I call Roscoe a nerd dog. He has allergies, acne, and a sensitive stomach. He is part german shephard and part pit bull. There is nothing sensitive about either of those breeds but if Roscoe wore clothes I'm pretty sure he would have a pocket protector in his white stained shirt. Roscoe also sheds enough in one day to to make a full body wig for a chihuahua. Most of what he sheds goes on my couch and my clothes. He is very clumsy. He doesn't watch where he is going and tends to get hurt. He always has sores on his head because he chases the cat and when the cat runs under things, like a car in the driveway, he forgets to stop, or dunk down and runs smack into the car. Roscoe spent two days this past week in the "hospital" because he had a very upset stomach. So upset that he couldn't eat for days and nasty stuff was running out of both ends faster than I could clean it up.
Roscoe also loves you more than most dogs love his person. When you lay down on the couch he wants to lay ~~on top of~~ with you. He will haul all 75 or 80 pounds of his puppy body up to lay on your head. If he can't get on you he will just lay against you. If he can lay against you he will sigh this completely contented sigh and slip away to dream land. If you must go to the bathroom and shut the door he will ~~chew up your shoes~~ lay outside the bathroom door until you come out.

Then there is Koko. She doesn't even realize anymore that she is a dog. This mess she is on in the picture is our clothes. If we leave the house she rummages around until she finds all of our clothes that have been worn and not washed yet and lays on them until we return. She will not chew anything up, she just needs the clothes to lay on. When I need pajama's at night I have to go to the dining room to get them because when I get in the shower she drags them to the dining room to lay on.
Koko has some favorite words. She absolutely goes crazy when she hears the words eat, treat or byebye. She loves all 3 things and to just whisper the words makes her crazy with excitement. If I want to be completely honest those are some of my favorite words also. I especially love it if superhubby uses the words byebye and eat in the same sentence. I know that means no cooking and no mess to clean up.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. The temperature is supposed to be near 70 today and after all of that ice and snow of the last few weeks I am ready for it. Have a great week.

It's that time again

2009-02-02T14:03:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow is the day, the most dreaded day of the year. It's time to get my taxes done. I thought that since my appointment is tomorrow I should probably go through my tax stuff and get it together. There's nothing like waiting until the last minute.
Tomorrow I will either be in a really good mood, or a really bad one. Not sure yet which way it will go.

Who me?

2009-01-28T17:45:00.003-05:00

What you talking about someone spilled the gravy. That stupid cat must have climbed up on the stove and spilled the gravy! What, the cat is outside? That's not gravy on my nose, I have a cold, yeah that's it, a cold. I'VE BEEN FRAMED I TELL YOU!

The beauty of it all....

2009-01-28T12:27:00.002-05:00

Trying to stay positive! This is the biggest mess I can remember for many years. The first 6 inches of snow that fell were very heavy and wet. Then came 24 hours of freezing rain and now....snow. The rain froze on everything and I am one of the lucky, I have power. There are trees down everywhere and getting anywhere is iffy. You must travel, as SH did this morning, with a chain saw. The scanner is going off with tons of trees down and water covering the roadways.

Tonight the temperature is supposed to be 19 degrees and all of this water is supposed to turn into a sheet of ice. I may not get back to work until February.

I hope your week is better than mine!

Happiness is.. part two

2009-01-25T16:57:00.003-05:00

SH found out he doesn't have to go out of town this week. He will be working day shift for awhile but at his normal shop, at least for now.
This week looks to be a rough one. The weather is going to be bad and work is going to be tough. It is hard to drive around here with a tiny bit of snow but for this week the forcast is calling for snow.....and ice. Lots of ice. The last time we had very much ice we had no electric for 8 days, so I am hoping for a little less ice than last time...please!

Happiness is......

2009-01-23T07:41:00.001-05:00

Lying in my very warm bed while SH gets up at dark thirty to go to work and when I woke up to get ready for work, finding out he had cleaned the frost off of all my car windows (-;

the one about work

2009-01-22T14:04:00.004-05:00

Starting next week Superhubby will probably have to work away for a while. He will probably leave here on Monday morning, come home Friday night. He should only have to do this every other week, and the weeks in between he will be able to work in his normal place. My problem is I am such a big baby when he isn't around....it's almost embarrassing. I have to work hard not to boo hoo and act like a big baby when he leaves. If he knows I'm upset it will make him feel worse about going. He doesn't want to go anyway, but we both know that right now we are just lucky he has a job, so many people don't right now. We are still waiting on the final word from his boss about this....so there is still hope. If he does have to go we think it will only be for a few months, the supervisor at another shop had to have hip replacement surgery, or knee replacement, or one of those painful if you walk surgeries.
The weather report for next weeks shows storms for days, I'm sure that is mother nature mocking me for not having superhubby home. We live way in the country, on a hill. The electric goes out in storms....Ok, time to quit whining and grow up.
Just to make me feel better I am going to leave you with a picture of DD and her boyfriend at Christmas. I had planned on putting her dress pictures up today so you could help us choose but I can't find them in my computer, or on my camera. This is at my aunts house on Christmas eve. Notice the stair railings?.....SH built it. He does such great things.

Now since I have spent this entire blog whining like a baby you should go watch this. It really makes you think about how blessed you really are.

dress

2009-01-19T15:27:00.002-05:00

Our search for the perfect prom dress is finally over. We searched high and low, and in 3 states but finally found the one she loved a couple of hours away, in our own state. This is, of course the back of the dress. I will share more when we get some better pictures.

Our prom dress search ended and the next day we had to start searching for a homecoming dress. That proved a little easier but she wasn't 100% happy with our final purchase. Homecoming is in a few weeks so we didn't have the luxury of time. I also wasn't in the mood (or the position) to spend a huge amount of money on a homecoming dress right after buying a prom dress. She has another dress she bought for homecoming a few years ago and changed her mind so if she isn't happy with the new one she has the other one she has never worn. I may get pictures to share and let you vote, just for her peace of mind. I think the dress we bought yesterday was adorable, but I guess when you are 18 adorable isn't what you are going for.
Today is a quiet, stay at home day. DD went to the mall because we haven't been to a mall in umm.....21 hours. (She just called and found another dress on sale for 6 dollars she thought might be good for homecoming.) I'm pretty sure between the 3 we might find the dress.....or not.
I'll try to get some pictures posted today or tomorrow.

Roscoe

2009-01-13T05:58:00.003-05:00

Roscoe, on the right with DS's girlfriend, is a friendly dog. He is lovable, fairly calm and happy. We don't mind having him stay here with us right now, well at least not too much.

He has a few bad habits I wish he would get over. He sheds all the time. (I'm going to try your suggestion Lanny, just as soon as I get a few minutes to look for it.) When you move anything in my house there WILL be a pile of dog hair under it. He still thinks he is a little puppy. He wants to climb on your lap, even if you happen to be in the bathroom at the time, or sleeping. We cage him at night while we are sleeping or he spends his night going from bed to bed, stepping on your head in his effort to get comfortable. Once he knows you are starting to doze back off he climbs back over your head to go to the next bed. When he is in his cage he is quiet, he never cries to get out or barks.....but he rolls around and scratches, which makes a lot of noise in that cage. He is at an awkward stage in life. He has acne, allergies and sometimes fleas, which he is highly allergic to. He smells like a wet dog all of the time. It doesn't matter how many baths you give him, he still stinks. He loves to clean out the cat litter box, which I will leave to your imagination. He also loves us completely and unconditionally. No matter what mood we are in or what our day has been like, he is ready with a cuddle and a kiss on the cheek, which I try to discourage if he has been around the litter box. If we decide to take a short nap, he lays right down with you, or on you, makes no difference to him. He is a good dog, and if DS ever takes him back home I may miss him, just a little.

What a beautiful day

2009-01-07T07:05:00.002-05:00

Today is my day to sleep in. I don't go to work until 9. I did everything last night I possibly could just so I could sleep until 7:30. I was ready....until SH's alarm went off at 5:45. He had to work day shift today but no problem, I'll just roll over and go back to sleep. Then I hear "honey, I tried to get the dogs to go out but they won't because of the rain." So I got up, wrapped up and took the dogs out. I went back to bed because I still had an hour and a half to sleep. I stretched out and started to doze but wait, what is that odd feeling? My foot feels wet. Surely the roof isn't leaking! No, of course not, I just stretched out far enough to reach the pile of dog puke spread across the bottom of my bed. I hope this isn't an indication of the rest of the day.

2009-01-04T19:29:00.002-05:00

I got a new lens for my camera for Christmas. Wanna venture a guess at what this is?

This is what you get when you drive by a house at midnight, going 45 miles an hour and decide to see what happens when you try to take a picture of their Christmas lights without slowing down. Not a keeper, but I wanted to know what would happen.

Still trying to make myself unchristmas my house. My sister and niece are going to try to visit next weekend and I hate to take the tree down before they get here....but it may have to happen. The biggest reason is that my sons ~~pony~~ dog sheds continually. I have cleaned the dog hair off of the tree skirt once, but it is built up again. This dog also stinks, all of the time. It always smells like a wet dog. We have bought all kinds of shampoo and sprays and they help for about 24 hours and then the wet dog smell is back. I'm not sure what to do to rid the dog of this smell and I'm starting to think it may not happen.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I am off to sweep up some dog hair....again.

2009

2009-01-01T13:19:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! I hope we can all make 2009 a wonderful year. The economy is so bad and a lot of us are worried about our jobs, but there isn't a thing we can do about it that worrying will fix.

I wish for each of you a year of love and friendship.

I wish for each of you a year filled with family, or friends that act as family.

I wish for each of you a year free from too much worry about the economy.

I wish for each of you a year free from major health worries.

There are so many more things I wish for each and every one of you, but I think you get the idea......Happy New year.

2008-12-27T09:40:00.003-05:00

Yesterday morning when I left for work the weather was cold, overcast and dry. By the time I got halfway to work it had started to rain a little, which was freezing on the roads as soon as it hit. I made it fine and it warmed up during the day and just rained. This picture was taken a few weeks ago during a quick snow clipper.

Today.....it is going to be 70 degrees and partly sunny. 70 degrees in December!

We are going to work on our after Christmas crash diets today. We are going to my mothers to celebrate with my brother and his family who came in from Indiana. We are having ham, mac and cheese, broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes, shrimp, sausage balls and about half a ton of various candies and cookies. I guess you are wondering about the diet part. My brother and his wife have a stomach virus.....a virus that seems to spread like a wild fire. So....I'm thinking there is no reason to try to eat a little less or lay off of the candy. I like to think of it as kind of stocking up on nourishment so I won't get too puny after a few days of the virus. HAHA....I could puke for a month and not get puny.

Anywho.....I received a new lens for my camera so I hope to be snapping pictures for the next few days while it is sunny outside.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and now lets start planning for New Years eve.

2008-12-23T13:20:00.003-05:00

Once again I am going to do a "my favorite ornaments" post. I have so many that I love, but I'm just going to show you a few.

I don't know what it is I like about this one, its just the little faces peaking out that make me giggle.

These little guys spend weeks every Christmas trying to get their boat through my Christmas tree.

This is one of my very favorites. My mom bought this for superhubby and me right after we got married, 23 years ago.

My mom also bought this one for us, but didn't notice when the lady spelled our last name wrong, but I don't mind.

My Christmas village at night. I hate that you can't see my green and red chasing lights around the fence on the left. They show up in the full size picture but when I cut it down they aren't easy to see. I love those tiny little lights (-;

In case I don't get time to ~~stalk~~ visit everyone, I hope you have a safe and Merry Christmas.

My completely true Christmas story

2008-12-18T18:37:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago I took some portraits of my cousin, his wife and his wife's family for my cousins in-laws for Christmas. (following me so far?) I ordered their pictures from my favorite online lab and was excited when I received them 48 hours later. I had been worried about a Christmas deadline but this place is on the ball. Today I looked them over again before they came to pick them up and realized I had forgotten to order one set of pictures. The ones I forgot, of course, were the ones of my cousin Joseph ( we call him Joe), his wife Mary and their new baby. Keep those names in mind, they will come in handy to keep up with the rest of my story. I immediately ran to the computer to place the order for the extra pictures, hoping to get them before next Wednesday. I noticed there was a phone number at the bottom of the page to call in case it was an emergency and I wrote the number down and got ready to call.....and then I started imagining our conversation.
Me: Hello nice operator. I recently placed an order and forgot a couple of pictures. I wanted to make sure I would get them before Christmas.
Operator: Which picture did you need.
Me: I took some pictures of Joseph, Mary and the new baby. Those are the ones I need.
Operator: um....did you say Joseph, Mary and the new baby?
Me: Yes
Operator: Ok then, are you sure it was Joseph, Mary and the baby?
Me: Of course I'm sure, I was there.
Operator: Were there any wise men there at the time?
Me: Yes (Mary's uncle is a Lawyer and he watched)
Operator : How about animals?
Me: Wow, how did you know. The cattle and sheep were so noisy, it woke the baby. (her uncle lives in a big farm and the animals were so loud that night we were joking about them)
Operator: Let me guess, there was a bright light in the sky?
Me: Well there was this big bright star.....(which was a Christmas decoration on one of the neighbors houses)
Operator: Alrighty then, are you home alone or is there an orderly or family member with you?
Me: I'm home alone right now.
Operator: How about if you give me your address and I will call someone to come and visit you, maybe take you for a ride in an ambulance with a pretty flashing light. They have nice tight white coats you can wear to stay warm.
Me: Sounds like fun but I really just need the pictures...hello....hello?

So I decided to just order the pictures and hope for the best. I'm not sure if they would ship quicker to a local mental hospital or not, may be worth a try.

Roscoe

2008-12-17T19:05:00.004-05:00

Since my sons dog died he has left his other german shepherd here with me. The vet warned him that whatever virus killed Gideon would probably be in that yard for 5 to 7 years and could kill Roscoe too. I love Roscoe but he has not figured out that at 9 months old his body isn't a puppy anymore. His mind is still a puppy but not his body. He wants to be a lap dog like my little koko, but it doesn't work as well. This is what happens when I sit down.

I usually do not let anyone take pictures of me, but this one had to be done. I had just gotten out of the shower and got under the cover to warm up before my favorite show in the world came on. (GHOST HUNTERS ROCKS!) My hair was still wet and I had the phone in my hand trying to talk to my SIL. My sons lease isn't up until June.... it's gonna be a long, long winter.

smoke gets in your eyes.

2008-12-15T10:35:00.002-05:00

We went from snow, sleet and cold wind to 55 and sunny. SH decided it was time for the annual burning of the leaves. We have discovered over the years that since we live in the woods there is no reason to bother raking leaves until they are all down. The wind still blows them out of the deeper woods back into our yard, but for a couple of days our yard looks nice.
Do you see the house in the background? I actually have a next door neighbor! They recently finished their house and it looks nice if some idiot would quit covering it in ashes.

The sun was nice for a day but today we are back to rain which is supposed to turn to ice and snow tonight.

I hope everyone has a great week. I can't believe we are only 10 days away from Christmas. Where did the time go?

2008-12-12T18:41:00.002-05:00

It is beginning to look a whole lot like Christmas. I like snow, but DD is at a ball game tonight and SH is at work. I hope this quits soon.

The tv show I was talking about in my last post was Ghost Hunters. I am completely and totally addicted to the show. The season finale was last Wednesday and I am sad. A few years ago I would have laughed at that show but since spending so much time at the museum I find it very interesting.
I'm working on a post about Rev. John Rankin, a famous abolitionist that died in Ironton in the very house that we now use for the museum. He was an interesting man who helped free over 2000 slaves. It was a dangerous thing for people to do back then and he and his family did a lot of it.
Now I have to go figure out how to get DD home, there are two cars turned sideways in front of my house unable to go on up the hill.....could be an interesting evening.

Where oh where am I tonight?

2008-12-10T10:50:00.004-05:00

I love these two. They are so cute together. Right now they are going back and forth between their house and mine to spend time with their dog. I like having them around and will like it more this week since I only work two days.

It has been a busy few weeks. I had a nice birthday with my family, volunteered a lot at the museum and let my house go completely. Now I am going to pay for it in a big way. It will take me days to clean up all the dog hair, cake icing (DD is taking cake decorating classes) and dirty dishes. If I can stay awake today I think I may actually get a little chunk of it finished. I may be back later.....or I may not. Tonight is my FAVORITE night on tv and there are 3 episodes of my favorite show on tonight. I won't even tell you what it is (if any of you are left out there) because you would laugh. Goodbye until next time.

another day.....

2008-11-29T17:59:00.002-05:00

So what do you get when you take my house, with it's dog, cat and way too much stuff in it and add DS, his girlfriend and their dog.....? A complete and total mess. DS doesn't travel light, he always brings his laundry, his xbox, his guitar and various other goodies. The dog came with a cage big enough to park a 4wheeler in. It's messy, chaotic and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I got my annual notice for my meeting with the powers that be for work. I always have my meeting in January or early February but this year they decided to shake it up a bit and do it in December. That means I have to do organize a years worth of paperwork, do the rest of my continuing education online and various other stuff before Wednesday. If I don't finish I won't have a job and the way my life is moving right now, it could go either way. Tomorrow I volunteer for the museum, take my cousins family portraits for Christmas and dinner with SH. I'm pretty sure I will be able to do organize a couple of months worth between all of that.

SH is now sick and I have a feeling he is passing it back to me. I need to get a flu shot but I can't get over a cold long enough to go get it. It is supposed to snow/rain tonight and I would love to just crawl under the covers, watch tv and sleep.

Now I must go, DS's ~~pony~~ dog is looking at me with an odd look and I'm figuring that may mean he wants to go out. Both dogs have been running around outside and have discovered a colony of flea's that must have decided to tough out the cold weather until a host could show up so tonight both dogs get a dip in the tub and some new frontline.

Have a great Sunday~

Love

2008-11-26T10:45:00.002-05:00

My poor DS called this morning to tell me his dog Gideon had passed away. He was so upset he couldn't get the words out. He had taken him to the vet hospital yesterday morning because he was so sick and they called him this morning to inform him Giddy didn't make it. He is completely devastated. He is on his way out here to have his daddy help him build a casket of some sort and to bury his buddy. It's going to be a long day, my son is very soft hearted and loves his animals. Gideon is the one between DS's feet.

I place part of the blame on the vet. DS had taken the dogs twice to get shots and both times the vet put him off saying they needed other things worse. Once it was flea and worm medicine and the next time it was allergy medicine. He told DS that he didn't want to give them shots until the allergies and other stuff was better. Gideon tested negative for all dog diseases yesterday but the vet said it had to be parvo because of the symptoms. He tested him over and over and it was always negative. I guess we will never know because DS wouldn't let them do an autopsy. He will blame himself because he could have gotten the shots later but put it off.....I hear his car....time to go.

Why I don't let superhubby buy my medicine

2008-11-18T16:24:00.003-05:00

I'm still here, with absolutely no voice. I have been able to sleep a bit the last 24 hours, I just wake up coughing every little bit.
Last night Superhubby came home from his little old ladies house and said "Honey, Little old lady has been sick too and she said that the antibiotics the doctor gave her didn't work until she took some metamucil."
You have to remember that I can't talk....at all. I sat and looked at SH and finally wrote "are you sure thats what she took?" (I've been carrying around a notebook so no one misses any of my wisdom.)

After a few minutes I came up with mucinex...which I'm pretty sure would have helped her congestion a lot more than metamucil.....and I won't be sending SH to pick up any cold medicine for me.

ughh

2008-11-17T15:59:00.002-05:00

The creeping crud has caught up with me. I went to the doctor today and she said bronchitis and laryngitis. I think all that means is that I can't talk....not even a squeak. I think SH is getting tired of me snapping my fingers when I need him to read my lips. What this really means is I won't be working at least a couple of days this week. The doctor said stay in bed but she doesn't have the kind of job I have....no vacation days.... no sick days, no work =no pay. The good new is that even though I cough all the time and can't sleep because of the cough I don't feel horrible. I don't feel good by any stretch of the imagination, but what I feel is just a slight misery that can be helped with a few tylenol or ibuprofen. I'm off now to throw on some comfy clothes and crawl beneath a blanket and watch it snow out the window. It isn't sticking but it is still pretty coming down.

Amish country part 2

2008-11-11T13:50:00.002-05:00

The weather was overcast and that really made it difficult to take pictures of farms. I still tried a few just because I love to take pictures, but none of them are very good. I just love the size of their houses and the fact that they are always so neat and tidy.

Most farms have at least 2 houses. The grandparents give the big house to the children when they start having children and build themselves a "dawdy" house near the bigger house.

Gas was much cheaper there than it is here. When we left we drove about 3 hours west before starting home (south) and actually bought gas for 1.74. Here it is still 2.25. I figure this amish guy was parking his buggy here to laugh at all us having to fill up.

One thing I noticed was the large amount of toilet paper strung from the trees, signs and buildings in one town. I'm not sure whether English boys did it or some Amish teens in their Rumspringer were out playing some tricks. I also noticed that a couple of Amish women who were running shops were on the phone all morning. They don't have phones at home but as soon as they get to work they talk and talk. Most talk in their native German mix so you can't understand but they throw some English in too.

Saturday there was one room open in our hotel. I later heard the office clerk tell someone a couple of Amish boys had come and rented it so they could watch the Ohio State game. I guess even during Rumspringer they have good taste.

Now I am off to take some Ibuprofen and get under some blankets to try to hide from this creeping crud I feel trying to overtake my body. Have a great week!

2008-11-10T15:03:00.004-05:00

Our trip to Amish country was nice. I had a great time and spent way too much money buying way too much stuff for my house....and my tummy. I came home with brick cheese, cheddar cheese, swiss cheese, cheese spread, cheese ball, peanut butter spread (YUM), cinnamon butter and a huge zit beside my lip. It doesn't really show up in the picture like I thought it would and yes I know my hair is frizzy....it is my day off from work and I am not messing with it, or makeup.

I love to drive around and take pictures. These fodder shocks are everywhere in the fields. They don't use them as we do, for decoration, they use them for food for the animals and since they have to cut theirs and tie by hand it takes days.

The first day we were there it was overcast and rainy all day. We were driving by this farm around sunset and the sun peaked through the clouds with an orange glow. This is straight out of the camera other than cutting it down so my dial up doesn't die trying to upload it.

I don't take pictures of Amish people because they don't like to have their pictures taken. I do, however, take pictures of their farms if they aren't around.

These trees outside our hotel were gorgeous. We tried to find out what kind they were but no one seemed to know.

A trip to Amish country isn't really a trip until you eat here. It is an entire restaurant serving what I like to call comfort food......all white food covered in gravy. I got the salad bar. I really did and I ate a salad right before my turkey on homemade 2 inch thick white bread with mashed potatoes between the halves of the sandwich, all covered in gravy arrived at our table. When we got finished we waddled back to the hotel and I paced the parking lot for a couple of hours until I was able to lay down without throwing up. The next night the other people who went with us all went back but SH, DD and I decided one night being miserable was enough. The next trip I am getting the large mashed potato dinner that is covered with chicken noodles. I'm already planning(-;

Glory

2008-11-04T14:11:00.003-05:00

The weather is gorgeous! The sky is blue, the trees are showing off for me and the temperature is a lovely 72. I love this time of year. These trees currently brighten the world outside my bedroom window.

These trees are right off of the end of my front porch.

SH and my dad spent the day dragging dead trees out of the woods to warm us for the winter. SH is on vacation this week, but we can't let the old ladies find out.

In a few days we leave for Amish country, to eat, shop, shop and then eat some more. Did I mention eat?

Thursday SH has an appointment to get my car inspected. Remember the car? The one he has been rebuilding for ~~ever and ever~~ quite awhile? It is finally almost finished and I may even get to drive it a week or two before he gets transfered to Charleston and has to drive it because of the gas mileage. When and if he gets transfered that will add an additional 80 miles a day to his commute, on top of the 5o he drives now. You can't do that in a Ford explorer....especially his that has 185,000 miles on it and gets about 15 miles to the gallon.

I hope everyone got out to vote today and I wish for you the same weather we are having. This weekend when we are going to be walking around small amish towns the weather is supposed to be high in the 40's and rain....I guess you can't have it all.

2008-10-29T18:10:00.002-04:00

I'm in a better mood than I was last post ;-) Next week SH is on vacation and then in 9 days we leave for Amish country. 3 days of no phones and no little old women.
I have figured out that deer will take big risks for a few acorns. When I got home from work a few minutes ago and looked out my family room window this is what I saw. Yes that is an extension cord running across my window because SH was working on hooking up the tv and needed a light. Your eyes aren't crooked either, I was trying to be sneaky and somehow I had the camera crooked.

We have bunches of oak trees and tons of acorns. This gal was no more than 7 or 8 feet from the window and I had my camera against it here. It doesn't matter to her as long as I don't bother her acorns. My tv (and subwoofer) is right beside this window but she doesn't seem to care as long as there are ACORNS.

Right now they are both standing right outside the window with their white tailed butts almost up to the window. I'm thinking these two will probably end up on someones table soon. They are too caught up in what they are eating ( kind of like me with chocolate) to worry about the fact I could take them both out without much trouble. I probably wouldn't even need to drag out a gun, I could just do it with a ball bat, or sling shot......thank goodness I don't like deer meat.

Warning....grumpy post ahead

2008-10-25T21:11:00.003-04:00

It's Saturday which would normally be my favorite day of the week. Today has tested my patience ALL FREAKIN DAY LONG! You probably don't want to read the rest of this because it is just a place for me to get everything out of my system and then forget about it. It keeps me from getting too grumpy with SH, who doesn't deserve my wrath. So feel free to go away and come back in a few days when I have a happy post up. There are also some four letter words going to be on here, I'm pretty sure.
This weekend started for SH's little old ladies yesterday. That's when they started calling, trying to get him for the weekend. It started with T, who had a lawnmower that wouldn't start. While he was there (he had to work day shift today so he stopped there after work), N called and wanted him to finish wiring his kitchen (which he really does need to finish) tonight. By the time he got home from T's it was too late to finish N's wiring so he asked if he would do it tomorrow......ok, but he has to finish S's garage and washing the windows of her house tomorrow because it is going to be warmer for only one day. Today R called also and wants her daughters door put in TOMORROW and then a little bit ago E called and said one of her renters has no heat and needs it fixed tomorrow. SO CALL A DA%# FURNACE REPAIRMAN! Instead of saying that I said "he isn't here right now so I will tell him when I see him and see if he can fit it in".....he was here, in the garage but I lied. I feel sorry for SH because he wants to make me happy by spending more time at home, but they make him feel so guilty that he can't tell them no. I'll get over this and be in a better mood tomorrow.....but for tonight I am pissed and need to go, uhmm, eat chocolate. Yep that will make it better.

Happy stuff

2008-10-23T12:29:00.001-04:00

I love this award. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and I need something warm, baby it's cold outside. Kim, over at lifeafter gave me this award along with a meme that will follow in a minute. Right now I just want to say that when I started this blog I never realized it would introduce me to so many new "buddies." I don't have a large readership, which is ok with me because I enjoy my little bloggy world, but the ones I read I really look forward to reading every day. Now on to the meme....

1. Do you have the same friends from childhood?

I have a couple of friends from childhood that I still talk to once in a while. It seems that most of us have families that keep us too busy to keep in touch. I have found that in the last few years I have become a little bit of a recluse. I guess that's probably not the right word because I don't stay home all the time, I just don't hang out with people other than my family much anymore. I had a great friend in school named Laura. She was one of my best friends from grade school on. We had planned all through our senior year a party after graduation. She and I were going out on the town after graduation and having the best night of our lives. A few weeks before graduation we realized that I was leaving for the beach right after the ceremony and her parents and boyfriend wanted to take her out to eat, so we put off our night out until the next weekend when I got home. As I was leaving graduation I gave her a big hug and said "I'll see you next weekend" and that was the last time I ever saw her. No tragedy, no arguments, we just got busy and never found the time to call each other. It's odd to me even today that I have no idea where she is or what she is doing.

2.What do you value most about your friends?

The thing I value most about friends would be the fact that I have a few friends that, even though I very seldom talk to them anymore, I know I could call tonight if I had a problem and they would listen and help if they could. I am pretty sure they know the same about me.

3. Are your friends you sounding board?

Not really anymore. SH hs to be the one listen to my problems and ideas. I'm sure he probably wishes I would hang with friends more.

4. What is your favorite activity to share with your friends?

Duh.....dinner and shopping!

Now the rules say I have to list 5 things under the following headers and pass this award on to 5 people.

10 years ago I was....... 1. Just getting into the habit of working again after taking off quite a few years while my children were young. 2. Still spending every spare second being a mother to my two children who were then 10 and 8, and a wife to my husband. 3. About 50 lbs lighter. 4. Spending some quality time with my grandmother, who never learned to drive. I would pick her up one afternoon every week and take her to the grade school my children attended so she could spend a few hours reading to the children. It was wonderful just riding in the car and talking to my grandma. 5. Watching the agony of my cousins children as they watched her die from breast cancer at the age of 38. She fought breast cancer for 10 years and she is still sorely missed.

5 things on today's to-do list. 1. nap...its cold in here. 2. laundry because I have been noticing a serious underwear deficiency. 3. dishes because I didn't touch them at all yesterday. 4. Maybe go to the hospital and see my cousins new beautiful baby girl.....unless it is too crowded. 5. Try to catch up on some paperwork for work.....I'm just behind by 6 months or so :-(

5 snacks I enjoy. 1. Cheetos...puffy or crunchy, I'm not picky. 2. cheddar cheese and crackers 3. Peppermint candy....always been my favorite. My grandma even got me a pair of peppermint candy earrings one Christmas. 4. Fruit, just about any kind. 5. Milk chocolate anything.

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire. 1. Superhubby and I would both quit our jobs, neither of us enjoy our jobs much at all. 2. Pay off all of our families homes...just so no one would have to worry about a mortgage in this financially screwed up time. 3. Would force SH to slow down and enjoy life a bit, no working all the time. He works all the time, even when he isn't at work. He WOULD stay home with me some or we would travel a bit together. 4. I would help DS figure out what he wants to do and pay for him to get the training to do it 5. I would make sure my parents could relax and travel and not have to worry about money at all. They both are retired but both work part time just to have extra money. They have enough to live on, but I want them to ENJOY their retirement and never have to worry about having the money to travel.

5 jobs I have had. 1. babysitter. I took care of some younger cousins in the summer once in a while while I was in high school. 2. Burger king 3. Volunteer at a nursing home 4. Volunteer at the museum. 5. Home health

5 people to pass this award on to...this one will come later...after the nap.

Wednesday

2008-10-22T13:50:00.002-04:00

It is a beautiful, but chilly day here in Southern Ohio. The sky is blue, the sun is bright and it is 57 degrees. I love this weather.
My son works for a well known satellite television company. I won't name names but they bring their services DIRECTLY to your house. Since my tv was getting old and turning it on meant walking up to it every few minutes for the first half hour and smacking it to get the picture to come on, we decided to buy a new tv. We bought a nice, not too big, flat screen tv and today the company my son works for brought all new HD equipment out for all 3 of our tvs and installed it. We now get ALL the channels and movie channels COMPLETELY FREE. I'm not sure about the channels I would rather not have, like playboy and other channels with that particular theme, but I'm sure if they are on, SH will find those tonight. The weird part is that my old receiver, that we bought 11 years ago, worked great. When you pushed the power button it was on and working in about 10 seconds. This one has been updating and restarting for the last 30 minutes. I will either love it, or take a sledgehammer to it when I finally get one in here to smash my computer with......stay tuned.

Busy, busy, busy

2008-10-20T14:13:00.003-04:00

It is busy here today. Superhubby and I both have the day off. This is the last day it is going to get above 60 degrees so today is the day SH is going to paint my car. Remember the car I bought ~~over a freakin year ago~~ a while back that my dear husband hasn't had time to work on? It is now ready for paint, windshield, airbags, and an inspection and then it will be drivable. The bad part.....SH is probably going to get transferred to a different place (same job, same company, just different shop) and he is going to DRIVE MY NEW CAR. Yes, after waiting for quite a while for my car it is about to be confiscated right out from under my nose. The difference is that while I drive about 30 minutes to work and 30 home every day, his new job will take him an hour and a half to drive each way....every day. The job isn't set in concrete yet, but chances are good it will happen in the next few weeks.

I'm trying to catch up on laundry and clean the house a bit in between running outside and helping him on the car. I'm not getting much done in the house. My dog always goes outside with me, she can't stand to be left in the house alone. Twice so far so runs back in when I come in and runs to the carpet so she can projectile vomit. I'm sure she wants to do it on the carpet for a reason but if she would just stop 3 FEET earlier and puke on the tile floor, my life would be a little easier. I did trick her once and when she wanted in the house I opened the door and then shut it before she got in......she puked in the garage floor.

Before I run to get the 4 loads of laundry off of the clothes line I wanted to leave you with a picture of my DS and his sweetheart. Those two dogs are the same that were in these pictures..... just a bit bigger.

Go ahead...make his day!

2008-10-14T20:47:00.003-04:00

I don't talk about work much on here. I have one of those jobs where talking about your job isn't a good idea. I go to peoples houses and help them get through their day, whether it be cleaning them up, cleaning their house up or taking them to doctor appointments. In most cases it is just that, a job. Jophie is different. Joseph, or Jophie as we call him, is a sweetheart. His health problems weren't caused by a life of drugs or drinking. Joseph is 15 and was born with some major problems. I have known Joseph since he was a baby and had the privilege of talking care of him for 10 years until recently when his health problems escalated to the point where his health care called for more skilled care than I was trained to give.
During the last few years Joseph's health problems have gotten worse. He can no longer sit up in his wheelchair to ride in a vehicle so we have been forced to lay him down in a seat and strap him in. Medicaid has also made cuts to his supplies so that leaves his mother scrambling to give him some medical supplies that he needs. Once a year we have a fundraiser to try to help with the expenses and this year we are changing it a bit. This year our goal is to work toward a new (used) vehicle so Joseph can safely be transported to and from doctors appointments. Click the meals for wheels button on the right and check out the new fundraiser. If you, or anyone you know would like to lose a little weight or if you just like cookbooks give it a try.

WTH

2008-10-11T20:16:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I volunteered at the museum again. Do you remember the museum, the one where I ~~am sure some long dead person or people are out to scare the heck out of me~~ volunteer with my Dearest Daughter? I hate, and I mean HATE to go in that place alone. I love the old house and the stories, as long as someone else is there. So I show up a few minutes early and go ahead and unlock the doors and put my purse inside and then I went outside and stand on the porch to wait on the other volunteer who never showed up. While I was waiting a very sweet old man stopped his car in the street and said "I'm glad you are open, I want to buy a book I looked at the other day. I will be back after my doctors appointment." My plan to lock up and go home was shot. When I figured out that the other guy wasn't going to show I went in the office and picked up the phone and volunteer list and went back outside to call and see if anyone would come and work with me. I sat down and turned the phone on and ......NOTHING. The phones were dead. I went back inside and checked the other phone.....NOTHING. I used my cell phone and found a sweet lady who offered to come in, and she made it there in 30 minutes.
We had an interesting day with quite a few people in and a few I grew to love. There were 3 ladies that came in, 2 in their 80's and one of the ladies daughter in law who was in her 50's. They were from California and had come back here because they were raised here. They hadn't been back in 23 years. We started a nice conversation and it took about 5 minutes for us to figure out the big farm they were raised on was the farm my grandparents bought from them in the early 50's. The two older ladies, who were children of the previous owners didn't want a tour of the museum, they spent an hour and a half asking me about the farm and their old neighbors. They wanted to know about the old orchard, the hay fields, old George the neighbor who lived up the road. We had a great time and we all learned a lot. It is definitely a small world.
For the last 20 hours I have been held captive by a complete idiot. Someone thought it would be smart to steal the copper cables from the phone company. I went 20 hours with NO PHONE AND NO INTERNET. ( I at first wondered if something hadn't followed me from the museum.) I called the phone company this morning, after driving to the top of the nearest big hill for cell reception and was told it would be back on Tuesday. Yes, Tuesday by 8PM. Imagine how happy I was when my phone rang a bit ago. I'm easy to please.
Tomorrow is the huge Luca*ville flea market. If I make it back without a new puppy I will be surprised.

Because I need to gripe to someone

2008-10-09T15:37:00.005-04:00

In January of this year I bought a new computer.....from HP. I bought a factory refurbished model straight from HP and had it shipped. I've never had a problem with it until today. I restarted it because it was locked up and ...nothing. I get the HP screen and a couple of choices for recovery and nothing else. I have ran all of the recovery options other than the restore, which I am starting now. I called HP and was told that since it was more than 3 months old they would be happy to talk to me for the low fee of 49.00 for 14 days service. I very nicely told her I would call her back if I couldn't figure something out myself. I'm about 95% sure this is the same lady, in the same distant land, that I have to call if I need to ask questions about my cell phone. I understood about every 3rd word she said.
My son is on the phone with me trying to help me figure it out. He bought the same computer I did but bought an extended warranty. I didn't know I could buy one. I should have asked, but didn't think about it. Every computer I have ever bought has a one year phone technical support service included. I'm about out of ideas. I don't know if I will get it working but I have a backup computer........and a backup plan. If this restore doesn't work, I am going to call HP back and tell them I have a cow here and I will not hesitate to slaughter it if they don't talk to me. I'm pretty sure whatever country they are in worships their cattle instead of eat them.

I hit publish and then noticed I was getting an email. It was from HP telling me that as a valued customer I might like to shop their anniversary sale.....um NO.

the one that makes no sense....at all...which is pretty normal

2008-10-03T21:12:00.005-04:00

I was outside a few minutes ago trying to get some exercise.....it is quiet out there. I took my daughters mp3 player out and listened to her selection of music while I walked up and down the driveway. When I took the mp3 player out of my ear I heard a helicopter....now out here when you hear a helicopter it means one of two things.....someones pot plants have been spotted or bubba decided to try to ride the 4wheeler down the hill again, without a helmet. Before anyone gets all grumpy I can say bubba because I actually know people named Bubby....no really, that is the name on the birth certificate.

I'm not sure why but people around here think its cute to ride 4wheelers around with NO HELMET. I'm not sure why this seems like a good idea, but I guess after a couple of six-packs a lot of things sound like a good idea. I seem to remember ~~doing some stupid things~~ hearing my friends talking about doing some stupid things after a few too many. If I am going to be really honest I will admit that I own a 4-wheeler and no helmet. My only defense is that we don't ride ours anywhere but around the yard to pull logs or some other such junk around the yard. The few occasions we do go up on the hill we drive very slow and are very careful.
Back to my original thoughts, whatever they were. Umm, oh yeah the helicopter. We don't get a lot of low flying air traffic around here. We see planes but they are up high, very high. I think the fact that we have hills all around us keeps airplanes from flying very low and the ones that do aren't visible to very many people because the hills block the view. I had decided a few weeks ago to try to photograph the moon again. I tried a couple of months ago and wasn't happy with the results. When I tried it last time the moon wasn't visible here until after midnight. It was behind a hill until then and after that was visible for a couple of hours. I went out at midnight the other night and no moon. I watched for the next few nights and realized that now the moon is visible in a completely different part of the sky early in the evening and only is visible for about 45 minutes.
When my brother moved from Ohio to Western Indiana one of the things he told me was how surprising it was to know there was a storm coming a long time before it came. Where we live you don't see storms until they are right on you. If you are lucky you may hear thunder a bit before, but you never see the clouds.
Now that I have been all over the place with this post I am going to post it and go finish watching Ghost hunters on Scifi. I am quickly becoming addicted to that show.

It's Friday

2008-10-03T14:02:00.003-04:00

What did the fish say when he ran into the wall?

scroll down...

even farther....

wait for it........

Dam

Finally

2008-10-02T23:51:00.002-04:00

Once upon a time ~~many weeks~~ a long long time ago I took everything off of my family room walls to paint. I finished the painting in a few days but never put stuff back on the walls. I finally decided tonight to get started putting things back. I bought this sign (that reads 'all because two people fell in love') last year while I was in Amish country. I had been wanting to hang it up with some pictures of the kids but didn't know where to put it. SH had built this shelf years ago for my ds to put his trophies and stuff on. Since I hadn't ~~dusted~~ done anything to this shelf for a couple of years I decided to take it down from my sons room and bring it into the family room. My next project is to get my son and his girlfriend to let me take some pictures so I can add more of them to the shelf.

I watched the VP debate this evening and I don't think I learned much other than the fact that both candidates are puppets and were coached well before this debate. I hope things get a little clearer to be before November.

Have a great Friday!

BOO

2008-09-27T23:21:00.003-04:00

Tonight was the annual ghost walk at an area cemetery. This cemetery is very interesting and so pretty. During the ghost walk actors stand by the graves of people who contributed to this area in some way and they tell their stories. This year DD was the wife of Charles Kingsbury, who was the first superintendent of the biggest school in the area. She looks pretty good for a woman who had 7 children and has been dead since 1881.

I love looking around this cemetery and there are so many pretty places. This area is all Civil War veteran graves. During the ghost walk they have a woman with an amazing voice that stands in the back of this area singing Negro spirituals.

This is the actual horse drawn hearse that a funeral home (a local funeral home passed down through generations) used back before there were gas powered vehicles. A few years ago they brought it out of storage and had it refurbished.

Tomorrow DD and I work the museum. I look forward to spending the afternoon there, as long as our resident ghost stays away......wish me luck!

Have faith

2008-09-26T10:58:00.003-04:00

So DD and I cleaned the camper and put a for sale sign up. I called our local newspaper and put an add in the paper for 14 days. If you don't sell your item in 14 days they run a new ad for you free for 14 more. My husband and my dad were both warning me that I would have a tough time selling a camper this late in the year. I was determined to try it anyway. The ad came out in Tuesday's afternoon paper. It was sold by late Tuesday afternoon. It sold to a very nice retired couple who used to camp and are ready now to camp again. Now if I could just get SH to pull the pontoon out of the weeds.....I think I have an addiction now to selling things. Must be my own form of gambling addiction. The pay off better in this case. So today after work/doctor appointment/bank stuff and possible football game I must get the rest of my stuff out of the camper....and say good bye. It will be hard, but I'll just clutch that check in my hand while I do it.
In other news, the State of Ohio discontinued aide services to one of my clients. That just means that the level of care he requires must be given by all skilled nurses. I'm not a skilled nurse so I will be unable to take care of my little boy. I am not surprised by this move and since his mother is a good friend of mine I still can see him whenever I want and I talk to his mom on the phone almost daily. Losing that job put me down to working 10 hours a week. I love the idea of working 10 hours a week, but my bank account seems to not be as happy with that as I am. I did pick up another client last night that I will start caring for next week. I was working 4 days a week at either 4 or 5 hours a day....now I will be working 3 LONG days a week at 9 hours 2 days and 8 hours one day. I know some people are thinking "you wimp that is not even near a full work week." I know that but it is plenty for me. I ALWAYS wanted to be a stay at home mom. My DH was fine with me being a stay at home mom. I guess what I never thought about was the fact that at some point I wouldn't need to be a stay at home mom. It is hard to justify being at home with no kids when we need my income. So, I am going to work a little more, eat a little less, exercise a lot more and become a skinny middle age fashion diva......ok so maybe I am going to work a little more. It's all about goals and I think one at a time is all I can handle.

Big boy toys

2008-09-18T23:03:00.003-04:00

Superhubby loves his toys. The only problem with that is the fact that once a toy belongs to SH, it always belongs to SH. He hates to get rid of ANYTHING.... one day I am going to do an entire post on his ~~piles of crap~~ treasures. Right now I am just going to touch on some of the bigger objects.

This is our pontoon boat. It was great when the kids were small. It has 3 full size couches, a top that lets you get out of the sun and rails all the way around so you don't have to worry about anyone taking an unexpected swim. SH added the fishing seats on the front and I could drive while he and our DS fished.
All of that happened years ago. For the last 5 or 6 years it has sat behind one of his buildings in the weeds.....rotting........ruining.....and gathering snakes. The last time we pulled it out SH and DS had to fight with 2 snakes that had wrapped their long bodies around things under the boat and refused to come out. It has a nice big Evenrude (or however you spell that) motor on the back that worked last time we took it out. I loved that boat when we used it, but now....the love affair is over.

I couldn't get a good picture of this so you will have to use your imagination. When SH found this he spent days begging, pleading and generally driving me nuts. His promise "if you let me buy this I PROMISE to sell the pontoon." He lied. Now this one takes up half of our garage and is great to pile things on. It will probably get used again one day because he always wanted a bass tracker. He just doesn't have time to use one.

We bought this about 9 years ago. I love my camper and love to go camping...but we don't. Ever! When the children were younger we packed up 3 or 4 long weekends every summer plus spent at least one week of vacation camping. The kids aren't young anymore, gas is too expensive and campground prices are getting close to hotel prices. When I mentioned getting rid of the camper SH's first response was "what if we want to go camping." He finally admitted it wasn't worth holding on to this big camper if we weren't going to use it. I was a little surprised because he never, ever wants to get rid of anything. He finally gave me the ok and DD and I have been working to get this ready to try to sell.

I love my camper with it's tiny bathroom. I took this from outside the bathroom and I spared you the picture of the toilet.
The box you see in the shower will probably go with the camper. I bought that amazing battery powered coffee maker for SH for times we went camping with no electric. We used it once. 45 minutes after we plugged it in it finally started spitting out tiny drops of coffee, at the exact same time the car battery went completely dead. I usually love my camping neighbors but that day we had a hard time talking anyone into giving us a jump start. While SH was getting the car battery charged I walked the 4 minutes to the camp store and bought him a cup of coffee.

I love my bedroom in this camper. It has a much better mattress than my bed in the house. I was carrying out blankets as I was taking pictures so excuse the pile of sheets and blankets.
I also like the little kitchen. I didn't get the table in the picture but I did get the fridge, sink and microwave.
In case you haven't figured it out I love my camper. I just don't use my camper. I'm gonna miss it, but when I do I will just make me a camp fire outside and eat a few smores.

The magic box

2008-09-17T18:44:00.002-04:00

In my home we have a magic box..... It looks a little like this one.

What? You say it looks like a microwave. Call it what you like but in my house it holds some magical powers.
When you hear those 5 beeps that means whatever is in the box is ready, my dog, who will only ~~leave my side~~ get excited to eat or go out to pee can be found standing on her back legs dancing like a ballerina. She knows that sometimes pepperoni is on whatever is being reheated.
When you open the door the tiny kitten that lives with us will come out from wherever she is sleeping and meow....over and over because her food gets warmed in the magic box. She can pop those little claws out and climb completely up your legs and end up on your shoulder in 5 seconds if the magic box is running.....which is great as long as you aren't wearing shorts. I quit wearing shorts around the house as much since she moved in.....I was running out of bandaids.
Superhubby loves to hear the magic box make that pop, pop sound that means the magic box is about ready to spit out some popcorn. That sound also makes the dog happy. She and superhubby love to share some popcorn.
If you get a few minutes go over and wish these people a little luck. Once again a member of their family is going to have to fight cancer.....they have had WAY more than their share.

One last fall homecoming....

2008-09-13T18:44:00.002-04:00

One last fall homecoming. That means only one more spring homecoming and one more prom.....

Education......it's a beautiful thing

2008-09-12T19:03:00.003-04:00

This week has been homecoming week at my daughters school. This is usually the kids favorite week of the year, other than spring break and the last week of school. Every day during homecoming week has a different theme and you dress accordingly. The picture below was from field day and you dressed in school colors. The girls really didn't have fake sports balls in their shirts but they did have their school name on them so I covered them up.
The school is set in a valley surrounded by very little other than hay fields and animal grazing land. There are a few houses, but they are few and far between. I have quite a few relatives that teach at these schools (the grade school/jr. high is on the other side of the high school.) When I say animal grazing land I mean it....one aunt had to answer questions from her 3rd graders as a cow gave birth outside their classroom window. The grade school is fairly new and has tinted windows, but no blinds.

Today was nerd/slave day. The girls dressed as nerds today and C, was their slave. On slave day they auction willing students and they must do whatever the buyer(s) tell them to all day. Poor C had to dress in a banana costume and sing "I am a Chiquita banana and I'm here to say, I am the best banana in the school today" every single time anyone said his name. ALL DAY! The kids always have a good time and the money they raise goes to the student government's Christmas/clothing drive for students who need it.

Tonight is the homecoming game and tomorrow is the DANCE. I was going to go watch the homecoming queen get crowned because I know it will be someone I know....at this school you know everyone. It has to be a senior girl and in a senior class of around 50 students there aren't too many choices.....

Have a good weekend. I am going to be watching Ike tonight and praying for all of those in his path.

Always remember

2008-09-11T09:59:00.003-04:00

It is September 11th. Every year there is a September 11th. Every year on September 11th the world stops and remembers that one day 7 years ago....the day that changed our history. The day so many people lost their lives, the day so many people lost their loved ones, the day the United States lost its innocence.
I will be the first to admit that as an American I felt kind of invincible before that day. We were the biggest, baddest, safest nation in the world. We had people. People to make sure the bullies didn't come in and take our lunch money. People to go after the bullies before we had to deal with them. I was wrong. We have people, but those people are human. They work their asses off to keep us safe, but they aren't miracle workers. No matter how hard they try, how well they do their job, they can't fix everything.
I didn't know anyone who lost their lives that day. My sister knew one lady who brought her kids to day care at the same place my niece went. She brought her kids to daycare that day and never came back. Her husband was there picking up the kids when my sister went to get my niece. He was sitting outside, not able to go in. He said he knew the kids would want to know where mommy was and he would have to say "I don't know." He didn't know. He knew she had been in a building but he wouldn't learn until later that she never made it back out.
I still think often of the policeman, firemen, paramedics and other rescue workers who ran toward the buildings. They wanted to help. Their training said "run toward the fire and help people." They did what they were trained to do. May God bless them all.

A day in the life.....

2008-09-10T12:05:00.002-04:00

Of a high school senior...
Every single day my DD is peppered with questions about her future.
What are you going to do,
where are you going to school?
major?
minor?
are you going away?
staying near?
health field?
education?
accounting?
She hates the questions and really has no idea, though she is working hard on figuring it out now. Today's mail brought 3 things and every one of them was for her (NO BILLS.)

The first was from Ohio State....Go Bucks! This college is about 3 hours from our home and would probably be great. She has a lot of friends there already but O.S. hasn't offered her much other than some scholarships. Ohio State never has problems getting students so they don't tell you too much about financial aid unless you ask.

This is a small college about 45 minutes from home. They have a nice campus and would be in driving distance. They have already offered DD a Presidential scholarship...which means NO TUITION, which is near and dear to my heart.

This was the third one in the mail today. This is many, many miles from our home, probably 6 to 8 hours but I am too lazy to wait on mapquest to load to find out. They have sent financial aid information and with her grades and our income level we would not be asked to pay anything for her education here. While that seems great the whole 6 to 8 hour thing is hard, though if she wanted to go.....I would let her and smile until she was on her way...then I would cry for 3 months.
We have a small college about 20 minutes from our home that a lot of local students use for the first year or two. You can get quite a few degrees there too and her tuition would probably be covered in full.

We also have the now famous "we are Marshall" about 40 minutes from here. I love the campus but it isn't in the best part of Huntington and I would worry. The good thing would be that her father works about 3 blocks from campus.
I will admit that a big part of her college requirements are going to be financial aid. My son was an honor student but his grades averaged a b+ and he got a 24 on his ACT. He only finished one year of college but we didn't have to pay much at all for it. DD has NEVER gotten anything but a perfect A on any report card (and if she did I'm pretty sure she would be devastated) and she has a 30 on her ACT. She should win enough scholarships to get almost all of her tuition paid, if not all of it. I'm keeping my fingers, toes and eyes crossed....
Have a great hump day.

My week in review

2008-09-08T23:24:00.002-04:00

It's been a week since I posted here. Not because I have been super busy, but because I have no idea what I want to say. Here goes nothing.
The weather in Ohio has been extremely warm for this time of year. The high temps for the day have been ranging in the upper 80's and 90's. My plan to close the pool over the weekend got pushed back and I floated around in the pool today.
My work week is going to be very short. One of my patients is in the hospital which I means I can't work which means....no paycheck. I can live with that for a few weeks.
DD's senior year is well underway and she seems to be settling in well. She is missing her B/F who had to go back to college last weekend, but he will be back in a few days for homecoming...can't go to a dance without your boyfriend. I'm sure I will come up with a few pictures to show you all soon.
It seems that directv has given us free movie channels for a bit so even though it is almost midnight my SH is wide awake and ready to stay that way. He hates movies unless they are like this one which, from what I can tell, is a bunch of prostitutes from another planet who came to earth to catch men and FORCE them into sex slavery. Since when do you have to force men......

For sale....

2008-09-01T20:10:00.002-04:00

I think I may have mentioned before that we have way too many vehicles. We have four drivers in our family...and 6 vehicles. My car insurance bill is almost equal to my house payment. When our son moved out we kept him on our car insurance because he would have had to pay an astronomical amount to get insurance himself, and his car is in our name. The vehicles we have right now are 1. Ford windstar 2. Ford explorer 3. Ford F150 4 and 5. 2- Ford zx2's (do you see any pattern here?) and 6 a Ford Taurus, which was wrecked and was supposed to be fixed so I could drive it....in this lifetime. I have been waiting for my husband to ~~tell his little old ladies to buzz off for awhile~~ find a little time to fix the Taurus up for me. He has tried lately to get it finished and we did buy most of the parts and he put a few on. I really want him to finish it so I can get rid of this Windstar I drive to work every... single.... day. To say that this mini van is a lemon would be an understatement. We bought it when the nearest salvage yard fixed it up for one of the employees and he decided he didn't want it. When we bought it about 5 years ago we had 2 young teenagers who each took friends everywhere we went. We had, on occasion, put my husband in the back hatch of the Explorer when we all went somewhere because of the lack of room and the fact we wanted all kids to have a seatbelt. Now I'm trying to write an ad that would sell my very few miles to the gallon mini van....if you can think of any way to make it better please let me know.
For sale...2000 Ford Windstar. Salvage title. Used to have a small transmission leak, now it just runs straight out a couple of hours after you fill it up(because my husband said "don't worry, it can pull a boat). Great dual air conditioners that work for about 2 weeks after you charge it....then you must charge it again. Dual am/fm/cd/cassette system that works fine....it just flips itself to CD when your favorite song is on the radio, but flips itself back in time for the end of the song.....sometimes. The people who rebuilt it just put putty on the roof and painted it....you won't even notice the fact it came loose unless it rains, and then the water runs to the second row seats so driver stays dry. The inside lighting is great, and sometimes it looks like a disco going down the road because when it gets in a mood the lights flicker off and on over and over and over. Sometimes I look outside at night and the lights in the van are flashing. I'm not sure if the driver who was in the car when it wrecked is still there...playing games with my mind or if the wires have a short in them that only acts up once in a while. There is a small miss while driving, but you don't notice it unless you are going slow, which I very seldom do. The electric door locks work, or at least most of them do. The passenger front door lock doesn't work, but you can climb over the drivers seat, stick your butt in the air for all going by to see and unlock it by hand. The side door locks work when they want to....and sometimes they don't. The clear coat that was put on when it was repainted is slowly peeling off. This van gets some ~~crappy~~ gas mileage. It costs about 120.00 to fill it up and you can drive it for a very little while on that. Please call for appointment....or the keys may be in it with a full tank of gas and I promise not to come outside if I hear anyone around it......take your pick.

Gettin' me some lovin...

2008-08-29T11:40:00.002-04:00

Get the dirty thoughts out of your head, I won an award, which is almost as good as the other thing you are thinking of, Ok maybe not but close.

Choose 5 bloggers that you feel are "Kick Ass Bloggers"
Let 'em know in your post or via email, twitter or blog comments that they've received an award
Share the love and link back to both the person who awarded you and back to www.mammadawg.com
Hop on back to the kick ass blogger award HQ to sign Mr. Linky then pass it on!

Thank you so much Monkling for the award.

When I tried to figure out who to give the award to I decided to just pick the first 5 people that come to mind every single day. There are about 5 blogs that I HAVE to check every day to see what is going on. I'm sure some of them already have the award but I don't care.

1. Hallie She makes me laugh....or gag, every day.
2. Kim She is such a caring person who can make anyone feel better. She already won this award but by golly she is getting it again.
3. Monkling Has such a great sense of humor, and like myself is starting down that road we call " empty nest."
4. Kellen Has a house full of kids and a great sense of humor.
5. Kimmy Has a great sense of humor AND a great friendship with Hallie. Now that her kids are in school I'm sure we will hear more from Kimmy. Plus anyone with the word blender in her name should get an award.

Now I am off to tell each of these people about their awards.......have a great weekend.

kitties kitties everywhere....

2008-08-27T11:41:00.004-04:00

So the black kitty is now gone, living with my son and his girlfriend. I thought I was cat free until I went to work the next morning and someone said "do you want a kitten?" I said a quick no and then learned later that the neighbors had found it in the road and rescued it but couldn't afford to feed it. If no one took it they were going to "dispose" of it. So I brought it home. This particular kitten is way too young to be away from its mother. I noticed it hadn't used the bathroom at all and the people that had it said it hadn't for the 24 hours they had it. I have been here before with puppies so this morning I took a few damp cottonballs and BINGO huge pile of little kitty poo.

You can tell by looking that it isnt much bigger than the tennis ball. It likes to be carried around against me or DD. If it is asleep we can lay it down but if its awake it cries until it is around us. Just about like a real baby....a spoiled real baby.

What happened...

2008-08-25T10:59:00.003-04:00

Yesterday superhubby and I went out to eat and stopped at my SIL to pick a few of her peaches. She also gave us a little of her peach jam....which I can't wait to try. My ex favorite restaurant was out of my monte cristo sandwich. That put a little damper on my evening.

Then when we stopped at my SIL's to pick some peaches and some how we ended up with this.

Long story which I will explain later.....

And many more....

2008-08-23T10:08:00.003-04:00

DD, her boyfriend and my mother............

One of the two cakes she had...

This morning (or last night) at 12:01 my DD walked into the family room where hubby and I were watching tv and said "hello mother, hello father, who are you voting for in the election, how about those oil prices, gas is astronomical." She was trying not to giggle and of course my hubby could not figure out what she was doing. I finally got him to realize it was 12:01 on August 23rd....my little babies 18th birthday. I'm sure I will have tons of pictures to show you later.....

Denial is not just a river in Egypt

2008-08-19T16:43:00.005-04:00

It is hot today. I decided this afternoon when I got home from work that I NEEDED peanut butter fudge. I pulled a stool up to the stove ~~because I'm lazy~~ because it takes a long time and made fudge. I was stirring with one hand and eating the jello I HAD to have last night with the other. I spent a little time reading the box of cookie dough I bought while I was in town today.

During my peanut butter fudge stirring/jello eating/peanut butter cookie reading time I had a thought..... I don't have any type of PMS symptoms. Sometimes I forget to count days and "aunt flo" catches me by surprise. Some people have all kinds of symptoms; cramps, headaches or weird cravings . I don't have any symptoms at all. Once in a while....wait, I dropped a brownie crumb on the keyboard (don't laugh you know it's hard to type when you are licking the keyboard,) I may notice a little bloating or headache but very very seldom. I don't even.....hmm...brownie....brownies need ice cream.... and chocolate sauce.

OK I'm back now where was I? Oh right, I was tooting my own horn about how very seldom I have any type of pms symptoms. I guess I should consider myself lucky and not invite misery. Now I must go because my DD wants me to help her make cookies and I have to clean up the kitchen from my mac and cheese and fried potato dinner.......have a great evening.

Countdown to fall

2008-08-18T18:16:00.003-04:00

It's Monday. My day off. I love having Monday off because SH has Monday off too. Yesterday was our anniversary and he spent his day wiring a friends kitchen. His age is starting to show because he gave me my card and told me he hoped it said anniversary and not birthday but he didn't have his reading glasses when he bought it. Today he is painting a little old ladies garage. I was going to help (really I was) but someone had to go to town and get pool chemicals and caulking. I stopped back by and painted a door, or at least part of a door, and then came home. It is 90 degrees and I do not do well when it is 90 degrees. I did come home and accomplish some stuff that I usually wait on him to do. I put some transmission stuff in my car that is supposed to stop leaks. I would have fixed it but I couldn't even find the front seal that is leaking more or less pull the transmission to fix it, so I put stop leak in it. I charged the air conditioner in my car too. I always wait on him to do it (it leaks a bit) but if you recall I said it was 90 degrees and I wasn't in the mood to hope he would get to it "one day." He is due home soon to change clothes and go finish his wiring job......the man needs a vacation.
Today my poor little dog went running to SH's car and jumped in the open door squealing and snorting. He didn't know what was going on until he saw the yellow jackets on her nose. She is fine but laying around wanting a little extra loving today.
This picture was from a few weeks ago so picture this......only she swipes at her nose every once in a while.

Last week my son called to tell me someone had rear ended him and his girlfriend in Huntingt*on. The guy worked for Mar*hall University and told them his boss would fix it so they left. My son called me right after that and I told him to go back, call the police and do not leave without a police report. They called the police and then waited....two and a half hours. The damage wasn't bad but while they were waiting they called the guys boss who said "do you have a police report?" I'm pretty sure he would have refused to fix it if they hadn't gotten the report. It ended up being useless because the next day on her way to work my sons girlfriend was hit by a man who ran a red light. He hit her in the front side fender but since no one stuck around to be eye witnesses the police refused to charge anyone. I think she is at the point that she hopes it was totaled, she has to pay a deductible no matter what.

I was supposed to go in for my first annual boob squashing Wednesday, but when I called my insurance company to make sure I didn't need to get authorization for it they informed me the hospital I was going to is no longer in my network. Now instead of going to the doctor in Ohio and the hospital in Kentucky I have to go to West Virginia to the hospital. It's no wonder our insurance is always screwed up.

This, that and all the other

2008-08-14T19:10:00.005-04:00

Today I went to work as usual, worked my normal 4 hours and then came home to shower and change. Today I had to go say goodbye to my niece who is going back to NJ in the morning. I have felt a tiny amount of sadness today as I think of the possibility of not seeing her until next spring....or summer. They do try to come at Christmas if possible but my sister is starting a new job so that may not be doable this year. With DD going back to school tomorrow and my niece leaving I'm starting to feel lonely again. She has been an absolute delight to have around the last 7 weeks. Ok, maybe I am feeling a bit more than a tiny amount of sadness.
Sunday will be the 23rd anniversary of the day I married my superhubby. I was 18, he was 25. Without thinking I promised him to one of his "old ladies" for Sunday.....I remembered later it was our anniversary. While sitting in my moms yard a little bit ago I mentioned the fact that he had to help someone on our anniversary and my moms neighbor said " last year he was putting a new front door in for me on your anniversary." My aunt then chimed in with "the year before that he was building my new back porch." Does anyone see a pattern here? When one of us remembers it is going to be our anniversary he always offers to call and cancel but he has so little free time I usually just want him to go get whatever he has to do finished. We are going to try to go out for breakfast that morning.
I just went down to school to speak with DD's teachers. The great thing about their school is the fact that everyone knows everyone else. The bad thing is everyone knows everyone Else's business. Since I don't have any real business it doesn't bother me. We are related to about 1/3 of the teachers and the others are mostly people either superhubby, my parents or myself have known for years. I talked to a few of the teachers but most said Kelli knew what she needed and wouldn't have any problems. Her senior year........

I hurried home from school so I could be ready to watch the Olympics. First I wanted to blog and then I wanted a snack. I went to the fridge and got out the lettuce, carrots and milk ( I had to, they were in front of the cheesecake,) and got my snack and now I am ready for an evening of watching very fit people do things that make my chest hurt just watching....or maybe that is just the cheesecake.

My Monday

2008-08-12T13:12:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I took my niece to the park to take a few pictures before she headed back to NJ. I had some better pictures but this one doesn't show too much of her face. I love taking pictures and she loves having her pictures taken. It is a match made in heaven.

Today is Tuesday, which is my Monday. On the way to work this morning I saw a beautiful white rabbit smashed in the road and a small white bunny sitting beside it, just running off the road when a car went by. I felt sorry for the little bunny but noticed the smashed one was gone when I came back by later. The smaller rabbit looked big enough to live on its own so I figure someone cleaned up the smashed one so the little one would go away.

DD and her boyfriend's family went to Cincinnati this morning to a water park. August is typically the hottest month of the year for us (and most of you I would guess) but the last week has been nice. Highs in the 70's during the day and lows in the 50's at night. It makes for wonderful outdoor weather but not if you are going to be swimming. Our pool is way too cold to get in and it will take a few days of warmer weather before it warms up enough to get in. Right now getting in it gives the term "nippy" an entirely new meaning. DD was looking through her bikinis for one padded well. LOL.

SH just left for work and I have a great book and complete peace and quiet for at least 4 more hours. DS is coming out later to do laundry and change his oil but until then....I need to learn to enjoy the quiet and not dread it so bad so today I will be practicing by sitting on my butt in the recliner alternately reading and dozing (-;

School starts in 3 days.

complete randomness

2008-08-09T00:12:00.002-04:00

DD's new shoes. I'm thinking they may stick out in a crowd.

We ordered from a pizza place the other night. We don't have restaurants that deliver around here so if we want to order something to eat we have to go to town to pick it up. We usually only order when we are in town anyway and can pick it up and bring it home. Koko LOVES when we bring home the Giovanni's boxes. She dances around until we finally get it opened up and she gets to sample the food. When we are finished SH gives her the left overs in a bowl. She obviously LOVES leftovers.

My niece and her friend had a lemonade stand at my parents house today. They worked hard to make everything pretty and made a nice little profit.
This picture will be good to show them in a few years. They think they know everything now.

Have a great weekend everyone. The weather here is supposed to be perfect this weekend and I am looking forward to being able to go outside without sweating in places I didn't know you could sweat.

Here piggy piggy piggy

2008-08-06T22:49:00.002-04:00

No, I am not talking about myself.
Check out Lynn the piggy bank painter's contest and look at her adorable watermelon piggy.
I was going to steal a picture of it to post here but I thought better of it, since I haven't asked her permission.
What are you waiting for?

http://korfforiginals.blogspot.com/2008/08/not-just-one-contest-but-two.html

Fort Myers

2008-08-05T19:44:00.003-04:00

My niece has been staying with me quite a bit lately. She is ten and one of her favorite things to do has always been to build forts. My dining room table is covered with blankets and there are pillows, flashlights and books underneath the table.
She has been wanting to build a fort outside but couldn't figure out how and since we are a classy bunch she and SH worked together and built this beauty... in the front yard. It comes equipped with lights, soft padding for a floor and seating for at least 6.

She got the bigger kids to play for a while and when they were finished so was she. It has been in the yard for 3 days with no one going in it. I took her back to my moms to spend a few days and that fort may have to come down.....or I may have to go climb in it and read a good book. It is cleaner than my house.

Today we shopped and shopped. School starts in 10 days. DD got her new school shoes and they are very, umm, pink. I'll post a picture later when she wakes up from her nap. She will be 18 in a few weeks and NOW she takes naps.

Sometimes I forget the rules

2008-07-31T18:44:00.002-04:00

We have spent a lot of time lately looking at the LOL cats website.....these guys make me giggle.

I know exactly what this little fellow is talking about.

Yesterday I was watching tv and looked around and thought....."I need to paint this room." So now my family room looks like this.
Right now I am waiting on my drywall patches to dry so I can sand and paint.

I forgot, in the midst of the excitement of getting a room painted, that there is a right way to paint. I have my own painting rules. I usually get started, complain or splash paint on something and SH sighs really big and finishes it for me. I didn't think before I got started that SH won't be home much until Sunday.....I'm on my own. Be afraid, be very afraid.

If no one hears from me for a few days send the paint police.

Just because

2008-07-29T20:06:00.001-04:00

This made DD and I giggle.....and giggle...and giggle.

more cat pictures

Monday Musings

2008-07-28T11:46:00.002-04:00

We had a wonderful weekend with SH's family. They are a ~~weird~~ rambunctious bunch, but they are SH's family and therefore my family also.
We had a house full all weekend, including my SIL and her 3 boys that stayed here.....Koko does not normally like people other than her "people" but for some reason she enjoyed these boys and climbed right up with them on couches or chairs and enjoyed having them around. When we have company it is usually a miserable time for her and wears her completely out, but this time I think she is worn out from all the fun she had with the boys. She was snoring extremely loud when I took this picture and the flash just made her open one eye for a minute and then go right back to sleep. She would probably stay right here for a day or two if she could just get us to bring her food and water (-;

Last night after everyone left, SH and I climbed on the four wheeler and took off for my BIL's farm. We were going blackberry hunting but couldn't find any. There are thousands of vines and some red berries but someone is either picking them before we get there or they are falling off. I think my dreams of making blackberry jam and sending some to my bloggy buddies is fading fast.
While we were riding the 4wheeler through the woods and up and down ~~cliffs~~ hills I saw so many things I wanted to take pictures of.....indention's in the fields where mommy deer had rested with their babies, trees that were hundreds of years old and growing in odd shapes. I don't think I will make it with a camera because I spend most of my time sliding half way off the 4 wheeler seat and yelling at SH to let me off to walk....he loves it when I do that.

Just because

2008-07-24T18:08:00.003-04:00

I absolutely have no desire to talk about politics. I do not under any circumstances like one party more that the other. I vote a very weird ticket from both sides. I still like this picture.

Just found out today that my SIL is coming in from Indianapolis this weekend and is staying with me, and I am hosting a family dinner for SH's entire family......I can't complain because she is my absolute favorite SIL (maybe tied with my brothers wife.) So she and her 3 boys will be here this weekend and I need to go get more groceries (-: I just wish I was better at the whole keeping the house clean thing. I am so bad at that. This will give me a reason to clean up DS's room a bit and I definitely will not get it done without a good reason.

One more picture I "borrowed" from an email I received months ago.

Misc. and other such stuff

2008-07-22T23:49:00.002-04:00

Nothing much to talk about today so I thought I would put up a few pictures and see where they took me.
This is the Ohio River from the Ashland, Ky. bridge. I took this ~~while not watching where I was going~~ while I was looking straight ahead and watching traffic. I just loved the sunshine on the hills and the beautiful sky. The Ohio river is polluted and nasty so you can't eat anything you catch in it. We took our pontoon out in it a few times but no one wanted to get in the water. There are dozens of stories about the men who were building these bridges seeing catfish the size of a car. Whether those stories are true or not I have no idea and I, for one, am not going to find out.

This is the sun setting in Proctorville, Ohio. This is still right beside the river only about 5 miles downriver. Instead of Kentucky being on the other side here W.V. is. This time I stopped to take the picture.
Last years reunion picture of SH and DD. (This is for you Lanny)

This week is flying by as I'm sure every week will between now and the start of school. Since my hours got cut I can sleep in 5 days a week and only HAVE to be up before 7 AM 2 days. I do enjoy the sleeping in a bit but it makes me lazy (lazier if you ask SH or DD.)

I am afraid I started something when I was at my parents house yesterday. My mom was telling me when she got up yesterday morning there was a tiny puppy on her porch that looked like a yellow lab. She took it down the street to a neighbors house that had a fence and was going to look for the puppies owner. DD and I walked over to see it and it was the most ADORABLE puppy I have seen for a long time so.....I told the lady if no one came to get it she could call me. Why those words came out of my mouth I have no idea. Puppies are as bad as babies, every time I see one I wish I had one.....but puppies don't cause their owners to go into labor and panic over college costs, but then again you don't get to have nearly as much fun getting a puppy.

Time marches on.....

2008-07-21T15:16:00.002-04:00

It has been a week since I updated. I can not believe that school starts in less than a month. The summer has flown by. Soon my baby girl will start her senior year of high school. Life is great!
This past weekend my Aunt hosted our annual family reunion. I don't have her permission to show her house but I think I am safe because you could not find it if you tried. You start out on a state 4 lane road....turn off on a state 2 lane road and go about 9 miles, turn onto another smaller 2 lane county road for about 4 miles then turn onto a dirt road that looks like it goes nowhere and go about half a mile to this house...which my dad, my husband and my Uncle built a few years ago in the middle of a hay field. It is beautiful, quiet and relaxing there and we all love to visit. Tonight ends the reunion festivities with a pizza night at my moms to say good bye to some out of town travelers that are leaving in the morning.
I hope everyone had as great a weekend as I did. I still can not believe no one wants to class up their formal dining rooms with a copy of my hubcap picture from the last post. I guess I need to see if SH can make a real hubcap into a frame for it, now that's class(-;

I love the summer nights...

2008-07-14T21:17:00.002-04:00

Today SH and I went hunting for car parts. The car I bought last year for SH to fix up for me is finally in the process of getting worked on so today I spent a lot of time looking at things like this.

I know you all want a copy of this to hang in your good living room to make it a little more classy, I'll get some 8x10's ready for you. Every good living room should have hubcaps or at least a picture of them.

When we got home SH, DD and my niece went berry picking while I made home made ice cream. I also spent a little bit of time watching my hummingbirds, which is a favorite past time for me on summer evenings. Tonight when the birds go to sleep I am going to scrub and refill the feeder. They are emptying it every day.

Notice the two fighting in the background? These birds spend as much time keeping the other birds away from the feeder as they do eating.

Now I must go, I think a second bowl of ice cream is waiting on me.

Changes

2008-07-11T18:45:00.001-04:00

I'm making a few changes to my site because as of the 14th I will not be a mom to two teens anymore.....(read last post.)
Have a great weekend!

The one where I don't even pretend to have any sanity left

2008-07-10T17:10:00.003-04:00

My son.....has grown up to be his own person. He is an adult now, though to me he never will be. He has his own life, his own home and his own job. He has a girlfriend who loves him and took over for mom, making him watch his money and wash his laundry. He will be 20 years old next week. Where did the time go, he was just a baby dancing around the house in a diaper playing his plastic guitar and singing songs for me. Just a few weeks ago he was 3 and we crawled into my bed after his bath and read Green eggs and Ham and Goodnight moon for the 500th time. We read I'll love you forever dozens of times but I found the book sad and odd. It seemed that the mother needed to let go a little and not climb into his bedroom of the house he shared with his wife. I am doing a pretty good job at letting go. I visit him and he visits me every week and we call each other a couple times a week. We meet up on messenger every few days to catch up and talk a few minutes, always ending with "I love you mom" and " I love you buddy."
He calls me whenever anything happens in his life....a raise, his puppy learning to fetch, his girlfriends mother coming to visit. He calls for my advice on grilling, cooking, bills and banks. He calls when he is at Wal Mart and finds a bargain. Sometimes he just calls when he sees something that makes him think of me. I know I am lucky to have a son like him and I will never take it for granted.
Today my dear daughter got a letter from a college that offered her the Presidential scholarship. Full tuition for 4 years. She has been getting letters from colleges for a couple of years but now they are getting serious. She will be a senior this year. She is smart, she is beautiful and she is responsible. She keeps her grades up because she WANTS to. Next year she will start college and be on her way to her own life. She says she will not go far away to college because she can't leave her mommy. I love to hear that but I don't want her to pass up something special just for me. I know she is independent enough to make it at college on her own so if she decides to go away I will not make her feel bad for leaving me, it has to happen at some point. If she decided to go away I will do what mothers have done for a long time and fight back the tears until I am alone.
For now I am trying to enjoy the time I have with my children. They are my heart and my life. It is still amazing to me after all of these years how much you can love another human being. Now I just have to figure out how to love them enough to let them go..................

OH NO SHE DIDN'T

2008-07-08T17:53:00.002-04:00

Some people are rude. Some people are beyond rude. I met one of those people yesterday.

Superhubby wanted to go to Harbor Freight last night. If any of you haven't had the harbor freight experience then...don't bother. Taking a woman to H.F. is like taking a man to the salon with you when you get your hair and nails done. The first 10 minutes are fine and then its time to get OUT. Since I had my niece with me we decided to ~~run away~~ go to a few different stores and give him some peace and quiet while he was shopping the aisles and aisles of tools. We wondered through Hallmark reading cards and smelling candles for awhile and then went to Pizza Hut for a couple personal pan pizza's. We walked into Pizza hut and was instantly surrounded by air conditioning and the smell of pizza. We were the only customers so we were shown to the table by a very nice young man who went over and turned the tv over to a channel for my niece to watch and then proceeded to take very good care of us. While we were waiting on our pizza's to finish other customers started coming in. There were 2 other fairly large families that came in and a few older couples. I was still happy with this particular P.H. because even though there was one waiter working he was working hard. I'm sure he didn't get paid enough to run around as much as he did. This was a particularly large P.H. and he seated everyone as far away from other people as he could so no one had anyone sitting near them.

Across the restaurant there was a large family that came in . I think it was Grandma, Grandpa, 2Sons, daughter in law, 3 year old grandson and about 10 month grandson. They were a nice family and they talked and watched tv, just enjoying each others company. Finally our pizza's were served and my niece and I dug in. About the same time mommy decided her 10 month old had dirtied his diaper. That stuff happens and doesn't bother me a bit usually. She decided to change the babies diaper by BRINGING HIM TO THE BOOTH BESIDE US, way away from her family. She took off his diaper which promptly spilled baby poop all over the seat. She tried to clean it up by finding clean spots on the dirty diaper and scrubbing the seat. When that didn't work she used napkins her MIL went to get her. By this time my niece and I were on about our 3rd bite of pizza.....and our last because that was when the smell hit our booth. Not to mention that poor babies butt was stuck right up where we could see it. She started putting a clean diaper on him but she had baby poop on her hands, the seat, her pants and the babies clothes. She never once looked up to see if it was bothering us. Her family was 4 or 5 booths away. We got a box and loaded up our pizza and by the time we left the entire restaurant smelled like baby poop. When we were leaving she had went to the bathroom to wash her hands which, in my opinion is where she should have taken the baby to change his diaper.

There goes the neighborhood

2008-07-06T13:52:00.003-04:00

I think I have new neighbors, but more about that later. First here are a few pictures from our July 4th celebration.

This morning when I woke up and stepped outside I heard them. My new neighbors were noisy and annoying that early in the morning. The house above me has been for sale for a long time and I have been waiting for someone to buy it so I could have new neighbors. I guess I will have to wait a little longer because these new neighbors didn't buy the house. They prefer the wild, living in the woods in large groups. I don't have to worry about these neighbors partying all night and keeping us awake. They seem to prefer their parties early in the morning. I'm not sure what the reason was behind the party this morning but my first guess would be an orgy. My new neighbors, who we shall call the turkey family, spent the morning cluck cluck clucking around behind my house. Every few minutes the cluck of one or two of them would get more excited, more of a cluck, cluck, clucluck, cluckkkk,cluckkcluckkcluckk! Then all would calm down a few minutes and soon would start again. Either someone in the turkey family was getting lucky or they were having a contest to see who could tell the biggest lie. This afternoon they are quiet again, probably enjoying their post orgy cigarettes and nap.