Christmas 2008

Things to remember about this Christmas...

* As always, super excited and could not wait for it to get here, then it did! Yikes, I'm behind...is that really any different than anything for me?
* I never quit complaining about being tired.
* Christmas snow happened 15 days early. :)
* HE went crazy shopping. I never wanted to shop, so on Dec. 23, I was still trying and had given up on shipping out the presents that needed to leave the city.
* He's helped with tamale making in years past. This year he was a HUGE help decorating the cookies.

* I had no desire to eat a single Christmas cookie. So very unlike me!
* Mom got her diagnosis...but that's a topic for another day.
* No Christmas will ever be the same. :)

Bah Humbug!

Yep, I'm becoming old Ebenezer. It's not that I don't want Christmas, it's that I'm too tired to get ready for it!

There's so much to do -- the decorating, the shopping, the baking, the planning, the partying, etc., etc. I'm just too exhausted to do any of those things, despite the fact that I would really like to do all of them! We didn't even decorate this year; we're taking the year off...or at least the next few months. I hear of lots of good sales at the stores and I would LOVE to just go shop 'til I drop! I've tried, more than once! I've dropped too quickly! When I shop on Saturday, I spend Sunday catching up on things around the house and wanting to be sleepy with the pups! When I shop on Sunday, I'm useless on Monday. I'm sure the boss just loves that! :)

Well, I'm sure a bit more of the shopping will get done, but I'm not sure about the rest of the list. The baking, one of my favorite holiday activities, will happen this weekend...all in one shot, whatever gets baked, gets baked and whatever doesn't, we'll miss this year! And if all of this means I'm more like old Ebenezer this year, so be it! Bah, humbug!

Snowy Night, too!

Well, we had our little flurry during the day yesterday. Then, last night we were so graciously invited to dinner. When we were leaving, we couldn't believe the blanket of white over the yards -- and especially the cars! We made a couple of stops on our way home. At one house, we noticed a young couple desperately trying to rake up the snow on the ground, I'm sure to build a snow man. We saw a few cars with mini-snowmen on them. What people do in the south with a little snow!



Well, we, too were some of those people! We got home, I took pictures of the house with the snow. Then HE took the pups for a walk -- they had to be walked in the snow! He said it was important for them to experience a walk in the snow. (Yes, we're talking about dogs, but he's just so darn caring!)

When they returned, he came in and said I had to come outside. He had found a good accumulation of snow that we could play in. He was so right! At 10 PM we were outside making snowballs and playing in the snow! Rita, the beagle, just loved it! She ran around like crazy and was biting our snowballs.

Of course, we weren't out for long, but it sure was fun to just act crazy! Sadly, before we went to sleep last night, we looked outside, and it was all melted. Ahhh, snow in the south -- arrives and departs very unexpectedly!

Snowing

That's Daisy, see the little flakes on her side???



See those white streaks, yep, snow! Can you believe it?

That's my excitement for the day, week, maybe even month! Yeah!!

One me, two blogs

I really like this blogging world. I'm so lucky Heather introduced it to me. You won't hear me call this an addiction, but it is quite the way I have learned to kill a few hours.

I started another blog a few months ago, but I wanted to keep it quiet. I have kept it relatively quiet. It is not been easy to keep the two of me from intermingling and honestly, I'm not sure if they should be separate or not. But, if you click over there on the profile, you can get to that "other" blog.

This one, will hopefully be more about me. That one over there, yeah, it'll be more about "us". They're both live for now, if for some reason I decide to silence one, I'll let you know.

Black Friday

Last year, at some awful hour, my dad and I embarked on our first (and maybe last) Black Friday outing. It was a blast, and his patience was unbelievable! This year, I did not have the energy to leave my house in attempt to experience the Black Friday madness. I hear the early sales should have been great, but this way, a few bucks stayed in my pocket!

Of course, I did have the energy to get the laundry done and sit here at my computer. I thought what a perfect way to get into the holiday spirit and the trend of on-line shopping! It was a great idea, right? I was not on-line at 4 AM trying to get those big bargains. After lunch, I attempted my first shopping. The first three websites I attempted each stalled out, I gave up. I wouldn't say that I have an abundance of either patience or perseverance, so I will have to shop another way, another day!

Hope your Black Friday experience was all you were hoping for -- even if that meant just getting to sleep in this morning!

2008 -- Year of Breakage Continues

OK, here it is November. You'd have thought we were all done breaking things. WRONG.

Wednesday HE noticed the freezer didn't seem quite cold enough. I tell him he's too temperature sensitive. Thursday, we have a problem. Of course, it's 11 PM when HE finds that the ice is melting in the freezer. Immediately the poor pups are blamed for shedding so much, clogging up the airway and breaking the fridge. He took parts off and vacuumed things out. Then, he comes inside with the air hose. I could not believe my eyes, he wouldn't really blow all of the dust out of there, or would he? Yes, he would. Talk about a mess!

Of course, I plugged in the vacuum to the outlet the TV was plugged into. POOF! There went that outlet. So, buy midnight on Thursday/Friday, the fridge was getting warm and the ever so important TV outlet was no longer working.

On Friday, he was on the ball! He had a repair man to fix the fridge in and out before lunch! Apparently there is an external switch to the compressor that had gone out. As a result, it was not cooling. If the internal switch to the compressor had gone out, we would have spent the weekend shopping for a new fridge. (Let me add this to the list of my things I'm thankful for this year.)

On Saturday, he asked me if I had reversed the fan in the living room. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I had to ask for clarification. I would have never noticed that the fan was turning in the opposite direction. This fan has a remote wall thingy that you push a button to turn on the fan. Apparently people no longer want the strings hanging down to adjust the fan speed or turn the light on. All we can figure is that when the vacuum got plugged into the outlet, something caused the fan to get reversed and now the wall control doesn't work. Electricians? Not us. He did his best and promptly went to the local home store and bought replacements. No such luck.

Monday will bring us another repair person attempt. Cross your fingers we have such good luck -- this fridge guy rocked!

Ready to Ride

This year HE decided we should take out grown up toys to the country for Christmas. So, last week, HE reserved 2 4-wheelers and some sort of RTV (as opposed to an ATV) a few weeks ago.

Since we are going to be living adventurously, HE also decided it was time for helmets. I got a silver one and I think his is white. My helmet is a nice "average" medium size -- but would you believe he had to get an XXL for his big head!

Ahhh, Christmas just isn't getting here fast enough!

Holiday Anticipation

Wow, it's so hard to believe how fast this year has flown by. I think it's especially hard because some times the days/weeks seem to be moving so slow. Then, BAM! out of no where, it's like two months are just gone. Time simply amazes me.

So, let's see...we've done Halloween. Turkey day, which seems like it may not have turkey for me, is about to be here. Then there's birthday, birthday, holiday shopping, Christmas, family gatherings, New Years, and before we know it, 2009 is HERE.

My To Do List looks like this....
1. Figure out if we're going to have turkey dinner on Turkey Day?
2. Figure out if we're going to put up Christmas decor? It's such a pain.
3. Holiday shopping lists -- they are a MUST
4. Holiday parties -- which ones, when, what needs to be done for them.
5. Holiday baking, a day or a week devoted to this??
6. Gift wrapping. Yes, I have to plan for this too.
7. Holiday planning -- done, thanks to HIM this year.
8. Pet care for holidays, if needed.
9. Last minute lists :) Always needed!
10. RESOLUTIONS!!

Making our own art!?

Well, we've been in the house for some time now. We have managed to paint only a couple of rooms. The floor has been replaced, in two rooms. We're not really do-it-yourselfers and we're not really all that creative. OK, well, I'm not either of those two things.

HE just loves cars and trucks. I think he probably subscribes to about 5 magazines and then saves them. So, he's got boxes and boxes of magazines. All filed away neatly, in order, by magazine type and year, of course. So, as a result, we have lots of space dedicated to the cataloging of magazines, that I believe, will never be of any use to anyone. I digress....

HE has been working at culling through the bad, useless stuff, but just hated to be "wasteful" and toss out the old magazines. (Not all, just one "brand".) I made the crazy suggestion to select the pictures he liked and frame them in sort of a collage. Well, I had no idea of what would happen when Mr. OCD was assigned a craft project of this sort.

I think this is week three of this project. I'm convinced there will be photos of cars on every wall of our house very soon. Please pray for my sanity during this self-inflicted turmoil! By the way, next time, I will keep my mouth shut! :)

We can eat!

Here's the dining room table we bought a few weeks ago. I would have put up pictures sooner, but, well, we had to do some work first. The ceiling was viciously attacked by the small electrical fire we had after hurricane Ike was here. So, it's been replaced and the ceiling was repainted. The table is nice, but we hardly ever use that room. Hopefully the table isn't a total waste of cash.

If you look closely, you can see the entry way, too. We painted that a few weeks before Ike. Luckily no damage in there. It's a nice shade of yellow.


Those are the updates, and there will be more to come, I think. He's been talking of more paint and new carpet. Hopefully, we'll stick something on the walls soon, too!

Things Rita Will Eat

This is nothing to be proud of, and she probably shouldn't eat them...but can you believe a dog will eat these things??

Pasta, any kind
White rice
Grapefruit
Pickles
Apples
Bananas
Cotton Candy
Grapes (I quit letting her eat these.)
Alvocado (I don't think these are good for her either.)
Most nuts
Oatmeal
Most Cereal - granola
Granola bars


This little beagle is, well, not so little after eating so well! She's something special!

It's November

WOW! I can't believe it's November. Seems like just yesterday it was August!

Well, I had voted before Halloween. Halloween was another incredible disappointment. We stayed home this year. With Rita in recovery mode still, we hate to leave her for too long. She's recovering quite nicely, but she's a heap of energy and it's hard to contain her. We had planned to go to our High School homecoming game Halloween night, but well, it was just easier to stay home.

We live in a rather secluded neighborhood, and do not usually have many trick or treaters. This year we had all of about 8 and they were some rude little characters. Kids these days don't even say "Trick-or-treat". They wiped out our candy! Can you believe that? I mean, I didn't have a warehouse supply of candy, but there was a rather large bag. These not-so-little beings were not happy with the speed candy was handed out, and grabbed candy by the handful out of our candy bowl. Next year, the rules will have changed!

Lastly, sadly, the time has fallen back again. I used to love this day, an extra hour of sleep, like a little bit of heaven. HE has ruined it for me. HE hates this day; he hates it getting dark early. The best thing is that he loved it happening later this year. I keep telling him we have to be thankful for the little things! :)

Happy November -- VOTE THIS WEEK and then get to holiday shopping - the holidays will be here before we know what happened!

My Early Voting Experience

Well, first of all, it was the first time WE voted together, at the same time. We left a little later than expected, and traffic was much worse than expected, but we got there! In our area, if you early vote, you can go to any polling place that is open. I thought that was kind of neat. In our precint, they keep moving the polling place. Each election, I have to go on a hunt to find the right place. One year, I couldn't find it in time so I didn't vote. Early voting was for me -- the procrastinator!

There was voting map on line showed the places you could vote. It even indicated on average per hour how many people voted at each location in the last election. So, we looked for the closest place with the least amount of people voting and hoped for the shortest line. The procrastinator I am, we arrived at 6:51 PM, nine minutes before closing. We weren't the last people in the door, and the line was long. I was quite pleasantly surprised at the turnout for early voting.

By 7:40 we had each voted and were walking out of the polling place. It was a good voting experience. They were well staffed, maybe even a little over staffed. The staff was super nice, even though we were some of the last folks in to vote. Hopefully more people get educated and go vote! Today's the last day for early voting here, so get moving people!

GO VOTE!

I'm off to early vote tonight! I've never early voted, but I have voted in many elections. I think it's becasue my folks have always been voters, my maternal grandfather was a voter, too.

So, just a reminder -- do what you got to, but GO VOTE! Of course, get educated first! Not sure if I'm for the voting campaign or not, because I think they should be telling people, "Get educated, Go Vote!"

Can you be too responsible?

I've been a fairly responsible individual my life. I didn't cause my parents as much trouble as I could have growing up. Fortunately, they created me to be pretty self-sufficient. Throughout college, I had responsible friends. No one partied too hard, or had weekends they couldn't remember. We have all grown up, held down jobs, and everyone has done really well. (I'm probably the biggest slacker I know!)

What I wonder, is have we been "too responsible"? Will there come a time, when all of the sudden, we are tired of doing the right thing? I can just see myself, or anyone, saying, "You know, I'm just tired of putting myself last." There's no doubt it's not always the most fun thing to be "responsible". It's not even the easiest thing to do. I'm certain that most of the people I know do not live in the moment, they plan, they work their plan, and try to reward themselves a little here and there. Are we going to get tired of this? Any idea when???

Surgery Update

Well, Rita has been the usual trooper she is! You wouldn't know she had just had such a big surgery. She's got a great personality! There's no doubt she's a real trooper with whatever is handed her own way.

This weekend we've put ice packs on her leg a couple of times to help with the swelling. Her leg is pretty red, but the swelling has gone down quite a bit. She's on a pain pill and antibiotics. Luckily, she loves treats so we've had no trouble giving her meds.

She goes for 6 laser treatments to aid in the healing process. Tomorrow is her first one. The treatments are pretty quick, but it takes like 45 minutes to get to the vet, so it's a little inconvenient. But, hey, it's just a little ride and she loves to go places! This is why she has such a great bond with HIM, she's used to being his little pal, and they have been inseparable -- and will be for the next 7 or so weeks!

Home from surgery

Well, we opted for Rita to go ahead with the ligament surgery. Now, we've got 6 laser treatments over the next 2 weeks. Can you believe we're scheduling laser treatments for the DOG?

Rita's a special case. She's no doubt the unplanned addition to our pack. When she was found HE swore he would never take care of this dog. Well, 4 years and $5K later, we couldn't imagine our life without her. She's had a rough life, a bad case of heart worms to start with. Once we had the heart worms fixed, we had metal screws put in her leg to fix where it had been broken. Then, when the screws did not stay in place, she went through another surgery to add plates and more screws. This did her so much good! She could walk, run and play and move much easier on all four legs. Around the time of the hurricane, we noticed she was lifting her good rear leg completely off the ground. She would occasionally use it, but not for long. Often I think it would only come close to the ground, without putting complete pressure on it. So, once the hurricane excitement was over, we made it back to the vet. This time he offered a second specialist. We were not happy that the first had to do surgery twice on her broken leg.

We dropped her off yesterday and around 3:30 they called to say she had made it through surgery well. She was very swollen and they would do the first laser treatment this morning. Once that treatment was done, they would determine if she could come home. We were very happy to pick her up at 11 AM today. She was bouncing with energy, as beagles do. It will be a difficult 8 weeks. Her activity should be very limited for the next 6-7 weeks -- outside only on the leash, never allowed to run free or play with her pals.

Her leg is incredibly swollen. The incision is very large. These are the best stitches I've ever seen! The doctor did an awesome job closing up. We have our first fall cool front and that leg must be cold -- they shaved almost her entire leg! She's certainly on her way to recovery, and hopefully this is the last major medical procedure she will undergo. I didn't have the heart to take pictures of her today, but I will soon.

October 17

Some how my computer binked and this didn't get posted....then, I avoided the computer all weekend...so here's what I wrote last Friday, but some how did not post.

Today's one of those days. It's a little gloomy here this morning, but I hear the clouds should break and the sun will shine. I'm a little sad. Today's my maternal grandfather's birthday. He's not with us anymore, so it's a little sad. Sad because I miss him, of course. But, I know better! It's also a very good day -- a day we should be eating German Chocolate Cake and Pecan Pie. I think we always had both for his birthday.

I wonder what he would think of the things going on in the world, or the country, or even our own little family. He was no war hero -- he was denied due to a heart condition that would make his life short they said. Well, his life was shorter than I would have liked, but it fulfilled his purpose in life. (He promised he would take care of her until her dying day, and six weeks after that, he went to catch up with her.)

He paid his bills, lived with as little debt as possible and kept those dear, near to him. He was not materialistic, one day I'll share pictures of their home he built with his own hands. He worked hard, three jobs sometimes. He was a worker man, no doubt. Hard work never killed anyone he would tell us. At the dairy, he would open things up and get things started for the day. Then, he would tend his own land and livestock. Then, at night, he was a janitor at one of the local schools.

I, of course, thought they were rich -- I mean, he had all of this land! We lived in the city, in our little house, with our little yard, and our little dog. He had acres and acres, cattle, pigs, chickens, peacocks, and a dog or two! Mom would tell me, that we could only have one dog because they were expensive, needed lots of room and we could not take care of more than one. He had to be rich -- he had all that room and could take care of so many animals! He had his truck and a tractor. They almost always had a Hershey's candy bar or M&M's in the fridge for us. Not to mention my grandmother would keep the cookie jar well stocked when we were coming. Then, I remember going into town and buying soda's. What a treat that was! There was always a RC or Big Red coming my way on a visit to them. My folks never kept those "luxury" items on hand.

What I remember most, is his love of life! He was so much like Daniel. I still think that is what hooked me into Daniel. My grandfather was always laughing, and always so happy. I hope I can hold on to that love of life and feeling of happiness he always gave us. It was always great to see him, and while he never asked for us to come visit, he always thanked us for coming to visit, and said come back to see him anytime. I'm glad I did visit when I could, and would give anything to be able to visit with him again.

Goodguys 08

We drove up to Ft. Worth this weekend for a car show.

Here's a few pictures...

One of my favorites would have to be this little truck. I try not to like things of this shade of orange, but this one, I just can't help!




I couldn't help but notice the little Mini. We saw him cruising around both days we were at the show.


This was our ride. Last year we put it on a trailer and hauled it up there. It was a ton of extra work, we still had to wash the car when we got there and the MPG was terrible in the truck. So, this year, it was just us and our show gear. We drove it up and had a great time!


Of course, getting to park in the winner's circle the second day made the trip even better! Here's a picture of the award. (Not the actual plaque, because the actual award had misspelled words.


That explains at least a little of where our time has gone lately. I don't know why, but when we take a trip, it is just so much work. We spend the week before trying to get ready, and the week after playing catch up. Is this how it is for everyone? Probably not. We do make sure the entire house is clean, including the cars. Usually the dogs all get a bath, too. When we leave, we generally have a house sitter to deal with all of the dogs, and we wouldn't want to leave a mess for them. I think it's HIS OCD that gives us so much extra stuff to do -- he had 3 check lists last week. One "To Do", one "To Pack" and one "To Buy". I am always amazed at his attention to detail...and then when Saturday morning came and he went to put on his shoes and remembered he didn't pack his shoes, yes, I was laughing all day! ;)

Pictures from IKE

Pictures from IKE

Catching up...

So much to say, so little energy left.

The last three weeks have been a blur. There was a week of watch and see what's going to happen before the hurricane. Then the hurricane. What an experience I could have lived without! Then there's the week of life after the hurricane. No power, no stores open, no normal life. Then, there was this week. Thankfully our power was restored, even though we've had a few scares with it since then.

My folks got their power back too. I'm still amazed since they had a tree fall on the power line. The line didn't break until they started trimming the tree. We honestly figured, that would delay the fix even longer. I guess the dangling wires caused the power company to put them to the top of the list because they got power.

My in-laws, serious AC addicts, are still without. So are over 400K people. It is amazing to me that it has taken so long, that the energy company has had such a difficult time predicting how long the wait will be and that so many are still without. Some people are being told mid-October before their power is restored. The power company claims crews are working 24 hours. However, for two days now, at around 7 PM we see the trucks streaming out of town in route back to their command center. We have yet to see any crews working past dark.

I understand the hardest hit areas -- areas that were evacuated, but everyone I know on the coast had their power restored within days of the storm. Many, many people right around me waited for over a week.

Electricity is such a luxury in life, it's a shame we are all so dependent on it. Our homes simply are not built to be in the dark. My grandparents home in the country, it was built so that the windows catch breezes that can completely go through the house. Not so here in town.

Somewhere I have pictures from things we saw. Like the birds, including a beautiful little hawk, the morning after the storm. The wind would still gust and the birds knew they could not fly. I do not know where all of the little animals hid, but I was thankful to see squirrels and birds in our yard after the storm.

Then there's Galveston. The island. There's a few very realistic people, they knew the chance they took having homes out there. It's still very sad to me, to see that they have lost everything, they have no where to live and only the belongings they took with them. I am certain as days go by and they allow more residents to return, they will find more bodies. There were people who had stayed for other storms and they took a chance again. This one was just too much. Sad, sad, sad.

We have yet to finish our clean up. Our evenings had been filled with hunting fuel to keep the generators running. We had to have the generators to keep the business going.

Business. So many small business still do not have power, they still cannot operate. People in the retail and restaurant business who could not work for more than a week, they simply did not get paid. Unemployment has shot up, of course.

I am eager to watch the rebuilding process, here and in Galveston. Hopefully we'll be able to dodge another one for 25 years. (It had been 25 since Alicia, a big one that happened when we were little.)

Normal

I'm a very normal person. Life is not normal right now. I like my drama-free existence. I'm ready for it to return.

We have not had power since 2:57 AM Saturday, September 13. The fun is over, the excitement left long ago.

Ready for easy going to come back. I promise to appreciate it even more than before.

Ike Status Report

I'm exhausted and we've got to start early tomorrow. Thanks for all the offers of a place to stay -- it's nice to know we're loved! :) By the way, anyone hanging out in here and looking for company, we'll be home! Last time (Rita) we had Noah's Ark going at our house, but looks like it'll just be us. So, come on by!

Daniel & his dad got the generator hooked up to the house today. I'm not exactly sure how it is supposed to work -- not sure that Daniel is either -- but hopefully, if/when we loose power, we just flip a switch and the house gets powered by the generator. Or, of course, the house blows up, electrically speaking that is ;)

Dad had a very successful evening. He got their house boarded up, just in case. Of course, when I was there tonight, I said, "Dad, you can't leave all of this, ummm, stuff, out in your yard. It will fly around and crash into things." His reply was, "Well, that's why I boarded up the windows!" Of course he was kidding, I think, but they have lots of plants and little things to finish up tomorrow morning. Well, he does, because mom has these crazy little old ladies that need their hair done before they get blown away by Ike. Go figure! Anyway, kudos to my pop -- he worked from 5 AM - 2 PM and immediately went outside and started working on the house!

We have our emergency stuff to pack up. I had been in denial, and in our house, one box of the important papers turns into a "truckload" of things we just could not live with out. Plus, we have to empty the shed to dig out the boards. We also have our "missiles" outside that must be put away. But, I'm confident we can handle it. Most of our customers are closed tomorrow, and while it made today difficult, tomorrow our work load should be a little lighter.

We have had no local TV since last night, which I think is absurd! I mean, I didn't even get to listen to "The View" today! :) Tonight, I tried to listen for the 10 PM update, but they had some news conference and I never heard a forecast. Someone referred me to the National Hurricane Center and suggested that we look there for more accurate hurricane info. There's also another site -- that shows the wind speeds we can expect in our zip codes.

Well, I've bored you all enough with our trials and tribulations. Of course, with Daniel, everything has been much funnier than my email has indicated.

If you don't hear froms us, know that we're safe and will be "bunkered" in by tomorrow afternoon/evening.

Take care everyone!

I think I figured it out...

I think I was on an Olympic high??? I miss them...

Here today, gone tomorrow....

Can you believe it takes over 3 hours for my slow little hands to decorate a cake? Would you believe that someone put "handi-wrap" right over it to cover it up? I couldn't believe it. I didn't actually attend the birthday party, so when I looked at the picture on the camera, I asked why it looked so funny. Oh, well, of course, that's the plastic wrap on the cake. What else could it be???



At least there was no real damage. Here's what it looked like after the plastic wrap was removed.



The practice cake was made with two types of icing -- old stuff out of the freezer, and new stuff, out of, umm, a little plastic container. The colors looked much better in the picture than on the real cake. Since I knew one cake would probably not be enough for all of the people, I knew cupcakes or another small cake would be needed. We did 2 McQueen cakes. We were going to make a Sally, but McQueen just didn't look good enough to only have the practice one. Just in case you're wondering, I am not sure if either cake tasted good.



My dad had a wreck yesterday in his truck. Today we found out it would be a total loss. He's ok, and that's all that matters to me.

Lately...

Lately, I have not been a nice person. I have actually avoided public places, social gatherings, or other events where I may have to be nice. It's really sad, but I just think my "niceness" has expired, or ruined. I don't know what to do to get it back. I am sure that this is no way for a person to co-exist in a world with other people.

This weekend I left town. There was a hurricane coming. It was going to be bad. There was a HUGE area of possible impact. I'm certain millions of dollars were spent evacuating people and pets from the most likely impact area. Well, hurricanes...lately, they are just another item on my grumpy list. Lately, I'm tired of doing the responsible thing. (Some people felt that it would be more responsible of me to cancel my plans and sit home and wait to prepare for a hurricane that would not really affect our area.)

Lately, I'm tired of doing things for other people. I have lost the desire to donate to charities, offer meals to the homeless, or simply go beyond the bare minimum of what is required of me.

Lately, it ticks me off at myself for acting in such a selfish way. I remember a couple of years ago, I had the same problem. A good friend of mine, a mentor in many ways, put it to me quite simply. He said quit doing things for people and expecting something in return. Lately, I've had a hard time remembering that.

Maybe it's a midlife crisis? Am I old enough for one of those?

Hopefully, I had a good enough time over the weekend that I can get over it - at least some of it! I had a great holiday weekend. I'm glad that the hurricane, lack of dog sitters and just sheer worry did not keep me home this weekend. Lately I worry way too much...

Let there be practice cake...

This is the practice cake for the birthday party this weekend. Dylan turns 5 on Saturday. He'd been asking for a Lightning McQueen cake for over a month. I really did not think I could pull it off. I had talked him into a race track with Lightning and some of the other race cars. Believe me, the little runt let me know which cars did not belong on the race track. (In other words, no Doc on the race track!)

Anyway, very long story short, I went out and found a cake pan last night. I avoided work today and produced the cake. It took me over 2 hours to decorate it; yes, I'm very slow. Now, I'm off to see if it "meets approval" before I make one for the party.

Who knew I could do this?

Let it be YELLOW

Ok, so a few weeks ago, we yanked the wall paper in the entry way. It was around the time the house was going to get knocked down next door. Well, after completely wasting away last weekend, I vowed, this weekend would not be a waste. It hasn't been. Yesterday we cleaned the entire house, cut the yard, and went to pick out a color for the entry way. (Seems like house cleaing and yard work are minor chores, I'm not sure why it takes us so long to get them done.) We selected several shades of brown, grey, and silver. One of the books has a lovely yellow shade. But the little card did not look like the color in the book. This morning we decided to look into that yellow color at the store. (Big mistake by the way...) Anyway, after much debate and at least another hour looking at colors at the local Home Crap-o store, we selected a light yellow color.

A few hours later, a few gripes later, and it's done. Well, it's almost done. It's painted. We try to switch out the hardware in the rooms when we paint them. So we were thoughtful enough to purchase a new face plate and switch for the lights and electrical outlet. We never thought about the door handles. So for now, we're sticking with what was in there. After all the door handles match the light fixture, which we don't like, but it works, and well, we haven't found something perfect enough for us.

So, the room is not completely done, but we're just about done for today. Our lesson from this...pick some paint colors, bring them home (or take the paint samples out of the box labeled "painting supplies" because I honestly think we have just about every possible one we may like), pick a color. DO NOT FALTER ON THE COLOR CHOICE WHEN RETURNING TO PURCHASE THE PAINT. This was a critical mistake, and made me start the project quite crabby. HIS OCD kicked in big time today wen we went to purchase paint. So, my patience was zapped from the get go of the project. But, I do like the color and I am glad that we did it! Yeah!

It's still early, so I'm sure the pups get walked today, and even a car or truck will get washed. GO PRODUCTIVITY!!

Laughter

My dear husband laughs all the time. He laughs at jokes, at other's blunders, at the dogs, at things we cannot believe. Often it's his laughter that wakes me up in the morning, and sometimes it wakes me up from sleeping at night. (Seinfeld comes on at 12:30 AM and if he's not asleep, he's watching Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer.)

I'm simply just not as amused at life as he is. I'm just not as happy of a person, I guess. He LOVES to make people laugh, so it's disappointing to him that I do not laugh at his little one liners more often. He's not one to repeat jokes, but he's always looking for that quick little laugh. I think a portion of our cable bill is worth the 4-6 PM TBS showing of Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, etc. Those little 30 minute shows do wonders for a crappy day at work.

Laughter is going to be at the bottom of my '08 resolutions -- it's never to late to add resolutions if the year isn't up right? It's going to be at the top of '09. It really does make you feel better. I've just missed Jerry tonight, hopefully he's found another 30 minute sitcom for our bedtime story tonight!

Good news, bad news

I never know what should come first - the good or the bad. I wish there were a way to spit out both, so they could each smack you!

Good News -- Daisy has all her teeth! They look great, teeth cleaning went well.
Bad News -- I had to take her. It's a good thing I don't have kids, I don't know how I could handle the ups and downs. HE usually does these hard things, today, it couldn't be helped that it was me to go.

Good News -- They don't what is wrong. I guess that's the good news???
Bad News -- Today, my mom got all of the paperwork in the mail from the cancer center. Maybe it's not bad news, maybe they will figure out what is wrong, maybe they won't find anything wrong. But the unknown is difficult for me to deal with.

Good News -- A lifelong pal of mine is finally pregnant! Yeah!! Even better, twins! She's not far along, and is probably high risk, but I certainly hope her life long dream is to be a mom is six weeks closer to becoming a reality.
Bad News -- Some other lifelong friends of mine have been dealing with Syndenham Corea. They have a little boy who this has hit rather quickly over the last eight weeks or so. It's a terrible condition affecting the nervous system. It is treatable, but could likely take two years to fully recover. His parents have made the difficult decision to home school him. I know they are strong and can handle it, I cannot imagine how hard it is for them to see their otherwise healthy child go through this.

Good News -- I think I can almost explain why people want to have children. I've given it so much thought lately. I've asked several friends why they wanted to have kids. They have been great parents, some have one child, some have two. Believe it or not, there's even a few who do not have any kids, but know that they want them. Only one person has given me anything to consider. After months of trying to investigate the topic, I think I'm beginning to understand exactly what it is that drives people to parenthood.
Bad News -- I'm still not sure I'm ready to ride that train. Selfish mostly. I just don't know if I'm ready to deal with the bad that may or may not even happen with the ride. I don't know if that reason is worth giving up the good that goes with it.

Well, now that I have a lot of that off my chest, the world will feel lighter right?

This week of August...

Last week we were successful in having the car break down for the mechanic. So, after a very expensive bill, I have wheels again. Which is a good thing considering I'm planning a road trip this month! Hopefully I will keep my road trip plans without renting a car.

Well, tomorrow, Daisy goes under for her teeth to be cleaned. Of course, they have to put her, which I think is terrible. In normal vet practices, normal people would drop off their normal dog, and the normal vet would perform the procedure. In our crazy little world, the vet gives us a special time, HE takes the dog, and HE watches the procedure. HE will be there when they put her under, clean her teeth and when they wake her up. Thank goodness for our vet, he understands how not-normal we are! Anyway, that's the event for the week in our household.

In other news, we're staying on the positive. My cousin has left the state to embark on his college career. I'm so excited for him! He is the fourth of our little group of cousins -- there's only 5 of us! We have each completed college; but, we were all IN STATE! My oldest cousin left, but not until after he graduated. So, at 18, I think it's a bid deal to go so far away from home -- Texas to DC. I'm wishing him lots of luck!

Anger Break

I've been on a bit of an "Anger Break". You see, it seems that everything ticks me off, and I just haven't been able to get past it. This year, one of those resolution thingy's was too be more positive. I've read a little of the Oprah thing, something about the laws of attraction. In my mind, it seems there are some people who are just genuinely happy all of the time, no matter what, they are positive and have kind words. I love/hate those people. I love that they are like that, I hate that I'm not more like that. Some of those people, I'm convinced are just too dumb to realize they should not be happy about their "circumstances".

Here's the short list on what has contributed to my "Anger Break"

Retailers selling crappy stuff: It seems like over the past couple of years, we buy a product and it just doesn't last. The TV I bought for my parents about 4 years ago, it quit working about 2 years ago. Only, it didn't completely quit working, just the remote control. Easy fix, right? You just get one of those universal gizmos and you're back in business. WRONG. We've tried universals, exact replacements, etc. NO LUCK. Apparently, the company manufactured that model to sell at the retailer for a "great deal", and used less than the best parts. So, I bought the replacement part that goes in the TV, but my dad's not brave enough to fix it. Two years pass, I don't know that he can even find the part anymore. Call a repair man? Of course, we thought of that 2 years ago. We had 2 tell us it would be cheaper to replace the TV than repair it. GO FIGURE. (Now my parents are waiting for this DTV thing...don't get me started.) We bought a weed-whacker. Guess what, we now found out it was manufactured for a retailer. (That would be Sears and Home Depot that we no longer shop at.) The starter went out on the weed whacker about 18 months after the purchase date. Good news: 3 year warranty. Bad news: warranty specifically doesn't include starters.

1995 Cadillac: Great deal a couple of years ago. We got the car for well under blue book. It was in excellent condition, only 50K miles -- truly one of those grandma cars that spent most of it's time parked in a cozy garage. The darn car hasn't been in use for almost a month now. The mechanic claims to have driven it with no problem. Of course, he only put 55 miles on it and used a half tank of gas -- about 8 gallons. Do the math...6.875 miles per gallon. That would tell me, there is a problem. My real problem, I got on the freeway and again lost complete power. Then it took over an hour to get home, about 4 miles, because I could not keep the car running. It just dies with no warning, no sputtering, you just realize, no power steering, oh, wait, that's no POWER. I'm mad at the car, the deal, the fact that I got rid of my little truck -- which I LOVED; the mechanic, and us. We have not had a free moment this week to take it back to the mechanic, or find another one -- mechanic that is.

Gas, fuel, cooking oil prices: Who isn't mad at this? Well, having my income rely on the "trucking" industry makes me mad. Until we either use resources in our back yard, or can tele-transport (or whatever it's called) we will have to truck products from place to place. It's ridiculous that we rely on the truck to take such a hit when the cost of transportation increases at an astounding rate. Did you know diesel is a bi-product of gasoline? So why is diesel so much more expensive than fuel??? We have all seen the cost of food rise -- I cannot believe how expensive cooking oil seems to be...did I just always get it on sale? It's a sign, don't eat things that require cooking oil.

Dishonesty: I grew up with honest, hard working parents. I thought lying was something you did when you said you were "up" in the morning. (Yes, in my house, my mom got me up...it took her about an hour...not something I'm proud of. God, please help me if I ever have a child...it's not going to be pretty.) Today it seems people are so dishonest. I have an incredibly hard time having repair men fix things (or find the problem). It's almost like honesty is something of the past. In my life, it's like, I have to ask myself, "How long before I find out the truth, because I know you're lying to me?" At least in my world. What do you do when it's your family that is being dishonest? How do you look past that? How do you forgive people? How do you know if it's you that need to be forgiven? I could go on, and on, and on...Forgiveness...another post all on it's own...(Thank goodness my parents are still honest, except of course their "senior" moments, but I don't hold that against them.)

Family Reunion: Yep, it was that time of year. Our annual family reunion. Growing up, I had two -- my mom's family and my dad's family. Some time, either high school or college, I'm not sure, someone ran off with the "Kitty" of money used to pay for the next family reunion on my dad's side. So, we're down to one. This year, we drove 120 miles to sit in a building that had to be 85 stuffy degrees. (Yes, we pay for a building, but the owners did not feel the need to turn on the AC this year.) What's more, is that due to "family feuds" over the years, I don't know if I should talk to some of the people there or not! I mean, really, can you imagine, wondering, should I go say "hello" to Cousin Jerry*, I think he's still angry that my grandfather bought out his father's property. True story. I've got no hard feelings. But hey, my grandparents owned the property. But, I can honestly say that I feel some of those people do not want anything to do with me. Maybe it's things my parents have said to them, or things my parents have said to me. But, really, it's not worth my time (or money spent in gas to get there). Yep, next year, first Sunday of August, I know where I will NOT be.


Sadly, my anger list is much longer than these 5 points. But, who wants to spend time dwelling on the little points. I'm sure that if I had a dependable car to drive, I'd do what many women do -- I'd go shopping! I'd get ice cream! I'd do anything but stay in my house and stew. It's like I'm a pot of stew, sometimes I even bubble over. I just hope, once I'm done, I'm tasty! :)

We're prepared...

for nothing....

Yep, it's that time. The hurricane is coming, the hurricane is comming... We have been a little distracted by life the past couple of days, so we hadn't read the paper or listened to the news. (It seems life is more pleasant without those distractions!) Yesterday we were driving back from Victoria, and I noticed the signs all flashed "It's hurricane season. Keep your gas tanks full." I thought, how weird, it's not like there's a storm headed this way. The gas companies must be trying to bump up the profits they are missing out on -- supposively people are driving less.

We got home, and put in a movie. It was not something that kept my interest, plus I was feeling a little sleep deprived, so I fell asleep. When I woke up, HE was asleep. So, I stopped the movie, and as I flipped through the line up -- there it was, "Tropical Storm heading to the Texas/Louisiana coast." I was a little surprised, I expected the formation to be far out. Then I saw the map, I was really surprised to see how close the storm already was. (Good news of course!)

Some businesses are closed, so of course that affected our plans of work tomorrow. We worked through the day and then I made dinner. HE insisted on preparing things. Of course, I refused to help this time. Last time it took me days to get ready and WEEKS to unpack. Honestly, there's a box of pictures I put up when we were preparing for hurricane Rita. I have never even taken them back out, sad, I know. So this time, I've backed up my computer, and I'm ready to watch the rain, and a little bit of wind. HE has completely taken loose object out of our yard or tied it down. For example, the garbage can (is too "dirty" to go into the garage) so it is strapped down to the fence. Yes, I told HIM that this was all due to his OCD. But, we're prepared....

No news....

Well, it has been an unbelievably "homey" couple of weeks. My car acted funky, then got worse. So, I took it to the shop. It's like a little flash -- happens as quick as you blink your eyes. The radio skips out, the dash lights flicker one time, and then you look down, and have to touch the accelerator to see that nope, you've got NO power. It really sucks. It did this to me on the freeway, in traffic one day. Needless to say, I freaked out. But the mechanic couldn't figure out anything. So, when it happened and we were BOTH in the car, it was like I didn't make it up. We drove about 8 miles in it, and as we were going down the road, it just quit. It happened three times within about 5 miles. The car won't re-start immediately, so you're sort of stuck either on the side of the road or in the nearest parking lot if you're lucky. Really, it's the weirdest thing. They haven't been able to duplicate the problem -- the mechanic has had it for a week. Guess what -- it's running fine for them. GO FIGURE!

My theory is that it has something to do with the ignition key. Of course, they do not believe in any way this is the problem. BUT, my keys are gold plated, I know, it sounds so getto, but that's how we distinguish between HIS and HERS. His keys, the one the mechanic has are the normal looking key. I forgot to drop off the gold keys, and they do not feel this would affect the problem. Hopefully, I'll make it by there in the ol' tank tomorrow morning so they can give them a try.

I feel as if I have been trapped in my own house to work, to clean, and to wait on the darn car to be repaired for weeks now. I leave for a little road trip Wednesday, looks like a rental is in my near future.

7 AM

Ok, so I don't have to get up early. I've had yet ANOTHER head cold/sinus infection. It's been approximately 4 weeks since the last one. I'm not convinced the last one ever left, but it's partying in my head right now. Night time and mornings are the worst. I went to bed around 2 AM last night. At 7 AM I woke up to the sound of our house falling in.

Ok, so it wasn't our house, it was the house next door, but it sounded like it could have been our house. The walls were trembling, they have been most of the day. I couldn't believe the dogs weren't barking!! I looked over to see Missy a little scared, I offered her to go out and she went. I had to go look for the beagle. She was looking out the front window, I think all she could see was the big machinery. I think she must have been thinking, "I don't think I can take that thing on, so I won't alert the humans of it. One wrong move, and I think it could crush us all." Missy went out, only long enough to do what she had to. Rita, the beagle, went out, heard the crashing brick and glass breaking, turned around and had a look, of fear. She's usually a little terror, and I think this machine eating the house next door was finally her match.

The house was a pile of wood within 45 minutes. The oversized 3 car garage with a huge attic, it was a pile of wood by 7:58 AM. Yep, a lifetime of memories in that house, all just a pile of rubble within an hour. It was a sad morning. We know the guy who used to own the house, he would have never wanted that to happen. So, when I went out at 7 AM with Rita, it was a gloomy morning. There was a gray sky and a gentle mist. (Of course these were due to hurricane Dolly down south.) But, it was a sad moment that tugged at my heart a little. Just reminded me that it's just stuff, it's just a structure, people are what gives the rubble life.

Weekend Fun

This is a picture of the kiddie pool we got for the dogs to play in. It's been so incredibly hot here! We thought maybe they'd spend a little more time outside, if they had somewhere cool to take a dip in...


This is a picture of HIM in the pool. Note Rita, the beagle barking at him to get out of the pool.


This is a picture of Rita and Daisy, hot as can be, but not getting into the pool.



This is a picture of the Water Man. He found the biggest sprinkler he could find and gets such enjoyment out of it. Supposively, the sprinkler should shoot 40 feet. Unfortunately, our water pressure fluctuates ALOT. Sometimes, there's not enough pressure to make it work properly. When we bought the house, he said he'd let the grass die before he ever watered it. I think he may turn into one of those little old men that sits in their lawn chair holding the hose to water their yards! :)



It was dark by the time we finished our walk, but Missy and Rita did get into the pool after the walk. Rita tried to sit down, but didn't like the water all around her. The reason we actually got them a pool? We used to load them up and drive about a half hour to the dog park. There's two ponds for dogs to get into. We'd pack them up, fight the construction/traffic mess, they would run and play, but NEVER get into the water. I don't have the patience or time time go all the way to the dog park --- $5/gallon doesn't help! We took them to a closer park this weekend after they went shopping for their own dog food. This park has a neat little water feature, and Rita seemed to enjoy it. So we decided to pick up a little pool. I don't know if it will get used much, but we tried!

Tear Down

I completely forgot to do this yesterday -- we tore down the wallpaper in the entry way. I wanted to document it, I'm anxiously awaiting how long we will do nothing with this very easy project. Actually, the walls in there look better WITHOUT anything, just they way they are, than they did with that wallpaper on there. It is making me want to rip out all of the wall paper in the entire house!

Yesterday afternoon I was working in the dining room and I heard a loud thud! They removed the carport to the house/garage next door. They also took down the three garage doors; I'm sure they will use those somewhere else. Perhaps they will get to work tearing down the place. We noticed a few weeks ago that the doors and windows were all being left open. Tonight we couldn't help but wonder if that had something to do with permits...maybe if the entire place is left open/vacant, it could somehow be condemned...then they wouldn't have to obtain permits to demolish the structures??? I don't know...just a guess, I know all of the permits required to do anything around here are crazy!

That's what I know if the tear downs. Let's see who progresses on the end result!

Updates

Ok, seems like I should recount what's been going on -- or lack of progress I should say....

Most importantly is Missy. Her bandage came off last weekend, and this past weekend, her stitches came out. The first couple of days after her bandage came off, her ear seemed very "loose". It just didn't have the same cute little shape it did before the the hematoma. Of course, we did consider puppy plastic surgery -- something we'd consider for our animals, but probably not for ourselves! Thankfully for her (and our checkbook) plastic surgery will not be needed. As her ear has gotten better, the cute little shape has returned.

Here's a picture of Missy's "cone ear" from surgery...



Then, of course, there's the house next door. The one bound for destruction, any day now, I guess??? Plus it had the exciting tree explosion that happened when lightening hit it a few weeks ago.

They were very prompt in removing the tree and the drebis from it. They didn't remove the stump. Here's a picture of the tree stump. It's huge, I still cannot believe how big the tree was, or how close the lightening was!


The orange fence has been up around since the day of the storm. I really thought that since the fence was up, the house would be coming down. WRONG. We're still looking at the orange fence. But, it's really no big deal. I guess the house coming down next door would be exciting, so we're just a little anxious to see it come down.

This is a picture from the front of the house. It's a decent house on the outside. It's actually brick on all 4 sides. I wish our house would have brick all the way around...then we wouldn't be in need of replacing some rotten wood.


This is a picture of the garage. It has a HUGE garage with an attached car port. Really one of the best features of the house according to HIM. But, if I had to guess, it's coming down, too.


These are the lingering things I hadn't followed up on. So, that's what's new. We've been busy. This has been the year of repair..we had been hoping it would be the year of progress, but as we're half way through July, I'm realizing, we're doing good keeping up with things that have broken this year. Somethings have actually broken multiple times...fun!

On a happy note, here's a picture of Rita. She's just loves to have her picture taken. Well, she takes good pictures, I don't know that she likes it, but I like taking them!

Big vs Aiden

Recently, I posted something about getting to know myself better...one of the topic was: The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for: You are a true romantic. When you are in love, you will do anything and everything to keep your love true. This brings an entire blog of another day, that I'm just not sure this is the place to even think on the topic, besides, I'm already married...

All I can think of is Sex and the City. First of all, if you haven't seen it, it's worth a try. I can totally see how some people wouldn't like it, but I have such an addiction to it, that I cannot even believe it! Carrie Bradshaw (Sara Jessica Parker) is the main character. She's a writer of a column in the newspaper, of course, the column is called "Sex and The City". In that column and throughout the show we see her life and the loves that come in and out of it.

One of the story lines I most enjoy is watching her struggle between the men in her life. There is MR. BIG (Christopher Noth). He is her passion and she is his passion. They rock together! There is that chemistry that we always see in Hollywood and everyone longs for in their own lives. And, there is the BUT...he's been married, and he's not looking for it again. So, with MR. BIG, there's the on again, off again, when it's good, it's good, and then he's gone that made for a lot of film time over the seasons. MR. BIG is a successful business man, he is determined, and he is self-confident. To me, it's a riviting realtionship. He comes into her life when things are going good with other love interests and with the chemistry they have, he is able to steal her away!

Then, there is my personal favorite...AIDEN (John Corbett -- who I loved in My Big, Fat Greek Wedding). Aiden is the guy that everyone hopes to find for themselves one day. Aiden is sweet, carring, a little rugged. He has a cabin, he builds furniture, and can remodel Carrie's apartment! He's softer, loving, and is absolutely in love with Carrie. While Carrie & Aiden have some ups and downs, his unconditional love and desire to be with her is steadfast. Aiden wants to marry her, have a family, and basically ride off into the sunset! He always has her best interest at heart. The writers did a great job of not showing any of his flaws -- she even asks him what they are, and nothing comes up!! So, how is it that she can push him away? She calls off their engagement, because of "missing the bride gene". They have chemistry and seem to work so well together, but when Mr. Big steps in, she can't help but go back to him.

Is this how love is??? I'm more of a beliver that there just aren't that many "the one's" out there for us! It's not that I think there's only one perfect person for us, only one soul mate, but come on...are we really likely to have two of them in our lives at the exact same time??? Maybe this is why I don't like shopping --- too many choices! Better yet, did I pick my Mr. Big or my Aiden???


Note: Somehow I didn't make time to go see the movie, so it's in my Neflix que already! :( And if you're interested, here's a pretty good description of what happened...

Purpose

I've been struggling as to what to put on my blog. You know, it's public, and anyone could stumble upon this, so I do have to have some caution in what I put out there. My life is really very simple. Pretty much, it's work, feed the dogs, cook, clean, do housework/yardwork, work, groceries (ie buy dog food - we go through a LOT with 4 dogs), work, attend family functions, etc. If I'm lucky, we get an invitation to hang out with friends, or people that I do not feel obligated to see. (I love my family, I'm glad to hang out with them, why do we live so far apart???) So what do I write about in my blog??? It just doesn't seem like my boring existance is worth posting about.

Now, I do look at my blog -- is that weird? It's not like I'm here to read what I wrote...but, once I added the music feature, if I don't like what's on the radio, I listen to a couple of songs. (We've got a Sirius account. I'm not sure I think satellite radio is worth the $.) The first thing that pops up is a picture of the great pups and those few opening lines...I'm the ordinary 30-something. Married, childless, wondering what I have to offer life. Blogging because it seems like the thing to do; a way to stay connected with people I miss; and a way to express myself....which has been encouraging me to do a little more soul searching. I keep telling myself there's more to life than what I'm doing, now how do find that????

Today, I did a search on "how to get to know myself better". First of all, I was really disappointed with the search results. It took a little clicking to find something, anything with some substance.

Somehow, I managed to find a website that offered a "quiz". Yes, this seemed very childish, or teen-ish, but this is what my "quiz" told me...

Your view on yourself: You are down-to-earth and people like you because you are so straightforward. You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties. A little generic, but I guess it applies to me.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for: You are a true romantic. When you are in love, you will do anything and everything to keep your love true. This brings an entire blog of another day, that I'm just not sure this is the place to even think on the topic, besides, I'm already married...

Your readiness to commit to a relationship: You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person. Again, too late...but nice try...oh, and it took 14 years to get married.

The seriousness of your love: Your have very sensible tactics when approaching the opposite sex. In many ways people find your straightforwardness attractive, so you will find yourself with plenty of dates. WHATEVER

Your views on education: Education is less important than the real world out there, away from the classroom. Deep inside you want to start working, earning money and living on your own. This is no longer a choice for me. However, I do appreciate real world education goes a long, long way.

The right job for you: You have plenty of dream jobs but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something and go for it to be happy and achieve success. BINGO! This could have been the best few words in this hoakie "quiz".

How do you view success: You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous. BINGO, again! For me, this goes way beyond career -- let's talke LIFE.

What are you most afraid of: You are concerned about your image and the way others see you. This means that you try very hard to be accepted by other people. It's time for you to believe in who you are, not what you wear. This was a total yes and no. I am beginning the phase of my life to let go of acceptance by other people. What does it matter? I probably don't accept something they do in their life.


Who is your true self: You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve. This has happened a lot recently. My head and my heart have been struggling a lot lately. Those old "PROs vs CONs" list have been used for so many things recently!

Weird neighbors?

Does any one have that crazy neighbor next door? I think I have one. I am CERTAIN to others, I am the crazy neighbor next door.

Our neighbors hated when we put up the fence. Since then, many of my friends and family have immediately commented -- "Fences make good neighbors" or something like that. We have FOUR dogs -- who would want to live next to us without a fence? I don't have little dogs, ie, I do not have little dog poop. Also note, the fence seemed to put a stop to the continually adding of hounds at this house.

The house next door has been prepared for demo. I'll post pictures on another random rambling. The sewer clean outs were removed. While I'm not sure why they do it, apparently it is a rule that they decided to follow. I snooped over the holiday weekend, and it seems that they removed some flooring from at least one room. (I only peeked in one window, so maybe they removed more.)

Apparently there was an older lady around the corner. She was recently put in a nursing home. I believe she had a thrifty-ness, or just a weird obsession with saving things. As they have been cleaning up her property, they have removed numerous trash bags full of empty 1/2 gallon containers of ice cream. I don't know if she rinsed them and kept them in the garage, or if she just kept them. They are paper containers, so I'm not sure what she was saving them for, but there were many, many, many years worth of ice cream. I don't think even we eat that much ice cream. --- and we (I) LOVE ice cream.

Since I don't know many other neighbors, there's not much else I can add. Perhaps one day I will list more of my weird neighborly habits!

Missy

Missy is the red pup pictured at the top of the page. Today she was getting her head petted, and HE noticed her ear was lumpy. She went to the vet this afternoon and will return in the AM for surgery. I was surprised the vet would require anesthesia for a hematoma. Buster, HIS old basset hound had several hematomas, but never was it considered surgery. HE is taking her to the vet. At some point, HE decided that he was more competent to do the vet trips. (Thank goodness we do not have a child --- I don't know if I'd be competent to take a child to the doctor if I cannot take a dog to the vet.)

Missy's surgery is at 7:30 AM. Our vet is quite used to the way we operate. HE will be watching the surgery and staying with Missy until she is released to go home. When Missy was fixed, she did not react well to the medicine. We are all hoping she does not have such a bad reaction. She has gained some weight -- can you believe she's at 70 pounds??? I don't think her workout regimen is working.

I still can't believe her little short ears got a hematoma. Hopefully she will be home before I leave for breakfast with the "girls".

The House Next Door...

We've lived in our house for about 7 years now. We are the second house from the corner. The corner house became unoccupied this year. It was bought by a business in the neighborhood. The business owner owns many properties in the neighborhood.


Yesterday, they had several trees cut down. I understand his plan is to tear down the house, put up a fence, and then add some office space/storage space on the lot. This morning, I heard some banging coming from the area. (We have a wooden fence, so without going outside, I do not know what goes on over there.) Later in the morning, I looked out and could see a couple of workers hammering metal poles into the ground. We figured that they were putting up a temporary fence around the trees that were saved before demolition begins on the house and garage that are there.



The last few days the weather has been "Texas-typical". Hot, hot, hot...afternoon/evening rain with thunderstorms...hot, hot, hot. Today's thunderstorms were quite a show to watch! Now, I have mentioned these guys working next door. They would stand on a metal ladder, and swing a sledge hammer to beat the metal pole into the ground. (See photo above.) Due to the storm, we know those guys should not have been out there. But they were, and we were just hoping not to see them roast! We had just finished up lunch and we saw a bolt of lightening flash following a loud CRASH! The next thing I saw was a bit of black smoke puff from just behind our garage. Exciting, to say the least!

Let me add here that we are somewhat intelligent beings, AND not your typical rednecks...but the loud noise was too exciting to resist! We ran outside to see what had happened.

The tree next door must have been struck by lightening! The tree came down and made a lot of noise and a big mess! The tree shattered -- I've never seen a tree fall apart like that from a bolt of lightening. The tree of course threw off little pieces, you can see in the last picture how far back we had little pieces in our yard.



Hopefully, this is as close as lightening will strike to us---or our house!

Bragging!!

I had to include this in my "memory" book. I was a band geek in high school. While it was a public school, we had a really good program. Our director truly cared about the education and well-being of his students. Undoubtedly, he has provided many of today's middle school and high school bands with great directors. I cannot remember the count, but I can just about name 8 members of his band that have gone on to be band directors across the state, and country!

Fortunately, I made some life-long friends in band. Brenda was one of them. She's a couple of years younger than I am, but who'se counting??? Brenda worked hard, and despite a few obstacles, she went to college. I believe she completed more college than I did! I cannot remember if she got her masters or PhD. Currently, she is a band director at a local high school in our hometown. Brenda was recently awarded a very high honor, the Mr. Holland's Opus Award. As a result, the school she is at received funding for instruments and instruction that they would not have otherwise ever been able to come up with. The Opus award is one of the highest awards imaginable. She has done some UNBELIEVABLE things for that school and those kids.

To see a brief video, click here. This is soooo awesome!! Go Brenda!!


I'm so proud to know her. She is doing such fantastic things for those students. She has more than tripled the number of students. This school has never had a reputable band program. Now, they are nearing 100 members -- I think they may have been around 20ish when she started. (I realize that 100 is relatively small depending on where you come from, but we're talking an innercity, public school.) This past fall, we even saw her band perform at a football game. WOW -- they really looked and sounded good. I cannot wait to see her group perform again!

Weekend Plans!

Well, it's that time --- after lunch of Friday! (Not that I've had lunch, but technically, at 1 PM, I consider it, after lunch.) This week has been, well a typical week in my house/office. I really think much like separation of church and state, I need separation of house and office! :)

I've had a wonderful week of "Mucus" -- I hit my 30's and my immune system has been on vacation. I have no idea where I get these crazy colds, but they sure like me, alot. When they visit, they stick around -- I've been blowing my nose since Monday! I even had to cancel my dental appointment because if it! I don't feel bad, I guess it's like having family visit, it's just "draining" on me. I'm sure the cold just about to move on, and I'll be much happier because of it!

Last night, I felt better -- good enough to move furniture around! I should have taken some sort of design class, or maybe I should find one now. I have no clue on how to decorate a home. To be compeletely honest, we have been in the house for 7 years, and pretty much never moved the furniture! I find it hard to believe. My mom used to move the furniture in our house growing up, at least every season. I've moved it, but I never like what I do, or maybe I just don't like change, and I always end up putting it back, just like it was. At least last night, I ran out of time and we left things. You wouldn't believe how I moved stuff, I drew out the room, cut out furniture and everything. I just have such a hard time seeing how things will work.

Tonight, dinner -- somewhere where "He" can have a chicken fried steak. Tomorrow, something productive in the AM, baby shower in the PM, then Sunday, a Gem Show.

Chowhound???

I know the internet has been around for years now. I hear that it may even run out of space or something crazy like that. Of course, everyone says you can find anything out on the internet, and I believe that, too. I love the internet; we have a SPECTACULAR relationship.

The web provides me a place to confront my secret questions, things I would be way too embarrassed to ask another human! Additionally, it's providing me this great blog space so I can remember what has happened in my life. (Of course, lately, I have had a hard time knowing what to blog about because everything seems too personal to put out on the web...what would people think of me if they knew ____....I digress...)

Today, I was not asking it a personal question, but a very relevant one -- where to have dinner!? Last night we discussed what we'd like for dinner tonight --eating out is not something we do often, so we try to put a little planning in it! My hubby wanted a good, southern Chicken Fried Steak. He swears he had a really good one somewhere, but can't remember where. I was kind enough to go through our receipts for the year, and I cannot find where he's had one out, go figure. But when I did a quick web search, I came across a web site --- www.chowhound.com I was surprised! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. But it's such a nice little list of people's honest opinions! Since I have such a love of food, this could be a MEGA-time waster...so excuse me, while I'm off to read about Farmers Markets in the area!

Gardening...or something like it???

So, I fell victim to an info-mercial a few months ago. No, I'm not proud of the fact that I ordered this gadget. I'm sure there are worse things I could have wasted my money on, but this is what I chose!

Basically, it's a hanging planter. I ordered one, even got my parents one. We would grow our own vegetables without having to do all that ground work. Well, actually, it wasn't the ground work that bothered me...it was more like I didn't want the dogs "fertilizing" my efforts.

I believe I ordered these gimmicks back in February. Of course, I immediately rushed out to purchase plants to put in there. I opted for plants that had already sprouted, that's what we got. I've watched as these plants grow and grow. We've harvested one, yes that's 1, tomato so far.

Why it split open at the top, well, who knows. I'm newer than a "novice" gardner -- whatever that would be! I'm certain that at this point, I would not recommend this device to grow producing plants. Who knows, perhaps, this is all a test of my patience??? Luck for me, my mom knows several white-topped ladies who use these to grow bundles of them, or maybe it's bushels of them????



In all honesty, I cut it open yesterday. It even had a beautiful red color on the inside and it was delicious! There is undoubtedly a reason people grow their own gardens -- the taste of fresh produce is second to none! I'm optimistic that I'll get a couple of more -- I mean there's probably a few months to produce on these plants, right? Economically, this may not have been a wise buy, and for all I spent to grow one tomato, ouch! So, here's hoping to more tastiness in the near future!

Whew!

Ok, I've made a few changes to my little space here on this world of mine.

I've added a picture -- that's Daisy & Missy hanging out by the window. I've added a few of my favorite songs down below. Hopefully, I can remember how I did this and will add more in the furutre.

This was taken over the weekend. My younger cousin graduated from high school this weekend. It was a very exciting time. I guess in my mind -- and I'm probably the only one that thought about it -- this was the first of our generation that my grandparents were not here to witness such a proud moment. I'm probably the only one to be so sentimental about it, but all the same, it was very happy, but a little sad. I wish they could have congradulated him on such a great achievement. He's looking to go to school in D.C. That will be a big change for such at Texas based family!

That's life -- things a changin'!

I just want to complain...

The AC is out. It's been 6 months since we had it repaired. It's been in our house for less than 3 years. Less than 3 years ago, we replaced the entire thing. I do not live in a climate, nor have I properly acclimatized myself to adjust to the tropics that I'm living in. The dogs are overheating. They are overheating to a degree that I swear causes our inside temperature to increase at least an additional 5 degrees.
Fuel is horribly expensive. I am cheap and do not want to put gas in my car. I do not know how to transport over 40 pounds of dog food from the store to my house without driving. I say over 40 pounds because we buy a 40 pound bag of dry dog food in addition to can food. The 40 pound bag of dog food has increased by $3.00 over the last six months.
My job requires me to pay attention to fuel prices. I do not know how people can afford to put gas in their cars. I know many people that have to drive for work. I cannot imagine how they are paying their other bills and their fuel bills. It is simply ridiculous.
Memorial Day weekend in protest of the high fuel costs I had my own little sit in. I did not leave town, I drove as little as possible. I could not believe the traffic on the highways when I did get out of the house. Why do I feel sorry for these people who still can manage to drive all over the place, eat out in restaurants, go to the movies ,while I'm sitting at home trying to figure out how to save money???
My hair has gotten so gray. I try to be thankful that I have hair, because, sadly, it is falling out. I do not want to sit and have it dyed. I do not want to spend the money, I do not want to waste my time. I know people may judge me for not maintaining my appearance. I hope they simply do not look my way. That'll be fine by me, too.
I don't know if it's just the day, the time, or the temperature that has caused me to want to complain. But, my goodness, this is my short list of complaints. I could go on and on. I could complain about politics, the cable company, the upcoming switch to digital signal, just to name a few things. There are even more legitimate complaints -- unwanted children in our country, puppy mills, and a disregard for respect for each other.
Tonight, I will have to simply be thankful that I can complain. I know there are so many out there trapped, unable to complain, or perhaps have no one to complain to....at least I have you!