A Little Something to Beat the Winter Blues

Here is what I was doing the first weekend of December. Wheee!!

Where Have I been?

I started this way back before Christmas.... never finished, but thought I would share to let you know I've at least tried to post at times....

Lee




Twas the week before Christmas and all through my crib
The noises were deafening
The cats had all hid.

The girls were both screaming
they had caught a slight cold
it was time for a nap,
there was laundry to fold.

And I in my T-shirt and
favorite sweat pants,
was craving a shower, would I
get the chance?

The contractor was down in the
basement below,
He'd turned off the water
The shower was no go.

Manic Monday: Ornament

Okay so it's Tuesday....that's why my Mondays are Manic.

Here are some photos of ornaments on my tree. Thought I would share them with you. We all have those special ornaments on our tree that have a story or special meaning behind them, but how often do we get the chance to share that history with others. Here's a chance to share with you and I'm taking it.

This looks like a Hummel but is not. It is probably one of, if not THE oldest ornaments on the tree. It hung on my Memaw's Christmas tree for as long as I can remember back. There is a little pull string on the bottom and the music box ornament plays "Make Someone Happy". My grandparents made me so very happy when they gave me this ornament last year. My Grandaddy hid it in my suitcase when we were at the airport getting ready to fly home last year after Christmas. I found it after I got home. I cried....

This ornament is from 1976. One of my mom's best friends made it for me...at least I think she made it. Pooh was my nickname when I was little that is why it's on the ornament. Can you believe this little ceramic Santa has made it this long?!



I made this blue and white star sometime in the early 80's. My church youth handbell choir made these bead ornaments for Christmas one year as a fund raiser. We would go to a HUGE national English Handbell Ringers Convention every other year. We sold these to help us get there that year. I can remember sitting at the tables at church stringing these together with our choir director. She drove me crazy because she was Hard core! It's bitter sweet remembering her...she died in a car accident when I was around 14. She was probably the best choir director I ever had.

This is E. T. My parents bought this ornament for me. It is a family inside joke....I'm not even going there because it would be embarrassing for me to tell you.... I like this ornament though, it's cool how it connects to a light to make the moon shine.

This is one of the newest ornaments on our tree. My cool ass husband bought this one for me last year. It is Obi Wan and Anakin Skywalker dueling. It is also from my favorite scene of Episode III...when Obi Wan is screaming at Anakin and telling him he was supposed to be the chosen one. I cry every time at that scene....I'm such a geek. This ornament has awesome lights and sound bites from the movie.

There you have them. Hope you enjoyed my stories and my ornaments.

Bats: A Disclaimer

I feel that I need to make some things known about the story "Bats". From the comments I have received from all of you, I have come to the conclusion many of you believe the story to be one of fact.

It is in "fact" a story of fiction. Yes, I did take those photos, and yes those are three foot bats....give or take an inch or two. They do reside in the Asian or African exhibit at the Colombus Zoo, but they were not captured at my home.

I have not met Jack Hannah in person, *how awesome that would be though*. I just have a good imagination and it would seem a persuasive way with the word.

Sorry if I mislead any of you, it was just a fun story I made up.

Happy Halloween...Oh, wait...I missed that day!

Whoo Hooo! Two nights in a row posting. The Earth stops turning, the Mississippi runs backwards, there is a lunar eclipse, and comets streak through the night sky...

Okay, so maybe the Earth didn't stop, but you can't expect everything.

I am going to try and catch you up on some stuffage. Halloween was a blast for the girls this year. I worked very hard on their costumes. They were a mouse and a skunk. Kenzie also talked me into buying her a Buzz Lightyear costume, but I refused to let her trick-or-treat in it when I worked so hard on making her mouse costume. She didn't seem to mind once she saw the mose duds.

We went out on the Saturday before Halloween. This town does Halloween right. Everyone sits on their front porches and passes out candy to the kids. There are so many people out you can hardly get down the sidewalks sometimes. One person we talked to said they ususally get around 400 kids each year. Can you imagine buying that much candy to pass out. I love seeing all the kids in their costumes. Some of them are soooo cute and original.

Something I thought was interesting: Our town passed an ordinance that no one over the age of 12 could wear a mask that night. I never found out why.. maybe not to scare the little ones, maybe to keep the sex offenders away, maybe to keep people from robbing banks...who knows? If any of you do, fill me in.

The girls had a blast. They were definitely a hit with all the people and racked in the sweets! We had to go through all the candy on account of Lyanna's peanut and egg allergies. Halloween can be a little scary when you have a little one with a peanut allergy. I just made sure we had our epi pen and Benadryl with us.

Here are some pics so you can share the moment with us.

Bats Part 2

So many folks have been curious as to what happened with the bats. I apologize for being gone for so long. Life has a habit of getting in the way. I've been so busy with family lately, as it should be at times. But, the hubby went to TN for the weekend and I have a little quiet alone time. I will try my best to finish the story of the bats. I only hope that some of the people who read the original post are still lurking around and checking back here to get the ending.


So, there we were. Two enormous bats hanging on the house. No one would help us out. No one knew where the heck these things had come from. I was really annoyed with the animal control guy. I mean, that was his job, to rescue poor ordinary people like me from scary, perhaps life threatening, wild animals! Without his help I wasn't sure what to do. I hid in my house and thought about what my options might be. Suddenly I had an idea!

There is an awesome zoo in Colombus. Surely they would be interested in three foot bats. I looked up the number and quickly called. It took being transferred several times and telling my story over and over before I was connected to the right person.

Can you believe my luck!! My case was so unusual that after emailing photos to the zoo, and having the animal control people call and verify that I was really telling the truth and not some freaky crazy woman....I got to talk to the man himself.

Yep, that's right, Jack Hanna himself talked to me on the phone. He just happened to be at the zoo the day I called. A few hours later-- there was Jack at my home. He was shocked and amazed at the two bats. There are not supposed to be bats that large in North America. These two were very strange and shouldn't even exist. Duh.... Jack and his helpers from the zoo easily captured the scary beasts and said they would definitely keep us informed on what they found out about their existence.

The first thoughts were that they had escaped from a zoo or someone had brought them up from South America illegally. Then after studying them for a few days the zoo discovered they were a type of bat normally found in our area....just giant specimens.

A team of researchers/specialists was eventually called in to investigate. They began to investigate every type of place they knew this type of bat roosted. It was not unusual for these bats *in their normal small and not scary as hell ginormous size* to roost in barns, storage type buildings, and warehouses. There are many of these types of places in our area....so the investigation was looking like a gigantic challenge.

There was finally a break... chemicals found in the bats' bloodstreams led the team of investigators to one of the huge plants on the Ohio River just a few miles south of where we live. Jackpot!

The investigation turned up several more of the large species of bat roosting in the buildings of the plant. It is a well known fact that the community we live in has been fighting with this company for many years over the amount of chemicals and pollution it spews into the air. These same pollutants caused a mutation in the bats and created the monsters that showed up on our front door step.

Of course the company didn't want any of this to get out to the public....they are striving to maintain that they do their best to follow all the EPA guidelines.....sure, whatever. The story was squashed from running in the papers...and I believe a huge research grant was made to the zoo to keep things quiet . So, we don't know what happened to the other large bats. I'm assuming that there are still mutant bats out there and I keep my eye out for them in the twilight hours....

The two that were at our home are now on display at the Colombus zoo. If you are ever there you should go and check them out. I believe they are part of the Africa exhibit... they don't want people here in the US freaking out over huge ass bats...but I know the truth and now so do you!

Manic Monday: Bat

I have a couple of cool pictures for today's word: Bat

This one was hanging right outside my front door...you can see the doorknob just to the left of his wing.....biggest dang thing I've ever seen. I woke up in the morning, got my cup of coffee and started to step outside the door to see what kind of day it was and lo' and behold there he was. He was hanging by one foot on the left-over halloween decorations.... we thought someone had put another decoration up as a joke. But no...it was a real bat! He was about 3 feet long at least.

Here is his buddy. This one was hanging from one of the eaves on the second floor. Pretty creepy huh? We called animal control and the guy who came out said he wasn't touching these guys with a 10 foot pole.

We couldn't have anyone over with a huge 3 foot bat on our front porch, right in front of the door, so we had to come up with some kind of plan......

Running With the Devil

Oh yeah, I went and saw Van Halen in Cleveland, Wednesday night!! It was AWESOME!! Another band that I never thought I would get to see together again in my lifetime. Eddie Van Halen is AMAZING on guitar. Probably the best guitarist I've ever seen/heard in person. He rocked on "Eruption"...just unbelievable.

And yes DAVID LEE ROTH is back! *Van Halen with Sammy Hagar and that other guy from Extreme doesn't really exist for me* I love Diamond Dave! He is such the performer. Can't do all the crazy jumping around like he did back in the 80's but he still has that high kick!

He sounds just like he always did. I had flashbacks to being 14 again and sitting in my best friend's room, hanging out with all the "heads". All the guys liked her and I was always the odd girl out....until we got older.

They didn't have Michael Anthony with them...but Wolfgang *Eddie's son* did a fairly decent job. I only saw him get flustered on one song...and I think they got off track as a whole band.

And so, I leave you with some classic Van Halen: JUMP! *The year I made cheerleader we tried out to this song* They ended the concert with this song...oh Dave, you were so hot then....you are so strange now.... I know he misses that hair.

Manic Monday: Orange

The word for today is: ORANGE

I am currently working on teaching my 2 and 3 year olds their colors. Now the 3 year old pretty much has the basics down. She knows the colors and can point to them and tell you what they are....she has no clue about letters and numbers, but by golly she knows the colors.

The 2 year old knows the color pink. That's about it. BUT...she can tell you what every letter of the alphabet is, by sight. AND she knows all her numbers by sight. It's scary...

What I am working on with both of them is a series of songs about the major colors. We have a song for Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Purple, Orange, Brown, Pink, Black, and White. I am going to share the Orange song with you today. You are so lucky!

ORANGE

(sung to the tune: 10 Little Indians)

O - R - A - N - G - E

O - R - A - N - G - E

O - R - A - N - G - E

Orange is what that spells.

Jack-o-lanterns are always orange,

Carrots are always orange,

Oranges are always orange,

O - R - A - N - G - E!

Now if any of you other moms out there want to know the words and the tunes for the other songs just send me a line and I'll share. They are all pretty cute and most of them are easy for the kids to learn. My girls already know the songs for red, yellow, blue, and green. We are working on the others....we practice our color songs in the tub.

Some Housekeeping

I have added some folks to my "Look What I Found" list. Some are old friends that I've found again and some are new peeps who I've been lucky to meet through the Manic Monday writing.

So...please welcome to the blogroll:

It's a Blog Eat Blog World: Written by Mo, the fearless leader of Manic Monday, and so many other things!

DUWARD DISCUSSION: Written by Jaimie. I love reading her posts. They are so informing and thoughtful. I learns something new from her each time I go there.

From Bryn Mawr to You: Written by Jessica and Matt. Two of my friends from Arkansas who are now living in the beautiful state, Alaska.

Manic Monday: Kit

Todays word is Kit:

The first thing I thought of when I saw the word Kit was KITT the car from Knight Rider. Duh..how many of us who grew up in the 80's thought that one. So... I skipped it.

The second thing I thought of was Catwoman. Yes, that's right Catwoman: Eartha Kitt. I know, I know, the name is spelled with two "t"s instead of one, but that's what you're getting today.

I absolutely LOVED to watch that 1960's Batman show. It came on every afternoon after school where I lived. All my friends and I watched those reruns religiously. "Same Bat-time, Same Bat Channel". Somewhere, I even have Adam West's and Burt Ward's autographs. We would play "Batman and Robin" for hours on end. I would always be Catwoman or Batgirl...not like there were a lot of choices, but Catwoman was my favorite. (I have a thing for villians)

Now, Eartha Kitt was not my favorite Catwoman....no way jose'. That will always be Julie Newmar. She was just soooooooo sexy, slinky, cool. But, Eartha Kitt had that voice....WOW, she could purr like no one's business. Here are some facts about the wonderful Eartha Kitt, who is best known as Catwoman, but is also a renown singer.

Eartha Kitt was born on January 26, 1928 in South Carolina to a family of sharecroppers. When she was eight years old she was sent to live with her aunt in Harlem. While in high school she became involved in the performing arts and studied dance. She was part of her church choir and also took piano lessons.

At sixteen she joined the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe and toured in Europe. While in Europe she had to fill in for a singer during the tour and decided she liked singing more than dancing. Orson Wells called her "the most exciting woman in the world" and signed her to star as Helen of Troy in his stage production of Dr. Faust in Paris. Her first film was Time Runs, an Orson Wells film. She acted in Batman in 1967, supposedly because they wanted to make it seem that Batman was in love with Batgirl rather than Catwoman.

While attending a White House luncheon in 1968 she denounced the Vietnam War in front of Mrs. Johnson, which led to her blacklisting, where she could not get a job in America for six years. She performed solely overseas from 1968 until 1974. "It wasn't that the American public didn't want me. It was that I couldn't get work anywhere. Even people I had contracted with wouldn't work with me," Kitt said.

She was watched by the C I A , which for years kept a thick file on her. "I was rejected artistically, emotionally and personally. I remember thinking, my own mother had given me away and now my country didn't want me either,"

She was one of only a handful of performers to be nominated for an Emmy, a Tony, two Grammys and an Academy Award. She has made a comeback of late, has released a book, a new recording and performs on a regular basis. Still, an activist, she is outspoken for her stance on Gay Rights which she feels is the community that stuck with her through the bad times when she was blacklisted.

She lives in Westchester, New York where she still amazes audiences with her one-of-a-kind personality.

Flash Back Friday Photo: Great Grands

This is my Great Granddad George Mann White on the left, and Great Great Granddad David T. Rochelle on the right.

I was sent this picture by one of my Mom's 1st cousins. I actually was born before my Grandad White passed away. I have pictures of him holding me as a toddler. This is the only picture I have ever seen of Great Great Grandad Rochelle.

I wish I knew what year this was...I love this picture. They both look so relaxed and happy. I'm guess late 1920's? Grandad White always had a cigar. He looks so much like my grandfather and my uncles ..or I guess they looked like him.

Grandad White owned a feed store in Arkansas and had a farm house. My great uncles took over the feed store and one of them lived next door to the farm house. I have such great memories of going to the feed store as a kid. We would roller skate there. It was set up in a way that it formed a perfect sized roller rink "circle". The floor was just smooth concrete perfect for skating.

It always had such a distinct smell as well. A mix of seeds, dust, salt, hay, soil... it smelled good to me. I loved to go to the seed bins and open all the different drawers and look at the seeds. They were different colors, sizes, textures.... They always felt cool, and I would scoup huge handfuls up and let the them run through my fingers back into the drawer....until someone caught me and told me to get out of those drawers! Someone always ran me off from there, I never understood what was so bad about me playing in the seeds. I guess they thought I was going to spill them everywhere.

The other thing we used to do is make our own sausage there every year. My family would all pitch in together *all grandparents, cousins, and kids* and buy a hog or two. Then we would gather at the feed store one evening and grind and mix the sausage, and link it ourselves. At my cousins and I were too young to help...that's when we would skate and explore. Then, as we got older we were allowed to help out. Making your own sausage is pretty gross.... but man oh man was that sausage good. I will never have sausage as good as that again.

Anyway.... like I said, I love this picture. It makes me think of good times and makes me wish I could have known the both of them. I love to hear the stories about them, but I wish I could have known them.

Come on Down...

Yes, today I'm going to talk a little bit about The Price is Right. It's Tuesday and I don't really have much to talk about today...and this is something I've been meaning to write about for a while but just keep forgetting about and I happened to remember today...*breath*....

I have two anecdotes for you about the beloved game show. The first is not so interesting, but kind of funny to me and my family. My grandfather is a HUGE fan of the show. I'm anxious to discuss with him his feelings of the departure of Bob Barker. I am wondering how well he is going to like Drew... it may ruin the show for him.

When I was pregnant with my second born, I would watch The Price is Right every day. This was before the days of watching the Disney Channel, and Nick Jr.... I loved to call my grandfather and talk with him as we watched the show, or right after to talk about the contestants.

When I actually gave birth to my second daughter, we went in the hospital around 6am...watched the morning news show, and then whatever..The Price is Right...and as soon as that was over, we were in business... it was almost as if the announcer said "Come on Down!" and Lyanna did. We all think it's hilarious here...

The other thing that happened during that time was something I saw on one particular show. I don't know if anyone else happened to see it, or comment about it....but I thought I would pee my pants while watching it. *I was pregnant*

As usual a group of college kids was there. One of the guys was called down to the front. Every time he was asked to bid on an item he would give the same amount:
$420.

FOUR TWENTY!!! His friends were dying in their seats each time, laughing their assess off, the rest of the audience had no clue what was going on, and Bob definitely didn't. Knowing that the audience was totally clueless was funny enough...I kept wondering why no one took the kid off the air...but I guess no one at the show knew what was going on either...which made it even more funny..I sort of felt sorry for Bob, because it was kind of sad to see him being duped that way..... It was hilarious, I just wish the guy would have actually wond something and gotten on stage...that would have been GREAT!

"Gotta go with four twenty Bob..." "Bob, I gotta say four twenty..." "Sticking with four twenty this time Bob..."

That had to be, hands down, one of the funniest days of that show for me.

If you don't know about 4:20 here is the Wikipedia definition and a linky poo:

4:20 (cannabis culture)

4:20 or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) is a term used in North America as a discreet way to refer to the consumption of cannabis and, by extension, a way to identify oneself with cannabis culture. Phrases such as "420 friendly" sometimes appear in roommate advertisements, indicating that the current occupants are tolerant of cannabis users. [2]

Manic Monday: Crisp

A Haiku for you:


I bit the apple

Crisp.....and juice ran down my chin.

Is this how Eve felt?

What's your Career choice?

Kelly had this little Meme on her blog and it looked cool to do so, I did it.


1. Go to www.careercruising.com.
2. Put in Username: nycareers; Password: landmark.
3. Take their "Career Matchmaker" questions.
4. Post the top whatever results

These are mine: Interesting enough, my career choice is on here...just at #17..

1.
Music Teacher / Instructor

2.
Actor

3.
Computer Trainer

4.
Personal Trainer

5.
Director of Photography

6.
Musician

7.
Casting Director

8.
Comedian

9.
Composer

10.
ESL Teacher

11.
Foreign Language Instructor

12.
Special Effects Technician

13.
Dancer

14.
Driving Instructor

15.
Elementary School Teacher

16.
Professor

17.
High School Teacher

18.
Fitness Instructor

19.
Teacher Assistant

20.
Set Designer

21.
Costume Designer

22.
Early Childhood Educator

23.
Website Designer

24.
Animator

25.
Desktop Publisher

26.
Multimedia Developer

27.
Cartoonist / Comic Illustrator

28.
Animal Trainer

29.
Nanny

30.
Library Technician

31.
Computer Animator

32.
Critic

33.
Artist

34.
Graphic Designer

35.
Bus Driver

36.
Video Game Developer

37.
Market Research Analyst

38.
Print Journalist

39.
Activist

40.
Political Aide

Flash Back Friday Returns....With a new twist.

I haven't done a Flashback Friday in a long time. The reason behind that being: no one has given me any dates to flashback to. So.....I decided to revamp the idea. I've noticed a lot of bloggers have Photo Friday. I didn't want to really copy that, but I'll take it a little further and combine the two.

I will now have Flashback Photo Friday. I promise, to the best of my ability, to have some sort of photo from the past to share with you on Fridays. If you want to participate in this with me, just leave me a comment about it. Here's the rules... You have to have a photo from the past. Can be your past, someone else's past, something you saw, something you think is intersting..etc. but it has to be from the past. Would be nice to have a paragraph to go with it, explaining what it is, or why it has meaning to you.

So...without further ado I give you my first FLASHBACK PHOTO:

This is me in New Orleans, with a beer and a whole big bucket of crawdaddies! Yes, I am in the French Quarter and this was just moments before those little mud bugs were thrown into a big pot of boiling water with some seasoning, corn, and potatoes....tossed onto a plate, and then eaten by ME! Yummy for the tummy!

This was March 2003, hanging out in the Big Easy before leaving on our marriage/honeymoon cruise.....

Oh here's me sucking some head.

New Room and a Big Girl Bed

My 3 year old was still sleeping in her crib until this week. She finally figured out she could climb out of the bed. Everytime she climbed out she went wandering around the house. The wandering wouldn't have been so bad if she could keep crap out of her mouth.....which for some reason she can't. I had to call the stupid poison control because she tried to brush her teeth with acne medicine....

The poison control person said she would be fine, but her mouth might be a little irritated. Brad says: "Well at least she won't have pimples on her teeth." Ha ha!

So.....anyway.... we knew it was time for her to move out of the nursery and have her own room and a big bed.

Luckily her crib evolves into a nice double bed, so we spent today setting up her new room. It turned out really really cute and she absolutely ADORES it. We were so glad that she did, and so far so good, she hasn't tried to crawl out of bed and go wandering.....we do have a tension gate on the door though.

UPDATE: She has gotten out of bed twice....this last time she wandered down the stairs to where we were watching t.v. She had managed to climb out of bed, over the gate, and was down to just a diaper...where or where had the jammies gone? So....I took her back up to her bed, changed her diaper, got her dressed. Took the chair out of the room she used to climb over the gate, re arranged the bed, and then Brad comes in and lays down with her. Hopefully she'll go to sleep with him in there with her...we'll see.

Wish us good luck with the big change!

My Hone-ee, My Hone-ee

Pronounced like Phoney..... That is what my 2 year old calls My Little Pony. We had a My Little Pony themed birthday party for them this year. I haven't put up any pictures from the party because I am waiting for my in-laws to send me the one's they took.

I am going to put up pictures of the birthday cake I made instead. It was a work of love and my first attempt at a blue horse, so give me a break. I think it actually turned out pretty good for a first attempt at so large a cake. It took 3 cake mixes to make this sucker.

Here is a picture of the Pony I used as my "model".

Here is my cake:

Cake when first cut to make horse shape

Parts that got wasted: I am on a diet....

Mmmmmm.....FROSTING!...before it turned blue.

Starting to look like Rainbow Dash...

We have color...the mane and face are added

And here is the finished product....what do you think?

Clue

I guess what immediately comes to mind when I hear or see the word "clue" is, of course, the board game. I spent many a rainy afternoon or late night playing this game with my friends and/or family. I liked being Professor Plum...I think because the piece was purple, and he looked smart on the picture....My mom was always Ms. Scarlett..wonder what that says about her personality? Wouldn't that be an interesting quiz type thingy. What does your favorite Clue piece say about you....hmmmmmmmm....


Looky what I found! I took the quiz and wouldn't you know it...I got Prof. Plum. Too freaking funny!

What Clue Character are you?

The other thing that comes to mind is Sherlock Holmes and my little brother Daniel. I am a crazy mad reader. I can NOT ever get enough to read, or enough time to read what I want. I like reading mysteries....good mysteries. I enjoy a nice Sherlock Holmes story. They make you think and most of the time they are a little bit creepy too. Daniel likes Sherlock Holmes stories too. He even went so far as to dress as Sherlock Holmes at Halloween once. I think....I have a picture of him dressed up....he also collects pipes. I wonder if his love of Sherlock Holmes led to his eccentric hobby

Rock On!

The Scorpions

Detroit, Michigan

September 6, 2007

First Weekend for NFL 2007!!

Whoo hoo! Football season has started! I LOVE Pro football and laying on the couch on Sunday afternoon and watching and just being lazy.



I love playing Fantasy too! As promised to Ian: here is my 2007 Fantasy Draft...subject to change as the season progresses:



The 2007 Dogtowne Ladybugs



QB: Drew Brees

WR: Anquan Boldin

WR: Reggie Brown

RB: Steven Jackson

TE: Benjamin Watson

FLEX: Brandon Jacobs

FLEX: Jamal Lewis

K: Josh Scobee

D: Chris Hope

D: Kerry Rhodes

D: Aaron Kampman



BENCH: Santana Moss

BENCH: Ben Roethlisberger

BENCH: Ron Dayne

BENCH: Marty Booker

BENCH: Tony Scheffler

BENCH: Justin Miller


It is not such a bad team, but I am soooo losing this week. BLEH! My guys just didn't perform this weekend....I'll crack the whip, bust some assess and get them back in shape for next weekend!

Manic Monday: Faith

I have never really blogged yet about how my husband and I met and eventually ended up getting married. I think it is a great story to share and I don't know why I haven't talked about it til now....it fits in well with Faith. It took a lot of faith for both of us to get where we are today.


I had been divorced just under three years. I had been dating off and on, only one person seriously...but that had ended a little messily. My fault, not his. I had done some really dumb things in my new found freedom, but I was trying to get myself straightened out again and my life back to some kind of order.

I took a position at my church as Youth Director after much thought and prayer and things started to get better for me. My job situation got better. My living situation got better. Dating was still kind of bleh..... but I wasn't giving up just yet.

It is so hard to date when you are in your 30's. Specially if you aren't into the whole bar or club scene. I spent alot of time on the computer playing games and chatting. Dated a couple of people I met online but wasn't really serious about anyone. It was just before Christmas when I decided I was done with guys for awhile. I had just broken things off with a guy who turned out to be a psycho. I swear.... he even pulled the "I'm going to kill myself if you don't go out with me." bullshit. I called his bluff on that one and sent the cops to his apartment. Hee hee. I was just really really sick of all the stupid stuff.

Then, I was hanging out in an Arkansas Yahoo chat room and I met Brad. He and I just chatted a little and that was it. Christmas came and went, I moved and didn't have internet for a while. When I got it back up in early Jan. I ran across Brad's profile again. I said, "oh, what the heck" and sent him a message. We ended up chatting off and on for about a week. Decided to call each other on the phone....

Our phone calls ended up being 4 and 5 hour marathons. After about a week of that we decided to go on a date and meet in person.

We met on January 12, 2003. It took a lot of faith to meet in person someone you only chatted with online... you never knew what the person was REALLY going to be like until you saw them. He was exactly as he described himself and we got along great, started dating exclusively.

Brad asked me to marry him on Valentine's Day...yep, one month after we met. I said yes. That took a lot of faith.... believing that he was truly the right man after only knowing him a month.

We got married on April 1, 2003. Two months after he proposed. It was what you call a whirlwind romance. I think our friends and family thought we had lost our minds. They were kind of worried about us.

BUT.... we had faith that God had brought us together. We both had come through divorces and knew where we had gone wrong before, we knew what we REALLY wanted in a marriage. We talked about all those things before we got married. We talked about where we wanted to live, children, religion, working, money, dreams, goals....all those things.

It was meant to be, and I haven't regretted anything. Our lives have been one big adventure after another together. We have gotten married, moved across the country, quit our jobs and took over a business, had two children..... all within our first two years of marriage!

We have been married just over 4 years now and we are still as happy as ever. Everything isn't always perfect...that would be so boring! All the crazy stuff keeps life interesting and we have a lot of fun.

So, that is how we met and ended up getting married. Maybe next time I'll tell you how we took our honeymoon before the wedding.

Happy Birthday 2007

Please welcome two new members of the family:



















Sammy






















Solda



Kenzie named them. Sammy is easy to figure out...hamster = hammy = Sammy. Solda....we don't know where that came from.


These little cuties are one of the girls' birthday presents. Today Lyanna is two and tomorrow Kenzie will be three. It doesn't seem possible that so much time has gone by already.

We had a "Pony and Pizza Party" yesterday. I'm sure I'll have more for you soon.

Happy Birthday Girls!

Froggy: Part 1

Once upon a time there was a small frog who lived in a pond in the middle of a large open field. There wasn't really anything special about this frog. He had been an average tadpole. Sure it had taken him a little longer than the other tads to completely lose his tail, but eventually it had disappeared. He had to endure some teasing from the other froglets for it, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Since he had entered his froglet years he had spent his time eating flies and mosquitos, practicing his lily-pad jumping, and challenging the other froglets to swimming and jumping competitions. Sometimes he won, sometimes he lost. Like I said, he was an average amphibian.

Everything was going just fine for Froggy Boy until the middle of the summer. It had gotten extremely hot, humid, and sticky. The boundaries of the pond had begun to shrink. Everyone in the pond community was getting cranky. The "nice" fish were caught tail slapping the old three legged turtle. He was an easy target for them because he was already slow, being as he was a turtle...then missing one leg...you can just imagine. It took two water snakes, a catfish, and three young raccoons to chase them away.

Drop

The theme for today is "Drop"....


Story from Freshman year of college:

I attended Hendrix College in Conway, AR. I had a lot of crazy friends in college. On this particular evening we had been sitting around the dorms drinking as usual...getting pretty buzzed. Someone had dared someone else to go streaking. Not just streaking....as on campus...which wouldn't have been so strange, (Streaking was known to go on occasionally around our school) but streaking in a business establishment in town.

We all started in on him as soon as we heard the dare. He was to streak through The Food For Less. Rules had to be applied... It was to be full nudity, he could not run in the door and then turn around and run back out. He had to run all the way from the "In" door across the front of the store to the "Out" door. We promised to be there waiting with the car door open and motor running to make a quick get-a-way. In his inebriated state, he agreed.

He stripped down to his boxers and we loaded up in two cars. Arriving at the "Food for Sex", "Food for Free"...I mean Food for Less.. half of us went to watch.

My friend's boxers dropped and he ran into the store screaming and dancing like a crazy fool.
He kept shouting "I'm from UCA!"(the name of the state school across town from our private school) grabbed handfuls of nuts from the huge nut bins at the front and throwing them up in the air.

It was quite a sight to see. He managed to make it to the exit doors and everyone involved made a clean get-a-way.

He never did get his boxers back. Me and a couple of others confiscated them, cut them into little strips and passed them out to everyone who was involved in the incident. We wore the little strips tied around our shoelaces....corny I know, but it was a way we bonded as new students in a strange new world. Whenever we saw someone with the littel blue and white strip tied on the shoe we could nod and smile...having a little secret to share.

Lie

Dont' have anything yet

Miss

Miss is the word for Manic Monday: I TOTALLY missed posting on Monday for Manic Monday.....

Some totally random things come to mind when I hear or see the word "miss".

First and foremost in my mind: Janet Jackson, "I miss you muh uch...M-i-s-s-u Much..."

Then I think how calling someone Miss always seemed derogatory to me. I HATE it when someone calls me that. It's almost like they think I'm a little kid or something. When I was single and teaching I always had my students call me Ms. not Miss....not that there's a whole lot of distinction between the two....I just didn't want them writing out my name with Miss in front...UGH! It makes me think of some little old maid lady with grey hair and lots of doilies in her house. Probably a retired librarian....

Of course Mississippi is in my thoughts as well. MISS being the old postal abbreviation. My grandparents lived in Miss. and my grandmother's family is all from there. Yes, there is even a old platation owner in my past.....sorry but it's' the truth...my family had slaves. I had no control over it so please don't hold it against me. I would feel quite a-miss if you did.

Swiss Miss hot chocolate...Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I can feel the warmth in my hands and smell the warm scent of cocoa wafting up to my cold little winter red nose.

Lastly... things I miss. I miss Arkansas and the south. I miss my family, my dogs, my cat Helen who lives in Texass now..poor thing. My pre-baby figure. Being able to go to movies, sometimes teaching....lots of things...

Anyway that's my post for "miss"....

I'll Give it a Try.....Something New For Me to Do

I am working on a story for you guys to read. Don't know how it's going to turn out.. It's kind of dorky where it stands now, but I got an idea and I'm rolling with it. I'll get it up sometime soon.

Thinking I'm going to join the Manic Monday writing thingy... If you read E-Dog's Everything Page then you know what I'm talking about. If you don't read then heres the linky-poo. Manic Monday

I need something to get me more creative again. I need to get the muses talking to me again. I've just gotten so lost in "Mommy-world" that I've got to do some things to get me out of it sometimes. I think maybe Manic Monday will help. Who knows..... a story and a challenge. What's the world coming to?

I've also been reading a lot of people's blogs with recipes. Diner Girl has quite the La Ti Dah site going with her French Laundry blog. Fine dining at it's best if you live in her neighborhood. I REALLY wish I lived next door to her. I also read blogs with recipes for things with no eggs and nuts. *Lyanna's allergies*...Gotten some good ideas from those as well... AND... I have been cooking up lots of good veggie dishes with the bountiful harvests from the garden this year.

SO...I thought what the hell. I'll start putting up some of my favorite recipes. Now they aren't going to be gourmet dishes. Most of them are going to be just good ole homecooking *more than likely southern dishes*. They aren't fancy but they are good and you can make them yourself at home without anything too out of the ordinary.

I'm going to start ya'll out with my recipe for homemade salsa. Almost all the fresh ingredients are out of my own garden. I'll even give ya a picture of the finished product. You must try this at home! And please.....go ahead and double the batch, you'll be glad you did.

Homemade Tomato Salsa

Ingredients:

6 Plum Tomatos, Seeded and Diced
1/2 Cup Diced Yellow Onion
* 1 Jalapeno, Seeded and Diced (Cover Your Hands!)*
2 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
2 Tablespoons Chopped Fresh Parsley
1 Tablespoon Minced Fresh Cilantro
1 Teaspoon Crushed Dried Oregano (I use fresh out of my garden)
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/8 Teaspoon Black Pepper

I use a food processor to dice the tomatos first.
Put the diced tomatos in a medium size bowl, large if you double the recipe.
Then I dice the onions.
Add them to the tomatos.
Finally I use it to chop the garlic, parsley, cilantro and oregano all at once.
Add this mixture to the tomatos and onion.
Mix in the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
You can eat it immediately but it tastes oh so much better if you refrigerate the salsa for at least an hour.

Serve it up with chips, veggies, tacos...etc.

*Hot peppers contain oils that can burn your eyes, lips, and skin. Cover one or both hands with plastic gloves or bags. Be sure to wash your hands thoroughly before touching your eyes or face!!!*

My peppers from the garden are so hot, that I have to hold my breath while cutting and seeding them or I end up in a coughing fit.


Anyhow...that's it. Yummy yummy yummy! I can't hardly keep any in the fridge we eat it so fast. If you try it, please let me know what you think.

Just Stuff...Again

Alright...so not feeling like I have much to say tonight. Brad has gone to Arkansas for his 20th class reunion. I stayed home because I have things to do to get ready for Bible School at church next week. That should be interesting, but I refuse to talk about it here on the grounds that I just don't want to talk about church stuffage here. So there...

Took the girls to Mc D's, known in our household as "Boys", to wear them out so they would go to bed tonight. It seemed to have worked well. They are both passed out cold upstairs and I'm having some nice quiet time. I don't know why they call Mc Donald's "Boys". That is what Kenzie has called it since she could talk....wierd I know. She also thinks Grimace is Henry the Octopus from "The Wiggles"....go figure...she's two.

In my quest to lost the hideous baby fat I put on since having two babies in less than a year...I joined Weight Watchers. This will be my second full week. I go for weigh in tomorrow. I did pretty well the first week and lost a whole pound and a half....I don't know about this week. I didn't do as well..... made cup cakes for the girls and ate one.... *big sigh here*.... sometimes you gotta go for the pink frosting.

I am diligently exercising every day during the week. Doing pretty well, and have a whole routine in the mornings now. I rotate between aerobic and a combo of aerobic/weights. I am determined to get back my pre baby figure!!

One week til we go to New York to see The Police at The Garden. I CAN NOT WAIT!!! This is the summer of concerts for us....here is our list for the summer..ending in September:

1. Rush - Pittsburgh

2. The Police - Cleveland

3. The Police - New York

4. Dave Matthews - Pittsburgh

5. The Wiggles - Colombus *I'm counting them for the girls*

6. Scorpions - somewhere close to Detroit

Pretty good summer...I tried to talk Brad into going to some more but he said no way..besides it's too hard to make sure we have a sitter each time... I can't wait til we can start taking the girls with us to some of these...besides "The Wiggles". Ha!

I don't think I've put up any pics from any of the concerts yet. I have one of Brad and I from the Rush show...I'll leave you with a couple of those.

Where's a Doctor When You Need One?

I am disgusted and frustrated with the doctors in my area. It is a disgrace how they handle things here.

My OB/GYN moved to California shortly after Lyanna was born. She recommended two doctors at the same hospital but that was about it. I have tried for two years now to get in to see either of them. It has been impossible. One receptionist tells me every time I call to call back in three months.....after doing this 3 times and still not getting an appointment, I hung up on her today. The other one says she is booked til NEXT JULY!!! A whole year.....how ridiculous is that?!?

Her receptionist did tell me that I could keep calling back every day and if there was a cancellation I could get in then.... joy. Now, the really sad thing is: if I was pregnant they would get me in immediately. I thought I might lie to get in and see one....and then just say I must have been mistaken.

I don't really want to go see any of the other OB/GYNs around here because I just haven't heard that great of recommendations about them. One clinic is just a group thing and you never see the same person...it's just the luck of the draw. The other prominent doc is too into C-sections and inductions and I'm just not all about that. So....who knows what I'm going to do...for now I guess I'll just put my phone on speeddial for the one.

In a bleh mood tonight. The girls didn't take a nap today so I'm a little mentally tired. They get really spastic when they haven't had a nap and I get irritable. There is only so much screaming and crying and craziness a person can take in one day... Kenzie and I did make cute pink frosted cupcakes tonight. Too bad I can't eat any.......