The Creative Works of my Mind

Perceptions

2010-11-27T21:21:00.003-06:00

When I look at this photo I do not see a dead tree. Instead I see a serene beauty. I love how the starkness of the dead tree mixes with reflective blue of the water. I am curious to know what you see when you look at this photo.

Winding down.

2010-09-24T22:27:00.002-05:00

These past few months have been stressful times, but happy times for sure. I took a huge leap of faith and made drastic changes, and I feel these changes have turned out for the best. I now have a wonderful new job that I enjoy going to every day. I have met some really wonderful people there and I feel that my life has been enriched already in just the few short months that I've been there. I really feel that I've found my place.

We just purchased a new, beautiful home that we can feel very proud of. And the school district it resides in is a wonderful small district where the kids won't get lost in the system. The school has a great curriculum and is listed as one of the top 5 schools in the state, so we are very excited that we got our children into this school.

And lastly, my home life has really improved. My husband and I have managed to fall in love with one another all over again. It's a wonderful feeling, and I am blessed to have him in my life.

The Search Continues

2010-08-22T10:06:00.003-05:00

As I continue to scower Realtor.com for my dream home I am slowly coming to the realization that it may not exist. We were hoping to find a beautiful, newly built home on about 2-5 acres, not in town, but not too far out of town and live happily ever after. What I am finding are homes built way before I was born, a bazillion miles out of town, and they are still asking an arm and a leg for them. I mean I'm sure you are proud of the house your Grandpa built, but people, give me a freakin' break. It's 50 years old and has ugly paneling in the living room and a sagging porch roof out back. It's almost as if these people do not realize that the housing slump has hit and the market crashed several years ago and we still haven't recovered.

We've placed an offer on two houses. The first one was a disaster. We all loved the house, even though it was built in 1962 and they still wanted $180,000 for it. It was just cool. And even though it only had .8 acres to go with it, the house was just cool. Did I mention it was cool? And damp and a great reservoir for MOLD!!!! Yes, it was a moldy old house. So when the mold was found everywhere and we discovered that in order to get rid of the mold you would have to basically tear it down and build a new one we decided, a big fat NO THANK YOU!!!

On to house number two. It's a newer home. Built in 2001 and it sits on 1 acre. I liked it. It had great color schemes and I wouldn't have to paint a single wall. I was willing to accept it as it was. It had 3 bedrooms which we were thinking was plenty big enough, room for a pool and a hot tub and the dogs. So we made an offer on it. That same night my husband called me from work. "Look at MLS # xxxxxx," he says. So I do. It looks like a freakin' castle. It has 4 bedrooms, 200 sq. ft. bigger, and they are asking $10,000 less for it than the one we placed an offer on. The kids think the pictures are awesome. So naturally, I have to call my real estate lady and tell her we want to look at it. We go. It's in a nice country setting, but still in a subdivision. It's on the outskirts of a small town with a great school system and only about 15 minutes from my work. The house is beautiful. Granite counter tops, nice paint, nice fixtures. Then I look at the back yard. It's small. Big enough for a pool and hot tub, but not much else, and no trees. But it's too late. The kids have fallen in love with it. Forrest yells out, "It's two stories, Mom!" Then Nathan hollers, "Oh cool, Forrest come look at this!" In one of the bedrooms there is a small door that leads to an aclove in the attic. It could be fixed up as a little indoor club house if we are ever so inclined, which I"m sure we will be. Yep the boys fell in love with it. My husband fell in love with it because like I said before, It looked like a freakin' castle. So I guess we are gonna have to buy it. I suppose I can always plant my own trees and watch them grow. After all I have always wanted a flowering tulip tree.

Gas Station Bathroom Dining?

2010-07-30T11:39:00.004-05:00

I was coming home from my weekly trip to work when the urge to pee came upon me. Now I must admit, I hate using public bathrooms, but alas, I had no choice, so I found the cleanest looking gas station I could find on that seemingly strip in the middle of nowhere and I stopped. I was horrified as soon as I opened the door. Not because the bathrooms were disgusting, but because of what I saw the people occupying the bathroom partaking in. No it's not what you think. They were eating lunch. Two were perched upon the sink slurping down their Big Gulps and munching on greasy cheesy hamburgers. The other two were standing (in the doorway I might add). Their lunches were precariously balanced on the towel dispensers. I"m sure the look on my face was of complete shock once my brain processed what my eyes were seeing. I mean, I don't even like to urinate in a gas station bathroom, let along dine there. One of the girls had her shoes off and was walking barefoot!! IN A PUBLIC BATHROOM!!!!! The whole scene was just wrong on so many levels. The occupants sensed my reluctance to enter, and proceeded to display their great southern hospitality by saying, "Come on in ! We won't bit. Unless you're a hamburger." Yep that made me want to run, not walk from the building. But since I had to pee so badly that my eyeballs were floating and my bladder was about to bust, I didn't have much of a choice. After I finished "doing my business" I had to ask one of the ladies to scoot over so that I could use the sink to wash my hands. Another lady had to remove her lunch from the towel dispenser so that i could dry them. That is when I heard the conversation about toe cramps, and corns. The lady asked me if I knew of anything that would stop toe cramps. I told her no and got out of the bathroom as quickly as my little feet would carry me. I do believe that the next time the urge to pee hits me on one of my drives home I will be avoiding that gas station like the plague.

A blog revisited

2010-06-12T21:17:00.004-05:00

It's funny sometimes how we seem to let life get in the way of the things that bring us joy. I realize it has been a long time since I've visited bloggerland, and I have really missed it. I'm not sure why we let life get so complicated. It's the only one we get, we should make sure that everyday is packed with something fun and exciting, not drab and boring. But alas, we always have to make sure the mundane things are completed before the fun can start, at least those of us who are responsible do.

Sometimes I get tired of washing the dishes and the clothes every day. I get tired of sweeping the floors, and cleaning the toilets. I get tired of completing the same ole stuff day in and day out.
I think that is why I am taking such drastic measures in changing my life. As most of you already know I've taken a new job in a new city that is located 3 hours from my current home. I am packing up all my stuff and my family and we are relocating to a town we literally know very little about. I think that it will be a wonderful change in my life. But I'm not just stopping with a new job, a new home, and new surroundings. Oh no, not me, I am also working on transforming my entire being. I've completely changed my entire style of eating. For a month now I have been incorporating fruits and vegetables into my diet. I've cut out red meat and only consume poultry and fish. I've cut out many refined sugars and most processed foods. I'm an attempting to eat more whole grains and healthy stuff. I've trimmed off 20lbs and I've managed to cut my blood pressure medication in half. A few weeks ago I added an hour of cardio exercise at least 5 times per week to my routine and I am starting to feel unbelievable. I have tons more energy, fewer headaches, fewer body aches, and a better frame of mind.

I've decided to take control of my life and I decided baby steps just wasn't cutting it. Giant steps are what I need to be taking. And I'll be damned if I'm going to fall. I am woman hear me roar. Because if I can't believe in me, then how in the hell can anyone else?

Was life better in the past?

2010-01-30T11:05:00.003-06:00

Life is so different now than it was 20-30 years ago. I know this because I spend at least an hour each night going over homework with my 2nd graders. I do not remember my parents ever sitting down with me to help me with home work in the 2nd grade. I don't ever remember my parents sitting down and helping me with homework EVER, for that matter, but certainly I didn't need help in the 2nd grade.

I also remember getting up early in the morning and telling my parents that I was going out to play. I would roam the neighbor hood and not come back until lunch time. I remember doing this as early as age 5. If my kids walk around the block without me knowing it, I freak out. It is way too dangerous to even let them play in the front yard without supervision. You never know when some sicko will drive by and snatch them out of the yard when you aren't looking. Now I'm not saying that couldn't have and didn't happen 20-30 years ago, but I suppose that we lived in a day and age where information wasn't spread around the world as quickly, so you just didn't hear about it as much.

And what about the cost of things. I got a birthday card a few weeks ago from my insurance company and inside it compared the cost of certain things in 1975 with the cost of those things today. It was quite alarming to see how cheap things were back then compared to what they cost today.
I got a 2% raise at the first of this year. Unfortunately, our health insurance premium went up more per month that the raise amounted to. Therefore, my take home pay is less this year than it was last year. It's funny how you can get paid more per hour, but bring home less.

So are things really that different now? Or is it just that 20-30 years ago I was a kid and didn't think or worry about these things, and now that I'm an adult, I can't help but think about them on a daily basis?

Gasp! Not Porn!

2010-01-22T21:52:00.003-06:00

The other day my husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told him I wanted to get the new KY his and hers and I wanted to have sex with him in every position we could manage. His eyes bulged a bit and his mouth flopped open, but then his smiled a great big smile and said, "OK!" So on my Birthday, after working all day, I stopped at Walgreen's before I came home and bought the KY. That was the only item I bought. The lady standing in line in front of me glanced in my direction and saw my item. She then proceeded to frown at me. FROWN. What? Haven't you ever wanted to have fun sex before? The cashier kind of smiled and told me to have a good evening. I informed her that I planned to. And yes we did have a good evening, but I must say that I was a bit disappointed with the KY. I don't think we experienced the great whistle blowing sex advertised in the commercials when we used it. But perhaps we didn't have enough foreplay, so maybe we will try it again. But this brings me to my point. Why are adult people so embarrassed to talk about sex. Why does the word SEX have to be so taboo? I just don't get it. Porn is a multimillion dollar business, yet nobody I know admits to watching it. I love porn. I watch it on a weekly basis, and sometimes it really makes me hot. Sometimes it makes me laugh my ass off. Some of the faces they make are hilarious. And the noises, well you just have to chuckle. When I watch porn, weather it is with my hubby or by myself, I find myself criticizing the women. Mainly their breasts. For some reason, it is more enjoyable to watch women with big breasts than it is to watch women with little breasts. I find myself feeling a bit envious, because they look like they are having so much fun. Some of the porn shows on Cinemax have great story lines. I like Co-Ed Confidential and others. The only kind of porn that turns me off is same sex porn. I really don't get off watching girl on girl action, and I refuse to watch guy on guy action.

So for the discussion part of this post..... What kind of porn turns you on? Or are you too embarrassed to tell?

Dashboard confession?

2010-01-08T14:01:00.003-06:00

I was sitting in my SUV at a red light taking a break from the rat race I call my daily commute and I took a moment to look around. To my left there was an acne faced teenager using his rear view mirror to inspect a freshly popped pimple on his face. A man turning in front of me had his finger stuck so far up his nose that I wondered if he was tickling his brain yet. There was a woman behind me making hand gestures while talking to air, or perhaps she was conversing with the voices inside her head, or maybe just the person on the other end of the blue tooth stuck in her ear. All of these sightings struck a funny chord with me and I began to laugh hysterically. What is it about our cars that makes us feel so comfortable that we will let our transgressions go as quickly as the flicked cigarette butt out the window? Is there anything we won't do in our cars? We pick our noses, pick our pimples and pick at the buttons on our radio with the same sticky fingers. We serenade the dome light at the top our lungs, and in the next breath, we curse at the idiots holding up traffic. We loose our virginity in the back seat, and smoke our first joint in the front. We love our cars with passion, and glee, and ride them a hard as we do life itself. What is it about the interior of that reinforced steel and safety glass that makes us feel so safe, so protected from the harsh realities of the world? If we really knew the answer, would we feel the same way? I'm not sure we would. I'm not sure I want to know. But what my inquiring mind does want to know is what transgressions do you let go of when you climb behind the wheel and feel the rumble of the motor through your feet? Yes, my inquiring mind wants to know. At least I think it does.....

Where the Hell have I been?

2009-12-22T19:54:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure, but slowly and forcefully I'm clawing my way back.

Life has crashed down upon me with the force of a waterfall,

As I've thrashed for breath.

Creativity, it's been lacking.

But the spark and intrigue still remains.

I crave the passion of life that once filled me.

Alas, how does one get it back?

To look through life through fresh eyes.

To see the world anew.

I'm not sure, but slowly and forcefully I'm clawing my way back.

Something out of nothing.

2009-09-29T10:31:00.002-05:00

I made a chili cheese dip for a Church supper on Saturday, and I wanted to be funny, so I added the bananna pepper eyeball for artistic flair. Guess what? People still ate this! Actually, it tasted way better than it looked. Gig gave me the recipie. Thanks, Gig.

The boys and I were playing around with the camera. We have so much fun together!

I'm not feeling well today, but I realize I have neglected Bloggerland for the past month. So I though I would at least post a little something, even if it is nothing.

AWWWW

2009-09-05T21:50:00.003-05:00

Nothing is sweeter than a boy and his dog.

Exploding Veggie Tales

2009-08-30T20:52:00.002-05:00

Today has been a funny day. I went to Subway for lunch and while I was standing in line waiting for my sandwich, a Doctor from the hospital I work at came in and stood beside me. I recognized me and began talking shop to me right there in line. We were talking Microbiology and the girls making our sandwiches were looking at us like we were crazy. Then he proceeded to follow me to the booth and plopped himself down across from me and talked "medicine" with me during my entire lunch hour. Actually I only get 30 minutes for lunch, but being it was a weekend, I took a bit longer than usual. It was just really weird, and totally unexpected for me.

When I got home, I decided to look on T.V and see if anything worth watching was on. Hitch was on. I absolutely love that movie. The part where Kevin James shows Will Smith his dance moves makes me laugh my ass off. I rewound that part about 10 times before my kids and their friend started looking at me like I had lost my mind. I laughed until I cried each time. I swear I could watch that movie over, and over, and over again and it would never get old.

Lastly, I was cooking dinner and I placed some steam in the bag vegetable in the microwave and turned it on for 4 minutes. Unfortunately, I didn't read the direction on how to cook it. Apparently, you are suppose to puncture the bag a couple of times with a fork before placing it in the microwave, unless you want to clean up exploding vegetable out of your microwave. It sounds like a bomb going off in your kitchen when the bag explodes, just in case any of you were curious. And yes, the bag was demolished. But I just scrapped the veggies off of the bottom of the microwave and served them up for dinner. UMMMMM yum!

Clouds

2009-08-15T20:37:00.002-05:00

For some reason I really love to look at clouds. One of my favorite things to do with the boys is getting a blanket and lying down in the grass to look at clouds. We have really had some great clouds to look at this summer, and due to all of the rain, our grass is very green and lush and feels like a carpet. I suppose I should have taken a picture of the grass. Maybe I will tomorrow. In the mean time, enjoy my clouds.

My Saturday woes

2009-08-10T20:25:00.002-05:00

The boys and I were going to go on a trip Saturday to visit my brother and sister-in-law. Unfortunately, my truck had other plans for us. We got about 7 miles from home and stopped at a four way intersection when the engine decided to stop working. It was as if I had shut off the key. I thought it was as simple as not getting enough gas while idling with the AC on full blast and the radio blaring, so I shut all of those things off, and attempted to restart it. Nope, it wasn't happening. People behind me started to become impatient. Horns started blaring and tempers started to fly. I turned on my hazard lights and rolled down my window and motioned for people to go around me. It was a very awkward situation. I called my husband, but he didn't answer the phone. He was sleeping. I called my neighbor, but she didn't answer the phone. She was driving. I called a friend that lived perhaps two miles from where I was stranded, but she didn't answer the phone. God knows what she was doing. I began to panic. I actually began to cry. I could not believe nobody was even offering to help me. There I was, a woman, alone with two children, and clearly having trouble. All people could do was honk their horns at me and flip me off as they angrily drove by. I decided I would attempt to push my truck through the intersection and into a bank parking lot. At least then I would be pissing those losers off. Luckily, two Mexican dudes pulled up behind me as I was attempting to push my 4,000 lb vehicle through the intersection. They told me to get into the truck and steer while they pushed. So I did, and they helped me get the truck into the drive thru of the bank parking lot. Unfortunately, I was facing the vehicles as they were coming out of the drive thru and it confused them to have me sitting there. They could squeeze through, but they were slow to figure this out. My neighbor called me back and went to our house to wake my husband. She got to my house and called again. There was a Do Not Disturb sign on our door and she was afraid to ring the doorbell. I told her to please Disturb him. Ring the doorbell until he answered. Anything to get him awake. He got up and came to help, but in the mean time a military guy saw me attempting to push the truck into a parking space. I was not succeeding, because it was slightly up hill, and it required me to turn the wheel and push at the same time. Has anyone ever attempted to turn the wheels of a power steering vehicle without power steering? So, he helped me get out of the way, and I was very grateful. The thing that pissed me off the most is that we had more people stop and asked us if we needed help AFTER my husband arrived then while I was alone. What is it with these people? I thought we were suppose to be kind in the South? Well, to make a long story short. We called a tow truck and they towed it off. Hubby took me and the kids home and that was that.
I found out today that it was the timing belt broke. Now it is going to cost me over $300 to repair it. OUCH!!!!

The Day I almost died.

2009-07-31T19:03:00.006-05:00

I almost died today. No, I'm not kidding. Me, a person that swims almost as good as a fish, almost drown today. As most of you know, today is Nathan and Forrest's actual birthday. So I took them to a water park called Wild River Country. It is only about 20-30 minutes from our house, and since we have season passes, it was really quite inexpensive. So we got there and we road some really fun slides.

There was the lightening fast and dark water slide called the Vortex, I shout out of that sucker like a bullet out of a gun. And man did I have to pull my suit out of the crack of my ass afterwards.

And then there was the slide they called Vertigo. I called it the toilet bowl. I know know what a piece of shit feels like when it gets flushed down a toilet. On this slide, you shoot down that long shoot into a bowl where you swirl around the bottom of the bowl a few times before you are deposited into the cesspool beneath. Unfortunately for me, it deposited me face first into the concrete side of the pool. But this isn't what almost killed me. Oh no folks, there was way more fun to be had.

Next we took a ride down the river rapids. With this rides there was a series of quick little shoot and you would hit a deeper swirling pool, then another quick shoot and then another deep pool, so on and so forth. Each time I shot down the quick rapid and hit the deeper pool, my tube would flip. I discovered that I stayed on the tube if I could manage to go down the rapid backwards. But if i went down if forward, by feet would hit that deep pool and I would face plant right into the water.

The next ride was the cyclone. This one was a lot of fun. The boys and I rode this one together on one of those giant for person tubes. Half of this ride is in darkness and the rest is in full daylight terror. It was really an exhilarating ride, but the forty foot climb to the top with one of those four person tubes, almost gave me a heart attack. But still, this is not where I almost died.

We then took our chances on a slide called white lightening. This slide scared the Bejesus out of me. I just knew I was going to pop up over the side and hit the ground at speeds of 80 miles per hour. But I didn't. Instead it was another one of those instant water enemas at the deposit pool at the bottom.

Last but not least, came the wave pool.

Don't let this picture fool you, that place was treacherous. When we first got there, it looked like one giant swimming pool. The waters were calm and peaceful. I asked the boys, "I thought we were going to the Wave pool?" They replied, "This is the wave pool." I replied, "Well I don't see any waves." They replied, "Just wait until the buzzer goes off." GReAT!!!! So, off they went into the deep end. We were in 8 feet of water. We were swimming around and having a good time, when all of a sudden a buzzer goes off. Forrest is terrified and he starts swimming as fast as he could to the shallow end before the waves hit. Nathan is a good 10 feet away from me when a huge wave crashes right over his head. He comes back up to the surface in a panic. I swim to him as fast and I can and grab him. It is virtually impossible to swim in 3 foot swells with 65 extra pounds strapped to your hip. I manage as best as I can to get to the ladder at the side of the pool. I pull Nathan up onto the ladder and attempt to keep my head and his head above water. The waves are literally relentless. They are pounding us against the wall of the pool and the ladder. I am frantically look back toward the area that Forrest swam into trying to see if he was alright, but I could not see him. The life guard, sat under his umbrella and kept blowing his whistle and pointing at me. Finally after doing this for about 5 minutes, he gets his sorry ass up off of his chair and comes to the ladder. He kneels down and tells me that I am not allowed to hold on to the ladder. I looked up at him as best as I could and I inform the little shit head that it is either hold onto the ladder and me and my son drown. I then asked him which would he prefer. He then asked me if I needed some help! "Yes, I need help." I asked him to grab my son. He asked me if I wanted him to pull Nathan out of the water. "Yes, get him out of the water. At least then I know that he is safe. I told him that if I had both arms free, I could probably make my way back to the shallow end. So he pulled Nathan out of the water and Nathan started crying. "Don't drown Mom, who would take care of us?" I told him I wasn't going to drown and then I told him to go look for his brother at the shallow end. I started swimming my way to the shallow end. By time I made it to the shallow end, the waves were over. I found Forrest and Nathan holding hand and crying. They thought I had drown. Forrest told me he could see us the whole time and he kept telling people that his mom and his brother were in trouble, but they kept ignoring him! I told the boys we were not going to do that one EVER again! So that is the story of how I almost died today. I just hope I don't get sick from all of the chlorinated water I swallowed.

What's up?

2009-07-29T18:24:00.003-05:00

Not much is happening around here this week. I have been on vacation and I'm just trying to rest up and enjoy my family. Monday we headed to Greer's Ferry Lake to go camping. I saw this old house along the way and I just had to pull over and take a picture of it. I thought the contrast of the nicely pruned yard and the old dis repaired house were beautiful. Creepy in a beautiful way. There was a truck in the yard, so I think someone still lives here. I wonder what their energy bills are like? I bet that's scary.

We got a camping spot, we set up our tent and the boys gathered wood and built us two camp fires. Then we went swimming, blew up our air mattress beds (well at least one of them), and I cooked dinner while the boys and dad went fishing for fish bait. They caught some little brim and minnows to use as bait for bigger fish. After they had some bait, they came back and we ate dinner. Then the boys and I went swimming again while dad rigged the poles up for bigger fish. When we returned, we noticed it was starting to cloud up. My husband took the boys fishing some more while I cleaned up from dinner and then we lit up the camp fire and made smores. I called a friend of mine and asked her to check the radar. We had thunderstorms moving in. She told me that the would probably be upon us by around midnight. As we watched the campfire die down, my husband and I discussed going home. We took a vote and all of voted unanimously to pack up and go home. We didn't want to wake up wet in the middle of the night. So about 10pm we packed up our stuff and drove the hour home. Half way home, it started to rain. So we left just in time. When we got home, we were all exhausted, so we unpacked only the necessities and went to bed.

Today, I spent the day preparing for Nathan and Forrest's birthday party. It was quite successful. I bought a plain white cake and then went on line and printed these Penguins of Madagascar pictures. I taped them to plastic toothpicks, and had instant decorations! The kids were very excited about it. The boys love those characters.

About two hours before the party started, it started raining. Fortunately, by the time all the kids had eaten their pizza, it stopped, so they were able to swim for about an hour anyway. They all had a blast. There were 8 boys in the pool at one time. They ranged in ages from 5-12, but surprisingly, they all played quite well together. It started thundering again, so I had to call them out of the pool, and after everyone dried off, we had cake, ice cream, and opened presents. The party went very smoothly, and was not stressful at all. And it was all pretty inexpensive. I was able to put the entire party together for under $50. Tomorrow, if it's not raining, we are going to go to a water park. I hope this week isn't a total wash out! But even if it is, at least I'm not at work!

Fading Rainbows

2009-07-25T21:18:00.003-05:00

I was cleaning the floors today and thinking about things, when this chorus for a new song popped into my head. I'll let all of you know how it progresses.

Loving you is like rainbows in the sky
It seems to fade away with the storm clouds passing by.
It left me feeling lonely high and dry
Loving you is like rainbows in the sky.

Mermaid or a Whale?

2009-07-20T09:43:00.003-05:00

Mermaid or a Whale

Recently, in large French city, a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym. It said:¨THIS SUMMER DO YOU WANT TO BE A MERMAID OR A WHALE?¨A middle aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.To Whom It May Concern:Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans).. They have an active sex life, they get pregnant and have adorable baby whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins stuffing themselves with shrimp. They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Barren Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia. Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs. They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans. They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.Mermaids don't exist. If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis. Fish or human? They don't have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them not to mention how could they have sex? Therefore they don't have kids either. Not to mention who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store?The choice is perfectly clear to me; I want to be a whale.P.S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver and a piece of chocolate with my friends. With time we gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy. Beginning today, when I look at my butt in the mirror I will think, ¨Good gosh, look how smart I am.¨

Out of town.

2009-07-16T21:13:00.003-05:00

I'm going out of town this weekend, but I have a really good post waiting to be written when I get back. Until then, enjoy the view from the top of a Ferris Wheel. It looks quite Urban to me.

My hair is not orange any more.

2009-07-11T12:17:00.001-05:00

This is me now. I just got out of the pool, so my hair is wet, uncombed, and I have no makeup on. Not that I wear that much make up anyway. But I thought I would let you all know that I don't have purple and orange hair anymore. Actually, I only had purple and orange hair for one day. And then I washed that grey, I mean purple and orange right outta my hair.! And yes, I do still post. Every once and awhile.

For the Love of FREE FOOD!

2009-07-09T12:27:00.002-05:00

HI, ALL YOU ANIMAL LOVERS!
This is pretty simple... Please ask ten friends to each ask a further ten today! The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of getting FREE FOOD donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute (about 15 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals for free'. This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising. Here's the web site! Please pass it along to people you know. http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/

What a weekend!

2009-07-05T20:49:00.008-05:00

We have had a jam packed weekend and it has been a blast. It has been just my boys and me. Unfortunately, my husband has worked the past three day and didn't get in on any of the fun. But it has been a great memory making weekend for the boys and me. I was off on Friday, so we went to Greer's Ferry Lake to picnic and swim.

And just as we were leaving the lake, we saw this car. Bob, I think Megan might get around, so I would think long and hard before you say "I DO".

After swimming most of the day and staying up late, the boys were beat and slept in until almost 10:30 Saturday morning.

But I used this time to get my house cleaning done and we were off again once they were awake. We went to my sister's house and had a wonderful BBQ and I played with the boys and two of their cousins in my sister's pool. We were shooting each other with water pistols, and I don't believe I have had that much fun in a long time. I was the only adult in the pool with three 7 year old and one 3 year old. My sister told me that I was just as big a kid as they were. After dark we shot off some fireworks. And then the boys and I drove home in a down pour. It was raining so hard and the wind was blowing so hard, it really was difficult to drive. The kids were petrified, but we made it home safe and sound. But Suze, I didn't talk to a single person on my cell phone during that trip. I needed both hands on the steering wheel just to keep the truck on the road.

My favorite Vacation

2009-06-25T18:16:00.006-05:00

So they say it is summertime around here, and I must agree. With temperatures hovering around 100 and sunny hazy skies every day, I would say that the dog daze of summer has come early. So in celebration of summertime, I wanted to share with you all a few pictures of one of my favorite vacations.

We went to Discovery Cove in Orlando Florida the summer of 07. It was a good vacation, but a sad vacation all wrapped up into one. We had booked it with plans of my mother-in-law going with us. She would have loved swimming in the water with all of the fish, and watching the boys interact with the dolphin. Unfortunately she was lying in the hospital in a coma instead. We almost cancelled the whole trip, but our family told us we needed the time away. Our two week trip was shortened to one, and off we went to attempt relaxation under the extremely stressful circumstances.

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Nathan riding Capricorn

I do believe that the 30 minutes I spent with the dolphins were the most relaxing 30 minutes I have ever had. I love dolphins. They are my favorite marine mammal.

Nathan hugging Capricorn

Forrest riding Capricorn

Forrest Kissing Capricorn

Promise to tell the truth?

2009-06-21T08:18:00.002-05:00

I got a "talking to" at work on Friday. It really pissed me off, and the more I think about it, the madder I become. I got my ass chewed just for being honest. I was told that by telling the truth, I didn't use very good judgment. What is wrong with this picture?

Are they telling me that honesty is not the greatest virtue here at this facility? Obviously yes!

What has happened to the belief that honesty is always best? Perhaps if I explained the situation you would understand.

I do a test here at work that requires me to extract DNA from Staphylococcus aureus that has grown up from a culture plate. I then replicate this DNA and run tests on it to get it's exact DNA fingerprint. I then compair that DNA fingerprint to other Staphylococcus aureus fingerprints from other patients. It is a long laborious process, and I am the only person at this facility that knows how to do it. In February, I am "supposedly" getting a promotion to Supervisor of my department, although, I have to apply and be chosen for the position just like everyone else. But when I was hired on here, I was basically promised the job. After all, they called me for this job, not the other way around. So I have been told that I need to train someone else to do this particular test so that I am not the only person that knows how come February. I choose someone that I get along with, that is a hard worker, and is eager to learn. She is a new tech, fresh out of school, and I like her work ethics. Her only problem is that she doesn't kiss ass, therefore, the powers that be does not like her. I have been working with her for almost a month now, and they tell me last week that I cannot train her anymore. They do not want her performing the test. I didn't understand why. They gave me some BS about not wanting her to spread herself too thin while she was learning. I then ran down the list of all of the other employees and none of them were good candidates. I was frustrated. I already had this girl able to do half of this test on her own and now I would have to start all over with someone new. I was asked into the Chief's office and she explained to me that whomever learns this test must be able and willing to communicate with her. She told me that this girl did not do that. The two of them do not get along and she really didn't want her doing the test. So I had to go back and tell this girl that she would not be able to train on this test anymore. She asked me why, and I told her the truth. I was then told to poll the other employees to see who else was interested in learning. They were confused and asked why I was not training the other girl anymore. I told them that we needed someone that was able and willing to communicate with the Service Chief. Therefore I told them the truth. Later, I was called into the Supervisor's Office. She was not happy with the second (and only person to volunteer to learn) I picked. She told me that she sent out an email to everyone telling them what skills the test required and for anyone interested to contact the Service Chief my next Friday. She then proceeded to tell me that I did not use very good judgment by telling people the truth about all of this. Needless to say, I was very upset. I apparently don't have any right to pick and choose the people to train for this test; a test that I wrote the procedure to, and no one else in this whole state knows how to perform. Plus, I was wrong for telling the truth.

I'm shocked at the lack of moral values displayed here. I too refuse to kiss ass just to get ahead in place. What ever happened to the idea that honesty, hard work and determination is what it takes to get ahead. Instead it's who you know and who you are willing to blow. And that is just disgusting.

Frightfull

2009-06-18T21:53:00.004-05:00

I had so much fun this evening. I put a Sea Mud face and body mask on my face this evening and walked into the living room where the boys were watching T.V. I asked them if they needed anything and they both looked up at me. The looks on their cute little faces were priceless. In unison that asked me what was wrong with me. I told them I was fine. Forrest had a very puzzled look on his face and he says, "But your face is green." "It is?" He shakes his head and goes huh. I make my eyes get really big and I look very closely at him, then I say in a very excited voice, "Oh My God, your face is turning green too! It must be from the chlorine in the pool!" He immediately jumps out of his chair and runs into the bathroom to check out his face. By this time Nathan has caught on and he is laughing. I turned to look at Na and I asked him what he was laughing at. Through his fits of laughter he proceeds to tell me that I played a joke on Forrest. I told him in the same excited voice that his face was starting to turn green too. He started to get up, but by that time Forrest had made his way back from the bathroom exclaiming, "NO IT"S NOT!!!! MY FACE IS NOT GREEN!" I explain to the boys that it is just a mud mask, and that I will wash it off in a little bit. They of course want me to wash it off now, because they don't like it. They told me it looked weird. Well, it may look weird, but it feels Divine. I love how it makes my skin feel when I take it off. Plus it is so soothing and cool when I put it on. And of course, it's from ARBONNE.

So do you think I look weird

BLAH BLAH BLAH !

2009-06-16T11:03:00.000-05:00

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH

How do you feel today?

Kids are annoying (except for my own)

2009-06-13T11:18:00.003-05:00

I have decided that I dislike my kids friends. They are spoiled, annoying, and sometimes I hear them making fun of my children. The boys had a friend spend the night last night. He REALLLLLLY gets on my nerves. This morning I asked them what they wanted for breakfast and they all wanted pancakes. So what normally goes on pancakes? Well at my house, butter, and syrup and from time to time fruit. So I make them all pancakes and I deliver the plates. And in the most annoying whining voice I hear, "But I don't like butter." "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FREAKING KIDDING ME!" I think my exclamation must have startled him because he took his fork and skimmed off the butter that had not already melted into the pancake and ate it anyway. Good choice for the kid. While they were eating breakfast I told them our plan for the day. OK, after breakfast we are going to go to the park and play and then we are going to the store to pick up a birthday present for your friend, and then we are going to the birthday party. I was interrupted in mid sentence by that annoying little voice again. "But I just want to play the Hot Wheels game on the PS2." I could feel the veins in my forehead popping out. I told the kid that the PS2 game was hooked up in our bed room and that my husband was sleeping right now. "Can't you hook it up in the living room?" "I could, but wouldn't you rather go play in the park and get some exercise?" "I hate exercise." GREAT! Not only am I stuck with an annoying opinionated child that interrupts me but he's lazy too! What is happening to the youth of today? My kids love to run and jump and play, and look for bugs, lizards, snakes and frogs. This kid only wants to stay inside where it is cool, play video games, and he doesn't like to get dirty. A boy that doesn't like to get dirty? Have you ever heard of such a kid?

I'm not sure why he annoys me so. Do you think going to bed at 3am had anything to do with it?

Gone

2009-06-08T14:56:00.003-05:00

Where am I?
Where have I gone?
I've have slipped beyond myself, I can no longer find me.

This chaos that has become my life has swallowed me whole.
I am only a shell.
A fleshy zombie, no longer myself.

When will the hurt end?
When will the unpleasant surprises end?
When is enough, enough?

Where am I?
I do not know.
But Hell can not be very far away.

I'm stoked

2009-05-31T00:58:00.001-05:00

I am so stoked, I just finished a $1,000 Arbonne party! I am so awesome.

I just wanted to share my awesomeness with all of you.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

2009-05-25T09:31:00.001-05:00

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL OF YOU. WHY AM I YELLING AT YOU? BECAUSE I CAN. HOPE EVERYONE HAS HAD A SAFE AND HAPPY HOLIDAY!!!!!!

Train Wreck

2009-05-20T17:09:00.003-05:00

My wonderful Father
I have been an emotional train wreck today. I assume that it is because today would have been my Dad's 87th birthday if he were still alive. I've thought about him and I've missed him all day long. I was down in the cafeteria this morning getting some breakfast when I saw an old man in a wheel chair. He was being pushed around by his daughter, and he was crying. I do not know why he was crying. Perhaps he had been give some bad news at his doctor's appointment, or perhaps he had just lost a family member, I do not know. But they sat at the table across from me. His daughter made several trips to get condiments, napkins, and other stuff, while he sat there crying. Hearing his sobs broke my heart in two. I just could not bear to sit there listening to him cry. I was having a hard enough time controlling my own tears, and his tears just made it that much harder to control. I finished my breakfast and got up to go, but before I left the cafeteria, I walked over to the man and his daughter. I had tears in my eyes when I spoke to him, but this is what I said. "Sir, I could not help but overhear you crying, and it seems you are having a rough day. Well, I'm having a rough day today too, so if you don't mind, I would like to give you a hug. It might help us both feel better." He gave me the biggest and the sweetest hug I have had in months. Then he asked me why I was having such a rough day, so I told him about losing my father and that today would have been his birthday. He then gave me another hug, and patted my hand. He told me thank you. And I said, "No, thank you." His daughter was in tears now, and she patted her fathers hand and she said, "See, Dad, there still are people here that care about you." I still do not know why this old man was crying. I don't even know his name, but he helped me make it through the day. I just hope that I helped him make it through his.

OUT OF ORDER

2009-05-16T18:03:00.001-05:00

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to blog. I hope everyone is doing well, and I will try to get around to see everyone soon.

New Business Launch!

2009-05-03T16:13:00.007-05:00

Join me as I launch a new business! Come and discover the Arbonne difference: botanically based cutting edge products that produce results. Arbonne is about sharing great products and a terrific opportunity for family and friends to get together. I'm not a pushy sales person. I am probably the worlds worst at selling things because I don't want people to waste their money. I know first hand how hard it is to make ends meet. I know how hard common Average Joe's and Jane's work everyday to make enough to put food on their tables and get the bills paid. But I also know that we all like to look good, and Arbonne definitely has all of the right products. I know this because I have experience first hand that they work!

About two months ago a friend of mine invited me to her house for an Arbonne party. I had never heard of Arbonne, so out of curiosity, and a desire to help my friend out, I went. We had a blast! We laughed, snacked, and tried on good smelling stuff for almost 4 hours. When I first walking into the door, Tommie (she is the Arbonne consultant) greeted me with a friendly smile and the most bubbly personality one could ever imagine. I was actually a bit taken aback at first at how bubbly she really was. She grabbed me by the arm and led me to the sink where she washed my hands with the most wonder stuff known to mankind.

It was a Sea Salt Scrub. Part of the Arbonne Aromaessentials Line. This magnificent stuff left my hands feeling soft and hydrated and I could not get over how wonderful it felt, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when I brought it home as my free gift just for showing up at the party. After putting the sea salt scrub on my hands she noticed the terrible redness that plagued them. She immediately began to worry and apologize for breaking out my hands. I laughed and told her not to worry because my hands always look that way. I told her about my contact dermatitis from the lab coats I wore at my former job. And even though I no longer work there, my hands are permanently scarred because of the constant rash I had. She pulled out some stuff called Skin Conditioning Oil and put one drop on the top of my hand and rubbed in in. I kept looking at my hand and the top of it kept getting lighter and lighter. By the end of the night, my had looked normal. It stayed that way for three days!

So the night went on and she talked about this wonderful anti-aging stuffed called RE9. And she let us put the stuff on our faces and it felt wonderful. It made our skin feel very soft, and it really improved my complexion in just one use. Then we started talking makeup and she brought out this stuff that I call HEAVEN IN A BOTTLE. It is Makeup primer.

Once I tried this stuff, I had to buy it, so my very first Arbonne purchase was the makeup primer and skin conditioning oil. I love both products. I have been using them now for two months and I can really tell a difference in how my skin looks and feels. So, about a week after I went to my friends party, I decided to host my own. And as a free gift for hosting a party, I got this stuff.

It is hand creme. I have been using it at work and I no longer get dry hands from all of the hand washing I do. Not to mention all of my coworkers are begging to use some of my lotion. I'm here to tell you, these products are fantastic. So I have been kicking the idea of starting up my own business to sell the products. The overhead to start is pretty nominal. Only $109. But could I be successful enough to spend that much on something that might fail? Money has been super tight the past few months, and it has been a very hard decision. But several people that I know have told me they wanted to buy some things from Arbonne if I got into the business, so when I realized that I had almost $400 worth of products sold already, I decided that I might as well take the plunge and dive into business. So last night I kicked it off. I paid the money to become a New Independent Arbonne Consultant, and I am now officially a business owner. I am so scared that I won't succeed, but at the same time, I am determined to make it work. But in order to make it work, I need help from my friends and my family. What I am asking of all of you is to log on to www.arbonne.com. If you are in the USA click the word English under the American flag and it will take you to the USA version of the website. If you are from England, there is a website from you. (Arbonne is just getting started in England, so there is huge potential for anyone wishing to get into the business from there.) If you are from Canada, there is a website for you, and even a website for those of you from Australia. So go onto the website and look around. If you decided you would like to purchase something, then you will need to have a consultant. I would hope that you would choose me, so to make that easier, I am listing my Consultant ID #18204462. By entering this, you can sign up to be one of my Internet clients. If you would like to get a 20% discount on all of your products, I can help you out by signing you up as a Preferred Client. (It is a simple $29 membership fee, and the perks are great!) It's not any different than having a Sam's Club membership. And after you are a preferred client, then you are eligible to upgrade to an independent consultant for as little as $80. All of the information is on the website, and as always if you have any questions, please email me. Also, if you want to sample something, let me know, and I could send you some samples through the mail.

So everyone wish me luck and thank you in advance for your support.

The Forecast looks grim

2009-05-02T12:57:00.003-05:00

I'M SICK OF RAIN

And here is a tip to help keep you from getting swine flu

Don't do this.....

How about a Young Hero?

2009-04-30T16:57:00.002-05:00

Meet Emily.

She is my Hero for the week. She has started a website at www.emilyslemonadestand.com to raise money to feed starving children in Africa. She has already raised over $8,000. I think it is amazing that at age 11, this little girl has already done so much for humanity. It sort of makes you think about the abilities of our youth today. It also makes one hopeful about our future. I hear my boys say things on a daily basis that surprise me. Our children today are being taught some very wonderful things. I believe that some of the parents of this next generation are actually attempting to instill family values, and respect for others into their offspring. Nathan told me the other day that we needed to start recycling so that we could clean up the Earth and get healthy. They are all the time talking about exercise and how it is good for them. And they are very conscientious about what foods they eat as well. They are always asking me if what they are eating is healthy. Unfortunately, I cannot always say yes. But this little girl inspires me. I heard about her on a local radio station, www.1067tomfm.com. They have ordinary listeners of the week, and they interview common everyday people. Emily is the ordinary listener this week. A visit from some missionary's to her church inspired her to help the starving children of Africa. I am amazed at the fact that she felt that she had the power to make a difference. At age 11, she has been able to organize this, can you image what she will be empowered to do at age 23?

Attack of the Zombie Chicken

2009-04-27T17:22:00.003-05:00

“The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken: excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all.”

So without further ado, here are my Zombie Chicken recipients!

Leah

Kylie

Robyn at Happy House Of Haas

Gig at Ramblings from Gigsville

MEGAN

2009-04-25T11:17:00.003-05:00

If you wish to help this kid........

Go visit The Wild Onion.

Thank you and good Day

Back to the Future

2009-04-23T17:22:00.003-05:00

Well, this week is National Laboratory Professionals Week, and our Lab has been celebrating all week long. Today, was the best. Today was 80's day. We got to dress up and be cool all day long. It was really a lot of fun! Wow! work was a lot of fun for a change. Anyway, I thought I would show you all some pics of me. I'll try to post the group picture as soon as my co-worker emails it to me.

By hair became a bit more flat after driving home in the car with the windows down.

This one was taken early in the morning while the hair and makeup was still fresh!

Packers at Play

2009-04-19T21:36:00.003-05:00

I thought I would share a little live action shots of the boys flag football game a couple of weeks ago. This was such a hard played game. They boys played really well, even though we still lost. The final score was 25 to 19. But they really had a good time. This first picture is of me keeping score. It was so windy that day, that the volunteer score keeper gave up during half time. So I pitched in and helped out. I love this picture of Nathan. Click it to make it larger and laugh your asses off at the face he is giving that other boy. I do believe this is called staring down the competition!

Nathan is playing center and I think Forrest(red and black shorts left of Nathan) was a running during this play. As you can tell, Nathan was ready to get that play rolling.

Here is a picture of Forrest chasing down the boy with the ball. Every one else in this photo is so serious. They all have such concentration on their faces, but not my Forrest, he is all smiles and that is why I love this photo.

I am proud of the boys. They improve with every game they play. This is our first time in an organized sport and I am thrilled with the coaches we got. They are so easy going and they are in it to have fun. They are great for our boys self esteem and I think that all of the boys, not just mine are really having a good time out there on the field. No pressure, just good wholesome fun.

Life's a Bitch and then your Monitor Dies!

2009-04-18T17:22:00.003-05:00

I think there must be a bad luck cloud permanently parked above my head. Our luck has been so bad lately that we have taken to burning white candles to ward off the jinks that some nut job has decided to place on us. I'm even thinking about getting some sage to burn in the corners of the house to ward off evil spirits. But on top of everything that has been going on, our computer monitor dies. Oddly enough, this is the third monitor we have had in the past year. We started out with a really cool sleek black flat LCD screen monitor that came with the computer. But last spring, when the tornadoes decided our street was a party zone, the whole computer got fried. We had to replace the motherboard and the power chord and several other components of the computer as well as the monitor. Earlier in the week, my husband tried to turn on the computer and the monitor would not work. The power would come on, but no screen. WTF, dejavu all over again. And we are so strapped for cash right now, I wasn't sure what we could do. The monitor we had was definitely an old clunker. It was actually a freebie given to us by the infamous Crazy Neighbor. It was extremely tiny, and had red finer nail polish spilled all over the top of it, but it worked. Now, just like Crazy Neighbor, it is history. So yesterday I went to the B&M Emporium near our house. It is basically a huge building filled with 10X10 booths. People sell everything there. Old Hot Wheel Cars, antique furniture, antique dishes, bottles, clothes, ect. It is sort of like an indoor flea market, with out the fleas, and the livestock. So I was perusing the Emporium and a saw an old Sony Trinitron Multiscan G400 monitor for $30.00.

It's HUGE! I swear this thing weights 200 lbs! Sure, I'm exaggerating, but it's still very heavy. I didn't buy it yesterday. Instead I came back home and told my husband about it. I asked him if he thought it was worth the $30.00. He told me it would be better than not having a computer for awhile, so I went back today and bought it. While I was struggling to place it into the shopping cart, I managed to wedge it in there. When I made it to the check out counter, I was unable to get it out of the cart. It took me and two very strong men to remove it from the cart. So, that little chore done, the monitor was sitting upright on the counter, and the cashier asked me if I plugged it in to make sure it worked. "No, I didn't see a plug in anywhere, so no, I haven't checked to see if it worked." "Well, she says, " there are plug ins at every booth." Well, I am certainly not lugging it back to the booth to plug it in now." "Well, I strongly recommend that you plug it in to check that it is in working condition because we have a no refund policy." I was agitated by now, and I asked the woman if she had a plug in behind the counter. "No, but there is one over there by the door." The door was about twenty feet away, so I grabbed hold of the monitor, hauled it off of the counter and carried it to the door. I had to place it onto the floor in order to plug it in. It worked. I ripped the tag off the top of it and carried it back to the counter and left the kids beside the monitor to guard it. After paying for it, I went outside and drove the truck right up to the door, then I lifted the 200lb behemoth into the back of my truck (Actually, I drive an SUV, but it is a Nissan Xterra, so it is rugged like a truck.) And came home. I got home and my husband had just left for work, so I did not have any assistance getting into the house either. The kids even slammed the door in my face as I was walking up the steps. I hollered at the top of my lungs, "OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course they both came running and then stumbled and fumbled their way through our narrow laundry room in front of me. I was gritting my teeth by the time I all but dropped it into my desk chair. My fragile patients were holding on by a single thin thread. But I calmly unhooked the old monitor and hooked this one up and walla, I now have Internet access again!

Super Busy!!

2009-04-12T14:45:00.002-05:00

I've been so busy here lately that I have not been able to come and visit everyone in Bloggerland. Please don't think it isn't because I don't care, because you all have very nearly become like family to me. It is just that life is a bit too hectic and there doesn't seem to be enough daylight, or twilight hours in a day for me to accomplish everything I need to do. Not to mention, the Lung Death, is hanging on. I am still coughing more that I like and it is exhausting. It is going on three weeks now, and I have completed a 10 day round of antibiotics. At work I am in the middle of a 7 day stretch, I don't have another day off until Friday the 17th. And the Supervisor is starting a two week vacation tomorrow, which will leave me the one in charge! How scary is that?! Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know that I am alive, and I will hopefully be commenting on your posts again soon.

We're going Down Town!

2009-03-28T18:39:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, when it was nice and warm, I took the boys and one of their friends to the Museum of Discovery. It is located in Downtown Little Rock. Here are some of the pictures I took while we were walking around.
We actually have trolley cars in the City.

This is a statue located in the square at River Front Park. The Farmer's Market is just behind it.

This little boy in the statue looked somewhat like my boys. I found it interesting.

This old English phone booth is just outside a little pub called The Underground Pub. They brew their own beer here and they have really good pizza. Nothing goes together quite as well as Pizza and Beer. Except maybe butter and popcorn. The phone booth reminds me of Harry Potter.

Here's my stinking kids and their friend. As you could see, mine were being difficult and would not smile.

This is just a picture of President Clinton Ave. If you continue walking in that direction, you will run right into the Clinton Library.

These two pics were taken inside the museum. The kids had a blast there. The museum has tons of things to do. And the hands on activities teaches the kids about electricity, how phones work, ect. It was a lot of fun.

Afterwards, we met a friend of mine at The Olive Garden and had lunch. All in all, it was an exhausting day.

I'm a regular sketch artist.

2009-03-26T22:19:00.000-05:00

I was on the phone with Blottie the other night and this is what I doodled while I talked to her. Don't ask me. I have no idea what it is.

Spring Is In The Air

2009-03-22T19:51:00.007-05:00

Some wild flowers growing in a neighbor's yard.

I know some of you are still gripped by winter, therefore, I thought I would share with you some photo's of spring time in Arkansas. I took most of these photo's from my front yard today and a couple from a few houses around in our neighborhood. I hope you enjoy!

Although the grass is still brown, if you look closely, little tufts of green are trying to poke through. Plus, it's 7pm and Nathan is in shorts and a tee shirt. The weather is Divine.

This is a little glazed clay house that I have in my front garden. I made this in art class when I was in the fifth grade. I think it would be considered an antique now because that was at least 25 years ago.

This is a frog statue that sits and enjoys the view of my front garden. The boys and I love frogs.

Forrest and I love sunsets. He pointed this one out to me and told me that we needed to get a picture of it. We both thought it was breathtaking. Don't you agree?

You can tell that summertime is just around the corner. The kids are out riding their bikes around the neighborhood. The three of us rode ours a mile this afternoon. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of hard work too. At one point I was wondering what the hell was I thinking. That was when I was cycling up a hill.

Nathan likes to improve with toys. Here he has created a machine gun out of a hot wheels battery. Kids and their imaginations are such a wonderful combination!

The Bradford Pear trees are in bloom. The flowers are easy on the eyes, but terrible for my sinuses. But they still smell heavenly, even if it makes me sneeze.

My creeping flox is trying to show it's face.

This is the only cat I have. I took this photo for Suzanne.

Nathan bought the huge silk sunflower last year with his allowance money. It has been a staple in our front garden ever since.

My fake stone lying in a bed of ground cover and weeds.

More of my beloved frogs.

More pictures of the sunset, as it slipped towards the horizon.

And last but not least, my beautiful flowering shrubs. I have not a clue what it is called. But it is fabulous. Suze, could you help a sister out and name this shrub?

The Winner's Circle!!!

2009-03-13T23:20:00.007-05:00

Well, I didn't win Leah's socks, but I did win this.

Cinnamon was the lovely blogger that was kind enough to bestow this wonderful award upon me. I just love visiting her blog because she always had great thought provoking posts and wonderful photos.
But I live in a household of winners. The boys played their 2nd flag football game this afternoon and they WON!!!!!! The final score was 40 to 29. We are all totally stoked about winning. The victory was especially special because Dad got to go see it too! The boys have improved so much from their first game. They lost that one 6 to 40. Forrest was excited because the coach has developed an offensive play around him. He does a cartwheel on the field to draw attention to himself while one of his teammates runs down the field with the ball. It worked very well both times they ran it. Forrest loves to do cartwheels!

So back to the Lemonade Award. I am suppose to award it to 10 of you. So here goes:

1. Suzanne over at Rose Cottage Studios gets the award because I love her, and she is my best friend and she always manages to make us all laugh and feel good about ourselves. Even if she thinks I'm a "trader". I think she meant traitor when she wrote that on Just Bob's comment page, but we won't hold that against her.

2. I have to nominate Just Bob just because he is stubborn and very set in his ways about not telling us his birth date. That's OK. I have to respect his wishes, even if it makes me want to just kick his ass. LOL (love you Bob!)

3. Next I suppose should be Leah. Yes, I'm trying to suck up to her in hopes of winning a pair of those socks. Leah, is it working? No, seriously, she is a phenomenal writer. A lady of many talents and she is very deserving of any award that is out there.

4. Now I will nominate, Joyful Jo because she is such a lovely lady. I'm not sure there is a nicer blogger on the planet. And it is an honor to me every time she graces my comment page.

5. Now Krazy Kylie is definitely deserving of this award. She is like an onion, she has layers. With each post that she publishes she shows us a new facet of her personality.

6. And we must not forget Gig and her Ramblings from Gigsville. She is going through so much right now and I just wanted her to know that she has our support. We are here for you Gig. Lean on us for support.

7. And who could forget MEGAN? Why does her name get to be in all CAPS when no one else is. Well, that is because it appears in my blog roll this way, and I'm cheating by cutting and pasting from there. Megan has a great blog that I enjoy very much and she recently made me cry. But in a good way.

8. Random Chick gets the next nomination simply because she has survived a visit from the dreaded Mother-In-Law-From-Hell. And because she is smart, funny, and a fantastic mother of two.

9. I also want to add my old friend Jeanetta to this list. She can be found over at Splendid Things. She has been my friend since high school, and even though I don't see her or talk to her much, I still care an awful lot about her.

10. And last, but certainly not least, is Robyn and her Happy House Of Haas. She has a lovely site that is chocked full of crafts and secret trips and fun. Not to mention she has kicked Cancer's ass not once, but twice.

Ok, I guess that's it for me.

It's all about me

2009-03-12T17:29:00.004-05:00

Suzanne over at Rose Cottage Studio has tagged me for a little meme. Unfortunately, she did not have the official rules on her site for this meme and made me go traipsing all over the Internet to find them. I finally tracked them down over on MEGAN's blog.

So here are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Write the rules on your site.
3. Mention 6 things or habits of 'no' real importance about you.
4. Tag 6 persons.
5. Notify the person that you tagged them.

I'm not sure if you guys really want to know stuff about me, but too bad. I'm going to tell you anyway.

1. I usually brush my teeth while I wait for the water to get hot in my shower. I think it saves time, but the water is usually scalding by the time I am finished.
2. I'm allergic to disposable paper lab coats.
3. I drive at least 10 miles over the speed limit no matter where I am, and no matter how much time I have to get there. I cannot stand it when slow people get in front of me, and I cannot stand it when people tailgate me. I figure, I'm going at least 10 miles over the speed limit, so that son of a bitch that is tailgating me best just slow his ass down!
4. I cannot stand bananas. It isn't because they taste bad, it is because they are sort of slimy and mushy at the same time. I don't eat pears either because they are hairy and gritty. It's a texture thing.
5. I smell my food before I eat it. Most of the time, I do this without ever realizing it, but almost everyone else does. If it doesn't smell good, I don't eat it.
6. I can't stand to have dirty hands. Nor can I stand it if I touch something sticky. That is why I do not get close to kids with lollipops or runny noses.

So, that's it. Now all of you think I'm a speed crazed allergic germaphobe that hates small children, but that's ok.

Who should I tag? How 'bout:
Cinnamon , MJ, Inner Voices, and Queen Goob
I know that is only 4, but between Suzanne, Megan and Leah, everyone else on my blog roll has been tagged. Have fun Ya'll!

BUY MY BOOK!!!!

2009-03-05T17:06:00.005-06:00

Underwater Adventures of Wolf dog and Octopus

As I'm sure most of you know by now, I am an author. Not a very well known author, actually, not known at all, but I do have a book published. That is why I have decided to take the time to do a little shameless self promotion. I know that many of you already own a copy of my book. Some have paid for theirs, and others have not. Even a couple of you were lucky enough to receive them as prizes, Sorry it took me 6-8 months to get it to you.
The book was inspired by my boys, and therefore, is dedicated to them. I am both the author and illustrator of the book, so I am the only one to blame for it's success or failure. Anyway, if you are interested, just click the title below the picture and link to a website to purchase the book. I thank you for your support.

Domestic Violence Sucks

2009-03-02T18:09:00.002-06:00

Some one I know is dealing with this right now, and I hate it.

I just wanted to share the lyrics of a song I wrote about the subject.

Verse I

When I left your house this morning
I didn't know just what to say.
I didn't like the way I was feeling
I and I knew I couldn't stay.

Chorus
I am feeling so confused about me and you
You left me feeling bruised and used,
so I'm leaving you
You took my heart it's torn in two,
what am I gonna do?
Cause I am feeling so confused about me and you.

Verse II
I didn't know just how to tell you
that I just had to get away.
It doesn't help that I'm afraid of you
of what you would to and say.

Repeat chorus

Verse III
The makeup that I'm using won't cover up my eyes
I can't continue living with this bad disguise.
So Babe I've packed my suitcase and I'm walking out your door.
Cause I don't want to live this anymore.

Chorus

I just wish that women didn't feel that they had to live with this type of abuse.

Makeup or No Makeup that is the Question

2009-02-27T22:36:00.003-06:00

I went to a party this evening at a Smokehouse and Tavern. I have to say, I think tonight was the first time I have ever been inside a Tavern. I've been to a nightclub twice and I've been to a bar once. Yeah, you could say I'm a real party animal. Anyway, I was getting ready to go out tonight and Forrest was sitting on the tub watching me put on makeup. After I was finished, I turned to him and asked him how I looked. He gave me a shy smile and in the sweetest voice you have ever heard he told me that I looked better.

BETTER.

Better? Better than what?

Now I must admit, I am not a makeup kind of gal. I hardly ever wear it. I have never felt that I just had to have it on in order to be presentable to the public, so his comment sort of took me off guard. Does makeup really make people look better. I thought about that for a moment and decided that obviously it does, or else it would not be a multi-billion dollar industry. I then began to think how sad it is that we were not just satisfied with our own natural beauty. Now don't get me wrong, I certainly do not feel that I would win a beauty prize, but I also don't think of myself as ugly. And do I really need makeup to make myself look better? I don't know. But Forrest and Nathan both agreed that I looked pretty tonight, and make up or no makeup, that made this hot momma feel pretty darn good about herself. I guess I could just let you all decided if you think makeup makes me look BETTER.

Makeup

No Makeup

The Green Bay Packers Rule!

2009-02-26T18:27:00.003-06:00

The Green Bay Packers is my favorite football team. Why?

Well because Nathan and Forrest play for them of course.

The boys are making their first foray into organized sports this spring. They are going to play flag football. They seem to be very excited about it. They have their first game coming up this Saturday. Actually, it is a Jamboree to open the season. They will play two games back to back. Their first game starts at 11:00 and they are playing the Redskins. Then at 12:30 the real test begins as they square off against the Patriot. Let's hope this team of 7-8 year old boys and girls aren't the cheaters that their professional counterparts are. (Yes Rob and Suzanne are Patriot fans. BOOO to the Patriots!) HA HA HA

GO PACKERS! BEAT THE REDSKINS AND PATRIOTS!!!!

Anyway, I just had to show off this picture of the boys sporting their new jerseys.

No they are not conjoined at the hip! Just acting silly.
Wish us luck.

LOVE?

2009-02-15T01:01:00.006-06:00

Love.

Such a complicated word. A word that scares the living heck out of some, and yet seems so unobtainable to others.

When we are young, love seems so innocent, so romantic, yet as we grow older we realize that our romantic fantasies are just that. Fantasy.

We search our whole lives to find a pure love. One that never fades away. One that never grows old with time.

Some of us are lucky and we find it when we are still young and innocent.

But our innocence is quickly lost, and somewhere along the way, love may become lost as well.

As life becomes more complicated, we end up making mistakes, and eventually, we cause our own love to fail.

A Lesson Learned

Even though we are sitting together in the same room, intense loneliness is what I feel.

I also feel pain and sorrow from my heart breaking in two.

The unpenetrable silence is unbearable.

You sit there brooding over things in the past.

There were promises broken; lies were spoken.

All of these are things I cannot take back.

I sit here wishing for a gentle word or a soft touch.

ANYTHING.

I pray to a deaf god to help me make things right.

I ask him to help us get back the love we once had.

I can't fix all that I have broken.

There are some pieces smashed beyond repair,

so I can't glue them all back together again.

I just sit here drowning in my despair.

I am hoping for a miracle to come and save our love from the bows of destruction.

Cece-May, 1996

Sometimes we become a lover spurned, and sometimes love is only one sided.

Hurt

He lay there listening to the waves crashing against the cold drab rocks.

A dreamy smile flooded his face.

She sat there looking at him, wishing the ocean would swell up and engulf her so that she would never fell the heartache again.

He just laid there dreaming of another.

She felt alone.

Like waves crashing violently against the shore, my heart slams against my chest.

The pain I feel is unbearable. The damage is real. Why did I let you climb over the wall I have for so long guarded? Why did you steal my love and leave me so empty?

Cece-1994

And then sometimes, we get lucky enough to find someone we think we could spend the rest of our life with.

Husband

Your love for me is tender.

It's genuine and true.

You can always make me smile,

When I'm broken down and blue.

I was a very lucky lady,

To find such a wonderful man.

Through life we will go walking,

forever hand-in-hand.

I want you to know that you are special;

You're a gold mine just for me.

Standing right beside you,

is where I always want to be.

On a chain or in your pocket,

No matter where you keep my heart,

I know you will keep it protected,

and never let it fall apart.

I love you with all of the power,

That God has given to me.

Together is how we will be spending Our eternity.

Cece-1996

So, as you can see, as we travel through life's journey, we met love along the way. And it seems that love is a chameleon that takes on many forms. A shape shifter in the night that changes as time passes. Sometimes we get really lucky and we get to experience the most wonderful gift in the world. Unconditional love.

I am one of the lucky few to have experience that wonderful gift. I experience it every day. For me this is what unconditional love looks like.

I bet the view is totally different for you.

What a Great Day!

2009-02-07T23:37:00.008-06:00

HB got home from work this morning at around 7. Although he is always as quiet as a mouse, inevitably, I wake up. It seems that ever since I became a mother, I have also become a very light sleeper. The slightest creak will wake me out of my slumber. HB was very tired, so he laid down beside me. We clasped each others hands, and without ever uttering a word, we both quickly drifted off to sleep. At 7:30, we were both very rudely awaken. Nathan came into the room at full speed, high steeped over the chair at the foot of our bed and leaped onto the middle of the bed. He wedged our hands apart and shimmied up under the covers. He quickly found my warm legs and slid his ice cold feet up under them to get them warm. Seconds later, Grace entered the room. He came in running, tripped over the cord to the hand held massager that stays on the night stand beside the bed, looses his footing on the rug beside the bed and bangs head first into the wall. (All of this action takes place on my side of the bed.) So I sit up and pull a screaming child up out of the floor and check for blood and or broken limbs. All is fine, so I stand up and put him into the warm spot on my bed that I begrudgingly give up. I cover him up with the blankets, and head to the recliner. I pull the blanket out from under my slumbering dog that has claimed our $1800 Italian leather couch as her dog bed. I cover up and kick back in the recliner and like a blown bulb, I am out. At 9am Nathan wakes me up again. He wants to play his Godzilla game. We are down to one TV. It is in the living room where I am sleeping. That's it. I'm up for the day. No more snoozing for me. Forrest quickly informs me that he is hungry. Nathan is hungry too. So I fix them breakfast. Forrest choose Chef BoyrDee Chili Mac and Nathan chooses double stuffed ravioli. Ok, breakfast is easy enough. Two minutes in the microwave and wallah. I move on to the laundry, and then I load the dish washer. I take care of a few other hously duties and before I know it, it is 11am. I had plans for the day. We were going to a state park that was only about 30 miles from our home. We had never been there before, and I had asked one of my friends and her son to go with us. I head to the bedroom to get ready and I see that HB is awake. I tell him he has clean scrubs for work, and I tell him my plans and I head to the bathroom to get ready. He informs me that he isn't going to work tonight. Well, this changes everything. He had asked for the day off weeks ago, but I didn't know it. I was pleasantly surprised. I asked him if he wanted to go with us, and he did. So we got ready and off to my friends house we went.

We arrived at my friends house a little after noon. She informs me that she needs to go to the bank to get some money. No problem, we will follow you to the bank. She doesn't know how to get to the Park, so she will have to follow us to the park. On our way to the bank she calls me and tells me that she wants to stop and sign her son up for soccer as well. I tell her we would meet her at the Community Center (which is where I assumed soccer sign up was.) She agreed and we went our separate ways. Her to the bank, and us to the Community Center. This is where pleasant surprise number two was waiting for us. They were having an antique car show in the parking lot of the Community Center.

After perusing the old cars for several times over, my friend calls me.

Friend: "I'm done. Where are you?"

Me: "We are out here looking at all of the old cars."

Friend: "What old cars?"

Me: "All of these old cars out here in the parking lot. Didn't you see the antique car show when you pulled in?"

Friend: "I don't see you, could you walk towards the door?"

(I walk towards the door of the community center and realize, I don't see my friend.)

Me: "Where are you?"

Friend: "I'm standing here right outside of Hibbit Sports."

Me: "HIBBIT SPORTS? THAT'S CLEAR ACROSS TOWN FROM WHERE WE ARE AT!"

Friend: "This is where we had to sign up for soccer."

Me: "Why didn't you tell me it wasn't at the Community Center. Oh, never mind, just stay put, we will be over there in a couple of minutes."

So I gather my brood and we pile back into the SUV and head back across town. (My friend lives on the same side of town as Hibbit Sports.) I find my friend and off to the Park we go.

The park is sort of off the beaten path. It is in a very rural area.

The state park that we visited is called Toltec Mounds. The mounds are old Indian mounds. The park was named Toltec by mistake. The first guy that found the area thought the mounds were made by the Toltec Indians of Mexico. But after years of study, the realized that they were made by Native American Indians. But I guess the name stuck. It cost us $10 total to get in. I was a bit disappointed by the park. I was expecting a bit more, but the kids thought it was fantastic. As a matter of fact, Forrest wants to go back there tomorrow.

We walked the 2.6 mile park trail that went around the mounds and along side the Toltec Mounds Lake. The kids had a blast climbing to the top of the mounds and then rolling back down them. After we had completed our little trek, we went inside where they had the educational material. They had pottery, and arrow heads and tools and a table filled with furs. Yes, Suzanne. Real dead animal furs. Yep, it sort of made me feel a little sick too. The information lady, told us the furs had been confiscated from poachers by the Game and Fish Commission. The animals were already dead, so they had their furs preserved, for educational purposes.

You've got to be kidding me.

2009-02-05T19:49:00.003-06:00

Today I received a package at work. This wasn't any ordinary package either. It was a special packaged that was sent Priority Overnight by Fed Ex.

First off, the sender spelled my first name wrong even after I told him how to spell it correctly. He spelled it Celile. WTF? Who the hell has that name? NOT ME!!!!

But what really got me was how the package was packaged. I mean some serious thought and careful consideration went into the packaging of this important product.

It was packed in a very large padded manila envelope. You know the one with the plastic air popping stuff inside?

So I opened the envelope and looked inside. I found a green piece of paper with packing slip information printed on it, and another white padded envelope.

Puzzled, I opened the white padded envelope and peered inside. Inside was a single sheet of paper that had a license code and a key number on it and direction in every language you could think of, except ENGLISH, on how to use this bit of information for the online account I needed it for.

I was absolutely flabbergasted. Who the hell sends a fucking piece of paper through the mail packaged like that? And why the fuck are the direction not in English?

Actually, I eventually found the English directions. They were second from the bottom on the back side of the sheet. It was such a small paragraph that I over looked it three or four times.

I just couldn't get over how they packaged it up. What a waste of revenue. Anyway, I just wanted to share this with everyone.

The Science of the Mind

2009-02-02T19:14:00.002-06:00

I find it interesting the things our mind comes up with when we are tired. Take my latest post over at The Wild Onion for instance. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but apparently, it was brilliant! But today, my mind didn't come up with such inventive and burning questions. Instead my mind decided to have a pity party and make me cry on my drive home. Sure it seems logical that my brain would have this reaction. I mean, after all, I didn't get but perhaps three hours of sleep last night. My husband was lying next to me coughing up his lungs until 2am. My kids had been sick for the past 9 days and had now missed 5 our of the last 6 school days. Nathan has a rash all over his face, and tonsils the size of bouncy balls, and Forrest had a recurring fever and a throat that looked like a striped candy cane. I have had to leave work, or miss completely due to family illness the past three days in a row. Not to mention my sister called me this morning to inform me that my mother is mad at me for not coming to see her this weekend. She went back home to Missouri yesterday, so I missed my opportunity. She was suppose to be here for two weeks, but she only stayed for one. I tried to call her and explain, but she is not answering her phone. So I was driving home early to take the boys to the doctor and I broke down. I started thinking about my dad, and my sister and I started to feel lonely. I started feeling as if the only members of my family that truly loved me were gone. Believe me, I was feeling very low. Not even the Cure was helping. (The Cure's Greatest Hits is in my CD player in my truck right now.) But things changed when I got home. The boys were delighted to see me how early and soon things got better. I took the boys to the Dr. She confirmed my diagnosis of strep throat. They now have antibiotics and cough syrup with codeine! They still are not allowed to go to school tomorrow, and they are thrilled about that. Plus, I got to take a nap for an hour. So now my mind realizes how crazy it was being.

The Worst is Over. I Think?

2009-01-31T21:10:00.003-06:00

As all of you know, we have been battling a nasty virus called Flu A this week.

And I think that the worst is finally over. The boys made it through an entire day of school Friday, and HB (husband) went back to work Friday night. They slept through the entire night last night in their own beds. This is the first time all week at least one of them did not have breathing difficulty and come get in bed with me. Isn't it amazing how much better they sleep when they sleep with their parents? Unfortunately, when they get in bed with me, I don't sleep from that moment on. I keep hearing there gargled breathing and the force air through their swollen and mucous filled nasal passages into their inflamed and congested lungs. But last night was different. I'm not saying they breathed easier, I'm just saying they didn't wake up. So when I woke up I went to their room to check on them. You know just to make sure they were still breathing and didn't choke on their own snot during the night. I was horrified when I looked and my sweet Nathan's face.

What are those bumps all over him. The one thing that kept going through my mind was CHICKEN POX!!! Oh no, he has chicken pox on top of everything else. I grabbed his arms and check them for bumps, but I didn't find any. I checked his legs, nope, none there. I turned him over, by this time to much protest because I had awaken him during my frantic search. I checked his back and flipped him back over and checked his tummy. No pox marks anywhere else, just his face. Then I looked at his nose, and his lips. They are so dry and chapped. My next thought was impetigo due to Strep Throat. I had made my decision. I was going to take him to work and do a strep screen on him. But as the day passed his bumps started going away. By noon, they were almost gone. I guess he must have slobbered last night and got a little rash on his face from the moisture. I have been putting Vaseline on his nose and mouth and he is looking much more presentable. Luckily, Forrest didn't get as chapped. He has a small spot on his nose that I have been doctoring, but that is it. So, I think we are out of the woods.

I have lucked out so far and not come down with the symptoms that they have had. I have been battling a terrible headache for the past four days that seems to come and go at it's leisure. It will hit me really hard, but when I sleep for awhile, it goes away. Today it came back accompanied with leg aches, too. But after two hours in bed, the leg aches went away, and my headache diminished. After some Aleve, my headache receded too. I think I just need lots of rest and relaxation. And that is what I plan to do tomorrow. I went to the grocery store yesterday and picked up every one's requested food for the super bowl game and we are going to veg out, drink margarita's (adults only) eat what we want and watch the game. Yep, hopefully tomorrow will be like heaven! Go Red Birds! (I'm originally from Missouri, of course I'm rooting for the Cardinals. Besides, Kurt Warner is HOT!)

Ice on the Way

2009-01-26T15:54:00.002-06:00

I was hoping for a nice relaxing day today. I had several things planned, but unfortunately, things didn't turn out exactly the way I had hoped. I planned on starting my day by taking the kids to school, then going to get a massage, and then going and visiting with family and friends. I wanted to go see Bindi, Noah, and Serene. I wanted to have lunch with my best friend Natalie. And I was going to spend a little bit of time with my mother. Instead, I was up half the night dealing with sick children. That's right plural. CHILDREN. They are both very sick. I think it is just a really bad head cold, but is it making them miserable, and I hate to see them miserable. So, I had to keep them home from school. I REALLY wanted my massage. I had been anticipating it for well over a week and so I called up the greatest neighbor in the world, and she came over and sat with the boys while I went and got my massage and got some Gatorade and Sprite from Fred's. When my husband came home from his trip, he sounded terrible. Apparently, he has the same thing they have. So all three of my boys are piled up in the living room watching T.V. I cancelled my trip to Bindi's and lunch with my friend, and I told my mom I would see her this weekend. I made some home made chicken noodle soup, and so far I am the only one that will eat it. I managed to force two bites down Nathan and one bite down Forrest. And that is it. And to top everything off, we have an ice storm on the way this evening. That should make my drive to work tomorrow fun. Anyway, I hope you all are having a great week and wish me luck on fighting off this head cold. AHHHHHCHOOOOOO! OH I hope it's not too late!

Lizard Birth

2009-01-22T20:40:00.001-06:00

Here is a funny joke that my sister-in-law emailed to me today. Enjoy!

Just after dinner one night, my son came up to tell me there was 'something wrong' with one of the two lizards he holds prisoner in his room. 'He's just lying there looking sick,' he told me. 'I'm serious, Dad. Can you help?' I put my best lizard-healer expression on my face and followed him into his bedroom. One of the little lizards was indeed lying on his back, looking stressed. I immediately knew what to do.. 'Honey,' I called, 'come look at the lizard!' 'Oh, my gosh!' my wife exclaimed. 'She's having babies.' 'What?' my son demanded. 'But their names are Bert and Ernie, Mom!' I was equally outraged. 'Hey, how can that be? I thought we said we didn't want them to reproduce,' I said accusingly to my wife. 'Well, what do you want me to do, post a sign in their cage?' she inquired (I think she actually said this sarcastically!) 'No, but you were supposed to get two boys!' I reminded her, (in my most loving, calm, sweet voice, while gritting my teeth). 'Yeah, Bert and Ernie!' my son agreed. 'Well, it's just a little hard to tell on some guys, you know,' she informed me (Again with the sarcasm!). By now the rest of the family had gathered to see what was going on. I shrugged, deciding to make the best of it. 'Kids, this is going to be a wondrous experience,' I announced. 'We're about to witness the miracle of birth..' 'Oh, gross!' they shrieked 'Well, isn't THAT just great? What are we going to do with a litter of tiny little lizard babies?' my wife wanted to know. We peered at the patient. After much struggling, what looked like a tiny foot would appear briefly, vanishing a scant second later. 'We don't appear to be making much progress,' I noted. 'It's breech,' my wife whispered, horrified. 'Do something, Dad!' my son urged. 'Okay, okay.' Squeamishly, I reached in and grabbed the foot when it next appeared, giving it a gentle tug. It disappeared. I tried several more times with the same results. 'Should I call 911 ? ' my eldest daughter wanted to know. 'Maybe they could talk us through the trauma.' (You see a pattern here with the females in my house?) 'Let's get Ernie to the vet,' I said grimly. We drove to the vet with my son holding the cage in his lap. 'Breathe, Ernie, breathe,' he urged. 'I don't think lizards do Lamaze,' his mother noted to him. (Women can be so cruel to their own young. I mean what she does to me is one thing, but this boy is of her womb). The vet took Ernie back to the examining room and peered at the little animal through a magnifying glass. 'What do you think, Doc, a C-section?' I suggested scientifically. 'Oh, very interesting,' he murmured. 'Mr. and Mrs. Cameron, may I speak to you privately for a moment?' I gulped, nodding for my son to step outside. 'Is Ernie going g to be okay?' my wife asked. 'Oh, perfectly,' the vet assured us. 'This lizard is not in labor.. In fact, that isn't EVER going to happen. Ernie is a boy. You see, Ernie is a young male. And occasionally, as they come into maturity, like most male species, they um . . um . . masturbate. Just the way he did, lying on his back.' He blushed, glancing at my wife. We were silent, absorbing this. 'So, Ernie's just . just . . excited,' my wife offered. 'Exactly,' the vet replied , relieved that we understood. More silence. Then my vicious, cruel wife started to giggle. And giggle. And then even laugh loudly. 'What's so funny?' I demanded, knowing, but not believing that the woman I married would commit the upcoming affront to my flawless manliness. Tears were now running down her face. 'It's just .that . . I 'm picturing you pulling on its . . . its. . . teeny little . . ' She gasped for more air to bellow in laughter once more. 'That's enough,' I warned. We thanked the vet and hurriedly bundled the lizard and our son back into the car.. He was glad everything was going to be okay. 'I know Ernie's really thankful for what you did, Dad,' he told me. 'Oh, you have NO idea,' my wife agreed, collapsing with laughter.. Two lizards: $140. One cage: $50. Trip to the vet: $30.. Memory of your husband pulling on a lizard's winkie: Priceless! Moral of the story: Pay attention in biology class. Lizards lay eggs!

Textiles

2009-01-21T10:44:00.006-06:00

Cotton, a simple but elegant plant that once made our nation great.

The beauty of cotton expands much farther than just a beautiful landscape.

It also makes comfortable clothes.

Have you ever given much though on what you wear and how it makes you feel? For instance t-shirt and jeans are a wonderful casual attire that makes a woman feel comfortable and confident. And some times they can even make a woman feel sexy.

Imagine the gentle silky feel of satin and the delicate but rough feel of lace. The two together arouses the senses. This is a wonderful and sexy combination of textiles.

And combine that with a sexy man that isn't interested in the textiles, but is interested in your body......

Well, that's enough to make any woman feel sexy.

Young Love

2009-01-16T21:25:00.003-06:00

My Forrest is in love for the first time. It is a bit frightening and sweet all rolled up in one. I let him talk to his "girlfriend" on the phone today. The conversation was priceless. He was very shy, but he managed to muster enough courage to tell her that he liked her and that he thought she was pretty. I don't know what she told him back, but his cheeks got really red and his respiratory rate increased. After he got off the phone he told me that he really needed a glass of water. His throat felt tight and he was really hot! He sort of kind of went out on his first "date" tonight. At least that is how he tells it. He "heart loves" a girl in his class named Bronwyn. She is adorable, and today we took her swimming with us at the Community Center. At first they were both very awkward around each others, but as time passed they seemed to be more comfortable about spending time away from school with each other. After we got home, I caught him drawing on a piece of paper. This is a photo of what he drew. He told me that he didn't want to go to sleep tonight because he was afraid that he would not still "heart love" Bronwyn in his sleep. I told him that sleeping was perfectly safe and that he would still heart love her no matter what.
This moment is hard for a mother. It is proof that my baby is growing up quicker than I want him too. Soon the innocence that he possesses will be lost, and he will be just a boy. Well, maybe not just a boy. He will always be my little Forrest Grump!

Posting Slump.

2009-01-15T17:25:00.002-06:00

I've been in a posting slump lately. I'm not sure if it is due to sensory overload from everything going on in my life, or depression caused by everything that's going on in my life, or simply everything that's been going on in my life. But the simple fact is that I've been in a posting slump. I feel as if I have nothing entertaining, or creative to tell about. One of the things that I hate doing is posting about how terrible things are and how down I am. So, I try not to post when I am feeling down. I have always been a firm believer in the fact that positive thinking will lead to positivity in your life, therefore, even when I feel like crap, I always try to smile.

I was asked one day by a co-worker, "Why are you always smiling?"
This question took me by surprise and literally shocked me.
My response to this person was this: "Would you prefer I walk around frowning all of the time?"
They quickly replied back, "No, but I don't understand how you could be happy every day of your life."

I told this person that I'm not happy everyday of my life. But I am happy most days of my life, and I have discovered that smiling makes my day go better. You should try it and see how it works for you.
Yes, this person thinks I'm the biggest fake in the world, and really doesn't like me much, but hey, who cares. Right?

As of late, I've been finding it hard to smile. The events of 2008 tested my mental stability, and I feel that it has shaken me to the core of my self being. I keep wanting to get back on track, but I find it harder and harder as time goes on. You see, not long after my Father died, I was told by someone very close to me that I wasn't a nice person. This shocked me because I have always tried to be a nice person. Since a little bit before Christmas I started searching my soul to try and rediscover who I am. I tried to examine my life and my actions to see if I really acted like the kind, thoughtful person that I perceive myself to be.

This is what I have discovered about myself:
I eat when I am feeling lonely and sad. I don't even have to be hungry. I use food to comfort me.
I AM a kind, and compassionate person. I care about other people, and I do have humanity living inside of me, despite what others may think.
I have a tendency to be a bit blunt and to the point, therefore some people may think I'm cruel and heartless, but in truth, I'm just honest.
I love my children with every ounce of my soul, and my life would not be worth living without them.
I have unconscionably alienated my husband from me, and would like desperately to make things better.

So to make things better I am going to make 2009 my year to fix myself.
I'm not making resolutions, I'm just going setting small goals.
Right now I am trying to eat healthier. And I have involved my husband in this campaign and we are going to do this together. So far it is working. We have been working at it for two weeks now and I have lost between 6-7lbs already. Just by eating healthier foods! Last week I started swimming at the community center again, and I can already feel tension in my shoulders relieving and I am finding it a bit easier to breath. I have decided that if I could make myself feel better about myself, then everything else will fall into place.

So, I need you, my motivational speakers, to help me with my goals. I need you to tell me that I don't need that chocolate fudge brownie, that I should eat the orange instead. I'll need you to tell me how wonderful I'm doing when I post my updates on my progress.

Thank you for your ongoing support, and remember, I'm always here for you, too.

DIFFERENCES

2008-12-31T17:41:00.003-06:00

I'm sitting here looking at he gifts I received from my sons for Christmas. I find their differences very intriguing. I think that is allows us a small glimpse into how they think. Take my gift from Forrest for instance:

It is a pink and purple glass angle holding a gold plated star. When I opened it he told me that it was me. Remember, he thinks that I am The Angle of Life. He informs me that it is The Angle of Life holding the Star of hope. It is a very beautiful, fragile, and sentimental gift. You can tell that he put a lot of thought into picking this gift out. It truly fits to his personality. He is a worrier. He worries about everything. If he wants a toy and I tell him we don't have enough money to get toys right now, he becomes afraid and worries about us having enough money to pay our bills. HB and I have told him that he should worry about things like that. We told him that those were Mommy and Daddy problems and that he should just worry about being a kid and having fun. We also had to explain to him that we made enough money to pay bills, we just don't always have a lot left over for extra stuff, so sometimes we have to go without. He is a very thoughtful and quite sensitive child, and he was and still is the smallest of the two, which in my mind makes him more fragile.

Nathan's gift on the other hand screams practicality.

Nathan is a whiz at math, so it makes sense that he gives me an ink pen with a built in calculator. He tells me that I can use it to write down my figures at my job as a Scientist. He wants to become a Paleontologist when he grows up. And I hope he pursues that dream whole heartily. Nathan is a very practical child. He is very quick to come up with a solution for problems, but he seems to never get ruffled about much. Unless you pick on him and call him baby. He is very laid back and has a wonderful sense of humor. He loves to joke, and he loves to play. His personality is totally different from Forrest.

So, it just goes to prove that no matter how similar they may appear, their differences shine through in every thing they do.

MERRY! MERRY! MERRY!

2008-12-20T10:02:00.002-06:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of you COOL CATs out there.

I am the World's Greatest MOM!

2008-12-18T00:42:00.014-06:00

I think it should be made official. It is now 12:40 am and I have just finished baking 30 sugar cookies for the boys' school Christmas Party. And I must say they look awesome!

The party was suppose to be Wednesday, but school has been cancelled for the past two days due to icy road conditions. So we are having the party later today! (Thursday). I have worked extremely hard to get ready for this shindig and today is going to be a blast. I have to get up at 7am to get the boys ready for school and I will be hitting the floor running. I have to have to boys dropped off at school by 7:50, then it is off to the grocery store to pick up some fun icing to use in our cookie decorating center at the party. Then I have to rush back home and pack up our skateboard float and all of the party stuff and be back at the school by 9:00am. Our skateboard float is a real beauty. The skateboard float parade is a holiday tradition at my boys' school, and this is our first year to enter a float in the parade.

I worked hard on the float. I made all of the present in Santa's sleigh by hand with cardboard, construction paper, glue, tape, and gold ribbon. The boys are excited about the parade. After I was finished with the float, the were parading around the house with it.

I have also arranged for Santa to show up at the Christmas party. Santa is one of my best friends. I have known him and Mrs. Clause for a very long time. I will be sure to take some pictures of today's events and post them for every one's viewing pleasure. The party is going to be a blast. We are going to have an ornament toss game where we toss ornament into a huge box wrapped up like a present and a hole is cut out of the center of it. The boys, of course, just had to get inside of it once it was all finished.

We are going to decorate cookies. We are going to have face painting. I have bought some chocolate Santa's for everyone. And I have got a small Christmas ornament for each child. We are also going to make an ornament of our own as a present for mom and dad. It is going to be a wreath Christmas ornament with a picture of the kids in the middle. I think I've spent close to $50 on all of this stuff, and I don't even want to know how many man hours I've spent preparing everything. But to see the smiles on the kids faces and to hear their laughter of joy when Santa walks into the room with his bag full of candy canes will be worth every penny and every minute. And that is why I am the World's Greatest MOM!

********************************************************************************
UPDATE

So the party was a huge success. Santa came and was wonderful!

I even got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what I wanted for Christmas!

And the skateboard float parade was quite a site. There was everything from Santas, to presents, to Christmas trees to puppies, but best of all was Sponge Bob Square Pants!

Here's a few snapshots of everyone lining up to start the parade.

At one point during the parade the boys got their strings tangled up and tipped Santa's sleigh. Everyone thought that was quite entertaining.

There were also gingerbread men creations on display. A plain gingerbread man was sent home with each child and the family had a week to decorate him and send him back. This one is Nathan's. It is a rock star vampire ginger bread man. (click to enlarge it to see his teeth and blood below his mouth.)

This one is Forrest's. His is a Rock Star Shooter Gingerbread Man. He has a red gun in his hand and a purple bandit's bandanna around his neck. He is also wearing a rainbow Kevlar vest.

Here are a few snapshots of some of the other gingerbread creations that I thought were quite interesting.

The girl with the feathers was a bit risque for a first grade display in my opinion, but perhaps this girls mom is a stripper or something. I suppose we will never know.

But the most creative one of all was Houdini. Now this family has talent!

It is also a tradition in First Grade at our school to make gingerbread houses out of an empty milk carton and frosting and lots and lots of candy.
Forrest's gingerbread house
Nathan's gingerbread house

And lastly, these are the ornaments we created during the party. They look fabulous! Forrest is on the left and Nathan is on the right (his bow is at the bottom. I loved doing this project with the kids because no two ornaments were decorated alike. The used every bell, holly berry, and star they were given, too!. I hope everyone has enjoyed the party. I know I did.

Sometimes we just need a friend to Lean on.

2008-12-12T18:35:00.002-06:00

Sometimes we all just need a friend,
To bend their ear or to make us grin.
I am lucky because I have found all of you,
To help me along and to get me through.

Lean on me when you have drank too much.
Lean on me when you feel out of touch.
Lean on me when you need a friend.
Lean on me when the pain won’t end.
Lean on me, I don’t mind at all.
Lean on me I won’t let you fall.
Lean on me, because I’m here for you.
Lean on me, and I’ll lean on you.

This Is Why My Life Is Worth Living

2008-12-11T22:29:00.001-06:00

And the Innocence shines through

2008-12-04T17:31:00.003-06:00

I know a soul,

as pure as gold.

Not an ounce of evil

in his body.

His big ole grin,

warms the heart within,

and fur covers

his whole body.

His love is true,

he's never blue.

Just give him love each day.

He wags his tail,

He likes hiking trails.

He loves to run and play.

He's a special dog,

He'll steal your heart,

You really don't have a chance.

By your side he heels,

and love you will feel

with just a single glance.

Life SUCKS! and I got CRABS

2008-11-21T19:39:00.007-06:00

Yep, it's a simple known fact that LIFE SUCKS. We all know it. I mean none of us are getting out of it alive. We will all meet the same fate in the end. What can I say, it's depressing. So as all of you know by now, I've been going through a rough time. So I went out with my husband the other day and we got Crabs.

Like the picture above suggests, we got three of them. The species we got are red clawed fiddlers. They look much like the photo below. My camera battery is dead, and I'm too lazy to find the charger to charge it up, so you will have to settle for pictures lifted off the Internet.
Crabs are a great low maintenance pet. Did you know that there are over 90 different species of Fiddler Crabs? And they are quite entertaining to watch. Our new Fiddler crabs were great additions to the three Hermit Crabs that we already own. I don't think I have properly introduced you to the crabs of the family.

Meet BLUEY. He is the first crab we ever got. He is also the smallest crab. We purchased Bluey two years ago. He came home with his friend, Reddy. Reddy has since gone to the big house in the sky, but Bluey is still Molting stronger than ever. (Crabs molt about every 3-6 months. During this time they shed their exoskeleton for a new one. They are able to regenerate limbs during this time.)

Next we have Scoobie Doobie Do. "Scoobie" is our biggest Crab. When we purchased Scoobie, he was housed inside a white shell with a picture of Scoobie Do painted on it. But he moved out of the shell as soon as we got him home. He changed shells several times before he finally settled on the one he has now. Scoobie pinched me once and I had to hold him under running water for several minutes before he decided to let go. I think he was attempting to bury himself for molting when I picked him up, and crabs get sort of crabby when they are ready to molt. I think it is because the skins that they are in, so they need to get bigger ones. Since then, I've been way more careful when handling Scoobie.
And last but not least, there is Hermie. Yes, I have a Hermit Crab named Hermie. Hermie is my favorite. He is very social and usually will come out of his shell when I call him. He loves to climb all over my hands and arms. His favorite snack is Hermit Crab Cookies, and he doesn't care for the creel and brim shrimp pellets that I have for them right now. All of the crabs love the coconut and mango fruit treats. I am thinking of getting some for them for Christmas.

So, now that you've met all of the crabs in our family..... Tell me about all of the crabs in your family. HA

My Thoughts Have Now Been Collected.

2008-11-08T22:58:00.004-06:00

Well, the leaves are finally starting to turn colors this month. It seems appropriate considering, we have a new President that will hopefully be able to Change the state of our Union.
The boys really enjoyed Halloween. They were skeletons this year. Forrest had a heart that would pump fake blood through his bones, but the blood scared Nathan, so he would not let me rig his costume with the fake blood. The made a haul with the halloween candy. Both pumpkins were filled to the top. Yep, I think we may still have halloween candy until next year.
Speaking of pumpkins, I worked my fingers to the bone carving this year. I carved two pumpkins with the wolves scene. Both boys wanted it on their pumpkins.

I also did the haunted house scene. It took the most time, three damn hours to carve a stupid pumpkin, and it still didn't win the pumpkin carving contest at work. It was rigged I tell you, rigged. A simple Jack-0-Lantern with the bottom half of a baby sticking out of it's mouth won. Since when did scientists give a damn about creativity? The day after Halloween, I let the boys have a costume party. They really enjoyed it, and so to show me their appreciation, they climbed over our back fence and stole these beautiful rose blooms off of the neighbor's rose bush. They smelled heavenly.

Well, that's the end of my post. I told you I collected my thoughts. I didn't tell you they were organized. I hope every one has a good weekend. Well, what's left of it anyway!.

Collecting my thoughts.

2008-10-26T21:24:00.003-05:00

I'm attempting to collect my thoughts.
As soon as I do, I'll do a real post, but until then,
bask in the beauty that Mother nature displays to us on a regular basis.

Another trip to my town

2008-10-16T21:06:00.005-05:00

I spent the day with my "Adopted Mom" on Tuesday. She is the greatest lady in the whole wide world, and I love her almost as much as my real mom. We had lunch at a little hole in the wall restaurant and then we traveled around town taking pictures.
This is a bird's eye view of Little Rock.
This is the winding road we traveled down to come into town from the bird's eye view.
We ended up A River view Park in North Little Rock.

This is a view of downtown from the river.
This is a view of President Clinton Library from across the river.
This is a rose garden found down town across from the Convention Center
And this is a view from The Big Damn Bridge.
The Big Damn Bridge is a walking, bike riding bridge that spans 1 and a half miles long across The Arkansas River. The bridge cost the city of little rock over 1 million dollars. But this isn't why it is named The Big Dam Bridge. It is named that because it is located on The Murray Locke and Damn.

There is a huge high end neighborhood that overlooks the river. The house cost more than I will ever make in my lifetime. They are beautiful to look at and the architecture is amazing with so many of these homes. They have built them nestled into the hillside and all of them are surrounded by trees and nature. OH to be rich.
And that concludes my day.

My New Body Guards.

2008-10-13T22:14:00.002-05:00

Nathan and Forrest

The boys graduated from a white belt, to an orange belt a couple of weeks ago. They were totally excited and had to show off some of their moves. They were also excited because their two best friends were able to go to the belt graduation and watch.
Ben, Nathan, Jakob, and Forrest

A trip to feed the Catfish

2008-10-10T23:36:00.003-05:00

During my last conversation I had with my dad he told me that the only thing he regrets is the fact that he isn't going to make it out to my "little farm" and fish in my pond. On Wednesday, I drove out to our property and fed the catfish. I talked to my dad and told him to make sure and bring Richard and James (my brother's) with him anytime he wished to fish. I walked around the property and explained the detail of the land to him. You see this clearing over here? I think this would be a perfect place to build our house. It would nestle perfectly in the middle of these trees.

We will be able to sit on the back porch and look at all of the natural beauty that surrounds us.
Dad always loved nature, I guess that is why I have always loved it too.

We will be able to watch the huge pines sway in the wind. Doesn't the yard look beautiful, Dad?

And the wild daisy's are blooming. Daisy was my grandmother's name.

Yep, dad would have loved the "little farm" I hope he comes along in Spirit every time I go from now on.

The Sunset

2008-10-05T20:29:00.002-05:00

The sun has set on my father's life.
He slipped peacefully away.
Although my emotions are crashing over me in tidal waves,
I know in my heart that he is in a better place.

This is all I have the heart to say.

I'm having a Crap Day

2008-10-01T12:48:00.003-05:00

I have decided that today life sucks. Sure, it's sunny and beautiful outside. The temperature is about 75. A perfect day. But I feel like my head is a balloon and someone keeps blowing it up. It all started yesterday. I woke up feeling terrible, but I dragged myself out of bed and into work anyway. At about 10am I got a call from the school telling me that Nathan had thrown up in class and that I needed to go pick him up. So I left, and went to pick up a rather peppy child. He told me that he had been coughing and that is what caused him to gag. He basically threw up phlegm. He had not eaten all day and he was hungry, so we went and ate fajitas at our favorite Mexican place. Then we came home and took a nap and then we played Lego Indiana Jones on the Playstation 2 together. I got a phone call at 315pm from one of my neighbors to tell me that she was stuck in traffic and asked me if her boys could walk to my house after school. So I had four boys at my house. Then three more neighbor kids showed up. So from about 3:30 until 6 I had 6 boys and 1 girl at my house. I felt like I was living in a Children of the Corn movie or something. After a while, I noticed that all the kids were playing outside in the front yard, except Nathan. I went inside to check on him and found him asleep in our recliner. Ok, perhaps he isn't as well as I thought he was. He slept most of the evening, then he woke up terribly congested and complaining of sharp pain on the left side of his chest when he breathed. I felt his forehead and he was warm, and the thermometer confirmed that the had a 101 degree fever. So off to the E.R. we went in hopes that he did not have pneumonia. As soon as we got into the truck, he vomited all over the floorboard. SWEET! We get to the E.R. at around 11:00. They aren't too terribly busy, so we get placed into an extremely cold room rather quickly. Two hours later, someone comes in to take his vital signs, and I ask them if a Dr. is going to seem him tonight. They give me a very funny look and then ask, "No one has been in here?" I reply, "Not since the nurse brought us back, two hours ago." By this time Nathan was is major distress and discomfort. He was freezing, and frankly, so was I. They gave him a blanket, and then they went and got a Dr. Of course he came back apologizing for our long wait and told me that it has been a crazy night. Considering I only saw three other patients in the E.R., I was a bit dubious of this statement. But they did the chest x-ray, and it came back normal. Thank heavens. But he does have an upper respiratory infection. It is 3 am at this time. The give him a dose of antibiotic and give us our discharge papers and we get up to leave. Nathan is very unsteady on his feet. He makes it to then next bed beyond our curtain and collapses on it, and then proceeds to vomit all over the bed and the floor. Then he sits down in a chair beside one of their computer and dry heaves on it. Have he has collected himself, we proceed down the hall toward the exit. Apparently, the nurse spoke to the Dr., and we were flagged down just shy of the exit. He informed me that he could not send the boy home in the condition that he was in. So we were brought back in to a different room. This time were were both given a heated blanket. Nathan was give some more meds and we stayed another two hours. We finally escaped that frozen Hell at 5am this morning. I was so tired, I could hardly keep my eyes open. We got home and we both fell into bed and we didn't move until 1030 this morning. That's when I got a dreaded phone call. My dad. They have now put him on a morphine drip and they expect him to pass in 2-3 days. They want to know how soon I can be there. Unfortunately, I cannot get up there until Saturday. If he passes before I get there, that will be ok. I got to say my goodbyes to him a few months ago, and those are the memories that I prefer to keep. I have tried to avoid seeing him in this weakened and frail state. I just don't think my heart could withstand seeing him die. I really hope he goes before I get there. Anyway, I feel like crap, and it just hasn't been my week. And it's only Wednesday. But I'll get through it. I always does.

What's for dinner?

2008-09-28T12:19:00.006-05:00

The boys have told me they are hungry. And you would never believe what they have asked me to cook them for dinner. First off, they want me to fire up the BBQ grill. Sounds easy enough so far. But Forrest wants me to grill up some Bananas. Does anyone have any good recipes for grilled Bananas?

He also wants me to grill some Chicken. A request that I can actually live with. I polled everyone in the family, and they were all happy with grilled chicken.
Lastly, Forrest and Nathan asked for grilled eggplant. Again, does anyone have any ideas for grilled eggplant? Thank God I have the Internet. I shall Google recipes for grilled eggplant and bananas. And then there was Nathan's request. This child loves eggs, so he wishes for me to make grilled eggs and bacon.

I'm starting to feel like a short order cook. Maybe I should go apply for a job at Waffle House. I'd feel right at home.

And the winner is...........

2008-09-19T09:48:00.005-05:00

Congratulations to Random Chick for her winning entry into my poetry contest, Ode to Blogging.' So RC, I need your address so that I can mail you your prize as soon as it is completed.
I would like to thank all five of you who entered. Leah, your tanka was super, and
Mr. Shife, your poem was very sweet. And since you are with child, I will be sending you a special consolation prize in the mail as soon as you email me your address. And if you don't send me your address I will just have to get it from our dear Suzanne, who by the way, submitted an interesting non-haiku verse. And last but not least there was MJ and her violent love poem. We all know that deep down MJ is sweet loving and nurturing woman, and yearns for love and understanding. I hear ya sister. I hear ya. Phwap Pwhap Pwhap, here's your love and understanding. LOL

So I suppose, since all FIVE of you were so kind to write an entry for my contest, I should share my poem of why I love to blog.

"Blog Thou Art Loved"

I write to be heard
When I am happy
When I am sad
When things don't go my way
And when I'm glad that they have

I write to share
Things of nature
Things of beauty
Things of laughter
Things of life as it may come
And of the death of loved ones

I write because I love it.
The wonderful people that I have met
The wonderful dreams that I have shared
The wonderful fears that I have conquered
The wonderful life long friends I have made

Yes, to blog is to live
and to live is to love
To love is to laugh
and to laugh is to be free

So I write to live,
to love, and to laugh,
but mostly I write to set me free
and be me.

100th Post and Poetry Contest.

2008-09-12T22:00:00.003-05:00

If you would like to read about how you can live with just 100 things then you could click here .
If you are interested in 100 things to do before you die then you can click here .
But I think you are more interested in what I'm going to do to celebrate my 100th post.
I'm going to have a contest. Yep, I stole the idea from Leah, but who cares. I mean after all, if you win, you'll get something. I don't know what you'll get. I haven't thought that far ahead. But it will most likely be homemade. And of course, it would be gender specific. Don't you folks like surprises. So now I guess I have to come up with a contest. Damn, this is harder that I thought. Ok, you guys have to write a poem. Not just any poem mind you. It has to be a poem about the things you love about blogging. You have until Friday, September 19th to submit your poem to the comment section of this post. So put your "Cat in the Hat" thinking cap on and start rhyming.

Rain Rain Go Away!

2008-09-02T21:22:00.003-05:00

This is what our live view radar currently looks like. I wish I had this much green in my wallet!

Why Kill Em' When You Can Wear Em' Out!

2008-08-30T18:18:00.015-05:00

Well, after the boys drove me nuts last night, I decided to wear them out today in hopes that they might get to bed early. Although, EBay was pretty tempting, I decided Splash Zone might be a little more appropriate. Splash Zone is a public pool in a nearby town. (about 10 miles from my house!) It is a super cheap way to waste the day and tire out your kids. The cost to get in is only $4, and the joys of riding the water slide is only $1 more! So for a mere $14 we were on our way to an afternoon of fun.

I highly recommend clicking on the photos to enlarge them

The kids had a blast. The first place they headed to was the water slide. Here they are waiting for their turn in line. Yeah, that was some line. Nathan went first.

I couldn't believe my camera would zoom in this well. After Nathan launched himself, I couldn't tell if this was a look fear, or concern on Forrest's face. But whatever it was, it didn't stop him from following his brother down the shoot.
I stood at the bottom of the slide, snapping photo after photo, in hopes of catching that perfect shot of them coming out of the tube.

But this was the best I could get of Nathan.
And this was all that I could see of Forrest.
I started timing them to see how long it took them to get from the top to the bottom. I had the timing down perfect with this next picture, unfortunately, the kid wasn't one of mine.
There was a short diving board at one end of the pool. Forrest really enjoyed it and was doing some phenomenal dives from it. One of the lifeguards was also a swimming coach and he approached me and told me that my kid was an excellent swimmer. Of course I beamed. I told the life guard that everything he knows about swimming, he learned from his Mom! Look! I caught this super shot of Forrest suspended in mid air.

Nathan was somewhat afraid of the spring board. He approached the end of it with extreme caution. But he is equally as good of a swimmer as Forrest, he just lacks in the diving skills department.

We decided to take a short break from all the water fun, and grab a bite to eat.
Forrest decided the top of the picnic table made for a great place to stretch out and relax.
While Nathan, invented his own idea of a Bed and Breakfast. Except in this case it was Bed and Brunch.
After our bellies were full, we decided to take it easy under the waterfalls, where the boys played with their new friend. The tall boy in this picture has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of Autism. He took right up with me. And followed me around for much of the day. And he very quickly warmed up to Nathan as well.

Our fun ended abruptly when someone found some turds floating in the water on the other side of the fountains. So the entire fountain area had to be shut down to be relieved of it's doo doo and sanitized. I took that as the perfect cue to gather my brood and head home.

INSANITY.

2008-08-29T17:46:00.000-05:00

MY KIDS ARE DRIVING ME NUTTS!!!!

CAN I KILL THEM?

Potato

2008-08-24T12:02:00.002-05:00

Well, Girl Potato and Boy Potato had eyes for each other, and finally they got married, and had a little sweet potato, which they called 'Yam. Of course, they wanted the best for Yam. When it was time, they told her about the facts of life. They warned her about going out and getting half-baked, so she wouldn't get accidentally mashed, and get a bad name for herself like 'Hot Potato,' and end up with a bunch of Tater Tots. Yam said not to worry, no Spud would get her into the sack and make a rotten potato out of her! But on the other hand she wouldn't stay home and become a Couch Potato either. She would get plenty of exercise so as not to be skinny like her Shoestring cousins. When she went off to Europe, Mr. and Mrs. Potato told Yam to watch out for the hard-boiled guys from Ireland; and the greasy guys from France called the French Fries, ... and when she went out west, to watch out for the Indians so she wouldn't get scalloped. Yam said she would stay on the straight and narrow and wouldn't associate with those high class Yukon Golds, or the ones from the other side of the tracks who advertise their trade on all the trucks that say, 'Frito Lay. Mr. and Mrs. Potato sent Yam to Idaho P. U. (that's Potato University ) so that when she graduated she'd really be in the Chips. But in spite of all they did for her, one-day Yam came home and announced she was going to marry Tom Brokaw. Tom Brokaw! Mr. and Mrs. Potato were very upset. They told Yam she couldn't possibly marry Tom Brokaw because he's just......Are you ready for this? Are you sure? **OK! Here it is!****

A COMMONTATER

Passion Fruit Anyone?

2008-08-23T19:48:00.003-05:00

Much to my delight and pleasure, our new property is covered with this vine. I am going to go out there tomorrow and take some photos. And then I'm going to mow. But I am not going to mow all of the passion fruit away. I love these flowers. They are gorgeous and they smell wonderful. We will have passion fruit growing out of our ears. I think I may have to look up recipes for passion fruit pie. And I have seen passion fruit drinks too. I wonder if it mixes well with rum? Hell, doesn't everything mix well with rum? Passiflora incarnata Purple Passionflower has several common names including Passion Flower, Purple passionflower vine, Apricot vine and May Pops. Passion Flower is a very attractive sprawling or climbing vine up to 20 feet long with edible fruits and flowers. The unusual flowers are 3 inches wide with several petals and a purple fringe and have a rich fragrance resembling that of carnations. The smooth, round 2 inch fruits are edible and turn yellow when ripe. Passion Flower vine is attractive on a garden trellis, fence, hanging over a wall or sprawled on a slope.
Passiflora incarnata Passion Flower seeds are slow to germinate, they contain a natural chemical that slows their germination.

Art,Gorillas, Flowers, and Paper Air Planes.

2008-08-17T13:23:00.011-05:00

We decided to take it easy this weekend and we stayed at home quite a bit.

We had little trouble staying preoccupied, after all, I have a house full of art supplies.

We began our weekend with drawing.

This is Forrest's picture. He claims that it is a rookaburro (I think he meant Kookaburra) with a hat on it.

Nathan told me that his is a Crab Car Bat Bird Ultimate Mystery Barrow. (What ever that means.)

After drawing, we color coordinated our toy gorillas.

Can we all say Obsessive Compulsive Disorder together?

By Saturday evening we were a bit bored, so we took a little road trip to our new land and fed the catfish in the pond. We were pleasantly surprised to find these delicate purple flowers covering the ground.

If you want to read a wonderful story about the memory these flowers brought flooding back to me, then you can go to Suzanne's Birthday Blog.

And now much to my chagrin, it is Sunday. We went and had a wonderful Mexican Lunch at Cozymel Mexican Grill. And then returned home to make paper airplanes.

This is Forrest showing a close up comparison between the plane I made for him (the smaller streamline one) and the plane he made for himself.
Nathan was all smiles when I finished making his paper airplane.
See look and the stream lines. Yep, it made a few loop tee loops and then crashed to the floor.
This is Nathans Boat Airplane. Of course he made it by himself.
Forrest was taking aim for a precision flight.
Forrest was very proud of the plane he made for himself, and I must say, I was impressed too.

So that concludes our weekend funitudes. Now we have to get ready and go to open house at school. Wish me luck! Have a great remainder of the weekend, and as for my Aussie friends, have a fabulous Monday.

The Essence of Me

2008-08-15T17:30:00.003-05:00

The Essence of Me

I’m a free spirit with a bubbly air,
But sometimes I am sad.
I am happy go lucky, and quick to smile,
But stay away from me when I’m mad.
I’m an untrusting soul,
But I’ll say hi to any stranger,
I have many fears
And try avoiding danger.
I am quick to judge,
And I make many errors,
Losing a child
Is my greatest terror.
I let you be you,
Please, let me be me.
We’re really not so different,
We’re all human beings.

And that's the essence of me.

Happy Birthday Suzanne!

2008-08-07T21:55:00.005-05:00

So tomorrow is her birthday,
that blogger whore we all call Blottie.
Yes, I'm totally jealous of her,
because she's married to a hottie.

But she's really quite a woman,
I've grown to know and love.
And for having her in my life,
I thank the stars above.

Even though she's turning 49,
She only looks like she's 48.
And I must try to be honest,
She's a good reason to celebrate.

So come on over to The Wild Onion
And pour yourself a beer.
And join us for a party,
filled with joy and great cheer.

She's a special friend to many,
if you meet her, you'll be a fan.
Of course I'm talking about you,
our dear ol' Suzanne.

The Buffalo River Float Trip

2008-08-01T11:52:00.005-05:00

We put our raft into the river at about 10:30 am. We were all very stoked about the trip.

High bluffs were scattered along both sides of the river.

The boys were well equipped to spend a safe day on the river.
No their profiles don't look the same to me. Surly you couldn't tell that is Nathan's dad.

Nathan decided it was too hot to stay in the raft, so he decided to bail out into the river and float along beside it.

Seconds later, Forrest did the same. He loves rocks, so immediately he began searching for specimens to take home.
HB stayed at the bow of the boat. He was our navigator.
The scenery was breath taking.
Yep, that looks like a keeper.
I was all decked out in my tourist garb, even though we were only a few hours from home. Actually, I was trying to protect myself from the sun. Since I'm made of sugar, I melt in the heat.

I wasn't the only natural beauty that could be seen on the river. There were several little caves and very neat rock formations.

Turtles were very abundant.

HB caught this little critter and showed it off to the boys.

Isn't he cute. I wished very much to bring him home and keep him as a pet, but I knew he would be happier left here in the wild. So don't worry, we put him back into his home and he was not harmed or eaten.

Some more natural beauty along the river side.

Nathan says, "Peace out, Ya'll.

Board Games = Family Fun!

2008-07-27T23:38:00.002-05:00

I bought a new board game today, and our family played it together this evening.

The name of the game is Pictureka. Basically it was one of those hide and seek games. Much like the I See it computer games. It was a board with lots of jumbled up pictures and we had to be the quickest to find it. Or find a certain number in 30 seconds. It was a fun game that all 4 of us and our neighbor played. I am proud to say that I was the winner! Yes, I beat my children and I was happy about it. Just barely though. I had 18 points, Forrest had 17 points, Nathan had 15 points, Harvey had 14 points, and our poor neighbor went home with 11 lonely points. The kids were fantastic at this game. It is amazing how sharp they are. We really thought that they were going to win, and Harvey kept telling me, "This is what you get for picking out a game they can play." It's interesting. I have learned something very important about my family. We are all very competitive. EXTREMELY competitive. I knew Harvey and I were competitive with each other, but our kids were super aggressive at this game. It was like watching mini Cecile and Harvey's playing across the table. I loved it. I am so glad I got the game, it is definitely something we will play again.

2008-07-24T22:32:00.005-05:00

Dogs are amazing. I'm trying to type a new post, but I am currently under attack. The dogs are nudging and licking and nipping at me trying to get my attention. It's so wonderful how they are able to love so unconditionally. This has been a pretty crappy week for me, and I've had such a trouble with negative energy. I can feel the dogs making me happy. At first they made me smile, but Apollo made me laugh out loud when he started to nuzzle my ear with is cold nose. It gave me the cold chills. He is such a gently giant and is a perfect addition to our family. Plus, he is so happy.

I'm sure many of you remember when I first posted this picture. He was so filthy. He was covered with ticks and fleas, and had massive mattes of fur hanging loose. Plus, he was super skinny.
This is what he looks like now. I took him to the groomer and we took care of the matting hair, and the fleas and ticks. And he is looking much better now. He seems very happy here.
Although Javie dog is jealous, I think she is happy to have Apollo around. She is my shadow dog. I have had Javie since she was 5 weeks old. I have always been her "protector" from the kids. She greets me at the door every evening when I come home from work. She will follow me and snort at me until I sit down and pet her. She gets very verbal if I don't acknowledge her. She is such a princess.
The lighting in the L.R. cast an eerie effect to this picture of Apollo and the boys. The boys love him and it seems Apollo loves them back, although I don't see how. He is always trying to nuzzle and lick them.

Yep, dogs are amazing. Because they always make us feel loved.

My Sister and Me

2008-07-19T22:15:00.003-05:00

Me and my beautiful sister, Theresa

Tomorrow is Theresa's birthday. She will be 51 years young. As all of you know, she has battled cancer for 10 years now. And isn't it amazing how she is still able to smile. Her journey started out as stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. But it quickly metastasized to her bone. From there it has migrated to her brain and liver, and it has shut down her production of red blood cells in her bone marrow. But yet, she is still able to smile. She is still able to have faith, and she is still able to show kindness to those whom she believes to be less fortunate that her. Less fortunate that her. I asked her today what makes a person less fortunate that you. This is her reply. " Almost everyone is less fortunate than me. Not everyone has you for a sister. And not everyone has the family support the way I do. But most importantly, not everyone has the faith that God will take care of them, the way I do. "

She's right, not everyone, or anyone for that matter, has the faith in God that she does. I think it is this faith that amazes me the most. I struggle each and every day to obtain it, but it shines within her. It shines in her eyes, in her smile, and in her laughter. Today her church sponsored a surprise birthday party for her. And I could tell that her heart was deeply touched. She cried, and laughed and we cried and laughed with her. She was very happy to have all of us there celebrating her life. Afterwards, I went back to her house and we just sat there and chatted and visited. She was tired from this little excursion out, so she laid on the couch and I sat on the floor and rested my head on the couch beside her. I have enjoyed my day with her. It was a good day. And although my heart is overflowing with emotion, I feel happy and at peace. I know that my time with my sister is short, just as it is with my dad, but they have both made their peace with God and they are ready for him to take them home whenever God sees fit to call on them.

He may be alright, but it is me that I am worried about.

2008-07-17T16:35:00.004-05:00

My parents

"Untitled"

I'm hear, but not really.

I hurt but I feel numb.

The waiting is what kills me.

The dying darkens my soul.

************************************

Hands withered with age reach for me.

Tired blue eyes smile at me through tears of pain.

I've lived a good, full life he tells me.

And now I am ready to go home.

I pull up a chair and I sit there beside him in semidarkness.

We chat about things, we laugh, and we cry.

He assures me that I will be OK when he is gone.

And he asks me to be strong for Mom.

I attempt to hold back my tears of grief.

I don't want him to worry about me.

I tell him everything he needs to hear.

We say our I love yous and our goodbyes.

Just before I leave, he assures me again that he will be alright.

I smile and tell him I know.

As I walk down the harshly lit hallway, I think to my self.

He may be alright, but it is me that I am worried about.

One Flaw

2008-07-12T22:15:00.003-05:00

These are photos of a rainbow that appeared over our place Thursday evening. It was a rainbow in full arc. I've not seen one of those in a long time. The photos were not as spectacular as the rainbow appeared to the naked eye, but I thought you all might enjoy them anyway.
Now on to my post.

This was sent to me in an email from a friend of mine that told me that even though I have been dealing with a lot of adversity in my life right now, I have done so with great poise. She went on to tell me how strong I was and that my ability to laugh away stress was a wonderful virtue. I thank my friend, for her kind words because sometimes I feel as if the weight of the world will crush me. I got to thinking and realize that many of my blogging friends feel this way as well. I'm sorry guys, but this one is all about us women. I hope you will forgive me this one time.

Thanks for you sweet understanding. I think God did pretty good when he designed men too.

By the time the Lord made woman, He was into his sixth day of working overtime. An angel appeared and said, 'Why are you spending so much time on this one?' And the Lord answered, 'Have you seen my spec sheet on her? She has to be completely washable, but not plastic, have over 200 movable parts, all replaceable and able to run on diet coke and leftovers, have a lap that can hold four children at one time, have a kiss that can cure anything from a scraped knee to a broken heart -and she will do everything with only two hands.' The angel was astounded at the requirements. 'Only two hands!? No way! And that's just on the standard model? That's too much work for one day. Wait until tomorrow to finish.' 'But I won't,' the Lord protested. 'I am so close to finishing this creation that is so close to my own heart. She already heals herself when she is sick AND can work 18 hour days.' The angel moved closer and touched the woman. 'But you have made her so soft, Lord.' 'She is soft,' the Lord agreed, 'but I have also made her tough. You have no idea what she can endure or accomplish.' 'Will she be able to think?', asked the angel. The Lord replied, 'Not only will she be able to think, she will be able to reason and negotiate.' The angel then noticed something, and reaching out, touched the woman's cheek. 'Oops, it looks like you have a leak in this model. I told you that you were trying to put too much into this one.' 'That's not a leak,' the Lord corrected, 'that's a tear!' 'What's the tear for?' the angel asked. The Lord said, 'The tear is her way of expressing her joy, her sorrow, her pain, her disappointment, her love, her loneliness, her grief and her pride.' The angel was impressed. 'You are a genius, Lord. You thought of everything! Woman is truly amazing.' And she is! Women have strengths that amaze men. They bear hardships and they carry burdens, but they hold happiness, love and joy. They smile when they want to scream. They sing when they want to cry. They cry when they are happy and laugh when they are nervous. They fight for what they believe in. They stand up to injustice. They don't take 'no' for an answer when they believe there is a better solution. They go without so their family can have. They go to the doctor with a frightened friend. They love unconditionally. They cry when their children excel and cheer when their friends get awards. They are happy when they hear about a birth or a wedding. Their hearts break when a friend dies. They grieve at the loss of a family member, yet they are strong when they think there is no strength left. They know that a hug and a kiss can heal a broken heart. Women come in all shapes, sizes and colors. They'll drive, fly, walk, run or e-mail you to show how much they care about you. The heart of a woman is what makes the world keep turning. They bring joy, hope and love. They have compassion and ideals. They give moral support to their family and friends. Women have vital things to say and everything to give. HOWEVER, IF THERE IS ONE FLAW IN WOMEN, IT IS THAT THEY FORGET THEIR WORTH.

I made it.

2008-07-10T17:28:00.003-05:00

Well, I made it through my seven days of purgatory. And no one is dead. (At least not by my hands anyway.) You all know how I handled the students on Monday, and Tuesday they weren't a whole heck of a lot better. The first few minutes they were there they kept bringing me their culture plates and asking me if they were positive.

This is how the conversation went:

Me: "What do you mean? Are they positive for what?"

Students: "Are they positive for bacteria?"

Me: "Does it look like any bacteria is on the plate?"

Students: "I think so.?"

Me: (in the most irritated of all voices) "You mean to tell me that you cannot look at that plate and tell the difference between bacteria and no growth at all? A freaking kindergarten student could look at that plate and tell the difference between no growth and bacteria."

Students: "Well maybe there is some growth on it."

Me: "Well if you cannot tell for sure, then maybe you should gram stain it. As a matter of fact, you just need to gram stain all of your plates."

And off they went with their lab coat tails between their legs to gram stain ALL of their plates.

After that they were afraid to even ask me a question. I saw them sheepishly looking in my direction a time or two and so after I had cooled off a bit, I asked them if they had any questions.

"Yes" So I answered the questions they had and sent them on their way.

Wednesday. Only one student showed up, and he was a lot easier to deal with. He must have gone home and studied the night before, because he seemed to be able to function without much supervision.

Thursday (today): Today started out strangely enough. I pulled into my parking space at work and before I could roll my window up and turn off my truck, I had some crazy lady at my window. She told me a very unbelievable story about just getting released from the hospital and not having a ride home until tomorrow and so they had sent her to the Salvation Army, but they don't accept people until 4:30pm . And she was hungry and starting to feel weak and didn't have any money. I noticed a hospital armband on her wrist and was trying very hard to see if she was from the phyciatric ward of our hospital or if she was a patient of the State Mental Hospital from across the street. I was only able to make out her last name. I went ahead and gave her four dollars(I figured it would at least get her some breakfast or a cheap bottle of wine and it got her away from my truck). Then I got out and started to the building and stopped a couple of campus police officers and gave them the story. They took my description of the lady and my name and told me they would keep an eye out for her. And then they stood there and scanned the parking lot, presumably looking for her. (I'm not quite sure.) Anyway, I went on into work. The day was pretty normal. The Students came in and were able to finish their unknowns and they actually got all the right answers!!! So I told them I would see them next week. On my way home I got stuck in traffic. There was a terrible head on collision with a car fire on one of the access roads and it had traffic at a stand still. What normally takes me 35 minutes, too an hour and 20 minutes. But I am home, I am safe, and I am here trying to get caught up. Soon, I will be asleep and I am not getting up before 9 am in the morning.

Thanks for reading this to the end, those of you that have. I have a tendency to ramble when I'm tired, so SORRY!!

Discombobulation of Random Somethings.

2008-07-07T16:55:00.004-05:00

WARNING: RANT TO FOLLOW!!!!

Let me apologize prematurely for the following incoherent babble.

I'm pissed.

It's as plain and simple as that.

Combined with the fact that I'm tired

and right in the middle of a grueling 7 day work week,

I would have to admit that I'm a bit cranky.

Which may explain why I would like to rip my BIL's

head off his shoulders and spit down his throat.

He has returned from vacation and has informed us that

he doesn't want his dog back.

And he just automatically expects us to either keep him,

or find him a new place to live.

My ire almost leaves me speechless.

I mean sure, we were sort of considering keeping the dog anyway,

but to have him come back home and just expect us to keep the dog....

Well, it just pisses me off.

Oh I guess I should remind you all how massive Apollo is.

Here is a picture of him and Javie dog side by side.

See the size difference?

Now on to the second rant:

Where I work, we are considered a "teaching hospital".

Well, it is my month to instruct the Pathology Residents.

Please keep in mind that these people have already completed med school

and are now doing residency, therefore, they should be reasonably intelligent.

We have two path residents this month, and both are of Middle Eastern decent.

One is Egyptian, and the other is Saudi Arabian.

So, I have to give a bit a leniency for the language barrier.

Yes, they do speak English, and they do understand it, but

I don't always understand the English they speak.

Anyway, I was trying to explain to them how we set things up.

They have 5 unknown samples that they will have to identify the

microorganisms spiked into them.

They only have a week to do this, so today we were setting up their unknowns.

I explained how to set up a particular sample twice.

They were shifting plates around and obviously

only listening to every third word I said.

With a very confused look on their faces, they asked again how to set the culture up.

I lost my patience.

I raised my voice just slightly, and with severe agitation I said,

"For the THIRD TIME, you set the culture up THIS WAY.

It would really make it much easier if you would listen to me,

because you are wasting both your time and mine if you aren't going to pay attention."

They looked at me as if I were a three headed monster about to swoop

down out of the clouds and devour them.

When they left for the day,

they told me that they would be back tomorrow

with their listening ears on.

Instead of laughing at their rude attempt of a joke,

I simply gave them my most serious look and said,

"I need you to come in here EVERY DAY

with your listening ears on."

They solemnly walked out of the lab with

thier lab coat tails tucked between their legs.

I'm sure they were muttering certain obscenities

in a different language under their breath.

But they should feel lucky, because,

at least there isn't a full moon tonight.

So, I won't be turning into the werewolf and eating their souls after all!

+ +

My New Do

2008-07-02T20:08:00.002-05:00

I got a new hair cut. What do you all think?

Just Kidding!!!!!!1

This is what it looks like from the front.
This is how the stylist "styled" it in the back. She made it stick straight out.

My husband wasn't too wild about it, but after I went swimming and "fixed" it, he thought it looked much better. But he says I still look better with long hair.

This is what it looks like on top.

Anyway, I just thought I would share my new do. I got lots of compliments on it at work,

And one guy told me I got it cut too short. So what do you all think?

A Dark Cloud over Bloggerland

2008-06-28T18:20:00.003-05:00

There seems to be a black cloud hanging over Blogger land this week.

Maybe it is just the smoke from the fires burning in CA. I'm not sure, but it seems that everywhere I visit this week, we have all been in a funk.

I can see the storm heading our way. It seems we are driving right into it's path. I've tried putting on the breaks, but I'm afraid my momentum is going to take us straight into the storms path. Yep, it's a down hill ride from here.

I know that we are all fighting some battle or another.

Suzanne has her health and animal cruelty, Bob and KookieBear have their depression,

MJ has her poofter porn addiction, I.V. has the Big Sur Fire (Man I hope God helps him fight that one because that is such a terrible disaster.) And the rest of us are just battling life in general. Like everyone else, I am struggling too. We learned this week that my sister's cancer has invaded her liver, and I have the symptoms and preliminary positive test signs of Lupus. I have to go to the Doctor later to get some further testing done. But that's not why I'm writing this post. I feel that so many of us are just needing some positive guiding light.

So I've done some searching.

I'm not sure I've found the light, but I have decided, things could be much worse.

I mean, look at Iraq. Are any of us living in fear of being blown to bits if we go to the grocery store tomorrow? I think of all of the parents and families and friends of the soldiers and civilians that have lost their lives to the war. I think of the grieving families of missing children.

I think of the paraplegics that cannot walk, or the mentally ill that are unable to think.

I think of the blind, and the deaf, and I think of myself.

I really have been blessed. I've been blessed by two of the most beautiful boys in the world.

They are funny, and smart, and so kind. (Yes, I realize they aren't mutant teenagers yet, but right now they are wonderful.)

I think about my husband. He is such a loyal, honest, and hardworking man. And I love him with all of my heart.

I'm blessed with such a wonderful family and I am thankful for each and every member.

I think about my parents. And although their health is ailing, they have lived such long and full and wonderful life and I have had good quality time to spend with them and really get to know them.

I think about my job, and my education, and my home, and my car. I have all that one could need. I have shelter, food, and transportation. I even have more than that. I have entertainment at my fingertips. With just the push of a button I am connected to people half the world away. I think of my friends and when I try to start to count them, I realize there are so many of them that it is difficult to count. I attempted to send out an email message the other day to everyone of my friends in my contact list, and it wouldn't send because there were more than 50 names on it. I guess Hotmail will not send to more than 50 recipients at a time.

You see, there is so much that we should all be grateful for. And yeah, we are going to have some bad times, but we really need to try and pick ourselves up and keep on trudging.

I sometimes look at my dog sometimes and I think, "God, she is so lucky."

I scratch her belly and her ears, I give her food, I give her shelter, I take care of her if she is sick, and she really has no worries. Or does she? She certainly stresses out when I am sick. She knows when I don't feel well. She is so excited when I get home from work. I can tell that she misses me when I'm gone. So does she worry that one day I won't return. When we have a thunderstorm, she is unhappy and upset if the entire family is not close together, so she worries and frets about us. We are her pack even though we aren't even the same species. We are her family and that is how she sees us. That is how I see each of you. You are part of my pack and I am worried about each and everyone of you this week. I hope that the Supreme Being, whomever you all call him/her is watching over you, and I hope that he/she is able to deliver you out of the storm that your life is weathering at the moment. I can feel the protective wings over me. I just pray that they are spreading out to cover you, my family and friends as well.

I want all of you to meet Apollo. Apollo used to be my Mother in Law's dog, but after her passing last summer, he went to live with my Brother in Law(BIL). We are keeping Apollo for a week while BIL is on vacation. Apollo was delivered to my house at 7:30 this morning. I had only been in bed for about 3 hours, so I was quite displeased to see BIL that early. I was even more displeased to see a very wet and hairy Apollo being released into my home. I promptly showed Apollo to the back yard and then returned to the front door in expectation to retrieve dog food and other doggie care items that would be needed. None were received. Instead, I was told that Apollo may have ticks, and needs to be given the heart worm medication that we give our dog. We weren't even given any food to feed the dog. But after watching Apollo and Javie play, and seeing how Apollo greeted my husband (husband and dog had bonded last summer as husband basically took care of dog while MIL was in hospital.) my angers about caring for Apollo faded. He is a wonderful, gentle giant of a dog. And we are happy to have him as a guest here at our home. And as you can see from the picture above. He is smiling, so I think he is happy to be here too.
I think Javie is happy to have a friend to play with, but I can see her getting a bit jealous if we dote too much of our attention on Apollo. But Javie Dog is a wonderful dog, so I'm sure she will be fine. Now, does anyone have some doggie shears I can borrow. Apollo is a shaggy mess and in dire need of a hair cut.

Our New Land

2008-06-23T18:59:00.004-05:00

I finally got out and took some pictures of our new land on Sunday. We went out there and I mowed a little bit around the pond while the boys fed the fish and looked for frogs, and my husband kept vigil making sure no one grabbed a snake.

I'm standing near the pond, which is toward the bottom of our property and looking up. There are ares of trees and clear areas scattered across the acreage.
This is our pond
Part of the wooded area near the pond

Anyway, there really isn't any need to keep the entire 4.5 acres mowed, so I am just mowing a nice area in front of the pond so that we can get up close to feed the fish and not have to worry about getting snake bit. I found a really nice big patch of wild black berries on the levy behind the pond. Some of them are starting to get ripe, so you know the boys and I will be out there with a pail to pick those. There are morning glory vines all over the property, wild strawberry vines, and an assortment of weed flowers. I love this piece of land, and I cannot wait to get moved out there. HB and I keep brainstorming to come up with ways to get out there sooner. The boys are very excited to get out there too. And of course, everyone will be invited to the house warming party, just as long as they bring gifts.

Cloud 9?

2008-06-20T20:38:00.007-05:00

I'm not sure if you all have figured this out about me yet or not, but I love clouds.
I find them extremely fascinating and beautiful. Clouds are what makes a sunset beautiful.
I could lie on the grass for hours and gaze at the clouds. I love to watch them drift across the sky constantly shifting and shape changing before my eyes. It is so much fun to watch the shapes transform into turtles, and rabbits, and objects that we see everyday. I've seen ancient dragons, and unicorns and armadillos in the clouds. Tonight we were blessed with some thundershowers around our state once again. I don't think we are in for anything severe, but we never really know what the weather will bring around here lately. But I was able to capture a couple of beautiful cloud pictures, and of course, I could think of no one better to share them with than all of you. Everyone have a wonderful weekend, and don't forget to watch the clouds for some fun and relaxing weekend entertainment.

It also appears that BOB has tagged me with a meme. The task is to write your memoir in six words: Well, I'm not so sure mine will be as eloquent as Bob's but I shall give it a try.

The Wholly Mother of Twin Terrors

Explanation?

Wholly means that I am still searching for things in life to fill the empty spaces in my soul. I've already mentioned a few times that due to unfortunate events last year, I have been struggling to make my way back to God. But I am wholly committed to find something to believe in and to make myself whole once more.

Mother is a no brainer. I am a mother as simple as that. I love being a mother although it is sometimes very exhausting. Like today for instance. I am the type of mother that gives every ounce of my heart to my children. When they feel pain, I hurt too. When they are sad, I want to cry. When they are happy, it warms my heart in a way that words cannot describe. Their smile and laughter is like music. The sweetest song in the world.

Twin Terrors would be my boys. You see they are identical twins, and although I love them with every fiber of my being, they can drive me to drink and very close to murder at times. They know all of the right buttons to push and which way all the switches should be turned. They love to terrorize the dog, and they enjoy chasing the neighbor girls with frogs. Yes, they truly are twin terrors of turbulence. But they are a lot like their mom, and more like their dad, so I can't help but love them.

But what about The and Of you ask? Give me a break, I'm a working mother of twin 6 year old boys. The and Of were filler words.

I almost forgot, I must now tag someone else.

Drum roll please, and no groans.........

Ramblings from Gigsville

This is my Town.

2008-06-18T18:20:00.004-05:00

I skipped out of work early yesterday to use up some comp time and went out with my family and my adopted mom. We decided to take a historical tour of Little rock. Our first stop was The Clinton Presidential Library.

I do believe this is the ugliest building in the entire city. It looks like a massive ugly mobile home. it is located right on the edge of The Arkansas River, next to an abandoned train bridge, hence the motto of "Building the bridge to the future." I really wish they could have hired a better architect for such wonderful landmark to honor our BEST PRESIDENT EVER.
Located next to the Presidential Library is the building pictured above. It is the old train station. Several years ago it was a spaghetti warehouse restaurant, and now it is the Clinton School of Business. I think it is a wonderfully designed building.
This is the old abandoned railroad bridge located next to the library.
This is a view of the river taken from the third floor balcony of the library.

This is the old Union Station building. It is now for lease, but the building is magnificent. It has a brick driveway that takes you back in time. Unfortunately the sun was positioned behind the building, therefore I could not get good photo of it. I'll have to go back in the morning time some day and try again. The homeless shelter is less than a block from the building, so I can't go there alone because it is too dangerous.

This is the old Station House.

Our last stop was the Capitol building. It was designed to look like our Nations Capitol building in Washington, and I think it is the most magnificent building in the city.

The grounds around the Capitol building are beautiful and very well maintained.

This is a monument for Confederate men of the civil war.

This is a photo of the monument to honor the Confederate Women of the Civil War.

There is also a memorial to honor the fallen Arkansas Soldiers of Vietnam.

And lastly, a monument to honor the Medal of Honor Recipients. (At least the ones from Arkansas). Most of the men honored fought in WWII. Some of the men honored were Pompey Factor, Footsie Britt, and Douglas MacArthur.

And littered all over the grounds are these magnificent ancient trees. All in all, my evening yesterday was wonderful. I really enjoyed myself and the company that I was with.

Longing for the ocean breeze

2008-06-13T22:29:00.005-05:00

It's been a year now since my last visit the ocean. I miss it terribly. I have a deep seeded yearning to visit the ocean every year. It has been a yearly ritual of mine and my husbands for the past 12 years. This year we don't have a vacation to the ocean planned. Since I just recently started my new job, I really don't have enough time built up to take a trip that requires traveling that far from home. And since I hate to fly, flying there is out of the question. So I guess I will just have to gaze longingly at some of the pictures I have taken from my past trips to the ocean. Oh how I miss the smell of the sea. And the sound of the waves crashing to the shore. The musical squawk of the seagulls and the distance glimmer of dolphins breaching the surface of the water to frolic with each other. The ocean calls to me. It is almost as if it is beckoning me home. And oh how home sick am I. So come walk down memory lane with me. Hold my hand as we make footprints in the sand and scour the shore for treasure. Breath in the salty air with me and feel the gentle ocean breeze upon our faces. Close your eyes and imagine we are there. This is the underside of a saw shark. I took this photo in South Carolina at the Ripley's aquarium.
Can you find Nemo?
Stay away from the tentacles unless you enjoy pain and suffering.
Aw, precious moments to cherish forever.

The waves are beckoning to me. Inviting me in for a swim.
The beauty under the sea knows no boundaries.
He lurks in the shadow waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Modern architecture is amazing.
I wish I was on that boat.
Endlessly searching for a handout.
Paradise here on Earth.
The ocean shore is where I dream to be.

ARACHNOPHOBIA

2008-06-12T21:46:00.004-05:00

As many of you know, I HATE SPIDERS. They give me the creeps. So you can imagine how I felt when I saw my kids washing their hands. I asked them, "Why are you washing your hands?" They replied, "Because we touched a spider." I quickly replied, "Where is the spider?"
My heart was filling with fear and dread. "It's O.K., MOM, the spider is outside." The next thing I know they have me by the hand and they are asking me to come look. I don't want to look. Spiders give me the creeps remember. But I went and looked anyway. Simply because we have had a small problem with black widows around here and I was hoping that it wasn't one of those. It was a HUGE wolf spider. These suckers are so scary looking. And they can be pretty aggressive. Hubby informs me that these spiders will not harm you and that they eat mosquitoes, which is a good thing, since we don't want malaria or heart worms. But I still don't want them close to me. In my opinion, a good spider is a dead spider. (but preferably not dead and framed and hanging in my bathroom as wall art.) Anyway, this is the spider the boys touched. They thought it was pretty. OMG, they are so not related to me. They will freak out over a grand daddy long leg, but they think this monster is pretty? Something is seriously wrong with these two freaks. Do you think it could be because I'm their mother?