Monday, June 1, 2009

Twilight


I don't know if I wish I had never heard of Twilight but, if I hadn't my house might be clean and I might have more money in the bank. I am totally obsessed with it. Me, a 56 year old, old lady can't get enough of it. It only took me three days to read a book and there are four books in the series. To top that off, they are not small books. When I finally finished reading the last one yesterday my eyes were as red as a vampire. I'm also obsessed with the movie. It is constantly playing. I have given up watching my soap operas and I don't know what I would be doing if Lost was still on. I guess I could bite the bullet for one hour.... I'm so looking forward to the new movie coming out in November but it is such a long wait and how will I ever wait until it comes out on DVD?

Monday, May 18, 2009

Adventure

This is what my road looked like last Sept. I couldn't go to work that day so I went around and took a lot of pictures.
The reason I posted this picture is to show you how it must have looked Friday while I was at work. When I come home from work I come in on the other side and at 1am I came home and found two big "Road Closed" signs covering the road. I knew that the road was clear by then because the rain had stopped hours before this but I couldn't get around the signs. I parked my car facing the road and walked around the signs to make sure the road wasn't flooded but I was on a hill and it was pitch black once I got out of my cars head lights so I chickened out, turned around and went back to the car. Since I had forgotten to fill my gas tank before leaving town I only had a quarter of a tank and we don't have many gas stations near that are open in the middle of the night. I decided I would sleep in my car and when daylight woke me up I would be able to get through. It wasn't cold and I had a jacket so everything should be good. Trying to sleep in the front seat wasn't good so I decided to try the back seat. I remembered I had a blanket in the trunk so I got that to use as a pillow. Turned out it smelled slightly of gasoline from when I got gas for the lawnmower. I still used it. It wasn't strong enough to give me a headache and I was so darn tired. Still it was very hard to get to sleep and then the wind kicked up and that didn't help me sleep at all. Finally I think I did sleep for about an hour. I woke up at around 3am and I was cold and I had to pee. I went back to the front seat and turned the car on and the heater. Now, what am I going to do? I am not going to pee at the side of the road. For one thing it was cold now and another thing I would probably end up rolling down the hill backwards, knocking myself out or something and being there with my pants down when people started driving around. I'd be the laughing stock of the county. Nope not going to do that.

So, I had to figure out where I could get gas and what direction I could go after that to get home. I had two options. North or South. Either way will take me at least 2 hours to get home. Mind you, I'm only 5 minutes from home where I am parked right now but I'm afraid to try to move the road signs. They look heavy and there are big sand bags on them to hold them down.

I decide to go South back to the town I work in to get gas at the 24 hour station. I drive about 20 miles and find that the road is closed because of something to do with a couple of BIG trucks. The cop tells me I have to go North. He also said he didn't have a problem with me making a U turn in the middle of the highway. Thank you very much. So I make the U and drive about 15 miles to the only 24 hour gas station on the way home in that direction. The price of gas was 10 cents a gallon more than at the town I wanted to get gas at!! That is a BIG difference! Before I got gas I went running in to the station to use the restroom. The women's door was shut so I knocked on it and a lady said she'd be out in a minute. Then I heard a lot of toilet paper rolling. And then a lot more. I realized that I really didn't want to follow her. I asked the guy working there if I could use the men's room and he said sure but there shouldn't be anyone in the women's and I told him there was and he looked at me really funny. I used the men's room and when I got done I saw she was still in there. I never did see her come out but I wasn't waiting around. I'm just glad that I didn't wait for her.

I got gas and drove off and made it home at around 5am. My best friend told me she passed me on the road and thought it was me. She thought I must have spent the night at a friends house. Nope. Stupid me just drove all night long. I got into bed at around 5:30 and got up at 9am to go back to work. I was surprised at how well I did at work with so little sleep. When people at work asked me how I got home I just told them I went the long way. I didn't tell them the whole story.

So, next time what will I do? Will I just go ahead and drive the long way or will I try to move the signs? I don't know. I really am a big chicken.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Missouri Tornadoes

I'm going to apologise right away for the bad pictures but I had to take them from my car. Lucky for me the traffic was very congested so we were moving slowly. I was only able to point and shoot though as we were crawling along and I was driving and alone. These are new very expensive homes across from the Jim Robertson's new car dealership.
I don't know how many houses were destroyed or damaged but it is very bad. The utility company was putting up new posts and lines but I was too close to be able to get a good picture. I guess I could have tried to take pictures out of my windshield but it is so dirty I didn't think anything would have showed but the dirt.

These are cars from the dealership. Their windows are broken out. They had been blown all out into the road but when I got there they had be moved back to the lot.


Their sign is gone and one of their lights is leaning.



A lot of Maytag's windows were blown out and the power lines are laying down in their parking lot.
They are saying that we lost 3 people in this storm and when I went to Wal-Mart I saw quite a few tears. I am just so very thankful that it missed me and my friends and family and my thoughts and prayers go out to all that have been involved in this tragedy.

I drove by my work and everything looks normal there and the parking lot is full so I still have a job!



Pictures of the Graduation

Daughter-in-law receiving her diploma.
Son receiving his diploma.

Son, his girlfriend and two of his three sons from his first marriage. The youngest boy ran to the car so he could play his video game. The wind was blowing really hard and big rain drops were falling.

Daughter-in-law trying hard to keep her hat on for the picture.


We gave up after this picture. We had just found out that there might have been a tornado in the town I work in and the storm might be coming towards us. It didn't and I was able to drive the boys home safely.





Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Congratulations Graduates!

My son and DIL are both Graduating tonight from the same college and I am so excited for them. Just to be a little confusing this is not a married couple. This is my oldest son who is engaged to be married on June 6 and my DIL that is married to my youngest son. I don't know how it worked out but both of them decided to take classes at the same time. These are not young kids so I was very surprised when they told me what they were up to two years ago. I'm also embarrassed to admit that I really wondered if they would be able to keep up with the homework and their families but they did it and tonight we celebrate!

I'll be picking up my son's 3 sons and taking them up there as a surprise. He was told that the boys' mother said they couldn't come. I hope he isn't too worked up about it. I can just imagine what he is saying and thinking about her. All I can say is that it wasn't my idea to tell him that. I am just the delivery person.

I'm taking presents and after I drop the boys off I will be picking up a cake and I suppose I should get ice cream too. I know it isn't a birthday but you can't have cake without ice cream. Can you? It just doesn't seem right.

Ok, I'll post this now because I need to get showered and dressed. I'll be taking my camera and hope to get some good pictures.

Bye

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope you all have a very nice Mother's Day!

I'll be working so let me know what I missed. OK?

Love to you all!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Flower day trip



These flowers were planted into a brick wall that had spaces for dirt. I had this plant in my yard but when I had my hysterectomy last year a friend that helped me out with my mowing did it in. It really isn't her fault. The grass was so overgrown that she didn't see it until it was too late. I'm not a very good gardener.

I don't know what kind of flowers these are but they are really pretty. Does anyone know?


These were really beautiful.



Can you see the little blue flowers? I love blue flowers.





My friends and I went on a day trip on a bus and I got to take pictures of some very pretty flowers. It was really nice to be able to spend the day with my friends.
We got to ride a bus for 4 hours one way and that was ....well.... interesting might be the word. Or maybe .... adventurous. Well, how about kind of scary?
On the way down there we stopped half way and got something to eat. When we got back on the bus my friend I was sitting next to and I somehow lost our seat. We couldn't figure out what happened. We knew who we were sitting in front of but there were a couple of women sitting where we should have been sitting. We stopped for a couple seconds trying to figure out what happened. Looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and went to sit in the back of the bus where the only open seats were. We had been sitting on the left side with me against the window. This time we sat on the right side of the bus with my friend against the window. Other people were watching us and wondering why we went back there to sit. They didn't realize our seats were taken. We weren't mad, just confused. I thought maybe the woman in the back sat one seat up and so that had everyone else going up a seat. No problem.
So, now we are on the right side of the bus, my friend against the window. We are looking out the window and there is a big truck with a load of blue pipes on the back and the back of the bus is weaving back and forth. It looks like we are getting really, really close to the truck and my friend tells me that we have to move to the other side of the bus. RIGHT NOW! I jumped up and sat in the seat across the isle and this time I am against the window. I liked it a lot better. She had gotten so scared she was almost in a panic. When we arrived at our destination the others told us that they saw the bus was moving a lot and they were sure it was worse in the back where we were but they were shocked when they looked back and we had been bounced across the isle.
I watched others come down the isle to use the restroom and was so grateful that I didn't need to. I don't ever remember using a restroom on a bus and with the way this one was swaying all over the place I didn't think this trip would be the time to test it out. My luck didn't hold out though on the trip back home.
As soon as we got done eating our sack lunch the bus pulled up and I didn't have time to go to the rest room before getting on the bus. I knew we were going to be driving at least 4 hours and I was doomed. My friend and I sat in separate seats but still in the back. For some reason our original seats didn't open up.
I tried to sleep as much as I could to try to keep out of the rocking restroom. It didn't work. I kept waking up and thinking about getting up but I would talk myself out of it. Finally I couldn't wait any longer. I stood up and almost fell back into my seat but I caught myself and reached the door. I couldn't find the light but there was some light coming in from somewhere. I saw the water and whatever in the pot and started worrying about it sloshing up on me. YUCK! I really, really had to go so I had to be brave. When I finally get my self situated I see that I didn't get the door latched! I tried to pull it but it wouldn't shut. I was bouncing around so much I was afraid that if I held on to the door I would just end up opening it so I left it alone. I couldn't even relax to pee from bouncing around and watching the door. Finally I was done and then had the worry of if I was going to be fully clothed when the door opened. I was being thrown around so much I had an awful time trying to keep from bouncing onto the door as I pulled my pants up and tried to zip them. That is not easy to do when bouncing off the walls. As I came out and was sitting down I told my friend "I never did find the light". She giggled. A few minutes later a lady from the front of the bus came down and when she came out of the restroom she said, word for word I shit you not...."I never did find the light"... if I hadn't just peed I would have peed my pants right then.
About 20 minutes later we pulled over where we had eaten in the morning. I couldn't believe that I all I had to do was wait for a few minutes and I could have used a stationary restroom! Then two ladies got up (the ones in our seats) and left the bus! It turns out that they gotten on the bus when we were there eating and that was why they were in our seats. They didn't know the seats were taken. Oh, by the way, the driver never turned the bus off and as soon as the ladies were gone we were driving again so it was a good thing I didn't wait.
I'm not planning on taking another long bus trip but to be honest I thought we were only going two hours away not four.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

It's a Girl!


Here she is, just hours old! When I gave these pictures to Grandma I told her she wouldn't look like this anymore. Grandma said I was right and that her hair is darker now and her face isn't so chubby. Isn't she just the sweetest thing?



Carly Sue was born at 2:20 this morning! She weighed 7 pounds 15.8 0z and is 22 inches long. I won't go in to see her until later today. I want to give them time to rest.
Pictures later!

Expecting

I am waiting for a call from my best friend about the arrival of her first grand baby! I would love to be there with them but there would be way too many people so I am waiting at home. She is a week late and saw the doctor today and he put her in the hospital. I think it was around noon when she went in and it is midnight now. I am usually up until 2 or 3 am and they know that so I should get a call when it happens. I hope it doesn't take her much longer. She has got to be worn out by now.

I'll post pictures when I get them.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Ding Dong

Yesterday as I was walking out the door to go to work I checked my pocket for my car keys. They weren't there. I checked the pocket of the coat I wore the night before. No keys. It's getting late and I don't have time to search the house so I get the second set out of my purse, grab my stuff and head for the car. I get in the car, put my stuff in the passenger seat and then when I go to put the key in the ignition I look down and.......



get this.........








it isn't what you're thinking..............









I have a set of keys in each hand! What a ding dong!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Mrs. Shrek anyone?

I had my hair dyed at the shop on Tuesday and I hate it. To me it looks like a bad wig but everyone else tells me they love it. It is a light brown but to me it looks like it has a green tint to it but others act like they don't see it. My BFF is all excited about it because she says it matches my eyebrows and so it looks natural. I figured she would know by now that I don't really care for the natural look. With any luck it will fade out soon and I'll see what it looks like then. It shows golden highlights in the sun but I prefer a red tint. It might be the lack of red that makes it look green to me. Another friend from work says it makes my eyes pop. I told her my eyes hurt from all the popping.
I just realized that Mrs. Shrek is green but her hair isn't but that is as close as I could come to someone with green hair. Or might have green hair. Or who might even wish they had green hair.

I've known my BFF for 12 years and I have always had some shade of blond on my hair except the last 2 years I let it grow out and was grey and white. My BFF for all these years has been telling me that I need to color my hair brown because the blond didn't match my eyebrows and it didn't look natural. I really don't understand her fascination with looking natural but, she is from Missouri and I am from California. Nothing looks natural in California and I like it that way.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Good bye old neighbor

This old house has stood there for many, many years. People have lived in it until a few years ago when the elderly lady pass away. I only knew her for a short time but I liked her. I bought the little old house across the street from this one. Mine was only empty for about a year but that year took a tole on mine. With being of the "poor persuasion" it is taking me a long time to get my home in good repair but slowly I am getting things done. One day when I was visiting my late Dad he told me (in reference to himself and his house) that they should never let poor people own a house and sometimes I know what he means.

Some people bought the blue house across the road from me and tore it down and I took pictures of it going down. To me it was sad and fascinating at the same time. I had never seen a house being torn down so right away I ran over there with my camera and started snapping pictures. The owner teased me about working for the local TV station. I've known him long enough for him to know that I am a nobody and that I just like to take pictures.


Here it is as they are crashing in the top floor to the bottom floor. I took a whole lot of pictures of them smashing it to pieces. My best friend drove by as I was taking pictures and I'm not sure but I think I heard some loud cackling as she went by.

I love fire pictures and this is my favorite of the batch. Isn't it fantastic how a small fire can be made to look huge.


This is what it looks like now. There is still a hump and it is still smoking. I'm pretty sure they will level it off when it gets done smoking but I don't know how long that will be. There is a riding arena to the right and now that the weather is getting better I'm pretty sure the kids will be riding their horses in there. I am hoping that they might leave their horses there when they get the fences and everything else done. I love to watch horse run and play but there isn't a barn here so that might not happen. I'll be able to watch the horses when they bring them to ride and I'll just have to be content with that.



Friday, April 10, 2009

Paul Revere.....where are you???

While driving home from work this morning (I get off work at midnight) I heard on the radio that someone in these United States is trying to get a 10 % tax added to soda pop in order to slow peoples intake of soda and all the sugar in it. They seem to think that the drinking of soda pop is what is making our children and adults fat and that by taxing it I guess they think we will lose weight. It started with tobacco and now there are a lot less smokers. So it shows that putting a large tax on something will get people to stop buying it. Of course, there was also the new laws banning smoking anywhere on the planet but we'll let them think it all had to do with taxes. So, now in order to make us healthier they want to take away our soda pop (Ha! We'll show them, we'll drink sweet tea! No huge tax on tea! Paul Revere and his group put a stop to that a long time ago)(Yes, I am a big fan of Paul Revere and the Raiders but this isn't the group I am talking about right now. OK?). Now, back to my rambling.
We are still getting fat so next they will want to tax our Little Debbie's snack cakes. Well, ok, we all learn how to make cake at home and we don't have to buy snack cakes. So now we are happy at home smoking our cigarettes, drinking sweet tea, eating home made cake and still getting fat. They see that their high tax plan isn't working so they decide that since we are still eating and drinking stuff that makes us fat they will tax our sugar, flour and eggs. When all of the huge taxes on our food doesn't stop us from gaining weight where will it end?
Any bets that they weigh us and make us pay a "Fat Tax" every year?

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Day trip postponed

Remember, I told you my friends and I had a day trip planned and how much fun we were going to have? Well, the weather on Friday was beautiful, the weather on Sunday was beautiful but this was the weather on Saturday. The flakes that were coming down when I took this picture were really big and you might be able to see them against the tree. The wind was blowing so hard it was really difficult for me to get a picture without snow getting all over my lens and my fingers were freezing off. Oso (my little doggie) snuck out the door with me and he soon decided I was crazy for wanting to be out there taking pictures. I didn't stay out there too long and he was happy to run inside as soon as I opened the door. If it had been a beautiful day I would have had a very difficult time getting him to come inside.

Today they tore down the old house across the road from me and I stood out there taking pictures of it. They then started it on fire and I got lovely fire pictures. Right now it is evening and they are stirring the fire to make sure everything burns. When it has burned as much as possible they then will bury it and level the ground as much as possible and I will have a much nicer view. Oh, lucky for me, the wind is blowing away from my house.

I'll post pictures later.



Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Am I supposed to?

My job was on lay off for a week and I was having a ball while I was off. I did some cleaning but mostly I had fun visiting friends and family.
I work weekends and was excited to have two weekends off. When ever we have a shut down we don't go back to work until Thursday. No matter how many weeks we are off it is always Thursday when we go back. Period. Never before that.
On Friday I went with my bff on her delivery route. We spent the day driving all around NE Missouri and SE Iowa and a little bit of Illinois. While in Illinois we stopped in Nauvoo and made plans to go back with some other friends in a couple weeks! Nauvoo is the town that the Mormons were kicked out of in 1846 during the winter and they had to cross the frozen Mississippi river on their way to Utah. I am really looking forward to learning more about what happened back then. My bff and I decided to go to the movies and see "He's Just Not That Into You" sometime this weekend.
Then on Saturday I went to breakfast at the historic school house in my little town. Afterwards I went to the "dog sale" which now is mostly a flea market. I was looking for baby Muskogee ducks for my DIL. She likes them for pets and only wants two or three but to order them you have to buy twenty. That can be very costly besides she doesn't want that many of them. I was out of luck. It is too early to have ducks and chicks there yet. Too cold. On the way home there was almost an accident between a truck and a train but I will post about that later. On the way home I was thinking so hard about the truck/train thing that I ended up turning right instead of left and ended up in a whole different town ten miles in the wrong direction. The reason I didn't realize sooner that I was going in the wrong direction is because I was in an area I don't usually drive in and it is all country side with maybe five homes along the road. After I finally got home I did a lot of cleaning. When it was too late to go to the movie I remembered that we were going to go. I called my bff and she had forgotten too so we decided to go on Sunday.
Sunday, I got up early and started doing more cleaning. Did some stuff outside and came back in. Then I got a phone call. It was my boss. I was feeling really good and was very bubbly and he was too. I was wondering, why is my boss calling me on my day off? Then he asked me if I was going to come in to work today? He said he looked but I hadn't asked for a vacation day for Sunday. While he's saying that I'm saying "Oh, my God! Am I supposed to?" He laughed and said that we are scheduled to come back on Sunday. He said some of the girls told him that I must have forgotten! He was very nice about it and told me not to hurry so much that I get into an accident. He was having a rough start up and the reason he didn't know that I wasn't there for an hour and a half was because only one of three lines were running so no one was complaining to him. I got there and everyone was teasing me but all was fine. It was silly because we only worked that day and now our shift is off until Thursday but the other shift is working.

ETSY

I just added sachets to my ETSY store. Check it out!

www.enchantedhills.etsy.com

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

New Hair!

I am so excited! I am a new woman. Really! Today I got my hair cut and.........get this..........COLORED! It has been white for a couple years and I finally got tired of looking so old and besides it is time to shock people and make them wonder if I have found a man.
Humm, what is she up to? She cut and colored her hair, Myrtle. Have you seen any different cars at her place lately?
Women, hold on to your men! Enchanted is Enchanting again! Whoooo Hooo!

Monday, March 9, 2009

Adobe Photoshop Elements

I scored big time with my oldest son! He was signed up to take a digital camera class at his college but he couldn't get the program the instructor wanted him to get so he dropped out. Lucky me because he gave me his Elements 6 book and all I had to do is buy the program and now I have an awesome book to teach me how to use it. Wish me luck.

Wal~Mart

I shop at Wal~Mart when I get off work at midnight and I always thought that was the best time to shop because there aren't very many people there. Then I started to notice just how much of a pain in the ass it is. That is when they are stocking the shelves and you have to shop around boxes all over the place but, I can live with that. I know that people have a job to do and that is when they do it. So, I can live with it. (Big of me, huh?) Another bad thing about shopping at that time is that is also when they are cleaning the floors. They have large blocks of isles marked off that you can't go into so you have to come back at a later time to get them. Ok, I prefer the floors to be clean so I adjust my shopping days so that I can shop a couple days and have the last day of work my final shopping day of the week. The one major problem I have with the night crew is one man. He runs one of those large floor cleaning machines. He's a menace and he needs to have his floor cleaning machine drivers license revoked! He's awful. I have learned to dodge down a different isle when he's coming because he will not slow down and will push you out of the way. I have not had any problems with the other people that use those machines. They will stop and wait for me to realize they are there and then I will get out of their way. They will also smile at me but not him. No smiles at all. Well, I got back at him the other night. I had a cart full and he was waiting behind me to buy his drink and something to eat on his break. Normally I would have let the person behind me go ahead if they only have a couple things and I have a full cart. I am afraid that I may have even snickered to myself when I realized I was able to get back at him and make him wait for me. I know, it was petty and I'm quite sure that he didn't even know that I was paying him back for being so rude but, it made me feel better. How grown up is that?

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Flooded, again

It's a good thing I am off work today because we were flooded in again. I've lived here since '96 and the first time we flooded was this past Sept. and now we go again. I hope this isn't a trend.

Time change, new clock

Last night I was reading before going to bed. I looked at the clock and it was around 2 am. I did all the necessaries before going to bed and when I got there my new alarm clock said 3 am. I was surprised because I really thought it was 2 and how did it take me so long to get to bed? Oh, well, must have looked at the clock wrong. No big deal. Then this morning I realized it was the day for the time change and that my new alarm clock changes the time on its own! I need more clocks like that!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Cakes!

Today I will be baking two cakes. It is my oldest son's birthday on Sunday and he wants the German Chocolate cake that Nana used to make for everyone's birthday. Most of our family didn't like coconut (Nana included) so Nana would make the frosting from scratch and leave out the coconut. It is so good! I thought that everyone loved that cake so I picked up the tradition but last year I found out that my youngest son is just being polite when he eats it. He likes the white cake with frosting and decorated with roses and all that stuff so I am making both cakes. His birthday is in two weeks and I don't know if I will be able to see him then. I work weekends and those are his only days home. My job is shut down for this week and that is the only reason why I'll be able to do this. I'm really excited. If they turn out good I'll post pictures.

Also, my youngest son wants to learn to decorate cakes so I told him that I will mix up the frosting and take it to his house and we can both work on decorating together. It has been a few years since I have taken the time to decorate cakes so this whole experience could be very funny.

Wish us luck!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Time saving

I have been trying to diet by eating less carbs and I found that if I eat a beef patty in the morning I am not starving for hours! It really helps me cut out any snacking and I am slowly losing weight. My whole problem with pan frying the patty was the mess afterward and then I realized that I can cook it in my toaster oven on a piece of foil with the sided crumpled up to make a little "pan" of it's own and then when it is done all I have to do is throw the foil in the trash and everything is clean! I love it!!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Etsy shop

I have finally gotten around to opening an Etsy shop. I do have a problem though. I don't have a beautiful banner to use.
Well, come on over and take a look at it when you have time.

www.enchantedhills.etsy.com

I've been busy

I have been very busy making soap lately for a large order I received from a gift shop. I think I have enough made with a large enough selection that people will be inclined to buy more than one. The bars are small and so the price is low enough that people are able to many fragrances without killing their wallet.
Here are the pictures:

Apple

Black Raspberry

Island Delight

Lavender

Oatmeal, Goat's Milk and Honey

Patchouli/ Lemongrass

Plumeria

Sandalwood Rose
Spearmint Eucalyptus Salt Bar



Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Sunday Dinner (Pioneer Style)


I was just reading Robynn's Ravings where she was telling about how easy it was for her mom to kill farm animals. It made me think of a story my Mom told me about when she was a young or pre-teen living in rural South Dakota.

She told me that every Sunday her Mom would kill a couple chickens and fix a big Sunday dinner after Church. She said that there was a space in the back porch steps that her Mom would slip the head of the chicken in and then hold onto the legs so that the chicken was upside down. She would then give a good yank on it and that would kill the chicken. Easy peasy.

One Sunday my Mom decided that she didn’t want to go to Church and Grandma tried to make her go but she refused. When Grandma decided she couldn’t force her to come without dragging her she told Mom “Ok, you can stay home but you will have to kill the chickens and fix the dinner. Have it fixed by the time we get home” and then the rest of the family left for Church. I am sure that Grandma and Grandpa got quite a chuckle thinking about what was going on at home.

Mom said that she chased and chased the first darn chicken all over the yard. She slipped and fell and was all skinned up but she wouldn’t give up. She got it in a corner and thought she had it but it let out a squawk and flew out over her head and the chase was on again. She was running bent over at the waist with her arms spread out trying to catch the darn thing and she ran head first into the wooden fence of the cow pen and fell backwards onto her rear. The cows were watching her with what looked like to her…with amusement. Her dog was following her and barking and adding to the chaos and not being much of a help. She got herself up and dusted off, rubbed her forehead, wiped her tears and got more determined. Finally the dog scared the chicken and it flew into the air and Mom was able to catch it by a leg as it flew past.

She then had to fight with the chicken to keep it from pecking her as she put the head in the space in the porch steps and yanked. Nothing happened. The chicken lived. She kept trying and it just wouldn’t die. She really wasn’t someone that could just kill an animal and this was very hard on her to keep trying to kill this poor chicken. After several attempts Mom gave up and put the chicken in a cage for Grandma to deal with and went inside. There was no thought of going after a second chicken.

She cleaned herself up and fixed the big dinner minus the chicken.

She was the first one out the door to go to Church the next Sunday.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Jail Break!

This morning I got a knock on the door and since I am expecting a package I thought it was the mail lady. Instead it was a man that lives a couple miles from me telling me that there are three horses loose on the highway, and did I know who they belonged to. I told him that the horses that live at the next corner always get out. He didn't seem to think these were the same ones but he left. Another neighbor has horses across and over from me so I called her and told her that two sorrels and a bay were out, were they hers? She said she didn't think so but she would come up and take a look. I met her out there and she said they weren't hers and the horses that always get out were still in so we decided to move them to the corral across the road from me. This is right on the highway and this way when the owner drives by they will see them.
The plan was for me to walk behind them and heard them into the lot. They were so tame that me walking behind, yelling (not really yelling but talking out loud) and waving my arms didn't move them at all. Then I tried walking ahead of them gently talking to them and making clicking noises. One of them started following me and that got the others to follow. Then they stopped so I went to the side of the road and pulled some dry grass and held it out to them. They looked at it and went over to where I pulled it and started grazing. Hum. Not what I was trying for. Then the mail lady came driving up and they still didn't move. I thought that she might be able to heard them to the gate but they made her stop. She told us what road they had come from which was an entirely different place I thought they would have come from.
The girl that was helping me drove up to me and I got an empty feed bag out of the back of her 4 wheeler and shook it. That got their attention and they followed me right on in and she shut the gate behind us.
We then went driving around to see if we could decide who's horses they were. We decided they belong to some friends of mine that have moved to another state and have someone else watching them.
Now phone calls are being made to the guy that is taking care of them and to the man who's corral we put them into but they are safe and no one will hit them on the road. They are in very good shape and I am loving watching them run and play across the road.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Big soap order!

Ok, the order isn't for "BIG" soap but for a large number of small soaps and I am so excited. I have been in a slump. Not really feeling like making soap. Now I have to make lots of soap. I need to make ten batches but since I only have one mold it is all coming along slowly. I now have five batches done but one of them is giving me trouble. When I first made it there was a problem with separation so I poured it into the stainless steel bowl and cooked it double boiler method. It looked good so I put it in the mold. The next day it separated again. Just a little bit but I wasn't comfortable with it so it is now in the double boiler again. The good thing about cooking soap is that when it is used it gives awesome bubbles!

Gotta get back to stirring.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Meet and greet tour

We have a small town nearby and they have a new police officer that has come up with a great way to meet as many of the folks as possible. He has 3 places in town that everyone knows about (now that he's been doing it for a few days) where he sits with his radar and pulls people over for speeding. What a fantastic way to get to know the towns people! I was warned about him so I haven't met him yet but my best friend received a warning for going 5 miles over the speed limit. We can now rest assured that the streets will be safe with this officer on duty!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Blog Award!



I was tagged by Teresa of Elegance by Mode so I'm spreading the love!!!
Honorees please follow these instructions and share the LUV!
1. Put the logo on your blog or post. (You can highlight the photo and text of this post and copy/paste wherever you need to...start your highlight from the bottom up to get the photo).
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show GREAT ATTITUDE and/or GRATITUDE
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received the award.
These are some of the blogs I try to keep up with. Check them out when you have the time. I'm sure you will enjoy them too.

My Doggie Family


I talk about my doggies now and then and I thought I should show you a picture of them. The chair they are on is a love seat sized recliner so they aren't as tiny as they would seem if that was a regular sized chair. They weigh between 6 and 9 pounds. Oso is the "Poppa" and he is the only long hair. I was hoping to get a mixture of long and short hair pups but it didn't happen. Suki is the "Momma" and she was my first. She doesn't like anyone but me. Or at least that is how it was in the beginning. Then we learned that if you feed her cheese she will fall in love with you. Forever. The trick is to hold it and make her eat it from your fingers. If you just drop it on the floor she will love the cheese and not you. My family feels it is well worth the effort to have Suki love you. Oprah was the first puppy. I gave her to my youngest son and his wife but after awhile they brought her back. Then came ChaChee and Cisco. Cisco went to my other son and his girlfriend but they brought him back too. ChaChee was always mine. Now, when I wasn't looking ChaChee and Cisco bred their sister, Oprah and I was so upset. There were three puppies but only one survived. I didn't expect the pup to live so I didn't give her a name for a long time. Then when it looked like she was normal and just might live to a ripe old age I tried to come up with a name for her. She didn't seem to like any of them. And then one of the older dogs started messing with her and I said, "Leave the baby alone" and she turned and came running to me. It was then that I realized that whenever I spoke about her to the other dogs I called her "The baby" and so now she answered only to "Baby". That was when I really understood just how smart she really was. I didn't even have to try to get her to learn her name. I am so glad I wasn't calling her "The little shit head"!!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

I'm pulling my hair out!

Last night I weighed up most of the oils to make a batch of soap and then I started watching TV and didn't finish the soap. This morning I got up and weighed out the rest of the oils and then when I went to weigh the water to mix the lye in (lye has not been measured yet) my scale starts running all kinds of numbers with nothing on it! I am so pissed! Now I have to order another scale and wait until it shows up before I can finish. I can't even make lotions because they have to be weighed out too. Drat, drat and double drat!

So, how is your day going?

PS - I am also going to the dentist for fillings. I love my dentist but with a bad day going on already it does make me worry. Also, I am wondering if the roads are good. They look a bit snow covered....

Crafty-ness?

I have found that I seem to want to know how to do everything when it comes to crafts. The bad thing is that I have a hard time sticking with them for very long.

My Aunt Helen started me out when I was very young. She taught my little sister and I how to do counted cross stitch on gingham cloth. We made little red and white checkered aprons. My Aunt sewed the aprons together and we did the cross stitch, only I didn't finish mine. I was supposed to have three poodles on mine but lucky for me I started with the one in the middle because that was the only one I put on. My sister that always finishes what she starts finished hers. I have a hard time finishing things. I love to start 'em, hate to finish 'em. I went back to doing counted cross stitch and I did finish some but I also have quite a few that remain unfinished.

Mom taught me to crochet but my afghans are not square but in my defense they are warm. Well, they were. They seem to be gone now. I also have a box full of snowflakes I crocheted. They, of course, are in the box. Not flat and starched and ready to hang on a tree. No way. That would mean that they are finished and I need to make more. Lots more. I mean, I have to make enough for both of my boys and now I have so many grandchildren that will need them, I have to keep them in the box until I decide to sit down and make lots and lots more of them. When will that be?

My Aunt learned how to knit so she could teach me. She went on to make sweaters. Beautiful, long, coat like sweaters with double threads of black and white or other colors as wanted but, I never got past making scarves.

I painted on ceramics (I think I have one left) and tied macrame planters. Didn't do this for very long.

I sew "Easy Quilts" but haven't done that for at least four years. I have a list of 'em that need to be made. They never turn out perfect but I am proud of 'em when I do get 'em finished. The hard part about making them is that I have so many dogs and can't lay the fabric on the floor to spread it out. I haven't quite figured out how I'd get them pieced together. The last ones I made were for three of my grandsons and with the quilts I also gave them a new pillow and pillow case. I have really let my other grandsons and granddaughters down. I don't mean to play favorites. I just have such a hard time finishing things. I wonder if there is something in my past that is stopping me from finishing things?

I tried to teach myself how to paint the Donna Dewberry way but I just can't seem to do it without a teacher. I signed up for a class at the local collage but I was the only one to sign up so it was canceled. Same thing happened with the Yoga class I signed up for. That might have been a good thing. They say there is a lot of farting going on when you do yoga and I seem to be full of gas nowadays. Phew! Getting old is a bitch! I laugh. I fart. I cough. I fart. I just can't catch a break! Or, maybe, it's the people behind me that can't catch a break. Or, oops, maybe they do (break wind) but don't want to.. OMG!

I also work on my family history and I have quite a bit of it done and really should be thinking about putting it together but, I doubt that will ever happen.

Now what I make is soap and lotion. I love it. My soap leaves my skin soft instead of dried out and it smells so good. And the lotion! Let me tell you about the lotion. I always have dry arms and I kept trying new, improved lotions to moisturise them and I really thought I had found some good ones. That was until I was in a "soap swap" with some other women that make soap and one of them sent us lotion. I even bought some from her it was so good. Then I broke down and bought the stuff to make it myself and haven't been happier. I put my lotion on and my arms are good for the whole day. And, like the soap, I can use any fragrance I want. I thought that if I wanted my arms to be nice and moisturised I needed to keep reapplying the lotion all day. I was so shocked when I noticed that with the homemade it actually absorbed into my skin. I think I have found something I'll stick with for awhile.

So, what crafts do you do? Or, are you wiser than me and leave it up to other people? I am convinced that my house would be less cluttered if I didn't have so much craft stuff around. You know, I might get back to making some of that stuff. Can't get rid of it. NO way!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

You're looking for WHO?

I got a phone call today that really blew me away. When I answered the phone I could tell that it was one of the computer generated calls because at first there wasn’t anyone there. I considered hanging up but then I thought well, why not find out what they want. I figured it was a survey or something. Imagine my surprise when they asked for my second ex-husband (I have been married and divorced 3 times). The man on the phone was just as confused as I was when I explained to him that I have not seen the man since our divorce in ’85. He asked if I knew if he was still in New Mexico and I told him that the last time I saw him was in California and I don’t know if he had moved back to New Mexico (where he was from) or not. He told me he will take my phone number off of the list and I told him thank you. Of course, the “thank you” wasn’t just for taking my name off of the list but also for letting me know that he has someone looking so hard for him that they would call me. Just makes me want to dance.

Can you imagine having a bill collector call your ex looking for you? How fucking embarrassing! I wish I did have his phone number so I could call him and rub it in! “Hey, dirt bag, I bet you can’t guess who called me today!” When we split up I told him to come with me to the bank and I’ll give him half of what was in the account. He came and got the money and I was proud of myself for not grabbing it all for myself. It wasn’t until I got the bank statement that I found out that he had already raided the account and I had given him half of the measly amount that he had left me. I am so stupid! It took 24 years but now I feel he has gotten some of what he deserves.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Get your gigantic hands out of my mouth you brute!

If you have never gone to a female dentist you don't know what you are missing.

All my life I have only had male dentists with big hands in my mouth gaging me. One male dentist had hands so big that he had to but a rubber block between my teeth to get me to stop biting him. Such a baby, if he was afraid of being bitten he should have into a profession that doesn't involve putting ones hands into a place that will bite if he stays there too long. Idiot!


I have to sing praises to my new female dentist with tiny hands! She never complained that I was getting close to biting her and she smelled nice. No onions, no alcohol, no garlic. Her assistant carried on an interesting conversation that kept my mind off of what was going on in my mouth. She even kept me from gagging on my own spit. I told them that when I was very young my dentist told me that I had the most saliva he had ever seen in a kid. He countered that by telling me what beautiful eyes I had. I guess he was afraid he had scared me for life and wanted to give me something nice to remember him by. Then my female dentist said that I was very moist. That made me think of Amy at "My Foil Hat" and that she hates the word "moist"(her blog is listed on the left). I tried hard not to giggle when she said this because there was no way that I could explain why I was giggling and even if I tried I wouldn't be able to make them see just how funny it really was.

I was amazed that she never pinched my lips on my teeth and she didn't even slip, cut me and then try to tell me that she meant to do that and that the stitches will come out next week. No, she didn't do any of that. She worked really hard taking out an old filling that ended up having a cavity under it and putting in a new filling without ever, not once, causing me any pain at all. I usually am "white knuckling" it whenever I am in that chair but with her I was cool and calm.


I go back next Wed. for another filling and I am actually looking forward to it. I liked them so much from my first visit that I took them all some of my home made soap. They said that it smelled so good they wanted to eat it. It was scented with pumpkin pie spice. Yum yum.


This is a picture of the soap. It really isn't fair to give something that looks like candy to office people. Hell, it makes me hungry looking at it.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

I voted!


I voted for The Bloggess and she gave me this button for it!


It is so nice to be appreciated! Thank you Jenny!

Actually, I have voted for other blogs too but Jenny is the only one that gave me anything for it..... hum....she didn't buy my vote. I really did vote for her before she gave out the button as a thank you for voting for her. I swear, I wasn't bought. Honest.