Catching Up

We had a great time at Mom's in February. Here's a recap in pictures.


This guy showed up (identity masked to protect the innocent guilty).







There was a motley crew in attendance.......









Hilarity ensued........








There was entertainment.......








And family pictures taken - like this one......








And this one..........








And this one.......








And last but not least.....GOOD FOOD!

So True!

There's another 5K that I'd like to try to do in March, but my treadmill broke and I'm forced to go outside to run, which isn't working out too well! We'll see if I'm ready - I may have to walk this one! Anyway, I wanted to share this - a friend sent it to me and it is SO TRUE, and cracks me up every time I see it.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

This week is our 30th anniversary! The post I wrote (in the sidebar about what I have learned in 26 years of marriage) still applies. We are planning to go away but haven't got all the particulars in order, so nothing to write about yet, but Happy Anniversary to us in the meantime and yes, I would do it again, and yes, I pray for an additional 30 years (or more) with this wonderful man.

The Other White Meat

Well, now the freezer is full. For Christmas, Jerry's mom got us a half of a steer (which Jerry's brother raised). That filled the freezer pretty full. Then in December Jerry bought a whole hog and we picked up the meat from that on Saturday. Well, except for the bacon and a couple of the steaks which weren't ready yet. We decided that since we bought the whole thing, we wanted everything but the oink! The only thing we didn't keep were the intestines, feet and head. I didn't want chitlins and pig feet, and we didn't know anyone who ate them. Jerry's friend who keeps us in wonderful produce (and the grower of ALL THOSE SWEET POTATOES!) wanted the heart and liver, so those were for him. Jerry and I are curing the hams ourselves. We are flying by the seat of our pants on this, as we've never done it before. We cut one of the hams in half because they are 20 pounds each, and instead of curing one of the halves, I put a spice rub on it and it is smoking on the grill right now for dinner tonight. I would have put a picture of that on here along with the ones below but, um, my spice rub kind of caught fire and while I'm sure the roast inside will be delicious, it doesn't look too pretty! I told Jerry it just had a protective shell on it while it finished cooking! Maybe I'll be brave and post a picture of the charred protected roast for you when it's done. Maybe.

Here is the half of the ham that we are curing. That's sugar cure on it right now. We'll rinse that off this evening, inject it with liquid cure, and then rub more curing salt on it before wrapping it up and letting it do it's thing.


Same goes for this one, only this is the whole one - the 20-pounder. It doesn't look that large here, but it is!




Here is the fat rendering in my pot for lard. And cracklins. Yum!

Yum!

I made this Gourmet Bean Soup for dinner tonight. Oh. My. Goodness. It's really good. Actually, anything I have ever made from Tammy's site has turned out well. The sweet potato rolls I made at Christmas were Tammy's pumpkin roll recipe; I substituted sweet potato because, well, I have three recycling bins full of sweet potatoes in the garage that Jerry's friend generously gave us (and Jerry helped dig) - and Jerry doesn't even like sweet potatoes! What a guy. And what a run-on sentence! Anyway, give the bean soup a try. I used hot Italian sausage in mine. I'm looking forward to lunch tomorrow!

A Post To Share

I regularly read Lisa Pennington's blog, The Pennington Point. I recently read a Faith Points post called Do Not Compare Yourselves One to Another, and it was so good, that I wanted to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it and that it encourages you as much as it encouraged me. You should also peruse her other blog sections and posts; she is a talented lady!

Welcome, 2012!

Well.....it's 2012...the world didn't end, so I guess I should update my blog! (although some people are predicting it won't end until December 21, 2012).  THAT would certainly save on Christmas shopping next year, wouldn't it?! 

So it's a new year, and as usual, I have made some goals.  I'll call them goals this year instead of resolutions, and maybe I'll stand a better chance of actually sticking to them.  Some of my goals are the usual suspects, including weight loss, but others are new this year.  We'll see if we can make it past February!

I guess it's time to take the tree down.  That makes me sad.  It seems that Christmas came and went so quickly this year, that I didn't have time to enjoy the tree.  It doesn't help that we put it up a week later than we usually do, either.  Next year we'll put it up earlier.  There just won't be presents under it until after December 21.  Assuming we're all still here. 

Well, just wanted to check in and let my loyal readers (all 3 of you) know that I'm still around.  And yes, one of my goals was to post more.  We'll see how that goes! 

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Bowing to pressure to update my blog, I am wishing everyone (all 3 of you) a very merry Christmas. And please don't forget in the merriment of the day that Jesus was and is the original and best gift on Christmas. 
From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Happy Halloween?

No matter what your beliefs are about celebrating Halloween, this picture is funny.

I Did It!

The boys and I just got back from doing a 5K. Yes, I actually did it! I wasn't fast, but still - I DID IT! Tom ran ahead of Andy and I and finished in 34:00; Andy and I finished in 51:02. I'm proud of all of us. It was a lot of fun and we are definitely planning on doing it again.


The boys were telling me to pose for a picture in muscle-man style and were demonstrating, and cracking me up with their poses.


























Are they frightening or what? Or what, is my guess.
























I didn't die. This ol' lady's pretty proud of herself.

O Aunt, Where Art Thou?

I have an aunt whose email
Was hacked with vicious malice.
Instead of happenings in Maine,
I get ads for Cialis.

O aunt in Maine, please write me with a different email address, or leave a comment here so I know y'all are still kickin' !

Earthquake

I didn't post about the 08/23 earthquake yet, but Andy found this and I wanted to give you all a chuckle too.

Welcome and Goodbye, Irene!

We didn't fare too badly in Irene. Our power went out at about 9:45 last night and just came back on a few minutes ago (about 6:00 PM). Darn it. I love it when the power goes out. I'm weird like that.

We had two trees down across our driveway, and one came down across our street by our mailbox. Two came down in our neighbor's yard, cutting across our back yard. One came down on another neighbor's deck, which has a funny story associated with it, which I will share with you another time.

For now, though, I wanted to update that all is well here, and share some pics I got this morning.

The first pic is the back yard. You can see the two trees that fell across our fence from the neighbor's yard - but didn't hurt the fence.

The second pic is what's left of the tree that fell across our driveway.

The third is the other part of the above-mentioned tree.

This is the tree that fell across our street. And that's
our poor mailbox.








This is Jerry's trailer with a tree that fell just behind it, missing it.

I Love Snow

And here's why:



That's the thermometer on our porch. See the time stamp from my picture? 12:41 - it's not even the hottest part of the day yet. Thinking snow thoughts.......

Crickets

Well. I have had quite the hiatus, haven't I?! My readers clicked on my blog and got.......crickets. Nothing there. Every time I start to write, I feel like I need to enclose pictures or something, instead of just writing about it! So I'm not going to worry about that. If I add a picture, well, that's a bonus.

We planted a garden and have onions, green beans, tomatoes and peppers growing. Nothing ready yet, though. We also planted two trash cans of potatoes! We hope to have better luck than last year. This year we actually used seed potatoes, so that should work out a little better. I was gifted with a huge bag of cucumbers yesterday and requested to make pickles, so I'll be doing that shortly. I was given huge amounts of strawberries earlier in the summer and asked to make jam, so I did that. It's a good trade - they provide me with the produce and in exchange ask for some of what I'll make with it. Good deal for all involved. I hope to be getting bunches of grapes soon with which to make jam. When the weather is cooler we will plant cabbage and broccoli. I hope to have enough cabbage to can more sauerkraut this year.

Well, my enchiladas are about ready to come out of the oven. Just wanted to give you a quick update and let you all know that I'm still around, instead of crickets!

I'll leave you with this - my great uncle passed away somewhat recently and Jerry and I are helping to get the house ready to put on the market, and in cleaning it out we came across this:

Nice luggage piece, no?

See the little tag on the bottom right hand corner?





It says "Amelia Earhart luggage". Who thought THAT was a good idea?! Would you want to take that on vacation?

Style, or lack thereof!

First of all, let me state that I have indeed been keeping up with my jogging slogging (slow jogging!) Monday, Wednesday and Friday I'm at it. I just haven't posted my stats.

I made a discovery, though. The first few times I killed myself trying to finish within a decent time. And then crawled off the treadmill and was pretty miserable. Then I noticed the scale wasn't moving - in fact, I gained two pounds! Talk about discouraging! Then I realized that all my huffing and puffing was actually making my exercise anaerobic instead of aerobic, and I was out of any fat burning zone - I was just in survival mode!

So, then I tried not pushing myself quite so hard, discovered I could actually breathe while I was slogging, and guess what - the scale actually is moving downward now. I figured the first couple of weeks of pushing myself too hard, my fat stores said, "This chick is crazy. Better hold on to EVERYTHING!"

Now I can actually function after a run, and the scale is moving too. Good stuff. I didn't post my stats but I will if Mike someone needs proof - it seems Mike certain people might not believe I'm actually keeping up if I don't post!

Secondly, I found this great blog. This man photographs men and women (mostly of New York) of advanced years who show style and individuality. The ladies are gorgeous and inspire me. Yes, it's New York, where people don't look at you sideways for wearing different things, but who says you can't rock your individuality in the boonies if you want to?

I look at the photos on this blog and can't help but wonder what happened to me. Both of my grandmothers were fashionable in their own way. One always had nails painted, wore costume jewelry all the time, never left the house without lipstick, and I have pictures of her back in the 50's looking glamorous in evening wear. The other had more classic style; never wore pants, always believed a lady should wear a dress and stockings and heeled shoes, and did this right up until the time she died, in her 90's. Both of these ladies were always looking fashionable for the most part.

So, my question is how did I end up looking like this?! Part hillbilly, part throw-on-whatever's-close-and-fairly-clean? By genes alone, I should have more fashion sense. I need to work on that. In the meantime I'll enjoy the people on this blog and envy their freedom in being themselves fashion-wise.

Monday Stats

It was a tough walk/jog today. I didn't get in a hurry; my legs weren't cooperating.

Distance: 4 miles
Time for 3.1 miles: 1:02
Total time: 88 minutes
Maximum heart rate: 173 beats per minute
Average heart rate: 140

Happy Monday!

Very Cool

I had to share this with y'all. There is a very cool site, Jogfm.com, where you can enter in the time you want to go a mile and it will find music accordingly. I set up my iPod with music I found there and I have loved it. You can buy the songs from that site, or what I did was use their song suggestions and then bought them from this site, which is where we have been getting our music for a long time now. Much cheaper. Disclaimer #1: I get nothing from these companies by recommending them. They have no idea I even exist. I'm just passing along things I like to my readers (all 3 of you!) Disclaimer #2: If by chance you are not happy with either of these companies, don't blame me. Refer to Disclaimer #1. Happy Sunday, and Happy May!

Accountability and Happy Birthday

Okay - here goes. I've been running for a few weeks now and plan to run a 5K in the fall. There. I said it. I am posting it here so it can keep me accountable, and keep me going. I'm going all out and posting my times and my stats from my heart rate monitor. Right now my pace is S-L-O-W (think snail), but that's okay. Rome wasn't built in a day, and these hips didn't get this way in a day, either.

I go 4 miles. The first 3.1 miles (5K) I time myself, then after that I just walk and enjoy the music. So, here for your amusement, and to keep me on track, are today's stats:

Distance: 4 miles
Time for 3.1 miles: 58:51 (my best time yet)
Total time: 87 minutes
Maximum heart rate: 175 beats per minute
Average heart rate: 140

I had kind of a hard time today. My legs felt like lead. It's been a week since I was able to get on the treadmill, so that didn't help. Oh, and this didn't either -




Yesterday was Jerry's birthday and this was his cake. And a half. We went to Jerry's mom's house on Wednesday to celebrate, and then had a birthday dinner here last night, so he got two birthdays. That's a good thing. He's a good man. And who wouldn't want two birthdays?!

Easter Recap

Writing about this year's Easter reminded me of other years, so I figured I'd put links to past Easter posts so you could read them all from one place.

Easter 2005

Easter 2008

Easter 2008 (second post)

Evidently I didn't write about years 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010. Or I just couldn't find the posts. I know I took pictures each year of our dysfunctional Easter baskets, but I guess I didn't get them off my camera yet. One of these days I'll get my act together. Happy Friday to ya! And yes, I'm aware that my post date at the top says Thursday, 04/28. I started the post then and finished it this morning. So again, Happy Friday to ya!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, y'all! Here are pictures of this year's irreverent Easter basket ritual. We are irreverent about this part of it because we know what Easter is (it's all about Jesus!) and what it isn't (Easter bunny!). For the last few years I have been amused by the boys' creativity in that department. I go to bed and leave them to their devices to find Easter candy vessels. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a picture of this year's.


A shoe box and my bread pan.



Oh, and look what they left for the Easter bunny........


Body building supplement powder and potatoes.


There is no rhyme or reason to the things we do here. We just amuse ourselves! Also, did you notice the books in their baskets?! Tom got a Dora book and Andy got a Thomas the Tank Engine book. Seems the Easter bunny had a joke up his her sleeve as well!

Happy Easter to everyone. Whether you go to church or not, please don't forget to give praise to the Lord who gives us hope and a future, because He died for us and rose on this wonderful day. And try not to eat too much candy!

Happy Anniversary!

Have you ever?! Have you EVER seen someone as rude as I, to take such a long break from blogging? Well, I did. But I have a good reason. Which I'll tell you another time.

Right now I just want to say happy anniversary to Jerry and I. It is our 29th anniversary today. I am SO blessed to have that man as a husband. I love him so much it isn't funny. When you've been married 29 years and still hold hands and snuggle while watching old westerns on TV together, well, that's love! And I'm not ashamed of admitting that we hold hands, snuggle, OR watch old westerns on TV!

Okay. I've written a blog post. I'm sure my brother was beginning to feel pretty smug because he had several blog posts up on me. Not anymore, brother o'mine. Ball's in your court!

Have a lovely Sunday!

Welcome, 2011!

I wish everyone a happy, healthy, prosperous, worry-free, wonderful new year. May this year be filled with blessings for all of us. And more blog posts!

Happy New Year from our family to yours.

Something To Think About

I read this today and just loved it, and wanted to share it with you.

Fulfillment is a reward the Lord grants his sons and daughters for their unselfish service, not a prize to be grabbed from God's hands by force.

That's something to think about in this day of "me, me, me."

Wanna Do Something Nice?

There is a wonderful blog that I follow, A Joyful Chaos. I love to read about this lady's former Amish life. Here is a link to a recent post. In it she has asked for cards for her Aunt Vernie. I sent one from our family to her on Saturday. If you want to do something nice for someone, email Mary Ann (her email address is on the right side of her blog under the picture of the fretwork clock) and get Aunt Vernie's address to help make her birthday special.

Some 'Splainin

I Didn't Die

How's that for a blog title?! Well, I didn't. Die, that is. I've just been horrendously busy and blogging took a back seat again. I'm not even going to try to apologize this time - life happens! There are lots of posts started (in my head, that is) that will hopefully be written soon, about what's been going on around here. Here's the Reader's Digest version:


1. Jerry is home from Delaware.
2. In 2005 Jerry and I bought a trailer in Rehoboth Beach.
3. We had trees taken down.
4. I love C. Booth dry oil.
5. I'm bellydancing again.
6. Jerry is home from Delaware.


Elaborations to follow. One day. Soon. I promise. No, really.

Romance

Back again! Hopefully I can carve out more time for blogging, because I really do miss writing. I'm still working on the whole Delaware saga for you, but in the meantime I wanted to share this.


Last week Shopper's Food Warehouse had triple coupons. In my world, that's a big deal. Anyway, Jerry and I needed a new showerhead (don't ask) from Lowe's, so we figured while we were in the area we'd stop at Shopper's and scout out prices for couponing that week.


It was late when we got to Shopper's, about 10:00 at night, so we pretty much had the store to ourselves. We went our separate ways in the store looking at different things, but happened to meet up again in the cleaning aisle - Jerry at one end and me at the other.


As we were perusing items in our respective ends of the aisle, our wedding song came on over the store's speakers. I put my arms out and walked toward Jerry and told him that we should dance - it was, after all, our wedding song. And what were the chances of hearing your wedding song, 28 years later, in a grocery store at approximately 10:30 at night, with no one else around?


So, we danced. Right there in the cleaning aisle. I had my eyes closed, just enjoying the moment, when my husband of 28 years, my high school sweetheart, the love of my life, whispered in my ear.............




........"We need toilet cleaner."




Ah, romance.

Don't Give Up On Me!

I didn't disappear - things have been insanely busy and blogging has had to be put on the back burner for a little bit. Don't give up on me, though! I'll fill you in with the happenings here and in Delaware, complete with pictures, very shortly. It may have to be in installments, but that will keep the suspense up, won't it?!

Back for a moment....

The zucchini has released me, but now work is keeping me hopping - but that's a good thing, so I don't mind. Summer is typically when the doctors all seem to go on vacation at once and work is slow, but the last couple of weeks have kept me very busy, and I'm grateful. So, briefly, just had to share a couponing fete for today! (I've still been couponing - just not as much; not as much time!)

Today's haul at Food Lion - and Tom and Andy went for me because I was stuck working - yes, my boys can coupon with the best of them!

20 boxes of Eggo waffles
10 tubs of Best Life butter.
3 loaves of bread.

Total: $1.27


Here's the math in case anyone out there wants to do this too - or not, if you aren't as deranged as me!

Transaction #1:
10 boxes of Eggo waffles @1.67 each, 16.70
10 tubs of Best Life butter @.99 each, 9.90

Total 26.60

Used 5.00 Kraft catalina from last week
Used (5) 1.00/2 coupons from Sunday paper on Eggos
Used (10) 1.00/1 coupons from Sunday paper on butter

New total: 6.60 out of pocket, received 10.00 catalina from Kellogg's.

Transaction #2:
10 boxes of Eggo waffles @1.67 each, 16.70
3 loaves of bread @.99 each, 2.97

Total 19.67

Used 10.00 Kellogg's catalina from Transaction #1
Used (5) 1.00/2 coupons from Sunday paper on Eggos

New total: 4.67 out of pocket, received 10.00 catalina from Kellogg's.

If you subtract the 10.00 catalina I received from Transaction #2 that I still have to use on my next trip there, my total was 1.27 today for 20 boxes of waffles, 10 tubs of butter, and 3 loaves of bread. It's a sickness hobby!

Zucchini Gang here.........

So, yeah, Karen asked us to write and let you know that we, the Zucchini Gang, have taken her hostage. We didn't wanna write, but she said 'people' might come looking for her, and then the jig would be up. We're taking care of her - sort of. We're making her cook zucchini 101 ways - only the zucchini we say to cook - not us, of course. We'll let her go when she finishes, or passes out from exhaustion, at which point we'll find another sap to hold hostage. Don't try to find her - we won't be responsible for our actions if you do.


- Zucchini Gang

A Question

Have you ever wondered what 90 cups of shredded zucchini looks like?



You haven't?



Oh.

Favorite Commercials

We don't really watch TV. People are actually horrified and act like we're freaks surprised to discover that neither I or any of my clan have ever seen even one episode of American Idol. Well, we seem to be doing okay, in spite of ourselves! Here are some of my favorite commercials, though. The one at the end is one I found on YouTube.

Father's Day, Take 2

The weekend before last we celebrated the rest of Father's Day. Andy's gift to Jerry had been delayed in shipping, so we didn't have it for the actual Father's Day. He got him a pellet gun. A very heavy, potentially very painful, pellet gun. Tom got him CO2 cartridges to power said gun. Now all of the boys have one.





The morphology of pellet guns around here is interesting. Tom got one for himself last year which he thoroughly enjoyed; so much in fact that he got Andy one for Christmas last year. Andy enjoyed his so much, that he wanted Jerry to have one, presumably so the three of them could have battles.

I felt like Ralphie's mother in A Christmas Story, "You'll put your eye out."

They spent Sunday afternoon shooting various objects around our yard. Bees on my lavender plant didn't stand a chance. If there is a honey shortage this year, you know who to blame.

We made badly-drawn targets and hung them from the clothesline. We initialed each person's shot so we knew who shot where. Note the "M" on the shot below. Yep, that was mine. Pure luck, I tell ya.





My contribution was a cake. I got this decorating idea from this blog post. I know it's a little late to do the flag cake, but I might still try it. My circles didn't come out as neatly as hers!

Air Conditioning - A Pictorial

I am cheap. I did not want to turn on our air conditioning. Recently our thermostat looked like this







Then it looked like this







Then this







And this







Then my family started acting like this




I surrendered.

To Rosie

Rosie, thank you for the comment you left regarding "The Pen, the Sword, and All That." I wanted to let you know that I did indeed receive it, but because of the personal nature of some of the things you wrote, I chose not to publish it, not without your permission. God is indeed a forgiving God - and it's a good thing, too, or we'd all be doomed! Thank you again for taking the time to leave your kind comment. It was appreciated.

Dad Life - What a Hoot!

Listen carefully to the words - I especially love the Aladdin part!

Dad Life from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

The Pen, the Sword, and All That..........

There are many variations on the saying "the pen is mightier than the sword." Playwright Bulwer-Lytton is most often credited with it as a line in a play in 1839, but actually the Greek poet Euripides is believed to have been the first to say it a long, long time ago (considering that he died in 406 B.C., it was a long time ago).

I have been pondering the post on acceptance I wrote a week ago and felt the need to write this one. Perhaps I could have said it differently, or thought it through more thoroughly. It was not my intent to open old wounds with my typewritten words. When I write, I very seldom think through as I'm writing; the words go from my brain into my hands and come out here on a page. I usually write very quickly, because I write "on the fly" as it were, and it wasn't until I was attacked in the comments that I stepped back to read, really read, what I had written.

It is interesting that the post was about acceptance. I am not writing this one to gain anyone's acceptance; rather to gain peace for myself about having hurt another person, however inadvertently. I still feel the same way about not needing anyone's approval, and it is for that very reason that I write this. It doesn't matter to me whether anyone thinks I'm weak or strong for writing this; the fact is that I hurt someone else unintentionally and that's not how I choose to live my life. Jesus is my model for meekness and humility, but sometimes human nature gets in the way.

I can still be strong enough to stand up for myself and accept myself regardless of what other people think of me, but I can also be strong enough to apologize if I don't feel peace about an issue, and so I sincerely apologize for the pain I caused another individual. It was most certainly not my intention.

No matter who was credited with saying it first, it is indeed true. The pen is mightier than the sword. Oh, and you might want to jot down that bit of trivia about the saying - you know, just in case you happen to get in the Cash Cab or something and it comes up!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled silly and optimistic blogging.

Camera Obscura

On Father's Day we (okay, the boys and Jerry - I took pictures!) built a camera obscura. Here is a link that will tell you how it works. What it is, or was in our case, was a cardboard box with a hole drilled into it. Tom had told us about one of his classes in Arlington when they had covered all the windows in the classroom until it was completely dark and then put a pinhole in one of the window coverings. The Arlington streets and skyline were then projected onto the back wall of the darkened classroom, upside down. He said they watched people walking by, cars and clouds - all upside down. We tried first to put a piece of blueprint paper onto the back wall of the closed box but no image came out. We discovered that would take a LONG time for the exposure to put an image on the paper.

Jerry is closing his office in Delaware and as things were being moved out of the office, an old blueprint machine was about to be thrown away. More about the Delaware office in a future post, though. Jerry and I decided that we wanted to play around with the machine before we threw it away, and there was an unopened package of blueprint paper too, so the boys and I started doing some experimentation to see what we could do with it. It doesn't take much to amuse us, as my readers already know!

We tried using the paper as sun paper - you know, the kind you used to use as a kid when you would lay rocks and such on it and leave it out in the sun and the images would appear in contrast on the paper? We left ours in the sun too long. Turns out you only have to expose it for a few short minutes, but that diazo (blueprint) paper also needs a chemical reaction to finish developing, like a photo. That's why there's ammonia in a blueprint machine to finish the development process.

Later on after taking the box back in the garage, Andy got inside it to see if there would be an image projected onto the back wall of the box. After a few minutes of his eyes adjusting to the dark, he was able to see our driveway projected upside down on the back of the box. Then a neighbor walked over to visit and Andy saw him approach - upside down - on the back wall of the box. As if the neighbors needed further confirmation that we weren't wrapped too tight, having our son in a cardboard box on a 90-degree day confirmed it!

We half-celebrated Father's Day last week. We'll be doing the second half this weekend. Andy's gift to Jerry ended up being delayed in shipping with UPS and didn't arrive in time, so we get to celebrate twice. I'll post about Jerry's gift after he actually gets it, if I get a chance. If not, have a great weekend, y'all!

Never A Dull Moment

Last Sunday we let our cat outside. Because he only has 2.5 legs, we only let him out when we can supervise him, or watch him from the front window. I didn't see him when I looked out so I went outside to round him up. I found him sitting under one of the massive bushes we have in our front yard. The bush is so big that he was literally under it and in it. Usually you can just scold him and he comes running out, but no amount of scolding was moving him this time. I reached in and tried to prod him out with my hand, but he wasn't budging.

Just as I was figuring that I'd have to climb in after him, a portion of something large, black, shiny, and about an inch and a half in diameter slithered past my face. To be exact, about three inches from my face. I jumped back and made a strange sort of yelping sound. I didn't know that such a sound could come out of me. The cat was snake hunting in that bush.

I ran inside and alerted the troops. Jerry and Tom got shovels and tried to coax the snake out. Well, first we used a stick and kept poking at the poor cat until he got so mad that he ran out of the bush, but he wasn't happy about having had his prey intercepted. Jerry finally "scooped" the snake out of the bush but he slithered out of the shovel and dropped to the sidewalk, where Tom then trapped him under his shovel.

I didn't want them to kill the snake - we were pretty sure it was a harmless black snake and, well, I would prefer a black snake in my yard than mice in my pantry. So we decided to put him in a trashcan and release him in the woods in the back yard. Here are pictures of our Sunday visitor.

The Price of Beauty

Last week I treated myself to a for-really, honest-to-goodness, no-foolin' hair do. And not just a hair do. Color, cut, style, conditioning treatment - the works. When I left the house that morning I told the boys that I didn't know when I'd be back - the lady at the salon had her work cut out for her. The boys responded that she would see me coming across the parking lot and hide. They likened me to Hagrid from Harry Potter. And they weren't wrong.

So, after many hours, and fumes that about knocked me out, I emerged with a new 'do. And it was straight. You heard me - straight. Not that I don't have the option of it being curly - all I have to to do is get out of the shower and not do anything with it. But - BUT - if I want it straight, all I have to do is plug in this glorious tool that is a super mega size, super mega hot curling iron, and I can straighten my hair.

But I will need practice with this super mega size, super mega hot curling iron. On my first attempt at home, I succeeded in burning my forehead and right ear lobe. We're not talking about a mild burn, either. We're talking the kind of burn that leaves a mark, then a scab. Yeah, that kind of burn. This super mega size, super mega hot curling iron goes to 450 degrees. Which, the salon lady tactfully pointed out, was the temperature I would need if I even hoped to straighten this Hagrid-hair of mine.

Let me put that in perspective for you. Imagine turning your oven on, putting a pan inside, and setting it to 450 degrees. Now, after 15 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and apply it directly to your forehead or right ear lobe. Ouch. Did you know that skin that isn't even wet can sizzle with that kind of heat? I know that - now.

Well, here is a pic of my straightened hair - because I know that anyone who knows me won't believe me.



No, wait. That's a cheesecake I made last week.




Ah, here we are. And this is me - with straight hair. The picture isn't great, but you try taking a picture of yourself in a mirror with a camera. It ain't easy.

By the way, the cheesecake recipe can be found here, along with other great recipes.

Spring Has Sprung

Sitting on our deck, you see this rhododendron bush. Look closer, and you see this in the rhododendron bush. I'm glad she decided to nest so close to our deck. We have front row seats!

Potatoes In A Can

We are growing potatoes. In a trashcan. And so far it's working. I read about this somewhere in cyberspace and thought it looked like fun, so the boys and I are trying it. Oh, and we planted them on St. Patrick's Day. That's the traditional day for planting potatoes.

The boys drilled holes in the sides and bottom of an old trashcan. Then we put some dirt in the bottom of it. Then we cut up two potatoes that had started sprouting eyes. We cut about an inch square of potato around the eye. Then we placed those squares of potato with the eyes in the trashcan and covered them with dirt. Then we walked away and promptly forgot that we had planted potatoes.

Not really. We checked on those things constantly, and after two weeks, just as we had decided that our spuds had either rotted or had been genetically modified to not reproduce, we saw sprouts. Glorious sprouts.

Now those sprouts are growing like crazy. We need to keep a careful eye on them though, because we need to keep dumping dirt on top of the plants whenever they get too tall. Let me explain.

Potatoes grow from sideways shoots that grow out from the main stalk of the plant. So, if we just let the first potato squares grow, the stalks would get tall, but only the shoots that the stalk sent out under the dirt would grow potatoes.

So, you wait until the stalks get about 6 inches above the dirt, then you cover everything up with dirt again. Then the stalks will grow up again through the dirt, but in the meantime you've added more space for the stalks to send out more shoots under the dirt. So, you keep doing this until the trashcan is filled to the top with dirt. After that you wait until the tops turn brown and fall over. Then you dump out your trashcan and harvest your spuds.

Here are pictures after twice being covered with dirt, and I covered them again last week but didn't take pictures yet.

Pure Gold

I came across this entry that I had written in 2005. Gold. Pure gold, I tell ya. And why aren't publishers beating down my door asking me to write?

Goodbye, Circus!

Welcome to my new layout. I still may tweak it a bit, but I got tired of not writing because I just couldn't stand looking at my own layout! Between the tabs and the music, it had just become too much; too busy. And what's worse, I started feeling pressure to write, and that is never good.

I write because I enjoy it; not because I have to. A couple of years ago I was offered a job writing for a magazine, but I turned it down because I don't want the pressure of deadlines to have to come up with something creative. I have had a book idea rolling around in my head for a long time now, and the boys keep telling me I need to write it, but that's different. I can write that in my spare time (what's that?!) before any publishers need to know about it. I don't want to solicit a book contract based on the first two chapters only, and then have a deadline to finish the rest of the book. Too much pressure! Yes, an advance would be nice, but I wouldn't want that hanging over my head. Anyway, that's a thought for another day. In the words of Scarlett O'Hara, I'll think about that tomorrow.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my less circus-y blog. I think I'm going to like it here........

It Doesn't Take Much

Well, I'm back momentarily - I know I haven't written in a while and I'm going to be changing my blog around a bit soon, but for now I had to write about my trip to Giant this afternoon. Using the current General Mills $10.00 off $20.00 catalina promotion and doing this in four transactions, here's what I got:

12 boxes of Hamburger Helper (don't judge - you know you'd cook it too if it were nearly free!)
6 Apple and Eve Fruitables (8-pack)
4 Green Giant Steamers
2 boxes Cocoa Puffs cereal
1 box Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal
1 box Trix cereal
1 box Lucky Charms cereal
5 boxes of Nature Valley granola bars
2 boxes of Bisquick
1 Reese's peanut butter cup package (2 peanut butter cups)
4 Breakstone sour cream

The grand total out of my pocket after rolling the catalinas through four transactions was - drum roll please - $13.47.

*Contented sigh*

Yes, it's a sickness.

*sniff*

This is what I feel like with my boys. *sniff* (Click on the image to see it larger).

The boys digging their way to the woodshed to get firewood. Tote that barge, lift that bale!



I love how the trees look painted with snow.



We all went out the other night and played in the snow. While Jerry was tackling the boys (literally!), I made a snow angel. The boys remarked at the small head and large posterior of this particular angel!