I haven't posted recently because I've been busy playing with my new toy. I unexpectedly got a Kitchenaid mixer and have been making all kinds of stuff with it. I say that it was unexpected because Jerry and I had talked about getting one for Christmas but we both agreed it was too expensive right now and we would wait, but then Kitchen Collection had the kind that I wanted for $100.00 off, plus a $30.00 mail-in rebate on top of that, so we talked ourselves into believing that we really shouldn't pass this up! It's amazing what your mind can talk you into. Actually, it's kind of funny because over the past several days as I was getting back into tightwad gear, I had intended to write a sidebar item about my tightwaddery, but I never got around to that and instead played with something new that I (*gasp*) bought!

This mixer is a beast. I had no idea from looking at the pictures how large it really was. We got the Professional 600 because it was the biggest that they make and can handle bread dough. I have been researching these for over a year now and had been debating between a Bosch and a Kitchenaid, but finally the sale on the Kitchenaid made my decision for me. This thing is so big that sitting on my counter, there is only one inch between the top of the mixer and the underside of the cabinets over the counter. The flat beater that is shown in the picture is bigger than Jerry's hand. I had a recipe in my Mennonite cookbook that made four loaves of bread (something I never would have attempted with my old mixer), so I tried that. We set the timer, and using the dough hook the dough for four loaves of bread was done in four minutes. That's it. When I get around to writing about my tightwaddery, I'll explain about the breadmaking. Now I want to buy the grain mill attachment for it, so I've listed some things on eBay for my fundraising for that.

I decided to try out a new program that eBay offers (well, new to me anyway) called Turbolister, where you can write the descriptions and get pictures of your items all offline and they just stay in a file on your computer until you're ready to sell your stuff, then you can upload it all at one time and start your auctions. I used that for the first time yesterday but when I uploaded my stuff and started my auctions, the format hadn't stayed the same as when I wrote it in Turbolister, and my counters for page visits were missing. Right after the auctions went live I went in to fix these things and as I was making my way down my list of items putting counters on all of them, I noticed that one of my items was missing. I had listed five things, now only four were showing up. I thought that somehow one listing hadn't made it to the auction so I went back to check, and then saw that one of the books had sold in the three minutes that the auction had been live. That's why it wasn't showing up when I went back to add a counter! Someone had bought the book and paid for it and the money was in my account in Paypal all in five minutes' time. I can hear the grain mill grinding away now!

Also, just in case anyone's wondering, I decided that my schedule didn't need tweaking. It needs a major overhaul!

My new toy.

PLAN isn't supposed to be a four-letter word, is it?

Well, here we are in the new year. I have decided to try to get myself organized this year. Again. Only this time I actually took some steps in that direction. I made a book for myself with all the stuff in it that I thought might be useful. I'm sure it will undergo some tweaking, but I'm hopeful that it will be a help to me. Before Christmas I bought an inexpensive binding machine in order to make photo albums. We thought it would be a good investment anyway because Tom needs something with which to make portfolio books. So, I have been perusing forms on websites and templates on microsoft.com during the past week. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I found a few forms at DonnaYoung.org which were also helpful.

The first section is Andy's school schedule. Andy collaborated on that. While I'm all for "eclectic" homeschooling and learning what you want, when you want, we did need a little more structure to our days. The fact that we have a board of education review in two weeks had absolutely nothing to do with that decision, either. No sir. None at all. Huh-uh.

I'll write more about my book in future posts. I have allowed myself a half hour per day to blog, but you can see what time I finally got to it - it's now 9:57 PM. My schedule says I should have done this at 4:00. Hmmm. Did I mention that I would probably need to tweak it a bit?

What a beautiful sunrise! I caught these pictures on rehobothbeachcam.com. The sunrise was so pink and bright here at home that morning, that I figured it had to be beautiful on the ocean.

Here is the same view, about six hours later.

It's That Time Again!

Here is our tree in all it's splendor - pre-toss!
Here is Andy with the first toss. You can't see much of him in the picture, but you can see the mighty heft he gave it, as attested to by the airborne tree!
Next it was Tom's turn. I think he was aiming for height more than distance!
Here is my tree-tossing attempt. It went a respectable distance, anyway!

I have posted some pictures and if all goes well, the pictures should be below this post! If not, you'll see them just the same, but just not in the order I wanted to put them. This blogger program changed its format and I'm having trouble getting things to look just so on it. For instance, the text block is too narrow for my liking. I tried to widen that part and reduce the width of the archives section to the right, but it wouldn't let me. There are some new features available though, that I intend to make use of very shortly. I will be updating parts of my blog as time permits and adding more features to it when I can.

We had a very nice Christmas. It was small and quiet - my kind of Christmas. Santa was very good to the boys this year - he must have seen some good behavior that I wasn't aware of! They got a much sought-after Nintendo Wii system. And now we are all suffering Nintendo arm. I remember back in the 1980s when the very first Nintendo came out and Jerry and I got Nintendo thumb from working the controller and trying to make Mario go where he was supposed to. Our thumbs were sore for days! Now with the Wii, you use the controller to actually play the games. There is a motion sensor bar that sits on top of the TV and the controller picks up your movements. A sports disk came with the system and has tennis, bowling, boxing, golf and baseball on it. You actually hold the controller like you would whatever instrument you needed to play those games. For instance, in bowling you actually bend down and swing the controller as if you are throwing a bowling ball. (That's why my elbow is sore - I've been a bowling fool since Christmas!) For golf you hold the controller with two hands and stand in a golf stance, and swing the controller just like a golf club. I stink at that. Anyway, you get the picture. I highly recommend this system to anyone who wants a little fun and stress relief! Just make sure you have a tight grip on the controller, or use the wrist strap to attach it to your arm, or you WILL throw the thing across the room accidentally! I got a little overzealous during a tennis match the other day and whacked Andy in the shoulder with my controller/tennis racquet! I don't think I've ever sweated playing video games before! Andy looked like he had put in an hour at a gym the other day after several "virtual" boxing matches. You actually hold the controllers (there are two pieces for this) as if you have boxing gloves on your hands. You punch, jab, and guard yourself just as if you were really boxing. It gets intense sometimes! The boys also got a couple of games with the system, Zelda and Red Steel. In both of those games there is a storyline, but when it comes time to wield a weapon or a tool, you use the controller and do whatever's necessary to save the day.

Speaking of saving the day, I'd better get going and get some work done and put dinner on. Andy gave me a new crock pot for Christmas and I LOVE it. It is bigger than my old one and it is oval-shaped, so roasts fit in it much better than my old round one. I have had my old one since Tom was small and it finally became unreliable. Sometimes it would cook and sometimes it wouldn't. I thought for a while it was the cuts of meat I was cooking because they were the pork and beef that we had bought and had butchered ourselves, but then when spaghetti sauce remained cool after eight hours of cooking, I knew my crock pot had gone to the great beyond. Anyway, off to do stuff!

Santa found a Wii for the boys. Good thing, too. Dad and Mom sure couldn't find one ANYWHERE.
This is one of the azalea bushes with clear blinking lights, although in the picture you can't tell that they're clear or blinking. It's really very pretty at nighttime, though.
Here's the front of our house with the front posts wrapped with pine and lights and the aforementioned azalea bush (behind the lamppost). The bow on the lamppost was blown by the wind and is looking a little sad!
Here's another large azalea that we covered with big lights. Well, the bush was too big to cover, and we ran out of lights - but we did the best we could! It looks nice, anyway.

Back By Popular Demand

Or, relatives just need a good laugh, and material is hard to come by. In any case, I'll try to make more time for blogging.

It feels strange not having things that MUST get done. I can actually breathe for a little while! I know how awful this sounds on Christmas Eve, but I'm actually doing some work today, too. One of the transcription companies is offering a bonus for work done this weekend, and, well, I'm not doing anything else right at the moment. Normally I don't work on Sundays but since I haven't worked the last two days, I probably should! Gotta pay for Christmas, ya know!

We had a very nice time at Sherri's yesterday. It was fun talking about "the old times" (hushpuppies and such!). I miss the days of visiting Mom and Paul when they lived in the cabin in WV and we would go up for the weekend when Tom was small. They were fun weekends. In fact, I just plain miss WV! We still haven't given up on getting there, but now it will probably be after Tom graduates in two years. That's our plan, anyway. But as the country song goes, "If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans". Last year I was so set upon getting out of here and getting to the mountains that I just didn't have my heart into decorating this house for Christmas and didn't put a lot into it. This year was different. I actually made an effort! I'll take some pictures of our lights this evening and post them. I put a little more effort into the inside of the house too and didn't keep 80% of the decorations boxed up like I did last year!

A couple of weeks ago we (Jerry, Andy and I) went to Delaware. We spent five days there. While Jerry was doing some work, Andy and I hung out. We had a great time - and got more exercise than I have in a LONG time! We walked to the mini golf course which isn't too far, but it's not exactly right next door to the trailer, either! It's part of the Sea Shell Shop and so we went shopping there too. Then of course on the way back we have to go right past a KFC and A&W restaurant, a Subway, and a Chinese restaurant. Might as well stop and get something for lunch, right?! Then about the third day I was feeling brave and took Dad's van out and Andy and I drove around a bit. We went down to the boardwalk and then walked on the beach. Unfortunately, everything is closed for the season, but it was a nice day for a walk anyway. Then we drove to one of the outlets and did some shopping. There's also a Salvation Army thrift store in Rehoboth that we went to. I was kind of surprised, though, because their prices seemed a little high to me. Andy got a desk chair there, though! He didn't have one and was always swiping a dining room chair to use at his desk in his room, then we'd have to haul it back out at dinner time. Got to be a pain, but we have been doing it for the last year since he got his computer last Christmas! So, we got a good deal on a desk chair, and no more furniture moving at dinner time. We'll probably be going back in a couple of weeks. Wonder what we'll get into then, now that I'm feeling braver about getting out and driving around (albeit not far, but I at least I ventured out!)

Now I'm going to go post pictures from yesterday. One of these days I'm going to remember to post the pictures first, so the writing will be on top, but not today!

Words of Wisdom

Don't sweat petty things,
and don't pet sweaty things.

Not a lot going on, but I wanted to update. We're just trying to keep up with schoolwork around here and I'm trying (really, I am) to get the clutter under control. So what did we do? Get more stuff from Jerry's aunt's house when his cousin was throwing it all out. *Sigh*

It seems there are never enough hours in the day. Back in the summer I created a website for Dad's new business and trying to keep that updated is a challenge, trying to find the time to do it. Then there's keeping up with my real jobs (gotta pay the bills, ya know), and last but not least, trying to edumacate my son. (Yes, I meant to write edumacate - please don't write to me about my lack of intelligence!).

Aunt Ruby passed away last week. A few months ago she was at a casino in Delaware with Uncle Bill when she collapsed. At the hospital in Dover they found a brain tumor. She was unresponsive and Uncle Bill had started making funeral plans. Then over the course of the week she started coming out of it and they thought there might be hope to treat the tumor. She got well enough to go home, but has been declining in the past few weeks. It turned out it wasn't just the brain tumor. She had lung cancer that had spread to her stomach, brain and bones, so there really wasn't anything they could do for her. Uncle Bill had throat cancer a number of years back and has a hole in his throat that he talks through. These things coupled with the reports that I type day in and day out about smoking-related illnesses and complications, really make me wish that Jerry would quit. I have lost track of the number of reports I have typed where people went in for simple surgeries; gallbladder, appendix - what should be simple procedures - and ended up on a respirator because their lungs just couldn't handle the anesthesia from the damage done by smoking. Grrrr.....I hate cigarettes.

Well, I guess I shouldn't be whining about not having enough time for stuff. I obviously found the time to write this, didn't I?! Now I'd better get busy doing something. Where to start.........

Here's Andy checking out the carnage.
Jerry does not look like a happy camper, does he?!
Jars, jars, and more jars!
The chipper from Hades.

I'm Baaaaaaack! (Like a favorite relative or a recurring boil, depending on how you see it!)

Yes, I'm back. I didn't actually go anywhere, just didn't make time to blog. But, I miss writing so I'll just have to make time for it. Now if I could just make time for exercise.........

Okay - some catching up. Jerry had an aunt and uncle who used to live in a brick house at the intersection of Route 2 & 258. His aunt (Edna) who lived there died two years ago, and his uncle (Jack) who lived there died last week. Also living there had been Jack's brother and one of Jack and Edna's sons, Larry, who is autistic. They have another son, Tom, who is married and living in Pennsylvania. When Jack died last week, Tom had to make some tough decisions. He decided to sell the house and use the proceeds to buy a house near him in Pennsylvania where Larry and Jack's brother could live. The problem was that the house needed to be cleaned out and put on the market - FAST. That wouldn't have been a problem except that Edna and Jack had been there since 1968 and, well, so has everything else in the house. The house was nearly bursting with STUFF. Jerry took his dump trailer and helped Tom clean stuff out a few days. They got two full trailer loads of stuff to go to the dump - and that's not counting the countless trips Tom made to the local landfill with a loaded pickup truck while Jerry was dumping his trailer. (The dump trailer had to be dumped at the landfill here near us - the one near the house wouldn't accept large loads like that). In the basement they found boxes and boxes of canning jars. Jack's brother used to have a produce stand at Wayson's Corner and so Edna never had a shortage of things to can. Jerry's mom told Jerry to take the jars home for me. Wow! I don't think I'll ever need to buy jars again. I love them! One of them was an old blue jar. I won't use that for canning - it looks too pretty on my table. Now I've found a produce auction in St. Mary's County that I hope I can get to before the end of October when it closes for the season. You have to buy in bulk, but that's okay. The local grocery stores buy their produce from there. There are BIG lots of things (like the huge cardboard boxes of watermelons you see in the stores in the summer) and then there are smaller lots which small shops and restaurants buy. That's more my size! Well, we'll see if I can make it there this season. If not, there's always spring. We're talking with Jerry's brother about another beef this year, and probably getting a hog from Amish people who raise them. It's nice having food that you know where it came from and what's in it - grain-fed and no antibiotics. No E. coli, either!

I am not a superstitious person, but Friday the 13th was definitely a bad day for Jerry. I don't know if I posted about this before or not, but a few months ago Jerry, his uncle, and another man went in together and bought a chipper for when they do tree jobs. To make a long story short, they got taken on the chipper, and it has been a total pain in the you-know-what, and has cost more to repair so far than what they paid for it. On a side note, right around the time that they bought this one, a chipper was stolen down the road from us. Jerry had his in the garage while he was fixing it and then painted it. We teased him that it looked highly suspicious that a chipper was stolen, then he got one that he had in the garage for a long time and then painted it!. Unfortunately, there's a bill of sale for Jerry's, and it came from Virginia. I say unfortunately because it's unfortunate that they actually paid money for this thing. Okay, back to the story.

Jerry was going to do a tree job yesterday and was sitting in his truck waiting at the meeting place for his uncle. He had picked up his cousin on the way. While the two of them were sitting in a parking lot at a convenience store waiting, a solid black cat climbed out of a storm drain and walked right in front of them across the parking lot. Jerry said he and his cousin looked at each other and his cousin remarked that this couldn't be a good sign. They laughed about it and Jerry said he didn't give it another thought. At the first job the chipper ran fine at first, but then the radiator started leaking. Luckily, they were finishing up so they didn't worry too much about it. Then they went to a second job and here the belts flew off, the radiator continued leaking, and it became obvious that the bearings in the power unit (which Jerry had meticulously replaced a month ago after having to order specialized parts and have them specially machined) were broken. They had just finished that job too, so they figured they would worry it about it later. While they were cleaning up after this job, the elderly man who owns the property where they were doing the tree work backed into the driveway - right into Jerry's new truck. How's that for a Friday the 13th? Jerry called me and told me about all of this shortly after the truck incident. I told him he needed to just come home, crawl in bed and call it a day. Actually, he probably should have done just that when the black cat crossed his path!

My Foray Into Vice

Okay, so the title is a bit dramatic! Actually, we went to Uncle Jim's and then after we left we decided to see what the Charlestown Races were like. None of us (Jerry's mom went with us) had ever been there before. I spent (and lost!) a total of $11.00, so I'm not too sad. I didn't want to spend any more than that. We had a great day yesterday. It was very nice seeing everyone again. The music was great and it was just a wonderfully relaxing day. Oh, and the food was plentiful and delicious!

Here's a one-arm bandit in the casino. I played $1.00, lost $1.00 and quit!
Here come the ponies! I bet 5 times, lost 5 times, and quit!
Sammie and Jo dancing to the bluegrass music. It was hard to sit still while the music was playing!
A great picture! From the left there is Jay who is cousin Lisa's husband, then Uncle Jim, then Lisa (trying to hide in the back!), Aunt Nancy, Michael (Faith was there too, but not in this picture) Dad, Betty who is Nick's wife, then Nick, who is Dad and Uncle Jim's cousin. Jonathan and Amy were there too, but not in this picture.
It was great seeing Dad, Nick and Betty having a good time. This is the only time they see each other.

And the band played on! (Actually, four bands played!)

Catching Up - Part II

Whew! Lots of stuff happening and not enough time to write about it. Andy and I started school last week. We haven't really started in earnest yet, just mostly reviewed what was coming up so we could start tomorrow for really.

Last week my computer bit the dust. It had been acting strangely for a while now and I had it in the back of my mind that one of these days I really should get a new one. One of these days happened before I was ready! It's a very long story about what it took to get up and running again so I could work (it involves voiding the warranty on the new computer and taking the hard drive out of the old one and putting it in the new one to get my stuff). I'm very glad that I know how to do that kind of stuff myself otherwise it probably would have cost big bucks. Anyway, it's my own fault, really. If I had just had a backup disk, I wouldn't have had to go through that. Yes, I know. Who doesn't make a backup of their stuff?! Well, ME! But I know better now.

I am feeling better and I think this stupid virus is finally on the run now. Actually I was feeling really well last week and then this whole computer mess happened and I think due to lack of sleep and stress, my throat got sore, my side swelled again, and all I wanted to do was sleep again. I recognized it trying to come back and made sure I took care of myself and things are just about back where they should be now. In researching this virus I learned that it can take four to six weeks to get over it and then it can come back for a while if you don't take care of yourself.

We made it through Ernesto okay. A couple of trees uprooted in the little patch of woods behind the house but they fell into the woods and not towards the yard or house. My nylon flag on the front of the house was tattered to shreds. When I looked out and saw the bottom part being shredded away, I meant to take the whole thing down to keep the flagpole from breaking, but I got busy doing something else and forgot about it. Well, it was a summer flag and it was time for a fall one anyway, right?
We were without power for only about a half hour but everyone on our street was out for most of the afternoon and night. The electricity for our house in particular is hooked up on the street behind us, whereas everyone else on our street has their electricity hooked up on our own street. It's strange to see everyone on our street out except us! My neighbor called and wanted to know how on earth we had so many lights on when the electricity was out! She thought we had massive amounts of candles!

I am looking forward to next Saturday. Uncle Jim is having his bluegrass get-together again this year and I am really looking forward to it. It was such a wonderfully relaxing day last year, and after these past couple of weeks, I'm ready to GO!

Catching Up

A little update - mostly in pictures! First of all, whatever virus I had is gone for the most part, but I know when I need to slow down because my side starts to swell again and I fall asleep wherever and whenever! Not a problem if I get enough rest, though.

I successfully sold all of Andy's stuff from last year and made enough to buy this year's stuff, which I did, and which we will be using tomorrow to start school. Andy is thrilled! That was sarcastic, in case you couldn't tell. Actually I did so well selling the stuff ($576.00 in a week - not too shabby!) that I'm going to list the rest of the clutter around here when I get the chance.

All four of us took a breather last Thursday and went to the Solomons pier to fish and crab. It was a lot of fun. We didn't catch any fish, and the crabs we caught (three!) were too small to keep. Oh, well. We had a very nice day together as a family. Andy has really been wanting crabs since then and we had told him that we would buy some very soon. Well, last night we were on our way to the grocery store and passed the man who usually sells crabs on the side of Route 4 - only this time his sign said "Free Crabs" . It took a minute to register what we read as we were going by at 55 mph, but Jerry did a U-turn at the light and we went back to check that out! Sure enough, the man was trying to close up for the night (it was 8:00) and was giving away the rest of that day's catch. He gave us 18 good-sized live male crabs. They were in a plastic bag and we listened to them rustle all the way home from Food Lion! They were steamed as soon as we got home and Andy could barely wait for them to cool before digging in. Can't beat free crabs!

Well, that's about it for now. More later when I'm not so tired...*YAWN*!

Can't beat free blue crabs!

A seagull taking it easy!