Mouse Story

We have mice in the basement.  Is that like bats in the belfry?  Anyway, the other night Jerry went downstairs to start the woodstove.  We had let it go out because the weather had gotten warmer for a few days.  He called upstairs for me to bring the cat downstairs quickly.  When I got down there with the cat, he told me that he had seen a mouse running back and forth across the floor.  We put the cat down on the floor and waited.  Of course, the mouse never made another appearance, the cat got bored and just wanted to be taken back upstairs.  Jerry set a trap but we didn't catch it that night.

Yesterday morning I went downstairs to fix the fire for the morning and the mouse ran out and watched me.  He (she?) just stood there and watched while I stirred the fire and put logs in it.  I stood there a while and we just stared at each other.  He was awfully cute, I must admit.  Just a tiny little brown thing.  Then it ran off.  I didn't see it again yesterday afternoon.

Last night I was downstairs putting logs on the fire again when Jerry came down and asked if I had checked the mouse trap.  I told him I hadn't yet, so he went over to it and told me that I might want to go upstairs if I didn't want to hear the ominous snap.  The mouse was actually on the trap, eating the cheese we had put there and the trap hadn't gone off yet.  Jerry stood there and waited while I went upstairs, not wanting to hear what would happen next.

Shortly afterwards Jerry came upstairs in disbelief.  He said the mouse had eaten some of the cheese off the trap while he was watching, and then ran off again.  Andy said that there are probably mouse friends hanging out down there and the one that dared to eat the cheese off the trap said to another mouse, "Hey Steve, watch me mess with this guy watching me!"

This morning I was sitting at my desk working when I heard it.  The ominous snap.  After I finished working I went downstairs to get the trap but when I got down there, there was a little brown mouse sitting right in front of the woodstove hearth just staring at me.  I laughed and told him that he somehow managed to get out of the trap again (yes, I talked to the mouse, and yes, he stood there and watched me!)  When I walked closer, he ran away.  I put logs in the woodstove and then went to look at the trap.  The trap was upside down and there was a very dead mouse in it.  So that confirms that we have a situation, apparently.  As cute as they are, I really can't be sharing my food with them, nor do I want them nesting in my belongings.  So the stats right now are us 1, them 0.  I guess the battle is on!

That's my mouse story for today.  Hope y'all have a happy (mouse-free) Saturday! 

Randomness on a Sunday!

I saw this ad today for a perishable manager.  I'm guessing this is a temporary position?!

Job details Posting Title Perishable Manager - Assistant Store Manager Job Category Operations Department Name Store Management P.S. - Is anyone else seeing white blocks in the text above or is it just me?  I copied the ad and they just appeared and I can't get rid of them.  And my font messed up and won't change.  Weird!

There's always one...

Well, that's depressing.....

I got off of the treadmill a little while ago and then signed onto iFit to check my stats.  Here's a screen shot of what came up.

Apparently, I have no goals.


They could make it a little friendlier by saying, "You have set no goals on iFit," but no.  Evidently you are supposed to sign on and immediately wonder at the futility of your life. 

Good Morning, Mr. Seagull!

As I was walking to my truck after shopping at Giant this morning, this is what I saw -

Now, Mr. Seagull, if you'll kindly get off of the top of my truck, I can load these groceries!

Well, there ya go.

Over to the right -----> is my Instagram feed.  So, it turns out that the pictures I took playing around with my phone and playing around with Instagram are all on there.  No matter how bad they are.  Well, except for the ones of my handsome hubby.  Don't he clean up nice?!  Spoken like a true redneck.  Actually, he was dressed for a somber occasion.  His uncle passed away last week and he was a pallbearer.  The service was very nice.  His uncle had fought in World War II and there were soldiers at the cemetery, and they folded the flag from his casket and gave it to Jerry's aunt.  It was a private cemetery, not a military one.  At the burial a soldier played Taps on a bugle.  As the last note of the bugle faded away in the thin, cold air at the cemetery, I don't think there was a dry eye anywhere.

As for the other pictures, it wasn't until AFTER I figured out Instagram that I discovered I couldn't turn the pictures around - so you see some sideways pictures of my garden before and after I cleaned it up a couple of weeks ago.  And a couple of snow pictures from when we had a meager snowfall. 

Then there are the rolls I made yesterday for our meatball subs which we had for dinner last night, and then the heart cookies that I made today.  The icing was a little funky but they turned out okay.

Now you're caught up with the explanations for my pictures.  You are welcome!

Three More Things

1.  I had to get a new phone.  My old one wouldn't stay charged for more than a few hours, and if I got a phone call, well, forget it.  It would just cut me off unceremoniously and not charge for hours.  I got an iPhone.  Oh my, how I love it.  How did I ever get along without all those games, and apps, and fun things?!

2.  Just as soon as I can get Instagram configured to work on my blog, you'll be seeing randomness at its best, compliments of me and my iPhone.

3.  I was wondering what Downton Abbey was about because I was seeing it everywhere.  Well.  Let's just say I'm hooked now.  Netflix has season 1 on instant view which I have now finished, and season 2 just arrived yesterday in disk form.  So, I'll see y'all later - got some Downton Abbey to watch!

Five Things

1.  I am typing this on my new computer.  Andy built one for me and gave it to me for Christmas.  For two months before Christmas he was asking me questions about what programs I needed for work, what features did I like about my old computer, and what I thought were random, and sometimes strange, questions.  Now I know why - he was customizing my new one as he was building it so it would be just for me!  I love it.  So much better than my old dinosaur.

2.  IFit changed their web site.  I do not like it.  No, I do not like it AT ALL.  It's hard to navigate, and when they first changed it, it had some hiccups.  And that's putting it nicely.  After time on the treadmill one afternoon, the results according to the treadmill were that I had gone 4 miles and burned 500 calories.  When I signed onto iFit afterwards, iFit said that I had gone only 3 miles, and burned 6 calories.  A whole 6 calories.  In 3 miles.  Andy said the only way that could be possible is if I walked very, very slowly and ate the entire time I was on the treadmill.

3.  Where is the snow?  We had a little of it but not enough.  More snow, please.

4.  My work is beginning to bite.  I love what I do and I love this profession I chose 26 years ago, but so much has changed.  So much of the work is going overseas where it is being done more cheaply, leaving the work scarce here in this country.  My pay was cut yet again last week, and I have hardly  had any work since the holidays.  *Sigh*

5.  To go with #4, you'd think I would have posted more, what with all that time on my hands......!

Back again.

Days go by so fast.  What I think will just be a couple of days off from blogging somehow turn into months.  And if I didn't have friends and family who complain about being tired of seeing my last post, who knows when I'd get around to updating?! 

So, here's a short recap since you last heard from me. 

We had a great Thanksgiving, as usual.  This year I didn't brine and smoke the turkey, though.  Jerry got an infrared cooker and we cooked the turkey in that.  It turned out so well that I might not brine/smoke next year's turkey either.  It was like deep fried, only without the oil.  It was browned and crispy all the way around, because it cooks standing up.  We are cooking a roast in it tomorrow.  That should be really good, too. 

Christmas is upon us once more.  I only have one more thing to get and I will pick that up on Monday when I do my regular weekly grocery shopping.  Other than that, my shopping is officially finished. 

We have been battling colds here in our house.  Two weeks ago I had one.  Then I got better and last week Jerry got it.  Now Jerry's getting better and Andy has started with it, and I have it back again.  Full circle.  Oy.  I hope to be better by Sunday when we have our official family Christmas gathering at my sister's.  With enough Dayquil I should be able to conquer the world.  Well, at least that's what it feels like until it starts to wear off. 

A couple of weeks ago we went to IHOP to do our annual family name-drawing.  It was fun, as usual.  Here are a few pictures that I took.  Tom took a couple of pictures and I'm sure they turned out better than mine, but these will have to do until I remember to ask him for them. 

 From left to right, Sherri, Mike, Paul, Alyssa and Mom.

 From left to right, Marian, Mike Linda, Collin, Matthew.  Can't see Aaron!

 From left to right, Andy, Tom and half of Jerry.  You can partly see Jerry's mom behind Andy. 

Mom and Paul.












Well, there's my short and sorry update.  Happy Friday to you all!

My Owl. And Body Wash.

There was an owl figurine in my great uncle's stuff that was cleaned out of his house.  It was truly kitschy.  It was painted in excruciating detail and in an ugly brown, and he was a little scary.  His eyes were scary and it just looked plain unfriendly.  But I liked the shape of the owl, and I like owls in general, so after staring at him and trying to decide what his fate should be, I decided to paint him.  I bought a can of white enamel spray paint at Home Depot for $1.00 and asked Jerry to spray paint him for me  I tend to make a mess spray painting and he is much better at that than me.  I really like how my owl turned out.  He now has a place of honor on my shelf.  Jerry just shook his head and Andy laughed, but I don't care.  I like my owl very much now!  Hmmm.....what else can I spray paint.......

I went to the store yesterday and in doing a coupon deal I was buying two Dove Men's Body Washes.  When I saw them on the shelf they were in big square plastic boxes with a little lock thing on the bottom of the box.  Not knowing what I should do with this, I just put them in the cart and decided I'd ask at checkout.  At checkout I was told that they were security boxes and that they had to be unlocked and removed when you paid for them.  They said they had been  having a problem with theft of body washes.  I couldn't believe it.  Body wash?  Really?!  If you were going to steal something, would you pick body wash, of all things?!

Cookies are done, and other miscellany.

I actually made these last week, but I'm just getting around to posting the pictures.  They look pretty sad color-wise in the pictures.  They are actually orange and the dots that look blue are actually green.  My photography skills could be better!  I had fun making my funky leaf cookies.  And who doesn't like polka dots?! 

In other news, my treadmill was fixed.  They sent me the reprogramming module but that didn't do anything, and then an error code came up on the console.  When I called them to tell them about that, the lady had me do a very strange thing.  She said she would stay on the phone with me and wanted me to plug in the treadmill and turn it on, and then push EVERY SINGLE BUTTON on the console, one at a time.  I had no idea how many buttons there were on there until I had to push EVERY SINGLE BUTTON.  When I told her I had finished, she told me to insert the key and lo and behold, it was completely back to normal. 

So, potentially, I could have fixed the thing a week ago, had I known that pushing EVERY SINGLE BUTTON would have fixed it.  But I didn't, so that's that, and now it's fixed, and I'm very glad.  I must say that although I read not so good reviews about NordicTrack's customer service, I am very pleased with them.  Each time I had to call them they were extremely helpful and very pleasant to talk to.  And my call didn't go overseas somewhere, either. 

I am having a lovely Monday, and I hope you are too.  We are having nice weather.  We let the woodstove go out Saturday, but I think by the end of the week we'll be needing it again. 

Oh, and I almost forgot - remember that $100.00 rebate on our washer that I wrote about here (and wasn't holding my breath waiting for)?  Well, it came Saturday.  Yeah, we couldn't believe it either.  That was just icing on the cake for me for Saturday.  Jerry and I went to a couple of yard sales on Saturday morning and had a great time.  I'll tell you about my finds in a future post.  Right now I'd better get back to work - gotta finance future yard sales, ya know!

Happy Monday, my peeps :)

Worship Wednesday

Let the Freezing Begin!

No, not for winter - although I'm looking forward to that and hoping for massive snowfall this year, but what I meant was filling my new freezer.  We put one on layaway at Sears when we got our washing machine, and Jerry picked it up yesterday.  You know it doesn't take much to excite me, but I really missed my big freezer.  My grocery deals had to be cut back a lot because of lack of freezer space.  Last year I did a deal on Ore Ida Easy Fries (the single serve boxes of french fries) where they ended up being free, and I got 90 boxes to put in the freezer.  No, that's not a typo.  And yes, I 'm aware I have a problem.  Anyway, recently the deal rolled around again (slightly different, came to 1 cent a box) and I was only able to get 12 boxes (total was 12 cents) because I didn't have freezer space for any more.  So, let the freezing begin!

In other news, I have been a total sloth this week.  Jerry is home now, and we have been acting like we're on vacation.  I had a loose schedule to begin with, but any schedule at all has been out the window.  I had been going to bed around 9-10 at night and getting up around 5-6.  Not this week.  This week we have been staying up until ridiculous hours watching Lost on Netflix and then sleeping in until 8-9 in the morning.  Sloths, I tell ya.

Jerry is doing tree work today, though, so he was up and out very early, so I got an early start.  It always amazes me what I can manage to get done before 10:00 AM when I get up at a decent time!   So far this morning (it is 9:30 now) I have had my devotional bible reading time, done two loads of laundry, hung one out on the line, cleaned the kitchen from the 11:00 PM batch of cookie dough I made last night, did half a day's work, and am currently eating my breakfast of oatmeal while I write this.  Two days ago I was still in bed at this time.  Sloths, I tell ya.

Jerry had an incident yesterday.  He was taking his trailer to his mom's house where he is putting vinyl windows in her screened porch when a lady backed out of a driveway right into the side of his trailer.  He saw her starting to back out of her driveway and swerved around the back of her van, but then after his truck got around, she went ahead and backed out and hit the side of his trailer as it was going by.  The worst part is that it is a rental car and when Jerry went to the rental place for them to assess the damage, they told him that only the rental car was covered and that the lady did not take out any liability insurance to cover anything she might hit.  Then they told him that the lady who was driving the car wasn't even the one who had rented the car to begin with.

At the scene Jerry thought there might be a problem because there was a lady who was a passenger in the van who got rather mouthy with Jerry and told Jerry just to fix the damage himself and they were just going to tell the rental place that they hit a mailbox, and that there was no need to call the police or anything.  The lady kept telling Jerry that they had somewhere to be at noon and he was holding them up.  Then the lady started getting nasty with Jerry, so Jerry told her that she had completely annoyed him and he was going to call the police and let them come and write a report, and she had better just call whoever and tell them she wouldn't be there at noon. 

This lady wasn't even the driver - Jerry said the lady driving was actually pretty quiet and polite to him.  It was her mouthy friend in the passenger seat.  Jerry said when the policeman came the mouthy lady started pointing at Jerry and loudly saying that Jerry was flying down the road (which he wasn't - we know there are police there all the time, and we both do the speed limit through there).  The policeman told the woman that he didn't care how fast Jerry was going - the fact was that they backed out of a driveway right into him, so they were at fault.  The side of his trailer is dented and the fender above the wheel is pulled up, and his light is knocked out.  We'll find out Monday what's going on when he calls our insurance agent back to let them know what the rental car place had to say. 

Well, my oatmeal is finished now and I'm gonna get to those cookies (making them, not eating them!)  I had started making the cookie dough last night when Jerry went outside to try to rig his trailer lights to work, so that he could take it on the road today.  He needed help outside so I left the dough half finished and went to help, and then the neighbor came over and started talking, and the next thing we knew it was 11:00 and I still had cookie dough to finish making.  I'm making my fall leaf cookies.  I make them every year.  I'm trying a new cinnamon spice recipe this year instead of my usual sugar cookie recipe.  I figured I'd better get them made before there are no more leaves on the trees!  I am seriously behind in making them this year.  Sloths, I tell ya!

Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday :)

Worship Wednesday - With Words

There is no music for this Worship Wednesday.  Instead, I want to share why I'm putting worship music here on Wednesdays.  I realize that putting my faith out there is taking a risk.  Speaking about your beliefs does not fit in with what the world thinks, and Christian music is definitely not in the mainstream of what the world listens to.  We are called to live differently, to be in this world, but not live as the rest of the world does.  I believe there is power in prayer, and power in praise.  Praising Him with music is as pleasing to Him as our prayers.  I also believe this verse:

If a person is ashamed of me and of my teaching in this godless and wicked day, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.   Mark 8:38

If putting praise music on my blog can reach even one person - just one - then I will be glad.  In my statistics I can see how many people read various posts.  I don't know who you are, just numbers of posts read and country.  I wasn't really surprised to see that the number of people clicking on the music videos was significantly less than other posts, and that's okay.  If just one person gets inspiration, or feels moved by the music, then I will be happy.  I think it's sad when a country song can have lyrics such as "5-1-5-0, somebody call the po-po", (and much worse lyrics, but I won't put them here!) and make millions and fill stadiums, but put the word "Jesus" in a song and people tune out! 

I don't go door to door sharing my faith, but this is my little corner of the world and this is the forum that I have, so I will use it for His glory and to further his kingdom when I can.


Climbing down off my soapbox now!

In case anyone is wondering, Hurricane Sandy really didn't wreak much havoc here on us.  We lost electricity for about three hours and that was it.  A lot of rain and some wind gusts, but no trees down at all.   I'm glad my family fared well, also. 

Now I'd better get back to work - since we have electricity, I don't have a good excuse not to work!

Happy Wednesday, y'all!

I Lost My Groove!

The Emperor's New Groove is one of my favorite movies.  And, like the emperor, my groove has been thrown off.  Not by an elderly peasant, but by my treadmill.  It started acting weird and turns out that I need a new programming module which is on its way to me now.

 I hadn't realized how much it had become a part of my daily routine, but not having it feels very strange, and my days are thrown off this week.  I did go check it a few minutes ago, just to see if it might behave for a while, and it did, so I might sneak downstairs and try to get a quick run in before it acts up again!  Shhhhhh.......don't tell.  I'm not supposed to use it until the new part comes in - but my groove, y'all.....

Stuff

Can't believe it's Thursday already and I'm just getting around to writing.  This past weekend was busy, but a lot of fun.  Jerry's mom, Andy and I went to Ocean City to clean the house there.  We only had Saturday and Sunday to clean, so we really put everything into it.  Last week I had gotten us a room at the Carousel to stay in Saturday night.  I didn't want to lose the cleaning time driving back and forth to Rehoboth (about 40-45 minutes each way) to stay there.  We worked hard but got it done in record time.  We left Sunday afternoon at about 3:30. 

We were exhausted Saturday night.  I woke up once during the night and could hardly move.  I was sore all over.  But before we collapsed into bed, Jerry, Andy and I walked to the beach at the hotel.  It was beautiful.  I just love watching the ocean waves roar in and crash on the shore.  It just makes me feel so small to be standing there.  I could have stayed there a long time, but it was getting chilly and we were really tired. 

There were only three other people on the beach (it was about 8:30 at night).  While we were there a man came walking over and told us that he was going in the ocean, and asked if we would rescue him if something happened to him.  I told him that I really wasn't a swimmer, but he said that as long as he was staying at hotel on the ocean, he intended to go in the ocean; otherwise he has wasted his ocean-side hotel stay!  So, he went in and waded a ways out.  Finally he turned around and came back in and informed us that it was pretty cold!  He thanked us and went on back to the hotel.  I guess that's why people climb mountains, right?  Because they are there.  And this guy was going to go into the ocean because it was there.  But we're glad we didn't have to go in after him!

Well, there's more to write about, but right now I need to get to work!  Have a good Thursday, everyone!

Worship Wednesday

Thrilled!

I am short.  And curvy.  And when I find a pair of jeans that fits my, um, curves, they are inevitably too long.  I have hemmed jeans in the past, but have never really liked the results.  I am so thrilled to have found this tutorial on hemming jeans.  I tried it today, and it really works!  The lady whose blog this is on is super talented anyway, but now she has made my life so much easier.  Hemming these only took about half an hour, and I'd never done this before.  I love how they turned out.  At the top of the picture is one leg with the rolled up end, with the original hem..  At the bottom is the finished hem, still with the original hem at the bottom.  No more too-long jeans for me because I was too lazy to hem them!  Yay!   

Worship Wednesday

What Was I Thinking?

Well, I did it.  I decided to try a 10K this time.  There are both 5K and 10K competitions on iFit, but I've never tried the 10K before.  Too scary!  Well, I decided if I could slog through a 5K, I could give this a try.  My legs felt wobbly when I finished, but I finished!  I also did the 5K competition last week.  As of right now my standing is #125 out of 138 for the 5K and #38 out of 39 for the 10K.  Not last, but close!