"Looking Upward" Photo Challenge

Our Hostess, Miz Joan, chose "Looking Upward" for our photo challenge this time round. I didn't get out much this past week, I'm a WIMP when it's cold, but when we were coming home from Little Rock on Tuesday we passed a field full of snow geese when we neared home so I took a couple of shots as they were flying in to land.

When I saw the topic my first thought for challenge photos was BIRDS. I love birds and I take a lot of photos of the regulars that live and nest in the trees in my yard. Other than the snow geese, all of the rest of my photos were taken last April of my Bird Crew. The Mocking birds are so used to me that they let me get fairly close (except for their nests,,,then they try to flog me to death if I get too close).

Anyway, I won't rattle on, but I hope you like my bird buds.















Don't forget to check out the other challengers over at our Challenge Blog. Just click on each comment and it'll take you to each site so you can see all of the wonderful creations.

Don't Forget the Photo Challenge Tomorrow!

Miz Joan over at Joan's Journeys is our Hostess for this round and she chose "Looking Upward" for this challenge. Go on over to the challenge Blog that Miz Donna set up for us and follow the directions to leave a comment, post your pictures, and join in. We love company!

Grab that camera, shoot, and have fun!

Happy Birthday Trisha!

Did Jordan and Jaylen make you a cake? I hope your card arrives on time.

Here Comes Grandma! Lock up the Pepto-Bismol !

After I dropped Zach off at the college for his Tae Kwon Do class, I drove on down the road a ways to the grocery store to pick up a few things. As I wandered around, up one aisle and down another, I noticed a very tiny, very old, woman going all over the store followed by her disabled, adult, son.

She was darting everywhere; moving a hell of a lot faster than I was; so I never caught up with her to see if she needed help finding what it was she was looking for. I had been looking for 3 of my items and couldn't find a soul to help so I figured she was having the same sort of luck.

When I got up to the check out lane I noticed her standing over at a counter where they kept the OTC medicines and other things of that sort. She kept asking why there wasn't anyone there to wait on her, the checkers who were only a few feet away kept checking and completely ignoring the poor little lady.

Suddenly the checker, and the bagger, and another bagger who was gossiping with the first two, sort of gasped and said, "Ma'am, you can't go back behind the counter!" The son said, "My Momma needs some Pepto." The checker replied with, "Well, she can't go back there, she has to wait until someone comes to get it for her."

I told the checker, "Well, it's apparent to me that she's plenty old enough to get it herself and she's been waiting since before you started checking my groceries. It's not a controlled substance you know; in fact, I don't see anything back there that is a controlled substance. If you're going to make people have to ASK for Pepto, rubbing alcohol, and bandaids, then you should keep someone back there at all times, don't you think?"

The young lady and her two baggers (neither of which took my groceries out I might add), looked at me as though I'd lost my mind. So, as I handed the girl my check I said, "When I get that old, I'm not going to follow your danged rules either. I'm not going to wait around on my Pepto."

And people wonder why we get crankier as we age.

Beans Update

I went with Jerri to take Beans to see a doctor at Arkansas Children' s Hospital yesterday and I must say, that child acted like a little angel the whole day! She's the little mischief Queen but she held the urges in check and cooperated every step of the way. It made her Momma and Nanaw proud.

Resident and Surgeon prodded and poked on her for what seemed like forever but she never whined, only winked at her Momma whenever she was feeling nervous. After their exams it was decided that she has what appears to be a cyst. Since it is almost directly under the nipple of her left breast, and has grown larger over the last few weeks, and hasn't responded to treatment, they're going to remove it on January 30th. Alexis has an appointment with an ENT specialist on the 29th (she keeps tonsillitis and ear infections) so they'll go up then and stay overnight to be there early for Bean's procedure the next day. That part worked out well.

I think everything is going to be ok.

Grandpuppies

Jami's little dog (I've forgotten the breed but she's so ugly she's cute), Molly, had 7 little puppies right after Christmas. She stopped by today with Molly and her litter on her way to visit the Vet. These little fat critters are draining their momma and making her sick, so even though they're just over 3 weeks old, the Vet told Jami she's going to have to try to get them to eat some puppy food to give their Momma a break. She called just a bit ago to tell me the little beggars are learning real quick.

Isn't that a cute pile of puppies?

Weekend at a glance

Zach's birthday celebration was nice. James and Bubbie threw on the steaks while I finished up the twice baked potatoes and Caesar salad. I made the cake from a mix (I've been known to even mess that up; Martha Stewart I ain't) and it turned out great. Zach loves cherries so I topped his cake with cherries and drizzled chocolate over them. His mom and two of his sisters didn't come by for ice cream and cake because the youngest sister has tonsilitis with fever, but he had his friend Michael over, and Jessie from next door came. His sister MeriKate came with Alexis and Jillian.

After everyone was full of supper and ice cream and cake, we played Phase Ten. The babies were tired after that game so everyone went home except for Michael, who spent the night. I think the boys played Guitar Hero a LOT.

Today I stayed in bed until almost 9, did a load of laundry, threw a roast in the crockpot, and then worked all afternoon finishing up the reposting of the last company's information that was lost in the crash. Now I'm all ready for the tax season to begin, except that I'm still waiting for the state part of my tax program to be available.

Tomorrow is a holiday and I plan to sleep until I wake up on my own since Zach is out of school. I'm going to try to gather up some energy to get a few chores done and then maybe Zach and I will have time to play a game of phase 10 dice before time to cook supper.

On Tuesday I'm going with Jerri to Little Rock to take Beans for an appointment at the Arkansas Children's Hospital to check out the little lump in her "boom". James told us that he'll come home from work early enough so that he can be here when the school bus comes to discharge Alexis and Zach. Hopefully we'll be back in time for me to take Zach to Tae Kwon Do.

I'm in a little better frame of mind since the temps have risen above freezing during the daylight hours.

I don't think I'd be a very happy Eskimo.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Birthday Zach!

Can you believe the Terrorist was 6 when I began this blogging adventure? He's 12 today!

Time sure does fly.

He got Guitar Hero for his playstation 2, wants steak for supper, and chocolate cake. Gotta get busy.

Happy Birthday Zach!

Makes Sense to Me!

Ever since I was a child, I've always had a fear
of someone being under my
bed at night so I went to a shrink and told him:
"I've got problems. Every
time I go to bed I think there's somebody under
it. I'm scared. I think
I'm going crazy."

"Just put yourself in my hands for one
year," said the shrink. "Come talk
to me three times a week and we should be able to get
rid of those fears."

"How much do you charge?"

"Eighty dollars per visit," replied the doctor.

"I'll sleep on it," I said.

Six months later the doctor saw me on the street.
"Why didn't you come to
see me about those fears you were having?" he asked.

"Well, eighty bucks a visit three times a week
for a year is an awful lot of money! A bartender
cured me for $10. I was so happy to
have saved all that money
that I went and bought me a new car!"

"Is that so!" with a bit of an attitude he
said. "And how, may I ask, did a
bartender cure you?"

"He told me to cut the legs off the bed!
Ain't nobody under there now!"

SCREW THOSE SHRINKS.. GO HAVE A DRINK AND TALK TO THE
BARTENDER!

Random Tag

Alexis, Jillian, and Abby (by Jerri)

This tag from Miz Joni at Morning Coffee required me to post the 4th picture in the 4th folder of my picture files.

But I can't do that cause of the puter crash and I have a newly started picture file that only has 2 folders in it. So, I decided just to post the 4th picture in My Picture file. It's a photo taken by Jerri of 3 of our babies.

I hope everyone is staying warm today! We're having a blast of arctic breezes and I'm not liking it even one little bit!

Quickie Sunrise

I caught a glimpse of the sunrise peeking through the trees this morning and picked up my camera to record the glowing beauty of it. It only lasted for a few short minutes before clouds rolled in and turned everything to a winter gray.

Since December 22nd I've been joyfully watching as the hours of daylight increase a little each day. Today will be 1 minute and 25 seconds longer than yesterday and I hope I don't waste a second of it.

Wanna See My Boo-Boo?

We went out to dinner with my son and his wife, Jerri, last night to celebrate my son's 29th birthday. During one of the times our very attentive waitress came by to check on us, she asked the Chick (aka Alexis) why she wasn't eating much so we told her that the poor babe had tonsillitis. The young lady was very sympathetic and Beans, not aiming to be left out of any sympathy being handed out, suddenly sat up straight in her chair and lifted her shirt to show off the little bump she has on her "boom".

We were laughing so hard after that it was hard to eat. This child has no modesty a'tall.

The Chick may be getting her tonsils taken out cause this is the second time in about 6 weeks that she's been ill because of them. They're also going to make an appointment for Beans at the childrens hospital in LR to remove the cyst or abscess (they're not sure which) that has come up behind the nipple of her little left "boom".

***

Jerri told us another Beans story earlier yesterday. They were up at the Prison where my son has to live when he's on duty and he came home from work with cuts and scratches and dried blood on his face and neck. Beans wanted to know where he got his boo-boos so my son told her the he'd been running a track with the search dogs and got into a fight with a SaskWatch.

Beans tells her pre-school class all about the encounter when she went to school the next day.
Her teachers couldn't wait for Jerri to arrive to pick her up from school so they could find out all the details, cause what our Beans told them was,

"Daddy took the dogs out on a sound track with the inmates and a squwsh-squwsh fought him and cut him."

I think our kids keep their teachers as entertained as they do us!

I'd Run Away but They'd Find Me!

Each weekday morning at around 6:45 during the school year, I hear my youngest daughter's car as she comes flying from a northerly direction on the gravel road that leads to my house. Seconds later I hear the slamming of car doors and then my morning head is bombarded with little girl noises.

These are mostly argumentative noises because one of them got the other one's jacket, or purse, or lip gloss, or for no rational reason at all, but quite often there are also crying or whining noises for most of the same reasons that I've already mentioned. These are the first noises that vibrate through my sleep muddled brain before they've even reached the porch.

The noises become much, much, louder as these three girls come slamming, tumbling, tripping, through the front door and the noise registers through my brain fog as being somewhat like the screeching sound of nails down a chalk board, or the irritating buzzing noise a fly makes in your ear when you're trying to take a nap, only multiplied by a thousand or so. The noise level increases a few more levels if one, or more, of them dares to make a remark to the Terrorist, who pretty much has the same bed head every morning as I do. They taunt, he retaliates, then the fight is on.

Some days I threaten, or beg, as I inspect them to see if they've each remembered to brush their hair, or brush their teeth, but sometimes I just can't deal with the noise or the inspections so I grab my cup of coffee, a cigarette, and hide away in my office, and try to close my ears to the sounds, the noises, until the school bus comes to pick up the noise makers.

Sometimes I want to change my identity from Momma, and Nanaw and escape to some far off place where no one knows me. Then I think, I wouldn't know who I was anymore, so I guess my identity, as it is now, is better than having none.

Pooped

I am tired. I sure hope I can go to sleep tonight. The best sleep I got last night was the hour or two before it was time to get up to get the Terrorist fed and ready for school this morning. I sure am glad tomorrow's Friday cause that means I can sleep until I wake up the next day.

I get so cranky when I'm this tired.

Photo Challenge, Anything New

Some pieces of the teeny, tiny, tea sets that I got for Christmas. I only recently started collected the little tea sets. I also collect hummingbirds. You'd think that I liked to dust; but I don't. :-)

Can't wait to see all the other NEW things for this Challenge. Thank you Laura Belle for being our hostess for this challenge!

Reminder!

Just a little reminder of the Photo Challenge tomorrow. LauraBell is our Hostess for this challenge and she chose "Anything New" as our challenge topic. If you'd like to join us just click over to our Photo Challenge Blog and follow the directions to comment.

Have Fun!

Could have been nasty

The weather bullet missed us but not before it put a glaze of ice on the trees and bushes. The photo above is of the cedar tree in my front yard. His limbs are heavy and drooping this morning, but I don't think any of them are broken so he'll fluff back out as soon as all the ice melts (hopefully today). James and the neighbor were talking about my "ugly" cedar tree and how if the ice did a lot of damage they would cut it down. I promised to take potshots of them with the BB gun if they even imagined they'd cut down my tree! I've been growing that tree for almost 17 years! That tree blocks the afternoon sun from reaching my front door in the summer, and provides a little bit of protection from the dust clouds every time a vehicle goes down the road. If they mess with my tree they'll be limping!



Here's how the plum tree looked about mid-afternoon yesterday. I didn't notice any broken limbs on it either so all is well for now. I hope we don't get any major ice storms this winter, I'd hate to lose any of our trees!

A Bath! Finally!

We've been having some cold days here and there, and on cold days my favorite thing to do is take a nice, hot, bubbly, bath. I've been taking showers for over a week now cause my back was paining me so, but this evening, I poured in the bath soak, filled the tub with hot water, gathered all my tools, and eased down into the tub.

Oh yeahhhh, it was mighty fine!


I was also able to do some much needed body grooming while I was enjoying my soak. I only have about 3 hairs that grow on each leg, but those had grown to a length suitable for braiding so I knew it was time to hack them off.

The work on my heels took a bit longer. I rubbed, and rubbed, with my little foot file thingy, and was beginning to think that I should have brought James's rechargeable drill into the tub with me. I bet that rotary tool bit would have made short work of those callouses.

Isn't a hot bubble bath the most wonderful luxury in the world?

Moseying

- to move in a leisurely or aimless manner : saunter

That's what I've been doing. I'm way behind on my chores but I really don't care cause my back is feeling better every day. I have a bulging disk that presses on a nerve sometimes, this causes me to unconsciously compensate for it, which leads to the muscle spasms.

All I did was bend over to get one load of laundry out of the dryer and put myself in a load of misery.

I have an ongoing prescription for cyclobenzaprine from the doctor (cause I do this a couple times a year; you'd think I'd learn!) so I've been taking one of those every 8 hours for the past week to try to get the muscle to settle down. I can't tolerate pain meds or strong muscle relaxers very well so it's a low dosage. I surely don't need anything that messes with my, already muddled, brain.

In other words, I don't need meds to make me do stupid stuff, I do enough of that drug free.

For instance; on Saturday after I'd visited for a little while with Trish, Jordan, and Jaylen, I stopped at the grocery to hobble in to pick up something for supper.
I'd forgotten about the shotgun laying in the back seat that my son had borrowed from his dad and had put in there 10 minutes prior, so the dude that carried out my groceries was a little nervous when he opened the door and saw that. I told him not to worry, it wasn't loaded, but then he noticed the tae kwon do sword laying in the floorboard and asked me if I thought I had enough protection.

I felt a little like Ma Baker as I drove home. All I was lacking was a machine gun and little cigar.

Grumpy Start to the New Year

My back is better today than yesterday so I hope one more night of muscle relaxers (and maybe one more day)and the heat pad, I'll be able to walk upright and not groan in agony with every step.

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone best wishes for the New Year a little early cause we'll having some of the kiddies tomorrow night and we'll probably be a little busy playing.

I'm having some powerful hurtin' pains from muscle spasms in my back too, so that's going to put a damper on the amount of time that I can sit in this office chair for a day or two. Y'all have fun ringing in the new year where ever you are. I'll be thinking about you.

Looking back on 2008

January musings

I think if I could go back to just one place in time it would be as a child in Grandma's kitchen, maybe sitting at the table with her and Grandpa, a bowl of her hot cornbread covered in cold buttermilk sitting in front of us.

***

I want "CheneyCare", I already pay for what he has, is my life not worth the same?

***

Then it hit me, I was the only adult left at home and I was surrounded by 7 children, one of which(Christopher)was still in diapers.

And they hadn't left any diapers!

February

Alexis went into the kitchen the other day to tell Jerri that "Jillian is in the bathroom and has the scissors and she's cutting up your jasposotories.

I'll let ya'll interpret that one.

March madness

Spring Break zoo trip.

***

On March 7th, Old Man Winter thumbed his nose at us by dumping 7 inches of snow on our daffodils.

April

The first Brenda Photo Challenge, Signs of Spring.

***

Sincere Prayer, Brenda style.

May

There's a moral in here.

***

My Ya-Ya passed on.

June

Orange Photo Challenge

July

Terri's birthday parade.

August

The Golly Monster.

***

Jerri was making pumpkin bread the other morning and Beans walked into the kitchen and said,

"Ok Ma'am, you're safe now. I locked the tiger in the cage."

September

My best moon shot.

October

Photo Challenge, Old

November

A new President was elected and new era in history arrived. We got the stunning news that hubby's job would end in January.

December

The month brought news of a new job for hubby and a wonderful holiday.


Each of the entries above is a link to the post it came from in case you want to go have a look.

One door closes and another opens, life is like that sometimes. It sure can give you heart stopping moments though.

I hope everyone is looking forward to 2009 with curiosity and hope!

Another Laid Back Day

We've had two days of 73 degree temps but a cold front is coming through tonight so the high tomorrow will only be about 57. It's been really, really, warm for December in Arkansas.

I packed up the Christmas tree and the majority of the decorations today. After looking around I can see that I missed a few so I'll have to put them away tomorrow. I've also done some laundry, and washed several sinks full of dishes, that seem to magically appear. I must remember to get a supply of paper plates or else I'll have dishpan hands in addition to them being all old and wrinkled already.

I'm almost cross-eyed from posting a couple of months of accounts for one of my clients. Maybe I'll get my rear in gear and get that company caught up tomorrow.

Tonight we played a game of Phase Ten with Zach. We taught him how to play rummy a couple of nights ago; he catches on pretty quick.

Ok folks, I'm slowing fading here so I think I'll get my book and climb into my nice, soft, bed to read awhile.

Sweet dreams!

HoHo's Been and Gone

That little fat man in the red suit didn't pick up the mess or vacuum the floor before he flew off on his sleigh; I'm going to have to add a P.S. to his thank you note I reckon.

Nanaw is tired.

But I had a little nap this afternoon so that helped.

We ate too much, but it was all good cause we sure had some mighty fine vittles to put on the table. We had the normal run of conversations during our extended family holiday gathering over at his Mom's last evening,,,,

Which family member/members probably hits the pain pills and/or bottle a little too much,

Who had the snippiest, snappiest, temperament of the day,

Who went to jail for loitering,,,,,

and so on.

At our house today we had our usual family holiday dinner discussion about the West Memphis 3 and whether or not they deserve a new trial (the number of those for and those against changed somewhat this year). We then progressed to my son's revelations about the corrections officer/Reverend that he torments with his views on religion and riches on a regular basis. This then led to a discussion (and I do not remember how?) about whether animals commit sins. Other topics were discussed but none were so interesting as the first 3.

Yep, we tend to branch out with intense conversational topics in this family; we do indeed.

I think the babies were as happy as tired babies can be with what Santa brought them. I reckon they'll be busy playing, for at least a few days, with all their contraband.

Trish, Jordan, and Jaylen are supposed to be here next weekend so I hope to have some photos of them then.

I hope everyone had a wonderful day!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

I hope Santa comes to visit each and every one of you! Don't forget to remember your blessings to honor Jesus on His Birthday!

Smiling

Paint me Smiling cause there's a better than average chance that James has a new job starting the day after this one officially ends. Once the farmer who's planning to rent the land signs the lease, he'll be managing some of the same acreage that he was previously. And the good news is that there won't be much, if any, change in salary. He spent 3 hours with the guy today and he's supposed to come next week also, so maybe I'll actually get more than one or two good night's sleep a week now. He might also give me a little work to do from home too, won't that be nice? I'm afraid to be too excited until everything is final, but I sure am feeling better right now.

I want to thank you all for your prayers because I know for certain that God was listening and answering them. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful friends.




Jerri came by this afternoon to have a cup of coffee with me. She wasn't in a very good mood but she had me laughing so hard at one point that I think she ended up feeling a bit better afterwards too.

She said she'd gone to one of the dollar stores in town, thinking it would be quicker to run in there to get laundry detergent and a couple other things she needed. After spending 3 times more time in line than normal because of some rude folks who'd broken in line in front of her, she was about to bite nails when she finally got out of there.

She pulled out of the, nearly empty, parking lot and a young punk was strolling across in front of her, blocking her way out. She waited,,,he slowed,,, while staring right into her eyes,,, smirked and walked even slower. She waited,,,he kept staring, barely moving, until finally her PMS took over. She yelled at him to stop being ignorant and get out of the way, told him he didn't intimidate her so he needed to act like he had some sense and get on to where he was going. The punk started yelling and threatening her as he finally moved, and as she was passing him to stop before pulling out into traffic, he leaned down and picked something up to throw at her. Jerri had her finger on speed dial for the police department when she noticed that he'd picked up an empty paper cup. Then when he threw it, the wind caught it and it flew back into his face. She said by this time she was laughing which made the punk even madder. He was still yelling when she pulled out of the lot.

"I guess it was a good thing he didn't have a gun but" as she said, "I had PMS, a 3 yr old, and a 5 yr old, I'm not scared of the devil himself! I'd have whipped him if he'd kept on."

Favorite S Things

I'm doing this for Miz Jeanne. The basic idea: leave a comment on this post requesting a letter and I’ll assign you one. Then you write about 10 things you love that begin with your assigned letter. Post it on your blog and when people comment on your list, you give them a letter, and the chain continues on.


1. Seafood, I love it, except for cockles, scallops, and oysters. I can eat a couple of pounds of mussels all by myself.


2. Soup. I love soup! I'm not so fond of cream soups but a good hearty broth with loads of veggies and a little meat is some kind of good! I think homemade chicken soup is my favorite.





3. Sean Connery is a HUNK! I don't care if how old he gets, this man's photo should be under the definition of Sexy! He's handsome and his voice is SO awesome!....swoon!












4. Stephen King is my favorite author. I've read everything he's ever written except for the "Gunslinger" series but I'll probably read those some day too. When I read his books I feel like a little kid again; afraid to put my foot out from under the covers for fear something under the bed will grab it!


5. Sisters. I have two younger sisters and I love them dearly. I don't get to see as much of them as I'd like, but life happens.

6. Sunsets. I love sunrises too. The world seems to be at peace when a day is dawning or drawing to a close.

7. Sleep. I never get enough! For years now I've had trouble falling asleep so it's often midnight or later before I finally crash for a few hours. I have to be up early to get Zach off to school and that wakes me up so I don't often go back to bed.

8. Summer. What can I say, I'm a summer child. I can stand too hot a lot better than too cold.

9. Salads. I love almost any kind of salad with almost any kind of vegetable in it. Sometimes I'll also add a boiled egg or two, or chicken or pork. Another thing I love about Summer is being able to go to my garden for fresh tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers to make a salad.

10. Scrabble I've had Scrabble games for as long as I can remember. I even have a small electronic one.


Well, that's it folks, my favorite things that start with S. You're welcome to do this too, just leave me a comment and I'll assign you a letter. It was fun Jeanne!

I wanna believe again,,,,and again.

This is the third time I've posted this over the years that I've been blogging ; Just some thoughts that run through my head about Christmas and believing.
Our friend Randy sent this to my email today and I'm still laughing.
This is an article submitted to a 1999 Louisville Sentinel contest to find
out who had the wildest Christmas dinners. This won first prize.

Christmas With Louise

As a joke, my brother used to hang a pair of panty hose over his fireplace
before Christmas. He said all he wanted was for Santa to fill them. What
they say about Santa checking the list twice must be true because every
Christmas morning, although Jay's kids' stockings
were overflowed, his poor pantyhose hung sadly empty.

One year I decided to make his dream come true. I put on sunglasses and
went in search of an inflatable love doll. They don't sell those things at
Wal-Mart. I had to go to an adult bookstore downtown.

If you've never been in an X-rated store, don't go. You'll only confuse
yourself. I was there an hour saying things like, 'What does this do?
You're kidding me! Who would buy that?' Finally, I made it to the
inflatable doll section.

I wanted to buy a standard, uncomplicated doll that could also substitute
as a passenger in my truck so I could use the car pool lane during rush
hour.

Finding what I wanted was difficult. Love Dolls come in many different
models. The top of the line, according to the side of the box, could do
things I'd only seen in a book on animal
husbandry. I settled for Lovable Louise. She was at the bottom of the
price scale. To call Louise a doll took a huge leap of imagination.

On Christmas Eve and with the help of an old bicycle pump, Louise came to
life.

My sister-in-law was in on the plan and let me in during the wee morning
hours. Long after Santa had come and gone, I filled the dangling pantyhose
with Louise's pliant legs and bottom. I also ate some cookies and drank
what remained of a glass of milk on a nearby
tray. I went home, and giggled for a couple of hours.

The next morning my brother called to say that Santa had been to his house
and left a present that had made him VERY happy but had left the dog
confused. She would bark, start to walk away, then come back and bark some
more.

We all agreed that Louise should remain in her panty hose so the rest of
the family could admire her when they came over for the traditional
Christmas dinner.

My grandmother noticed Louise the moment she walked in the door 'What the
hell is that?' she asked.

My brother quickly explained, 'It's a doll'

'Who would play with something like that?' Granny snapped.

I had several candidates in mind, but kept my mouth shut.

'Where are her clothes?' Granny continued.

'Boy, that turkey sure smells nice Gran' Jay said, to steer her into the
dining room.

But Granny was relentless. 'Why doesn't she have any teeth?'

Again, I could have answered, but why would I? It was Christmas and no one
wanted to ride in the back of the ambulance saying, 'Hang on Granny, hang
on!'

My grandfather, a delightful old man with poor eyesight, sidled up to me
and said, 'Hey, who's the naked gal by the fireplace?'

I told him she was Jay's friend.

A few minutes later I noticed Grandpa by the mantel, talking to Louise.
Not just talking, but actually flirting. It was then that we realized this
might be Grandpa's last Christmas at home.

The dinner went well. We made the usual small talk about who had died, who
was dying, and who should be killed, when suddenly Louise made a noise
like my father in the bathroom in the morning. Then she lurched from the
panty hose, flew around the room twice, and fell in a heap in front of the
sofa.

The cat screamed. I passed cranberry sauce through my nose, and Grandpa
ran across the room, fell to his knees, and began administering
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. My brother fell back over his chair and wet
his pants.

Granny threw down her napkin, stomped out of the room, and sat in the car.

It was indeed a Christmas to treasure and remember.

Later in my brother's garage, we conducted a thorough examination to
decide the cause of Louise's collapse. We discovered that Louise had
suffered from a hot ember to the back of her right thigh.

Fortunately, thanks to a wonder drug called duct tape, we restored her to
perfect health!

I Hate Winter

I hate being cold.

I hate dreary, gray, days.

I hate the short hours of daylight.

I was born in August, I'm a Summer child, dammit.

It took me several minutes to take off my daytime pajamas; robe, flannel pants, flannel shirt, socks, last night before my shower because I had so much on. Then afterwards it took several minutes to put on nighttime duds, and I was grumbling the whole time because I was freezing my noonies off!

I'd never make it through several months of snow in ice; I'm too much of a wimp.

What do they call that?

What do they call a homicide when it's one spouse that's done in the other?

If this man doesn't get OUT of my house and DO something soon, someone's going to get hurt around here,,,,and it ain't gonna be me!

Gahhhhhhhhhhhh,,If I have to see ONE more Western that's a rerun x 150, I'm gonna lose it! He turns one on and then lays back and the recliner and snores!

,,,,I need a hatchet,,,or maybe some superglue~

Ut Oh

They're talking about an ice storm around here. My house is all electric, ice storms are not good.

UPDATE on Computer woes

My cousin who lives in NC and is the service manager for a Computer services company has replied to the desperation email that I sent on Saturday. He said to pack up the drives and send them to him and he'd do the recovery.

Because of my Mrs. Murphy status of late, I'm going to wait until after Christmas to do this; all I need is for my hard drive to be lost by the US postal service.

Man I love my family.

Brenda Photo Challenge: Christmas Decorations

I haven't been in much of a decorating mood this year but I did put out some of our favorites. The photos were quickies too cause of all of this computer drama I've been up to my ears in this week, but anyway, here ya go, Christmas Decorations Challenge Photos!

I love this little snowman figurine. He just looks so happy.

This angel ornament belonged to my mother. I don't have many of her things so I cherish this.

Here's my old floppy Santa sittin around on my shelf and two of the angel bells that I have sitting around here and there.

This snowman comes out every year and sits on the mantel or on a shelf. Zach made him out of a 2 litre drink bottle, torn paper, glue, ribbons, felt, and construction paper, when he was in the first grade. He's held up well hasn't he?

Miz Kim over at Caffeine is Life is our hostess for this challenge and she chose Christmas Decorations to give us more practice with our cameras. Thank you Miz Kim!

Y'all be sure to go over to the comments at the Challenge blog to see what all the participants came up with this time.

Everyone is welcome to join us, just look for the next challenge at the Photo Challenge Blog and sign into the comments that you're accepting the challenge. The directions for doing this are on the blog. The more the merrier so start snappin!