Miss Me?

Hey Everybody - Taking a break from blogging during the holidays. Had to share some Christmas photos with you though....

Here is Rachel with her stuff from Santa Claus. Yes, she is 18 and still gets a "Santa" pile. (Her pants leg is up because she just washed her new tat, and it had to airdry)

We bought this picture in Rome from a street painter....didn't it frame up nice! I was so happy with it, and she didn't have a clue.

Here is where Sally spent the morning...in a present box. What a great Christmas present!

Below is Rachel, Spike, and my bother Larry when we exchanged gifts with his family.

And here is Mom, Naaman and Linda....

Hope you all had a Very Merry Christmas...and have a Safe and Happy New Year!

Love

Baby sitting

Here are some pictures I took when Jimmy and I babysat Tatum and Luke. They were so fun and cute, but a handful. I couldn't have done it without Jimaymay. Here is Poppy putting together a Thomas the Train track. Aren't Tatum and Luke sharing nicely? Didn't last long.... I told them to stand still and let me get their picture...that didn't last long either! Gosh, I love those babies!

Katt Williams

Rachel turned me on to a comedian last night. Please go to you tube and watch some of his videos. I was crying during the one about Michael Jackson, oh and the one about trying to get "Unhigh". He is a little vulgar, but hilarious.

Merry Christmas!

CRAZY BUSY WEEKEND

Ok - I am now feeling the Christmas rush.

Friday night - went to the grocery store, then home to wrap presents for my Mom and make marinated carrots for Tim's dad's birthday party.

Saturday morning - up early to wrap more presents and clean up house. Went to Holloways, bought ham, took to Nash for them to smoke. Made broccoli cornbread for beforementioned party. Took food to Tim's and brought potatoes back to house to cook. cooked potatoes, wrapped Jimmy's grandbabies' presents. Went to birthday party, ate, had fun. Left party at 5:15 to go babysit said Grandbabies. Boy, I could not have done it without Jimmy....two two year olds are a handful! Home at midnight. Watched "Predator" for the umpteenth time. Bed at 2:00 am.

Sunday -Up early to straighten up the house more because my brother and his family are in town. They come over after lunch. Larry Naaman and I go to Belks to get Christmas presents. Take them back to Mom's. I go by the house and get grocery list I forgot. Go to targets, and then the grocery store. Leaving the store I go by and pick up BBQ for dinner. They all come over, we open presents and eat BBQ. Visit and talk until 10:00.

Monday - to work I go, having to finish my month end entries, run payroll early because of the holiday and make sure cash accounts are in balance. Leave work at 5:00 to have Christmas dinner with Jimmy's sister and her family at Carraba's. Both grandbabies were there too, so it was fun. Home at 9:00 - exhausted.

Today - work again, much slower than yesterday....it looks like a ghost town around here. Leaving at 4:30 to go to Nash BBQ and pick up ham and fixings. Serving Christmas dinner at my house at 6:00.

And through all of this I am sick with a sinus infection. I just want to crawl in bed and never come out.

When will the madness stop? After I serve Christmas Breakfast (sausage balls and cheese grits) I am done. If I can make it that far!

Hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and a safe and healthy New Year!

Love

Make it stop....

Here is the latest "artwork" on my Rayray. It is on the outside of her right ankle. The sun is designed after an amulet that we found at my brother David's house right before his death. So, at least it has sentimental value.

Can I ask the bank to reject any debit purchases from "Ink City?" I guess then she would just get cash.

Kids, got to love 'em cause you can't kill 'em.

Happy Weekend.

Cat Nativity

Ok, you all know how much I love cats, but this might be taking it too far. I ordered this cute "Kitty Cat Nativity" from the same "Everything Under $14.95" catalog that Cat O' All seasons came from. Isn't it cute!!! I just love the baby kitten Jesus! Look at the Cat wise men! I just love it.

Meowy Christmas!

Evil Zlid Strikes Again

Evil Zlid (Sally) has struck again. When Rachel went back to school last weekend (on her way to take exams - which she did very well - got B's in all classes, whew) she emptied her backpack in the middle of the living room floor. Isn't that where all back packs are emptied? Anyway, there were 3 paperback books, one notebook and one DVD just randomly laying in the floor. Then...

When I came home from work on Monday I found one of the books in this condition....guess Evil Zlid did not like it. I hoped Rachel didn't need it for anything, or if she did, that she had read the first 20 pages or so. That is about how deep Zlid got.

I moved the books and DVD to the chair. On Friday I was wrapping presents trying to get Rachel's wrapped before she came home for the Holidays, and Zlid got up in the chair and started ripping at the book again. I started to wonder..."what in the world is it with her and this book?" I picked it up and started looking at the title and found....



It was a book on Charles Manson...called "The Family". I guess cats as well as horses can sense evil.

Why is it we think horses can sense evil? I guess that is a blog for another day.

Happy Wednesday.

History of Reindeer Names

I share these tidbits of useless knowledge with y'all because I think all should know them. It is important because we might need to know these things on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" one day.

For instance, I learned several years back the the original name for Donner the reindeer was Donder. I recently found out how that came about. "Twas the Night Before Christmas" was written by Clement Clark Moore in 1823 and the name Donner was used. However, the original Christmas poem was written by Major Henry Livingston, Jr. in 1807 and the reindeer in the original was Donder. Rudolph was not part of this story...He came later.

Donner means thunder in German. Donder means thunder in Dutch.

So, rest assured that you now know.....

Love

Cat O' All Seasons

Here is Cat O' All Seasons dressed up for Christmas! I just love this tacky little thing. I ordered it from a magazine where everything was $14.95 or less. He has an outfit for Christmas, Easter, 4th of July and Halloween.

If any of you can sew, please let me know. I would like to have more outfits for him!

(I think I am loosing it)

Christmas Superstition #1 - Stockings

Stockings are hung by the chimney in remembrance of the generosity of St. Nicholas. Out of compassion he was said to have tossed three coins down the chimney of the home of three poor sisters. Each coin fell neatly into stockings left drying by the hearth. Therefore, we leave out stocking out in hopes that a similar bit of good fortuned will befall us. - Snopes.com


Happy Holidays and Happy Friday!

FULL MOON

Everyone pay attention to the moon tonight.


The full moon tonight will be the biggest one of the year as Earth's natural satellite reaches its closest point to our planet.


Earth, the moon and the sun are all bound together by gravity, which keeps us going around the sun and keeps the moon going around us as it goes through phases. The moon makes a trip around Earth every 29.5 days. But the orbit is not a perfect circle.


The moon's average distance from us is about 238,855 miles (384,400 km). Tonight it will be just 221,560 miles (356,567 km) away. It will be 14 percent bigger in our sky and 30 percent brighter than some other full moons during the year, according to NASA.

Boy, am I smart or what.

Angelina Molie

This is Angelina Molie (like as in a mole - rodent). I came across this picture on one of my discs and thought I should share. Rachel had to make her as a project for Chemistry (?) I think. See, not only is a mole a small, mouse like rodent that burrows in the ground, it is also:

1. The amount of a substance that contains as many atoms, molecules, ions, or other elementary units as the number of atoms in 0.012 kilogram of carbon 12. The number is 6.0225 × 1023, or Avogadro's number. Also called gram molecule.

or

2. The mass in grams of this amount of a substance, numerically equal to the molecular weight of the substance. Also called gram-molecular weight. See Table at measurement.

This was a fun project. They had to actually make a mole (the animal) that resembeled a famous person, character, etc. We came up with many ideas: Mickey Mole (Mickey Mouse); Christopher Molumbus, Samumole L. Jackson, and others. Rachel came up with Angelina Molie! Isn't she pretty with her big hair and lips.

Happy Thursday - Be safe out there in this weather.

The stockings were hung....

Here is my Stocking. I have had this as long as I can remember. My Mom knitted one for all of us. I think she might have made mine while she was still pregnant with me. Santa had an angora beard (the fuzzy has pretty much worn off by now). He is going down a chimney. As I said, all of them were the same, so the way to tell them apart was, and get this (HOW UNFAIR), Billy's was the longest, then Larry's, then David's and FINALLY mine....THE SHORTEST! I always thought that was so unfair! Even though I was most spoiled being the baby and the only girl.

Don't even get me started about the Easter Baskets!


Here is Princess Rayray's stocking. It is Precious Moments. Mom sewed the pattern and I cross-stitched her name and birthdate on it. She too has had her stocking since her first Christmas.

How long have you had your stocking? Can you even find it? Is it just that plain red and white, generic, fuzzy one? (Just kidding Tim)

Disney Tree

Here is a picture of Rachel's Disney Tree. When she was a baby I joined a Disney ornament club. For 14.99 a month you received a different ornament each month. That went on for 2 years. Now we set up this cute little tree in our den.

Here is the Genie from Aladdin....

.....and Pluto....

....and Tigger!

...just to show a few. We have Figaro, Belle, Snow White, Pocahantus, Chip and Dale, Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Lewey, the Beast, Uncle Schrooge (as Schrooge of course), Dumbo, Jessica and Roger Rabbit, and many more.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....Disney style!

Bad, Bad Dog

This little squirt is in serious trouble. As I mentioned last week, he had been escaping the back yard via holes in the fence and a high hanging gate. Well, Saturday I did a walk around the parameter and plugged up all the holes with concete blocks and bricks. Well, Byebye the Magician moved a brick last night between 10 and 10:30 and got out AGAIN. I called and called and called, but he was no where to be found. He is so not street smart I thought he had probably been hit. Well, at 12:47 I had to go to bed. It was a very hard thing to do. I left the gate open and the light in the carport on in case he did come home.

I got up to, well, you know, at 5:30 - opened the back door and there he was! Sleeping in the monkey grass. I did not say a word to him, but I wanted to hug him, and love him, and tell him how scared I was. I just couldn't imagine my life with out that little dog! But, he needed to be punished and so I just ignored him this morning. Before I left this morning I offered to let him out to go to the bathroom...he declined.

I can't believe how smart that little bugger is. Guess I will have to leave early and build a moat around my yard....no, then he would just become a champion swimmer.

Love

COUCH AND DOG

This is my new couch. It is HUGE! Jimmy and I went to pick it up the Friday after Thanksgiving. As he was moving the old couch out I said, "I hope the new one will fit." Little did I know.....
Jimmy and Tim had to wrestle with this HOG for an hour and a half. We had all the doors off the hinges, turning it this way and that (look how I said we - I was just sitting there cussing myself for buying a HUMONGOUS couch). At one point it was standing straight up in the foyer. do you know how they finally got it in there? Jimmy had to take the door facing off the door! That gave us (being them) another inch and a half. Then they shoved it on through!

It is so comfortable - with recliners on each end, so you can guess how heavy it was! Thanks guys.

STS9 and New Years

Let me just get this off my chest....My daughter is spoiled. I know, I know, it is all my fault. She is not a brat (often), but she pretty much gets what she wants for Christmas. Christina and her are going to Atlanta for New Year's to see STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9). This is a picture of them in concert. I bet you can't guess what 93.7% of the audience are "doing".

Anyway, I called to make reservations for them for December 30th and 31st. The cheapest hotel within walking distance of "The Tabernacle" is a Quality Inn for $199.99 per night. See, the rates double downtown for New Year's. It is in a nice part of downtown - rightoff Peachtree Plaza. I booked the hotel before it got gone. Her friends are going to pitch in, so I could recover around $300. I think I will wrap up a picture or brochure from the hotel and put it under the Christmas tree.

Have a good weekend.

Urban Dictionary - Screwvenir

Screwvenir


Rhymes with (souvenir); This is something, a personal item, that you take with you after a night of wild lovemakin', after a booty call, or a one-night-stand. You take these things without the original owners' knowledge. It could be a t-shirt, cd, lighter, hairbrush, etc., that belonged to the person you just hooked up with. Sort of like a 'souvenir' of the encounter.

Olive Garden is dead to me!

Yes, you heard me right. Mickey and I ate there yesterday for lunch and it was so gross. I wanted something warm and cheesey. I got cold, gross lasagna, burnt chicken and congealed fettuccini alfredo. Gross, gross, gross. I never have to go back there again.

I have a wonderful couch story to tell you, but am waiting to have pictures. I keep leaving my memory card at home. Hopefully tomorrow.

Born Free

Spike got out again last night. This time he did not push the gate open. I had laid bricks under the opening after he got out a couple of nights ago. I called and called for him, and rode around the block twice looking for him. He is not street smart at all, so I worry about him getting run over. Friday, while we were trying to shove the couch in my house (that is a story for another day) I saw a dog run in front of a car on my busy street. The car was honking, but the dog didn't pay any attention. I told Tim - "That looks like Spike"... and it was.

Anyway....he finally came home about 11:30 all proud of himself, until he got a spanking with some limp rolled up newspaper. You know, just the sound of the paper is enough. Well, this morning I took him out back on his leash so he couldn't escape. I did not know about the hole yet (couldn't figure it out in the dark). Spike must have learned his lesson because he led me right to the hole and stuck his head through like "See, this is how I did it. You better cover it up or I will do it again. I just can't help myself."

Spike is so smart.

Here's to all the smart, cute, funny, hyper, loving dogs and their people!

Welcome back

Hey Everybody - Hope you had a relaxing Thanksgiving....I sure did. Not much to say today. Just busy, busy, busy.

Rachel went to Ashville to see Widespread Panic. Had a wonderful time, but now my poor baby is sick. Sick and at school where Mommy can't take care of her! It is just about to kill me. The doctor is supposed to be calling her in some medicine. I wish he would hurry.


Say prayers for Rayray.

Happy Tuesday.