The edge of what could often be a reasonable question.  It isn’t my fault.  I blame it squarely on the adult female influences in my life.  I will share 2 prime examples with you tonight. 

Do you see this?

This my friends, is a poor innocent marshmellow peep.  Sitting there, doing nothing.

And then …

Along came Anna.  It turned ugly for the peep.  It’s my mother in laws fault, she taught my children this trick.  She’s such a good influence on her grandchildren.  They love her.

Stick the poor unsuspecting peep in your microwave, turn it on for about 15 seconds and watch the peep explode!  How sad are we?  Wait, don’t answer that! 

It may not be as sad as the next part of this story …

Once, way back in the day, my parents were visiting my brother in Charleston.  He use to live there, anyway, they went to visit near Easter time when marshmallow peeps were in season.  My mother had an odd addiction to marshmallow peeps.  She wasn’t typically much on eating a lot of sweets (unless you count the Valentine’s Day candy she once locked in the car to avoid eating but that is an entirely different story and not one I’m sure I will ever share for shear fear of her haunting me)  anyway … moving along, while visiting Thad, she somehow got her hands on an entire potload of marshmallow peeps.  She ate every last one.  I’m not sure exactly how many, but it was a bunch.  Sometime later in the day, she starts itching, swelling up and breaking out in some weird hives.  She had eaten so many peeps, she had an allergic reaction to the dye in them and swelled up like a big ole puffy microwaved peep herself.  I realize it probably isn’t proper to tell funny stories on your mama when she isn’t here to explain the logic of her side of the story, and I can promise you, she would have had some logic that would make you wonder why you had never eaten enough marshmallow peeps to swell up like a toad and break out in hives.  She was persuasive like that!

I will opt out of telling you my dreaded peep story, there is no reason to cause anyone to have nightmares or call PETA on me. 

me.

I haven’t had an actual stomach flu in years.  I’ve had a few quick 24 hours upset stomach bugs … but this one, this one has kicked my behind (and my ribs and my nose and my throat and pretty much every bone, crevice, cavity and muscle in my body). 

So what does one do to occupy their mind during a 48 hour puke/diarrhea fest  illness?  I feel obliged to share with you.  Mostly, I feel obliged cause if I feel bad you should feel compelled to endure my misery with me.  I love you just that much. 

The #1 and most important thing one may think when a stomach flu hits them like a freight train bound for hades is this … I really really wish I had taken more time cleaning my toilet.  How did all that stuff get on there? 

The 2nd thing to quickly follow the 1st thought may be … I don’t remember eating anything that looked or smelled remotely like that.  And do not even pretend that I am the only person to take inventory of their puke. 

The 3rd thing that comes to mind may be … oh. my. gosh. I did not know poop could be that color.  I am 41, have birthed and raised 2 children and nevuh evuh have I seen that.  Maybe I should be a bit concerned, that does not look healthy. 

You still here?  stupid.

Moving along to #4 … if I smoke will it make me more nauseous?  I really want to smoke!  Surely it won’t make me throw up worse.  I think I’ll smoke.  Ohhh that was a very very bad idea. 

#5 may be the most perplexing to me … how long can I survive on toast and soda crackers?  If I don’t even feel like dreaming of KFC mashed potatoes and gravy, I may be near death and not even aware of it. 

#6 is an open question for y’all?  how much pepto can one person ingest without becoming immune to it?  And just in case you weren’t aware of this next tid bit of information, Emetrol is nasty.  Write that down somewhere for future use, it taste worse than just throwing up.

#7 is a trickster … how can laying in bed hurt so much?  I mean, seriously, you are just laying there and it hurts to be still. 

I never thought #8 was even possible … how many hot baths in one day are too many?  I sure hope no one else in this house plans to take a hot shower or bath for like the next week, we are over our hot water budget limit for like the entire month, and I am shriveled like a prune … it’s a nice look.

#9 … Pajama pants are really much more comfortable than jeans or dress pants, and I have lots of comfortable ones, and I’ve needed every. single. pair.

#10.  is it possible to feel to yucky to blog?  yes, it is. 

If you are feeling a bit angry that you just took your valuable time to read this … I apologize, make yourself feel better and go read about what I do when I can’t sleep … it’s probably much more entertaining. 

me.

We arrived late in the afternoon … just in time to miss all the hard work!  Timing is of the essence.

  The “big girls” sure were glad to see their Bapa!

 Emma Joy’s present was already for her to get home from school.

 So were we!

 She wasted no time, she dug right in!

 That smile … it’s priceless!

We had a wonderful afternoon watching her play.  She was tuckered out.  I am absolutely crazy about her little book light … her Nana Joy had one just like it, she would be thrilled! 

Check back tomorrow night for part 2 … the princess party pictures!

me.

I know, I know … I am suppose to be posting birthday pictures of the littlest princess … but I’ve encountered a problem.  I have no attention span.  I found myself half way around the world, tears flowing down my face and my check book out trying to find an extra $38.00 per month. 

I read lots of blogs, way more than I read my own blog.  I write this, so I’ve pretty much got the info prior to posting it.  And truly, my blog post haven’t been anything overly inspiring and not really humorous as of late.  I’ve been in some what of a blogging slump.  It isn’t that I don’t enjoy blogging, I just sit down to write and my mind goes blank, so I’ve just spent that extra time trolling around other blogs I enjoy. 

Tonight, I made the fatal mistake of heading over to pastor (who really isn’t a pastor per say) Ryan’s blog.  For the next hour, my fingers nor my eyes, not to mention my heart were leaving his blog until I soaked in every last drop of his current experience.  If you are brave, grab a box of kleenex and head over.  If you aren’t brave, just don’t go.  It’s the best plan.

I find myself now, sitting here in the comfort of my own home, and believe you me, it’s no glorious mansion … but it is spacious and it’s warm and clean.  I have running water and an actual toilet.  It’s the little things that get me.  The fact that we have 3 tv’s … why do we need 3 tv’s? (thats just a small random example)  I’m not trying to guilt myself in to making a decision.  A decision to sponsor a child I will most likely never meet … but I am spending some time in fervent prayer, asking God to show me that additional $38.00 that I just don’t see in my budget.  You know what, that’s a flat out lie.  I know where the money could come from, so let me rephrase that … I’m spending time in prayer asking God to grant me some will power to hand over a vice or two that I have long sense needed to let go of. 

This post isn’t for the purpose of asking you to sponsor a child, that’s what the other bloggers who are on the trip are doing.  This post is to ask you to take 2 or 134 minutes out of your schedule and spend some time looking at photo’s and reading accounts of what bloggers, just like me but with much larger audiences, are doing to make a difference in the life of one child at a time. 

It makes me uncomfortable in my own skin that I don’t sponsor a child nor have I ever felt any great need to.  I get the instant Sally, whats her face, image of my money being sent straight to her pocket book in my head when I see sponsor children commercials.  I just flip the channel, it’s much easier to just look away.  And I rationalize by telling myself that I try to do good things for people here in our community … not nearly what I should, but enough to make me feel satisfied for about a fraction of a second.  And that my friends, is a terribly raw and hard thing to admit.  Maybe God is convicting me about some areas of my life that I need to deal with and He is using bloggers far around the world to bring some of that to my life in a real way. 

I won’t leave you with an “enjoy the other blog” comment tonight … you shouldn’t enjoy it.  But hopefully, it will make you think.

me.

happy birthday to you …

happy birthday to you.

happy birthday emma joy

happy birthday to you!

love

m&m

Hi!  I missed you.  We have arrived home safely and soundly from a great birthday weekend in TN with my brother, Brad & Emma Joy.  I took lots of pictures (not as many as I would have liked because my camera decided to die about halfway thru the party) and I’m working on getting them resized and edited (no red eye for your viewing displeasure).  It may take a bit but I will hopefully have some posted either later tonight or tomorrow evening. 

Mostly, I was glad to get home to see the man of the house.  He’s been on dog sitting duty with Sadie, Dozer, Tulsa, Janie and Bentley … along with the devil cat Belle, while we were gone.  He’s a good guy!  I decided I might ought to fix him some actual dinner tonight, I think he’s grown tired of fish sticks and hot pockets.  I was kind and left him a freezer full of them, kind of like a survival package.  I’m hoping he enjoys PW’s meatloaf , potatoes, corn & biscuits a bit more.   Ahhh, to be such a good wife takes practice. 

I had hoped to get to the church house tonight, but by the time we got here, slung stuff in the door, fed all the animals and sat down to say hi to each other, it was a bit on the late side so we stayed home.  I hear that our youth had a great time Friday night and they were all very well behaved.  A big thanks to James and Lorri for being brave and filling in for us.  I owe you both a big favor.  And to Cathy & Eric … Cat for arranging all the financial stuff and Eric for getting the info & agreeing for the church to foot the bill.  I am very appreciative to each of you and I’m sure the teens are too.

Now, I’m off to unpack, eat dinner and work on those photos.  Please check back to see her birthday pictures.  She is so so cute.  I’m not sure I could ever hear “m&m” too many times! 

I’m leaving on a jet plane in a Ford Focus don’t know when I’ll be back again I’ll be home Sunday.  I decided to leave you with some delicious bible study recipes for your reading pleasure while I am traveling over the mountains and thru the woods. 

I posted the recipes from the 1st week here.  If you haven’t tried them, you should!

The 2nd week’s theme was picnic … Donna and crew prepared a yummy spread.

We had chicken salad, tuna salad and egg salad with these cool little round bread things.  I think they are called thins, I had the honey oat variety, it was tasty.  I’m not going to post the recipes for the different salad concoctions, if you want them, please just let me know. 

For dessert that week, we had the following: (which were both mmm mmm good)

Becky’s Chocolate Cake:  you will need the following ingredients …

3 cups  flour

2 cups sugar

6 Tbls cocoa

1/2 cup veg. oil

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp vinegar

2 cups water

combine all ingredients and beat well with an electric mixer.  Pour in a 9 x 13 greased baking pan or dish.  Bake at 350 deg. for 1/2 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. 

Just as a side note here … this was my Poppi’s favorite cake, my grandmommie called it her quick chocolate cake recipe and he kissed her on the mouth when she made it.  Actually, he kissed her for any reason under the sun.  Try it, maybe your love will kiss you on the mouth too! 

Next up are some … Buttermilk Cinnamon Bars (this taste so much better than it sounds)

You will need …

2 cups flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk, just add a Tbps of vinegar or lemon juice per cup of milk to make homemade buttermilk, it will work fine for most recipes, be sure to use real buttermilk if baking anything with yeast)

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

combine flour, sugar, brown sugar and butter, blend well.  press 2 cups into bottom of 9 x 13 greased baking pan or dish.  add remaining ingredients to the rest of crumb mixture and mix well.  pour over top of crumb mixture in the bottom of your pan.  bake at 350 deg. for 20 – 25 minutes.  let cool and then add icing.

icing:

2 cups of powdered sugar sifted

4 Tbls milk

1/4 tsp vanilla

beat until smooth.

I actually thought this was some type of carrott cake bar, that’s what it tasted like, but there were no carrotts.  I had never had this before, but I plan to make it soon.  I will be keeping this one close at hand in the recipe book.  It would make a great dish to take anywhere.

Enjoy … I will catch up with you tomorrow, when we are safely on the other side of that big ole mountain range. 

me.

I am proud to announce that I went to the groomers today got my hair cut today.  I do this about once a year … actually this makes twice this year.   I have 2 friends who alternate cutting my hair, love them both, so I go to one and then the other, it’s a good plan.  Lets just say that my hair fashion sense is almost as acute as my other fashion sense.  It’s sad really.  My idea of a good hair day is all of my hair fitting nicely in to whatever hair contraption (pony tail holder, clip, etc) that I can find on my bathroom cabinet at 7:23 am every morning.  Besides, fixing hair is realitive when you have some Rave #4 on hand, you can just kinda comb & paste your hair wherever it may need to stay for a few days.  Mostly, I just want my hair to stay away from touching my face or neck.  This wouldn’t be nearly as difficult if my husband didn’t really like my hair being long.   I would love to tell you all how I respect his wishes and wear my hair longer solely because I’m such a submitting, caring wife … but alas, that would be a bit of a stretch.  I wear it longer because it is far less trouble to throw it up in a pony tail than try to coral the mess it becomes when it’s short.  Me with short hair resembles a stump with a disorderly shrub on top.  Not such a good look if I do say so myself.  Right now, my hair is a medium shoulder length … I haven’t decided if I like it or not, I’ll get back to ya on that. 

While I was at my hair appointment, I also got my eyebrows and lip waxxed.  Yes, I felt the need for some self torture.  My eyebrows were starting to look a bit on the were wolfish side and my mustache lip hair was beginning to be noticeable.  In retrospect, maybe I should’ve told the resident caveman I was going to grow a mustache to match his unless he got a hair cut.  I’m not sure why I pay good money for someone to put scalding wax on my eyes and mouth and then rip it off at a rapid pace.  Maybe because tweezers are worse?  All I know is … it hurts like the dickens.  However, I did not cry like Earpie did.  I know it isn’t nice to make fun of anyone but the day Earp got her lip waxed and came back to work in tears was funny.  She nearly pee’d her pants.  I laughed so hard I nearly pee’d mine too!  To my knowledge she has never done that again.  If she ever decides to, I really hope she invites me to go with her.  Don’t act like you wouldn’t have laughed to. 

Now that I am finely coiffed, I need to start packing for my trip.  I keep checking yesterday’s post to see which one of you will be doing what but so far y’all are wimping out on me.  I feel a bit abandoned.  Is the guilt kicking in yet?  No?  Somehow I didn’t think so. 

me.

The biggest reason I need for it not to be yucky is this …

I have an extremely important date this weekend.  The youngest princess is having a birthday!  Her princess party is on Saturday and it’s a must that her auntie m and crew are in attendance.  How could she possibly celebrate without us?  Her Bapa is ahead of the game, he left for TN today.  To say I am a bit jealous would be an understatement.  I absolutely cannot wait to see her.  The girls, Jeff, my aunt and my cousin will all be loading up Friday to head that direction.  I will be posting lots of birthday pictures over the weekend so be sure to stop by and check them out.

Between now and Friday I have about a gazillion things that I need to get done.  I thought I would share them with you and each of you can pick one off the list that you would like to do for me!  Yay … it’s an ingenious plan.  So where shall I start my list?

#1. the 16 piles of laundry that are now seperated in my bedroom floor.

#2. cleaning my bathroom … I promise there is no mold, no mushrooms growing behind the toilet or any skid marks in the toilet.  I do not promise that you won’t find enough stray hair in there to make some sort of small animal. 

#3. grocery shop so that my husband does not starve while I’m gone.  or if you are cathy, you can cook him individual meals, label them, put them in order by days with explicit instructions of what to eat when.  then he can tell all the other husbands what a wonderful wife you are as their wives are giving him the stink eye.

#4. birthday shop for a 2 year old. 

#5. pack my clothes.  this will include having to fold them when whomever volunteers to do the laundry is finished.  feel free to volunteer for both of these task at once, it will earn you extra brownie points.

#6. bake brownies for whomever chooses #5.

#7. make sure both of my children are packed and ready to go at a reasonable hour on Friday, so that Jeff nor myself has to blow a gasket while waiting on them to get ready.  this will make my 7 hour drive much better.  it will also probably include refereeing at least one knock down drag out between the girls concerning who packed what of the other siblings.

#8. remind richard every hour for the next 3 days that nothing, and I mean nothing had better happen to Janie while we are gone.  it would be bad enough if something happened to one of the other dogs but if he neglects Janie we will so be cut out of any inheritance we may be in line for. 

#9. remind me that I will need to actually pay attention when my youngest daughter tells me that we just missed the detour sign … this will save me approximately 6 hours and a lot of repenting. 

I think that should be a good start.  It’s only Tuesday, the list could grow.  Please feel free to scurry right on down to the comment section and sign up.  I’m sure the options will narrow quickly so you may want to hurry.  I will sit right here, patiently awaiting your response.   I’ll bring you a cup of coffee or something while I watch you work, and I promise to be quiet and stay out of your way.  It’s the very least I can do.

me.

I unintentionally didn’t share with you all yesterday about Denise, except that I’m scared of her, which is true.  What I didn’t tell you is … I aslo have a deep admiration, love and respect for her.  Like me, one never really has to wonder what Denise is thinking … cause she’ll tell ya, whether you want to hear it or not.  I don’t mean she’s ugly about it, she’s not, she’s just an upfront kinda woman and I like that.  She is also an extremely hard worker and does lots of nice things for others that most people never even know she did.  I admire that.  And I love her, just because I do. 

Yesterday at bible study, she and her daughter Kristie shared something really funny with us.  Let me just show you …

The dreaded stink eye! 

We were having a discussion about how parents, mothers in particular, give looks … looks that we often don’t even realize we are giving.  Kristie named her mama’s look the stink eye!  I’m not so sure Denise thought it was nearly as funny as I did, but I admit, I laughed really hard.  I feel for Denise and Kristie, I’ve been where they are now, twice over with my girls.  Learning to let teenagers grow to become young adults has got to be one of the most difficult parts of parenthood.  But the stink eye, that’s just plain funny.  I’m sure my girls would tell you all that I have many variations of the stink eye … in fact, I probably have an entire repertoire of stinky faces! 

Denise even has different variations …

sometimes she gives the double stink eye.  This one means business, you better run if she flashes it at you!  Or in my case, walk briskly, cause I don’t run … ever.

me.