Richard’s new work crew worked thru the night last night, took about a 4 hour nap and headed back to work before noon today to finish up early so they could all go home for a long holiday weekend.  They still managed to work 50 some odd hours between Sunday and today.  I think they were all feeling a bit tired when they rolled in to the pick up location today.  There were a few happy women to be picking up their men a day early this week, and this girl was especially happy that she got to leave work a little bit early to personally pick her man up instead of him catching a ride home.  I felt a little bit like a kid waiting for Christmas morning.  I know it’s silly, he’s only been gone  4 days, but dadgumit, I missed him and was ready for him to be home.  Besides, I might have a pimple that needs mashing or something, you just never know.

And if that weren’t a simple enough pleasure to enjoy for one day, it just so happened that neither of our daughters had plans for the evening.  No hot dates tonight (the great guys they date both had to work tonight, you have to love that your daughters date responsible young men).   I rounded them up and we all went out to dinner together at one of our favorite places to eat.  It was nice.

So today, I just want to take a minute and acknowledge that I am taking time to be appreciative of the many simple things that make my life happy.   All days are not peachy but all days are a blessing.  I hope you will take a minute to find a simple thing to be thankful for this week.

me.

My daughters are not right in the head. 

The other night at my Mary Kay party, I was suppose to provide snacks.  Well, we did have snacks, kind of … my thinking was this:  most of my girl friends that were here would not have had time to go home, fix dinner and be at my house by 6:30.  I know I wouldn’t have.  So, I thought, why don’t we just have some fresh sliced deli meats, some fancy bread and so on … and that’s exactly what we had.  But, we also had some homemade chicken salad that yours truly made.  To be honest, I only made it because I had some thawed chicken in the fridge that was going to spoil if I didn’t do something with it and I am far to stingy to throw it out.  I don’t use a recipe for most thinks I cook and chicken salad is no exception … basically I just throw in what I like and if anyone else eats it that’s fine to … if not, more for me. 

After the party, there was some chicken salad left over.  Chrisi invited Jeff up to eat and there was still some left.  I put it in a handy dandy little plastic bowl with a lid that it took me approximately 20 minutes to dig out of my cabinet and stuck it in the fridge.  Chrisi mentions that she would like some to pack for her lunch, Anna chimes in that she wants some for her lunch too.  I didn’t really think a whole lot about it.  Anna made the mistake of going to bed prior to her sister leaving our house with said chicken salad in tow.  Not some chicken salad, all of the chicken salad.  Again, I didn’t think a thing about it. 

The next day around lunch time I was working away at my desk and my cellular mobile device rings and Anna’s name pops up.  I answered and this is what I hear: 

Anna: MOM! what did you do with the chicken salad, it’s not in the fridge! 

me: your sister took it to her compartment to pack for lunch.

Anna: MOM! that is so not fair, why did you let her take it.  What am I suppose to eat for lunch now?  I’m starving and she took all the food.

me: (rolling my eyes, trying not to laugh about the fact that my younger daughter is distraught over some chicken salad and apparently my older daughter is a thief of huge proportion) Anna, there is some deli meat left over.  Ham, turkey and roast beef are all in the fridge, you can eat some of that.

Anna: Mom.  You know I don’t eat roast beef. 

me: um, ok, eat ham or turkey.

Anna:  Mom.  I want chicken salad and you let Chrisi steal it.

me: (previously unaware of the fact that the chicken salad was “stolen”) well Anna, Chrisi is at work, go down to the compartment and steal it back.

Anna: (brain wheels turning, I can hear it in her voice) ok, I will.

30 minutes late she calls me back to inform me that she was successful in her bid to free the kidnapped chicken salad and return it to it’s rightful place, which in my estimation, seemed to be her tummy.

Later that night I get a phone call from guess who?  You guessed it.  Chrisi is torn up that the chicken salad has been not only relocted but ever last bite has been eaten.  Now she will be starving to death cause she doesn’t have any for lunch.  For two seconds I considered telling Chrisi to just beat the crap out of Anna (literally) and she could have the chicken salad back, but upon further review figured that this would either a) instigate actual physical violence or b) confuse Chrisi so I opted to just offer to make her some more chicken salad of her own. 

Thus … last night, I spent my evening making 2 huge big ole cotton pickin’ bowls of chicken salad and now, the world is at peace once again.

me.

Boo!  Did I scare you?  I bet you were expecting to click on the blog and still see a picture of a big ole cupcake, cause I am such a slacker.  Actually, I’m not really a slacker … I’ve been really busy, but we’ll get to that in a minute.  I have a little blog quiz first. 

Question:  Do y’all know what happens if one doesn’t pay their cable/internet bill on time?

Answers to choose from:

a).  the cable company sends you a nice note reminding you that you owe them money.

b). you ignore the bill in hopes that it will just magically get paid by the good cable fairy.

c). it doesn’t

d). they cut that wifi connection and your tv off quicker than you can say “wait, I get paid Tuesday”.

e). all of the above.

It’s just the derndest thing you ever did see.  One minute you are connected to the world, the next you are on an island in the middle of no cable land all by your lonesome.  I mean, not that any of that stuff happened to me, cause I always pay our cable bill the day it comes in the mail (excuse me while I laugh out loud at that lie).

Anyway, we are once again connected to this big ole world for at least 30 days and I can once again fill your pretty little heads with completely useless but sometimes funny stuff.  Aren’t you feeling relieved?  Ya, I thought so. 

Shall we catch up a bit?  Life at the hacienda has been a bit exciting and boring all at the same time the past couple of weeks.  I am thrilled to tell you that after almost an entire year of looking for a job, Richard is now back to full time employment.  The upside of that is, maybe we won’t be having our cable cut off again in the near future and I can still eat on a regular basis.  I’m not sure if he’ll make enough money to feed the rest of the folks at our house or not, but I can still eat, so all is well.  The down side of his new job is this … he isn’t home all week.  If you are reading this and you happen to be either an axe murderer, stalker, rapist or thief, please disregard the fact that I just informed the entire world (or the 15 people who read our blog) that my husband is out of town all week.  I’m really not fond of pain, nor am I a vision of sexual gratification for even the most desperate on most given days and we certainly don’t own anything worth going to prison for, so personally, I just wouldn’t bother, plus my dog bites really hard … just saying.

Richard likes his new job, Richard does not like being away from home.  If you know him, this will come as no great shock to you.  I would love to declare that he misses me so terribly that it makes his time away heart wrenching and he aches to be home in my arms … but alas, that would be a lie.  I would venture to say its something more along the lines of he misses his junk, he misses Saddie and he misses torturing me by making me watch 72 episodes of ice road truckers, deadliest catch, ax men and repo something or nuther all in one night.

So, whatever shall a girl do while her husband is out of town?  Oh, the fun I am having … please let me share some of the most fun parts of being home alone for nights on end.

#1.  I can eat fruity pebbles for dinner every night and nobody cares.

#2.  I’ve read an entire book and started another one in less than a week.

#3.  I have not gotten my fat fanny stuck in the toilet because the toilet seat was left up once during the last week.

#4.  I had a Mary Kay makeup party.  Let me tell you, we are some hard core party girls up in here.

#5.  It would have been fine if they had only turned the internet back on and left the cable off, I haven’t turned the tv on once the entire time he’s been gone.

#6.  I have discovered that I have some weird hangup about not taking a shower or blow drying my hair while home alone.  I keep getting these Norman Bates visuals, thus, I have to wait until Anna gets home to shower.

#7.  I have not let Dozer and Tulsa sleep in the house one time while he’s been gone, not once.  Ok, that’s a lie, they sleep in the bed with me every night he isn’t here, but don’t tell on me, it’s our secret.

#8.  I go to bed much earlier but sleep way worse.  Maybe it’s because there are 3 giant dogs in the bed with me?

That about covers the extent of my time home alone.  I must tell you, I really don’t like it very much.  I find that I miss coming home to a busy house.  But … I am very thankful for this job opportunity for him.  We can’t always have the best of both worlds and sometimes responsibility comes with sacrifice.  I am thankful for a husband who wants to work and take care of his family. 

And now, I am off to make some chicken salad for my daughters.  We had a knock down drag out and some thieving going on over some chicken salad last week, it was pretty ugly, but I’ll tell you all about that later this week.

me.

Did you come back tonight?  I suppose that is sort of a rhetorical question … of course you came back if you’re reading this. duh. 

First I want to say thank you for the sweet comment and emails I got today, they made my day much better.  And, I really did have an okay day. 

Secondly, I want to share a new recipe with you.  Woo hoo … we haven’t done a recipe in a really long time.  It’s simple and an over all hit with young and old.  So without further ado, tonights recipe is for the best cupcakes ever.  Please get something to write with or just cut and paste the following.  You won’t want to miss this.

How to make perfect cupcakes by me.

* work an 8 hour day.

* go directly to the dollar tree and buy cupcake mix.  I bought 2 boxes of confetti and 2 boxes of yellow.  these items can be purchased anywhere you wish, I just happened to be at dollar tree buying VBS stuff for the teens.

* go teach 13 teenagers a bible school lesson that they really don’t have the least bit of interest in.  send them outside on a scavenger hunt for naturie stuff to put in their very own little zip lock bags that you just purchased for 1 bucka roo.  watch this activity occupy them for about 4.3 minutes until they are hot, tired of nature and have no interest in finding a feather.  bless um, it was hot and I was ready to go in too.

* eat some really good snacks at VBS and drive home, arriving approximately 13 hours after you left for work that morning. 

* rush in the house, (or, waddle at a quick pace with your hands full, trying to perform a circus like balancing act down the pasture you pretend is your front yard).  whip out your handy dandy cake mixes and the wrappers you did manage to remember to buy, grab your muffin pan, fling open the fridge to discover … you have 2 eggs.  you clearly remember that you had a dozen eggs as of saturday, but clearly forgot your husband hasn’t been working this week and has evidentally developed a hankering for fried egg sandwiches.  try not to cuss.  look intently at the egg carton as if eggs will magically appear if you stare long enough.  try to figure out if your neighbors have any egg laying chickens. ponder whether or not you want to wake up your dad who no doubt went to bed with the chickens 3 hours ago to see if he has any eggs.  ditch the waking dad up idea.

* resign yourself to the fact that you now have 2 options.  #1. go to the store and buy eggs.  this will require that you put your bra back on prior to leaving your house.  #2. start formulating a master plan in which first thing in the morning you call and beg your older daughter to bake 600 cupcakes for you while you are at work, because you volunteered to bring cupcakes.  go with option #2.

* check facebook, blog a little bit, play some spider solitaire, take a shower, go to bed, conk out in record time.

* put option # 2 in to action at approximately 9:15 am.  thank God for having such a willing daughter.  get to work at your actual job.

* show up at VBS on time, call to see if your daughter needs help carrying the cupcakes in so you cannot look like a looser who made your kid bake cupcakes cause you were too sorry to put a bra on and go back to the store at 10 pm she doesn’t drop them. 

* tell the snack ladies, Peggy and Cathy, that um, you, um, your, um daughter will be bringing the cupcakes cause you suck at organization asked her to bring them.  she will be here shortly.

* go teach the teens again.  do not make them go outside again.  they will be much happier.

* head to snacks to discover the beautiful cupcakes your daughter baked, iced and toted to church.  make yourself a note to thank her because if you don’t make yourself a note, you’ll forget.

* tell her thank you.

me.

I’m not really sure where I left off, thus, I’m not really sure where to start.  Jeff is doing well, thank you all for the prayers.  Jack is on the mend but it’s going to be a long haul back to him being strong and able to run. 

I feel some odd need to apologize for not blogging the last little bit.  I’m not sure why.  It’s weird.  The thing that is most unusual is, I really don’t have much to say.  Have you met me?  That never happens.  Ever. 

I haven’t taken any pictures in over a month.  My camera isn’t even charged.  It’s laying here beside me on the table looking a bit lonely. 

We’re having bible school this week.  I’m teaching the teens.  I’m not sure if they are enjoying it or not.  I’m actually following the book that I didn’t lose this year.  Of course, Bobbi only gave it to me a week ahead of time this year.  Bobbi’s pretty smart. 

Richard has been really really sick for a week.  He never gets sick.  I think he may be feeling a little better now.  He’s at least been out of the bed for the past 2 days.  I am pretty certain I don’t want like him not feeling well, it makes my world off kilter.

I was a complete redneck Saturday night and went cruising in my home town.  I had a great time.  I felt young and free spirited.  I laughed really hard at myself.  I should’ve laughed really hard at myself, I’m a dork and that is perfectly ok with me.

Both of my daughters and their resepctive boyfriends went cruising too.  They thought it was the greatest thing ever.  It makes my heart feel good to know that they may gain some understanding of truly loving where you come from, because the people who live here are such genuinely good people. 

Today, I had lunch with Amy and Tonya.  I have never blogged about either of them.  I’m not sure how to explain them to you.  If you have known me the majority of my life, there doesn’t need to be an explanation.  If not, the simplest thing to say is … they are just an extension of who I am, they are part of who I am.  I’m not sure friends or best friends or any other title explains it.  They are just them, and they have a way of popping up (in person) at the most appropriate times in my life.  It was a really good day.  Amy and I have a girls night date Saturday, Tonya is ditching us for her actual non redneck, have a real life and go to the big city friends.  I bet she thinks about us all night Saturday night!  We’ll miss her.  She’ll miss us.  Remind me to tell you sometime about the night I cried all night on a date cause they were out having fun without me.  Yes, it is really that sad. 

Four years ago today was the last time I saw my mom alive.  I miss her terribly.  I’ve really missed her the last few weeks.  I need her guidance in this whole being a mom of adult children thing.  Although, I’m sure she has had a laugh or 12 at my expense over the last couple of weeks.  I think she would say my raising is being paid for.  She would be correct.

My brother changed jobs.  I miss him, Brad and Emma Joy.  I think I need to take a road trip soon. 

My camper misses me, I’m sure of it.

I have read the entire Girl with a Dragon tattoo trilogy in the past 3 weeks.  I’ll tell you all about it later.  Actually, I probably won’t.  I enjoyed the books a lot, but not sure I would really recommend them. 

And that about covers it on this end of the blog.  I do apologize for just poofing the last few weeks.  I have missed you very much. 

Take a chance and come back tomorrow … maybe I will have remembered how to actually compose a blog post by then.

just to spite my mama … I did not spell or grammar check this post.  I’m such a rebel.

me.

#1.  Earlier today, Jeff (please see family tree post) had to be taken to the ER.  He was diagnosed with kidney stones.  The last time I talked with Chrisi, he was feeling some better but they were still planning to keep him overnight.  Please keep him in your prayers.  I know if he went to the hospital, he must have been in some serious pain.  I hope that has subsided some by now and he is on his way to healing. 

#2.  Upon returning home from church, Richard discovered that Anna’s horse Jack had gotten tangled up in barbed wire and has some really bad injuries on his back legs.  We have no idea where any barbed wire even came from, we don’t use it to fence our animals, it may have washed up out of the creek during our recent flooding.  Either way, his legs look bad.  We had a long consultation with the vet, we got the medicines we needed (thank you Shelly and Dad) and Christopher make an emergency run to walmart for bandages (thank you Christopher), Anna, Richard and Christopher got him all wrapped up and he is now resting in his stall hopefully on his way to getting better.  He has to go in to the vet’s office first thing in the morning for follow up.  I’m not sure who I felt worse for … Jack for being hurt, Richard for having to pull barbed wire out of his legs, Anna for being devastated that her horse is injured and having to doctor him, my dad and Christopher for being the official horse holders during the doctoring that was going on or Shelly for having to answer her phone 72 times in 30 minutes.  I do know I am grateful for loving friends and family. 

So now that it’s nearly 1 am and I”m still awake waiting on Anna to come back in, I should probably take myself to bed so I can function tomorrow.

UPDATED TONIGHT …

This will be quick, I seriously need a shower.  I stink, like horse poop.  I dislike horse poop a lot. 

First and most importantly, please continue to remember Jeff in your prayers, he is still in the hospital and the last I spoke to Chrisi, he wasn’t feeling well at all.  He is waiting for the Dr. to come back in sometime tonight to decide what else needs to be done.  

Secondly, I am happy to report, putting aside my dislike for horse dookie, that it appears that Jack will be fine.  He went to the Vet 1st thing this morning and finished getting doctored up, got lots of shots and is now resting in his stall.  Anna is out tonight, so Richard and I got to be in charge of giving him his medicine.  Hate you missed it.  It was interesting. 

I am now off to take a shower and get in bed at a very decent hour.  I’m sure my boss would appreciate me being awake tomorrow and I seriously don’t think I can do another day without sleep.

me.

It was taken Friday night at Baldy’s 60th birthday party at our town’s park.  We had a really fun time.  None of that is what makes this picture funny to me.  Let me share my vantage point of the photo with you …

a) In the picture are Chrisi, Chelsie and Anna. 

b) Anna being up a tree is really no big surprise.  On the other hand, Chrisi and Chelsie being up a tree is a huge surprise.  There was dirt and even a few bugs, they do not typically do dirt or bugs well.

c) It was Cathy’s idea for them to climb the tree to begin with.  Cathy’s mother, Louise, was not in favor of the tree climbing idea.  What you can’t see in the picture are the 15 adults standing around the bottom of the tree just in case one of them falls out.  I’m not sure what any adult may have done if one of the girls had come toppling down out of the tree on top of them except to maybe break their fall and donate some money to our local EMS after the ambulance hauled them away.

d) It gives a whole new meaning to the the definition of the phrase “three little monkey’s sitting in a tree”.

e) It also adds a twisted side note to the notion of “family tree”.  For instance,  Chrisi dates Jeff, who is Chelsie’s uncle, Anna dates Christopher, who is Chelsie’s cousin, which in turn makes Christopher Jeff’s nephew.  Jeff’s oldest sister is my bff Cathy, who also happens to be Christopher’s mama, who is married to his father Jimmy Brown, whom half the population worldwide thinks is the father of my children, which I might point out, he is not their biological father, but has for years been a significant father figure in their lives, they refer to him as their other dad, and Cathy as their other mother.  Which may not seem odd, except now, they are Anna’s boyfriends parents and Chrisi’s boyfriend’s sister and brother in law.  And then, as if that weren’t all confusing enough, Chelsie, who is in the middle and I did not give birth to, belongs to Cathy’s and Jeff’s sister Michele.  Michele is Anna’s boss, her boyfriends Aunt and also my good friend, plus we work at the same courthouse, where her husband Greg also works. 

You got all that sorted out?  Me neither, I’m tired now and I think I may hear banjo’s in the distance. 

me.

We did a little bit of everything and a whole lot of nothing for 2 glorious weeks. 

We ate …

and fished …

and fished with what we ate … yuck!

I’m still not certain if one of the kiddos, chloe or a fish took a bite out of that hot dog and I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know!

And speaking of things I really don’t want to know about …

#1. Michaels choice in attire.

#2. The undeniable fact that my daddy feeds my sister Janie home made ice cream off of my good spoon.

#3. That my youngest daughter has really bad manners, in public, with her mother, who took the picture.

#4. How Jimmy can sleep for hours laying at the pool full of noisy kids.

#5. And last of all … what on earth is Cat digging for in Anna’s laundry basket?  She is a brave woman I tell ya!  (plus this is the only picture of I have of her from vacation because my camera went dead right as I was about to take one of her and she laughed at me and walked off).

Come on back tomorrow night for lots more pictures, I still have a precious plenty of good ones to post!

me.

You know that old saying about friends that you may not see or talk to for long periods of time, but nothing ever changes?  That’s how it is with Robin.  Growing up, we were great friends as well as cousins, she was my maid of honor in my first wedding, we hung out with the same people … you get the picture.  And then we grew up.  She graduated college, unlike yours truly, moved to California and eventually to TX, where she met and married a guy from the town next to our home town.  How weird is that?  You move to TX to meet & marry someone who grew up 20 minutes from your house.  Odd.  Remind me to tell her that’s weird.  The funny thing is … we seldom ever talk.  Sometimes she drops by the blog and leaves me a sweet comment, but other than that, we don’t email often, I don’t even know her cell phone number or her address, but … when we get a chance to hang out, it’s like there is no catching up to do, life just picks up where it left off the last time we visited.  There is no funky or awkward how has life been moments, we just fall right back in to whatever conversation we ended with a year or so ago.  It’s sort of like finding an old pair of bedroom shoes you forgot you had under your bed, putting them on and remembering just how cozy they’ve always been and how well they’ve always fit.  Tonight, our conversation, after a quick catch up on all the girls, was mostly about books we’re reading, books we’ve read and books we want to read.  I had to laugh when she asked what I was reading right now and I told her … it was the very same book she is reading.  We talked about spirituality and one of our favorite shared authors and his new book that she is reading and I haven’t read.  She shared with me about her Jesus action figure that was given to them as a prank but has now become an important part of her personal walk with the Holy Spirit and how God uses it to remind her to pay attention to even the small things on a daily basis. 

As we sat there talking, surrounded by our families, it was hard for me not to feel a bit elated.  Yesterday was a really crappy day.  To be honest, other than my vacation week, the last month or so has been a challenge, but today was a reminder that when we least expect it God sends someone our way to simply remind us (or maybe I should say remind me.) not to get so frustrated by it all.  To revel in the small things of life.  To stop focusing on the negative and embrace the positive that each day brings.  How grateful I am to have  been reminded of His love today and how much more grateful I am that the reminder included some time with someone I truly love.

me.

You know it’s Monday when ..

a) you have Superior Court, Grand Jury and District court all on the same day and the entire courthouse has no air conditioning.

b) you are 2 positions short in your office with no hope of either position being filled in the next who knows how long and your poor co workers are having to take turns shuffling in and out of district court because the docket is so big and they all have their normal jobs to be doing as well.

c) while in the middle of a judgment, your co worker calls from down stairs to tell you to stop whatever you are doing and come down stairs because the courthouse is flooding.  for about 2 seconds you think this is a joke and then realize it is definitely not a joke.  you politely look at the Judge and ask to be excused during the middle of court because your office and all of your possessions are fixin’ to float away.  you walk (because I do not run … ever) down the stairs to find that the entire lower part of the courthouse is now about a foot under water.  in front of you is your sheriff, pant legs rolled up, no shoes, sweeping water as fast as he can go.  your clerk, as in my boss, is knee deep with a mop in one hand and a broom in the other, sweeping & mopping as fast as he could go.  thank goodness for the vault door that separates my office from our front office, the khaki pants under my desk and boxes full of files waiting to be shredded.

So, that pretty much sums up my Monday … how did your week start off?

me.