My Daughter's Ideas.

 My daughter has a knack for fixing up everything. I really like it but it also makes me feel a bit over the hill. I remember when it was me who had all the creative energy and ideas. Now I sit back and watch the improvements. She just rearranges a bit of this and that achieving a much better result.

I KNOW I look better. Even the southern ladies at church who are masters of the serious poker face cannot help but drop their chins when they see me. In a good way!  I am my daughters best marketer. She needs a business card for makeovers. I am a walking advertisement. People are actually dumbfounded that I can look this good. Which I realize does not say much for what I accomplished or didn't on my own. 

I was thinking about doing a post about makeup. She is so good at it that when she is working on my eyes one can look bigger and brighter than the other. She does that with concealer and highlights. The cool thing is we use some pretty cheap stuff. We aren't on a Lancome budget here.

Now that the house, my wardrobe, my make up and both of us have new hair do's has been accomplished; the next project is our weight.  I said it, I really did without even hacking a line through that dreaded word. No sugar.  WHAT? No sugar. Not any, like not in starch either.

To seal the deal on the sale my little sales girl tells me I can have "sugar free candy" OK. Have you ever eaten sugar free candy? It's delicious really it is. I was eating it wondering why lots of people didn't eat this stuff. My daughter walks by and says, "MOM HOW MUCH OF THAT HAVE YOU EATEN?"
Smack slurp smack, mouth full answers,"dunno maybe sith peeessssis." Daughter smiles, laughs and says "OH NO!!!!" I quit smacking,"whas tho funnnnnie?"

I would soon find out what is NOT tho funny. Sugar free candy and maltitol give most people gas. Not just a little bit of gas. The kind of ripping that country red neck truck drivers like to make jokes about! The hot yellow sulphur cloud of fumes burning your eyes bohiney out kind. My husband went through the living room waving his arms, "OH MY WORD," and glares at the dog. Sometimes our dog being our best friend goes above and beyond the call of duty you know your in trouble when the dog leaves the room.


I purchased a large box of Gas X to go with my daughters "way of eating." Since she does most of the cooking around here and I always want what she makes. I also really like the sugar free candy but NOT 6 pieces ever again not even Gas X can handle that. Being just a little competitive I want to loose some weight for spring too.  But I only want to loose weight, not all my friends and family, and I just got my dog.

How did you spend your weekend? Try anything new?

Hankering for Spring.

In the summer this is what we enjoy.

In the winter it turns into this. 

Brown MESS.

 One thing that I like about living here is experiencing all four seasons. I am not referring to turkey season, deer season, fishing season, etc...I am talking about spring, summer, fall, and winter. It has been a very cold and dreary winter this year. We have had so many dark cloudy, rainy days, not to mention severe thunder storms and tornados. Weather affects my mood and after awhile I just plain get tired of all this dead stuff. When I start fussing about being HAWT and sweaty you can remind me that I am asking for it.

This bare patch will come to life soon. The green is WEEDS. How do these things survive any type of conditions?  I can almost inhale this. I can feel the moist warm air and taste some fresh lemonade.

 I am very ready for some beauty.

 This desolate looking area will also come back to life.

Hard to believe isn't it? This is my proof of the promise that is coming. Warm days, warm hearts, and the joy of spring. The romance of warm fires and soup is over. My fingers are shriveled up from being chilled. My body is truly on the mend and I can play a little bit at a time. After a winter of recovering from trauma my body and soul are extra ready.

 Today the sun is shining and it makes even this look better than it really is.

I had an idea about bringing some spring to my window ahead of schedule.

 How do you like my green thumb in the dead of winter? Aren't you impressed with me?
I'm pulling some real old lady shenanigans. Don't you love the Dollar Store?

The cat helped me fix these pots up. He let me know what looked the best. He let me know when it was done by posing for his picture.  I do believe Puffins is becoming a show cat.

We are having 4 days of sun with very cold temperatures thirties and forties, but I'll take the frozen fingers and ears to be out and enjoy it. The only thing to do now is work on the hard scape. Prune trees, spray them with dormant oil, and move bulbs around. I'm late but it doesn't matter. I'm to the phase in this place of having huge quantities of things. I remember when we first came here and there was nothing. It was a big deal to plant a dozen bulbs. Ten years later they have multiplied to a nice large amount and there are always little areas asking for a bit of perking up.

A lot of you are probably deep in this. We didn't get any this year. Your probably pishawing at my freezing cold temperatures. A Southern girl can only handle so much! I was hoping for a little snow for the grand children to enjoy. Now we can just pass and move right on into the flowers.

What about you are you ready to warm up?

 These guys are.

Roman says, "whatcha lookin at?" Seriously I am looking at how TALL this big black dog is.  Part pooda-pony  I think. The size of those cow pies outside measure up too.

That's all the cold air we can manage today, back inside and spend some time with you.

Sunny Saturday Salutations

Don't you hate excuses? I do but I'm going to make one.  I have been having a hard time finding the time to blog. You would think I had all the time in the world wouldn't you? It takes me a long time to get to do anything. I have to think and plan, considering how it will impact my right arm. If you think your tired of hearing about it, I can tell you loudly that I am tired of living with it. HOWEVER having a good attitude instead of a bitchy inpatient one is paramont to overcoming a tough situation.  That's what we preach anyway.  Actually I am making progress. I'm at the dangerous time where I feel good enough to get hurt. Self restraint is not my best attribute.  To get the most of feeling good I use my left hand and it is getting really smart. Don't tell me old dogs can't learn new tricks, can too.

  Not all days are good. Some days I just get up and don't bother to brush my hair. I need to stop doing that because Jennifer is always on the prowl to get a ridiculous picture of her mom. She takes this new "hobby" to a whole new dimension.  My aim is to please. The picture behind me is our new great grand baby!

I TRY and get goofy pictures of Jennifer to retaliate but for Pete's sake she is so pretty, it is really hard to do! Disgusting.

My puppy is a big boy now and he loves to lean on me. I love it. Roman is getting his act together. It made a huge difference to get him neutered. I have no idea how people actually make a male dog into a good pet with their "goods" intact. He was becoming a PEST!

Look at these! Cooking again has made me so happy.  The evening I baked these my Hunny's buddy dropped in to watch football together.  Their team won. We could tell because of all the hooting, stomping and chunks of sheet rock falling from the ceiling that it was a great game. The guys made a serious dent in these pies and they had a blast. So satisfying to bring some joy into my home again. *SMILES*

My beastie is up to 60 pounds. Remember when he was just a wee little baby boy? He is 9 months old now so he may grow a bit more and that's fine with me.

We are trying to get the "hard scape" of our garden in order and are pruning, and rearranging some plants, bulbs and bushes. I boss and everybody else  does the work. So there is a little silver lining in the rain cloud. Of course I would NEVA take advantage of that!!! Wicked little giggle.


Have a great weekend! We are going to have 3 sunny days and I am taking advantage before more rain comes to town.

A New's Update.

Our Christmas was FABULOUS!!! For one I felt GOOD! First miracle, my hunny bought me an AMAZING Christmas gift, 2nd miracle, and our church adopted Jen's children and they had an amazing abundance of gifts, 3rd miracle. Truly Jesus makes a much better Santa we were mind blown.

I have NEVER seen so many presents. They were piled all the way around the tree stacked up and spilling over. There were just tons of them, not literally but it felt like it. That is the first christmas morning that actually took some TIME to get everything opened. Yep another miracle.

Somebody really wanted a bike and he got one!

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care and stuffed!!!

  Bay blades the new rage for boys. Some ole hillbilly made his millions with the basic top. Papa knew all about playing with these and even won a couple of rounds. Boys will be boys no matter what age and this was Pa's favorite. He liked it much better than new slippers. I need to work on that next year.

This is not a flattering picture, but my daughter took a picture of me blowing some leaves and I actually put in one small box of irises by myself. I am SO much better!!! I can dress myself and can cook again.
I have not been able to chop an onion for 6 months. No hand work. I am getting there, my arm does not raise up but I am working on it HARD! I WANNA GO BACK TO SOME KIND OF WORK!

This little bee charmer just may end up really spoiled, could you resist this?  I told him when the girls start calling we are going to lock him up! Lawdy he is a doll.

This is my real smile. Remember that? It's been a while since it's been around. I know because my smiling muscles can feel the workout, tee hee.

These need no explanation. This is what kids do. They table train cats to join them for a snack.

 Puffins has got the hang of it too.

 Yep definitely got it.

 Will you look at that little pink tongue, kitty has got his groove on.

 and so does the charmer.

and yeah she was in on the whole thing. We have all lost 19 pounds now. That happens without any Christmas baking. I love Christmas baking. Next year I'll bake my cookies and get fat.

Just a bit more news. Roman is on a hunger strike. He has been demoted to plain dry dog food. When you have a lot of people to feed the dog loses his fancy status. He still will not come. Stubborn!! You may see us on the dog whisperer yet.

I started the New year out by deleting practically the whole computer, nearly having a stroke or heart attack, because ALL my pictures were gone!!! Don't ever say blondes are dumb. My daughter recovered all my files and all my photos, and I was UBER impressed! I was trying to clean up the computer and get ready to do some posts. After that "shock and awe" I had to take a break. My other nerve wrecker is that Kayla called to say,"Don't worry we are in a nice warm tent and sleeping bags." Yeah right, camping in the snow is so good for your health. FREAK!!!

Every day has been so busy. I'm coming back from the almost dead. I'll try and post a bit more often. Just how did I post every day anyway? Now it seems like there is no time, and that is without cooking. I haven't baked any bread yet. My starter is trash I think, but just some simple whole wheat sounds so good. My therapy appointments are often in the middle of the day and it breaks up the day, into a more non productive use of time. Keeping the main thing, the main thing the therapy is the most important "thing" I do right now.
My hand has stopped shaking and jerking too. Typing still makes my wrist sore and my fingers aren't too happy but I think at this point it's actually good for them, so we are back in the saddle again.

I feel so excited and happy. I hope you're all doing well and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!!