This is the life!

Today we celebrate! We won the lottery and we are so excited about that. We have already made plans to 'winter in the south'. I don't know what will happen with the feral cats or the birds, I'm not sure I can find someone reliable to look after them. At least with the birds the habitat here is set up to supply them with food and shelter but they do need the suet and seed as an additional source.
The great thing about winning now is that real estate is cheap these days so we can get a house somewhere warm for much less than it would have cost a year or two ago and I know we really don't have to worry about that now but we know we won't spend more than a few months a year there so why spend money where you don't have to. We are going to check out the area around where my sister moved last year. She says its been in the 70s and 80s the last week or so. That sounds pretty good to me right about now. All the same she has already gone thru 2 hurricanes since she moved there, don't know if that sounds good. Guess it better be a brick house huh! Mayor Jim's term is up very soon, thank goodness, so we don't have anything that really ties us here. All of our relatives live in other states and most of our customers too. Good thing we can take our business anywhere we have an internet connection!
I want to open a nutrition club too but couldn't here because there just aren't enough people to make it go. I know that will not be the case when we move and I'll have at least 3 months to find someone to run it during the summer. With this economy that should be a piece of cake.
I've already started packing!!!

The Day after Christmas

Back to the grind. The day after Christmas welcomed us this year with a sewer problem. Fortunately, the house didn't get flooded with sewage however, the toliet had to be taken out and the problem fixed from there, it was clogged out in the yard and we were blessed when a bladder with a hose attached forced the clog on into the septic. Problem solved but still-yuck! At least it was an unseasonably warm day so that was much better than the single digit weather we've been having. Yeah, I still hate winter.

But I feel spring just around the corner, the days are already getting longer-I love that. And I'm happy that all that food I ate yesterday that was really not so good for me didn't make me feel half as bad today as I thought it would. I usually eat healthy and limit the carbs but not yesterday! I think I feel this good because I did limit my sweets. I cut out most sugar several years ago and if I have too much then I feel like I have arthritis in my knee and elbow. Strange isn't it? Not if you think about it. Sugar is not good for you and too much of anything is often stored in the body because it can't get rid of it all at once. It gets deposited in joints-and that shows up as arthritis for most of us. How you feel every day has everything to do with what you put in your mouth. But enough preaching about nutrition-Its the holidays! Well sort of. New Years is coming fast!

Christmas Party!! Yay!

Tonite is our annual town Christmas party. How many people can say that their town has an annual Christmas party everyone is invited to (and that everyone who can will attend) where every boy and girl-of every age-will receive a gift from Santa? See, just another cool thing about living way out in east Egypt.
The really wonderful part is the pot luck dinner. Well, ok, its good to see all of the people and visit with them but since people bring their best dishes, this dinner is a feast! The meat is provided by the town so people bring sides and desserts. Everyone wants to have the side dish everyone is talking about. And the dessert that's gone in ten seconds.
Some people bring the same thing year after year because they don't want to hear about it for the next year but then they'll bring another dish because they want to try something new too. Almost everything is made from scratch too including the dinner rolls.
I am planning to make BBQ Green Beans and a corn dish that I don't have a name for. You cook frozen corn in a bit of water, drain it. Add Mayo, butter and Galic & Herb seasoning. Heat til bubbly. Yum. And don't be thinking, mayo. Yuck. No, no, no. You have to try it and see for yourself. It doesn't taste like mayonnaise at all. I think I'll make a cheesecake too, maybe a snickers cheesecake. Usually I make brownies, I love brownies and have almost 100 different recipes for brownies of every description. Ok, maybe I'll make a cheesecake brownie. Or a souffle brownie. Yeah, that's the ticket.

I did it!

Yes, I did. I got those Christmas cards out. At the last possible minute. I mean that too. If they had gone out one bit later, everyone would have gotten them on the 26th or later. Some might yet get them late. Like I care. Oh wait I do care. But not enough to get them filled out earlier. So that is my New Years resolution-to fill out and send my Christmas cards but the first Saturday in December. Is it cheating if I buy them at the post holiday season and get most of them ready right away? I could even address them and if someone moves I could just print a label and stick it on over the written address. Yes, Yes I will do that. Ha! And I won't feel bad at all. Not one bit because it is really no different than buying one gift a month so I don't have to shop between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Woo hoo!
So while I am on the subject of Christmas cards I have to say how much I hate preprinted cards. How hard is it to sign your name for cripes sake? And the other thing I despise the postcards type cards with photos of kids or pets or both or whatever-that is NOT a card. If you must send it, put it inside a card, get a clue! People like to display their Christmas cards on the mantle etc. so postcards suck. Don't do that to people you love. or even like. And sign the darned things, how much time could that possibly take? Get a freakin stamp of your signature if you have to, they make them so you can't even tell its not a signature you know.

Christmas Cards for Everyone? Anyone?

I used to love the whole Christmas card thing. Making a list, picking out the cards, writing a little personal note in each card, finding the perfect Christmas stamp and dropping the cards in the mail. Somewhere in time, and if I was forced to make a guess I'd say about 5 years ago, it stopped being fun and started to be too much work. The notes got shorter. In fact last year, very few people got any note at all, most just got a happy holidays or merry Christmas. So where did my Christmas spirit go? If I knew the answer to that one, I'd go and get it back!
I have put this 'chore' off longer each year. Now, if I don't get my cards done today and in the mail, they simply will not arrive in time because almost all of them go out of state. Great, pressure to do what I already don't want to do. I even entertained the idea of not sending them out at all. Don't think that'd go over well. 30 years I send them out and then nothing? People would be asking too many questions-like 'are you insane? You were the one that always bitched at me if I didn't send you a card and then you don't send me one!' So you see, I am required to send them out whether or not I feel like it. But hey, it won't be so bad, I'll just eat the crust first. Instead of going for the easy ones first, I'll tackle the ones I have to write notes in, like to my aunt and uncle. I'll be so eager to get to the easy ones that I'll fly thru all the tough ones. Yeah, that's what I'll do. And even easier, I'll just write about the weather lately and the flood earlier this year. Whew. I'm half done already!

A Perfect Day to Stay Inside

Today would have been a perfect day to stay inside. A bone chilling 9 degrees, snow falling fast and furious, ice already on the streets from Sunday night. Warm and toasty sounds like the way to go on a day like today right? But no. Jim had an appointment for a follow up and eye exam at what is, for me, the crack of dawn. And it wasn't that 8:45 is actually all that early, but since the roads were bad we had to leave even earlier than the 40 minutes it usually takes and I of course, must get cleaned up (and wake up) before I can go out in public, hence rising at the crack of dawn.
So we leave the house. Go to the doctor. He has his exam, gets new contacts-no bifocal lens' this time. And we leave.
But. It's crappy out there and as long as we are out anyway we simply must go shopping. And you guessed it, no lots plowed yet, snow still flying. It wasn't a long walk to the door but still. My boots & the bottoms of my jeans (flannel lined no less), pristine before exiting the vehicle, are now covered with nasty, dirty snow. My hair is instantly frizzy-and its curly anyway so frizzy is usually not a problem but...snow has blown in my face too, my mascara has smeared. I was all bundled up (its amazing how as you age you see why people will sacrifice beauty for comfort) and looking like a bag lady.
Where is July when you need it!
But enough complaints. I started this blog as a ray of sunshine-can you tell? Somehow it has morphed into something less than I wanted it to be. I must change my focus. Maybe in the Spring....

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

OMG, its flippin cold outside! And icy!!! But thank the stars its not half as icy as they predicted. I hate it when we get ice because its so hard on the trees and bushes. Its not good for people but its devestating to trees and power lines for that matter!
The two little feral kittens that have been begging meals for the past few months actually ran into the garage (to the chow bowls) to eat today. They usually never go in there because they don't want to risk being trapped in there but hunger and cold were bigger concerns than 'safety'.
Those two are so cute too. I wish they weren't feral, especially the yellow one, it is a beautiful cat.
I laughed when one of my house cats insisted she wanted to go out this afternoon. I let her out. She took two steps and stopped dead in her tracks. I was of course standing right there, I can't let her out without supervision, so I opened the door back up and yes, she RAN back inside. Didn't ask again either. They say you can't tame a feral cat but she was feral, just showed up one day and said if I didn't feed her she'd just eat my song birds. Love them too much to let that happen. I had 2 housecats back then so she stayed in the garage. Over the winter one of my cats died and the other was really old-she is actually still alive, I think she is senile and she doesn't realize she's old as the hills) and the yard cat moved in. That was 5 years ago. But she has no cat friends so I can't move any other strays in without serious trouble. oh well, somebody else needs to step up and take care of these babies. Think that'll happen???

All I want for Christmas

All I want for Christmas is for all of the stupid tv commercials to go away forever. Yeah, I know it won't happen. Doesn't stop me from wishing tho. I can remember somewhere I read that advertisers either want their commercials to be funny or annoying so they will be remembered. My list doesn't really include annoying commercials just stupid ones so hey, maybe I do have a chance after all.
So which commercials have I deemed stupid?
1. Any Fathead commercials-viable product stupid ads
2.Mucinex-I think they were going for humor but ended up with stupid
3. Capital 1 Credit Cards-again I think they were going for funny but missed the mark
4. Any commercials that feature Billy Mays-do I need to say more?
5. Gieco (did I spell that right?)-Yeah, a couple of them are cute but mostly stupid, stupid, stupid
6. At &T-T-rex instead of the friendly dinosauer-yeah right-stupid some of their others are cute
7. The one with Ozzy Osborne-like he has the coffee guy and taxi drivers cell # in his cell phone!
8.The paper towel commercials with moms being ok that their kids are making serious messes
9. The asthma medicine commercial where the woman says, turns out asthma isnt curable, duh!
10. The Nationwide commercial where the woman is supposed to be on a game show and shes going for the car insurance, this has got to be one of the all time stupidest commercials ever, ever, ever.

And I know that some of you will argue that I knew the products or the company when I made this list but no. I had to write them down to remember them and as you can see some of them I haven't seen for a couple of days so I couldn't even do that. Also, yes, yes, yes, I do know that there are many more stupid commercials but that said there are also clever, cute or funny commercials and it is my personal belief that all should aspire to be in that category. End of story.

Smells like Christmas Spirit

The Christmas season is bittersweet for us these days. I can remember when we were 23, 24 years old and fighting because I insisted we visit all of our parents and grandparents. Both of us had parents that divorced and remarried. And to go see them all took several hours and almost 200 hundred miles. Now almost all of them have passed. What we would give to have to juggle our schedules and spend half the day on the road just to make sure we saw them all on Christmas. It was so worth the stress.
But don't sit there thinking we spend Christmas bummed out. Oh no, we still have some family and lots of friends plus these days we have grandchildren so Christmas is good.
If we could just have one wish though, it would be that Christmas be in July! Brrrr!!!

Sidewalk Blues

Ok, so since I started this blog I started looking at other blogs and I came across one called Sidewalk Shoes. She posts all kinds of recipes she is trying-and she is always trying new stuff. And that stuff looks good even when its got ingredients I don't even like!
Now don't get me wrong, I am not hating her or anything. Nor do I hate to cook. Sometimes. But sometimes I just do not feel like cooking and that usually lasts for several months. Then I will feel like cooking for a while. But what I have found is A. My husband and I do not always like the same things B. the grocery store is so far away I must plan ahead C too many times I have done that and then not been able to find the stinkin recipe I wanted to try! And I have thousands and thousands of recipes! And there are thousands (a conservative estimate I know) more online, free for the searching if, that is, you can remember the flippin name of the dish! Arrgh! And finally D I already have a back;og of people I am baking for so I don't have time to cook for myself nor do I have 2 ovens. By dinner time I usually con Jim into cooking by threatening peanut butter & jelly sandwiches-gets him every time! But his work is going to be taking him on the road soon so I'll have to cook for myself, oh well it could be worse.

What's so good about Winter?

Being a cold weather hater, and by that I mean; I don't like layers of clothes, I don't like snow or cold or static electricity, short daylight hours-do I really need to go on? Being a cold weather hater, I must say the one thing I like is the birds that I see more of during the winter. Some because they don't summer in this neck of the woods and some because without leaves on the trees they can't hide like they want to. So in no particular order here is a list of my favorite Fall/Winter birds
Great White Pelicans-awesomely beautiful in flight we get to see tens of thousands migrate thru
American Bald Eagles-way cool to watch them float by on pieces of ice, teaching their young to 'fish'
Carolina Wren-I have one year round but in the Winter they stick together & many will come-one of the few birds to sing year round
Tufted Titmouse-a lively little bird that's pretty too
Cardinal-like the last two, I have these year round, but in winter when I see a dozen or more in my dawn redwood tree, they look like ornaments in the tree
Nuthatch-see Titmouse
Bluejay-see Cardinal but with noise
American Goldfinches-yeah ok, almost all of the birds I am naming are year round visitors but I like them
Snow Geese-last year we had a daily show of thousands of these birds flying over-loved it
Red Bellied Woodpeckers-along with the Downy and Hairy, always welcome at my feeders
The birds are constant reminders of the beauty of nature and life and I wish everyone could see them every day.

It's Deer Season!

It's just amazing to me how our little county can attract people from all over the nation for a few weeks every year. We don't have fancy restaurants, heck the only chain we have in the entire county is Subway and it struggles, all other businesses are independents and there aren't that many of them either. As a matter of fact, you can only get gas at three places in the county, none are open 24/7 and even in a county this small, it's be 20 miles to get gas. There are no amusement parks, nor historical monuments, well actually there are lots of Native American burial & ancient living sites but all are either state, federal or privately owned and none are open to the public. They do have a tiny museum though. Blink and you'll miss it.
So why do we get twice the local population at this time of year? Deer Hunters. Duck Hunters. Goose Hunters. They come from all over and pay big money to hunt here. The average is 3K for one weekend. And we have deer out the wazoo. There's pretty many ducks and geese too but in January and February (after the season ends) we'll have tens of thousands of snow geese-aren't they smart to wait!
Oh well, they bring money into the county and even though I don't hunt I understand the need, we would be overrun with deer (and most years we are even with hunting) if not for the hunters. I don't know one single driver that hasn't hit at least one deer in this county. In 17 years I have only hit one & I managed to slow down enough to just bump it, but it did knock her down. I was bummed til she jumped up and ran away. One other time a deer and my vehicle collided but that was a deer running into the side of my truck and it hit the wheel so no damage either time. Yes, that deer was okay too albeit a bit scuffed up. Those buggers are tough!

Todays Top Story!!!

I have a dream. It's a small dream but a dream nonetheless. I dream of a day when people aren't always thinking about things like;

1. Do these pants make my ass look fat?
2. What's Brittany doing today?
3. My daughter only got 600 texts last month, why isn't she more popular?
4. If I eat this, will it give me gas?
5. Is that cop following me?
6. Where should we eat tonite?
7. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
8. Is my video as good as Paris Hilton's?
9. What should I watch tonight?
10. OMG! Is that a gray hair??!!

So why is that my dream? Some of these thoughts are a waste of time. Okay, most of em are. And the rest are negative based thinking. I mean, if you are going to be thinking anyway, why not have positive thoughts, why not try to see the silver lining? How I feel when I wake up in the morning has drastically changed since I learned that lesson. How satisfied I am with myself, my life, my husband and my family and turned around totally too. Give it a try, wake up every morning like its the first day of your vacation. Afirm only what you want; I only take good photos, I look great in this outfit, I am great, my family is great, my life is great, could it get any better? At first, it may seem like a lie but live into it! After all, when you have a choice to go for a happy life or a not so happy life do you really want to look back and say, I could have been happy if I'd have just realized you don't sweat the small stuff and pretty much everything is small stuff.
And oh yeah, duh, all life comes from an egg. YOU came from an egg for goodness sakes! The queston isn't which came first the chicken or the chicken egg!

Random Bits of Stuff

How funny it is that I was going to call this post random bits of crap but when I saw the word crap it just seemed so negative. Its gloomy outside again today and I just could not give in to that because I personally feel so grateful for every beautiful day, whether or not I get to see the sun shining. I remember a few years ago when my sister and I traveled by car to San Jose, California via New Mexico and Arizona so she could see the Painted Desert and the Grand Canyon.
I had been there before and loved it. We had traveled from our first stop in Okalhoma until after dark so when we woke up she got her first sight of the desert (I didn't count western Texas cause its just not the same!) I thought she was going to be as enchanted as I was but all she could say is I don't like it! I didn't quite know what to say but I managed 'But isn't is beautiful?' to which she replied 'I guess in a dark sort of terrible way it's beautiful' I was flabbergasted. For many miles we saw similar views and I said not one word about them, afraid her disdain would ruin my perception of the beauty. Finally, we saw the Painted Desert and she loved that. Then we saw the Grand Canyon and she loved that and I said 'I thought you thought the desert was ugly and depressing?' 'Well, this is different' Really? Not to me. Sure the two parks are spectacular but the desert is pretty much the same. Are you were looking at a mountain with the dawn sky a beautiful pink/purple and calling it sad? I just don't get her sometimes. We no longer speak of scenic vistas and what is beautiful and what is not. These days I only travel with Jim. We usually see eye to eye on these sorts of things.
Jim is on the phone right now with a lady that has lost a pound a day for 18 days in a row & she says she feel so much energy she can't believe it. Helping people is a beautiful thing too.