I want to move

I am really at that point, friends, of wanting to move away and start fresh. Just get away from everything and start with a clean slate. My children have been hurt too many times, my heart has been broken too many times. Starting in a new place would be hard and have a period of adjustment. I would miss some people for sure, but that is what Skype and email and summers are for. Social media has become a horrible nightmarish monster for kids and parents alike. I feel like I am constantly steeling myself for new reports of "I saw ____ on Facebook and you child wasn't with them. Did you know they were left out?". "Why wasn't (insert child here) at ____'s party?". Uh, well they weren't invited. It sucks. And children are given access to social media before the given age listed in the rules for the website. They are not emotionally mature enough to handle the responsibility of using said media. Their parents don't understand why we don't allow our children to have these apps until the actual given date. I'm not saying every child is not responsible. Not at all. But boy those who aren't really know how to tear a person down. My sixth grader is the only one of her friends not to have Instagram. She is eleven. And she will not have it until she fulfills the requirement of rule number one: you must be 13.

Sorry. I will get off of my high horse. When my iphone account is linked to those of my children and therefore I receive all of their text messages on my phone(annoying but informative), I see things arriving that hurt my heart and scare the crap out of me. No, I can't shelter my children forever, but I can sure do my absolute best to shape them into responsible and kind young people. No I can't keep them from hurt feelings or hurting feelings, but I can make for damn sure that they don't want to make anyone feel hurt on purpose.

I'm going to try to go to bed and sleep. I doubt it will happen.


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Spoons and Star Wars

We had a rare Sunday afternoon that was free of youth choir and bells and other things, so we took advantage. Lazy Sundays are a welcome gift and I was so grateful for the time with the family. Sure, we've had a Thanksgiving break here recently, but just time as the five of us is rare. Today we chose to have a viewing of "The Empire Strikes Back" just to get everyone primed and ready for the new Star Wars movie that is coming. I still cried when Han Solo was frozen in carbonite...I went into a dark period of mourning when I first saw the movie in the theatre. My big brother could not console me. It was a rough time. The boy reacted appropriately at the "Luke, I am your father..." with a "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!". Hopefully "The Return of the Jedi" will be a big hit with the kids as well. After the movie and dinner, we played several rounds of Spoons. The violence got real, but at least no one lost a finger or had any blood drawn. Some bruising maybe, but no breaks. There was a lot of yelling and laughter and smack talk. Oh how I love family card games!

Night all.


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Nice quiet day

After the long Black Friday of yesterday, I was happy to not be committed to much of anything except for community meal in the evening. I took the boy the a shoe store to support Small Business Saturday. I took him to the Dollar Tree so he could peruse the wonders it held. I took a nap and watched a movie. I didn't watch the Hokies game until the end when I knew they were going to win. Remember my jinxing ability for my favorite team? Our winning of the Commonwealth Cup was an extra sweet one as it meant VaTech would be going to its 23rd consecutive bowl game. Is it a National Championship? No, but it is a post season game and Frank Beamer can go out with that in his last game before retirement. They carried him off the field...a hero's treatment. I will always love Feank Beamer. He is a class act through and through.

Night all.



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No need for bail money

Well, we survived Black Friday and did not have to visit a bail bondsmen to free us from mall jail. There was a sketchy point in a popular bath product store that often has "Buy 4 get 7 free" kinds of deals. An employee with a red ping pong paddle looking thing(God bless her)stood in the store yelling at customers to show them the new back of the line. Line cutters beware. There were hand sanitizers and body sprays and soaps everywhere. In order to get out of the store with my children, I nearly took a lady with 17 bags out...I apologized profusely. Couldn't lose my kids in a mall. All I have to say is, I am wxtremely grateful that I haven't had to work retail in a while AND I am extremely grateful to those who worked today, were kind and maintained their Christmas spirit. I had some success. I'll take it. Tomorrow....I rest...and maybe look for a tree.

Night all.


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Tom Turkey Tired

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day here. A bit of lazy day fun and then crazy turkey fun with a mess of family. So much food and laughter and children and laughter and family and laughter and food again and laughter. We are beyond blessed this day and every day for the bounty God has blessed us with. SO very fortunate.

Tomorrow brings with it Black Friday shopping with the girls and people watching galore. Also there may even be a moist maker sandwich in our future with leftovers. Post dinner wrap up has brought with it dirty dishes, a stopped up toilet and the hub making an emergency trip to a now open for Christmas shopping store so he can stand in long lines with the crazies to buy a bottle of Draino. Pray for him...I may be searching for bail money.

Night all and happy Thanksgiving to you, dear readers!


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Cooked out

It has been a cooking blitz day here as it was in many homes across the country I'm sure. I love cooking for Thanksgiving. I set up my ipad, turn on Netflix or some music and get cook-a-lookin'. This morning I put a cake in the oven at bout 8:45, took the dog for a walk and came back in time to get it out. Not a bad start. My oldest baked a cake as well to use in a trifle, which is lovely and yummy looking. I got the sausage-cornbread sausage made and two pecan pies in the oven. Then G and I got down to business. Our nephew from Nigera(who is living in the midwest)is coming in and we always like to try some dishes that hopefully taste familiar to him. We have made Jollof rice before and he said it was a good American interpretation, so we got to working on it. It turned out to be tasty enough last time(not my cooking skills...a great recipe)that we decided we would double it. It requires a lot of ingredients and a lot of steps. A LOT of steps. We got started on it a little before 2pm and I finally turned the stove off declaring it complete at 5:15pm. There is a lot of boiling and parboiling and more boiling and pureeing and boiling and reducing and waiting. Let's say this: my fingers are burning from the 5, yes 5, habanero peppers that went in it. I knew to wear gloves, but I didn't and I am paying for it now post steamy shower. I also made Shuku Shuku, which is coconut balls. A dessert cookie puff thing. I hope they will be a welcome sight to him. The boy and I played a game of War on the kitchen floor while we waited for them to bake. A fun time was had by all.



I have a feeling they might not do a whole lot of Green Bean Casserole and cranberry sauce in the shape of the can in Africa. Who knows? Tomorrow brings mashed potatoes, GBC(aforementioned casserole) and pepper jelly and crackers. And then eating and conking out in time to get up to take the teenager Black Friday shopping. She enjoys the sport and has managed to complete her shopping for Christmas on that day. More power to her.

For now, I am going to lay down, listen to my children cheer and yell and Survivor and drift off to sleep...I hope. Night all.








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Time for a break

Our Thanksgiving Break has begun, thank goodness. I think this break could not have come at a better time. The kids are cooked and they need sleep and a break from studies. I need it as much as they do I think. I will not argue about sleeping in a tiny little bit tomorrow. The cooking will last all day, so I will be grateful for the extra sleep. I am also grateful for the extra time with family. We just don't get uch of it these days. I'll take what I can get.

I'm going to go watch a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving with my people now. I plan to have plenty of feast preparation pictures for you tomorrow.

Night all. I'll leave you with a picture of the Doberman that waited in the barber shop with us. That wasn't intimidating at all.


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New Adventures of Copper dog

Our chocolate pup has been smelling a bit gamey the last couple of weeks and has been in need of a bath. All of our options were less than palatable, to be quite honest, but something needed to be done...and soon. Option number one: Give her a bath in the bathtub. Uh, no. We have remodeled and this dog is strong and crazy. We did not want to be re-remodeling over the holidays. Option number two: One person hold her by the collar or leash while at least two others vainly attempt to soak her enough to work up a lather on her hair whilst she goes into a crocodile inspired death roll in a pile of leaves on a 35 degree day. Double no. Option three: Bite the bullet and spend the money at a national chain pet store/groomer where we have gone before. She'll get a "Very Berry Facial Wash" and they will give us a report card that says she wouldn't let them cut her nails and that she was spooked by the hair dryer. What to do, what to do. Then the hub remembered that there night be a dog wash not far from our home. We checked it out and decided, what the hey, we'll try it. The last home bath given this summer ended in a "Copper, you are better than this!!!" and a broken collar, so she got a new one for the experience. I think she knew something was up. She was right.



You know things are going to be interesting when the dog wash is located in the back of the car wash...and run in a very similar way. She took it in stride, but was not a fan of the hair dryer. If it had been a person, they would have lost a hand.



Again, she took it in stride. She is so soft and yummy smelling. She may be plotting her revenge. Stay tuned.

I'm going to bed now. It has been a strange day.

Night all.
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My fingers are sore

As I have spoken about in recent days, I have a small obsession with Sam Cooke and his velvety smooth voice. I've known his music, but ever since I went to see the movie "Innerspace" in high school and bought the soundtrack with Sam's music on it, well I've been hooked. Now that I am a ukulele geek, I work on figuring out his songs so I can have yet another way to annoy my family. Tonight I worked on "Nothing Can Change This Love". I believe I may lose a few fingers here soon. I sang it to G who was kind enough to indulge me. I think I'm going to have to learn a One Direction song next in order to gain any credibility back wih her as some sort of human being. Don't know if that will work, but I'm up for the challenge. But right now, I need to rest my fingers...after I finish typing.

Night all.


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End of an era

Our beloved coach, Frank Beamer, had his last home game at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, VA today. While I would have loved to be there, it was much more important for the hub, my dad and the boy to be there. As a right of passage in this house, in the year you turn 8, you get to attend your first VaTech game. We figured at that age one would be able to understand the rudiments of the game, be able to control their behavior and bladder(even though some of the grown ups there can't) and generally enjoy the experience as a whole. The hub was great about sending me pictures throughout the day and even sent video of the stadium jumping it out to Metallica. It was bittersweet for sure to see Frank run in with his boys for the last time. On days like this, I am prouder than ever to be a Virginia Tech graduate who had the privilege to see Coach Beamer on the sidelines and in every day life. He was as gracious in the grocery store as he was in the stadium. He is a pillar of the university and I am so very grateful for his example and influence. I am also so grateful that all of my children were able to see him coach in person.

Thank you, Frank Beamer. You are loved and appreciated by so many.



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Update confusion

Being married to an IT genius, you'd thik I would be up to date on everything computer device related. I am a creature of habit and routine and that attitude doesn't always jive with devices that require constant updating. Unfortunately for me, I could see the time approaching that I would have to update my ipad. It was limping along and struggling on its operating system that should have been updated a good year or more ago. Yes, IT people who know what that means, I have been opearting on an inferior operating system for over a year. My day of reckoning came when I asked the hub to switch out some of the TV shows/movies that I had on the ipad and put some different ones floating around in the cloud on there. "I'm going to have to go ahead and update it to the current OS...are you going to be okay with that?". Sigh. "I guess I don't have a choice. Will you just make sure all of my apps come back?". The poor man labored and toiled over this antique of an ipad and finally got it updated. My problem now? Everything looks different and I am confused. I know I'll love it if I can just figure it out. Gotta keep these antiques alive and kicking the best we can. I'll keep you updated on my progress. You might be able to hear me cussing it from your current location. I hope not.

Night all.


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Fall Finale Day

Thursday is my day for television for the most part. I do love Homeland on Sundays, but "The Blacklist", "Scandal" and "How To Get Away With Murder" are my shows...the latter two being my now not so secret shames. I just enjoy a good nail biter. James Spader and company will be providing me with that this evening. It has been one of those days that I am glad to end with an escape. It wasn't a bad day, just a day. We are so close to Thanksgiving and a little break. I am ready. I am SO ready. I just want a little bit of time to snuggle with my babies and husband and not have to worry about much of anything. What a gift that will be!

Off to watch some shows and match about a million socks together. Night all.


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I already passed that...

A phrae that comes up somewhat often in our house when the gnashing of teeth happens due to homework is "I already passed _____"...you filled in the blank. I heard the hub say the other night, "You can get annoyed with my help, but I already passed math!". So tonight, as I was helping with an animal report and I received flack for my editing, I said, "I passed third grade science. Arggh!". But during my helping, I did get a few new wrinkles in my brain. Did you know that the Poison Dart Frog was named for the fact that the natives dipped the darts for their blow guns in their venom when they went to go hunting? That they are colored with fancy colors that tell predators "Back off...I'm toxic!". That there is only one animal, a particular snake, that is safe from the frog's venom. I may have passed secondary school, but I can still learn some exciting facts with the best of 'em. But I can also still get annoyed from time to time.

Night all.



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Born in the wrong time...

I have been playing my ukulele a ffair amount these days. Doesn't make me very good, but I am certainly expanding my repertoire. I don't think there is much call for 43 year old woman ukulele strummers who play REO Speedwagon, Ronnie Milsap and Elvis in the privacy of their living room, but who knows. So I decided to expand my playlist to include some from one of my very favorite singers of all time. He had passed before I was born, but I've heard his music all my life and have always felt warm and fuzzy when I heard his voice. I don't know much about Algebra either, but I do know that I love Sam Cooke. So in between practicing with G for her singing engagement, I have been wearing the children out with "Wonderful World" and "Bring it on home to me". Luckily they have been good sports and have taken a break from 1D and Shawn Mendez and Adele to hear some from the man who made their music careers possible. I'm glad they enjoy the music and it thrills me to hear them humming their songs while doing homework or drawing a picture.

So if you hear of anyone in need for a ukulele playing housewife, let me know. I'll have to make a business card.

Night all.


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Sick at my stomach until Christmas

It is that time of the year when people are looking for performers to fill some time in their Christmas services. I don't think you can put too much music into services during Advent, but that's me and I have absolutely no say in what happens in any service. But I think lots of music is great. Anyhoo, G has been asked to sing for a friend's church and, because there I'm too cheap to buy the music and didn't pay attention to theory class like I should have, I can't come up with all the chords and write the music for piano for someone to play. So I am playing the ukulele once again to accompany her. She seems to be fairly calm most of the time. Her nerves come from singing to family members, but she does pretty well in front of strangers. The song is very sweet and makes me cry every time she is singing it in a serious manner. Of course we have to joke around a bit, so we sing it at super speed, in country voices, heavy metal voices and I did a Talking Heads version as well. But when I said, "Baby Jesus found himself, born in a shotgun shack...", I worried that I would cross the line of being disrespectful. Stable, shotgun shack, apples and oranges really, I suppose. Sorry, I digress. The thought of being her background music is making me quite queasy and I imagine I will stay that way untl she is done by mid December. In all of this, it is not about me and my sick stomach or her and her family performance anxiety nerves. It is about the message and the reason for the Advent season. That will guide us on our way.

Night all.


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Turkish Delight...not bad

I had a Missions Meeting this afternoon and met the minister from our partner church in Albania. He spoke at church this morning, attending the meeting this afternoon and then spoke at a reception in his honor this evening. What a lovely man and so very engaging. What a nice time we had talking and fellowshipping with him. We had some refreshments at the reception and he brought some offerings of his own that we tasted. It was in a box that was labeled, obviously, in Albanian. It was very sweet and gummy and did I say sweet? It was what we would call Turkish Delight. All I could think of was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and how Turkish Delight was used as a lure. That's just me. Either way, it was a nice time and experience and I was very pleased to be able to visit and learn.

Now it is bedtime. Night all.


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Let there be peace on Earth...

I have had a lot of thinking time today and I am still so very saddened by the events in Paris.  I remember going there as a middle schooler...a trip my parents saved for years to take.  Twenty one days with an American Express your group across the UK and Europe.  We had the time of our lives; steak and kidney pie and Big Ben in London, diamond factory yours in Amsterdam, the Davis in Italy, the winter Olympic Games site in Austria, Swatch Watch purchase in Switzerland and the American Exptess building in Paris.  I remember being so impressed by it because Cary Grant had been in it in a movie:  I loved the sights and the smells.  It was an exciting place.  My brother and I read Asterisk comic books in French while our parents exchanged their money.  It was a lovely time.  I weep for them.  For the innocence that gone.  I pray for their safety and their future

Night all.

So tragic

I am listening to the news and sure am saddened by what I am hearing. Paris is the center of chaos and violence right now. Such loss of life and fear and uncertainty. Hostage situations and shootings. Just terrifying. Saying a prayer for peace and healing there. Makes me just want to hug my babies. The oldest is on her way to an away football game and I can't get in touch with her. I'm sure she will be very saddened to hear this news as well. She is taking French and learning all about France and their culture.

So sad. Pray for France. Night all.


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To react or not to react

A speaker once advised, when talking about discussing awkward subjects with your kids, to not react when they ask. When you feel like dying inside or freaking out, instead say, "Let me get back to you on that...or let me do some research and I'll get back to you..." If you have a total meltdown freak out, they will react negatively and never ask another question of you. I get that. I really do. Also postponing the answer for a little bit gives you a chance to have a private freak out and fact finding time. On the other hand, is there a time when a very violent or expressive reaction is necessary? Oh heck yes, I think. A friend just tweeted that her daughter asked, "What is a virgin?". Okay, so that is a "Let me look and get you the best answer that will make sense for this situation. Give me ten, okay?". "Mom, a friend brought brownies to school. I had two and then they said they had pot in them...is that okay?". I feel that a somewhat expressive reaction is okay. And, no, that has not happened in our house, but a discussion about pot brownies did happen. Luckily, nothing had been ingested...just shock and confusion that someone would put a dried plant into a perfectly good brownie.

I'll be happy if she has that reaction the rest of her life. Night all.


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Respect and love

How do we teach our children true respect and love for their most difficult of colleagues? As a Christian, I am taught to look in the Bible and find my guidance there. I am embarrassed to say that I fall short on that idea on a constant basis. We live in a time where we look for the quick fix and are often unwilling to put in the hard work and I am the number one most guilty of that fact. Even though I was a young tween/teen myself, I fail to remember that friendships at this time are cyclical. We're best friends, we're okay friends, we barely speak, we awake from that cycle and are friends again and then lather, rinse, repeat. All I can tell mine is to love their neighbor as they love themselves...obey the Golden Rule...love their friends through the lean times and the lush. But when they are in the middle of the down part of the cycle, it is terribly tempting to give up on the hard work and just give up altogether. As parents, I guess we have to rev them up to get back up the hill of friendship to the summit. Friendship is hard work, but my gracious is it worth it. So worth it.

Night all.


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My toes are froze(n)

We just got in from the youngers' soccer/futsal practice. It was outside and it got chilly. Fast. Let me say right off the bat, I did a dumb thing. I went out to the shed to get our super blower for the neighbor. Being in bare feet seemed a bad idea in the soggy, muddy leafy yard, so I slipped on some shoes with no socks and went about my business. Our sweet neighbor was very talkative and he wanted to discuss all of the recent burglaries that have happened in the neighborhood. So when we finally parted ways, it was past time to leave for practice and I forgot to change my shoes. So here I stood for 2.5 hours in cold, wet shoes with no socks. Not my finest hour. My feet were frozen, but at least our coach was in a good mood. Like a really good mood. That is unusual. I also kissed up a bit and gave him some peppers out of the garden. He was pleased.

It has been a fairly uneventful day, but I am pretty darn tired. I must go shower and hop in bed. Night all.


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Looking for an ark

It is day I don't know what number of rain around here and I am about over it. Dog paw prints, damp everything, mud hole for a back yard and dark rainy moods all around. Just yuck. I took a nap today. I confess. No number of lamps turned on could beat the power of a dark outside. I need to start counting animals two by two and have the hub put all of his scrap wood to use to build some sort of vessel. Come on.

The two youngest have gone to bed. G is, as we say in our house, "stomach aware" and dragging. We went through the steps of clearing the area around her bed and getting a trash can ready. Let's have a big prayer that she can sleep this feeling off and she isn't really sick. I am a horrible mom at puking time. Colds, coughs, snot, even digestive distress on the other end of things don't bother me. Vomit is a struggle. I just hate when they are sick or feeling sick. SO pitiful.

I may hit the hay early and get a head start. Praying hard for an uneventful night.

Night all.


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Shoeboxin'

This afternoon at church, we had a packing party. A shoebox packing party. It is that time of the year for Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes to be decorated, packed and sent all over the world to children to teach them about the true meaning of Christmas and what it is all about. The ladies in charge of this event were organized and ready to go. There were rows of hygiene items and school supplies and toys and trinkets. The shoeboxes were filled and then taken to a table where they were decorated. A note was written to go inside for the recipient to look at and the box was placed on a cart to be taken to the drop off point. The packers completed 159 shoeboxes in an hour. I think that is pretty great! That does not include the shoeboxes filled by individual church members and families. God is good for sure!



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How "bazaar" how "bazaar"

I did some baking yesterday to help contribute to our 48th annual churchwide bazaar. Today the kids and I went back to see if we could find an treasures. Each got a baked treat which all looked wonderful. I must confess that in my distracted state of visiting with other church members and looking at the goodies, I failed to see that the boy ate his purchase...which wa an entire mini loaf of pumpkin bread. I guess that counted as breakfast and lunch. Yeesh. I pray that the sale did well. We will find out the total at church tomorrow. The wonderful thing is that all the money goes to serve mission projects in our church. They have purchased bibles for the children and helped provide funds for other ministry areas. They do such good work...and sure have tasty treats!

I just sent the two youngers to bed, or at least to wind down, after a rousing game of Charades. My gracious these children were nuts playing that game. What looked like my 11 year old had turned into a serial axe murder who was systematically taking out a neighborhood opening one door at a time, turned out to be a janitor plunging a row of toilets in a public bathroom. Or my baby acting what looked like a person with a vomiting bug walking around a house turned out to be a person reacting to his low savings percentage when shopping at the grocery store and doubled over in disgust. Needless to say, I failed miserably as the guesser, but I certainly remained entertained throughout the whole evening.

Never dull around here. Night all.


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We're all shot up

Forgive my horrible sounding grammar, but it is appropriate for our situation. After a lot of faxing and calls and voicemails and missed calls and call back, we finally got the Rx we needed to have the boy get his flu shot at CVS. Why CVS you ask? My uncle, the best flu shot giver in the world, is the pharmacist there. Once he started giving the flu shot, I went to him. Why not have family stick a needle in your arm in the hopes that it will prevent you from horrible fever, aches, vomiting, respiratory distress and so much more? Sign me up. So right after we picked him up in the car rider line, we whisked him away to store to do the deed. He was not thrilled, but he also remembers how deathly sick he was when he got the flu a few years ago just before Thanksgiving. He said, "I want the shot. I do NOT want to go to the hospital again." When we got in the store, he walked right back to his uncle and pushed his sleeve up and turned his head. Uncle D started talking to him about his day as he wiped the are clean and then asked him what he had for lunch and what he learned. Shot in...shot done. Didn't flinch. He took that sucker like a champ. He did say he felt it, but it was not as bad as he thought. For his reward, he got a special treat of his choosing which was a bottle of fruit punch with the Incredible Hulk's head for a lid. What a cool kid! Just saying.




Night all.
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Still holding my breath....

It has been a pretty good day for us at the farm except for the hours of 4-7. I had an epic fight with one of my children to the point that I had to walk away and take a break. We've all had those moments; moments where our anger almost overtakes the reason we have to deal with stupid situations. This fight was over getting a flu shot which, if we are being quite honest, is the BEST of all shots to receive in terms of pain inflicted. Okay, I guess the best of all shots is no shot at all, but you get where I am going with this. Anyway, in the middle of our knock down drag out, my mom called to tell me some disturbing news. A childhood friend of mine still goes to the church we grew up in and is married to her high school sweetheart. They have several children and are wonderful parents. They have fostered and adopted and have taught classes for potential foster parents. Just all around great people. After church activities last night, the son left church...he had been angry with his mother. They couldn't find him. The police were involved and a communications center had been set up. We even received an alert for him here in town an hour and a half away. My heart sank. My mom and I were sick. He has diabetes and did not have his medication with him. Here I was arguing about a flippin' flu shot and a mother was worrying about where her boy was. O kept checking the news and my email for news. Later on this evening, ny nother called to say he had been found, but had few details other than that. While I took a big sigh of relief for them, I still feel like I can't breathe for them at the the same time. This is not a situation that will go away now that he is back. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered. A lot of hurt that needs to be addressed. I ask for your prayers for this family as they work through the repercussions of what transpired over the last 24 hours. They need them.

Night all.


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Sausage's revenge

I love breakfast. I would eat it for every meal, but I don't...for a reason. One's tummy can only take so much of that good ole heavy fare before it hits the reject button to reverse the process one way or another. Tonight was that night for me and so I have very little to share. No one needs to know the ins and outs of a stint in the bathroom...we've all been there. We'll just say that I am harboring bad thoughts and feelings towards breakfast sausage right now. Jimmy Dean and the people of Clifty Farms are lovely people I'm sure. We just need a time out in our relationship.

I think I'm going to go to bed and sleep while I can. It's going to be a long night. Blurg. Night all.


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What's in there?

Not to be at all racially insensitive, but when we were little and digging what we though was the deepest hole in the sandbox, the catchphrase was that we were "digging to China". There were days where I was just sure it was going to happen within the week, I mean, I would dig a hole so deep that my WHOLE arm went in it. My whole 4 year old arm. So shoot on up to present day. Our dog wages war every day with the chipmunks in our yard. We must have a flipping colony of them, because she hunts them constantly. They run out from under the A/C unit, move as if shot out of the piece of downspout that needs to be replaced and occasionally glance over my foot as they flee across the patio. Not gonna lie, I may have wet myself a little when that happened and I jumped up like an electrocuted bunny rabbit. These chipmunks are the cutest things, but they are making our life hell. She is trying to dig her way under the A/C unit. She pushed the piece of downspout around that yard for 20 minutes to try and get that little creature to come out. I swear it probably had a heart attack in there. And then tonight, on the edge of our big flower bed, she decided to dig her own way to China. I looked out and saw dirt flying and rapped on the window and yelled. When I got out to the hole, I was angry but impressed:



The picture doesn't do it justice. It looks like she has a telescopic leg-paw to dig down that deep. Let's just say that the hub was not pleaed. At all. Guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow. I'll be a filler.

Night all.
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Moist is a dirty word

I am so tired of rain. I'll probably be eating those words this summer, but I am so tired of it. Our mail is moist, our newspaper is moist, our entire garage contents are moist. A lot of people hate that word, but I've been okay with it. Until today. Our newspaper guy does not believe in putting our paper in a plastic bag when he puts it in our box. I am all about saving the environment, but when I wanted to read the Motley Fool this morning, opened the paper and it ripped in two due to be ing so moist and damp...well, I hit my limit. The breakfast room is covered with muddy dog paw prints. The yard looks like a leafy mudhole. Wah wah wah. Forgive me, friends. Life is short and could be so much worse. Forgive my attitude.

I'll blame it on the time change. I almost fell asleep in my bowl of chili at dinner. Not good.

Night all.


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I am speechless

I must confess, I am rarely speechless. I am not a huge talker, especially in social settings...but I am rarely left with nothing to say. Today I can chalk speechless up on the board. Our neighbor called and the hub answered. Apparently they were victims of being way, WAY overtricked on Halloween. Someone or ones, in the middle of the night, decided to steal the wheels off of their Honda. They came prepared and armed with their own cinder blocks to jack the car up. Also, they found their cat dead. Now, these two things may not be related at all, but it is awfully coincidental. They have since taken the cat to our university's vet school to have the body examined. They want to know if it died of natural causes or if it was killed. How wrong is that? How sick are people? I mean, really? How much gaul do people have to possess to just go into someone's driveway and steal their wheels...all four?!?! What a da#$ shame as far as I am concerned.

RIP litlle kitty. Watch out, horrible people. We're all watching out for you.

Night all.


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