Tag Archives: Nonsense

One year later


One year ago today, October 5th, we purchased our home. One year later, I see the blessing in it all. Not that I didn’t already know, but as I sit here watching all the wildlife just in our back yard, our un-secret garden is a wonderland for so many birds, bees, butterflies; squirrels and groundhogs and to take the time to watch them work, is one of the most satisfying activities for the preacherman and myself.

When we knew we wanted to own our own home again after living seven years in the parsonage, the search began…. Something that I love to do… the hunt is all the fun! After a few maybes, I found it.. the one….the “only one!” But someone else found it also..grrrrr. They beat us out, better offer and such. I was sad but since I know that the lord is in control ( with me helping of course!) I just sucked it up, and let it go. Like a grown up, mature adult!

Does anyone know me? If you do you are laughing now because I had already decided that house was mine.. my sister and I had already thoroughly looked at it on line and in person, we arranged the furniture, planned the new flowers to plant, had visions of sugar plums dancing In our heads, already. This house was my house! I just needed the other people who rudely gave a better offer to back out.. it could happen! Maybe it will I prayed, maybe they will decide to not move her from the far off land they were moving from, silly out of staters! I let my realtor know I was here hoping and praying, I let her know ( several times, on the daily). Poor women who I only met house-hunting, who would eventually regret it I’m sure, has been pestered ( texted) to death by me.

Zip ahead a really long month, what’s taking them so long.. move in already or take down your sign y’all, nothing was happening there, not that I checked every day( that was not me driving around the block…noo! ) but, if this house is getting bought something needs to show it! No “pending “ sign or nothing! Ugh my impatience is in overdrive because no other house compares to this one, they all are just okay. Nothing special homes are a dime a dozen in the world and it was becoming obvious that I was going to be stuck with one.. once again I ask.. do you know me?

So one Tuesday I let my realtor know ,again, that if something should happen to cause the buyers to “change their minds” please tell them we want first dibs! Well, this was about the third time I had relayed this info as if she’s dumb or didn’t hear me or anything that could cause her to not know this obviously ridiculous request. It is a beautifully cool house how could they not want it? …. BUT.. the next day, on a Wednesday morning, the preacherman and I were at the church, praying never ceasing, interceding for the whole world, doing all the real Jesus stuff ya know… (ha!) and my phone rings!! She says… “ you are not going to believe it!!! They backed out!!” After much jumping up and down I reply.. calmly.. ( not) “ oh really, why?”…. Apparently they had to be in by a certain date and the repairs they needed done could not be done in time.. so they changed their minds!!!!!!!!

Then, we had to come back with our best offer, within a few hours.. they accepted and it was ours!! Holy smokes! Did y’all see that, the Lord moved a mountain! I immediately cried because all that hope became real..in real time, the real life God, gave us the dream. Not free of course but He supplied the capabilities to do this. I will forever know that this was a huge long shot, my realtor I think was also shocked, bless her heart, she worked for it, and continued to, during our laborious process, impatience on my part. I’m sure it wasn’t that bad? Hmmm, I kid, I kid! Now I know I was annoying to her, but she’s a friend now( I think) and we have had better days since then, I randomly text her over silly stuff and she actually answers back.

One year ago today, our family got our home, it is like a vacation home really, the most relaxing place on earth. It’s hard to leave it, the yard is a wonderful display of nature, we have added flowers and solar lights for the new paths, the screened porch is my favorite place besides the sunroom like windows in the family room where Leo the cat and Leesi the dog, watch all the activities outside with me. Today, the groundhog has the nerve to waddle right onto our side patio, sit up and snack on acorns from the huge trees we are blessed with and smirk at our inside animals… probably with pity! I honor the life in the yard, I honor the people who built this house in 1955… I honor the sweet lady who lived in and loved it for so long last.

Thank you to all who came before us, we will try our best to take care of it and enjoy the nature all around us. This is not a brag, in all humility I am thankful for the opportunity to be the caretaker for a little while. We are smack dab in the middle of this little city, in one of the original subdivisions but it feels like we are in the country. We are surrounded by joy and on this day I honor the day that we became caretakers of this special place. I know I can be a bit dramatic about it but seriously it is spectacular! Thank you Lord and a preacherman that follows my heart with me. We both are such bird nerds now. But so much fun!

June…here we go!


SO the month of June is upon us and for me it is the beginning of real summer. Today is the beginning of all things summer…hot days, flip-flops, old lady shorts (pedal pushers) as well as “happy hour” at SONIC! Gotta love them cherry lime-aides! Yes, it has happened…I am not cool any more.

This does not come to me as a surprise…I felt it coming….creaking joints, pain in the back, and gray hair. I can take it all except the gray hair. I am not willing to give into that one. Gotta keep it colored. Makes since why my mom did it..now! Back in the day I was pushing April to wear flip flops…even if my toes were a bit chilly, I was there. Then cut-off jean shorts and a raggedy tee-shirt and I was good to go. Now days I usually schlep around in corrective looking sandals and pedal pushers with a “big” shirt as to cover that “oh so spacious” acreage around the middle. OH Lordy!!

June is the place of beginnings…schools out and time to have fun…lay by the pool, put SunIn in my hair and listen to top forty on the radio. But that was a long time ago and I am not so sure girls do that anymore….the Sun-In and top forty radio. They have become so sophisticated now….foiled hair and IPods are the choices now! At least June has stayed the same.

June bugs are a cool product of June as well as all the fat yellow and black striped bumble bees. Have there ever been a more cute insect? Considering the word insect I think not. Maybe a Caterpillar because of the fuzzy factor but not really because of the wormy-ness too close to its ancestor the snake. Also, June is the month you start to hear the ice cream truck. Yesterday, probably as a pre-June trial run, I heard the music way in the distance and it made me smile.

June is also a good month for a picnic. The heat is usually not as hot as in July and August so this is the best time for a picnic. Later in the year it will be unbearable. I actually mean the ones that are in the backyard, under a tree with the wind blowing, laying on your back watching the leaves twirl. There is no more peaceful a place than on a quilt laying under the trees. Unless you are fortunate to have a hammock that is. Now that is livin’!

June is also a good time to shop for back to school clothes..shorts that is. They are on sale about now and good to start the hot new year. In Tennessee it is hot right up through Halloween most of the time, so we wear summer clothes till we are sick of them. We can’t wait for that first cool crisp evening and the turning of the leaves. (oops different month!)

So to wrap up this frivolous homage to June, I will end with a hope and a wish. I hope everyone takes the time to picnic under the trees, while the grass is still fresh and green, take your shoes off and let your feet breath and walk in the crispness. Take caution for the June bugs but are brave enough to catch one, tie a thread around its leg and play….I suppose that may be not so PC! Would that go under the heading of endangerment to insects? If so forgive me and do not do it. Just enjoy watching them buzz along with the Bumble Bees….look for Zenia’s they love those!

Now on to a wish….a wish for summer to last as long as it did when I was a kid. It was nearly six months worth or it felt like it. If not that then, for the summer to be FUN! We all need a bit of FUN! I revel in the summer sun and it is a commodity I wish could be bottled up. If only I could, to take away those ugly, sad, cold winter months. No matter how hot it is it is never as bad as the cold…bitter cold of winter.

So June….here we go, oh how I adore thee!

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Is this what is has come to?


In my effort to be a good daughter, which by the way, I fail most days…..I went over to my Mom’s this afternoon for a visit. To my joy my sister was there, also and they were in one of their usual Scrabble games. My joy was big because it is easier to be there when she is there too. It is painfully hard to visit with my Mom and it is shameful that I even say this thing. This thing that she would...”jerk a knot in me!” for even saying. My Momma, of before  Alzheimer’s,would have scolded me for such an attitude…but now she is a mere shade of her old self.

It isn’t only the Alzheimer’s to contend with but he is…. hard-a-hearin’ too, as the old folks used to call it. If I am not close by and looking at her straight on she is clueless to what I am saying. This brings up another frustrating subject. About the time my Mom started showing signs of the Alzheimer’s, my sister took her and paid for her a set of hearing aids. Sweetest thing in this world BUT….as I had guessed would happen (because I am younger and smarter!) my Mom would not even wear them! Ugh!

This of course has been a lesson in patience for my dear sister who was doing her best to love our Mom through this act of kindness. But to no avai….l she may have worn them once and no more….the cost was not cheap and at this point down the drain or still in the box, as it were. So during this visit it was me speaking, as loud as I could (and I have a big loud mouth…no comments please!) only to hear HUH????....augh!!!Jesus take the wheel!

The only good part was that every time…I would crack my sister up while saying something funny or smarmy under my breath as to not let my Mom hear me(because somehow she hears that stuff)….my sis would bust up laughing and so would I and our poor Mom siting there saying ……HUH! Bless her heart….in my sick mind it has become a sort of drinking game (without the alcohol!) for me to see how many times I can make my sister laugh after our mom says…HUH!

I am sure there is a special layer of Hell for people like me….and this will come back to haunt me when  I am eighty-three.  The conversation could not get more depressing though…(Mom)…”I have a knot on my head,…(sister) might be a mole?…..(ME)…I can call you Knot-head!…(Mom)……you would have to call me knot-face it’s on my face! Oh geez…the next time she brought it up (ten minutes later) the knot was on the other side of her head/face! Is this what it has come too? Sitting around talking about all the aches and pains we have and to top it off….. also she informed us we need to do sit ups as to lose the weight around our middles and then showed us how!….. for which my response was….”I think sit-ups are out of style now!”

I can honestly say that if what goes around comes around and I know it does (I am living proof) then good luck kids…all four of you can flip a coin to see who is stuck coming to see me on Sunday afternoon! Please know that I don’t blame you a bit….I know how you feel. What is the big deal about getting old? The big deal is we want things to stay the same…some things like our Momma’s. I want chicken and dumplins’ and chocolate pie like she can only make. That I will never get again…..bummer!I want to be able to tell her all my woes and her listen.

So to my crew….I will be with you in my heart…even if you don’t realize it and I have to say I know my Mom would be the first to gripe if this was her Mom…..actually I think she did, less than me of course because I am way more sarcastic than her….like I said, special layer of Hell waiting on me…..ouch!

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Good old girl complete!


Honor our Elders

Though I start with the heading of Honor our Elders knowing that I am putting my life in jeopardy … considering I am speaking in reference to my sister … my OLDER sister (she says in a whisper!). I still have to say that to do this act of grace is a pure pleasure. What may seem to her as a chore for me is in all actuality an honor. This is a girl who carried me around on her hip when I was a baby … endlessly. This is a girl who looked after me day in and day out because that’s what the oldest girl did back then. This is the girl who took my turns at chore time, played with me, and became my best friend.

Best Friends

It seems reasonable that sisters would turn out to be best friends but in families it is a toss-up. It is Russian Roulette whether or not the siblings will even speak to one another after all the growing up is over. The family dynamic is a petri dish of emotions and added dramas that sometimes do not make for friends when all is said and done. I am fortunate that I am the youngest of three girls and both my sisters have been a strong influence in my life. They taught me how to survive as well as flourish. I have never known them to do one thing to harm me or keep me from success. I am very lucky.

Gift of Grace

Although I am lucky and I know it, I also know that this is a gift of grace. It ain’t easy being related. Look around, dysfunction abounds. We have our own measure of that dysfunction but my sister(s) have been a calming effect in the life of a latch key kid. This of course dates me since the 1970’s was the time when this phrase was coined. This was the era when everyone realized that the mothers were back at work and staying there and many, like my Mom, had to work three jobs. Women of divorce were everywhere and so when these older siblings gave of their lives to take care of us snot nosed brats it only can be a work of grace.

Still a girl

Ked’s!

The cute thing about this sister ‘o mine is she is yet still a girl … down to her love of KED’S … the sneaker! She LOVES THEM! Always when she is in casual dress she will be wearing them.

Today was the last time for her, this good old girl (self-proclaimed name and great blog title www.goodoldgirl.wordpress.com) to be taken by me to get her last eye poked! She had eye surgery (ouch!) on both eyes to correct cataracts (I told you she was old! hee-hee) and it corrected her vision also. She now has bionic eye balls! (Insert bionic sounds — boingggg!) (Once again, ’70’s trivia … ugh!)

The second one took a bit longer than the first one and I did send a text to my preacherman husband to pray all was well. I got a little psyched out for a minute! When I was allowed to go in to see her, there she sat … totally messed up! (Sooo funny by the way.) Spacey and quizzical … with her ankles crossed, bee-bopping her KED’s like a little girl.

Home Free

Dr Pepper
Dr Pepper (Photo credit: Wikipedia

Time to take her home, safe and sound but because of her lack of food and Dr. Pepper we ventured to our favorite spot. This place has been here in our home town for forever … at least since late sixties I would guess. Sir Pizza on Main Street was the quintessential hole in the)wall. In the ’70’s it was rehabbed into a lush garden, lattice and greenery with fake flowers stuck all around;  porch swings at tables (two of those, good place to get carsick) and ugly carpet. If there is a Hippie in the area he has worked at Sir Pizza!

We all have our forbidden stories about the place, things we don’t tell or we would have to kill you. My first date with my husband was there, in the back booth. He wasn’t from here so I had to break him in right!  My sister and I always sit in the same booth, order the same pizza every time, drink out of the BALL Mason jars and enjoy the memories. Today, I realized that if we had come there for the first time today, we wouldn’t have stayed. It is a bit grimy and disgusting but it is our place and it is Home.

Thank you sister, you are a good old girl! I am always honored to be there for you as you have always for me! Especially when pizza is involved!

I was never worried


While thinking about my life as a Mother…..while the most recent holiday was just upon us, I reminded myself how amusing it is that I turned out as good at it as I am. Not to brag , but I would say I have been fairly successful. What I mean to say is to my knowledge my children don’t hate me…yet. Of course, keep hope alive kids…there is always time!

Cover of "Some Kind of Wonderful (Special...
Cover via Amazon

To Begin With

My future was not always so bright in the area of potential motherhood. As a matter of fact my prospects for a date weren’t all that great! By the time I hit high school all my peers seem to peak in their developmental stride. Me, of course, never even knew there was such a thing as puberty…..fun for me in many ways, but not so much fun when you were as boy crazy as I was. Yes…I was that girl, I had tons of boy-friends! Not BOYFRIENDS! To my dismay, I just wasn’t the kind of girl they wanted….unless it was to hang out and ride around town and laugh and be the go-between in the hunt for babes! I guess you could say I was like ” Watts” in the movie Some Kind of Wonderful and I had several “Keith” characters I was crushing on. I promise I had more fun than the other girls.

Finally

By nearly all the way thru my Senior year at seventeen and three-fourths, I finally began to ….let’s just say mature! Just the beginnings though…..finally got a date or two….scared the crap out of me…..was not ready for ALL THAT! Would prefer to stay “Watts.” So I did and had the best time in the world. Apparently my reputation preceded me and I ended up in the annual with a snarky “staff” writer opinion! I went back to re-read what it stated and now I am even more bugged by it. Stupid freaks on the annual staff! They added a lot of snarky comments to the graduating seniors BIO.

See example A.

example A

Notice the last (2) lines….emphasis on last one! Of course maybe when I stated that...” Marriage will be a last resort unless someone comes along to change my mind.” caused the freaks to use this against me. This was only self preservation…a lonely girls cry for help…..sad, poor silly girl, yet to be grown-up! They make sitcoms about girls like me now! Born before my time once again…..story of my life! This still does not give the freaks rights to be judge and jury!

The joke’s on them…by college and about nineteen years old I was on my way….no Farrah Faucet-Majors (that was her name then!) but I could hold my own! In high school my awkwardness gave way to becoming a good person…not like the self involved girls (though I longed to be like them…I wasn’t that good!)

So.….when I was well into college, after I had loved and lost a couple of times, I fell for a good one and as to not give him “the big head” I will not embarrass him with the details. But I fell hard and fast and with him we had four gorgeous children AND I think I was a pretty darn good wife. He is still with me after thirty years and I am confident of thirty more. He did come along to change my mind and I have never looked back.

For all those awkward immature young girls out there who wonder if they were going to ever evolve into a woman…..hang on it will happen and I will tell you just as my Mom told me….when it happens you will be sorry….watch what you ask for! Enjoy the innocence and take time to enjoy the ride. Do like me and prove all those boys wrong…..the ones that peaked early and are bald or balding and have a bit of a belly…working on their second or third wife! It is their loss. And to all the ones who hold all the power in high school…I officially stick my tongue out at you…stupid bunch of freaks!

By the way.

……if there is a “stupid bunch of freaks” society that I have been rude to and UN-Politcally correct to…please forgive. This is my blog…I can gripe if I want to! And I was never worried!!

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Am I Mother Enough!?…don’t get me started!


In honor of Mother’s Day I feel compelled to give the real and freakishly truthful NEWS about motherhood. This is not only a gripe session but is a call out to all the sensible mothers out there.

Being a mother is the hardest job in the world but also the most rewarding. We women are pretty special. We create people in our womb. Yes, we need help from the guys but still pretty awesome nonetheless! I see it as a great honor as well as a place of great responsibility.

I am not amused by the happy-go-lucky attitude of some people. This brings me to the point …

AM I MOM ENOUGH?

Get real!!!

Are you Mom enough?

If TIME Magazine can write a story on it, I suppose I can too!

Y’all had to take something so sweet and turn it into a curiosity, a non-news event.

Report on news that will cause us all to have good jobs or how to be millionaires in ten easy steps or something equally as moronic.

For Pete’s sake, we’ve been doing this for years. Y’all just now figuring all this out!?! I don’t remember anyone doing an expose’ on me nursing my four kids!

It is nauseating — your compelling news story on the FRONT PAGE is asking — am I mom enough!?!

SHUT UP!!

Is this the deciding factor? Nursing or staying attached longer to our children?

Do not get me wrong. I am all for it, breast-feeding that is. I had this honor — times four. It was joyful and precious and sweet and a special time in my life. I think any woman who chooses to experience this should be commended and honored, as well as those who choose not to.

It is each women’s “RIGHT” to choose what they do with their own body, if I am not mistaken. At least that is what I heard growing up in the ’60’s and I do still believe to this day. I also believe we all have a moral compass which guides us in all areas of our womanhood.

What happened to good taste and etiquette?

I do think that it shouldn’t be anything goes, which brings me to this article. Since when do we feel the need to broadcast one of the most intimate things between a woman and her child? What happened to the element of good taste?

Many years ago, when I was a young mother, still nursing my first-born, we had another couple over for dinner. About the time for dessert, the woman “whips out her left breast” and begins to nurse her baby right there at the dinner table!

My husband, being a man of great strength, looked straight ahead at me, never staring at this woman directly (much like the sun) while watching me nearly blow a gasket. No blanket to cover up, nothing! How rude could she be? Apparently VERY RUDE!

When I finally commented on it, the only answer I got was, “it is as natural as can be!”

BULL — she was an exhibitionist!

Don’t get me wrong. It is natural. And if I lived in the jungles of Africa, and that was the norm, then, by all means, I would be whipping it out with all the other women. They also had to carry big baskets on their heads and draw water miles away from their home and so on. We live in a MODERN WORLD here in America! I would like to see her work like a mule in that culture — selective freedoms I say!

God has blessed us with smart people who invented indoor plumbing and wagons to haul stuff and nice little comfortable recliner chairs — and doors with locks, behind which to go and nurse our babies in peace and quiet. We can enjoy this precious time with our little ones — instead of being out in a noisy room with people gawking at us. That cannot be peaceful and satisfying for babies.

Am I wrong here?

"Joan of Arc Saved France," a 1918 U...

The unabashed drama of women who swagger around like Joan of Arc to prove a point — to prove they can! Oh Lordy, makes me want to choke. And, just in case anyone reads this and thinks — what a prude — wrong, so very wrong! I am the least prudish person you would ever meet. I have no false pride and am very aware of the world around me. That is the problem.

Back to the story …

I knew then this chick, who felt so free to sprawl out in front of God and everybody, was going to be a pill. A few years later this woman proved me right.

She managed to cause pain and discourse through her own family. Mostly, because she didn’t want anyone to be the boss of her! Give me a break! She had no character. And, if she had, she would have been more discreet about what is one of the most lovely acts any woman can perform.

These babies that we are given deserve the attention they should receive, not in a hurry up and get this done fashion, or as if they’re in the way of our lives. Take the time to nurture them.

So, after seeing this magazine cover, I must say it has become an homogenized world out there. Take something so sweet and make it mundane and common. Take all the goodness out of it and add in filthy stares and glares.

I promise you this, as the mother of three men, they were not looking at the picture with “oh how sweet that is” eyes. It was more like, what a babe! Wish that kid wasn’t in the way!

Once again, sex sells! Can’t fight city hall, I guess.

Furthermore, as if my rant hasn’t been enough, a word on the principle of “the attachment philosophy.”

Heaven help us!

Take it from a mother who nurtured ’til the cows came home, I couldn’t have been a more cuddly or huggy or kissy or allow my kids to pile up in the bed with us parent. We absolutely smothered them with attention and affirmation as well as a good whippin’ when they needed it. Not that I condone that. I have evolved! And, I wish we hadn’t, but we learn from this and it wasn’t done harshly. Just hard to think of it now.

Although, ours were normal kids with all the lies and trouble three kids can cause. We were a very close family and still are so we must have not done too badly with them.They are still pretty darn clingy, which I must say I love — most of the time!

I do feel that the twenty years (ugh!) I stayed home with them may have been better if I had left them a bit more. As I look back, a tour of duty at a daycare may not have been too harmful. It could have toughened them up. Helped them learn some street smarts and how to fend for themselves. My kids were woefully unprepared for real life and they weren’t even home schooled! (No offense to home schooled kids. That is just the banter people say — that they won’t be socialized enough!) My kids were socialized. I just think they were attached to me too much, which was my own doing I know! Mother guilt hard at work!

So when I see the front cover of a national magazine with a picture of a three-year-old boy attached to his momma‘s breast, I want to yell, “come talk to me in twenty years!!” I’ll be saying, “How’s that working for ya!”

Mother's Day card
Mother’s Day card (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Happy Mother’s Day to all the girls out there who have sacrificed their lives, bodies and heart for their children. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it was all worth it but I wouldn’t have minded not losing my twenty-something body. Yes, I am blaming my four for that!

It is Mother’s Day. I can do that just today!!!

Waiting not Wasting-the good old girl saga!


Today I find myself in a waiting room……waiting, with my big sister in an operating room. Not the best way to spend a afternoon for me or her, but I wouldn’t be anywhere else.

At this very moment she is being given a new eye….actually eyesight to be more precise! She has opted for Lasik eye laser surgery to correct her vision, left one today then right one next week.

I thought I was free from the smells, sounds and basic creepiness of a surgical area, they took her back, whew,……! Home free….. Then to my dismay I hear her name yelled…..“follow me ma’am!” Really? Oookkaayy…..I say attempting to be glad about it. Apparently they don’t know of my panic attack capabilities!

As I am taken down the long hall (there is always a long hall with sick people laying all around- eyes strait ahead!) I get to her little curtained area. There she us looking freakishly just like our Mom. They are putting drops in the one eye to dilate….ugh, really I must be here?….so I smile, attempt to be caring..( not that I am not caring, I for sure am but I refer back to the surgical stuff) I sit beside her as she is spaced out. Not even sure if she has officially been spaced out yet, prolly just her goofy self. Like me, because I do too when in this position, she is getting high from the oxygen! “breathe it in sister” I tell her, it’s natural…sorta.

She fades in and out, me talking aimlessly(as usual) telling her how if she dies she will be in heaven lopsided with one good eye and one bad eye! Okay I know in heaven we are all good and totally healed of all ailments….but this was funnier! And then since I have her keys, I will get to her house before her only child, her daughter, which has been my plan all along! I WILL get those cross-stiched pillows and the old albums, Beatles, Harry Nielson(The Point), CCR, and many others. And she doesn’t even know how I will handle those two in-door cats of hers…..here kitty kitty…look outside!

These possessions of hers are part of MY memories, not the daughters. I was first ya know! My big sister practically raised me along with my other sister. These bits of memorabilia are my childhood; falling to sleep at night listening to albums on the stereo and putting the arm back so they replay. Anyone but me remember real stereos? That music is forever etched on my brain.

The pillows are from the spell when she was into needlepoint and created her own designs….she was one of the original hippies in the ’70’s! In Murfreesboro, TN at Middle TN State University. She was the coolest of the cool, for me a kid of eleven and beyond! Needless to say I loved life back then and I will always be indebted to her for the lessons she taught me.

She must be finished…….They’re they came, yelling her name again, back down the long hall once again, oh Lord tons of sick people this time…..whew getting hot in here already…..I may pass out before I get to her. But no… I survived, she is sitting there looking good. Looking around like she has never seen this world before, totally funny by the way. The nurse rattles on instructions as if we will remember. Oh jeez lady will there be a test? We got it!

Of coarse I took a picture…you kidding!

Being us we are ready to go, they make her wait till I get the car, she grinches about that one, funny. She walks out all bleary eyed. On to our fav Pizza Parlour…family tradition ya know. Its been like sixteen hours plus since she had eaten…starving is the word now! So she survived this episode and we get to do it all over again next week.

Good times, she is doing great and those darn cats of hers will live to see another week. That was the second thing I would do if something bad happened, the cats would be “accidentally” set free! Silly nine lived animals, they are driving her crazy and me too by osmosis!

God is good, big Sis is still cool, all’s well with the world! I am thankful that I can help her in this little way…can never pay her back for all she has done for me. She is a Good Old Girl by the way!!!!

Dear Lord…here we go with the big black glasses….we ARE old ladies!

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New World


The excitement is like that of the night before first day of school … fear, angst, trepidation … all part of my day now. Will I be able to handle the schedule? Will anyone respond to my way? Will anyone even show up? Questions that haunt me as I take off on a new chapter in my life.

So, what’s all the hub-bub about?

I have been here before but it has been a while. This is what I have been wanting — the ability to do what I love most of all. So, why am I so freaked out? AUUUUGH!!!

Because basically I am a chicken. Yep, I said it. I am owning up to it! Now that I have said that, it seems better. Goes back to … the truth will set you free!

I am frightened at the thought of going back to work at a real job, which is stupid since it isn’t a run of the mill job. It’s an ART job! Furthermore, a painting job. Even better — a teaching to paint job!

It’s all in my control.

I choose the hours. I choose the subjects to paint. I’ve been given carte blanche on the whole thing. So, why are my insides spazzing out about it? That’s just how I roll.

Dogwoods on glass

I do know that it will be okay and when I get all my ducks in a row it will be amazing. This is my opportunity to make a place for myself in this little community. I made it into the paper shortly after moving back here to my home area because of my blog — a small town girl comes home sorta thing! No big news, just human interest.

I would like to find myself smack in the middle of the artsy world here … kinda what I would enjoy. I’ve always been the kind of person that if you lock me up in a cubicle, you will watch me dissolve! I hate it. I have left good jobs because of the boredom. Silly ME!

New World. Same me. But, I am thrilled at the prospect of teaching and helping people have some sense of creativity. It’s a really good way to relieve stress and have fun so I hope I see some of my peeps someday along my way.

Or, maybe, I will influence some kid who has a dream to create but never felt like they could ... the sky’s the limit I say!

http://www.logcabinceramicsandmore.com

Iris on glass

Grapes

I am the “more” in the link … by the way!

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I need a niche’….ahhh, that’s my problem!


SO I HAVE FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT! I need a niche‘!!!!!

After listening to my fellow blogger read to me over the phone about the ways to have a more active response blog via WORDPRESS info, I realized my dilemma as she was reading aloud. I need a niche’……so elementary my dear Watson! If I only had a niche’ I would be noticed…..if I only had a niche’ I would be possibly FRESH PRESSED! Hmmmm is that it? Who the heck knows?

I thought I had a niche’…quippie, funny slightly sarcastic banter back and forth with myself and the great internet world for which seems not to be a niche’. What in the world could be better….  a play on words …preacherswifeintheknow! This is an oxymoron actually. As a preachers wife I am usually the last to know. But, I attempt to presume I know a lot of things and those things I think I know are probably what  keeps me from all the readers.

All I know is that I am only able to write about what I know and live….that’s how I roll! Maybe this isn’t the best way but It is my way, so just like the great crooner, Frank Sinatra, I do it my way!

At least I am in good company.

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Quickie Dining a la hamburger


These days it is nearly impossible to come up with a new and fresh dinner idea every….single….night. Believe me I have tried…over and over. So for me, it is imperative that I have a few stand-by’s  to cook, in a flash when the time has slipped away and I am in a pinch.

Español: Latinhas de campbell estavam em promo...
Español: Latinhas de campbell estavam em promoção no pão de açucar. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One easy meal is Hamburg Casserole. I call it this because a friend of mine years ago who was from Michigan called hamburger…hamburg and it has stuck ever since. Silly how little things like that stick in your head and vocabulary!

This dish is Oh so easy and to reference the title….OUICK! It is as follows:

1 lb. Hamburger  (leaner of course to save on fat)

1 can of cream of mushroom soup (less fat kind too is okay) Also–add some starch water from the noodles to keep moist, you can add water but why?

1 box of  Twirlie Noodles (yes they have a name, Rotini, but thats no fun!)

1 hunk of Velveeta Brand cheese (okay, I have begun to lessen how much I use because quite frankly it is starting

to gag me, that stuff!  So just enough to make it creamy, about an inch to one and a half inch chunk)

Cheddar/mozzarella/ etc to offset the lack of Velveeta

DIRECTIONS

1.    Put on a pot of water, bring to a boil–then add twirlie noodles

2.    Brown Hamburg in a larger size skillet, breaking up in little crumbles

3.    Pour off any grease (sometimes I even rinse it a bit)

4.    Put back in pan and add soup and cheese

5.    Allow to simmer sloooowwlly! (do not let burn!)

6.    Drain Noodles (pleeease cook al dente’—mushy noodles are just gross!)

7.    Add Noodles to Hamburg mixture and blend

8.    Add in a bit more cheese on top as well as S&P to taste

9.    Cover and turn off–allow to melt cheese

10.   Enjoy!

green beans
green beans (Photo credit: Chasqui (Luis Tamayo))

This is a good one dish meal or steam up some broccoli, cauliflower, carrots or any other veggie. Green beans are a favorite of ours.

Speaking of that, you can make canned green beans great by cooking them kind of fast and add a splash of olive oil and pat of  butter, S&P and a bullion cube. Be sure to watch to not boil dry, and they are great!

Okay that is the easiest dinner you can make! This came from not liking those box meals with all the” helpers” added in. That stuff is just gross and has a really funky taste. Obviously one could change around the ingredients…better cheeses etc. One thing I caution…when using Hamburger, always use Mushroom Soup! Do not use cream of celery or chicken. DOES NOT WORK! You would be sorry!

Quick and easy for sure and I am sure those that can make it more healthy will! Feel free! I have changed a little bit from the originator of this recipe….for which my sister created, years ago!

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