Who Would You Do?

Good Monday post-Valentine's Weekend Morning.

How's everyone? Anyone get lucky?

We have a bit of a different spin on today's "Who Would You Do?" (book by Susan Segrest).

In this one, you have to quickly choose between the two choices given. There will be a total of 10 answers.

You have 30 seconds to go through the following list and make your rapid-fire selections. Who would you do?

Pee Wee Herman or Herman Munster?

Jennifer Aniston or Jennifer Jason Leigh?

Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks?

Burt Reynolds or Bert Convy?

Marilyn Manson or Charles Manson?

Meg Ryan or Ryan O'Neal?

Richard Gere or Richard Chamberlain?

Hilary Swank or Hillary Clinton?

Larry King or Billie Jean King?

Sandra Bullock or Sandra Day O'Connor?

And, as usual:

*Editor's Note---You HAVE to pick one of the choices. Even if you're a guy and the only choices are guys...same for girls...believe me, there are lots where it's only girls to choose from.

Later,

Mama Dawg

P.S. About this weekend.

It was both bad and good.

Bad because it got cut short. Saturday morning, he got a phone call from his brother informing him that his mom was in the ICU at the local hospital with some sort of kidney infection. Because his mama lived about 10 hours away, he decided to go ahead and get on the road so he could go be with her. When I talked to him later, she had been moved from the ICU to a regular room and was recovering. Even though I was disappointed that the weekend was cut short, it was completely understandable. I don't know how many times he apologized to me about having to leave. I kept telling him to quit apologizing and to just get on the road to go see his mama.

The good? Well, what I wanted to happen, did indeed happen. But, what I came away from this weekend with was not a feeling of satisfaction. Not due to any performance issues or anything. In fact, it has nothing to do with sex at all.

I came away from this weekend a changed person. And, I'm not ready to talk about it yet. All I can say is that I've had a difficult weekend emotionally and I'm still a bit raw from it all. I'm working on trying to get it down on paper, but it's still a work in progress. So, bear with me if over the next few days I either don't post at all or what I post is raw. And no, he didn't hurt me. So, don't get all angry at him for my emotionally wrecked weekend. He didn't DO anything to cause this.

Last & This Weekend

With all the Jaeger Pooting going on last week, I didn't get a chance to blog about what happened last weekend! It was...well...exciting and terrifying all at the same time.

On Saturday, we went to a local flea market type place. I've had my eye on a china cabinet there for a long time now. Every time I go, they tell me they'll negotiate with me on the price and they do come down quite a bit ($425 down to $350) but it was still out of my range. My mom had said that if they ever come down to $300, she'd buy it for me and would consider it my Christmas and birthday presents (X-mas this year and b-day next year). I quickly agreed.

They would never come down lower than $350. For the whole month of July, they are having an inventory reduction sale (they got new items and need to clean house of the old). I found a bakers rack I needed for my front porch. While there, mom decided to ask if they'd come down any more on the china cabinet. They still only came down to $350. Mom then asked them to call her if they decide to move the piece to make room for other stuff. She'd like first refusal.

Well, the lady finally said, "Would you take it for $300?". Mom calmly accepted and now I have a BEAUTIFUL china cabinet in my dining room.

Don't worry, I'm gonna move James Dean over. Now that I have the cabinet, he's not centered on the wall.

I haven't filled it yet, but I'm working on it! It looks a lot like my mom's which is part of the appeal.



On Sunday, light of my life and I decided to go fishing. We took our little cane poles and walked down to the creek. The creek was real low (due to lack of rain) so I didn't have any hope of catching anything.

Well, I was wrong! Light of my life caught 9 fish and 2 crawfish.



Here she is with just 1 of 9 that she caught!



Here's one of her crawfish (or as I called them growing up...crawdaddies)



Here's one of the fish!


And, the pic below, it's what I caught (besides 2 tiny fish)!



Yes, Internets, that's a water moccasin! Needless to say, I cut the line on that one and we ran like hell!

This past weekend, we went to my grandmother's for the 4th and had hot dogs, baked beans, potato salad, cole slaw, apple pie, blackberry pie, etc....It was yummy. Light of my life and I went fishing again. Not as much luck this time but we did end up having the "dropsies". I dubbed us the Dropsie Twins because we managed to drop part of a pole, a bobber, a thing of tape and light of my life's hook got caught on a log underwater. This meant that I had to crawl down the STEEP bank to the creek (thank goodness the creek was still low) to get it unhooked. While I was down there, I got the bobber and the pole but the tape was long gone.

Saturday and Sunday we really didn't do much. Just relaxed (well, I cleaned).

This week is gonna be rough. Light of my life is going to overnight camp...for the first time EVER! She's a little nervous but excited. We got her all packed and ready to go. They'll sleep in cabins and she has to take her own sheets and towels and blanket and pillow, etc....

I've never been to sleep away camp all by myself before. My mom always made sure she was one of the chaperons (well, not really, she always got roped into it) so I didn't really have any advice for light of my life except to have fun! I sent her with a disposable camera, so she'll be able to document the experience.

The camp is only 10 miles from our house so she's still kinda close. We drove up to it on Saturday so she could get a look at it. It looks like a nice place. Hopefully she'll have fun.

But, I'm without her for the week. This is gonna be a LONG week. Sigh....

How was your weekend?

Later,

Mama Dawg

P.S. We lost Johnny (named after Johnny from Grease 2...you know, Andrian Zmed's character) the beta fish, last night. Another one bites the dust!

P.S.S. Oh, yeah, my turtle saving count is now up to 4! For anyone who cares!

My Weekend

It seems that all I do lately is post about my weekend.

Well, to be honest (I hate that phrase...makes me think that the person who says that is getting ready to lie to me), I'm just lazy.

I had Friday off. It was nice. I slept in for a little bit but then had to take J.D. to the vet once again because his back legs are failing...once again.

We're trying the Prednisone and Baytril one more time. If this doesn't work, he'll have to go on daily heart pills. Pills that he can never go off of until he dies. Costing me $45 a month.

Sigh...why does the world have to rely on money for EVERYTHING? If I knew the vet would accept free sex as payment, I'd do it. Kills two birds with one stone that way...gets the pills and it gets Mama Dawg some lovin'.

But, he's happily married...sigh.

So, on Friday, light of my life got invited to the local gas lady's house to go swimming at her private pool with her grandchildren. By local gas lady, I mean the lady that owns the natural gas place where I purchase gas for my tank for my gas heaters (not the local lady that farts a lot...that would be me). She's nice and is really good friends with my aunt (hence the invite). Light of my life slowly learned to dive while there because her grand daughter (who's 10) is on the swim team and was teaching her how to dive.

She had a blast and came home all full of herself.

I went flower and berry picking in the late afternoon. We have all these black-eyed susans growing wild EVERYWHERE, so I decided to go pick a few and make a small bouquet for the dining room table.

While picking flowers, I noticed that some of the blackberry (no, Jared, not a BlackBerry, but the actual fruit) plants were already producing mature blackberries.

So, I went a pickin'.

Here's what my efforts yielded:



Here's the flowers and the blackberries together. Such a pretty pic. The scissors really set the whole thing off.



Here's a close up of the blackberries. Don't they look yummy?



Here's the flowers. Kinda pretty, huh?

Saturday pretty much was a regular day. Made a Wal-Mart run to exchange some primer and to get a few things for dinner that night.

My grandmother is down in New Orleans with my other aunt for a while, so my other aunt (that my grandmother lives with) was all alone.

So, we invited her for dinner on Saturday night.

Light of my life was in her element. I swear, she's gonna make a good politician's wife someday. She totally stole the whole pre-during-post dinner conversation. It was filled with witty stories about learning how to jump off the diving board, learning how to dive, attending the library's reading program, telling stories that involve various bodily functions (that part was a little gross) and whatnot.

She had a blast with our first official dinner guest.

We had sun dried tomato rubbed turkey breast, brussel sprouts with curry sauce, butter beans and a tomato and avocado salad.

All in all, it was a nice evening.

Sunday was church and swimming. I also had to bathe the cats and then put on Frontline and give them a capstar pill.

Bathing cats is NOT FUN!

Due to J.D.'s bad heart and the stress that comes with getting a bath, I actually had to GET IN THE TUB with him to give him his bath. Poor thing. Once I got in the tub with him though, he stopped struggling. Maybe that's the key. However, I'm not gonna get in the tub with Mike. He'll kill me.

Oh, and I'm watching a DVD that was a mini-series on I think the Sci-Fi channel, called "Tin Man". Has anyone seen this? I'm obsessed. It's soooo good. I LOVE, WORSHIP, ADORE Neal McDonough.

Anyway, that was my weekend. How was yours?

Later,

Mama Dawg

My Weekend

Despite the vomit and late nights, I had a good weekend.

On Friday night, I went to our local Relay for Life walk-a-thon thingie.

Back in May, I went to a local Festival thingie where I tried to sell my photos and some sunglass cords. It sucked (in terms of sales) but I did manage to do a bit of networking.

Anyway, one of those networking opportunities came to fruition.

A lady was heading up a team for Relay for Life ...

(oh, for the love of Christ, must my iPod play Here Comes Santa Claus by the Chipmunks right now?).

...to continue...anyway, this lady asked me to volunteer to take photos at her booth to sell to raise money for this incredible organization. I agreed because it would give me some exposure and a chance to get my name out in the community.

Well, the relay was Friday night and I pretty much left work and got there right as it was starting. I took a few pics (about 12) and helped to raise about $70 which wasn't great but not too shabby.

Anyway, the big news is that one of the survivors was working this booth as well and she's a photographer/sales person for the local newspaper. She was admiring my work and offered to run some of my pics from time to time in the paper (provided that they were good) and give me credit (of course) but also would pay me for some photos and/or gigs.

How cool!!!!!!!!!!

That was one of the highlights of the weekend.

I also entered a silent auction for these horseshoe benches (one was tall and copper colored and the other was black) and didn't expect to win one of them much less than both, but I did! I'll take pics and post them sometime.

I got home that night about 12:30 or so.

I went on to bed and at some point, light of my life (who had fallen asleep on the couch), got up and joined me in my bed. Around 4 am, she woke me up informing me that she had just thrown up in my bed....great. Right after she informed me of that, she gagged and threw up 3 more times while I held back her hair. Oh, the memories of holding back one's hair while barfing....priceless.

Anyway, it's was typical kids barf. Hot dog bites, red stuff, etc........

After she was sure she was done, I sent her to rinse her mouth out and then brush her teeth while I held my breath (so as not to breathe in the barf fumes as it would AUTOMATICALLY and IMMEDIATELY cause a chain reaction with me) and stripped the bed. Luckily she only got the fitted sheet and a bit on the pillow cover. After she brushed her teeth, I had to get her to grab a flashlight and hold it on the sheet while I went outside to wash the barf off my sheet with the water hose. Can't have hot dog chunks in the washer, you know!!! Picture a mama with crazy hair outside in her t-shirt with no pants on (panties only) with her 8 year old daughter holding a big ass flashlight, washing off a big yellow sheet with barf on it at 4 a.m. all the while constantly looking off in the woods with BIG eyes at all the country night noises coming from every direction. Between the scary country night noises and the water rushing from the water hose, I nearly peed in my pants, which would have caused yet ANOTHER load of laundry (can't wash Victoria's Secret Panties in hot water with the barfed upon sheets). After rinsing off the sheet, we went inside where I tossed the sheet and pillow cover in the washer and we went and slept on the couch for the rest of the night/morning.

She was feeling much better the next morning. Thank goodness. It was a weird thing. I think it was the Sonic she had for dinner instead of an illness cause she didn't have any other symptoms.

Saturday consisted of us getting up at like 10 am (the barfing and cleaning up wiped us out) and going to Wal-Mart to drop the Relay for Life pics on a c.d. and then coming home and ordering a pizza and watching Hairspray.

Sunday, we went to church and then spent most of the afternoon at the pool. That was so much fun.

I also saved 2 more turtles yesterday.

I so wish I had a video of the one I saved on the way to church Sunday morning. I had dropped light of my life off at Sunday school around 10 and came back to the house to shower and get ready for regular service that started at 11.

My hair was in desperate need of a trim, so I have to be particular about how I fix it until I can get it trimmed (which my mom did for me yesterday afternoon...boy what a difference that makes). I always run behind, so it was pretty much me running out the door with still damp hair that had a bit of gel in it.

I get almost to the turn off to the church (about 3/4 of a mile away) when I see a medium sized turtle in the road. I swerved to avoid hitting him and then realized that I had seen his head sticking out which meant that he was still alive. I pulled off the side of the road, put my car in park and RAN in my white heels (yes, I'm a tacky white trash southerner who wears white heels to church. If you saw these shoes, you'd wear them too, they're that cool) all the way back (about 50 feet) to the turtle and picked him up and put him in the grass on the side of the road (the direction he was heading).

Ungrateful little bastard didn't even say thank you after I humiliated myself running on the highway in white heels with my boobs bouncing up to my chin and my carefully coiffed hair flying all over the place.

On the way home from swimming yesterday afternoon, there was another turtle in the road. I did the same thing, except this time, I was in a bathing suit and a towel wrapped around my waist and wearing Speedo flip flops while running down the highway.

I better earn a good spot in Heaven for all this. If not, I'm just gonna leave 'em to die...kidding. I can't do that. I figure the reason I'm so stuck on saving the turtles is because I can't save the kitties, raccoons, armadillos and dogs that get run over all the time. The turtles are so slow, that I actually have a chance of rescuing them.

For those of you keeping score (you hear me, God), that's 3 that I've saved. And nary a thank you.

How was your weekend?

Later,

Mama Dawg

My Weekend

We had to go back to New Orleans so I could drop light of my life off with mom who's staying for at least another week to take care of K. Light of my life is out of school and she would have more fun staying with mom in New Orleans than she would here with my aunt and grandmother.

We mostly shopped and spent time together. I went to eat sushi with R on Saturday night and saw a movie with her and V. We saw "What Happens In Vegas" and it was surprisingly good.

On Sunday, T, her daughter Z and light of my life and myself decided to go to the Greek Fest. We ended up meeting up with K, my mom and V and saw R and her crew there as well.

We even ran into light of my life's old daycare teacher and her daughter. We've known them for about 7 years.

It was cool.

Anyway, here's pics from Greek Fest.



On the way to the Fest.



Here's a pic of the fest from the sidewalk. That's Bayou St. John.



Here's the sign showing the announcement of the fest.



Here's T, Z and light of my life. The food was so good. I love me some stuffed grape leaves.



Here's light of my life climbing the big kids rock wall. She ROCKS!!!!

She's not that brave of a kid and it takes a lot for her to try something like this. But it was her idea. I didn't think she'd make it this high, but she did. I'm so proud.

We also ended up going out on a canoe with the two girls. Let me say one thing...never again!

I love to canoe, but I'm used to doing it when there's some movement on the water. It's harder to do it when the water was as still as the bayou.

At one point, we were getting ready to hit a rock on the bank (when I say hit, I really mean lightly bump!) and the girls (who had watched Titanic the night before, I might add) were yelling "We've hit an iceburg!!"

After laughing my ass off, we got turned around and headed back. When heading back, we got turned sideways and some ladies in another canoe were laughing (gently and not in a making fun of way). They started laughing even harder when they heard me yelling at the girls (who were freaking out at turning backwards) "This is not the Titanic, it's a canoe. You're not gonna die like Jack!".

Good times.

Hope you're Memorial Day Weekend was good.

Off to eat lunch.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Ahhh...

....I got nothing.

Really, I'm drawing blank. I'm still working on the blog about my weekend in Lake Martin.

I'm going back to New Orleans this weekend. Mom's still there taking care of K and the kids. She's gonna stay through next weekend as well. Light of my life will stay with her next week since she's out of school as of tomorrow. That way, she won't have to stay with my grandmother and aunt (not that they wouldn't take care of her for me during the day, it's just better all around if she doesn't stay for that long) and she'll get to see her friend, Z, some while she's there next week.

Plus, I get to see R. I haven't seen her since Mardi Gras and with K's emergency, I didn't get to see her this last trip, either.

I get to eat sushi this time.

I get to eat Thai this time.

I get to eat Mona's (best Middle Eastern restaurant EVER!) this time.

I get to go see the new Narnia movie and the new Indy movie (I love me some Harrison Ford, he's like Paul Newman to me....never gets too old. Well, Paul Newman is too old now, but for a while he wasn't).

Hey, I got an idea for a blot post. I'll end this one and start the new one.

Later,

Mama Dawg

I'm Back

Bet you didn't even know I was gone.

I went to New Orleans for the weekend. My friend's son, C, was graduating from college and her daughter, V, was starring in her high school play of Chicago. She was Roxie Hart.

Guys, I have seen many a high school play in my life and I have to tell you this, this was hands down, the best high school play I've EVER seen.

They did such a phenomenal job. The choreography was spot on, the girls of the "Cell Block Tango" were OUTSTANDING, the performance of Billy Flynn and Roxie for the number of "We Both Reached For the Gun"...I don't even have words. With the exception of Rene Zelleweger and Richard Gere, I haven't ever seen anything like it.

I knew V was talented, but she totally blew me out of the water with her performance. I seriously think she needs to try to do some stage work somewhere. She'll be attending (hopefully) Loyola when she graduates (she has one more year of high school).

It was such a bold move for them to do Chicago but they, without a doubt, pulled it off.

C graduated from Southeastern and I am so proud of him. I've known him since he was 14 and to see how much he's grown and how far he's gone, it's amazing.

We had his graduation/birthday party on Sunday. It was a crawfish boil and we had a blast. It was so nice getting to see everyone again and visiting.

K's sister is the one who recently passed away so it made for a bittersweet party.

I had the day off yesterday and I let light of my life skip school (it's her last week) so we could stay for an extra day. We went shopping yesterday, (oh, Target, how I miss you so) and well, all hell broke loose.

K had to go to the ER due to complications from her diabetes. They ended up admitting her and she's still in the hospital today.

Mom decided to stay behind in New Orleans to take care of her while she recuperates and to help with V since she's still in school and C works a lot.

Light of my life and I came back by ourselves last night. We didn't get back home until well after midnight so I'm exhausted today.

This is a bigger situation than I'm comfortable going into here on The Internets, so that's all I'm gonna say for now.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers and good wishes and good vibes or whatever it is you do to send good energy out to the universe. She needs it.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Weekend Tidbits

My child is such a smartass (in a good way).

Friday night, we were playing a game (Zeus on the Loose for those of you who want to know). We just discovered this game. She got it for Christmas (it's a card game) but we had never tried it out. We also adore the game Sleeping Queens for anyone who's interested.

Anyway, while I was shuffling the cards, she was looking at the box the cards came in and said "I bet I can guess what this game is like. Sometimes, with books, you can guess what the story is about when you read the title."

I agreed and said something inconsequential.

She then said, "You know, predicting".

I said, "Big word."

She said, "Second grader".

I laughed so hard. It was such an adult exchange and so rapid fire. I mean, she didn't even stop to think of a response. As soon as I said, "big word", she immediately fired back with "second grader". Which she is....a second grader, that is.

So funny.

----------------------------

In order to tell you about the next exchange, I need to prep you.

We live in a dry county. No alcohol is sold or allowed in the county.

We have to drive 30 minutes away to the nearest Wal-Mart where you can buy beer. This is because it's located in another county.

If you can't wait to get to Wal-Mart to get cheap beer, you can stop at the first gas station in the non-dry county.

They used to have a sign in their parking lot to the effect of "Last Chance For A Cold Beer" or if you're coming in to town, "First Chance For A Cold Beer". They've taken it down recently, but that's how we refer to the gas station. As the "Last Chance For A Cold Beer" gas station.

Anyway, it was late Saturday night and mom, light of my life and I were all in the car on the way back from Wal-Mart.

As we were approaching the gas station, mom asked light of my life "Light of my life, wanna stop of a beer?"

To which she IMMEDIATELY replied, "No, thanks, I've already had two today".

Just so dry and sarcastic like.

Mom almost lost control of the car she was laughing so hard. I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard.

She gets it from me. I'm so proud.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Teaser....

...here's a teaser to hold you over til I get the post written about the weekend. This is just an example of the...hmmmmm, how do I say this....fun(?) we had.




Later,

Mama Dawg

I'm Baaaacccckkkk!!!!

Did you peeps miss me?

I missed you guys.

Well, not really, but it sounded good!

Just kidding.

The weekend was chock full of so many bloggie things, it's gonna take a couple of posts.

I have to play catch up here at work, so I won't get around to posting until probably tomorrow. Plus, I have to download some pics. Believe me, the pics help to explain some things. Maybe.....

Anyway, I'll be back on as soon as possible to let y'all know how it went.

I need to put this out there first.....

No animals were harmed during this trip (at least not by us....a dog did get hit by a 4 wheeler, but we had nothing to do with it and he did survive), no one had to be rushed to the hospital, no one drowned and I DID NOT crash the boat....just almost.

Other than that, pretty much everything else happened.

Later,

Mama Dawg

P.S. Tracey, on the last Disney Tip of the Week, I answered your question in the comments.

Have A Good Weekend...

...and I'll see you guys on Monday.

I'm off to more southerly (I swear, blogger is telling me that's a word) regions tomorrow morning with B & L.

2 whole days (and some partial days as well) of relaxation and drinking and talking and drinking and fires and drinking and well, drinking.

Have a good one. More than likely I'll smell like beer or hurricanes or relaxed mommy come Monday morning, but man, will it be worth it.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Weekend Tidbits

Just a couple of tidbits from the weekend.

The girls said that they liked going fishing with me better than their dad (sorry, L) because I let them talk while they fish. That's probably why we didn't really catch anything! LOL!

When light of my life was watching Enchanted this weekend, we got to the part where Narissa turned into the dragon and was on top of the building that looks like the Empire State Building. She just sat up and asked out of the blue "What exactly is the Vampire State Building?". It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud. I didn't bother to correct her. I love that, even though it's rare, she still has moments like this. Where she says sweet things like this.

I really don't question the move from the big city to the country. I know that it was the right decision, but yesterday, it just nailed down exactly what I was expecting our life to be like when we moved up here. When we were walking back through the woods from going fishing, light of my life, M and C were all in front of me. C's bra strap was falling down her shoulders and she couldn't move it up because she was carrying so many things in her arms. She decided to make up a song about her bra straps falling. The other girls caught on and started singing it, too. I just walked behind them and grinned the whole time. The sight of these three girls carrying poles and wearing rubber boots and so full of pride and excitement and joy, it just......I can't even describe the feeling. It was just a perfect moment. It's what I dreamed of for light of my life when we moved up here. I just wish I could have captured it in some way other than in my memory.

Later,

Mama Dawg

...And They All Had a Good Time Part 2

On Sunday, we got up and went to church. Came home, ate lunch and went to visit my grandmother.

Mom had gotten some good news about building her house. The survey had been done and the land marked off. She got to walk the land last week and wanted to show it to me. The next step in the process is to start clearing the land, go to an architect to have the plans drawn up, get the culvert done, grading, driveway started, etc....She's so excited. So am I. It's gonna be a cool place to build her house.

Anyway, while we were at my grandmother's house, mom and I went out and walked her land. After seeing the spot where she's gonna build, we decided to walk down to the creek to see if we could find the spot we went fishing last year. I had invited M and C to go fishing with us after they got back from their piano lesson. They were all for it. They go fishing with their dad a lot. So much so, that they have their own rods and reels.

Light of my life and I have those dinky cane poles from Wal-Mart that cost about $4. Light of my life had only been fishing once before and liked it well enough. I love to fish, but having lived in cities all my life, it was such a hassle to go fishing that it really wasn't worth it. But I love to do it.

After the girls got back from their piano lessons, we grabbed our gear and hopped in the car. It was about a 15 minute walk to the new bridge where we were gonna fish off of. The girls didn't voice one complaint the whole way there. I was so proud of them.

We got to the bridge and I had to bait their poles. We had night crawlers as bait. I prefer crickets, but we were using L's bait since I didn't have time to go to town to get some crickets. Light of my life's and my poles were brand new and the line hadn't been tied to it yet, so I had to get that done first. I got hers taken care of and baited her hook. She promptly put the line in the water and loudly commented on how cool it was. I got M and C's hooks baited and then went to work on trying to get my line loose so I could get my pole set up. Before I could get that done, light of my life was hollerin' that she had one! Sho nuff, she had a little brim. I took a pic and because we didn't have our little Styrofoam cooler set up with water in it, we had to let it go. C and I decided to try to find a place along the creek that we could make our way down to the bank to get the Styrofoam cooler filled with some water in case we caught something big. We went up the creek a bit and had to fight our way through some thorny things, but finally found a sandy spot where we could gain access to the water. We filled up the cooler and made our way back to the bridge. Light of my life ended up catching the second fish, C caught the third, light of my life caught the fourth and M caught the fifth one of the day. I caught nada. Zip, zilch, zero, big fat goose egg nothing. Sucks, but I had so much fun, I didn't care. C's fish (the biggest one we caught) was so pissed that it decided to JUMP out of the cooler and back into the creek. It didn't even touch the bridge. It just JUMPED out of the cooler and right between the slats of the bridge right the creek beneath it. So cool! Out of the five we caught, we ended up only having three in the cooler. Stupid me, I said it was OK for us to take them back with us....forgetting I had a 15 minute hike through the woods and fields while carrying a bag full of stuff and a cooler of fish. I'll never do that again! Actually, next time, we'll just take the golf cart.

We decided to move off of the bridge and go to the spot where we had gone down to get some water in the cooler. It was kinda steep but had a couple of flat places that the girls stood on. I was trying to work my way around a downed tree when I slipped on the wet sandy bank and fell flat on my ass. The girls got a good laugh out of it. Especially since my butt was covered in mud! When it started to get dark, the girls pulled in their lines and light of my life's hook got stuck on a log on the water. Instead of breaking the line, I decided to do the smart (read..stupid) thing and walk out on the rotted, wet, slimy downed tree to get to the stuck hook. I managed to get there and back in one piece, but at one point, I almost fell in.

On the way back to the car, we spotted a rabbit in a field and M tried to sneak up on it. She actually got about 10 feet from it before it hopped away. They all thought that was cool.

We made it back to the house and showed off the three tiny fish to my grandmother and aunt. They were suitable impressed and oohed and ahhed over the fish. The girls were so proud of themselves.

We made it home and showed off the fish to my mom, B and L. Everyone was impressed (read....impressed that we caught anything at all!). The girls had so much fun. It was just a perfect day. I can't wait to go again!

Later,

Mama Dawg

...And They All Had a Good Time Part 1

Oh, wow......where to start. This weekend, man, it was so much fun. Just one of those perfect weekends.

First of all, I slept in til 10 on Saturday. I actually shouldn't have done that since I sorta woke up with a headache. Mostly from the sinuses, but still, I shouldn't have gotten up that late. But, it was still nice as I was refreshed.

Got up and fixed breakfast. Light of my life had already eaten, so that was one less thing to feel guilty about. I needed to run in to town to drop off a letter at the post office and then go by the pharmacy to drop off a letter to the pharmacist/Mayor. Yes, you read right. Our Mayor is the town pharmacist and I had to drop off a letter to him. I keep trying to tell you people that I live in a small town. Anyway, he had heard about a job opening and had told my aunt about it and told me to drop his name when I spoke to the owners of the company. Since it was so nice that he kept me in mind, I decided to drop off a little thank you note.

Since I was already having to go out and about, I decided that I wanted to go by this Flea Market store about 20 minutes away. I hadn't been in a while and I was looking for a new chair to add to my dining room set. I don't have a formal dining room set and I'm kind of eclectic in my taste. I have an old walnut drop leaf table that I traded something for about 10 years ago or so. On a trip to another flea market about 12 years ago or so, mom and I had stumbled across a pair of cherry wood chairs that were dated back from the 1920's. Those were literally the only two chairs I had at my dining room table for YEARS. When we had parties, I pulled out every chair in my house...lawn chairs, desk chairs, kitchen table chairs, etc.....for my guest to use. LOL! Anyway, since I moved here, I have purchased another chair that is...ugh, so ugly. However, it has great potential. Once I strip it, repaint it and re-cover the seat, it will be so pretty and will fit right in. So now I have three chairs! I'm looking for 3 more and thought I'd go shopping.

Light of my life decided she wanted to call M to go with us. She called M and found out she wasn't at home. Her older sister, C, was home and light of my life decided to ask her if she wanted to go. She did so off we went. Now, C is 4 years older than light of my life and even though I knew they'd get along, I didn't know if C would be bored or not. But she wasn't. I recently taught her how to make jewelry (with beads) and I told her that sometimes you can go to flea markets and get old glass beaded necklaces and bracelets that you could purchase for next to nothing and then take them home and take them apart to re-use the beads. She got excited at the idea of finding some cool beads so that was her incentive to go! When we go there, we did find a good bit of jewelry to buy and take apart, but she fell in love with the place. I showed her what carnival glass pieces look like and she fell in love with carnival glass. Yay! Another convert! I love that stuff. I just need a good china cabinet to put up in my dining room so I can start buying some pieces to display.

I digress.

After we left the flea market, we decided to go to Subway to grab some lunch. We also had the bright idea (no sarcasm there, it was a good idea) to eat our lunch at C's house out at the dock of their little pond. The day was absolutely gorgeous. We took our food out to the dock and had a wonderful picnic lunch. We just lazed around for a bit. We had to make a trip to Wal-Mart and asked C if she wanted to tag along there as well. M hadn't made it home from her aunt and uncle's house yet, so light of my life was all excited about C coming with us. B (her mom) was fine with it. C managed to wrestle some money out of her dad and light of my life decided she'd try to get in on that action as well. I think if she would have kept giving L those puppy dog eyes, he may have given in and given her some, too!

Anyway, we made the trip in to Wal-Mart and it was such a quick and easy trip. It helped to have C there to take light of my life to all her favorite parts (toys, crafts, school supplies, electronics, make-up, etc...) while I shopped.

After Wal-Mart, we stopped by a local soft serve ice cream place. C got a chocolate malt and it was soooooooooo delicious. I just got a plain old chocolate soft serve but it was heaven. While we were enjoying those, we called in an order to a local barbecue joint for some catfish platters and a couple of barbecue sandwiches.

When we got home with the groceries and food, we decided that it would be another wonderful idea if we went back out to the dock to eat our dinner. How can you say no to that? The weather was still good and the mosquitoes weren't too bad at that time.

M by that time had made it home but was so exhausted by her adventures that she decided she didn't want to join us or spend the night. Light of my life was OK with that since C was already going to spend the night. B and L went to a neighbors to watch a fight on TV and we went back to our house to make some jewelry. We giggled and laughed and make jewelry til about 11 and then the girls went on to bed. It was such a good day. Light of my life had so much fun and when she has those kinds of days, it just melts my heart.

I'll post about yesterdays activities in the next post.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Saturday

This past Saturday was kind of weird.

I had to drive out to the vet's office (30 minutes away) to get some flea meds for the boys. I always love going to the vet's office (when it's for routine things like flea meds or cat food, not when I have to take the boys for something) because there's always animals there (imagine that!). When I arrived at the office, the cat that lives there was outside grooming herself. I reached down to pet her and she decided she liked me and wanted to play. I stayed outside for a couple of minutes playing with her and then went inside. I informed them of what I needed and they told me it would be a few minutes since they were training someone new and they had also gotten a new systems that they were still trying to figure out. I wasn't in a hurry, so I sat down. An older lady was in there with her golden retriever dog, Ben. Ben was about 5 months old and HUGE!!! I mean, massive. And he was ONLY 5 MONTHS OLD!!!!

Anyway, Ben was a big old sofite and he let me pet him and play around with him for a while. I love dogs. I can't wait to get one.

A few minutes later, someone else arrived at the office and when they opened the door, the vet's cat came waltzing in and walked right past Ben totally ignoring him (however, Ben's rear end was wiggling so much I really thought it might fall off at one point). She came right to me and hopped in my lap! I love it when animals do that.

This story has absolutely no point. I just thought it was cool. I'm such a kid that way. I get so excited by the simplest things. I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm leaning towards good since it seems to keep me "up" and happy most of the time. Like that whole snow thing. That just tickled me to no end.

Anyway, I rushed back home to pick up light of my life since I told her we would go by the library for a few minutes before they closed at noon.

I swung by the house and picked her up. We made it to the library 15 minutes before it closed. However, I couldn't see either librarians cars and I got a sick feeling that they had already closed. It wasn't that big of a deal, I just hated that I rushed for nothing.

Anyway, light of my life was right in the middle of a game on her DS, so she decided to stay in the car for a couple of minutes til she could stop to save the game.

I walked on up to the door and noticed all the lights off. However, the door opened. I stepped inside and called out. No one answered. I started getting scared.....see there's that little kid thing coming back out. I've seen way too many scary movies that started off like this!

Anyway, I called out and got no response. I walked around and noticed that no one was there.

The library has about 4-5 computers and DVD's so I knew that I couldn't just leave the library open and unlocked. I called my mom back at the house and got her to look up the librarians home numbers (this is a real small town). She read them to me and I called each librarian. Neither answered. I called my mom back and got her to get me the number for Mrs. N's son who is a local attorney and literally lived a block from the library. I called him and explained the situation and he said that his mother probably just forgot to lock the door on her way out. Seriously, with all that computer equipment? She is a little daft, but still. Anyway, he told me just to lock it up and leave.

Again, there is no point to this story.....but it was a weird thing.

Later that night, we went to a rodeo that was in town. It wasn't too bad. Not a whole lot of excitement in the beginning, but when a few guys started qualifying and then getting thrown off and gored, it got better. Don't worry. Both guys survived.

I thought about rodeos and NASCAR this morning. I'm not a fan of either and started thinking about the concept of both "sports".

On paper, they both sound like the most stupid things you can do.

Think about it.

In NASCAR, you put a human being into a piece of tin (I'm taking creative license here with my descriptions) and they proceed to drive around and around and around and around and around (you get my drift?) at speeds only known to cheetah's and the autobahn all the while, they are surrounded by other pieces of tin doing the same exact thing. To top it off, there's a huge wall that surrounds the track. Do you know what walls are made of? Thick strong stuff. Thick strong stuff that when you hit it going the speed of a cheetah, it could kill you.

This is fun?

As far as rodeo's.....again, think about it. You put a man on the bull with no safety equipment (although I saw a few wearing a catchers mask) on a bull that you have PURPOSELY PISSED OFF and you let them go, praying that they can hold on for a measly 8 seconds just to win a couple thousand dollars and a fancy shmancy title. Again, this is fun?

Yes, yes it is. On paper, it sounds stupid. In real life, it's soooo cool. I can only speak for the rodeo since I haven't been to a NASCAR race, but, man, what a rush.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Fun Weekend

I had a great weekend. The weather was perfect. Saturday was wonderful. I slept in until about 9 am. Mom got up that morning and went to the church rummage sale to help out. Light of my life and I got up and ate breakfast, got dressed and headed to the library. I needed to use the computer and light of my life just likes the library. We stayed about an hour and then headed to the rummage sale. I had donated a bunch of stuff there the week before and when we arrived, mom said that most of what I had donated was gone already! Made me feel good knowing I had good crap!

We bummed there a bit and then went and got lunch at a local cafe. We then went to my uncle's house to see if he'd let us use his backyard for light of my life's birthday party. As I mentioned before, it's a Mad Tea Party theme. His backyard has an Old English look to it, so it would be perfect for the party. He said it was fine. We chatted a bit and I got a couple of pics of a mockingbird at his entry way. The bird was just sitting there looking like he had been waiting all day for me to come by and take his picture! It was cute.

We came home after that and decided to do some yard work. I love doing yard work. Not planting and stuff, but the cleaning up. I have no clue why. I guess I just like the physical labor.

Sunday was nice and relaxing as well. Ran to Game Stop to trade in light of my life's old Gameboy Advance and about 9 games. She was able to get 2 new games (with me paying about an extra $6 on top of the credit). They were having a used DVD sale so I got 12 DVD's for about $28. Can't beat that!

Went to Wal-Mart and Payless after that. Came home, visited the neighbors and ate dinner. All in all, it was a nice relaxing weekend.

Later,

Mama Dawg

My Weekend

This weekend was so nice. First of all, the weather was BEAUTIFUL!!! Just stunning. I love these kinds of days. It was a bit chilly in the morning but then it heated up enough during the day to get into a short-sleeved t-shirt.

Light of my life wanted M to come spend the night Friday night, so after we visited with B & L for a while, I brought them back to the house. It was close to 11 at this point, so the girls went straight to sleep.

We all woke up around 8 or so. Mom cooked pancakes (she makes the best pancakes, hands down), eggs and sausage. I cleaned a bit. The girls were in the playroom playing with Barbies.

I had to go to the vet to get some flea meds for the boys before they closed at 11. When I got back and took care of the cats, I informed the girls that they needed to get dressed and go outside to play. They wanted to play with the baby doll stuff outside so I dragged out all the baby doll beds (three), the highchair, playpen, swing, light of my life’s princess table and chairs, a quilt for them to use, clothes for the baby dolls, toys for the baby dolls and the kitchen stove. Yes, the kitchen stove. Of course, it’s a plastic Playskool kitchen stove that’s filled with play kitchenwares and plastic food, but you can’t set up house without having a kitchen.

They played this way for at least 2 hours. It was good for them to get outside.

Now, before you ask what I was doing during this time, I’ll go ahead and let you know.

I decided to take this opportunity to drag out my work table (an old dining table top on top of 2 saw horses) and my big masculine power tools. I had a couple of projects to work on that required my circular saw and my jig saw. Since the day was gorgeous, I figured it was as good a time as any to work outside.

I have a shelf that I need to put up in the bathroom to put all the laundry detergent and stuff on. Right now, it all sits on top of the dryer and it takes up so much space (that could be otherwise used for other random miscellaneous crap). So, I had gone to Home Depot earlier in the week and got a white shelf. It was 5 feet long but I only needed 3 ½ feet or so. Instead of getting them to cut it, I decided to do it myself. I’m sure I could find somewhere to hang the other 1 ½ foot of shelf that’s scrap.

I got that cut and then moved on to the Barbie dollhouse.

See, a couple of years ago, I got a bee in my bonnet to build light of my life a Barbie dollhouse. However, I didn’t just imagine a quaint little four room house. Nope, I had grander ideas. Barbie was going to have a mansion. Nothing short of 16 rooms for that b*tch. This required me building 4 separate 4-room houses. I drew out the plans (like they were real hard, it consists of 4 rooms that are 14”h x 16”d x 16”w). I actually managed to get one section built. It’s custom painted (each room), I cut out windows, made curtains, made some furniture, made flooring (out of tea stained balsa wood), placed down carpet (real carpet remnants were used), etc…..My goal was to wait a few weeks and then start on the next section.

Then our world went black. Our life was disrupted for well over a year. Decisions were made and we packed up our worldly belongings and moved. During all this time, I was never able to get back to building the other three sections. I promised myself that I would get it finished before this summer. I went and bought the wood about a month ago and I actually did some work on it Saturday. I got the exterior built of another section. All I need to do now is put in the interior floors/ceiling/walls, paint the rooms and put in flooring.

Then do the same thing for 2 more sections.

Ambitious, I know. But it will be completed…..just in time for light of my life to declare her love for Barbies to be over and done with.

Sigh……

B came over while I was in the middle of all this. We visited for a while. I kept on working on the house while we visited. The girls had gone in by that time and like most kids, could sense that I was enjoying a nice adult conversation and decided to some outside at that point. They wanted to show off their house to B, so she went along and entertained them for a while. She invited light of my life to come over to play, so they left and I finished up what I was doing.

I went over later to visit and to collect light of my life.

As you can tell by previous posts, we are over there all the time!

On Sunday, we got up and light of my life got ready for Sunday school. B normally picks her up and takes her with them since she teaches a Sunday school class. However, I got a phone call from H that morning (H is the landlords daughter, she’s 13 and is friends with B’s girl C). She told me that B wasn’t feeling good and wasn’t going to church. H asked me if I’d take her to Sunday school when I took light of my life. Being the good neighbor that I am (or am trying to be) I said it was fine. And it was. However, unbeknownst to me, B had made arrangements to have her mother come pick up light of my life since she was already having to pick up B’s girls to take them to Sunday school. We got it all straightened out and made it to Sunday school on time.

At church, before the sermon, B’s brother in law talks to all the kids. They leave the pew and go to the front of the church and stand around while he tells them an amusing story that relates to something about God or Jesus or stories in the Bible. This Sunday, he was talking to the kids about Valentine’s day and was trying to tie it in to Jesus loving you forever and all that jazz. Now, M is his niece and she’s up there with light of my life and other kids. M is a sassy little thing (not in a bad way, but in the wholesome, positive, extremely HILARIOUS way) and she doesn’t let adults get by with much. She loves her uncle to pieces. Her aunt (B’s sister) is sitting in the pew this whole time. Her kids are sitting with her as well and her mom and dad are there, too.

The story he was trying to relate to the kids is that when he was younger, he had a crush on a girl named Michelle. He gave her a special Valentine (one of many that this girl received….apparently she was a popular girl) with a big ole’ smiley face on it and asked her to be his. This girl returned the Valentine with a big ole’ frowny face and declined his request.

The point he was trying to get across was that if you gave your heart to Jesus, you can bet he won’t return it and he will keep it and protect it and cherish it forever.

However, I think the kids missed this point. Why? Well….it's all because M loves her aunt and felt the need to defend her honor.

See, uncle, when he started the story, told the kids about loving this little girl. M got indignant on her aunt’s behalf and raked him over the coals for loving someone that is NOT HIS WIFE!!! She had the whole church rolling. The choir was chiming in, the congregation was chiming in, and the other kids were chiming in. It was hysterical.

You gotta be proud of M for standing up for her aunt. It was truly touching. I just wish someone could have taped the whole thing. B could have won some money on America’ Funniest Home Videos or whatever it’s called now.

That girl is a trip.

The rest of Sunday was nice and relaxing. Mom and I went to see my grandmother and we went driving. My aunt thought she knew of a field where some daffodils were growing and wanted to show them to us. I brought my camera along, of course.

We then made the ubiquitous trip to Wal-Mart and came home.

Went to B & L’s for hamburgers and hot dogs. Came home and went to bed.

I love living up here.

Later,

Mama Dawg

Weekend Wrap Up

A winter storm came through on Friday when I was leaving for work. I actually had icicles on my car! The DOT had already been out and about in the county because there was stuff on the bridges to prevent slipping. I got home on Friday only to have to go back out to pick up pizzas. No cooking in our house on Friday. It was so miserable. I had thought about going over to B’s on Friday after we ate our pizza and watched a movie but then light of my life wanted to watch the next movie in the series and I fell asleep during the beginning of it (it was like 9:15!) and light of my life and mom decided to go on to bed. I got my lazy ass up off the couch around 2:30 am and crawled in to my bed. For was cold as it was outside, the inside of the house wasn’t too bad. I don’t have central air and heat and when it’s really cold, I sometimes need to use a space heater in my bedroom. But that night I didn’t need to. B was at her house and they were bored. I should have gone over, but my butt was out like a light waaaaay too early. I would have been no fun to anyone as tired as I was.

The movie, by the way, was Indiana Jones. Light of my life had never seen the movies and I felt so bad not breaking her into to one of the greatest series of all times. She loved Raiders of the Lost Ark and immediately wanted to watch Temple of Doom. We’ll watch The Last Crusade tonight, probably. I’m kinda digging this writer’s strike. It gives me a chance to catch up on movies and light of my life’s movie education. She’s already been introduced to Grease, Grease 2, Dirty Dancing (with the Baby/Johnny love scene fast forwarded and eyes covered), Karate Kid (all 4!), Adventures in Baby-Sitting, Clue, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (her personal fav!), Footloose (another fav!), Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Goonies, Never Ending Story, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (the Kevin Costner version….I don’t care what people say, I love this movie!!!) and Shag. Next up on the list is Uncle Buck and Ghostbusters.

On Saturday morning, we awakened to icicles on the house, our cars, the handrail on the steps, the steps themselves, the trees, bushes, etc….Light of my life was so excited. Poor thing, it was the first time she’s ever seen icicles. We never got cold enough where we used to live for her to ever experience it. Still no snow, but the icicles will hold her over for a while. We have several of them in a bowl in my freezer! Got some cool pics.

Had to make the inevitable Wal-Mart run on Saturday. After all the fun and excitement with the icicles, we hopped in the car and drove 30 miles away to go shopping. I love that I live 30 minutes from a Wal-Mart. No extra stops just to buy more crap that I don’t need.

Anyway, light of my life had gotten a kids cookbook from Santa and she wanted to try out a recipe. We found one that we already had most of the ingredients for. She actually found two recipes and they make up a meal so she got to cook the entire meal by herself on Saturday night.

She made Crispy Mexican Chicken Tenders and French Fries. The only work I had to do was cut the potatoes and put things in and out of the oven. Otherwise, all the measuring and dipping and breading, she did herself. She even cut the chicken pieces into nugget-sized pieces. It was actually really, really good. I just had the leftovers for lunch today. The French Fry recipe even had a sauce to make with it. It was sour cream and barbecue sauce. It called for more sour cream than barbecue sauce but we reversed it and put more barbecue sauce than sour cream! I explained to her that as she got more comfortable with cooking, she could alter recipes to her liking.

She was so proud of herself. I'm real proud of her, too. We had some leftover and went over to B’s house. She had said that she wanted to sample it. We brought over about 6-7 pieces and some fries. Light of my life’s friend, M, had another girl sleeping over that night and they ate the whole plate!!! Luckily, B had managed to get a couple of bites in and declared it delicious. The girls thought it was good, as well. B asked light of my life when she was going to come over and cook for them. Light of my life said, “Anytime”.

We are obtaining a pool/Foosball/air hockey/ping pong table from B. She cleaned out the girls’ room and had to make room for her exercise equipment. In order to do that, she had to get rid of the table. We gladly accepted.

They’re bringing it over tonight.

When we were there on Saturday afternoon, I was teaching light of my life to play pool. I love to play pool and had been playing since high school. I’m such a bad mother. I’ve taught my daughter to play Texas Hold ‘Em poker and now pool! Next thing you know, I’ll have her smoking unfiltered Marlboro’s and drinking her Jack Daniel’s straight!

Anyway, B was on the phone with her husband, L. She mentioned that I was busy playing pool and he said that he “bet I had been in a lot of pool joints”. Of course, I had to correct him. I told B to tell him that I had been in a lot of “beer joints that happened to have pool tables”. That L is such a smarty pants sometimes! Of course, he wasn’t wrong, so I can’t get upset at him. Not that I would anyway. It was funny!

We decided that since the pool table was now going over to our house, if the girls wanted to come over to play, they had to bring a carton of cigarettes and a case of beer. That was the entry fee into the pool tournaments. I was teasing of course, but the rest of the time, we were saying that they always had to bring a carton and a case in order to enter the “pool joint” I was making over at my house. I’m going to make a sign and hang it up on the outside of the house. I bet some of the inhabitants of this county will think twice about stopping by unannounced after they see that. Actually, I’d probably be thrown in the slammer since it’s a dry county and I’d probably be contributing to the delinquency of minors and all that jazz! I kid, I kid. At least about the carton and case. I’m not kidding about having the kids over for tournaments. That will be fun. Their parents, however, will be required to bring over a case (not necessarily a carton)….especially if they intend to stay and visit! LOL!!!!!

Not a terribly exciting weekend but a nice and leisurely one. Just the kind I like. Did some cleaning out of light of my life’s room and playroom. Giving lots of things away. I can’t believe light of my life is willingly giving away 90% of her purses!!!! This is my little purse obsessed girl willingly giving away PURSES! I was so proud of her.

Now I just have to call up that Methodist church and take the stuff we don’t want any more to them. I hope Paris comes to the next sale. She can buy one of light of my life’s old purses! She has a nice silver one with a picture of Troy from HSM on it! I think that would look smashing with her many glorious outfits she’s frequently photographed in while visiting lesbian clubs in California. Yes, you read that right. Just Google that and you’ll see where she’s been partying lately!

Anyway, that was my weekend. How was yours?

Later,

Mama Dawg