The digital died, my cell phone took fuzzy pics,....but the good news is, we did get a disposable camera and have pics there.

Now I have to remember to develop them!

                                                    Obviously a cell phone pic!

I am so proud of my son. He wasn't always a lover of school, but somewhere around 10th grade he just exploded! The teachers could not say enough about him. He participates, he challenges the teachers and gets them thinking

It's pretty cool (though I feel old) that some of the kids that I babysat when I did home daycare graduated as well.

Another great thing my mom and I got talking about yesterday...

How some of the kids you thought wouldn't go anywhere when they were younger ended doing ok- some even ended up doing some great things in high school.

We had several that practically lived here because of problems at home.

One has worked a retail job for a couple of years, and he just graduated. He was one I seriously worried about.

Another one is 19 and works as a diesel mechanic at a local biz. He is an excellent mechanic.

Both could have continued on the wrong path, but decided to make positive changes.

Right now they are 18 and 19 - who know's where they will be at 28 & 29?

I am so proud of all my boys- my bio kids, step-kids and all of their friends, our "adopted kids" for all of their accomplishments.

This is going to have to fast, and maybe even a little furious....

Friday Fragments

Caution! Contents MAY be H-O-T !

Yesterday I was multi-tasking as usual...working on my website, folding clothes and listening to Princess Der go on and on about all the words she's learning in Spanish and German...on her iPod!

I realized I hadn't had lunch so I whipped up a couple of cheese hot dogs for us (um...shhhh ...I know it's not the HEALTHIEST thing we could eat).

I wasn't thinking...I grabbed a bun, threw in a hot dog and took a bite.

Ahhhhhhh! A bunch of  H-O-T cheese squirted out! I had a glass of milk , so I gargled with that a few times to cool my mouth off.

With my mouth and throat still on fire, I whipped open the fridge door and grabbed the first cold thing I saw...

A bottle of Budweiser beer left over from a weekend cook-out jumped out at me. Not sure it helped my mouth, but my over-all attitude got better :-)

I feel like I have a sore throat right now....

Speaking of working on my new website

It's almost done! Actually it's an older site moved to a new location and a slightly changed name. So the new URL and the old URL will both go there.

Check it out-I'm not quite done. I'm still playing with design and my contact form isn't working. Still adding some content, too.

http://www.bloggingbizmom.com/

If you want to sign up as a V.I.P. subscriber to my newsletter, just email instead of using the contact form if it doesn't work.

Graduation Weekend...

Have to run....puppy has a vet's appointment, then I have lunch with my mom and one of her friends.

Tomorrow is Golden Child's graduation

Don't forget to check these guys out, too!


http://www.mynewlifeasmom.com/






Ok, I guess this wasn't so fast or furious....

Girl Scout camp, that is.

Friday night we went camping with several other troops from our area.

I only had 3 out of the 4 girls from my troop go, but it was fun.

Friday night we made a real camp dinner. We made hamburgers and put them along with potato slices , carrots and onions (for those who wanted them) and wrapped them in aluminum foil. These "packages" were placed on top of coals and left to cook for maybe 20 minutes- 1/2 hr.

Yum!

Later, there was a bon fire. My girls helped one of the leaders do a little bridging ceremony for a girl moving up to Juniors. My troop was also supposed to lead the group in campfire songs.

We have been trying to practice a few songs for weeks! Two of the girls are new scouts and really needed some practice.

Figures there were several weeks when we would only have 2 girls at our Girl Scout meetings.

Figures also that after the little bridging ceremony, the woman in charge told the troops they were invited to stay at the fire and make smores or whatever, leave if they want, or whatever.

So my daughter asked her if they were still supposed to do the campfire songs. She said, "You can start singing if you want and see if anyone joins in..."

My girls decided they did not want....they wanted to go to bed!

Cool with me!

Yesterday, one of the girls cooked sausage and French toast for us while the other two did the preparation, cleaning up and such.

Then they decorated bandanas with Shapies and alcohol. See directions below.

Then we went to the beach for about an hour and collected pretty stones to make a Plaster of Paris coaster. We were going to make stepping stones, but my daughter and I saw the coaster molds and they were quite a bit cheaper. Always gotta watch that budget!

Here's a few pics:

One girl had to leave after that. The other two had hot dogs from the grill for lunch, then we filled up water balloons and they had fun throwing them around.

Of course they had to pick up all of those balloon pieces!

Before we left, we had to sweep the cabin, clean the bathroom and make sure all windows were locked.

Like good Girl Scouts, we left the place cleaner than we found it.

Cool tie-dye

Something to tie-dye such as a T-shirt
plastic cups
rubberbands
Sharpie (permanent)  markers
rubber alcohol
dropper

Take a plastic cup and with the top side up, place it under your cloth to be designed. Put a rubber band around the top of the cup the material.

In the area created by the top of the cup, draw a picture, write something, whatever with sharpie marker.

Taking the dropper, drip alcohol on the design and watch the colors spread throughout the fibers of the cloth, creating a "fuzzy" look.

Make as many of these designs as desired.

Let dry, then put in dryer for a few minutes or iron to set the color.

CAUTION: Be sure to do this outside and let material dry well...alcohol can be a breathing irritant.

It's Friday! And for once, I think we MAY NOT have rain!

That's a great reason to celebrate with all of my bloggy friends!

Hop along with the gang over at My New Life As A Mom


http://www.mynewlifeasmom.com/

Have you ever participated in Friday Fragments? Mrs. 444 hosts this over at her site at Half Past Kissing Time. Check it out!









And Ann over at Ann Again and Again

Friday Fragments

Rain, Rain go away!

It seems as if all we've had was rain, rain, rain. Not necessarily ALL day everyday, but enough so the ground is soaked so you really can't get much done.

But the rain has left behind some amazing things- my Tiger Lily's are blooming, and I think my Green Pepper plants are ready to burst a few buds as well.



That makes it all better!

The food is always better in another bowl

These dogs are nuts! When I feed them, all they want to do is get at each others bowls!

They will each take a bite of their own food, then wander away. A few minutes later, puppy will sneak over to Rocky's dish and start munching.

Vroom! I whisk it away.

If I forget to take Cosmo's dish away, you can bet your bottom dollar that once you turn your back, Rocky will be eating the puppy food!

I did an experiment yeaterday- I mixed a few pieces of Rocky's food in with Cosmos food, and some of Cosmo's food mixed with Rocky's.

What did they do? Ate only the pieces that were the OTHER dogs and left theirs!

Geez, wouldn't be so bad if pup wasn't just over 4 lbs. and Rocky is bordering 100 lbs.

Um....different nutritional needs, guys!

I want to know....

Horrible subject I know....

I HATE the fact that the news will report on murders -  the details, the arrest, the trial.

But you never hear about WHY these people do stuff like that.

I mean, did the mother drink, or do drugs during pregnancy? Not eat right?

Was the kid mentally, physically or sexually abused?

Of course, maybe I don't want to know...what if they had the ideal childhood and still flipped out?

Scary!

Going to camp

Going to Girl scout camp tonight. We only have 3 girls going. Of course there's only 4 in the troop so guess we're doing ok.

We're making banana boats at the campfire...........yum!

Easy weight loss

If you want to lose weight- eat all day! I'm sure we've all heard that several small meals a day are better than just 3.

I would have to believe that. My grandson, Little Man is a non-stop eating machine! I swear if you let him, he'd eat about 10 bananas, 6 apples, 53 grapes and 5 plums a day- these are estimates, of course...

...but wouldn't but it past him.

This in addition to pancakes, eggs, hot dogs, PB & J sandwiches and more....

The kid is definately very healthy looking- not too skinny but not at all fat.

Back a zillion years ago...(ok, about 25) I worked at a daycare. I worked in the infant room. Most of the kids brought thier own food, but once they turned a year old the parents could put them on the school lunch program if they chose to.

Man that was some GOOD eating...all day long! Between taking "just a bite" of some of those delicious toddler meat sticks, a cheerio or two and "just one cracker" during snack time....

...and don't forget that left over spaghetti- mmmmm....

I actually LOST so much weight, my mother asked me if I was anorexic!

Um....the opposite, mom!

Anyhoo....have to sign off now and get ready to go shopping for our camping trip. I'll catch up with you all tomorrow nigth and Sunday!

Trying to remember if I told the girls NO electronics.....If NOT, I may bring my computer and hope I can catch a signal.....

I must follow the rules....

Have a great weekend!

P.S. Just realized I talked an aweful lot about eating- better go nibble on a meat stick or something :-)

Here's a new meme for you:

For all intents and purposes, I am using What the "heck" as my blog is family friendly and I know some people don't like swearing in blogs.

So here we go....

I swear it has rained every day the past two weeks EXCEPT when I have something to do.....

Remember how I tried to have a lawn (or rummage :-) sale a few weeks ago?

That didn't go over well.

And it has rained at least once a day since EXCEPT as I mentioned earlier....when I want to do something like have a sale or paint the laundry room.

What the heck?

I went to get paint for my laundry room. I decided to go with the same color as the living room. I had about 1/4 - 1/2 of a can left. We went to the store to get another gallon. We went to the same place where I had purchased this paint a year ago.


I brought all the paint numbers off of the top of the can so they just had to add ingredients, mix it up and presto- chango- a can of peachy-colored paint- RIGHT?

WRONG!

They no longer use that number of base paint, so they need to see a sample.

The gentleman asked if I had the paint stick I had used to stir it.

What the heck?

I WANTED to say, "Yeah, right in my back pocket."

But instead I went back with the stick the next day......


Do you work at home?

I recently had someone make a statement to the fact that I work at home so I have all the time in the world, where as THEY work outside the home, so they have no time....

What the heck?

You can read what I have to say about that HERE!

I cannot believe I need a haircut already!

I mean I just had it cut a week or so ago...

Or was that a month or so ago?

If I don't watch out, I'll end up HERE

Finally, I am discovering so many new meme's to put on my website, it's hard to decide which one's to do! There's just not enough time to participate in all of them!

What the heck?

After a long, hard week of work, many of us bloggers look forward to Friday- for several reasons!

http://www.mynewlifeasmom.com/





That's right- it's time to do some Friday blog hopping!

So here we go!

Friday Fragments

The Great Goose Mystery

There's always some kind of mystery going on here. This time it involves geese- baby ones at that!

Ron had acquired 3 goslings from a friend the other day. We put them in with the ducks and chickens.

They were a little scared and hid in a corner. We left them alone to get settled.

About an hour later, I went out to take a pic for my blog. They were all gone!

That was 2 days ago and we haven't seen them since. They didn't know how to fly (as far as we know) so they must have gotten out between the fencing.

More Escapees...

We also have baby chicks! They keep getting out of the fencing.........have to rectify that!

Never a relaxing moment....

This weekend we have a LEAH (homeschool) picnic Saturday, then Sunday we have a graduation party for one of the LEAH students who graduated.

Busy, busy!

Puppy Fashions....

Puppy shakes horribly when he's outside. He gets cold so easily.

Now I will admit to thinking some pups are adorable in clothes, BUT some people take it a bit far. And to be honest, I have to snicker at some of them.

But I had to give in:

Do you like to use coupons?

Look what I found! There are coupons, a forum and more....



If you like to save money, check it out!

Please collect your award....

Last night we went to Golden childs award ceremoney at school. He only had a few classes, but he got several awards. His GF took the most as usual. She is a dynamo student- I think she made high honors every quarter.

Feeling old........

It was kind of funny, but a girl and boy I babysat for about 13 yrs ago was there with their mom. They moved back from Florida this school year. The girl is beautiful and got tons of awards, too. Her brother is HUGE! He was only around 4 when I babysat them. The oldest is in the NAVY!

Gosh, I feel old........

Yesterday after doing a bit of work online, I decided to get ready to paint my utility room. When we moved in eons ago, I had sponge painted it. It looked pretty cool, but now I just want it a solid color.

That project entailed removing everything, taking down the shelves and washing the walls. I cleaned everything out and the Princess washed down the walls while I ran out to do a little grocery shopping.

When I returned we prepared to paint. Unfortunately, the primer I had dried up- the top was not on properly. I thought, "No big deal, I'll just put on a couple of coats of the paint."

Come to find out, I only had 1/2 can of paint left from our livingroom walls, not an almost full can as I thought. We had enough to do the shelves and the closet walls in the utility room. I'm going to go get primer and a couple of gallons of paint today.

Later yesterday, my neighbor Bob came over to fix and paint our hallway wall. A couple of years ago, Golden Child and his GF (now ex) left their dog here while they ran somewhere. The dog ate a huge hole in the hallway wall. We I attempted to repair it, but it didn't look too hot.

A few weeks ago, the neighbor put wood flooring in his house, and they got new furniture. He asked if Ron or one of the boys could take his old carpet and furniture to the dump the next time we went. He offered to pay, or do something around the house for us. He works at Pepsi by day,  but at times moonlights as a handyman. I jumped on that offer...fix my wall!

We're on a roll and I am hoping we can get multiple projects done by Golden Child's graduation party in July.

Tuesday Meme's

I just found Tasty Tuesday this morning- I decided to share this recipe:

No Bake Cookies
These are a fave in our house. They are quick, easy and require no baking!

Step 1

2 cp. sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 cp milk
1 Tbsp. butter or margarine

Add these ingredients to a saucepan and cook to boiling- boil for one minute.

Turn burner off

Step 2

Add:

3 cups oatmeal
1/2 cup of peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla

Mix it all up and drop by spoonful onto waxed paper. Let sit until set.

Eat and enjoy!

Hint... Have all of your ingredients for step two measured out before you even light the stove to get started. Then you can quickly add them when it's time and you know everything is there.

Now get out there and share some bloggy love...it makes the world a brighter place!

I was talking to my mom one day when she remarked, "Better watch what you wear to the store."

Curious, I asked why.

She answered, "There's a website called People of Walmart where people send in pictures of people that are wearing strange clothes, are overweight and more."

That kind of scared me. I mean, I'm no fashion queen, that's for sure! In fact, I'm at my best in jeans and a sweatshirt. At least in public -  pajama pants or sweats and a T-shirt at home.

As many of you know, while most people get their hair cut every 6-8 weeks, I usually manage to stretch it to 6-8 months between cuts. Not intentionally, I just get busy!

So this morning I decided to check it out- was I on there?

I don't know! The danged site loaded, but the pictures page just wouldn't load!

So can someone check the Ny section and see if my pic is there?

This is me:

Thanks!

BTW- while you are there, check out some of the other pics.

There is a section for girls in yoga pants, random creepy guys and a few others I don't remember.



Um, under random creepy guys- is Ron there?

Moving on.....

Yesterday, my yard sale was about like Saturday........

Enough said.

Maybe this week.....

Princess Der had a birthday party to attend yesterday. It was right by our friend's C & L's. Since a yard sale was out, we stopped by to say Hi to C & L and catch up on life.

They were talking about going to a local field days the nght before. Apparently after they left (according to C's brother) a couple of extremely overweight women were sitting at a picnic table eating when suddenly the table BROKE!

I automatically felt so bad for those woman. Number one it must have been totally embarrassing. I was also worried that the women may have been injured.

As L was telling the story she was laughing - I was worried as I stated above. I didn't really find it funny.

Now don't get me wrong, L is such a sweetie- I love her like a sista. She even said that it's not really funny and even admitted she got over 200 lbs after her last child was born. But she laughed....

Then C did told us that they had been at the field days for 2 1/2 hours. Those woman had been sitting at that picnic table surrounded by tons of food when C & L entered the event. They were in THE SAME PLACE, surrounded by food when C & L left to go home.

While I still can't laugh about it, I'm not sure I feel AS sorry for them as I originally did, but I still do feel sorry for them. I mean everyone has feelings. I hope no one laughed at the time.

Today looks like a beautiful day! I have a little work to do and some errands to run, then maybe, just maybe.......

I'll uncover the stuff out in the yard and try to peddle some junk again.

Send warm - weather wishes my way!

The weather really put a kabosh on my lawn sale. I had put a few things out Friday night hoping to get a start on things. I asked Ron to throw a tarp over the stuff in case it rains.

The problem? I forgot to double check and make sure he had everything covered well! It did in fact rain, and the tarp he threw over had some holes, and well...

You guessed it!

Some of the puzzles and pictures got wet and are no longer fit to be sold!

Men!

Yesterday morning started out dark and gloomy. It was threatening to rain again....

It didn't.

So I set everything else up, making sure I had a few tarps handy. They were all old and holey, but if figured I could double them up, and stuff SHOULD be ok- I hoped.

Twice it rained- when you would least suspect it- when it was sunny out!

Twice I jumped up, threw everything under tables and covered them with tarps.

Twice the rain stopped as soon as I had everything put away....

Twice I put everything back out and sat down to read and wait....

...and wait....

Had one customer- no sale!

Anyway, the third time it started sprinkling, we covered everything and called it a day.

Never rained again during the day....the rain started again last night.

Now it's pouring out! I sure hope everything stayed dry  :-(

Time for a little fun!

Here is a meme I found but haven't tried yet.

Unconcious Mutterings

Play it like a word association- just put the first word that comes to mind

1. Group :: rates
2. Pollution :: death
3. Getaway :: vacation
4. Mail :: junk
5. Believe :: trust
6. Chimney :: smoke
7. Curses :: bad luck
8. Contrite :: remorseful
9. Eyelash :: long
10. Jobs :: work

That's it for today kids....the rain is letting up, so I'm headed out!

I really have to call my Internet Service Provider! This is getting ridiculous- I was only able to get on the computer for about an hour yesterday. When you work from home, this can be a real issue.

So yesterday in my eyes wasn't Friday, because I couldn't do any of my Friday stuff, like:

So I declare today FRIDAY, ok?

Friday Fragments

Been getting ready to have a lawn sale today- my house is a wreck!

Did you ever wonder WHY you saved 1/2 of your junk?

I call it junk and think no one will buy the stuff...until I remember I once bought it, why won't someone else.....

One man's junk is another man's treasure!

When looking for stuff to sell, I ran into a box of Golden Childs stuff from Kiddie-garten...great artwork :-) and some pictures that the teacher took.

I have to wonder- how can a kid not really change in all those years?

All I know is, I have some really embarrassing  cool stuff to hang around the house for his graduation party!

Little Man was here for the past 4-5 days. I don't understand how someone so cute can be such a brat (I say that lovingly!).



If you tell him NO- the world has come to an end!

That's what happens when a kid is being raised by two parents living apart (that can't communicate).

We may have a trailer!
It's smaller and older than I would like :-) but you have to start somewhere! Now if it doesn't sell before I get ahold of the guy....one plus is I know the owner.

Did I mention that I got rid of my last 3 goats?

I'm ready to go!

Now I must go and real quick check emailand read a blog or two before my Internet dies again...

Then it's out to the front yard to make a little moola!

Later!

Boy I've been having some computer issues here...really rots when you work at home. Especially when you do blogging and can't update your blogs!

Being a holiday weekend, no libraries were open, so here I am...for now. Who knows when I'll be kicked off again!

I'm on hold with child support right now. I got a letter in the mail saying my sons case is closing....he is turning 19 soon. Child support in NY goes until the child is 21.

Since Golden Child is graduating soon, he is thinking about college. If my child support ends, that is really going to hurt.

At this time, even though I got a letter from child support saying this is ending, they have no note of it on my case!

So I'm on hold.....

We had a pretty fun weekend. Our friends, Mr & Mrs. Rollback started back to work as "carnies" this weekend, and they happened to be in the next town over. So a whole gang of us went. Ron and I along with Princess Der and her friend, Ron's son, his gf and her two kids, and my nephew and his son.

Cosmo, our new pup went too. And got kicked out of his first function!

Not because he was being bad. In fact he was the hit of the place!

No, he got booted because he was a dog.

So we took him home. Not that we had any shortage of babysitters there! Golden Child and his GF eagerly offered to watch pup.

The kids had fun going on rides and we chatted with some people we knew. I saw a woman who has purchased a few of my baby goats and taken some I was giving away when I was reducing my herd. I asked if she wanted 3 more, since the guy I thought was going to take them isn't.

She called her husband (it's HIS hobby!)  BINGO! We have a taker!

They came the next day and got them. Now we have no more goats, but a whole lot of free time & an extra building!

That afternoon, some friends came over and we went to my neighbors and hung out for while. Rons son , gf and kids came, too. We all had a lot of fun. My neighbors aunt had a chihuahua /poodle mix. So funny looking, it was cute.

So my neighbors 3 dogs, my 2 and the aunts dog all had a lot of fun running around!

Little Man came over for a few days...surprised he just got up around 10 a.m.!

Yesterday was HOT! But before it got too bad out I finished cleaning every piece of hay, dirt whatever out of the boys goat house. Then we tore the hay feeder and a stall out. We still have a chicken sitting on a nest, so all work is on hold now.

Ron has taken over the old girls goat house. He has all of his tools and such in there. AND the old recliner from the living room. I told him take the thing to the dump, put it in his cave, whatever...just get it out! It was a dumping ground for clothes fresh from the dryer. I hate that!

So the boys goat house is going to be a girls hang out/guest house. We have so much excess stuff here that my nephew has given us, we could build a new house. Not to mention I still have some kitchen cupboards and a counter that I ripped out of my kitchen around a year ago.

So it should be a cool little woman .....cave(?)

What would you call it?

So anyway my nephew and his son came over yesterday and we had a volleyball game in the burning hot weather. Then we ate some great food!

Don't you love holidays? What did you all do?

Here are a couple of Tuesday meme's.....





BTW- just got off the phone with child support- that was some special medical account (that I never knew I had!) and the weekly payments are safe to 21 y/o or beyond if in school.

Later!

It's Friday again! Should I say yeh...or boo-hoo? I've been so busy working at home, homeschooling , computer issues and of course the new puppy that the week literally flew by again! That's good in some respects, but it again reinforces the passage of time....

Monday we took Little Man and the new puppy to the park. Little Man wanted to hold the leash and walk the dog. It was too cute!

Tuesday we took Ron to get his service vehicle for the new job- finally! Yeah! His new boss seems super nice and very organized. Since we are an hour from the shop, Ron will essentially work from home. Well, sort of. He's a diesel mechanic, so when a big rig breaks down on the road, he heads out and fixes them on the road. But the work orders and any other paperwork will be faxed from here. The boss even bought a brand new fax/scanner/printer/copier machine to set up here.

I don't know what happened to Wednesday......weird.

Yesterday the Princess, Cosmo and I went to my moms. She has a hot tub, so we hung out there, had some lunch then headed home around 3 p.m. I came home and attempted to do a little more work on the Internet.

Ok, now that I see my week laid out, I guess I didn't work all that hard this week! But that's the good thing about work at home...alot of it you can do when you want. I do a lot between 6 a.m.- 8 a.m.! Then I feed the animals, come in and do a little more....Then I can goof off a bit if I want, and go back to work later or not, as needed.

I found out the other day my cousin and BFF may have Cancer. She has what looks like Cancerous cysts on her ovaries and they have to go in and remove all female parts and possibly the appendix and maybe part of the small intestine. Chemo and such will depend on the biopsy results I guess. Her surgery is next Thursday, so if you are the praying sort, I would love if you would hold her up in prayer.

And of course, today is the day for Friday Fragments and Virtual Girls Night Out

Friday Fragments



I honestly can't think of a fragment right now. Usually I write them down as I think of them, but this week all of my fragments became paragraphs!

The only fragment I can come up with is " oh baby, has  it been HOT outside!"

So I guess I'll just go party with Ann and the gals and do a little blog hopping. Maybe by next week I'll be back to my usual fragmented self!



Hope you'all have a safe and happy Memorial Day.

And if you serve or have served our country, thanks!

Boy am I glad I work at home! This morning a major highway in the city was backed up for miles because of an emergency bridge inspection. Can you imagine being on that highway, with a super-size coffee 3/4 of the way gone, and traffic comes to a dead stop. We all know what you need to do, since you can't...........yeah, go  potty!

And what was the emergency? Haven't found that out yet!

Pretzels, anyone?

Our friends, Mr & Mrs. Rollback are carnies (yes, they know we call them that!) Mr. Rollback worked with Ron years ago, that's how they met.

A couple of years ago, Rollback became a carnie, working at all the field days and fairs setting up and tearing down rides, as well as running one during the events. He also transports their equipment.

They stopped by last night with FOUR cases of pretzels........


I guess the pretzels are good for up to a year, but because of health laws, they cannot be sold after 30 days of purchase. They were going to throw them out.

There are 72 bags in each case! We gave a case to our neighbor and one to Golden Childs girlfriend. But we have a lot left!

Apparently, you get the pretzel wet, then put it in the microwave.

Ironically, the microwave died sometime overnight..............

So here we were with slightly under 200 packages of pretzels and no way to heat them...when Ron has an ah-ha moment!

Out in the shed, we still had a spare microwave one of the kids had dragged back when they moved back in. He brought it in, the Princess cleaned it, and now we are back in the pretzel business.

I guess there IS a bright side to kids moving back in......

I didn't think so yesterday........ :-)

A new blog you may want to check out

I recently met a woman named Vivian in one of my journal writing classes. Great woman with a big heart.

Of course, the topic of blogging came up during class. So when Vivian wanted to start a blog, she called me and we talked about it.

This is her idea......

She used to work for a company making travel plans for the employees. She would work with airlines and major hotels to negotiate a better price.

She would like to negotiate a great price on dental and vision plans, since so many people have lost these services or maybe even never had them.

So she started a blog to gauge the interest out there. I know many of us are home business owners and may need something like this...

So stop by her blog and say Hi and give her some encouragement...

http://restoredental.blogspot.com

You all have a great day and don't forget, I'm still taking suggestions on what you think makes a "good" blog.

It has been snowing since!
If this keeps up, the ducks will be ice skating!

Some of my thoughts on being a mom....

Being a mom:

Is Not for the weak

Is Not for the lazy

Is Not for the selfish

Being a mom:

Will keep you on your toes

Will cause you to lose a lot of sleep

Is one of the most wonderful experiences you will ever have, providing love and laughter like you never thought possible.

Today we are going to hang out (probably around the coal stove!). Ron's oldest son and his GF and kids are coming over. That's sweet. Since he has moved out and is a little older he is very respectful to me. We even talk and laugh, like people are supposed to!

This is the kid I went through years of agony with! My life is so mellow now compared to then. But (hopefully) all kids grow up. Now I'm waiting for the second stepson to grow up!

Before I wrote this post, I was trying to think about what to write about my mom. But I've written quite a bit already, and it really says it all.

For a good laugh, check out Fridays post, Digging to China and other lies....a little humor about my mom.

For a tear jerker, check out my post from last Mothers Day. That is a tribute to my late Grandma June, my mom and my sister- the three great woman in my life.

Hope you enjoy the posts.

Have a Happy Mothers Day everyone!

....your mother may have told you. I'm sure everyone has a few of those- things your parents may have told you to do so that you would get out of their hair, stay in line or otherwise do their bidding.



Since today is Friday, I thought my Friday Fragments would be just that- some snippets of stuff that will finally reveal to all why I am the way I am.

And they are somewhat funny, too. So they also qualify for Funny Fridays.

So here we go.....

Digging to China- my mom would give us a shovel spoon and tell us to go dig for China.




Notice how I like to dig in my pond now..........it's comforting, like momma!









Go catch a bird.... mom would give us a salt shaker and tell us to shake salt on the birds tail and catch it...


Say what, say what? Catch a birdie, say what?

Did it work? Heck no, the bird's wouldn't let us get close enough to test that theory!

The only birdie I ever got was from my brother's hand if you know what I mean (um, as in fingers...)





I'm a witch...or I have eyes in the back of my head...........that would be my momma- she always seemed to know what we were doing.



I remember being in the bathroom once and I was like 12 (I know WAY TOO young).

I had stolen one of my mom's cigarettes because I wanted to try it. I remember wondering if it were REALLY true, was she a witch?

I saved that cig for later...........don't know if I thought her "powers" didn't work outside of the house or what....







Ok, now for a funny tid-bit or two about Ron's childhood:

When the guys were putting in the septic for our house before we moved in , the contactor asked me about Ron. Apparently, he knew some of Ron's SEVEN older brothers- yes Ron's a baby can you tell? You could if you lived with him. Kidding!

Rons mom raised most of the boys alone- his dad took off shortly after he was born. According to this contractor, there were so many kids, they were sleeping in dresser drawers!



You see that open drawer? That was my Ronnie's bed. The bigger brothers slept in the lower drawers so Ron would have something soft to step on getting out of bed..............

Of course they haven't seen the one brother since the bottom drawer got stuck ....

I scoured YouTube for a clip from Seinfeld (again, I know....)
of  Kramer and his Japanese houseguests. They slept in dresser drawers. It was too funny!

According to Ron's oldest brother, Ron's mother also knew 101 ways to make Spam - not the email kind, silly- the canned meat kind!

I was at Target yesterday...........

I was kind of wishing I could be a Skinny- Minnie again for once. I mean all those cute little outfits.......like I used to wear have never been able to wear.

But would I have the nerve even then to strutt my skinny stuff?

Our friends Mr & Mrs Rollback stopped by last night. She was telling me she had talked to her daughter back in Missouri. She told the daughter she was getting gray hair. The daughter said she was going to count the gray hairs on her mothers head when she came to visit this fall.

Mrs. Rollback told her, "You better pack a lunch....AND a supper while you're at it!" (imagine a southern drawl...)

I thought that was cute......

Picture of the day.......
Duck Soup or Stuck-Duck?




I went out to feed the animals the other morning and saw this. Poor duck had to stay there while I ran inside to get the camera.











Now I must go get some work done, then get outside. I think it's warming up (again!)



Don't forget about Virtual Girls Night Out later.......go to Ann's and add your link. But better wait until later...Ann is one of those Pacific Chicks that lag behind some of us by a few hours. If you don't see her VGNO post, check back later.

And of course, Friday Follow............



So much great blog reading to attend to later........

Well, iPod is gone - already! My house is soooo quiet I can't stand it. Rocky is most likely wondering what happened to this friend.

If you are a follower, you probably know that every dog friend we get ends up leaving in one way or another.

One of our dogs , Thunder just died- came in the house and died. She was a rescue dog and was hyper and had issues, but c'mon!

I eventually got another pooch, Max- the cutest little peek-a-pom. He ran outside when I was bringing in groceries and answering the phone at the same time- doesn't he run in the road...well you can probably guess what happened.

Then there's Duke. He was just passing through. The dog of my son's (at the time) girl friend, Duke came around a lot. Being she's an ex-GF, Duke no longer visits.

And now iPod. To see her story, go HERE.

On the other hand............

I didn't want to give iPod up, but the rest of my goats, I do. I have 3 left, and a fellow is supposed to take them. I talked to him Friday and he was out buying fencing. I was hoping he would get them this weekend.

I am getting rid of my goats for several reasons, but one is because we are looking to camp/travel soon (I hope). You can check that story out here.

No blog yet?

If you are presently a lurker, but not a blogger OR if you would like to start another blog check this out first. There is tons of information, and I'm adding more daily....................

Yesterday........

Yesterday we saw a flurry of activity. My nephew gave Ron 4 double-sided metal cabinets. Ron's in heaven- he can organize all of his tools and such in his new "man cave" that used to be the girls goat house. While my nephew (and his son) was here, Ron's oldest son, his gf and her 3 yr old son came by. Then who wanders in but Mr & Mrs. Rollback (friends, nick-name).

We had a great time hanging out at the picnic table, walking through the woods, and playing with the kids. Later, we made cheeseburgers along with some mac salad and whatever else we could dig up.

Gotta love family, friends and weekends.

Now, I need to go start my week........

Hope you'all have a Happy & Prosperous Week!

P.S. Speaking of prospering................

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That gets you your websites, training and one on one coaching.

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Later!

Can I just say one thing?

T  G I  F !!!!!!!

We have had something going EVERY night this week:

I got some new batteries today, and for another day, my camera is working. So todays post will probably have quite a few pics from the last few weeks.

Today is also the day for Friday Fragments, Virtual Girls Night Out and Field Trip Friday.

So let's go, shall we ?

Friday Fragments (or Fragmented pics...)



Grab a shovel and relax!

As some of you may have read here or in my other blog, I have gotten rid of 3 goats-we have 3 to go! Then we are free to be...........

We removed the fence between the girls and boys yard, since all we have is the boy goats left. I have been making the duck pond bigger. The one there now has taken me about 3 years digging off & on (by hand).

People ask me why we don't just get a bob cat (or whatever digger-thingy we need) and get 'er done......

...ask Ron!

No, I can't blame him. There is something relaxing (you're saying...WHAT?) about digging boulders and mud out of the ground.

Check it out:




This is the main part now, I'm extending it on the left. See all the huge rocks along the bank? They were there or somewhere else in our yard.







We also have plenty of trees and 2 more ponds. One is at the bottom of the hill in the woods behind our house and is about 1 1/2 mi long!

The other pond is just a small one I made in the front yard. We pretty much let the frogs and a snake or two make their home there. It's near my "outdoor office."


                                                                                                     The Scary Tree


It isn't too far from what the kids named "the Snake Pit"- story to come at a later date............


You see this duck? You'd better look quick! Because next time you look, she may be a chicken!

They can't decide who should sit on the nest. Wouldn't it be cool is we had "chucks" or something?

You just never know around here....

And last but not least.............Little Man doesn't think it's fair that his "Pops" (dad) should have to do dishes. Or was this POP'S idea?






...and if you've been on a Field Trip this week: Post about it and put your link HERE

P.S. Comments

I LUV ..........absolutely LOVE comments...........so leave one....or else........

I may cry  :-(