Christmas Day at our house

We woke up to a beautiful snowfall today, which is very unusual in Georgia.  I tredged through a few inches on the driveway to take this picture of our mailbox.

Then a shot of our house

And Jim's Avalanche was covered!

In the house, this is what was going on:

Fire in the fireplace

Christmas breakfast with my parents present

Reading the Christmas Story

Opening Presents

Phone calls

The dogs wanted to help Ryan open what was in his Christmas stocking.  He always asks for food in it...maybe that was the big draw for them!

Ryan was very excited to get Age of Empires Gold Edition, but I actually wanted this shot to show what Rico (the Golden) did to the wrapping paper.  He is 6 yrs old and such a PUPPY on Christmas morning, shredding up all of the paper with glee.

This was so funny.  We thought Ryan was engrossed with reading the box on his Pro Scooter, but it ended up he was snitching candy from his stocking and eating it behind the box.

 After dinner I fixed plates and we headed out on the snowy roads.  My friend's husband is very sick with cancer and on a feeding tube.  She won't take the time to cook for herself, so I drop off food occasionally.  Today she got a breakfast plate and dinner plate.  Jim shoveled their driveway and sidewalks while my parents and I ran on to some other (elderly) friends to deliver something to them.

On a less Christmassy note, my throat has been terribly sore and I've been coughing a lot more and not feeling really great.  I'm hoping I'm not getting sick.

And I got Photoshop Elements 9 for Christmas and it won't load.  So I have to call about that on Monday.  :(

But I'll leave you with one last picture that I took of the neighbor's tree.

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS!!!!

Merry Christmas

Wishing each of you a very special Christmas with your friends and family!

Deposition

This morning was my deposition for the car accident in June 2009.  The guy kept putting it off and then today it was so hard to remember everything.

I was told it would take 30-40 min. and it took nearly 2 hrs.  Some of the questions were so attacking, some so condescending ("Do you know what a circle is?"), some just so stupid.  The stupid ones that I really didn't know, that NO ONE would know, I said "I dont' know."  So he would change the question around and I'd still say "I don't know"  What part of I don't know don't they understand?

This is supposed to go to a TRIAL.  I just want this over.  All I did was backend the guy.  And I told them that if he was paying attention he could have driven forward.  Even if I still hit him, it wouldn't have been as hard.  But he was on his phone and not watching EVEN THO HE WAS STOPPED ON A BLIND CURVE.  Duh.

I've very stressed.  Been crying a lot in the 2 hrs since and feeling very lonely.  It's not like I can talk about it with anyone in the area, because of the ongoing trial.

Most awesome Christmas music ever!

Just watch and listen!

You'll hear the most awesome Christmas music ever!  Sooo cool!



(I know, I go from not posting for a month or two to several in a week!  I'm full of surprises.)

Prayers for Jeff and his family

Adrienne, at Grace for the Journey, has told us that Jeff will be leaving them for his heavenly home very soon now.  What a hard time for them, especially with the Christmas season!  Please be in prayer for them.  Pray that Jeff's going will be swift and peaceful and for peace and strength for the family.

Click on the link above to read her post and leave a caring comment.

Trying to come back

Thank you for your comments.  I keep wanting to blog, but just can't seem to get myself to.  I don't know what to blog about.  I think I have the winter blahs, plus other heavy stuff I've mentioned before.  I've been trying to keep up with reading blogs, though, and feel proud of myself for that!

I did want to share this video with you, in case you didn't see it on my FB page.  I thought it was pretty special.

I'm gonna get personal here

All I really want for Christmas is for my husband to love me.  I want to feel like he finds me special, and cherishes me and loves me and respects me.  He doesn't have to give me any gift to open.  Just getting that would mean the world to me.

I'm tired of feeling like I don't matter.  I'm tired of being criticized and put down.  I'm tired of my opinion not mattering.  I'm tired of being spoken to disrespectfully.

We have lots of sermons at church on leaving our first love.  How we started out loving God so much and have lost that.  I think we need some sermons on husbands loving their lives.  A husband's responsibility isn't just to put a roof over our head.

Okay, I've spilled it.

Thankful Day 9

I'm thankful for cell phones that allow me to talk to all of my long distance family free of charge.  It makes me feel like they are closer.  Love Verizon!

Thankful Day 8

I'm very thankful that God provided us with 4 different seasons.  Even though I hate the cold and have a hard time breathing in the hot and humid part of the summer, it would be rather boring to have the same weather all of the time.  It amazes me the detail involved in God's creation.

Thankful Day 6 & 7

First of all, I'm thankful for Colleen because I was getting discouraged that no one was remembering to check my blog!  lol

Really, I don't know how I forgot to blog yesterday, except I was really busy.  Cleaned house, did laundry, made Raisin Bran Muffins, Pumpkin Pie, then Chicken Parmesan w/ Angel Hair Pasta, & tossed salad for supper.

I guess I should say that I am very thankful for the fact that I enjoy being in the kitchen.  Since we need to make meals each day and our men sure like their desserts (me too!), it's nice that it is more of an enjoyment than a task.  Therefore, I'm thankful God gifted me that way.

For Day 7 (today) I am thankful for Sunday afternoon naps.  I had a migraine starting by the time I left church and was in horrible shape by the time I drove the 8 min. home.  Thankfully the afternoon was clear of requirements and I could crawl into bed and sleep it off.  Ahhh, Sunday afternoons.  No school to teach, appts., time you can relax and catch up on sleep, read a good book, listen to an audio or take a nap.

Thankful Day 5

I am so very thankful for a chair to sit in tonight!!!  Sounds silly, but it's one of those things we take for granted.

I had my Port flushed at the hospital at 1PM.  It's a smalltown hospital and "everyone knows your name."  When I walk in they all greet me by name.  Isn't that nice?

From there I went to 2 pharmacies, the bank, then Walmart and Aldi's for groceries.

Got home just in time to throw supper together (Bow Tie Pasta Bake), then put groceries away and clean up the kitchen...

So that's why I'm so thankful to be able to sit in a chair tonight.  And I will be very thankful for my Sleep Number bed tonight, too!

(Sorry no pictures!)

Thankful Day 4

Today I'm thankful that my son is old enough that I don't have to drag him with me every where I go.  For so many years he had to attend all of my dr. appts with me, which sometimes entailed a long drive, plus all of the waiting around for me.  Oh, the complaining when they have to go to the store and run errands!!!  lol

Today I went for my Pulmonary Rehab and then went to Sam's for a few things.  Ryan could stay home and enjoy himself and I had the time to myself.

What is going on?

Does anyone else have someone showing up on their Dashboard Reading List that they never heard of?  I keep getting listings of some guy "GPS: My Experience".  I've never visited his blog, never signed up for it.  I can't seem to delete the listing.  I think it's someone just drying to advertise their product but I can't get rid of him.

Just wondered if anyone else is having a problem like this?

Neat little trick

All of my years spent in the kitchen, I never heard of this kitchen trick until last week.  When simmering something that tends to boil over, place a wooden spoon across the top of the saucepan.

 I tried it the other morning when I was simmering my oat groats, just to make sure it worked.

It worked great!

Thankful Day 3

I am so thankful for days like today when I am able to stay home.  Especially when I've been busy and had to be out so much.  And ESPECIALLY on days like today when it's rainy and cold and damp!  I love a day when I'm able to stay in my grubbies all day long and not do my hair or makeup!  When so many around me are forced to work each day, I am always aware of my blessing of being home.

I even turned the fireplace on for a little bit today to take the dampness out of the house.  I'm thankful for that, too!  Altho I can't have it on too long or it makes it hard for me to breathe.

Thankful Day 2

Today I want to say that I'm so thankful to serve a God who is so magnificent.  He is always there.  He never lets us down.  He shows mercy and grants us endless "retries."  He keeps His promises.  He always knows exactly what's best for us, better than we do.  He loves us more than anyone else could!

Days of Thanksgiving

I got this idea from Colleen at No Two Snowflakes Are Alike.  We always try to be thankful for things on Thanksgiving, but we really should be giving thanks every day.  God does so much for us and we seem to be more apt to complain than to be thankful.

So this month I am going to mention something that I am thankful for each day.  They will be in random order as I think of them.

Today I am thankful for my computer, which enables to me to make friends outside of my home, across the miles. Makes my life a little less lonely!  Facebook, email and fellow bloggers bring so much to my days!

Spanish Computer

A SPANISH Teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English , nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.' 'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'

A student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?' Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether computer' should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender ('la computadora'), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

(THIS GETS BETTER!)

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine ('el computador'), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on
2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

Shooting Ryan

I took Ryan out yesterday afternoon to get some shots of him.  It's been raining here for a few days (we had a tornado on Monday night) and it had barely stopped raining when we went out.

This is my favorite shot of him.

I'm hoping to enlarge it and frame it for a Christmas present for his birthmother and my parents. Here are some others I took. He's hard to photograph. Tends to be very stiff and posed.

Pulmonary Rehab Start-Up

I thought I would grab a minute while my pumpkin is cooking down in the oven.  It's hard to find time to get on here lately and I've been wanting to blog for a week.

This morning I started my Pulmonary Rehab.  It's in a really nice building downtown Chattanooga, about 25 minutes drive from our home.  I had a great Pulmonary Therapist helping me today.  She's around my age and today she mostly asked me questions, gathered information, showed me some breathing techniques and gave me a breathing apparatus to try.  She took my on a walking test to check my O2 sats.

One of the breathing techniques she showed me was Purse Breathing.  They had showed me that at Johns Hopkins but somehow I forgot about it. Maybe because I didn't need it quite so much then.

Today I practiced my Purse Breathing and was able to watch my sats rise from 94 to 98, which was pretty exciting!  My FEV1 was still at 39%, but that gives us something to work with.  I'm excited about starting the actual Rehab on Monday and seeing how I can improve that number.  Also, I'm hoping to lose 10 lbs. by the end of my 3 mos. of Rehab.  I need to lose a lot more than that, but losing 10 lbs. would be a great start.

I'll be going Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.  With overseeing Ryan's schooling in the morning and a dentist, hair appt. groceries, allergy shots and basic housework filling the rest of the week, I'm already seeing my calendar full.  But it's temporary and it's a good "cause!"

(I took the picture at the top at my neighbors last week.  I thought the colors were beautiful.  I love the color of the fall sky!)

Pulmonary Rehab

I've been waiting to hear from our local Pulmonary Rehab for the last week and decided this morning to call THEM up.

I had the phone book out to call when the phone rang it was Rehab.

So now I'm starting Pulmonary Rehab next Thursday.  I'm really looking forward to it.  Maybe they can help me enough so that I don't get so short of breath doing simple tasks around the house.

My son is sitting here annoying me, so I will quit and leave the room...

Asthma

My asthma has been terrible the last few days. I'm not sure what's up. Some people mostly wheeze with their asthma, but I cough. And cough. And cough! I wheeze, too, but my first indication of a problem is my cough "attacks".


I started using nebulized albuterol today. I've been using Advair 1/2xday and then Combivent 3/4xday but the clinic thought maybe nebulized might help so I'm giving it a whirl. Each time I'm coughing it's hard to get my breath back and the room is swimming.


Between holding my fractured rib and closing my eyes until the "swimming" stops, I'm going to look rather silly at Sunday School and church tomorrow if I cough!

Oversized

I saw several flatbed trucks hauling these HUGE tires when I was traveling to Nashville on Wednesday. Aren't they HUGE?

My appointment went well and quick. My FEV1 remains at 39%. She said my lungs still sound pretty crackly and we discussed what to do about that. They are also setting up Pulmonary Rehab for me, since I've been feeling so exhausted and limited in my exercise.

Gross, Yuck, Disgusting

Check out my brother's boo-boo.



A couple of weeks ago he slid while pressure-washing his roof and caught his leg on a nail. This is right below his knee. He had 3 stitches put in and was on antibiotics, but didn't limit his activities at all. Rode his bike, climbed up on the roof again, was in the ocean.

He is a missionary in the Marshall Islands and things don't heal well there, mostly because of the hot, humid climate. They also don't have medical options. There is a clinic but it isn't always staffed. A lot of times the meds are past date. They have a "hospital", but no staff so you have to have someone stay with you and there are RATS THERE.

Anyway, I digress.

He sent this picture to his dr. in the States yesterday and the dr. had a fit. He said if Dave was in SC right now he would most likely hospitalize him. He's afraid the infection will go or has gone into the bone. He had Dave remove the sutures yesterday and is mailing him antibiotics, along with instructions to keep his leg up and to keep it dry.

We are rather worried about him and wishing he would fly to Hawaii for treatment until it heals.

Please pray for Dave.

Quiet & bras

I'm enjoying the quiet of my home. It's wonderful. Occasionally the phone rings, but other than that I have few interruptions to my solitude.

I've been using the treadmill more since I'm alone and have the time.

By the way, the reason that Weight Loss gadget at the top of my blog hasn't changed is because I need to splurge on a new reliable scale. Once I've done that I can start weighing in each week.

Today I went for my annual GYN appt. How fun! After that I went bra shopping...more fun!

I usually really hate bra shopping and seldom go. I hear about people who have 5-6 bras and I wonder who can afford so many!!!!??? The prices are ridiculous! I had 2, but the bone broke in one so shopping I went.

Mostly I hate trying to find a bra that fits. One's too pointy, one the straps are too near the tips of my shoulders and want to slide down, one doesn't support the side, one doesn't support ANYTHING...but today I had pretty good luck and it didn't take nearly as long. Got some PRETTY ones, which is good since they cost so much!

Aren't I exciting, today, talking about bras and shopping for them?

No theme here, just jabbering.

I have pumpkin cooking down in the oven and I need to go make some Caramel Corn now. I go to the CF Clinic tomorrow in Nashville and wanted to take the staff some Caramel Corn since I won't see them again before Christmas and I know how they love my Caramel Corn. I have to stay on their good side, ya know?

Watch your step!

I haven't been doing much house cleaning yesterday and today. *Sigh!*

You are pitying me, right?

Jim decided that while Ryan is away with my mom (Did I tell you that he went with her to FL to help with a dog show?) he would shampoo Ryan's bedroom carpet. It was FILTHY. It's the only room with carpet, thankfully.

Jim moved everything out into the living room and hallway.

See, even the dogs are having to step carefully in order to get around.

Oh, well, I will have to find something else to do on this beautiful fall day.

Blog Going Private - BUMP

I'm already missing all of the falling blossoms, but it's still pretty!


On the way to get my flu and allergy shots this morning. This is the Civil War Museum in our Battlefield. I think it's beautiful!

Once again I have considered taking my blog Private and I feel like I don't have any other choice at this time. My blabbermouth son (I'm saying this lovingly) has been giving his birthmother so much information and he knows the name of my blog. I don't want our lives to be an completely open book to her right now.

The bad part of going private is thinking of all of the potential friends I could be missing. I love when new people find me and sometimes we really connect.

Please email me at debrahow@gmail.com and give me your email address if you wish to be included in my Private blog. I would love to have you. Also, I'm not sure if Private Blogs show up in the Dashboard, so please save me under your Favorites and remember to visit me from time to time.

And please remember to leave comments! I love hearing from you!

Our Private Adoption just went Open

What a week it has been! I will never forget this week!

Thursday night I went online to check the usage status of our cell phones. I saw all of these calls that Ryan was making to an unknown number at odd hours of the night. WHAT?! I called him in and asked him about it.

After a bit of lying he admitted he was calling his birth mother. He traced her through the Internet and located her and has been calling her all week.

He's 16, but he's very emotionally immature and we didn't want to deal with this until he was 18 yrs but that's been taken out of our hands now.

Thursday night was a really bad night in our house. Really bad. I slept about 1 hr towards morning. Friday I could hardly function. I didn't eat a crumb all day until supper when I ate a soft chicken taco. I just couldn't eat.

We finally all calmed down and we've talked and set up some rules. I gave Ryan a picture of his birth-mother. He's allowed to call her once a week on a set day and if he calls any other time she is to call him on it and report it to me. I talked to her for 1 1/2 hrs. on Saturday.

I'm so happy for him. All of his doubts about his being "rejected" are gone. He actually knows his birthmother and birthfather's names! He's learning about his heritage.

But Jim & I are still scared. Scared of losing him.

I don't feel like I'm his only mother now. I'm having to share him and that's hard. On the other hand, no one can love him like a mother and he's got the love of two mothers. You can't ever have too much love.

But it's hard. Good, but hard...

Thank you for your prayers!

Prayers please!

Please, please, please pray for Jim, Ryan and me right now.

That's all I can say right now, but I really covet your prayers.

September's GiveAway

Not me...I'm too broke these days.

But September is having a special Giveaway for the next few days.

From her blog:
Here is what YOU can do to enter your name:

Each day there will be different Give-aways... therefore.. You will need to enter each day OR the days that you see something you like.


1.) Reply to this post with an answer to he SECRET Question Below- 1 entry
2.) Become a follower of One September Day - Click on the follower button- 1 Entry
3.)Twitter -Face book about this Giveaway and post a comment here with the link to let me know- 1 entry for each
4.)Write a post on your blog telling about One September Day THREE DAY Giveaway- Comment to let me know - 3 Entries
5.)Guess today's SECRET QUESTION correctly- 2 entries
6.)Invite a friend to stop by and become a follower/and enter the giveaway - 3 entries
7.) Leave a comment if your friend stopped by,, and you will get 1 extra entry

Visit this very sweet lady's blog and see what her SECRET question is and participate!

Crazy week

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting. It's just been a crazy week, filled with all kinds of events. I've squeezed in time here and there to visit some blogs, but not much.

It started with Rico breaking a spot in the dog run fence and escaping. I found him sitting on our front step. I put him back out and watched from the deck to see where the fence was fallible and saw him take off for it - right after a stray dog!


"George"

Ryan went to catch the dog, thinking he knew whose it was, but when he got to their house their beagle was in the yard. So he went to about 20-30 homes, trying to find the owner and couldn't. So we had the dog in our home as our guest for a few days while we distributed posters and called around. We'd taken him to the Vet and had him scanned but he had no chip.

He was very sweet and I named him "George." He was housetrained, but preferred being outside. Inside the house he would cry and cry and cry unless you would pet him. That got pretty annoying. Eventually we just took him to the local shelter.

My parents were expecting my aunt and uncle to come for a visit. But my Dad hurt his neck/shoulder and my mom wasn't able to use her right hand much, as she waited for her surgery this week. So we went up to help at their place, then at home I did cooking and baking for her. That took a few days.


When we arrived at the house on Saturday my aunt and her brother, my dad, were sitting here on the porch looking at old coins. They both love antiques and things with history. Ryan got in on the act as they shared the different coins and dates with Ryan. I was mostly excited about the old Jif jar my dad kept his coins in. It's the very old glass kind with the tin lid that says "Jif" on it. Nothing like todays! That's my uncle in the background.





This Monday my mom had surgery on her hand, carpal tunnel, and her trigger finger, plus a cortisone shot in her trigger finger on her other hand. So this week and next she only has her left hand to use and for right now it's still really sore and bruised from her shot. Yesterday we went up and spent a good part of the day there doing things. Meals, dishes, laundry, combing her dog (has to be groomed daily), etc.

Today we are staying home and tomorrow we will go back up again for the day.

As for my health, I have been having horribly debilitating headaches for the last week. Most of them go into migraines and I ran out of migraine medicine. I need to call the dr. for that. I'm having another problem that makes me wonder if I contracted C. Diff. from my IV meds and may need to get checked for that.

All of this makes like very interesting and not boring! But too hard to get on the computer for any length of time.

Please keep Alan Henley in prayer. I've mentioned him from time to time on this blog. He was a stunt pilot who was in an accident in his back yard and has been paralyzed since. Many, many complications. He's been admitted to ICU for the 2nd time in as many weeks. He has some bad infections going on and believed to be systemic. For much of the time he hasn't known his wife or where he is, which is very scary for his family. You can follow their CaringBridge page and updates, but they need your prayers most of all. They are a wonderful Christian family.

Urgent Prayer Request

I have an Urgent Prayer Request from my sister, regarding their daughter, M. I will leave her request in quotes and reduce their names to initials.

"Their closing on the house was scheduled for today and it did not go through. Their attorney (thank the Lord they have one) advised them to do a "dry" closing. This is where they sign all the papers but no money exchanges hands and the sale does not take place until conditions have been met. The problem is that the owner was supposed to be out of the house by 4 PM today and she is not. To make matters worse, she is a Christian and a BJU grad and is "using" that on B. & M. - telling them they are not being Christians, are not showing grace and love, etc. B.& M. and their attorney have given her until 6 AM tomorrow to get out of the house. If not, M. said they are going to walk away. Of course, they are all packed and also their apartment has been rented, so they don't know what they are going to do. And this lady's actions also makes them wonder if other things about the house might have been mis-represented. The other option was to go through with the closing and charge the lady rent, but their attorney advised them not to do that. So it all comes down to whether she gets out or not."

They have an almost 1 yr. old daughter, also. They are both employed by Bob Jones Press and he is supposed to give a big presentation tomorrow, but he's having a hard time concentrating or sleeping because of this stress.

Thanks for your prayers.

The cover up

This has been a horrendous week for me...but I'll get to that later. For now, do you want a laugh?


My mom is having surgery on her hand next week, but this week she can hardly use it and she has out-of-town guests arriving today. I'm helping her out by doing some cooking and baking for her.

USUALLY I'm good at that sort of thing!

Not last night. (But then I should have known not to attempt anything yesterday evening, but I'll get to that later.)

When I made this bundt cake she requested, it would NOT come out of the pan. I tried loosening it, but it was just too moist and wanting to stick. By the time I got it out, 1/4 of the cake was in complete chunks. We were joking around about making a Dump Cake with it in a Compote with some kind of filling and making it look like it was intended to look that way.

Mom said just try to piece it together and drizzle something over it.

Didn't disguise it any, did it? I think it actually looks worse.

I told my mom it just is an example that we can't cover up our sin!

So, I threw together this


I'll give her both of the desserts. Plus the Breakfast Casserole I made this morning. I do Sweet Potato Casserole and an Angel Food Cake w/ Crush Strawberry Topping for this weekend.

Want to hear the worst part about yesterday? Other than ruining the cake for my parents and their company?

I've gone almost 2 mos. since a haircut because of being sick and on IV's. Yesterday I was so thrilled to go. To relax and let her do her magic.

Do you know that multi-tasking is not always a good thing? Especially for hairdressers?

Some people came in and she talked and talked to them. Some of the time while doing my hair. (Some of the time she just stopped doing my hair and talked!!!) But she wasn't looking at my hair when she was doing it. I was watching her in the mirror and she was facing away from me talking to them at the same time she was snipping away. And she snipped and snipped and snipped. I was getting very irritated (for one thing, her behavior was rude!) and worried and finally said "You're making me REALLY nervous here, Debbie!" She didn't even get it. Then the phone rang and she was talking on the phone for several minutes and doing my hair with one hand while she "visited". She kept forgetting what she was doing! She'd be starting to move on to the next step, but get distracted and would go back to the last one. Skipped the "rewind" she always puts on my hair.

I was so angry by the time I left, but I didn't want to say anything at the time while I was so angry. We're both Christians. But I feel she was very rude and very unprofessional. I paid $50 for my hair to be highlighted and cut and I deserved her attention while she did it.

Speaking of money, that's the other reason I'm having a bad week. My husband got 2 out of state tickets for being too heavy. (Something wrong with his PrePass or something- long story.) Anyway, he thought the company was paying the ticket, but they weren't. So we got a notice Monday that we not only owe $250 for the ticket, but $255 for not paying in time and not showing up in court! $505!!! I am really steamed at my husband. For getting the ticket, and then for assuming his company was paying. (I didn't even know about this one or I would have nagged him to check.) I wasn't going to get my hair done because of this and the debt we are in, but he insisted I still get it done. We are in such major debt, you can't even imagine.

So I'm back to...I can either laugh or cry. I laughed about the cake. I cried about the traffic fines. Not sure yet what I'll do about the hairdresser.

As my mom always said when I was in college: "Hardships build character! Don't I have enough character yet?

Do you know your candy bars?

This is really pitiful. Pathetic! I should not know all of these candy bars!



Click on the picture above and see how you do!

Wild Turkey & more

What did you think I meant?

Ryan loves going into the woods next to us to explore, although it makes me a little nervous. I insist that he carry his cell phone and check in from time to time. He's seen a black bear, coyotes, wolf, deer, snapping turtles, rattlesnake & 2 other kinds of snakes, racoons and wild turkeys.

I asked him to take a camera out with him so I can see some of these things, but of course when he went out he didn't see anything. He took these, though.

Where he's seen the bear and several other animals.

I really get nervous when it's getting dark out there. Doesn't it look kind of spooky?


He found a cute little fuzzy baby turkey chick. He said it was squeaking and he picked it up and was holding it. He didn't know the mama turkey was behind him, until it attacked him. He said it really hurt!



This week he robbed a raccoon. He threw a rock at it to scare it off and it left behind a change purse. It had about $3.00 in it, so Ryan came home saying he'd robbed a raccoon. I said usually it's the raccoon who does the robbing, which it must have.

Recipe for your sweet tooth

Probably most of you already have this recipe, but just in case you don't...I didn't want you to go through life without it!!!

Oreo Cookie Dessert

15 oz. pkg. Oreo's (reserve some) (I use Twist & Shout's because they're cheaper)
6 Tbsp. margarine, melted
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
1 c. confectioners sugar
12 oz. Cool Whip
1 lrg. pkg. chocolate instant pudding
2 1/4 c. milk

Crush Oreo's and mix with melted butter. Pat into oblong pan. Blend softened cream cheese and sugar, then fold in half of the Cool Whip. Pour onto crust and chill 20 minutes.

Make pudding as directed, using 2 1/4 c. milk. Pour on top of cream cheese mixture. Chill. Top with remaining Cool Whip and more crushed Oreo's.


Mmmmmm!!

I do not like packaged pudding mixes and make my own from scratch. It is very easy! Here is my recipe for Chocolate Pudding:

Chocolate Pudding

1 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. baking cocoa
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt
4 c. low-fat milk
2 Tbsp. margarine
2 tsp. vanilla extract

In large microwave-safe mixing bowl, mix sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt. Stir, then add 4 c. milk.

Place in microwave on High for 1 min., then stir. Continue to heat in microwave on High for 2 min. at a time, stirring every 2 min. until mixture has boiled for about a minute and thickened.

Remove from microwave and add margarine and vanilla. Stir well and place in dishes. Chill. I make this all of the time. "Did you make any pudding?" should go on my husband's gravestone!

When I make this up for the Oreo Cookie Dessert, I follow this recipe, but only add 2 1/4 c. milk. To cut down on expense you may use nonfat dry milk for the milk, but it doesn't thicken as nicely, so I will use mostly nonfat dry milk but maybe 1/2 c. of 2%.

Happy Sixteenth

Yesterday was Ryan's 16th birthday. Where do the years go?

His gifts were kind of a bust for a 16th birthday. I hear about people giving their kids cars...absolutely no way can we afford something like that! We thought an "experience" would be great for the 16th and Ryan's has been longing to meet his longtime online friend so we thought we'd set something up with him. Well, I had sneaked Jakes phone number off Ryan's phone and put it on mine and Ryan saw it...and deleted it. Said he didn't want me embarassing him! Can't set up a surprise without that phone number, Ryan! So he just ended up getting "normal gifts". We told him when he finally surrenders Jakes phone number we'll arrange a day with Jake, maybe at Six Flaggs Atlanta. (Don't worry about Jake, we might not have met him, but he's been thoroughly checked out! lol)

My parents came over after church for birthday dinner.


Then some other friends Ryan had requested came over for birthday dessert he requested Oreo Cookie Dessert). (We wanted them to come for dinner, but our table doesn't seat more than 6 people and that's with us squished!) This couple from church has really taken to Ryan and he to them. They've taken him out for Sunday dinner and send him cards and really fuss over him.


They enjoyed looking at pictures of Ryan when he was a little guy and Ryan really liked all of the attention being paid to him!



So Ryan spent his 16th birthday with all of us old people! But that's who he wanted.


Oh, and look at how Ryan was dressed for his company!!! He wanted to go out in the woods and explore while waiting for Bill & Mary to come so he put on old clothes. He has on one of his old Zoo Staff shirts that had bleach spots on it. I said "Don't you want to quick wash up and change into nicer clothes before Mr. Bill & Miss Mary come?" No! He may be 16, but he's still a boy!