You just want to get up and dance, or go for a run (and I hate running) or heck maybe stand on your head in the corner and stack bee-bee’s with your nose…. (yeah don’t ask)
Well today… I’m having a case of the Friday’s where I want to do something besides just sit. I think part of my problem is I had way to much caffeine… and that’s not much seeing as though I’ve been weening myself off of it. It’s a slow process but I’ve been trying to up the water ante (you know, like poker).
I used to drink pop (or as some of you call it Coke or Soda) by the gallon fulls. And then one day it didn’t taste so hot. Today I was in the mood for a Coke (literally, that’s my fave) so I got one. For usually only drinking a couple sips of pop a day, going to a 20oz Coke will send your system in to over drive.
I don’t drink coffee usually… really only drink that when I’m in desperate need to stay awake (like around New Years). My Sophomore year of high school I fell asleep 10 minutes before midnight, so my junior year the guy I was dating, his family pumped me full of caffeine so bad it made me sick. Coffee with hot chocolate, creamer, and sugar. Wow that’ll send you into overdrive. I didn’t go to sleep that night well until 8am the next morning when I crashed for 8 hrs.
I know, how American am I for not drinking coffee. My grandparents couldn’t believe my mom didn’t drink it. They spent many nights over a pot of coffee making horse deals. That was their income… selling/trading/breeding horses. In fact they had the #1 stud to breed your Arabian mare to in 1978. Yeah he was that good.
So when I started out here to work my then boss (and even my now boss) live on coffee. She couldn’t believe I didn’t drink coffee and lumped me in with the now day adults who drink pop as a morning wake-up call. But anyway… I’ve been trying to give up pop… wish me luck 🙂
Ok so technically this isn’t the first little bit of snow we’ve had this winter… but what the heck, I got photos of it this morning on our way to work. No, I wasn’t driving, the husband was, I was the photographer :)… had I been driving, we wouldn’t have these pretty pictures, duh… LOL
This is walking out under our car port to get in the truck.
This is looking the other way, standing right beside the truck.
This is our 2-lane hwy… yes it’s a highway, yes it is state maintained, yes it is just 2 lanes, not 4… yes I live in the country 🙂
That is actually one of my relatives old place… I just thought it was classic country 🙂
dunno, just thought it was a cool shot…
Again, just shooting away!
This is the lake… you can’t tell, but it is.
On the other side of those trees, that’s frozen pond water
More Pond 🙂
Ok I’ll quit with the pond… after this shot 🙂
Go figure, I went to the river 🙂
How do I get to work? apparently over the river and through the woods… or through the woods and then over the river.
And since we got to work, the sun came out, the skies turned blue and the roads melted. Go figure 🙂
I’m not a big snow fan… tooooooo dang cold for me… bring on the summer heat! But it does make for some pretty gorgeous photos doesn’t it?
A short history lesson on the type of horses I show, the phrase “Fresh cattle” means a cow that has never been worked by a horse. We aren’t talking that the horse will eat the cattle… LOL
There is a lot that can be learned from history… and oddly enough, we can say that we are a spoiled generation that is being brought up.
In 2007 when we had the icestorms around here and 100K+ were without power for up to 2-3 weeks… people would complain when they were just without for 2-3 hrs because their kids had no entertainment such as cable tv, internet, playstations, etc… What about those who lived in the 1800’s that didn’t even have indoor plumbing and had to go outside in 2 degree weather…
How about families that had 12 kids and lived in 2-3 bedroom houses… they had to learn how to share and pretty much sleep where they fell… now everyone thinks that kids deserve their own rooms with their own things and if the house isn’t big enough, sell this one and get more in debt for a bigger one…
How about the families that would sell everything they had to travel across the big blue pond (aka the Atlantic Ocean) so they could be herded through Ellis Island and HOPE they could become a member of the United States of America. They would give up their identities, their homes, their family names, everything just to be a US Citizen… Now people come here illegally, and think they are ENTITLED to our money, our health benefits, our public schools all while bringing their countries traditions with them and ignoring our traditions or making us give up our traditions.
To those people who traveled so far in such harsh conditions, making it to the “greatest” land as they thought meant a lot. Back then it cost 25cents to cross the Brooklyn Bridge. On more than one occasion they’d save up everything they had (b/c remember at that time, that was a lot of money) just so they could walk across the most well known bridge in the land.
My great grandpa and his brothers were among those who gave up everything they knew and loved to travel to our beloved country. He came to the US from Turkey however he was full blooded Greek. I unfortunately don’t know a lot about him because he died when my grandma was 5 years old, but he was a painter. He changed his name at Ellis Island from Eugenidis to Eugene because he wanted to sound more American. He changed his first name too but we aren’t completely sure from what.
The Statue of Liberty was a sign that they had made it. To them, she was the most beautiful thing in the world.
She stood for Freedom.
But people are trying to take these freedoms away from us. They don’t want us to speak freely about God because we might offend someone. We see the government standing up for those who come to our country illegally, trying to keep them as long as they’ll vote for them. And this phrase upsets me, “No speak English”. I couldn’t go live in another country and expect them to bow down to me because I only know English. But we are expected to learn their language so that we can communicate with them… when they came to our country.
By all means, come to our country! There is a lot of history and culture to our country just like every other country in the world.
There are also a lot of great opportunities.
There is a lot of great history too.
And talk about the places to eat!
And the views are phenomenal!
You want fun? We even have your fun too.
But come here legally! Don’t steal our identities so you can work and ship your money back to your home country. Pay your taxes like a respectable person. DON’T think we owe you something, because if anything, you owe us… you came here so you should pay taxes like any other upstanding citizen… HELLO!
Sorry to get so political which is something I generally tend to avoid, but some days… things just piss me off and I have to express myself. I wonder if other countries have this same problem?
Children in Church A little boy was attending his first wedding. After the service, his cousin asked him, “How many women can a man marry?” “Sixteen,” the boy responded. His cousin was amazed that he had an answer so quickly. “How do you know that?” “Easy,” the little boy said. “All you have to do is add it up, like the pastor said, 4 better, 4 worse, 4 richer, 4 poorer.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After a church serviceon Sunday morning, a young boy suddenly announced to his mother, “Mom, I’ve decided to become a minister when I grow up.” “That’s okay with us, but what made you decide that?” “Well,” said the little boy, “I have to go to church on Sunday anyway, And I figure it will be more fun to stand up and yell, than to sit and listen.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A 6-year-old was overheard reciting the Lord’s Prayer at a church service, “And forgive us our trash passes, as we forgive those who passed trash against us.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A boy was watching his father, a pastor, write a sermon. “How do you know what to say?” he asked. “Why, God tells me.” “Oh, then why do you keep crossing things out?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A little girl became restless as the preacher’s sermon dragged on and on. Finally, she leaned over to her mother and whispered, “Mommy, if we give him the money now, will he let us go?”
Ms. Terri asked her Sunday School class to draw pictures of their favorite Bible stories. She was puzzled by Kyle’s picture, which showed four people on an airplane, So she asked him which story it was meant to represent. “The Flight to Egypt ,” was his reply. Pointing at each figure, Ms. Terri said, “That must be Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. But who’s the fourth person?” “Oh, that’s Pontius – the pilot!”
The Sunday School Teacher asks, “Now, Johnny, tell me frankly do you say prayers before eating?” “No ma’am,” little Johnny replies, I don’t have to. My mom is a good cook.”
A little girl was sitting on her grandfather’s lap as he read her a bedtime story. From time to time, she would take her eyes off the book and reach up to touch his wrinkled cheek. She was alternately stroking her own cheek, then his again. Finally she spoke up, “Grandpa, did God make you?” “Yes, sweetheart,” he answered, “God made me a long time ago.” “Oh,” she paused, “Grandpa, did God make me too?” “Yes, indeed, honey,” he said, “God made you just a little while ago.” Feeling their respective faces again, she observed, “God’s getting better at it, isn’t he ?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Work Hard, Do Your Best, Keep Your Word, Never Get Too Big For Your Britches, Trust In God and Never Forget a Friend
Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
Go home.
Pick up the paper.
Read it for the last time.
Lesson 2 Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their…..
Method of discipline.
Lack of patience.
Appallingly low tolerance levels.
Allowing their children to run wild.
Suggest ways in which they might improve their child’s breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.
Lesson 3 A really good way to discover how the nights might feel……
Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5pm to 10pm carrying a wet bag weighing approx. 8-12lbs, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
At 10pm, put the bag gently down, set an alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1am.
Set the alarm for 3am.
As you can’t get back to sleep, get up at 2am and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
Go to bed at 2:45am.
Get up at 3am when the alarm goes off.
Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4am.
Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive).
Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.
Lesson 4 Can you stand the mess children make? To find out….
Smear peanut butter on the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
Then rub them on the clean walls.
Take your favorite book, photo album, etc and wreck it.
Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?
Lesson 5 Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.
Time allowed for this – All Morning.
Lesson 6 Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don’t think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don’t look like that.
Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.
Lesson 7 Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice.) If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week’s groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.
Lesson 8
Hollow out a melon.
Make a small hole in the side.
suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
Continue until half the cheerios are gone.
Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.
You are now ready to feed a nine-month-old baby.
Lesson 9 Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street, Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney Channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you’re thinking What’s Noggin? Exactly the point)
Lesson 10 Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying “mommy” repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each ‘mommy’; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required.) Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.
Lesson 11 Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt-sleeve, or elbow while playing the ‘mommy’ tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.
This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say ‘it’s all worth it!’ Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you’ll need when you become a parent!
I counted down the days. I’ve always paid extra. In fact I have the Mustang paid off 1 year 8 months early…. Isn’t she a Beauty parked in the garage?
Oh wait, not the car you expected to see there???
Did you actually expect to see this car?
Well there’s a funny story to be had here……
One of my 101 in 1001 list items (number 20 to be exact) stated: 20. Pay off My Mustang
My January payment I could have paid that baby off or else divide the payment in 2 and paid it off in February. I decided to do the second option… no reason, that’s just what I chose.
Friday night we took my [step]daughter out for dinner for her birthday (that was the Sunday before… this was our weekend to have her) and on our way home, I really wasn’t feeling “going home” just yet. So as we passed the Honda dealership I told my husband to swing in. We drove around the lot and nothing struck our fancy so he was like, can we go back to the Ford dealership. Of course, why not. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Mustang, heck I wanted one since I was 12 years old and I made my dream come true in October of 2006, but… I’m getting to the age where luxury is winning out. It was a great car for just me, but having a daughter and a small backseat doesn’t work so well, but one payment and she was owned free and clear…. decisions decisions.
Well when the Ford Fusion came out (back around 2006) I fell in love, but wanted a Mustang so bad I couldn’t stand myself. So I always said that if I got a 4 door car someday I either wanted a
Fusion:
or a Nissan Altima.
Then when they redesigned the 2010 Ford Taurus I was sold on them too.
The Ford dealership had some great 2010 Ford Fusions on the lot that had extremely low miles. So then we decided to head to another town (on the way home) and hit their Ford dealership to see what they had on their lot. Nothing to impressive even though when I bought my Mustang, I loved dealing with those guys… So we called it a night and headed home.
Saturday morning when we woke up, the husband and I decided we could put off cleaning house for a bit and run to town to check out the Fusions we saw the night before, but I told him that if we were headed out to do this, we needed to check every dealership in town so we headed to the far end of town to see what was on the Chevy dealer’s lot (nothing that interested us) and as we drove past the Hyundai, Mercedes, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep dealership we pulled in. At first the husband was like, really? What are we going to find there? I told him I dunno but you never know until you look.
That’s when we saw it, the 2011 Hyundai Sonata.
So we test drove a used 2011. It had been a leased car that had 8,000 miles on it. You talk about NICE! Funny thing was it was red and I said, I don’t want a red car, but I was in love with this car… up until they told us the price for the used car. It was $1,000 less than New Car price and didn’t come with the special APR financing.
UM…… HELLO…..
ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?????
We had gone inside to make sure that price was correct. While we were in there (where it was warmer, it was 19 degrees out Saturday morning) they had a 2011 Hyundai Elantra (the sister car) on the floor. PC told me to crawl around on this car and check it out. Being smaller, one of the first things I did was crawl in the backseat. Come on… I’ve never had a 4 door car, if I’m going to graduate to the “Mom” car, I want a real backseat and not something the size of my Mustang that is 4 doors….
This car knocked my socks off! I could sit back their comfortably, it had some of the great features that was in the Sonata, it had a Sunroof (which I gave up buying my Mustang, they didn’t come standard). So we told Steve (our salesman) we wanted to test drive the Elantra. PC told him which one and before you knew it, we were on the road again. It was nice having Tbug with us because first of all, she was on her best behavior, but it was also nice for her to know she had leg room now :).
So even though I crossed number 20 off my list today (made the last car payment), I am not out of car payments… oh well this car gets around better on that crappy white stuff that falls out of the sky and the fuel mileage… oh the fuel mileage… My Mustang was getting average of 20 normal every day driving, and out on the open road the best I could do was 25… This car is averaging 30 right now and that’s a lot of in town driving so far. The sticker estimate is 29 in town and 40 on the hwy… I can’t wait to test that out!!!
So no more walking out in the parking lot here at work and wondering which one is mine…..
Mine is the one on the right
But I have a feeling I may still walk to the wrong car from time to time 🙂 It’s just the habit after 4 years!
