These Boots Are Made For Walking

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know they're not really boots. But I love that song. By Nancy Sinatra or Jessica Simpson, I think it's so catchy and sassy, don't you? I made my walk yesterday. After working about 10 hours in my office at home, I knew that I hadn't gotten it in yet. Around 7:30 p.m. Suz called and asked if I had taken my walk yet. Since I knew that it didn't really have to be walking, that it could be moving of any sort, in the back of my mind I thought well, I could just do some other type of activity for 30 minutes or better yet, hadn't I moved for 30 minutes all together throughout the day? But then I realized. . . and she reminded me. . . I was accountable to my faithful friends and family, and I wasn't gonna do anything other than exactly what I said I would. So. . .

I got my booty up out of the chair, gathered these things, put on a jacket and got going. I didn't have too much time left because. . .

This is what the sun was doing by the time I got around to taking my walk. It was going down. Fast. And it was getting chilly. I don't want to wait that late again. It's not safe because of the traffic. I took a good, long walk. Of course, the cows that I love to go and visit were already in their barn for the night. I did get to see, smell and hear lots of other things though. I was shocked by the amount of trash on the side of the road. I have to walk along the main road to get to the country road where the cows live. Why in the world would one throw out a carton of French onion dip? I'm hoping that surely the trash trucks aren't securing their loads and stuff's blowing off. I'm hoping that we humans aren't getting so lazy that we can't wait till we get home to throw away our trash in a can and find that we have to throw it all out on the side of the road. But I also got to see this.

I love this windmill, and I make pictures of it a lot. It almost always has a different look to it. I think it just reminds me of South Georgia.

Taking that walk, I got to smell the unmistakeable smell that simply can't be duplicated of freshly cut grass. Now, that conjures up thousands of memories for everybody, doesn't it. From being a little girl watching your mama or daddy cut the grass to being a mommy watching your hubby ride your sweet baby on the lawn mower. Ummm. I love the smell of cut grass. I chose to listen to my ipod rather than anything else and I had to stop myself from singing out loud. Didn't want to scare anyone that might be out on their front porch or anything.

I'm so glad Suz held me accountable. That time out of the house cleared my head, relaxed me, got my heart rate up, and was inspirational all at the same time. It was a good thing. A very good thing.

For other motivational stories, click the 30x5 button in my sidebar and it'll take you here. Or if you want some motivational or nutritional info, put to you in a humorous, easy-to-understand way, go here.

Don't forget tomorrow is baby picture day. I want to see your baby picture! Leave me a comment and let me know it's on your blog. I can't wait to see what beautiful babies you all were.

Finished my book last night. It was good. I'm ready to pick up another. Karla has recommended another one and I'm gonna get it today while I'm out. I'm officially out of my reading funk.

Happy Tuesday!

30x5

Me again. Y'all go to the sidebar to the right and click the button 30x5. It'll take you over to one of my daily reads, 2nd Cup of Coffee. It's where you kinda like agree to yourself that you're gonna do some kind of exercise for 30 minutes for at least five days a week. If you decide to participate, leave me a comment and let me know that you're doing it too. I'm gonna take a nice, long walk later on when it warms up some. I'm going to see what my favorite cows are up to. Remember, it's 30x5.

I also have a button on the sidebar to the right for Wednesday, April 1. I'm going to put a baby picture of myself and maybe Jeff and Ross and Cam on my blog. I'd like to see one of y'all too. If you decide to play along, let me know so I'll be sure to check yours out. Trust me, I was a beautiful baby!

Yesterday

I didn't go to church yesterday. That was probably part of the reason my day just didn't have a good feel to it. I didn't feel like myself. Since my surgery in October, I have had a lot of off days. Days where I don't feel just right. But yesterday was the first one I've had in several weeks. It served as a reminder of how far I've come.

My day started off with a broken nail on my hand with the really bad carpal tunnel. It was one of those really bad broken nails that leave you with a hang nail that feels like it rips all the way up through your nose. Add that to being on a finger that tingles constantly and you've got yourself a situation that feels really nice. It's still very sore this morning. I think I'll take some Advil.

Jeff had brought my summer clothes down from the attic on Saturday, so I knew I had the dreaded task of taking all the winter clothes and shoes from my closet and putting the summer stuff in. I promise you, it seems like only yesterday that I put the darn things away. Either the seasons are getting shorter or the time is going by faster. Not only did I have things in the attic, but also in the extra bedroom closet. Ugh. I'm putting a screeching halt to my shopping addiction. I MUST NOT buy any more new clothes. Well, except for a few new shorts or capris to take to the beach next week.

After messing in my closet for several hours, I was glad to go to my mom and dad's for supper. Mom had made meatloaf, which I love, which Jeff hates, so I never-ever make it. It was so good. Just the right amount of ketchup. My mom is the best cook in the whole world. It's kinda sad my kids will never say that. But oh, well. The best part of the whole night was when I walked in the door and Eli was playing in the floor in the kitchen and he said hey, Kelly. I was looking forward to seeing you. Y'all he's only 4.95 years old. He'll be 5 April 14th. Wasn't that mature? It warmed my heart so much. I missed seeing Reid because he had a ball game. Joseph and Ethan were still at their dad's, so I didn't get to see them either. I'm looking forward to having all the kids there and watching them play outside now that the days are longer and the sun's still shining almost the whole time we're there. Cousins are one of the best things life gives you, don't y'all think? I know I sure enjoyed being with mine growing up. Still do.

Then after everyone else had left, my boys and I stayed for a good while longer. I love to just sit and talk with my mom and dad with Ross and Cam. We have some good laughs and come close to solving a lot of the world's problems during those Sunday night visits.

While I still love Fridays, I think I have a new favorite day of the week. It's got to be Sunday when I get to be with my parents, my sisters and their hubby or significant other, and my precious nephews and niece. And of course, my own hubby and kids.

Everybody Needs One

According to Webster's an aunt is the sister of one's mother or father. But the Lord smiled down on a Girl Named Kelly Kelly and gave her an aunt that is the sister of my father, but a hundred times more than that.

I'm the oldest daughter in my family of three girls. So my Aunt Theresa is like a big sister to me. If I need her for ANYTHING, she's there. And when I say there, I mean RIGHT THERE. She's never too busy, never too this, never too that. I know that if I need advice, I can call her. I trust her, she is wise beyond her years. She is, after all, a Howell. And she is, after all, HER father's daughter. And knowing her like I do, I know that to say that about her is a true compliment.

Honestly, I can say that I don't know of a person more dedicated to those she loves and cares about. Not just one or two either, y'all. We're talking dozens. She doesn't forget your birthday. Not only does she remember it, she makes it special in her own way. She remembers each and every kid at the family Christmas gathering with a small gift. She must wrap 30 presents. Just a little something from her to them. It'll likely be those small gifts they'll remember their Great-Aunt Theresa gave them that they'll remember.

You're probably asking what the reason for my gushiness over my special Aunt Theresa is. Well, feast your eyes on this.
It was waiting for me when I got home yesterday. This is the handmade gift from her. She played the Pay it Forward game with me and made me me this sweet notepad with my blog picture and caption! I just nearly cried when I opened it. She never ceases to amaze me! I love it and I love and cherish you!
Enjoy your Sunday. Hope you spend it with someone you love.

Baking, Working, Fretting & Raining

That's a lot for one post, isn't it? Well, it's gonna happen anyway because I've got the time
and -- well, because I want to.

I stopped by my local bakery (the only local bakery) yesterday on the way to my depo. We sometimes take goodies with us, especially when we're going to be there a while. It's just a nice PR gesture and besides, who doesn't like a cookie about 3 o'clock? I bought a dozen assorted cookies and I paid $8 for them. Seems a little expensive, doesn't it, but in a pinch, what's a Girl Named Kelly Kelly to do? Okay, so I'm driving to the the other side of town and I'm on the cell phone with Suz. Having just snarfed down a hamburger (only the outside, I don't eat the middle), I tell Suz I want something sweet. Now, y'all I have speaker phone in my car so I'm not driving, talking and eating hamburgers and cookies all at the same time, even I'm not that good!

I ask her if she thinks anyone will notice that there's only 11 cookies in the box instead of12. We both agree that no one will. So I choose one of the powdered sugar ones that are to the left in the picture. The ones that look like a blob of something. Which is exactly what it tasted like. The powdered sugar was good. The rest of that cookie was thrown on the side of I-75 north somewhere south of Hartsfield airport. What was that thing?

Along about 4 o'clock we finish the first deposition and are ready to start the second one. One of the attorneys has a cookie, so I decide to also have one. Another one. This time an M&M. I'm thinking of my mom's M&M cookies. So light and crisp, sometimes soft and chewy. I bite into that thing and I taste a fish. I swear, y'all it tasted like a fish. I think the recipe called for an entire box of baking soda. I didn't say anything to anyone, and no one went back for seconds. I brought back home a box with 9 of the worst cookies ever made. And as you can see from the picture above that I made this morning, they're still here. And if you know my Big Boys, if a cookie lasts eight hours in my house, it must be really bad.

Which leads me to my next topic. I would like to be a baker. I don't bake very much. But I like to eat baked goods. I know lots of good bakers, and I know what tastes good. As it is, I'm a court reporter. I love my job. I really do. It's very stressful, but it's satisfying and I don't get bored with it. It keeps me aware of how strange -- I mean different -- people can be. It makes me thankful I'm not shoveling chicken parts in a chicken plant or slipping and falling in a grocery store or getting rear-ended once every year or working 1500 hours of overtime and not getting paid for it or putting a $5,000 car stereo in my car, but not making my car payments and then mysteriously having my car stolen and burned up or having my house eaten up by termites even though I'm paying an exterminator every month or -- well, you get the idea. I don't know. I might be a baker one day. Here are a few of my favorite cookie recipes. Two from my mom (the best baker ever)! And one from Jeff's Aunt Dot. Dot makes these cookies that are soooo good. Try them. You won't be able to put your finger on what it is about these cookies, but you'll just want to keep on eating them. Next free day I have I'm gonna make a ton of all three of these cookies and I'm never going back to that high-dollar bakery again. I'm keeping my $8 and buying something useful. Like lipgloss.

MY MAMA'S M&M COOKIES (as of this moment known as 4M cookies)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine 1 cup shortening, 3/4 sugar, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon water and 2 eggs. After mixed well, add 2 1/4 cups plain flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon salt. Stir well. Then add 2 cups M&Ms. Bake for 10-12 minutes on a greased cookie sheet.

(Y'all did notice it was 1 teaspoon baking soda, not one box.)

MaMa HOWELL'S AND MY MAMA'S OATMEAL COOKIES

1 cup Crisco

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon soda, dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups oatmeal

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all the above and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

JEFF'S AUNT DOT'S COOKIES

1 pound unsalted butter (she uses Fleishmans, 4 sticks, softened)

2 cups sugar

3 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup pecans (she uses more)

4 cups cornflakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all together. The mix is going to be very stiff. Using a teaspoon drop on cookie sheet. Bake for ten minutes.

Girls, I let my cookies cool on a wire rack. That makes them extra special. I like a light, crispy cookie. Not hard like a rock, but crisp. Jeff likes them soft and chewy. Soft and chewy reminds me of old and stale. To each his own. I make them soft and chewy. Sometimes I'll eat the outside of the cookie and not the middle since the middle is soft and I don't like the middle of food anyway. Most times I'm gonna eat the whole dang thing though.

Last night both my Big Boys were out driving in this rain. I try not to worry about them when they're out driving because if I did, I'd go crazy. It really is hard though. I was tired and sleepy, but I wanted to wait on them to come home. Especially Cam. It was dark, it was late and it was raining. So I stayed awake reading my book. Isn't it hard letting your kids go?

Finally, can y'all believe how much greener everything has gotten in the past couple of days? It seems like things are getting greener by the hour. We are so blessed to get this rain. Maybe we won't have to hear about drought all summer. The creek that the boys used to play in when they were little has been almost dry the past few years. I walked down there when I got home late yesterday and it has lots of water flowing in it. You could even hear the creek on the front porch. It was really nice. And check out this mud puddle.

Oh, and Suz, remember last week when we were laying in the lounge chairs outside and you wanted to see the Southern Living magazine?

Well, err, uh, you left it outside. I'll be looking for my replacement when I see you tomorrow.



TaTa my faithful friends and family!

Addendum to And the Survey Says. . .

Okay, so as was so rudely (kidding) pointed out to me by my biggest critic (kidding again) Suz, maybe I took the community survey too seriously. But hey, I'm a law-abiding citizen. I don't take my responsibilities lightly. After we laughed our booties off last night about this survey (I guess you'd have had to be there), I decided that I'm going to fill in only the basic info about how many people reside in my household and the rest they can kiss said booty. Life is too short to waste 38 minutes divulging private info to who knows who. But. . . Suz, if you get one of these and you throw it away, don't blame me if your family isn't counted and your community doesn't get the same benefits mine does.

I'm having insomnia again. I guess when you wake up at 5:00 it's not really insomnia. It's just time to get up. Oh, well, good for me. I can get more done that way. I have to work this afternoon at 1:00 and 3:00. Now, you may be asking yourselves how I got suckered into that. I, too, am asking myself that same question. As it was, I thought they were going to be no-shows. That is that the witnesses wouldn't show up and we'd all go home and start our weekend. Wrong. I have now been advised to bring a snack as they are going to not only show up, but could go

L-O-N-G. As y'all well know, Fridays are my favorite day of the week and I don't really doooooo long workdays on Fridays. Wanna ice the cupcake? I'm working tomorrow too. Yep. Three depositions tomorrow starting at 1 o'clock. I know. I've lost it.

The reason for my insanity is this. Ross has to have a root canal and crown. To the tune of $1200 out of our pocket. That's our portion after our very good dental insurance pays. Then both my boys have to have their wisdom teeth removed. Heaven only knows what that'll cost. The things we do so our kids can chew.

Enjoy your Friday! TGoodnessIF!

And the Survey Says. . .

Have y'all gotten your American Community Survey booklet in the mail? It's not exactly the Census because it's done only every 10 years and won't be done again till 2010. We got ours. This stupid thing is 28 pages long and you are required by law to fill it out. They estimate it will take about 38 minutes to complete.

Okay. I think this is ridiculous. They say the purpose of this survey is to help my community to establish goals, identify problems and solutions and measure the performance of programs. Say what? Huh? Uh, could you run that by me one more time? Sounds like malarkey to me. One of the questions is how many of the rooms in my home are bedrooms. I don't frankly see how that answer's gonna help my community figure anything out.

And you might not be able to tell from the picture, but the Important Information From the U.S. Census Bureau pamphlet is written in English, Spanish, and three other foreign languages. That seems a bit strange seeing as how this is a U.S. Census Bureau survey.

38 minutes. Don't they know what else I could be doing with 38 minutes of my time? Guess not. Oh, well, I like my freedom and I certainly don't want to go to jail, so I'll be filling this nosey, useless BOOK out and sending it in. I hope my community will thank me.

Pay it Forward

I was perusing my Daily Reads this morning and was over at Kimberly's blog. She's playing this neat game called Pay it Forward. She came across it by following Karen at

Extroverted Introspection. She's the one who started the game. It's very simple and it'll give me a chance to give a little something back to three of you. The way it works is I'm going to send the first three bloggers who leave me a comment something HANDMADE by me. All you have to do is link Karen's blog on yours and send something to your first three commenters who'll do the same. Since I've been following some very crafty bloggers, I've gotten pretty crafty, so don't be afraid to be one of the first three to leave me a comment. Let the fun begin!

It Can't Always Be Good

I always like to blog about good stuff. When we turn on the TV for news, it's not good. When we open our mail, usually it's not so good. When we look at the papers (if we do), it's not good. Radio, not good. But let's face it. The reality of living life is that the good comes with the not so good. Today I'm asking for prayers for some people in my life that really need lifting up in a big way. My great aunt's daughter, who is only in her 50s has liver cancer. She's at Emory and in a lot of pain. They're deciding what course of treatment to take with her. How sad is that? Too young. And my typist's mother, who is 83, also has liver cancer. She has taken treatment and the tumors have grown. Now she is faced with the choice of taking more treatment or not. That's sad too. Even though she's likely lived a full, great life, she's also too young. And keep in your prayers the young girl in my neighborhood whose house burned down.

I'm off to work this morning at 10 and 12. Hope they'll be short and sweet (kinda like me) hehe!!
If you need a laugh later on today, check out her blog. She does this great thing called I Wish Wednesdays. They always make me laugh.

Love you all. Happy Humpday!

Nine Lives

I'm so happy to tell everyone that the cat that was in the house that burned made it out alive! How in the world it could have is a mystery, but it surely did. And one of my neighbors told me that the homeowner was dealing with her loss much better now that all of her animals had made it safely out. I guess kitty cats really do have nine lives, and I'm glad they do!

Prepared?

At 3 o'clock this morning, I was awakened by a horrible sound. One of the houses that's just behind mine and across the street burned down. It was awful. The homeowner is a young girl that just graduated from UGA and is a veterinarian. She got almost all of her pets out except for one cat. She couldn't find one of her cats. When she was fleeing her house, she left the door open, so maybe the cat ran out. Hope so. Her house will have to be torn down and rebuilt. The only things she ran out with were her animals and her laptop. And the clothes she was wearing. Please pray for her. I'm sure that being young makes this horrible experience even worse. She is blessed that her parents live in the subdivision too. At least she has a place to sleep.

After watching that house burn down early this morning, I couldn't sleep. I just kept thinking being prepared for that kind of situation. You know, your pictures, your important papers, stuff like that. Of course, you'd get your family and your pets out, but what about that other stuff. I have boxes and boxes of pictures. All my important papers are filed away in my office. Do y'all have all your pictures backed up on CD's? I do my recent ones, since digital cameras came into play. All my old ones from when my kids were little, though, are not. Do y'all have safe deposit boxes at the bank or some other place? If you do, what do you put in those? I'm just thinking that I need to be better prepared. I started thinking that if my house caught fire and burned down, my homeowners policy would burn up. I wouldn't even know who to call. Needless to say, I didn't sleep any after 3 o'clock.

I'm off to work this morning. Suz is sick so I'm covering a morning job for her. I'm probably in for a long day, which isn't good for me either. The pollen is really in full swing, isn't it. Thankfully, I think it's supposed to start raining tomorrow, so that should wash some of it away. We love the blooms, but we hate the pollen. We're picky people, aren't we?

Consider this a public service announcement on fire preparation. Let's get ourselves better prepared. Y'all help me out. Tell me how you are prepared.

Y'all have a good Tuesday. TaTa!

Miscellaneous Monday Memories after the BEST SUNDAY

I got to go to church yesterday with my mom, my BFF who is also my sister Suz, and my four favorite aunts! A Sunday church service couldn't have been any better. After church, we had lunch in the fellowship hall. There was SO much food, and it was all homemade. Stouffer's was conspicuously absent from this Sunday dinner. My aunts can cook. They learned from one of the best cooks ever, my dad's mom, MaMa Howell. My mom learned a lot about cooking from her and makes a lot of things that MaMa made just like she made them. I think that's one reason why my dad loves my mom's cooking so much. It probably reminds him of his mama's. The day that MaMa Howell died, she was supposed to have me and some others over for lunch and homemade fried pies. Ross was just several weeks old. I remember it so clearly still after all these years. Even after she had a stroke and could only use one arm, she could peel potatoes and apples. She was of that great generation that all of my grandparents were from. They were, in my opinion, the ABSOLUTE BEST!

After church Suz and I came back to my house and took the fattest nap ever. Suz can take a nap with the best of 'em. When she and I got on my bed in my peaceful blue room, we covered up with my favorite Snoopy blanket and I told her we were napping Kelly style. And it was good!

After that we got up and took a walk. HA! I had some dried flowers that I had saved from last summer to get the seeds from and she got some of those. They were lambs ear and I got them originally from MaMa Kimball's yard probably 10 years ago. I hope they'll come up for her.

Then it was time to go to my mom and dad's to eat again. After lunch I thought I'd never be hungry again, but after all that napping, I had worked up an appetite after all. She had made the most delicious turkey. We had that and some veggies and a coconut pie. OMGosh. After the best Sunday, I slept like a newborn baby last night.

Today I'm home working. And even though it's Monday, I don't even care. I'm still glowing from yesterday. I've been reading some of the blogs I read every day and I want y'all to go here and read about Krispy Kreme. If the economy hits Krispy Kreme, I'm gonna be really sad. When I was a little girl, after we'd go out to eat at the Varsity or Pilgreen's, my dad used to take us to the one on Ponce de Leon where we'd get a dozen to eat on the way home while they were hot. Good times. Really, really good times.

Our convertible G6 is in the shop today. Tear. It's been making a really funny noise. Well, it's not really a funny noise, it's more like a shrieking, make-your-skin-crawl sound. Not good. So the precious baby must be fixed. Hopefully, it just needs some grease somewhere. Yeah, right. Is anything on a car that simple?

I'm on my official Spring Break countdown. Two weeks to go. I'm getting pretty excited about taking Cam to Panama City. I'm going to load my Ipod up with lots and lots of good music. Any suggestions? I like most anything. Except a few out-there things Jeff listens to sometimes. I would like some suggestions for some good Spring Break music to fill my Ipod up with. Load me up, y'all.

Happy Monday! And don't forget to support your local Krispy Kreme. Or if you don't have a local one, go find one!!!

One Purple Hyacinth

Jeff and I went for a walk late yesterday and yep, it does look like we made it. Spring is here! The flowers are gorgeous in everyone's yard.

Everyone's yard that is. . . except for mine!

Peter Cottontail and Bambi have been making regular visits to my yard and helping themselves to the tender new flowers that have been trying so hard to come up. I saw Peter in my yard the other night and I was so excited because I think rabbits are so cute. Little did I know that he had been munching on my tulips.

Sadly, this is the only thing that I have in bloom in my yard right now. My tea olive trees have bloomed through the milder parts of the winter and even they aren't blooming right now. This is it girls. This is the only flower in my yard. And I must say, I may shed a tear. Or two.

After months and months of waiting for Spring to spring into action, this is what I have in my yard to enjoy. Over the years, the deer and rabbit have eaten most of my bulbs. What they haven't eaten, I'm afraid my kids have trampled on them with their feet and then later on with their truck tires and now, this is what I have left. One purple hyacinth. Look how trampled and chewed on its leaves are. Sad. But what a trooper it was to make its way up.

Every fall I say I'm going to plant tons and tons of bulbs so I don't have this left-out feeling when everyone else's yard is in full bloom and mine isn't. But usually by then, I'm so burnt out with my flowers I don't take the time to do it. Here in Georgia we have such terrible drought problems, and I have to pet and pamper my flowers all summer long. By the time I need to plant bulbs for Spring, the last thing I want to do is play in the dirt.

I'm making a note right this minute on October 1st, 2009 to go back and read this post. Hopefully, that will encourage me to go to Lowe's or Home Depot and get some bulbs so that I never again have to welcome Spring to the Kelly house with only one purple hyacinth!

Happy Saturday, y'all!

Pot of Gold

Have y'all heard about all the gold parties the girls around here are having? Crystal's office had one Wednesday and she sold a few old, broken pieces of gold jewelery and made herself some surprise spending money. So I decided to go through my jewelery box and see what I had. I knew I had a few things that were broken and were outdated and just downright ugly. You know, some of the things we wore back in the '80s were just not very pretty and will never go in anybody's "vintage" jewelery collection. I figured there was no harm in selling my stuff that was just sitting in my jewelery box. I had several things and took them to the same lady that bought Crystal's and got myself a nice check right there on the spot. I'm gonna get some work done this morning and then I think I'm going to go out and do a little shopping! :-)

TGoodnessIF. My favorite day of the week.

Bored & Boring

Things must be pretty boring around here because I can't seem to think of anything to write about today. I guess you could look at that in a good way and think of it as things are going pretty well. I mean, boring can be a good thing too. Being bored can also indicate that you don't have anything pressing to do. No one is sick. If I'm bored, usually, my house is clean.

The problem is that sometimes boring can also be feeling unmotivated. That's kinda where I'm at this morning. I've got a few things to do around the house, but I don't really want to do any of them. They're not super important, so I'm just pushing them to the side and complaining about being bored. That makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

We got an e-mail from Doc's on Tybee. Y'all know that's one of our favorite places to hang out down there. Tybee is having its first citywide spelling bee. Doc's has got a team and they need a couple more people to fill their team. It's the first weekend in April. Oh, how I would like to go. I can spell purty good. I think I wood be a good purson for their team. Even if I caint be on the team, I'd shure like to go to the beech.

I have a job in Macon this afternoon at 2. I can't believe how many road trips I've had to make in the last month. Thank goodness gas isn't $4 a gallon anymore.

Here's a big Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law Ronnie. He turns the big 6-0 today! Nan's having a big party for him Saturday night. And it's being catered by none other than. . . LaParilla! I'll have pics for sure.

Y'all have a great Thursday!

Why My Son Needs His Mom

Ross and Cam gave me this sweet book a few years ago. It's filled with 100 reasons why a boy needs his mother. I don't know why, but I just felt compelled to blog about this book and list a few reasons why I think a boy needs his mother, from my own personal experience as mom to two teenage sons. Well, technically Ross isn't teenaged anymore, but he still lives at home and goes to school, so I don't know what you would call him. Anyway, Cam got his braces off today, so we spent some quality (???) time together on the ride to the orthodontist office and then when we went out to lunch. I suppose that's the reason I feel the need to post on this subject.

Reasons a Son Needs His Mom (According to A Girl Named Kelly Kelly)

1. To teach him that cleaning and cramming are not synonymous. To clean your room doesn't mean cram stuff someplace.

2. To tell him that it does matter if the shorts he's wearing look like someone chewed them up and spit them out because they've been crammed someplace because he didn't follow Reason Number 1.

3. To remind him to brush his teeth before going to an appointment where he'll have several sets of hands in his mouth and have his mouth wide open for at least an hour.

4. To teach him the art of "waiting on a woman." That does not include telling said woman that she should have started getting ready two hours earlier!

5. To teach him the appropriate decibel in which to listen to music while driving or riding in a vehicle.

6. To embarrass him when the "mommy" in us can be supressed no longer.

7. Money.

8. And lastly, because she'll most definitely always be his biggest fan!

I was beaming with pride when I saw his teeth without the braces. I followed him from room to room in the ortho office. I know he was so embarrassed, but I couldn't help it. I just kept wanting to see his pretty teeth. He just kept saying gosh, mom, please. He's embarrassed me enough over the years, I figure what the heck, I owe him, you know.

I'm taking him and a friend to Panama City over Spring Break, which is in a few weeks. I'm sure we'll spend some more quality time together then. HA! I can hardly wait. He'll probably pretend he doesn't know me. That is until he needs some money.

Who Has More Fun? (From Saturday Morning)

The old agage about blondes having more fun, well, it's not true after all. Jeff and I were at LaParilla last night sitting at the bar having dinner. I looked way down at the other end of the bar and noticed this girl that looked familar. Turns out she was the girlfriend of a friend of ours and he had introduced her to us last year. We would see them at LaParilla every week and would usually sit with them and chat. Her personality was a little loose back then, if you know what I mean. She bleached her hair really, really blonde and she always wore clothes so that every guy in the place would be sure to notice her. She was a really sweet girl though, and she was nuts over our friend. He seemed to like her loose ways just fine. Oh, and she never ate a thing. We'd be there for a couple of hours and she'd eat a chip. Well, she and my friend are broken up now. Apparently, she's with someone else. Now her hair is totally brown, and she was stuffing her face with a burrito. I think brunettes have more fun.

Hello! Is Anybody There?

My internet and phone are finally back in working order after a brief, but painful hiatus. I was working on my blog Saturday morning and poof, it was gone. I've been lost without it. My phone I could do without, but my internet is another story. Even though not much has been going on and I don't have a whole lot to say, other than. . . I've missed you!

A Shared Obsession

Because my pain in the neck hurts just as much if I'm sitting or standing, walking or laying flat on my back, I decided to go out today and get some much-needed therapy. Retail therapy that is. And when it comes to retail therapy, there's only one person I need to see, and that's one of my BFFs, Suz. So I drove 50 minutes to Buford and got my fix.

We never have enough time. We've shopped more than 12 straight hours before, and we just can't get enough. Inevitably, we'll run out of money or we'll run out of time before we run out of the desire to keep on shopping. It doesn't matter what or who we're shopping for either. We just like to shop.

Today we spent a lot of time in one of our favorite stores, Sephora. If you love makeup, this store is like paradise. They have it set up where you can sample everything and they have all the newest stuff out and it's just the absolute best place to shop for makeup.

As you can see from the two pictures above, I'm not really in need of any makeup right now. I mean, I have lots of lipsticks and lipglosses and lots of eyeshadows. I have my MAC foundation that I love and use Clinique blush and Cover Girl mascara. Those three things I don't really shop for. But the eyeshadow and lipstick and lipgloss is another story altogether.

Suz, in my opinion, really needs to seek professional help in her obsession with lipgloss. Seriously, y'all, she probably has 200 lipsticks and lipglosses. That doesn't include the ones that she's given to Alayna. She's constantly in search of the perfect lipgloss, which as of today, she still hasn't found. But that's okay, though, because it gives us an excuse to keep on shopping.

Here are the latest purchases I got today to add to my makeup collection. A lipgloss palette with three creamy shades, a Tweezerman eyelash curler to carry in my purse, a new pink lipliner, an eyeshadow duo with a peach and plum color, and a small bottle of nail polish.

After we shopped for several hours, then we met Jason and the kids for supper at Cabo's, which is a Mexican restaurant. I think I ate. My stomach feels full. I have less money in my wallet than I did when I got there. But for the life of me, I can't tell you what I ate. That's kinda the way it is when you eat with three kids all talking at once and you're not used to it. Between Alayna getting cheese dip in her hair, Eli wanting to lick Reid and Reid wanting to eat ALL of the ice cream on the dessert they were SUPPOSED to share, I enjoyed it anyway, just like I always do. Her kids are like my second set of kids.

Now that I'm home I get to play set up Cam's new cell phone. Yippee for me. He is so like me. He wants what he wants when he wants it. So I must oblige him if at all possible or there will be no peace in this valley tonight.

I gotta make a long road trip tomorrow for work. I've got to go to Cedartown, which is about an hour and 40 minutes from my house. Someone got hurt while working at a chicken processing plant and now they're suing somebody. I yi yi. Those kind of depos make me gag.

Y'all have a good evening! I'll talk to y'all tomorrow.

Eleven Eleven

What is it with me and this number 11? Almost daily I look at the clock and it's 11:11. I can be at home, in my car, see it on a sign at the bank or something like that. It's just sooo weird. It's not my favorite number. My favorite number is 6.

Because this has been going on for a while and I've given it a lot of thought, I have managed to come up with some coincidences about the number 11 and me. I got married on 7-11. If you add the month and day of Ross's b'day 8 +3, well, that equals 11. If you subtract the month from the day of Cam's b'day, 19-8, well, that equals 11. I was born on 10-12. Eleven is between 10 and 12. Do y'all have a number that just keeps coming up over and over again? I'm just wondering because it just seems really strange to me.

I am feeling much better today. I still have some pain, but the muscle spasm seems to have loosened up a lot. I felt like someone had tried to put me in a wrestling move and my body froze in that position. It was awful. I'm so thankful the worst of it is hopefully over. I'm in my office at home working. I'm gonna try and make up for the two days I lost and get lots done. The pain meds and muscle relaxer don't knock me out like they do most people. I get a little drowsy, but not much at all. Yet another way I'm like my dad. It takes enough medicine for a large animal to affect me.

I finished a book last night. It was one that my sister-in-law, Nan, loaned me. It was written by Anita Shreve called Light in Snow. I liked the book okay, but I hated the ending. It left me with that "what the crap" feeling. I hate it when books or movies do that. I was really glad that I had finally finished a book and seem to be coming out of the book funk that I've been in. I even took my blogger friend, Karla's advice, and started a Jodi Piccoult book called Salem Falls. I can already tell that this one's gonna be a good one. I wish that she would use a bigger print in her books. The books she writes are so thick as they are, if she used bigger print I guess they'd be the size of a dictionary and so heavy you wouldn't be able to hold it to read. That wouldn't be very relaxing, would it?

Speaking of endings, I watched a movie while I've been flat on my booty called "The Changeling" with Angelina Jolie. I watched it on Pay Per View. Well, it was like two hours and 20 minutes long. I didn't get to watch it all at one time and the darn thing was gone before I got to see the last 30 minutes of it. I couldn't believe that happened, but that's just my luck with TV lately. I don't want to pay another $4.99 to see how it ends. Do any of y'all know what happens at the end? I left off when they were in court.

Just got word from one of my court reporter friends that Ross was chosen for jury duty. I know he's bummed about that. He was really hoping they'd pass him up. Oh, and good news. Cam gets his braces off next Wednesday! Can't wait to see that boy's brace-free smile again!

Hope y'all have a happy Humpday!

A Crick Gone Crazy

What started out as your everyday, ordinary crick in the neck has now turned into a full-fledged muscle spasm and is constricting a nerve in my neck. I've been in horrific pain for two days. I broke down and went to the doctor this morning. I left there with pain in my neck radiating down my arm and into my hand and two sore butt cheeks. That was six hours ago, and the pain is just a teensy bit better. The doctor asked if I had been under a lot of stress lately, but I didn't tell her about the cable guy. I just didn't think she'd understand. Pray for me please, y'all. I'm sure you probably could guess that I'm not a very patient patient.

Baseball, Snowcones and a Saxophone

Yesterday was such a fun day. After putting heat on my feet and ice on my head, taking two Excedrin Migraine and getting back in bed, I woke up again mostly migraine free. Reid had a tournament game, so I got to see him play. Eli had a makeup game from last week's winter blast, so he was dressed in his Cub uniform when he got there. Have you ever seen a cuter cub in your life? He wanted one of those ice "fangs" like Nayna (that's what he calls Alayna) had. Assuming he meant snowcone, I took him to get one. He knew the color he wanted right away. He's a very decisive four-year-old.


Reid's team lost the game and it was a single-elimination tournament. I didn't get a single good picture of Reid playing because I was stuck behind the chain link fence and I didn't have my big camera to get a good zoom. I forget how much fun it is to hang out at the ballpark until I go to a game and I really do miss it. Sometimes I miss having little ones so bad it makes my heart hurt. And then other times I'm so glad I don't have little ones I could shout from the rooftops. It's a funny in-between position.
AlaynaWe all went to my mom and dad's for supper last night. We had the best time. My dad is a bit of a -- well, he's a junk collector. He buys things and oftentimes will resell them. Sometimes he buys things just because it's something he's never owned before. Such as a. . . saxophone. He bought one Saturday and brought it out last night. Man, you have to have a lot of hot air to make a sound come out of one of those things! Kenny G makes it look so easy. If you were able to make it work, then we had you march like you were in a band. Blowing a horn and marching at the same time would really take a lot of practice. It's even harder than patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time. We all have a newfound respect for marching bands that's for sure. They're very talented, coordinated people.

Ross has jury duty this week. He hopes he doesn't get picked. I love it when I get picked, although I haven't been called in years and I hear a lot of that stuff in my depos.

Guess that's it for Monday. Y'all know I'm not a Monday kinda gal, so sorry I'm not more interesting today. Oh, yeah, how long does it take y'all to get used to the Daylight Savings Time? I love it once I adjust, but oh, my goodness till then. . .

The Hot Chick Turns 50

Did y'all know that the hottest chick I've ever known in my whole life turns 50 years old tomorrow? Well, neither did I until I stumbled upon her blog. Y'all have got to go over and check it out. You can click on Barbie in my sidebar and it'll take you right over. Her site is all about cupcakes. You will simply die over some of the cupcake ideas there. Barbie and cupcakes. Doesn't get much better than that in my opinion. And to you, Barbie, the favorite toy of my girlhood, I wish you a big fat Happy 50th Birthday! Maybe she'll send you something super special to help you celebrate your day!

Modesty's Down the Crapper

Please excuse the abrasiveness of the title of this post, but girls, there's just no other way to put it. The past two days here in the Peach State have been glorious. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the weeds are growing, and folks are bringing out their summer clothes. About a month too early, in my opinion, but nonetheless, they've brought them out anyway. I've never seen so much skin in March before in my life. Nobody is ready for Spring and Summer more than me. Nobody. But for everything there is a season. Or so we've been told.

I'm just wondering where in the heck modesty went because it's sure not around anywhere I've been this weekend. Some of the clothes I've seen girls wearing has me really thinking that it has indeed has gone down the crapper. I'm not talking about just a low-cut dress or top. I'm talking about a one-wrong-move-and-your-areola-is-showing dress or top! Or a one-wrong-turn-and-your-whole-booty-is-showing skirt! And even worse still, I'm not just talking about on girls my age, but on high school age girls too! I'm just not sure what makes girls think that everyone in a restaurant wants to see every square inch of their body. I'm comfortable enough in my skin to say that I think a little is okay, but EVERY SQUARE INCH, well, as my MaMa Kimball used to say, that's bad enough to gag a buzzard. And when I see a cute, young high school girl dressed like a tramp on the street, that really makes me want to gag.

When my sisters and I were growing up, way back in time, my dad gave us the once-over before we left the house. I think he did that because he knew that the fine young gentleman we were going out with would most definitely be doing the same thing, as well as would anyone else that we might see. He certainly didn't want us giving out free peep shows. Maybe that's why still to this day, at 43 years old, I like a little modesty.

Got a pounding migraine this morning. Not sure why. I think it has something to do with this crick in my neck that I can't get rid of. I think I'm gonna have to get it massaged out by a professional. Darn, I hate that. I got out of the bed thinking that maybe the gravity was weighing down on me making it hurt more. Sometimes it does seem like that, but not today. This one is a doozy. And on that note, I'm stepping off of my modesty soapbox and going back to my bed. I had a massage person tell me that if you put ice on your head and heat on your feet that it's a good remedy for migraines. Sometimes that does seem like it works. Do y'all know of anything else that works?

Enjoy your Sunday. Hope it's filled with lots of love!

What's Your Special Place?

Do any of y'all have a special place that you like to go to "get away from it all"? It could be a place that you go to alone or a place you go to with your family or special someone.

Even though in the big scheme of things, my week wasn't all that bad. It was a wee bit stressful and I woke up this morning thinking about my special place, which I tend to think about several times every day. When I started reading all my favorite blogs and saw there was an update from one of the ones who writes from my favorite place this side of heaven, I jumped for joy. She has been away for a little bit, but when I read her post today, my heart went straight to Tybee. That's my special place.

I love my home. I like my hometown. It's where I was born. I've never lived anywhere else. I must admit that were it not for a few little things like ALL of my family and Jeff's living within 50 minutes from me, Jeff's job, my job, my church, I'd grab my hubby and my Big Boys and be outta here. My parents are 5 minutes away. Jeff's are less than 1 minute away. In a dream world, I'd just take them all with me. Home is great. But my heart just belongs to TYB.

Some say it's where "Savannah lets her hair down." I would have to agree with that. I can't think of any other place (at least where I've been) where you can go and have a gourmet breakfast and feel comfortable with everyone else in the restaurant and not have on one stitch of makeup. It's the most relaxed, friendly place to vacation. And when I want a getaway, heckfire, stress and mean people are two things I'm happy to get away from. In fact, Jeff and I have met some locals there that, even though they might not know us from Adam's housecat, we'll remember them for as long as we have our wits about us. We talk to them when we see them like we've known them forever.

Oh, well, today Jeff's golfing. Ross is fishing. Cam spent the night with a friend. And here I am. So for this day, I only get to dream of my special place. For today, I'll just have to read her blog and her blog. For today, that'll have to do.

But I would like to hear about your special place. Tell me about it. I'm listening.

The B-*-T-%-H is Back!

I tried, y'all. Really I did. I gave it my best shot. I was medicated and motivated. I was going to give Cable Guy # 3 a chance. I believed in him. He was going to be THE man.

That's all I have to say about that. I'm off to shampoo my carpet. I hope that darn DVR box works splendidly because it has almost put me in the nuthouse.

Is the Third Time Really the Charm?

The Cable Guy is scheduled to be at my house at between 8 and 10 this morning. Hence the reason I'm up with the chickens. That and I've got a big ol' crick in my neck and back. If you've been reading my posts this week, you know I've had a bit of trouble with cable, tivo and directv. All I ever wanted was a dual tuner DVR. That's it. That's not too much to ask in the year 2009, is it?


After finding out we couldn't get directv, we had the cable company come out Wednesday. Cable Guy #1 is scheduled to come between 10 and 12. He comes at 9:15. Bandit's freaking out like she always does when the doorbell rings. The man looks at my little Jack Russell like she's a pit bull or something. I tell him he's early, I thought he was supposed to call first. He tells me, the customer, the one who's paying for this whole deal, I never said that. Now, that's some good customer service, don't you think? Well, long story short, I basically had to ask the first Cable Guy to reschedule because he showed up 45 minutes before the time he was scheduled to. I mean, I was still in my PJs. And since Bandit didn't like him either, I decided there were too many bad vibes from Cable Guy #1. I called the cable company and asked that a different Cable Guy be sent out the second go-around.


Cable Guy #2 arrives after I call the cable company to find out where in the Sam Hill he was. He was late for the appointment. I yi yi. Bandit is put in the laundry room or I'm pretty sure she would've been getting bad vibes from this Cable Guy too. But, oh well. He comes in, doesn't take his boots off. Meanwhile I'm practically on the floor scoping out his shoes making sure they're not covered in Georgia mud. He puts this DVR box on top of my TV that looks like it was taken out of a Dumpster. I say uhh, is that my box. Yes, ma'am. Well, err, it's kinda beat up, don't ya think. Well, it's what they gave me. I'm paying $15 a month for that? It's what they gave me. Uhh, well, I think that you can take that one back. I didn't expect to be getting a DVR box that looked like it had been owned by 100 other destructive familes before me. I understand, ma'am. Okay, thank you, bye bye.


I call the cable company, explain the box situation and ask for a box that's not quite as beat up and scratched up and dirty as the first one. Cable Guy #3 is scheduled to come out today between 8 and 10. We'll see what happens.


In an attempt to relieve my guilt from the day before, I baked (from a package) some chocolate chip cookies and timed it so they would be hot out of the oven when Cam got home from school. He calls and tells me that he's gonna stay after for the baseball game. I guess that's what they call karma. I also made Cam's favorite poppyseed chicken. Innocently, he asked what was I making all his favorites for. To me, poppyseed chicken can be a little bland. So I added 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and a good sprinkle of lemon pepper. I also used 2 lemon pepper rotisserie chickens (my men like a lot of chicken). Let me tell y'all, it gave it a zing that was just right. Here's the recipe I used. It's the best.


POPPYSEED CHICKEN WITH A ZING

2 lemon pepper chickens (I used the white meat and saved the legs for my Big Boys to eat later.) 1 1/2 cups of light sour cream
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 tablespoons of poppyseeds
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
good sprinkle lemon pepper seasoning
1 sleeve Ritz crackers
1 stick of melted butter
Mix the first five ingredients well and put in a 9x13 dish sprayed with cooking spray. Crush the Ritz crackers, but not too fine. Melt the stick of butter and pour over the top. Bake for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve over rice.

We don't have any special plans for the weekend. It's supposed to be pretty and warm, so we'll probably do some stuff outside. The old pool liner is still blowing out of the pool and is scattered about. Our new one should be here in a couple of weeks. Yippee! And there are tons of weeds that are trying to take up residence in my flower beds. Reid's in a baseball tournament in Stockbridge this weekend, so maybe we can watch one of his games.

TGoodnessIF! Hope it's a good one.

Oops! I Did it Again!

Whenever I rant and rave about one of my "Big Boys" (a/k/a Ross and Cam), inevitability they unknowingly do something nice for me. Well, it happened again last night. After yesterday's delirium over cleaning up all the handprints, etc., Cam laid the mother of all guilt trips on me last night.

I was in my office doing some work and upgrading my AT&T homepage, which was a big pain in the booty, filling out Ross's ten-page FAFSA form (which we never qualify for, but have to fill out every year anyway), and I was grouchy to say the least. I won't even go into the details of the cable guy and the tivo people that nearly caused my blood pressure to go off the charts yesterday. Suffice it to say I wasn't a happy person by 7 o'clock last night.

So Cam comes to me and asks for some money to go to the grocery store to get some chicken to cook for supper. Cam? Cook? Chicken? For supper? On my clean stove? Uh, NO!!!! I offered him money to go get himself something from someplace where they cook it for you on their stove. No, he wanted to cook this chicken himself and oh, Mom, I'll clean everything up, blah, blah, blah, yeah, right. I've heard that song and dance about nine zillion times.

I hand him some money and off he goes to the grocery store. When he gets back, he asks for a skillet. I start hollering about how I knew this was gonna end up with me cooking the stupid chicken and so on and so on. You get the picture. I'm a hag of a mom I know.

Well, about 20 minutes later I start smelling the most delicious smells coming from the kitchen. I pause from my hagdom and tell him that it sure smells good. Shortly thereafter, here comes my sweet little boy with a paper plate in tow. On the plate is a terriyaki chicken sandwich smothered with melted swiss cheese. Do you want a sandwich he says. Could someone put me out of my guilt trip misery, please. It was scrumptious! It was perfectly seasoned, the cheese was oozing off the bun, the chicken was cooked to perfection. The boy can cook. And you know what else, he cleaned up the skillet, the utensils, the stove, everything that he messed up in that kitchen, he cleaned to A Girl Named Kelly Kelly's standards.

I've had to pray for forgiveness this morning. I messed that one up BIG time!

Happy Thursday!

Four-Year-Old's Handprint

Fingerprints. Sometimes you get discouraged because I am so small and always leave my fingerprints on furniture and walls. But everyday I'm growing. I'll be grown up someday and all those tiny handrpints will surely fade away. So here's my four-year handprint just so you can recall exactly how my fingers looked when I was very small.

Most of us moms know that poem. We've received it at one time or another. I remember very well getting that picture from Cam Christmas 1996. I also remember shedding more than one tear at the thought of losing his tiny handprints on the furniture and walls. But let me tell you, girls, if I knew then what I know now, I would have saved those tears for something else entirely.

I have just spent the better part of my morning cleaning up much larger 16-year-old handprints from furniture, walls, countertops, cabinet doors, TV screens, computer screens and bathroom areas (if ya know what I mean).

Nostalgia my foot. Maybe when he's 50 and I'm in the nursing home. Then bring me this fingerprint picture and we'll talk about it again. Right now I'm going to put a heating pad on my aching back. Cleaning handprints is hard work.

The Dragonslayer

I'm keeping my oath and have sworn off The Bachelor. But May 18th the slaying of the dragons to reach the handsome prince begins. That's when Jillian Harris becomes the next Bachelorette. I don't think I'll be able to keep myself from being glued to the TV on Monday nights. I originally thought Jillian would be the winner of the thorny final rose from Jason. Thankfully, for her, I was wrong. I like her spunk, her wit and her style. Ain't no way I'm gonna miss this one.

Wasted Day, Wasted Night

Well, I have successfully managed to waste most of this day away. First of all, we can't get a Directv signal at our house. We can pay an additional $170 and get a pole put in our yard after we have the "Call Before You Dig" people come out and tell Directtv it's okay to dig a hole in the middle of the yard to put the attractive satellite on. Uhh, no thanks. Then being the ever stubborn, persistent person that I sometimes regretfully am, I called the Tivo people that we have our Tivo box through to see if they could provide us with a dual tuner DVR. Well, in so doing, they managed to charge me twice for a Tivo box that I don't even want. But, Ms. Kelly, we assure you it will fall off your checking account in two to three days. I yi yi. I'm sure hoping so. I don't want to have to jump through the phone and kick some Tivo booty. So we're sticking with our cable service, adding their DVR and my checking account is probably gonna be screwed up for the next three weeks. I endured all of that and wasted a perfectly good afternoon so that I can record stupid, ridiculous, phony, idiotic shows like The Bachelor, while Ross and Cam record romantic shows like My Big Fat Redneck Wedding.

If only. . . it were like 50 years ago when you had one TV set, if you were lucky. No such thing as a DVR, VCR, Tivo, HD or any other acronym that I have no idea what it stands for. Then maybe I wouldn't waste my time watching or recording The Dumb Bachelor.

Oh, and on a positive note, my Aunt Theresa has taken up blogging. She's sure to be great at it. She has a busy life and busy family. She'll have tons to write about and she makes lots of pictures. To visit her, go here.

Are y'all going to waste your night watching the After the After Final Rose tonight? I can't decide if I am or not. I've wasted the day. Should I waste the night too?

I Shop, Therefore I Work

Gotta make this a quickie. I've got to be downtown at 10 o'clock for a depo. For any of you who watch The Bachelor. . . What the Crap? That's all I have to say about that. Well, that and I'm no longer a Bachelor fan. I'll watch the After the After the Final Rose tonight, but after that I'm done. For real this time.

Last night at mom and dad's was good. My chili and corn dip were delicious. I made the recipe I posted a several days ago that was the two bean chicken chili. Man, was it good. And it's got to be good for you too. The corn dip, awesome. It was almost all gone. I put a few too many jalapenos in it for some, but they ate it anyway. We just drank a lot of diet coke. If you make this dish, don't make it in a dish that makes the dip too thick. It needs to be spread out kinda thin. I think it's better that way. I hope y'all are trying my recipes. Even though I don't cook very often, I do have some good receipes.

Jeff's yelling at me to go. He's working at home today because the Directv man is coming. My car's been warming up for a little while now. He's afraid I'll run out of gas. Yeah, right. I'll have more to say when I get home from my job.

TaTa!

Thunder Snow

Spring is trying its darndest to make its way, but yesterday in the Peach State was one weird weather day. We ran the weather gamut for sure. We had sleet. We had snow. We had rain. We had thunder. And then come to find out from my mom, who is like a walking encyclopedia, it's a meteorological term called Thunder Snow. The snow came down for so long and the flakes were so big. Unfortunately, the ground was just a little too warm for it all to stick. If it had, we probably would have had a foot or more of snow. As it was, we got a couple of inches. Maybe a little more in the grassy areas. It was beautiful though. Here in the deep south we just don't get to see snow much. We gladly take what we can get and we love it. It's all great fun. . . that is. . . until the power goes out.


We had canceled our usual Sunday Night Supper at my mom and dad's because of the road conditions. We were settled in for a nice, cozy evening. I was going to upload some of my pictures and blog and there was a movie that was coming on at 9 o'clock that I was excited to watch. None of that was meant to be. Just as I had put my flash card into my computer. Poof. Out go the lights. We were without power for six hours.

No matter how prepared you think you are for power outages, you're just never prepared enough. I like candles, so we had lots of those. Unfortunately, the wicks all needed trimming, so when we hurriedly lit them, they all smoked. We had to blow them out and trim the wicks and relight them. Flashlights. Oh, yeah, we have lots of those. We keep them in a central location. Unfortunately, they're behind several cookie cooling racks. And they're all with dead batteries. But on the bright side, I do have lots of extra batteries. Oil lamps. We have two of those. Unfortunately, the only lamp oil we have is citronella oil made for tiki torches for outdoor pool parties and such. They just burnt the wicks up in about five minutes. We spent the first two hours of the power outage trying to find sources of light. It was not fun.


Not knowing that we were in store for a power outage later in the evening, Jeff and I took a late afternoon nap, so naturally we weren't sleepy at 9 o'clock and there was nothing to do. I took a flashlight and started doing a little light cleaning. Then I took a Benadryl and just went to bed. What a total waste of a nice, cozy snowy evening. When you don't get snow for years on end, it's very hard to be prepared for it. I've spent all morning putting away all the candles and putting up the stupid oil lamps and flashlights. I'm not in a very good mood.


Since we didn't get to go to my mom's last night for supper, we're going tonight. So I MUST tivo the Bachelor. Must. Must not miss it for any reason. Mom's making chili and we're supposed to bring something to go along with it. Here's what I'm bringing. It's a Mexicorn Dip that my friend Monica makes and it is soooo good.


MONICA'S MEXICORN DIP 2 cans of Mexicorn
2 cups of Kraft shredded pepper jack cheese
1 cup of parmesan cheese
2 cups of mayonnaise
2-5 tablespoons of chopped jalapenos
Mix all together and put in a baking dish. Bake 30 to 40 minutes at 350 degrees until it starts to bubble.


Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday. I went to check on my friends the cows. Evidently they were all nice in their barn because they weren't out for a photo op, but I did get a nice windmill shot.








My aunt Theresa and I were thinking just alike, because we both stopped by my grandparents old homeplace and made pictures. I think we were both in a sentimental mood yesterday. It's funny how a house just looks so empty when love isn't living there anymore. It looks the same, but yet different at the same time.









It still looks like my grandparents house to me. And it still holds a zillion memories. All of them sweet. I don't think I've ever seen it with any snow before. And even though it didn't have much yesterday, it was enough to make me stop by for a picture.

Hope everyone has a good Monday, with not too much post-snow mess to clean up. And BTW, it's supposed to be in the 70s by Friday. Yippee!!!!! Get out your shorts and flip flops! A Girl Named Kelly Kelly has seen enough snow for 2009. I'm ready for summer! :-)