Happy 12th Birthday, Reid

Twelve years ago today was one of those days that Ms. Melanie Hamilton in Gone With the Wind referred to as one of the happiest kind of days. It was the day a baby was born. The baby was my sister Suz's firstborn. Jason Reid Parks.


He seemed to have been born a little man. Even as a newborn baby, he was very observant of the people around him. And when he was 17 months old, he got a baby sister. He seemed so grown up even then.

I have thousands of memories of Reid because he and Cam have been buds since he could walk. They've done lots of things together. Even though Cam is six years older than Reid, they've always been close. Reid's the one who gave Cam the nickname Mun. Now everyone else calls Cameron Mun. Everyone that is except Reid. He calls him Cameron.

Reid is good at a lot of things. He's an athlete. Good at baseball and football. He's smart. He's in all the advanced classes at school. He is responsible and looks out for his brother and sister. He's handsome and quite a ladies man already. His wit oftentimes catch me off guard. He has the happiest giggle you've ever heard and his love of mischief will surface every chance it can. He likes to have a GOOD time. One of the things I love most about Reid is his hugs. Since he was old enough to give a hug, he will NOT hug you without patting your back as he's hugging you. And I would be crazy not to mention the fact that he is the Original Candy Kid. I've mentioned before to y'all that he can eat sweets like there's no tomorrow. Even dark chocolate. Even raisins.

He's growing up way too fast. He's 12 years old today. This picture is him at his 10th birthday party.

And here he is at his 11th birthday party with the family at my house.

We'll be celebrating his birthday this weekend. Saturday night he's having some friends over and then Sunday night at supper we'll really blow it out with the whole family.

I'm excited to watch Reid grow up. I look forward to watching him play high school football and baseball. I'm anxious for him to bring his first girlfriend to Sunday Night Supper. He brings me much joy and I love him very much.

Happy Birthday, Reid! There will always be a space in my heart saved just for you.

A Day of Retail Therapy

From time to time every girl needs to get out and have a little fun. Fun can be anything that the girl likes. Yesterday I got to do two things that I consider fun. Well, three actually. 1. I got to spend time with Suz and the fam. 2. I got to have Chinese for lunch. 3. I got to shop from 1 o'clock until 5 o'clock.

We went to a Chinese restaurant in Buford. It's been there for years and is reputable for having very good Chinese food. Well, I'm pretty sure someone told them I was coming for lunch. They decided to have an off day. The soup was excellent. The egg roll was good. The rice was awesome. The chicken was terrible.

Even though my food wasn't very good, I still had such a good time. Suz and I were cracking up because the restaurant must have been playing a CD with love songs from the early to mid '80s. It was hilarious. The Commodores. Air Supply. I didn't know corny love songs were the music of choice for Chinese restaurants. Oh, well, maybe it's something new.

After lunch, the shopping began. Neither of us were shopping for anything in particular. We needed to get some stuff for Reid's birthday and she wanted to look at things for her house. During the four-hour shopping trip, we went to TJMaxx, Party City, Target, Wal-Mart and the Dollar Tree. Party City has the neatest things out for the Super Bowl.

Suz would definitely be ready for the game if she bought this. But she didn't.

Once upon a time, I could shop for hours and hours and hours without ever getting tired. Now that I'm 44, my back hurts, my knees hurt, my hips hurt and my feet hurt. I was pooped. But, you know, it was the good kind of pooped. The kind of pooped that comes from shopping with your sis for hours. Ah, retail therapy. It's a good thing. A very, very good thing.

Till next time. . .

Onion Rings & Too Much Rain

Reid spent the night with us Saturday night and Sunday night we met Suz and the family at the Varsity in Gwinnett. Onion rings and Frosted Orange. It doesn't get much better than that. Oh, and don't forget the fried apple pie ala mode. Uh, yeah. It's a very healthy place to eat.

But before we went to clog our arteries and fleshen our hips, we had a huge pine tree fall in the yard. It was raining pretty hard at the time and the ground is just completely saturated. We have a creek running beside our house and the tree just simply washed away. We heard a couple of big cracks and I knew it was a tree falling. Then we heard a big boom. I was scared to go out to see what the damage was. It was dark and raining, but we could tell it was big.

Yesterday morning I made this picture.

I'm thankful it didn't fall on my house. And I'm sad because it did take down a big limb of a hardwood nearby. I love my trees and the privacy they give.

But now the cleanup begins.

Thankfully, I have a son who loves to cut wood. Ross has a major infatuation with power tools. Especially mighty ones like a chainsaw. And with his body build, honey, he can tear a tree up. He loves cutting them, but it's the hauling he's not particularly fond of. Not sure what we'll do with all this pine. It would be nice if we knew how to build furniture. But. . . we don't. So I don't know what we'll do. Or rather they'll do. That's not really my department.
He and a friend cut wood for an hour or so yesterday. Then they got tired of that and decided to go work on something else.

I hate to say we're supposed to get some more rain this week. It'll be August before we dry out. The ground is just soupy.

I'm off to work today. Ugh. It's a translator deposition. You know the ones I hate. Twice as long, three times more boring. I'm glad I have a job, and I'm also glad God created me and He understands frustration and forgives me when I grumble.

Y'all have a good day! I hope it's sunshiny where you're at. Enjoy it while you can!

Ode to the Clutter

My office has been really clutftered lately.  It's the type of clutter, though, that I would describe as an organized mess. 

I have a lot of paper in my office.  Legal things require so much paper.  Sometimes I can't believe how much.  And how much paper does an insurance company need to use?  I could probably save on my premius if they'd use less paper.  Anyway, back to the story.  The stacks of paper everywhere were getting to me.  Badly.  It was cleanup time.  I filed papers here.  I filed papers there.  Now, it looks a little better. 

The bookshelf on my desk is another clutter story.  I have reference books I used to take the court reporting test in '97.  A really old PDR.  A Henry County phone book from 2007.  I doubt anything has changed, don't you?  All these books that I could easily get rid of to free up space.  The Internet has the resources of countless books.  My PhotoShop Elements for Dummies, that may as well be written in another language. But I confess.  I'm a book person.  I like to hold a book in my hand rather than look at a computer screen.  And I'm surprised how often I use the old phone book.  Sorry, clutter, but the books must stay.

There's a really ugly picture frame that folds like a book and has two priceless pictures from a trip to ChuckECheese in 2002.  It was taken with one of those little cameras they have there.  One is a black and  white of Reid, Cam and me.  The other one is Alayna and me.  At the time the pictures were probably just silly trinkets from a day at ChuckECheese.  But I would never have thrown them away.  So I just stuck them in the ugly folding picture frame and here they've been.  On my bookshelf for years now.   And how I love to stumble upon it and open.  The ChuckECheese picture in the ugly picture frame sure makes my heart smile.

So many calendars.  Old calendars from like five years ago.  I cannot throw away my old calendars.  I just won't do it.  I've got several other ones in my kitchen cabinet.  Hidden.  I love to look back through them at the dates that are filled in.  It's a diary of sorts.  Fun  to look at what you were doing then.  I had a 2005 calendar marked full of things my boys were doing.  The Monster Truck Show.  Opening of a Star Wars movie.  Registering for the SAT.  Mark Richt UGA Football camp.  Book fairs.  Report cards.  Ingrown toenails.  The list goes on and on.  Nope, the calendars must stay.  A trip down Memory Lane is worth the space occupied.

Same goes for note pads.  So many pads, but never a piece of paper anywhere on the desk.  But open the pads and you're treated with to do lists, menus for certain events, songs you want on a CD, special scripture, phone numbers of who knows who.  I found the notes I made when I sent the boys' XBox back a few years back.  I found the notes I made when I sent the same XBox back again last year.  Nope, more memories.  The note pads will be staying.

Not much clutter gone.  But thank you, Clutter.  You made my day.

Till next time. 
(Photo courtesy of ChuckECheese
circa 2002)

The Best I've Got

Is this.

I haven't done anything worth writing about this week.  It's been one of those kind of weeks.  I  haven't cooked anything.  I haven't done any projects.  I haven't gone anywhere special.  You might say life has been one big bore fest.

About the most exciting thing I've done all week is get my hair done today.  The girl I usually see is out on maternity leave, so I had to see another girl.  She did a good job and I enjoyed chatting with her.  She's from Vietnam and she has been in the U.S. for 20 years.  She speaks English almost flawlessly and she's 4'11", so we had a good talk about the pitfalls of being short.

I had gotten all prepared for my "cleaning lady" to come Tuesday morning.  I had my bed stripped and the sheets in the dryer.  I had left a bowl from the night before in the sink.  You know, I wanted to get my money's worth.  Karma.  She called and had car trouble and couldn't come.  Ugh.  My house was filthy.  It hadn't had a good cleaning in a couple of weeks.  I cleaned it up from top to bottom.  My low back was killing me, but I was in heaven.  I tell ya, I don't love very many things as much as I love a good clean house.

I've been spending a lot of time here.

Thank goodness, the dizziness was just a one-day thing.  So I've been working out every day.  I've experienced yoga for the very first time.  I liked it, but it was far from relaxing to me.  Maybe after I've gone to the class a few times and know the moves a little better, it'll be more relaxing.  The only relaxing move I experienced was at the end of the class when we were just sitting down breathing.  I've had some pretty good soreness, but it's the good kind of sore.  You know, the kind that let's you know that you've used muscles, other than your brain and mouth (if there are muscles in either of those two places.)

I've also gone to the Rockdale Indoor Soccer field three times.  Jeff's back to playing soccer again.  Yes, you can play soccer at almost 48 years old.  Maybe he doesn't sprint quite as often or make quite as many goals as he did, oh, five years ago, but the man can still play and he's still my hero!  He pulled a muscle in his thigh during the second game, so I think that's slowed him down a bit. 

Jeff and Cam have been going to the gym too.  They run circles around me, but hey, I'm a girl, you know.  It's nice to throw that "I'm a girl" card every once in a while, isn't it.  Like when the trash is heavy or when the serving dish you need is up too high to reach.  Or sometimes I just thow mine down just because I want to.  Hee-Hee.

Ross went to the dentist today.  Thank heaven my sorry teeth don't run in the family.  He had a perfect checkup  Good thing.  I'm all spent out on teeth.  Which, in case you're wondering, I'm getting more and more used to mine.  I'm not crazy about it, but it beats a big black hole in my mouth.  I guess.  Sunday at church, Cynthia gave me a piece of chewing gum, which promptly got all stuck to my fake tooth.  It was lovely.  I bought Freedent.  They advertise that it won't stick to most dental work.  I'll let you know.

I have to work tomorrow at 2 p.m. on the other side of the world.  I'm sure I will get stuck in the best of the worst traffic Atlanta has to offer.  But after I get home, I'm going to LaParilla to celebrate two weeks of working out, two weeks of soccer, a clean house and a new hairdo.  Because like I said in my title, it's the best I've got.

Have an awesome Thursday night.

Till next time.

Happy 83rd Birthday Jean

Last  night we celebrated the birthday of a woman that I'm extremely grateful for.  The woman who is the mother of the love of my life.  Jean Kelly turned 83 years old this week. 

It's been a difficult year since her last birthday.  She lost a son to liver disease.  She's going through some minor health problems.  Although they don't seem minor to her, I'm sure.  Her sister and very best friend has also had some health problems and Ed, her husband has had a few setbacks too. 

She is a fine Christian lady, full of grace and humility. 

She didn't want us to do anything for her birthday.  She said if she was 85 or 90 or something, that'd be okay, but just for an 83rd birthday, she didn't think we should even celebrate.  But of course, we did.  The whole Kelly family went to Longhorn.  I think there were 19 of us.  That includes 2 friends that Ross and Cam brought along with them.

We ate, we drank and we made merriment.  This family moves quickly.  If you're not ready, you're gonna miss something.  I was at the other end of the table talking and the next thing I know they're singing happy birthday to Jean.  I didn't even have a chance to get my camera to make a picture of her while they were singing.  But I think you can tell she was enjoying having her family to celebrate something so simple to her. 

Jeff and I had her birthday party at my house last year.  I guess we (or really me) were too lazy to have it at our house this year.  We opted to go out instead.  I really wish we had gone ahead and had it at the house because Ed & Jean were stuck in at one end of the table and didn't really get to visit with the people at the other end.  I felt kinda bad about that.  And not to mention that our bill was $450 for the entire table.  Think how much food and drink you could make at home for a whole lot less than $450.  She would have enjoyed the party either way, but I think next year we'll be back at our house.

I've been to the gym every day except today.  I went to church and came home, had a sandwich and decided to take a little nap.  I have a blanket that Jeff made me a couple of Christmases ago.  You know, the fleece ones that don't require any sewing or anything.  It's MY blanket.  And only mine.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I will share it with one or two people.  But my boys know that it's MY blanket.  I don't like for it to get dog hair on it or smell funny.  I have a super sensitive smeller, you know.  When I was a little girl, I had a favorite blanket.  And guess what it was called?  Good Smelling.  That was what I called my blanket.  This blanket I call Snoopy because it's got Snoopy all over it.  It's MY blanket and I want it when I want to take a nap or get cozy or whatever. 

Last night after we got home from supper, it was pretty early still.  Jeff and I decided to stay in and watch a movie because it was pouring down rain.  We were going to go to McDonough to watch a band that some of Jeff's family plays in.  The weather was too bad to go back out.  The boys were not here, so we watched the movie in the living room.  That's where I made my mistake.  I had Snoopy with me in the living room on the sofa.  I guess when it was bedtime, I left Snoopy in the living room.  I can't believe I went to sleep without it, but I must have been tired.

When I got up this morning, there was a boy (well, a 17-year-old) on my sofa.  He wasn't covered with Snoopy, so I still didn't notice anything.  But. . . this afternoon when I was ready for a nice nap, I searched everywhere for Snoopy.  He normally stays on my bed or in my closet.  I never let him get too far away because like I said earlier, I don't like dog hair on it.  I generally don't let Bandit in our bedroom because -- well, because I don't like dog hair.  Snoopy was missing.  I was getting hysterical because it was dawning on me that it was in the extra bedroom.  OMGosh.  Bandit sleeps in there lots of times.  OMGosh, one of Ross's friends slept in there last night.  And sure enough, Jeff found Snoopy in there.  And someone had been sleeping on MY blanket.  Long story short.  It's already been washed.  But sadly, it won't be dried before bedtime because I don't dry it in the dryer.  Oh, no, honey.  This precious blanket only gets dried in the sunshine.  But there's no sunshine today, so instead it's drying on the back of chairs.  I'll put it outside tomorrow to finish drying in the sun. 

I'm psycho, aren't I?

Till next time.

Feeling Dizzy

Yesterday I was out and about for a little while. I went to Target to pick up some birthday cards and while I was there I started feeling just a little dizzy. Nothing bad, just a little woozy.
I've started exercising at the gym and I think my equilibrium has been thrown off a bit. By last night, this is how things were looking to me.

I've found some articles on the internet about exercise causing vertigo and I really think that's what happened to me. I just hope it doesn't last. I've got my mind made up to start exercising and I sure don't need anything to interfere with it. Sigh.

Have any of y'all seen the Statue of Liberty hanging out in your neighborhoods? She's EVERYWHERE I go lately. What is it with the income tax people dressing up as Lady Liberty? I really don't think I'd trust a nut dressed up in that hideous costume, waving down traffic to prepare my taxes. Just me.

We watched American Idol last night. I didn't think the ATL auditions brought in as much good talent as Boston did. We were glued to the TV though because a girl that Cam goes to school with made it to Hollywood. They didn't show her audition, but they showed a small clip of her at the end getting off the elevator with her gold ticket. So cool. We know their family because Jeff coached their son for a couple of years. Good, good people. I hope she does well in Hollywood!

We didn't watch Idol last year and I felt left out. When people were talking about this person or that person, I had no clue who they were talking about. I'm gonna watch it this year. I think that Kara is beautiful!!!!! I could watch it just to get a peek at her. Such a pretty girl.

While we were watching last night, one of the many awful people were singing and Bandit howled. It was so funny. I guess even dogs know bad singers when they hear them.

Working a little at home today, as long as I can type without feeling dizzy. I've only made about 38,000 typos on this post so far. Please pray that it goes away and doesn't come back. I've made my mind up to exercise!!!!! And we all know that when A Girl Named Kelly Kelly makes her mind up about anything, look out!

Have a happy Thursday!

It Went Down Like This

Jeff and Cam have put together three puzzles since Christmas. It's a new hobby. You know, something to do when there's nothing else to do. There's been a lot of that going on around here.

We did get a little snow. Not enough to build even a dwarf-size snowman, but it was enough to close the schools. It wasn't enough to cancel my job in Lawrenceville. I would post a picture of the snow at our house, but the ones I took Thursday night when the "dusting" started aren't good. I wanted Jeff to make a picture Friday while I was gone (he worked from home), but even though he can write computer programs and install computer programs for Emory Healthcare, he's afraid of cameras. Not kidding. So therefore, I have no pictures from Friday's "dusting" of snow.

We had been below freezing for several days on end. That doesn't happen here. I have been reminded that that's why I continue to live here. I don't know how people in states where this type of weather is an everyday thing stand it. I have been bored out of my mind.

Friday night we went to LaParilla with one of my favorite brothers-in-law, Ronnie, and his awesomely fun wife, Nan. We actually got there early enough to get the senior citizen early-bird special. If they had one. Which they don't. But they were all so ready to get out and go somewhere, so we took off and got there about 5:30. That's early for us. Or it used to be. Saturday night the same four of us, plus our friend Missy went to Longhorn for supper. We got there at 5:00. And much to our surprise, it was P-A-C-K-E-D! I think everyone in town was going out that night and they all wanted the senior citizen early-bird special. But Longhorn doesn't have one either, so we just had yummy appetizers and the best cheeseburger ever.

After we ate, we went back to Ronnie and Nan's to play cards. We played Spades and I played the worst game I have ever played. The only one to play worse than me was Nan.

I didn't go to church yesterday. My mom and I go as a tag team and when one or the other of us doesn't go, the other tends to stay home. Mom's having some problems with her foot, so we didn't go. I missed it. I know it was warm and cozy and I'm sure I missed a blessing by not going.

Suz and the kids came down early in the day. She and I went to the mall for just a snitch of retail therapy. The highlight of the day came at the MAC counter. I love that makeup. I'm addicted to it actually.

I read in one of the beauty blogs that you shouldn't wear mascara on your lower lashes when you're over 40, that it makes you look tired. So I tried that out yesterday. Hmmmm. I don't think it worked very well as I seem to be asleep sitting straight up.

If you know Suz and me, you know that we like to goof off with the camera. You know, try modeling poses and smiles and all that sort of stuff. Look at Ethan looking at her in this picture.

I'm pretty sure he thought we had lost it.

Alayna apparently doesn't want me to be a cover girl, because she kept getting in the background of my pictures making faces! This was one of her better ones.

Suz was teaching me how to hold your neck and your mouth and your tongue and your shoulders to pose for a picture so you wouldn't look like you have five chins. It's a lot of stuff to remember to do before having your picture made, but I think it works. I tried it and I only have two chins in this picture.

I played Trouble with these three characters.

It's kinda funny how games that you loved as a child just don't seem to spark that same excitement they did when you were a kid. And believe it or not, I came in dead last. In Trouble. That's sad.

So that's how my weekend went down. It was definitely a fun one and I was sad for it to end. The temps got into the 40s today. I think we're looking at 50s by the end of the week. I don't know about you, but I'm bringing out my flip flops. Hooray!

Till next time!

Snow For Sale

Honestly, can we not even buy snow in Georgia?

We've endured several days of below freezing temps. The ground freezes. We get a slight chance of snow and what happens? The temperature creeps up to around 40. So what do we get? Nada. Nothing. Not even a "dusting".

I know I could move to another part of the country and get so much snow that I'd be sick of it after about a day. But I live here. Is it too much to ask for a little snow once a year? This was the perfect opportunity and might be the only one we get this winter. And it's gone. Poof.

I'm ill about it. I'm mad and I'm not listening to any more weather forecasts until Spring. In fact, I just might go take a dip in my frozen pool to cool down my frustration. Grrrrr.

Nothing Much to Say

Except brrrrrrrrrrr! I had to get out this morning pretty early -- well, 8 o'clock -- and let me just tell you. IT WAS COLD. I got in my car to heat it up and saw my Diet Coke I had yesterday from Chick-fil-A. I picked it up to throw it away and there was still ice in it. It had been in my car since lunchtime yesterday. No wonder my cat wants to stay inside. I don't think it's very warm in my garage.

Every morning I always look out the bathroom window and take a peek at the pool. This morning the water was covered with a thin layer of ice.

We're running the pump 24/7, so the water is constantly moving, but it's still freezing. I just thought it was so pretty, so I made these pictures to remember this crazy weather.

I've been working all day on a calendar I'm ordering from Shutterfly. I've gone through hundreds of pictures on my computer. It's been fun looking back over all the fun times I had last year. Sometimes you forget what a good life you have. It's good to be reminded sometimes.

Ross was supposed to work in Blairsville today, but the temperatures kept him from going. He was going to stay the night since it's a couple hours' drive from here. I think they've rescheduled it for next week. The cold doesn't bother him too much. I'll never forget when we went skiing when he was 15. He walked right through the ski lodge wearing shorts.

Not much else going on around here. Jeff and I are going out to supper tonight. He's got a $75 gift card to P.F. Chang that he's had over a year. We're going to go there and finally use it. For $75 we ought to be able to get one of everything on the menu.

Cross your fingers, your toes and your eyes that we get at least a LITTLE snow. It sure does make pretty pictures.

Till next time.

When It's Cold in Georgia

You leave your nice warm house to go out at 9 o'clock in the freezing temperatures to get some of this.

Because you don't want her to have to hold her natural body functions. Or worse yet, to relieve herself in the house.

But this one here, you take her out and it still takes her 5 minutes to find just the perfect spot.

And it's always the spot she sniffed out first.

It's still too cold for us to let Smokey (the cat) outside. She's perfectly content to ball up in her towel in our laundry room/half bath. I'm not kidding, as soon as you open the door, you can her hear purring. So sweet. She'll be 16 in March or April. That's old for a kitty cat.

I'm not sure she knows what that litter box is for because she hasn't used it yet. I went down in the basement last night and found a big aluminum pan, bought some litter pan liners and some kitty litter. I hope she'll figure it out. Yesterday and the day before when we let her outside to go potty, she showed us. She pooped right in the middle of the garage. She wasn't about to go outside in the frigid weather. Smart cat; she takes good care of herself. I guess that's why she's so old.

Yesterday in the midst of my boredom, I went to the mall. It was the first time I had been since right before Christmas. And you know what I decided? I haven't missed it in the least. In fact, I couldn't wait to get in my car and go home.

What's the deal with the sales clerks? Most of them act ( hopefully, it's an act) like they're stupid. And most of them are rude as can be and clearly hate their job. I wish I never had to set foot in another mall again. But since I love to shop, that ain't happening. It just wasn't fun yesterday. Although I will say that there are lots of good deals out there. If you can handle the sales clerks acting stupid and being rude. Maybe they were cold, but I doubt that as it was 999 degrees in the stores.

And speaking of work, I'm back at it today. I'm working at 2 this afternoon in Decatur. It's the first time I've gone out for a job since the 21st of December. I hope I'm not too rusty. I'm going to go through all my equipment and change the batteries in everything and reacquaint myself. When I haven't worked in a while, I get as nervous as if it was my first depo. Hopefully, it won't be a stressful one. I'm not in the mood. And I hope I don't act stupid or be rude.

I think I'll make baked potato soup for supper tonight. I'll share the recipe later. It's one Nan gave me and it's sooo good. I add a little of this and that to it, so tonight when I make it I'll jot it down. Hopefully, it won't be like the spaghetti I was going to make last week. You remember, when the closest I got to actually cooking it was getting the jar of sauce out of the pantry. BTW, I actually did make it last night and it was very good.

Okay. Keeping it real here. Do any of you feel like the whole world wants you to feel bad about yourself and go on a diet? Seriously. Half of the commercials are about weight loss. Most magazine covers are about diets and stuff. I mean, I think it's awful. Especially because we all know that January is a depressing month anyway and there's not much else to do except watch TV, so they have the perfect opportunity to ram it down your throat and make you feel bad. I'm of the opinion that if I want to lose weight, I sure don't need 50 commercials an hour reminding me. I just think it's kinda sad. Not that I think we should just sit around and watch TV and eat DingDongs all night. I just don't believe in pouring salt in an open wound, you know. We're only human and we shouldn't try to take on everything at once. Right now we're dealing with the cold and being stuck inside, the letdown from all the fun of the holidays and everywhere we look, we're reminded that we need to lose weight. Ugh. And truly it's just about too cold to go outside and do any exercise. Jeff jogs several times a week. He went out yesterday afternoon and it was so cold he had to cut his jog way short, which he never ever does.

Okay. Off my soapbox. I'm really not in a bad mood, but you'd never know it from this post, huh? Sorry.

Till next time. Stay warm, be happy and Live, Love and Laugh!

Sunday

The first Sunday Night Supper of 2010 isn't going exactly as I would like. We didn't get together at my mom and dad's like we usually do. My dad isn't feeling well, so mom didn't cook. Instead I'm having one of these.

It's super cold here. Cold for Georgia. Very, very cold. The top of the pool has a think layer of ice on it. I don't remember that ever happening before. We're running the pump overnight, but now we're going to have to run it all day until this cold snap is over. We may even actually get some snow at the end of the week. I hate to mention it, because I don't want to jinx it. We rarely get snow, so it's a really big treat.

Jeff made a fire tonight. So we're by the fire watching a movie.

After I saw this picture, I made a mental note to myself to clean the glass tomorrow.

Bandit is balled up in her bed by the fireplace. She is one lazy dog.

The only time she has gotten up today is when the heat comes on. She'll get out of her bed and go sit by the heat vent. Smart dog. We've even brought Smokey inside. She is an outdoor cat because three of the four of us are allergic to her. Her favorite place to go is in Cam's room, on his bed, right by the heat vent. Not so good since Cam's one of the ones allergic to her. She's loving life right now.

Stay warm and keep your fingers crossed for snow! If it has to be wintertime, then I want snow!

Till next time.

Seven Out of Twelve

We had a great time at the Spades party last night. Jeff and I placed seventh out of twelve couples. Not so good. I was doing really well in the beginning. Toward the end of the night, I just lost concentration. The way we play is the first and last games are with your spouse. The other four are with different people. Sometimes men can get so competitive. I always worry that the guy that is my partner will be one of THOSE kind of men. You know THE kind. They HATE to lose. They HATE it when you lay down the wrong card. They give you THE LOOK that says what the crap are you doing.

Well, thankfully, I didn't have a partner like that the entire night. That is until the last game when I was paired with my LOVING HUSBAND. Jinkers. I honestly don't know how the coaches he works with in football do it. One wrong move and you fall from grace. That boy DOES NOT like to lose. Not even a little bit.

Everyone brought finger foods. There was SO much food. Too much really. In between games I kept finding a reason to go back here.



One of the best things there was a dip called Beer Dip. Have any of you ever made it? One sample and I was hooked. I'll put the recipe at the end of the post. Next time you need something for a party or something -- or heck, maybe just to make you feel better on a bad day, try it. It was very, very good and sounds so easy too.

Every time I try to sneak and make Jeff's picture, he always sees me. Every single time. Last night I had the perfect opportunity and snapped a picture of him without him seeing me. But as fate would have it, look how it turned out.

So as the clock struck 12, we all had a glass of champagne. I only took a sip of mine. I can't stand the stuff. Look at this picture I made of the two of us. Please tell me that when you make your own picture, it adds about three extra chins. Okay. Thanks. Plus we were smushed together on the sofa.

How can something so pretty to look at taste so bad? I don't think I could ever acquire a taste for it. Doubt I'll ever need to.

Today's a big food day for sure. Going to Ed and Jean's for lunch. She'll cook blackeyed peas, cabbage, pork, cornbread, mac cheese and no doubt a dessert. Then I plan to come home and have a nap. I didn't go to bed until 2:30 this morning and then I fell awake at 8. That's not enough sleep for A Girl Named Kelly Kelly.

Tonight my mom cooks her New Year's Day supper. She'll cook peas, collard greens, pork or meatloaf, cornbread, mac cheese and a dessert. Are you sensing a trend here? I'm gonna load up on the blackeyed peas for good luck. I'm gonna eat tons of greens for wealth in the New Year. Who knows, maybe I will need to acquire a taste for the bubbly after all.

Till next time. Eat your peas and greens!! It sure can't hurt!

CHEESE BEER DIP

2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 can beer or nonalcoholic beer
1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
Pretzels

Directions
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, beer and dressing mix until smooth. Stir in cheese. Serve with pretzels. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 3-1/2 cups.

ENJOY THE COMPLIMENTS. I PROMISE THEY WILL COME!