Monday, January 31, 2011

My Old Folk's Home Wishes

Tim and I have been talking about our living will and our final wishes,
(How DEPRESSING is that???) and so, I've been thinking about when the time comes for us to be in a "home." (More depressing!) I have decided that when my time comes, I want to go wherever Jo, Nancy, Jackie or Theresa are. (Don't worry. I will pack up Tim and move him with me if he is still around. Hey, he's 9 years older than me! Just being realistic....) They are my "4 friends." I have 1,237 acquaintances, but only 4 real friends. I used to say I only had 3 friends, but I picked one more up along the way. I am blessed. They are the ones that will bail me out of jail with no questions asked. (A couple of them might actually be in the pen with me. lol)
So, here it is girls...

My Final Old Folk's Home Wishes:

1. I love bingo. More than likely I will be stone deaf by then, but take me to bingo anyway and help me if I can not hear the numbers being called. Do not yell the numbers in my ear. Instead just point your crooked arthritic finger to the number I need to place my oyster cracker on. Do not eat my crackers.

2. Do not let me grow any wild and crazy facial or neck hair. When you see my mustache getting long enough to braid, help me apply the case of Nair, my son Landon will have hidden in my closet for me. Do this for me and I will share my Nair with you. Don't be in denial. If I need it, chances are pretty good you will too.

3. My Grandma had Alzheimer in her last years. I probably will too. Do not let any of the men in the home take advantage of me. (Unless Tim has passed on and they are really cute!)

4. Paint my nails. I know I never wear polish now, but by then my nails will probably have oyster crackers or nair under them and I don't want to have to look at it. I don't want anyone else to have to look at it either. Once again do this for me and I'll return the favor. Hopefully we won't have the shakes too bad.
Use pink. I like pink.

5. Make sure the nurses always put my bra on. I don't want my girls getting caught in my wheel chair spokes.

6. And last but not least, promise me we will never let the fun end. Let's raid the kitchen fridge at midnight, paint the men's faces with lipstick and blush when they are sleeping, put bubble bath in the hot tub, have wheel chair races in the halls, and sip on Bailey's and coffee during church. (Hey, something's got to keep us awake! I'll have Landon hide the Bailey's with the Nair.) Feel free to give me a list of your wishes too. I will do my best to honor them. But, if I'm found sitting in the hallway with my girls stuck in the spokes and oyster crackers under my bare nails and in my mustache, then ya'll are probably sitting beside me in the same boat.
But, at least we will be together. Friends to the end!

Friday, January 28, 2011

My New Glasses!


This is John Conroy, my Optometrist.
Conroy Eye Care
1011 Broadway, Wheaton, Mn
#320-563-4610



These are my new glasses.
JUST KIDDING!!!
Thanks for being such a good sport, John.
It was the highlight of my day!


Giddy Up Cowboy!

Today is Cowboy day at Landon's school!


Belly on up to the breakfast bar, cowboy!


Yee doggie! Them vittles there are ah mighty tasty!



Well butter my biscuit and call me happy.




Thursday, January 27, 2011

Heat Wave!

After weeks and weeks of being cooped up inside the house,
we finally got a 40 degree day!!
It felt like a heat wave!!!
Kings of the hill!

Snow Queens!!!

Happy Camper!

Landon found a huge chunk of ice!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Lights, Camera, Action!

I am so excited! Kitty called me today and I am going to be in the church play again. I have been fortunate enough to have been in five of them so far, and loved every minute of it. (I think I missed two of them.) My parts have included, Cosmetic Sales Lady, Nurse, Little School Girl, and Southern Bell. (Twice!) This year's play is a Ganster play. Kinda funny, as that is what I was for Halloween! Can't wait to see what part they give me. I'll keep you posted with the ticket details and time. And....that's a wrap!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

I Gotta Be Me


"Be who you are and say what you feel,
because those who mind don't matter,
 and those who matter don't mind."
- Dr. Seuss



Sunday, January 23, 2011

Our Town Is Blessed

Sometimes when you live in a small town it can be a little frustrating. Lots of little things. Living far away from everything, makes traveling in the winter difficult. We miss out on many events. Jobs are limited. Wal-mart is miles away. (O.k. that's just one of my own frustrations. Everyone else is probably fine with it.) Living so close to one another year after year, makes your personal lives open to everyone. Sometimes people get your story right, sometimes they don't. Frustrating. However, living in a small town also has its perks! When Tim and I were asked to help with a benefit for a friend, We said, "You bet!" There were many others involved in helping and it all came together quite nicely. In a big town when a benefit is thrown, that person's family and friends show up. The rest of the people in that big town haven't a clue who the person is, so more than likely they don't bother to contribute. In a small town, the whole community knows who you are. Everyone knows your name. They show up. The community comes together to gently blow the wind back into the sails off those whose sails have fallen. I love living here in our small town.
Yes, I do believe our town is blessed.

Friday, January 21, 2011

No Kissin' In Public

Landon is at the age where I am no longer allowed to express any signs of physical affection towards him in public. No kissin'. No huggin'. If I have a moment of forgetfulness, and try to hug or kiss him when we are out and about, he quickly and sternly tells me, "Mom! Knock it off! You're embarrassing me!" Hmmm....I'm embarrassing him? How many times has he embarrassed me? I can't even begin to count the incidents. How about the time that my Daycare food program lady came to visit? Landon was about three years old and as she sat down, I offered her a cup of coffee. She politely declined. So Landon said to her, "Well, how 'bout a beer?" (She declined that too!) Then there was the time when he was two, that he decided to stick a dozen panty liners on his bedroom window, which just happens to be on the front of our house! I told him he could not play with them, because they belonged to "mom." He cried and cried and told me how mean I was to hog all the BIG stickers! (There is just no explaining that at two.) I don't think we are even close to being even in the embarassment department. But, even though it breaks my heart, I go along and respect his wishes. I try really hard to stay cool and not embarrass him. I'm doing a pretty good job too, but I am sure that when he is older and starts bringing home cute, little hotties, I will once again embarrass him. Actually... I take that back. It won't be me who embarrasses him then.
That will be his dad.
Sorry Landon. Everyone gets a turn.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Puff The Magic Dragon

I was doing a little research on dragons for a friend of mine, (It's a long story.) and I came across this link of a video of Peter, Paul and Mary singing, "Puff The Magic Dragon." There is a lot of controversy regarding the true meaning of this song. Being a "child" of the 60's, to me it was simply a wonderful, magical song about a magic dragon named, Puff. (It wasn't until I was a teen, that I understood what they were really talking about.) I hadn't heard it in years, and yes the tears were flowing. If the song has any special meaning to you, you may want to grab a tissue before viewing. The first link is Peter, Paul and Mary singing "Puff" from 1966. The second link takes you ahead many years later. (Sadly, Mary passed away in 2009, after a successful recovery from leukemia through a bone marrow/stem cell transplant. She succumbed to the side effects of one of the chemotherapy treatments.)
Thank you Tara for asking me about Dragons.
It lead me to a long forgotten, but oh, so magical, happy place in my childhood.
Thanks for the ride down memory lane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wik2uc69WbU&feature=related



Monday, January 17, 2011

My Girl



Simplifying My Life

Yesterday I had a couch day. This is something I rarely do. But my house was clean, the laundry was done, Landon was playing at a friend's house and Tim was glued to the T.V. upstairs. So, I plopped myself down on the couch and watched several back to back episodes of Horders, Buried Alive. Now I gotta tell ya, this show is disturbing! Yet, I couldn't stop watching. I realize that hording (Not being able to throw away anything. Ever.) is a very serious mental illness. I realize that the people living in those homes, in those conditions aren't capable of simply cleaning their houses. It's so much deeper than that. The hording is replacing a void in their lives. I can relate. Sort of. A few years ago, I had a "HUGE" shopping addiction. I would shop til' I dropped and fill the car to the top. It was like blind shopping. There was no rhyme or reason. Just buy it. Of course this insane shopping was because there was a void somewhere in my life, just like the horders. Shopping was doing a poor job of filling it. But when Landon was born, that void was pretty much filled. I no longer had the need or desire to shop to the ends of the earth. I still love shopping and love nothing better than a good deal, but I no longer need to buy anything and everything simply because it's "on sale." I will always love shopping. I am a woman, and like most women, I was born with the shopping gene. Can't help that. But now, I only buy things I truly need or love. I can shop with my eyes open now. I can see much more clearly. It's now a "little" addiction. If there is such a thing. So, what did I do with all my "stuff?" I gave it away. Car loads. To The Boys Ranch, Good Will, Thrift Shops, Family and Friends. It didn't happen overnight either. It took years, and I'm still not done! My goal is to totally simplify my life and home. Getting rid of all the clutter and baggage. Both material and emotional. (They play off of each other.) I want to be able to open any closet, any cupboard and only have things that I use or love dearly. So, I weed. I weed through everything over and over. I go through the same boxes, cupboards and closets over and over. Each time I toss a little more. What I think I can't live without one month, I find I can live without the next. So, I keep weeding. It is a wonderful feeling to let go. To let go of all the "stuff" that was weighing me down. I admit it was a little hard parting with all my "stuff" in the beginning of my "simplifying" project. I felt a lot like the horders who want to keep the dirty paper plates because they might need them someday. But once I got over that hurdle, it was actually very liberating. My next goal is to help Tim simplify his garage. I'm just waiting for him to go out of town for a day or two.
Anybody want to take him somewhere?

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Thank You

Work It, Girl!

About once a month, I make a shopping trip to Fargo. Mostly for groceries. Between the DC kids, my family, and our cats and dogs, I have 19 mouths to feed! So, I load up 1,233 grocery carts or so and make Walmart very happy. (They really should give me some stock. I know I am one of their best customers!) I decided to make a trip yesterday. The cupboards were bare and Mother Hubbard needed to get out of the house! I had been doing some research on exercise DVD's. If you google it, only 10,600,000 results pop up. Only. That's a real number folks. Go ahead. Google it.
It was mind boggling! They had everything from Richard Simmons to the P90X Extreme Workout. (I have to admit I still have a few of my old Richard Videos.
I can't help it. I love him!) The P90X comes with 13 DVDS! I was looking at it, but I know me and probably wouldn't be able to get through even one of them. I'd end up using them as sliders to move my furniture or something. What I was really looking for was something to show me how to correctly use those rediculous 3 pound hand weights I have. (I really think they weigh more than 3 pounds and are just labeled wrong. Seriously. They are heavy!) So, when I entered Walmart and found the first aisle I came to held nothing but workout items and DVD's, I took it as a sign to stop and linger. (Walmart is taking it as a $$ sign and counting on everyone to have the same New Years Resolution!) After about an hour of browsing and reading and muttering, "No way!" many times, I finally walked away with a $9 Denise Austin Pilates DVD in my cart. She comes with 3 "simple" (according to her!) workouts
that "could" trim and slim my entire body in as quickly as 21 days!
(I'm in no hurry though, so it might be more like 221 days.) If I can get through even 1 of those 3 "simple" workouts, then I will have gotten my money's worth.
I saw a cool  plate at Gordman's yesterday too. It's going to be my inspiration.
It had the following saying painted on it:
"Don't ask God to make your life easier.
Ask Him to help make you a stronger person."
Well, here I go again. It's me, God. I need your help...

Friday, January 7, 2011

Snowy Days Of Winter


Hey, Tim! I found the shovel!
Last week we had a ton of snow dumped on us.
Tim was headed out that morning, to blow snow before
the DC kids arrived and discovered that the snow blower was broke.
Not a good time to discover that.


Tim made a little path so the kids and the mailman
 could at least get to the front door.


Somewhere out there is our driveway...


Thank goodness our neighbor Dean, owns a Kabota!
He was kind enough to help us out.
Thank you Dean!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Read The Top Line, Please

I went to the court house a few days ago to renew my driver's license. I was actually looking forward to it a little bit, because I really don't like the picture on my current one. It's more of a mug shot than a picture. They never give you enoiugh time to smile! Really. What would a few more seconds hurt? (I'll know in a few weeks if I needed those few extra seconds or not.) Anyway, a few years ago, I started wearing glasses while driving. I don't like to wear glasses. I love being able to see, but I just don't like wearing glasses. I feel like I should be knitting or something when I am wearing glasses. O.k., got off track here a little bit. Anyway,  I started wearing glasses while driving because I was doing two or three purse parties a week, (Those were the days!) and driving all over Egypt. I was having a little trouble reading the 5,345 little white words on 2,223 little green signs. (Once again, what would it hurt to make the signs a little bigger? Tiny little effort = Big results!) We also had that little scare when Tim was driving and I screamed at him to
 "Watch out for the cow!" giving him a near heart attack and also making him a wee little bit mad. Turned out my "cow" was just a hay bale on the side of the road. (Whatever. Nobody's perfect.) Then there was the time I accidently used the men's room at Walmart. (Or maybe it was Menards? Anyway, it was an honest mistake! Plus it was more of a "senior" moment then a "glasses" moment.) After Tim informed me, (Me and the other 1,333 Walmart customers within hearing distance!) in a booming megaphone voice, the 2,142 reasons why I needed to wear my glasses, I decided I would just started keeping them in my purse, where they would always be handy. So, when the DMV lady at the court house told me to, "Read the top line, please,"  I reached into my purse, put on my glasses and read the top line. She looked at me, then looked at my paperwork, then back at me and said, "Ohhhh... you're wearing glasses now. Can you read the top line without them?" I wasn't really sure. I took off my glasses and tried again. Nope. I could not. I knew what the letters were because I had just read them, but I was honest and fessed up. She then said,
"Oooo.Kkkk... We're gonna have to put that on your license."
Great. So, now my license is going to read:
"Make sure the old lady driving is wearing her glasses."
Nobody likes a tattle-tale. Really.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Laughter Is The Best Medicine!

My friend Tara, sent me a real cute email of real kitties dancing
to Chubby Checker's, "Twist Again!"



I shared it with my dc kids, and they laughed and laughed!
They screamed, "Play it again!" over and over...
So, I did. Over and over.
Nothing like a good belly laugh first thing Monday morning.
Thanks Tara!!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Carrie and Tami

Tim and I were at a New Years Day get together,
when I noticed Carrie and Tami had the same necklaces on!
I think Carrie's hat adds a nice touch too!

They represent faith and love and how they intertwine.
Neat!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Jackpot!


Landon came running in the house yesterday, with this huge icicle.
He exclaimed, "I did it! I hit the jackpot!"
He had been trying for a long time to knock one off of the garage,
 hoping it would land in one piece, but they kept breaking.
This one didn't.
Jackpot!
I hope the rest of our year is filled with
 many, many more jackpots!