WoooHoooo!!!

I'm back on-line. I actually was able to follow Bro's instructions and hook up to my Cuz's computer. And it worked! Tomorrow I'll be out with my camera if I can find which box it's in and take some photos so you can see the place and meet the critters, at least the ones that live here. Spud is a Jack Russell and he is in hog heaven. My Cuz says he thinks he has his own harem even though he and the girls all are 'fixed' they run around and check out all the trees and leaves and SueSue and he play chase some until the Spud gets too rambunctious as Jack Russell terriers tend to get and then she just ducks because he is jumpin' over her and around her. They all three like being around each other and Spud comes in and gets in bed with me and the girls and sometimes he and Suess nap on my bed. We both have decided that he's glad for short legged critters being around. Lucky is the outdoor dog. He has a short weak front leg that he can use somewhat and he is such a sweet dog. My cousin's late husband came carryin' him. He had found him and brought him home as a pup and thus the name Lucky.

It is so nice to get up in the morning and look out the window and see the cows grazing out in the pasture or just to go out and feel the sun on my face and the breeze through my hair and to know this peace inside again. And to know that my world is starting to level out and I love my Cuz all the more for opening her home to me. Her son came by the first day I was here and helped me unload my truck and told me he was glad that I was here. He was thinking it will be good for his momma to not be here by herself. I told him that I was the fortunate one to have a close enough relationship with her and was looking forward to be able to visit and get to know him and his sister and her three girls better. I'll be going to basketball games to help Granny yell for the granddaughters and Cuz and I are looking forward to taking the metal detector out to several places around the land they own that were old homesteads and her youngest granddaughter is faunching at the bit to go out hunting with Granny (my Cuz) and Helen looking for treasure. When she saw the metal detector Wednesday evening she wanted to go looking right then... I told her it was getting pretty cool and it was dark so not tonight... She said, "Granny has a big flashlight in her closet!" She sure made it difficult to not go right then but I told her we needed to wait until Saturday.

This is going to be such fun but I have to say that I already have my treasure. I have family that loves and wants me to be around and to be happy and peaceful.

I have the greatest Christmas gift that I could ever have been given.

ANNOUNCEMENT------

As of Wednesday, I'll be out of my home. I'm going to stay with my Cuz for a few days and I'll have to figure out how to do a network thing to be able to get on line when she is on line so my posts may be spotty for a while... Just look at it as me and the furbabies are off on another adventure.

I probably won't be reading and visiting as much until we get bugs worked out since neither she or I are rocket scientists when it comes to computers.

Bear with me during this change and I will be back on line as soon as I can and back to visiting and yakking with you all.

I love each and every one of my blogging friends and I will be back with you soon. I still have to do my favorite Christmas post.

Helen

It Takes Attitude…

I was going to write about my favorite Christmas but ran across this photo and it changed my mind… because it made me smile and I wanted to share this story with you all.

This is my baby brother. Mom told Walter (Bro) to take Bennett to the barber shop and get him a haircut so he would look nice for his birthday.

Walter told the barber to give Ben a mohawk.  I don’t know if Ben told Bro he wanted one or if Bro just told the barber to give him a mohawk.   But this is how Bro and Ben walked home.  Mom about stroked out.  But, dang, he was so cute that she forgave Walter.

What’s not to love with a kid with a mohawk and a BIG teddy bear? Check out the boots, too.

Then I got in on the action… our sis, Sue, had a glorious array of neck scarves that were the rage in the early Fifties.  Ben and I decided that he had a mohawk so he ought to be dressed up like an Indian and who better to help him than moi? If you click the pic you can see our sister standing behind the chair.  She was so mad at us for getting in her stuff,  but she still had a bit of a smile trying to peek out.

Now you may ask, “What’s the deal with it taking attitude?”  Bro and I were talking about it when we were looking at these as he was scanning these photos and he’s the one that said, “You know it takes attitude to wear a mohawk.”  And this was the particular photo that brought about that comment:

The boy had the stuff to pull it off.  Check out the suit coat and the jive attitude. Ben, Bro and I still love this photo and as far as we are concerned even now with you being 61 you could still pull off a mohawk.  You still have what it takes.

Love you, Baby Bro, and I’ll see you and all your family  for Christmas.

Yes, Babies, The Grinch Did Steal Christmas…

 

 

Chloe, my most precious darlin’, I will make sure that there is a little something in your stocking no matter where we are living.

And SueSue, my little blond ding-a-ling, you can bet there will be a new ball in your stocking.  Mom wouldn’t ever leave you out. 

But I promise that the best thing, the most important thing about Christmas is that we will be together, wherever we find to live.

And that is the most important thing in the world.  Being with those you love and those who love you.

Schnauzer Sandwich...

I have these two silly, lovable furbabies that like to be touching mom especially at bedtime. They move around sometimes but generally this is how we three end up in the bed.


I just happened to be sitting up reading and looked down and said, "Self... you've got to figure out how to slip out from between these two and reach the camera and document this because people are gonna say no way that they can get this close".






"SueSue's on the left of me, Chloe's on the right, here I am stuck in the middle of you...


My skin is so white except for my farmer's tan that if I dared to expose my midsection it would bring to mind a double stuffed Oreo but I don't want to take a chance on running anyone off screaming into the night.

When we first go play golf in the spring after the winter in long pants my baby brother tells me he's seen darker legs in the chicken section at Winn-Dixie, a grocery chain in Ft. Worth. I guess if I were smartI'd go to the tanning booth before spring but not being a very good golfer I need all the help I can get and I figure if the sun hits my legs just right it will blind whoever I'm playing with and I can maybe pick up a stroke or two.

But that wasn't what I had planned on sharing with you all this evening. Only how nice it is when the weather gets cold to have my own little heaters keeping me warm at night.







Chloe on the right all snugged up warming mom and yet watching over me, thus the butt towards me (she does not get a treat of beans) and the head looking toward the foot of the bed so she can protect me in case anyone tries to creep into my bed (fat chance).








And my darling, dingy, blonde (despite the fact that she's silver)
Suess on the left giving mom all the warm loving I can handle so that maybe when we get up and around tomorrow I'll play ball with her even though it will be ass-freezing cold...
She will talk me into it a time or two during the day and Chloe will just look at us like we've both lost our minds unless there is snow on the ground. If there is snow on the ground, Chloe will buck and cavort like a pup and bite the snow and Suess will bite the snow and chase balls in it and think it is a real treat. And Mom will just shake her head and laugh at them both.

Now you know what a truly exciting life I live, butt to butt to butt...

Ain't love just awesome!

The Finished Job…

My baby brother sent me these photos… He came in from his shift at Fast Track at the hospital where he works about 11 p.m. on last Wednesday night, heard the ruckus and knew what was happening.   He managed to snap a shot of yours truly doing one of the things I most love to do… DEMOLITION.   I had my hammer drill with the chisel bit and I was gettin’ it done.  He knows how much I love my power tools.  And while a lot of times when I’m really concentrating on what I’m doing I might stick my tongue out of the corner of my mouth,  ala Michael Jordan, I do NOT do it when using my hammer drill because the dust is gritty and tastes nasty.  Anyway, after he did the caulking around the firebox he was kind enough to send me a photo of the finished project.

By the way… that is mostly my t-shirt hanging down, not my belly… 

But here is the finished project and it was done and dry for them to entertain probably about 30 family members for Thanksgiving today.

And they were thankful for so very many things, but one of them I know for sure is that I ran down and helped bust out the old tile that they had been wanting to change out for several years and then helping get it all back together in time for Thanksgiving.

And it’s good to know that there are folks in this world that are thankful for me… at least once in a while.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with many blessings.  I know that despite everything else in my life I have many more blessings than woes and all of you that stop by and visit and have become my friends through this blogging world are right up there after my family, and once in a while, before them…

Want To Get A Project Done?

Start it less than a week before Thanksgiving when a whole mess of family is coming to your home to share the blessings in their life and a lot of food. I took off last Wednesday and headed south for a visit and to get away from the stress of all that has been going on around here.

This is what the fireplace looked like when I got to Ft. Worth Wednesday evening. In less that 2 hours (we had to go stuff our faces first) Diane, my sis-in-law started doing this:

Give her a hammer and chisel and she is the demolition princess.

Hearth is done for…

I had to bust my hump to keep up with her. Of course I did have to stop and take photos along to record the process for posterity (and a break).

Round and round she goes… and the surround is down.

Cleaning up the excess mortar…

Blowing off the smoke after putting the hurt on the mortar.

Miss Molly is overseeing the job to be sure there is no corner cutting. This was the end of evening one except for the sweeping up and washing down.

Day 2: Sheetrock is cut and installed. This job fell to my brother and me.

The tiles are cut first so Ben and I can run right through mortaring them and getting them up, so we could sit in the floor and get the surround tiled without having to get up and down. He’s been down in his back and I’ve just been down.

Here it is… taped and spaced to make sure it stays in place while it sits up overnight. Thus ends Day two.

Ben had to work on Saturday so it fell to Diane and me to do the grouting and clean-up and I was so whipped out I forgot to take photos but I’ll get baby Bro to send me photos so you can see the finished project.

Molly giving it the critical eye and her blessing for a job well done.

Yeah, some work was involved but it was exactly what I needed to do to get myself leveled out. When I can lose myself in a project I don’t dwell on the things that are not right in my life and when I’m worked to ‘rode hard and put up wet’ I sleep great and everything looks better in the morning.

This is the way that I get my perspective back and start getting healed from a horribly inconsiderate fracas. Now I can start planning to start over next month.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and even with what all has gone down in my house I still have so much to be thankful for in my life. I’ve got my furbabies, I have wonderful sibs and I’m not afraid to start over again.