Woodsy's Whatnots

The BIG Texas Tour

2011-05-28T09:13:00.005-04:00

I kind of made a promise to my post 40 year old self...that I would take a trip JUST FOR ME every year. These trips would be a way to recharge the hopes and dreams. A way to keep the real me going so that I can be the best ME possible for my family. Like the flight attendant always says, "put on your own air mask first before helping those around you." Last year I went to China and that was amazing. This year, I went to Texas and let me assure you, it was equally amazing.

It started during a phone conversation with my most awesomest author girlfriend, Lisa Wingate. I let her know that my dream trip for the year involved staying at her house and having her pick me up at the airport. Now, you kind of need to know an author as a friend before you go purchasing your plane ticket for a trip like this because otherwise, you might not get picked up at the airport.

The trip was wonderful. I keep saying it was like a Fantasy Island type thing only in that show, there was always kind of a dark side to the person's fantasy experience. Let me assure you, there were no dark sides here. I got to meet some of the people who have inspired some of the characters in my favorite books. I got to walk around towns where the fictional towns were based. It was like being dropped right into my FAVORITE books. It was beyond cool!

Lisa made me get out of the car and pose for the picture above...I can't imagine why.

I do so LOVE George. It was an honor to be at an arena where he had performed a time or two. This was at the Stockyards in Fort Worth.

Not that I'm a fan of grits, because I'm not, but you can get them in any flavor down here!

Lisa and I discovered as two girls with three cameras, we can spend a LOT of time looking at old buildings.

This was from a book signing in Menard, Texas. What a thrill it was to be there.

Downtown Menard. Hopping place after 5 pm, let me tell you.

So even though we said we'd work, we never really did. We saw a lot of neat things and took a ton of pictures! (Okay so I took a ton and Lisa took a 1/4 of a ton.)

On the list of MUST DOs while on the BIG Texas Tour was to ride a horse. As a kid growing up on a postage stamp sized lot in the middle of blue collar Detroit suburban sprawl, I NEVER rode a horse. Never even saw one up close until I moved out here to the woods. So I really thought that I simply NEEDED to get on a horse.
Proper attire was a must of course!
Turns out I'm pretty darn good. Okay, so the horse might just be the kind of horse that anyone can ride, but LOOK...I'm up there and I'm the one leading the horse around. (Yeah, the horse kind of went where he wanted to go. I may have been just along for the ride.)

So it was a pretty sad day when I had to go back to the airport to go home. Kind of a necessity though as neither of us got any actual work done while I was there. Oh wait, we did sell some books at a couple of book signings...that counts right?

And then leave it to me to end my BIG Texas Tour by meeting up with ELVIS and a Vegas Showgirl at the airport! It was Cinco de Mayo and the flight at the next gate was heading to Vegas. Not real sure how all that fits together but hey, who cares? It made for a huge ending to the trip...and a do mean huge...just look at that HAIR!
BTW---the paper person I am holding is my Dedicated Digital Elite Team member, Mars, from Digital Scrapbook Place. She was assigned to me, a senior designer at DSP, for the month of May. What was I going to do? I HAD to take her with me. Worked out well since she loves Elvis.

So I have to start thinking about next year's BIG Adventure. Any ideas????

Southern Belle View

2011-01-13T08:52:00.003-05:00

There is a brand new blog that I'm following. It's called Southern Belle View. It's written by five delightful southern authors and is all about Southern Fiction, Faith, Food and Fun.

I must say that right now as the winter drags on and snow is a regular thing, I am really enjoying my daily escape to the south through this blog. I can almost feel myself becoming "Southern". I wonder how long before I ask for some Sweet Tea?

Luann 25 years

2010-11-29T10:17:00.002-05:00

Anybody need any good gift ideas for me??? Here's one.

It's a new book by Greg Evans, the cartoonist behind the lovable Luann. It looks like a good one!! Find out more info here.

Reality Show

2010-09-04T08:28:00.004-04:00

I spent yesterday afternoon negotiating a deal on a new cell phone that was to be bundled in with my existing home phone and internet account. The guy from AT&T tried to get me to add cable to the package for "an even better deal". How is cable ever a deal? We gave up cable television in 1997. I will admit, it was HARD. I missed it for like ten years. But now I can't ever imagine sitting in front of the TV the same way I did.

I guess for me really, there isn't a darn thing on cable TV of any value. I used to LOVE to watch the home shows and the decorating shows. Now they just remind me of all of the projects I started because those shows made it look so easy. Who has time to watch the shows? I have hundreds of home dec type projects to finish.

Most of the shows on cable now seem to be "Reality Based Shows." I don't need to watch them to know what's going on because the drama plays out in the way-over-dramatized internet news sources that I do pick up through the internet on a regular basis. Besides, I tend to live my own reality show and it's pretty zany on it's own. My reality show involves a lippy 12 year old, a neurotic singing dog, a diverse collection of girlfriends, aging parents, and a husband who currently is obsessed with big, ugly, vintage cars. This past year even had world travel as I schlepped around China with Bus Stop Jeni and Rebecca. Admit it, that is all worthy of a reality show.

So if I had a reality show, this is how I would look everyday. LOL This took a professional DIVA girlfriend, a couple of glasses of champagne and a few HOURS to get me to look like this!

So in my reality show, I would take my son to the bus stop looking like this instead of in my pj's like I normally do. After he got on the bus, I would go shopping with money that I don't have at...wait, I live in the sticks, it would take me two hours to get anywhere worthy of reality show shopping. Okay so I would drive two hours to buy stuff I don't need just so that I could have my ever present paparazzi snap off a picture of me looking this incredibly FABULOUS while weighted down with shopping bags of clothing that I will only wear to the bus stop.

In my reality show, I will simply HAVE to have a maid and a cook because I will NOT have time for all of that utter nonsense. So I will come home from shopping simply exhausted and complain to my cook about what he is making for dinner. It would have to be a he. That's what would add intrigue to the show don't ya know.

And since we're talking intrigue coupled with the fact that I just look so incredible marvelous, I would have my physical therapy on my shoulder everyday with the PT dude coming to the house. He's cute, so we could keep the one I got...for ratings sake. There is no way the show would work to film my PT at the place I go to now...too many old people. They are funny as hell but they are not glamorous.

In the show, the writers would come up with some incredibly fascinating reason for the need for PT other than the fact that I have arthritis and over used my shoulder helping my mother in the hospital and then taking on several HGTV type projects around my home before heading off on a Discovery channel type trip out west in a vintage motorhome. Come to think of it...that might just all work for Reality TV.

See what I mean??? I could be a Reality Show. I have it all! Watch for it...you never know. They've made shows out of less.

Pajama Diaries

2010-08-27T09:22:00.000-04:00

This just in from Terri over at Pajama Diaries....

Hi everyone,

Hope you’re doing well and have had a great summer. It’s been a while since I’ve written about the state of Pajama Diaries, and I’d like to ask for some assistance in potentially opening some new doors.

If you haven’t heard, the longtime popular strip, “Cathy” will be retiring from the funnies October 2. This means there will be about 700 potential slots opening up in the comic pages, with a possible emphasis on introducing feminine-oriented strips in its place. I know the sales team at King Features is working hard to sell my strip now, along with other female cartoonists’ features. Papers across the country will probably start testing out replacement strips from now throughout the end of the year.

SO…I could really use your help at this time. The state of newspaper comics is terrible, to be blunt. I’ve lost many papers in the past two years due to newspapers closing and/or being bought by competing papers. Others simply drop the newer strips when they downsize. This phenomenon is industry-wide. From what I’ve heard, even “Cathy” lost hundreds of papers over the past few years, if that puts things in perspective.

What I’m asking is that you call or email the main editor and/or features editor of your local paper OR any other semi-close papers (i.e. for Clevelanders: The Akron and Columbus papers) and ask that they add on Pajama Diaries in the wake of “Cathy” retiring. It doesn’t matter if the paper runs her strip. Remember, there are very few female cartoonists, so it’s important to start showcasing current ones. And speaking of current, you could also mention that Pajama Diaries reflects women in a more up-to-date, modern way. Just mention that you read the strip in another paper or online (at DailyInk.com or on Comics Kingdom) and would love to see it in the local paper. If you email, please include a link to my website samples page:

http://www.pajamadiaries.com/samples.php

Thanks so much. Please ask your friends/relatives to do the same. Word of mouth is everything!!

Take care and keep me posted,

Terri (Davis) Libenson

www.pajamadiaries.com

Luann

2010-08-27T08:04:00.002-04:00

Hello, my name is Teresa and I am a Luann junky! Among the small handfull of comic strips that I enjoy, Luann just tickles me.

The Luann comic strip comes straight to my mailbox every morning. I haven't missed a strip in AGES! Today's strip included a web address to a site that is a collected effort between 14 comic strip creators. It's AWESOME.

The site is called The Cartoonist Studio. Check it out.

Where's my boss??

2010-08-24T08:22:00.002-04:00

So one of the many things that I do is make stuff up. Seriously, I sit at my computer and make graphics for digital scrapbooking. It really is like making stuff up out of nothing. My stuff is sold exclusively in the shop at Digital Scrapbook Place.
The boss lady's name is Margie. Recently, she and her husband sold nearly everything they owned to become full time RVers. I know, lots of people do that but these two have three school age children. They've been home schooling now for two years so it's really not that difficult and the open road leads to more learning opportunities than books could ever provide. Here is an article that she recently wrote for Type A Rom, Real Moms, Real Advice. The article is about their time spent in my home state of Michigan. Michigan Makes a Great Vacation.
I feel as if I get to take some of the credit for this trip of theirs even though she makes absolutely NO mention of it. Margie and her husband are HUGE Ohio State fans and shudder at the mere thought of even stepping foot over the state line into Michigan. I raved about the beauty of Michigan camping and told them about several of my favorite sites. Looks like they had a great time.
I'm not really sure where Margie is today. Their trip to Michigan was a while ago so they could be anywhere by now.

Girlfriend Getaway Contest

2010-08-22T14:46:00.003-04:00

My girlfriend, Lisa Wingate, is hosting a contest. Lisa Wingate is an author of inspirational woman's fiction and the contest is a Girlfriend Getaway. She says that I can NOT enter. I guess it MIGHT look as if it were fixed if I won but I still don't think it's fair. Anyway...there is no reason YOU can't enter.
Enter HERE.

Picking up where we left off

2010-08-22T14:13:00.002-04:00

Well...

Lots has happened since the last entry and I even thought about ditching this blog but I really like the fact that I can have a place to put just random thoughts. So, I'll reactivate this blog and load it up with my ever so random and always a little nutty random thoughts.

Life got away

2008-12-18T19:58:00.006-05:00

Life certainly got away from me.

I honestly thought that taking on a child who has lived with us before could not possibly be that difficult. Wow, was I wrong. We had to work through school enrollment, immunizations that were not up to date, driver's license and getting a job. The dear child had to learn and test every rule that was put before him.

I am happy to report that we have all survived. I think.

This photo is one of the first real smiles I saw on the kid. He came with a ton of baggage and still struggles with it. But he really seems to be settling. His birthday is tomorrow and that coupled with the Holidays are proving to be rather rough for him.

This is a picture of him at work. I found an ad in the paper for someone that needed a hand around a barn with feeding and cleaning the stalls. It is proving to be the best job for him. The barn takes on rescue animals, horses mainly, that owners no long care to take care of. This boy and the horses seem to have a lot in common.

There it is. That's a driver's license certificate. Necessary item for a 16 year old boy!

I hope he continues to find a home here in this house and feels the love we have for him.

The additions

2008-08-28T08:31:00.004-04:00

We have some new additions to our family. Nathan is our nephew who decided for himself that he wanted to come live with us. He has stayed with us many times throughout his life so it just feels natural to have him in the house once more. I would have thought it would be hard to give up the spare room I use for my work or all of the free time I enjoy with just one child but it just works. Somehow, you just make the room and find the time. He really is a good kid and is eager to make the most of this opportunity.

Within a couple of weeks of Nathan moving in, we adopted Mary. She came to us through a rescue organization. We were told that she came from a puppy mill that was trying to create designer dogs. This litter didn't quite turn out as was hoped and so all of the puppies ended up in a shelter. She is very sweet and extremely playful. Unfortunately, she has a boat load of puppy ailments. One is a bladder infection. We should just name her "Tinkles".

I love my son

2008-07-07T09:14:00.000-04:00

I really do love my son. His belief in me never wavers
He has listen to me complain about 40 for a while now (and I'm not even there yet). He's heard me complain about gray hair, muscle strain and weight gain.
He's downstairs right now watching the Olympic trials in swimming. It seems a 41 year old woman is heading to Beijing. My son felt that I needed to know, as if this piece of information might encourage me some how. "See," he so lovingly proclaimed, "If she can do it, so can you!"
Now, I just didn't have the desire to crush is faith in me by explaining to him that this woman is an athlete who has been training for this event her whole life. I however have been...hum...not training for the Olympics my whole life.
I guess the next time I fear that I will see one of my own lungs come out of my body in my attempts to get air after cresting a "hill" on my bike, I will think of this 41 year old Olympian and remind myself that I am actually younger than her.

Great Day Camping at Home

2008-06-29T23:11:00.004-04:00

We are officially still on our vacation at home. With one parent at home and one on a business trip, home needs to be fun and special. Yesterday we took in the town. Not much to take in. It's not very big. But the train went through twice while we were there. That's huge to a kid. So is dinner at the ice cream shop followed up with one huge ice cream for dessert.Today was fun as well.

The day started in a rush. We slid into church as the priest was coming down the aisle. That's a first for us. We over slept. I have to say, I've never gone to church before with sheet wrinkle marks still on my cheek. After church, we got into the Legos. Those are the most perfect toy. Then we spent some time out on the swings and driving cars through the dirt. It was all about my son today. What a great way to spend the day.This evening just after the child was tucked into bed, I went out onto the deck out back to watch the fireflies sparkle in the woods. It's always one of my favorite things to watch on a summer night.

It really isn't hard to imagine that we are on vacation right now. It's all about looking around and seeing your own town, your own yard, and your own home as one of the best vacation spots in the world. It's cheap and the kids will remember it forever.

Set aside the laundry, the dishes, and the work that followed you home from the job. Go on vacation with your kid. It's worth it.

The tabloids

2008-06-28T09:13:00.007-04:00

I'm really not a big fan of tabloids other than to read the head lines as I am checking out at the grocery store. To be honest with you, they confuse the heck out of me. I can never remember who is with who? Who is a being portrayed as a bad guy? Who is in rehab and who is pregnant?

I picked up a People magazine from the library the other day. Now I am really confused because it is from last month. Same drama though, just different people.

I just can't imagine what it must be like to have every move documented it pictures with absurd head lines.

Could you imagine the head line to this one if I were famous. "Celebrity laughs as she nearly ends her life by driving her car over a cliff." In actuality, the driveway was solid ice and the back end of the car was sliding, ever so gracefully, toward the drop off along the edge of the drive

Or how about this one:
"Mr. Big Movie Star attempts to disguise himself to have a private walk outside." In actuality, this is how my husband looks when he goes out in the winter to clear the snow from the driveway.

Now this one could actually work for the People magazine that I have at home now. One of the articles featured celebrities without make up. Honestly, that's the norm for me. Now the problem is, some other tabloid would pick it up and run it with the headline of, "Super Star is secretly a closet slob!" Well...that would be true as well I guess.

I'm famous!!

2008-06-18T15:59:00.004-04:00

This is today's Pajama Diaries from the paper. Yes, I have been known to scrub the unlikeliest of household items to avoid working on certain logos. I had told the cartoonist behind the pen of this strip about my ugly logo avoidance tactics and she worked it into a strip.

Terri Libenson does an excellent job representing not only work at home moms but moms in general. Check out some of her sample strips here: http://www.pajamadiaries.com/samples.php

Summer Vacation

2008-06-17T08:50:00.002-04:00

Ahh, summer vacation. For me that means I get to sleep in an extra hour. It also means that I get about an hour of quite to myself as soon as I wake up. What a treasure that is.

No major plans for this summer other than camping in the driveway and taking full advantage of local fairs and attractions. With the gas prices they way they are, trips to the Upper Peninsula are a thing of the past.

Today's major plan involves Legos. I do not even try to hide the fact that I LOVE legos. With two older brothers, it's a fact that I was born and raised with legos. Not surprisingly, my son has quite a collection. The plan is to clean up the mess that's there, vacuum the carpet and create a whole new mess. I picked up a garbage bag full of legos at a garage sale last year and we have yet to fully sort through it. My son is excited about the potential of Star Wars legos. I am excited to get anything neat that I can build a house with. That's right, I'm a house builder. Give me tons of legos and I will build a house every time. I wanted legos for Christmas this year. There was a neat house set out in the stores at Christmas. I guess my husband thought I was kidding because I got an MP3 player instead. He wrapped it in a huge box with misc legos. The size and sound was right, I was giddy to think I was getting legos. Yes, for a little while I was actually disappointed that he gave me an MP3 player instead.

Style all his own.

2008-06-13T09:14:00.002-04:00

I meet this little guy yesterday. His mother says that he's two and has insisted on dressing himself since the middle of the winter. She says that the clip tie has been a new addition to the wardrobe and has been adorning the front of every t-shirt for almost a week now.

I love how, at two, we don't care what people might think. We know what we like and we aren't afraid to show the world.

I think that will be my motto for the day...but I'm not wearing the tie.

Mac Wood Dune Rides

2008-06-04T17:09:00.003-04:00

One of my favorite vacations as a kid is when we went to Sleeping Bear Dunes. We even got to take a ride on the dunes on a big dune buggy. The picture is from 1972 and I am in the driver's seat with my siblings along for the ride.

This picture is from 2002 at the same location. That is my son in the driver's seat this time.

My Baby

2008-06-01T15:26:00.003-04:00

Oh how I miss this little boy. I miss holding him and playing with him. I miss picking out his clothes and dressing him. I miss bath times and nap times. I miss all of the little ways he needed me everyday.

Now, at ten years old, he only needs me to do stuff like trim his toe nails. I didn't mind doing it when he was a baby and it was only sock fuzzies caught under those tiny toe nails but come on...at ten years old, who knows what lurks under those toe nails. YUCK!

Freeze

2008-05-29T15:28:00.005-04:00

These are pictures from my girlfriend's garden. Yesterday morning, it was cold enough to form a crust of ice on any standing water. These are her attempts to save her plants. You have to admire her resourcefulness!

Coolers, plastic bags, milk jugs, cups and buckets.

Motorcycle covers being tented with plastic chairs and held in palce with Tonka toy trucks.

Another cooler, milk jug and a box.

She only lost a few to the cold but should still have a fantastic garden.

The Magic of Sidewalk Chalk

2008-05-26T13:55:00.002-04:00

Check out those jeans! Takes a lot of effort to blow out the knees quite like that!!

Go Wings

2008-05-25T08:11:00.002-04:00

Okay, so maybe the play structure building didn't quite pan out as planned but the boys still had fun with the long bumpy slide! The side works great propped up on the hill.

The evening ended with a great bon fire in the front yard. Kennie, our diehard Wings fan brought over his little, black and white TV to catch the broadcast coming in from Winsor. I really had never experienced a grown man drawn into such an undisturbable trace from the TV. He only moved five times. Four goals plus the one that was taken away. He did mentally return to his surroundings at the commercial breaks.

Beyond the Tree line

2008-05-23T12:20:00.003-04:00

Just beyond the treeline that spans the length of our private lane is a magical place. Living in the house that is beyond the trees is the most wonderful pair of neighbors I could have ever imagined. The were excited to meet us when we bought the acreage next to them and opened their home to us, which was great because as a princess, I do not "pop a squat" in the woods.

In this time of grooming the center of our acreage for a house, they became a treasure set of adopted grandparents to our son. Most days out at the property, my son could be found in the house beyond the treeline gobbling up goodies and watching cable TV.

During the build process they offered up unlimited support and encouragement while they continued to develop their unique role in our son's life. We could not have done it without them.

We are now in our new house and our son walks the lane along the treeline every day. Fridays are his special day when he is allowed to slip between a couple of trees for a visit to the neighbors. Since there is no school today, he made his visit yesterday. I wandered over later to visit as well. What a special evening.

This is a wonderful house full of rich stories and art. It truly is a magical place. I have listened to stories of old times. I have listened in awe to a visiting Irishman sing folk songs. I, myself, have even been known to partake in a sing along or two.

I can not believe how lucky we are to have these people as neighbors!

Ten Boxes

2008-05-22T08:58:00.002-04:00

Here is a tale from the trenches from this past winter. Have a laugh at my expense, I'm good for it.

I finally got 10 boxes out the door! The ordeal I went through to get them on to my porch is not something I want to go through again any time soon.

Each oversized box weights 28 pounds and is filled with 6 bags that thankfully only needed a simple logo. I’m glad OSHA did not visit the shop yesterday to witness how that simple logo was embroidered on to each bag. I clamped the bag to a hoop and held it in place with my fingers. Now, those of you how have visited my workroom are cringing at the thought of this. Those of you who have not, should cringe as well. I almost added a couple of stitches to a finger. I figure it need a few more. So there I was, 28 pounds up the stairs, 28 pounds back down the stairs. Ten times. Who needs aerobics?

By 3:45 PM yesterday, 10 boxes were by the door and I was thrilled to be done. Actually I was online checking the cost of some software I was going to buy with the money that I would earn from that order. It had already been arranged that the same employee who dropped the boxes off last week would pick them up. I slept like a log last night. I wonder why?

First thing this morning in my email box was a request from this company to ship the ten boxes to their location. Ship them today using their account number. There are two ways I know to do this. Take them up to my local UPS store and let them do it or finally register online with UPS. Two vehicles are left here during the day. A Pontiac Vibe that can’t even handle a trip to Costco and the pick-up that we use for camping. The truck would have been an option but then I would have had to put the battery back in it that was taken out for the winter. That would be a whole ‘nother tale. I’m sure it would be funny but not likely a success story.

So I decided that my best bet would be to set up with UPS online. How hard could it possibly be? Besides, the boxes are by the front door. It took about five minutes to register. Wow, that was easy! Why didn’t I do that sooner? Then I scheduled for a pick up. Loaded in all of the proper information including the UPS account number of my customer. Singing a happy little tune to myself, I hit the "next" button with a bit of a flare. DENIED. I tried again and still was not able to get past an error message associated with the bill to company. I spent the next HOUR on the phone with everyone from UPS and one guy who wasn’t. I still have yet to figure out how I got transferred to someone who no longer works for UPS. (Probably something about their tech support being out-sourced.) Anyway this turned out to be the guy who was able help me. After he told me that he no longer worked for UPS and fortunately before I resorted to uncontrollable sobbing from sheer mental anguish, he told he to read through exactly what was on my screen at UPS. I read through everything while mentally adding up just how many trips would it take to get ten oversized boxes the UPS store using the Vibe if I could not get this online thing to work. Then he said one simple little word, "dash. Try it without the dash." The customer’s account number had a dash in it. I deleted the dash and it was like magic. There before me was the page to print out the labels and schedule the pick up time for today. A DASH! An hour of my life gone for good because of a dash. I talked to 4 different people from UPS. Why didn’t they know about the dash? FYI- I put a huge note in my UPS file folder not to use a dash. I’m not going to get snagged by that ever again. So I told the guy that he was my best friend for the day and if I could, I’d put a big ol’ gold star on his forehead. Bet you all thought I was going to say "Kiss" on is forehead. For heaven’s sake, I don’t even know the guy.

So now it came time to tape and label those ten boxes and stack them on the porch. I really didn’t think this would be a problem, too. I must either be completely inept at tape guns or my cutter is dull. (Probably a good thing with my history.) This is the part that I really should have video taped because even to tell the story with the same level of unglorified details that I tend to include in my stories, I’m not going to be able to produce the full picture. I had to rush because I had typed in 12:30 for a pick up time thinking that it couldn’t possibly take more than 15 minutes to get the boxes taped shut, labeled and out the door. It was an ordeal that lead to tears, laughter and a whole lot of tape wrapped around my thumb??? Let’s just say, I need more tape and a trip to my hairdresser. My hair is adhered to all ten boxes, a couple of knuckles had an unfortunate run in with that dull blade (good thing I got that tetanus shot last summer) and there are wads of crumpled up tape all over the foyer. I even have scraps of tape on me. It took 40 minutes to get those boxes out the door. And to think, as soon as the UPS man comes to whisk away all of those boxes, I will have nothing to show for my day’s efforts...thank goodness.

I’d stick by my standard of "Some days I shouldn’t be allowed out of the house but I haven’t even left the house yet. In fact, I’m still in my jammies.

Fought With An Angel

2008-05-21T15:51:00.004-04:00

This was back from March 5th of this year. I figure it's still good for some laughs.

So what do you do when an angel smacks you on top of the head while you are laying in a puddle of water, on a sheet of ice?

My brain was fried Monday morning from way too much design work over the weekend so I figured it would be a perfect house cleaning day. Some tunes on my MP3 and a little bit...okay a whole lot...of mindless housework. I got my son on the bus and started in on the garage first. It is absolutely amazing what can collect in a garage all winter long.

I started with the lighted Christmas yard decorations that my father-in-law brought over with him one day. (It's unbelievable what ends up at my house that way. I don't have to go garage saleing anymore because the stuff just ends up in my garage and basement like magic.) So anyway, I decided that a good two months of backing my car in to a 3 foot wire-form angel and two huge candles was plenty long enough. It was time to find a permanent storage place for them.

Attic of the secondary garage----perfect. It was 45 degrees that morning, not bad for moving stuff out of one garage and into the other.

Except...45 degrees melted the snow that was covering the ice encrusted driveway between the two garages.

I made it just fine across with the ridiculously huge candles but it was that darn angel that took me down. Well that and the fact that my mind was about thirty steps ahead planning where the rest of the garage refugee items were going to go. Wouldn't you just know it, I got to the edge of the ice, just two little steps from the door and I went down. Keys in one hand (I don't know why) and a three foot angel in the other. Some where in the slow motion of knowing full well that I was going down, I did drop the keys.

Thank goodness I had on my standard bus stop gear of red parka on top of fleece lined shirt and sweat shirt. I landed on my elbow/lower arm and didn't feel a thing. Now the trouble with standard bus stop gear is that in warmer weather (above 38 degrees), the bottom half is just flannel. Flannel offers no protection against rocks that are embedded in the layer of ice. Flannel also sucks up ALL of the water that has pooled up on top of that ice. Then, because having soaking wet pajama bottoms and a skinned up leg wasn't enough. That darn angel whacked me on top of the head a half a second after I hit the ground. So what do you do when an angel smacks you on top of the head while you are laying in a puddle of water on a sheet of ice?

You just take it as a sign that housework isn't your gig for the day and move on to something safer. Although with me, all bets are off that I can find something safer than cleaning the house.

I Finally Jumped In!

2008-05-21T11:26:00.006-04:00

Welcome to my blog. I spent a whole heap of time setting it up which has left me with not a whole lot of time to write. So unfortunately, I will not be able to go into great detail about how the garage door would not go up this morning, how I locked myself out of my own house in my PJ's or how my "Girlfriend" embarrassed to snot out of me yesterday evening by introducing me to her hair stylist as "the old girlfriend" of one of the other hair stylist's husband from the salon. That will be the last time I offer to take her kids off of her hands while she is getting her hair done.

All in good fun though, right?

I really hope everyone will check back frequently. I have some huge wishes for my 40th birthday that are teetering on edge of becoming reality. It's pretty exciting!