X%@$&*# Xmas lights!

Well, I suppose I shouldn't complain. I've had these lights for close to 10 years. I have 5 strands of these certain lights I use on my tree. Each string has a knob to control the speed at which the lights blink in sequence. After being placed on the tree, being ever so carefully spaced (which some years has taken 3-4 try's), the result is a beautiful display of blinking lights. Well, yesterday after putting up my tree, I pulled out my lights and at least had the sense to test each strand before putting them on tree. One strand was not working properly. One color is not lighting. I tested each bulb, carefully pulling each one out to be sure it was making solid contact and replace each with a known working bulb. All to no avail. Still no yellow lights. I can't use just 4 strands, the tree will look all wrong and bare. My biggest problem is that I have not seen this type of light sold in quite a while. Ugh! What a dilemma. I am going out first thing this morning in search of a new set of lights. I REALLY don't want to change these! Wish me luck.

After solving this challenge I will return home to hopefully get my lights up outside. That is, if the weather cooperates. Although the temperature will be near 60 (snow has melted), the warmer temp has brought rain.

My Thanksgiving day was wonderful. Had the whole family together to sit down at a meal! Won't see that again for a while. Worked Fri & Sat. Retail is SO much fun the days after Thanksgiving! (Can you hear the sarcasms? *wink*) And Sunday got my tree up. Yes, I have an artificial tree, but if I can get the bloomin' thing decorated, you can never tell. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Things I'm Thankful For

Firstly, I would like to thank all of you for your kind compliments on my last post. Some of you made comments of a talent I have for descriptive writing. It is not MY talent, it is a gift He has chosen to share with me on occasion. For that, I am thankful.

Of course I am thankful for my family- a devoted husband, 3 wonderful children, a loving mother and father that have raised me with the values that I have, and 7 truly wonderful, special brothers and sisters.

I am thankful for all my friends. Blog friends included!

I am thankful for my health, my talents and my ability to love. I pray that I can use these to help others and bring them closer to God. May I never forget these are gifts from Him that created me.

I am thankful for my faith, which I have sometimes failed, but it has never failed me. I am thankful for prayers that He has answered and for unanswered prayers.

My list of thanks could go on and on, but I'm sure you have other blogs to read. So I am going to end this with something I received from a friend.

I am Thankful :

FOR THE WIFE WHO SAYS IT'S HOT DOGS TONIGHT, BECAUSE SHE IS HOME WITH ME, AND NOT OUT WITH SOMEONE ELSE.

FOR THE HUSBANDWHO IS ON THE SOFA BEING A COUCH POTATO,BECAUSE HE IS HOME WITH ME AND NOT OUT AT THE BARS.

FOR THE TEENAGER WHO IS COMPLAINING ABOUT DOING DISHES BECAUSE IT MEANS HE IS AT HOME, NOT ON THE STREETS.

FOR THE TAXES I PAY BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM EMPLOYED.

FOR THE MESS TO CLEAN AFTER A PARTY BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN SURROUNDED BY FRIENDS.

FOR THE CLOTHES THAT FIT A LITTLE TOO SNUG BECAUSE IT MEANSI HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT.

FOR MY SHADOW THAT WATCHES ME WORK BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM OUT IN THE SUNSHINE

FOR A LAWN THAT NEEDS MOWING, WINDOWS THAT NEED CLEANING, AND GUTTERS THAT NEED FIXING BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE A HOME.

FOR ALL THE COMPLAINING I HEAR ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT BECAUSE IT MEANS WE HAVE FREEDOM OF SPEECH..

FOR THE PARKING SPOT I FIND AT THE FAR END OF THE PARKING LOT BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM CAPABLE OF WALKING AND I HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH TRANSPORTATION .

FOR MY HUGE HEATING BILL BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM WARM.

FOR THE LADY BEHIND ME IN CHURCH WHO SINGS OFF KEY BECAUSE IT MEANS I CAN HEAR.

FOR THE PILE OF LAUNDRY AND IRONING BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE CLOTHES TO WEAR.

FOR WEARINESS AND ACHING MUSCLES AT THE END OF THE DAY BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE BEEN CAPABLE OF WORKING HARD.

FOR THE ALARM THAT GOES OFF IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS BECAUSE IT MEANS I AM ALIVE.

AND FINALLY, FOR TOO MUCH E-MAIL BECAUSE IT MEANS I HAVE FRIENDS WHO ARE THINKING OF ME.

Happy Thanksgiving !

A rare bird

So, that's where they get these turkeys with the pop-up timers!

Fall fades away

It seems like just yesterday everyone was welcoming the golden and crimson colours of Autumn. Days of brisk winds have brought Winter knocking at our door a bit early. I have a regular routine of waking with a steaming cup of hot coffee first thing in the morning and my favorite place to sit enjoying it is on my front steps. Even on cold mornings I bundle up in my robe and let the heat radiate from my cup into my hands and the warmth of the coffee fills my body. There's just something about fresh morning air that wakes me up. (Then again, it might be the caffeine.) This morning as I sat outside the sky was clear. It was not yet light but the sun was tucked just below the horizon giving a hint of a glow of the day to come. Looking to the west I see a line of clouds, like a military formation, moving rapidly in my direction. Behind it was the dark, gray sign of Father Winter on the way. The first real snow of the season is hidden in those clouds soon to start falling upon the earth. Looks like a white Thanksgiving Day is coming. We are only expecting 1-3 inches but it is the first of the year (accumulated anyway) so that makes it special. Kids are anxious to get out the snowmobiles, but I think that is still a few weeks away.

Well, I have the day off, so I need to scoot. Think I'll start my spinach balls for Thanksgiving dinner. Tomorrow I'll post my "Things I'm Thankful For". Till then....stay warm!

Busy, busy weekend

Weekend? What weekend? These past few days seem to have flown by. Friday night went out with a friend to a local country bar. There were some amateur strippers but seeing as how my mom reads my blog I won't comment on them, but if I was to comment it would only be to say that they were young, skinny and pale; definitely not my type, mine is more broad shouldered, muscular arms and mature, kinda like what I already have at home ;). But the company was great, we enjoyed the music for the most part and just enjoyed chatting all night. All in all - a good time! (Thanks again Ches! I really enjoyed it!) Got home and to bed about 1:30. Had to get up at 6 Sat morning and open at work. Worked till 4:30, came home, cleaned up a bit, threw some laundry in the washer, neighbor came over to chat for a bit over a beer then hubby and I went out to dinner. Got home about 7, I was pooped and ready for an early night. Got comfy in my pj's then the phone rings....it is my boss from the golf course. They were playing euchre (they play every other Sat night) and needed one more person to make 5 tables. He begged me to come play.....I'm such a sucker, especially after he offered to buy my beers. So I threw on some clothes and up to the club house I go. Ended up having a good time and home and in bed by 11, so not too bad. Sunday morning I had to get up at 6, shower and be at church by 8 then immediately after church be at work by 10. Worked till close and got home about 7. And here I am. Maybe tonight I'll get to bed early. So how was your weekend?

Snow & deer & male strippers

Well, we got our first snow of the season. Nothing big, just a few light snow showers but a bit was drfting on the sides of the road. I understand further up north and west though they got 9+ inches. Wish we got that lake effect snow here. Would make for much better snowmobiling.

Last weekend at work was a flurry of last minute hunting gear and licenses. Tuesday was opening day here in the Great Lakes state and they are out there in droves. This will be the first weekend of the hunting season and apparently it is a chance for hunting widows to do their thing. My husband enjoys hunting and still hopes to get out there this year but with things being as chaotic as they have been he hasn't yet had the chance. So I'm not officially a 'widow' but that doesn't mean I can't take advantage of the opportunities. A friend and I are going to a local honkytonk where it seems a few men may be removing a few garments for the widows in mourning. Hah! That'll teach these guys to leave their wives at home while they go gallavanting through the woods chasing 4 legged creatures.

That's about it for me. I finally posted to my other site if you would like to take a peak. Sorry about the lack of recipe updates. Will get to that maybe this weekend. But do take advantage of my Chili recipe with the cold weather here. You'll love it! Have a wonderful weekend!

Eh? What's that you say?

I would like to thank all of you for sticking with me during these past few unimaginative posts. And thanks to those of you that have mapped yourself. It's nice to put a blip with the name. Even nicer when you can put a face with a name, but I suppose it isn't practical to meet all my blogger friends when we are so scattered around. I have been fortunate to meet a few though and they are just as wonderful as their blogs! (You know who you are ;)...).

I thought I'd share a little something about myself that some, namely my children, seem to think is fairly amusing. No smirks from the peanut gallery! As most of you know (If you read my 100 things), I am deaf in my right ear. This was a permanent result of having a brain tumor removed 5 years ago. So this was an overnight thing for me. It's not as if I was slowly losing it over the years. This has it's pro's and con's.
Let me first share the con's with you....
1) I have an extremely difficult time locating where a sound is coming from. This is where my children find it funny. I will be standing in the kitchen and my cell phone or even the cordless house phone will ring. The phone may be sitting on the counter right next to me but I can't tell that is where the ring is coming from. I will turn in circles and walk around trying to locate the origin of the ring while my dear family watches in amusement. The other day I could not find my cell phone so I dialed the number from my house phone to locate it and I heard the ring but for the life of me could not locate it! I would walk around till the ring got louder then as is diminished I would turn around and start back the other way. I would go to the stairs to see if it was ringing upstairs then to the basement door. I finally located it in the mudroom in the pocket of my coat. You can't imagine how frustrating it can be sometimes!! My children have learned when we go to a large, crowded place and they call me they will holler out their location based on the position of the arms of a clock. "Mom! Over here! 3:00!" So I know to look 90 degrees to my right. Sounds funny, but it works. For the most part it doesn't really interfere with my life except for the fact that many times I miss a phone call because I can't find the phone in time. Thank goodness for caller ID. I just call them back. I really need to get an old fashioned, corded phone put on the wall.
2) Another disadvantage is hearing things in a loud room. When you have both ears you don't realize it but one acts as a filter. You can focus on your conversation and everything else is filtered out the other ear. There really is something to the old adage "In one ear and out the other"! Having only one good ear ALL the noise goes into it and is mixed up with the conversation you are trying to have.
3) And talking on the phone you can't listen to someone else in the background trying to say something to you because your one good ear is in the phone. I have to share this with you also....I have always been right eared, meaning this is the ear I used to talk on the phone. For quite a while after my surgery I would still answer the phone with my right ear. I would answer "Hello"...."Hellooooo!".....after no response I would hang up only to have it ring immediately again. It took a few times but I finally learned to answer with my good ear. At work we have 6 or more phones, each with a different extention, lined up behind the counter spaced about 15 - 20 feet apart next to registers. The only way I can tell which one is ringing is by looking at the light to see which one is blinking.
4) Lastly, and I think this is the most frustrating, driving in the car. When sitting in the drivers seat my good ear is on the side of the window. So anyone sitting in the passenger seat (or the back) has to practically holler for me to hear them. Forget having the radio on and trying to carry on a conversation. It just ain't gunna happen.

Now for the advantages (yes! there are some!)
1) When I happen to go to bed at the same time as my husband (which doesn't happen often because of our work/sleep schedules) and he wants to watch tv, I can just lay on my left side and put my good ear into the pillow and the tv doesn't bother me.
2) When my husband snores, same thing, turn to the left and zonk right out. This becomes a disadvantage in the morning though when I don't hear my alarm! Oops. Think work will accept that excuse?
3) And last, if ever I forget to do something someone asks me to do or just don't get around to it ie: kids or hubby, I can always say "Oh, I'm sorry, I must not have heard you. You must have been on the wrong side" Ok, bad excuse, but what the hey!

Power Color

Your Power Color Is Teal

At Your Highest: You feel accomplished and optimistic about the future. At Your Lowest: You feel in a slump and lack creativity. In Love: You tend to be many people's ideal partner. How You're Attractive: You make people feel confident and accepted. Your Eternal Question: "What Impression Am I Giving?"

What's" Your Power Color?

I must be at my low because I'm not feeling very creative about what to blog so this is it for today!

Where's Waldo?

I came across a neat link this afternoon on Texas Oceanlover Laments blog. It is a map page where you can plot your location and leave a little comment/shout out. I would love to have each person plot themselves and see how many I can get. Plus it's fun to see where everybody is from. You can plot a city or I think you can get as detailed as your home address if you wanted. Personally I think city is enough information. Don't know how many wierdo's there are out there that may show up at my front steps! You can find the link to the right under Just for Fun.

Normalcy returns

Things are finally back to normal (well, kind-sorta). Husband has returned to work. His schedule is for 12 hour days right now, but we can use the over-time since funds have been depleted the last couple months. This will only last for a month or so then back to rotating days off. I will continue working. He has had to take quite a pay decrease so my income will make up for that. Besides I'm really loving my job. Things are coming together.

Now to start thinking about Christmas. "Christmas!" you say? Apparently so. As I was driving down the road the other day I was going through radio stations and found one playing "Winter Wonderland". At first I thought it may have been a commercial, but no, the whole song played. Then another came on. It seems this radio station started playing Christmas music 24/7 on Nov. 1. It's funny how just listening to that music can give you that "all over good feeling" At least is does for me. I love Christmas and I'm going to make sure I do up the outside lights and decorations this year. I neglected that last year and I really missed it. It just felt like something was missing. And luckily my Christmas fund is still intact so I need to get started shopping. Got your wish list made? (If it's not at the $1 store your out of luck!)

Charades-the universal language

I wish my dad was a blogger. You would get a kick out of his stories! He is the best story teller, especially humourous ones, of anyone that I know. Anyway this story was told to me by my mom, but seeing as how it happened to my dad I could just hear how he would tell it.....

It seems my parents have a new family that moved in across the street. They have not had a chance to "officially" meet them but have waved occasionally. They are from Korea. It is the parents, some children and an older mom or maybe aunt that live there. Both parents apparently work and the grandmother (aunt?) stay with the kids. Apparently this older woman was outside and saw my dad and waved for him to come over. She does not speak english. She motioned to her porch light, which was not lit, then motioned to the neighbors light, who's was lit. My dad understood that her light was not working. After looking into it he got it fixed for her and she was very grateful. A couple days later she was out raking her leaves and saw my dad again. She had seen him before raking his leaves and liked his rake much better. Hers was not doing a very good job. So she, using only hand motions, asked to 'rent' my dad's rake. She was very insistent that she rent it and not just borrow it. I think she offered $2. Then she continued. She acted like she was raking then sleeping then raking again. My dad finally realized she wanted to keep it for an extended time because she had a large back yard. I think this is so cute! Come to find out my dad had to go to Home Depot and he bought her a new rake - just like his. I haven't heard yet how she accepted that. Many of us have neighbors that do speak english and have lived next door to them for years and never spoken. But this exchange has made a friendship that I think added something to each of their lives.

I lived in Korea for a year while I was in the service and communicated like this quite often. I will never forget going out fishing in a local stream. We had poles and all the tackle we needed. I'm not sure where we got our bait but I think we just dug up some worms. We were out there for a couple hours without a bite. We finally gave up and started walking down stream. We came across an older man fishing who was catching fish left and right! We showed him that we had nothing. He looked to see what we were fishing with. He laughed at our worms, then showed us his bait. He was using maggots. Ugh! But he offered some to us and we gave it a try and sure enough started catching some. He was very pleased with himself. We thanked him by giving him some of our American beverage - a few beers. He was THRILLED!

Body language - The Universal Language ~~~isn't it great!

Happy All Saints Day!

For those of you not familiar with All Saints Day, you can visit my post on my other web site. I think one of my favorite Saints has to be St. Anthony. He is the Saint of lost things. It's not that I lose a whole lot of things, but when it has been really important he has never let me down. My whole family has depended on him one time or another. When it comes to finding a needle in a haystack, he's your saint! Just last night I couldn't find my digital camera. I looked everywhere! I was sick when I went to bed. It's not a cheap camera and I have an expensive photo card in it also. I said a prayer to St. Anthony and this morning looked again. Still, no camera. Later in the morning I called a friend and when I told her about my missing camera she asked if I had looked in my car. I had no reason to have looked there because to the best of my memory I had not put it there. Anyway, while we were still talking I walked out there and guess what I found under my seat?! Say what you want, but St. Anthony had his hand in this.

The kids had a great time last night and came home with plenty of candy. Thank goodness I had the forsight to buy some low carb candy for myself to help curb any temptation to steal theirs!

Things will start returning to normal around here. My husband went back to work...Whoohoo! Not sure of scheduling details etc...but he may be working quite a bit of overtime till things settle down a bit. At least I think he has the weekends off, which will help with the kids, seeing as how I will be working most weekends.

I'll leave you with this quote I got yesterday at lunch out of a fortune cookie:

"Every adversity carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit"