fun stuff

♪♪♪ It’s My Party And I’ll Give Away Something ♪♪♪

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okay. so it's Kate's party in this picture. my party pictures were too risque!

Lesley Gore has nothing on me in the party area.  There are some mighty fine party pictures of me floating around out there somewhere.  Lots of fun at those parties.  Some pretty cool party guns (closely resembled a particular body part) and some great party get-ups.

One party in particular, and unbeknownst to me, I was graced with a big sign plastered on my back by the ever fun-loving nephews

now, you're how old?

the train engineer

that said “Old Saggy Tits.”  My poor mother finally just couldn’t take it any more and she said, “I think the baby got something on you.”   I was holding little Jack at the time, so I put my hand up on my shoulder to check it out.  And she instructed me it was down farther on my back.  Lo and behold there was a piece of paper taped to my back… which explained the big hug and back slapping I had gotten from the men-boys.

So what’s the point of all this party talk?  My birthday is coming up this  month, and I am having a big Getting Older Give-Away!  Yippee!  Let the fun begin.

All you have to do to get your name in the pot is comment on here that you follow my blog.  That’s one.  Another way is to let me know that you have subscribed to my blog, and if you haven’t already, then check the sign-me-up box to subscribe.  That’s two.  And the third way to get your name in is to put a memory or some story or some comment about me.  I’m so excited!  I can’t wait!

The contest will end June 17, my birth date.  That evening I will post who won and will mail or bring your prize to you that day since I will be leaving to go to Hilton Head on the 18th.

Get to thinking everybody.  It doesn’t have to be any big comment; just something about me.  After all,  it is my birthday!

birthday balloons

My Exciting Upcoming Weekend

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getting ready to repair and paint

My life revolves around work.  Get up and go to work.  Come home and work.  Go to bed and work to go to sleep.  If I were more focused, it wouldn’t take me twice as long as it does anybody else to get something finished.  I need Cousin Sandy to come up here and sit on my deck pointing with her cigarette in hand everything that needs to be done.  I got soooo much accomplished that day.  Or Sis Dar to come down and tear into everything telling me put this here and put that there.

utter chaos

This is just the beginning.  By Sunday (if I get the pool paint I ordered) it will be my backyard paradise.  I will need it because I will be practically dead from exhaustion.  But next weekend will be Sangria Saturday!  And I am going to cook some of my voluminous recipes.

As a matter of fact, I will give you all a great dessert recipe we had at book club the other night, via Bridgette.  Layer ice cream sandwiches, Cool Whip, and drizzle caramel and chocolate over the top.  She used two boxes of ice cream sandwiches for a rectangle pan and about one and a half tubs of Cool Whip.  Place a layer of the sandwiches on bottom, cover with layer of Cool Whip, drizzle the chocolate and caramel; repeat.  Freeze overnight.  It was fantastic and so easy.  She has used raspberry sauce with raspberries for garnish.  Topped it with crushed Heath bars or Butterfinger.  It’s a versatile dessert that you can make to your liking.

Let me know if you try it and what you think.  I think I will make it this weekend for the big Paradise Party I’m having.  You are all invited.  Please bring your own work gloves and rubber boots or old tennies for climbing in and out of the pool.  If you don’t want to paint, you can clean the pool house.  It only has two years worth of crud in there since I didn’t even go in it last year… I don’t think.

How exciting!!  Something different for the weekend.  Paradise Party!!  It may look like a dump heap right now, but Paradise coming up!  Can’t wait to see you (and your work clothes).

Gypsy Parade

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three budding gypsies

This past winter the girls and I were gypsies.  Kate loves pretending to be, well, just about anything.  And, of course, do I.  Ava will follow suit even though sometimes she refuses to wear our “designs” for play.  She’s usually rather stoic, looking at us like we are fools, with her solemn little eyes.  I can just hear those thoughts now. “Please don’t tell me you expect me to put that thing on my head!”  Although recently she has begun to enjoy pretending with us.

We traipse around town, the three of us; me pushing Ava in the stroller; Kate driving her pink Barbie car… her decorated pink Barbie car.  She usually has riders along for the ride as well.

passengers ready for a ride

I have on the worst clothes in my closet (usually short shorts that highlight my nasty thighs and a cami with stains) because we never decide to go for the ride/walk until we are outside in the middle of it, a block away from appropriate clothes before I realize I wouldn’t be caught dead in the clothes I am traipsing all over town in!  The gypsy parade:  Me in the what-kind-of-get-up-is-that, Kate in God-alone-only-knows-what-she’s-come-up-with, and Ava stained from lunch and dirty from playing; me pushing the stroller that Ava sits in with a drink in hand, doll or stuffed animal squeezed beside her with periodic yielding as I take my foot and push the back of the car that Kate has run off the sidewalk road because she is gawking at something along the route; me in flipflops with the other two gypsies barefoot.

Maybe we should call this the Redneck Gypsy Parade.

Encompassing my Essence

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The apron that totally describes who I am!

My good friend, Dolores, came by one evening awhile back, quite awhile by now, and brought me this oh-so-cool apron to celebrate my blog.  I have been wanting to put it on here for ages, but for some reason didn’t. (who knows with me?)

So today I took some close-up shots of all the stickers that most aptly describe me to a T!

my favorite Scripture

I can’t tell you how many times God has lifted me up to soar above the storm that surrounded me.  I would show you my eagle, but my sis would frown at me showing, literally, my a** once again.

playing piano, singing, listening...

I love music.  It soothes my soul or peps me up to a good mood; it gives me joy to see others learning how to play or stepping out to sing at church; and, of course, I can’t dance without it.

I love summer!!! I love chatting!!!

These aren’t my best photo shots, but was trying to get close, in a hurried sort of way.  Never pays to hurry: the story of my life.  How does the time get away from me like that?  And why do I feel I always need to rush, rush, rush?  “I’m not ready!”

happy mood? sad mood?

We have a lot of issues in my family, so sometimes we have a lot of heartache.  Some days we just smile and act like everything is fine.  And some days, well, everything is fine.  What a great day!  Those are the days we cherish… and try to remember on the “other” days.

children, sisters, brother, cousins, nephews, nieces, the greats, friend family, church family

One of my very favorite things:  people.  I collect them, much to my sister’s chagrin. (look that up, girlie)  She gives me specific orders NOT to talk to anyone when we go shopping.  She has finally got me trained because I don’t remember her saying that in a while.  Now, she is the Chatty Cathy (do you remember her?) and meets all kinds of people she knows.  It’s the same with my sister-in-law, Annie.  I feel like I’m with a celebrity when I’m with her because everybody, and I mean everybody, knows her and gushes all over her and wants her attention and talks to her.  While I stand there invisible.  It’s tough.  But…

yellow circle tag! I'm almost there!

I am a celebrity in training!  “Well, isn’t that special?”  Yeah, baby, I have a blog!  Woohoo, watch out world.  Okay, okay.  So only a handful of people actually read it and less than a thimble full comment, I still have it!

I’m not quite sure what that little green thing means.  Surely, it does not mean those nasty, littlebig, ugly words that I neverever-almost neverever-wellmaybesometimes-okayonoccasion-everyday say!!

novice photographer that needs to take some lessons

Pictures are just so cool.  And since I want to be cool, I take pictures.  On occasion I even take a good one.

Thank you, my friend, for such a gift of the heart.  To know that you pay attention to someone, me in particular, enough to know the essence of who that person is brings joy to my heart.

When It Starts Coming Together…

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the tongue helps... really, it does

Giving piano lessons is one of the neatest things about getting the baby grand.  Of course, I wanted the grand for me, but I also didn’t want to give piano lessons on the little spinet I had.  (won’t give a brand name of the little spinet, but it’s just not a good piano)  And I did want to give lessons.  We need some new piano blood in our church.  Vickie and I aren’t getting any younger.

totally focused

Emily is eight, and I am priming her for the church pianist.  She just started a couple of months ago, serious lessons, and she’s doing great.  I love to watch her throw her hands out to the sides to calm herself down for the new pieces.  And I love to watch her when she’s really practiced hard and knows her lesson well.

now she's getting it

Today’s lesson, the new lesson, was the theme from the Mickey Mouse Club.  It looks hard at first until she plays through it a couple of times.  Then she sees that really can get it.

oh, yeah!!

And she really  likes it when we play the piece together.  We played a duet of Old McDonald today.  She was fantastic and very happy as she played it with me.

It’s just such fun when it all starts coming together.

Workin’ the Dirt

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I think I did more work than Kate did

Kate and I were out planting and digging and got very dirty.  When we came in, we compared feet to see who got the dirtiest.  She says she did.  I think I did.  I even got a blister on my baby piggy!  I don’t know how that happened because I was wearing flipflops.  We used to call those thongs when I was little, but now if you say you wore thongs to the store, people look at you kind of funny.

I had to take the bottom to prove she was dirtier

Ah, feet.  Some of the most useful things around.

Matilda Hogbottom and Friends

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Tonight was a fun-filled night full of good food with a bunch of good ladies.  Little Chapel Church was host to a bunch of women who got to enjoy hearing Matilda Hogbottom give us three defense techniques.  They were great and were accompanied by the defense moves (Karate Kid comes to mind).

Matilda Hogbottom

She came with her floaties on her arms, her water mask on her face, and her pool noodle.  After all, there is a flood going on up here.  She had the rather remarkable boots to go with the rest of the get-up.

Matilda explained that gossip discussing people’s problems was “Perfectly awl riiiight” because it helped us to pray for them better.  She then proceeded to regale us with tales from the preacher’s wife to the church secretary that were as far-fetched as they were funny.  My cheeks are still hurting from laughing so hard.

Her friends, Vergie Faye and Eugene, were there as well.  Two old farts who were discussing their newly acquired knowledge of the internet, their salsa dance lessons in keeping with the spirit of “Cinco de Mayo” as in mayonnaise, complete with the jar of mayo.  They, too, had me in stitches.

It feels good to laugh… to laugh at wholesome comedy… my endorphines are happy.

Pool Work Ahead!

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It’s getting that time.  All the kiddos are asking me when I’m going to open the pool.  They are awed by my awesome slides into the pool.  If pool sliding were an Olympic event, I’m there.

It starts with “the climb.”  Up the ladder that is.  That ladder is tall, very tall, especially for a short chick.  As the crowd (of kiddos) cheers me on, I put one foot in front of the other until I reach the summit.

success!! I sit at the summit of success (or top of the slide)

From there it is all downhill, literally.  All I have to do is simply let go.  My fans cheer and encourage me (just let go for crying out loud!) until I begin my descent.  The grace of the glide is fantastic!My adrenalin pumps.  Hands held high as if riding a roller coaster, off I go to plunge into the blue, cool water.

I’m never sure what happens about halfway down that causes to me to grab my nose and start screaming.

The Give-Away Results

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Jill with her "laptop"

Finally!!  The picture is viewable!  Jill sent me the pic of her with her “laptop,” and I’ve been trying to figure out how to get it to be an actual picture instead of alphabet soup with a few symbols thrown in for roughage.  I never know how these things work themselves out; just glad they do.

It’s been a rough week.  Not just for me and mine but for my community and the surrounding communities.  On the heels of the tsunami and earthquakes come tornadoes and flooding; fighting rages in the Mideast; gas goes up while the economy precariously teeters toward going down or flat out free falls in some areas of the country and for many people.  My heart is aching for you all, and I could cry my eyes out (just about have over the weekend).  The list is extensive that is under the heading “Heartache.”

So what does this have to do with Jill and her picture with her new laptop?  Joy.  Joy in the midst of sorrow; a smile in among the furrowed brows; an “I-hope-she-has-another-one” happy thought amid the swirling, darker worries; the glimmer of sunshine popping out on a rainy, stormy, sad, exhausted day.

For a moment enjoy the fun I had with my give-away.  Thank you all for participating; I had such fun; you all had such good things to say, uplifting me, making me smile or laugh.  I have read and reread your responses so many times I probably know them by memory.  You make my blog fun as well as feed me your strength when I have none and give me your wisdom because I don’t have much.  I love you guys!!!!

pitiful packaging

The “laptop,” as you have seen above, was an apron, a wonderful piece of cloth that covers your lap when sitting as well as standing.  I’m truly amazed no one thought of that.

The box was a little worse for wear by the time it arrived in Ohio.  I can see I have to learn how to mail properly.  The postal employees wanted to make sure that the mailee knew the mailer was a novice packager.  Here is what the tag on the outside had to say:

damaged box but not goods

The contents were intact, nothing broken.  The balloon I had put in there was still blown up, perhaps not to its full balloon girth, but a nice, cheery, round-bellied blue surprise.

balloon to cushion the goods

In one package was her apron “laptop,” and in the other package was a sugar cookie candle.  You saw the rest of the fun stuff:  a photo album which will go perfectly for her pictures from their beach vacation; a key holder that says “Be Happy,” a car coaster with flip flops all over it.  She said she loved it all, and in fact, does look rather happy in the picture.

Jill has been through a lot this year with her battle against cancer, so I was kind of glad she won; she needed a prize for being thrown in the ring to fight cancer and coming out the winner.  It’s odd, too.  When I uploaded the numbers, her number won.  But just to make sure I actually did it correctly, I uploaded them again… and she won again.

So… I’m thinking the powers that be thought she should win this little fun give-away, no matter how small.  My birthday is in June, and I’m having another one.

Here are the results of your answers for the contest:

A Love Story and the blogs about James won the favorite blog with stories about the grandgirls, Jarred’s struggles, and my sunflowers coming in second.  Movin’ On Up and the grocery fiasco were No. 3.

Julie was first to respond (she really should get a prize for that).

The laptop guesses were great!  My very favorite was by Dymisha who said it would be  “cardboard with a keyboard drawn with a crayon.”  Now that is funny.  A laptop desk got the top guesses with Darla even adding that it would be a beach scene (since I was in Florida).  Notebook was the runner up (wishful thinking).  Gail said NONE!  (hahaha)  And then there was a toy laptop.

Some of you had NO faith in my ability to provide a laptop (you must know my finances) or even be able to sort through the comments and keep track of who said what how many times and when.  (Okay.  Now I’m confused.)  And some of you missed the opportunity to play at all!

June isn’t that far away.  Be thinking of your favorite memory of me or favorite story or favorite quote or favorite something (because some of you I only know through email or blog sites).  Don’t tell me yet… not till June.  Give you lots and lots of time.  I reserve the right to delete those most horrible, embarrassing, stupid moments, words, actions.

Hmmm.  Not much left, is there?