2008 In Review...

Well, here it is, almost 2009. I've had so much fun blogging although there are times when I have nothing worth sharing. Yet, it seems that no matter how boring my life can be, something seems to come up that I feel I need to share with you. So, in order to say goodby to 2008, I'm sharing my top 5 favorite posts from my blog in 2008.

#5: Thought Provoking Question of the Day...


#4: I Have This Hair...
I hate moles. I have this little one on the left side of my upper lip that I hardly ever notice. I've decided that I'm now at the age where I evidently need to pay a little more attention to it. You see, it has this hair that grows out of it.

Normally, the hair is no longer than the other cute little invisible hairs that grow near my lips. For some reason, today I decided I should probably check it and damn! That little sucker was probably a quarter inch long - how long has it been like THAT? And why is it that only facial moles get those ugly hairs?



I remember once when I happened to scratch my neck and found this hair that was probably, AND I'M NOT EXAGERATING, 3 inches long. Dear Gob, how long had it been there and why hadn't SOMEBODY who loves me told me about it. How hard is it to say, "Hey, by the way, you have this big old long, ugly hair growin' outta your neck. You may want to pluck that ugly sucker."

Be assured, if I ever notice a big, ugly hair hangin' off some part of your body where it doesn't belong, I'll tell you.

probably.

maybe.


#3: Shhhh. It's Our Little Secret...
My sisters are coming to town in a few weeks. We have a little secret...



We're each going to get our noses pierced. Not big, ugly, gaudy, things. Just dainty, pretty little things - like this...



Mom doesn't want us to. She thinks we'll be scarred for life. She thinks we're gonna look like this...



But evidently, SOMEBODY has a



So now mom looks like this...



#2: Time For Another Elmer Fudd Story...

Yes, this actually happened...

Now don't get me wrong, I love my husband. But I have to admit, I sometimes feel a bit bad. Kate and Jacki read this blog called "Confessions of a Pioneer Woman." She's a city gal who married a cowboy and refers to him as "The Marlboro Man." Now how cute is that?

I however, have Elmer Fudd and like I said, I do feel kinda' bad calling him that but what else can I do when I have stories like this to tell.

Elmer Fudd loves being outside. It's his therapy. All the neighbors tell him he needs to get another hobby, that he shouldn't be working out in the yard all the time. (I think they're jealous of our yard). Elmer Fudd also loves his animals. I can't tell you how many times I've been reading or watching some fascinating show on tv and he comes to the door full of excitement and says "Honey, come see what the chickens are doing!" WTF??? They're chickens!!!! Ususally, it's something really exciting like they're eating the corn he just put out for them.

"Don't make me come and look at the chickens again unless they're doing the hokey pokey."

Last week, I was in the kitchen when Elmer Fudd came into the house from the backyard. I turned around to see him carrying Napoleon, one of the chickens. Before I know it, he's sitting in his recliner with that damn chicken on his lap! What the hell!!! It's a chicken for God's sake!

"Get that chicken out of the house!"
"Why? She likes being held."
"I don't care, it's a chicken and you can hold her outside if you want to hold her!" I'm beginning to feel hysterical... He pays no attention.

He's sittin' there in his chair rocking this chicken when the cat decides she wants to see what's up so she too jumps into Elmer Fudds lap.

Naturally, all hell breaks loose as the chicken realizes there's a predator within inches of her fuzzy black butt. The chicken flies off of Elmer Fudd's lap and he catches her in mid-air. We have a cat for hell sake, did he think this wasn't going to happen??

"Ok, get that damn chicken back outside!"
"Ok, ok!"

Black feathers EVERYWHERE! I can't believe I didn't take pictures before I vacuumed them up...

#1: In Honor of the First Day of Fall...

Happy New Year to you all. LIFE IS GOOD!

Christmas...

at home on the 26th, because it's just easier on all the kids. Tim was having a good time...


Lisa got some things for Koby when she gets here in April...

and with the Turner family on Christmas Eve at the clubhouse. Grama T and Joey's wife Breeann...

Aunt Pat bought books for all the little kids and we all signed them.

awwwww...

Move along mom, there's nothing to see here. (she'll kill me if she sees this picture on my blog!) Looks like she's saying "What the ..."

We started a new tradition where the kids, big and small, decorated sugar cookies.

and Adam had some fun with Zooey. Ahhhhhhh... nacho cheese!

A Christmas Tradition...

in probably every house, is to watch A Christmas Story. It's usually on a channel all day long and Adam and I found it about 9am and spent a few hours laughing at scenes we've laughed at for years, but for some reason, year after year, we still love it.



We had a wonderful day with mom, Linda and Martin, and Lisa and Andrea. We ate a wonderful great ham dinner and played Apples to Apples. I love that game! If you don't have it and have never played it, I certainly suggest buying one. It a fun game where you don't have to really think about what you're doing and you don't have to keep score. Just an awesome family game!

I'll post actualy Christmas photos later this week, but it was a wonderful day spent with people I love.

Want to know something awesome I discovered yesterday? I didn't get ONE. SINGLE. PIECE. OF SPAM IN MY INBOX...

God Bless Us Everyone!

Wholesomeness and Goodness...

One of my fellow HS Bloggers recently wrote about how they're getting rid of cable and buying boxed sets of their favorite shows from when they were kids. It again reminded me of how wholesome tv used to be. How I miss those days!

My favorite show when I was really little was Sky King. He was a rancher who, along with his neice Penny, traveled the skies in his airplane "The Songbird" looking for bad guys and saving those who needed saved. Oh how I loved that show!


It made me think about actually doing the same and buying boxed sets of some of my favorite shows such as The Flying Nun, Petticoat Junction, My Three Sons, Mr. Ed, Gomer Pyle, Family Affair, and Gilligan's Island. I almost think Adam might actually enjoy them too! Or am I just dreaming?

So what were YOUR favorite shows when you were little?

Why Spend the Money to go to Disneyland...

when you can get the ride of a lifetime in your very own backyard!

We got a lot more snow last night. It's beautiful. We have this AWESOME tubing hill about a mile east of Hidden Springs and with all this new snow, the boys wanted to try it out since it's the first year it's been here (it's a HUGE mountain of dirt that was piled off the road after construction.

So, all three boys, me, and two big sleds ('cause we couldn't get the back of the truck open - it was frozen shut) ended up in the front seat of my old red truck which is meant for three people at the most.

We got down to one of the few stop signs in the hood and slid to a stop even though it was in 4 wheel drive and I was going super slow. Damn, it was slick! Adam's cell phone rang and he reached into his coat pocket to get it when all of a sudden the engine revved as high as it could go and off we freakin' went! We started sliding and did a 360 as I had my foot SLAMMED on the break trying to get it to stop. But no. I yelled "The gas peddle is frozen!" and I jammed the brakes on even harder, but to no avail. We had slid around the corner and I knew that the only thing I could do was to go off the road and over the sidewalk, over the bank and into the marshy area that's designated a wildlife habitat for the birds up here. So, that's exactly what we did, at about 45 miles per hour. We were kicking up dirt that was about 6 inches under the snow because the tires were spinning so fast even though I had my foot jammed on the break. Finally, we spun around down by the marsh and I steered the truck as best I could toward the bank that went back up the hill. We finally stopped, engine still revving full tilt, because the truck couldn't go back up the hill. It all happened so fast, Adam was still talking on the phone to his friend giving him a blow-by-blow of what was happening.

I looked down at the gas peddle to try and unstick it and realized what the problem was "Damn it Adam, get your foot off the gas peddle!" Yep, when he went to answer his phone, his foot had slipped off the bump in the middle of the floor board and onto the gas peddle - and naturally, the more scared he got the harder his foot was pressed to the floor.



So what valuable lesson did I take away from this terrifying event?

I obviously only pee my pants when I laugh too hard - not when I'm scared to death.

The Perfect Birthday Present..

Last week, Elmer and I went to Jackpot with his company for their Christmas party. They did the gift exchange thing and we always try to end up with something we think Adam would like. Last year, we got a flat screen tv which ended up in the bonus room! This year, we traded our gift for a REALLY cool remote control boat that has fishing line attached. You send it out on a pond and can actually catch fish with this awesome boat! We knew it was something Adam could really have fun with since one of his best friends has a pond stocked with bass and crappie!

With great anticipation, we gave the boat to Adam for his 15th birthday a few days ago. He opened it and pulled it out and then looked at me and asked "Which one of you hillbillies picked this out?"

Ungrateful little shit.

A Bird For Christmas Dinner...

Mom sent this to me and I loved it so much that I wanted to share it with you.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Eeeeeeeek!

Adam loves to ski. He's never taken lessons, but about 5 years ago when he was 10, his Aunt Kelli took him skiing and she said he was a natural. Some of his friends parents who've taken him say the same thing. He's a great skier. It looks like this year he's going to have lots of opportunity to go either with friends' parents, or the boys will ride the bus up the hill.

So, he asked for ski stuff for Christmas. Rather than get him a bunch of stuff that he'd look at and say "Ok, which one of you hillbillies picked this out?", we decided to take him to pick out his own cool crap.

$1,200.00 later, he's all set. Helmet, goggles, scarf, pants, jacket, skis, bindings, poles, socks and boots (we leased those cause his feet are growing so fast - he's a size 11 at 15!)

Silly me, I thought it would cost about $800 for everything. It's peanut butter and jelly for the next few months...

Mom And Kate...

are going to New York in about a week. It's always been one of mom's dreams to go to NYC and see the Rockettes Christmas Show, so dear Kate is taking her to realize one of her long-time dreams. Kate blogged about this trip a few days ago, and mentioned that they won't be doing a lot of walking because mom has some trouble with her back and feet. A blogger friend of Kate's suggested they rent a wheel chair or scooter to get around. Naturally, knowing mom the way we do, we all laughed at the thought of this. There is NO WAY mom would be caught dead using a wheel chair, cane, scooter, or any other type of helpful device to get around. She'd push Kate in a wheel chair before she'd sit in one!



I just had to laugh at even the THOUGHT of mom and Kate doing this and could just picture how it would be in my mind. SO, lucky all of you, I had to draw my thoughts. Now many of you know that my dad was a wonderful artist and luckily, I got some of his talent. So, below you'll see my rendition of how things would be if mom and Kate used a scooter to get around NY.



The first picture is a scooter with a basket. On this one, mom is driving because she doesn't want to look foolish sitting in the basket so she's letting Kate do that.



On this second one, Kate is driving and mom is standing on the back of the scooter with her hands on Kate's shoulders hanging on. I just had to laugh when I thought of the two of them using a scooter.

Good News Girls!

I met with the genetic counselor this morning and my breast cancer wasn't genetic/inherited and there is no increased risk of ovarian cancer!

So, she suggests that sisters/daughters/nieces start getting mammograms at 36 instead of 40 but other than that you're safe as far as current genetics tests go!

Happy Birthday Elmer!

We had a wonderful surprise birthday party for Elmer on Sunday. Naturally, it was a skunk themed party. Elmer's niece Abbey was all decked out in her best skunk outfit...

and Allie and Grace were also skunks... and darned cute ones!

Lisa and Linda gave Elmer Billy Bass, the singing fish. Lisa is getting it back for Christmas sometime when she least expects it...Baby Kole choked on a piece of cantaloupe and quit breathing. It scared the hell out of me and I hope I NEVER have to witness that again. But our friend Denise and our nephew Les (who's training to be a medic in the military - thank GOD) were able to loosen the cantaloupe and after what seemed like forever but was probably only a minute, he started crying and soon after dislodged the food. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life.

So then we had a nice family picture taken (minus Adam who split as soon as he was able - he's almost 15 you know and way to cool to spend too much time with mom and dad).

And of course, having all of his kids and grandkids together made the day really special for our wonderful husband/dad/papa.

Elmer is spending this week hunting for elk with all his stinky hunting buddies. It's a great way for him to get away and forget about work and the normal stresses of life. And, maybe he'll kill something...

Thank You Veterans...

For all you've done... And continue to do.

Let's Pack Our Bags Folks!

I love, love, love cruises. It's by far my favorite vacation to take. I've been fortunate to have been on 5 cruises - 3 to Alaska, and 2 warm-water cruises...

I was watching the Today Show yesterday morning and found out the most interesting piece of information. With the economy the way it is right now, it's cheaper to be on a cruise than it is to be on land people! For only $60 a day we could all be on a cruise ship, and that includes all food, beverages, shows, and sitting in a beach chair listening to the waves slap the ship as you slide through the water. Yep, they make your bed every day with clean, fresh sheets...

Eating - 24 hours a day. Anything you want. If they're having lobster, you can have 5...

We can learn to surf - right on the ship...

And they even make cute little creatures out of your towels every day. HEY, I didn't know you could take the towels home with you!

Yep, when you consider the cost of gas, utilities, food, entertainment and just surviving every day, it's cheaper to be on a cruise ship. I'm outta here!