Ok Universe. Make this go through for me and my husband. We want this yellow house.

Make it happen!

Thank you!

We really love it!

Quote of the day!

My quote of the day comes from a friend named Kat.

"I don't care how they got it in there, what's a whole canned chicken good for?"

Made me laugh!

An Evening with Shirley MacLaine, The death of a tyrant and the need for retreat.

Sunday I spent the day catching up with a friend from high school. We went out to Galveston Island and spent the afternoon window shopping and having lunch at Yaga's cafe. BTW if you are ever at Yaga's do try the Cider Salad. Mixed greens, grilled granny smith apples, candied pecans, bleu cheese crumbles with apple cider-brown sugar vinaigrette, it was scrumptious!

Sorry got side tracked. Evonne and I were in Galveston because we had tickets to spend "An Evening With Shirley MacLaine" at The Grand 1894 Opera House. We were in the second tier balcony middle left and had excellent seats. It was well worth the ticket price and we enjoyed it very much. If you get the chance do go see her! Afterward we walked on the beach for awhile then went out to dinner with her SO and had margaritas and Mexican food. A thoroughly enjoyable day!

Upon arriving home a friend in Canada texted me and said "Turn on the television" and I heard the news about Ossama being killed by American Military. A part of me seemed to relax just a little, the horror of watching the 9/11 attacks on television and the memory of the fear and absolute stunned astonishment of that day releasing momentarily like a breath I had held for ten years and didn't know it.

In the light of day now I realize it means little in the way of stopping the terrorist acts, in fact might cause them to accelerate, but if he was the driving force, the head of the snake so to speak, one can only hope his death will signal an easing of the way for a respite of the terror his movement has caused around the world.

As for the retreat.... well I've almost talked myself into the fact that I am in need of a spiritual or artistic retreat. I began looking online and pricing trips and who knew it would be so expensive to go five hours away for a weekend! Still....just a trip doesn't seem to be what I feel I need so I will continue to shop and look. I found an artists retreat to Greece for week I was very tempted by, but that is something I would have to save for over a year to get and perhaps in the future it is something that is a possibility, but for now I will try something a bit closer and a bit more economical.

If you hear of anything let me know!

The Royal tadoo

While I am very happy for the Royal couple, I am not one who is into following the big tadoo online and on television, on the radio. I think it is wonderful that they are happy and in love and that the Royal family is supportive but hours and hours of coverage on the clothing and the kiss and where they will go on their honeymoon, I have little interest in what-so-ever.

I do understand they are one of the few Royal dynasties left and what a moral boost it is for those countries connected to them. A general sense of hope and happiness is wonderful en mass, and I admire them for putting up with it and doing it for the people watching as much as for themselves, but I also remember how it ended for Princess Diana. I say leave the young couple alone and let them enjoy their lives. Huzah for the marriage and now back to your regularly scheduled programs.

Thank you.

For some strange reason...

For some strange reason I cannot seem to keep up with a blog. Maybe I don't find myself all that interesting? I don't live on a big cattle ranch, or in Europe. I am an average person, in an average world, who does average things. Why would anyone follow my hijinks on a blog. Do I even have hijinks and if not where on earth do I get some?

I don't solve mysteries in my spare time and though I do feel I have some sort of wit, I doubt it is rapier sharp, or even very sparkly. No, I would definitely say my wit was a little rusty and covered in dust. I used to write short stories, most of which were of an erotic nature. Not that I am an erotic person, but I think somehow I figured erotic short stories were easier to write than something more ...I dunno, serious?

I do miss it though, my elusive creative side. Now in my early forties I find I am gravitating back toward my previous self. Trying to find that comfortable niche between reading, gardening, art and writing. Would that I had more spare time to do more. My first task will be my raised bed garden which is terribly overgrown and neglected. I must reclaim my beds and clean them out. Make smaller sections and plant herbs and flowers.

I saw something today online I think I will do to cover the cinder blocks so they are not so very conspicuous and I think instead of trying to fight the grass around the beds I will embrace it. Pull up the gardening sheeting and let it grow. It will be easier than trying to keep the grass out of the mulch or stones and easier on the feet.

Today's task will be to spread the diatomaceous earth on the beds and around them to kill the ants that have absolutely taken over. Then by the weekend I should be able to get out there and weed out the beds and weed eat around the blocks enough to pull up the sheeting.
Then next paycheck I can start buying the plants!

I'm actually getting rather excited about it! I will of course plant some tomatos, and some veggies in the back sections but the front areas will be mostly herbs and edible flowers. Things the butterflies will enjoy. Some berries and lettuces will do nicely too.

Hmmm...then perhaps I can begin to embelish the garden grounds around them so that we can enjoy them this summer!

Mmmmmm!

Pot roast is in the slow cooker, all the roasted tubers and veggies are prepped and spiced up in the fridge waiting to go into the oven. We roast extra veggies in the oven cause the slow cooker holds more meat than veggies and there's always a fight over the potatoes.

I'm still working on the mountain of laundry but things are looking up. I've got a load of dishes in to wash, four loads of laundry done and two more working in the washer and dryer.

Still working on the living room but its picked up and the couches have been vacuumed and sprayed down for uber freshness. All that's left is vacuuming the rug and running the swiffer over the floor. Dusting the shelves lightly. I can clean the kitchen up after the kids get home, get them started on the homework portion of the day, toss in some snacks to keep them quiet and put in a movie after that's done to keep them entertained. Then its floors in the kitchen, and hitting the counter tops.

I may make the brownies ahead of time and put them aside so when its closer to dinner I can do the veggies and bread without having to do the brownies last minute. Yep...I think I got a handle on this!

A new respect for the old cliche "Nit picking"

We've had a rough week! First Catherine goes to the emergency room, then everyone is struck with a stomach virus and to top it all off on Sunday we discovered (to my great dread) that Isabel had a case of head lice.

My first response was "OMG what? Not my kid!" but there they were. I immediately got online and started researching what to do, how they got there, who to hunt down! Out of all five of my kids and all the years of raising them I have never had to deal with lice. This is our first case.

I looked through the articles online and read that most moms say the over the counter stuff doesn't work, (Great, now what?) so I dug deeper and began researching home remedies. I thought what the heck, before I rush out and spend a ton of money on things that might or might not work lets see what I've got in the pantry that might fix the issue.

There were a lot of posts that said to try Mayonaise and white vinagar. I knew from growing up in the 80's that mayo was good for your hair so I figured we would give it a go.

We slathered her head in mayonaise (Real mind you, not miracle whip. Only the best!)and put a plastic bag on her head for three hours. We heated it gently with the hair dryer (evidently they don't like heat) and crossed our fingers!



This is Busy (Isabel) with the bag on her head, oddly in a great mood for a kid distraught about the "bugs" in her hair. We call her Busybell, cause when she was a toddler she was into EVERYTHING. It's stuck and been shortened to Busy over the years. She is a very girly girl and not ten minutes before the pic was taken she was near hysterical about the whole thing.

So...we let that sit for three hours then into the shower we went. I rinsed and shampoo'd her head with the tea tree shampoo to get the mayo out then rinsed with the vinagar. Liberally. On to the combing with the nit comb. (go to the pet section and get the metal flea comb, the cheapo plastic combs that come in the kits break too easily) Two and a half hours of combing and picking the nits and we shampoo'd and conditioned with the tea tree shampoo and conditioner. I checked and double checked and triple checked her, then the others who were louse and nit free. Then I shampoo'd them with the tea tree stuff just to be on the safe side.

We vaccumed the mattresses on ALL the beds, stripped all the linens and washed them with hot water and laundry soap, adding liquid lysol to the wash cycles for good measure. Vaccumed the floors and furniture and sprayed them all down with disinfectant spray and I am currently washing all the bed linens, clothes, jackets, hats mittens...basically everything we own is getting the hot water and lysol treatment.

I took them into school this morning and had the nurse check us ALL over. Her amazed response was "Are you SURE she had lice yesterday?" I did such a good job of decontaminating us all she thought I might have made a mistake. LOL

Listen sister, I don't mess around! I am determined this will be our one and ONLY brush with this issue, evah! Still I guess one out of five kids is not too bad. It was bound to happen with them all in public schools. I am assured by all the MD websites that this is not a hygine issue but one that is all too common in public school systems.

I warned Busy's teacher and the nurse they should check the classroom and now all is right in the world, though....I admit my nerves are still jumping with phantom itchies, though I have been assured I did an excellent job and have nothing to worry about by the nursing staff at the elementary.

The upside to all this?



Busy is none the worse for the wear, mayonaise is an excellent deep conditioner and white vinagar rinse leaves your hair extra shiney!

My girly girl was thrilled!