Brother Here Reporting

I just got off the phone with Trailboss and she is doing well sans electricity. The power has been off since 11:30AM Tuesday. There are broken trees, electrical lines down and telephone poles snapped all over the area. Their land line is back in service and they get intermittent cell phone reception. They have a propane heater they are using when needed to keep the chill out.

This morning Trailboss made a wagon train breakfast of sausage and eggs and she said they ate like it had been years since they had had hot food. Stephanie has gone off to stay with her father on the other side of town since he was without power for only a day. Lisa is staying with the homestead taking care of the dogs and the horses.

She is very grateful for all they have today, that they can stay with the house and survive. She is also very appreciative of all your prayers. I am, too.

~Scott

Ice Day!

Yeppers. It happened. It iced last night.







If you just added a bit of grape to this slushy it would probably taste pretty good!



I love this picture of the fence taken from my porch.



In this one do you see the trees to the left that have the branches about to give way to the ice? Joe has been keeping an eye on these 2 trees to see if/when the branches might fall.

The fence looks pretty cool too.



We are lucky to still have electricty. It has gone off and on a few times but so far so good. Wish us luck!

Tuesday will be full of ice

Western Kentucky and the surrounding area is expecting an ice/snow storm starting about 6pm tonight. It looks like about an inch of ice and possibly some snow tomorrow. Oh joy. Joe went to the grocery today to stock up on stuff. I don't know why everyone thinks we need to have milk, bread and eggs whenever inclement weather is approaching. Are we all going to make french toast? In that case I'll need cinnamon. Oh wait, I have cinnamon at home. The day is saved.

Seriously though it happens every time we have a winter storm watch or warning. I personally think the grocery owners are in on predicting the weather. I don't know how many times a storm has been predicted and nothing happens. It is rather humorous. I am glad that I know where my son is and that he will be warm and fed. A month ago I would have been afraid for him.

OH! I have a couple of shots of the girls yesterday when Annie and I pulled into the driveway. I called Joe as I turned on our road and he let Sophie out. Look at her ears in the first shot. Too funny!



Mom, is that you?





Where yall been Mom? Wait, let me smell your boots, then I will know.



Then I let Annie out and they played a bit. Not much though cause it was cold. Real cold!













There is my dufus husband with his arms out. He does this every damned time he knows his picture is being taken.



I don't get it. I simply do not get it.



Home Sweet Home.

Hey, to my Texas friends and family......care to send some decent weather my way? Please?

Sunday...a day to remember

Today I saw Ryan. I saw him in a way I have not see in a long time. A really long time.













I think this one is my favorite.



I must say...Lifeline has done him well.




Thank you Lord, thank you my friends. Prayers have definitely been answered.

Well, ya can't have everything

My Abby didn't come over. Whine. Whine. Boo hoo. Sniff Sniff. Joe wasn't feeling very well while he was in town yesterday so he came on home while she was still at the skating rink. Her step-grandfather's daughters invited her to go skating. She was going to wear her bike helmet but her head is too big now. Big head.

I stayed home yesterday as I had some odd samples to collect during the day for the new doctor I saw last week. I had to collect some other weird stuff at midnight too. Hopefully, after all these dang tests he will find out what needs to be done about the tumor on my left kidney. Perhaps then I can get off of some of these hoards of blood pressure medicines I have had to take and wear lately.

Today I will take Annie to see my son Ryan. He called yesterday and asked me if I would bring him 1/2 gallon of whole milk. Lifeline Ministries operates on donations only so they don't always have the little 1/2 pints of milk like he drank the last time I was there. I am looking forward to seeing him. I'm glad to be able to say that.

My family wants me to complete breakfast now. I am the official gravy maker. I do make some good stuff, I must admit.

Just a date change

The due dates for my daughters have changed. Beth's is now September 12th and Amy's is August 20th. Actually, I think the only one that changed was Beth's. Anyway, I found these nifty pregnancy counter thingies on Jenn's blog this morning so I added them to mine! I showed Joe a minute ago and told him that Amy's baby looked like him.

It is a cooooooold day in western Kentucky today. The weatherman is calling for possible ice next week. A lot of it. Oh joy...what fun. Maybe it won't happen.

Annie and Sophie are playing around my feet as I type so Miss Annie must be feeling a bit spry this morning. I love when she starts to act like she used to. It warms my heart.

I think Abby is coming out later on. I hope so. I stopped by her house yesterday and when I honked the horn and blew her a kiss I literally felt butterflies in my stomach. That little girl just does something to me.

Oh My.....and how funny!

I am sure that all of you folks saw Ms. Aretha's hat on Tuesday. But have you seen this?

I can't stop giggling. I also watched part of Ellen Wednesday when I was home sick and she sported one too. I told Joe that I just have to get one.

I meant to include this link so everyone can wear this hat!

I'm glad to be back to work but not to work with fu__ing idiots

I was sitting in the break room just a bit ago talking with 2 of my fellow workers, one who is my boss. Something was brought up about our new President and my boss said his wife had sent a joke to his phone about Obama. Then he mentioned a rope. He started laughing and then the other idiot started laughing as well. I said "What in the hell is funny about that?" They kept giggling and acting stupid so I stood up and said "I'm not listening to this shit" and stormed out of the door, all the while hollering about how ignorant they are and that they are bigots. I washed out my bowl and walked back into the break room to put it where it belongs and the one guy said "I'm sorry." I fired back and told him "you should be sorry, you're both sorry and stupid!" I am not going to listen to that kind of ignorance. Hopefully they might think about this the next time they start to talk like that. But I doubt it. I love most things about where I live but I hate.....HATE the ignorance. And I am surrounded by it. UGH!

What makes people like that? I know the answer..............ignorance, stupidity, narrow mindedness, growing up around it. No matter what the reason there is no excuse for it. Everyone can learn if they just open their eyes....and hearts. I have been known to go off on someone for this kind of stupidity.

Geez, that has my blood boiling!

What a way to start a day

Hugging the toilet that is. There has been a 24hr bug running around work the past couple of weeks and apparently someone decided it was my time to experience it. Can I say "no thanks?" Guess not.

Here I am, in Kansas with my husband and my two babies, Annie and Sophie. Sweet Annie stayed with me until I got up at 8am this morning. Sophie kept jumping on the bed with bone in tow begging me to get up or at least talk to her. She is silly that way. She's always doing silly things with bones or toys.

When I walked into the living room Joe didn't even know I was still home. He said "what are you doing?" I had wondered if he knew I was still sleeping. I always leave the fan on in the bedroom when I leave because usually there is a pup sleeping in the bed.

I don't know why I couldn't have had my turn of being sick yesterday when I could have watched the festivities on TV. But we don't pick and choose when we get a bug. Why is it called a bug anyway? Is there a bug inside of me? If so I wish it would crawl back out.

I am thankful that my stomach is feeling much better and I have not had any more reason to make friends with the porcelain god again. I'll just take it easy today and hopefully tomorrow I will get back to work.

Greetings from DC!

I can't tell you how excited I am to be in D.C. to witness such a historical event. I didn't tell anyone, even So, that I was going to be here. I am taking just a minute to write this and then I am off to see the new President!

I will be amongst the crowd of well wishers to see the hope and happiness in everyone's eyes. In fact I will be right up front next to Oprah and her gang. Ha Ha. Gave it away with that one didn't I? I would love to be there but I don't think I could handle the crowds. In fact I KNOW I couldn't handle the crowds. In fact I would have to pee as soon as I got to my spot. My bladder is not my best friend most times. I would have had to wear a Depends diaper in order to survive! Wouldn't that be attractive?

I wanted to take the day off and see it all unfold on TV but as it is I will rely on what is broadcast tonight. I don't think I will have any trouble finding it tonight. Let's all take a moment today and pray for our new President. He has so much on his plate already.

Excitement is in the Air

Today we remember Martin Luther King Jr. What a great man. I wish I could remember his speeches. I wish I could remember when he was saying what the nation needed to hear, even though so many didn't know they needed to hear it. I can not imagine how he is feeling now, seeing Obama being sworn in as president. How exciting!

I think the entire nation is exciting about our new President. We have so much hope. So much admiration. I am proud that I voted for him, proud that our nation has come so far as to elect a man with a white mother and a black father. A man elected to the highest office that that years ago would have been considered "someones property." This country has come a long way. I hope and pray it will continue to get better and better.

Trailboss

I went to google images this morning and typed trailboss. Look at all of the things that appeared!

I don't get the Shrek like one.

TGIF

It is a very cold day today. I am grateful to be in my little warm office. I brought a cute little space heater to work Monday and couldn't have timed it any better. This week has brought frigid temperatures.

My son called me last night from Lifeline Ministries. He sounded great. His voice was clear and different. Different in a good way. He said he is experiencing feelings he hasn't felt in years. He thanked me for my prayers for him. He choked up while thanking me. I told him that he has no idea how many people are praying for him. Thank you my friends.

My daughter wants me to take her shopping tomorrow. It's pretty cold to be shopping but she rarely asks so I will take her. In fact it will be fun. A girl's day out is just what we both need.

My husband is doing a pretty good job of cooking these days. I always say that anything that I don't have to cook tastes good to me. I cook on the weekends so it works out. We had Overnight Casserole last night. It was good. I have been trying to help through the week by printing a menu of what we have in the house and also recipes from the internet. Some of them are pretty good.

I look forward to this weekend. I love to be able to sleep until I wake up. That is a luxury. It sure was hard to get out of bed this morning. It's just too cold and that bed was too warm!

I hope everyone has a fantastic Friday. I know I will!

Not Good

As I was driving to work this morning I heard on the news that a local drive-in restaurant was on fire. Parker's is located right next to my Dad's old dental office. Lots of memories were made there.

On some weekends in the summer time Parker's used to have "50's night" where local folks would drive their restored cars and trucks and park outside. It was always neat to go during these nights. Heck, it was neat just to drive by and see the old cars and think of something like "Happy Days." Can't you just see Richie and The Fonz hanging out?

It's sad to think about Parker's never being like that again. I always remember it there, my entire life. When So would drive to town from Houston he stopped there to get 2 Starne's BBQ sandwiches to bring to my house and eat. That is one thing that he really misses about Paducah.

I hope they rebuild but let's face it, it will never be the same.

Flowers

I don't know about you guys but I needed some color this morning. Something to look forward to this spring. It is colder than a witch's tit this morning and spring is just around the corner. Right?





Aren't they purty? I think I will make one my wallpaper today. It will make me smile.



Just what I needed today. How about you?

Houses For Sale

Has anyone looked on www.realtor.com lately? Go there and type in Detroit, MI and see what $1 will get you. I saw this last week on Yahoo news and couldn't believe it. There are houses and property selling for $1. They are mostly, if not all, bank owned and sold "as is."

I can't imagine what the neighborhoods must look like. Boarded up houses, unkept yards. It must be very depressing. It would be so nice to have someone come in and buy up all or most of the houses and repair them, sell them at a reasonable price and let the people back in their homes. Wouldn't that be something to see? But sadly I don't see that happening. More than likely these homes will continue to sit empty and over time will simply fall apart. Neighborhoods that once sported young families will continue to sit in disarray.

That is just a small example of what is going on all over the country. Folks were given loans for houses they couldn't afford. The banks and lending institutions encouraged mortgages that a family thought they could afford, that is until the interest rate ballooned forcing many many families out of their homes. Now, I realize that every consumer should know what they are signing, read all of the contract prior to signing and educate themselves before the purchase of a home but not everyone does that.

Before Joe and I bought our first home I went to the local bank and sat down with a loan officer and told her that I needed to know everything about buying a house. I found out and quickly got upset with Fannie Mae. I had no clue who or what Fannie Mae was and actually told the woman that I wanted to talk to her. Fannie Mae that is. OK, you can stop laughing at me now. The point is that I found out what I needed to know. But I didn't know everything. Far from it. I trusted my banker and my realtor to educate me further.

So where were the loan officers and realtors when these folks were buying their homes? Has the world sunk so low that no one cares about anyone but themselves anymore? Apparently in the world of banking and realty that is the case. Now I'm not saying that every banker and every realtor is this way but there were enough involved a few years back to give people loans that they knew they would not be able to afford eventually.

It's just not right.

Close to 500!

I just noticed that I am getting closer to post #500. When I started this blog I had no idea how much time I would spend on it. I guess that is most people's story too. I doubt that I will do anything different for that post since things like that don't really mean a lot to me.

What does mean a lot to me is this precious thing



Isn't she beautiful? Even though the cancer is taking away the hair and pigment on her sweet face she still takes my breath away.



She is doing really well these days. We are still feeding her wet food mixed with some dry. We are trying to keep the weight on her and so far she hasn't lost any. She is still taking her medicine but otherwise she is pretty much herself. She even played a few times this past weekend. I do however miss the days that she and Sophie would go on forever playing together.



We might not see many of those days again but we sure do have some great memories. Meanwhile we continue to love and spoil her in every way we can think of. She's worth it.

My Precious was here

While I was running my errands Saturday, Joe and Stephanie had some errands of their own. The most important being to drive to town to pick up my precious. It has been a few weeks since she has been out overnight and it was way past time. Before dinner Abby discovered a new way to have fun with Sophie which involved her jump rope.

















I think someone has been taking roping lessons!





Whoo Hooo! I got her Grandmother! Uh, what do I do now? She was kind of like the dog that finally caught the car he had been chasing and didn't know what to do next. She decided that she and Sophie had played hard so a rest was in order.











For anyone who ever wondered if a Boxer would be a good dog for kids just take a look at this. It pretty much sums up how boxers love children. Of course, I could be just a bit prejudice.