A blast from the past or don't blog when you are drunk

I get home from a blurry Friday and find this picture staring back at me from my email



My best friend Ginger had told me about this picture but I couldn't place it. Her scanner was down for awhile and she finally fixed it and emailed it to me.

I vaguely remember this person. This was me when I was somebody else entirely different. I think I was mid 20's and didn't have a clue what was forthcoming in my life as it is now.

I was in Ciudad Juarez, had a ton of money, and pretended to be happy. The next year I looked the same in Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam and Brussels. I looked similar in the Caymans, Jamaica, Cancun and Cozumel. This was who I was when money didn't matter.

I went from the low income neighborhood to the 4500 square foot house where I parked my Land Rover, boat, motor home, Excursion, Jeep (just for fun) and had my eye on the BMW that I thought I deserved.

I went from monthly bills of $25,000+ to eeek, will I be able to pay my cable bill this month?

That was who I was then, but who am I now? I vaguely recognize myself in this picture. I don't remember it being taken but I remember the past that goes with it.

I ran into my ex tonight, the one that I built all of my past with-and the one thing that stuck out in my mind was thank God I am not that person any longer.

He was with his new crowd, I was with mine. He points over at me, says something to his friends and they all laugh. It WAS funny, but I was laughing at something completly different than what they were!

A few wins...

I won a free ticket to see Narnia or any Disney Film from the Narnia instant win. This is my second one of those.

I have won 2 T-shirts from the Miller Lite Save the Taste instant win, a 12 pack of Coke from the MIS Race to Win instant win.

While looking back at my winning emails I found one I had missed somehow back in February for a $20 gift card to the NCAA sports store from the Coke A winner every 35 seconds instant win.

That puts my yearly total for 2006 at $1063.03 and an overall total since 2000 at $20,364.52! Not bad for a little side hobby!

Have a great weekend :)

It's official...

More fires on a dry windy day

After the March 22nd fire everyone gets nervous around here when it gets windy-we had 35-45 mph winds with tomorrow an expected 60mph. On that day at least 907,000 acres burned-the largest grassfire in Texas history. 11 people were killed with 22 homes destroyed as well as an estimated 10,000 cattle perished.

Today we had several more fires-This was on our local newspaper website:


Wildfires erupted across the Texas Panhandle Thursday, forcing mandatory evacuation of the Gray County towns of Lefors and Bowers City and at least two northern Potter County neighborhoods, Appaloosa Hills and the Webb Addition at El Rancho Road.

About 550 people evacuated from Lefors and Bowers City, heading to Pampa. At least one structure burned in a fire at Northside Acres, on Willis Knight Street. Fires prompted closure of a number of county roads and highways.



We need some more rain around here and fast!

Rick's son Brad got a new puppy-I wanted to kidnap her when I saw here-she is a miniature pinscher name Loki



Here is one I took of Rick and Randy today-Rick is so attached to that dog. It was love at first sight with those two. My ex wouldn't let me take him when we "divorced" and then a year later his new fling didn't like pets so he dumped him off on me-which I'm glad!

Rick was hesitant at first since we still lived upstairs in my apartment building and had Petey as well. I came back from picking him up and Rick grabbed him and they have been inseparable ever since!



I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

A new look, some pictures, and a new do

I found a new template today at Free Blogger Templates and spent awhile customizing it.

I took some pictures earlier while I was watering the lawn:

This is Randy trying to find a quiet place to recover



This is the puppy tenatively named Sissy AKA Brownie, or Pup



This is a rose of sharon with the new coming out while the old is still on it



Taylor being disturbed from his sun nap



This is me after finally breaking down and coloring the gray in my beard-I think it is too dark but everyone else likes it (or lying to appease me). Not sure if I will do it again-I might try a lighter color



This is the wisteria getting ready to make me want to sit on my patio when the breeze is light



I hope everyone is having a great week :)

Where I Am From

I found this on Donna's blog and thought I would give it a go. If you decide to try it, the template guide is here. Donna did one for her and one for her husband that I enjoyed reading.

My friend Ginger did one as well. If you decide to do one let me know, would love to read it.

Here it goes:

I am from a rebellious shy Catholic girl who married at 15 for so many reasons and Southern Baptist farm kid who came home from graduation to find his bags on the porch.

I am from parents who met on a double date at a carnival and ditched their dates because they fell in love at first sight.

I am from Hamburger Helper, Betty Crocker, Hungry Man TV dinners, Tupperware and generic brands.

I am from a bad backed, gnarled fingered Dad who got that way working 3 jobs so my Mom could stay home and raise kids. I am from the suburbia that slowly went from middle to lower income just as the 30 year mortgage paid off.

I am from the identical plots of Bermuda grass lawns filled with dandelions, the snarly Elm trees and the snow of Cottonwood trees.

I am from Saturday cartoons, Sunday breakfasts of bacon, eggs and biscuits & gravy and eating dinner in front of the TV, from Mayo's and Thompson's, Bradstreet's and Dunn's.

I am from the weekend alcoholics who owned liquor stores and men who came home smelling like death from the beef packing plants while the dogs licked their shoes on the porch. I am from people who were in local papers for catching the biggest fish.

I am From Tornado tales of cars being picked up and gently sat down miles away, stories of how bad the great depression was and why I should clean my plate.

I am from not learning about religion until it was my choice, and finding out about sex from HBO and Reader's Digest.

I'm from the Texas panhandle where I would miss the dry wind and thunderstorms if I moved, where I get nervous when tornado sirens go off, from chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, hush puppies and fried catfish.

I am from a Grandfather who taunted me with his missing finger up the nose trick, from the Aunt who went to work one day and was never seen again. I am from snuggling up in a warm quilt that the hands of grandmother's I never met made.

I am from drawers full of black and white photographs and 8mm film spools full of people I am from but who died before I was born. I am from coin collections, collectible liquor bottles and Elvis memorabilia.

I am from people who did the best they could with what they had who I am finally beginning to appreciate.

Immigration bill....

This angers me on so many levels.

Aren't we all from immigrants? It is just an issue of how many generations it has been since our families have benefited from the same thing that may be taken away from others soon.

Where would our country be if it was decided from the beginning to build a wall and keep people out?

Yes I think there should be a system to document people coming into our country as well as a checks and balance system.

This all reeks of fearmongering and one of the most unAmerican things I have seen on the whole issue is that the immigrants are hurting our economy. If there wasn't an economic niche for them to fill they wouldn't want to come here.

Has anyone seen this movie:

Monday

This is a picture I took awhile back in Colorado and stumbled upon it today. I had forgotten how much I liked it.

Randy got his bad teeth pulled and the few good ones left cleaned. He is still groggy and just wanting to lay there. He had an infection in his nasal cavity that will take awhile to heal.

He has a little pep in him and seems to be taking it all well.



Taylor is doing well and should get his stitches out soon. Here is a picture I took last winter with their matching sweaters (no I don't make them wear sweaters, I just put these on for a photo op and then put them back in storage!)



Petey is running around trying to figure out why everyone else is getting all of his attention.



I hope everyone had a great monday :)

Gorgeous Sunday

It was a gorgeous day today-one that makes you want to work in the yard. My mower is on the fritz so I have to wait til it is out of the shop. All my trees are in bloom and some bulbs are coming up.

Taylor is doing a lot better, he is starting to play with the other dogs and is wanting to stay outside longer. He still wants to be right by my side when he comes in but stopped wanting to sleep on the bed with me. His stitches will probably come out tuesday.

Randy hurt his leg today and is limping. Not sure what happened, he probably jumped off the couch wrong. Tomorrow I have an appointment for him to get his teeth cleaned and some pulled anyway so I'll tell them about it.

Petey is still his ornery self!

Brian got a job and starts tomorrow. He had trouble for awhile finding something due to his probation, but this job didn't seem to mind. He is off probation in a couple of months anyway so he is excited about that as well as getting lots of overtime at the new job.

My Dad told me the other day that he had a lady friend over for dinner last friday. At first I did a double take but after a few minutes I was glad that he is dating rather than moping around. It must be serious, she is going to stay the weekend with him this coming friday! Not sure if he has told my sister and how she will take it.

Hope everyone has a great Monday :)

Ever wonder what to do with those Peeps?

Computer Cord Chaos and too much TV

I kept putting it off. I needed a couple of surge protectors on the computers for the longest time and only had power strips. I finally tackled it today.

I pulled the desk out, unplugged everything, fought the dust bunnies and started from scratch.

I even went so far as to label each plug so I would know what it was later and tied the extra lengths of cords to reduce the mess. This is part of my spring cleaning festival. Yesterday I tackled the kitchen closet (AKA if you don't know where else to put it, throw it in that closet).

You could have spotted me at Walmart-the spring cleaner with a cart piled high with organization bins, boxes and one of those spools to wind the tangled mess of orange extension cord.

I have one closet left-the office closet (AKA when you open the door everything flies out closet). If you watch the show Friends-it's like the closet Monica had under lock and key so no one would no she is actually messy.

I got a DVR recently and have went wild with it. I had no idea I was missing so much TV! I set it to record a show anytime it comes on or a movie that is on when I am away and the next thing you know I have tons of shows to watch.

There is even a handy search feature so I can search for shows I had no idea existed based on a keyword. The best perk is fast forwarding through commercials.

Some of the shows that I normally wouldn't catch that I am now addicted to are:
-Footballer$ Wive$
-Drawn Together
-The Oblongs
-Moral Orel
-Seconds from Disaster
-The Price is Right
-Kath and Kim
-City Confidential
-Distraction

Rick get's to record all of his flyfishing shows, cooking shows, and Larry King Live.

Since I got the new 60" plasma he tapes just about everything in high definition as well! I had no idea how much of a difference high definition was. I'd like to hook up surround sound soon as well.

Parts of our town was evacuated today from a huge grass fire within the city limits. I saw a news flash on and it was towards the area where some of my family live. On top of it all it was windy, about 38-40mph wind. Luckily they contained it and called off the evacuation. The news said 8 homes were lost, but no one was hurt.

I hope everyone has a great TGIF :)

A few wins and boredom...

I got a FedEx envelope yesterday from a GE/Home Depot contest I entered last year and it contained a $50 gift certificate from Home Depot. I need a few small things from there so that is cool.

I also won a lighter from a Camel instant win. I was determined to win that one since I had been playing it for so long!

Taylor had to go back to the vet again-they took his staples out and he itched the spot and opened it back up. So now they used sutures instead-he seems to be leaving it alone for the most part although he is itching were the hair is growing back.

He has been really needy lately so I have been trying to keep him near me. He also is doing a few strange things, like peeing on Brian's leg and getting mouthfuls of food and dropping them in other places throughout the house. Hopefully he won't be doing those for long!

It has been a boring last few days-I'm eyeing my kitchen cabinets and closet to clean them out or the outside shed.

I had a couple of plumbing troubles in the last few days-can't wait to get those bills-yuck.

Hope everyone is having a great week so far :)

Recovering...

I'm slowly starting to feel better from all the scrapes and bruises-still a little down. Taylor is doing good, healing and acting like he is getting back to normal.

I won a couple of things yesterday, a duffle bag from a dorito's instant win and a luggage bag from FedEx. Hopefully this is a good precursor for a trip win??!!

I've been having fun loading up my Ipod with all my cd's, it does more than I thought.

We had a pretty good snow yesterday, it all melted off already, but it was nice to get all the moisture.

Hope everyone has a great weekend :)

F*cked up day

We had a pit bull named Naughty-she was always a mellow dog and never caused any trouble or had ever been aggressive. She was part of the family and, being a pit bull, never caused me any concern about her being around my other dogs.

On Wednesday, she decided to go galavanting, and dug out of the backyard. She got busted by the pound. We paid the fine and brought her home. She was so excited to see us and you could tell she was happy to be home.

We put her in the backyard, and my dog Taylor, who I have had for 7 years was back there. He is a beagle/american foxhound mix, about her same size. He was excited to see her and ran up to her and all of the sudden Naughty attacked him.

I was doing dishes and heard Taylor screaming. Which is an odd thing since he has never barked or made much as a squeek. She had grabbed him by the throat and it was like she went insane.

Rick and his son were out there and were trying to make her let go but she wouldn't. I ran outside and my first thought was to grab her and pull her off but she wouldn't budge. My next thought was to punch her and kick her so she would let go but she wouldn't.

I ran to the faucet to turn the water hose on her, and after a few seconds that seem like minutes of hooking the hose back up, I started spraying her with the sprinker that was attached to the hose.

She finally let go and Taylor ran into the house-she was quick and ran in after him. I got into the kitchen and she had grabbed him by the throat again. I still had the hose and in my kitchen, I sprayed her in the face with the hose again and when that didnt work I started hitting her in the head with the sprinkler that was attached to the hose while punching her with the other hand.

It was so surreal at the time because I lost my dog Reggie in a similar way in 1997 and I wasn't about to lose Taylor the same way.

I punched, kicked, and all but bashed this dog to try to get her lose from Taylor.

Finally, I got her lose from him and he ran into the house while Rick held her.
Taylor was all shook up and on the couch and I ran to check him out. He seemed ok, but there was blood all over me. I found a huge cut on his neck about 4 inches long and freaked out.

I sorta went calm then, to take charge I guess, I told Rick to make sure the other dogs were ok and got Brian to call a Vet to tell them we were on the way, but I was worried since it was after 5pm of who would be open. Luckily the one I picked was open so we made a mad dash and wouldn't you know it my fuel light came on, oy.

Luckily we made it to the vet and Taylory was ok, he got a dose of something that calmed him down, some staples and some antibiotics.

When I finally realized that he was going to be ok, I finally looked at myself and realized I looked worse for the wear. I had cuts all over my hands, both of my knees and elbows were scabbe up and I had a major cut on my hand. I don't remember getting any of them

We all realized at that point that if Naughty had decided to attack one of our other dogs (small dachsunds) or us, it would have all gone down different.

Rick called the pound again, where we had just picked her up, and told them what had happened-to come pick her back up. We knew that they wouldn't adopt her out and put her down.

I am so thankful that Taylor is ok and that it wasn't Petey or Randy she went for, but I feel so horrible that I basically beat the crap out of her before she got put down. But I couldn't and wouldn't ever trust her again to be around Taylor, the other dogs, me, or anyone.

What if it had been one of Rick's or my nephews, or a friend that just happened to be around? I can't even imagine.

So here was this dog that I loved, trusted and even defended when everyone said "eeek it's a pit bull" doing the very thing that everyone feared she would do.

I think Rick and Brian are kinda freaked that I let loose on her, we are all happy that Taylor will be ok but we are all sad that Naughty is gone.

It's all too weird.

Purple weenies and leaky pipes

It wasn't a good day yesterday when the first thing I had to do was call a plumber. He found the leak, fixed it and told me the words I did not want to hear "I think it's time for a total replumbing". I think I aged 2 years from that phone call.

OK, now I have seen it all:



I wish this was a joke! There went my appetite :O

Here is another appetite wrecker although the name is kinda funny:



I hope everyone has a great weekend and that no plumbing calls are in anyone's future!

¡Ay carumba!

Last night I organized my desk and most of the office. Tomorrow I may tackle the office closet, it is one big mess where we shoved all the stray stuff after the move.

Tonight I cleaned out my bedroom closet, going through some old boxes, organizing storage stuff etc. Then I started in on the dresser drawers.

I have a few old tin boxes that I used to collect years ago, and over the years I had stuck stray bits of life in them: a ticket stub, a business card, etc. Back in the mid 90's I took a trip to Mexico and had some leftover money that I stuck in there-the Peso was really weak back then. I also found some Belgian francs and some British pounds that I had leftover from a trip to Europe in 1994.

I sat them aside with the thought of looking on the internet of the conversion rates and kept on cleaning.

I finally sat down and added them all up from the online conversions and while the European money was minimal, the pesos add up to almost $190!! I have some more stuffed in boxes in the closet so I'm hoping that total goes up after I clean it out!

Not much else happened today, I hope everyone has a great weekend :)

A few boring days

Not much has been going on around here. I have been catching up on some movies and books. No wins since February 23rd :( I'm hoping a surprise win will come by USPS, UPS or FedEx soon.

In fact it has been so boring I feel like I need to get out and do something before I go stir crazy-or at least start doing some remodel work on the house. My sleeping habits are all off kilter so I'm going to try to work on that.

I have been wanting to update the kitchen paint and flooring. It is all in good shape and wont cost much. The people before had a thing for all black and white and I want some color in there. They also had a thing for wild colors in the rest of the house like yellow and green in one bedroom and purple and pink in another! Those were the first to go LOL

Rick is on a diet of some sort that a friend of his told him about. I don't think it has a specific name but it limits your sugar and carbs. He has been in a MOOD lately from the sugar withdrawals, so today I told him I have named his diet "The South Bitch" diet!

He is actually doing good on it and working out every other day at the gym-luckily the new diet is only supposed to last 30 days for whatever reason to which I and I'm sure everyone he works with are glad!

Hope everyone is having a great week :)

Good news and bad news

My niece had a nasty fall off of a horse and is in a drug induced coma while her brain is monitored for swelling.

The first day the doctors were not optimistic at all and were preparting everyone for the worst. The next day her brain stopped swelling and went down even. When they tried to slowly wake her up it all went awry and they sent her back down. They are going to try again tomorrow.

My friend Ginger came up to visit which helped a lot. Plus I finally got to meet her pug Winston who felt so at home he hiked in my kitchen twice!

I got my video Ipod in the mail that I won last month, and have won 5 books, a timex indiglo watch, tshirt, a pizza, a movie and 20 two liters of diet coke in the mean time. My total for 2006 is $724.78.

I set my dad up on entering the instant wins to start and the first one he entered he won a lighter from Camel-he was excited and is hooked. He called today and asked me to set him up on high speed internet so he can enter faster!

Hope everyone has a great weekend :)

Having one of those days....

It started out as a good day and I kept promising myself it would be a good day but one or more things got in the way.

It was not anyone's fault, it just happened.

Here and there things just popped up that seemed to try to keep me down. I won't bore anyone with the details.

I'll be just fine tomorrow, but earlier I had an alone moment-not by choice, but I just felt alone, utterly alone.

I prayed for someone to barge in on my alone-ness to give me that ever elusive all encompassing hug and either physically or verbally assure me that everything will be ok.

It has been a long time since I have felt that everthing will be ok-a long time- and while laughing at myself through the tears I thought how silly to think it would be that easy that just a hug or a few words would reassure me.

Then I laughed and cried some more because I realized it WOULD be that easy!

Tax Time

I finally got my taxes done, and after some fiddling went from owing to getting money back-I was sweating there for a bit!

I had a good Valentines day, sat around the house, did some work and then watched TV. I watched American Idol which I am hooked on now for some unknown reason and the Price is Right Million Dollar Spectacular.

I love that show and just about any game show. For no other reason than I love to see people win stuff. It is addicting. I root for them, cheer for them and tonight on the Price is Right there was one poor girl who lost the chance to win not 1 but 3 cars and blew it because she listened to the audience-but later she won the showcase showdown that included a 2006 Cadillac.

Wheel of Fortune is another favorite of mine. I root for them as well and loved it last week on Sweethearts week when a couple won the $100 grand at the last.

I almost had a fit on thursday when they displayed the spin ID for a home watcher to win-I have had my spin ID since they first started doing them and watch all the time. I only know my first 2 letters on my spin ID and vaguely the rest with a 109 somewhere in there. It was a trip to Jamaica and they showed the spin ID that had my 2 first letters and some 0's and a 109 in there. It was so close, but for a few seconds scrambling to find my sticky note with my spin ID on there I was excited.

Everyone in the house was looking at me like I had lost a marble or two! Kinda the same way when I got the email for the Ipod video I won-I let out a hoot and maybe a holler and everyone came running thinking I was having a coniption!

Yes I was a faithful watcher of Who wants to be a millionaire for a long time, I still try to catch it-there was a lady on the other day from my city and she won quite a bit. I also have gotten into Deal or No Deal.

Yep, give me a game show and I'll root for all to win!

I hope everyone has a great week.

Another big win!

I got an email today stating:

Congratulations on behalf of Dog Show USA presented by Purina and brought to you by NBC Digital Studios. Pending eligibility verification you have won a black 30GB video iPod from the Dog Show USA voting sweepstakes-ARV $299.00!



I am so excited, I have been wanting one of these for a long time.

I just have to return a notarized affadavit.

My yearly total is now up to $562 and my overal since 11/31/05 is 680.

I haven't been up to a lot lately, I plan on starting some work around the house, some painting, spring cleaning etc.

Hope everyone is having a great week :)