Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Hello my name is Addict

Dang I can't kick the the habit! The Coke habit! Yes I said Coke and does that grab one's attention right away? I should think so!
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I love the look that flashes across the faces of the people in the convo when I say that, then I get a good chuckle before I clarify... Coca Cola ; lol how fun is that. In all honesty though, I use to need Coca Cola just to find energy. Then to my good fortune and after many visits to a variety of doctors tests finally revealed why I was lacking energy. So at one time I would most definitely have considered myself an addict I know the hubby did.

However, I recently came to the mind set that I was determined to reduce if not quit my now unnecessary habit; until I came up with what we think is an awesome idea. Now hubby is encouraging me to drink more. How wrong is that I ask. Well, at least temporarily until we complete our project.
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So, I bet you want to know what this project is in order for me to delay my good health decision? Artistic garden walls. Shall I go on?
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Here's the deal... We recycle but with just the two of us (oh that sounds like a song) there is not need to put the receptacle bin out for pickup unless it is full and that can take 2 to 3 weeks sometimes. One day I put something in it and saw the abundance of soda cans. I thought oh I have a problem. Then to think on the positive side of the coin my thoughts turned creative. I knew I needed to do something artistic with all those cans like chimes maybe, a picture frame or something to express and represent my love for Coca Cola since I intend to cut back, then it came to me... garden walls!
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So are you confused now? Well, here's the low down, with the prices of fruits, vegetables and food in general going up I have altered what we buy. For instance, we definitely skip the red bell peppers now since they are outrageously priced and we don't always get tomatoes that I so love. So the natural conclusion is grown our own! However, with money somewhat tight and after pricing the veggie plants, dirt, the wood for the framing not to mention the fertilizer necessary the cost was adding up quickly! Then... the idea came to me garden walls! So instead of buying the wood and connectors we bought Gorilla Tape. Yup we stacked the cola cans and taped the back sides together 3-cans high and created a large enough containment area for several veggie plants. Plus it is yard art too!
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We are so excited to be backyard farmers! Can't wait to show off the tomatoes, green and red bell peppers, yellow whenever we can find some starters, the blueberry's and watermelon woohoo!
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Celebrate Life! Y

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pee ess: (as the little darlings would say) AM tornado like rain totally a post in its self, yucky high humidity sunny day when it was suppose to be more nitrogen rich showers and then a lovely breeze plus over cast evening but we still want the rain ~ hello clouds open up!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

3 year's plus a bit of blog reflection

It is difficult to fathom that it has been 3-year's since the Lord called my mother home as of today. This past year seem to be the hardest, more tears and vivid emptiness. I would not have wanted her to live in pain however, I miss her so much. She was the center of our family which, has since drifted apart which, I can presume adds to the emptiness. But to get through the tough days I fall back on my faith that everything has a reason or possibly a lesson one needs to learn, whatever the case I am melancholy and reflective today.
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I thank the Lord daily for my many blessings, my husband being one of them along with the unconditional love I receive from our pets. I am so grateful for my health considering the family history and for all the blessings I recognise and the ones I do not.
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The kids blog has kept me sooo busy that I have neglected this one. I decided today in my melancholy mood to rededicate a bit of time daily to my Lot 53. I need to recapture the excitement I once had at chronicling our life to look back upon so, here we go ...
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Well, even though it is relatively early in the day I have already spent a couple of hours digging a hole to move a small tree. I know it's crazy but I want to get as much of the benefits from this tree as possible. Okay, truth be told ~ I (we) do not like the adjacent neighbors and from the time they have moved in we have planted a few things to grow and block the view. No luck though because we practically live on rock and unless we hire a company to drill into the ground well, most of our selections that were planted struggled. The light bulb finally went off in my head yesterday and I am moving the hole ~ how about that lol. Plus the shade from this tree will now put most of it, once it has grown, in our yard rather then giving the ugh neighbors the shade benefits. Call me mean but hey my kiddos love to lay in the yard so why not make my laborous efforts pay off for my babies! As it is, we get backyard sun most of the entire day.
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I need to focus on detail cleaning the house because we are going to have a visitor in early June and they have never seen our home. Of course I want to show off how blessed we are so I need to get busy but as I promised I must give time to my bloggie.
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I have been meaning to mention that my babies now sleep in our room at night if they want. I'm not sure if I have mentioned that before but we have prepared an area so they could be close to us. They seem to really love the freedom to go up and down the stairs at their pleasure since we have beds upstairs and beds downstairs. Don't get me wrong, they still are not allowed on the carpet but once we discovered the plastic carpet protector plastic I am thrilled to give them more freedom. One day we hope to have wood floors and the carpet won't be an issue anymore but for the time being...
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It was so funny when we first started using the plastic because the darlings could see the carpet through the plastic and thought it was a trick. We had to literally put them on the plastic and they realized the difference by the feel on their paws. Best invention ever!
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The darlings have always been well behaved by not stepping on the carpet or at least so we thought. In the wee hours of the morning recently I heard some rattling and I thought it was in my dreams. It took a bit to get my eyes open and what do you think I saw ~ Ginger apparently had a lapse of her training and had her head deep inside a box of treats I had next to my bed. When I said 'what are you doing!?' and quickly but quietly seemed to tip-toe back to her bed and hid behind her pillow. I thought it was so funny that I just went back to sleep. Gosh I love them so.
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There's so much more to catch up on but I will leave some for other posts. As it is I have made bloggie a promise to dedicate time daily right?!
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Celebrate Life Y Mom of The Lot out
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pee ess: (as the darlings would say) cloudy yet cool, a bit sunny and it's suppose to rain

Monday, April 7, 2008

April already in flow

Well, it looks like I haven't kept up with this blog as I proposed to do in early March lol
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Wow, I can't even remember much from March now except knee injury on the 21st for my Honey and then re-injured it on the 25th where he had to take my leftover 800mg Motrin from my surgery last year. Wouldn't you know it we had box seats & court-side seats for the Spurs/Clippers game but lucky me I found a walking cane at the Salvation Army store to help Honey walk. X-rays taken on the 3rd and the doctor appointment in on the 9th. The injury made for a trying trip to AZ. Mainly because we had to load the weight bench and all the weights and then while there unload to only reload the bow flex to bring back. You never realize now much you use your knees on a daily basis until their out of order. But it's finally looking normal after two weeks of issues but there is still some discomfort.
Also:
~ Happy Birthday Honey ~ 29th
~ Happy Anniversary Honey ~ 31st
~ Happy Birthday Me! ~ April 2nd
~ Road Trip to Tucson beginning the 28th returning before my birthday of course
~ meet DWB blogger and introduce the doggies on the 31st
~ Congrats Honey for your bonus & your promotion
~ a sister had a birthday ~ 27th
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Now for April: last night the wild kid neighbor and his crazy gram were out late and making noise which, of course caused my kids to bark sooooo I stood out on the deck to watch and be seen. If the owners of that house only knew how the people allow their kid to act... last night he was using the garage doors as a soccer goal and I forgot to check to see if there were dents today. The gram was screaming unnecessarily at their puppy Charlie (sweet doggie but not for long I'm afraid). This is not a rental neighborhood, they should move. Oh look at me not being nice ~
We did the lawn work yesterday and it looked wonderful.
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I worked in the rock garden today getting ready fur the wood that we must pick up this Friday. My dad called (rare but nice) and oh my dad remembered to call me on my birthday that must mean I am going to have a fabulous year! Hmmm I choose to believe that it means I'll finally loss all the weight I hope to woohoo! Totally enjoyed my birthday and am still celebrating. Oh when we went to the steak house Wednesday we had a way fun waitress Brenda and she really did up our desert when she found out all that we were celebrating, way fun. The best gift though was Honey's mom giving a load of pictures of my Honey from birth to graduation totally priceless.
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I was rejected fur low iron blood but since Honey donated 2 units I feel no guilt for the t-shirt they gave me. We thought it was Greenfest Saturday and got up early to go get some free trees but we were wrong so we went to our favorite restaurant and then to donate some blood.
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okay now lets see if I can keep this blog up since the kids is keeping overly occupied.
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Mom of the Lot out Y

Sunday, March 9, 2008

So Far this March

We keep getting the nice weather and then a freeze alert and I for one am over it! Winter be gone!
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Honey received his bonus check from last years figures and I am so proud. Additionally, I am so proud of how he is respectfully putting some pushy individuals in their place. So pleased he will soon be moving to a different building which, will cut his commute in half! Woohoo we're gonna save some gas and with the prices climbing so rapidly the move is such a blessing! Met a really nice individual in line while waiting to vote on the 4th which, was nice since the wait was over an hour long. Spoke with dad and again the conversation was left wanting. We pressure sprayed the driveway and honey finally washed his dirty dirty truck. Charlie the little dog in back (the rotten neighbors) knows my voice and when he is crying outside I can go to the fence and talk to him through the cracks and it calms his down... it's such a nice feeling. So far this month because of the winds I'm sure, I have attempted to catch 3 loose doggies to no avail. One was too skiddish and the other two which looked scary, one would not come to me and the other drank some water and then ran to catch up with the other one. Gosh it upsets me to no end that their owners are not responsible enough to put a collar with a phone number on it to help get their lost pets home. Then they cry and litter the area with flyer's to help them find their loved ones. I think the strong winds pushed gates open and if the family isn't home then the doggies get away. I spoke with Missy's owner the dog that looks like our Crikit. Maybe with the little chitchat we had about how alike the dogs look he will now discontinue his practice of upsetting my doggies everyday on his return walk from the elementary school. Briefly spoke with Grandpa neighbor and I have recorded one incident with the rotten neighbor's action with our pets. I wish they would just move and a nice family would move in. Better yet we would come into some money so we could buy land and build our retirement home; awh nice thought. Honey is gonna have to travel 2 days this month and traveling is rare but this year it has been numerous to my dismay! We're gonna take a drive to AZ with the doggies to see the honey's mom. I'd rather stay home with the doggies but the honey his family to meet our doggie members. Honey's brothers birthday was yesterday and it seemed like it was a good convo between the brothers so that was nice. My house seems a mess and I don't like it but for some reason when I am organizing it seems to look like a storm hits it before it looks better. I better get back to it and write more later.
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Toodles Y

February gone too!

Wow have I really slacked on this blog huh?!
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It's already the middle of March and I never even posted February. Now because of my short-term memory issues I cannot really think of what all happened. I know I had issues with the increase of the association fee; Our new neighbors across the street have irritated me cos they have a telescope they've set up to spy on the neighborhood; The winds have been so strong that the trash receptacle's have been all over the neighborhood and we seem to have idiots in our community that don't want to take the time to put their address on the binsl Had lunch with my aunt which, was nice but ended up being expensive and it was my turn to pick up the bill. The restaurants I suggested were not picked and the one we went to I will most likely never go to again cos of the prices even though the food was relatively good. At least we finally got to exchange Christmas gifts and I also brought a valentine gift. Seems that the dynamics of our relationship though has changed, I think due to the new man in her life but I'm still happy for her even though I miss what we had, at least we still make time to meet for lunch. It may have been leap year but all I seem to remember is that Feb went by in a flash. Called dad but his personality is just not as endearing as it once was and I got off the phone feeling let down but again that's life and things change. Either it's the aging process or influence from the greedy one so I'll say no more on that matter. February would have been my mother's birthday and I so miss her more now then ever. I think it may be the reality of it all took this long to really hit home wether it was unrecognized depression or denial. I went by to leave a valentine gift for my niece and her mother and my other sis on their doorstep on the 13th expecting my niece to at least call and acknowledge it but nope. So I called that evening because I wanted her to enjoy the gift for school the following day and of course to make sure they received it and that no one had walked off with the package. Turns out I had to leave a message cos no one answered. They did not return the call so, the next morning I called before they were to leave for work and school to verify they received the package and I wish I hadn't. In one word I can describe what came out of the conversation... ungrateful. There was a weak excuse but nonetheless ungrateful. Later that evening I by a second missed a call from them so I called back immediately stating I apparently missed their call and my 'older' sister said rather then hello or having a moment to have a nice conversation said 'she left you a message' and her tone irritated me so much I had to control my voice and I responded 'oh apparently it hasn't arrived yet ok well happy valentines day' and as I was about to hang up the sis must have realized how ugly she was being and made some obviously obligated convo. It didn't last long and the ungrateful niece never came to the phone even though she was there. I had my husband listen to the message and if ever you could hear in a voice that one was being forced to do something they didn't want to it was obvious in this message. Plus you could hardly even understand what she was saying though you could hear thanks among the words. Hello she is 16 and should have better manners then that. If our mother was alive she would be infuriated with both her daughter and her granddaughters conduct. We were raised with good manners and proper etiquette but neither of my sisters seem to remember or practising it with my niece. Maybe that is why the two of them and my niece have somewhat ousted me and hubby because we believe in respecting others.
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I'm sure more happened throughout February but at the moment I cannot remember. Therefore, I will stop the venting. One thing for sure the doggies blog is very time consuming to the point where we need to change Internet service to reflect a faster response time.
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Oh and yes, I may not make time to comment on all your blogs I read but I am still following your interesting lives especially you Ms Ranbling & you Shuga.
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Toodles for now... Mom of the Lot Y

Monday, February 4, 2008

January gone?!?

Boy did I break my resolution to update this blog regularly right off the get-go
so... now it's January in review or at least what I can remember lol.
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I decided I need to use this blog as a memory jogger because it's easier and faster to type instead of writing a journal. However, I'm still going to try and stay positive...
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Well, the year began quietly and safe at home. We watched the downtown fireworks from the deck while being serenaded by the TV version. Some neighbors chose to break the law and pop some works, so I let the dogs go out for a bit and bark to their hearts delight.
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We upgraded the phones since the handsome hubby was to travel to the frigid area of the country for a week, MN, IL, OH plus TX and then home for the weekend and out to CA for another week. We are rarely apart so it was not the most enjoyable time. Good thing we had room on our charge card to cover all the expenses. The only war story besides altered itineraries from cancelled or delayed flights along the way was the loss of my souvenir. Good-hearted hubby lent his wool coat to a co-worker in IL, since it was 6 degrees with an even worst wind chill when one of their flights were cancelled and the group had to stand out in the weather waiting for a car rental shuttle. His associate who checked his luggage along with his coat on the flight that got cancelled was informed that he could not get it back till they arrived in OH which, was not going to happen till the next morning. So dear hubby took out the emergency fleece I packed for quick grab and put it on and gave his coat to the co-worker that only had on a cotton shirt. Needless to say, even though hubby asked him to be careful because there were things in the pockets well, when the coat was returned the bag with my dolphin was no longer in the coat pocket. According to the hotel it was not left there so it either ended up left on the next mornings' flight or on the shuttle but to my dismay and someone else's joy my dolphin with blue crystals is well... who knows :( At least in CA honey was able to visit with his brother over breakfast since they have not seen each other in a couple of years. Anyways, honey usually doesn't have to travel but maybe one weekend a year so this was out of the ordinary.
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Haven't heard from the sisters since Christmas but to my surprise my dad called out of the blue; unusual but a nice surprise nonetheless. Ran into one of my sisters at one of our favorite restaurants and it's not surprising that she failed to recognize us. We said hello as she passed so she stopped and we chatted for a bit. It's a shame how a death in a family can change so much of the dynamics within a once close family but honey and me choose to believe that God has his plan even if it makes me/us sad.
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Our dogs are now calendar pinups, of course the calendar was pricey but the proceeds go to a good cause. They have made so many wonderful friends all over the world and how pathetic are we... the dogs received way over a 100 Christmas cards and we got 2 or maybe 3... don't laugh.
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I learned of the selected location for the 2009 England HS reunion and I am not pleased. Not sure if I want to attend now that it will be held in SC instead of FL. On the other hand the US HS reunion is this summer and here in town but I am not sure if I want to attend that either.... what is up with me?
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I was terribly sad about the passing of Heath Ledger; A true shame.
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I'm so pleased Idol is on again and Lost and hopefully 24 real soon too. I hope to get my house organized and even inventoried if possible, I know weird but it sure would make life easier. I know where most everything is even if it's not in its place but that makes it hard for the honey. Oh and I want some galoshes! Pink if I can find some reasonably priced.
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As far as December: I did have lunch with one of my Aunt's and it was real pleasant. Some time this month we found a phone and decided to make sure it got back to the owner since it was an international phone that had no service. It was challenging but it was our good deed and I know the elderly man was grateful. He was from Australia and very pleasant. We had all our Christmas shopping completed before the month began, I didn't have the desire to wrap though so I was rushed at the last minute. I/we were not feeling the socialness of the season but the honey's department party was nice even though he told me it started at 6 PM and it really started at 7 PM. It was embarrassing to be the first to arrive even before the host & hostess but it was nice to pick our seats (best in the room) and turns out honey drew letter 'A' gift so he went first at the gift opening and we received a really wonderful assortment of gifts compared to last year. However, it is so sad to see how easy it is for the majority of people to forget what the celebration is all about or rather whom we are celebrating. Part of what most likely contributed to my sadness throughout the season was that I missed my mother even more then the past couple of years. My father was not very pleasant on Christmas as if it was a burden to make time for his family. There was lots of tension and it was a relief to leave once the dinner and gifts were opened. That is not how Christmas is supposed to be or even use to be but if we didn't put up with it and we were to lose a family member there would be that horrible regret to live with. Very trying is all I can say but it seems that December went by quickly and lucky for us honey did not have to travel; who knew what was waiting in January!
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Well yeah Giants! I believed from the start that God would have the Giants win for the sake of Eli. He has dealt with so much ugliness from New Yorkers, his teammates and even the media yet he handled it all with true dignity; never an ugly word and look, he led his team to a win of the biggest game ever and was MVP to boot! You go Eli!
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So February is already here so lets see if I can keep this up a little bit more regularly. Even though I visit lots of blogs I should probably comment from time to time as well, huh? Well, at least I wrote you one long letter Queen One; I've caught up with the robin and the lisa but I am lacking on the e-mails... note to self... try to improve k?
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Wednesday, January 2, 2008

We Wish YOU ...

A Happy New Year!
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Full of Many Blessings
Health, Hope, Happiness
Prosperity & Peace
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The last two months have flown by so fast. My apologies to my visitors. Yes, I was fully aware I was not posting however, I did drop in on your blogs for a read from time to time.
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I hope everyone's holiday season was all you wished for. As for me, this year was more difficult to embrace then past years since my mother's passing. I felt the weight of the expectations, obligations and the overwhelming swing of emotions.
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I would like to say I was off saving the world as Ms. Rambling inquired however, it was only a bit of volunteering. Nonetheless, my honey & I have designated this year as the year of 'Health, Hope & Happiness' and we look forward to many blessings. I so wish the same for all of you. Have a grrreat year!
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XO ~ Mom of The Lot out