Open Your Eyes

I have started taking Aleve for these achy joints of mine. Several folks told me that it was good for arthritic pain (if that's what I have), and they advertise it on TV for that. I'll let you know if it helps! If not I'll just grin and bear it!

This morning when I went in my husband's bedroom I got him to smile again for me. This time I made up this little rhyme;

Open your eyes
and you will see
An old ugly woman
Looking back at thee.

Yeah, that made him grin!

Last night it was 7 degrees. Where are my long handle underwear?? I surely need them with it being that blasted cold. Tonight and tomorrow we are supposed to get snow, maybe a couple of inches. I think Ralph probably is sending it this way since he has so much at his house. Thank you Ralph. You are very generous! Well..... I mean you will be if we get it that is!

I made a kettle of bean and ham soup. It's mighty good stuff on these cold days. Hope everyone is keeping warm and having a humdinger of a day!

How Am I You Ask?

So how am I you ask? Oh, I'm fine. Thank you for asking!

It is going to be cold tonight. Going down to about 14. Sunday night got down to 11 degrees. My neighbor called me and said her pipes had frozen and burst. She wanted to know if I had one of those things to turn the water off at the meter. I told her that I always used a wrench. So I went over with my wrench to turn off her water. The guy that rents a back apartment from her was there when I got there and he was trying to turn it off. Oh man, the water was really gushing from the pipe alongside her house. Finally he got it shut off. She has one area just inside the wall that there is no room for insulation and they always left the water dripping in the tub to prevent freezing. Her renter did not do this and so therefore it had frozen and burst. I suggested that she might get some heat tape and have them put on it when they fixed it and that would solve her problem. She took that advice and had that done, so hopefully she won't have this problem again. She had told me just that day that she hoped her renter would leave the water dripping. She said, "I hate to remind him every time. For goodness sakes, he's 51 years old. You'd think he could remember that without me reminding him every time." Well, I reckon she should have reminded him since he didn't do it! But hopefully the heat tape will solve it. Now if they just remember to plug it in.......

On another note, I got a call from the doctor's office today and my mammograms were okay. That is good news! I still have the lump under my arm. I can't tell that it's changed at all. I'm still taking antibiotics and I have an appointment to see the surgeon (so he can look at my lump) next Tuesday. I think one of the "itis" boys is after me. You know, arthritis, osteoarthritis, bursitis, etc. If I mash on my left shoulder right on the bone it is sore. If I mash on my left elbow in a certain spot it is sore. My knees have creaked and popped for 25 years. I can no longer get down to squat without excruciating pain as I go down. I cannot stay there for more than a minute until I have to get up and I have the same excruciating pain on rising. My knees have been x-rayed and I have never been given a clear answer. I had them x-rayed 25 years ago and the doctor said, "Well it's something people usually grow out of and you have grown into it." Huh?? They suggest an anti-inflammatory, an aspirin, the heating pad, etc.

I told my husband I was too young to feel this damn old! Well, I guess I'm not so fine after all, but hey..... you did ask!!! Didn't you??

Sunday's Sign

Introducing........

This is Miss White Lily. She just appeared here at the house some time back. I think she has been someone's inside cat and, for whatever reason, they put her out. She is a beautiful cat and very friendly. Feeling of her front toenails I think she has been declawed but she does have some tiny claws that have probably grown back. I hope she is spayed as well. So far so good and there is a tomcat that is here part of the time. She always hisses at him if she sees him. Good girl!! Miss White Lily has run in the house a couple of times when she got the chance. So with her being declawed and being so friendly that is why I think she has been someone's inside cat before. I can suspect why they got rid of her since she does have a bit of an attitude. While holding her and listening to her purr she may suddenly change it to a growl. I was rubbing her stomach and she grabbed me and bit hard. She latched onto my knuckle and it didn't break the skin but it sure put a dent in it! I hold her often and if she starts to growl I will put her down. I put a rug out the porch and she sleeps on it right by the door. Nevermind that there is a cat bed out there and another sleeping box for cats. She growls if I put her in them and jumps right out. I will continue to hold and pet and feed her. She is welcome to stay here.

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Ed was In Trouble...
He forgot his wedding anniversary. His wife was really angry. She told him, "Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 5 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE!!"
The next morning Ed got up early and left for work. When his wife woke up, she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway.
Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway and immediately began carefully disassembling it so nothing would be damaged in the process of uncrating the object. Eventually, she opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.
Ed has been missing since Friday.

Mammograms

Well, I had my mammogram yesterday. That's about what mine looked like when they put them under that machine and mash them flat. Thankfully they did spring back to their original shape afterwards!! Teehee. Otherwise I'd be looking like the gal in the cartoon today!

I appreciate everyone's concern. Hopefully it's nothing to worry about. A friend of mine said it was hopefully just a "pissed off lymph node." Hard to imagine any parts of our body getting pissed off though, isn't it?? Besides our tempers that is. I had to laugh when she said that!!

We are getting a few snow flurries today. Nothing big, just very fine stuff and very scare. I do feel like I'm getting a cold now, so I plan to stay in today and maybe watch some movies. We are supposed to get a blast of cold air and tonight is going down to 19. That's probably like a heat wave to some of you, but fairly cold for us, especially since it's been so warm. It is winter time though! We are bound to have a bout of the frigid temps sometime before winter is over.

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A Sunday school class was studying the Ten Commandments. They were ready to discuss the last one. The teacher asked if anyone could tell her what it was.

Susie raised her hand, stood tall, and quoted, "Thou shall not take the covers off thy neighbor's wife."

Doctors, Exams, and Boobs, Oh My!

This is where I was today. I don't have to tell anyone since you have all been there before. If you haven't then you have been really healthy or have a doctor that makes house calls.

Sunday night I was sitting in my husband's room talking to him and I only had on my nightgown. I was feeling under my right arm and I found a knot under the skin and it's a tiny bit sore. I immediately thought, "swelled lymph node = cancer." I jumped up and hopped around the room flapping my arms like a wild woman saying, "Oh No, who will take care of you if something happens to me? Who will take care of Pup? Who will take care of the cats? Who will go through all my clutter and have to clean this house? Ohhhhhhhhhhhh."

After my initial hysteria passed by I calmed down a bit. My husband told me not to worry about him. He knows where he would go if something happened to me and that would be a nursing home. Yesterday morning I made an appointment to see a surgeon this Friday. Then later in the day I thought maybe I'd try to see my family doctor and maybe he could reassure me. He wasn't in yesterday but they worked me in today. He did reassure me and told me not to make funeral arrangements just yet. He said that he didn't know if it was a lymph node and it isn't a hard lump and can be moved under the skin. He said anything could cause it from a scratch to a sore throat. He did a breast exam (because if you have breast cancer then that would probably be the first place it'd spread). He felt no lumps but it's been 2 years since I've had a mammogram so I'm getting one in the morning. He suggested that I take a round of antibiotics, which he prescribed, and to get the mammogram and postpone the surgeon's visit until a couple of weeks and see if the mammogram was okay and see if the antibiotics made the lump go away. If it doesn't go away then I can go and have the surgeon remove it and send it off for pathology and go from there.

All you ladies who have had mammograms know what fun it is. Think of me in the morning while my boobs are tucked and pulled and every bit that can be gotten including any skin from all around will be squeezed under that glass until it's flatter than a pancake. Then she'll say "Okay don't breathe!" Like you can while you are in that position! If you are a man reading this then just think of your private parts being stuck under a piece of fiberglass material and squeezed down and down until it looked like a toothpaste tube that has been run over by a semi.

On another note, I made these nice little cherry topped cheesecakes for church tomorrow night for the AWANA kids. I also made some cookies.

I sampled one of these miniature cheesecakes and it was really yummy!

Monday's Musings

Here is a picture of the Moo Goo Gai Pan that I made. I must say it turned out really well and tasted delicious! I cook the veggies more than they do if you order this at a Chinese restaurant. I would have put some baby corn in but I didn't have any.

Here is a picture that I found for those who like to camp! This just attaches to your back hitch and there you have it - a commode lid to sit on (without the commode!). This guy sitting there reading the paper, can you imagine what would happen if a bear came along about then? Ha! He'd be trying to run with his pants down around his ankles and you know that isn't an easy thing to do!


When I was a kid we had a two holer toilet down over the hill. When I went to my friend's house to spend the night I thought they were so rich because they had a 3 bedroom brick home with a bathroom and a full basement! The floors were even hardwood! They had a hole in the wall of the bathroom (like a doggie door thing) where you could put your dirty clothes into and they landed in the basement in a big hamper right by the washer and dryer! Yeah, I thought they were rich for sure compared to us! She also had several Barbie dolls and I never owned a Barbie doll in my life.

In the basement they had a chalkboard and we used to play all sorts of games down there. She enjoyed coming to our house too. We did lots of fun things there that you couldn't do at her house, like using the two holer!! Well, for her that was an adventure! We also played in the hayloft and ran over the fields like wild Indians! It was all fun back then!

Sunday Two-Fer!

We did not get the "wintry mix" but we are getting rain today, and right now it's 34. I'm glad we didn't get the "wintry mix!"

Two Sunday signs today! Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed Sunday!

Sunny Saturday

It's a beautiful sunny Saturday here. A little cool but definitely not bad at all. Tomorrow they are saying we will have a wintry mix. Probably start off with some snow and end with rain. I am not complaining at all. So far we have had it very mild for this time of the year around here and missed all the heavy rain/ice/snow that other parts have gotten. Today there was an article in the paper showing a man standing in his yard with a plum tree in full white bloom.

Today I will attempt to make Moo Goo Gai Pan. I love to get that at Chinese restaurants but there is no where around here to get it (that's good anyway), so I found a recipe online and I'm going to try it later today. I'll let you know how that turns out.

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A middle aged woman had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital.While on the operating table, she had a near-death experience.Seeing God, she asked, "Is my time up?" God said,"No, you have another 43 years, 2 months and 8 days to live."

Upon recovery, the woman decided to stay in the hospital and have a face-lift, brow-lift, lip enhancement, boob job, liposuction, and a tummy tuck. After her last operation, she was released from the hospital. While crossing the street on her way home, she was hit and killed by an ambulance.

Arriving in front of God, she demanded, "I thought you said I had another 40 years? Why didn't you pull me out of the path of the ambulance?"

God replied, "Girrrl, I didn't even recognize you!"

Skip a Dee, Zip a Dee.........

When I go into my husband's room each morning I usually go in singing a little song and dancing a bit. Anything to try and make him smile. This morning I went in singing, "Skip a dee doo dah, skip a dee ya, My oh my oh what a wonderful day. Plenty of sunshine heading my way, skip a dee do dah, skip a dee ya." No, I didn't go in skipping but I did go in swaying and waving my arms in tune with the music. This time he actually laughed. Now that made my day! I think the song is Zip, not Skip, but who cares? For those who don't know, my husband has had a couple of strokes and I take care of him. So it's always a joy if I can get him to smile for me, and getting some real laughter is a huge joy! He has two cousins that come to see him sometimes and they are both so funny. They have us both laughing. However, they haven't been able to come around for awhile due to their own illnesses.


It appears that winter is truly here. Sunday they are predicting a wintry mix. So far we have been lucky to miss the heavy rains, ice, and snow that many parts got.

See what I found? First time I have found a 4 leaf clover in a long, long time! Some folks that live down the road from us are in FL (where it's warm) and I am feeding their cats for them. They have quite a bit of clover in their yard and I was just walking along thinking about finding one and there it was! My Mother used to be quite good at finding 4 leaf clover and there are several pressed in the pages of her Bible.

This one looks like something took a little nip out of one of the leaves.
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WOMEN'S REVENGE
" Cash, check or charge?" I asked, after folding items the woman wished to purchase.
As she fumbled for her wallet , I noticed a remote control for a television set in her purse.
"So, do you always carry your TV remote?" I asked.
"No," she replied, "but my husband refused to come shopping with me, and I figured this was the most evil thing I could do to him legally."

Welcome Winter!!

Finally our winter is here. All the warm temps have spoiled us so badly that the 30 degree drop feels worse than it really is. We had a high of 32 today. I know compared to some folks that is pretty warm, but it's COLD to me!! Especially with the wind blowing. I took Pup out for a walk and here he is in his cute little sweater. He doesn't like it much. I ended up taking it off him before we got home. He was thrilled about that. He's just not used to wearing clothes and he can't feel as free with them on I guess! We have had some snow flurries today.

My Christmas cactus is blooming. It's late. I guess that's because I repotted it this year. Then it grew quite a bit and is late blooming. It has many buds on it coming out, plus the ones already bloomed. The cat decided this was a good place for a nap.

Keep warm folks and here's a joke to end this post with!

A man went to the dental surgeon to have a tooth pulled.
The dentist pulled out a freezing needle to numb the area. "No way! No needles! I hate needles!" the patient shouted.
The dentist started to hook up the laughing gas and the man again objected. "I can't do the gas thing! The thought of having a gas mask on is suffocating to me!"
The dentist then asked if the man had any objection to taking a pill. "No," the patient said, "I am fine with pills."
The dentist said, "Here is a Viagra tablet." The patient replied: "Wow! I didn't know Viagra works as a pain pill!"
"It doesn't," said the dentist, "but it will give you something to hold onto when I pull out your tooth."

Double Sunday Signs

Friday So Soon

Another Friday and where does the time go? Seems that they roll around mighty quick. Friday is our trash pickup day. I usually have about 3 large bags. Amazing how we have so much trash. They don't like for you to have more than 4 bags I have been told. I have never tested this though. They say if you have too much they will add some more onto your bill. It's no problem for me to stick to that amount easily. Actually I didn't put it out last Friday and that's why I had more this time. On Christmas week they were running a day behind and I thought they were going to do the same for New Year's week, so I didn't put mine out, and then they ran after all.

Today was quite warm. No need for even a sweater. It sprinkled some off and on. I have raked leaves twice and the wind blew all the extras, and ones I missed, right around the heating unit at the back of the house. I raked them up and got rid of them this morning. So nice that Mother Nature blew them all right there for me! I am no fan of raking leaves.

I had to go this morning and this evening to help my neighbor give her cat some medicine. I have been after her to get the cat to the vet since before Christmas. I could hear the cat rattling in her chest, plus she is pretty skinny. My neighbor doesn't hear too good and hadn't heard her that much. Finally she took her to the vet and the cat has bronchitis. She was given an antibiotic to be given with a dropper. That cat is little but she sure doesn't like that stuff. I have to wrap her in a towel and hold her while she gives the medication and it's a struggle then.

Sure hope everyone has a wonderful, delightful, and fun-filled weekend!! Here's a cartoon I thought was cute!

Cell Phones, Pain or Pleasure??

I know that cell phones are so important for so many people. I wonder how we ever got along without them? It's pretty amazing to me how many people have them. Even people I know that say they would not have a computer, but they love their cell phone. I personally think cell phones are a mixed blessing. They can be bad, but then they can be good. First of all let me say that I do have a cell phone but I never turn it on unless I'm going to use it to call someone when I'm in my car, which is about once or twice a year, more or less. I have one of those where you pay so much for the minutes. They always expire before I go out and get more added on.I think cell phones are great when you are traveling and so handy to have if you need them.

I know many people use them with their jobs. If I were working outside the home and had a job, when I get off work I would not want anyone calling me about work. But that's just me. Recently I was at a restaurant and there were 3 men in one booth. They were all talking on their cell phones at the same time. I sat there and wondered if two of them might be talking to each other! Then there was a man that came in with his wife and two little girls. He came in the door talking on his cell phone. If the little girls got too chatty their mother shussed them and said, "Daddy is on the phone." He continued to talk until their meals were brought. I saw a young lady at the grocery store and she was talking and I thought she was talking to me at first. She was bent down getting something off the bottom shelf and then I noticed she had a wire going up to her ear and she had the little "look Mom, no hands" unit attached. Again, maybe this is just me, but if I'm grocery shopping I do not want to be bothered. If you are in a meeting or out with friends to eat I think the cell phones should be turned off. Who wants to eat with a friend when that friend spends half the time talking to someone else?? How rude is that? Oh sure, if Aunt Martha is in the hospital and she might die anytime and you need to be informed then certainly leave it on. That is different.

This past Christmas my nephew and his family went to Gatlinburg for a few days. They were to return on Christmas Day. He is very close to his parents (my brother and wife). They talked to them on Saturday morning but after that they did not hear from them. On Sunday evening I talked to my SIL and she said they were a little concerned because they had not heard from them and could not get in touch with either one of them. She said he would always call them back on his cell phone after he had seen they had tried to call. Then on Christmas afternoon my brother called me and he was frantic. They still could not get in touch with them and they had not called in and it was Christmas Day! He said he knew that he would call on Christmas Day and that he just knew something had happened. I told him if there had of been an accident that the authories would have gotten in touch with them. He said, "Not if they ran off a mountain or something down there and no one saw it!!" He wanted me (who has a key to my nephew's home) to go over there and look for addresses and phone numbers of her sisters and anyone, in case they had gone somewhere else. I did and found some numbers. Thank God the address book was right in the drawer below the telephone and I didn't have to search high and low (which I didn't want to do). Then I called my brother with the numbers I found. By this time I was getting worried. I knew it had been foggy here on that Saturday morning and with the mountains in TN it probably had been worse and maybe they could have run off a mountain! Their fear was feeding my fear!! I sat there at his house and waited about 15 minutes and called my brother back. He said that his DIL had finally called and they were on their way home. Relief flowed through me. Then I thought, this could have all been avoided if there were no cell phones! They had been out hiking, in the rain, on a trail and could not get a signal that morning. As soon as she got to where she could get a signal she had called. Thank God she called or I think my brother would have had been on his way to TN to start looking over every mountain!

Sunday's Pictures

I Did It Again

I took down all the Christmas decorations a few days ago, and I tried real hard not to forget anything. I stood there and looked all around the room trying to find anything I might have missed. After a few days I thought I was home free!

Now today, I see this little ornament with my name on it hanging by the fireplace. I just got this one this year and I just put it there on impulse. It's actually a little sled. Cute isn't it?

Am I the only one that takes decorations down and puts them away only to discover that you have forgotten something?

Too Funny Not to Share!!

I got this in an e-mail and many of you have probably read it, but I thought it was worth sharing. It gave me a good laugh anyway!!

THEFT WARNING FOR WOMEN

Most of you have read the scare-mail about the person whose kidneys were stolen while he was passed out. Well, read on. While the kidney story was an urban legend, this one is not. It's happening every day. My thighs were stolen from me during the night a few years ago. It was just that quick. I went to sleep in my body and woke up with someone else's thighs. The new ones had the texture of cooked oatmeal. Who would have done such a cruel thing to legs that had been mine for years? Whose thighs were these and what happened to mine? Hurt and angry, I resigned myself to living out my life in jeans and Sheer Energy pantyhose. Then, just when my guard was down, the thieves struck again. My butt was next. I knew it was the same gang, because they took pains to match my new rear end to the thighs they stuck me with earlier. I couldn't believe that my new butt was attached at least three inches lower than my original. Now, my rear complemented my legs, lump for lump. Frantic, I prayed that long skirts would stayin fashion. It was two years ago when I realized my arms had been switched. One morning I was fixing my hair and I watched horrified but fascinated as the flesh of my upper arms swung to and fro with the motion of the hairbrush. This was really getting scary. My body was being replaced one section at a time. How clever and fiendish. Age? Age had nothing to do with it. Age is supposed to creep up, unnoticed, something like maturity. NO, I was being attacked repeatedly and without warning. In despair,I gave up my T-shirts. What could they do to me next? My poor neck suddenly disappeared faster than the Thanksgiving turkey it now resembled. That's why I decided to tell my story. I can't take on the medical profession by myself. Women of the world, WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE! That really isn't plastic that those surgeons are using. You KNOW where they are getting those replacement parts, don't you? The next time you suspect someone has had a face "lifted," look again. Was it lifted from you? I think I finally found my thighs-- and I hope that Cindy Crawford paid a really good price for them! This is not a hoax! This is happening to women in every town every night! WARN YOUR FRIENDS!
P.S. I must say that last year I thought someone had stolen my breasts. I was lying in bed and they were gone! As I jumped out of bed, I was relieved to see that they had just been hiding in my armpits as I slept. Now I keep them hidden in my waistband.