Why I Started This

Why I decided to start blogging

Why? You would think I have an easy answer for this, but it not really an easy answer.

I started this because of my next door neighbor.  My dear sweet little neighbor is 88 years old.  Several years ago she fell in her backyard and broke her wrist.  When she got out of the hospital she could not do a lot for herself.  So, several neighbors including myself began carrying dinner to her each night. 

The other neighbors would prepare her a plate and drop if off to her and leave. 

Well I couldn't do that. So, every Wednesday night I would prepare her a nice healthy meal. I would fix 2 plates, one for her and one for me.  I started sitting down with her at her little kitchen table and I would eat dinner with her.  It gave me an excuse to get out of my house, and it gave her some much needed company and someone to talk to.

In passing, the neighbors found out what I was doing, and they started doing the same on their nights.

This little lady loved to talk, and she didn't care what she talked about.  I now know more about her sex life with her deceased husband that I ever wanted to know.  I know just about everything about her life.  I'm sure that there are still a lot of things still left to learn.

I would tell her things that are happening at home with the kids and my husband.  I would tell her stories about my life growing up.  My hopes and desires.  She was always telling me that I needed to write my stories down  I'd always laugh and say nobody wants to read anything that I would write.  Well, about a month and a half ago she fell again, this time in her bedroom, and broke her hip.  She cannot stay home by herself anymore and has had to move into a assisted living facility.  It's sad, we can see her declining before our eyes.  It's like she has lost the will to live.  Being at home meant the world to her, having neighbors visiting her everyday was something that she looked forward to.  It's not as easy now to go and visit her.  

So because of her I started this.  Can't say how often I will be able to write.  Maybe I will try to write on Wednesday evenings in her honor, since that is when I would usually be able to get the things that were on my chest out.

Things I write might be sad, they might be funny, they might just be random thoughts that pop into my head.

That is life, it's not scripted. You never know whats going to happen or when it is going to happen, it just happens.  Life's a Bitch!

Thank you Miss. Tootie for giving me just the right nudge to do something.  I may end up being the only one who will ever read it, but I am doing it for her.

Luck of the Draw

Luck of the Draw

I, no matter how hard I try, never win anything! 

I take that back I did win something once. Every year my elementary school had a Halloween Carnival, one of the attractions was a bingo game in the cafeteria.  In 4th grade I decided to play a game.  I won one of the matches.  My prize was a case of motor oil.  The kind of prize that every 10 year old girls longs to have!  No other contest that I have entered has been a winner.  My mother on the other hand won just about every contest she ever entered.

Some of her memorable winnings have been, in no particular order:

In 2000 she won tickets to the Daytona 500.  That was a super fun trip with her.  It was the first and last time that she had ever watched a NASCAR race. But, I had fun on the trip.

Several years later she won $500 gift card to the local grocery store.

The most memorable thing that she won will be etched into my memory forever.  I had just returned to work from maternity leave from child #2.  She called me to tell me about her recent winning. Here is a snippet of the phone conversation.

Mom: I have great news for you.
Me: Really what?!?!
Mom:  I won an all inclusive trip for 2 to Hawaii including tickets to the Pro Bowl
Me:  Wow!! That is awesome!
Mom: Yeah! I'm taking your sister.
Me:  I thought you said it was good news for me.
Mom:  It is good news for you, 'cause now you know that your mother is going to be going on a wonderful trip and that I'm going with your sister.
Me:  Silence
Mom:  Aren't you happy!
Me:  Yes mother I'm happy that you won a trip to Hawaii. 

Yeah, that is how my mother rolled.  My sister always deserved more than me.  But, I won't get into that now.  That's another blog for another day.

One day I would love to win something good.  I already have won the kid lottery. I have 4 healthy wonderful children.  A mother couldn't ask for more than that.  Well she can, but why fuck with Karma!

Have you ever won anything good in a contest or promotion?

Our Fur Kids

Just about everyone on this earth has some type of pet.  Whether it be cat, dog, snake, fish, turtle, cow, goat, horse, and so on.
In our home the pet of choice is feline.  I love me some pussy.  Not that kind, get you mind out of the gutter here.  The four legged furry kind is my favorite.

We currently have 3 cats.  Each cat came to us a different way.  The eldest cat was given to my husband before we met.  Many moons ago he tried to quit smoking, at that time doctors would prescribe Welbutrin to people who wanted to quit smoking.  My husband was a heavy drinker.  He saw on the info sheet not to take the medication with alcohol, so he stopped drinking.  Well, that turned out not to be a good decision.  While on top of a 16 foot ladder he experienced a grand mal seizure fell to the concrete floor and broke his shoulder.  After surgery to repair the damage he was stuck at home for weeks to recover.  His sister showed up one day with a kitten to keep him company.  That is Daisy she is now 14 years old, and extremely spoiled rotten!

Our Miss Daisy

The second cat to join our family came due to an argument with my husband. We had been trying for a while to get our daughter to stop sucking her thumb.  So, I told her if she stopped we would get her a dog.  I took her to the shelter and let her look around.  She came home and told daddy she found the puppy that she wanted.  He said absolutely not, no dogs are coming into this house, you can get another cat any day you want, but no dogs.  Okay, I went the next day and adopted Paige, she was 5 years old.  When I was saw her I knew I had to have her.  The only catch was, I fell in love with an asthmatic cat that required medicine every day, and she is going blind.  But, she is beautiful and we love her.

Our Little Miss Paige

The latest cat that has joined the rank of family, is our dear little Willow.  She joined us a week after Paige.  My husband is to blame for her.  He was out at the farm working one Friday, he called on his way home saying I'm bringing you a gift.  He said he was working when this little thing came out of the field meowing at him.  He couldn't resist her when he saw her.  So when he was leaving he put her in the car with him and drove home.  She came totally infested with fleas and a respiratory infection, which caused Paige to become very sick.  Now the fleas are gone, she is no longer sick and she is beautiful just like the first two cats.  Our only problem with her is that we have not been able to get her fixed yet (too poor) so she is suddenly is constant heat.  That is about to change this next week! Yippee!!!

Itty Bitty Willow

Don't think I could ever give up my kitties, but we still would like to have a dog.  All we have to accomplish is getting the backyard fenced in.  Maybe will will work on that.  Who knows we could have us a doggie by the end of the year, it's only 9 months away.  Anythings possible!

What's That Out of the Corner of My Eye

While out running errands this morning I began thinking about random things.  You know you are in the car alone after dropping the kids off at their schools. You have so much stuff to do while they are not underfoot. So I got to thinking about my friend who's daughter was having emergency surgery, so she and her husband took off for Philly to be with her.  Which got me to thinking about the last time she drove to Philly to spend time with her daughter.  Not so much her visit, but the experience she had on the drive home.

It was around 2am, she is flying down the highway on her way home.  Her son was the only one awake in the car with her at the time.  He says "Mom do me a favor, roll down your window and whatever you do don't look up".  She does what any one would do in that situation.  She looked up!  Holy Mother Of God!!!  She looks up and on the ceiling over her head is a grasshopper that looks to be 4" long.  She hits panic mode.  She floors it looking for the next exit.  She sees it in the distance.  She peels off the highway.  Screeching to a halt on the side of the road.  Jumps out of her car screaming and running across 4 lanes of highway to get as far away from it as possible.  Her son disposed of the bug, and very cautiously she continued on for home.

That thought got me to thinking about another friend and her experience with insects.  She and her husband were driving cross country from New Hampshire to their new home in San Diego.  She often tells me how much she loved that drive.  That is every part of it except the drive through Arizona.  She says that it was there that she wanted the drive to be over.  And for one poor insect the road did end there.  Let us now travel with her for a while down another highway.

The drive was wonderful.  They were leaving the bitter cold of New England headed to for a new life in filled with sunshine and warmth.  She said it was a beautiful day riding down the highway looking at all the sights while her husband manned the wheel.  That was until she felt a little tickle on her foot.  She casually looked down at her foot.  There on the top of her foot enjoying the ride is a 3" wolf spider.  She begins to scream at the top of her lungs, which scares the hell out of her unsuspecting husband.  He pulls the car off the highway, she jumps out running and screaming through a field.  She refused to get back in the car until she watched him looked over the entire car to make sure that he didn't have friends.  She still, to this day, freaks out at any spider she sees.

Well those thoughts got me to thinking about what has happened to me while I have been driving or have been driven down the road.  But, at home that is a completely different story.  Let us go back in time to 2 events that have scarred me for life.  The first was when I was still with husband #1.

I had the day off from work.  I was in the kitchen washing dishes.  The kids were in the living room watching TV.  My mind was off wandering while I washed.  When out of the corner of my eye I see movement.  So, I turned my head to see what it was.  HOLY MOTHER OF FUCKING GOD!!!  There was a snake slithering up the wall from behind the water heater.  Not just any old snake, oh no. It was a copperhead!  I ran out the kitchen as fast as my feet could carry me. I grabbed the phone and the kids and headed outside.  I proceeded to call my husband and tell him that he needed to get his ass home right now and kill it.  We were still standing in the driveway when he got home.  He never found that gee-golly snake.  It wasn't long after that, that I left that house never to return.

The last event happened not too long ago with my current husband.

It was last winter.  My husband likes to keep the wood-stove going all winter long.  So every morning before he would leave for work he would bring in a days worth of firewood for me to throw in the stove, that way the house would stay warm.  I would always when I got up in the morning put a couple pieces the stove and not worry about it again for a couple of hours.  That particular morning I picked up one of the pieces and threw it in and as I picked up the second piece, I noticed that the wood looked odd.  As I held the piece in my hand I realized why.  There was a snake curled up on the wood dozing away.  I looked at the snake. I looked at that back door. I looked at the snake.  Then the snake moved! I screamed! I did what any normal freaked out person would do. I threw the wood in the stove and closed the door.  I called him at work and told him in no uncertain terms was he ever to bring firewood into the house for me ever again.  I'll get it my own damn self.

Are there anythings that have happened to you that have been etched into your memory?  Anything that has scarred you for life involving insects or reptiles?