Making Ends Meet

It’s Christmastime so of course I’ve been worried about the $$$$$. I’ve also been stressed because it’s never ever taken me this long to get the decorations up. We finished last night. The living room has the all the Santa figures in place and the white tree in the sleigh. The family room has the Angels and a couple of the smaller Nativity scenes. The Beardall’s are so much help to me Justin has run boxes up and down the stairs. Maury cleans and vacuums and Ben entertains Lucy. I supervise. Everything looks really nice.

Last night I went downtown and earned $75 just by walking in the door. I was supposed to be part of a focus group on Diabetics with Cardiac issues but they scheduled too many people so they paid me, fed me and sent me home. I’ve also been part of another Dry Eye study testing out a new medicine that has paid me to be a part of it. So that money has been my Christmas budget. I just have a few more gifts to get then I’ll be done.

I am Thankful for

So many things. Some of my friends made it a point to find something everyday this month to be grateful for and posted it on their FB page. I could of done that too but you know me the non-conformist. So since lots that I’m grateful for happened just this week here’s my list.

In no particular order.

My family…. for checking up on me and making sure I have a place to go for Thanksgiving dinner. I ended up at Craig and Liz’s and visited with Margie and Rob, Jana, Steven and Julie and Aunt LaFaun, their kids and Grandkids and finally got to meet Trina’s new honey Wade Hickman. They’ve been married a little more than a year now and are really cute together. They stayed here with me so we had some good conversations and a lot of fun.

We also got a lot of things done.

Last month when Dawn and Vonn were here I was still working on the main bathroom and I had had Andy come take the toilet out so I could get to the wallpaper behind it and fix the floor. It still wasn’t done yet  because life got in my way. I cut my hand doing flowers for Brian Franchina’s wedding to Marci MacDonald and had to have stitches at the ER…..Sarah and her mom helped finish that wedding before I even went to the ER/

So  there it was still not done when I found out about more company coming. Uncle Gaylen and Aunt Carla took pity on me and came over Monday and Tuesday. She stripped wallpaper in the kitchen and he fixed the sheetrock holes including patching the ugly hole where the medicine chest used to be.

Then he fixed the floor, laid the new flooring and painted the whole bathroom and reconnected the plumbing. All it took was a bribe of Triple Berry Apple Rhubarb Pie! Wade and Trina got here just as he was finishing up.

They got busy on Wednesday morning and painted the bathroom a second coat, raked the leaves in the back yard, painted the pantry wall and the French Doors, hung new blinds and a curtain rod that I’ve had for a long time but have been to ill to climb the ladder to get them done. If that wasn’t enough they packed the bookcases into the closet and I’ll be ready to decorate for Christmas as soon as I recover from staying up all night working on Sam Caldwell’s wedding flowers  for today.  I need a rest. Wade is close to 90 and he was running rings around me! They left a few hours ago taking some Christmas with them. Klista and Selina will be here tonight on their way to Mexico. She’s promised not to need 10 days in the hospital this time.

I love my friends and family!

I have a lot to be grateful for

What’s Up? Chicken Butt!

That’s what TD always says. He’d be only half right. I don’t care if I never see another Chicken Breast right now.

I bought 40lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast for $1.49 per lb from Zaycon Foods on Saturday. I just finished getting them all re-packaged and in the freezer. There wasn’t a lot of fat but I did need to cut it all off. Lucy loved that part. The problem was that these were full breasts and they were so plump that 1/2 a breast would feed 3 people.

So I borrowed a food saver and got to work. I worked, the food saver didn’t. So late Saturday night I bought a new one. It worked wonderfully! It didn’t cost too much but once you add that in with the bags for it my great deal ended up costing me way too much.

But the good news is I have 52 packages of chicken in my deep freeze. A whole years supply if I only eat chicken once a week.

Go Ahead Make My Day!!

Is there anything better than someone giving you a compliment?
Yes there is!
When the person giving it is a total stranger to you.
When the person is the opposite sex.
When the person doesn't give off a perverted "Chester the Molester" vibe.
When you can tell they are sincere.
Best Feeling in the World!!

I was just running round doing some errands and popped in to get 2 things at the store. While I was in line this guy with 2 full carts lets me go ahead with my 2 things and says "I'm a sucker for gorgeous redheads. You have beautiful hair!"
I actually looked around to see if there were other carrot tops in the store. Nope I was the only one.
Totally made my day!!
Now I didn't really do anything to my hair today. I barely had enough makeup on to avoid scaring small dogs and little children. I was in a grey and coral striped tee and ratty jeans with flip flops and need a pedicure really badly. Nothing special at all. Just me being me

Today I'm glad I'm me!

Women Of God

My friend Darlene posted this on her Facebook page. It's so lovely. It describes the woman I want to be.

"Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity."

Date a Girl Who Reads

I found this just stumbling around on other people's web sites. It's a quote from an article promoting literacy.  I just couldn't resist posting it here. I am that girl! I don't remember a time when I didn't pack around whatever book I'm currently into all over the place. One of the many reasons that I looked really hard into getting a Kindle or a Nook. Books have taken me to all kinds of wonderful places. I've lived hundreds of lives through the magic of reading.

Date A Girl Who Reads

"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes."