Grandma's Snow Leopard

These pictures are classic Jackie. She was playing Snow Leopard in full gear! This was a pounce onto a pile of stuffed animals!

Happy Birthday to Deb!

I just got home from a really fun day! Debbie, Danae and I went out to lunch and to the movies, to celebrate Deb's birthday. We started out at Claim Jumper's and then went to see "Julie and Julia". I LOVED it! It was a perfect movie and feel for the day. Like so many times in my life, we had the exact same reaction to something. I am sure that very soon we will be pulling our red casseroles out of the oven and smiling as we deliver a wonder meal to the family, with our pearl necklaces on!


I can not begin to count up the birthdays that Debbie and I have spent together. Let's just say, "A lot!" She has always been there for me through thick and thin, no matter what, my whole life. She is my earliest memory of childhood. Actually, there is no part of my past that she was not a part of. From our roller skating days to sock-hops, Deb has always been a part of my firsts. First football game, first date, first kiss, first breakup...... the list goes on and on. We shared them all. Marriage, children, and the wonder of grandchildren have all been enjoyed together. The joys and the tears of my whole life have been lived with Deb by my side. I thank God every day for my wonderful sister who has enriched and blessed my life beyond measure. May you have a truly wonderful year filled with all of the joys you deserve, Deb.

Canary Tales

After months of work, I have finally been having the results I had hoped for with my birds. I went yesterday and sold another 4 of my babies. That makes 8 altogether I have sold! I moved things around in my room again yesterday to try and get things more organized. Now I have all of my birds together in one area and so far it seems a lot better. At this point, I have 5 females in various stages of feeding their babies or sitting on eggs. Icy has one baby who fledged 5 days ago. She has built a new nest and layed her first egg this morning. Romeo has been in with her for the past few days, so everything should be good to go. I moved Jewel's 3 babies to the baby cage yesterday and she is sitting on 5 new eggs (also thanks to Romeo)! Peachy is feeding her 3 babies (Gatorade's the dad) that hatched on the 13th. Puff ( the one who was standing and panting on her nest before) actually hatched 3 beautiful babies and is on her second round feeding 1 baby, that hatched on the 18th. Juliet, my beautiful red factor, is feeding 2 pretty babies who will fledge within the next couple of days. Romeo will be finished in Icy's cage by then and ready to move back in with Juliet. He is a REALLY good male. The girls love him! He is beautiful to look at and he is a wonderful singer too! And for an added bonus, he always pitches in to feed his children when he makes the rounds. Gatorade, my only other male, is a little too aggressive. He goes into a cage and immediately jumps to the nest and frantically begins diving around with nesting material in his mouth. He comes on WAY too strong.. He met his match when I got Peachy. She is a really big canary. She is double his size! The first time I put him in with her, he tried his usual moves and was met with a quick peck to the head. He quickly toned way down and they actually became a good couple. Sometimes that is all it takes...the right woman for the job.

From Wonder to Weiner...........

A few short weeks ago I was writing and posting pictures of the wonders of canary breeding. Things have changed.......... I bought a few more birds in my quest to have a Canary Empire going. (I can't be content to have a pair of canaries and watch them breed and feed and raise their babies. If one pair is good then 5 will be orbital!) At the present time I now have a few pairs going and some stragglers I have given up on. Actually, I have 4 females who have layed eggs and 2 of those have hatched. Out of the original 5 babies only 1 made it, and is now in his own cage. This fiasco can only be blamed on me. Once again I thought I knew best and moved the cage location and actual cage more than once. I actually had a professional breeder warn me not to do such a thing! That same female, Patches, layed and hatched again and only 1 even hatched and was dead a few days later. My other female, Sunshine, hatched one baby two weeks ago. This was also my fault, as I did not get her man, Gatorade, in with her soon enough and only 1 egg was fertilized. I was trying a new "hands off" approach with her and it has backfired. I have been feeding and watering her and basically leaving her completely alone. Today I finally decided to look in and see what was up. Her baby is 2 weeks old and should be coming out of the nest soon. I was horrified when I saw it. The baby is skeletal, barely feathered and minute. I think it's legs are splayed. Many times it is not good when only one baby hatches. The mothers' have a tendency to barely feed them and they also sit on the nest too tightly and too long. I could not bear it so I got the nest out and mixed up food and fed the baby twice, til his little crop was full. This is tippish at best. Hand feeding is time consuming and chancy. The mother is no longer sitting on the nest and this poor thing is barely feathered. Not a good feel at all.... That brings us to female number 3, Puff Puff. She was with Butterball, who has taken a bad turn. I also played a hand in this situation. I bought a male who was very questionable. He look a little sickly right from the start. He has something wrong with his eye and had to move to a hospital cage for isolation and closer observation. This leaves Puff Puff alone. Actually this may not even be a problem, as I am not sure if her eggs will even hatch. She is not sitting on them the right way. She is always kind of standing and mildly panting like she is having a heat stroke. She needs to have her breast and stomach pressed on the eggs to keep them warm. She is rarely doing this. Now female number 4, Juliet and her man, Romeo. They are beautiful Red Factors. So far all looks good with them, but let's face it this season has NOT been going my way. I am in a darkened room with the cages covered as I type this. PLEASE HELP ME.......I think I just heard a sneeze from one of the cages!

The Best Laid Plans......

Greg was going to take my car to work this morning to have the window fixed. Seconds after he left the house, I heard him bellow out "F...!" I looked out the window to see what had happened. I saw him holding his head coming toward the house. The car door on my Jeep was still open. I ran out to the kitchen just as he stormed into the house ranting. "What in the world did you have a box on the front seat for? I was looking at it and got distracted and banged the door into my head." (blood was seeping thru the Kleenex he was holding to his forehead) And yes, you did read correctly, he was claiming I was at fault for having left a box on the front seat of the car. If I did not value my life as much as I do, I might have either burst out laughing or yelled back, "Are you insane?" Neither seemed appropriate, so I remained silent. His ranting continued as he stalked down the hall to the bathroom. He could not get the bleeding to stop. I asked him if he wanted a bandaid and after flipping out more, he huffily agreed. I ran into the bathroom and the only ones I could find were "Dora the Explorer" and "Littlest Pet Shop" Needless to say, the choices pushed him over the edge. Luckily, after scouring I did find some plain ones. He finally left for work........ When he got home tonight, he was actually laughing about it and admitted he had been insane.

This evening, after finishing up the dishes and putting away leftover food, I decided to mix up a pitcher of Crystal Light. As soon as I finished, we were going to watch a movie. I was really burnt and was living for the moment I could dive onto the couch. As I efficiently went to put the pitcher into the refrigerator, my finger caught in the stopper on the lid. In a slow motion moment of horror it slipped from my hand and bounced to the ground, spraying a half gallon of Iced Tea all over the floor. I am not sure what I screamed out, but I do recall kicking the pitcher. Greg actually called out from his recliner, "How did you do that?"

Sweet Innocence

Yesterday I finally told Jackie about the littlest canary that had died a few days earlier. I had been waiting for just the right moment and I thought that I had found it. The look on her little face as I told her was absolutely heartbreaking! Her face got flushed and her eyes filled with tears. Her lips quivered and she struggled not to let out a sob. She stood there for just a moment trying to compose herself. With teary eyes and a shaky voice she finally asked, "Grandma, when I get to heaven will I see the little baby bird?" If you could have seen the hopeful, trusting look on her face.............. "Of course you will. He will be waiting for you on the gate as you go in." I answered. " Oh Grandma, that makes me soooo happy!" Her sweetness and utter innocence are so precious. I am bawling as I type this. What a wonderous blessing she is in my life.

I need a good night of sleep......

I am still awake, tho' somewhat tired. I had a horrid night of sleep last night. I was wide awake for and hour and a half in the middle of the night. The really bad kind of awake, where you are dwelling on any and everything that could possibly cause tension......... " Why didn't we save more money? Should I look for a job? How will the Chrysler bankruptcy affect us? Why haven't I gone to the dentist? Will I ever stop eating and get on to the diet for good?" Get the picture? Bad dwelling. I woke up this morning early (of course!) and the first thing I did was to check on the canaries. The tiny little guy I have been worrying about, was dead in the nest. Sad start to the day. I haven't told Jackie yet. My day was pretty busy. I cleaned the house and worked at Jackie's school. Min and Scott went to a meeting tonight, so it was just Jackie and I for dinner and homework. She is asleep and I have just finished working on my Bible Study for tomorrow. I am trying to unwind and slow down to induce a good night of sleep. Greg just got home and told me he talked to his brother, Jeff today. He has been promoted to Chief of Police on Catalina Island. It is a 2 year stint, after which he will return to the mainland with the rank of Captain. He will receive a housing allowance, so that will allow him to keep his house in Yorba Linda. They plan to come back home every other weekend. This is just the kind of story that will help me relax and get right to sleep, I just know it.............

Happy Birthday Queen!

35 years ago today the world changed forever for me. Michelle Laurie Donahue was born and my life would never be the same again! To go from a young, naive, and yes, somewhat selfish woman to becoming a mother was remarkable to say the least. Only someone who has made the transition can ever know the impact it has.

From her her very first moments, she has brought me a joy I never knew existed. She was a sweet and very good baby. Some of the most treasured moments of my life were those I spent sitting in the rocking chair in the middle of the night, staring into my precious baby's face. I could not believe I was so lucky! Michelle could nap through anything. I could literally vacuum under her crib and she would never wake up. All during her first summers, I would take her with me to the beach. She actually had a suntan in her 1 year old picture! She has always loved the beach and swimming.

As she grew, so did my love for her. She was an adorable toddler who loved the park and being outside in general. It was during this time that Joey was with us every day and their bond grew from cousin to brother and sister. When John came along she was only two and a half, and he joined their close knit club. It is a wonderous blessing that she has had so many cousins to share her life with.

Michelle's sense of humor has always been a big part of her personality. She can always find the humor in a situation. This is a trait that has been a joy for all around her. So many times over the years the sound of Michelle's infectious laugh has lightened many a tough moment. She can find something funny about almost anything and you find yourself laughing along with her.

I have so many memories of Michelle thru the years. School days, scouting, dance classes, ceramics, swimming lessons, cooking class, ballroom dancing, summer camp, the list could go on and on........ Watching her thru all the phases has been absolutely wonderful! As she experienced the moments, so did I as her biggest cheerleader. Last summer as she and Scott were married, I truly felt things had come full circle. Greg and I love watching her in the role of parent and wife. I am thrilled for her that she will soon have another sweet baby to hold in her arms and share all the love and joy that she has given to so many.

Michelle, I am so proud of you. Knowing that you are walking with the Lord is the biggest blessing of all for me. I know I am the woman I am today, because God gave me the most wonderful daughter in the world. I love you more than words could ever say!

More Arrivals!

This picture shows the size differnce

one day can make!

This picture is one of my very favorites. Patches is sitting on her newly hatched babies. She was making a little twittering sound which is her signal to Handsome that she wants him to feed her. He frantically jumps around the cage eating and then rushes to her side to feed her. The whole time he is feeding her she is fluttering her wings. It is such a sweet thing to watch. I love it!

You can see in this picture how they have downy like fuzz on their bodies and big black circles covering their still closed eyes. The dark on their necks is their little crops getting filled with food.

This picture shows the difference in their coloring. The oldest three are dark skinned and the youngest two are pinkish skinned.

We started off with the first 3 hatching on Monday. Then Tuesday morning, the fourth hatched and the fifth hatched on Tuesday afternoon. You have to keep in mind that these birds grow from the size of the top of your thumb to full grown birds in less than 3 weeks. That means that a day and a half behind in hatching is a lot. I was really afraid that the two smallest might get lost in the pile when heads come up for food. Last night I stood there forever watching and I never saw the tiniest one at all. I was trying to prepare Jackie for the worst, but she was having none of it. She ran back in my room and got up on the chair to watch them. Sure enough, after a few minutes, she came running out yelling she had seen the fifth head. I ran back with her and there was the little guy! Yeah!!!

Baby Birds!!!!!!!!!

I am so excited to have had 3 babies hatch today! I was not even sure if they had ever mated so this was a perky surprise. Jackie was up on a chair watching the mother and dad feed their tiny babies. It is soooooo cute to see them! If you look very close under Patches throat you can see the tiny baby head coming up.

I felt like a professional photographer today. I probably took 50 shots to get this one picture. I was rearranging lights and contorting into all kinds of positions to get this shot. I was fiddling around with the camera and I actually got this picture right thru the bars. I knew there was a way to focus and have the bars look like they disappear and after many attempts I figured it out! I was quite proud of myself!

Budgie Buddies

Here are our new baby budgies on their little play area.

Here is the "Reading Corner" in my room. Notice the bird play area on the table.

Here is Jackie standing next to my new birdcage in my room. I spent several hours rearranging today to get this look.

Canary Fun

As most of you know, I have a love of birds. The ones I have enjoyed the most over the years are canaries. At one point, Danae, Dean and I could have practically had a canary ranch going! It is an incredibly fun hobby to have and it can also be profitable. Since Danae has been off of work, she has gotten the ball rolling again. I ended up buying a pair last week and the fun has begun again...... The difference is that this time I don't have as much room for cages, so I will have to enjoy on a limited basis. There is something so interesting about watching the whole process. The couple (who are hopefully compatible) check each other out. If he likes the feel of her, he will sing to her and feed her. Then she will begin frantically building a nest. Hopefully, somewhere during all of these steps they will be mating. Once the nest is built, she will start laying within a couple of days. My female (named Patches by Jackie) started laying last Saturday and layed each day for 5 days. The male, Handsome, (also a Jackie name) has been singing to her and feeding her while she is on the nest. If all goes well in two weeks baby birds should hatch. I never actually saw them mate, so there is a distinct possibility that her eggs are not fertile. It is a major hit and miss process, but when everything clicks it is wonderful!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

34 years ago today Greg and I were married. To look at that number it seems unbelievable that we have been together for that long. I am sitting here waiting for him to get up so we can start off our day by going to the lake to fish. We had thought long and hard about how we would like to spend the day and we both agreed that fishing would be perfect. Some of the most enjoyable times we have had together as a couple have been spent doing just that. Our very first family vacation, when Michelle was only 2 years old, was spent fishing in the Sierra's. We have spent innumerable summer vacations in the exact same way. We are planning to go again this summer with Michelle and her family. Every year when Michelle was little we would take her picture on the horse swing by June Lake. We are all looking forward to taking Jackie's picture on that swing this summer.



I have been thinking back over the years and all that we have been thru together. The ups and downs of life have truly brought us closer together. Soooo many events have occurred during these years. It makes me think of a movie Deb and I saw years ago. A mother is talking to her son and daughter-in-law, who are on the brink of divorce. They are all at a wedding reception and she is pointing out various family members. She then tells some wild, war story of what they have gone thru in their marriages and then finishes it off with, "and they're still together!" We are one of the lucky couples who can say the same thing!



I am blessed beyond belief to have spent my life with Greg. We have been thru so many things both good and bad. We have a beautiful daughter who has made our life complete. She is by far our shining moment! Now we have her, our wonderful son-in-law and our beautiful grandchildren to bless the rest of our lives. I thank God on my anniversary for all He has given me ........

Dieting SUCKS!!!!!!!

The title sums up my feeling right at the moment. I am trying to get into the "zone" and it is really a push. My overall mood is annoyance. I am most annoyed at myself for even letting this be an issue. I could dwell on my many problems and why I have let food be my comfort, reward, consolation, and absolute treat. I could list my excuses - age (getting up there), lifestyle (not a whole lot of excess movement), asthma (I'm sure my lungs are not being helped as they are crushed on all sides by excess fat), weak ankles (let's face they were never meant to support this kind of weight load) and daily pressure ( dealing with all of the mentioned items). Or I could suck it up and admit that I eat too much and I need to drastically alter my daily intake. I have no answers or really even a point to this. All I can say is today I am working the diet.

Fishing

Daddy and Jackie at the lake......

Jackie and Jeff had a ball feeding the ducks! Everyone had a lot of fun and the weather was perfect. All in all it was incredibly pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Anabelle was very proud of herself!

Michelle had to rig all of the poles and did a great job!

Joe's idea of relaxing.......

A Relaxing Day

I had such a relaxing day with Jackie and Danae. We went to lunch and then to Color me Mine. For a while, we were the only ones there and it was soooo pleasant. We all had a lot of fun and can't wait to see our creations!

Disneyland Birthday Bonanza

It was soooo much fun celebrating Jackie's birthday at Disneyland. They make a really big thing of it and you literally wear around a pin all day so that everyone knows it is your birthday! She was all set with her autograph book and ear hat that said "It's my Birthday"

I tried.........

I have actually spent almost 2 hours screwing around trying to get a couple of pictures on here so I could write a little story about them. I got the new camera hooked up to the computer and I was actually viewing the pictures on the computer screen! I have almost 400 pics on there, so it took some time to sort thru them. I was humming to myself, smugly planning my layout and story. For some reason, when I tried to download them, they were not going directly onto my computer. After endless fiddling, I only downloaded a couple, that ultimately shot onto a program that I really don't even know how to access. (this all occurred after so much time passing that I could have screamed!) I am spoiled by my old Kodak that just popped them on and it was so easy to maneuver.

When I finally thought it was all handled, I decided to go ahead and try to start my little story. I clicked on gadgets, browsed the computer and scoured everywhere to even find the flipping pictures. At this point, my eyes were literally twitching and my fingers were cramping! After a MARATHON, I finally get one ready to go and pop it onto my blog. I squeal triumphantly! Yes, I have done it! I click on to view my blog and blink when I don't see the picture at first. Oh,wait, there it is and it is the size of a postage stamp! My elation gave way to a weary defeat...............I tried.

St.Patrick's Day Blessings

St. Patrick's Day for my family is always a celebration. Actually, all of my life it has been an important day. When Deb and I were in grade school, it was Disneyland Day for the Catholic schools, which meant a day off of school. When I was in seventh grade, it was the first time I got to go to Disneyland alone with a friend. I can still remember my utter excitement at the prospect. My best friend, Jenny McFarland, spent the night before with me. We did our hair up in curlers and sat on the bed with a notebook and a map of Disneyland planning out our day, moment by moment. We were absolutely giddy at the thought of being in complete control of our actions! We could do what ever we wanted to! We were going to take our time going down Main Street. We were going to browse in the shops as long as we wanted, without our dads telling us to hurry up and keep moving. We stayed up late. too excited to sleep. It was one of those days that was just as much fun as you had thought it would be. Forty years later, I can still remember the feeling.

Today as I watched Jackie's excited little head skipping into school wearing a green shirt, I thought back to my own excitement on this special day. I thought back to Minnie's little head doing the exact same thing when she was little. Many times as I look at Jackie it is as though Min is still that little girl...............It is just one of the many wonders of a grandchild.

We always have given each other cards and small gifts on this day. We have corned beef and cabbage and as much green food as we can for dinner. We watch leprechaun movies and drink green lemonade. It is so wondrous to see Michelle with her little girl, passing on these special traditions. Jackie and I sat at the table tonite and talked while she colored a beautiful picture for Min and Scott, to go in their card. She was chattering the whole time about her plans for an elaborate leprechaun trap. Seeing her innocent little face light up at the thought of actually catching one was priceless! She was so excited, she wanted to sleep in a recliner to watch her trap. (needless to say she is now headless)

This has been a wonderful day and I thank God for my St.Patrick's Day Blessings.

New Technology at Work!

I've been operating on the new computer for a couple of days now and it is actually way better than I had it pictured. There are not many times that this can be said.....I guess the bottom line is that I did not realize the true dinosaur level of my old computer. I thought that the slowness of it was because DSL did not work that well in the mountains. Jackie had this website called Pixie Hollow (from Tinkerbell) where you create your own fairy, that she has been wanting to go on. Dino (old computer) would huff and puff, spin the hourglass for at least 10 minutes, or possibly shut down completely in an attempt to get to the website. During many tries, we never even made it there. Tonight she wanted to try it on the new computer and we were literally designing her new fairy within a minute! Her teacher had given me the website for her to go on and do extra science work at home. It was pointless to have considered it in the past, but now it will be a full go! Greg was clicking around on some of his work stuff today, answering e-mails at light speed. In the past, he never even went on when he was at home because he could not bear the crawler speed. The screen is so big and clear I don't even need my glasses at all! I guess a lot of progress has been made in the last 6 years! I am sooooo perky to have this going you will never know!

Still in Transition

I had thought that by now I would be up and running on the new computer. Downloading my pictures has been MUCH more of a project than I had ever imagined. I had them all on my Kodak program listed with different album titles. Some of the albums had as few as 4 pictures and some as many as 36. These pictures were from 2004-2007. I did not have dates on them and the were listed in alphabetical order, all 186 albums. I decided that I wanted to have them on the CD's by year for future scrapbooking. I went thru and viewed each album and inserted the proper CD for the year, downloaded it, and then wrote the album title and number of pics for it on the CD sleeve. I then deleted the album to the trash, to keep organized as to where I was at. I had all 8 CD's numbered with a corresponding number on the CD sleeve. I had them all neatly arranged on the desk, so that I could finish up the project this morning. (You will later see why all of these details were necessary for me to list.)

On Saturday, Michelle and Jackie went and had St. Patrick's Day pictures taken. Scott had to work, so they were having a little mother daughter fun. Michelle came home and showed me the pictures (which were darling!) and I put them on my desk. (Are we noticing a pattern here? HINT-things of importance on the desk) Sunday morning I was in the kitchen making breakfast, while listening to Miley, my dog, whine from my bedroom. We have a gate and keep her there so she is separated from Hannah, (Min and Scott's dog) some of the time and so that they are both not just running thru the house. I finish making breakfast and go down the hall to my room, where a sickening sight meets my eyes. The envelope and most of the St. Patrick's Day pictures are in a mangled, torn apart pile on the floor. Miley is off to the side, dozing contentedly....... Needless to say, by the end of my rant, she is cowering behind the rocking chair.

This morning, after having taken Miley with me to Costco yesterday, (just so she would not be alone in my room) I decided to leave her alone for literally 5 minutes while I made coffee. I sprint back down the hall when I finish, because of course I am worried about what she might have gotten into during my absence. To my HORROR, on the floor as I enter the room, is one of the CD sleeves from my downloaded pictures all chewed up. My stomach tightens and I think my my brain actually contorted oddly, as I looked around and saw the actual CD across the room chewed up. I lost it! Greg comes running out of the bathroom yelling at Miley, who quickly retreats to the corner. He actually says to me, "Why did you leave it laying out?" I am sure I need to go no further as the rest of the conversation can be easily imagined.......

I will be spending today going thru my computer trash of approximately 2,000 pictures, looking for the ones chewed by the dog. Miley will be spending the day, if not the rest of her life, in the dog run.

A Fun Day

This is one of my favorite days of the week. It is the day I go and work in Jackie's classroom. All of the kids call me "Jackie's Grandma" and you can see how perky that makes her. While I am there, they are working at stations, which is groups of four moving from center to center doing different projects. I usually am sitting at one of the centers to help with one of their projects. Today it was having them take turns reading to me out of their little weekly Scholastic mags and then answering the questions on the back. It brings back the old days of playing school and it is still just as much fun as it ever was! First graders are one of the most adoraable age groups! The kids are so sweet and innocent, yet smart and interesting, too. Mel, you are so lucky that you will be doing this for your job!

It is so funny, because even at this young age you can see ahead to who they will be in high school. The clown, the jock, the nerd, the flirt, the brain, the beauty, the runt, the fart and so on. They all love to talk and I love to listen. Sometimes it is hard to concentrate on the work, as they can have me roaring over their stories. One little boy, (the clown and the doll in one) is always doing weird voices and getting the crowd going. His staunchest fan, ( little Miss Trying too Hard) waits adoringly for whatever his next move will be so she can lead the giggles. The funny thing is he is well aware of her and "plays" to her accordingly. Two little girls who sit together and are practically joined at the hip were in a huff today. They stalked over to the desks and sat down at opposite sides. I asked them if their were in a fight and they both dramatically squealed out, "Yes." I asked one of them what was wrong and as she began to tell the story, the other one snarled out, "Don't you roll your eyes at me. I KNOW what that means!" It was all I could do not to burst into laughter. The stories go on and on. As I said, I look forward to this day all week long.

A Day in the Life......

This is the fourth time I have started this post. I have been doing dishes, cooking dinner, putting groceries away, looking for some microscopic horses of Jackie's, picking up a dog gut pit, and trying to type this all at the same time, it seems. How I long to be that in control woman quietly doing her chores, humming softly to herself as she goes. When everything is all done and settled for the night she comes to the computer to read, chuckle as she gives a knowing nod, and type helpful hints to others. Instead, as I arrive home from shopping and seeing a movie, I pole vault into the room where the computer is. (I need to see if there is anything new on the blog before I can begin my nightly chores.) During my absence the dog has strung my crocheting all over the room and chewed a hole in my pajamas. My newest book has been reduced to confetti and a cup of coffee I left on the nightstand has been spilled. The dishes are still on the kitchen counter where I left them this morning, when I had to leave in a hurry, because I had lost track of time. Dinner ends up being a hodgepodge dig from the fridge. I am sure I had some sort of a point when I started this but, in keeping with my feel on this day I can't remember what it was...........

Dr. Laura has gone too far!

I am not sure how many of you are familiar with Dr. Laura...She is a talk show host/psychologist on KFI. I have been listening to her for the last 5 or 6 years. She has (to me) an incredibly entertaining show on a lot of levels. She is VERY black and white in her opinions, not all of which I agree with. The best part of her show is her biting sarcasm and ruthless way of dealing with some of the callers. If anyone has listened to her at all, they would KNOW what buttons not to push, but that never stops many of the dorks who call in. She can be incredibly withering, to say the least.

A couple of days ago a woman calls in and she is very upset. She and her husband had gone to get tattoos. She was selecting what she wanted, when her husband told her as soon as she lost 30 pounds, she could get it done. The caller felt that there should not be conditions on his love for her and that he was completely out of line. She started to explain how all of this had made her feel when Dr. Laura clipped her off mid sniffle with a snide, "Why should he be stuck with a fat slob?" The woman sputters in shock, "But......" Dr. Laura is having none of it. She rips the woman up one side and down the other. She called her names and just generally berated her for carelessly getting fat. She literally questioned her in a vicious voice about what foods she had been porking out on. She basically told her to get the weight off and keep her man happy.

As I said, she can be brutal, but usually with some cause. This was so unbelievably shocking that it has taken me this long to even repeat the story. I will admit, Dr. Laura does have a weird weight fetish and has admitted to being anorexic in college, but she has never gone this insane. It will be a while before I tune in again.......

RED ALERT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Due to numerous postings on the main blog, causing information to quickly move to the next page, we have now established a RED ALERT area. It is located at the top right of the Main blog and will be in RED. Please check this daily for important updates and warnings. If you have information to go in this area, please email Joe at "joehall@jhall.biz" Please leave a comment to me so that we know you have read this and today's posting regarding the FIX for the comment problem.

Oscar Aftermath

Well, the "party" is over and we ended up with a tie between Greg and I. We each had 11. Jackie ended up in tears and had to move to another room for a panda movie by the second Oscar. She is so competitive and can get tense very easily. (HMMMM how odd.) We had lots of fun. It totally changes the dynamics of watching, when there is competition for us involved. Greg was not actually here for the show. He had a late customer and these days that is a definite GO. I had emailed him the link for the ballot so he could fill his out before he got here. I checked his answers with the master copy I made during the show, when he got home. I know this is tweaked, but it was highly annoying when he tied with me. He was all perky and had to go into some in depth story of how he came to make his lofty choices. Of course, I am joking. (I mean how petty could someone be?) LOL

It is really late and for some reason (perhaps 2 Diet Cokes at the party?) I am still going. I am reaching the point where I could easily slip into a late night dwell. NO not that! I need to stop thinking and watch something mindless on TV to unwind. Will write more tomorrow........Di

Snow Annoyance

I am going to take a tip from Jessie and see if venting about something lessens my annoyance.....It snowed all night and still is snowing, as we speak. Our street has not been plowed since about 4 am, thus making it like a ski run. Three teenagers are going up to the top of the hill and then as a group snowboarding all the way down the street. This may sound like innocent fun, but cars do go up and down the street and in this deep wet snow, even with chains and 4WD, it is very slippery. I have been driving on streets in this weather before and it is very tension provoking when people are walking in the street, let alone snowboarding in a group 3 bodies wide. When they see a car one of them screams out,"CAR!" and then they all dive into the berms, in the nick of time. A couple of cars have stopped and had words, but it does not seem to bother the kids. If I thought it would do any good, I would snort out and say something, but I am sure it would do no good besides invoking a little chuckle and shake of their heads adding to their feeling of youthful invincibility.
I have just had a wondrous, redeeming moment! The snow plow was coming down the street ( at a rather speedy clip) and one of the kids was snowboarding and had to skid off to the side and land in a giant berm. The snow plow driver actually stopped and yelled something out of the window at the kid. I know this is tweaked, but I really wanted yell out "Wee Doggies!" Since that would be going a little too far, I will do it here. "Wee Doggies!!!!!!"

SNOW!!!!!!

It started snowing this morning about 8:00 am and continued until about 5:00 pm. There is a lot on the ground, considering there was about a foot here before it even started today. I will say, it is absolutely beautiful! I love the feeling of all of my family safe and snug in the house, when it is like this outside (actually I love that feeling no matter what the weather is!) I can finally breathe freely, since Greg just drove up. I don't know how he does it sometimes.....He works all day and then spends 50 minutes to an hour and a half driving home thru some fairly treacherous conditions. I know that God truly blessed me!
Stone is here for the weekend and the kids are very excited for Valentine's day. I made both of them fleece blankets with pandas on them. (Jackie has been crazy for pandas ever since they went to the zoo last month.) I had to make Stone's blanket with Jackie here this week since she had so many snow days off of school. She loves his blanket! She said to me while I was making it, "You know Grandma, I am the one who really loves pandas." Tonight before she went to bed she said, "I know you made me a Panda blanket, Grandma, cuz that 's how much you love me. Why don't you just give it to me now?" Then she giggled the most adorable giggle........
There is supposed to be a break in the weather tomorrow so we should be able to get in some fun snow play with the kids. It is getting late and I have been working on this for a while with about 50 interruptions, it seems like. Goodnight all!