Pop the Hood

I have much to do and little time...

However, I have a stupid Andi story that simply cannot wait, or I will forget and the story will be lost in the ether!

I left work Monday night about 6:30pm.  I was hungry.  I was tired and I was stressed.  AND my head felt as if it was on the verge of exploding.  I have been having sinus headaches complete with bulging eardrums, and I don't know if it's the drainage (that I don't think is draining) or my sinus medicine, but nothing has been tasting good and my stomach hurts when I try to eat.  I COULD take a Zantac or a Pepcid...OR I could just let this cook and see if I drop that last five pounds that I've talked about losing since I was 18 years old.

Anyhoo.  I left work.  It was dark.  It was raining.  I HATE driving in the dark. 

Add rain?

Fuggettaboutit....I find it nearly impossible to distinguish where the lanes are with the overwhelming reflection of other cars lights...Ugh.  My shoulders are knotting just thinking about it.

I was white knuckle driving and my heart did a happy dance when I pulled on to my south bound road where all I had to do was get over to the left lane and stay there...

And alarms started going off in my car.

STABILITRACK SYSTEM FAILURE!!!


SERVICE BRAKES SOON!!!


DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING! DING!

One of the lights on my dash was my emergency brake light.  I decided to try and pop the brake. 

Because maybe somehow by some weird supernatural force of the universe it had become partially engaged as I was driving...

So I reached down with my left hand, never DARING to take my eyes off of the rain slick roads and popped the brake.

AAAANNNNND another light started blinking:

HOOD OPEN!

I had popped the stupid hood!!  Thank goodness for the lever that has to manually released or my darn hood would have been flying up as I was driving!

So, I pulled off the interstate in the hood and pulled into the projects (literally) got out, dashed to the front of my car and slammed the hood back open...I figured that as cold as it was and with the rain pouring down, no gang fights would be going down as I pulled over.  And I doubted any mass murderers would be sitting in wait for a stupid chick who doesn't know how to operate her car's emergency break to pull over.

And guess what?  My emergency brake in this new fangled vehicle is NOT released by a lever under the dash!  No sirree bob!  It is released by pressing in on the brake again!

Oh... and just so ya know:  The brake lights went off after I pulled over, but my stabilitrack system stayed lit until I got to Braum's where I ran in to grab milk, eggs, and butter.  When I went back to start my car, all lights were off and no alarm bells were ringing!

All that drama.

For nothin'!

Okay.  I'm off to officially do the gargantuan list of tasks I've given myself to accomplish by 2pm.  Have a blessed Thanksgiving and I pray that you take time out of your hustle and bustle of preparing to be with friends and family to thank God for all He's given you this year!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

A Three Step Picture Tutorial to a Happier Mommy.

Oh no!  What shall I do???  The toilet paper roll is empty!!!

I know!  I will get another roll from the cabinet!!

There they are!  All nice and lined up, ready for the next person who needs it!  I'm so thankful I have a mommy who has a phobia about running out of toilet paper!

There!  I will sit it right here where it's nice and handy to all.

A few uses later the toilet paper roll has now moved from the back of the toilet to be stacked on top of the empty roll...

Fortunately for this family, they have a mommy who knows how to not only change the roll, but take a picture tutorial so they will NEVER have to stack roll upon roll upon roll...

Step One:  Remove old toilet paper roll.  This step is very crucial.  You see, the NEW roll will not fit on until the OLD roll has been removed!

Step Two:  Throw the OLD roll away!  This may seem superfluous, but I guarantee, your mother needs her sanity.  Please, please, by all that is good and holy:  THROW AWAY THE OLD ROLL!  I have heard rumors that sometimes something simple as an empty toilet paper roll left lying on the floor has caused lesser mommies than yours to lose her temper.  Unfathomable as it all seems, I fear this rumor may have a tiny seed of truth to it.

Step Three:  Place the NEW roll on the toilet paper dispenser, and snap it back in place.

And there you have it, folks.  Three simple steps to a happier saner mommy.

Gentle Reader:  Please feel free to print and post this easy Three Step Tutorial to a Happier Saner, Less Prone to Temper Tantrums Mommy in your own house.

Your welcome.

Updates

I found the dead smell in my garage...

Thankfully it was NOT the missing cat...Merely a mouse that I actually discovered AFTER the stench went away. 

I discovered it because my garage door wasn't working one day...

Then I realized the deep freeze wasn't running...

And then I realized NONE of the outlets in the garage worked...

And then I envisioned a dead cat with a chewed cord in it's mouth...Because the puppy was still alive so OBVIOUSLY it wasn't her...

But alas, it was a receptacle that had gone bad due to a long story that I shall not explain as it's too tedious...Let's just say Studmuffin replaced the receptacle and all is well, and the meat in the freezer was still good...

Whew!

Oh, did I mention this all happened the same day I found ANOTHER black widow in my house?  The pest control dude came, and sprayed the inside and out and bombed the attic, and explained that it was merely because it is getting cold so they were trying to get in...

I mentioned I really don't care why they are there, they simply shouldn't be!!!  So, over Thanksgiving I will grab some hedge apples to put in baskets at my doors to see if that helps.  My sister, the giver of information, told me they are supposed to repel insects...

I think we may have kittens in January...

Freckles is apparently no longer a kitten if her trampy ways are anything to go buy.  Two tom cats had a fight on our front porch last week.  And last Wednesday she came in with a wet neck...

Popcorn pointed out she must have found a mate...

And I was a little shocked to realize how nonchalant and well versed my child was about the mating rituals of animals...

I think we will bring her in the house in the week or so before she's due so we won't have to worry about Oliver getting the kittens.  Brent has NOT come around to this way of thinkin'...

If I fail to convince him of the joy of a basket of kittens in a closet, then perhaps we will put a litter box in the shop so she can have them in the boat...Because that's where ALL of the cats have kittens at my parents!  And Oliver can't get in the shop if we are vigilant to keep him out...

And the threat of kittens in his boat is a sure way to let us have kittens in the house!!!

Not that I'm manipulative like that or anything...

And then, of course we must KEEP Freckles in the house so we can get her spayed BEFORE she goes back in heat...Because while I REALLY want one litter of kittens to snuggle and enjoy on a cold winter's day...I do not want ENDLESS litters of kittens!

Now.  I really should get some house work done...Or at the very least get out of my pajamas. I have a date with my niece Brooke today after she finishes touring OU.  I haven't seen her in ages, so that will be great!

Weather Center of the Universe...

My mom emailed this to me...And while I readily admit I hardly ever actually READ any of the emails I receive unless I know that they are truly directed towards me, I actually opened and read this one!  So, for all of you who ask if I read that funny email you sent...Probably not.  However, if you sent an actual message to me for ME, then yes, I read it...

Unless I mistook it for a forwarded email, then no...I didn't read it...

Yes... I'm shallow and temperamental...And easily bored...And yet I'm frustrated by my child who lacks focus and is annoyed by menial tasks that do not entertain her...

So, here's the email my mom sent me.  It was titled "Tuesday in Oklahoma," lest any of you are confused by the last statement...
 

 

Today's weather report has a number of safety precautions you should take note of:

*Tornadoes are coming - seek shelter in the interior of your house.

*Earthquakes are coming - avoid the interior of your home.

*There's lightning outside - avoid high ground...

*There's a flash flood warning - avoid low ground...

*Hail is present - avoid open areas.

*Parts of the state have received over 5" of rain in three hours.

*However - we have a burn ban.

Welcome to Wednesday in Oklahoma.

 

And Then I Ran Into the Door

Saturday was a big day in humiliating moments...

Sooooo if we're judging a day's success in ratio to blog worthy moments, I think it was a rousing success!

To start with, Popcorn and I had to run to Walmart to pick up a birthday present.  She had two parties to go to, and we had to do an emergency gift change as we found out that one of the girls no longer plays Barbies, and Popcorn ALWAYS plays Barbies with her.... She was quite surprised to learn her friend had forsaken Barbies.

I must say I will be SO SAD when my kids no longer play toys...

Anyway, she was much speedier at picking out a new present than I had planned, so we had time to kill.  We wandered all over Walmart...

When it was time to meet the mom who was taking them for a movie/mall party, I got out of the car to go greet them...Because I think it's polite, and I'm a chatter...Christie gestured to my torso...

Oh, wait!  I must describe my uber cute outfit!  I had paired a hand me up shirt from my niece Sarah with black & white stripes and a wide black belt with a big shiny patent "leather" buckle that was sitting high on my waste!  Look at me and my fashionable self!!!  I knew Christie was impressed, because I've always had excellent powers of deduction.

So...Christie gestures to my torso and being the super cool chick that I am, I began to saunter to her...Because I was Luh-OOkin' GOOOODD!! 

Except Christie began to frantically shake her head no...And pointed more emphatically...and in all of my amazing reasoning skills, I deduced that something was perhaps amiss...

MY STUPID SHIRT WAS UNBUTTONED!!!

Good grief...

I laughed maniacally, buttoned up, and laughed some more...Because what else is there to do???

My only other thought was, "Please, God, I hope I didn't just walk all over Walmart with my shirt unbuttoned!"

So, I dropped off my beloved child and stopped to get gas...

And winds were at gale force, so even though I shook the handle before removing it from my tank, gas splattered all over me....

So.  I went home, showered and changed.

After feeding my family a highly nutritious lunch of bean and cheese burritos, I headed to Norman to do a little Christmas shopping and meet Popcorn at the mall to take her to a second party that was a slumber party at the Embassy Suites in town...

My back had started spontaneously hurting while we were in Walmart earlier, but I tried to convince myself that a good dose of Aspercreme rubbed in, a hot shower and two Aleve were going to fix what ailed me...

And my back continued to hurt...

It hurt to push the cart through Target.  Target is the store that I try to avoid as every time I go in, I spend a hundred bucks and wonder what happened...

I left with one measly purchase...

As I wandered in Target I realized that I had left the sleeping bag at home that Popcorn had told me at least TWELVE times to not forget!

Grrrr...

No problem.  Academy was up the road.  I ran in and found a sleeping bag for ten whole bucks...Which was probably cheaper than gas wasted to drive back home...I wandered all over Academy, trying to find gifts for a few people...And nothing appealed.  All I could think of was that my back hurt to stand still...I had to keep moving or just sit down...

So.  I left Academy and ran into a shoe store.  Because OBVIOUSLY everyone is getting shoes from me this Christmas!

And I left without purchasing or even TRYING on a solitary pair of shoes. Because every pair of shoes I buy for someone else must first be tried on...

I knew it was a dire situation when not one pair of shoes was even worthy of trying on. 

I spied a Dollar Tree...

Hooray!  The store where EVERYTHING is a dollar or less!  Surely I could find some great stocking stuffers in there!  Problem solved!  This day would not just be a day of agonizingly wandering through stores, staring at items, but not registering what I was seeing.  There was much joy and singing in my heart...

Only I didn't find any stocking stuffers!  However, as I was about to throw up my hands and leave in exasperation I found the most unthinkable thing of all!

I found food storage containers that WERE MADE IN AMERICA!

Shut! Up!  Yes they were!!

So, after joyously handing the lovely lady my money, I turned to stroll out of Dollar Tree, American made product firmly in my grasp, silently celebrating over my find on Veterans' Day weekend, no less!

And I walked smack into the door.

You see, I anticipated an automatic door, and I was so lost in my daydreams of jubilation/don't move to quickly or you will surely collapse in pain from your back that I failed to notice the door wasn't opening...

I mean, seriously people...Surely a store where everything is less than a dollar rates an automatic door!

*Sigh*

And as I limped my poor pitiful self to my car, I realized another fact...Not only had I exposed myself in public, forgotten a sleeping bag, limped through a basically unsuccessful shopping trip, and ran into a door...

I HAD WENT OFF AND LEFT THE PRESENT FOR THE OTHER PARTY HANGING ON THE BACK OF A CHAIR IN THE DINING ROOM!!!!!!

I did what any sane woman would do...

I called Studmuffin and told him the entire pitiful tale...

He immediately volunteered to bring Bookworm and her friend (who was staying the day with her so she wouldn't be lonely without a sister to play with.  I've learned that my kids get lonely quick without each other.) to town, meet me at the hotel to drop off the gift, then he would also generously treat me to dinner at the ever fabulous Chik fil A.

My hero!

Conversations

Wednesday was a lovely fall day.  The kids asked me to take them to the park.  Now, I have to admit that when we go to our park, I tend to just turn them loose and sit on a sunny bench and read.  However, it was too brisk to sit on a cold concrete bench, so I decided to join them on their adventure.  You see, our park has a little forest.  I was so pleasantly surprised at how lovely the little trail was!  It is definitely a photo opportunity.

Anyway, Popcorn found one of those pods with large seeds in them that some trees have.  I don't know what they're called.  But, no, they're not locust trees.  The pods were about an inch wide and the seeds were bigger than lima beans...Anyway, one of the seeds was sprouting.

"I'm going to go home and plant it!  Then we will FINALLY have a climbing tree at our house!"

"Honey, it takes like ten years for a tree to get big enough to climb."

"Fine.  Then I will wait until I'm 19 to plant it."

So that was odd reasoning...

"Why don't you just plant it now, and then when your kids are growing up they can climb it?"

"Ufff!  Fine!  Then I will have to be overprotective and go out and watch them...It will be so ANNOYING!  Gosh!"

And I burst out laughing.

Her brain is weird.

Going Nowhere...

My parents took my girls to the lake with them Friday night after my mom's appointment in Oklahoma City.  My sister was there with her family.  I'm not sure, but judging by this picture, I believe they had fun.

I think fishermen classify a catch like this one a successful day, even if it's all they catch.

Even if they nearly froze to death in the process of bringing home the bounty.

Brent got up early Saturday morning to retrieve the girls, and I went to an all day choir rehearsal...I don't think he really felt it was a sacrifice considering he's nuts for fishing.

Oh, were you wondering where they had such fantastic luck?  

I'm not sure exactly how one gets there.

I do know it's not here.

I also know it's not there.

I guess the easiest way to tell you is this:

So the next time somebody tells you that you're on the road to nowhere, I suggest you say, "That's fine.  I hear the fishing is excellent!"

Unless the tornado, floods, or earthquakes we had Friday and Monday night wiped out the whole place...

Then it may not be the ideal road to head down.

Just sayin'...

Oh, and on a completely unrelated note:  What is the DEAL with these earthquakes!  Friday night I thought we were having a tornado that was shaking the walls, then I very briefly thought the rapture was happening...then Brent said, "it's an earthquake" and I was even more freaked!  Tornadoes give you warning, and if you live in Oklahoma, the warning system is outstanding...

But earthquakes?  Nope.  You're just sitting on the couch watching "Big Bang Theory" and suddenly you think there's a big roll of thunder, then you lose your equilibrium, then you realize it's not you, it's the earth!

Freaky...I'm tellin' ya.

But I'll get off that tangent now.

Who wants to go fishin'?

Jingle Bells!

I hung some chimes from our back door.  A few weeks ago I started taking Chesney's nose and hitting the bells every time I take her out...

She understands what they're for, but I must say I don't think she likes them.  I think they are too jingly and perhaps hurt her ears...I suggested we buy a buzzer for her to press...Studmuffin scoffed at placing a doorbell inside the house for the dog.  All I'm sayin' is that I need something that is easily heard, so that I'm not cleaning puppy messes up off the floor all the time.

A few nights ago she rang the bells.  Brent took her out and she did her business.

He brought her back in, and a few minutes later she rang them again...

He let her out and she chased Freckles off of the back porch and up a tree...

And she came back to the door and scratched...

So he let her back in...

She trotted into the kitchen, found nothing of interest and came back to plop down in the living room next to Brent...After a few minutes she got BACK up, went back to the kitchen, sniffed around and then came right back to lay beside Brent...She did this a few more times...

Then one time after leaving the kitchen, she went over to the door and rang the chimes...

Brent sighed and got up to put her back out... And she immediately ran over to the outdoor water bowl and took a big long drink!

You see, every night an hour or so before bedtime, Brent takes her water away, so he won't have to get up with her during the night...

But apparently chasing kittens is thirsty work, and if she couldn't have a drink from the kitchen, she'd just get it from her bowl outside...

I am afraid this dog is too smart for us...

Last Sunday Popcorn let the dogs in while we were still in bed (after we had turned them both out for their 5am ablutions which really means we kick them out and go back to bed)  She was watching TV...

We heard the chimes faintly ring...

We didn't hear the door open...

Brent got up to check on what was up, and sure enough!  Chesney had peed on the dining room floor!

Oh joy.

It seems that she rang the bell so softly, and since she had just came from outside Popcorn could not be bothered to climb out from under her fleece blanket to turn her back out...She didn't think she "really needed to go."

I tried not to scream...And sort of succeeded...

"Well next time, even if you don't think she SHOULD need to go, could you just put her out anyway, PLEASE?"

"Sure thing, Mom!"  And she happily resumed watching the Munsters on Netflix.

My Protector

Wednesday morning I kept hearing a loud banging sound...I had been hitting snooze on my alarm clock, as I have a harder time dragging my carcass out of bed when it's cooler out...

I finally realized it was a whopping 5:30 am and Brent had left the dogs outside who apparently thought they were on the verge of freezing to death since it was only 36 degrees out...

The big babies.

I let them in and collapsed my bleary self on the floor with a dog on each side and scratched their ears and pondered how thankful I was that I didn't have to work since I had worked a thirteen hour day on Tuesday...

Kelsey suddenly let out a little huff of "woof" and looked at the door.  Kelsey learned from early on that she was not permitted to bark in the house.  I wish she would instill this value in Chesney, but Chesney feels the need to bark any time she's not getting her way...

Anyway, I was shocked to hear this hushed "woof."  She let out a few more huffy "woofs," looked at the back door then raised all of her hackles and let out a low growl...

I no longer felt bleary eyed...

I was suddenly feeling quite alert.

And more than a tiny bit freaked out...

I strained to see what had her so worked up, but when she saw me looking at the door, she prowled over and proceeded to let out several low huffing "woofs" with a growl in between, complete with hackles raised...

I considered the vast array of weapons and artillery in our house.  I wondered if I was clear on how to load them after years of not doing so...I wondered whether to call my husband and demand he drive home to see what was in our back yard, obviously on the verge of committing mayhem...Perhaps I should call the cops, but the last time my husband had to do that, the officer took an hour to arrive and admitted he had been eating breakfast at McDonalds.

I finally decided to unleash the beast...

That's Kelsey in case you're wondering.

Kelsey dashed into the back yard and immediately began her "I'm a big dog and nobody better mess with me" bark.  It is quite a bark to behold, let me tell you.

She ran to the east side of our yard, where I could hear our neighbors German Sheppard barking also.  She stood there a minute, barked some more...

Then turned and ran back to me...

Hackles still raised...

She scratched at the door...

I let her in with hackles still raised...

She looked one last time over her shoulder...

And she walked over to her bed and laid down. 

Disaster averted.

It made me think of another time that she scared the dickens out of me.  We were still living in south Texas, except Brent had already moved to Oklahoma.  I was letting the girls finish out their school year.  I had awesome neighbors.  Nearly every one of them approached me about calling them if I ever needed anything, and each of them also assured me they had a gun if needed.  I laughed and said we would be fine, but thanks for the offer... 

You see within the immediate vicinity of my house was a San Antonio police detective next door,a retired detective and current mayor of my town across the street, a couple who raised police dogs and were both retired military North of the mayor, and on the other side of the mayor my good friend Eloi, who was also retired military as well as retired stay at home husband while wife still works....

One night I was in the kitchen (making cookies or baking bread or some other equally domestic thing) and Kelsey went over to our front door and started sniffing all along the base.  Deep sniffs as if she was trying to draw all of the outside air into her lungs.  She froze.  She started a low ominous growl in her throat.  She raised he hackles and began to pace back and forth across the door way.

She let out a few more huffs of "woof" and growled some more...I had NEVER seen her do such a thing.

I nearly had a heart attack.  So, I did what any self respecting mother would do...I called one of my many gun toting neighbors (we were in Texas remember) and asked them to come see what was up.  Eloi willingly came over and cased the area.  He couldn't find anything, and said it was probably a possum or some other critter on the front porch.  I sheepishly thanked him, gave him a fictitious plate of cookies and sent him back home to his wife Doris...

So thus far Kelsey has fearlessly protected me from...

Well, nothing as far as I can tell!

But I'm pretty sure her heart is in the right place!

An award

I popped on over to Lost in the Prairies today, and was surprised to see myself listed as an award winner!  I guess she was making sure that only those who really want the award will find they have it!!

Anyway, I like the award posts, as I always find out something new about the blogger...And that is what blogging is all about, right?  Eavesdropping on the lives of people you may never meet otherwise?

But maybe that' just me...

So the award comes with rules.  Of course.  So I guess to accept this award, I must actually follow the rules.  I hate rules, but am annoyed when people don't follow rules that I think are important, so there ya go.

However, before I follow the rules of listing seven things about myself, I must say that I realized why Michelle has posts titled "caffeinated randomness" after reading the seven things about her...

Do I even have seven things you don't already know about me?  Since I tend to throw my thoughts up all over the internet and all over everyone that comes in contact with me, I'm not sure...

1.  I actually posted a Dennis the Menace cartoon up on our fridge at work...I crossed out Margaret's name so it reads "Oh no.  Here comes Andi and I bet she hasn't used all of her words for today."  When I saw it in the paper on the break room table, I figured I better strike before somebody else did and I got my feelings hurt...Because I'm so sensitive and all...Of course one of our doctor's was upset for me.  He thought someone was being unkind.  So that was sweet.

2.  I am an early Christmas shopper.  As a matter of fact, I've already started shopping, and have a gift made for my family's homemade gift exchange...My goal is to have all of my shopping done by Thanksgiving.  But that is mostly because after Thanksgiving I'm stressing over all of the homemade gifts I've assigned myself to make...

And I'm a noncrafter.  So why I feel compelled to torture myself year after year is a mystery...

Except that I'm tight.  So I guess it's no big mystery after all.

3.  Apparently at times I'm slightly moody and irrational...At least that is the determination I made based on the reading of this post that I stumbled across while looking for the above picture I knew I'd posted once before.  You can go read about it here and pity my husband...

4.  I have actually had arguments with my dentist...Because going to the dentist is obviously controversial.  He had the audacity about 6 months ago to point out that I clench my teeth, and that is the cause of my sensitivity...I told him I do NOT grit my teeth...And cursed him the next day when I caught myself clenching when I was stressed...Am I the only one who has ever argued with a dentist?

5.  I've come a long way with my fear of spiders...So far that this beauty is living in my house.  I don't know why she's living.  My husband caught her in a jar last Wednesday, so we could see if her abdomen had an hourglass...  She is still alive despite being trapped in a jar for several days.  Apparently spiders don't use up much oxygen...My husband has become fascinated by her.  I'm just horrified that she's in my house.

6.  I am perhaps not the best of mothers...My oldest has been having problems with a boy at school.  I officially declared him a "jerk" and not worthy of the distress he causes her...I'm not really sure telling your child that a kid's a "jerk" and "he's picking on you because he's playing the flute, and 6th grade boys don't play the flute, so he's getting picked on and your an easy target to vent his frustrations on," is the proper mother thing to do.  She is completely oblivious if this (teasing) is going on.  She claims nobody but the woodwinds know he plays flute because his sister takes it to school for him...I told her "Trust me. People know...And it's happening."  Which is perhaps not one of my finest parenting moments.

But let's be real.  We all KNOW that it's the way life is.

7.   There is a mysterious dead animal odor in my garage.  I can't find the source.  I've taken to parking outside in the ELEMENTS to avoid having a stinky car...And to avoid entering the garage.  One of our kittens went missing two weeks ago, and I have looked all over for the source of smell.  Surely I'd be able to find a CAT in the garage if it was decomposing.  I think it's just a rat or mouse that one of the cats killed, then failed to eat...However since I can't find the decomposing carcass, I really have no idea.  Could we all just please pray that it's not a cat?  I really don't think my delicate constitution can handle that...

Now, apparently I'm to pass this award on to fifteen other bloggers...Fifteen is clearly a ridiculously large number...However I do know some brilliant bloggers who are struggling for blog material lately...Or they have lives outside of their blog which PERHAPS makes finding time to post all of their fascinating thoughts difficult...So, in typical "I think rules are stupid" fashion, I will award a whopping four bloggers.  Three happen to be related to me, and the fourth actually seems to live a life destined to be blog worthy, so I shall link up with her in an effort to show the world how hilarious she truly is.  So, without further rambling, I nominate:

1.  Dawn at It Just Dawned on Me
2. Paula at La La Land
3. Marilyn (that's my mom!) over at the Sand Creek Ranch
4. Megan at Best of Fates

Oh Wait!  I just thought of two more!  Go meet these two sisters from Australia!  They are worth the trip!

5.  Crazy Sister
6.  Givinya de Elba

Happy reading!

Negligence: A Practical Gardening Lesson

I'm really glad I took some pictures of my zinnias last week before we had a frost...

I looked around my yard, and thought, "my flowers are doing amazingly well."

Especially considering we are in a drought and I haven't watered since August...

I don't even know where these Vincas came from.  In midsummer of last year, they suddenly began to grow in the rocks by my house.  I had just a few last year, but as you can see, they are quite plentiful this year!

Obviously flowers planted at the base of trees don't fare so well when one does not water them.  Apparently the tree saps all of their water away.  Of course, the statement "planted" is misleading.  When we moved in there were zinnias and marigolds in the back yard.  I left them be, and when they had a dried bloom, I scattered the seeds at the base of various trees.

This is a great, inexpensive way to have lovely annuals become perennials.  It does require some patience, as you don't have beautiful blooms in May when all of the stores have flowers for sale.

They seem to do best in beds near the house or shop.  Please forgive the unsightly trash can.  I really haven't quite mastered how to make a trash can aesthetically pleasing.

These poor mums have had a hard life.  They were eaten completely to the ground by Holly (the puppy we never speak of...) They came back up this summer, and I moved them to another flower bed.  They were quite lovely until Chesney decided they made a great bed...

My jalapeno's decided to have fruit on them for the first time all summer...

And it's actually fall.

Sadly, my tomatoes are just sad and dried up...

Please disregard the child on top of the table.  She was up their whacking the sun shade fabric trying to convince Oliver to climb down so she could pet him.

For some reason this action failed to derive a loving snuggle from him...

Oh, and disregard the piles of dirt on my deck.  Chesney dumped over a flower pot and scattered the soil all over.

So in closing: The expert gardening tip I have for you is this:  Let your zinnias and marigolds dry up.  Scatter the seeds in every available pot and flower bed you have... By mid summer you will have gorgeous flowers all over, until the first frost!

Taking Thoroughness One Step Beyond..

Attention:  I actually wrote this post last week, but never posted it.  I just felt I should confess that this story is late...

I feel better now.



I'm learning to not worry if I'm going to be "short hours" at work because I took a few days off for Fall Break...

God provides plenty of make up hours for me...

In the form of a ten hour, no lunch shift on Monday followed by an eleven hour shift on Tuesday.  On Tuesday I did get lunch, but I took it around eleven or eleven thirty, and believe me that by the time I was clocking out at 7:30, I felt as if I had not received lunch at all...

So, following my whining about hours, I have a nursing story for you...

And it's not a fun story.  I can't even begin to describe the stress and fear and overall sense of sadness I had with the case that is still fresh in my mind...

So instead of sharing a scary, "why am I a nurse" story, I will instead tell you of a conversation that was overheard on Tuesday.

I work with a nurse who could be described as OCD.  And that would not be an overstatement.  We had a long line of patients backed up due to some urgent add on cases, and a delay with an anesthesiologist for a case my doctor was doing in surgery, followed by difficulty with the case causing it to run over.  Consequently we had more than adequate time to prep our patients for their procedures...

Well, OCD nurse can make a fifteen minute duty last two hours if given the chance.  He has this tendency to create work when there's none to be done when he has too much time on his hands.  Strangely, he seems to stress himself out when he has too much time also. He spent two solid hours getting his patient ready.  He even went over discharge instructions before the procedure began, which is actually pretty normal, but it's usually a brief description of what to expect after the procedure and a list of a few restrictions along with a handout.  He was telling his patient not to drive as she was going to receive sedation.  This woman was over 80 years old and no longer drove...And she told OCD nurse so..."Well, I'm just saying you need to be careful about operating any equipment or electronics today.  For example if you have an electric can opener at home, you might want to avoid using it today."

????

Needless to say, we haven't let him live that statement down, and I don't think we will any time soon.

BEWARE THE ELECTRIC CAN OPENER!!!