Comment Challenged

It has come to my attention that I am Comment Challenged!  Sometimes I have a really hard time coming up with appropriate comments when visiting my Blogland friend’s.  About half the time I choose not to leave a comment on your blog which probably makes me appear to be a Blog Stalker and I apologize.  There are times when I want to leave a comment very badly but just can’t find the right words so I just don’t.  Then there are other times when I am pressed for time but feel the need to let you know that I have been by so I leave a half assed  lame comment.  Sometimes I have much to say on the topic or I’m just in a particularly talkative mood so I find that my comments come very easy.  Last but not least there are times when I have had an adult beverage or two and I can’t shut myself up.  Commenting while under the influence can be a dangerous thing and I don’t do this very often because well, you never know what might pop out of my mouth or off the ends of my fingers…Let’s face it, everyone likes to receive comments and the best way to receive is to first give.  It’s what keeps this thing going and makes it fun.
Blog etiquette is a very tricky thing.  Because I am like to think of myself as a proper Southern Lady I want to do this comment thing correctly.  To do this correctly I need to know what is proper procedure.  Once I leave a comment I usually don’t go back to see if anyone has replied to my comment, I just don’t have the time.  How many of you reply to comment’s on the comment’s section of your blog post?  Maybe I’m missing out on a great conversation…Perhaps, you reply to the email that is sent when a reader leaves a comment.  I do this  but not every time someone comments.  Does it annoy you when someone emails you?  I personally like when someone emails me back.   Any thoughts or suggestions on this will be appreciated.

Our Time at Cedar Creek Lake

I seem to have confused everyone about where I'm from with my last post.  I was born and raised in Ft. Worth.  I have always's lived in Texas.  When I was in second and third grade we lived on my Great Grandaddy's cattle ranch on the border of Texas and Oklahoma.  In my past life when I was married to my ex we moved to the Piney Woods about an hour out of Houston three different times and each time stayed about a year (but that's a story for another day).  Approximately 7 years ago me and Hillbilly moved East to Cedar Creek Lake and lived there 3 years before returning to the city.  I have ALWAYS came back to Ft. Worth after each brief move.  Here is a post about the lake that I had posted before anyone was reading my blog.


Still Missing the Lake
I really miss our place we had at the lake. Del Mar was the name of our neighborhood and it was the most peaceful place on earth! Peaceful until the Yankee Weekenders rolled in on Friday that is. That's when the party started and it didn't end until the last Weekender rolled out on Sunday night. We had the greatest neighbors there on Armada Loop! During the week it was just me and sweet Buster (God rest his soul) and Tommy across the street. Tommy worked during the week and Buster was retired so it was like I had the whole street to myself. My front porch had the perfect view of everyone and everything so I made it my job to watch the weekenders houses and make sure that Buster was okay!

Weekdays were very quiet and uneventful but I was never bored. I could sit on the porch for hours on end and watch the wildlife or walk down to the dock and watch the water. Everything about that place appealed to me. The sights, the sounds and even the smells. At night you could hear the whippoorwill in the cove and sometimes behind our house. His call was my favorite sound! I think he kept an eye on me when Hillbilly was in town working. In the morning you could hear the ducks in the cove and occasionally they would waddle through my yard with their babies following. So cute! The squirrels and I had some issues the first 6 months that I lived there. They wanted to hang out with me WAY too much and way too close! They actually messed with me when I was working in the yard. I think the old couple we bought the house from used to feed them. They would actually come to the door and beg like a dog. One time they walked right into our living room. They got the message after a few swats with the broom and several dowsing's with the water hose. We eventually learned to respect each others space and were able to live in harmony. The raccoons however, were a different story. We really had no problem with them until the last year we lived there and were only there on the weekends. Apparently they liked to hang out on my porch as much as I did. We would be sitting on the porch at night and they would walk up on the porch like they owned the place. I think they would have sat in my lap had I not jumped up and screamed at the top of my lungs. I never did get used to them and we sold the house shortly after that. The coons were more nature than I could take! SCARY! They are the only thing about the lake that I don't miss.

Weekends were action packed at the lake. Sometimes Mini Me would come to stay the weekend and we would cook out and play with Angel and ride the Sasquatch. The Sasquatch was a golf cart and Angel couldn't pronounce it and it came out Sasquatch so that's what we called it. I loved that thing and miss riding it! We could ride through the neighborhood or load it up with the rods and ice chest and head to the dock. You could usually find me on it all weekend, I liked to do donuts backwards ( it went faster in reverse) in the back yard. I also miss the bonfires! I would get a fire going on Friday night before Hillbilly would get home and we would sit and talk and have cocktails. Someone would always stop by to visit by the fire. Our porch was also the meeting place for all the neighbors, Yankee Weekenders and Full timers alike and if we weren't on our porch we were over at their houses on their decks! Everyone took turns cooking on the weekends. Someone in the neighborhood always had a project going on and the neighbors would come over to watch you work, give you hell or or just give you hand. In the summer it was all about the Lake. We usually went out on the water for a few hours and then came back and had cookouts! FUN! When we were too lazy to take the boat out we just went across the street to the Weekenders and bobbed off their boathouses. Bobbing is the fine art of balancing on a boat cushion while smoking and holding your beer. It takes practice but once you get the hang of it it's the only way to enjoy the cove! The Weekenders taught us how to bob and I taught the Yankee Weekenders how to eat black-eyed peas on New Years Day.

I really miss that place and looking back on it I wished we had kept it. Unfortunately, there's no way to make a living at the lake so here we are back in the big city dreaming of being in the country again. For now I guess I will fire up the grill in the back yard and bust out the marshmallows but it won't be the same without my whippoorwill:(

Happy Birthday House!

Our house is 3 years old this Sunday.  Happy Birthday House!  I can’t believe it’s already been 3 years since we moved in.  We moved back here from East Texas (gosh I miss the tree’s) because I had landed a decent enough job to justify selling our home there and having this one built.  When we had it built we didn’t pay extra for cabinets in the laundry room as we were going to install those ourselves.  This past weekend Hillbilly finally got a round to installing that cabinet.  He’s such a handy guy, slow but handy.  I think it turned out great and I love my shelves.

I love home improvement projects and making things more functional.  Now if I could just make myself do laundry…

Does anyone have a home improvement project going on at the moment?  I’m still working on my home office/3rd bedroom.  Still need shelves and a comforter for the bed.  When that’s done I have bathroom’s to paint.  By then it should be time for camping with the ghost and working in the yard and all inside projects will be put on the back burner until it get’s too hot to play outside.  That usually happens sometime in July in my neck of the woods.

Good Weekend!

I am happy to report that this was probably the best 2 days I have had in 2 months.  It was completely drama free, thank God (head bowed).  Hillbilly and I did a major overhaul on the laundry room, complete with a new cabinet and built in shelving.  Over the past two weekends I have also painted my office and replaced the desk and changed the decor (photo’s to come).  Today I framed some of Angel and The Rae Rae’s artwork to hang on the wall.  I also went through some old photo’s and did some reminiscing.  It was good for the soul. 

Today was also my first attempt at cooking Chinese food and it was awesome!  Even though I made it homemade (without mystery meat), Hillbilly still didn’t care for it. You just can’t convert a meat and potatoes  kind of man.  I  made shrimp fried rice and it was just like the real thing.  Me and First Born loved it so it wasn’t a total waste of time.  I was going to take pictures of the cooking process but after a couple of glasses of Chardonnay it just wasn’t that important anymore.

It seems as though I might be getting back to my old self…I surely hope so because I have really missed her.

Worry just will not seem to leave my mind alone

I love this song.  This is the same song that is on the Travelers Insurance commercial with the cute dog that is trying to find a safe spot to hide his bone.

Trouble by John LaMontagne

Trouble...
Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble
Trouble been doggin' my soul since the day I was born
Worry...
Worry, worry, worry, worry
Worry just will not seem to leave my mind alone
We'll I've been...
saved by a woman
I've been...
saved by a woman
I've been...
saved by a woman
She won't let me go
She won't let me go now
She won't let me go
She won't let me go now
Trouble...
Oh, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble
Feels like every time I get back on my feet
she come around and knock me down again
Worry...
Oh, worry, worry, worry, worry
Sometimes I swear it feels like this worry is my only friend
We'll I've been saved...
by a woman
I've been saved...
by a woman
I've been saved...
by a woman
She won't let me go
She won't let me go now
She won't let me go
She won't let me go now
Oh..., Ahhhh....
Ohhhh
She good to me now
She gave me love and affection
She good tell me now
She gave me love and affection
I Said I love her
Yes I love her
I said I love her
I said I love...
She good to me now
She's good to me
She's good to me

I hope all of you have a worry free weekend, I know I’m going to try.

I Hate When I’m Wrong

It was a beaver not a nutria!  Not just one but two caught with a snare trap.  I’m thoroughly disgusted.  They have reset the traps to make sure that there are not more.

My sister didn’t have a tree to spare on her property.  Such destructive creature’s.

They Call Me Aunt Momma

 

My sister, her husband and my nieces live about 4 miles down the road from me in a semi-rural area.  They have a pond behind their house and some kind of creature has been building a nest right on the edge of the pond and is damaging their dock.  The picture above is not an actual picture of their critter, it’s just one I found that will give you an idea of what they are dealing with.  My brother in law has been ill and hasn’t been able to handle anything around the house which has left my sister and nieces to tend to everything.  The following is a facebook conversation which began from a status I posted a day or so before New Year’s Eve. 

My nieces call me Aunt Momma and I love it.  My sister had a dream when she was pregnant with her oldest about her children calling me Aunt Momma and it stuck.  Her 2 girls are a great source of entertainment for me.  The niece that is commenting below is a Senior in High School.

Status Post:  (myname)  wonders what is going on New Year's Eve

Niece said:  Beaver hunt!

I said:  It's not a beaver!

Niece said:  Well what ever it is we are hunting it. It's a nutria, we've been observing it and doing research the past couple days. It's legit

I said:  so what did the research say about killing them?

Niece said:  Well they didn't say anything bout that, Roger (family friend) has some live traps that he is supposed to bring over. I really wanna see him alive before dead

I said:  I think we should just shoot it and get it over with

Niece said:  Yeah a part of me thinks that cause the pictures that we googled are scary looking. It's like a giant rat with large orange teeth

I said:  definitely just shoot, forget taking it alive!

Niece said:  Haha words of wisdom from Auntmomma! :) I hope killing a nutria isn't a crime..

Daughter-in-law chimes in:  i thought the party was at your house

My Life Long Friend chimes in:  small get together at my house

I said to my niece:  --I'm pretty sure that it is nutria season right now. I already have my license with 4 tags for nutria. 3 male and 1 female. LOL
I said to my daughter-in-law:  --We'll see if  Pa’s Geritol kicks in
I said to my LLF--ditto

Niece said:  Haha your little hunter lingo makes me so proud to call you my aunt

I said:  you know I used to hunt, right? want me to post a picture of my monster doe?

Niece said:  No wayy? I would love to see this monster doe you speak of

I posted my monster doe picture from my Thanksgiving post and she was amazed.  They still haven’t killed the thing yet and the jury is still out on whether it is a beaver or nutria.  A couple of their guy friends came over to hunt the nasty thing but didn’t bring a gun big enough to kill it.  I guess I’m going to have to load the rifle, put on my camo and take care of this situation myself…

Counting Sheep

I can’t sleep and it makes me mad. There must be too much on my mind.  I have re-fluffed my pillow and tossed and turned and sleep just isn’t going to happen.  It really annoys me because Hillbilly is asleep.  I just want to reach over and shake the you know what out of him.  It’s just not fair that he is sleeping without me.  I bet he’s dreaming of puppy dogs or fishing as he snores in my ear.  How dare him sleep peacefully while I lay here staring at the ceiling.  Does he have no shame?  It’s just wrong…

It’s going to be a long lonely night. 

Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo

Put your boots on and mosey on down to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.  Hillbilly and I try to go every year.  It makes us feel like cowboys.  We are hoping to take Angel with us this year so she can feel like a cowgirl. 

The parade kicks off the 114th Edition of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo and will feature over 4,000 individuals and more than 1,000 head of livestock. Start time is 11 a.m. and you'll see lots of cowboys, horses, steers, covered wagons, floats and marching bands. After the parade you can grab lunch in Sundance Square before heading to the Stock Show.

Yeehaw!

Fit Hit the Shan

I try hard to only post about positive or slightly amusing parts of my life on this blog.  Lately, this has left me with almost nothing to talk about.  I’m just not feeling too happy right now because when my children are out of sorts, I’m out of sorts.  When they hurt, I hurt.  When they are sad, I am sad and when they are in turmoil so am I.  When they are low on money, ultimately I will follow.  It’s just the way my world is.  I suppose it is that way with most mother’s and daughter’s. 

My youngest has had her share of problems for awhile now.  You could say that the fit hit the shan about a month and a half ago.  My world has been turned upside down and I don’t see any relief in sight.  There doesn’t seem to be enough cookies or rum in the world to take care of this problem.  Believe me, I have tried!!!

If it were only 15 years ago…I could just kiss it and make it all better.  I’m looking forward to happier times but until then I’ll be here with my box of cookies and a cocktail.

My apologies for the lame post….

Issues

Hi everyone!  Just a little preoccupied right now . I’ll be back soon.  Stay tuned.

How I Would Like to Earn a Living

Have I ever mentioned that I have my Real Estate license?  Yes, it is true.   My license is inactive at the moment but I do plan to keep it and hopefully use it again one day. 

I took a layoff package when we moved to the lake about 6 years ago or so and went to school to get my Real Estate license.  The plan was to sell lake properties and earn a living doing this.  And since houses are just about my favorite thing in the world I thought It would be perfect for me.  So, I gave it a shot but unfortunately I was unsuccessful in my endeavor and we ran low on money before I got my business off the ground.  It was then that I decided to re-enter the Advertising industry.  It seems I am not a natural sales person.  Maybe I’m a little too laid back and not driven enough.  I had a really great time trying though.   I actually looked forward to going into the office and really enjoyed showing properties.  Real Estate is a cut throat business and it was difficult to make a place for myself in a small town where there were more Realtors than Buyers.  It was a lot of fun while it lasted but in the end the only thing I sold was my own house so that we could move back to the stinking city.

One of these days I will try again.  I long to do something where I am my own boss and in control of my own time.  If I were my own boss I would always get 5’s at appraisal time.  Sweet!    Who knows, maybe I might even sell something next time.

Usedtocould

“Usedtocould is not a word” says my young little friend at work.  This word may not be in the dictionary but it is frequently used in my vocabulary.

I usedtocould…

• party until dawn
• clean the entire house on Friday night after working all day and before partying all night.
• see my feet without leaning over
• do cartwheels
• shop all day and half the night
• sing in public
• play softball
• sleep on the floor
• sit Indian style for hours
• open jars
• wear a bikini
• turn a few heads
• read without reading glasses
• stand the cold weather
• dance all night
• wear high heels
• talk my way out of speeding tickets with a little wink

and so on and so on and so on.  You get the picture.  I sometimes miss some of these things.  What do you miss as you get older?

Performance Appraisal

Yesterday was everyone's first day back at work after the Holiday’s and my Annual Performance Appraisal was scheduled (6 months late).  Let’s just say my boss does not think as highly of me as I do myself.  Don’t get me wrong, I did receive a good review but she did not score me as high as I scored myself. 

I report directly to the controller of the company which is a female about 10 years younger than myself.  The scoring system is a 1-5 system, 5 being the highest with the description of SUBSTANTIALLY EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS.  The first step of this process is to review yourself.  I find this step completely annoying and decided to toot my own horn this year considering the year that I have had at work.  I scored myself many 5’s, a few 4’s and one 3.  The description for 4’s is EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS and 3’s are MEETS EXPECTATIONS. 

The Boss Lady didn’t give me any 5’s.  NOT EVEN ONE.  What the heck?  She feels that 5’s would be for someone that knows EVERYTHING (thought I did).  She said that I handle everything and she doesn’t have to worry about anything in my department.  I think that should be worth a 5 if I were doing the review of one of my people.I’m not too concerned about any of it because raises were not given this go around anyway.  Due to the "economic climate" raises have not been given in awhile.  Performance Appraisal’s are a joke when no money is involved. 

Looks like today I will work to reflect my scores.  I should be leaving out the door for work right now as I type this.  It seems I might be a little late today…

It’s All About Me and Hillbilly in 2010

• I have a piano and don’t know how to play.  I’m going to take lessons.
• Our money will be spent on me and Hillbilly, not the grown children.
• Going camping with the ghost.
• Trips to Canton First Monday regularly.  I miss it.
• Taking a tropical vacation, hopefully for Christmas this year if not sooner.
• Make recipe’s from Cooking Light instead of Paula Deen (this will be difficult)
• I’m going to use the sewing machine for fun projects.
• I will get my office in order and redecorate/refurnish it to inspire me.
• I’m going to use the walking trails in my neighborhood.
• Will teach myself to cook Asian cuisine and convince Hillbilly to like it.
• Install paver patio and fire pit in the backyard.  I need campfire’s.
• Will finally decide on paint colors for the bathrooms.
• Spend less time on the computer and more playing Wii and reading.

That should keep me busy…