The Day Before Halloween

Today is Friday before Halloween, and I'd like to know your plans for tomorrow night(that scariest night of them all).

Are you going to dress up?

If you are going to dress up, as what will you be dressed?

Are you going to or having a party?

Where will you trick-or-treat?

Is it raining where you plan to celebrate All Hallow's Eve?

Is it snowing?

Do you go through your children's candy and take what you want on the pretext of 'checking it for safety reasons'?

Do you ever sit outside with a can of silly string to scare the kids?

When you spray them, do they cry while you cackle like a witch?

If you are giving out the candy, do you give a handful to each child, or do you pick up a hand full, then drop only one piece into the bucket?

Have you ever soaped someone's windows?

Have you ever egged anyone's house?

Have you ever toilet papered anyones house?

Have you ever done any other mischef, and if so what was it? (describe in detail for future reference)

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?
(I know, you are wondering what the heck that has to do with Halloween, but it's just me being extra nosey.)

I hope you've had a great Friday. And I hope you have a safe Halloween. Pray for our country. Love one another. PS. Will got an A on his leaf collection.

Mass Innoculation

Today was the mass innoculation for the seasonal flu vaccine and if you met a certain criteria(which I did not), you could also get the H1N1 vaccine. It started at 7a.m. this morning and was to go until about 3 or until the vaccine ran out. Have you ever gone to a football field to get a shot? That's where we were.

We heard this morning there was 8,000 doses. So, I get myself up and am in line by 6:45. Actually, I was in 'A' line since there were probably 8 or 9 different lines feeding into the spot where the shots were being given.

We had discussed yesterday about some of us going in the same vehicle and that way we wouldn't all be in line in different places. So, my phone rang a little after 7, at which time, my line had not moved. One of the gals in my office managed to get into a parking lot and walked over and got in the car with me since I was much closer than she had been. Then my youngest daughter called. She ended up doing the same thing. Then my boss called and also got into the car with me. I said we looked like the clowns getting out of the little car at the circus in reverse. Instead of getting out, they were getting in. Oh wait, did I just call my co-workers clowns?

And did I say it was raining? If not, let me mention that here. When we finally got close, they gave us wet forms to fill out. Then we got our shots. Just rolled down the window and rolled up the sleeve, and whamo, we got stuck, thanked and asked to move along.

Now let me say, it's much more fun to go as a group, we laughed the whole time, and before we knew it, we were finished, out and back at work. Fortunately, for 3 of us, we work within a couple of blocks from where the shots were being given. We were at work by 8:20, and my daughter was shortly after.

This whole thing reminded me of getting vaccinated as a child in elementary school. I was probably in 2nd or 3rd grade, and they lined us up and gave us all those shots that everyone has to take to be able to attend school now. I think that experience scarred me for life. I surely won't ever forget it. Today was much better. But then I'm 50 something years older than back then.

What has traumatized you lately or in the past? Nothing too graphic here, please.

Hope you are having a great Thursday. Pray for our country. Love one another.

My Bathroom MakeOver

I have a couple of before shots, and some after shots. You may notice that these first two shots are a pale green. I call it seafoam, and the curtains are all battenburg lace. That was my absolute favorite color and fabric about, oh say, 10 years ago. Needless to say, even though I enjoyed it. I'm tired of it, and it doesn't go with the rest of my house.



My house is small, built in the late 60's, 3 bedroom, 1 bath house of about a thousand square feet. Plenty of room for me. But occasionally I get tired of the way it looks and decide to make a few changes.

About 3 years ago, my son pretty much gutted the bathroom, and put in a new tub and shower surround, new commode, vanity, floor and floor covering. At that time, I repainted it the same as it had been before because three years ago, I still loved the seafoam green.

The other thing we did ten years ago was that we painted the tile. This bathroom had a lot of tile and it was an off white with specks in it. Looked like egg shells from some strange variety of chicken. We took primer, and painted right over it, twice. Not one speck ever chipped or flaked. Even where it was around the tub and got wet continually, it never peeled .

It takes me a long time to pick what I want to do when I make a change. I started deciding I wanted to change about 6 or 7 months ago. I sorta decided what color I wanted, then went looking for fabric to make a new shower curtain. Once I got the material for that, I picked out some towels and rugs. Next was the paint. I took a piece of the material and matched one of the colors in it. Then I thought about it for a while. I wasn't totally sure how I wanted to make the shower curtain. Whether to gather it on a rod and keep it tied back all the time, or to make it so I could close it when

the shower wasn't in use. I decided on the latter as you will see in one of the pictures on farther down.

But the really funny thing is that depending on the time of day, and the amount of light shining in the room, determines the color of the walls. In the first picture taken of the vanity area, they look really gold.

By the way, I have to stop and give credit to my friend Mary. She spent a day and a half painting my bathroom. She painted the walls and the ceiling. And she always does a great job. She loves to paint, and I love her for it.

If you need something painted, I can give you her number. Just kidding, Mary.





In these other pictures, as you will see, the room looks very taupe. I cut off the top of the shower curtain accidentally, so you can't see how it pleats, but I put buttonholes across the top and then put it on hooks. The only problem I've encountered is that I have to adjust the pleats each time I close it so the curtain is distributed evenly. Other than that, I'm really pleased with the way it looks. I've toyed with the idea of making a straight strip to go behind the cutrain with buttonholes spaced the distance the hooks need to be to make it hang right, but I haven't gotten around to doing that yet. And if you know me well, probably won't.

These are my towels. I took some of the leftover fabric from my curtain, and put it across the bottom. I've noticed that someone, some one of my grandchildren have dried their little hands on my towel. I keep a towel lying on the vanity for such things, but do they use that one--noooooo, never. But that's ok, they are my favorite grandchildren, whichever one did it.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my bathroom. I knew it was just what you wanted to read about and see today. I'm really pleased with it.

I hope the sun is shining in your corner of the world. As usual, it's raining here.

And I also hope you are having a great Tuesday. Pray for our country. Love one another.

Will and the Leaf Collection

We finished Will's leaf collection yesterday. We ended up with 26 assorted leaves. The requirement was 20, so we're hoping for some extra credit on the 6.

In fact, I'll be very disappointed if he makes anything less than an 'A'.

We were able to get all these leaves by asking people what they had in their yard. They were most helpful, and quite willing to bring us one of each, with the name in a baggie.

Then, we did the drying and pressing thing. At one point, I had leaves being pressed in several rooms of the house. My biggest fear was they would mold or worse, become so brittle they would crumble into a thousand pieces.

Fortunately, they dried quite nicely, and then we sprayed them with a clear matte finish spray. I think they held up very well. The only ones that disintergrated was the Mimosa leaves, and the fuzzy mulberry leaf. Everything turned out good. The Catalpa wanted to curl and it looked kinda funny. It's the one just above his right hand.

We had fun working on this project. I don't know if Will actually learned anything, but he can remember memaw and mom helping with the project.

I hope you are having a great Monday. Pray for our country. Love one another.

Friday and Superhero

It's Friday - ye-ha. I'm so glad. And Superhero is spending the night, and another ye-ha! He's such a sweet happy little boy. He likes to talk and tell tall tales. Sometimes we try to see who can tell the tallest one. He always wins.

He and one of his cousins(Princess#2) got progress reports from school last night. They are both in Kindergarten. They have different teachers, but it's amazing how close they are in progress. Some things he's a bit ahead of her, and others, she's ahead.

Their teachers had lots of good things to say about them. They are both already reading on 1st grade level, but won't be tested to see where they actually are until near the end of school. But they are both in the top of their respective classes. Superhero is in the top 4 with 3 little girls. I just know he hates that.

Princess #1 will get her report Monday. She's a big 1st grader this year. I'll be checking on that Monday afternoon. My 7th grade grandson got his report yesterday also. He keeps saying how hard 7th grade is, and I, as old as I am, remember how hard it was. He ended up with a mixture of A's, B'c and C's. So, all in all I think he did great.

Needless to say, I am very proud of my grandchildren. They are all bright, happy, well adjusted kiddos--as well adjusted as they can be and related to me.

I hope you are having a great Friday and looking forward to a wonderful weekend. Pray for our country. Love one another.

And Once Again It's Raining

I know, you are growing tired of my continual weather reports. My mood had begun to lift while the sun was shining, but if it continues to rain, I'll be right back down in the big black hole again. It has rained here allllllllll day. That's correct, the whole day.

I've been carrying my lunch the last two weeks so I don't have to go out, and today was one of those days I was truly thankful I had brought it.

My dad had a saying of sorts, in fact, he had several, but the one that comes to mind right now is that in the winter time, if he didn't feel good, he'd say that when the sap rises in the spring, he would feel better. I'm beginning to think he suffered from the same depression I do. The only difference is that when I'm depressed, I really don't care if the sap ever rises again or not.

Let me count my blessings and get off that other subject. I have three grown children who are self-supporting. I have 6 grandchildren ranging in ages from 2 to 22. Only one of whom is old enough to be self-supporting and as much as I'd like for him to go to college, he's out there working.

My son the contractor is in North Dakota pheasant and duck hunting. This means I get to help with his little ones. It's a hard job, but someone has to do it. Actually, I love being needed. I'm picking up the Banty Hen today while mom goes to Superhero's teacher conference. He went home with his other memaw today and is spending the night. I get him Friday night.

I love picking up grandchildren from daycare/school. They are always so happy to see me, and it makes me feel needed and loved. I know one of these days, they will all be too old to yell 'MEMAW' when they see me and run and give me a hug. But that's the way it's supposed to be. I just hope that when I move to the nursing home they'll come by and see me once in a while, and I hope I'll still recognize them.

That's enough moaning and groaning for today, and it's almost time to go home.

Hope you are having a great Thursday. Pray for our country. Love one another.

Illness Abounds

I hope everyone who reads this post is feeling ok. Here at work, we have one gal who was diagnosed with Swine Flu yesterday after being in a meeting with all of us all morning. We've had two others go home this morning, one has nothing to do with the flu--girl stuff, and the other with an upset tummy.

My DIL and grandson(Superhero) are both sick, but fortunately neither of them were positive for Swine Flu. He has an ear infection, and she has a bad cold. And the Contractor is in North Dakota Pheasant hunting(lot of help he is when you need him). I'm on call to help with anything she needs me to do, and I am picking up The Banty Hen tomorrow afternoon while she goes to teacher conference.

The other two princesses are getting ready for the Miley Cyrus concert Friday night. I'm not sure if they are as excited as their mother, but she has been getting their 'stylin outfits' ready for over a week now. They are going to look like 25 year old midgets with the garb they will be wearing, but I guess as long as it's one night, it won't warp them too badly.

I've really enjoyed the sunshine the last few days, but I fear as all good things must come to an end, this will too. It's a bit overcast today, and there is a rain system to our south, west and north. When I looked just now at the weather map, it appears that the actual rain may go around us. Wouldn't that be the greatest thing? Well, one of them at least.

I hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday. Pray for our country. Love one another.

Hello, Anybody Out There?

I know, I know, I've been gone. Actually, I haven't been anywhere, just haven't been posting. It's been gloomy, the weather has been awful, and I get very depressed in the fall and winter.

Then on top of the regular stuff, we've had all this rain. I think the farmers are finally beginning to get into the fields. Their crops have sustained a lot of damage.

As for me, my children are healthy, my grandchildren are healthy, but I think I've turned into an old curmudgeon. Can a female be that? Or is that strictly a name reserved for old men? I googled it. It is defined as "a crusty irascible cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas ". I don't know if that describes me or not, but I kinda like the idea of being a curmudgeon. I think I would like being crusty, irascible, cantankerous and full of stubborn ideas. But I don't like being old. So can I leave that part out?

Today the sun is shining. It is 72degrees outside and I have a big pot of beef soup waiting for me at home. Then I'm going to work on my grandson's leaf collection. I sure hope I get an A for all my effort. When I get it done, I'll post a pic or two.

I hope you are having a great day. Pray for our country. Love one another.