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Saturday, December 26, 2009

Day 121: December 26, 2009

Quote of the Day:  “In the hope to meet Shortly again, and make our absence sweet.” ~Ben Jonson




It has been a really crazy couple of days. People here just can't drive in snow, that's all!  I heard from my friend Sherrie that the police had to borrow 4WD vehicles from Pruitt Ford here in town just to go and rescue people in.  Last night I started getting text messages from Cody that he was having an asthma attack. And did not have his inhaler. I asked him how bad it was, and told him that if it got worse to call me.  Well, at about 12:30 this morning he called and said that he really needed me to come and get him. So I groaned, grumbled, and got out of bed.  It was the longest drive I have EVER had to Wichita Falls!  It took me until 4am by the time I got back home and could barely get the car up the driveway.  I slipped and slid all over the place!  I ended up sideways on Kramer Road while going 10mph.  The funny thing is, the whole way there were trucks passing me all the time going at least thirty, and here I was having to go all slow.  But the only time I spun my tires was trying to get back into the driveway afterward.  I had to just back up and gun it.... and still barely made it up into the driveway before the car got stuck.  I just pulled the e-brake and gave up. I figure I'll go repark today when the driveway thaws out.

And just in case you are wondering, yes, Cody actually did need his inhaler.  It must be the sudden change in weather.   But he didn't sound any better after using his inhaler when I picked him up, and says that his lungs hurt when he breathes, so I may end up making another trek to Wichita Falls to take him to the clinic. It would figure if he ended up with pneumonia, wouldn't it?  I'll be keeping a close eye on him today, though, for sure.

Sorry, I just lost my train of thought.... as I'm sitting here writing this, Tiny is chasing his tail!  A cat, chasing his tail!!!! Wow, has the world gone nuts or something???  The kitties have all been really rowdy the last couple of days, but today seems to be really, really bad.  They're all running full-speed throughout the house. Crazy little guys! But I'd better get going, we're doing our Christmas today, so I've gotta get cooking.

Friday, December 25, 2009

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

SNOW IN TEXAS...
Never thought we'd be "snowed in" living in Texas, but here's the pictures for you of our "White Christmas"



Oh, and memo to me.... I AM BUYING SNOW BOOTS SOON! I'VE HAD ON FIVE DIFFERENT PAIRS OF SHOES, AND THEY'VE ALL GOTTEN SOAKED. MAYBE EVEN HIP WADERS!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Day 119: December 24, 2009

Quote of the Day:  "Be still sad heart, and cease repining, behind the clouds is the sun still shining"-Author Unknown



SNOWSNOWSNOWSNOWSNOWSNOWSNOWSNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I can't believe it! I woke up this morning and walked into the bathroom to weigh myself, and just happened to look up at the skylight, and was shocked to see snow! Of course, I had to run outside and immediately take a picture or two, and have been sitting here at the window ever since watching these big, monstrous flakes flying around.  It's coming down really good., but there's also a really good wind that's making it look almost blizzard-like.  I can't wait to see how long it snows for!






9:50am:  Just looked at the weather, and we are now in a blizzard warning.  The temperature is dropping lower and lower, and they're saying that  this is just going to keep coming.  I am LOVING IT! I can barely see out the windows from the snow blowing against them.  They have now closed the base down, and all those people are being sent home.  The only bad thing about this as far as timing goes, is that I have to drive out near Thornberry today to pick up Cody, who went to spend the night at his friend Nathan's last night with me supposed to come get him today.  I figured that yeah, okay, we'll get some  snowflakes and that's about it... typical Texas weather.  WRONG!!!  As I'm sitting here watching the snow pile higher and higher, I'm wondering if we're even going to be able to go get him or not. What a mess!





11:05am:  Can I tell you that I really, really, REALLY WISH YOU WERE HERE RIGHT NOW TO SEE THIS!!!!!!!!!! You wouldn't believe how badly I wish you were here right now. They've activated the city's emergency phone call system, telling everyone that they are to stay at home unless travel is absolutely necessary. I opened the front door a few minutes ago to find that the snow is at least a foot deep in the entire front walkway.  You can barely see the plants anymore. And the little half walls have white caps on them!  I'm starting to wonder if I will be having Christmas without Cody.... they live down a really winding road, and I'm wondering if I'll even be able to tell what's road and what's grassy shoulder and what's ditch. Uh-oh... guess maybe I should have gone when it first started, but they were saying that it would all be over by noon. A van and a truck just drove down the road out front, and literally within thirty seconds their tracks were completely invisible. NOW what?




1:35pm: Well, it has been a pretty eventful day. I can't see out my windows because of all the snow that has stuck to them in the blowing wind.  I just came in from helping one of the neighbors push their car out of the road from getting it stuck. Right outside my house. They live sort of across the street.  And they just drove all the way to Wichita Falls to pick up Christmas dinner, and got all the way back here... just to get stuck less than 300 feet from their house.  Thing is, they drive a Chrysler just like mine.  I called Sheriff Ronnie and asked him how the roads were between here and Thornberry, and he said that they weren't even driveable... I am now resigned to the fact that Cody will not be able to come home today.


4pm: Looks like it has finally quit snowing! All that is left now is the occasional blowing snow. And the HUGE snow drifts. There will be no driving for a couple of days, unfortunately. Unless they go salt every single street.  They closed all the highways here, too.  Oh, and just so you know.... MOCHA HATES SNOW!  She is completely afraid of it. It's kind of funny.  She's so afraid of it that she decided it was better to poop on the patio than go out in it!

10:45pm:  Okay, I have decided that I like snow, but not wind-blown snow. It just isn't pretty the way having everything covered equally is.  For instance, across the street part of their yard has grass, and the rest of it is snow-covered, from the wind blowing it all around.  And then there's the fact that the snow is knee-deep all the way up to the front door, but yet only calf-deep in other spots.  It's just not consistent, and makes it hard to get a real idea of how much snow you get.  And I had to go out a second time this afternoon to help push Jackie next door so that he could get out of the road and onto his driveway!  Seems like everyone thought it'd be great to go drive in the snow.  Poor Sherrie had to work today, and made a valiant attempt, but her truck got stuck at the on-ramp to the highway, and will have to stay there until tomorrow, unless this mess doesn't get a little safer to drive on.  Then it could be Saturday before they get it.  Or Sunday.  Or who knows when?


I have more pictures, but am going to have to put them onto Flickr and load them as a slideshow, because it is taking FOREVER to load these pictures, and I want to go to bed sometime tonight.  Hopefully, these will do for now.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Day 118: December 23, 2009

Quote of the Day: "Frequently remind yourself that God is with you, that He will never fail you, that you can count upon him. Say these words, "God is with me, helping me." - Norman Vincent Peale

I tell you, we just can't win for losing!!! I finally, FINALLY got the bills paid, with just enough money left to maybe buy some milk and cereal, and I open my email today to get the stupid electric bill.  Due on the same payday as the mortgage.  It was $622.24!  That means that ONLY the mortgage and the electric bill will be paid, and the other three bills will be late... again.  Dangit!  WHEN are we going to be able to break free? Oh, yeah... after I graduate in MAY!  And I sat down today and compared the normal monthly bills since we moved into this house, and January's bill will be just as high.  At least this time I'll expect it, right? And thankfully, February usually is a smaller bill. Then we just have to wait until July hits for the next super-large bills. I really HATE this house with its poor insulation and stupid leaky windows. This electricity stuff bites!

You know, I have completely and totally wasted two days of my time now.  I figured it would be a good thing for me to take ALL our DVD movies out of the player and insert them in alphabetical order in the machine.  Great idea, right? Wrong.  As soon as I got on a good roll, I'd find one that wasn't on our list and had to add it, which would shift the ENTIRE THING out of whack and I'd have to start over.  THEN, once I finally got them into the player in the correct alphabetical order, I had to go back and manually type in the names of 95% of the movies that did not automatically update in it.  Of course, none of it really bugged me. I was happy to do it.  Until I sat down to actually WATCH a movie after spending all day putting in titles. And noticed this little bar at the top of the screen, where if you hit a special button on the remote, you can have it sort the entire contents by movie title!!!!!! UGH!!!!! WHY didn't I learn about this A YEAR AGO????

Other than that, I've just been adding more blisters to my hand working on that blasted quilt. Not so excited anymore about it, actually. I think it's become more of a vengeance thing at this point. Stupid quilt. Stupid me! What was I thinking? HAHAHA Next time, I think I'll definitely conquer something a lot smaller, like a lap quilt. Or a napkin. But it's turning out alright, all things considered. Yes, I'm not the greatest seamstress in the world, but it is DEFINITELY going to be a warm quilt.  Just working on it and having it on my lap makes me sweat, without the fleece backing even on it yet!
Oh, and I tried to go out tonight and get pictures of Christmas lights, like I said I would, but the wind has come up something fierce and the temperature has plummetted.  They're saying we can expect snow showers overnight, and a high of 36 tomorrow. So yeah, I came back home after attempting one picture and it turning out poorly.  I'm a whimp. I'll admit it.  Maybe I'll try again on Christmas day, when it's supposed to be warmer.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Day 117: December 22, 2009

Quote of the Day :


“The heights by great men reached and kept,
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.”
(from the poem: The Ladder of St. Augustine, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)



We got some really great news in the mail. Finally, after all these months, Damien’s case has been dismissed! So, he no longer has to worry about going to court or anything like that. Thank God! I mean, really…. They’ve only been pushing it back since MAY. Why couldn’t they have done it long ago? I just do not understand how this court system works. I really don’t. But at least he’s got a clean slate now. Right?

The weather was really cloudy this morning, and looked really dreary. A good day to stay inside and get some things done in the house. NOT that I have gone outside much since I’ve been working on all these various projects. I need to, but I haven’t yet. I have so much going on inside the house that it’s hard to think about getting outside and working out there.  So of course, I went outside and pulled out all the dead morning glory, pepper plants, and basil.  So the backyard is pretty much done. Well, except for the fact that the small vine I planted this spring has died as well.  I wasn't sure if it would or not, but I'm going to leave it there just in case it is just gone dormant.  Like the wisteria has, which I really need to go out and move but can't figure out where to move it TO.  And tomorrow morning, weather permitting, I'll go out front and do the dead plants out there.  There's not many, so it shouldn't take too long. But I definitely have to do it early, because tomorrow calls for PM thunderstorms with snow showers overnight. So.... gotta get it done while it will still be warm out.

I took the day off from working on the quilt at all, just because I was starting to feel a little bit burned out on it.  I'm not really happy with the amount of work making such a huge blanket has been, and I think next time I'll just do a smaller one.  Or at least do things a little bit differently. Not sure yet. Maybe I'll never GET the urge to make another one, after this.  We'll see, because I really do enjoy them, it's just that it's sooooo big and takes so much time.  And maybe the more I do, the better I'll get at sewing? Just a thought.  If I remember right, my curtains I sewed in Japan turned out really well.

NEWS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: the people on the corner had this in their yard yesterday, but I forgot to put it on here for ya.  This one's a new variation on the theme, isn't it?  Haven't seen the dinosaurs yet!  I love it, though.... maybe I'll do something like this for you when YOU get old!!! LOL
Tomorrow I think I'm going to try to do a little bit of driving around to try and take some pictures of some of the lights that I like.  That way, a little bit of Christmas can make it all the way halfway around the world.  I've seen a couple of people who went above and beyond this year, compared to last year.  However, I am very disappointed in our neighborhood.  A lot of people just didn't even bother putting up lights this year, and the neighborhood theme just isn't a theme this year.  Jackie and Linda next door only put up a little tiny swag over their front door this year, compared to last year's great lights. It's a shame to own a big, beautiful house in a neighborhood like this and then NOT decorate it up for Christmas.  I guess the economy around here has hit a lot more people than it would appear at first, or people are just being abnormally bah-humbug this year. One of the two.  Geez, people, I really didn't want to do it this year either, but at least I went out there and put them up!
A REALLY bad picture of me and Mocha on the 'puter with Daddy.


For some reason, she up and decided to try being inside today, but her constant whining and clawing me for attention finally got the best of me, and I put her back outside. I think she may eventually come around and LIKE being inside, but it will take a while.

And for now.... here are some more random animal pictures.  I'll try to get some of Mika, but she's been hiding from me because I keep yelling at her every time I find her laying on my quilt.



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Monday, December 21, 2009

Day 116: December 21, 2009

Quote of the Day: "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." ~Theodor Seuss Geisel, attributed

Ever wonder how life sometimes can seem so clear, with so much purpose, then other times you're just hanging out and going through the motions? It's so hard to get anything accomplished during those times.  All we can do is sit around and think about all the coulds and shoulds, without really doing anything worthwhile. Spinning our gears, in danger of wearing them out so much that we'll never get back on track.  The worst part about that feeling is that it comes on so suddenly without giving you the slightest warning.  You wake up one morning and realize that things just aren't what they should be, and you have to take the time to sit and think about it to figure out why. Only most of us just don't have what it takes to figure it out on our own.  That's how I feel lately, like I'm walking around on auto-pilot, and there's nothing I can do but just let it pass me by.  I've changed in so many ways that it's sometimes hard to figure out exactly how it happened.  But here I am, no longer worried about having "the best car" or "the coolest clothes", like I did when I was younger. 

I used to write the most horrible, awful poetry that you can imagine back in my teen years, so sure that I was never going to get anywhere or do anything. And now here I am all those years later, just about ready to become a Registered Nurse. Which brings me to another thought, entirely... do we ever really know ourselves?  Or is it simply that we constantly change in accordance with our environment?  If that's the case, then where did the term "you can take the girl out of the trailer park but you can't take the trailer park out of the girl" come from, and other wonderfully descriptive little tidbits?  I used to want all sorts of things, but lately I've been finding myself wanting to get rid of things, to "clear out the clutter" and get back to the bare necessitites.  I'm not sure when it happened, probably around the last time we had military movers, and it has just been getting stronger each time we've had to do all our own packing, and moving.  But I really, truly wish that we had less "stuff" than we do now. Some of it I can see having, but other things... who needs tablecloths, when I never use them? Why do I have to keep so many coats in our coat closet, when we rarely wear them all anymore? Shouldn't I give them to people who need them?  And these books.... I'll never re-read them, isn't there something they'd be better used for?

Things have been real quiet aroun here today. I finished sewing the quilt top together, but now I have to cut the edges of each and every 4 inch square so that they will "rag out" properly when I wash the quilt.  So of course, I have been on the floor cutting edges for about four hours now and have only managed to cut out three rows of them. It is taking longer than cutting out the squares and sewing them together ever did. I am so frustrated with it that I could scream. I know that it will be better if it's done right, and therefore it's worth it to be down there on the floor killing myself, but I am so tempted just to throw it in the washer and test my fate.  Because I sure am tired of this thing! And it's so heavy, by the way, that I'm not even sure it's practical.  It nearly broke my back trying to support the weight of it while I was sewing it.  I think when it's completely done I'm going to weigh myself, then weigh myself again while holding it, and find out exactly how heavy it really is. THAT would be good to know.  I'm hoping that tomorrow I can get it to where it's nearly done, and maybe I will like it more. As for right now, I'm definitely not impressed with it.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Day 115: December 20, 2009

Quote of the Day:  "Leadership is the ability to get extraordinary achievement from ordinary people." - Brian Tracy

I spent half the day sewing the quilt squares together, and the other half trying to keep my psychotically determined cat off my lap while I sewed the quilt squares.  Have you ever tried sewing when your sewing machine is level with your knees because it's on the coffee table, and you have a cat on your lap? It's quite difficult. And irritating.  I don't know what it is about that crazy cat, but if he doesn't get his mommy fix he is completely annoying!  It drives him crazy if he can't spend at least a half hour a day sitting on my lap. I guess he feels neglected or something. But I didn't get the whole quilt top sewed like I had wanted. I have five rows left before I can start putting the top together.  That's okay, though, it will give me time to think about whether I want to take the time to pin it together first, since it's such a long run. I probably do, but who knows how I'll feel tomorrow.

It's been a really bad week on the weight loss front. I just can't seem to get it together this week at all. I haven't exercised, and I am constantly hungry. I have actually gained some weight back this week, so far. Not a pound yet, but my weigh-in day is tomorrow and I've been eating like crazy. I have no idea why it's all of a sudden an issue, but it's driving me batty. I've even upped the amount of water I've been drinking, but it still hasn't helped.  I guess maybe I lost the determination this week or something. It's so frustrating, because I can't seem to lose the weight like everyone else does.  They recommend two pounds a week, and most times I can barely lose one. So gaining this week puts me even further behind schedule. But short of completely starving myself, I just don't know how I'll get my stupid body to fall in line. I don't want to give up, but I'm so disheartened that it feels like I want to.  If that makes any sense to anyone else but me.  But here's hoping that tomorrow morning, I'll magically be at least 0.2 pounds lower than I was on Tuesday. ANY loss is better than a gain. Even if it is so miniscule that it doesn't even matter.