Hooked on Creamers

Just found a new coffee creamer that actually has real milk and cream as primary ingredient and the flavor I got, Vanilla Carmel is wonderful. It is by Coffee House. The Coffee Mate I have used for along time has a list of ingredients a mile long. Think I will try the chocolate next, love chocolate in my coffee.

Thought for today: He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

At least one hand is warm

Just realized why when I am playing on my computer (mostly using the mouse) my right hand gets so cold and the left is warm.

Well the room is quite cool, as my Internet is at my little store and this corner doesn't get the heat very well. So that is why the right hand is cold. Oh, and feet too. But the left hand is warmer because I noticed that I tend to put it under my left thigh if I am just mousing around. Like when I play my daily dose of Spider Solitaire. Guess I am sort of hooked on it. Did play regular solitaire yesterday till I finally won for the first time. That one is hard to win, you can't cheat with the computer!

Thought for the day: If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.

Just a little BS on my brain today

Just hear a commercial on the radio, telling you that when you get your tax return to spend it on something you really need and will make you happy. A quick and easy divorce. I couldn't believe I heard it. Wow we can sell anything can't we?

Really raining today, probably be several inches when it is done. At least it is washing away all that crap left by the snow plow in front of my store. Oh, and gas jumped from 2.92 to 3.19 in one day.

Sitting here at my computer I can look into a little book case that I put books that I take in from customers that I think I want to read. Here are some titles:

Foreign Body by Robin Cook

The Ice Child by Elizabeth McGregor

The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexqandre Dumes

Sunday at Tiffany's by James Pattersdon

The Loch by Steve Alten

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

The Fields of Eden by Richard Wheeler

Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris

OK that is probably boring enough. Better stop and go back to my weaving. Got a good rug going with browns and a bright green and some yellow.

Thought for the day: Dreams are poems from the subconscious

This ones for my girl

When I was just short of turning 21 my daughter was born. We were talking the other day and I realized that everyone should know about their birth. I always just heard I was born in a blizzard and like all the kids in my family was born at home. And thats about all I know.

I got married at 17 so that I wouldn't have to move clear across the country with my parents. When I was 19 my son was born. When he was just a toddler we decided he was so darn cute we should have another one. When I was about 5 or 6 mo. pregnant we moved out to the east coast to live near my parents and my big brother.

We were able to rent a little one bedroom cottage in a trailer park. I remember getting my first washing machine (ringer type) while there. We had a small dirt yard that was level with the doorway, so with a little guy coming in and out it was hard to keep the dust down. I worked a little as a grocery clerk just up the road for a month or so.

When I started labor we headed to the hospital, think we must have taken the son to my Moms. I remember it was raining. I was to experience a very different delivery than when my son was born in a little county hospital. I was in a very large City hospital. They delivered several babies a day. I remember I was progressing slow so they started a pit drip to make it more painful, (or was it to just make the contractions work better?) Any way back in those days they thought that you had to stay flat on your back or it wasn't effective. Being a labor and delivery nurse many years later myself I learned that was all a bunch of hooey! Anyway they kept coming in and making me turn back. I labored all day and somewhere around 7pm was delivered of a 7 lb 3 0z. baby girl via forceps! Here I am a good size healthy 20 year old and couldn't spit out a little 7 # baby! In hind sight I know know that she was turned face up and that was why I had so much back pain and the need for the forceps.

Back then you had to stay in the hospital for 2 or 3 days at least. I was breast feeding so when they would bring the babies down the hall to give to the Mamas they had a big cart on wheels. No rooming in back then. We have told the story of how the babies were in these little bins on the cart and sadly we teased our daughter that maybe they got babies mixed up. Little did I know that her brother took up on this and she lived in fear that maybe she didn't belong to us! Well they were ID'd with wrist bands and I have no doubt. But they really did look like vegetable carts to me!

So we took her home and big brother got moved out of the baby crib and put into a little cot so the new baby had a bed. Lucky that we were able to move into a large house a few months later. The picture posted here is of my daughter and I way back then, standing in front of that house with our matching dresses that I made.

Thought for the day: You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

Everyone loses

I hear some sad stories from my customers. Had a guy in today that I see every few weeks. He usually is looking for books for his grandson who is now 12. He was telling me how his grandson is being raised and it makes you wonder how he will turn out. I guess he lives one week with his dad and one week with his mother. His dad is "shacking up"(grandpa's words) with a gal and lives in a converted garage at grandpa's house. The mother works and is in a band. The grandpa is the one who takes the boy to school everyday and picks him up, buys all his cloths and school lunches, but has no custodial rights. So some days the boy doesn't know for sure where he is supposed to sleep as the mom may be out really late with band practice. So he ends up just being a pawn being shuffled from here to there. Grandpa says he is starting to see some acting out, (surprise!) Grandpa is 65 and says he is retired now and would like to look at getting out and traveling but feels he needs to be there for this kid. He would like to have him full time and I think wash his hands of the 40+ year old son. Looks like there is only losers in this story.

Thought for the day: If you can't be a good example- then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.

Ice cream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

All the snow and ice that we have had this month makes me think of the times when I was growing up that we made ice cream, but only in the winter.

During the time that I was about 9 to 12 we lived on a farm in Iowa. We didn't have much, not even an ice cream churn. But one winter the neighbor loaned theirs to us for the whole winter. Dad would chop blocks of ice from the pond, put them in a gunny sack and smash them with the side of a flat ax to break the ice up into small pieces.

Dad was milking a couple goats for the milk that was to help heal his ulcers. So now we have free milk and free ice, and a free ice cream churn. All we need to buy was the course salt. When the milk with sugar and vanilla was put in the steel cylinder, the crushed ice was put around it and the salt sprinkled liberally into the salt. This makes the ice start to melt and is colder. So as the handle is cranked (we all got a turn at this) to turn the cylinder around and around the cold starts to freeze the milk. Walla you get ice cream. What made it the best was that when it was close to being set up we would open the container and add some of Mom's home canned blackberries. I especially liked this as I always thought I could smell goat in the milk!

Our weekly churning of home made ice cream was a real treat for us that winter. I have many memories of the time that we lived there. We moved around so often that to be in one home for 3 or 4 years seemed like a "really" home. I made many trips up the hill on that gravel road to visit those neighbors. Her name was Ethel and I am sure she was a big influence on me and probably never knew.

Thought for the day: The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts

Don't mess with me

Ever notice how in the winter time our days seem so repetitious? Seems like you do the same thing every day and the days seem to run together. Guess I have been going a little stir crazy being stuck at home for almost 2 weeks after this big blizzard hit. It makes you lose track of what day it is if you don't have to go anywhere. Alot of businesses lost money for sure.

Hopefully you can click on the pic and see the caption. If not the first one says: I'm a broccoli and I look like a tree. The second one says: I'm a walnut and I look like a brain. The last one says: I'm a mushroom and I am sick of playing this game.

I just got back into my book store this past Wed. but since I am located on the highway you can imagine what the state left for me all along the highway in front, where customers park. Things are melting and there is an area to park across the alley but then you have to still walk in the slushy snow. We set record lows, and now we will see some record highs, I think for this coming week. Good by snow and ice.

Had a customer in a couple weeks ago that is a farm person. She is single and she was telling me about a new boy friend and about this big sign she has at her home, sort of a warning. So she gives me my Thought for the day:

Don't mess with me, I've castrated everything on this farm!

Looking out my kitchen window

This was taken on the 2nd of Feb. Day after the blizzard. We used the snow blower to take the snow off the deck. At least 12 in. plus drifting off the roof. So glad it is warming up and will be up in the 60's by next Wed. Think we got all our snow within the first 2 weeks of Feb. Got additional 6 in. a few days after this one.

So looking at books that I want to read. When customers bring books in to trade, they always tell me which ones were good. So I end up with this stack of books that just get bigger and bigger. Just finished The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow, which was verrrrrry good but took awhile to read. Seems like I have been reading alot of historical tragic books lately..This one about a lady displaced from her home in Kentucky in the early 40's so her husband could work the steel mills in Detroit. Wow what a story. I just looked it up on the net and found that when it was made into a movie in 1984 Jane Fonda played the role of the main character. I just can't see her in that person that I got to know in the book. Maybe I can find the movie one day.

But I got distracted, I want to list the ones I plan to read soon:

The Ice Child by Elizabeth McGregor

The Other by David Guterson

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxcy by Douglas Adams

Intervetion by Robin Cook

Jewel by Bret Lott

The Man in The Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas

The Lucky one by Nicholas Sparks

and the one I just started: The Time Travlers wife by Audrey Niffenegger. That all should keep me busy for awhile.

Almost forgot I was going to re-read an 8 book series by Diana Garbaldon. Oh, so many books so little time

Thought for the day: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step:
Confucious

Namaste!

Ever feel like a slug?

That's the way I feel this winter. Other than reading and some needlepoint I feel like I have accomplished very little. Whats with this? I think this health care fiasco that is going on it getting me a little down. I thought that most of it was't supposed to go into effect for a couple years. Well my insurance has sure made some major changes. Without being notified they canceled my preferred provider (or prob. my preferred provider hospital canceled) So my primary Dr. is part of the hospital. So after several calls to my ins co. they have made an exception on the record for me to have my local hosp be my preferred provider X 6 mo only and only for out pt services! That would cover my colonoscopy coming up and mammogram. Not my Dr. if I go to him for any apt. I pay half of his going rate. no co pay. They indicated that there would be a change in July to a different 3rd party payer so more changes.

Got a letter from my insurance co. (which is thru a state I don't live in) They outlined new changes for this next year to start in July. Big raise in deductible from 800 to 2,000$. No dental coverage except for cleaning. No eye coverage except for part of the exam. (just got that done and new glasses ordered) Plus other major changes that I won't bore anyone with. I look for them to figure out a way to cancel out folks that do not live within the state too.

So it is depressing and a worry. I only hope that my tests come back OK this winter then I can hold out and not need any care till Feb 2012 when I will be old enough for medicare. Lets hope they don't do huge changes there, but what are the odds.

OK I am done gripping.

Won't spring be a blessing.

Thought for the day: If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!

What to cataracs and cavaties have in common?

ME! Just found out Mon. that I have very early stages of cataracts forming, then this morning had my teeth cleaned and found I had a piece of a filling missing so I have to have it repaired!! Feel like I am falling apart. LOL
Guess what I get for my birthday next week? A colonoscopy!

Guess what hubby gets for his Mar. birthday? A new knee!

Does that seem fair??

Oh, I do get new glasses as my old ones are falling apart so guess that is a good thing.


Thought for the day: I think Ive got alot of work to do, I'm far from being finished.

Big Brother is Watching

You know we are being watched all the time?  I just posted a blog and the word in it was carb, and as I clicked to publish a screen came up with advertisements that had the name carb in it. Thank you very much Google.  Scary huh?

Can carbs make you crazy?

After the last couple days I am beginning to think this may be true.  When I eat very low carb I feel so good, more energy, and better outlook on life.  When I "fall off the wagon" so to speak, I feel more like a slug.  And I am not talking about binging on carbs.  Just the "normal" amount that would be in regular meals. I think I am doomed to never eating bread or deserts ever, ever, ever!  See I even sound crazy! Had a cute picture to add to this but for some reason this new "update" the blogger site just did is not letting me add it in. Grrr.

Thought for the day:  I used to have a handle on life, but it broke

Pictures and memories

I had mentioned a week ago that I thought it would be fun to take a collage of pictures and briefly tell about each one. All these pictures were taken in the 70's, and maybe you will see yourself if some of them.
1. Brother was visiting us in Iowa and caught this nice big bass from the farm pond.  He looked so young with all that hair.
2. Dtr. dressed for Halloween with her bibs, kerchief, and straw hat.  As a prop she was holding one of our baby pigs.  Wonder if it was "Miss Piggy" that we bottle fed.
3. 5 little kids standing in front of our old yellow Rambler station wagon, taken in Portsmouth Va. Both my kids and 3 cousins. They were so cute.  I remember the wagon was the first car I drove. Didn't get my drivers license till about the time of this pic.
4. Mrs. Johnson putting my first nursing cap on at the LPN capping ceremony. I had no idea then where my nursing career would take me.
5. Mom out at the farm in Ia. dressed in the blue polyester jump suit that I made for her.
6.Son on his first motor cycle. I remember riding it once and tried to kill a snake in the road, but when I hit the brake the bike spun sideways and I wiped out.  Would have served me right to land on the snake!
7.Son and Dtr, sitting on the roof of the pump house at the Mo. farm.
8. Dtr. holding our little dog Goldie in her lap.  Taken in Ia. What a good little dog.
9. Dtr. in her cheerleaders outfit for Jr. High.
10. Brother and his family during happy times on a visit to the beach.  His youngest was just a baby.
11. The 3 sisters, us. Sitting on a sofa at middle sisters home. This was the first trip that I ever took by myself about age 33.  Didn't know till later that husband was glad to let me take a trip as he had hanky panky going on.

So that's my photo collage.

Thought for the day:  Don't buy cheap drain cleaner!

Here's your sign

If a cluttered desk is signs of a cluttered mind,

of what, then, is an empty desk?

Albert Einstein

Was life more interesting a few years ago?

I was just messing around and went back to my old blog posting in 2006 and reading. It seems like alot more was going on back then, it even seems interesting, but did I know it at the time? I guess its like looking back to the "good old days" and not realizing that we are living the good old days every day. When I look back in 6 years I will think that 2010 was an interesting year, I suppose.

After the tragedy in Arizona this past week, it has to make us realize that no one has been promised any certain number of days to our lives. We need to look around and smile more at what we see. We need to see the positive stuff and not focus on all the negative that surrounds us each day.

I live with the negative every day. Sad to say but hubby and his sister seem to relish the bad news and bad predictions. SIL sort of tickles me as she complains daily about all the junk mailings she gets. Most are political stuff and of course they all want money. If she gets an envelope with a nickle (sometimes a dollar) in it. She always mails it back. It just keeps her name active and I think she thinks someone personally opens it and is grateful to her. She means well and it gives her something to do. Well how did I get off on this track??

See I was trying to write a positive post and this negative stuff just snuck in there. Oh, and in Oct 2006 I was complaining about gas being 1.99$ a gal.

Thought for the day: We reap what we sow

trouble sleeping

Had trouble getting to sleep last nite, then woke up around 3AM and felt like I just dozed off and on the rest of the nite. I laid there and heard the forced heat coming on and it brought a memory to me that I think of once in awhile.

When I was about 11 or 12, I lived in Iowa and my oldest brother took me home for the weekend to Iowa City. He was building a house and I got to be his helper. I remember feeling pretty important. I got to fetch stuff for him and poke duct pipe under the house to him. That night I remember he and his wife and myself slept in what I think was going to be the utility room on pallets on the floor and I could hear the heat come on and feel the warm air. I think this was the first time I had slept in a house with anything but wood heat.

Now wood heat, there is another story, I remember waking up every morning and hearing my dad "shake" down the stove. For those that don't know, that is the process of using a crank to shake the grates so that excess ash falls below to a tray to be carried out and more wood or coal could be added to build up the fire. I remember sometimes that stove was so hot it glowed red.

Remember these good old days, big brother?

Thought for the day: When you are depressed it helps to lean your head on your arm and stare into space---if you are unusually depressed, you may have to change arms.

My challenge to you

Just for fun, I challenge you (whoever you are) to do something.

I am sure most folks have one of those collage picture frames of photos that you arranged to hang on the wall. I have a couple of them. One from around the 70's. I thought it would be fun to sit down with it and describe the picture, no names, and write briefly about what that picture meant to you or what was significant about it. It hangs on the wall where ever I go and has about 10 pictures in it.

See you next week

Thought for the day: I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

OK so its the scarf that won

Last night I picked up a scarf that I started to knit last winter, I think. So I figured I could knit thru the commercials on TV. Have you noticed how there is more time dedicated to commercials than programs? Heck before I knew it I had knitted 2 feet!

Thought for the day: Sometimes I wake up grumpy, and sometimes I let him sleep.

Time on my hands

Lazy long weekend. I actually watched 3 football games with hubby and neither one of us usually watch them much. Worked on my counted cross stitch project pretty steady and have it done. Now what will I do with these hands. Looking thru my projects stuff and have:

1. books on covering baskets, have 2 little sewing baskets that need redone.

2. decoupage something, I have stuff already cut out.

3. finish knitting the scarf thats been in the basket a year.

4. crochet some baskets to sell

5. weave more rugs, but can only do that at the store

6. start another cross stitch project.

7. Maybe I'll just start another book

Thought for the day: No one ever says "It's only a game." when their team is winning.