My complaints, praises, thoughts, ideas and general observations. Some might be serious, some might be humerous but they are all mine.
I'm Gonna Be On TV
If American Idol doesn’t pass me through to Hollywood I want to be on The Singing Office. All that takes is enthusiasm. I can have enthusiasm and I can sing in a group. As a matter of fact, I know I’d stand out in any group I sang with.
The one show I don’t want to be on is Survivor. For that show you have to eat bugs and rodents. You don’t want to see the after effects if I had to do that.
Well, let’s see, I can’t sing, no, really I can’t, I won’t eat anything you’d normally call an exterminator for, OH, I know. I’ll be on Trading Spaces. I know I can glue things to a wall and put orange and purple stripes on a few. I don’t even mind painting your antique dining room table or converting your new piano into an entertainment center.
Yeah, I want my 15 minutes of fame and I think Trading Spaces is the way to go. Look out Hildi, here I come.
In Memory of "Uncle Red"
A friend of our families developed Alzheimer’s and it was tough to watch what they went through. It started with little personality changes. He did things that just didn’t seem right but you couldn’t quite put your finger on what was wrong. After a while he started getting forgetful. When driving he’d forget where to get off the expressway or where to turn. He was retired but worked as a crossing guard in his city. One Sunday evening after dinner he disappeared, in looking for him we saw him drive off in his uniform. His daughter and I went to the corner where he worked and there he was standing with his sign waiting for the children to come. That was the turning point and the beginning of the nightmare his family had to face.
I couldn’t relate to anything they were going through. I’d lost my parents but they were dead. I missed them terribly but I had happy memories of them. I didn’t have to try to relate to someone who had no idea who I was. His wife lost her husband and his children lost their father but the body was still there.
The year after they got the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s his children and grandchildren formed a team for the Alzheimer's Memory Walk. People who had no personal experience with the disease joined that team to help find a cure. They wore T-shirts with his picture and the words “We’re doing this for Fred.” They got cheers from bystanders which encouraged them to continue when they felt they couldn’t walk anymore.
Alzheimer’s is a disease that can affect any of us at any time. They have medication to slow down it’s progression and you can live 5, 10 years with Alzheimer’s but to know each day might be the last day you’ll remember your loved one has to be devastating.
You can join the fight against Alzheimer’s by joining the Alzheimer's Memory Walk.
Art or ...............?
It's All My Fault
Why do people bother with those things. I don’t mind receiving them since all I have to do is press delete but I will not forward them. It doesn’t matter how much you threaten me with them I will not do it.
I’m responsible for little Johnny not reaching his goal in receiving a certain amount of emails from all over the globe and I’m responsible for Bill Gates not donating millions of dollars to some charity and it’s my fault that Ashley Flores was never found. If you get abducted by aliens on a deserted road someplace out west, that’s my fault too because I didn’t forward the email warning you about the dangers of that area.
I guess I’m the Typhoid Mary of Emails. Every evil that could befall you is my fault. Just because I didn’t press forward on that email I just received. For that I’m truly sorry but since I’m soon to be penniless, homeless and friendless I won’t have to be bothered with getting those emails again.
Relative or Family?
A relative is someone you have to claim whether you like them or not. You don’t have a choice and no matter how hard you try to get away they’re always there, intruding in your life.
Family, are the people you choose to be in your life. You want to be around them and you welcome them. They are there for you when you’re feeling down. They will lend support and a helping hand even before you ask and you’ll willingly do the same for them. They don’t have to be related to you to be family.
I come from a large family or should I say, I have a lot of relatives. I only had one brother but my mom had thirteen brother and sisters. A lot of them were married at least once, some two or three times. With those marriages came children. I have cousins, second cousins and cousins once or twice removed all over the country. Most of them I knew once upon a time. Other’s I’ve never met or just recently met. Most of them I wouldn’t recognize if they were standing in front of me. The majority of them are relatives.
My family is small. I have my husband, sister-in-law, brother-in laws, a couple of cousins a step daughter and granddaughter. My mother-in-law was someone I never met face to face but I talked to her on the phone frequently and I considered her family. My parents and brother are gone but they will always be my family. I also have friends I’ve known for over 30 years and others I’ve met recently but they are people I respect and enjoy being around, they are family.
You only have to share a blood line with me to be considered a relative but you have to share a place in my heart to be considered family.
As Seen On MyFox.com
For years you’ve been able to buy contact lenses through the mail. Now you can purchase eye glasses online with tremendous savings. Zenni Optical.com has glasses as low as $8. All you need to do is get your prescription from your eye doctor, pick out your frames, enter the prescription and the glasses are delivered in about two weeks.
I’m still not totally convinced this is the way to go but for the price it’s worth a shot for a second pair of glasses. If you like what you get you can use them exclusively in the future.
A couple of things to keep in mind when ordering glasses online. You won’t be able to try the frames on to see how they look. You also don’t need to know the size of the frames to order. Most frames come in different sizes, 52,54, etc. My suggestion would be to go to try on different frames at your eye doctors or one of the stores you can find in the malls. You’ll be able to see what shape and size looks good on your face. If you don’t want to do that, most eyeglasses have the size written inside the temples. Then all you need to do is pick a frame in the shape and color you want.
I checked out Zenni’s website and it looks like you’ll also be able to pick the type of lenses you want as far as coatings or any other added features. Of course this is usually at an additional cost but still at a savings.
To see a consumers experience go to Zenni on Fox
Lynwood, Illinois a City With Style
Finally, a city with decency and the courage to speak up. The city of
I’ve seen a lot of guys and girls wearing their pants like that. Only about half of them are “young men of color” but ALL of them look ridiculous. One young man who’s against the new law says the leaders should instead be spending money on making the area look nicer. This is just my opinion but I think not seeing the top of your underwear is a good start.
Now if they could do something about the girls who show the tops of their thongs. I guess the law won’t affect them, there’s not three inches of material in the entire piece.
Effective Complimenting
Yesterday I purchased a product that was NEW & IMPROVED. It was a product I always use so I felt, the new and improved probably won’t hurt it and if anything it’ll be the same as it always was. I was wrong. It did exactly what it promised. I was so excited I decided to email the company and congratulate them on getting it right.
This morning I received an email from them.
We try to make product improvements which are beneficial to all concerned and hope that any changes will be acceptable to most of our consumers. Please be assured that your comments will be shared with those who are involved.
To thank you for your loyalty to our products, we're sending you some coupons through the mail.
I loved that last line. When was the last time a company actually thanked you much less rewarded you for using their products?
By the way, the company was Kimberly Clark.
Five Things I'm Thankful For
Instead of sitting here throwing myself a pity party and inviting everyone to come I thought I’d try to think of five things I’ve got to thankful for.
Five Things I’m Thankful For Today:
1. I woke up this morning in a nice soft bed and I know I’ll be able to go to sleep in that same bed tonight.
2. I have an adoring, loving husband whom I cherish (stop blushing, I tell you this all the time)
3. I have 2 of the cutest puppies and 1 of them loves to snuggle and she squeaks when you squeeze her
4. I serve a loving, forgiving God
5. I have air conditioning in this HOT Southern Alabama summer
I did it. I came up with five. I actually feel better now. Maybe next time I’ll try to think of ten.
NAH!!! Five was hard enough.
Pepsiholic Anonomyous
Vending machines love us. The owners of vending machines love us. They love kids more. They offer everything kids love; candy, cookies, chips, snack cakes and soda. Once in a while you can find a machine that has something a little healthier like nuts, crackers and juice but the majority of the time it’s junk food.
Vending machines are so popular they even have them in schools. Grade schools and high schools. I remember the first time I saw a vending machine in school was in 1969. I was in seventh grade. Before that I went home for lunch. I walked and had exercise. My mom would have soup, grilled cheese or a hamburger ready for me. I didn’t like sandwiches and my hamburgers were just the meat on the plate. I usually drank Kool Aid or milk. In 1969 we moved and I had to take my lunch to school. I took the dreaded sandwich and twinkie. The school had a soda machine and I drank Pepsi. Every day it was Pepsi. I think that’s what turned me into the Pepsiholic I am today. That was also the year I started gaining weight.
Now people are more health conscious and parents are demanding more nutritious choices for their kids. You can send them to school with healthy lunches, salad or fruit but what about the dreaded vending machine. Now there’s a company that offers healthy choices in their machines. YoNaturals - Healthy Student Vending. They will involve the students in the choice of products for the machine, even giving samples before the decision’s made.
If they would have had something like this when I was in school I might not be looking for the local chapter of P.A. (Pepsiholics Anonymous)
I Want to Adopt a Couple of Kids
That’s right. The new word of the month is Momtourage. It’s kind of like an Entourage (I love that show by the way) but it’s for mommies. The definition according, to iVillage: the people, organizations and businesses in her life that provide her with support, help her get things done, and allow her to be the best mom she can be.
OK, enough with all that. Now down to the good stuff, the prizes for winning.
• A personal chef, babysitter or housecleaner
• Dinner by one of Bravo's Top Chef cheftestants for you and your momtourage
• A spa day for each member of your momtourage
Since I wouldn’t have to keep the kids past winning the contest, hopefully, I wouldn’t need the babysitter. Our place is rather small, even though I hate cleaning it would really be a waste of time for a housecleaner so I guess I’d take the personal chef. As long as he/she can work wonders with hamburger helper, ground turkey and macaroni and cheese. Now if they also provide the ingredients I’d change that to lobster, prime rib and anything Italian.
Dinner by one of the Top Chef cheftestants. OK. As long as I can list my husband as part of my momtourage. The spa day, can anyone say heaven?
Yup. I think I’ll adopt a couple of cute rugrats er kids on a short term basis, enter and win the contest then sit back and enjoy.
I wonder how long I'd actually have to keep the kids?
I Don't Want to be Loved This Much
I’m going crazy right now, itching from mosquito bites. I was outside a total of 15 minutes this evening and got chewed up something awful.
I’ve always had a problem being loved by those things. Why they choose me out of a crowd of people is anybody’s guess but I don’t like being this popular. I don’t get one bite occasionally and scratch a little. I start itching the moment I go outside and within a few minutes I look like I’ve got a disease with all the welts from those little blood suckers.
I was with some friends one evening and they sat me by the bug zapper thinking that would protect me. WRONG, I still got chewed up. The person sitting across from me hadn’t been bitten once so we thought the zapper was attracting them and we changed seats. They immediately changed direction, I still got eaten and she didn’t get one nibble. I actually ended up in the emergency room with a mosquito bite one year. I got bit right above my eyebrow and within an hour my eye lid was drooping and I was watching it get bigger. The next morning I had a baseball where my eye use to be.One of my friends is Italian and says she never gets bit. She swears it’s the garlic she eats that repels them. My husband loves garlic so I’ve been putting it in and on everything I cook. The way I was attacked tonight, I don’t think it’s working.
Join Me In My Journey
On July 6, 2008 I created My First Steps With Jesus. I invite you to check it out and give me some feedback. I hope you enjoy it enough to return and join me on that journey. If you like what you see please share it with others.
Not Me
Not Me just finished kindergarten. On the first day of school the class was given notebooks that they had to take back and forth every day. At the beginning of each day every student got a smiley face in their notebook. At the end of the day the teacher changed some of the smiley faces to sad faces. Not Me was doing real good at the beginning of the school year but for some reason he started getting more and more sad faces. The sad faces were usually for not following directions in class. My sister-in-law tried grounding him to his room until Poppy got home but that wasn’t working. She tried reminding him every morning to listen to the teacher and come home with a smiley face. That worked for a week or two. Finally my husband had a plan. If Not Me could go an entire week with all smiley faces he could come over for pizza and a movie.
Everyday when Not Me got home from school he’d either call or run over to tell us he got a smiley face. The problem was, he couldn’t quite make it a full week. I remember the time he made it to Thursday with all smiley faces. On Friday he called crying because he couldn’t have pizza. It broke our hearts but we had a deal. Not Me finally made it an entire week with all smiley faces. Of course it was the week before Christmas and there were only four school days but we didn’t specifically say it had to be a five day week.
As I said Not Me has pizza on the brain which brings me to last night. He was running an errand and came over as we were putting dinner on the table. He looked at the table, got big eyed and said “You’re having pizza too, that’s what we’re having” I don’t really know what Not Me was looking at because when I looked at the table I saw cubed steak and macaroni and cheese.
Our Hard Fought Freedom

Today is the 4th of July, the birthday of our Country and the freedom that many fought hard to have and hold on to. Many are still putting their lives on the line today to protect and maintain that freedom for us but there are some who take it for granted and don’t appreciate the sacrifices made so they can make a total ass of themselves while making a joke of what those men and women fought to protect. I’m talking about the teen that put his vote in the next Presidential election up for sale on eBay.
It was a joke, at least that’s what he says now. What if someone came into his home one night, held him at gunpoint and forced him to bow down to a god he doesn’t believe in. If they took away his right to an education and forced him into a job or career he didn’t want. Then told him it was a joke. Would he be laughing?
Voting in a Presidential or any election is a freedom and an honor that people in some countries don’t have. We are fighting today to try to provide them with that freedom. Anyone who treats that freedom so flippantly is dishonoring those who fought and gave their lives for him to have the right to make his own decisions. Even the decision to be an ass.
Laws That Make You Go HUH!
Here are a few of those laws from years gone by:
• In Texas, it's against the law for anyone to have a pair of pliers in his or her possession.
• Alaska law says that you can't look at a moose from an airplane.
• In Miami, it is forbidden to imitate an animal.
• It is against the law to mispronounce the name of the State of Arkansas in that State.
• In Memphis, Tennessee, a woman is not to drive a car unless a man warns approaching motorists or pedestrians by walking in front of the car that is being driven. (I’m sure there are a lot of men that still believe that law should be in effect)
• In New York, it is against the law for a blind person to drive an automobile.
• In Louisiana, a bill was introduced years ago in the State House of Representatives that fixed a ceiling on haircuts for bald men of 25 cents.
• In Oklahoma, no baseball team can hit the ball over the fence or out of a ballpark.
I’m sure you get the idea. The thing is these are antiquated laws. Let’s jump ahead to the 21st century and we find that lawmakers haven’t changed that much. A new law is on the books in Texas, a law that states computer repair technicians must have a private investigator license. In order to get the PI license they must receive a criminal justice degree or participate in a three year apprenticeship. According to the law the license is required for the technician to analyze computer data. I guess some business managers use this analysis to track the computer usage of employees and some people want to find out where their children or spouses have been online. The problem is, this analysis is also needed to find where a computer virus came from.
If you check the history on your browser or buy one of those programs for parents to track their children’s activities will you be required to get a PI License first? I’d better not say that too loud, you never know what idiot, I mean lawmaker, might be listening.