Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas and Healthy Happy New Year!!

what to do today...

So my husband took the car, with the carseat... that means I am stranded here today. I could look at it as an opportunity to get a lot of things done that should be done...

or I could just drink another pot of coffee.......

heh.. heh.... she said "dung"....

Since this year must have been the Chinese year of the Dung Heap, the Hubby and I have been numbing our pain in the evenings with some Budweiser Select (mmm.....beer...) and watching the Beavis & Butthead: The Mike Judge Collection, from our friends at Netflix. (Good thing we bought that Blockbuster stock earlier this year! Refer to first line....) "The Great Cornholio" is by far still the funniest episode. It made us laugh so hard we almost spilled our beer. And that, would have been tragic. Sometimes ya just got to laugh... even if it is at toliet humor.... heh... heh.... she said "toliet"....

I don't think Heaven has been the same since....

I think this is my favorite picture of my mom. First of all, it's just a cool picture. I never even saw my mom on a horse, but when I think of her, this is the picture that comes to mind. I hope that her and Louie found each other in heaven, and they are riding.

Mom and her brother atop Louie. Louie was a huge part of her life, and you could feel the love she had for him, whenever she talked about him.

I love this picture. Her laugh is genuine.

I miss her laugh and her, at times biting, sense of humor.

My parents having fun one Halloween.

She knew how to have a good time!

I just love this picture.....I have no idea how old she is here...

Look at how happy she is with me! Obviously I hadn't learned to speak yet!

I guess my arms would have been that toned too, if I had to carry around a chunk like me!!

Our last picture together.

Dec. 2003

Reasons I hate living in Apartments...

Psycho Neighbors who pound on the ceiling when a toddler falls down

Neighbors who have a big dog they yell at all the time

Dogs the size of shetland ponies leaving their poop EVERYWHERE

Walking to the north (technically west) 40 to get to the garage, carrying a 30 pound toddler

White walls

Leaky windows

Paying for a hot tub that is always cold

More dog poop

Drunk college girls playing with a kids bicycle bell at 1:30 am

Dog poop

Apartment Living

I hate apartment living. Hate isn't even a strong enough word. Last evening the hubby and I realized that this place has us in a pickle, and we aren't liking it. We had planned on taking a 3 month lease, after our lease expires the end of this month. He should be done with his rotations, and we could get out of here by the end of March. However, our apt. complex wants longer leases, so unless we take out a minimum of a 9 month lease, we will probably have to pay "Market Rate" i.e $950 PLUS $100/month "Month to Month" fee, PLUS our $50 for garage, PLUS $30 pet fee!!!!!

It just burns me b/c they have open apts all over this place, and we could probably find a long term stay hotel for much cheaper than that! We are good tenants, and yet they may put us in a situation that we can no possibly afford. So they would rather not get any rent, than give us a deal??? I am going to talk to the soon to be new manager on Thursday afternoon, and hopefully she will give us a deal. Otherwise, anyone want to help us move in January!? Fun, fun, fun.....

Check it out!!!

Check out my Diani designs on e-bay!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5063467945&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

and tell all your friends! ;)

Making Scents

It is amazing to me how the brain works. How is it that a particular smell can retrieve memories you didn't even know you still had? It happened again this morning as I put on a body spray I had not worn in a long while. But with one whiff of it, I am bombarded of memories of a past umm...love of mine. It was the scent I always wore when I was with him, thus it=him. Frustrating b/c I happen to really like the scent, but wish it didn't open floodgates of memories. And yet I know another bottle of perfume would bring memories of someone else... not that there really are that many "others" (sadly.....)

But it is not just perfume... a whiff of Dove bar soap, and I am standing in my neighbor's bathroom. A wonderful woman we referred to as "Grandma" and really was all those things you want a Grandma to be... she always used Dove.... and the memories are distinctly recalled with that smell. I can practically hear her say "Kiddo, wash up and we'll have a Coke."

It is because of this phenomenon I can not use Johnson's Baby Shampoo or Gold Dial soap on the babe. Working in an ICU, these were the choices when it came to bathing your patients... so for some, Johnson's would bring warm fuzzy snuggly memories of washing their babes... I will spare the details of what it recalls for me.

Even the scent Crabtree and Evelyn tea rose brings split memories of my senior year, when I thought it actually smelled good, on me, as a perfume, and of my friend Amy's Grandma's house. I wasn't really even in her house that manytimes, but the smell/memory combination is strong.

What I really really wish for however, would be a scent that would bring instant powerful memories of my mother. In the last few years of her life, with her difficulty to breath, odors immensely bothered her. She could not handle smoke, perfume, the smell of dryer sheets on her clothes, anything really..... how bitterely ironic giving she inhaled toxic smoke for 50 some years.....But in the end, everything was unscented or odor free. For some of my siblings, I think the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking does it... to this I think, "Did we have the same mother??? She actually baked one time!!!" If you knew my mom, you would get this... that big square thing in the kitchen, it was used for storage of pots and pans....So, I go on wondering if I will catch of whiff of something (I have a feeling it will not be food related however!) and wham! will be drowned in memories of her.... until then, I guess I will just have to keep my nose open.

Sums it up....

Personally for me, this about sums it up:

http://www.babyblues.com/Testing/index.php?formname=getstrip&GoToDay=10/17/05