I Am A Slob

There.  I said it.  I am a slob.  My house is disgusting and nobody here seems to know what to do about it.  Oh, I have wanted to clean it in the past and even made some efforts.  However, nothing stuck.  I keep waiting to see the A&E van out front to tape an episode of "Hoarders:  Buried Alive", but they haven't shown up yet - thank goodness!

While going through my blog list, I ran across an interesting post by Socks For Mum.   There was a link to an organization calendar.  Everyday you do something to get your house in order.  One day is clean out the drawer of your nightstand.  Another day is clean the top of your nightstand.  I could do that!  I was so excited.  However, I was going into this a week behind since I didn't discover it until the second week of January.  Still, I wasn't discouraged.  I CAN DO THIS - I kept telling myself.  Well, I hit a doozy right off the bat.  Clean off the top of your cabinets.  Hmm.  When did I do that last?  Maybe when we painted them - over six years ago.  Yuck!  That would explain why the little ceramic piggy bank I had up there had fur on its back.  GROSS!  I was discouraged.  A call to my sister - the one who inherited every single last cleaning gene in our family.  EVERY SINGLE LAST ONE!  - was in order.

I called her this morning.  It went something like this:

"Uh, Kel.... I know you are really good at cleaning.  You have your own cleaning business.  So, I have a question for you.  I have a friend.... and she...NO he, yes definitely HE, is having some issues with cleaning.  HE is supposed to clean the top of HIS kitchen cabinets and HE doesn't know where to begin.  HE has a terrible problem with that gunky, greasy, dusty crud on top of everything.  What should I tell HIM.  Oh, by the way, this is all hypothetical."  Boy, I pulled one over on her!  She had no idea it was me!  Aren't I good?

Well, she said, "Hypothetically speaking, you, I mean HE, need to get a really good degreaser." (See how well I fooled her?)  She gave me some really great suggestions to give 'my friend'.  Off to the store HE went to pick up all HIS cleaning supplies.  One thing she didn't suggest that HE got was a putty knife.

After a really good soaking of degreaser, time to do its job, and time to work up the will to do the job, I climbed up my step ladder, grabbed the putty knife and set to work.  Man, oh man!  What a task. Oops, I slipped, now you know it was me. Darn it!  I scraped that stuff off those cabinets and got the cobwebs out of the corners.  You know what - it looks pretty darn good!  It looks so good I made R and RL climb up on the ladder and look!  Now to move on to the next task.  I really hope it's an easier one, for my friend, of course. 

Harper's Loves

There are two things Harper loves in his life.  Riding in cars and his Dad.

20 something outside and Harper loves having the window down!  BRRRR!

Sitting in the backseat and happy as can be.

  

Wait......can this car ride get any better?

YES!  A car ride WITH Dad!

Bless My Soul

RL and I haven't had much luck with cars lately.  His truck died in October.  We borrowed Mom's van.  Mom's van had transmission issues and was getting close to dying in December.  Our driveway was starting to look like a bad used car lot!  We decided it was time to look at a new car for RL.  I've been driving an HHR for a few years and loved it, so I wasn't even thinking about a change for me.  Having always loved Kia Souls, I asked him if we could at least go by and test drive one.

These friendly guys greeted us when we went inside to talk to Bullfrog - our salesman.

We drove two cars that day - a Forte and a Soul.  The decision was all RLs, but I just couldn't contain my excitement with the Soul.  It was so much fun to drive and much roomier inside than you would ever imagine.  I LOVED it!  And....since I can't seem to hide the way I feel about things I like, RL knew which car I wanted.

I don't have to tell you which one we bought!  Guess which car RL got????  The old HHR!  That was never my intention.  Apparently it wasn't his either!  We went back a few weeks later and traded in the HHR for a Kia Sorento!  Good thing I got yarn for Christmas, because all of my future yarn funds will be going toward car payments.  :)

RIP nook

I dropped my nook today. 

A sad day indeed.  I swore I wouldn't get attached.  Books are waaaay better than a stupid ereader.  If you drop a book, you might get a bent page.  It gets soggy if you drop it in the tub, but doesn't short out.  I admit it.  I said all those things.  Then I got a nook.  I found some sites that offer free books.  I became addicted!  When I broke my elbow, my nook was my best friend.  I didn't have to turn pages, I just pushed a button.

Today,while on the phone, I was on hold for WAY too long and grabbed my nook.  It was still plugged in and I didn't realize it.  It flew out of my hands and onto the floor.  Now I can't get the screen to completely change.  I am sad.  $85 to have the Geek Squad tell me it's broken and then to send it on for repair.  Should I spring for a new one?  Stay with nook?  I don't want to lose my books so I think I will stay with nook.  Oh - to add insult to injury, my warranty expired nine days ago.  NINE DAYS AGO!

So, where has my nook taken me....let me think.  I have read many, many books I wouldn't have read if they hadn't been free.  Here's a list of all the books I've read this year - some on the nook and some your basic, hold in your hands books.  Have you read any of them?

1. A Floating City by Jules Verne (freebie)

2.  Closely Knit on Scarlatt by Ardath Mayhar (freebie)

3.  Daughter of Joy by Kathleen Morgan (freebie)

4.  A Truth for a Truth by Emilie Richards

5.  The Apothecary's Daughter by Julie Klassen  (freebie)

6.  The Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell

7.  Candle in the Darkness by Lynn N. Austin (freebie)

8.  How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks (freebie)

9.  Vamps and the City by Kerrelyn Sparks

10.  Be Still My Vampire Heart by Kerrelyn Sparks

11.  The Undead Next Door by Kerrelyn Sparks

12.  All I Want for Christmas is a Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks

13.  Secret Life of a Vampire  by Kerrelyn Sparks

14.  Forbidden Nights With a Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks

15.  The Vampire and the Virgin by Kerrelyn Sparks

16.  Eat, Prey, Love  by Kerrelyn Sparks

17.  Vampire Mine by Kerrelyn Sparks

18.  The Road from Chapel Hill by Joanna Catherine Scott

19.  A Matter of Class by Mary Balogh

20.  Turn Coat by Jim Butcher

21.  Changes by Jim Butcher

22.  Side Jobs by Jim Butcher

23.  Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

24.  Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris

25.  Mennonite in a Little Black Book by Rhoda Janzen

26.  Stupid History by Leland Gregory (freebie)

27.  Phantom of Pemberley by Regina Jeffers (freebie)

28.  Heart of Stone by Jill Marie Landis (freebie)

29.  Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

30.  A Vote of Confidence by Robin Lee Hatcher (freebie)

31.  The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

32.  Cottage by the Sea by Ciji Ware (freebie)

33.  Money Secrets of the Amish by Lorilee Croker

34.  Reinventing Leona by Lynne Gentry (freebie)

35.  Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

36.  The Help by Kathryn Stockett

37.  Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer (freebie)

38.  Ghost Story by Jim Butcher

39.  Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (freebie)

40.  Sixteen Brides by Stephanie Grace Whitson (freebie)

41.  Adventures on the High Seas by Susan Barry Blair

42.  Dracula by Bram Stoker (freebie)

43.  Unholy Cow by John H. Carroll (freebie)

44.  Sexiest Vampire Alive by Kerrelyn Sparks

Seventeen of the books I read were free downloads to my nook.  I guess that means I need a new one.  And yes, I did go through a smutty vampire stage, thank you very much.  The books by Jim Butcher were part of the Dresden series my son and husband read.  They had been harping on me to finish them so they could talk about them in front of me!  The Help was wonderful - as I'm sure most of you know by now.  I would recommend the book over the movie any day.  I also read some classics I had never read before:  Tobacco Road (hated it), The Great Gatsby (didn't hate it, but sure didn't like it), Farenheit 451 (surprisingly good book) and Dracula (pretty good).

Adventure on the High Seas was a book written by my physical therapist's sister about their family sailing from England and settling in America.  It was a pretty good book about an interesting way of life.

There you have it.  I didn't reach my goal of 52 books this year, but I came pretty close!  Guess I need to start saving up for nook the sequel!



Christmas Parade 2011

Sheep on the main drag.  It doesn't get any better than this!

Think they would miss just one?  Me neither.

Fire Department showing off.

Men in skirts kilts.

Gotta have a few hot rods.

The only thing that could have made this hat cooler would be if it was hand knit!

More hot rods.

Low riders.

Quite an impressive cow.

My Dad had one of these.  Drove all the way from Florida to Tennessee in it...with my sister and me in the back.  WAY before car seat laws!  Good times - right Kel????

Must have lawnmowers in a parade!

Now this is something you don't see every day!  I hope!

The man we are all waiting to see!

The parade was very nice this year.  Such a beautiful day, even if it didn't get out of the 40s.  No rain.  No snow.  Lots of sunshine and silly people to stand with.

For those of you who might be curious - Harper is out of the cone!  Hallelujah.  I didn't think he would EVER get out of that thing!  Two weeks was long enough.

Poor Harper!

Harper's new look!

Harper visited the vet yesterday to be 'tutored'.  We sat him down and explained to him what was going to happen.  I don't think he was listening.  It would have been easier if I had had a picture book, but they just don't make those.  Go figure!  :)  Anyway, we dropped him off yesterday morning and picked him up yesterday afternoon.  After the drugs wore off and he realized 'part of him was gone', he starting licking....and licking....and licking....  That just would not do.  So, off to the vet for some snazzy neckwear!  Doesn't he look dapper?  Bless his heart, he can't judge distance and keeps ramming into furniture.  I know this is one look he'll be glad to be rid of!

Little Did We Know.....

Somebody was needing a home.  R has wanted a puppy since she was little.  However, the first puppy episode was disastrous!  Maybe since she was no longer 7 but 23 she could handle it a little better!  But were we ready?  NO!  RL and I were not.  L was indifferent.  After begging us to at least go to the rescue shelter, we couldn't stand it anymore relented and went.  We met so many puppies!  A litter of ten puppies caught our attention.  All of them had names of bears.  Boo-Boo worked his way into Rs heart.  Then the little stinker worked his way into our car! 

Harper on the way home from the rescue shelter.

Passed out in 'his' LazyBoy!

 

His tongue out after playing with his 'stick'

Pooped puppy!

His new leash

It's been a rough day!

Harper has been with us for a couple of months now.  What a sweetie he is.  He wears us out, but he's still sweet.  Any advice to make him stop biting?  This family is probably anemic due to the blood he's cost us!  Friday he was five months old.  The ear is no longer droopy - I wanted him to keep that!  He could never take Ginger's place in our hearts, but who knew we had room for a puppy in there too!?!