Meet Me On Monday…And A Few Other Things

Monday mornings will always find me joining Java for “Meet Me On Monday”. It’s a chance to meet and learn more about fellow bloggers, and a chance to share a bit about myself. I’m also joining the “Make Me Crazy Monday” blog hop again this week. I just love that bloghop–and their funny button!

Here are Java’s questions for this week:

1.  What do you put on your hot dog?
I prefer my hotdogs cooked on the grill, and I like mustard, catsup, and sometimes I like sweet relish on them.  I’m getting hungry just typing this…

2.  Do you play Sudoku?
No, I don’t know how, but it looks sort of interesting.

3.  What is your favorite vegetable?
Gee, I’ve never really thought about that!  I don’t know if they are my favorite vegetable or not, but I eat more peas than anything else!  Here in the south, peas are a very popular vegetable–garden peas, crowder peas, white acre peas, zipper peas, black eye peas, pink eye peas, field peas–just to name a few!

4.  Do you color your hair? Yes, it’s so sad, but so necessary!  I have dark hair, so I look “washed out” when the gray starts showing around my face.  My hairdresser, Wendy, along with her bottle of hair color and scissors, is my BFF!
5.  What is your favorite brand of clothing? I’ve never been one to get “hung up” on name brand clothing.  I only like a certain style of clothing(comfortable), and that’s what I’m always looking for.  A lot of my clothes are JC Penney’s “Cabin Creek” brand, and Wal-Mart’s brand “White Stag”.

Now for a few other things…After a weekend filled with absolutely perfect weather, near 70 degrees, I woke up this morning to rain!  What a shocking change!  I did, however, soak up plenty of rays over the weekend.  With Groundhog Day coming up this week, I’m hoping that spring is just around the corner…

Our oldest son came down this weekend and he and my husband rode bikes together.  My son refused to ride my bike, and he told me that my husband refused to ride my bike up beside the highway!!!  Do you suppose it’s my pink flowered streamers that make them hesitate to be seen on it? (smile)

After thirty-nine years, I finally baked an edible pound cake!  I’ve tried to bake pound cakes(different recipes) a few times over the years, and never had much luck with them.  The texture was bad, or the taste wasn’t great, but yesterday I tried a new recipe that I got from Erica at 365 days of my life as a mom and it turned out great–except for the fact that a little of the batter ran over the side of the pan, and into the oven.  Next time, I’ll know to take out a bit of the batter, or use a larger pan.  I guess that just goes to show, success can come at any age! (smile)  Since I’m on a modified diet, I quickly shared pieces of the cake with all family members, and one-half of the cake was gone before it even became cool…I’m sharing her recipe at the bottom of this post, because it’s a good great one!

Country Pound Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 2/3 cups white sugar
5 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract

Directions

1. Do not preheat the oven. Grease 10 inch tube pan and line bottom with wax paper or parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter, shortening, and sugar on low-speed for 10 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Alternately add the flour mixture and milk, mixing well. Add the vanilla and lemon extracts.
4. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Set the oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of cake comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in the pan for 1 hour. Remove to a cake rack and cool for at least 3 hours. 

 Have a great Monday, everyone!

Share It With You Sunday ~ “Life In The South”…

THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT THE SOUTH   1) A possum is a flat animal that sleeps in the middle of the road.   2) There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in the south.   3) There are 10,000 types of spiders.  All 10,000 of them live in the south, plus a couple no one has ever seen before.   4) If it grows, it’ll stick ya.  If it crawls, it’ll bite cha.   5) Onced and twiced are words.   6) It is not a shopping cart, it’s a buggy.   7) Jaw-P: This is a word that means,”Did yall go to the bathroom?”   8) People actually grow and eat okra.   9) Fixinto is one word.  It means, “I’m fixing to do that.”   10) There is no such thing as lunch.  There is only dinner and then there is supper.   11) Iced tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you’re two.  By the way, we do like a little tea with our sugar.   12) Backwards and forwards means I know everything about you.   13) The word jeet is actually a phrase meaning, “Did you eat?”   14) You dont have to wear a watch, because it doesn’t matter what time it is, you work until you’re done or it’s too dark to see.   15) You don’t PUSH buttons, you MASH em.   16) “No, Jew?” is a common response to the question, “Did you bring any beer?”   17) You measure distance in minutes.   18) You switch from heat to A/C in the same day.   19) All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect, or animal.   20) You know what a DAWG is.   21) You carry jumper cables in your car – for your OWN car.   22) You only own five spices: salt, pepper, BBQ sauce , tabasco and ketchup.   23) The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but it require 6 pages for local high school sports and motor sports, and gossip.   24) You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.   25) You find 100 degrees Fahrenheit a bit warm.   26) You know all four seasons: Almost summer, summer, still summer, and Christmas.   27) Going to Walmart is a favorite pastime known as “goin Wal-Martin” or “off to Wally World.”   28) You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good chicken stew weather.   29) Fried catfish is the other white meat.   30) We don’t need no dang Driver’s Ed.  If our mama says we can drive, we can drive dag-nabbit.    Yep, after fifty-somethin’ years of livin’ in the south, I’d say that pretty much sums up life here in Dixie…

Six Word Saturday…1/29/11

My six words for today are:

“Things aren’t always what we perceive”…

 

  Thanks to Cate at ShowMyFace.com for hosting Six Word Saturday.  Click on her button, hop on over to her place and join in with your own six words.  It’s fun!

Flashback Friday….

In addition to Java’s “Follow Friday”, I’m joining up with Linda for another “Flashback” today, and her topic of choice is The Olympics.  She’s missing them since there aren’t going to be any this year!

my hubby in 1996, posing with Cobbtown, GA's version of the "Olympic Rings"

  I remember it well…it was my eighteenth summer, and the year my husband and I got married, when I was first sucked into the drama of the Olympics. I still remember rooting for Mark Spitz as he won each of his gold metals, and who could forget that tiny gymnast Olga Korbut.  If you remember, 1972 was also the year that eight PLO terrorists broke into the Olympic Village and took eleven Israeli athletes, coaches, and officials hostage.  Unfortunately, by the time the stand-off was over, all eleven hostages were dead.  I can still hear reporter, Jim McKay’s shaky voice saying “They’re all gone.”  Such a sad moment in Olympic history…

I prefer the Summer Olympics over the Winter Olympics, because of the types of sports involved, but I’m a “die-hard” fan of figure skating.  I’ll never forget pairs skaters, Randy Gardner and Tai Babilonia, and how they had to withdraw from the 1980 Olympics after Randy fell and became injured.  My heart broke for them!  I also remember watching the Nancy Kerrigan/Tanya Harding saga unfold during the 1994 Winter Olympics–which ultimately resulted in Tanya being banned from US figure skating for life.  What a mess!

In 1996, Atlanta was the host for the Summer Olympics.  Since my family and I live in Georgia, we had the experience of seeing the Olympic flame traveling by relay, on its way to Atlanta that year.  It was a special moment, one I never dreamed I’d ever have–and I didn’t take any photos! 

We also were in Atlanta during the summer of 1996, but we didn’t attend any of the Olympics.  We did, however, visit Centennial Olympic Park not long after a pipe bomb exploded there.  We witnessed the memorial set up for those who died and were injured during the bombing.  Who could ever forget that interview which was interrupted by the blast that shook the entire surrounding area?  Two people were killed, while one hundred and eleven were injured, and for a while the wrong man was a suspect in the bombing.

The 1996 Olympics~ Centenniel Park Memorial for bombing victims

With today’s technology all Olympic events can be broadcast live, any time of the day or night,  but I’ve found that I enjoyed them better when they were taped and shown during Primetime.  It seemed like the Olympics were more entertaining then, I suppose because there was time to edit and prepare the show.  I’ve always enjoyed the “up close and personal moments” about the athletes through the years.

I don’t watch the Olympics as faithfully as I once did, but I still watch some of them.  As I said, I think the shows used to be more entertaining in the past.  However, I did get caught up in the Michael Phelps frenzy, I couldn’t help myself.  I’d watched as Mark Spitz won those seven gold medals in 1972, and I wanted to see if Michael Phelps could break Mark’s record, which he did.

Linda asked if watching The Olympics  inspired us in a sport.  For me, that would be a “NO”.  However, the Summer Olympics of 1988 inspired our seven-year-old son to learn how to swim!  He watched the swimmers with great interest that year.  He watched everything they did while they swam, then the next time we went on our family vacation, he taught himself to swim!  I was impressed!  Thank you Summer Olympics of 1988!

And thanks to Java and Linda for hosting these Friday bloghops!  They are so much fun 🙂  Have a great weekend everyone. Ooops!  I nearly forgot–no actually I DID forget–

my favorite sister-in-law, doing what she loves...

Wishing a belated birthday greeting to my favorite sister-in-law, Kay!   I’m so sorry that I let your special day slip by me–I must be getting old and forgetful 🙂   I hope you had a wonderful birthday, and I wish you many, many more happy ones!

 

A Believe It Or Not Kind Of Day…

Yesterday was a believe it or not kind of day!  It began early yesterday morning, on the way to my dr’s appointment,  when my daughter turned on my windshield wipers, only to discover there was no blade on the wiper arm!  The entire blade was missing, not just the rubber part!  Upon further investigation, we found the blade down under the hood next to the bottom of  the windshield.  Then we discovered that neither one of us knew how to put the blade back on the arm!  Brandy called her husband at work for directions, but still couldn’t get the blade back on.  We ended up going by the hospital where my hubby works to let my him put the wiper blade back on!  All of this extra activity put us about 20 minutes behind schedule, but we made it to my appointment on time–believe it or not!

Now, I’ve been going to the same Rheumatologist for 17 years.  In all of those 17 years, I have never gotten out of his office in under 2 hours–until yesterday!  Yesterday I was in and out for my appointment in 55 minutes!  Believe it or not!  I don’t know who cloned my doctor and replaced him with an efficient doctor, but thank you very much!  However, here is where my story takes an interesting twist.

My daughter and granddaughter usually accompany me on my doctor trips, and my daughter does most of the driving for me.  As usual, my daughter, Brandy, let me out at the doctor’s office, then took Madison a couple of miles away to play at Chuck E Cheese while I saw the doctor.

Because I was in and out of the doctor’s office so quickly,  the two of  them barely had time to get to Chuck E. Cheese.  I decided I would call Brandy to tell her I was finished, but for the two of them to go ahead and stay at Chuck E. Cheese for a while.  I called and got Brandy’s voice mail, so I left a message.  A few minutes later I called and left another message.  After 40 minutes, I was beginning to panic because Brandy hadn’t called me back…What if something happened to them on the way to Chuck E. Cheese?  I decided I’d try a third time, and if I didn’t get an answer, I was going to call my husband at his job (55 miles away), and tell him to come and get me!  Fortunately for everyone, Brandy answered her phone on my third attempt!  It turned out that she hadn’t received my other calls at all–not even the voice mail messages.  So…even though I finished in the doctor’s office in 55 minutes, I ended up spending  almost 2 hours there anyway!!! 

After getting out of the doctor’s office, Brandy wanted to go to “David’s Bridal” so she could try on a bridesmaid’s dress that she had seen on their website.  Jennifer has left the style (but not the color) of the dresses up to the individual bridesmaids–which may or may not be a good thing because you never know what awful style someone may pick!   Brandy is trying  to become pregnant, so she wanted a dress that is long, but also loose in the front–just in case.  After three dresses, she found the style that most compliments her figure– and it’s loose in the front.  Mission accomplished, except she didn’t order yet–and it’s a good thing.  When we got back home,  Brandy called Jennifer to tell her that she’d found the dress that she likes, and to ask if the style was okay with her.  Jennifer told her that she has changed her mind on her wedding colors, for the second time!

The last part of the day my girls and I cruised the mall and looked at “special occasion” dresses.  I tried on five dresses, and only found one out of the five that was suitable for me.  I bought it.   For the last two weddings of our children, I found dresses that I fell in love with–this dress I am “in like” with.  Do ya’ know what I mean?  I will keep this dress–just in case I don’t find a dress that I am in love with.  Hey, I’m finding out that my choices are very limited! 

Believe it or not,  yesterday my daughter left her glasses at home!  She can see up close, but not so good far off–and she was doing the driving!  Fortunately, she was able to get us there safely.  At the end of the day I offered to drive  home, and she agreed.  First thing,  I nearly missed a stop sign in the mall parking lot, and had to hit the brakes hard–which made something slide and hit the backseat window switch–which made the car window roll down on its own!  It was the craziest thing! 

Fortunately, we made it home without having an accident, despite the fact that my windshield was filthy and the sun was shinning in my eyes the entire trip home, causing me not to be able to see a thing at times…What a ride!  Did I mention that sometimes I make my daughter nervous when I drive?  I’ll bet she will remember thos glasses next time!!!

So, that was our believe it or not kind of day, have you ever had one of those kind of days?

Wednesday Hodgepodge…1/26/11

Chances are, while you are reading this, I will be sitting in my Rheumatologist’s boring office for 2 hours, waiting for him to get around to seeing me. In addition to that, I’ll spend 3 hours in my car going to and from his office. Oh the things some of us must endure! Anyway, I’ll be late in commenting, but I will visit you when I get back!

Joyce has graciously furnished us with seven more thoughtful questions to ponder this week.  Thanks again,  Joyce!  If you’d like to play along, just click on Joyce’s button at the top of this post. 

Now here are Joyce’s questions from “the frozen tundra” This Side Of The Pond:

1. Will you watch the Super Bowl? If so who will you root for? If you are outside the USA what is the ‘big deal sporting event’ in your own country?  I am not a sports fan, never have been, never will be.  That being said, occasionally, our family has a “Super Bowl Party”.  Hey, any excuse for party foods, right?  If I watch the game, it is only to see the commercials–which are the most entertaining part to me.  I don’t even know who is playing–but I know it’s not the Falcons.

2. Is ignorance bliss?  Yes, I believe it is–much of the time.  I’ve learned many things throughout my life that I’d just as soon never known about.  My favorite saying is “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.”

3. Which of the seven dwarfs are you? (and just in case your Disney is a little bit rusty, here they are-Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy)  The first one-half of my life I was “Bashful”, then I morphed into “Grumpy”!  I’m afraid “Grumpy” is here to stay.

4. When you are riding in the car with another couple how do you organize the seating? (Men up front? Women up front? Couples sit together?) And thanks to Lori at Mountain Woman at Heart for the question! Everyone go say hi to Lori.  Most of the time the men ride up front, with the girls in the back…a huge change from “double dating days”. LOL

5. What is beauty?   Wikipedia defines beauty as this:  Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction.  I don’t think I can explain beauty any better than Wikipedia, so I won’t even try!

6. If someone asks you to bring an appetizer or a dessert to a party in their home, which would you choose?  I am a dessert kind of gal!  I like to make them, and I love to eat them, so my answer is dessert!

7. What is your crowd pleasing go-to appetizer?  At our house we don’t do appetizers.  We just skip those and go straight for the main course.  Yep, the main course, then dessert–that’s us, so I don’t have a crowd pleasing appetizer.

My random thought:  What is this world coming to? I thought I’d heard it all until last week when I learned about the indicted abortionist named Kermit Gosnell. (I can’t bring myself to put Dr. in front of his name)  He’s been indicted for murder for performing “late-term” abortions on women, then killing the babies with scissors after they were born!  He then chose to keep the feet of some of his tiny victims in jars!  Below is a news clip about the story.

Post It Note Tuesday and Random Tuesday Thoughts…January 25

 

If you are interested in linking up with either of these random bloghops, just click on the buttons at the top of this post.  Thanks to both That One Mom, and The UnMom for hosting these fun hops!

Now for the rest of my “Random Tuesday Thoughts”. 

 The sun has gone, the rain is back.  Yuk!  Since it’s gloomy, I’ve gained a couple of pounds, and I need a laugh or two, let me begin by sharing this bit of knowledge with you that my friend, Cindy, sent me.  It’s a photo entitled “The Four Stages of Life”!  I’d say that about sums it up for most people!

"The Four Stages of Life"

My husband has begun to ride bikes with me in the afternoons.  He found an old bicycle in our “discard pile”, pumped up the tires, and they actually held air!  That bike had been in the back yard, discarded in a pile of jumk, since our daughter’s teen years–and she’s 32 now!  That’s my “Thrifty Ed”!  He bought a couple of new tubes for the tires, but so far he hasn’t needed them.  Who knew?  I think my hubby was secretly afraid that I’d get healthier than him!  He’s also cutting down on carbs and sugar 🙂

I have a new “healthcare” nightmare story to share.  On Thursday, I came home to find a message from my Rheumatologist on the answering machine.  When I called the office back, I got their answering service.  It was 4 pm, and the office was closed. (Yeah, right!  They just stop answering the phone at 4pm–they are in the office until at least 6pm)  The answering service advised me that the dr’s office was closed on Friday’s, so I would need to call back on Monday at 9am.

On Monday at 9:15am I called the dr’s office again, and got Voice Mail!  It said to me “If this is an emergency, call 911.”  Are you kidding me???  The message went on to say that the office was “overwhelmed” with phone calls, please call again later.  On my third attempt, an hour or so later, I finally reached the receptionist–who had no idea why I was called on Thursday!  Three long distance phone calls, and I never did find out why they left a message for me to call!

The second part of my “healthcare nightmare” involves a change in insurance carriers.  My husband’s place of employment keeps changing carriers–three within a year’s time.  Each time the coverage gets worse.  The saddest part of the whole thing is, hubby works for a hospital–and they should know how vital good healthcare coverage is! 

The latest plan will not cover any visits to a “specialist” unless we meet the $3200 deductible first!  Ouch!  It looks like I may be switching back from my Rheumatologist to my primary care physician.  I simply can’t afford the visits with no help from the insurance!  It’s usually a $50 co-pay for a $300 office visit–and that’s not counting the $50 yearly retainer fee that this doctor charges his patients!  Oh, don’t even get me started on that one!

I’m going to close this random post with a funny YouTube video that I found on friend Eva’s post yesterday.  I laughed so hard when I watched it!  It’s a bit slow getting started (just like old folks) but once it gets going, it’s hilarious!  To all of my “Over 40 Bloggers”, this may be us one of these days–in a nursing home retirement show!   Enjoy…

Meet Me On Monday…

Happy Monday everyone! It’s time for Java’s “Meet Me On Monday”. It’s time to learn a little more about each other. Here are this week’s five questions:

1. What is your favorite kind of fudge? I love chocolate fudge with pecans or walnuts–especially the fudge from the Hansel and Gretel Candy Kitchen in Helen, Georgia! My mouth is watering just thinking about it!2. Is there snow outside your window?  No, I live in southeastern Georgia, and we rarely see any snow. In fact, we rarely see temperatures below freezing.  It would be great to see some snow occasionally!

3. What is your favorite meal of the day? My favorite meal of the day is dinner, or what we here in the south call “supper”.
 

4. Do you text on your cell phone? No, I don’t care anything about texting, and haven’t even learned how to do it.  I guess I’m old…LOL
5. Waffles or pancakes?  I eat pancakes more often because I didn’t have a waffle iron (until recently), but I prefer waffles!  I think I’ll have to try out the waffle grill on the new George Forman soon!

I don’t know about you, but the weekends are just too darn short!  One minute it’s Friday, you blink, and then it’s Monday again!  Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you have a great week!  I’m  joining in some other blog hops today, as well.  “I Love My Online Friends” is a brand new bloghop started by Marie.  Today is the first day she’s hosted her own hop!  Just click on her button, and stop by and show her some “bloglove” if you can!  I love meeting new blog friends, don’t you?

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You Might Be From a Small Town If…

A friend of mine recently sent me this email.  It was so funny and so true, I just had to share it with you.  If you are from a small town, you’ll understand.  If not, you’ll get a glimpse into “Small Town, USA”.  Here are my favorite points.

You might be from a small town if…

*You can name everyone you graduated with.

*You know what 4H is.

*You ever went to parties at a pasture, in a barn, or in the middle of a dirt road.

*You used to cruise the “main drag” on weekends. (our main drag is a section of highway 301)

*You schedule parties around the schedules of different police officers–because you know which ones would bust you and which ones wouldn’t.

*You ever went cow tipping or snipe hunting.

*You could never buy cigarettes because all of the store clerks knew how old you were.

*It was cool to date someone from a neighboring town. (I’m guilty of this.)

*You had senior skip day.

*The whole school went to the same party after graduation.  (pretty much)

*You can’t help but date a friend’s ex girlfriend/boyfriend.  (my girlfriends dated my hubby before I did)

*Your car stays filthy from the dirt roads–and you will never own a dark vehicle for this reason! (true, but I had a temporary lapse in judgement!)

*The town next to yours is considered “trashy” or “snooty”, but it’s actually just like your own. (so true, so true)

*You refer to anyone who owns a house newer than 1980 as “the rich people”. (Ha Ha)

*The people in the city dress funny, then you pick up on the trend two years later. (that’s our town–two years behind on everything!)

*You bragged to your friends because you got pipes on your truck for your birthday.

*Anyone you want can be found at either the Dairy Queen or the feed store.  (or in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot!)

*Directions are given using “the stop light” as a reference. (but actually we have two stop lights!)

*Your letter jacket was worn after your 19th birthday.

*Weekend excitement involves a trip to Wal-mart.  (Yeah, man!)

*Even the ugly people enter beauty pageants. (and win!)

*You decide to walk somewhere for exercise, and five people  pull over and ask if you need a ride.

*Your teachers call you by your older sibling’s names.

*Your teachers remember when they taught your parents.  (been there, done that!)

*You can charge at all the local stores. (this was true when I was young)

*The closest mall is at least an hour away. (small mall, 45 minutes/large mall, 60 minutes)

*You laugh your head off while reading this, because you know it’s all true!

Thanks, Cindy, for this very accurate description of life in “our town”.  LOL

Six Word Saturday…January 22

Thanks to Cate for hosting this fun meme, requiring us to describe our lives or “something” using only six words.

My six words for today are:    Bridesmaids have gone to find dresses!

I don’t know how many bridesmaids were able to go, but the plan for the day is to meet in Savannah at David’s Bridal to try on bridesmaid’s dresses.  I hope everyone has a fun time, and I hope they have better luck finding a dress than I’ve had (so far).  I believe the bride’s colors of choice are black and watermelon.  I can’t wait to hear how the day goes! 

Did I mention that everyone in our family is in the wedding party except me?  I get to sit all alone on the family pew–unless my mother-in-law is able to attend.  Sniff, sniff…