This and That

I don't really have one cohestive blog post right now but I do have several things running through my twisted lil brain so I figured I'd just toss em all together! First, true to our New Year's vow to improve ourselves including spiritually and socially we've been visiting a new UU church for the past few Sundays. It's a nice place, friendly people, and I'd really been looking forward to their Morals and Ethics discussion group. We made it to yesterday's but I have to admit I was a bit stunned at the direction the chat went. We were presented with a story of an 80 yr old woman and man, both widowed with children, who got married then after one year the man needed to be admitted to a nursing home. The woman went into the marriage with a good bit of money while the man had none. Medicaid would only pay for his expenses if they had used up all their own money first so the question was should they get divorced. The general opinion of the group was she should divorce him to protect her money! Wow. That bothers me.

Training is going so nicely with the horses and dogs!!

Since Son #3 is still grounded he doesn't have a whole heck of a lot to do except sit in his room and read. On the one hand he's got a book that he's enjoying (it's about a dragon which he's just mad about!!!) and getting some great reading practice in. On the other hand he's feeling a bit shut away from the rest of the family which we don't want. Today I wanted to keep up his grounding, of course, but still get the poor kid out and with us some so since it was such a pretty day he came out to help us with outdoor work. Then he tells his dad that he needs more lunch money. His dad did a little calculating and said the kid should still have a good bit in his lunch account. So Son #3 comes clean. Along with buying lunch he's also been buying up a load of extras like ice creams, chocolate milks, and whatever other junk food they offer. This isn't the first time he's done this and we've told him that he's not allowed to do this! If he wants something extra every now and then that's fine but he needs to ask us for the bit of extra money that will cost before he buys it so that we can keep track of what we're spending where. What is with this kid and the lying, sneaking around kind of stuff???

And for the best surprise of my day today Lauren from
The Lauren Daily Experiment has gifted me with an award!!





That's a really cute one too. It reminds me to keep on learnin to make lemonade with those lemons! lol Thank you so much, Lauren! And now for the award rules:

*Put Lemonade Stand logo on your blog or within your post.
*Nominate 10 blogs you really enjoy
*Link the nominees within your post
*Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog
*Link to the person from whom you received this award

Which I'm off to do right now so adios, amigos!! Vaya con Dios! Hasta la pasta and all that groovy jazz!

Look at me, Mom!

An award? Me? Wow, I'm really, truly at a loss for words right now! A few folks now have said in their comments that they like my writing and I'm touched, flattered really. My mom was an English teacher at a Catholic private school when she was young. She did her best to instill my siblings and I with a love for reading and how important it was to speak properly. The love for reading certainly took root in me! We've lived in our present home now over a year and I still have books boxed up (despite my husband putting floor to ceiling built in bookshelves on one entire wall of our hallway and six other stand alone bookshelves) because I haven't decided how to make room for them all yet! I have an incredibly hard time letting go of them and heaven help the one I catch abusing or endangering one of my books! In school English and Literature type classes came very easily to me and in my high school and college years I found that this gift for language extended to foreign tongues as well.

To tell the truth, though, I don't consider myself that great a writer. I tend to put writing into different categories in my own mind. Quick notes can just be little more than nonsense scribbles as long as whoever it's for understands it. A personal journal that's really written for my eyes alone is a step above a quick note meaning I pay a bit more attention to the quality of writing simply because I want to be able to really remember the experiences when I go back and read them even years from now. This blog I'd place a bit above the personal journal because my aim is not only to write for myself but to share these thoughts, feelings, and events with others. You have to be a little bit more clear and concise if that's your goal but I'm still not as careful to be as grammatically correct as I would be writing a college thesis, for example. This is my style and I'm happy to know that there are people here who enjoy it.

Apparently this award comes with rules and I don't know if I'll have time to complete them all today but fear not for I have a plan! For heaven 's sake stop all that silly rushing about diving for cover!!! You all have got to stop listening to my husband!! Ok settle down now... THE PLAN is I will give the list of rules below now then come back and edit them each to completion until all the rules have been adhere...until to the rules I've adherr...(see there's that grammar thing again)...until they're complete! Here we go!

• Thank the person that gave you this award - That would be the lovely lady who writes her own wonderful blog, Dreamfarm Girl. From the very bottom of my heart, thank you! This really does mean a lot to me.


• Copy the award - Uh oh. I'm only on number two and I'm already stumped! It's ok, breathe slowly, you've figured out tougher things than this...


• Post it on your blog - ...don't freak out!! Yes, I KNOW if you're stuck on number two there's no WAY you can complete number three but running in circles screaming scaring the animals is NOT going to get it done!!!

Edited to add: I'm so sorry, dear ones, but so far I've failed to comprehend how on earth to get this award posted to my page properly *sob* and I'm running out of time before company arrives! Hopefully this will do until I catch on:

• Tell your readers 7 things they don't know about you - Doesn't it count that I've been doing that all along??? No. Well ok...

1. I'm a scuba diver.


2. I'm a gamer geek.


3. Despite my love for animals I also love hunting, fishing, and raising my own animals for meat.


4. My totems are Black Jaguar and Horse.


5. I'm a complete chocoholic.


6. I'd love to show off my bellydancing skills to others but I'm just too darn shy and self conscious.


7. I can't smell.

• Give the award to 7 bloggers - Ok! I'll get to that right after I finish this.

Edited to add: The seven fabulous blogs I've chosen to forward this award on to are:

1. Pagan Culture


2. I do things so you won't have to


3. From the Inside...Out.


4. Carnelian Chronicles


5. Breeze Daze


6. Carrotspeak


7. Excerpts from the Life and Mind of Kristin...

Some of these I'm already a follower of because I like what they have to say, I like the way they say it, and honestly I like what I know about them so far. Being so new to the blogworld left me a little short on who to give this award to so I shamelessly ransacked the lists of the other bloggers I already knew I liked. I looked at quite a few that were wonderful blogs that just didn't "turn ME on," if you know what I mean but I'm very pleased to have found a few real gems. So thanks for leading me to some great new blogs to read too!

• Tell the bloggers on their blog - And this will naturally have to wait until I complete the last step.

I went, I saw, I duly notified all seven!

• Keep being awesome - Who me? I feel a bit awkward about that since I don't know that I'm all that awesome but I can promise that I'm constantly reaching for better in everything I do!

I kinda think Mom would be proud right now.