Ho Ho Ho !!!! ....sorry

I just have to say that I LOOOOOVE Christmas SO MUCH!!! I love everything about it. I like to sing Christmas songs pretty much anytime of day and loud and sometimes I don't know the words. Hate me now?? Yeah, I know some people aren't as thrilled about Christmas. And I must say, I've had those years where work and life made it nearly impossible to give a crap about Christmas. I even had a year when....wait for it.....I DIDN'T DECORATE AT ALL!! I know!  Yeah, well this year our wonderful Grandson is here and it makes every single good thing about Christmas even better!
Last night we (my son,hubby and grandson) decorated our tree. It was a really good time and I'm SO grateful for every minute of it. If you'd asked me 2 years ago if I thought we'd be here now I would've said hell no. I was not the person I am today, nor was life the way it is now. This should give me hope for the future. When I think life is stagnant and blah, I can pause and remember that in a day, week, year, 2 years it could be SO completely different and most likely MUCH better. So I think this Christmas is a reminder to me to have HOPE. I've been worried, afraid for and sad about how my son's life was before this year and now I feel hopeful and happy for him and his sweet son.

I'm reminded of Garrison Keillor's quote on one of his shows  "Thank you God for this wonderful life and forgive us if we do not love it enough".

All the energy of a pile of old Silly Putty

That lamp was supposed to be moved out of the living room....3 WEEKS AGO. I don't even SEE it anymore.

So today I decided it would be a great day/evening to DO SHIT. And I REALLY need to get some stuff cleared out of the house so I can take down 'Fall' and put UP 'Christmas'. More give aways and more
throw- aways, recycles and things where they don't belong (assuming I have a place for them)etc, etc. And the little messes and things out of place make me CRAZY. As if I can be "made" crazy, but you know what I mean.

So I was watching Camron and he and I took a little trip to the Starbucks and drank some energy. Well he had a no-coffee vanilla blended and I had a big blended carmel mocha with 2 extra shots. Woo Hoo I'll be rocking the household chores and organizing!!!

So, later, back at the house and I haven't done a damn thing except eat my Son's left over Taco Bell food which only gave me heart burn and a food baby belly. burp. But it's ok cause I'm getting used to seeing all the little messes now. It's like a new decorating style. Maybe I can start a business. "how to make stacks of shit around your house blend in as if they are small classy end tables from Pottery Barn."

I'll be RICH!

ugh

45 Days until Christmas, since you asked

I found a Christmas Countdown site. For some totally SICK reason I really love checking it. And 2nd to that is my love of posting it to Facebook to taunt my Sister and anyone else who hasn't blocked my posts.

Anyway, so 45 days gives me lots of time to panic,bake,plan,panic,wonder,panic. I'm going to do my best to really FEEL Christmas this year. Having our Grandson here will make that SO easy. He's a Christmas age (3) and it'll be all about the Shelf Elf and Santa Claus etc etc. Thanksgiving is on the 24th of November this year so we'll have lots of time to do little Christmas things here and there. Bring it on! I hope you are equally excited. Let's shove that panic down and sing Joy to the World!!!! ok, maybe not

Life IS What You Make It

Tonight I made my Grandson a little fort. He was thrilled and kept saying "can't find me Nana". What a fun kid he is. I got inside and then I got out and pretended I didn't know where he was. He loved that best.

I remember being about 7 or so and making forts with my brother Ted. It was one of the few things we did besides Hot Wheels on the track in the long hallway, where we didn't argue. We loved forts. Sometimes we'd get in trouble for taking ALL the chairs out of the dining room and my Mom would demand 2 or 3 be put back. Mom's ruin everything. Harrr.

So, if you have a little one around, consider making a fort. I would say it's MOST fun when you do it on a rainy day. There's something about rain that makes forts in the living room even more wonderful. All you really need are a couple chairs or couch and chair, a sheet or blanket or even couch cushions and your imagination. Oh,  and try really hard not to think about the fort the kid made in the movie Sixth Sense. 

Life is what you make it, so get on the floor and play now and then. Borrow a kid if you don't have one handy (ha) and sit down on the floor and roll a ball or draw or build a fort. Just make sure if you're over 50 like me to have someone handy to help you back up again. No, I'm not kidding. 

Camron the Happy Fort dude. :]

I sleep, He works

We had rain all night. My poor husband was working and it was a loooong night for him. He is a CHP Sgt. and they had some major flooding and a 5 car accident along the 101 near La Conchita in a flooded construction zone. The freaking Bermuda Triangle of Ventura County when it's raining hard. So he earned some overtime, but he was wiped out.
Took this photo the other day of our cat doing what he does most, and best. He has a difficult life.
Hope you're all having an awesome weekend.

He was a dinosaur, I was a weepy Nana

This year we are blessed to have our Grandson Camron and his Dad, our son Donald living with us so Holidays mean something better and different than before. It's been over 20 years since I've lived with a little one and like my husband always says "If I was going to have a child live here, it would be him". I know I'm biased but he is truly a joy and very well behaved for a 3.2 year old. Tomorrow it will be 11 months since Camron first arrived here. We love him to the moon and back. He has brought us so much joy.

B had to work on Halloween *night shift, so "papa" got to take Camron to the door of his first few houses on Halloween. Then Don and I walked him to the houses after that. Well, I let Don walk him to the doors. I really enjoyed standing back and watching them. Don is a wonderful "Dada" and Camron adores him.

There is nothing more rewarding for me than to see that my son is a such a caring and loving Daddy.  It is such a warm and fuzzy feeling to watch him with his Son. sniff sniff, I'm really proud. What a blessing it is to be able to have this time with them both. sigh.....


Awesome blogginess:
http://thepapermama.blogspot.com/

Does This Potato Bug Make Me Look Crazy

So the other day I was trying to get an evil potato bug out from under a container that I'd trapped it in until I could feed it to the chickens the next day. It somehow became bionic and held onto the container, so I shook it. So, of course it landed on my sandal, so I jumped around and kicked and did a GET-OFF-ME dance (you KNOW you've done don't judge me). Then, FINALLY got him back in the container, stood up and say homeless guy had stopped to watch me. I said "bug".I'm sure he was thinking -crazy-.

Pits, Pendulums and Grocery Shopping

There's a creeping close talking Von's courtesy clerk (aka bagger) named Eric. He works the late shift (my f'ing luck) so, of course since we are night shoppers due to B working nights I get to see WAY too much of Eric. And since I'm a creeper magnet, he's around every single aisle in the f'ing store that I'm on. Even when B is there with me, I manage to drift away from B often enough for creeper man to find me and ask me if I'm "Finding everything ok". Perfectly innocent to the untrained eye.

So the last Eric Event occurred in the soup aisle. I was standing there staring at something and he came down the aisle making a beeline for me. Seriously, he had NO other business in the aisle. So, THIS time I was ready for him and I turned sideways and gave what any NORMAL person would perceive as the Leave Me Alone body language. So what does Eric do? Well, of course he heads right up to me and at the 'just before I would hit him' distance he stops and says "finding everything ok?" to which I say NOTHING and turning around away from him. So any NORMAL person would walk on right? RIGHT? I KNOW! But noooooo this asshole stays there and says "excuse me! are you finding everything ok?" louder!!!! I turned and avoiding eye contact said "yeah" in a SUPER pissed off way. So, FINALLY he walks away and I'm left wondering where the hell my husband is and HOW this asshole always seems to be able to find me when B has walked away or I've walked away from B. 

So when going to a big chain grocery store, I go to Ralphs. Yeah, I still go to Trader Joe's upon occasion and our neighborhood store when I need to, but for big grocery store shopping I now avoid Vons at all cost. I could go to the other Vons stores of which there are about 4 in this area, but with my creeper magnet disorder it would be Eric's day to fill in for someone and I'd be even worse off being caught off guard. 

B always says I should complain to the Mgr, but I haven't done it yet. I don't know why. . . well yes, that's bullshit, I DO know why. It's the same reason I didn't tell my Girl Scout Leader when some pervert pressed up against me at the Griffith Park Observatory Pit and Pendulum during a field trip. He pinned me against the low wall with his perverted erection that I thought MUST be an umbrella at the time while a big crowd of us were looking down into the pit. I can still remember the hot tummy feeling I got. I was afraid to be mean, or maybe accused of misinterpreting what was occurring. At the time I was questioning what had actually happened and I thought I wouldn't be able to SAY the words to describe it.

I didn't know I was a victim, I was afraid someone would question how I knew what it was he was doing. 

So the lesson here is to allow myself to act on what I know is not ok. So, I can't really blame Pervy Perverson completely when I'm not taking action. I am pretty sure that next time, if there is a next time, I will be brave enough to say something to him AND the Mgr. 

Wish me luck! 

Stranger Pee

So our neighbors across the street, whom we not so lovingly call The Hooligans, had a huge party last night. Lots of yelling and screaming and in and out of cars alllllll night. That was not fun when trying to sleep.

Then when B came home from work this morning and announced that he can always see where The Hooligan's friends pee on our front fence and plants after a party. I was completely grossed out. I thought of all the times I've been watering out there and the grass or a branch from a bush would touch my leg. EWWWWW Stranger Peeee touched me!!!!!!! Like a freakin' horror movie. (shaking off goose bumps)

So the minute I got up, I went out front and shot the hose all over the pee spot essentially rinsing the area where the pee line went from the bush down to the street. We don't have a sidewalk, it's a country area so your front strip just slopes down to the asphalt.

So starting my Sunday off weirdly by hosing Stranger Pee as if I'm trying to help it grow.

Blessings

Today is gloooomy outside and fairly cold. But thanks to my Grandson Camron, it's pretty warm and fuzzy inside. Feeling grateful for all the little things he says and does that make our days such joyful occasions. 

Where the hell are they laying their eggs?!

Well, for a first post I hate to be bitching, but oh well. Our 20 something hens pretty much are spending Fall the same way they spent most of Summer. Not laying eggs in the nesting boxes. 

Nothing has changed. It' the same damn wooden, shavings-filled nesting boxes they've always had, in the same damn location. Yet, suddenly they are either NOT laying, or they are laying in a mystery location. 

The thing about mystery locations is that when we finally find the nest in a bush or old pile of wood etc, it's full of eggs we can't use!! I mean, we COULD maybe try to guess that the cleaner eggs are fresher, but it's not exactly a science.

So today I was about to make coffee cake and had to turn the oven off. For the first time in years we have NO eggs. So my husband (we'll call him B, I hear that's how bloggers refer to their spouses) Bruce went to the nesting boxes and found ONE egg today. 

In protest, I'm not going to use it today. 

So there. 

Yes, I know they won't notice.

And it's such pretty Fall weather out. So breezy and crispy cool...clear skies and the trees even sound different at this time of year because some of them are changing color and/or loosing leaves.

 But noooooo, no baking. dammit