Max

Some people have dogs and some have cats - I have birds. I have 2 finches, and a Sun Conure Named Skittles. I had a Cockatiel named Max. Max was my baby. I purchased him when he was a baby. He was hand reared and loved me like I hatched him myself. He liked kisses on his little head, and a scratch whenever I passed him. If I wasn't near him when he felt the need to be loved, he'd call to me or fly to my shoulder. Max was never confined to his cage, he sat on top - he had the free run. He hated to be locked up. Maybe being locked up would have Max here with me tonight. When the men came from Rooms To Go to deliver our new mattress and Recliner, Max got scared and flew right out the door. I wasn't home.... but my hubby called me to let me know. I was a wreck. People may think it is silly - but he was my pet and I love him. It breaks my heart to know he is out there w/ out me. I do hold hope that he may return but I am still so sad. It is so cold outside and Max has never had a hard day in his life. I pray god will watch over my little love, and keep him safe and warm tonight and I hope he knows I love him. = (

Questions.......

I spend hours reading people's blogs. I think of it kinda like a book, in a way, like a little soap opera.

Does ANYBODY read mine?

Am I THAT boring?

Below is a picture of me and my baby Andrew, on his 7th Birthday. 12-13-08

The Christmas Cactus

I love the holidays. One of the many things the holidays bring, is my Christmas Cactus. One of the 2 that I have, was "rescued" from Home depot years ago after Christmas. Marked more than 50% off... it sat sadly amongst other various dying plants. If you read a previous blog, I am a sad soul when it comes to plants wilting.... lonely in a store. I plucked it out and added it to my collection. Once full of blooms it never bloomed again, until last year. 2 beautiful blooms, shortly after my Grandfather passed away. I felt those 2 blooms were for my grandfather and my dear friend Luann, who passed away from Lung Cancer. Now here it is 2008 and again, I have almost 2 full blooms and a few more sprouting. I also added another plant last year (off wal-mart's 50% plants)and it is happy as ever and in full bloom. I am adding photos of these beautiful miracles. God created such a beautiful plant... w/ amazing blooms. Enjoy.



My first Cactus.



My second Cactus. = )

Boring.....

First let me start out my blog by whining..... I see all these people with blogs that have a gazillion followers... then you have mine. Zero.... zilch... not one. Don't get me wrong... my mom reads it and she counts 100% (but I have it set up to email her when I post a new one so it's almost like cheating.)... but I guess I was hoping somebody else might like a small window view into my boring (somewhat humerous) life. I don't go on a lot of trips... and I don't belong to any clubs. I go to a small Methodist church down the road from me. I don't have college degree job.... I am simply me. I love helping other people. I Can walk though a store and see a wilting plant and genuinely feel "sorry" for it (like it has feelings). This kinda reminds me of my whole elementary, middle and high school career. I was the girl who was just "there". And now.... years later... here I am. I know I know, I am whining and having a small pity party for myself. Shame on me. Sometimes I wish my life was as simple and carefree as Andrew's. All he worries about it when he can play his games.... how many cookies he can have... and how long am I going to stay in Kohls and "torture" him. You know, stuff like that. Oh so innocent. As I sit here being pitiful. I am reminded how thankful I am for many things. And for the friends I know who are hurting and mourning right now, I say a prayer.

On a lighter note....Andrew brightens my day no matter what. He watched in horror as I sped past our exit to go home. He then realized that Kohls was in sight and proceeded to tell me how much he "HATES THIS PLACE". Upon entering the establishment, he asks me to get a stroller. Silly me for thinking he wanted to sit in the actual SEAT. No sir... I turned my back to find him in the portion of the cart where you can put all the goodies you plan to buy. Might I add he fit in there perfect. But then I look like a bafoon walking a stroller minus the kid. While looking at candles I thought he was going to give a poor woman a heart attack when his hand popped out of the buggy bag. Not many people expect an arm to come flying out of the back of a Kohl's stroller. where he then proceeds to tell the woman, "My mommy makes me sit back here". I was mortified..... She did laugh though and said, "I have grandchildren... I understand". Never a dull moment. Sometimes I think people get pleasure out of watching a woman trying to wrangle an antsy 6 year old. Especially when I entered the Bra and Panty section to which Andrew sighed heavily and stated... "Don't you have ENOUGH of these things mommy??". Now the boredom is at an all time high..... so, making small talk, he asked me if I needed new socks for my "date with daddy friday". If he only knew..... I need one of those spanx thingies... a Nice Bra, and maybe some cutsie christmas panties. I'll save that for another day, when I am ALONE. I can see him explaining to the cashier that all that stuff is for my date friday. All the while I am reminded of the stories my mom tells me of how I would vanish in department stores, only to be found moments later in the middle of a clothing rack swinging from the poles holding clothes. Paybacks baby.....

I was just informed that I never feed Andrew so I better go. Never mind that I stopped and got him a happy meal and his favorite sweet tea.

The accident.... and Andrew's concerns....

Today my mom was involved in a slight fender bender. An elderly woman slammed into the back of her as she headed to Wellstar to meet me for lunch. She called me upset... and I flew as fast as I could to mak sure she was okay. Shook up and soon to be very sore..... she is okay. Upon picking Andrew up from school, I mentioned the accident to him. The response? "Is she dead?". NO... I replied. So then we have to make the call, to make sure Nanoo is okay. From the back seat, this is what I hear:

"Hi Nanooooo... are you okay? But you are okay? What car hit you? What kind? White? Okay.... Lincoln? Okay..... So Nanoo, when I get home, I am gonna play my game and IT'S ON! " Concern noted.... game over. He did make her laugh though and that is what I wanted.

Our little man...

= )

Lights......

Don't you hate it when you are sitting on your couch.... gazing at your Christmas tree, and you think, "Something is off...". Sure enough I have a string of lights out. What the Heck? Well me and my OCD couldn't let it go. I go out in the cold
(32 degrees) to dig through 5 large plastic tubs, for extra lights. Lucky for me I hit the jackpot w/ the first one I dove into. It's fun tring to take a strand of lights off a tree w/ ornaments and beaded garland already hung.... and an extremely grumpy husband parked on the sofa. I managed to pull my sad little lights off my tree... and put the new ones back on. It make not be 100% perfect, but it looks beautiful to me. = )

My house may not be big. I may not have furniture and tables and picures that all match. But I am happy and that is all that counts.

Merry Christmas !

Death Is Nothing

The following is a poem read at Jackie's memorial last night. I thought it was beautiful and wanted to post it in memory of my dear friend Luann Rhodes, Jackie Adams and my Grandfather O'Brien.

****************************************************




Death is nothing at all
I have only slipped away into the next room
I am I and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other
That we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes
We enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me, pray for me,
Let my name be ever the household word that
It always was.

Let it be spoken without effort,
Without the trace of a shadow on it.
Life means all that it ever meant
It is the same as it ever was
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.

Why should I be out of mind because I am
Out of sight? I am but waiting for you
For an interval
Somewhere very near
Just around the corner .
All is well.

Canon Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918)

Just Call me Rachael Ray.......

Anybody who knows me.... knows I am no gourmet chef. I can cook, don't get me wrong, but I am not known for my fabulous pork loins, meatloaf, blue ribbon fried chicken or a famous dessert. I can bake cookies, and follow directions from a box. I can add water and milk as needed, and add a bag of noodles to finish the meal off. But when it comes to cooking from a cook book or just coming up w/ grande idea for a good meal, count me out. My mother can cook like a champ. God love her, she cam make a meal from anything and make it taste like it was cooked all day. I can't tell you how many times I have wrangled her up to my house on a week night for "dinner", knowing full well I have no clue what I am having. She comes in and grabs things and whips up a meal in 30 minutes. I know my husband loved those days... he always got something good and hot... full of flavor and not from a box. The one thing I can make well is stew. Throw it in a crock pot w/ some veggies and cook it all day. But I apparently did that TOO much because after a while, if I asked my mom to come up, and tell her I had a meal cooked... she'd say "We must be having beef stew huh?!". So.... needless to say, I have not cooked beef stew in a while. Well, tonight was no different. I come home, and I am tired. Doug likes cube steak so I figured I could make them. I went the extra mile tonight, I breaded them with flour and bread crumbs, and even used eggs to make it stick.... I was on a roll. Then I had this great idea to BAKE them ?? (here folks is where I went wrong).
I was multitasking you see.... I figured I'd bake the steaks and in the mean time, do christmas cards. The christmas cards are done... I go to check my fabulous meal and.... well.... they are cooking but... hello! Breading is just drying... flour and bread crumbs. All I can think is... why? Why did I do that?

Funny story..... Brings me back to when Doug and I were just married and I took shake and BAKE... and decided I could fry it up in a pan. I believe the response I got was, "what's this now?" I also baked him a birthday cake once and greased the sides of the pan w/ shortening... Waaaay too much. The cake tasted horrid and made Doug sick. Needless to say, I have yet to make another cake, I strictly make cup cakes only. Slap them in a little paper cup, no shortening or flour and bingo-bango... cup cakes.

Back to my gourmet meal of the evening. I called my mom and had her save the day (I also told her she could laugh at me too). She did manage to save my meal.... and made me laugh in the mean time. I have to laugh at me.... and you all can too.

Why do my mom's eggs always taste better? Her pancakes are always fluffier, and even her macaroni and cheese is better. Am I adopted? My aunt Cheryl can bake in her sleep.... she can cut hair, make a coffee cake and take a bath all at the same time. And everything comes out perfect (this on top of working full time too). My mom gets joy in baking cookies.... and sending them all over the US. She even made cookies for her mail-man. That's what I call devotion.

Maybe some day I can sit down and finally plan a great meal - until then... I'll stick to my boxed stuff and things I already KNOW I can make (safely). On a side note.... my dog Tobi greatly enjoyed my little cube steaks tonight. She got a taste and seemed pleased. = )

The Yak....

I love when Andrew started to learn to read. He's in one of the higher reading levels at school. I am nothing short of proud! He's learned to read things by sounding the words out, or he shoots right for the phonetic sounding of it.... Hence my story. Andrew comes bounding into my bedroom saturday night bubbling over w/ excitement. He plays his video games and occasionally let's me know what new level he has achieved. Tonight.... he found a big "Yak". In a game filled with cars and trucks, motorcycles and whatever else, I was surprised to hear of a Yak. But I went along with it. I asked him what color the "yak" was. "Brown mommy, with silver". Okay sounds good enough... So I ask some more... "Where is the Yak?", "On the Beach mommy! Where should it be?". He was getting mad now.... obviously agitated because I was interrupting his video game highlights. Now I am thinking and I ask him if he rode the yak. He said, "Mommy.... the Yak must not have a motor because I tried to drive the Yak and it just sat there...". I asked him to tell me how he knew, the YAK, was indeed a "Yak". "Mommy.... it's spelled right on the side." So he runs into his room and begins to read to me, the letters on the YAK.... "Mommy... are you listening? Y-A-C-H-T". YAK.... you see the "H" and the "T" appear to be silent.... I tried not to explode with laughter. It was too cute to me and so funny. AND.... being the 6 year old he is.... was adament it was still pronounced "Yak". Which reminds me of the time he was watching something and hears the word "Nipples", but is certain he heard "niffles". I'll have to watch out at Wal Mart to see if they sell baby bottle niffles. Kids are so funny and mine is no exception. He has a wonderful sense of humor and can be quite the smart ass like his mother. = )

If I ever win the lottery.... I am going to buy a Yacht and surely name it "The Yak".

Watson comes to visit us once again.....

I recently read a blog about a Christmas elf. We too have a Christmas elf, his name is Watson. Watson also brought his personal reindeer "Randy" with him. Watson comes once a year on Thanksgiving day to spread fun and mischief through out our home. I often find myself scrambling to place Watson in silly places when Andrew is not paying attention. I have to say I have been busy. I like the challenge... my husband thinks he's too old (Andrew is 6, soon to be 7). I like to take things day by day... when Andrew is too big, I'll stop. Right now, seeing his face light up when he notices Watson's absence... and his giggles looking for him, makes me glow inside. I treasure every day w/ him and hold tight to little memories. Andrew is my only child, and my last child (I am unable to have more), so every little moment is one that I cherish. I have to thank a former boss of mine, Terri E., for the elf idea. It has been such a joy to me and Andrew both.... and I have to admit, my husband every so often... does crack up watching me run all over trying to find new and wondrous places to put him. So, let me introduce you to Watson and Randy. = )





I am thankful for him and every moment that I have with him. I am thankful for my family and our home.

1 Year ago.....

A year ago tomorrow - November 21st, I lost my dear Grandpa O'Brien. I cannot believe it has been a year since he has passed. I think about him daily and miss him dearly. I remember when I was little and he'd come poke me with what we grandkids called, "The iron finger". He'd walk up and jab us in the ribs and make a loud "Bzzzzzssst" noise when he did it. It never really tickled.... it was the jolt that got us most and sent us into giggles. I remember he always had a pretty flower garden, a freshly mowed lawn, and a never ending supply of prune juice in the fridge. I loved that stuff.... I always wanted it, not clearly understanding the outcome of the juice.... I remember Christmas's' at his house. It was where we gathered every year as a family. Sitting at the same big table w/ all my aunts and uncles and cousins. He had all sorts of neat clocks amazed me as to how they worked (I don't know where he got them but they released a marble every half hour.... and... well it was just too cool to me!). He had an old timey car that had a "rumble seat" in the back. We rode in parades in it. He drove that car everywhere. My grandfather was a very tall man, well over 6 feet. He looked like a giant in that car. = ) My grandmother died when I was a baby and my grandpa never remarried. He kept up his house.... worked on his computer and visited all his kids. He was always busy and always up to something. He seemed so vibrant on his 85th birthday. I went to Buffalo NY to see him and he got to meet his great grandson, Kevin Andrew (he was 6 months old then). My grandpa died in his sleep of old age. He was peaceful and he didn't suffer. I'll miss him always. I know he's in a better place. I love you grandpa O'Brien. = )

Getting Started......

I am new to this Blog... so I am going to try my best to figure it out... I may need a little help though. I sat here last night for almost 2 hours looking at other people and their pages. I was truely inspired.... now I have to figure out how to make mine look pretty. I am normally good at these types of things.... so we'll see.

I Have a son who is six (soon to be 7 December 13th), and I have to say he has little patience like his father. When he saw me sitting here, he sighed and asked me how long my "v mail" would take... Sometimes I like to giggle to myself and not correct him when he makes those cute little mistakes. I know soon enough I won't be hearing them as often and I will miss them. I took a photo of him asleep last night in our living room. He looked so big to me. I remembered him, the first day we had him home after he was born..... and he was sleeping in our bed. I thought to myself how small he looked. So small and sweet... I wanted that moment to last forever. And here we are 6 and a half years later. He's my life... he's my "Little man". I like to write down sometimes... the little comments he makes. One day, he let a balloon go and it slowly floated up towards the clouds. He looked at me and said that God takes all those balloons and he keeps them to hand out to his angels. And on cloudy days.... he tells me that God bounces on the clouds, like on a trampoline. I have to smile at such sweet and innocent thoughts. :)




I guess I better go... I was just told, "Bremember mommy.... You said your v mail would only take a minute. It's been thirteen hundred thousand minutes now...".

Terry