Small Talk Six.. Celebrations!

 6 unconventional things you think people should celebrate by throwing a party Brought to you by the ladies at Momdot

1. The I lost ten pounds party. It should be celebrated with ice cream and chocolate.

2. The  I gained the ten pounds back. Celebrated with celery and carrot sticks, with diet coke. 

3. The Toddler went potty party. celebrated by toilet papering the potty and doing the traditional potty dance. I don't know how to do it, you will have to rent the DVD potty power to learn it. Toddler may join in. 

4. That I remembered to put the garbage out party. Ice cream cake and rent o good movie. Maybe the garbage pail kids. Most likly a good sobber like Steel Magnolias so I can be really happy. 

5.  national Chocolate day. Everyone  have a party and only eat chocolate all day. No cheating. Nothing healthy. 

6. National No Yo Gabba Gabba day. Yo has to return to their planet for a day so moms can have peace. Celebrate by finding the blasted ship and pulling the plug. 


Thats it, Visit Momdot for more, I should have just one more, Don't mae changes to your blog when you don't know what you are doing....film at 11


Angel

Denise and the Cat...

Monday Morning. Today started normal. Tasha running through the house, waking up the family which is her self appointed job to do, I have the strong desire to fire her from this position, but what can you do?

Anyway, Denise was feeling rather industrious  after her morning wake up call, so at 8:30 in the morning she gthered her laundry together and went outside to the laundry room. Now I should explain, that in Charleston, the laundry rooms are separate rooms outside of the house but still attached. Ours is off the patio to the left. So while Denise is busily stuffing clothes in the washing machine she hears a samll faraway mew.

Now our cat has been missing for three days, so she was a little excited about hearing the sound she thought it was our cat. So she starts seaching, The Laundry room is the cats favorite place to sleep and hang out. She moves clothes, looks under boxes checks the dryer. No Kitty. She deciides she must have been dreaming.

Steps out side the door and  hears it again. She starts searching the back yard
looking uder bushes ,in the old dog house and  no cat. Just when she thinks she is losing her mind....she decides to go in the house

After heading in the house, yet a third time she hears the meow again this time a tad more urgently.

So,she heads off in the direction of the the sound, which is coming from the back of the yard still no cat  but she notices the dogs in the neighbor yard, who live catty corner to us, are barking uproariously at something, looking up in the tree she sees the cat. up the tree with two dogs standing guard below it.

Well, now we know where the cat has been for three days.

Denise come rushing in the house, excited I found the cat. She yells excitedly.

"Where" I ask

"Two dogs ran her up a tree"

Oh.

So, we go out and try to coax the cat down, the neighbor has an electric fence so we cannot climb the fence, I got a ladder, Denise tried to climb the tree with the ladder...ladder was too short.

The kitten has now seen us and is going wild, trying to decided if we could save her from the dogs should she jump.

Probably not a good idea.

Luckily the neighbor came out, she has a friend who had an extension ladder so she's off to call the friend to bring the ladder.

and while she is doing that......

The kitty trots down the tree on the other side right into Denises' arms.

Nothing like a cat to cause problems. Denise is happy, gleefully hugs the kitty, the kitty is shaking for minute then starts to purr......

We bring her in the house, she rushes for the kitty box. Can you imagine not going to the Bathroom for three days? THEN she eats and drinks and...........
asks to goout, yet agin..out you go.
try to stay away from dogs and trees this time.
The cat looks at me like I am nuts.

One day we need toname this cat

And so it goes....

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.


Stellen is back home and safe so I am going to start back doing Not Me Mondays. We prayed hard for Stellen and we are very happy the Lord kept him and his mother safe. She also made tons of friends on this trip. The entire town of Boston, I understand.
It is nice to know we live in such a wonderful country....so that being said on to...
Not me Monday...What a week:

I did not jump on the couch and sing I'll always love you and pretend to be Taylor Dane. I really didn't and it was fun.

I did not go to Burlington Coat factory buy $185.00 worht of new clothes and forget to get shoes???!!!!!!! to match

I did not go out into the back yard and blow bubbles at the squirrels. With Tasha,

I did not kill all of Tashas plants by forgetting to bring them in out of one of Charleton's Monsoon's. They fought the good fight, but they died.

I did not wake Denise up at 6:30 this morning because I wanted somone to talk to. Really. I didn't, it was worth it.


I did not spend 30 minutes with Tasha singing This little light of mine and Zaccheus and other such notable songs at the top of our lungs in her bedroom before putting her to bed.

I did not tell Tasha the wolf was the hero in the three little pigs.

I did not start selling AVON. Want my website?

I did not feel silly all week. I just acted it.

back to Normal, ahhhh

you can find other Not me posts at Mckmama 

We are glad she is back. 

I don't understand leftovers...

I've never understood leftovers. Grandma used to put leftover food in the refrigerator and keep it going like a fine tuned clock,  Sundays roast was Monday's, sandwiches, Tuesday's hash Wednesday's stew, until well I never wanted to see a roast again. 

Mom. having been raised on Grandma's leftovers, had a free for all day, where she put it in the refrigerator pulled it all out on Saturday and had a hodgepodge. This meant on Saturday nights we had things like chicken next to tuna casserole and it didn't always seem appetizing. 

Of course if we didn't eat it, we were admonished: "There are children starving in China!"

I personally, never understood how eating my broccoli could help the kids in China, so helpfully one day I suggested that maybe they would like my broccoli and could I please mail it to them?

Lets just say I enjoyed the rest of my dinner in a standing position. 

My Aunt Jane was more realistic. She didn't believe in leftovers and they were gone the minute they left her table, to the dogs. "that's why we have pets, dear."

My Aunt Rose flat threw them away: 

"Why would I save a baby food jar of peas, just to have it come back to me on Saturday and I have to throw it away? I'd rather throw it away,. now. "

And my Aunt Gertrude "Well, we can't waste food"

. Her solution was to put the leftovers in the refrigerator until they started growing on their own then throw them away, 

"Well, I guess I waited too long to serve these."  she sighed on refrigerator cleaning day, and joyfully throw all  the leftovers out at once. Some should have been donated to the Johnson and Johnson so the could have extracted the spores for penicillin. 

My Mother one day in an effort to make them exciting called them "made overs" She had read Peg Bracken's  "I hate to cook book and created some elaborate new recipe, which when we got to the bottom of it was still just, Sundays roast following us around. . We never got really excited about it. She ended up making new leftovers to go with the old leftovers, so we had leftovers from the leftovers left over . Did you get that?

 Me I try to make just enough to feed the family, but with our schedules we all eat at different times, my son doesn't believe in leftovers, apparently, because he eats, snacks, cooks, 24/7 so I never have to worry, anything in the refrigerator will not be there long.

And if it is and he missed it, I can just cook it and pretend its new. We are in and out so much, no one knows whats leftover or not. Isn't that why God invented microwaves?

I believe in not wasting food, but I wonder why leftovers got such a stigma? The same meal we enjoyed yesterday, today because somewhat drab because we had it yesterday. It is funny, because alot of food tastes better the second day.

Chicken tastes much better the second day. Of course hardly anyone has leftover chicken, just a leg or two and you eat that for breakfast. 

I don't think leftovers are a big deal anymore, hardly any of us have them, but it is kind of sad like a lot of things gone by.  Sitting down to the table trying to guess what the dish is and what it used to be is a lost art, I used to be so good at it. 

I was over at a friends house and we had just come back from a church youth activity, she was rushed for dinner so she opened up her fridge, I saw a ham, chicken, assorted veggies, a casserole in it. I thought, ",Well she's set." 

Karen (my friend) quietly closed the fridge picked up the phone and called out  for pizza. 

Thats the way we  handle our leftovers in the 21st century. 

Beans Beans Beans...

We have been in Charleston 7 months 3 weeks, 2 days and approx. 8 hours 15 minutes and 6 seconds. I am not going to say we were happy to leave Florida, but the people in the cars around us thought it was strange that we piled out of the car at the Ga Fl line and was kissing the sign post, only the side that said you are now leaving Florida then we had to stop again at the sign that said Welcome to Georgia  and cheer.

Well maybe not really, but the people were staring at us as we cheered upon passing said signs. 

At any rate today,feeling somewhat nostalgia I decided to make Black beans and Rice a PuertoRican mainstay that we had a lot in Tampa, and was very good.  

Now I have never made the beans, so this was a first, I have done red beans and rice which is a American southerner favorite but these are different. 

In the first place you do not put, what my grandma use to call "seasoning" meat in them.

Seasoning meat being, bacon, sausage, ham hocks, ham,  some kind of pork. Red Beans and Rice is a main dish as opposed to being a side dish like it's cousin. 

At this point, I'd like to remind everyone that this is not a cooking blog, nor am I Puerto Rican so if you are and feel insulted, please don't put a call out to the PR Mafia, (which my daughters ex boyfriend has assured me exists) because they will just come down here after me and be disappointed, I am not sure the  beans are going to turnout so what could I offer them? MacDonald's? Then they will be unhappy because they couldn't even get a good healthy meal out of the trip, no better let them guys sleep. just leave me a nasty comment, but not to nasty and at least it will be a comment. 

Now, back to the beans, I looked up a recipe on the web, and am all ready to start. I put the beans in my crock pot, added olive oil, but I didn't have Goya I just had Walmart's brand hope that works, add the Garlic then the problem came up it told me to add 1 package of Sazon which I had on hand, , but it had to be without Annatto, so I searched the ingredients...but they are all in Spanish. I didn't see any words that looked like Annatto, so I guess the kind I have was okay, added white wine, again I didn't have Goya but I had a nice Chardonnay left over so I added that. and for good measure I had a nice glass to cheer me on, 

(it told me I could substitute apple cider, but what fun would that be?) set the crock pot on high for the next 5 hours checked the recipe to make sure I didn't forget any thing. I didn't except to read the first line: "Do not prepare in crock pot" 

sigh..oh well. Crock pot is on, we shall see what a big No No that will be. 

I should ask my friend Kate, Over at Cooking During Stolen Moments if I should have made the beans before writing the blog. It now occurs to me, I don't have a finished.  picture because the beans have 5 hours to cook. Oh well, guess I'll add the picture later when I edit so if you read this before drop back in and catch up later. 

At any rate, crockpot or no they smell like I remember they should smell.

Now a quick word about Florida. We had a bad experiences in Florida. My daughter had an abusive boyfriend, things were hard.(Hence the starting over blog) We didn't get to enjoy it ata ll, but since leaving and looking back Florida probably is a wonderful state and I don't wish to insult any from there.

It is strange to me to wake up at 5:00 in the morning in Tampa and have it be 80 degrees, you know you are in for it. the cold weather there  is in it's 60's. Most people love that, I miss snow. 

Sorry. 

Now I am sure there is more troubleI can get into today besides beans, let me go investigate. 

have a great Saturday...

Potty training wars part 2..Toddler:2 Adults:0

Denise is pulling her hair out. She is convinced she will be supplying diapers for Natasha when she is going off to college. I assured her that is not the case. Well I certainly hope not, but I think, the way things are going, maybe high school. She go when the captain of the football team refuses to go out with her..

It baffles me how a three year old, who without any help from the adults in her life can: post a message on my FB page, take out the old DVD and put in Barney, knows when to press play and can rewind it to her own favorite parts and  put it away when done, Can tell me letters on my keyboard, keeps telling me she needs to type her blog, was twittering last night and, the biggie, can put the potty chair in place on the seat sit on it for 45 minute while singing songs, reading books, and doing finger plays, get off and promptly goes potty within 3 minutes of getting down and in pull-ups or underwear.

What am I missing? i had considered leaving her on 24 hours but was waylaid by the thought of a visit from DSS...nasty people those DSS workers. No sense of humor at all. 

This is about our third month doing intensive potty training, we have offered dinner at Denny's, a new toy, Dora's talking backpack (a real sacrifice on my part, I hate any toy that talks, moves or otherwise has the potential to wake me up at three in the morning when Eric comes in from work and steps on it.) Toys should be silent.

The fact is, she won none of these because she didn't make it. 

She tells me, she doesn't want to be a big girl, she wants to be a baby. I tell her, she is a big girl even if she is not trained so she might as well go all the way, Still we can get her on first thing in the morning and be successful, but it goes downhill from their. Stalemate Our new blackmailing trick is a beautiful new princess dress from Walmart, hanging in the dining room door:one day with only two mistakes and she can wear it. We shall see.

Well, enough potty training woes, Please if any of you moms have the secret share, share,share.

because I  don't see diapers big enough for 6 year old, much less 16 year old. Any potty training stories? Share please!

and so the battle continues.... 

A day in the life of a three year old

I think Sharon was the age of three when I decided not to have Any more children. It must have been then, because Natasha is now three and she is well, something else. 

This morning at 6:15 am she pops out of her 

bed into mine and is there about 3 seconds before she announces she wants food. 

I asked her what she wanted and she informed me she wanted Dip and chocolate. Hmm, well Mommy is not going to kill me today, no siree so I asked her to settle for waffles and sausage.

that was acceptable, so we go out to the kitchen where she proceed to pull her little chair over to the counter and help Nanny prepare breakfast. She did really well, popping the waffle in the toaster, then with a spoon she buttered her waffle, and i put the Nutrella on it. 

Perfect team we are, I had toast and she had waffles..well wait a minute, she decided she wanted a piece of my toast. OK. I put my dish in the dishwasher, she did the same. 

Now Nanny gets on the computer, and Tasha is going to watch a video. She  picks a video we got from Netflix, yesterday Potty Training Power, I am thinking this is not going to last long but Tasha watching it no less then 7 times befor

e coming into the kitchen to help me make spaghetti sauce and put it in the crock pot. 

So while I am busily chopping tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and garlic:Tasha is building a castle out of the cans of tomato sauce and tomato pas

te. 

She is anxious for me to open the cans because that's her part to pour them into the crock pot.

When I do open them, she very carefully pours reminding as I use the can opener not to hurt myself when I pull the lids out. 

Yes, OK, I cut myself on a lid once. Incred

ible memory this three year old.

After that we shared a yogurt, take a bath and get ready for rest time. At three we never call it  a nap anymore that doesn't goesover. "I'm a 

big girl Nanny, I don't take Naps!" Yes I put that in bold print with a capital N that is how vehement we were.

Shes down, resting in dreamland with a band new bunny that talks and sings and does all kinds of stuff. I am sure her mom willpull the plug very soon. :)

Three is a interesting age. I have a very

 grownup three yearold, and yet one who throws a tantum in a moment. (we don't reconize tantums). She can carry on a conversation like a 6 year old: Nanny, what happen to that man in the movie? Is he hurt,?"

then she can get into the baby stage This mor

ning: "But I don't want to be a big girl and go potty."

She still likes to sleep on her mom's lap and my big confession is yes, she still has her Bo Bo (pacifier) but her mom is worth it. 

She has an amazing personility this one. She soaks life up like a spong. 

She learned yesterday that all people are not He's, and she made sure I knew it this morning. 

"Nanny, I just want younot to be confused," I am amazed by the words that comeout of her. 

Her will is very strong, as she stands and looks at me with her hands on her hips, eyes flashing

"I do not want to go potty  Nanny!,"

Maybe it wasn't three maybe it was 4. Because it it such a versital age, so many changes taking place. So much learning about the world and looking into her future is exciting. I know there are many things exciting going to happen there.

Now if we can just get her potty trained.

My First "Not Me Monday"

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog"> to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.If you want more info, head over there and see for yourself. It is a fab blog! But I have to confess I got the idea from another blog SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! which is also a great blog. Face it, how many times a day do you say that?

Mackmams blog is very close to home, because her baby Stellan is suffering from cardio-vascular problems, just as my Sharon and Denise did. Keep her family in your prayers. His picture is on my prayer list on the side bar, if you don't fall in love with him well, I just don't know what to do with you.

So on to Not Me Monday:

I did not go out the back door with a load of laundry, miss the last step and land on my you know what. The laundry flew everywhere, including on top of Erics little moped. Nothing hurt but my pride.

I did not give Natasha strawberries for breakfast with a cookie. Well, she asked.

Not really I think It was called Lazy.

I did not start putting Tasha in underwear instead of pull ups so she has to go potty. Not that it's working. I am thinking of purchasing a special accident mop for her to uses every time she has one. She is trying anyway, she does remember to tell me she is wet. She just hasn't gotten quite the knack to tell me before not after.

I did not have ice cream cones for dinner. Well everyone else was having fish. I love seafood, but I don't care to much for fish. And yes Denise made a nice fruit salad. OK, fine.I just wanted an ice cream cone. So there.

I did not hide Tasha's Dora DVD. Well I have seen it heard it and been privy to watching The Sporting Video with Dora, Diego, Wonder Pets and Blues Clues, I hid wrote down the clues in my handy dandy notebook and she found it in one clue. I guess she is really smart. :)

I did not quit my job. unloading trucks, moving TVs and dealing with 30 guys and gals under 25 who are all complaining about their backs got to me finally. I'm throwing TVs off the truck and a 19 year old man is telling me he can't lift it because of his back. So be it. I am no longer the logistic manager at Wal Mart 1748. I am going back to working in a nice little call center. I did that for 5 years this time I am not going to be a call center manager or a QA person. This time I just want a phone, a desk and quiet. I'll talk to you all day. Just don't mention your back to me or your girlfriend, or I want you to be flat out and that is not going to happen. Whatever thatmeans. It is what it is, as my generation used to say. Just do it. 

I did not have a strange morning this morning.

Eric and I are working on starting the new online business I have been talking about. We are going o sell things for other people on EBAY,we'll list, take pic's, ship and do all the work the customer will just cash the check. We are also developing my health nuts website, but it is taking way more research then I thought. We want to be correct in what products we sell and make sure they are quality products. 

It is cloudy and rainy here in the Holy City. Hope your weather is better. 

Have a nice Monday. Not Me.

It's Wednesday

I have always been very friend impaired. I don't make friends easily. I meet people and am friendly, in the first few minutes we talk and then it sort of scales down to a hello and a smile from there on. I don't quite know what to do or say after the initial meeting. 

My brother used to tell me it is because I stole his brownie at a birthday party when we were six and seven. "I put a spell on you," he told me at 13. "you will NEVER make friends you will always be shy". 

Luckily he recanted this when he was 17. But I still don't have the knack for the social things. So of course, I hate doing anything social.

Now if you haven't guessed where I am going with this, let me tell you. This is Wednesday and I am doing the things I love and things I hate blog. My brother Keith and I were a year apart, he was the baby and I was supposed to be the one who was the most responsible. That was actually true, but got me in more trouble then I can even begin to tell about. I was also a great instigator between, well everybody in the family. So, I guess the first thing I hate is:

• 1: instigators. I was really good at it. My older brother and sister fought all the time, mainly because of me. But I hate to see it today.  And there are some at work. Luckily I am the boss.
  
• 2. I love peacemakers, you know the one who comes in and smooths things over. That's not me, but it is my daughter. Denise spent her entire childhood always breaking up fights and keeping the peace between her younger sister and older brother. No wonder she grew up with middle child syndrome. 
  
• 3. I hate politics. I really do. Why can't politicians be honest and just tell us they are not going to do anything? We'd just have to decide which party to vote for that is not going to do anything. 
  
• 7. I hate Wendy's except for the frosty's
  
• 8. I love golden corral. Unfortunately s so does everyone else in the world. A new one has opened here in Charleston and every time we try to go there are lines all the way to the first row of  cars in the parking lot. Although we could wait, Tasha can't so we go to IHOP. Yuk.
  
• 9. I hate cooking shows where everything comes out perfectly. I mean doesn't anything ever taste bad or not come out like they expected? Doesn't a guest every say,  I hate mushrooms?
  
• Don't they burn anything? guess that is why it is pre recorded.
  
• 10. I really love Iron Chef, I like the competition and excitement. More importantly, I like Bobby Flay. I'd wash his dishes anytime. 
  

So much for my likes and dislikes, this week. last time I did this I received excellent response, I hope to again.

I hope the weather where you are is as great as the weather is here.

All about Saturday.....

"Tasha climbed in my lap this afternoon and said quite petulantly, "Nanny, you are always on the com-puter, just always!"

 So put into my place by a three year old, I climbed off  the puter for a moment only to find out the reason she wanted me off was so she could get on, and watch Dora. 

"Please Nanny, Nick Jr? I want to, I NEEEEEEEd to watch Dora,:"

So I set up Dora for her and she had a ball sitting at the computer pretending to type and write "bogs"

At another time on this day, I was busily typing a note to a friend, and she asked me what I was doing. 

"Typing a note to my friend Barb," I told her.

"Where does Barb, live" She asked

"Actually, Seattle"  I replied, "She is a computer friend". 

"OK" Sang Tasha as she danced out of the room, and I resumed  typing, thinking conversation closed. Silly me,  Tasha came back a few minutes later with her shoes on, and started looking at the CPU trying to play with it. 

"Tasha what are you doing?"

" I am going to see -  atle to see your friend Barb in the com-puter, you can come". "Nanny how do we get in this little box,"

now how do i explain the great city of Seattle is not in the computer? 

I forget as do we all, that kids are literal. If I say some abstract, Natasha can't think inthe abstract to her it is literally reality.

So I explained to her that someday we really are going to Seattle   because my friend Barb is the first on my list I want to visit, While our second stop will be Kansas City Because Denise is my newest and second online friend whom I wish to meet. I want to see if both of these delightful ladies are as amusing and sincere as they seem online. I am sure they are. As far Barb, I wan to see her many shoes. I know she has hundreds. 

Anyway this was a long after noon for Tasha as she sat in my lap and helped me type and get my "osting" done and my "bog" All the time singing her ABC's and pretending, (Sometimes not pretending) to type the letters on the keyboard. A favorite pass time of hers. 

Kids are wonderful. When was the last time you thought of anything as black and white? We are always into the shades of gray. Things might be this way but, maybe not.  years of living have made us cynical and not trusting. 

yet this changes when we come online. We meet people, and make friends. We blog about personal  things in our lives, somethings we don't tell our pastors or friends in church we will Post to an online friend. Why? Because they are far and cannot tell or do they, because they really live inside this HP of mine and yours, do we feel safer with them?

Social networking ha gotten big, we all Twitter, FB,My space some of us, friendster and twitter friends. 

I am not telling how many applications I am on, I am just saying it is Barb's fault. 

And I do enjoy talking er uh, writing to everyone, I especially enjoy comments on my Blog hint hint..is that to bold? 

At the present time, Denise just came out and told me rather sadly that the new king sized bed she just brought for Tasha and her has been invaded. When they were in the queen size, Tasha took up most of it, now that they are in the king size...Tasha still takes up most of the bed and has evicted her mom.  I am going to offer mom some solace, and I am going to remind her she did the  same thing to me when she was three...

My mom was right when she told me: Just wait until you have children of your own, so I did and now so does Denise.

Revenge is sweet.

Do you suppose God planned it this way?

The saga of he Pudding Pop

I promised Natasha this morning she could have a Popsicle after lunch.  I am always amazed at the three year old who cannot remember to close the "fridgerator" as she calls it can remember precisely after finishing her pizza it was now time for a Popsicle. Being she was a good girl today, I gave her a Pudding Pop. 

Now pudding pops have less sugar, and are a little more healthy then Popsicles and more importantly they are chocolate so I gave her one. 

The best laid plans.....

A few minutes after Dora went off, a very sicky and scary chocolate covered hand came over and tried to give me a hug.  As I pulled away after many hugs and kisses I noticed I was also sticky and chocolate covered. Pudding Pop revenge. 

Natasha was covered with Chocolate from head to toe, literally.  I don't know if she got any in her mouth. So  I grabbed a wipe, cleaned her up and sent her on her way. 

A few minutes more she was back, more Chocolate on her face. 

nanny is thoroughly confused now. But I clean her up yet again. 

The third time, I think I am losing my mind. I ask her where she is getting the pudding pops, I check the fridgerator to look for a MIA pudding  pop. No deal.

Confused, boy am I at this point. But it doesn't occur a fourth time so I think I am safe. 

I grabbed the cell phone to call the bank as I was speaking to a Miss Reid, who sounded like she was about three hundred years old and new to the bank I  mean all I wanted to do was check the routing number,  we play 20 questions I sat down on the couch waiting for her to look up (look up your own routing number?!) any way look up the number , I felt cold and wet. Confused, I stood up and peeked over my shoulder and found the offending Pudding Pop. 

"No, nanny", Tasha cried holding out her little hand, "I am saving it for later!"

Sorry love, there is not a later for  this pop has died a natural death. It is melted in three places testifying to the fact she has come back ate some and then replaced it.  exactly three times. 

The mysery is solved, next time check for saved pudding pops. Preferably not on the sofa. 

Kids do funny things sometimes. To Tasha, it was a very natural thing to just put the pop down and save it for next time. Melting is not yet in her consciousness. So she didn't understand that things can be fleeting or temporary. When she wants more, we'll give her another one but i will be carefull to check the sofa before I sit down. 

I wonder why.....

Tasha is ill today. Full fledged cold. the first in her life. I feel sorry for her. She looks so miserable.

She is carring a towel around that is bigger then she is to use to wipe her nose. She didn't want to be bother with kleenix, so she got a bath towel out to the linen closet and has been carrying it around to sneeze and wipe her nose in. 

Finally got her down for a little rest, and she fell asleep at the 10th singing of twinkle twinkle little star. I looked over and she was gone on twink....

I wonder why kids have to get ill. 

Earlier this week, I saw something coming. She has been grouchy, misbehaving, and downright bratty. Tasha is not like that so, being an experienced Grandma I waited for the hammer to fall. It did today.

She discovered earlier this week, that the little buttons next to the doorknobs will make it impossible to get into a room. She experimented and locked her mom out of her room. 

Denise expertly opened the lock with a credit card. I didn't feel it necessary to ask her how she learned that little trick, though secretly I wondered how.

So my blog to day is things I wonder about.  When Eric was little he would be just sitting in space  and say out of the blue. "I wonder how the sky knows when to be blue," or  "I wonder why lightening strikes the ground?" his clue for mom to rush to the encyclopedia of science to give him an answer.

This, folks, was the pre Google, wikepedia days.So:

I wonder why Kids have to get ill.

I wonder why we changed dalight saving time.

I wonder why the person in line ahead of me when I am in a hurry always pays with pennies.

I wonder why the other line always moves faster.

I wonder why the car ahead of me is the one driven by a 100 year old lady at 6 miles a hour. 

I wonder why no matter what Walmart I am in, no matter what I am wearing I always get asked "do you work here?" Do I have Walmart Associate" stamped on my forehead?

I wonder, why, Jesus doesn't  hurry.

I wonder why mothers have to watch their children starve. 

I wonder, if you my friends are happy.

I pray you are. 

God Bless alll 

OOPS, What did we forget?

It has been sunny in Charleston for the last few days. Sunny with temps in the 70's. You could easily get fooled into thinking it was April not February. I think we did just that.  Well  I did.

Tasha, got to play in her back yard for a couple of days. She is happy.

Watching her grow into a three year old has been astounding. One day she was two, a little baby fat, baby features: then it seemed I looked up and she was a little girl with little girl features. 

I remember her mother did the same thing to me, went from baby to little girl in one step. 

Tasha's planning her birthday party. She told me today, she wanted candles, birthday cake and chocolate ice cream. 

She very seriously gave me the instructions for her birthday, for good measure she repeated it several times during the day. 

Then she let it drop, safe and secure in the knowledge Nanny and mommy were going to take care of things. 

So we shall.

It is nice to be young and be secure isn't it?Some days I would love to be 3 again, Today is one of them.

I was on the computer earlier when everything went black. 

Now Denise and I have for the last few day been trying to remember what bill we didn't pay this month. We knew we forgot something....it nagged us.

We usually sit down and figure who owes what, put it together mark on the bill paying book when it's due she takes care of some I do others. 

But with my broken rib, her training for Manager, Tasha being ill with a cold we blew it. The last six weeks have been hectic. 

So I was on the puter, she was behind me and everything went dark and quiet. Power failure?

Then we heard a truck in our driveway, pulling out. SCE&G. South Carolina Electric and Power. 

No, That couldn't be what we forgot, could  it?

Well, yes it could. And so it was.

I called to see how much we needed, got the amount then we accessed how much we had in the emergency fund. 

We had $100.00 cash (so we are poor, we have a Small emergency fund, this blog is called starting over, remember?)

Plus this morning we found out we had 53.00 on the debit card we didn't know we had...so we were  only 25 dollars short. 

Only.

My daughter has picked up many habits from me, but the best one is saving change, we both do it. So at any given time you will find change in any drawer, jar,dish, bottle, in this house. Not to mention in the car. I, as a rule, will drop change in the door handle and the ashtray as neither of us smoke.

So we started gathering change up. 

Now it behooves me to mention, they came at 3:30 in the afternoon and we had until 5.

so we are, (picture this) madly dumping change on the kitchen counter, going from room to room . Emptying purses, coat pockets, baskets and jars cans, bottles . 

She starts counting and we are still  dollars short. Off again

On to the car, where we find the three dollars in pennies dimes and quarters in varies places.

We got it!

So on to food lion to put the change in the little machine that changes it to quarters, but do they have one? They don't carry it, we have to go to another store up the road.

where is it?

Over the hump. Just a piece.

OK. So over the hump we shall go. For those of you who live in the north, a hump is a hill in the road. South Carolina Lingo.

We got to where the store was supposed to be, at st rt 61 @ Bees ferry road (yes that is a road)

and no store. No store? Not a store in sight. 

What to do. We turned right because Wal mart was left and since I work there I knew it wasn't that way and went down, down, down looking for the store which was 3 miles away. 

Lets see, 3 miles from the food lion, and 3.5 miles up Bees Ferry Road equals up the road over the hump in South Carolina Lingo. 

Much like around the bend a piece in Virginia. 

Some days I really miss California. the language anyway.

We did get their headed for Interstate 526..(9 miles up the road) and the SCE&G plant.

Made it with 20 minutes to spare. 

Went inside. Stood in line. waited. Waited. made it. Phew!

Wait. The office doesn't take debit cards.

You don't?

Nope. got to take the money off.

ATM?

Nope

Where.?

there's a store up the road with a ATM 

Up the road a piece?

Yep

You close at 5?

Yep.

I'm not going to make it.

Well we tried. Up the road a piece for this one was 1 mile, but the ATM wouldn't take our card.

Why?

3.00 fee.

Called SCE&G to see if we have an extension because of the problem.

Nope.

What can I do?

Well you could pay by phone and call us with the authorization number you have until 6.

any reason the clerk didn't tell me?

nope

OK, Well that is to easy. Must be a catch, but we tried it. 

Wait, we left the bill and the phone number at home. Back we go got the bill and the number went to a pay phone because home phones don't work without power and cell phone is beeping...

Pay phones still do exist, thank heavens. We called did the press one for...routine

and paid the bill...

Came home and collapsed. Power was restored happily at 8:10 pm

Played with Tasha who, in the meantime, has been as good as gold all night. Who told us...Again

Not to forget her birthday, she wants cake and chocolate ice cream with candles. 

Now she looks a little worried.

Does she understand more then we think?

We won't forget your Birthday Darlin and I promise you the electric bill is top of my list next month. 

You know, they really do turn you off.

 Turns out by the way, they called us and left a message on voice mail, which we never check becasue of Cell phones. Note to self. CHECK VOICE MAIL.

But Yes, I still love Charleston, Now where is that phone bill???