Who the Heck Turned Up the Heat???

Having kind of a rough evening. Seems like every 15 minutes I feel like I'm roasting from the inside out. You know, they say that knowing is half the battle, right? So knowing I'm going through menopause should make living with the symptoms that much easier. However, knowing I'm experiencing a perfectly normal phase of life isn't keeping me from feeling like one gigantic, over-cooked Thanksgiving turkey right about now. I'm burning up, my head hurts, I'm all bloated and just downright grumpy. That reminds me of a story...when The Moose (see previous post for ID) was just learning to talk, she spent the night with us. Back then, she couldn't say Granny very well - it came out as Ninny. The next morning, she got up and came toddling over to where I was sitting in the recliner clutching a cup of coffee like it was a lifeline. After a few minutes of me begging her (in what was probably not a very melodious voice) to "let me wake up, Moose", she finally stuck her little nose up in the air, said "you grumpy, Ninny" and off she went, in search of greener (and sweeter) pastures. Oh and hey, did I mention that one of my menopausal symptoms seems to be that my mind wanders and I have a hard time staying focused on one thing? I start off with describing just how miserable I feel and I end up talking about my granddaughter telling me how grumpy I was one morning over 6 years ago. I guess that's not too far off the subject though, is it? Or maybe it is. I'm too far gone right now to tell for sure. Ah well, the point is, she was right. I was grumpy then just as I'm sure as heck grumpy now. Think I'll head on off to bed, turn the air way down, turn the overhead fan on as well as the big honkin' fan I bought for the side of the bed and wait for this to pass. And if it doesn't pass soon, I'm sleeping in the freezer. See you guys tomorrow.

The Moose

My aunt has requested that I not refer to my granddaughter as "The Moose". But I can't help it. I've called her that since she was a baby. Her other grandmother started calling her "Maddy Moo" when she was just a few months old. (Which kind of made sense...she was a chubby little thing. Absolutely adorable!) Somehow, I managed to elongate that nickname into "Maddy Moose". And it's stuck. It's kind of funny when you see her answering to "Moose". She's way tall for her age and barely even casts a shadow because she's so skinny. I'm sure I'll stop calling her that when she's old enough for prom or when she leaves for college or at least by the time she gets married. Surely I will. Unless, of course, I'm like members of my own family. The ones who still call me Sissy to this day. Oh don't even act like Sissy's not as bad as Moose. Trust me when I tell you it is. Now that I'm 43, I've come to accept that nickname as being permanent. I've overcome the damage to my psyche that being called Sissy has caused over the years. I'm okay. Really. I am. And so is the Moose.

Pictures from the Garden

Roses and a yellow cannas. I LOVE that shade of pink in the middle picture! Pretty sure I wouldn't want to paint an entire room in that color (can you imagine????), but it's so very pretty on that rose. Randey was outside, playing with the new camera the other day. He's so happy that his roses are recovering from their wicked case of black spot. So am I....

More flowers from the garden...

The roses are still blooming and the white vincas have decided to fill in a little bit.

The Family Visits the Museum

I have come to the realization that we are a family of geeks. One of the hi-lights of "the visit" was our trip to the Star Wars Exhibit at the museum. The good news is...the world is apparently full of geeks because the exhibit was fairly crowded and it was during the middle of the week. The bad news is....I don't think any other group of people in attendance knew quite as much about the Star Wars universe as did ours. (I knew watching those movies over and over and over again would come in handy for something.) Above is a picture of our group (sans me, the photographer) before we entered the museum. Left to right is Jacob, Kaleb, Nck, Jodie, Randey and Moose. Pretty group, aren't they? Yeah...pretty goofy anyway.

My three sons.... You know, as I was loading these pictures, I actually took the time to read Jake's shirt. My youngest son, my baby for Pete's sake, has been walking around with a shirt that says "Your Lucky Day". It's not even like it's a new shirt either. Heck, for all I know, I probably bought the dumb thing for him. I thought it said "Lucky Charms", as in the cereal, you know? I'm really going to have to start focusing on my children a little more. Mustn't be such a bad mother. Next thing you know, one of the kids will be walking around with a bottle of tequila and a cigar, singing "Roll out the barrel".
Here's a picture of Maddy Moose and R2-D2. Isn't she perfect? The very first book I ever bought her, back when she was just a baby, was a Star Wars book that came with a little bitty R2 figure. In other words, this poor kid as been immersed in all things Star Wars for her whole entire life. Lucky kid, isn't she? : )

Here's Jake, Kaleb, Jodie and Nick waiting on Maddy and Randey. They (Maddy and Randey)wanted to go check out the Cowgirl Hall of Fame. The rest of us just wanted a coke and a rest. We definitely got the rest (those two took forever and a day going thru all the cowgirl stuff) and, finally, just as we neared the point of absolute dehydration, we got the drink, too.

And here's the family as we were leaving the museum. Loved the Star Wars exhibit, wish it hadn't all been behind glass. Guess it's best it was, though. I might have been tempted to touch the Wookies if I could have reached them. : )

I've been given an award! Can you believe it??

I can't believe this. Tea (at http://teaandmargaritas.blogspot.com/) has given me an award! I'm shocked and embarrassingly flattered. What the heck was she thinking? Everybody knows I'm boring and wordy and, most recently, totally and completely consumed with menopausal angst. But hey - it's too late now. She's given me this award and I'm keeping it. No, no - I mean it. You can't have it back! But I will do the other right thing (I'm pretty sure the first right thing would be to decline the award on the basis that I'm simply far too unworthy, but we've long since established my selfish and dramatic streak so forget that). The other right thing is to award 5 other bloggers the Creative Blogger Award. Anybody who has read my blog knows that I have a lot of favorites. They're all listed on the left side. Look over there. See 'em? Long list, right? But these people give me great joy and entertainment and yeah, even some companionship as I blog my way through life. I love reading all of them, for many different reasons. I could cheerfully and honestly present each and every one of them an award of one kind or another. So while I feel like I'm slighting some people by not passing on this award to them, I'm not. I'm merely passing this on to those bloggers I think personify creativity. (That's a really, really, really polite way of saying I'm green with envy whenever I see the stuff these people have created). So here we go:

First, Sandi (at http://sandimcbride.blogspot.com/). So what if she's my aunt? Doesn't mean I'm showing favoritism. Really! It doesn't! The fact is, she writes beautifully. She manages to tell you a complete story in the fewest possible words (a skill I am quite unable to master). I love reading her stuff. Mosey on over there and see what she has to say. You won't regret it.

Next is Kim (at http://scrap-to-my-lu.blogspot.com/). I'm not even sure how I found her blog. And I'm not sure how long it took for me to realize that she has two blogs. The other one can be found at http://todayscreativeblog.blogspot.com/. I enjoy them both. Kim is one of those people who can look at an old, ragged out piece of furniture and see the hidden beauty. Amazes me. Oh yeah, and she also tells a pretty good story. And she shows a great appreciation of her fellow crafters' work. (In other words, she doesn't suffer from that pesky crafter envy that I'm so famous for).

Next, I give you Gabbie (at http://www.thestampingqueen.com.au/justme/index.php). She does fantastic scrapbook work. I love how she can tell a complete story with one little ol' scrapbook page. Once you read her blog, you can just tell she's a happy, creative soul. She's very real, very straight forward and always insightful with her thoughts. She always seems to be looking ahead with excitement instead of gazing behind with regret. Gotta love that quality in a person.

Next is Heather (at http://splaneyo.blogspot.com/). I don't think I even need to explain further. Head on over to her blog and check out her cakes. I mean really. Who has that kind of talent (besides Heather)? I darn near licked my screen when I saw some of her culinary creations. Yow-za!

Last, but in no way least, is Debbie (at http://debbibaker.blogspot.com/). Gosh. Pretty, pretty stuff. Fancy, creative stuff. Beautiful, interesting stuff. Name a flowery adjective and her work will cover it. It's that nice. See for yourself.

Okay - those are my choices for the Creative Blogger Award. I hope you all visit their blogs - I know you'll agree with my choices once you do. And thank you Tea, for choosing me. It's more than a little humbling to think that anyone even reads my blog, much less likes it. It's because I told you I was in love with Elvis the Dog, isn't it? That's why you like me, huh? I'm okay with that. I am in love with Elvis. He's one good looking animal and I will continue to haunt your blog in hopes I'll catch further glimpses of him! : )

Pictures of the Family

Maddy Moose at the airport, waiting around before her flight overseas. I love this kid. She's hilarious. She uses words like "actually" and "apparently" as part of her normal vocabulary. I miss the little monster already. It's not like I got to see a lot of her before this trip to Japan but somehow, just knowing she's half a world away, I feel like crying every single time I think about her not being near.
This is my daughter-in-law, Jodie. We were at the airport, seeing Nick off. Nick flew out yesterday morning, while Jodie and Maddy left yesterday evening. Don't ask. Long story. Anyway, I got out of the car and was fiddling around with the camera when I looked up and saw Jodie loaded down like a pack mule. Nick and Randey were getting the "big" bags and Jodie was handling Nick's carry-on stuff. I thought that if she had to pick up one more thing, her spine might snap (she's very tiny...Nick's carry-on stuff isn't). lol

Jodie's the one who got me into scrapbooking. Therefore, it stands to reason, she's a lot of fun to go shopping with when you're looking for scrapbooking stuff. Oh, the bags of goodies I brought home from our little shopping trips. It's almost shameful. And even though our bank account is now screaming for mercy, I still wish we could have gone more places and discovered more paper craft treasures. Then again, in the interest of responsible bill paying, maybe it's best that our shopping time wasn't any longer than what it was!

This is Nick with my dad. Dad and his wife, Wendy (and 2 of her grandsons) drove down from Oklahoma to visit with Nick, Jodie and Maddy. That was nice. Dad thinks the world of Nick and Nick idolizes my dad. I'm not sure that's healthy (if you knew my dad, you'd know what I meant...and you'd also know I'm just kidding - Dad's great - just a little too "quick-witted", shall we say).

And here's my three sons with Maddy and Sydney the Wonder Dog. I'm not sure what it is about these three, but they can't seem to stand next to each other for longer than 30 seconds without getting the urge to punch and strangle one another. Crazy. And poor Maddy frequently gets caught up in the melee'. But, truth be told, this kid can give as good as she gets so it's hard to get worried when I see her head sticking out of the middle of one of these "battles". Oh yeah, notice that they're all wearing Philly Eagles jerseys? That's Nick's doing. He loves the Eagles. So naturally, so does Jacob (on the left). Kaleb, far right, actually likes the Seahawks (his father's influence, what can I say?), but he likes to wear the jersey that Nick and Jodie bought him because the Eagles are his "2nd" favorite team. Nick and Jodie have now bought Eagles jersey's for everyone in the family except Randey. For him, they got a Seahawks jersey, of course. I guess this is the price I pay for having 3 boys. I'm forced to hear about football teams way more than I want to. And I'm also the proud owner of an Eagles jersey of my very own. Hmmm. Some boys buy their mom flowers. Some buy her perfume. Some are even crazy enough to buy her small appliances. Not my boy. No, sir. He buys his mom a football jersey. Ah well, at least he picked a team who's colors I actually like.

A Blog to Say I'll be Blogging Again Soon

Just a quick note to say I should be back on my blabber-mouth blogging schedule starting tomorrow! Nicholas left this morning (yes....I'm much, much unhappy about that) and Jodie and Maddy Moose leave this evening (two visits to the airport in one day - eeeckkk!). Tomorrow, I'll be all lonely, grumpy and basically back to my usual self. lol

In the meantime, here's a picture we took the day Jodie and Maddy flew in. After leaving the airport, we stopped off at a place called Incredible Pizza (it's like a Chuck E. Cheese for older kids). A very nice woman offered to take a picture of all of us together. Bless her heart, though, she couldn't seem to hold the camera still. But it's the thought that counts, right? I've got lots more pictures of the kids and their visit that I'll be posting over the next few days. Including pictures of the Star Wars exhibit at the museum. Way cool. Wait 'til you see it! (I know everyone's on the edge of their seats at the thought, aren't you??).

"Talk" to you all soon! Can't wait to catch up with all that's gone on in Blogland!