Yes, yes...YES!!

After almost 3 weeks off, we are on day two
of the kiddo being back in school!!!!!!!!!

2010 is upon us

2009:
I turned into something I was not.
There was that ice storm.
My father in law passed away.

I had a couple of trips and got to meet some very wonderful people.

2010:
I continue to strive to be my very best. This
will never happen but I will try.

2010 is starting off cold as crap. I hope that changes, but if
it gets unusually warm then we have the risk of being blown to
uhm, the east coast by tornadoes, so a middle temp would be nice -
no below zero wind chills, no short weather. But I must remember
it all works out in the end, and for that I am thankful, but I'll
save that for a November post :)

Only the Cartwright's

If you are too young to remember this show perhaps you'd
be best skipping this post.

My television the past few months has been strictly limited
to old reruns ... Sanford and Son, Gunsmoke, Roseanne, The
Nanny, Bonanza......

Noticing things. More than once I actually toured the Bonanza
house at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, so it's interesting to watch the
show now since touring the house. Certain things are very
noticeable, certain things come to mind often:

*The gas fireplace. The show was set in the year, what,
the 1860's I believe? They didn't have gas fireplaces then.

*The electric light by the door. I don't think we are
supposed to notice this.

*As much power and as much wealth as the Cartwright's have,
they still cannot find a woman to marry. Judging from
Ben who was married and widowed 3 times over, and the
various girlfriends of the Cartwright boys who came to
a sudden and tragic death, I surmise it is bad luck to
fall in love with a Cartwright. Even in real life only
one 'Cartwright' is still alive...Pernell Roberts. Even
Hop Sing (the actor who portrayed him) met a tragic and
sad death.

*From touring the actual Cartwright house, I know there is
really no upstairs, or second floor to the home. All of
the bedroom scenes in the show were filmed in California.
So I can't help thinking this every time I see someone
come down those stairs.

*My grandfather, a horseman, used to watch the show and
tell you every time the Cartwright's changed from a
quarter horse to another kind of horse with the exact
same markings. One scene would show Little Joe galloping
away on his Quarter Horse..in the next scene he'd be
arriving at his destination on his Standardbred (or whatever).


Yep, the Cartwright's are an interesting bunch. Just
don't fall for them, or you'll die a tragic death! ;-)

Friends

Friends.
Most of us have them.
They come in good friends, best friends, acquaintances,
work friends, internet friends, casual friends, partying
friends, family friends.

What make a really good friend?

Time and trust for one thing. That's the obvious.

To me, a really good friend must have passed the
'tests'. I really don't know what the 'tests' are
until they happen, but I have them. Once I have
a really good friend I would save that friend from
drowning before myself, and they are stuck with me
for life :)

A test, a really true test of a good friend is
something, anything, to indicate they think you are
special, basically without them even knowing they
did - they just do it naturally like breathing.

A really good friend did just that recently - she
is planning on leaving her area for several months
later this year....I was planning on going OUT
to her area later this year. She asked me when
my trip was planned (it's not, waiting on an
airline schedule). Once I told her about what
month it would be when I was there, I asked her if
she was even going to be in the state - she replied
that she planned on leaving around that time, but
would decide after I decided when I was coming,
so she would definitely be there when I was there.
And I stress the casualness of the whole conversation,
not doing it to look good or to suck up, just a
fact that my trip out of the country will be
scheduled once you tell me when you are coming.

THAT is the sign of a true, lifelong friend.

Another sign is the friend that will get up to
do something for you when in reality they don't
have to. How to explain this - like you sit down
with the friend and comment, oh I forgot to get
some coffee. That friend jumps up and brings you
coffee. Do they have to? NO. Do they want to?
YES. No false pretenses, just being who they are.
OF COURSE we must be a good friend in return
for this to ever work. I'm speaking from a
one sided view only. Basically a true friend is
one that is not afraid to do some special little
things, to show they care and think you are special.

You find a true friend like mentioned above and
you do whatever it takes to keep them!! I have
several and I try very very hard to be a good friend
in return. I care and intend to stay friends till
the day I die!

After the holidays, it's just...winter

I celebrated New Year's Eve Day by sleeping until about 9am.
I haven't done much more than that today, took a shower,
walked dogs. I'm not a big alcohol person so it's not
really a big deal to me. Not a partier.

So after the tree has been taken down, everything put away
for another year, it will be.....winter.

Winter is my 'down' time. Have I mentioned I don't do
the cold well? I'm a whiny butt when there is a wind
chill. No garden, no flowers. My kid and I get sick.
One of God's little blessings - heated seats in the car!

Not much snow in these here parts. Ice storms...sleet,
hail, lots of rain.
After winter comes..tornado weather. Oh the joy of that!

Winter.

Christmas 2009, our version!

We have our own set of holiday traditions at our house, like
everyone does. I reserve the right to change the tradition
as I see fit :) For starters we do a lot of our festivities on
Christmas Eve, due to our son years ago waking his father up
at 4am on Christmas morning to open gifts. With that being said,
here was Christmas 2009, our version....

Christmas Eve day the kiddo (who is waaaaaaaaaaaay old enough to
wait) started bugging us around noon as to when we could start the
festivities. Around uhm, 4ish I finally consented we could open
our gifts before dinner, and set him to work getting them all
in the appropriate piles. While he was busy doing that, I went
to open the garage door (the little door between the breezeway
and the garage) and the handle just.......broke. I couldn't
get the door open. Hollar for hubby. He takes handle off and tries
to get it open, no luck. He sends me out to go around on the other
side and try the handle from that side (the mechanism was still in
place at this time). The handle came off in my hands. Hubby
couldn't get mechanism out therefore couldn't open the door.
Kiddo was getting presents in piles.
Hubby decided to start with the hinges, and he did that. But
someone (meaning ME) needed to push (hard) to get the door off
the slidey things (see how tech I am??). I pushed with my arms,
who was I kidding, I have no arm strength! Hubby said I really
REALLY needed to push hard. I asked if he was ready to catch
door, he said yes, so I gave it some HIP action...viola, door open.

OF COURSE we don't have a spare door handle (even though we have
every thing else under the sun). So hubby took the one bathroom
door handle off and put on the garage door for now, until he gets
out and gets a new handle. WHICH MEANS bathroom two doesn't have
a handle on it, has a nice peep hole too :)

Presents got opened. Food got prepared and eaten (on Christmas
Eve it is lunchmeats, cheeses, crackers, cookies, cakes, candy,
etc.).

Which brings us to Christmas Day. We had a ham to go in the oven,
and I had made up some side dishes. Along with that we were fixing
mashed taters and another hot side dish, and rolls. Hubby prided
himself that he was going to be cooking it (he usually is the chef
on holidays), and all was well. Except he was all whiny most of the
morning and WE decided he needed a nap. 5 ish pm rolls around and
I started to think that ham should go in the oven. No wait, hubby
wanted to fix dinner. I know, I'll just wake him to ask him
if he wanted the ham in the oven. So I did. He replied no he didn't,
the ham was already cooked and just needed heating. Oh. He got
up and wasted a bit of time before finally going to work on dinner.
THAT's when he discovered the ham was PARTIALLY cooked and needed
over an hour in the oven. Not a problem I say.

Dinner was eaten after 7pm. After cleanup we still needed to make
our Christmas phone calls. Calling 5 gabby people and talking so
much I was plum hoarse by the time 10 pm rolled around and we
both decided the last person we could call the next day instead.

There you have it, Christmas 2009, our version!

Dinner

Not cooked yet but sounds so good with salad and garlic bread...yum!
We don't have it often (enough) here.