Courtesy of Wedding Window

Friday, July 26, 2013

Grandma's House...

                                                                       

                                                         In Memory of Grandma Nellie

My Grandparents passed away before I was ever married. When I married Bob, his Grandparents took me in and treated me like I was their own. It didn't matter what the situation was, they were always fair, and often times would choose my side over his. I absolutely loved them for it. 

When Grandma got sick, I was so very happy to help care for her until her passing. What a great loss it was to our family...

Sometimes little things make us remember our loved ones, and bring back happy memories. This happened recently in our home.

Grandma LOVED her grandchildren. Whenever any of us would come over, she delighted in cooking for us.  She always bought this certain brand of chicken strips, and our kids thought her chicken and fries were the best ever. They were right!

Recently, I had the opportunity to buy the same chicken strips that she used to. As I was cooking the chicken and french fries, I was thinking how good it smelled. S walked through the kitchen, took a big sniff, and said, "It smells like Grandma's house". Right then, I was transported back in time, sitting at the bar, while she cooked up chicken and fries for us, her grandkids. 

It made me smile... and miss her, once again. I am very, very blessed to have known such a woman in my life. And very thankful for small memories that mean so very, very much.

                                                   

Friday, July 19, 2013

I Love My Trash Guy!

My Fabulous Trash Guy 

                                                     


I'm just saying... I have the BEST trash guy out there. I am not kidding. His truck is equipped with the arm that comes out and grabs the can and dumps it, without any effort from him at all. However, that guy is the darndest. If I forget to put my can at the curb, if he can see it, he will get out of his truck, walk all the way up my drive, get the cart and take it down to his truck. See?? SO NICE! 

Well, I really try hard not to take advantage of his niceness (is that a word?). I try to remember to put my can out every week. However... the other day, I forgot. And my can was NOT in eyesight. 

I awoke to the sound of my guy honking his horn at my driveway to see if I was going to bring the cart down. In the few seconds that it took for my brain to process the situation, he started to pull away. Well, I was getting ready for a yard sale and REALLY needed that trash dumped. 

So, I FLEW out of bed, ran outside, grabbed the cart and starting chasing the truck down the street. About half way to his truck I realized... I was in my shortie nightgown. With wild, crazy hair. Without shoes. And worse? Without a bra. OMG.

I guess at this point, he had sized up the situation. He jumped out of his truck, held up his hand and yelled, "STOP! GO BACK IN THE HOUSE! I'VE GOT THIS!"

He looked mortified. I was a hot mess. So, I meekly said, "thanks so much" and darted back inside my house! WHAT WAS I THINKING?? 

The poor, poor trash guy. I just knew I'd scarred him for life. I thought I might have a different trash guy after that. But thankfully, the next week, here he came! I dashed out (this time fully clothed), and gave him a new package of cookies with a thank you note. He seemed happy, like all was good. I know I must have given him a belly laugh the week before. I'm hoping this time I put a different kind of smile on his face!! 

Thursday, July 18, 2013

10 Things I Learned While Mowing

10 Things I learned today while mowing...

                                                                                   
          
(I have a love/hate relationship with my mower. I love that it drives me around the yard and cuts my grass without me having to walk and manually do it. I hate the fact that it always has trouble starting, the battery is always dead, it backfires when I turn it off, and it leaks oil all over my garage.)

With that being said...


1.   Every tree limb in the yard looks like a snake.


2.   You probably shouldn't run over all those "tree limb snakes".


3.   You cannot stop a hanging tree branch from hitting you with your hand. It hurts. Bad.


4.   If you see sparks, it's probably time to turn the mower off.


5.   If you need motivation to lose weight, just video yourself mowing. Things jiggle that you didn't even know you had!

6.   You have to go really fast over the wet parts so you don't get stuck...

7.   When you feel water spraying on you, it's probably not rain, so don't open your mouth.


8.   Those HUGE tree roots and BIG rocks? You aren't supposed to run over them.


9.   You should mow away from the house. Windows don't like things flying at them.


10. Don't run over barbed wire... it doesn't help your tires AT ALL. 

Our mower will never be the same again... 

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Wildlife in our Wild Life



                                                                





We used to live in the country. However, I am NOT a country girl, so upon my divorce, we built a house in town. Now, life in town is pretty low-key for most people. Unfortunately, we have discovered that we are NOT most people. Upon hearing the latest of our crazy adventures, my friend declared that I had to start writing these things down. So, ready or not, here I am! 

Last night was really WILD! S had a friend over to stay the night. The girls went in the garage to get a snack out of the freezer. They got quite a surprise when they opened the garage door. There were FOUR raccoons in the garage. FOUR! Did I mention we live in town? Right smack dab in the middle of town. And yet, there we stood, with 4 raccoons looking back at us. 


Hmm... what to do? After a second or two, they figured they'd better get the heck out of dodge. So they ran... under our car... and up inside the engine. Now what?


W was gone for the night, so it was just us 3 chickens here (I was the biggest chicken!). The girls got brave and decided to rock the car and scare them out. Well, they rocked, and honked, hollered, banged... and the only thing scared out of the garage was ME! I was standing at the end of the driveway watching (and putting in my 2 cents).


I've always heard, that when all else fails, you call the cops. So, I did. At 11:00 at night. Yes, I am THAT person. The officer that answered the phone couldn't help but laugh, and then offered to send out a patrol car to help me. The unlucky officer pulled up, waited for back up, decided that back up was sitting somewhere laughing at him for having to get four raccoons out of my garage, pulled on his leather gloves and gave it the ole' college try. 


He tried. And he tried. And he tried. The whole time he is trying to wrangle those little critters, the girls are right there with him, oohing and aahing over how cute the raccoons are. Meanwhile, I am still at the end of the driveway taking pictures for Facebook.


After about 45 minutes of us yelling, "I see it!" "There he is!" "Where did he go?!" "Oh my gosh!" (By this time, I'm sure we had made our neighbors' hate lists) those guys FINALLY ran out of the garage! Thank goodness!


At the end of the night, raccoons love Twinkies (yes, the Twinkies I had frozen when they quit making them and had accidentally left on the work bench earlier that afternoon), the girls had the best surprise of their year, and our small town police officer was my hero. 


So much for leaving the country behind...