Surprise Visit Yesterday

Yesterday I had a surprise visit from my son.  I was getting some paper out of the closet and looked out the window.  I saw his police car parking in the driveway.  It's been awhile since he's been here.  That was a nice surprise.  When dh got home we went out to eat at Centrone's Pizza Place:

It has good pizza.  The son called his roommates to see if they wanted to meet us there and they did, so we had good company and a very nice time.  One of the roommates even paid the whole bill.  Now that was a very nice treat!!

We did get a little snow this morning according to dh.  But it melted very fast and by the time I got up there wasn't any on the ground.  Just fine with me because I want spring to be here. 

Now I gotta get some washing done.  It never ends.

Our Cats... and Maryland Has it's Own Day?



Miss Puma (Maine Coon)



Thank you for praying for Miss Puma.  Here is a picture of her.  She's a Maine Coon that my son brought home from when he worked at the vets.  In fact, he brought home five cats from the vets.  I had to tell him enough is enough...no more.  If you'd tell him about that story today he would deny it.  LOL  I think Miss Puma is on the road to recovery as she is acting like her old self.  Or..maybe it's the just the pain meds the doctor gave her.  Whatever it is, I like it.  I hate seeing the animals sick and not feeling well. 

I thought I'd post all my cats here.  I have 10 of them.  Sometimes I think I have a problem, especially when I watch those animal hoarding shows.  It scares me to think I could be that way.  I believe the difference between me and them is I know when to stop :)...I feel I have too many cats now and I don't want anymore.



This is Angel Baby...he walked up onto our porch in 2001 and never left.

Here is Alvin.  Now, I know you aren't suppose to have favorites, but Alvin is very, very intelligent and we just get along so well.  Sometimes I think he knows what I'm thinking. 

Here is Mouse.  She is one of the cats my son brought home.  Mouse had a brother named Money who died from a heart attack.  It was an awful day when that happened.  Mouse and Money were inseparable and she went into a depression after he passed.  She has never really come out of it.  It's sad to see her so lonely.

Now here we have Roy.  My son was going through a Roy Rogers 'time' and so Roy is really Roy Rogers, but I call him Roy Boy.  He's another one my son brought home from the vets.

 Here we have Velvet.  Actually her name is Black Velvet, but I call her Velvie for short.

This one is Randy.  He's the baby of the last litter Miss Puma had.  He used to cry a lot, but he has the loudest purr of any cat I've ever heard and he likes to give hugs.

Katerina is the oldest.  She's twelve years old.  She was recently diagnosed with hyperthyroid disease and has to be given thyroid meds everyday.  She basically lives next door and the neighbor has agreed to give her the meds.  It somes in a pen type thingy and all he has to do is swipe it on the inside of her ear. 

Here is Splash.  She got her name because of the many colors that she has on her coat.  It reminded me of a splash of color. 

This isn't a real good picture of Victoria, but she went missing for two weeks and this picture was taken when she showed back up, skinny as could be.  She came into the house and went right to the food! 



Those are my ten cats.  If you think medical insurance is expensive for people, it's outrageous for animals.  Good grief!

I was on Facebook a little while ago and someone has posted that Maryland has it's own day.  I lived and worked in Maryland my whole life and I never knew they had their own day.  Surprise, surprise.  http://marylandday.net/

Old man winter is making another appearance on Sunday.  It's already getting cold and the snowflakes will be arriving according to the weatherman.  I guess it will be a good weekend to catch up on cleaning and organizing.   That's a never ending job.  ;)



Miss Puma

Yesterday I took Miss Puma to the vets.  I felt bad that I had to trick her into the carrier.  See, she came to me in the morning for a 'head pet'.  She doesn't usually do that...and she was right next to the carrier, so I pushed her in.  Then off we went.

When the vet saw her she wasn't even sure she could 'fix' Miss Puma's ears.  she said that I might even have to put her down.  That never even occurred to me, but Miss Puma has these tumors that pop up on her blood vessels in her ears and the vet said if they go real deep in her ears, there may not be anything that can be done.  However, the vet worked on them and today the vet's office called me to come pick Miss Puma up.  Wow!  The vet cleaned out her ears and cauterized them.  They look pretty good now.  I haven't seen Miss Puma have this much energy in awhile.  I just hope the tumors don't come back.

This evening I was so tired, so I went to lay down and fell alseep for two hours.  I don't usually do that and now I'm wondering if a cold is coming on.  I still feel tired.

We just had a thunder/lightening storm.  The weatherman even mentioned snow flurries tonight.  Well, spring, what happened to you?

Another Book Haul and Miss Puma

Believe it or not one of my resolutions for the year was not to buy anymore books.  It didn't take me long to break because my first book haul was in January when dh and I went to State College, PA.  I just had to stop by my favorite store there, Ollie's and load up on books.  The price was so good.  Now with Border's going out of business..well, it's so tempting and tempted I was.  I can't believe I paid what I did for these books.  Somebody kick me.  Actually, I'm surprised dh didn't say something to me.  Even though Borders was giving a discount, it still was expensive.  Stupid me. 

I was a craftaholic.  But now my craft room is jammed pack I can't even get in it.  So I vowed to stopped buying crafts which I did.  But now I'm a bookaholic.  Why is it when you get rid of one habit another starts up?  And the silly thing about books and me is that we have a love/hate relationship.  When I read a book I either agree with what is being 'said' or I totally disagree.  Crazy.

One of my cats, Miss Puma gets this ear infections and she has a really bad one now.  However, Miss Puma does not like being touched and it's very difficult when I have to treat her because I end up chasing her around the house, then she bites and scratches me, then dh puts on his motorcycle gloves to help and Miss Puma really hates dh.......


This is what Miss Puma did to me last time we had to give her meds...that isn't paint on the paper towels!


I made a vet appointment for her but I'm already having anxiety about trying to catch her, put her in the carrier to get her to the vets.  Especially after what she did to me before (see above picture).  *sigh*

I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Yesterday

Yesterday we went to Cici's Pizza with some friends.  It's an all you can eat pizza/salad buffet.  We got a senior discount ($1 off each) so it was an okay price.  I don't think the pizza/bread sticks are all that great.  I thik Pizza Hut has the best bread sticks, but I don't care much for their pizza.  Now Ledos and Jerry's has good pizza. 

I was also thinking that spring is really springing.  When I got in the car yesterday I already found a spider web which my dreaded spiders are showing up.  I get these tree spiders in my car and I'm terrified of spiders as I've mentioned below in one of my post and this creepy pests get in my car.  I'll be driving along and they start running along my dashboard or windshield and I've even had them crawling on me or my stick shift.  I've never gotten bit by one but the thought of having spiders crawling on you while you're driving and oh, especially at night when you can't see them really freaks me out.  So not only did I find a spider web in my car today, as I was driving along with the windows rolled down the loud music from other cars were playing and I mean it just brought summer to mind.  I guess sometimes winter isn't so bad when you can't hear the conversations of the people in the car next to you when you are sitting a at red light! 

Today was a not do much kinda of day.  Dh went to work this morning.  I love that overtime.  We are trying hard to get out of debt.  I've already got two credit cards paid off.  That's progress!

Until later...

Today

It is a beautiful day today.  It's nice and warm...so springy.  Oh yeah.  I heard rain is moving in tonight, though and cloudy tomorrow.  April showers bring May flowers.  Speaking of which, my daffadils are coming up out of the ground along with my Japanese Iris.  That's always a sign of spring. 

I went to the post office today to mail out a book (I sell books on half.com).  I make a tiny bit of money, but nothing to sneeze at.  I sure don't recoop what I paid for the book if I buy it new, but a lot of the time I will buy used on amazon or half.com.   I also stopped by KFC to get some chicken.  Now there's one restaurant that is nothing like it used to be when I was growing up.  I think if Col. Sanders was alive today he'd be ashamed of what they've done to his secret recipe.  Do you know that Dave Thomas (founder of Wendy's) is really the one who promoted Col. Sanders chicken in the restaurant Dave used to work for?  If it weren't for Dave, there wouldn't be a KFC. 

Speaking of KFC, my brother brought to my attention many years ago when our beautiful Katrina was still alive that her initials were KFC.  Hahahah...we didn't even realize it.  Katrina Fay Canter.  So KFC is kinda special to us...not the food, but just the initials.

Did I mention before that I'm thinking Spring Cleaning?  Yeah, I'm thinking about it! ;)

Day 31-A Picture of Me

Here's a picture of me in Ocean City, Maryland during a Northeaster.  Wind and rain..it was terrible.  Dh and I had come here with our motorhome for our anniversary.  I don't know if was the food I ate or the being in the wind and rain, but I got very sick later that night.  I told dh that I wanted to go home.  We picked up camp and drove home.  I think I had gotten food poisoning or the flu.  I don't want to go through that again!

Today I have a terrible headache.  I get this if I sleep wrong with my neck twisted.  It's really more of a muscle thing in the back of my neck.  I'll take some aspirin when I get out to the kitchen later. 

I think spring might be around the corner.  We are having some warm days now and the sun is shinning.  This is the best time of the year when everyone is cleaning up from winter, planting flowers and birds are making their nests.  And being able to sit outside with some iced tea and read and just enjoy the green once again....it's great. 

I gotta get myself in gear for some cleaning.  Although I've done quite a bit during the winter I still need to declutter.  Just when you think you have cleaned out stuff, you realize there's more to be done.  After taking four truck loads of stuff to Goodwill the closets are still loaded.  It's crazy...why do people think having stuff is the answer.  It just takes up space and weighs you down.  The more you have the more you have to take care of.  Crazy!!

I guess that's it for now!

Day 30-A Picture of Someone I Miss

 

This is my dad.  I miss him very much. 





This is my little girl, Katrina.  I miss her very much, too.  I understand having to say good-bye to your parents, but when you have to say good-bye to your child it just breaks your heart. 





Happy Birthday, Mom; Day 29-Picture That Makes Me Smile

A big, wonderful birthday wish to my mother who would have been 78 years old (I can't even imagine it) today.  She died when she was 56 years old from a massive heart attack.  She had diabetes and a bypass.  She quit smoking after most of her life doing so.  When she was forty, she got her GED and went to nursing school to become an LPN.  What she set her mind to do she did it.  And she always had beautiful legs!!  I miss talking to her every day.  It's been 22 years since she passed, but it sure doesn't feel like it.  Happy Birthday, Mom.  I love you!

For the picture that makes me laugh, well, I've already posted some of those.  My kids make me laugh.  Watching Funniest Videos make me laugh, too.  Some of those are hilarious. 

I went to eat Chinese by myself tonight as dh went to church for a special segment of something.  I didn't want to go so I stayed home to work on the taxes.  Fun, fun.

Day 28-Something I'm Afraid Of



Oh my gosh....just posting this picture is freaking me out.  Look how ugly and scary a spider is.  It's digusting!!  Roaches freak me out, too.   Spiders and roaches are the top things I'm afraid of. 

I really slept in late today.  Really, really late into the afternoon.  I think I need it since my rib hurts a lot.  Well, I think it is getting better.  Since I've hurt my rib I have gained weight.  Now I believe it's true that cortisol, that chemical in your body that you produce more of when you are under stress puts weight on you.  Hopefully when I'm completely pain free my body will got back to being the way it was..a few pounds smaller.  LOL

Dh and I went to Fundruckers for dinner tonight.  I've been wanting a big hamburger for a week and the burger I ate tonight hit the spot. 

Weather was cook today.  A bit chilly but I can smell spring in the air!  It can't be here soon enough. :)



Day 27-Me and a Family Member

This is my son and me July 4, 2010.  We were acting silly.  

Day 26-Something that Means alot to Me

Thre's not just one thing that means a lot to me.  Therefore, I can't name just one thing.  Some of the things that mean a lot to me is:

My family

My friend who I don't get to see much of

My grandma's wedding ring set that I have been wearing for 20 years

My car (because I don't like not having the freedom to come and go)

Having a roof over my head

There's a lot more but those are probably the few top ones I could think of.  

National Whatever Month

I wanted to know what National Month this is.  Way back when America only had one 'thing' that represented National Whatever Month.  These days one month can represent many things.  For example, on doing a google search, I discovered that

 March is National Nutrition Month

National Crafts Month and National Peanut Month

And National Noodle Month 





So now you know!

Day 25-Picture of my Day

Today I had some errands to do.  I had to go to Target and pick up my prescription and I also printed off some photos from 2008 that I've had stored on a usb drive.  I'm like three and half years behind printing out my photos.  I don't think I'll ever get caught up organizng the photos albums.  But I'm gonna try.  Now that I got alot of my albums organized and labeled I'm in the mindset of just getting it ALL done so I can not think about it anymore.  I printed out 200 pictures today which cost me a total of 29.98 and I had printed off a target coupon from their website for $1..so I saved a dollar!  That's alright by me.

Next, I went to staples.  I had a reward coupon for $20.02.  I've been wanting to get a wireless mouse for my laptop and Staples had them on sale for $14.99.  While there I knew I'd have a few dollars extra to spend so I picked up some $2 stuff.  The mouse is originally priced for $29.99.  So, I get up to the counter and give the cashier my stuff to ring up which came out to be $36.00..and I knew that was wrong, then I have her my coupon which she took off and I had seven empty ink cartridges (which should give me $14 worth of rewards for next time) and when it was said and done she said I owed $14.00.  I aksed her if that was the mouse that was on sale for $14.99.   She tried to tell me no, but I had my store flyer with me and I said it looks like it is and she looked at the flyer and said oh yes it is.  And so she took off the $14.99 and guess what?  The store owed me $1.11.  Can you believe that?  I never in my life had the store owe me money.  So out prints a coupon for $1.11 which expires at the end of the month..LOL.  I thought that was pretty cool.

Unfortunately this paycheck, I think I've blown the budget and might have to dip into the savings.  Since starting Financial Peace University we have been doing really well about our money, but sometimes on the weeks the really big bills come in there's almost nothing you can do about running out of money.  It's a lot like dieting..sometimes you just gotta have that forbidden food.

Day 24-Something I Could Change; Still in Pain

This is a picture of my living room.  The picture does it justice because it doesn't look this good in real life.  A year and a half ago I painted it blue, but it wasn't the blue that I wanted but I had three gallons of this paint so I was kinda stuck with it.  I wanted to eventually make it a 'sea' room, but it's not turning out so good.  The wood floor is a disgrace...I have cats and a dog so the floor needs alot of attention.  The oak floor is original with the house which was built in the '60's and it's never been professionally resanded (well, except once with dh did it but I don't think he did too good of a job, but he tried so I give him credit for that!) or restained so this is what I would really like to change.  Unless I re-housed the animals I don't think I'll ever had another nice living room.  This room is definitely a thorn in my side. 

My side still has not gotten any better and I'm still in pain.  And since my tripping accident I have gained 3+ pounds.  Now how does that happen? *sigh*

We have Dave Ramsey's Financial Freedom class tonight.  We are trying to get out of debt and stay out.   I've already paid off one credit card! 

Day 22-Favorite Book; Coupons

I have read so many books in my lifetime that it's almost impossible to pick a favorite.  Although a couple do stand out.  For instance, when I was a teenager I was really into reading Ross MacDonald detective books.  I couldn't get enough of them.  His real name is Kenneth Millar and he wrote books under the name of John Ross MacDonald then Ross MacDonald.  The main character of his books were Lew Archer, the detective.  I think I read all the Lew Archer series and I was so disappointed when I couldn't find them anymore.  I did all my high school projects centered around Lew Archer and I still have those projects today.  I just can't seem to through them away!

I've recently read a couple of books by Lorena McCourtney.  She started a series of Ivy Malone books.  Ivy Malone was a senior citizen lady who just happened to get herself into the middle of murder cases.  Unfortunately, Lorena McCourtney had to discontinue the series due to publisher problems or something of that sort.  But she started another series with Andi McConnell who inherits a limousine from an uncle and she gets involved with murder cases, but not purpose. 

I like all kinds of books including true life; usually how someone over came a problem in their lives.  Christian books I read, too.

Well, today I had to do a little grocery shopping.  I had my huge 'wallet' of coupons with me.  While I was looking for a Lloyd's BBQ coupon I had a older woman (older than me) stop and ask me where I get all my coupons.  Wow!  I never had anybody ask me that before, so I felt like a super couponer!  Hehehe.  I told her in the Sunday paper and the Bowie Blade and Bowie Star on Wednesdays.  She told me her daughter and grandkids moved in with her and I finished her sentence and said they were eating you out of house and home, right?  She started laughing.  She said she was gonna get a small canned ham, but her grandchild could eat the whole thing in one sitting.  I told her maybe she could get her neighbors to save the inserts from the Sunday paper for her.  Lots of people don't use coupons and throw them away.  Now I hope that she'll be able to get some coupons going for herself.  I saved $13.75 today but that's including my store card and my coupons.  I penny saved is a penny earned--Benjamin Franklin.

I cooked a turkey yesterday so we are gonna have turkey, mashed potatoes and a veggie tonight for dinner.  Yum!

Day 22-Something I Wish I Was Better At.....

Wow...this one isn't hard to figure out.  There's lots of things I wish I was better at.  Here's a list:

Crochet

Knitting

Sewing

Having more patience

Sticking to a healthy eating lifestyle

Being more organized

Feeling happier

and the list could go on from here!

There is definitely room for improvement in every element of my life, that's for sure.  I think I once was very happy with myself, but ugly part of life caught up with me and every day is a struggle.  That's why I can't wait for spring and the warm weather because at least then I can get outside into the sunlight and plant flowers.  And some vegetables.  I think spring is the best time of year because everything is coming up brand new and beatiful.  I like watching the birds make their nests (only I don't like it when they choose part of my house or my motorhome to do it in). 

It is raining here today, so we are really stuck inside.  I slept for a long time today and still feel like I'm not fully awake.  It's one of those days where you just wanna grab a good book and not come out of your room. 

I have a turkey in the oven cooking.  Probably won't be done until late, but at least it will give us something to eat the rest of the week.  I need to go to the store to get some vegetables and potatoes.  That's a chore I really do not like doing. 

That's all for now!



Yesterday and Last Night

Our daughter invited us to her place yesterday for dinner and to watch a movie.  I've been wanting to see the movie All You with Jamie Lee Curtis since it first came out, but things happened and I never saw it at the movies.  Anyway, my daughter checked the red boxes around her area and they didn't have the movie either.  DH and I got to her place around 5:00pm and proceeded to dine at California Pizza, but when we got there it was a forty minute wait.  No way!  So we walked to Red Robin but there was a twenty minue wait.  Then we walked across the way and ended eating at Johnny Rockets.  We got right in and the food was pretty good.  When we got bill the waitress had given us someone elses and we had to make her aware of her mistake.  Good Grief.  Uh, and guess who paid the bill....the parents.  Not so bad I guess since we went back to daughter's place and she bought the movie on demand with her verizon, so all is good. 

I've been in pain since my trip over the dog.  Don't know if I cracked a rib or what.  There's nothing the doctors can do for a fractured rib, so I'm just trying to take it easy.  I think I can understand why people would get hooked on pain meds.  I mean, if I had some right now I'd take a few, but I don't so I suffer with it.  I'll probably take a couple of aspirin in a little while, but wow, for people to be in constant pain all the time is just awful. 

I've got to get a move on with our taxes.  I put it off as long as I can.  We usually end up having to pay.  Most people I know are getting thousands of dollars back on their returns, but honestly, I don't have any idea how they do it. No matter how I work the taxes, it's basically the same.  Easy come easy go, I suppose!

Spring cleaning should also be put on my list of things to do.  Declutter, declutter, declutter.  It's nice to get clean, open spaces in the house! 

Day 21-A Picture of Something I Wish I Could Forget; a Falldown

I wish I could forget that death lurks right beside me.  I want all the people I love to overcome death and to come back to me.  I'm talking of a physcial death and not a spiritual one.  I know where they are spiritually, but I want them back physically so that I can hold them, hug them and talk to them.  I want them to be a part of my life again in the physical sense.  Death robs me of this.  Death took the ones I love away from me.  I hate death for that reason.  I'd like to forget that death exists and steals people, young and old, sick and healthy away from the people they love.  Oh the Grim Reaper, one day you'll get what's coming to you!  I have no doubt about it. 

On another note, I was getting the dog off her lead yesterday.  She tripped me and down I went.  I didn't fall frontwards or backwards, I fell to my side and injuried my rib cage.  I didn't hear any bones crack, so I don't think I broke anything, but I am sooo sore today.  I can't hardly lift my arm up or bend over because of the pain.  I'm hoping it's just a bruised muscle.  I was lucky when I fell because I was standing right next to the cement well top, so I could have easily head my head.  I was talking to the neighbor next door.  He had his two dogs on leashes and my dog is a very bad social dog and I was trying to get her off her lead onto her leash when I got tangled up.  She would not behave and was trying to play with the other two dogs.  My poor neighbor didn't know what to do for me.  I laid on the ground for a few minutes (or maybe seconds) because I was waiting to see if I felt anything broken.  LOL  Ridiculous. 

How weird that the verizon service came on all by itself last night around 10:00.  That's a couple of hours after we came home from Panera Bread. 

Dh should be home now so until later..

Sill no internet

Typing on an iPod is not easy! I'm at panera bread right now just so I can check in. May not have service until saturday. Hope everyone is well.

Since Monday I've Had No Internet, TV or Phone

I'm sitting at Chick fil a right now.  My Verizon has been out at our house since Monday.  I have no idea why.  When I called Monday night I got a recording from them saying that there was an outage in the area and service would be back on at 6pm the next day.  When 6pm rolled around still no service so I called again and another recording came on saying service would be restored the following morning (Tues) at 8am.  So I woke up this morning with the hope that everything would be back to normal..but guess what...it's not and so I called again and got hold of human who acted like it was his first day on the job (I have nothing against people learning or training), but he knew absolutely nothing and didn't act like he knew where to look up the information about my outage.  Instead, he put a service ticket in for someone to come to the house to check out my fios box.  Now, consider that I have only one neighbor and we share a pole and they also do not have service I'm wondering if something is wrong at the pole.  I'm telling ya, it's always something.  Now I have missed my favorite tv shows but that has forced me to do some decluttering which I've been doing.  DH always knows when I clean because I have pile of trash bags waiting for him on the porch when he gets home.  I started working on filing the paperwork which I let pile up over the last year and I've also started organizing my photo albums that I have also lapse in organizing.  I need more albums and have to wait for payday to see if there's any  extra money let for me to buy a couple more albums..  But, I did get over half the photo albums put in order and even put labels on the outside of each album so it's  much easier to just to find the year.  I still have tons of photos to organize, but I feel I almost got a handle on it.  It feel SO good to get things in order. 

I wanted to put a graphics of Verizon with a big red circle with a line through it, but instead I found this:

http://www.techshout.com/internet/2007/27/verizon-declines-pro-choice-groups-request-to-use-network-for-text-messaging-program/

That's the only good thing I say about Verizon thus far.  Yeah.  You can read the whole article here at the above link.

 I did get a nice surprise, though while I was sitting here at Chick fil a.  My son called me and said him and his roommate were coming to visit with me here a the restaurant.  He lives about five minutes away, so it was a very nice visit.  He bought me waffle fries.  And did you know that on Friday it's Fryday at Chick fil a?  Between 2-4pm you can ge a free medium fry with their new ketchup packets (I love those things...oh the fries and the packets) so I guess I'll be here again on Fryday!

I guess that is all for now.  I hope I won't have to go out tomorrow night to use the internet.  If so I might go tooBar nes and Nobles.  Our Borders store is closing down...but with books $25 a piece there (that crazy) it's not a wonder.  Books depreciate in vale the same way a car does.  Once you leave the store with your book you can't hardly get anything for it if you resell it.