tadpoles and teacups

Love is Christmas

2011-12-04T14:12:00.002-05:00

I don’t care if the house is packed, or the strings of light are broken.
I don’t care if the gifts are wrapped, or there’s nothing here to open.
Love is not a toy, and no paper will conceal it.
Love is simply joy, that I’m home.

I don’t care if the carpet's stained, we’ve got food upon our table.
I don’t care if it’s gonna rain, our little room is warm and stable.
Love is who we are, and no season can contain it.
Love would never fall for that.
We sing …Wooooo.

Let love lead us, love is Christmas.

Why so scared that you’ll mess it up, when perfection keeps you haunted?
All we need is your best my love, that’s all anyone ever wanted.
Love is how we do, let no judgment overrule it.
Love, I look to you.
And sing …Wooooo

Let love lead us. Love is Christmas.
Let love lead us. Love is Christmas.

Finally...

2011-09-14T19:17:00.003-04:00

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Someone else gives our local paper its due! This. Is. Great!!

Harvest Time

2011-08-23T20:48:00.004-04:00

Hello again, it's me ya'll! Long time no read, huh? Sadly it seems that I've been been a miserable failure at time management, and Blogland has fallen to the back burner so long that I had all but forgotten my password. Even the spam bots seem to have forgotten about little ole Tadpoles and Teacups!

As always, it's been a super-busy summer with a never ending stream of kids, puppies, tomatoes, sunburns, cicadas, 95+ degree temps, and, of course, mountains and mountains of laundry. I love summer and the perfect blend of excitement and laziness that it brings; but when I made my way to the porch this morning to drink my coffee and to watch our hummingbirds, there was a definite crispness in the air, a hint of the fall season right around the corner. It reminded me of how much I love the fall, and harvest, and bright orange pumpkins, and the sound of crunching leaves underfoot, and......schedules.

Thumbs Up!

2011-07-14T10:54:00.002-04:00

"Just keep p-wacticing. You will get the hang of it. I know it!"
Wise words. Wise words, indeed.

USA! USA! USA!

2011-07-04T09:23:00.002-04:00

“I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here, and framed and adopted that Declaration of Independence ... I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the Colonies from the motherland; but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men.”

~Abraham Lincoln, at an impromptu visit to Independence Hall

Irony

2011-06-27T09:29:00.006-04:00

Editor's note: Here is another addition to my ongoing, semi-regular "Weird and Wacky (and often humorous) News File." This article kinda sounds like a Seinfeld episode, or maybe the makings of a really bad Bond movie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Athens taxi driver reports book missing

Athens Banner-Herald. Published Monday, June 27, 2011

An Athens taxi cab driver reported his book about the Constitution stolen after a man climbed into the driver's seat of his cab as it sat outside of College Park Lakeside Apartments about 4:55 a.m. Sunday, according to a police report.

The driver had been standing outside the cab, arguing with two passengers about how much money they owed when a 6-foot-tall man with a Russian accent climbed into the driver's seat and told the passengers still in the cab that they did not have to pay their bill and that they could leave, police said.

The man then began to jostle the keys and attempt to drive the cab away, the passengers told police. The passengers stopped the man, took the keys from him and returned the keys to the driver. Everyone then paid the driver what they owed, police said.

When the driver returned to the cab, he noticed that his book about the U.S. Constitution was missing. He then reported it stolen to police, who were unable to determine if the man with the Russian accent or one of the passengers was responsible, according to the report.

[In case you're interested, you can read other similar posts here, here, here, here, and here. ~cn]

Summer Time

2011-06-25T21:27:00.012-04:00

Summer. It's a time for slower schedules, long walks on a quiet country road, and being able to hit the snooze button more often. It means watching the acrobatic flower dance of a million honey bees and hummingbirds by day, and marveling at the rhythmic lightning bug light show by night. It means listening to the harmonic blends of the neighborhood songbirds and playing children, and also enjoying the nightly orchestra of crickets, whippoorwills, and bullfrogs. It means being thankful for a soft summer breeze to stir the hot sticky air, and occasionally getting soaked by an unexpected pop-up rain shower. It means sunburns and mosquito bites and bee stings and poison ivy, but it also means the cool soothing goodness of aloe and calamine lotion. It means cannonball splashes and swan dives, blackberry picking and tadpole catching, and watermelon eating and corn shucking. It means impromptu fishing trips at a local pond, smelling the pungent sweetness of newly-mowed grass, and enjoying a fresh-off-the-vine tomato sandwich.

It's also a time for lazing on a creaking porch swing, listening to our kids playing music and singing family favorites like Johnny Cash, The Avett Brothers, and songs written by their great-grandfather. It's a time for cherishing family and time spent together. It's a time for remembering the past, savoring the present, and daydreaming about the future.

Summer. I hope it never ends.

Perfection

2011-06-04T09:40:00.001-04:00

On the Road. Again.

2011-05-05T16:43:00.018-04:00

I love the quiet life of living on a farm way out in the middle of nowhere, and my roots are firmly (trans)planted here in Georgia. However, it seems that the other members of "Nash-ville" are not quite as content with cows and dandelions as I am. Our crew of adventurers is determined to go to as many different faraway places as they possibly can. And apparently they've decided to do it all at roughly the same time. (Translation: instant gray hair for me!) The revolving door of world travelers keeps swinging so frequently that I can barely keep up with it all. Yes, it's why I've been AWOL from blogging; and don't even ask me about my laundry room! Recently we welcomed home one beloved member of our family from Afghanistan for a couple weeks of R and R. Next week, another family member is leaving the nest for three weeks of work at an orphanage in Ecuador. Another kid returns to Georgia the following week, after an extended study abroad adventure in Turkey. And, a few days after that, yet another family member heads off to live in NY. Talk about frequent flyers! Holy moly, me, oh my! My head is spinning. Somebody pass the dramamine, the Miss Clairol, and help me remember my Skype password.

Here's to having family home, even for tiny bits and pieces of time.

Gripping

2011-04-08T09:35:00.004-04:00

This is one of my favorite photos of my youngest kid when she was about 5 years old. And today I can kinda relate to the other subject in the photo, our cat Friendly, who is the hapless, semi-willing recipient of this inescapable (albeit loving) vice grip. In a little while I'm off to get my yearly mammogram, or as I like to call it, The Big Squeeze. Yeah, I'm about to get a double order of pancakes with an extra helping of steam roller, and a side dish of jaws of life.

You can read about one of my previous hilarious Big Squeeze adventures here.

Later, y'all.

A Bright Idea

2011-03-30T17:54:00.004-04:00

April 2nd is officially World Autism Awareness Day. Its goals are aimed at promoting autism awareness, and shining a light on the disorder as a growing, global issue. The Puzzle Piece symbol reflects the mystery and complexity of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Also, since every puzzle piece is different in some way, a puzzle piece accurately represents the diversity of the individuals affected.

Understanding autism, one blue light at a time.....

Birds of a Feather....

2011-03-26T06:14:00.005-04:00

Works in progress........

Open Door Policy

2011-03-18T10:58:00.007-04:00

When one door of happiness closes,

another opens,

but often we look so long at the closed door

that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.

~Helen Keller~

Here's to looking at open doors!!

Quite Taxing

2011-02-26T17:31:00.004-05:00

I may not be a CPA, but I do know one thing.....
Saturday + Taxes = :-/

Mob Rule

2011-02-21T16:08:00.021-05:00

It's been a solid month since our Oldest Girl ventured off to Turkey for a semester of study abroad. She's settled in nicely and seems to be having a blast in spite of the rather huge language barrier and the record snowfall in the area where she's living. She also seems to be navigating this new adventure with relative ease and has managed to find her way around the city despite the confusing Turkish streets and bus routes. Our girl has, however, experienced a little bit of culture shock, which mostly pertains to how the, um, 'facilities' are positioned relative to the floor. (Let's just say that being able to keep one's balance is a key requirement.)

Anyway, while I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing about her new adventures, I've also been nostalgic and contemplative since her departure. Recently I was reminded of one of my favorite stories about her as a first grader, which involves her first experience playing rec league soccer. Oldest Girl had watched her older brother play for a couple years and decided she wanted to give it a try too. We bought her the tiniest soccer cleats you’ve ever seen, and the smallest shin guards available and off she went to her first practice. Our girl was one of the smallest players on her team and didn’t really understand the game yet, but she enjoyed running around in her new shoes, and socializing with the other kids on her squad. The team met regularly for several weeks of practice and the coach worked patiently with the 6 and 7 year old kids, drilling them on the fundamentals of ball handling, kicking, position assignments, and strategy.

When it was finally time for the first real game, most of the kids were still a bit clueless about the nuances of how the game is played (unless, of course, you count running around in new shoes and socializing with the other kids on the squad.) The coaches for both teams assembled the players in their proper positions on the field, and the ref blew the whistle to start the game.

It was instant chaos! The “strategy” that the coaches had instilled in the young players was quickly forgotten and all the kids from both teams (even the goalies!) ran straight for the ball, congregating in a huge mass in the center of the field, kicking and scrambling for a piece of the elusive ball. This was nothing like practice, where everyone was in organized lines and participated in orderly drills, taking turns kicking the ball. This game looked more like two rival gangs of fire ants chasing (en masse) after a soccer ball-sized picnic crumb.

Image borrowed from here.

However, Oldest Girl was a bit timid at first, and she lagged behind the throng of “fire ants” and instead spent her time skipping around safely near the sideline of the field. Gradually she began to feel a bit more comfortable, and we saw her inch toward the action; she even made one or two timid moves toward actually kicking the ball. We watched as our girl gathered courage and she even made contact with the soccer ball, only to be pushed and shoved repeatedly by the other eager players. Then Oldest Girl stopped cold in her tracks in the center of the field, and I was worried that she was about to cry; or worse, that she was about to give up. Instead, she had apparently had some sort of a misguided epiphany. I can almost imagine her thinking, “Oh! So this is how the game is played!” It was like a light had come on in her little 6-year-old mind, and she ran over -- as fast as she could -- to a kid from the opposing team who happened to be lagging behind the group of players. With her entire 38-pound being, Oldest Girl shoved the unsuspecting player, knocking him out of her way like there was no tomorrow! No matter that the kid wasn’t even trying to make a play and that the ball was nowhere nearby. Before that kid could regain his bearings (or the coaches could react to the obvious foul) off our little hellion ran to find the next ~~victim~~ opponent. For the next few minutes we saw her chase down kid after kid, pushing and shoving with abandon…and maybe even with just a hint of delight.

After the game Oldest Girl told me how much fun she’d had and she couldn’t wait to do it again! Her dad and I asked her why she was so rough with the other kids and she told us that she thought the purpose of the game was to push as many kids as possible! We (her dad and I and Oldest Girl’s coach) quickly put an end to her mistaken notion, and eventually she learned the rules and became an adept little player. She even went on use her 'killer' skills in her intramural soccer league in college. :)

Worth 1000 Words

2011-02-11T14:26:00.002-05:00

Home.
:)

Breaking News

2011-02-02T14:42:00.006-05:00

Punxsutawney Phil called for an early spring. When asked for a statement, Mother Nature replied, "No comment."

Film at 11.

[Stay warm and think Spring!]

Groundhog image found here.

Sound Advice...Especially For a Monday

2011-01-31T07:57:00.002-05:00

"Never bend your head. Always hold it high.
Look the world straight in the eye."

~Helen Keller

***

(Great advice, but I suppose it might involve getting out of bed first. ;)

A One and A Two, And Away We Go

2011-01-24T21:51:00.002-05:00

Friday was a bittersweet day. Our oldest daughter left to study abroad for a semester at a university in the country of Turkey. It will be 4 long months for me...4 glorious months of adventure for her. It was such a weird, happy, sad, exciting, stressful, and wonderful morning as we drove to the airport.

I went over the checklist, and we checked it twice:

Do you have your passport?
Yes, Mom.
Do you have your computer charger?
Yes, Mom.
What about your wallet?
Of course.
Do you think we should get you some more cash?
Nope, I think I have plenty.
Toothbrush! Did you pack your toothbrush?!
Yes, Mom, and toothpaste. (Eyes rolling ever so slightly now.)
Socks? What about socks? Shower shoes? And a rain jacket? You know you'll need a rain jacket!
Yes! Yes!! YES!
Did you pack underwear?
Gah, Mom! Yes! I got everything.
Wait!! Are you sure you have your passport??
MOM!!! Please!

Once we had confirmed (and reconfirmed) that, yes, indeed all necessary documents and undergarments were securely packed, away we went. Part of the two hour drive was filled with laughter and nervous chatter. Part of the journey, we just sat quietly thinking and wondering about what the coming months would be like.

As fate would have it (and in spite of my OCD list checking) we still had to make a last minute pit stop at Target -- the strap on on my girl's purse broke literally on the way to the airport, so we had to find a quick make-do. We rushed in and out of Target in record time and were quickly back on the road. Fortunately we had time to spare because, even with the unplanned diversion to Target, my girl and I arrived at the airport no less than four hours early. Yes, folks, let's take a moment to let that to sink in. Four. Hours. Early. Clearly, I must have been nervous about traffic. Or maybe every clock in our house was off by 2 hours. Or perhaps I was just hyped up on little sleep and copious amounts of caffeine. Whatever the reason, I wanted to make doubly sure we got to the airport in plenty of time so my girl didn't have any stress about missing her flight. Apparently there was not much of a chance of that.

Anyway, we got her luggage checked in and the reality of the "adventure" began to really set in. Then the tears started to flow. The ticket counter attendant took pity on me and offered us a pass so that I could wait with my girl at the gate until her flight took off. Tell me there aren't nice people left in this world! Plus, the ticket attendant probably took pity on my daughter too when she noticed that I had gotten her to the airport four...hours...early. So I escorted my world traveler through security and to the gate, and we spent a little more quality time laughing and talking before her flight.

After lots of hugs and a tearful goodbye, I sent her on her way, and then I made my way out of the airport. At least I thought I was making my way out of the airport. I walked and walked and walked and walked and tried to look like I knew where I was going like an experienced world traveler. I finally found the exit just as I was beginning to wonder if I might still be wandering the halls of the Atlanta airport when my girl gets home in June.

I'm proud of these kids of mine and admire them in their quests for excitement and adventure... but, in all honesty, finding my way out of the actual airport was enough excitement and adventure to last me for a while!!
:)

Rain (or snow) On My Tin Roof

2011-01-14T19:39:00.003-05:00

This song makes me smile.
And maybe I needed a smile today because I am getting tired of snow and ice, and shoveling snow, and scraping ice, and fighting with boots that keep eating my socks, and contending with a temperamental heater, and cold feet, and wiping up snow and ice, and cleaning up mud, and having to give wet muddy dogs a bath, and washing 18 loads of towels and socks and gloves, and then listening to myself complain about snow and ice, and shoveling snow, and scraping ice, and fighting with boots that keep eating my socks.....

I think that cabin fever has set in and the only cure for cabin fever (and snow and ice, etc.) is lots of sunshine and warmer days, and perhaps waiting patiently for Spring, and listening to songs that make me smile.

Snow-zone

2011-01-10T18:37:00.012-05:00

Homeland security. :)

The road less traveled, our driveway.

Big Foot sighting, on our front porch?

Jude, He-man Cat Hater, absolutely adores snow.

Cooper, eh, not so much.

(photos courtesy of my youngest.)

The Holidays May Be Over

2011-01-03T07:43:00.004-05:00

But here's to a happy start to the week.

1/1/11

2011-01-01T00:01:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year!
We are #1!!

There's Snow Place Like Home

2010-12-28T13:37:00.005-05:00

I love snow, but I think that dreaming of a white Christmas may be a lot more fun than actually having a white Christmas. Just saying.

Not-So-Grand Theft

2010-12-27T09:19:00.003-05:00

[I found this little jewel of a news story lounging around in my email archives. I can't believe I never posted it here as part of my ongoing series of "Weird and Wacky" news. For the record, I'm sure the woman breathed a huge sigh of relief when 9 of her missing Fruit Roll-Ups were recovered, unharmed. ~cn]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Woman reports theft of 2o Fruit Roll-Ups

Two teenagers broke into a Cabin Lane Drive home and ate several Fruit Roll-Ups, before the homeowner caught them lounging around her house at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, according to an Athens-Clarke police report. One of the teens told the woman he was friends with her niece and that she let them in. But after the teens left, the woman noticed a broken kitchen window and 20 missing Fruit Roll-Ups. The teens also took a jug of fruit juice and several pieces of jewelry, police said.

The pair split up upon leaving, but police later found them in the neighborhood and were able to return nine of the Fruit Roll-Ups to the woman. Police also found a bag of marijuana on one of the teens, according to the report. news@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 8:42 pm on 9/27/2009

What's This?

2010-12-13T08:38:00.004-05:00

Halloween has spilled over into Christmas at SpookyTimeJingles.

Happy Merry Halloween Christmas!!

P.S. Don't forget to enter my giveaway.
Click the picture below to enter.

Two Steps Forward. . .

2010-12-12T07:47:00.004-05:00

. . . 18 steps back.

:-/

(But I am getting there. . . or, at least I'm getting somewhere, anyway. See you soon.)

Panic Attack

2010-12-08T08:01:00.009-05:00

I am certain that "Panic" is the inevitable offspring of the unholy union of "Procrastination" and "Deadlines." Ack! So much to do....so little time left to put off doing it.

Serenity now.....

Good grief.

A Word of Advice. . .

2010-12-03T06:23:00.012-05:00

Never trust your dog with a Sharpie pen.

Even if sometimes he looks as cute (and innocent) as this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

+
Addendum:
I didn't take a pic of this particular Sharpie-chewing incident. [There have been several Sharpie adventures, plus one unfortunate event involving Jude sampling a bottle of neon green tempera poster paint.] However the photo below shows a taste (haha, pun intended) of the kind of havoc Hurricane Jude can create.

Kids These Days...

2010-12-02T12:39:00.013-05:00

I'm not sure what to make of this, but my college girl asked if she could borrow something of out of my closet for a party she was attending tonight. Turns out the theme of the party is "Tacky Christmas."
*
It seems that "tacky" may not always be something you wear.
:)

What Time Is It?

2010-12-01T06:22:00.009-05:00

It's GIVEAWAY time!!! Just in time for Christmas, The Primitive Gathering is hosting a giveaway of one of my prints.
"Wow! How do I enter?" you ask? All you have to do is leave a comment on this post by December 15 for a chance to win this framed, limited edition signed print. (Please make sure you provide an email address if you don't have one linked to your comments. USA residents only please.) And.....you can double your chances of winning by skipping on over to the PG and registering there too.
But there's more! While you're at The Primitive Gathering, take a tour of the site and check out all the wonderful artists represented there. So much crafty goodness! You just might find something you can't live without. :)
P.S. If you're the lucky winner, I promise I won't send you anything which requires veterinary services.

And, one more thing. Please take a moment to click the "Support Our Troops" icon below to send a thank you card greeting to a member of our armed services. It only takes 30 seconds, and it's free!!

This Is What Too Much Turkey Will Do To You

2010-11-28T19:46:00.010-05:00

At last count, this video had a total of 152,262 views. I think I may be responsible for at least 148,211 of them. Okay, maybe more.
And I still laugh. Every. Single. Time.
Oh my cats, I probably need to get out more.

Sibling Rivalry

2010-11-27T15:14:00.009-05:00

Sibling rivalry takes on an entirely new level tonight. UGA plays GaTech, and our house is divided right down the middle. Two kids cheer for Georgia. Two kids cheer for GaTech. It's a high stakes game for ~~family~~ state pride and a battle for a year's worth of ribbing and bragging rights.
So in the interest of fairness, I will remain neutral. . . sort of.*

But it's an exciting day no matter who you cheer for, and I got a taste of the pregame giddiness as our two college girls were getting ready to go. One girl is dressed in Georgia Bulldawg red. The other is rocking her Ramblin' Reck yellow. And both are as cute as can be!
In a side note, I asked our oldest girl if she was planning to take a blanket to the chilly night game. She looked at me like I was from Planet Dork and said, "Not cool, Mom. I may as well bring a Snuggie. Gah!"
I guess being warm is so old school. :)

*Go Dawgs

We Have a Winner

2010-11-25T09:41:00.002-05:00

You may be like me and think, "I never win anything." One of the few raffles our family ever won involved a turkey. My kids attended a carnival at school many years ago, and each guessed the number of jellybeans in a jar to win a free turkey. Wow, a free turkey! At 50 cents a pop, I thought it was money well spent, since our family does eat occasionally, and the money raised was going to support the school; plus it kept each kid engrossed in the counting for several minutes. (Mothers with four small children will pay big money to have 5 minutes of sanity.) Soon it was on to funnel cakes and face painting, and the jelly bean turkey raffle was quickly forgotten. Monday rolled around and my oldest jumped off the bus carrying some sort of wood and chicken-wire box. "What on earth have they been doing in art class these days?" I wondered as my son ran to the car and proudly announced that HE was the lucky raffle grand prize winner. Well, technically, he didn't win, but all of the other "winners'" moms wouldn't let them take home the prize. Somehow I missed that memo, because this "grand prize" just happened to still be covered in feathers and was staring at me. . . . and gobbling. I would have been happier with second prize, which was a jar and 1253 jelly beans.

P.S. In case you're wondering, our turkey received a name, and a full presidential pardon. Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

[Originally posted in 2007]

Adventure is Out There (And Also, Knitting)

2010-11-19T12:41:00.025-05:00

My middlest kid* went sky diving last Saturday. And I found out after the fact, which is probably a win/win situation. Win #1 -- she didn't tell me before she went, so I wasn't worried. Win #2 -- she made it back on solid ground, safely. When she called me from the airfield to share her exciting news, I was mildly shocked, and I told her she was a little "stinker." A wise friend was a little less poetic when he told her that there are only two things that fall from the sky: bird poop and fools.

In retrospect, I should have known that something was up when my girl hinted a few weeks ago that she was considering jumping out of plane. That seems to have been a rather obvious clue. When she asked me what I thought about the possibility of her going sky diving, I was a bit surprised and told her not to tell me if she ever did. Then I chalked it up to a college dare which would never be fulfilled, and promptly filed that little bit of conversation in the Scarlett O'Hara part of my brain labeled, "I'll Think About That Tomorrow." After all, this was the same kid who practically stayed glued to my hip for her entire infancy and the better part of her toddler years. This was the kid who waited until she was 14 months old to start walking (not because she didn't want to walk, but because, with two older siblings and an overly affectionate and clumsy Labrador, it was just safer to stay near the ground.) This is also the kid who, unlike her other siblings, never once thought about climbing out of her crib. Ever. This is the same kid who was terrified of an over-active pre-school classmate named Jimmie Lee. Jimmie Lee wasn't really a bad kid, but his rough and tumble, all-boy antics terrified my shy little girl. She kept a safe distance far away from his boisterous ways for most of the year, until one day when she had an epiphany. When I came to her classroom to pick her up from preschool Middlest ran to me and excitedly proclaimed, "Mama!! Guess what! I'm not afraid of Jimmie Lee anymore!!" It was a pivotal moment in her young life.

So the recent news that Middlest was even considering sky diving, and then the revelation that she had actually taken such a daring plunge may have surprised me, but it also made me smile. Truthfully, the mama hen in me would like to keep those apron strings firmly tied.....just a little longer; to have my girl stay on the ground, to go the safe route. I would have steered her toward learning a new language, or trying her hand at knitting --something in which gravity played a minimal role in the ultimate outcome. But the mother hen in me also admired her moxie. I was excited and proud that she had stepped out of her comfort zone [quite literally!] and that she had discovered something new that she wasn't afraid of, a different kind of "Jimmie Lee." Middlest wrote about her adventure on her blog and posted a quote by Henry David Thoreau, “How vain is it to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live?”
And then, do you know what that stinker did? She had the nerve to invite me to go with her the next time she goes sky diving. With her?! Next time?! Oh Mylanta! I'm all for "standing up to live," but jumping out of planes?? No, thank you! Everyone knows that mother hens don't fly, and they certainly don't jump out of planes!
I think I'll take up knitting, merci beaucoup.

* I call her the "middlest" because she's the third of four kids, the middle of the middle-- sandwiched between her older and younger sisters.

Just Chillin'......

2010-11-13T09:38:00.004-05:00

He's chillin' over at SpookyTimeJingles.

Chilly, man, chilly.

:)

2010-11-12T08:20:00.003-05:00

Happy Friday!

Guest Post

2010-11-10T14:46:00.005-05:00

The following is an article my dad wrote recently for a local newspaper. It is just too precious not to share. Enjoy! ~cn

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A special Halloween, no thanks to me

About 20 years ago Matthew and I went trick or treating. We joined the several young spookers knocking on doors. But we were a bit different from the preschool and elementary school-age spooks up and down the neighborhood.

I was about 60 and Matthew was about 20.

Matthew was a special patient of mine and a special person as well. Matthew had a rare in-born malady that resulted in very poor lung function, a weak heart and significant developmental delay. Children with his syndrome usually die before age 13.

Mostly because of his parent’s exceptional care, Matthew was alive at 20. He and his parents had dropped by our house for a short visit that Halloween.

I suggested I take Matthew around our neighborhood for his share of the spoils of the evening. As we set out on our rounds, I instructed Matthew. “When someone answers the door say, ‘Trick or treat,’ and hold out your bag. Then say, ‘Thank you.”

At the first house I rang the doorbell and when the door opened Matthew remained mute. After a minute or two he held out his bag and the owner rewarded him with candy. No “Thank you” was evident.

As we left I reminded Matthew, “Remember. Say, ‘Trick or treat’ and hold out your bag and say, ‘Thank you.’” At the next house he forgot his lines again but held out his bag.

At every house the same thing. No words. A bag produced. Candy. No “Thank you.”

Toward the end of our block Matthew became bolder and entered a few houses uninvited and shook hands with everyone there. (Matthew was very big on hand shakes.)

We finished our rounds with a bag full of candy and not a single “Trick or treat” or ”Thank you” uttered.

The next day at church services, Matthew and his parents walked past us as we sat in our accustomed pew. Matthew leaned over toward me and said softly, “Trick or treat.”

Retired pediatrician Bill now spends his days working with wood (“mostly making sawdust”), fishing (“but not very well”), puttering around his garden and writing.

Our Cat: Con Artist/Escape Artist, Extraordinaire

2010-11-05T18:06:00.004-04:00

It was chilly and wet outside yesterday. Friendly -- who is an outside cat, but chooses not to believe that about himself -- sat on the ledge outside our kitchen window, looking especially mournful and needy and soggy. So Youngest Kid and I decided he needed some TLC, and we sneaked him inside the house, past our dog, Jude The Cat Hater.

Okay, let me rewind just a bit, and provide a little background information:

If you remember, Friendly was a stray cat who "found" us and conned my husband into bringing him home by pretending to be friendly. The truth is that Friendly wasn't really friendly at all; he was just hungry and desperate and saw an opportunity for a free meal when he stumbled upon my husband and our kids cleaning out a warehouse near our home. The kids gave their new "friend" a couple of hot dogs and decided that this was THE friendliest cat they'd ever met. The deal was sealed and Friendly left the warehouse with a full tummy, a new name, and a new home.

Until a couple of years ago Friendly was in charge of things around our home, and was accustomed to inviting himself inside our house on a regular, almost daily basis. He often crouched at the back door, poised and ready to gain entrance when an unsuspecting patsy might open the door. In an orange, furry flash Friendly would bolt inside and disappear upstairs, looking for a comfortable place to take a long winter nap. Friendly ruled the roost. He was the "lord of his castle, the sovereign, the liege."* He was what you might call, "Top Dog."

However, Friendly's world was turned upside-down with the arrival of his arch nemesis, Jude. You might also remember our fun-loving dog Jude, who came to live with us after he and our son graduated from college. Our son went off to conquer the world and Jude came to the farm to conquer our house. Which he did. Jude is a canine version of Will Rogers and he loves almost everyone and every thing he meets. However, for some reason Jude has decided that he does not like cats. At all. In fact, Jude takes his role as the #1 He-Man Cat Hater very seriously. He's even appointed himself the unofficial border patrol and vigilantly guards the back door against any and all covert feline invasions. As a result, Friendly has had to suffer the indignity of being a full-time outside cat. His inner "inside kitty" has been forced to once again take a back seat, and regular lazy afternoon naps inside a warm house are a thing of the past.

Now, back to yesterday:

After we sneaked Friendly inside the house and past the pooch patrol, my Youngest Kid quietly carried him upstairs and closed the door. Jude never even suspected a thing! Friendly quickly found his old favorite sleeping spot, which happens to be inside one of the drawers of Youngest Kid's dresser. Yes, Friendly insists that she pull the drawer partway open so he can stretch out on top of her clothes. We let Friendly stay inside the house for most of the afternoon, but as nightfall approached I decided it was time to put him out before Jude became suspicious. Youngest Kid went upstairs to get him, but the elusive feline was nowhere to be found. The door upstairs had been shut all day, so we knew he had to be there somewhere. Youngest kid looked all over. I looked all over. We looked in the closets. We looked in the bathroom. We looked under the beds. We looked behind the dresser. We looked inside the dresser. Friendly was just not there. NOWHERE. Dumbfounded, the kid and I came downstairs (again, closing the upstairs door) thinking Friendly must have somehow found a way out. But Friendly wasn't anywhere, and we literally had no idea where he could be.

In order to protect the peace in the house, we knew we had to find that cat before #1 He-man Cat Hater did, so Youngest Kid and I decided to check one more time upstairs. We went into Youngest Kid's room, and whaddaya know, there was Friendly, in her room, laying contentedly in his favorite spot, looking at us with that disgusted-Friendly-look, just like he'd been there the entire time!! It was crazy! I still have no idea where he'd been and the best conclusion we could come up with for his "now you see him, now you don't" moment, is that Friendly is some sort of a feline Houdini. The only thing he lacks is a little cat cape and a cat-sized top hat. :)

*[Bonus points if you can name the movie where I got that quote.]

My Heart is Dancin' to a November Tune. . .

2010-11-01T09:59:00.002-04:00

November Blue ~ by The Avett Brothers

Halloween Greetings

2010-10-31T06:25:00.009-04:00

How does time go by so quickly?? It seems like we were just celebrating the 4th of July, when I looked up and realized it was almost Halloween. I can't believe I let things slip up on me because there is nothing I enjoy more than a bright orange pumpkin . . . or two . . . or ten, sitting around. So yesterday I rushed out to get one . . . or two . . . or ten! I know I spent way too much time inspecting each candidate, mulling over the individual nuances in color and shape, and trying to decide on just the right pumpkin for our Jack-O-Lantern. Eventually I came home with not one (or ten), but two perfect pumpkins.

It reminded me of when my kids were smaller, and the "event" that Halloween was. Next to Christmas, it was always the highlight of the year. For many years my in-laws hosted a pumpkin carving party for all their grandchildren, and they also invited tons of the neighborhood kids too. My mother-in-law spent hours decorating her house with handmade tissue ghosts and stringy spider webs. Then she brewed some wonderful apple cider and baked mountains of delicious Halloween goodies. My father-in-law drove to a local farm and bought dozens of pumpkins for the party, and each child was allowed to select his own pumpkin from the pick-up truck filled to overflowing with the orange bounty. It was always fun to watch the reactions of different children when it came time to scoop out the gooey contents from the pumpkins!! Usually there were a few daredevils who dove in hands first, slinging pumpkin goo with abandon; others were much less willing to get messy, so mom or dad might need to lend a hand or give a little extra encouragement. Each kid was also given a sharpie pen to create a perfect Jack-O-Lantern masterpiece. Some little artists labored forever drawing just the right face on the bumpy, uneven surface. Other kids whipped out a JOL face in record time. (And to prevent the need for a trip to the ER, the adults did the carving. :)

Such wonderful memories for so many kids (and grown-ups too!) Happy Halloween!

Sneak Peeks.......

2010-10-30T22:37:00.002-04:00

Hey, Robo-Callers.....

2010-10-29T18:19:00.007-04:00

. . . I voted two weeks ago, so I'm not answering the phone again until after Tuesday.

With 5 registered voters in our household, our family must be the political equivalent of a voting motherload. Five voters. . . in one house! Every political Tom, Dick, and Harry (plus a few Tippecanoe and Tylers too) must have our phone number; and each one insists on telling me how despicable the other guy is, and then begins begging for my vote, at least 18 times a day. No joke, we had close to 10 messages on our machine yesterday. Ten messages. In. One. Day. It's like a telephone version of Spam-a-lot, or an annoying neighbor who keeps knocking on the door asking for a cup of sugar.
Now, I'm all for the First Amendment, but somehow I'm not sure this is what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they envisioned free and open political discourse. After all, they didn't even have caller ID back then.

I Have a Bad Case of WRS

2010-10-28T13:53:00.007-04:00

Image found here: University Lifestyle

White Rabbit Syndrome (WRS): A condition in which the "hurrier" you go, the "behinder" you get.

Only known cure: Take a deep breath, face looming deadlines head-on, and keep plugging along. Or, if that doesn't work, then get rid of all clocks. :)

Deadlines, schmedlines!

"Let Us Run With Perseverance The Race That Is Set Before Us..."

2010-10-23T05:59:00.013-04:00

“I ate more fettucini alfredo, and drank less water, than I ever have in my entire life. People always talk about triumphs of the human spirit. Well, today I had a triumph of the human body. That’s why everyone was applauding me at the end. My guts, my heart. And, while I eventually puked my guts out, I never puked my heart out.” ~Michael Scott, The Office

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I almost chickened out, but today I ran my very first 5-K. I wouldn't classify it as "fun," but it really wasn't that bad. . . and I didn't even "puke my guts out!!"

Two of my daughters came home from college last night to run the race with me, so this morning I knew there was no turning back. We got up early, grabbed a quick (light :) breakfast, bundled up, and headed out the door. I was a little nervous, but the girls, who are experienced runners, calmed my nerves; and when the race started, they helped set my pace. When my mind started finding excuses to slow down or (heaven forbid!) quit, they encouraged me along the way and distracted me with chatter and laughter. The very best part was that, near the end, each of my girls grabbed one of my hands, and we all crossed the finish line together. A little unorthodox, but to me it was an epic finish. Our time was 26:38, which even qualified me for an award in the "old lady" category!! Ha! What a day.

“Life’s battles don't always go to the strongest or fastest man,
But sooner or later the man who wins is the fellow who thinks he can.”
~Steve Prefontaine

Cars Will Be Cars

2010-10-18T10:14:00.005-04:00

And sometimes our temperamental and fickle car gets on my very last nerve. Perhaps it may be time for an upgrade; or at the very least, it may be time to find out when the next stagecoach passes this way.

New Kids on the Blog

2010-10-13T00:08:00.001-04:00

It's that time again over at SpookyTimeJingles!

Swing over for all things spooky......

And for all things Jingly....

Also check out the very special guest artist!!!!!

Out With the Old

2010-10-08T13:29:00.032-04:00

[Here's another article for my "Weird and Wacky Local News" file. Again, I'm rendered a bit speechless by the headline, and quite honestly, I just have to wonder what was going through the donor's mind as he cleaned out his closets. "You know, honey, it's high time we got rid of all this stuff and we just don't really need all this old ammo anymore. I'm sure there's someone out there who could find a good use for these junky old bullets."

Whatever happened to donating "Sweatin' to the Oldies" videos, or Grandma's old tupperware, or creepy David Hasselhoff CDs, or bright orange Naugahyde ottomans?? What were these people thinking?! ~cn]

Donor leaves ammo with local Goodwill

Athens Banner-Herald -- Published Thursday, October 07, 2010

A worker at Goodwill, 10 Huntington Road, turned over a BB gun and eight types of ammunition to Athens-Clarke police after someone donated the items to the charity, according to a police report. When givers leave firearms at Goodwill donation centers, the organization always re-donates them to the police department, he said. The worker also turned over a military fragmentation jacket, which employees thought was inappropriate for the resale shop, according to the report.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you've been here before you'll no doubt remember reading these other adventures in oddity:

Very Punny

I Guess a Pry Bar, Bolt Cutters and Pliers Are Part of This Guy's Drum Kit

The Final Frontier

What is This World Coming To?

I'm Pretty Sure They're Not One Size Fits All

Chickened Out

You Just Can't Make Up This Stuff

A Bark Worse Than a Bite

No Shrinking Violet

The Return of Sir Spam-a-lot

2010-10-06T11:12:00.018-04:00

So, I was perusing the extra features in my blog yesterday and noticed on the dashboard that Blogger had added an anti-spam feature in the comments section (apart from the moderation and verification functions.) "WooHoo, Blogspot!" I thought, "now I can totally get rid of that annoying squiggly letter verification thing-y on my comment form!" Score one for the little guys, the real-life people who are suffering under the aggressive use of technology, the real-life folks who are forced to spend precious moments out of their busy lives trying to wade through those funky letters, all in an effort to have their voices....er....keyboards heard. With great satisfaction, I promptly disabled the word verification and went about my day, confident that Blogger's spam-i-cide would take care of the evil bots trolling around wreaking havoc in Blogland. It was my own small way of making life one or two clicks easier for all of humanity. (Okay, maybe not all of humanity, but at least for the tens of people who actually read my blog.)

Now, less than 24 hours later, not one, but two "anonymous" comments have appeared on recent posts..... anonymous comments of questionable authenticity. Anonymous comments encouraging me to buy weird medicine at some less-than-legitimate sources.

Okay, world, if we can put a man on the moon, (heck, if Lady Gaga can figure out a way to make a dress out of raw meat) surely someone can figure out an easier, less intrusive way to deal with insidious Spam-bot messages!! Sadly, for now, we have to do battle the old-fashioned way and I have been forced to initiate the comment verification process, again. I know how inconvenient it is, but Sir Spam-a-lot and Son of Sir Spam-a-lot have left me no other choice. My apologies to all the real people, again.

Perseverance. . .

2010-09-28T16:50:00.003-04:00

. . . would really be a lot easier if it didn't require so much effort.

Grab a Tissue. . .

2010-09-27T22:33:00.001-04:00

. . . you're probably gonna need it.

Cat Scratch Fever

2010-09-26T20:35:00.007-04:00

Celebrate 365 is hot off the presses and on its way to a mailbox near you! There's so much holiday inspiration in each issue of this wonderful magazine, and I'm honored to have a couple of my little papier mache guys included in the October edition. Celebrate365 is the perfect resource for the year-round ornament collector.

Click the logo below to find out how you can get your copy today.

"Snails see the benefits, the beauty in every inch" ~The Format

2010-09-25T08:58:00.013-04:00

[I am re-posting "Winking Sunflowers" (originally written in 2007) in honor of my "middlest" girl who is running her first race in over 3 years. This 5K, for her, is about so much more than the race. It's not about winning or being first, or even in being last. It's about finding value and joy in who we are. It's about survival, and perseverance in the face of difficulty, and it's about finding beauty in living. ~cn]

~~~~~

"Winking Sunflowers"

I've been thinking about our sad little garden again. It's just so brown, and it's time to get the plots ready for next year. The weeks of 100 degree temps were just too much. But the sunflower "patch" we had was very interesting and the plants did most of their blooming before the worst of the hot spell came.

I had tons of dried seeds from last year's beautiful bounty, so this past spring we just scattered hundreds of those leftovers in a clear part of our pasture. I think every seed germinated and sprouted, and I was so excited! My thumb is only green when I'm using green paint, so this was just a wondrous surprise.

Well, the plants just never quite looked "normal" but grew tall nonetheless. Some of the plants began to show signs of blooming, however, the buds were located in the oddest places on the plant. Finally some flowers began to emerge, but these were no ordinary blooms. Some were half-flowers, some had only a few petals, some had oval shapes with tons of petals, some looked as if they were giant eyes winking, and many were what my daughter deemed "conjoined twin" blooms.

Somehow these unique flowers didn't seem to know that they were odd or misshapen. They bloomed with such abandon and reached heavenward just as proudly as if they'd been prize-winning roses. Funny how the Lord used those little oddball flowers to teach one of my girls a wonderful lesson. She suffered a really serious injury to her foot last fall, and was on crutches almost 6 months. It sidelined her from her passion of running cross country until recently when she started training again. Needless to say, it has been, and continues to be a painfully slow process, and discouragement has settled in at times. We were reminded of the joy in reaching heavenward, in spite of circumstances, or even because of them. The Lord isn't really concerned with what the offering "looks" like, but in the fact that we're giving Him what we have.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fast-forward to today:

I read this on my daughter's blog this morning:

“I was run-nin!” -Forrest Gump
This morning will be something of a milestone for me. For the first time in three years, I’m am attempting to run a 5k.

I remember the last race of my high school running career. I ran the two mile at an embarrassing crawl. My left foot which was “toast” (from what my lovely less-than-poetic doctor diagnosed) lit up with pain. Each step was like a sledgehammer smashing down on my broken nerves in the toes, ankle and up through my entire body. What’s worse, the sledgehammer smashed down harder and faster upon my pride and my resilience.

I had been a runner. I had been a good runner, too.

Today, I just want to finish a race without pain. Today, Time and I have decided to coexist and not bother one another. Today, I’m going to run, not for my coaches, not for my school; today I’m running 3.1 miles for my Best Friend. And for me.

I’m learning that Time, though I hate it, can sometimes be a good thing. Time is very often healing.

"H" is for Holiday!

2010-09-23T12:19:00.002-04:00

Holiday with Matthew Mead is a new publication celebrating the Christmas holiday season. It's due out right before Halloween and I can't wait to get my copy in the mail!
Swing over to Matthew's blog to check it out.

In Case You Were Wondering

2010-09-20T08:47:00.007-04:00

When FDR said,"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," I'm pretty sure he never saw the gi-normous spider I found in my basement the other day. Yikes.

Happy Monday, anyway.

By the way. . .

Cooper doesn't like spiders either, or cameras.

Snazz Attack

2010-09-17T11:21:00.012-04:00

Oh.

My.

Goodness!!!

Okay, now I've seen everything. First blankets had sleeves, aka The Snuggie. Now blankets have pockets, snazzy sheep designs, and best of all, a handy-dandy oval breathing hole. An oval breathing hole!

My favorite part of the ad is that the people in the waiting room (as if waiting rooms weren't awkward enough) seem oblivious to the woman attaching the "comfortable and cool" Snazzy Napper to her face. HAHA, it's like privacy in a bag! Yeah, right. Privacy. I've seen a lot of odd things, but if a woman whipped out a giant mask with an oval breathing opening and attached it to her face in the middle of my doctor's waiting room, I'm pretty sure I would sneak at least one glance her way, no matter how snazzy, comfortable, or cool she looked.

Anyway, what will people think of next...blankets that come with built-in roller skates and that perform delicate neuro-surgery?? Sheeze. (In a semi-related side note: all these years I had no idea our dog Cooper was doing his own "market research" and basically developed his very own doggie version of the Snazzy Napper! Too bad we never thought to market the thing. Oh well. If you're curious, read about his fleece fetish here.)

[This video is brought to you thanks to my college-girl, who came across it, no doubt, while earnestly studying and probably doing very important research. Research. . . yes. . . important, school-related, non-Facebook research. I think I know what she (and Cooper) are getting for Christmas.]

Bring on the Spooky and the Jingle-y

2010-09-13T08:09:00.003-04:00

SpookyTimeJingles updated today:
a one-stop-shop for all things spooky and jingle-y.

:)

Remembering. . .

2010-09-10T17:17:00.006-04:00

Sometimes it seems like an eternity ago.
Sometimes it seems like only yesterday.
May we never forget.

~~~~

"Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations
of our biggest buildings,
but they cannot touch the foundation of America.
These acts can shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve."
--President George W. Bush, September 11, 2001

"We will not waver, we will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.
Peace and freedom will prevail."
--President George W. Bush, 2001

Blanket Statement

2010-09-03T11:02:00.002-04:00

As promised in this post, here are pics [finally!!] of Cooper in his Christmas Snuggie. He hasn't needed it much this summer, but whenever the temp dips below 65 degrees, Cooper will once again don his beloved blue Snuggie. And he'll wear it proudly.

Cooper has a history with fleece that dates back to the days when blankets were just blankets--the days when blankets didn't have sleeves, or annoying infomercials.

It all began the year that Santa brought Cooper to our family for Christmas -- even though Mrs. Claus really didn't think we needed a puppy....because Mrs. Claus already had her hands full taking care of 4 kids, washing mountains of laundry, and suffering under the dictatorial reign of an 18 pound stray cat named Friendly. However, Santa had already made up his mind, and Cooper came to live with the Nash-clan anyway.

Cooper was young, and needy, and so tiny. He shivered constantly and never seemed to get used to the cold temperatures inside our drafty old house; so Santa...er, I mean....my husband carried our new ward around for weeks, kangaroo-style, in his sweatshirt pocket. My youngest kid also thought it was cute to dress our new dog in her old clothes and she often lugged him around the house like a baby brother. (Sometimes Cooper even suffered the indignity of riding in a pink doll carriage, right along side Cheerleader Barbie and countless Beanie Babies.) Cooper became accustomed to constant human contact and to being doted on and swaddled like a newborn. Thus began our dog's fetish for fleece.

Since those early days, Cooper has always had at least one favorite blanket which he sleeps underneath, winter and summer. His first, and by far, his favorite blanket was a cast-off pink Barbie blanket/sleeping bag. [It's the same Barbie sleeping bag that appeared in this story.] Cooper loved that blanket. Like Peanuts' Linus and his infamous blue blanket, wherever Coop went, so did Barbie blankie. He dragged it all over the house, and I could often hear the tink, tink, tink of the metal zipper as Coop dragged the tattered sleeping bag along our wood floor and up and down our wood stairs. Cooper also enjoyed chewing on the blanket and regularly used it as a pacifier to soothe himself to sleep. He managed to chew hundreds of somehow perfectly round holes all over the thing and I had to patch it up from time to time.

Eventually Barbie blanket was beyond repair and I was forced to throw it out. After some serious withdrawal issues, Cooper eventually attached himself to other fleece items around the house. And he has done so with a vengeance. Perhaps as payback for my Spring cleaning and for callously (ha!) throwing out his favorite security blanket, Cooper still chews perfectly round holes in other things. Some of our bedsheets, a few old sweatshirts, and almost every blanket in the house now looks like large fuzzy Swiss cheese. It's a bit unsettling, and also it looks like we have a terrible infestation of moths.

So that's why last Christmas, Mrs. Claus thought a dog-sized Snuggie seemed like a good idea. Cooper could be warm, secure, and maybe he would lay off snacking on our blankets. And the best part, now Mrs. Claus can invest in some new (Cooper-free) bed linens.

The Mean Reds*

2010-09-01T12:49:00.007-04:00

Holly Golightly: You know those days when you get the mean reds?
Paul Varjak: The mean reds, you mean like the blues?
Holly Golightly: No. The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?
Paul Varjak: Sure.
Holly Golightly: Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life place that'd make me feel like Tiffany's, then - then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name!

*Leave it to YouTube to disable the video clip I wanted to post. So, just click the pic of Audrey and it'll take you right there. For now, I'm off to Tiffany's. Or in my case, Etsy. ;)

No Shrinking Violet

2010-08-27T07:57:00.005-04:00

Maybe it's from lack of sleep, or maybe I'm just easily amused, but the headline of this article had me spewing my coffee all over the keyboard this morning. I never even really read much past the headline, because suddenly I was transported back [translation: "easily distracted"] to the days of my kids as toddlers, splashing around in our wading pool. I remember watching with amazement as my kid's Pampers absorbed water, slowly expanding until the diaper was roughly the size of Rhode Island. (You moms who were moms before "Swimmies" know what I'm talking about.) ~cn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Diaper plant will expand, save jobs

By Associated Press - Athens Banner-Herald Published Sunday
MACON - First Quality Baby Products plans a $200 million expansion at its plant in Macon that will save more than 200 jobs and add 150 workers. Local officials worked for nearly a year to persuade the diaper manufacturer to expand in Macon. President and chief executive officer Chip Cherry said he was kept up at night thinking of the 222 families who would have been affected if the plant had relocated.

According to a statement released Friday, the company chose Macon over multiple sites in several states that were also competing for the project. Construction on a new $35 million building is scheduled to begin by the end of the year and could be open by next spring.

First Quality, based in Great Neck, N.Y., bought the Macon facility in April 2008.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy Friday, y'all! :)

Glass Half Full

2010-08-20T17:19:00.004-04:00

I just found out my kid, who's away at college, has been buying new underwear so she won't have to do laundry. Good news, bad news kinda thing? Not sure. (Anyway, I'd worry about her, but at least I know she's wearing underwear, and that they're clean!)

:)

Brontë-saurus

2010-07-30T12:42:00.005-04:00

Summer reading rocks. I think the video speaks for itself.

A Very Merry SpookyTimeJingle-versary

2010-07-14T09:15:00.009-04:00

It's been two years since SpookyTimeJingles hit the internet scene with all things Spooky and Jingle-y -- what a wonderful time it's been. Each month STJ features all new original works from some of the best artisans around, and this month is no exception. Swing by, and say,"Boo!"

The Original. . .

2010-07-06T09:07:00.006-04:00

No batteries required.

A Slice of Americana

2010-07-05T07:50:00.004-04:00

I love, love this song!

This video shows an up-and-coming band, Ponderosa, performing with Butch Walker. (Ponderosa is a wonderful slice of Southern rock and roll American pie....plus, the lead singer happens to be my nephew. :)

If you have a chance, listen to the links below.

Old Gin Road by Ponderosa

I Don't Mind by Ponderosa

You can check out tour dates from their website here.

U.S.A.

2010-07-03T14:51:00.005-04:00

Trippin'

2010-06-26T09:56:00.009-04:00

Good company in a journey makes the way to seem the shorter.
- Izaak Walton

In the past few weeks, our family has been on several quick road trips to visit family in Tennessee. And for one reason or another, our Dynamic Dog Duo, Jude and Cooper, came along for the ride. "Dynamic," however, really only describes one side of the pair. As you know, Jude and Cooper are about as opposite as they come. Jude is the salt to Cooper's pepper; he's the bark to Cooper's bite; he's the Vuvuzela to Cooper's London Philharmonic orchestra; he's the Scream Machine roller coaster to Cooper's Merry-Go-Round; he's the Easy Rider to Cooper's Driving Miss Daisy.

The journey with our 2 dogs is interesting. Cooper -- who's always business -- stands guard near the pilot seat, growling as he defends his family from passing 18 wheelers. Jude -- who's always casual -- prefers to "hang loose" with his head out the window, happily greeting passersby and enjoying the open road and feel of the wind on his face.

Izaak Walton may have said that, "Good company in a journey makes the way to seem the shorter," but I wonder if he may have a different opinion if he travelled 1400 miles with 2 dogs.

Maybe It's the Summer Heat?

2010-06-16T09:08:00.003-04:00

Looks like Big Foot makes another appearance. Remember when he "showed up" around my neck of the woods a year or so ago. Here's the post:

Is it just me, or is this photo from Yahoo of a freezer containing what is supposedly the 500 pound carcass of "Big Foot" a little creepy? Never mind that the two guys who have it say that they found the corpse in the woods of northern Georgia in an area which is only about an hour from where I live. To me the somewhat grainy photo is a little suspect and looks more like it might have been taken in the prop room on the set of CSI. Anyway, the two Georgia men held a huge press conference yesterday in California to reveal photos of their findings and to produce definitive DNA samples which were to prove the legitimacy of their "discovery." (Did these guys really have to be from Georgia??? Please, don't we Southerners get enough flack as it is? Why is it that all of the alien abductions and Elvis sightings seem to be from people from our state?) Maybe I'm just a little skeptical because one of the dudes just so happens to own a business and run a website which caters to Big Foot mania; so in my mind their motivation for honesty and full disclosure is perhaps questionable at best. Really, what are the chances that these two men would accidentally stumble upon such an elusive and mysterious (and mythical) creature while on an afternoon hike? I've been on a hike a time or two in my life and I usually only come home with things like poison oak, chiggers, whiny kids, and blisters.
What may be even more disturbing is today’s news that the specimens they submitted for testing were shown to be actually DNA from a 'possum. Okay, so at least I can rest a bit easier now that I know that some Chewbaca-like creature isn't lurking in the woods behind my house, but now I have to worry that there may be 500 pound 'possums loose in our area. I may never go hiking again.
And if by some stroke of luck the Georgia boys really did discover the body of Sasquatch, I’ll be the first to admit I had my big foot in my mouth.

Check here for the rest of the story.

Remembering

2010-05-31T15:08:00.009-04:00

The young dead soldiers do not speak.
Nevertheless, they are heard in the still houses:
who has not heard them?
They have a silence that speaks for them at night
and when the clock counts.
They say: We were young. We have died.
Remember us.
They say: We have done what we could
but until it is finished it is not done.
They say: We have given our lives but until it is finished
no one can know what our lives gave.
They say: Our deaths are not ours: they are yours,
they will mean what you make them.
They say: Whether our lives and our deaths were for
peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say,
it is you who must say this.
We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.
We were young, they say. We have died; remember us.

by Archibald MacLeish,
1892-1982, American Poet

**************************************************

Remembering those in our military who fell in battle and for their friends and families who still keep them alive in memory.

Photo found here.

"We Should Live Until We Die"

2010-05-25T05:47:00.005-04:00

“She has eyes just like her Father’s, they are blue when skies are gray.”

Spooky Time Jingles, Etsy-style

2010-05-19T08:20:00.004-04:00

Spooky Time Jingles is in Etsyville again for the next week or so. If you enjoy collecting original Halloween-inspired folk art, swing on over and check it out. And as always, you can swing by the regular website for all things Spooky and Jingly.

Available here.

Boo!

This Dog....

2010-05-11T18:50:00.010-04:00

......is just too comfortable in his own skin.

Remember our dog Jude, the happy-go-lucky, mischievous college dog turned country pup? He enjoys every second of being out in the boondocks with the crickets and the cows, and he happily goes about finding things to get into or something fun to chase. He also likes to destroy things and roams about seeking things to devour, which often happens to be someone's shoes.

When he's not asleep (or eating shoes) Jude takes great delight in sneaking into our pantry for a snack or into the trash. He also enjoys making friends with the FedEx guy, barking at noises, chasing our other dog Cooper, chewing up my kids' homework, splashing in the mud, and he especially delights in scampering through the house with an unsuspecting house guest's underwear. For Jude it's all in good fun and he seems oblivious to the fact that others may find his ways less than endearing. He simply can't understand why everyone else doesn't enjoy his antics. However sometimes Jude senses that someone may be a little annoyed; that's when he simply turns on the charm and instantly hearts melt. He's like the Brad Pitt of the canine world.

Jude may be the closest thing to a furry tornado with teeth, but on the cuteness scale he ranks a perfect 10.

Same Song, Second Verse

2010-05-07T09:36:00.019-04:00

It's hard to believe this video was made 40+ years ago, and in some ways, it is a fairly accurate portrayal of virtual life here in the 2000s. The computer on the video, however, looks bulky and boxy, and it kinda reminds me of our previous home computer which finally died (thankfully??) a couple of months ago.

Our own "antique" computer was gi-normous, and the monitor, which was even older, was roughly the size of a small refrigerator. In spite of the computer's great size and its idiosyncrasies and quirky ways, the ole girl had been a good one, and had been with us through thick and thin. It had seen us through dial-up and DSL, through science fair projects and college applications, through Webkinz and Facebook, through Windows 94 and Word Perfect, through Homestar Runner and 1000 views of Single Ladies, and through at least 18 million photo downloads and edits. It had also been around to keep us informed about important stuff like Dolly the sheep, Octomom, the Balloon Boy, and the Brad and Jennifer breakup; and scary stuff like SARS, the Bird flu, Swine flu and two presidential election cycles. Most importantly, it had been around during most of my husband's 13 month deployment to Iraq (email and instant messaging were our lifeline.)

"Old Faithful" started showing its age a year or so ago. The disc drive was the first to go, and then the screen saver went black and it began to get very temperamental. Things really went downhill quickly around Christmas-time this past year; and after months of patience, cajoling, rebooting, virtual duct tape, computer CPR, and "happy, Pollyanna thoughts" it became obvious that nothing could resuscitate the sad hulk of ancient circuit boards and metal. The ominous Blue Screen of Death appeared and everything locked down-- a case of computer lock-jaw, I suppose. So after ~~15 seconds~~ a respectable period of mourning, we went to the computer maternity ward at Best Buy and came home with a bouncing baby Dell. It's sleek and shiny and oh, so very reliable! It's had all its cootie-shots to protect it from the latest computer-communicable diseases, it doesn't get fussy when I download large files, and best of all, it is still under warranty. The only problem is that we like this new computer so much, everyone has to fight for computer time; and now my youngest kid has begun lobbying for her very own laptop. Maybe we should have brought home twins.

Vision

2010-04-14T21:23:00.003-04:00

“…a venturesome spirit impels me to use words of sight and sound whose meaning I can guess only from analogy and fancy. This hazardous game is half the delight, the frolic, of daily life.

I glow as I read of splendours which the eye alone can survey. Allusions to moonbeams and clouds do not emphasize the sense of my affliction: They carry my soul beyond affliction's narrow actuality. "

-Helen Keller

Twenty-one Years Ago.....

2010-04-12T08:16:00.006-04:00

.....this sweet little princess was born.

Just look at our princess now....

(I love that little girl. :)

Very Punny

2010-04-07T18:46:00.004-04:00

This article appeared in our local paper about a month ago, and I think it qualifies as a worthy candidate for my "Weird and Wacky (and often humorous) News File." Incidentally, the headline is exactly as it appeared in the paper. Read on.......

The bread is toast after grocery fire
By Staff Reports - Athens Banner-Herald
Published Saturday, March 06, 2010
Barrow County firefighters rushed to the Publix on Loganville Highway on Friday morning after a load of bread caught fire.
A smoke alarm in the back of the grocery store triggered an automatic call for help, according to Lt. Scott Dakin, spokesman for the Barrow County Emergency Services Department.
Firefighters found smoke in the rear store room where someone had left a shopping cart full of bread near a heater, Dakin said. The heater ignited the bread, which caused little damage to the store.

[Editor's note: I'm glad that the fire caused only a small amount of damage--unless you happen to be a shopping cart full of bread. However, I can't help but wonder about the circumstances that led up to this unfortunate event. Maybe someone was just trying to keep their hot cross buns nice and "toasty," or perhaps this was an episode of "Hoarders" in the making. In all likelihood, it was probably just a case of being in the wrong shopping cart at the wrong time. Aside from a noticeable lack of American cheese (and, of course, the shopping cart) this just sounds like a typical Sunday lunch around our house, including the smoke and firetrucks. If you've been around Tadpoles and Teacups very long, you may remember this post . ~cn]

[P.S. If you like the pic, you can find it and others like it here -- for FREE!]

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans

2010-03-29T18:23:00.015-04:00

Wait.....I was supposed to be making plans!? No one told me I was supposed to be making plans. No wonder I always feel like I'm treading water in a whirlpool....with a blindfold....during a thunderstorm!
As usual, it's been a busy time around "Nash-ville." But, in spite of my haphazard approach to life in general, I have been quite busy making some of this.....

And a little of this.....

With a few pieces like this.......

In addition to getting ready for a show featuring things like this......

I've also been busy with the usual stuff like some of this............

And cleaning up lots and lots of this..............

And, of course, dealing with mountains and mountains of this......

[With a little help from my friends.....that's our cat, Friendly. And, no, he is not. You've met him here.]

But in spite of all the crazy stuff life seems to throw our way, I have managed to find a little time for this........

[That's me and my main squeeze, and ~~our~~ his dog, Cooper. We're sitting on the porch of our garden shed earlier this year. Remember Cooper from this post about his Christmas Snuggie? Update coming soon. Film at 11.]

Breaking News!

2010-03-29T13:16:00.004-04:00

[Click the image above for the link to the mag.]
With the demise of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion [Sigh...I'm still in mourning] I've been on the lookout for things to help fill the creative void. One of the greatest perks of blogging is discovering new things, and this new magazine fits the bill. It's right up my alley: lovely graphic appeal, holiday themes, and inspiring ideas!

Head over to Holiday with Matthew Mead to find out how you can win the opportunity to have your blog or online shop mentioned in the magazine. Holiday with Matthew Mead is a "book-azine" celebrating and offering inspiration for the Christmas holiday season. To be released in October 2010, Holiday is offered via online orders only - in limited quantities - and will not be sold on newsstands. But, by simply following the BUY HOLIDAY MAGAZINE link below their banner, you can reserve your own copy of this beautiful magazine, with guaranteed delivery of the magazine straight to your mailbox! Holiday with Matthew Mead is 144 pages of holiday inspiration with well-known and admired designers, bloggers and top-notch features, printed on beautiful paper and not drowning in ads!

Now, head on over for your chance to win!

Dancing Shoes

2010-03-25T13:43:00.008-04:00

“ Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music.”-Angela Monet

I’ve recently been learning to dance. With others. By myself. Outwardly and in my soul. I dance for grief and joy. For disappointment and excitement. For desire and contentment. For worship and exultation of my Lord.

I can’t get enough of art and I secretly wish that I was more artistic myself. Dancing is an artful endeavor — one that I feel I can grasp because ANYONE can dance. It’s just a matter of hearing the music.

[Written and photo illustrated by my daughter. ~cn]

Does This Post Make Me Look Smart?

2010-03-14T18:27:00.006-04:00

Yes, Spock, the value of Pi is most definitely a transcendental figure without resolution. Yeah, that's it.....that is just what I was going to say. [cough, cough]

Sadly, the truth is that the last time one of my kids asked me to help them with their math homework, I had a meltdown that sounded strangely similar to Spock's computer on this clip. It was my youngest child, and she was in 3rd grade.

3.14...........Happy Pi Day Anyway.

(In honor of my oldest daughter who, in spite of my "stellar" math tutoring skills, is now an Industrial Engineering major. Apparently, that little apple fell far, far from the tree.)

The Big Squeeze (Redux)

2010-02-24T09:07:00.006-05:00

[In honor of my recent visit to the local ~~IHOP~~ mammography facility, I decided to post this rerun today. Re-posting, I've heard, is a giant blogger no-no, and I understand why. It's the same reason people are bored with episodes of Gilligan's Island; there are just so many times a person can watch the Skipper and Gilligan sail for help on a raft, only to wind up back on the same island. However, in the wake of my recent blogging absence, I decided that something is better than nothing. And having a body part flattened to the thickness of a pancake is most definitely something, even if it is a re-dux. For the record, I'm pretty sure that you are better off re-reading this recycled post about my mammography experience than reading a brand new post about my recent colonoscopy--trust me. You and your Wheaties will be much happier. Apologies to those who may have seen this episode before. Signed, Cathy, aka Mary Ann.]

I had my annual mammogram this week. It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever done, but I would have preferred a root canal or maybe car trouble instead. In all fairness, the hospital does try to make everything as comfortable as possible, and they have a lovely waiting room with a soothing fountain and current magazines. They also issue you a luxurious robe to wear instead of the conventional hospital gown. But, the comfortable part ends there. After a few probing questions, the real fun starts when the technician positions the machine, hits the "squeeze 'til you cry" button, then ratchets it up one more notch. And then she says, "Now, hold right there." Ummm, at that moment, I'm fairly certain that I had no other choice--I have on no top, my clothes are in a room with a soothing fountain, and I'm being held hostage by the jaws of life. I did have to laugh though when the tech told me to relax; I told her that I thought she was really in more of a position for relaxing, and that I was taking care of the grimacing. All was over in about 10 minutes and then I was on my way.

Honestly, it's not that terrible. I have an aunt who is a breast cancer survivor, and have several friends who have been diagnosed recently. I know that early detection is the key. So I suppose it's a necessary part of life, and my husband says that it sounds way better than what they do at his annual exam, where he says that they do much more than ask probing questions.

Lost in Space

2010-02-11T10:22:00.000-05:00

Back soon!! (Promise!)
:)

Coming Clean

2010-01-16T20:50:00.015-05:00

My name is Cathy and I bought a Snuggie for Christmas. And I bought it for the dog. Yes, the dog. I'm not proud of it, but it's time to come clean and admit the awful truth. . . A Snuggie. For the dog. For Christmas. Maybe it was a moment of weakness. Perhaps I was sucked into the late-night world of infomercial madness, or maybe I succumbed to the stellar Snuggie marketing campaign.

Whatever the reason, Cooper has a Snuggie. And he wears it. Proudly.

[I'd show a pic of Coop actually wearing his new Snuggie, but our computer was attacked by the H1N1 or some other horrible virus, so I'm unable to download pics at this time. Stay tuned.....]

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T09:31:00.004-05:00

Suddenly everything 2009 seems so "yesterday."

Now, show us whatcha got, 2010!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T08:46:00.000-05:00

"Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."– Luke 2:10-12

The Eye of the Beholder

2009-12-15T07:46:00.014-05:00

Last weekend the Nash family left the comfort of our warm, dry home and went on our annual quest to find the perfect Christmas tree. It's been our tradition since the kids were small, to find our Christmas tree on our own farm; and this year was no different. So off we went. We searched high. We searched low. We searched far. We searched wide. We searched north. We searched south. We walked miles. We braved the cold. We avoided angry beavers. We fought briers. We stepped in mud. We stepped in water. We got wet. We lost interest. We got desperate. We came home with a tree.
Any tree.
And this.......

......is why you leave the Christmas tree growing to the professionals.

Don't judge. It looked much worse before this photo was taken. Our poor little "Charlie Brown-esque" tree was a bit muddy from being ~~dragged~~ carried home. It was also noticeably thinning at the top and a little pudgy around the middle. After undergoing a little cosmetic tree surgery and some serious strategic nipping and tucking it looked a little better.

Anyway, we dried off, drank some hot chocolate and began to survey the situation. This sad little tree would simply have to do, so we cranked up the Christmas music and set to work. We added the lights, the vintage-style beads and a wide assortment of handmade preschool ornaments from Christmases past. We reminisced and laughed and laughed and laughed some more. When all was said and done, the tree was pronounced......
...... perfect. :)

At least it smells wonderful. And for the record, it looks a lot better at night.

[P.S. The pups got in on the Christmas spirit too. That's Cooper in the first photo looking for squirrels. The ugly plastic tree-stand is still visible because I had to remove our traditional tree skirt so Jude wouldn't chew it up. All the ornaments in the lower 1/3 of the tree have been removed for the same reason. Merry Christmas! ~cn]

Shhhhh....

2009-12-12T20:05:00.003-05:00

This is just between you and me, but here's a sneak peek for the SpookyTimeJingles update on December 13. Be sure to check out the artists at STJ, where it's always spooky and jingly.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at STJ

2009-12-06T13:40:00.006-05:00

12/8/09---The auction is on! Click here to see the tree or to bid.

SpookyTimeJingles presents our VERY FIRST complete collector's Christmas Tree! It's a 6 foot tree filled with original, one-of-a-kind handmade Christmas Ornaments made by SpookyTimeJingles artisan's! Also includes a handmade tree topper and a tree skirt- all original works of art!

Check it out starting tomorrow.

[Update: 12/7/09---Hang in....the auction link will be up soon!]

No More Mr. Nice Guy

2009-11-25T19:49:00.013-05:00

The following is a comment which appeared twice today on a 2 year old post, once in English and once in French. It's written by "Anonymous" and I'm thinking Anonymous is a fancy way of saying Spam-bot. This is what the comment said, word for word:

"Our well-bred support team of hilarious equipped pharmacists resolve take you Best Discount Pharmacy On-line, consulting on disparate healthiness questions."

[Editor's note: I removed the website URL mentioned in the comment because I don't want to be an accomplice for such mindless "marketing." Plus if I re-posted the URL, it might just encourage Son-of-Spam to also lurk around the 2 year old comment section of my blog.]

*****

If you're like me, most of the time receiving a comment on a blog post is like getting a virtual high five. It's an affirmation that what you wrote touched someone in some way. Leaving or receiving a comment is a little piece of humanity that transcends the miles and reaches out across the nameless Blog-o-sphere to offer a human touch.

The above comment, however, does not, and it just annoys me on so many levels. First, it's so poorly written and so impersonal and it has nothing to do with the post on which it appeared. Plus, it doesn't take a rocket scientist or an IT guy to know that this comment is obviously spam. Nobody likes spam; and no matter how you slice it, dice it, saute it, marinate it, or fry it, spam is still spam. . . and nobody really knows what the heck spam is even made of.

Okay now let's talk about the content of the "comment." I may not be an English professor, but grammatically, this comment is akin to listening to someone scratch a chalkboard while having a tooth drilled at the dentist. And the word choice?! Just strange. What in the world does"disparate healthiness questions" even mean? Disparate healthiness?? Maybe something was lost in translation from Spam-sylvania.

And while we're at it, did you notice how the spam pharmaceutical "support team" is described? Perhaps I'm too picky, but when I'm in the market for medicine, I'm usually more interested in the fact that the pharmacist is a real-live, breathing person and that he/she can read and fill a prescription correctly. Period. It's all business for me. I really don't care if the pharmacist is "well-bred" or "hilarious." CVS is not a country club and it's certainly not a comedy club.

I've just about had it with these insidious spam messages, so in an effort to "stick it to the ~~man~~ Spam-bot," I'm writing this open letter to all the weird, creepy, nosey, questionable, grammatically-challenged robots (well-bred or not) out in the Blog-o-sphere. (If I could find a way to reverse-spam this to all the robots in the world I would.)

To Spamever it may concern,

Your recent unwanted attempt at soliciting my patronage has forced me not only to leave my mini-vacation to deal with your insidious assault on my blog and my email, but it has also caused me untold annoyance and personal real-live, human distress. I am not now, nor in the future, interested in hearing about your "discount pharmaceuticals" whether or not you are hilarious, well-bred, or can answer my disparate healthiness questions.

Kindly keep your creepy, non-human robotic tentacles out of the comment section of my blog archives. If you continue invading my virtual personal space, I may be forced to resort to more aggressive means of defending my home turf; to fight fire with fire, or in this case, Spambots with Spam-i-cide, otherwise known as the dreaded Letter Verification.

Sincerely and humanly yours,

Cathy

*******************

[Update: I've received 4 more comments from Sir Spam-a-lot, which has forced me to initiate the comment letter verification function. I know how inconvenient it is to wade through letter verification but I have no other choice. Sad how a few bad spam-apples can spoil it for everyone else. My apologies to all the real people.]

Opposites Don't Necessarily Attract

2009-11-08T15:36:00.032-05:00

This is our dog Cooper. (He looks a little like Rin Tin Tin, but don't let this classic, take-on-the-world pose fool you. He has a major Napoleon complex.)

This is our other dog Jude. (Don't let his cuteness fool you either. He goes by many names: Sir Chews-a-lot, Night Stalker, and The Destroyer. You've met Jude on several occasions: here , here, here, and here.)

This is Jude's lair. It's a one foot space behind our sofa. There's always a revolving assortment of "treasures" stashed here, including shoes, pencils, stuffed animals, bras, various candy wrappers and misplaced rolls of toilet paper. Whenever something is missing, I can almost always find it here, usually half-chewed and soggy.

This is Cooper and Jude together. This snapshot says much about their love/hate relationship. Jude loves to annoy Cooper, and play. Cooper loves to hate Jude, and hide. Just look at the eyes on Cooper's face. Talk about a picture worth a thousand words.

These two pups are about as opposite as you get. Jude is a Shih-poo, and he's a cute, fluffy, bouncy bundle of mischievous fun. And Cooper. . .well, Cooper is not. He is a rat terrier, and he was just born old. . . and grumpy. Plus, Cooper has really thin skin, both figuratively and literally. I think his old-man, frumpy nature goes back to his early days with us. Cooper was a Christmas gift from Santa, and his name really should have been "Bah-Humbug." Santa brought Cooper to our house even though Mrs. Claus really didn't think a puppy was a good idea at the time, especially not an inside puppy. So Santa and Cooper formed a bond of solidarity and Cooper has been a one-person dog ever since; and that person is not Mrs. Claus.

Cooper is all about business. His sole mission on this earth is to eat as much food as he possibly can, to protect our home from squirrels, to chew holes in every blanket in our house, and to escape from Jude. Jude on the other hand is all about fun. He lives for the moment and delights in finding (or creating) mischief. He is the definition of Epicurean. One of his favorite antics, besides splashing in mud puddles and driving Cooper insane, involves running through the house with someone's shoes or underwear.

This is what I deal with/ listen to all day long. It's mostly good-natured fun, but occasionally the gloves come off and the play-fighting escalates into a real spat. It's like I've been teleported back 15+ years when I was refereeing 3 munchkins and a newborn.

Speaking of 3 munchkins and a newborn. . . (Nice segue, huh? :) This a pic of what the 3 munchkins look like now. And wonder of wonders, they really enjoy hanging out with each other. These guys have been in and out of our house a lot this fall. It's like a revolving door of college books, ipods, and laundry.

This is my newborn. (Her photo editing too.) She recently earned her learner's permit, but that is an entirely different post. :)

And this is Santa. Santa comes home for R and R from Iraq in 3 days.

Cooper and Mrs. Claus are very happy. :)

2009-11-06T12:03:00.004-05:00

Thoughts and prayers for the victims at Fort Hood and their families.

Cats Play and Pumpkins Gleam

2009-10-31T22:30:00.004-04:00

Have a safe and happy Halloween.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

2009-10-29T17:50:00.003-04:00

This is just about the only kind of spider I like.....the cute, hand made, fun kind! I won this whimsical ornament in a recent giveaway from Swirly Designs. Swirly Designs features the wonderful hand-sculpted polymer clay creations of Lianne and Paul, a husband and wife team. You can check out their other unique designs here.

A Bark Worse Than a Bite

2009-10-26T08:29:00.010-04:00

What better way to start a new week than a return to the weird and wacky news from my local paper. I don't even know what to say about this latest installment. . . but I suspect that it really didn't matter how convincing the woman needed to be in order to scare off an intruder. (For the record, I don't think the people who live around here are any weirder or wackier than most; and based on my latest perusal of "People of WalMart," I'm convinced that weirdness is a universal malady.)~cn

Anyway, for your reading pleasure(?), I present the following:

***************

Woman acts like a dog to scare off man
A Simmons Street woman scared off a would-be burglar about 11 p.m. Saturday by acting like a dog, an Athens-Clarke police report said.
When a suspicious man tried turning the woman's door knob, she got on the floor and began scratching at the door and acting like a large dog, police said, though what dog-like behaviors she specifically mimicked remains unknown.
The man, who wore an olive jacket, quickly ran from the porch, according to the report. Police searched the neighborhood for him, but to no avail.

news@onlineathens.com Story updated at 8:10 pm on 10/25/2009

Have a great week!!

Boo

2009-10-23T23:24:00.005-04:00

Recently I was asked to contribute a few of my 'spookies' for a show called Penumbra hosted by a local gal, Moon Mama. The show opens tomorrow and will run through Halloween at Fringe Collective Artistic Studios at 159 N Jackson St in Athens.

Halloween.......

2009-10-21T16:28:00.001-04:00

10. . . .10 days 'til Halloween.

Brought to You By. . .

2009-10-14T07:56:00.005-04:00

The spooky..........

And the jingly................

SpookyTimeJingles : The place for all things Sweet & Spooky. Plus there are tons of great, FREE door prizes up for grabs each month!!

(My page at STJ)

Is That a 9 or a g? (Revisited)

2009-10-07T09:16:00.005-04:00

Am I the only one who gets just a bit nervous when posting a message or filling out some online form, and then at the end, you have to try to figure out those funky letters which are supposed to weed out "robots." I'm sure I spend waaaay too much time studying those odd looking letters or numbers, and hesitate just a bit too long when it's time to click the "next" button. What if I'm wrong---is that a "t" or a really tall "r"? And if I can't quite figure out if it's a 9 or a lower case "g," will I be sent directly to robot purgatory or added to some robot watch list?! When I do get it wrong, I feel just a little chastised as an entire set of NEW characters appears. Maybe some Big Brother robot is snickering, "Here, dummy, try these."
I know it's not rocket science, but as I move my mouse to click "next," I can't help imagining the old robot from Lost in Space warning, "Danger Will Robinson. . . I think that was a 9!!"

[Sorry, this is a re-post from exactly 2 years ago today, but it is so apropos--apparently I'm still plagued with these same verification-deciphering issues. It took me 3 tries to post a comment today on someone's blog.....I'm just wondering when the cyber-verification-patrol will take away my commenting privileges. Either that, or they'll send me a prescription for some stronger reading glasses. ~cn]

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words. . .

2009-10-06T08:18:00.004-04:00