Isn't insomnia just a pain in the rear? For some reason I am just WIDE awake and here is 3:35 a.m. and I've been awake since 2 a.m. I finally gave up tossing and turning (and scratching) and decided to get up and read.
I mentioned that this past weekend we did work around the house. We cleaned out the front flower bed which was wildly overgrown. It had too many plants in it, and they were growing over the top of each other. As I started trimming with the lopper I realized that something had to go. So four juniper shrubs are now history. I don't know how anything at all was still alive in that bed. It was so wet! I would've known it was being over-watered if I could actually see the ground! I'm not going to mention the unfortunate hydrangea incident. But let's just say two hydrangea bushes have now been pruned. Completely. And yes, they were in full bloom. It's hard to communicate when your drenched in sweat , itching and feeling like your going to pass out. What we have left now in that flower bed is about half of what was there before.
An hour or two later I noticed intense itching and went to scratch and felt the bumps under my waist band of my shorts and knew instantly I'd been bitten by chiggers.
DANGIT!!! I try not to hate anything but I really hate chiggers. The itch lasts for what seems like forever.
I always know to take precautions when I'm out in the woods but I didn't expect my yard to have chiggers. I really don't know how anything could survive my exterminator's treatments. (Oh yeah... it was a jungle in that bed.) I got to wondering tonight while I was sitting here itching. What IS a chigger? Let me just warn you... don't go and google it. Especially if your eating your Cheerios. I always wondered if chiggers are a "southern thang" because I never really hear of anyone up north talking about chiggers. And I was actually kind of surprised that there is a bug called a CHIGGER. I figured it might be a name we southern people came up with that actually is the something or other mite.
I'm really itching now.. by the way! You just can't read or talk about stuff like that without itching uncontrollably.
I'm going to try to rest for a little while now so I won't be a complete grump tomorrow. But I'm going to leave you with a sweet thought (so you won't think about chiggers).
I am proud to be from the south ~ where the tea is sweet and accents are sweeter ~ summer starts in April ~ front porches are wide and words are long ~ macaroni and cheese is a vegetable, pecan pie is a staple ~Ya'll is the only proper pronoun ~chicken is fried and biscuits come with gravy ~Everything is darling and someone is always getting their heart blessed!
We worked HARD this weekend around the house. It's cathartic experience. Working until you are soaked in sweat and hurting. But it is so nice after it's all done. We both woke up with breathing issues today after cleaning out flower beds. I was thinking to myself... how did this get so bad? Why did I not clean it up in the spring? But then I remembered that I was still going to physical therapy in the spring. (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).
I got to watch Pioneer Woman's first cooking show this weekend. I just love seeing people from my home state do well. I think because you just feel like it's someone you could relate to. But I ended up getting quite a shock during this time. One of my friends told me about a website that is dedicated to bashing her. I had to go look for myself. I guess sometimes I am Pollyanna. I was IN SHOCK. It was hateful hateful hateful!!!! I cannot believe the time and the energy that a person would put into hating someone that much. As I cleaned all weekend long I'd think back to it and think WHY?!!! What makes a person dedicate all of their time to obsessing over someone and pouring out all of your nasty hateful thoughts to the rest of the world? That is just a sick and disgusting thing to do! As my friend Susan said "I'm just far too lazy to work that hard at hating someone." Amen to that! Can you imagine being so filled with animosity that you would do something like that? It's disturbing to me and I am ready to go back to my little bubble of happiness. I like it in there!
I took a picture of last night's meal. Not because it was unique or special.. but because I wanted to show you guys that I simply cannot cook a meal for two people! It's ridiculous. I made enough food (and so did Joe) that we could have fed 6 people.
Chicken Strips, onion rings, sweet corn, salad
I was going to make chicken... but for some reason we decided that one package of chicken strips just didn't look like enough so we thawed out another package. I'd never made homemade onion rings before (shocker, I know) and so I cut up 2 large onions. Then Joe got out the corn and put together a salad.
Who eats this much food? Needless to say, it was more than we could handle. When we will figure this out??? I was REALLY proud of my onion rings. I kept thinking that Hazel would be proud of me. She showed me when I was in high school how she made the ones at Shangri-La Resort on Lake Ouachita. Those onion rings are the standard that I've held every other order of onion rings to. Anyway, these were pretty darn good! I may have to do this again soon. Maybe I can do them this weekend for our company.
So.. my back is a little sore today.. I think it's going to be a laundry day (and recovery day) . I hope everyone has a blessed Monday and everyone is filled with happiness, laughter, and love!
Life is good!!!
My husband and I bought a little patio set years ago when our kids were little. I consisted of 2 chairs, a side table and a plant rack. We still had all the pieces up until a few years ago and the chairs were blown into the lake by a storm. I'm sure they're still under our dock, but I'm not going to go look!
This poor plant rack had been hidden away behind the fence by our trash cans and was being used to store clay pots, and various other things. It's hard to tell but it was very rusty from years of neglect. I've wanted to paint the remaining 2 pieces but haven't had much time. Well, guess what? I have time now! I found some Rustoleum spray paint at Lowe's.
I was going to settle for green or even black but then I found this nifty color!
Oil rubbed bronze. Cool!
And spray cans have come such a long way. Last time I spray painted something I had a indentation with an arrow shape on my finger from having to push on the button on the top of the can for such a long time. It hurt!
But these cans are easy-peasy!
The finished side table looking all pretty again!
Finished plant rack
But you guys know me! I am such a tomboy. I make and get into messes quite often. While I was painting I was barefoot because that's how you'll find me any given day.. barefoot! I could tell my feet were sticking to the tarp but I thought.. well, it's on my feet already might as well keep going! So by the time I got finished painting, the bottoms of my feet had a very nice oil rubbed bronze finish. I yelled for Joe to bring me some soap because I couldn't walk anywhere. He brought me this stuff. This is cleaner that Evan had brought home from Lowe's. He claimed it was the best product for cleaning dirty, greasy hands. I figured it was safer for me to use this than a paint remover. This says it's non- toxic and safe. I was a bit of a skeptic, though, that it would get the paint off. But, by gosh, it did! It got every last bit of it off!
You know I love to share cool products and this one qualifies. It lives next to our utility sink in the laundry room.
Thank you Evan!
Heading BACK to Tulsa today to pick up my vehicle. I'm concerned because my warranty is out now and I need to decide if I want to trade it or keep it. I've had issues with it being reliable but "seems" to be better now even though my turbo something or other is out right now. What would I get that I would like any better than this vehicle is my main question. I love that this vehicle has been SO functional. It holds up to 7 people, we can take long road trips with it, haul the boat with it, and it's still luxurious and sporty. If I'm going to trade I want a vehicle that is going to not only equal this one but make it worth the hassle . ( sinking money into a trade, taxes, etc.) SIGH...... It seems to me like I should keep this one. The only vehicles that I think compare to it are the Lexus SUV's. I like other crossovers but they don't have the storage capacity as mine. what to do, what to do...
I am looking forward to the weekend and having my husband home! I need to plant some stuff this weekend. Yes, I bought plants yesterday. I had time to kill while waiting on the dealership to call so I went to a nursery. I found these cool purple pepper plants! :)
Have the Carne Guisada recipe to share with you when I get back. I made this recipe and it's good but I really don't know if that's how it's supposed to taste or not! I've never had it in a restaurant before. But I followed about 3 different recipes from people that I felt were reliable.
Time to get ready~ talk to you soon!
I don't think Joe or I either one slept very long at all last night. I was up from about 2 am to 6 am. Then I was ready to sleep! haha Isn't that the way it always goes? About the time you get up you could sleep really great. It was lightening for one thing and that had the dogs stirred up, then Mazie kept coughing all night. Fur ball, perhaps? I don't know. Anyway she isn't coughing now that it's broad daylight and everyone is awake. :)
2 things: I discovered that I can upload pictures onto my blog in the middle of the night. I tried ALL DAY yesterday to upload even just one picture to no avail. So, I did get my pasta pics uploaded and was able to post a recipe today! Yay!
I also discovered that I am just full of great ideas in the middle of the night (recipes, etc..) and then when I wake up they have vanished from my mind.
I'm really excited about sharing the recipes for my Johnnie's inspired theta sauce! I made another batch yesterday and this one was delicious! I will TRY to upload pics and get this recipe posted.
I hope everyone has a great day! Stay cool!! It's going to be a hot one!!!
<3
I am officially in my empty nest funk. Half the time I have been cleaning and taking on projects and half the time I just really don't feel like doing anything. How do you get past this? Anyone? Bueller?....
I have been so incredibly frustrated with our internet service. You see, we live close to a small town but we are still sort of in the country. We only have a couple of options since we don't have DSL here in the sticks. My little town doesn't even have 3G. Which is.. well, it's frustrating too, but that's not what I'm ranting about right now. It's really hard to edit my photos or blog when about half way through you signal gets "dropped" and oopsy! There went that! I had gotten to the point where I'd write a sentence and then save it, write another sentence and save it. I shouldn't have to deal with that. It takes a lot to make me mad and I was getting MAD. Yesterday when my husband called they gave him the same old instructions about testing our router. Then they called him back shortly and said they ran some tests and there was definitely a problem at my house. So the guys came and sure enough.. my outside antenna wasn't working so they replaced that, and on top of that they've decided they have major tower issues. They assure me it will be fixed by the end of the week. Last night they sent out a mass text to their customers saying they will be replacing equipment. Maybe that vein in my forhead will stop bulging now and I can go back to blogging.
I made a YUMMY dinner last night. Do you guys ever watch The Barefoot Contessa? I absolutely love to watch her cook. It's like taking a big ol' valium. Her voice is soothing and she just looks like the nicest lady. I want to be her when I grow up. So I was watching her videos yesterday on The Food Network and decided to make her Chicken Piccata. After all, she makes everything look so easy. And you know what? I did it! My food came out looking exactly like hers and when we were eating last night my sweet husband said he felt like Jeffrey. :)
I have a recipe to share with you all today and I hope if you'll try it! (If I can get it on my blog)
Today's project for me is to work on this Johnny's sauce project again. I did a little bit of undercover work while I was in Norman. I went to Johnnie's and had another #9 Theta Burger. (It's a tough job but somebody's gotta do it). I even got extra sauce so that I could taste it and try to figure it out. I think I'm getting close! I realized while I was there that even if I can get close to replicating their sauce I'll never reach the point where I won't want to go there to eat. It's the way they cook their burgers on the char broiler. It's part of the combination of what makes their burger so popular.
It's good to be home! I had a lot of fun (believe it or not) moving the kids to Norman. And I stayed long enough that I was ready to come home and they were ready for me to leave! Amy went to Convocation a couple of days ago and David Boren spoke. During his speech he told a story about how a student had come to his office years ago and said that he really needed to speak to him in private about something. The kid seemed distressed so he called him in his office and asked what was wrong. The student said "It's my mom." and David Boren said "yes..??" and the student said "She won't leave! She's been here 9 days!" I asked Amy if the crowd laughed and she said "oh yeah!" I know for a fact my daughter was laughing because that had to have hit a little close to home! I was there for 7 days!
I could have come home after I got her moved into her dorm and Evan set up with groceries and various other things in his apartment. But then I would have driven the 4 hour drive home and had to turn around and go right back in 2 days for Bid Day. So it didn't make much sense to travel that much. Especially after my husband was caught in traffic on the toll road due to 3 different multi-car pileups on his way to Norman on Friday.
So everything went SUPER for Bid Day. My girl got her preferred house. She was very excited!
I got to go visit her new sorority house and meet more people than I could ever remember! It was a special day!
It was a fun and exhausting week for the girls and I know every single one of them were just thankful it was OVER. And even as a mom I was all tied up in knots hoping everything would work out. After all, you just want college to get off to a GREAT START, right?
I should've known I had nothing to worry about. My girl is just so darn happy to be there nothing is bothering her. Not the fact that it rained on move-in day, or the fact that we had to climb four flights of stairs to get to her room, or that her air conditioner was broke... NOTHING! That is a happy child!
So today is my daughter's pref day for rush. She usually finds out about her houses she gets to go back to in the morning. So this morning I patiently wait... and try not to call and bug her. She eventually calls me and tells me she'll find out at 2:00.
Two p.m. rolls around and I wait. And wait.. then start wondering "what if she's too upset to call?" Then finally at 3:15 she calls asking for my credit card information so she can buy season tickets for football. (that's my girl!) And so I gingerly ask.."did you find out anything?" She replies "about what?" seriously. Then she says "ohh... yeah, we go at 4:00".
This is a painful process.
It's been crazy the last couple of days getting the kids moved, buying groceries, etc.. But Evan's apartment is slowly feeling less like a hotel room and more like a home for him. He's doing a really nice job of making it his own. He has his own list of things he wants and needs for his place that I haven't thought of. (which is amazing.. because I've thought a LOT about it.)
Today, for example, he decided he needed a desk. He didn't want to move his desk from home because it's an antique and belonged to my dad and also my mother's dad. And he's right. It's a GREAT study desk but it's just not meant for life in an apartment. Someday he'll end up with this desk, I'm sure, but it just wasn't meant to be right now. So, he came home with a big oblong box from one of those cool stores that we don't have in our little hometown. (cough. Target.)
He dumped out the box and... oh . my. gosh. The parts! It's in a thousand pieces.
And this picture really doesn't do justice to ALLLLLLLLL the pieces that are there. For instance his body is blocking a bunch of the pieces.
I have no doubt, whatsoever, that he'll have this desk assembled within an hour or so. He has always been one of those gifted minds who just sees things differently from the rest of us. He can look at a pile and pick different pieces almost instantly.
From the time he was a toddler we always got him Duplos to play with.. the big Legos that are chunky. They're made for little people. Then he quickly moved on to legos. I recall buying them despite the warnings that he could choke on the pieces. He was far to young for those sets according to the age levels they recommend on the box.
But then he was just never really challenged... you'd buy a $200 box of Star Wars Legos thinking it would keep him occupied for a week and the little guy would be downstairs within an hour saying... "Want to see? I'm done!". At first, I'd think.. for real? I'd go look but I wouldn't believe it until I'd see it. Sure enough...
He joined the "Legomaniac" club. He got magazines showing him how to do extra things with his Lego pieces. We had a huge HUGE tub of lego parts. And it would've made us mad.. except he played with them all the time. We used to tell him that if he'd go to M.I. T. he could play with Legos in school.
I can't tell you how many times those blasted pieces got stepped on causing a deep bruise on my foot. Too many times to count for sure! I think our bucket of Legos had to be comprised of hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of pieces. But in the end.. we gave them away to another Legomaniac who shared the same love. It was sort of sad to give them up. I thought he'd play with them forever.
What I'm realizing now. Just this night. We should have been buying FURNITURE for him to assemble!!! The cost is about the same.. There are just as many parts.. but the complication factor is exponentially greater.
I am hoping that I'll go to bed tonight and in the morning a desk will be fully assembled. I'll be sure to let you all know!!!
So parents of young kids take note!!! If Legos are no longer a challenge make it worth your while! Buy unassembled furniture!
Life is good!!!
