Huh?

My left ear started ringing about two hours ago. Now, it's plugged up with a low ringing sound constantly in the background. Really quite annoying!

My husband can't hear out of his left ear. His did the same thing about a year ago, and the hearing never returned.

His deafness irritates me. I know, that sounds really mean. I have to repeat everything I say to him like 4 times. He listens to the television with the volume set at 24. Normal conversations are a thing of the past. It drives me insane. For Christmas I bought him one of those Miracle Ear things. I was trying to be helpful. He was highly offended.

Now, I'm worried. You know how they say as you get older you start to look like your spouse? What if you also take on other characteristics? What if you become deaf in your left ear like they do?

Boy we'll be quite the pair. We'll be like old folks at the nursing home yelling back and forth. "What'd ya say?" "How's that again?"

Lovely.

I'll bet our kids will love to be around the two of us! Bonus for them though. If they try to sneak out of the house while we're both asleep on our right sides they'll have it made!

Stone Sober!

Ya'll think of me this year completely stone sober and with the inlaws! This will be the first time in 38 years I haven't celebrated a Christmas in the company of at least one of my own family members. My parents are in Texas, my brother always abandons us for his inlaws, and this year my sister is abandoning me for her boyfriend. I'll be an orphan in the midst of chaos within my own home with no alcohol running through my veins! I hope my sister is reading this and feeling guilty! ; )

So, ya'll have a glass of wine for me this Christmas!

Have a wonderful and blessed holiday with your families!

Merry Christmas!!!

I'm A Facebook John

I'm in love with Facebook. It's like mini blogging. If you haven't tried it yet, you must!

So people I'm still online - I just have this other addiction on the side. I'm pimping myself out. So many Johns, so little time!

Wrinkle Free Clothes & Pocket Change!

I'm striving to be more organized.

I am a work in progress!

After tackling an established dinner menu plan for each week, and a printable grocery list, which has met the longivity of the past two weeks, (I rock!) today I decided it was time to tackle the closet in my bedroom and the overflowing mess it was. Including the clothes basket which has been on a rotating clothing status for the past year. No, I'm not kidding. I've had a clothes basket sitting in front of my closet for the past year that I've been basically living out of.

I know, I'm completely lazy.

I should be much more ashamed than I am.

Hey, life got busy and putting away my laundry, outside of my dress clothes for work, got moved to the bottom of the household chart. That's my excuse for the past five months. I really have no excuse for the previous 7 months. I just didn't wanna.

So, today I dug everything out of my closet and made a huge mess in the bedroom. Unfortunately, I didn't get it all put away and cleaned up before the hubby needed to head to bed, so I'll have to tackle it again tomorrow.

I did however make some money while cleaning. I dug through some old purses I found in the bottom of my closet. I found a gift card to Target for $15 that may or may not still have money on it. I also found $1.92 in cash!

It's the small things in life that make me smile!

Tomorrow, I'll go digging around in there again to see if I can make a few more bucks! Oh, yea, and to make it all shiny and organized and whatever....

Who knew putting away laundry could be quite so lucrative?

Happy Thanksgiving! Pizza Anyone?

I pride myself on my ability to throw a mean holiday dinner. Lots of prep goes into the planning, shopping, and cooking. My table is set with my best dishes, candles flicker across the table top, everything makes it's way to the table at the same time and is hot and yummy.

Today, well today didn't quite go that away. Dinner at my house for my sister and her boyfriend was to be at 12:30. At 8:30 I pulled the 20# turkey out of our spare refrigerator to find it completely frozen. It had been "thawing" in there for 3 1/2 days, yet there was no thawing of that bird - no, it was completely and utterly frozen solid.

A quick shower and a mad dash to the local grocery store, which was thankfully open, and I scored two 3 lb. turkey breasts. The bag claimed they could go from freezer to oven and arrive at my dinner table with no fuss, completely cooked to perfection, in 2 1/2 hours. Perfect for a crazed woman who had family arriving for dinner in 2 1/2 hours!

Dinner was nearly done when my guests arrived. Everything looked and smelled wonderful. The turkey breasts were cooking quite nicely and I was feeling pretty smug that I had saved the day. As I was frying homemade onion rings to place on top the green bean casserole,(yes, I go over the top) I placed the mashed potatoes, which were finished and ready to eat, in the oven to stay warm until the casserole was finished. Everything finally cooked and ready to serve, I opened the oven to find a large pile of something whitish/yellow burning on the bottom of my oven. I stood there staring trying to figure out what it was, then after realizing it was the mashed potatoes, wondering how they ended up out of the Pyrex dish and all over the bottom of my oven? Seems that although Pyrex is oven safe, placing a skillet lid with a metal ring around it makes the Pyrex dish no longer oven safe. Who would have guessed?

We spent the next 10 minutes scraping a heap of mashed potatoes and broken Pyrex out of the bottom of the oven. My sister's boyfriend deemed the remaining potatoes which were sitting on a larger chunk of broken glass fairly safe to still eat. I didn't think slivers of glass in my intestines was the way I wanted to spend Black Friday and decided I'd stick with the stuffing.

A few minutes later we sat down at my perfectly decorated table and ate our now semi cold meal in the midst of a cloud of smoke, with the aroma of burnt potatoes lingering all around.

Next year, I'm thinking a nice dinner out might be in the cards.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope your dinner was less eventful than mine!

Friendship, The Greatest Gift You Can Give Yourself!

I have been so very fortunate in my life to have great friendships. I'm blessed by many wonderful woman in my life, and some great guys too!

I can't imagine my life without these people in it.

I have many layers of friendships. Some people I call friend, but only see every once in a while. Some I call friend, and make a point to spend time with. Others I call friend and be sure to set aside time frequently to be around. And, yet a close few of others have become as dear to me as family. I love these women.

I've thought a lot about friendships lately. I love the support they provide me with in my life. The kind words, the thoughtful deeds, and way they support you and have your back when life gets you down or things go array. It's very comforting to know they're just a phone call, email, text message, or short car ride away.

Growing up I remember my parents being around their friends quite a bit. My Mom forged good friendships over her life, but I've also seen those friends come and go. I believe she'd still call many of them friends, but yet doesn't make much time for them any longer. My Dad however has forged numerous close friendships. He has kept his friends pretty close and still visits with them on the phone even from Texas during their time at their winter home. This is probably fairly rare in the male department. My husband isn't one to forge many friendships outside of work, or outside our circle of friends. He doesn't usually call people to see if they want to go hang out or grab a beer. That's just not him. It has always been my Dad though. Maybe it's because he used to hunt, so he had a few friends he did that with, or maybe because he bowled on different leagues, so he had bowling buddies. Or, maybe because he ran a business for over 40 years and made close friends with several of his customers. Whatever the difference, he too has been blessed by great friends in his life.

Lately my heart has gone out to him. He's getting to the age that he's losing many of his friends. Over the course of the past few years he has had several of his close friends pass away. One of the few times in my life I've ever saw my Dad shed tears was at the funeral of one of his closest friends. I was only 18 at the time, and it broke my heart.

I just had to break the news to him this week over the phone that one of his friends is approaching his last days. This is a friend that I can remember my Dad having since I was very young. It will be a hard loss for my Dad. Harder yet since my Dad is 1000 miles away and won't get the opportunity to say goodbye to this friend. Changes are he won't make it home for the funeral with winter travel being an issue.

All this has made me reflective of my own friendships lately. It has made me even more thankful for the wonderful people I have in my life and the beautiful caring woman I call friends! I love you all!

A New Route

Do you ever feel like you're stuck on the, Just Getting By Bus, when what you really want to do is change routes and board the, Live Life To The Fullest Plane?

Yep, that's how I'm feeling.