it's the little things...

See you when I get back!

So I previously alluded to poultry. Sunday before last I convinced The Brother to help me with my never-ending yard work . We finished the first phase of the bed on the side of the driveway. Such a big accomplishment! We were hurriedly bagging up weeds before the sun went down (you know, at noon), and we looked up to see a chicken at the end of the bed flick, flick, flicking mulch out of the bed and onto my pristine driveway. Sigh... I asked it if it would at least turn around while hunting so that the mulch stayed off my driveway. It complied. Seriously. A chicken. I went inside and was sitting at my computer and saw it walking around my front yard. My FSIL came by a little later to bring me a little gift and we were standing outside chatting. The chicken apparently made its way to the narrow alley side of my garage and was trying to propel itself through the tiny slats in the picket fence. Hello, chicken, you don't fit. Didn't stop it from trying. About 30 times. We gave u...

10 Best Games The prompt said we could pick any types of games. I'm being diverse. Sort of... Phase 10 : Card game introduced to me by one of my adoptive families. I've bought it since then and have spread it around a bit myself. We played a rousing game on Sunday. Area 51 : Video game. Shootin ' up aliens. We played this A LOT in college. If I were a freaky millionaire you could probably find this game in one of the many rooms of my mansion. Boggle : Love Boggle. The Brother bought it for me after we watched an episode of "King of the Hill" where Peggy won the championship with " acquaintanceship ." Dominoes : Good ol ' bones. It's a Texas thang . Domain : I bet no one has heard of this game. I don't even know where it came from but I could always beat The Brother at it. Life : Too bad no one ever wanted to play it with me when I was growing up... Taboo : Why don't I own this? Scattergories : Or this? Wii : This is new to me. Normally I...

A day late... No time for blogging yesterday. 10 Things for Which I'm Thankful My family. The one I was born into. The ones who have taken me in. All my friends. The ones near and far. The ones I see and talk to on a regular basis. The ones who linger in my background as I linger in theirs until we're needed. The Boyfriend. The one who has come to mean so much to me in so short a time. My health. My house (despite it being welcoming to all sorts of mammals and poultry--more on this later). My job. House shoes (hey, it's cold in here). My mind. Even though it seems like lately I misplace it a bunch. Having only a week until vacation. That my life is so full right now that my biggest complaint is how to juggle it all. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

From Bubba's Sis' blog... I figure it goes with all of the other cooking and baking we'll be doing over the next few days. cjh - a pound of cuteness - a dash of friendliness - 2 teaspoons of beauty Season and serve. 'What is your personality recipe?' at QuizGalaxy.com

10 Reasons Why It's Great to Be a Woman We get to wear make-up. When you have a bad skin day, you can hide it to some degree. Poor boys. So socially unacceptable. We have tons of clothing options. Have you ever noticed that men have maybe 4 shirt options? Go to a men's department--long-sleeved button downs, short-sleeved button downs, polos , t-shirts. It's acceptable (in many jobs) for us to wear open-toed shoes to work. One of my old co-workers (the only male) was very disturbed by this. Why couldn't he wear sandals? We have fantastic relationships with other women. We can have good relationships with men, too, but it's something special with girlfriends. Whatever we're going through, there's always someone there who understands. Or doesn't. But she's there anyway. We can have babies. When we have those babies, we can either choose to work or stay home (if we're lucky). Society frowns upon the SAHD much more than the SAHM . We can cry. Without...

When you've been gone so much that you just realized yesterday that you can't work in the yard after you get off at 5:00 (since, duh, the time changed), you can mix up your schedule today. Work work can get done when it's dark outside. This stuff can't. It's called "progress" people. Just a tiny bit of it this morning... (Yes, that's a gate...where was it before?)

10 Songs that Bring Back Memories Fall by Clay Walker --Does it matter that the memories are recent ones? This song makes me think of my brother and his fiance. Drops of Jupiter by Train --Ah, easier period of my life during grad school. I had responsibilities but, still, fewer than now. And an easier schedule. And a cute German. I also think of another college friend because it says the word "atmosphere." I Loved Her First by Heartland --Takes me to my cousin's wedding. Makes me freakishly emotional. That was the first time I had heard that song. My cousin's wife (who also lost her father at a young age) was standing across the dancefloor from me. I was tearing up anyway but when I looked across and saw her already really crying, I lost it as well. I'll Be There for You by Bon Jovi --Jr. High dances. The "super couple" from the grade ahead of me whom everyone wanted to be. Kokomo by The Beach Boys --The movie Cocktail . That my best friend from kinderg...

I'm feeling a little puny today. I don't think it has anything to do with the fact that this is what my side-of-the-driveway bed looks like (and that it should totally be my project for today): Do you think this looks good? Well, it doesn't. It looks crazy and overgrown and like a third of my driveway is missing. Oh, and like it's getting difficult to get into and out of cars. This picture is from maybe two weeks ago. Today? Because it's fall and all? Full of blooming hibiscus. At least that and the bees and butterflies may distract one from the horrible amount of work that needs to be done. Yeah, it doesn't distract me either. So the week before last when it actually was feeling like fall and I wasn't sitting here in the office in shorts and a tank, this was the view from my window. Yeah, those are blooming pink flowers and a white picket fence and a freshly mow n yard. This is pretty. I'm ok with you thinking that. It also contributed to my totally ...

It seems like I haven't shared any travel stories in awhile. I guess for the most part things have run smoothly. Lots of delayed flights over the summer but other than that... Monday night's agenda held yet another trip to Shreveport. I boarded the plane with my book in hand. When the flight attendant turned off the lights, my little personal light wouldn't come on. I was forced to just rest. And, you know, eavesdrop. The guy behind me was slightly obnoxious. He chatted with the guy next to him, and I found out that he was a cinematographer. He was on his way to Shreveport to do some pre-production work for a new movie called Comeback . It's apparently a feel-good, family film that oddly enough stars Ice Cube and is being directed by Fred Durst (of Limp Bizkit fame). I thought that was odd but apparently Fred's already directed one movie. Who knew? When we landed and everyone was getting ready to deplane, I noticed that Fred himself was three rows in front of me (...

Back, by popular demand, 10 on Tuesday. Wait, maybe it's back because the person who directs us on these has finally overcome her computer woes. Yea for that. 10 Words that Describe Me Smart Sarcastic Loyal Busy Hard-working Goal-driven Quietly (sometimes) emotional Happy Fortunate Crafty

Last night was my first Halloween in the house. I made it back in town in time to grab some candy for what I hoped would be many trick-or-treaters. There are lots of children in the neighborhood although my view may be skewed somewhat due to the after-school daycare that is down the street. We grew up in the country. There was no walking out the front door to the neighbor's house. We were driven the few miles into town and mostly trick-or-treated at homes of people we (meaning our parents) knew. Dad would drive us wearing this burlap bag he turned into a crude, creepy mask. It really startled people. And we'd wear our old-school plastic costumes and plastic masks (that would surely be deemed unsafe these days due to the threat of suffocating or melting to skin if set ablaze). We did not take our candy to have it x-rayed. We did not stay out late. Instead, we went back home to revel in the glory of our loot. In some ways, this Halloween was similar. I've grown accustomed to ...