Flowers for me??? I do declare.....

When I was in the hospital soon after giving birth to Googie my visiting dad made a funny comment...."How does it feel to have your own real live doll?"

Wow... I hadn't really thought about it that way.

A person, a little girl person who I could dress up and play house with.

Mine, all mine.

In the hospital the nurses brought her to me with tiny bows stuck on her head.

She had about 7 dark brown hairs on top of her noggin and since they had nothing to anchor the bows onto they used K-Y Jelly.

She looked lovely.

She put up with that crap until she was able to notice that something was on her head and then she'd pull everything I put in out.

"Darn it Googie, leave it in" I used to say, hitting her wee hand with a little ball-peen hammer ( I didn't really, I was just making sure you were paying attention)

Anyway, my plan was to make my doll the most beautiful doll anyone had ever seen.

(Not that she needed my help, just sayin)

I guess she had a similar plan.

When she was two, someone (Grandma Jan perhaps??) gifted her with a pink tiara.

It was a gaudy thing, sturdy plastic with a flag of pink chiffon material that blew in the air when she walked.

She didn't go anywhere without that tiara.

She got lots of attention at the grocery store.

And the pet shop.

And the doctor's office.

Yes, my doll was that adorable.

Even in that goofy tiara, she was simply cute as hell.

I've been noticing these beautiful huge azaleas around town and a few days ago I spotted one in my neighbors back yard.

I asked him if I could have it...ballsy, I know..but I had a plan.

How sweet that would look in someone's hair, Hawaiian style.

You know Dad,  you were soooo right about the fun I would have with my own real live doll.....

"Hold still you brat, give the K-Y time to dry."

She really is a good sport.

(Thanks kid for indulging your crazy azz mother)

This freakin azz freak flower is as big as a freakin dinner plate.

Another freaky thing....

On Saturday I celebrated an anniversary.....my First Blogiversary, I wasn't able to make myself a cake, so I stole a picture of one ( from Google Images and this website basic-yoga.mattters dot com.. Thank you basic-yoga.matters dot com for the picture)

Pooooo-poooooo-p-do!!!!!!

PS...To anyone who takes a minute or two to visit this blog and read it, thank you!

 I appreciate you!

And to those who comment.. I appreciate you x's 2.

xoxoxo

Free at last....

Oooooh that Jenny Matlock over at off on my tangent really has us working...here is her Saturday Centus challenge for this week....

Take any other Saturday Centus story (yours or someone else’s) and using ANOTHER 100 WORDS...tell us the "rest of the story".

Please copy and paste the first story so we can read both entries easily.
So...
A 100 word story that tells the rest of any previous Saturday Centus!, 
 
The story I chose to "finish" was started by a lovely lady over at a blog called Moonlight Hollow ( Hers is in blue, my "finish"will be in black/ bold itallics...)
 
 
It was an act of love.
 
He pulled the white sheets off my shoulders. His hand moved down my arm until it entwined itself with mine.


“Is this the way you want it?” he asked softly.


Pure love existed in that moment. I had one foot in reality and the other in heaven.


“I want you to do it now,” I whispered.


He didn’t hesitate. His body moved next to mine as he covered me with warm kisses.


As I snuggled into the crook of his arm, he reached down and unplugged my ventilator.


It was an act of love. That’s why it meant so much.
 
 
For weeks and weeks I rested on a cloud and watched his sadness.
 
His growing depression made it apparent he was second guessing what he’d done.

An act that weighed more heavily than I could have imagined when I first made the request.

Shackle free...

I’ll visit as a butterfly, just like I promised,

I’ll land on his arm, and flutter above his head.

And dart in and out of the flowers in our garden.

Carried by the wind, I’ll soar, and float and sail.

Letting him know that all is right in the place I now call home.

Wonderful feeling...wonderful day!

You know the drill, you get an A on a paper.

A pat on the back from your dad.

A high five from your boss.

You shoot, you score.

A home run...

you know,

a zippity-doo-dah-day.

Well, I had one of those yesterday...and it started the day before that.

One of the Loveables has been asking to make fried ice cream.

He's a bit of a nag...and so he's been asking a lot.

I get the impression that he asks for lots of things that he doesn't get.

Anyway day after day after day after day...."can we make fried ice cream today? when we gonna make fried ice cream? you promised we are going to make fried ice cream!!!"

On Wednesday he asked me again about the ice cream.

I explained to him that we needed a recipe, and we needed the "stuff" to complete said recipe.

And cash to pay for stuff.

And staff to drive the van to the store.

And so on and so forth.

Too much work. Too many details. Too little time."

But on this day Mr Bluebird was on our shoulders, it was the truth, it was actual, and ev'rything was satisfactual....

Zippity dooo dah....

And so on Wednesday the Loveables and the dedicated staff made baseball sized balls of vanilla ice cream, dipped them into a cinnamon sugar mixture,

then they rolled them into crushed corn flakes and packed them even tighter than snowballs.

They worked at breakneck-speed...if the ice cream got too soft, the balls would be ruined.

It was fun to watch them work.

And be a cooperative team.

It was fun to watch them run to the large walk in freezer with the balls on a large sheet tray where they would be spending the next 24 hours getting rock hard and ready to fry.

It was rewarding to hear the Loveables say "we did good" and "they look GREAT"  and "I can't wait until tomorrow".

On Thursday, the Loveable who started it all told our visiting chef "I've never worked faster in my life" ( I'm thinking I saw his hand reach around and pat his own back).

I told him how "spoiled" he was that everyone worked so hard to help him to finally get his fried ice cream.

He flashed me a 100 watt smile.

When chef fired up the fryer and dropped the first ball into the hot grease the Loveables watched, fascinated.

The staff watched fascinated, too.

"Hold the ball between the tongs" chef instructed "and when it starts to feel soft, pull it out".

They laid the hot ball onto a dab of hot fudge syrup and then we poured a spoonful on the top too.

Like my dad says "their tongue beat their brains out"...

I seriously don't think I've ever tasted anything so yummy.

A couple of the Loveables ate two balls of fried ice cream.

I think one ate three.

My, oh my, what a wonderful day,

Plenty of sunshine headin' my way,

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay......

Diary of a mad housewife....

Dear diary,

We have another mouse in our house.

Another mouse in our house.

(Dear Googie....if you are reading this and I have not yet spoken to you about this intruder...forgive me, it was too early to wake you up and scare you...hope you will forgive me. Walk hard and carry a big stick.... Love, Mom)

Have I told you lately how much I hate small things that sneak about my house (uninvited) and threaten to jump and run and scare the bejesus outta me?

I'm sure by now you know that I'm so jumpy I have to leave the room when the loveables are making anything using those damned canned biscuits that POP when you least expect it.

And my heart stops when a Jack in the Box blows...

It sucks being this jumpy..."a hen on a hot griddle" (my stepmom's description).

So from now on, until this creature is found I have to stomp (to make lots of noise) around my house wearing Daddio's old Doc Martin boots.

I'll be cringing before I sit down on the pot in the middle of the night....

I have no doubt, (none whatsoever) that Mighty Mouse/Rat can swim...or maybe float on some toilet paper left unflushed....

waiting to strike, to take a nibble.

We learned of this particular mouse when Bear and his girlfriend came up from the cave to report that they'd seen a creature running above their heads across the large square fluorescent light fixture....

"It had a huge, long tail" said the Devine Miss M,

"It might have been a rat"...

"Mouse? Rat? What the hell is the difference?

(Please..don't anyone write to tell me, thank you)

Daddio got out of bed and went to the area of the sighting, mouse trap in hand.

"THAT" he said pointing to a (very) small pile of white clothes laundry sitting on the basement floor next to the washing machine..."that right there is WHY we have a MOUSE in this HOUSE"

"Huh?" said I.

"They like dirty laundry?"

"They like moisture" he snapped.

"And that is why they are down here, because we  (that means me) have laundry laying all over the place"....

(Ohhhh freakin brother....)

After he set the trap he came upstairs and began cleaning the two or three small dessert plates left in the sink by the kids.

He cleaned every crumb from the counters.

I waited to see if he was going to sweep the floor too...(he didn't).

Later, back in bed, he told me that part of the problem is that we leave the dog food out.

"We used to pick it up off the floor at night" he reminded me.

(Previous uninvited mouse folk have eaten a chunk out of an ugly ugly green sweater that I left laying in the basement on a pile of other crap I didn't want, the beard of a really cool Santa that I got for 50% off at Michaels at an after Christmas sale, they also ate part of a foreign dollar bill that I'd been saving for years, and they even chewed up a hunk of pink fiberglass insulation...)

"I really don't think they are all that picky" I said to Daddio (remember??? you just told me that they eat dirty white towels and underwear off the basement floor??)

I tried to mentally add the cost of purchasing enough plastic storage bins to box up all our crap...

(We'd need to win the lottery.)

"They are after your pantry" Daddio said quietly before he went to sleep,

and just as he was about to drift off....

"they can smell all those things you have in there...those spices".

In my head I sing my sweet Knight in Shining Armor, the Mighty Mouse Hunter a good night lullaby...

"Have I told you lately that I love yooooo, have I told yoooooou there's no one else above yoooooou, fill my heart with laughter (FREAKIN,hysterical laughter.....)...shooooobeeeedobeedooobeeedoooobeeedo"

"Why are you shakin the bed???"

The smokin hot red sundress...a fine vacation memory

This weekend I had the pleasure of being a guest poster over at Lost and Holding Hands, Lynn the author of that blog was going on vacation and asked for a couple of vacation nightmare stories...I had a doozy.

It's called The smokin hot red sundress...(sorry Auntie T, I couldn't resist..and even though things didn't turn out as planned, as the song goes, "I wouldn't have missed it for the world".....)

Please read all about it here (and while your're there take a peek around, Lynn has a great blog).

Thanks Lynn for letting me blog sit for a post while you were away...hope your vacation is going as planned.

Oh and happy Monday!!!

What I did over my summer vacation....an essay.

Saturday Centus time, a themed writing meme. The challenge is to write 100 words to add to the prompt started by Jenny Matlock from off on my tangent.


The writing prompt is in (bold) itallics...




What I did over my Summer Vacation.


Hmmmm, let me think about what I did on summer vacation?

I thought about laying near water on hot sand.

I thought about sleeping till noon on a warm Saturday morning.

I thought about riding down man made hills of water on a rubber inner tube.

And midnight walks.

And growing gigantic tomatoes.

I imagined myself making smores and waving hot campfire smoke from my face.

I saw myself floating in the cool blue water of my above ground, watching the tree leaves sway above my head.

My summer vacation?

I guess you could say I daydreamed....

a lot.

BFFs

I've been having nightmares lately... like last night I woke up and thought the ceiling fan was a tarantula.

My heart pounded so hard I thought it was going to wake the dead Daddio.

Once I'm awake it's hard to let go of the thoughts in my head.

Thoughts that swirl, twirl, twist and grow more gigantic as I think them.

So after the tarantula fan turned back into a regular fan and my heart was naturally de-fibed back to a more regular beat I started thinking about Googie's getting married.

And then I didn't want to go there.

Not yet.

I still have a little more than a year.

Googie planned it that way.

It will take us that long to wean.

No, I'm not still nursing.

But it seems like just yesterday I was.

When Googie was a little girl we used to talk often about her lack of a sister.

Maybe it was because I was so close to mine?

Whatever it was, she missed not having one.

And voiced it.

A lot.

And it made me feel sad and guilty.

Not so much that I wanted to give her one...but still, I do like to fix things.

Especially longings of my children.

One day a five year old Googie was being particularly sad about being sisterless.

And so on her pity pot was she that she also claimed she was friendless as well.

Of course seeing my daughter in such emotional distress I came up with an idea.

How bout I be her best friend and sister???

My name would be Betsy.

And we would have all kinds of sister fun.

And best friend fun.

When we were alone Googie would ask if Betsy could come over and play.

She and Betsy would jump on beds, eat ice cream covered with chocolate syrup and crushed Oreos for dinner.

They would color and sing.

And watch movies and build forts with the couch cushions.

And tell secrets.

Especially about hating boys.

Googie and Betsy were best friends, as sisters often are.

Over the years Betsy came often, well, whenever Googie needed her, she was there.

And like lots of things that sit on a shelf and remind us of our childhoods' Betsy has a place in Googie's heart.

And I know she always will.

Googie even made her a card the other day.

Googie and her class were making cards for people they love.

Here is the one she made for Betsy.

The oh so beautifully decorated envelope...and below, the card inside.

 "MOTHER DEAREST" ????

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ?????????????????

And all this time I thought I had her fooled.