Cleaning Up and Out

This has definitely been a lazy weekend for us. Having a touch of sore throat does not help either. But, we have run a bunch of errands and having tomorrow off on top of the weekend is just awesome! I think every weekend should be a 3-day weekend myself…
One of the major tasks that I worked on today was a new laundry challenge. Yes, someone (and I not going to name any names, Hubby) left a green ink pen in his shirt last week and it was washed with any entire load of laundry. The worst part is that three of the shirts in the load were brand new shirts that we just ordered him from LL Bean. So the challenge was spraying and scrubbing hairspray onto every green dot, blot, smudge, etc. on every piece of clothing in that load of laundry! I am happy to say that 95% of it came out… 2 of the new shirts had to have hairspray re-applied and be re-washed- they are in the dryer as I write. And then, at some point late this morning I discovered that the back door had been left open into the sunroom and a humming bird had flown into the room! What a sight to see! This bird just flew from one end of the room to the other staring out of the huge window walls and trying to fly through them! He kept bonking his pointy-beak into the glass and then flying to another spot and doing it over and over again! I had to think fast and figure out how to swoosh him out the door and NOT get in the line of flight… 2 minutes later and he was back out in the world again. My other big task this weekend is emptying out my work truck and removing all of my stickers, bike rack, license tags, etc. Yes, our company has decided to save money and make all project managers drive cars instead of F-150 pick-ups. The superintendents will drive F-150’s instead of F-250’s. The upper management announced this directive back a month or so ago. We were never really sure as to WHEN it would really happen… well, I got the email from the equipment manager on Wednesday night of this week that my truck needed to be emptied out, washed, detailed, serviced, etc. by one week from that day. I have to say that I am happy that the company is making an effort to save some money on fuel, etc. But, I am also sad that I have to depart from Fiona. Fiona is one of the nicest white 2006 Ford F-150 4WD pick-ups around… She has been a great partner in this Atlanta traffic for almost 2 ½ years. But, she is going to one of the dirt work superintendents who is being transferred out to the southwest division for a big $190 million project we are starting up next month. So next Thursday Fiona will be making the long trip across America to Albuquerque, New Mexico…. Her first long distance trip! It brings tears to my eyes…



And, as for me? Well my new ride, a white 2008 Ford Five Hundred sedan will be delivered sometime the week of September 9. I searched for some photos on the Web of what I should expect… just imagine this in white.



It will be a huge change for me to drive a car again… I have not driven one since 2004 when I traded in Violet the Volvo. So I suppose more later when I am rolling in the new but gas-friendly car…

I'll Take A Good Day Any Day

It has been over two weeks since I took my Grandmother to her tri-monthly visit to the neurologist…. Which means she has not been on any Alzheimer’s meds in over two weeks (Ref: Blog dated 8/15/08)… I am supposed to be watching her closely to see if she shows any signs of “notable” changes in her behavior patterns. Now I do not want to jinx any good juju in this dementia rollercoaster chapter of my life, but in this past week alone she has not mentioned a word regarding any stolen shoes or that “those people” have been coming into her apartment and messing up her stuff and/or stealing her “good things”. I am wondering if this could possibly be a good result of coming off those meds? Or could it be the fact that I take the painstaking challenge on every phone call with her to keep the subjects of discussion tailored around the weather, my work, bad traffic, exercising, food, immediate family members, or any other neutral topic that will keep her mind off the other? Who knows! All I know is that this week of phone calls with her have been WONDERFUL and those good calls really make my day! And a good day for me makes me smile!!! =~D

I'm Now Excited!

I could not believe my eyes today when one of my co-workers showed me the msn headline off the Internet while I was trying to finish up my test in training class… McC has picked his running mate… and it was a lady that I really had not even heard of… as soon as I finished my exam (and passed BTW!!) I cruised to the web and read up on her… I read several articles on her and her husband… someone in our class knew who she was and seemed to be relieved he picked her…
Now I am not going to blog today about my rant on this election and how I much I think the other party is this or that. I really do try to keep my opinion to myself in the politics department because when I do voice my opinion about it, I only get myself into trouble. You all know I am a conservative and that is the party that I always support. And unless the other party made some serious changes and/or ever nominated a candidate that just blew me away politically, my views will never change. And after really pondering the choice that McC made today, I am now officially excited about this election! I think this election is now all the more interesting and exciting! And if you are not affiliated with a certain party, please research your candidates and their running mates and do not just listen and believe all the media hype we see on television and the Internet. Half of the things these politicians say is crap and not true… so it is your individual responsibility to research and discover the TRUTH.
I have made an effort to steer clear of the television this week because of the other party’s convention has been on all week on way too many channels. I do not understand why a national convention needs to go on an on for an entire week! What a waste of time and money! I cringe when I hear the words and music from this past week’s convention that Hubby has insisted on checking out… Let’s just see if the liberal media covers the conservative’s convention just as much this coming week.
On a different note, I cannot imagine what my Grandparents would have thought if these candidate packages were nominated back 20 years ago… boy, have the times changed or what?

A Jog Down Memory Lane

We made another trip to the vegetable stand this past Saturday after I returned from my cruise. We wanted more tomatoes and peaches… when we walked up onto the platform of the veggie stand I noticed on the marker board that they had Crowder peas and Pink Eye peas available. I was instantly excited! I asked to see the peas in hopes that my memory served me correctly… Yes! They were the precious types of peas that my Grandparents loved so much in my childhood days… we grew them and we received as much of them as we could find from other folks’ gardens. The peas that man showed me on Saturday jarred so many happy memories from my childhood that I could not stop thinking about the “good ol’ days” when my Grandparents would get them by the bushel and would sit for HOURS shelling thousands of peas. We had these plastic tubs/bowls things that we would fill up with hundreds of pea pods and then sit in a chair and shell and shell and shell and then go get some more peas and shell some more! I can still see my Grandmother sitting for hours on end in a high-back kitchen chair either shelling or “looking” the peas for worms, spots, etc. We would sit outside in 100-degree heat and humidity for days just shelling and chatting. It is so hard to believe that shelling was an actual family activity back then! Who needed the Internet, an iPod, video games or television shows? We had shelling, gardening, canning, freezing, baking and cooking! Oh, I don’t forget chopping wood for the fireplace since we had no heat or air. We probably grew 75% of our food and I never realized how lucky I was back then. That ½ pound of Crowder peas really made me appreciate my Grandmother’s cooking and how I never thought twice back then that one day it would be only a memory. I tried to remember the last time I ate Crowder peas or Pink Eyes… it had to have been about 3 or so ago around the time when my Grandmother was still able to cook a home-cooked meal for our family. Unfortunately, Hubby never got a chance to experience of her meals… now that is the saddest part of all.
We also bought ears of corn, tomatoes, peaches, and cucumbers. We then went to Harry’s Farmers Market and bought more veggies for salad fixings and some wild-caught shrimp and salmon (no farm-raised for us! That is for another blog).
I arrived last night and I dug out my ol’ pressure cooker that my Grandmother bought me for Christmas one year after I bought my first house. I fixed the Crowder peas with 2 slices of turkey bacon instead of ham hock (we can’t be completely old school!) and some salt and pepper. Hubby kept telling me that he did not like peas… I assured him that these peas are better than ANY he had ever tasted. Besides, if we are going to be living in the country one day, he was going to have to eat and appreciate home-grown peas… it is a kitchen table must-have back home! When he tasted them at the supper table I believe he really did like them… just wait until we have the Pink Eyes tonight!
I had such a wonderful trip down Memory Lane last night that I wished I could share it with my Grandmother… however, I know she wouldn’t remember… but at least I do.

What A Long Strange Trip It's Been

“What a long strange trip it’s been”- the Grateful Dead

Those words rang so true this past week on my vacation cruise to the Bahamas. Yes, me and nine other women (one being my Mother) cruised through the Caribbean stopping at 3 different islands of the Bahamas for 4 nights. We left out of Miami on Monday (yes, the same day that Tropical Storm Fay showed up) and arrived back on Friday morning… me and 9 other women ranging in age from 42 to 70+. And what a week it was…
First off, let me just say that I did not find out about the tropical storm brewing near Haiti until late Friday night so the entire weekend was spent worrying if the airline would be flying to Miami on Monday morning or if the cruise would be cancelled all because of Fay. I was checking the “projected path” of that storm almost every two hours to see how much closer it was to the Keys and how fast was she moving. My Mother arrived on Saturday afternoon as well so between the worrying, entertaining her and preparing for the trip I was just about stressed out before my vacation had even started! Our plane did fly to Miami on Monday after all… Miami was rainy and it turns out the cruise line decided to leave earlier than scheduled so our 8am flight was not a wasted idea after all! We were on the ship by 12noontime and the ladies were itching to get the party started. Well half the ladies started ordering bottles of wine and got loopy quick and the rest of us checked into our state rooms and waited on our luggage… one scary moment was when we were hanging out on our balcony and watching the crew throwing the luggage from the carts to the ship… somehow they misinterpreted their shot and dropped about 10+ pieces of luggage into the water of the bay! And then they spent over 10 minutes fishing out some poor souls’ bags… we were just praying it was not our clothes! I rationalized at that moment that a bag of wet clothes might not really even matter if it rains our entire trip anyway… But, the rain only hung out all of Monday and half of Tuesday. By Wednesday the sun was out but the winds were high and the ocean was still choppy. We did finally make it into our bathing suits and onto a nice beach on Thursday (which happened to also be my birthday) so it was a great day after all!
To keep from writing a book about the trip, I will just list some of my highlights of the week spent at sea:

· Always keep the top down on the toilets BEFORE you flush! Or it might just suck you into the bowl…
· One of the “oldest” ladies on the trip managed to get way too tipsy on the first night and lost the “bridge” (teeth) on the right side of her mouth!
· Escargot is not that that bad! Kinda tastes like mushrooms or oysters…
· Older women refuse to walk the stairs to one floor above or below! They always want to take the elevator…
· Non-Americans refer to skim milk as “skinny cow”… thanks to all of Judy’s White Russians orders
· It is really hard to walk a straight line when the ship is rocking from the choppy waves
· Birthdays are a really, really big ordeal on a cruise ship… they let us order lobster tails just for my special birthday dinner!
· I think my Mother is a bit of a hypochondriac… she complained the entire trip about motion sickness….
· Oh, and she is a really loud snorer too! I did not sleep the entire trip!

I did forget to mention that the “choppy movements” of the ship really only happened on the first night. As a matter of fact, I remember telling Hubby the next day that I woke up at one point in the night on Monday night and was actually holding onto the bed with both hands and arms to keep from falling off the bed because it felt like the boat was leaning way too far to the left. As it turns out the boat was “listing” due to the bad weather/stormy sea and when the boat leaned or listed as they called it, all of the rainwater from the top deck poured into the main atrium of the boat! They had carpet dryers out the entire trip trying to dry out from that first night! Talk about scary… I am just so glad my Mother slept through all of it.
All in all, the trip was fun. However, I wish Hubby could have been there instead of me and 9 other women. Every lady in the group was so different and each had their own idea of what we should or shouldn’t be doing… it was hard to do any thing all together. I was so glad to get off that ship and make our way home.
Friday was a complete nightmare from the time we stepped off the ship… we made it to our pre-paid tour bus… and then we sat for over an hour waiting for the bus to take us to the airport! Once we got to the airport, checking in was a breeze but, then our flight was not for over 3 hours! We finally boarded our plane around 2:30pm and then we sat on the runway for over 2 hours because of some storm NW of Miami! I thought I was going to die! I sat in that rinky-dink window seat for over 4 hours and my Mother was no help. She was not a happy camper about it either and I just had to sit there and hope they would let us go soon enough. I finally made it home around 8pm on Friday night and Hubby was waiting for me with birthday gifts… Happy Birthday to me!

Boot Camp Update

Boot Camp Update- I completed my offical 3rd month of Boot Camp this past Friday- it was just stretched out over 4 months (May 5th thru now)and I wanted to boast that I reached my goal of running a mile under 10 minutes. This past Friday I ran a 9:57 mile! And it was brutal. Man, was I hurting during that PT test! But, I blew it out on the push-ups, sit-ups and dips too. All in all, I am happy with my results. I am almost 25 lbs down and when I get back from my vacation this week, I will be making my decision on what to do next in my fitness life. Hooah!

BLT's Recipe

Since I am heading out of town all next week, I have spent quite a bit of what little free time I have preparing for my absence from Monday to Friday. Hubby and I have really enjoyed any homegrown veggies we have managed to purchase or receive as gifts this summer. Hubby has really discovered just how good a homegrown tomato really is… even though he has always said he does not like tomatoes! Our favorite dish we use them in is BLT’s. We have eaten a LOT of BLT’s these past few weeks. I kind of “lightened” up my recipe for a BLT by using only minimal mayo, lots of black pepper and turkey bacon. I also use the fresh homegrown tomatoes and romaine lettuce but the tomato is what really makes the sandwich SO good! And because Hubby is going to be on his own this week, we made a stop this weekend at one of the few veggie stands here in East Cobb and purchased tomatoes, cucumbers, peaches and peppers. Hubby will be eating great sandwiches and salad all week! Oh, and by the way the first big tomato harvested from my plants (refer to blog from August 14) was eaten yesterday for lunch- Yummy!
This past week at work was extremely busy for me since I will be gone on vacation all this coming week. I seriously had to cram two weeks of work into one. But, if all goes well (considering the tropical storm brewing just south of Cuba tonight) this 4-night cruise to the Bahamas will be a wonderful, restful trip away from the gritty, grueling work place. I look forward to sun and fun on my birthday week on a cruise ship and visiting the island’s best beaches. I just hope this trip is a fun way to bring me into my mid-30’s. I do know that I will take lots of photos and promise to share when I return.

Another Day With Dementia

So I made the trip down to LaGrange earlier this week to take my Grandmother to the Neurologist. First off, the day did not start off well at all… I could not find my wallet before I left the house at the crack of dawn for boot camp… long story short I went to work and to LaGrange with no drivers license, no debit card, no credit card, nothing! I was NOT a happy camper! Fortunately, I had taken $40 out of the ATM the day before, but that only filled my gas tank up to a ½ of a tank! I had to borrow another $20 from a co-worker to get back…I worked almost a half-day and then made the long drive. She was waiting for me AT THE FRONT DOOR of the assisted living facility- seriously! Lord knows how long she had been standing there! I loaded her up in the truck and off we went to lunch. Lunch ran very smoothly to say the least. We took our time and she enjoyed a hamburger, fries and a strawberry sundae. We then drove over to the doctor’s office. She jammed the entire way there to her favorite- Sirius 65- the Bluegrass satellite radio station. She just loves that kind of music! I really enjoy watching her dancing and singing to the bluegrass and gospel they play on that station… it is really and truly the only time I get to see her so happy… She then tells she has to go to the restroom. So the first thing I do once we enter the office is take her to the restroom… she is automatically intimidated by the industrial-type toilet and accessories and asks me to stay with her (this is a small one-toilet restroom but handicap accessible). So I stay and wind up having to help her because the toilet was really high and she could not “find” the toilet paper, etc. And that is when I spotted the underwear. She had on a pair of underwear that was too big for my butt! They looked like a mini-skirt on her with the leg openings being WAY too big for her little chicken legs. I could not believe it! I ask her where the underwear came from… she thinks they are hers! Needless to say, the FIRST thing we did when we got back to her apt. was THROW them out! They even had her name marked in them! Unbelievable! Anyhoo, back to the Doctor… we go in for her appt. and she only weighs 90 lbs- something that I address with the Doctor- he said it is normal for her to not want to eat…he also said her taste for food is probably gone… and that is normal too! He keeps asking the same ol’ questions as the last 10 times we have gone in for “check-ups”. I tell him about her current daily habit of finding things “stolen” from her apartment and that this has been going on now for almost 2 weeks straight. He does not even bat an eyelash to that one. Must be normal too! Of course, she wants to know what I am talking about… I ask him about her meds. I tell him I want to do a trial and error on her Aricept. He is surprised! I keep talking about how I read several medical articles that all those Alzheimer’s meds might not really help. She has been on Aricept for almost 5 years and I truly believe that it has not helped her one bit. He finally agrees to take her off of it and see how she does until the next appt. I have to be honest that I have struggled mentally with this subject for a really long time. Take her off all her brain meds or not? Will it worsen her? Will it help? Who knows! All I know is that this medicine costs A LOT of money and she has only progressed downward in the last year and a half. She will stay on the seizure meds and go completely off the Alz meds. Am I a bad person for doing this? I think there is no stopping the inevitable at this point. Every day she gets worse- her vocabulary is VERY minimal. She usually forgets happenings or conversations from one day to the next. Her mind operates in cycles- this cycle is stolen stuff. Next cycle will be all the “bugs” in her room crawling on her, etc. The vicious side effects of dementia just never stop taking their toll on her… or me. I do not think there was one day in the past two weeks that I did not get upset with her on the phone after hearing the same story about her leaving her apt. for a meal and then coming back to her room only to find all of her shoes stolen again… How many times can the same 6 pair of shoes get stolen?

Finally!

Finally! One of the big ones has arrived...

12,000 Calories!

With all the excitement around the Olympics lately, all I seem to hear about is this Michael Phelps guy. I hear it on the radio, the TV, at work, at boot camp, and on the Internet. And even though he has name been deemed the greatest Olympian of all time, the most fascinating thing about him to me is his diet! I have heard the rumors of what this one person consumes a day... but, today they had an article on Yahoo! about it...go read: Michael Phelps eats 12,000 calories per day
It will blow your mind! The article talks about how this man consumes around 12,000 calories per day... 12,000! Did you read that? 12,000! Holy smokes Batman! That is crap-load of food I tell you! He goes on to talk about how he has to keep his intake up in order to compensate for all the calories he burns during the 30 hours of work-outs he spends training... My question is: Who pays for all his food? If this guy is swimming 30 hours per week and his daily activities besides swimming are eating and sleeping.. how does one have time for a JOB? You know, like a real JOB? A segment about his meals on TV the other night said that the local restaurant Owners in Ann Arbor have a time keeping him full! An example he offered to NBC of an average day's menu looked something like this:

Breakfast: 3 fried egg sandwiches, 2 cups coffee, 5-egg omlette, bowl of grits, 3 pieces of french toast, 3 chocolate chip pancakes

Lunch: 1 pound pasta, 2 ham and cheese sandwiches, energy drink (1,000 calorie)

Dinner: 1 pound pasta, 1 large pizza, energy drink (1,000 calorie)

Unbelievable! Again, who pays for this menu? This lifestyle is practically non-human in my humble opinion. I would hate to have to take him out to eat for his birthday... I would go broke! And yet the guy is lean... and he STILL has a "hard time keeping weight ON"... Unbelievable. Period.

School Supplies

So the school system started back today in our County. Hubby went out of town yesterday afternoon for work today and I got the day off. I decided to spend my ½ day of non-wifeness going shopping. As I was standing in one of the many long check-out lines at wal-mart, I noticed the kiosk of School Supplies lists. These lists are furnished by the different schools in our area so parents will know exactly what to purchase for their child(ren) to bring for their classroom supplies. You can just pick one up on your way into the store and shop away! How easy is that you ask? Well I thought it was a great idea… until I read the lists… There seemed to be a LOT of lists left on the kiosk for the Second Grade at one elementary school so I am writing about today. I am in shock! The list consists of the usual: spiral notebooks, scissors, glue sticks (6!), No. 2 pencils, 2 pocket plastic folders, crayons, ruler, eraser caps (12!), pencil box, highlighters (I do not even recollect having those until high school), etc. And then we get to the weird stuff:
· 8 Washable markers classic- Conical tip
· 2 Expo2 Dry Erase Markers- Chisel tip
(what is it with all the different tips?)
· 8 Original Formula Markers- Fine tip
(how many freaking markers do they need?)
· 8 Medium Point Red Pens (for second graders???)
· 2 Kleenex tissue boxes
(where is the teacher going to store 40+ boxes of these?)
· 12 Colored pencils
· Marble composition book
(I thought these were not required until highschool!)
· 8 oz Liquid antibacterial hand soap
(does the school system not provide this?)
· 8 oz Waterless hand sanitizer
(or this? Where are my tax dollars going?)
· Quart size sealable Storage/Freezer bags (huh?)
· Gallon size sealable Storage bags (huh again?)
· Eraser for Dry Erase Board
(how many erasers does the classroom need?)

Would someone please indulge me as to WHY every child in a 20-30 student classroom needs to bring this much crap to school? I feel so sorry for any parent with multiple children. This list does not even include PAPER or a notebook binder (Trapper Keeper for us “old” folks) or the backpack to haul all this junk. What about tape or a pencil sharpener? I am surprised they don’t require computer disks or blank CD’s or DVD’s. Why not throw in a couple of jump drives or heck, why not just bring your own laptop!
I am amazed at what the education system expects and sad for the parents who are stuck fulfilling it. What a crock.

Mmm Mmm Good

Need I say more?

I Give Up

So I have been having a really hard time with my Grandmother this past week…. It actually started week before last now that I think about it… so maybe I should say that the past two weeks have been hell on the Grandmother front. She seems to be stuck in a pattern each and every day where she thinks someone is coming into her apartment and “stealing” all of her stuff. Every one of our phone conversations revolves around how someone on that day came into her apartment and stole every thing and how she has NOTHING left. I try to change the subject many times during our phone calls… sometimes successfully, but most of the time not. I even drove down there last Saturday and spent the day with her to assess the situation and like always every thing was there… just strewn every where and shuffled into the wrong place or drawer. I took her shopping and bought her 10 new pair of socks, toiletries and bottled waters. After spending the day with her, the only thing I could figure out from her behavior is that maybe her eyesight is getting worse. I caught her “feeling” her way around the bedroom wall to find the closet doors several times that day. I thought after I left her last Saturday that she was good to go for a while… wishful thinking on my part… Because every day this week and every conversation we have had this week starts off with her telling me the SAME story over and over again. And no matter what I tell her she either breaks out into tears or flies off the handle in anger. My Mother volunteered to go check on her yesterday afternoon and said she spent a tumultuous hour with her trying to show her that her shoes are still there and her clothes are not gone. After two crying fits and multiple angry tantrums later, my Mother was on her way home… did this help at all? NO! When I talked to my Grandmother last night she was back at it AGAIN. But this time, I hung up on her. I just did not want to listen to her. I am so over it. That is all she wants to talk about and I cannot keep going through the same conversation every day. I just do not know how to deal with her when she is in this mind frame. I give up. I tried to call both of my parents last night for advise- neither was available to talk. Hubby is no expert (like the rest of us). So like I said, I gave up….
I am going down there on Tuesday… she has an appointment with her neurologist that afternoon. I plan on telling him about all of this. Unfortunately, it will be in front of her and I am sure his advice will not help. But, we need the free samples (since we hit the “donut hole” on insurance two months ago!) and this gives me a reason to go down there and once again assess the condition of her “stolen stuff”. Seriously, if gas were not $4 a gallon, I would have gone myself yesterday. But at $50 a trip that would be just as crazy as this situation!

Scattered, Smothered, Covered and Hitched???

Someone sent me this article in an email earlier today... it really made me laugh out loud. I wish I could link it to the online version, but I am not cyberspace-savvy enough I suppose to figure out how to convert the downloaded file into a web link!
Enjoy...

-------------------------------
Scattered, smothered, covered and hitched
Couple marries at Waffle House

DACULA - As the famous twang of Hank Williams Jr. blasted from an SUV stereo Friday afternoon, about 30 folks socialized, sipped soda and puffed on cigarettes.
No, this wasn't a Fourth of July backyard barbecue. It was the run-up to a wedding.
In a Waffle House parking lot.
The lucky couple, George "Bubba" Mathis and Pamela Christian - both 23 and employees at the Dacula diner located at the Ga. Highway 316/U.S. Highway 29 interchange - wouldn't have it any other way.
"I don't know, it's something different," Mathis said while fixing his tie prior to the ceremony.
For years, the couple tried to marry on their Independence Day anniversary. But the bride was always scheduled to work. Instead of waiting any longer - she got the day off at the last minute; Mathis had to report for the morning shift - the couple of nine years decided to seal the deal at work.
The result was what a NASCAR tailgate might be like if Hank Jr. himself stopped by with all his rowdy friends: Loud and proud - country music, storytelling and plenty of Dale Earnhardt paraphernalia - and not an iota of pretentiousness.
Shortly after exchanging vows under the shade of a tree next to the parking lot, both man and wife let out sighs of relief as they picked up their two little blonde girls and chatted with family and friends. But there was not time to relax - the wedding cake had to be cut inside.
"It's been crazy, madness," the bride said. "Finally, everything worked out."
Standing nearby, the father of the newly minted Mrs. Pamela Mathis, William Christopher, wondered if anyone had videotaped the ceremony. He wants to send it in to CMT.
"I think it's pretty redneck myself," he said, laughing. "But I'm a redneck anyway, so."
The couple plans to honeymoon Monday and Tuesday, but then it's back to work.
The destination?
"I don't know yet," Mathis said.
---------------------------------

If I would not have known the location of this WH I would have thought, "only in Alabama"... no such luck!

Pizza Is Too Good For You!

So some of you might not know it, but Papa John's pizza is selling a new product- Wheat crusted pizza! Yes, instead of "white" dough you get wheat dough. A few weeks ago while in Denver, I asked the receptionist to order one wheat pizza of the 10 pizza lunch order that day. I have to tell you that is was not that bad! Maybe a bit gummier (is that a word?) or a bit on the chewy side I should say... But, the toppings stay the same so it tasted pretty much like the usual. It must have been good because the entire pie was gone at the end of the lunch hour!

Sweet Summertime

I just love the weekends. Waking up when I wake up on my own... not to an alarm clock. A quiet house lit up by the sunlight streaming into the windows... not a dark house while rushing around scrambling to get dressed, get lunches packed, bags packed, finding keys, etc. I just slowly walk around, coffee in hand as I make my way out to the deck to see the best part of all this time of the summer...



Sweet, sweet summertime... the smell of morning, the sounds of nature, the sight of my tomatoes growing on the vine... gotta love it and enjoy it as much as possible now because it will be gone soon enough....

On a side note: I cannot believe that school is already starting back! The schools back home go back this Wednesday the 6th and the ones here in Cobb County start back a week from tomorrow the 11th. That really only means one thing to me: Traffic is back! Yikes.