Snow!

I drove home last night for almost TWO hours in SNOW!! It was like driving through a blizzard from Norcross to Marietta... the interstates were a parking lot so I had to take the side roads... nothing like sitting in a winter wonderland on the road in stop and go traffic... more stop than go!!!

Parting Ways With An Old Friend

I finally did it. I cut up my credit card. I made the decision to part ways with an old friend of mine... me and Mr. Visa have been friends for quite a long time now... but, not any more! One down, one more to go...
My husband is so proud of me at this moment...
And he says that Dave Ramsey is proud of me too....

Those "just in case" days are over. I always kept the cards just in case I needed them. I felt like I had to have them just in case something came up. Just in case an emergency happened and using that card instead of my own money was the answer...
Living life debt-free is mind over matter. Period.

Getting Back To My Roots

Nowadays it seems that we are in Pine Mountain almost every week and the more we are there the more we long to be there MORE... Mike has the itch bad... the itch to be there and away from the traffic and hustle and bustle that surrounds us daily here in Atlanta... the thought of living in a "slower" lifestyle area coupled with living out of eyesight from the neighbors and being one with nature... yadda yadda yadda... this idea just seems to lure him more and more to the idea that we need to move down there sooner than what we agreed on last fall. And I have to agree that the more I think about living there and envisioning what life will be like, it is a little exciting.
During one of our visits back in November, I took a couple of my grandmother's cast iron skillets and brought them home. I really wanted to start cooking with these- just like she used to. One of my fondest childhood memories is "helping" her cook cornbread. Cornbread was a staple in our home... it was served with every meal. My grandfather LOVED it. In the winter, it was especially great because my grandmother would add "cracklins" to it. This is a very southern tradition for those of you who do not know. So along with trying to remember her recipe for perfect cornbread, I went on a quest for cracklins. Well let's just say that NO where in the metro Atlanta area sells them. And where did my Mother finally find them for me? In Pine Mountain of course! So I bought two bags and put them in the freezer. My first attempt at the cracklin cornbread recipe was a little dry... not enough buttermilk. But, the second was PERFECT! She would be so proud of me! Even my husband (who was raised Yankee-style unfortunately) thought it was pretty darn good. So now I am happy to make cornbread any time we have guests over. Of course, I also want to learn how to can veggies and make jams, jellies, perserves, etc.... But, that will not happen until I live down there and have some instruction from the ladies back home.
Needless to say, I could kick myself now for not paying attention to her then and taking the time to learn how to do these things... especially now that I am planning our pilgrimage back to my hometown in a few short years. It is just seems right to carry on the family tradition after we get there... I better start studying her old cookbooks now...

Frying Up Some Fun

So today we stayed home and worked around the house and yard. I decided to dress Sampson up in his Sunday wear after I found his bandana...
Sampson The Warrior


This evening Mike finally got to try his new deep fryer that he got for Christmas. We fried a chicken and a turkey breast after he injected them with marinade... mmm mmm our lunch sandwiches will be really good this week!





Next up are wings... we plan on making our first attempt at buffalo wings on Wednesday night... until then...

Spoiled Rotten

Can you say Spoiled Rotten?!

Assume the position, puppy. Yes, this is where you can find ol' Sampson about two minutes after he arrives home each day this winter season. Lucky dog.

The Real Meaning of the Word LOUD

As I have blogged in past blogs, I have had some seriously painful bouts with my neck this past year. The very first one was last January and it was by far the worst one of all of them... Well, my last one to date was the week before Christmas. But, there is a twist...(drum roll please?)... THIS time I endured the numb hand syndrome! What is that, you ask? Well... about two years ago... before Mike and I were engaged, I went through a LONG period of time where in the wee hours of the night both of my hands would completely go to "sleep" or become fully numb and then the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my entire life would wake me up from a DEAD sleep and I would spend FOREVER trying to wake up my hands and fingers to make the pain stop. Sometimes going as far as throwing my arm off the side of the bed to make the blood drain down into my hand or standing up seeking the same result. It was awful! This went on for several months (yes, MONTHS, not weeks) before I finally went to the doctor. You see, back then I did not really have a GP or Family Doctor being single and healthy... I hardly ever went to the doctor. I never got sick too often and the only issue I had then was just allergies. Well I found a doctor in Atlanta (near where I lived then) and made an appointment. He did some in-office tests and basically concluded that I had some issues with the nerves running into my hands from my neck. He did ask me about my daily routine at work... one particular task of interest was the fact that I sat at one of those L-shaped desks then and used my laptop right on bend of the middle and my arms would rest on the desk and not "hang" off the desk like a "normal" square desk. He then prescribed some SERIOUS anti-inflammatory pills and I changed my desk/laptop habits and within a couple of weeks or so the problem went away...
Well now the hand problem is back along with the the whole neck pain and stiffness issue... I have taken an array of mild-to-moderate muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatories and pain killers (prescribed by my current doctor)over the past year and now I am at my wit's end. After having that Demoral shot given to me right before Christmas I decided that enough is enough. I went back to the doctor and complained. So today I had my first MRI...
And what an experience it was... OMG... that was probably the worst hour of my entire life! First, they put you into that tube contraption laying down flat. Let me just say that if I was an inch wider I would not have fit into it and you could not move AT ALL. They give you ear plugs and tell you that they are used because the test is kinda loud. Loud? Did you say LOUD? Because after suffering through that 35-40 minutes of living hell, I do not think that "loud" describes the torture that I endured this afternoon in that freaking tube!!!! I am surprised that I am not permanently deaf on some level after that! The noise radiating from that contraption while I was stuck inside of it was so loud that my skin was actually vibrating! And after the first 20 minutes of vibrating, then the itching started. Well, unfortunately, you cannot scratch any itches while trapped in the dead man position in a tube and remain still so as not to screw up the said "loud" radio-waves reverberating through my neck and head... I could have cried. I could not hardly open my eyes because I would get sea-sick.. It was like my body wanted to go to sleep after laying there so long, but the crashing and banging coming from that machine just wouldn't stop...
I was so happy when the ordeal was finally over and I was quite woozy when I stood up from the bench that I had been lying on for so long. I left as quickly as I could and was thinking to myself as I drove out of the parking lot how much I hope that I never have to go through that again!

Bumper Carts Are For Losers

Would someone please tell me WHY people do not return their shopping carts to the Cart Return or back into the grocery store? Tonight on the way home from work on a somewhat blustery night in the metro Atlanta area (yes, we are under a Tornado Watch believe it or not), I made a quick stop at one of the probably five Publix' along Johnson Ferry Rd. I wanted to get something to cook for supper and I splurged and grabbed a carton of strawberries (woohoo- they were on sale!). When I left the store, it was dark, windy and just kinda balmy outside. I am walking to my truck when I watch a man in his 40's push his cart (which was MAYBE 1/3 full of groceries by the way) next to a lone cart parked in the middle of an empty parking space. Come on people! PUH-LEEZE help me to understand why he could not have pushed his cart the extra 35 ft to the next aisle over and put his cart in the Cart Return thingy? Or maybe even go the extra mile and walk 50 ft to the freakin' store and put the cart back for others to use! Were his legs just too fragile to make the distant journey to one or the other? Being that it was pretty windy out too makes for some serious bumper-carts into other folks' vehicles. And those metal contraptions can do some serious paint damge when flying into a car at 5 5to 15 mph across a parking lot full force with wind power behind it. Do you know what I think? I think he is just plain LAZY. And his 12 year with him is LAZY too. Make the kid take it back... set an EXAMPLE for crying out loud... that is some example your setting as his parent to demonstrate that it is okay to leave the cart in the middle of the parking lot so someone else has to put it up later for you or for someone else to endure the damage of the cart running into their car later. For years, I have watched people doing this in parking lots EVERY where. Of course, it seems to be worse here in the urban part of GA vs. the rural areas where I grew up. Females tend to do it the most in my opinion. Maybe the store should start charging a small fee to use the cart and then you get the fee back when you return it?