Great Stocking Stuffers...

Here's a list of Books that I have read recently that would be perfect stocking stuffers for sisters, mothers,friends, daughters or even for a great gift for yourself...Books only stay in my book case if they qualify for a second read...Strange but true...this list is a few of my favorites worth reading again and again. Most of these books are feel good books, not nessesarily love stories or romance, just comfy reads. I for one am not a fan of Romance novels...unless the Author is Nicholas Sparks...there is just something about a man writing about love that sucks you right in and holds you tight.

Here's my "Worth Reading Twice" List :
************************************
*Wish You Well ~ David Baldacci

*Shoot the Moon~ Billie Letts

*Big Stone Gap~Adrianna Trigiani
*Big Cherry Holler~Adrianna Trigiani
*Milk Glass Moon~Adrianna Trigiani

*Where or When~Anita Shreve
*Sea Glass~Anita Shreve

*Was it Beautiful~Allison McGee

*The Last Promise~Richard Paul Evans

*The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing~Melissa Bank

*The Secret Life of Bees~Sue Monk Kidd

*These Things I Wish for You~Christopher Kimball

*The Time Travelers Wife~Audrey Niffenegger

*The Year of Pleasures~Elizabeth Berg

Just a few favorites of mine...if you decide to try them I hope you like them as much as I do...

All of my Worldly Possessions, just to see him smile...

Every day, or at the very least every other day, I see the same old man walking down the street, where ever I am driving and no matter how distracted I am I always see him. He is not a tall man although I wouldn't call him a "little" old man either. Just ordinary and probably invisible to most everyone in town. He is always wearing the same coat whether it is 80 degrees and sweltering or 10 below...always with the worn old coat. I have always wondered where he is headed...or if he has an exact destination at all...maybe he is just walking for the sake of walking or maybe he has nothing better to do. He never smiles. I have seen him at least 99 times always he has the same expression. Not exactly a frown , more of a face forward, eyes on the sidewalk needy-ness. When I first took notice of him I was mostly just curious... exercise? Fresh air? Lonely? Bored? Now everytime I see him I just want to slam the brakes and jump out and beg him to tell me what he is doing. Please tell me where you are going...do you want a ride. Some days he just looks sooo cold and I can see him shivering and his breath escapes in big clouds around his red face. Could a person be that lonely? To walk out into the cold frigid air just to be near the constant movement of strangers? God, that is just so incredibly sad. I was on my way to church on a Wednesday night and I seen him walking down the sidewalk, every single inch of my body was screaming at me to get out and ask him if he wanted to come along...I didn't. I regret that. I still do not know why I chose to push the gas and not the brake. One morning I was taking the girls to school and he was standing on the corner waiting for the traffic to stop so that he could cross the street. He looked in our direction and then he turned his head and looked the other way, he turned back and looked right into our truck and right into my eyes. I was shocked to have that aknowledgement. I wonder if he could tell that his open stare startled me? I really just want to see that man smile I want to know who he is and why he always walks alone. Now that we have made eye contact its really more of an obbession then a curiosity. That old man needs to crinkle those cheeks...

More Beagle Boasting...

I honestly hope that the constant posting of my beagle is not getting old and boring...but really her face just belongs on a screen of some sort...she just radiates adorableness (if that is a word). These pictures were all taken last week while she was sitting in the living room begging to be photograghed...can you tell how she loves the lime light, she tries new poses and facial expressions after each flash of the camera and that is sooo not even close to being an exaggeration. Just look at the expressions and the look in her eye she is totally lovin' the attention and the adoration. I just gotta love that dog! If only you all could experience the full extent of her "Maizyness" you would love her too....

Power Door Locks..and looking for a sharp instrument with which to slit my wrists...

Last night after work(at midnight) I realized that all the forces of nature are HELL BENT on making me look like a complete moron...and not just in front of myself which would be completely exceptable. Forces... hell bent on making sure I look completely Brain~Dead in front of many many many people...people walking thru the parking lot and staring at the weirdo woman kicking her stupid truck and throwing her purple window scraper at her stupid truck. I swear to all that is Holy and Pure I DID NOT HIT THE POWER DOOR LOCKS after putting the key into the ignition and turning the truck on...WHY WOULD I !? I just simply turned the cold (frigid) truck on and cranked the heat, then I grabbed the purple scraper and shut the door so that the truck could warm up while I scrapped...so why then when I reached for the door handle and pulled, did my truck refuse to let me in!? There it sat ...engine running...heat blasting to levels reaching the temperature of the suns surface while I stood freezing in a parking lot full of nosy people. I kicked it ...I shook it...I begged it...and I abused it with the scraper...and there it sat, a completely unrelenting bitch! I had to make that dreaded phone call...the one that will inevitably cost you and cost you BIG...hello Mr. Locksmith...I realize that it is MIDNIGHT and you are all warm and cozy and there is sleep in your voice but....so 15 minutes later he is 60 bucks richer and opening my riders side door then he turns to me and says (nicely and without a hint of malice) you'd be suprized how many people lock their keys in their cars with the engine running...Me: Well... that may be so Sir...but my truck locked me out, ALL-BY-IT-SELF....

Thanksgiving with family...

We had a great time!! There was turkey and mashed potatoes and squash and squaw corn(my sisters own recipe YUM,she's the little squaw) and green bean casserole and stuffing and cranberries and deviled eggs and dinner rolls and for dessert there was yummy yummy triple chocolate turtle brownies(Nana's recipe) and pumpkin pie with whipped topping !! And then there were 12 "stuffed" people. It was great fun and it was awesome to spend time with all the family. My nephews are getting so tall and growing up way too fast and my girls were loving all the cooking and helping out in the kitchen with Anna and I. Sarah made the deviled eggs (with very little help from adults) and they were scrumptious!! Grandma and Kruze and "Jackass"(thats my brother-in-law) spent most of the time in the livingroom with their eyelids keeping their cheeks warm....I have pics to prove it...it was funny!Mom and Scott spent most of their time in the dining room over seeing the culinary chores and smoochin' all on each other! It was our usual uncomplicated unpretentious and completely laid back and comfortable holiday and I loved every single minute of it!!

Giving Thanks...

Best of all is to preserve everything in a pure, still heart, and let there be for every pulse a thanksgiving, and for every breath a song.
~ Konrad Von Gesner~

Bucket and Baby... 

Anna's Deep Thought for the Day...

I read this on Anna's Blog "Life According to Anna" I have a link to her site in my links list if you want to check it out...She's great..Of course...I may be slightly biased...she is my baby sister.Here is her PERFECTLY hilarious deep thought...



Deep thought for the day!!
Some people are like slinkies,
not really good for anything,
but they still bring a smile to your face
when you push them down a flight of stairs....

posted by Anna

So this is what I have to say about Joe...

Yesterday I picked up Sar after school (Em had basketball practice so Kruze picked her up after work) and we drove straight home without any stops...well...ok I did stop at a few of the stop signs and red lights...but we didn't go shopping, we didn't grab anything to eat, we didn't even stop for our favorite treat (Her: White Chocolate Carmel Hot Cocoa, Me: Cinnfully Cinamon Vanilla Coffee) we just drove straight home, at no point was there any prelude to or evidence of the problems we would experience later on when Kruze and Em returned home.
I was in the middle of making supper..want to know what it was? Is anyone even reading this? Well just for my own personal knowledge (for future reference) I will tell you what it was..Spagetti and not the homemade stuff that I canned over the summer...nope... it was the store bought kind because I was feeling like eating a shit load of preservatives and dyes, and it was in my cupboard so we have to eat it. So Spagetti was on the menu. Kruze came in the house when they got home to tell me that he was going to put the new ball hitch on the truck so he grabbed the truck keys and out the door he went into the freezing rain and snow. Roughly 10 minutes later he walks back through the kitchen door spewing the same langauge truckers are famous for...and lookin' like a serial killer." The *%&^#@ truck won't *^&%$#@ start!!! It won't even %^&*#@ turn over !! WHAT THE *&^$%@ !! I just stood there staring at psycho-man and then told him to call his step-dad (Mechanic for Semi's), so he did, no anwser, he left a message (void of curse words of course). Then he called his brother (auto parts specialist) no anwser so he left another message. Then he called another phone number and our "Savior amidst the Blizzard" breathed his voice into the receiver. ( Joe you are SOOOOO THE MAN !!) A 10 minute conversation with Joe, Kruze telling him what he thought was wrong, and Joe without a fraction of hesitation says "I'll be right over". And so he was.They fixed the truck in 15 minutes. All was better (including Mr.Potty Mouth's language). Joe and Kruze sat around in the kitchen chit chattin' and then Kruze followed him home (the weather was NASTY freezing rain mixed with major amounts of snow as I said and Joe was drivin' a little car with no 4 wheel drive) And so it goes...Joe you ROCK and we appreciate your selfless act of heroism and we are sooo happy to have such a great friend!! You are tops in my book and by the way Guy I absolutely LOVE your laugh!! Not another soul on this Earth has a more contagious sounding laughter!!

Neighbors with bad hair...

Here are a few pictures of our neighbors...they live just down the road from us , you can't tell from these pictures but they are seriously disgruntled! They are not amused by the fact that Em and Sar and I love to drive up to their little white picket fence and park our truck right next to it so that the three of us can stare longingly at them , all the while worshiping their very existence. We may never get to have one of our very own and these 4 (there are five altogether) are soooo selfish and "standoffish" that they won't even let us enjoy a few minutes of harmless oggling !! They continually thrust their heads forward in disgust and try to spit gobs of Llama flem at us , its very rude and vulgar but we just cannot drag ourselves away...Oh...do pity the Wretched Needy Llama Lovers that we have become...

Hazy Sunrise (view from bedroom window)... 

Guilty Pleasures...

Lifetime for Women is not my favorite channel and watching TV during the day is something I rarely do, I am just too fidgety to sit still for long periods of time. Despite this trait there is one thing that can make me sit still willingly and happily...Melissa Gilbert movies! Yes I said it and I have long suffered the humility of this guilty pleasure...Kruze just can not wrap his head around this fascination of mine, to him this is a huge character flaw that is too gigantic to overlook. So I watch in secrecy...I love her!! I loved her as Half-Pint on "Little House on the Praire" and I've loved her in every "Made for TV Lifetime Movie" since Little House. I love the fact that her teeth finally fit her face...I love how she cocks her eyebrow just the slightest bit and she can convey surprize, awe, horror,
or disgust each gesture as convincing as the last, I love the fact that she looks ordinary and beautiful at the same time and she could easily be your best friend or your next door nieghbor. I love that she can become a Rancher, a Lawyer, a Doctor or a Housewife and it is just as easy to believe that she could "love" a Rancher, a Doctor, a Lawyer and my personal favorite a Dead guy. Is she the best actress? Would she measure up to Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman or Sandra Bullock? Doubtfully. But she has the ability to make you believe that if "Half-Pint" can do it and do it well then maybe, just maybe, you can accomplish amazing things too...

Catnap with my Beag...I'm pullin' my first all nighter at work tonite...Hmmm I should start to have some very very interesting stories to tell you all, I have been told by several of the people that work 3rd shift, that the "fruitloops" come crawlin' out of the wood work late at night, I can't wait!!! 

Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice !!!

Oh My God!!!!! (sorry God but its just soooo cool!!)


Jane Austin's "Pride and Prejudice" is coming out on November 23 !!!! I love Jane Austin!!! And of course it is even better because Keira Knightley is in the movie and I love Keira Knightley !!Yeah !! Kruze is going to be takin' his woman to "the" CHICK FLICK of ALL time!!! I can already hear the beggin' and the pleadin' ...."please pleeeeease pleeeeease don't make me watch it...can't you go with your friends?" And my response..."Why no honey I'd rather watch you squirm and sweat for the next three weeks in anticipation of this wonderful work of art !"

Mini Julia Roberts...this girl has ALL the drama ...(Pic taken while Sar and Em and their friends were playing dress-up)  

Shoulda' had a Trailer and a Ball Hitch....

Surprizingly this post is not in reference to all of the wood that Kruze has been cuttin' and haulin' lately...
Today Sarah's class had a play at school, Kruze had the day off so we went together to watch our mini Julia Roberts "become" a baker. She was stunning, she was radiant and she "was" the baker and in my opinion deserving of an Oscar!! Ok ..I know I'm a bit Bias...but really she ROCKED!! Anyway after the standing Ovation...we had an hour to kill before we had to pick the girls up from school so we ran to the grocery store, they were having a major huge "Buy One Get One Free" sale, and our cupboards are literally bare board empty so we loaded and we loaded and we over loaded the cart, we were jamming everything X 2 in that cart and by the time we managed to wrestle the cart to the check-out we were way strugglin' I think our cart may have had a flat tire. The teenage boy that was checking out our U-Haul load of groceries kept snickering and looking at Kruze and I like we were completely out of our minds and the three(literally) girls bagging our groceries kept insisting that we needed parcel pick-up. "No" I said, "We got it", blank stare from all three.."Are you sure?" "Do you need a second cart?" "How did you fit all of this food in one cart?" GEEZ you would think these kids had never seen two people do an entire years worth of grocery shopping in one trip!! Now that my cupboards are once again stocked I feel like at least in the task of feeding hungry children I am some what prepared..as for the rest of their needs...well...there just isn't a shopping cart big enough to help me feel prepared to deal....

Moon and Morning Glory Vine... 

Red Moon...