Wait, I want to see the Goblins too!

This is what happens when you are  very "exciteable" and nobody wants you to scare the little ones to death on Halloween! Poor Goliath, destined to sit behind the barricade, wine and wimper, and not being able to partake in ghosts and goblins of all sorts.

Although I am sure that the first two little ones who approached the door "before" we got the gate up and dogs on the right side of it thought that they were about to eaten and gobbled up by monsters! God I hope they are not scarred for life!

Golly, only 18 or so kids this year, I miss seeing the little ones , they always look so cute! We only had about 6 under the age of 5 this year, :(

How To

How to properly answer the front door (or any door for that matter) when you have a very deranged dog who goes "balistic" when someone, anyone comes anywhere near the property! Look at this face and tell me you don't think he isn't just the sweetest thing with that puppy dog look!

Well let me tell you, that look quickly disappears the minute he thinks he hears someone approaching from outdoors! He turns into this barking, snarling, scrambling mess of fur that is almost impossible to hold onto, and forget telling him to sit (yeah that works for sure!) cause he has a one track mind when he knows someone is on his property! In the meantime the poor cat (Zues) is now having a heart attach because Goliath has started on his very loud rampage, and he can't get himself hidden fast enough!

And last but not least Moses has now come to see what all the ruckus is about, not that he really cares that  someone has come, but since Goliath is so riled then he thinks he should be too (that's what buds are for). And now we have not one but 2 dogs, snarling and growling, and now you need 2 people, one to hold them back while the other opens the door as narrowly as possible and squeezes outside to talk to whoever had the audacity to come knocking. (The last 3 times it was some young man selling home security systems, yeah like we don't already have our own version!). And usually by the time you manage to get the door open or your body squeezed outside, you guessed it, they heard all the racket and high tailed it out of there!

The Fear of Letting Go

I have heard the saying that what I consider as garbage (no longer useable, unsightly, just taking up wasted space) can be someone else's treasures,,, but seriously, a ratty old wicker stand that has sat in a corner gathering dust, been chewed on by our cat? It always amazes me that you put these things out on garbage day (usually the night before) and by morning,gone! Silently tossed into a vehicle that cruises the neighborhood in search of such treasures (didn't even wake my hubby who generally doesn't sleep and hears everything).

It must be a science. I often wonder what their homes look like, or their garages,stuffed with unused treasures? I'm not even sure why it lasted so long in the first place in our home, as like I said it sat in a corner gathering dust for years. Everytime I noticed it I would tell myself to throw it out, and yet there it sat for years and years (and yep I finally did manage to get up the gusto and do it!)

Now for those old doors, blinds etc hiding in the other room! Oh My! Why do I keep these things in the first place? We say we might need them later,and years later we run across them and wonder why we ever kept them?

And although once every other year we clean out a room or space, and feel cleansed, we seem to gather that much more all over again in another room! A never ending cycle we can't seem to break.

I guess it's the letting go part that is ingrained in some of us that is the hardest to break, some more than others! Take my hubby for instance, he says we should hang onto things just in case, then always forgets where he put them, goes out and buys it again when he finds he needs one (thinking to himself "I thought I had one of those") only to find it next year when going through a cubby hole looking for something completely not related. You would think we would learn where to put things that we intend to keep just because we might need it later on, but "NO" we don't. Like I said, never ending cyle!

Yay For Smart Hubbies!

He did it! Of course he did, he fixed it, he always fixes it! Did I say how much I hate electronics! Anyway, my hubby has fixed up my mess! Isn't he just the best! The secret of course is to walk away from the mess, then go back when cooler heads prevail (his of course, not mine). I still hate electronics though.

Bigger, Newer, is Not Always the Best

I HATE ELECTRONICS! Or rather I should probably say that they hate me! You do one thing in the wrong sequence and WHAM the whole damn thing gets screwed up. Press one wrong button and golly gee where did the sound go? I swear they do that on purpose so you have to call for support, only for them to tell you there is nothing they can do and you will have to pay more to repair the darn thing than to buy a new one(we already had to do that this year once). The old tv's used to last for 20 yrs, I guess they weren't making enough money, so they had to make great big tv's that break down with the slightest push of a wrong button! Sure add a button so you can rewind to watch a few seconds again(not that that was what I wanted to do)and then hey what happened, no sound?? For pete's sake I just wanted to record a show, how hard can that be? Really hard if your like me!Seriously!

Seriously! Your Garbage is NOT my Garbage!

The very nerve of some people, and if I find that nervy person I will be sure to pass along their name, in BIG BOLD letters. I have enough of my own garbage to put out on garbage day, we can only put it out every second week, and alternate with green bags, and this week did happen to be GREEN week not garbage week, by the way. So to that nervy scum who dropped their 2 bags of garbage in my driveway with my green bags, I say please grow up and be mature! How hard is it to know which week is which, huh, it's really not rocket science for pete's sake! They even give out free yearly calendars to put on your fridge to make that much easier. They probably already got caught putting it out on the wrong week, and having left it out and gotten warned by the powers that be to remove it, they decided to toss it into someone else's yard! That's just NASTY and unneighborly. REALLY!

Ahhh, Fall (It came it went)

What happened to fall? September was pretty great as far as fall weather goes, warm daytime, cool evening, but OMG here came October and although it is only the 13th it is raining, falling to minus temps at night and we even had frost this morning on the car windshield! Not fair, this shouldn't be happening for another 2 weeks yet! I haven't gotten my fill of just moving up to the long sleeves, now I need to find my heavier stuff.... and you know that as soon as I drag it all out, and stuff away the summer stuff, it will turn nice again! (Murphy's law)

Well we did get two fair days this past weekend, enough to get one side of the house sprayed down, now it looks tan color instead of green (hahaha). Only 3 more sides to go!

Now that thanksgiving is over it turns to time to get moving on (here it comes) Christmas shopping! Oh my! Although I have managed a few things so far, which puts me well beyond my usual position for Christmas shopping. But what to get for those who really don't need anything? I no longer enjoy Christmas that much anymore (maybe when the grandkids come along, whenever/ if ever that is).

I got my notice to book my mammogram again and guess what, only a 6 month waiting list! Wow, pretty depressing if you had any worries. You would think for something that only takes 5 minutes, undress, slam your boob up against a cold slab of steel and glass, hold for 1 minute (that hurts the most) then do the other one for 1 minute (hurts even more), and your done!Six months! Crazy! I guess that's why you only get one every 2 years, otherwise you would have to wait a full year anyway! So in reality I guess you are waiting a year and a half.....! You would think the brainiacs of science and medicine could come up with a much easier and less painful way to view your boobs wouldn't you?

Scrumptious!

"AAHHH" gotta love turkey dinners and all that goes with them! Turnip, mashed potato, glazed carrots, yummy handed down stuffing recipe, (the one you've always eaten ever since you can remember, gravy..... and I even made homemade cranberry sauce for the first time (find it a little sweeter than I would have liked). Then comes the clean up from making that yummy dinner, and everytime I cook it I ask myself why do I do this? You spend half the day making it, half the day cleaning up after spending an entire 1/2 hr eating it! Thank goodness for the leftovers. And then comes Christmas just around the corner and I will do it all over again and so on! Just wouldn't be the same if I didn't.

Our House via Google Street View(Way Cool)

My House-Google Street View


This is just too cool; this is our house using the new Google maps street view! It isn’t really up to date; I think it is from either last fall or early spring. I have been searching everyone I know and checking who has street views yet. WAY COOL!

35 Years Later... So Cool!

I recently went to my husbands brothers daughters (that would be our niece) wedding. During the reception it was noted that all of the people who had been in her mother and fathers own wedding party were there! Wow how cool was that, I bet that doesn't happen too often 35 years later! So they took a picture of the wedding party now.

That Dark Place....

For anyone who lives with someone who suffers from depression you would know the feeling of helplessness. Because truly, there is no written in stone process for helping you to help someone who suffers from this debilitating disease. It is all trial and error, guesswork, alot of investigative reading, and just plain doing nothing at all (except for just being). Watch and wait, that is really what we do. Watch for the signs of what period they are now in (you get pretty good at that after awhile), and wait for it to change over to another period of their cyle(hopefully the period won't last longer than you can deal with). Because that is what it is really, cycle after cycle of moods. Once you learn to recognize some of them, then you can learn what you need to do for both them and for you. Sometimes there is nothing you can do but quietly wait it out, hoping it will swing soon to somewhere that resembles calm. You keep asking yourself what can I do to help, but in reality there isn't much you can do but hang in there, throw in some smiles, a few hugs, some tender touches and then go about your daily routine as you normally would, with or without them.

You can't push, pull, holler or swear, cause it won't do any good anyway, and it will just pull you downward, so you just go on about your life and hope they opt to be a part of it sooner rather than later. Offer opinions when asked, but don't expect a miraculous "aha" moment to occur anytime soon if ever. Even though they hear what you say, they know its what they should do, the manic whirlwind going on in their heads just doesn't know how to let go.

Take the rare moments, hours, days, weeks (if you are lucky you might even get more) and enjoy them to there fullest, because you know they won't last forever, as depression is not something that they recover from, it is like an alcoholic, always lingering in the background, something that can break through to the surface at any time, with any little unforseen trigger. You do your best to keep those triggers at bay, but somehow they always seem to creep in there even with the careful planning you thought you had in place.

So heres hoping peace comes soon and stays a little longer this time.

On Guard

This is Goliath guarding the bird feeder from the squirrels! Everyday he races to the feeder to make sure there aren't any squirrels (or blue jays, he doesn,t seem to like them either) before going about his business. I'm not sure who is winning the war, the bird seed still seems to go down pretty fast, not sure if the blue jays are spilling enough to fill them up or if they are still managing to climb the pole(I heard about someone putting pop bottles on the pole to keep them off, so I am trying that).