This was in yesterdays paper. Somedays, I'm just  not proud to be from here! LOL

  What is normal, really? I don't think things were ever normal per say. LOL But we are back to our regular scheduled program.  Grinding is over and my husband is back working his regular 6 to 5 hours instead of the afternoon hours that he had for the past four months. And school will be up and running  tomorrow morning.

   We would have started back with school this morning but I had a doctors appointment with my GYN.  I have a love hate relationship with this man. Love the person that he is, but hate what he does, if you know what I mean. The most embarrasing day of the year for me, the wellness visit.  Yuck! And it probably wouldn't be that bad if it would end after only the one visit, but each year there is a problem that needs futher attention. And this year is no different. I have been having pains in my lower stomach and lower back area so he wants a vag. ultrasound. I had them schedule the mammogram and the ultrasound on the same morning of Jan. 29th.  He wanted to do a MRI but me and those tiny sausage like machines don't get along. Last time I was stuffed into one I paniced and had to be removed after only about 30 seconds. So I nixed that idea right away. The ultrasound was option B. I'm not going to know anything for at least another six weeks so I'm not going to stress or worry about it. God is in control, so no need for worries.

   Also ran to the DMV today after the doctor's appointment to drop off a license plate of a car that I just sold and to get my 15 year old an ID. He is way big for his age and no one believes him when he says that he is only 15. He turns 16 this next Monday on the 12th and now has to buy hunting and fishing licenses,  so he will need this  ID to do that. Well nothing got done at the DMV because as soon as we opened the door I saw that the place was packed to the roof. What is it about DMVs?  I told him we would return  early in the morning  and try to beat the rush. He was a little disappointed but understood. He is such a good kid.

   I took my current issue of Mother Earth News with me to the doctor's office today and read a few aticles on gardening. I am so ready for a spring garden, heck I'm just ready for spring, period. I'm done with the cold and all the brown deadness everywhere. Bring on the color and the flowers!

                                  "THE CHRISTMAS PAGEANT."

  My proudest moment came during the
  children's Christmas pageant. My daughter was playing
  Mary, two of my sons were shepherds and my
  youngest son was a wise man.
  This was their moment to shine. My five-year-old
  shepherd had practiced his line,
  'We found the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.'
  But he was nervous and said, 'The baby was wrapped
  in wrinkled clothes.' My four-year-old 'Mary' said,
  'That's not 'wrinkled clothes,' silly. That's dirty, rotten clothes.'
  A wrestling match broke out between Mary and the shepherd
  and was stopped by an angel, who bent her halo and lost
  her left wing. I slouched a little lower in my seat when Mary
  dropped the doll representing Baby Jesus, and it bounced
  down the aisle crying, 'Mama-mama.'
  Mary grabbed the doll, wrapped it back up and held it tightly
  as the wise men arrived.  My other son stepped
  forward wearing a bathrobe and a paper crown, knelt at the
  manger and announced, 'We are the three wise guys,
  and we are bringing gifts of gold, common sense and fur.'
  The congregation dissolved into laughter, and the pageant
  got a standing ovation.

  'I've never enjoyed a Christmas program as much as this
  one,' laughed the Pastor, wiping tears from his eyes.
  'For the rest of my life, I'll never hear the Christmas story
  without thinking of gold, common sense and fur.'
  'My children are my pride  and my joy and my greatest
  blessing,' I said as I dug through my purse for an aspirin.
                                                Author, Unknown

Everything went OK yesterday, the turkey was a hit. I saw on one of the shows on the Food Network, they put a sliced orange and a sliced lemon in the cavity of the turkey to help it stay juicy. Well it worked! I also used some cajun injector for seasoning the inside of the meat, that too adds so much flavor. So it was a hit, thank you God, lol.

I, as usual, made too much food. I sent some home with my daughter, fed some inlaws, twice, ate supper, fed strangers that stopped by to say hello, and STILL had tons of food left.  The strangers were only strangers to me, my dh knew these men from work. Grinding keeps going on 24/7 here, there are no holidays as for as the mill bosses are concerned. Things keep running. So there were truck and tractor drivers that were stopping by the house to say hello, and I felt bad and fed them.  My husband did put his foot down on not giving away the coconut cake tho, lol.

So what do you do  with all the cornbread dressing you have left, you eat some of it for breakfast.........and lunch.............and supper. If there is any left by the end of the day, I may have to give some it the cats. LOL

I will be heading out later to face the crowds at Wal-mart, ONLY because I need a new toilet seat and some packing tape. Otherwise, I wouldn't face the crowds. I'm not one for all this shopping madness. Besides, I looked threw all the sales papers, and there wasn't anything that I wanted, lol.

Have a good day, and be safe if your out in the craziness.

 Aprons

          I don't think our kids know what an apron is.
          The principal use of Grandma's apron was
          to protect the dress underneath, but along with that,
          it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

          It was wonderful for drying children's tears,
          and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

          From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs,
          fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs
          to be finished in the warming oven.

          When company came, those aprons were
          ideal hiding places for shy kids.

          And when the weather was cold, grandma
          wrapped it around her arms.

          Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow,
          bent over the hot wood stove.

          Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen
          in that apron.
          From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables.
          After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

          In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples
          that had fallen from the trees.

          When unexpected company drove up the road,
          it was surprising how much furniture that old apron
          could dust in a matter of seconds.

          When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch,  waved
          her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in  from the
         fields to dinner

          It will be a long time before someone invents something  that
         will replace that 'old-time apron' that served
          so many purposes.

          Send this to those who would know,
          and love the story about Grandma's aprons.

          REMEMBER:

          Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies
          on the window sill to cool.
          Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

        
THANKS NANCY, THIS IS TOO CUTE.

  I am going to be a bit busy today, we have many errands to run. First off, I made appointments for both my dh and I for our bloodwork and checkups. We both need to get our cholesterol and my blood sugar checked. So I figured since he is on his vacation this week, we'd kill that bird.  After that I have to stop by the lawyers office, who is handling mom's interdiction case, and sign some papers and drop off a key to him. That ball should start rolling soon.  I think my dh wants to stop and have lunch in town while it's just the two of us, how nice of him, lol. Then I have to run to the feed store and get lay crumble and corn for the chickens. Also swing by my son's house for a minute, then back home to wait for the Hospice folks to call or come by about mom.  I will  have a favor to ask about mom,  but I will get into more detail about that later when I know more about her condition. Then once home, do my regular house chores, oh buy wait, DH is cooking this week. HA HA  Well have a blessed day everyone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE:

OK, we are back home now. All my blood work was good as far as my diabetes was concerned. I do however have a touch of high blood preasure now. So on the meds I go. Thank God the meds he prescribed was on the $4 list at walmart. And the hubby, who went for his BP check up, which was great, now has a touch of diabetes, LOL. So he was put on a diabetic diet, which he is not too happy about. So now I am just waiting for the Hospice nurse to arrive which will be soon. Will update on that situation later. 

      First thanks  for all the wonderful comments on my "new" home. Thats what it feels like, a new home. My husband likes to go stand on the road  out front and just look at it. I have to say I did it too a couple of times. Every time we did something or added something, I ran to the road to see how it looked, LOL. This morning was the first time I had the time to actually enjoy my cup of coffee. I went sit at the table on the porch and watched the sun come up. Very nice and relaxing, God is good. Speaking of God, I have a little story to tell about me painting my house. Each day that we spent working on the house, we had to do it while watching the weather. We would paint a little and then it would rain. The day that we had  actually gotten the majority of the house painted, using a spray painter, the black clouds starting brewing from the west. My dd and I were working on the patio when we noticed this. I got on my hands and knees in the yard and asked God to please let it blow over. But alas it came, and boy how  it came. We all ran for cover inside the house. My dd said maybe God didn't hear me, I said yes he did, don't worry.  It was lunch time, so we went ahead and ate some hot dogs while inside. The whole time wondering what we were going to face outside. We were sure that the paint had ran all down the house, at least on one side for sure. Well we get outside and you would  never believe that the paint had NOT ran at all. It was a true miracle. The paint was still wet on two sides of the house when it started raining, so by law, it should have ran. I looked at my daughter and said, "I told you he heard me".

      I have a few things to still do around the place, but nothing that I need to jump on asap. A few more areas to pick up around and some weed eating to do around things. My dh was cutting the grass yesterday and we think the lawn mower died. It started smoking and made a loud noise, then went caput. Oh well, thank God we still have a push mower, I know my son isn't going to like that at all tho, LOL.

     And speaking of sons, my eldest son Eric, has a new home as well. He signed the papers yesterday. He is 24 years old and is in dept up to his eyeballs,  I'm so proud of him, LOL. Not for the debt thing, of coarse. He has come a long way since he was a teenager. This is the one who didn't finish high school. God saw the good in his heart. I let him know daily that everything he has, everything, is from God. He provides!

     Well let me head out to the kitchen, I have some catching up to do inside of my home now. Mt. Laundry awaits.

Living where I live here on the sugar plantation, there is so much to see all year round.  During the fall and early winter months the mill is in full force with grinding the sugar cane, and during the summer months they spend their time either cleaning up from or getting ready for the next grinding  season.  There is always something going on. The mill itself is just a bunch of machinery and trucks and men in hardhats, but there is still much beauty here too.

   Every plantation, large or small, had a "big or main house". That was were the owners of everything lived. Our "main house" isn't as grand as most plantation houses in the area are, but non the less grand.  (I didn't actually walk far enough to get a picture of the front of the house) but got some pretty pics of  area surrounding it.

NOTE: I still havn't figured out how to size the pictures using flickr.com yet, so I'm sorry if you can't make out whats what in the pics. This is as big as I can get them without them getting blurry. Sorry!

Here you can see the house in the background behind the live oak trees.

This is another one, with a vintage tractor that is used to keep up the lawn, which is always very well kept, always.

Here are a couple of kettles, two of many that are all over the place. These kettles were used to boil the sugar in the old days, now they sell for sometimes over $1000 a piece and are used for lawn decor. Some have goldfish swimming in them. (Notice me in the pic, lol)

This one just has green algae swimming in it. The one in the back ground has some type of plant growing in it.

Another one of the live oaks.

The moss is taking over everywhere! I love it tho.

Directly across the road is remnants of the past. My great aunt and uncle on my mothers side actually worked and lived on this same plantation many many years ago. If you look close at the picture you can see whats left of their home. It is made of cypress so it may last forever. It is so cool, it has the gingerbread trim all around the house.

This is whats left of some type of cement building. I think it was some type of shed for storing feed and or food.

This is whats left of an old post and wire fence that ran around the property where they lived. Probably kept thier livestock locked in.  Right past the fence you can still see the humps in the ground where the garden once was.

Well I hope you'll like the historic tour, LOL. Have a great weekend.

 OH its a spectacular day outside, after it raining for the last two, we needed some sunshine. My dh is currently at the farmers market picking up some fresh things. I hate the fact that I didn't get around to doing a garden this year cuz mom is here. I really thought I wouldn't have time to devote to it, but I  think I really could have not that I've gotten a routine down. So now I'm mad at me. Oh well, kay-sar-rah-sar-rah. LOL.

   We will spend some time out in the yard today, it's just too nice not too. I have some weeding to do in the front flower bed. I pruned some rose branches the other day. I know your not officially suppose to do that untill August, but I have to say, the more I prune, the more they bloom, good stuff those roses.

   We also will working on our mailbox today. We, actually the whole street, received a letter in our boxes one day this week stating that, after like a gazillion years, our boxes aren't high enough. I think we have a new driver who is complainer, so we have to move them up. Ours is all of two inches too low. So the mill has made the pipe holders for a cluster of boxes together and they will be installing them all today. So I made a run to town yesterday and purchased The Daigles, that's us, a brand new  black shinny mail receptical. Yayy us!  Oh my, so much excitment on the plantation today, LOL. (yes for the most part my life is very boring, but sometimes, thats a good thing.) Have a great day and weekend everyone. Hope the weather is good where you are.

           Whew! I made it!  As I sat down to write my first word after putting my cute little graphic up, I started thinking what I had to do today. PUT THE TRASH TO THE ROAD. I could hear the garbage truck coming down the road, so off I ran. So, put the trash to the road, done. LOL

           It's eight thirty and I have already been to the grocery store, yay me. Ran into someone I graduated from high school with  cough28yearscough ago. She looks good, why is that everyone else looks good and not me. LOL. I know, because there is two of me now.  But that's OK because yesterday I started yet another diet. This makes diet number 156, lol.  Oh and why is it when ever you start a diet your always hungry? Each morning I get up and start my daily chores and I'm never hungry, I sometimes forget to eat breakfast and before you know it it's lunch time. But yesterday and this morning, starving before 7, why is that. I'm betting its a trick your mind plays on you.  Well my mind is weak, so I will lose that game.

           Its spring time again and with that come beautiful flowers, the planting of gardens, new baby chicks to raise, grass to mow, a nice breeze, and those horrid little bugs called roaches. We get those large, I mean humungsous ones in our house every spring. I see them at night when I  turn on the light for a midnight snack,  I mean glass of water. And once I see them, ITS ON! I can never go to sleep knowing that one of those hiddious creatures are in my house with the slight chance of them crawling on me in the night. UUUGGGG So I chase them down with anything availabe, a swatter, a shoe, the newspaper. OK  I digress, last year I found a recipe for roach poison and it works great.  So yesterday when I saw a horrid little bugger in my pantry I knew it was time to refresh my poison balls. The recipe is as follows if anyone is interested:

8 oz. of boric acid

1/2 cup of flour

1/8 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of oil (to start)

 Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and stir. You wil have to add more oil to make the mixture  shapeable.  Once the dough is good enough to roll into a ball, roll marble size balls. Place them where your children or pets can't get to them. Once they harden, which will take a long time,change them out for fresh ones. Keep the balls in an open ziplock bag to keep soft.

      I also have some moving of furniture to do in moms rooms today. They are finally delivering her hospital bed this afternoon. Only catch is that we have move the one that she is in out of the way ourselves. They don't move furniture because of insurance reasons. Not sure why, but I'm OK with it, at least I'm getting a new bed for her. This is going to be such a great help. Leaning over to bathe or change her is killing our backs. So thank  you Jesus for this blessing. They have also provided us with a wheelchair, another blessing if she'd like to move around sometimes.  She is eating a little more and seems to be doing as well as can be expected, so that too is a blessing.  I still can't find anyone to come in and sit with her. One company call me back and said that all 100 of their sitters where booked up. I still can't believe that in three towns, there is no one that can come in and  help me out one or two days a week. I have my daughter now, but she is the process of trying to find a full time job now that she is out of school.  Oh well  I have faith that God will provide me with the help I need.

       Well I have other things on my to-do list that need doing, so I'm off  to finish that. Have a blessed day everyone.