House of Holmes

Yeah...I'm just a little behind.....Well, actually that might be different according to the view,YKWIM!!!

2010-05-03T13:25:00.001-05:00

I'm gonna start back.....I've been struggling a bit....with LIFE. I've started SO many posts, but I always seem to head down a bunny trail and loose my train of thought. Lots of things have happened since I last posted...maybe I'll go back and catch up on some of them in my spare time....HA HA HA!! But anyway, I'm gonna try to get back on the blog thing semi-regular...it's kind of my insanity diffuser!

WE'VE COMMENCED TO STAINING...

2009-10-03T23:10:00.010-05:00

Well, the REAL work (at least for me) began this past week. Other than clearing/cutting with the tractor and just generally tidying up (which is a HUGE job) and the previously mentioned cleaning of the logs, I've managed to contribute little to the actual building of this house. I just don't do houses or carpentry.

Which is actually kind of funny as many years of my childhood were spent nailing scrap lumber together in some form or fashion to quite a few of the trees in our neighborhood. We had "tree-houses" or "huts" EVERYWHERE. Most of them consisted of a few 2x4's nailed between two limbs, but to me they were like mini-mansions.

So this week, we got a break in the weather with temperatures dropping a bit and a forecast of mostly sunny skies. So we commenced to staining this ENTIRELY-TOO-FREAKIN-LARGE-ALL-WOODEN-STRUCTURE. After about two hours, I was chanting "BRICK-BRICK-BRICK" in a kind of weird cadence to my painting strokes. By the end of the second day, my right arm was visibly larger than my left.

Painting with stain onto raw lumber is a bit of a challenge. First it's thin, runny, and greasy. Second, You have to start from the bottom and work your way up, at least for the first coat in order to keep the stain more even. Third, if you are in the vertically-challenged category, you have to start painting "up" pretty darn quick, which means the stain is pretty much running down your brush, then down your hand, then down your arm, then into your armpit. So now my armpits have been stained brown, treated for borer bees and other pestilence, and sealed.

Thankfully, we have had lots of help. My Dad, who is almost seventy-five, painted all day just for a piece of fried catfish from Top Hat. He loves him some fried fish.

"WILL WORK FOR FRIED CATFISH"

This is pretty much how it looked after two days of work.

Then we pulled rank on the kids and managed to get one third of them for a full day of help. We promised them a slightly larger portion of their "inheritance" as compared to their other siblings who managed to find other "things" to do, like attending college out of state, helping out in a local beauty pageant, etc. Actually, if we were very smart we would have used their "inheritance" to have this FREAKIN HUGE WOODEN HOUSE stained by professionals instead of doing it ourselves! Thank you SO much Blake and Mason. You WILL definitely get that extra five dollars added to your "inheritance".

To get the higher parts done, we had to rent this handy-dandy piece of equipment. I maintained my argument that I was much more efficient working at "sea-level" and totally avoided the bucket truck. It did add a small element of fun for the boys with a "real-live-grown-up-size Tonka truck", but I think it would be a stretch to say that playing with the lift made the work "fun". Clara did however position herself in the bucket with whomever was in it, but without the benefit of paint and a paint brush....that was just too risky-putting a ten year old twenty to thirty feet above your head holding a bucket of stain that she could have dropped.

However, as the day was winding down, I finally relented and got in to give it a shot-after checking out the weight limit. I was too scared to try to operate it, so stupidly I allowed Blake to control it from below. So he proceeded to "park" me at one of the higher peaks with the base of the machine on one of the steeper slopes. Then I was told I could not come down until all the staining was done. All the while, the machine alarm is sounding as the base was not well-balanced. However, I did outsmart him in the end as I went up with a very small amount of paint in my bucket.

At any rate, as of late Saturday evening, most of the house has two coats of stain on it. The bad thing is, next week doesn't look too great for the weather to finish it up. And we have a huge machine-lifter-thingey rented for the week in which it probably will not be used. Too-bad, So-sad.....more "cha-ching" for AK Rentals who will gladly rent it to us for one more week.

This MONTH on "Little House in The Big Woods"

2009-09-30T20:17:00.015-05:00

Well, it seems as though NOTHING has gotten done this past month. It has take FOREVER to get some small things taken care of, so it really doesn't look much different than the last update. I think most of this month has involved Tom making three-four trips per day to the lumber yard/Lowes for something the workers run out of or broke. A couple of noticeable changes-

The ceiling and trim around the beams are FINALLY done.

The stairs are "basically" in. They still have to be trimmed out.

Then this week, I was finally "captured" and forced into "slavery". Actually, I only had to transport one parent for only one medical appointment after a little flurry of activity this past month with Grampa and Grandma both "acting-up" a bit!!

The "SLAVE DRIVER" -note the serious look on his face as he tinkers with the caulk gun. FEAR HIM...His real name is THOMAS EdWORK HOLMES.

So, the weather turned a bit cooler and the bugs died down a bit (or so I thought) and I decided to tackle some of the "unskilled" labor tasks that needed to be done. I don't do anything that requires skilled labor.

First, I had to WASH the entire exterior of the house as due to the Alabama monsoons and the length of time it has been since the structure was erected, the logs had weathered quite a bit. So I proceed to spray off the entire house with a 2 GAL garden sprayer with a special mixture to remove the discoloration and kill any mold or mildew in order to prepare the wood for staining and sealing.

Do you know how many times you have to stop and pump up that silly little sprayer to keep enough pressure to reach up high on the sides? I think that I counted one time and in one full canister, I pumped 6 times at 25 times per episode. That would be approximately 150 pumps per each fill of the sprayer. I lost count, but I think I filled/refilled the container about 12 times. You can do the rest of the math, but my right arm tells me it's somewhere up around 832,654 pumps.

And then the ladder part...my chubby butt lugging that full container up about 25 feet on the ladder which was sitting on the decking which is anywhere from 3-4 feet to 10-12 feet off the ground. And oh yes...the fogged up eye wear which protected my eyes but pretty much rendered me working blind.

After applying the cleaning solution, the house had to be rinsed with the pressure washer. Tom pretty much did this as that thing just about blasted me off the ladder the first time I tried it.

All this was done TWICE....well, except for the back porch...I was TOO tired and since it was covered, the wood looked pretty OK anyway.

So after the house-washing, we cleaned up a TON of trash/wood scraps and burned them. By this time, I had picked Clara up from school and she brought home a couple of friends, Trenton and Jakob. They pretty much ran wild on the property somewhat supervised. They found a puddle with tadpoles which occupied them well until I started the fire, which aroused their pyromania-tendencies.

AND what is the deal about kids and fires???? I read somewhere that pyromania was one of the three signs you were raising a potential serial killer or Timothy McVeigh-type...(probably during my "Columbine-mother-hysteria-years", during which I snooped and spied on my children WAY more than a mom should have, looking diligently for any signs that I was raising a latent school-shooter)

Thank goodness none of them wet the bed past age 12 or were cruel to animals. Well except for maybe a few incidents involving fire ants, army men figurines and firecrackers. And maybe a Barbie or two to just try to get the girls all riled up.

...Sorry Blake...but you should have NEVER planted all that stuff about Che Guevara and the bomb making recipes just for me to find. Oh yes, and don't forget the school newsletter you wanted to publish...was it called "The REVOLUTION"? We could have bought you a MUCH nicer car had we/me not spent three years visiting the counselor weekly to help keep my "bad-mother fears" at bay. And MAYBE one day you will have six children who suck all your brain cells and confidence away. And I will love them.....and laugh...just a little!!! Or maybe a lot.

One of the 6 reasons I am half-crazy....SEE....he's trying to run over me in this very picture!

So, here I am, posting about the house and now I'm rambling on about how you guys DROVE me NUTS...and now you LAUGH because your Mother is CRAZY.

Well, I forgot what I was saying about the house. The above rambling is known in psychiatric circles as "flight of ideas" which is one sign of psychosis. I THINK it's the only symptom I have. I'll post this and shut-up now. Maybe another day I'll finish telling about all the BACK-BREAKING SLAVE LABOR WORK I DID THIS WEEK ON THIS HOUSE!

Missing my baby girl a bit today.......

2009-09-05T11:39:00.004-05:00

Her room looks a little lonely.

Her stuffed animals a bit forlorn.

A few of her books looking unused and dust-covered.

Her doll's table all empty.

So I took Kirsten out of her trunk and sat her at the table. This made me feel a tiny bit better.

But THIS made me feel so very close to her......sneaking a peak in her closet!!!! Missing my baby pack-rat. She's alot like me....and not always so good!!

A day in the life of our "dog"......Pierre Jean-Claude Zucha-Poodems Frank Pookrums.....and several other names that I can't recall at the moment.

2009-08-27T12:51:00.000-05:00

09:17 AM

11:18 AM

12:29 PM

1:29 PM

2:03 PM

No commentary needed.

Latest Episode of "Little House"

2009-08-27T08:04:00.007-05:00

I've been on the run quite a bit for most of the month of August. Have had some "somewhat interesting" adventures and I hope to "back-blog" to catch-up, but I'm pretty sure those memories will most likely just stay in my mind!

At any rate, here are a few pictures from the house-building project that is going on around here. Alot of the work that has been done in the last month has been more of the "stuff" that doesn't really "show"....just lots of tedious time-consuming work like wiring, insulation, etc. This week they are putting in the staircase and the ceilings, so that will be pretty exciting as it will "visually" look like something is going on!

View of the front of the house with the windows and main level doors in place.

Looking down from Jordan's bedroom (through the wall) into the den below.

Looking out of Jordan's bedroom door into the den below. Note part of ceiling in place!

"Short" wall in Jordan's bedroom showing some of the ceiling in place.

Looking up from the den at the loft. To the right is Jordan's bedroom. In the center is the opening for the upstairs bathroom. To the left will be a mechanical room holding the upstairs AC. Next to that will be the staircase, and futher to the left is the doorway to Clara's bedroom.

More looking up from the den into the upstairs.

Clara and Pierre, the wonder-dog checking out the new "diggs"!

First day of school.....MIDDLE SCHOOL!!!

2009-08-13T12:37:00.001-05:00

Big day around here. 5th grade means MIDDLE SCHOOL for Clara Beth! Even though her huge fear of having to square dance in PE this year is giving rise to a plea to return to homeschooling....she's still ready and excited for a new adventure!

"WHY I LIKE TO SWIM WITH MY BROTHER"

2009-07-18T23:41:00.006-05:00

The oldest and the youngest....having a little fun.

The GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY!

2009-07-18T23:16:00.004-05:00

My "oldest" grand-dogs came for an afternoon visit. They weren't much "into" the whole swimming thing...mostly just running and barking. One (who will not be named here) especially enjoyed sneaking off the deck and trying to make a break for it...away from the other two. He was headed for the porch 'cause he just doesn't have the energy to "run with the big dogs"!!!

Now, the title of this post and the order of these pictures have no correlation....I'm just saying!

"Little House Update"

2009-07-18T21:47:00.008-05:00

Tom "surveying" his work.

Clara showing Blake the beams in her room where Mom told her she could string up Christmas lights!

Jenny not wanting to climb up the ladder to the upper level!

A bit of sibling harassment going on here between the oldest and the youngest!

The big deal this week was FINALLY getting the roof on. Inside, all of the interior walls were stubbed in and the cross-beams in the upstairs were placed. Tom did get the shed dormer on the back stained and sealed before the roof went on so the stain wouldn't get on the roof. I'm not sure what is next....wiring and plumbing or the insulation and ceiling. I know one thing, these construction guys are MESSY!

CLARA FINALLY TAKES A BATH!!!!

2009-07-11T19:55:00.007-05:00

One good thing about Clara being "into" art right now is the added benefit of the necessity to take a bath after "throwing a pot"! We were going on six bath less days. Although I haven't verified it, when questioned, she did say she has been changing her underwear.

And, this isn't quite as "weird" as painting a styrofoam head as a moustached, balding man with piercing blue eyes!

This week on "Little House in the Big Woods".....

2009-07-09T20:29:00.010-05:00

House update pictures.....

There should be some more "visible" progress next week with the roof going on. See all that big ol' chimney and basement walls in the front. Some stupid person in our house bragged that she could lay the rock for it after seeing a couple of homes built by the company we are using in which the wives did the masonry work. One of them was about 10 months pregnant at the time and I stupidly said "Well if she could do that when she was that pregnant, I KNOW I can do ours"....Me and my big mouth.

Please tell me this is "normal"

2009-07-09T19:52:00.006-05:00

Today Clara and Rachel made a trip into town to their favorite store..."Hobby Lobby".

This is the "craft" Clara picked out. We spend $$$$$ on beautiful American Girl Dolls, art/piano lessons and every thing else under the sun, and this is how she "expresses" herself. And since she has to hide anything-doll, stuffed animal, etc. that has eyes and might "look" at her while she is sleeping, there is NO WAY she will let this thing stay in her room at night. Ten guesses whose dresser it will be sitting on come nine pm.

After going back and looking at this, I thought it might need a bit of "CLARA-fication".....(hahahaha...couldn't resist that) This was one of those styrofoam heads like you use to place a wig or hair piece on for styling. Clara thought it was "the awesome-ist" thing, bought it and then painted it.

Morning at the Beach.....

2009-06-30T09:01:00.009-05:00

Partying hard for the birthday girl last night (Yesterday was Ella's 4th birthday) made for a rough morning. The consequences of a late night, heavy doses of sugar and caffeine are apparent around here.

Elda-Beast, the birthday girl turns 4!

If you think THEY look rough, you should have seen the GROWN-UPS!

Currently showing on "Little House in the Big Woods"

2009-06-27T22:52:00.014-05:00

More progress this week on the little cabin in the woods.

The roof rafters, decking and tar paper are up.

The beams for the back porch are in.

A couple of views from the upstairs....kind of hard to visualize, but there will be a bedroom at either end with a central bath and loft area overlooking the den downstairs.

This is the kitchen....doesn't look like much cooking will be going on there. That might be a way to save $$$....NO OVEN!

Looking from the dining room through the den and into the master bedroom. You will have to imagine one wall! Above is the loft overlooking the den.

Before and After shots of what I think this is currently my favorite part of the work accomplished thus far!......Removal and partial clean-up of most of the debris from an old fallen in log cabin that will hopefully one day be an outdoor kitchen/pavilion. I just KNEW there would be hundreds of snakes in the old timbers, but the only thing poisonous found was LOTS of old whiskey bottles....seems the old Judge who owned the Brownwood Cabin vacationed with Jack Daniels quite a bit!

Why I am a nature "Photographer"....

2009-06-17T20:07:00.024-05:00

Here is the evidence.....you be the judge...

THIS...

OR THIS...

THIS...

OR THIS....

THIS...

OR THIS...

THIS...

OR THIS...

THIS...

OR THIS...

THIS...

OR THIS...

THIS...

OR THIS...

THIS...

OR THIS...

So, what do YOU think......Photographer or the SUBJECT?

On today's "episode" of Little House in the Big Woods....

2009-06-16T22:07:00.004-05:00

If the weather continues to hold, we may get all the roof trusses/beam-things in this week! The crew comes in early (around 5am) to get a jump start on the heat. They are extremely hard-workers. It's kind of amazing watching how they have built out the second floor and roof. They only use short portable scaffolding, instead just build a "ladder" straight up into the air and work from there!!! They hand-lift all the heavy beams-no cranes or machinery to raise them.

What MIGHT happen if your children find out they are the beneficiaries of your estate......

2009-06-14T21:50:00.020-05:00

Last week Clara and I traveled up to Western NC/North Georgia to check on Mason and Jordie. They have been gone for about a month now, "working" as raft guides for the summer. They aren't exactly getting rich, but they are having lots of fun doing something they both enjoy and meeting new people/friends with very different approaches to life. This has been especially good for Jordie, as we ALL know she is a very sheltered and unsocialized homeschool graduate.

We traveled up on Wednesday, all excited about seeing them and getting to raft in addition. Clara's first trip down the Nantahala was two years ago, and she had weighed herself almost daily in the year leading up to her first trip, looking to break the magic sixty pound weight requirement to go down the river. She had been down twice in inflatable kayaks, called ducks, but had watched the rest of us go down many other times.

Jordan is working on the Nantahala at the NOC's(Nantahala Outdoor Center) outpost. Mason is working at the Chattooga River outpost, which is on the North Georgia/South Carolina border, which is about an hour or so from the Nantahala. For any of you banjo music fans, the Chattooga is where the movie "Deliverance" was filmed. As a matter of fact, some of the founders of the NOC were the stunt doubles for the canoeing-only scenes. (Like ANYONE would stunt-double for the OTHER scenes!)

So, Clara, Jordie and I head over to Clayton, GA near the Chattooga Outpost all lined up to go down the Chattooga with Mason as our guide. None of us (except Mason) had done this river before, so the excitement level was high. But no fear-we had the best guide on the river all lined up to take us down.

The day started out great. It was overcast and a bit rainy, but that just meant we wouldn't have to worry about getting sunburned. We were accompanied by another boat which contained a nice family (Mom and twin daughters) vacationing from FL. Their "men-folk" had decided on floating another much more thrilling (dangerous!) section of the river.

We alternated floating lazily for a bit with running nice little Class II and III rapids with funny little names like 8 Ball, Kick in the Butt and Houndstooth all the way down the river, soaking in the beautiful scenery in the gorge, with mountain laurel and rhododendron in full bloom. I relaxed and enjoyed the ride and the time with my children, all the while keeping my ears fine-tuned for any sounds of banjo music, pigs-squealing and danger of any other kind. Enter Bull Sluice rapid.

I knew this rapid was a bit more challenging, being a Class IV-V with a narrow margin of error to run while remaining IN the boat! I had pretty much decided that I didn't want Clara to run it, but gave her the option to look at it first before making a decision.

After seeing the rapid, Clara quickly opted out before I had a chance to tell her she couldn't ride this one. This was the spot where the photographer makes pictures, so she helped him out by holding an umbrella for him.

Fool that I am, I was PUMPED!!! I hadn't really run anything like this since the last time I had gone down the Ocoee. This was during the high-adventure mother/daughter weekend called "Estrogen-Fest" that I had organized a few years back with some dear friends of mine, which had turned into the trip-from-you-know-where. At any rate, maybe that should have been a sign. My "high-adventure" days might need to be toned down a bit. After all, I have "crunchy-bones" now and really don't have time for a broken hip!

Still grinning like a FOOL, pumped and ecstatic, we entered the rapid. I was having SO much fun trying to make sure the photographer got a great shot of us/me and making sure Clara saw just HOW MUCH FUN this was! I had no clue (since I was watching Clara and the photographer) that we had entered the rapid with our approach "just a bit" off. AND this run has a very small margin of error. AND we were outside that margin.

We dropped down the first part of the rapid screaming and squealing for joy (or terror), hit the bottom and were promptly thrown too far to the left onto a rock called the "decapitator". Fool that I CONTINUED to be, I was just HAVING A BLAST while grinning maniacally at Clara and the photographer. I wanted that "great shot"- Why they might even use our shot for the website....all the while wearing a goofy helmet that looked like a red bucket slammed down on my head. I really don't "do" hats well.

At some point I did realize that the people to my right (on the low side of the boat) were slipping down into the water and the same fate just might be mine, also. With me still grinning like a fool, we were captured in a time-lapsed sequence sliding into the water as the boat finally flipped.

I don't remember much of the underwater part except for coming up under the boat three different times and grabbing a bit of air in the pockets. I never felt panicked, but I do remember when I came up the last time thinking "This might not come out too good and I REALLY NEED to get out from under this raft!" I did finally get out and popped up quite a bit downstream from the others, still managing to hang on to my paddle. I grabbed the throw-rope and held on as we were pulled in. At that point, I really felt the power of the water and the insignificance of my power to swim against the current. Even though I knew we were all safe, that's when I got scared!

The rest of the group opted to run it a second time...perfectly, I might add. Not me. My legs were somewhat "rubbery" and I just wasn't that much in to trying it again. I'm not really afraid to go when my time rolls around, even longing for the indescribable joy that awaits me upon my earthly death, but I REALLY hated to drown right there in front of my kids. It might have messed up their summer. And to be honest, even though I've seen earthly death many times after working for almost twenty years as a nurse, I really prefer the "go-to-bed, go-to-sleep, wake up in paradise" death scenario.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. We enjoyed a yummy picnic lunch served by our guides beside the river, complete with red-checked tablecloth. We did see a water-snake at the take-out point. This "snake thing" is about to do me in.

Back at the Outpost, poor Mason took a good bit of ribbing/teasing by his co-workers about trying to drown his Mom. They did mention something about the "family-curse". Seems like families who come up to raft with their family members working as guides have a very high rate of mishaps!

Now that a week or so has passed, I think I'm ready to go it again!!! But Clara will definitely "watch-only" on Bull Sluice until she is MUCH older.

Latest "Little House" pictures/progress!

2009-06-14T19:08:00.006-05:00

In between the monsoon rains we have been having off and on all summer, the building of our house is happening. Hopefully this next week, the upstairs can be completed so that we can get the roof on and keep the water off of the subflooring.

We don't do pets.....UPDATE!

2009-06-09T00:11:00.002-05:00

I wrote this post a while back after worrying that Clara grabbing a frog from the pool and not only claiming it as a pet, but naming it ?Patricia? might be yet another sign of childhood trauma/mental illness in one of our children. I never posted it because it was so long-winded and honestly I think I was just trying to work through some of that "mother-guilt/I've warped them" stuff. So if it's too long to muddle through...sorry....it saved me $125.00 in a psych/counselor/visit to moan, groan, whine and try to convince the counselor to convince me that I had not irreparably damaged my kids by depriving them of pets so much that they were grasping at anything non-human, naming it something "unusual" and calling it a pet. I really probably shouldn't admit this, but someone in this family has a freckle on his/her hiney that has a name, but I don't think it is considered a pet. I BESEECH YE....Please don't judge my parenting skills on this.

I do have more upcoming. We may be going to the other extreme....I might be venturing into "livestock"! More to come. I'm just dead tired after spending five days in NC/SC checking on Jordie and Mason/having them try to drown me...(I think they found out they get a few $$$ if we kick-off) Then we had the always special trips to the VA Clinic for my elderly FIL's check-up today. Don't EVEN get me started on the Dental Clinic experience with the over 75 crowd.

Till I can pull some brain cells together......later!

We've got WALLS, YA'LL!!!

2009-05-28T17:43:00.013-05:00

Well, I have about three different posts about three-fourths done, but just gave up on them for now. Anyone who knows me knows that I tend to travel down an "occasional bunny trail" when trying to tell something....I came by this honestly-directly from my Mom! I got a pretty good dose of it from my paternal grandmother also. Even though she passed away when I was twelve and don't have alot of memories of her, I DO remember trying to follow her conversation with a bit of frustration!

At any rate, I MOST definitely write the same way I think and talk.....going all around the world to paint the ENTIRE background/sideground/above-ground and underground picture, often totally forgetting the main focus of....wait a minute....
Now what was I writing about????

Oh yeah...the progress of our log home.

We spent about two or so weeks on excavation. And of course, the one thing that anyone trying to dig a basement fears, happened. We hit rock. Fortunately, we have a wonderful excavator/landscaper and dear friend..."Special Ed" of ELS (Earth Leveling Systems/ Edward L. Scarborough). Be it known that mere rock would prove to be no barrier for Special Ed. (He really has that on the sides of his trucks!) He just got a bigger truck/digger thingey and blasted through the cursed rock. Not meaning to take away from Ed's glory, but thankfully the rock was mostly sandstone.

So after excavation, comes the next step/disaster/way over-budget item- the pouring of the concrete. For some reason that I am not sure I totally understand, we used about twice as much concrete as estimated for the footings and slab. The bad thing about this...$$$$$ spent on something so drab/unappealing as concrete. The good thing about this....this house is going to be built on a bomb shelter. I even proposed just putting a roof over the basement walls and stopping there.

After the concrete work was done, we had about a week waiting on the delivery of the logs. During this time, we experienced monsoon-type rains pretty much daily. Tom took advantage of the short break to (1)make a quick trip to the coast to host a Continuing Ed dinner for the Physicians we work with there (2)cook a wonderful Mother's Day dinner for me and both our Moms (3)lend a hand to Wes and Sarah on the renovation of the house they have purchased recently (4) repair tractors/lawn mowers/weed-eaters and multiple other yard equipment that I had torn-up working on the yard/property (5) stand there shaking in fear for his life as I shot my first snake...a 3 foot rattler (6) briefly work on our "one-week" bathroom renovation that started mid-March. I'm sure there were a few other pressing items he had to deal with during this time, but it all starts to run together at some point. And just a note in reference to #4....we have someone coming out tomorrow to do our lawn as both lawn-mowers are now at the John Deere place (they just love us up there...we alone provide a large portion of their business). I, as usual, had nothing to occupy my time during this brief break, so I busily "helped" out by making more work. We/He decided it might be cheaper to pay someone to do the lawn versus me tearing up all the equipment regularly.

The little black bar that appears to be bending downward actually is.....thanks to me. Oh yeah....I don't typically drive the tractor in my snappy little copper-colored yellow-box slides.

...this would be the snake I shot with a shotgun.....the little stringy things hanging down on the left side are where his large head WAS....before I BLEW it off with my first shot!

Finally, the day came in which the logs arrived....at least two eighteen wheelers of stuff, anyway. I was all set to document with photos this monumental day. I sat in the POURING rain at Top-Hat where the trucks arrived and proceded to unload portions of the delivery to a smaller truck that would be able to get up our road to the house site. Well, theoretically would be able to get up our road which was just a "bit" slippery/muddy due to the monsoon rains of the months of April and May. So after taking up the longest beams, it was decided that the truck would not be the best mode of delivery. Enter the "monster" fork-lift/road-eater. For each large load of materials it took up to the building site, it ate one foot of mud/road.

The actual construction of the exterior walls is in full-swing now and hopefully the roof trusses will be going up beginning tomorrow.

After going over budget on the concrete, we came up with a way to make-up the overage.........outdoor plumbing!!!.....It's not too expensive and they come and empty it weekly...perfect for us....as there is always somebody around here full of it!!!

We don't do pets.....or do we?

2009-05-12T12:15:00.022-05:00

OK, so yesterday I finally tackled trying to get the pool ready for the summer. I had put this off about as long as possible due to just being lazy not wanting to fool with it and also due to the fact that it adds one more thing to my list of "stuff" to take care of.

So while I am trying to drain the nasty stagnant water and debris off the cover, I scared up a couple of frogs. Anyone who knows me even a little, knows that I absolutely HATE reptiles (mostly snakes), and only barely tolerate amphibians. This was fairly unnerving as I am always scared to death that a snake will come slithering out from under the pool deck.

At any rate, Clara was "helping" me, which translates "running around frantically trying to catch the frogs I had scared up". After loosing a couple, she penned one under the lid off a bucket of pool chemicals. I was given the order to maintain the "capture" while she ran up to the house to try to find some kind of container to hold the frog. I was kind of creeped out doing this, but after about five minutes waiting on her to get back, I became suspect that the captured frog had succumbed to the overwhelming fumes of chlorine from the lid I was using to hold him. He didn't seem to be moving any longer. I carefully eased up the edge of the lid. I guess he got just enough fresh air in to revive him, as he took the moment to make a run (or hop) for the hills.

So now, I'm feeling just a tiny bit guilty for letting him get away. This guilt really comes from a deeper-seated guilt related to the fact that we, the parents have pretty much had a "no-pets" rule at our house. This rule came about for several reasons, the primary one being that with six children, I/we had dealt with way more poop than anyone should have to deal with. (Unless you can cash in on this and get your own "large family" reality show on TLC!)

What we did not realize was the severe and damaging psychological effect being a pet-free home would have on our children. Looking back now, I think there were signs of this trauma our children were going through that we missed. It probably was a BIT unusual that Mason and Jordan had pet ladybugs for a couple of years during the Great Lady Bug Infestation of the 90's. We thought it worked out great, satisfying that desire that all kids seem to have to have a pet. And on the plus side, ladybugs didn't leave poop to be tracked in on shoes, didn't really have to be fed or watered, didn't have to be boarded when we went out of town, no hefty vet bills, etc. They kept them in matchboxes until they would die (usually fairly quickly) and as soon as one died, they would just catch another off our walls or ceilings. There were so many, I guess they didn't really get attached to any "one" of the thousands which tried to cohabitate with us, so we also didn't have to deal with the sadness and trauma of losing a dear family pet, either.

I'm asking you honestly, DO THESE CHILDREN LOOK DEPRIVED/DAMAGED due to not being allowed to experience the joys of having their own puppy?

Jordie, about age 4, BEING a lady bug for Halloween.....well, maybe this COULD be a sign that we were just a little tough with the "no-pets" rule.

In our defense, we DID have one brief "pet-encounter" allowing the kids to have a beautiful champion-line Brittany Spaniel who was given to the kids by one of the surgeons I used to scrub for who "insisted" that no family was complete without a dog. The first problem with Henry involved naming him...five kids-five names. For once (and maybe only once)they finally settled on "Dr. Laws" as the chosen name. But I had to veto that because it seemed a little too weird to call my boss and my dog by the same name. Still wanting to give Dr. Laws a bit of honor/thanks for the gift, they settled on Henry. (Dr.Laws' first name) Unfortunately, Henry was either dog-napped or took off, possibly looking for a home where he did not have to wear doll clothes or ride in a doll carriage.

We were however tricked/severely guilted into allowing one small white fluffy dog enter our family about five years ago. I'm still not really sure what happened with this. I think Tom and I both had just gotten over the flu or something and just weren't thinking clearly/got hit with the request during a weak moment. Or maybe it was that little bit of grieving you do when you realize that your "child-bearing" years (i.e. joy, cute little sweet-smelling cuddly babies) are officially over and now you are just left with "child-rearing" years(i.e. work, $$$$$, cute cuddly babies are now pre-teen/teen-agers with car keys and wildly fluctuating hormone swings). Those sweet, fun "nurturing" years were long gone.

So what we are now left with is "mostly" grown children "mostly" out on their own. And what is one of the first "big" decisions they make now that they are in charge of most of their own decisions???........they get pets. (insert more parental guilt here over the "no-pets" rule) Blake and Jenny....dogs Petey and Rascal; Wes and Sarah....Kimono; Rachel....Hurley; Mason....Sunday(tragically killed by a car), then Jules; Jordan....Pierre, the wonder dog (abandoned, but remains at home with parents who don't want a dog) unknown named fish who died over Christmas break due to being transported 300+ miles home for Christmas Vacation.

Kimono...my only female grand-dog

Petey and Rascal starring in their own video made by Blake who has a theory that the dogs on the ASPCA Commercial with the tear-jerking Sheryl Crowe song are not really abused dogs, but are in fact actor/imposter dogs posing as poor neglected dogs. He theorizes that THESE imposter dogs actually are much like his own Petey and Rascal, who live very comfortable, if not lavish lives.

Sorry Hurley, I don't have a picture of you yet, but that doesn't mean you are loved any less.

Addendum...we now have a picture of Hurley, who looks alot like the dog Winn-Dixie in the movie "Because of Winn-Dixie"...which is kind of funny, because Rachel looked ALOT like the little girl (AnnaSophia Robb) who played Winn-Dixie's mom when she was about the about same age.

Lastly, we have Clara, who desperately wants a puppy. Since she knows we won't cave on the the "dog issue", she frequently adopts anything and everything and deems it her "pet", hoping for the love and affection that only a puppy gives. Luckily, since her other pets are minus the "cute" factor and really haven't given back much love, they are quickly abandoned. Case(s) in point- Hermit Crabs x3, miniature hamster x1, lizard x1, dog abandoned by older sister, two outside cats, several kittens (before we FINALLY got our cats spayed) and other "critters" that slowed down long enough to get caught.

So now we have a pet frog.....named Patricia. That is one of the "interesting" things about Clara and her pets....they usually have "unusual" names. Case(s) in point- Hermit Crabs - PeeWee Hermit, Joe (as in Joe's Crab Shack?), and Nobber-Nobber Jerry Holmes; miniature hamster - Olive; outside cats - Cheese-Puff and Whitey.(the only "normal" pet name, in my opinion) Pierre, the fluffy white dog abandoned by her older sister has seldom been called by his name by Clara. Instead, he is called Zucha Poodems, Frank or Frank Miller (after Grampa Frank in the Junie B. Jones books-he, like Pierre, naps alot) Snookrums, PW, P-double-U air (a slight variation of PW) and many other names that slip my mind at the moment. I am not sure if there is any psychological significance to the "unusual" naming of the pets, but my guilt for depriving my kids of pet ownership tends come soaring in here. Since she has been "pet-deprived" by her parents, there probably IS some damage being done to her "psyche" as evidenced by her attempts to make "anything" a pet. And I'm sure the unusual pet names are some type of evidence of more underlying latent damage. When questioned about the origin of the name Patricia, she simply said she liked it. I want to believe this, but my mother-guilt is struggling.

PATRICIA

Asking her how she knew that Patricia was a "she-frog" was a bit more risky, as we have been having "those" talks as of late. I was a little nervous that the "p" or "v" words might be used. I know, I know, I'm a NURSE for goodness sake...that shouldn't even faze me. Nurse or not, I revert back to a Mom when it comes to matters like these with my kids. And even though I've had "those" talks before, I still kind of draw up in a knot and get kind of sweaty when it comes right down to it. Thankfully, her answer was simply "She looks more like a girl-frog".

As it has turned out.....I convinced Clara that Patricia might be happier under the pool deck....and it seems as though Patricia, once released, met up with Patrick as the next day we had evidence of some big time frog-partying going on.....bunches of frog eggs on top of the pool. So now.....we have a tub full of the consequences of Patricia and Patricks night of carelessness......about 50-60 TADPOLES!

Little House in the Big Woods.......or is it Big House in the Little Woods?

2009-05-06T20:12:00.006-05:00

Ok, so if you are wondering why a fifty year old woman would change her blog background to Tonka trucks, well that's what is going on in our lives just now. We are paying lots of $$$$ to play with Tonka trucks on our property.

Actually, about three years ago, children began to leave our home at warp-speed. Rachel and Wesley began college four years ago. The next year, Mason was added to the mix. And then last year Jordie began her freshman year. My strategy at the time was to quickly move some of my own junk in their rooms as soon as they moved out and therefore claim the territory as my own, hoping to block their return at a future point in time.

About a year and a half ago, we had to move Tom's parents here from their home in NC due to aging issues...specifically bumping into other people when they drove their car. And that was just Grandma. Grampa had his license confiscated by the MD a couple of years earlier, but we were suspect that he might have actually been "sneaking" and driving just a "little bit"!

This transition made us rethink some decisions we had previously made regarding staying in our present home versus building a new home. We have a modest older home in which we had utilized every square inch, converting the basement into much needed bedrooms, children's den, LARGE bathroom and laundry room. So about the time we got everything completed, creating six bedrooms and three baths, everyone (except Clara Beth) moved out!

I wanted my basement back....for covered parking. I wanted a larger living area upstairs as all the children are MUCH larger now and usually are accompanied by friends and/or spouses! I wanted my laundry room upstairs. I didn't need six bedrooms. In fact, having six bedrooms encourages one to collect or hang on to more "junk".

So, we are doing our part to boost the economy by building a new place. Space-wise, other than losing Tom's "warehouse/workshop/junk-catcher" in the back yard, we will have about the same amount of living space. Just larger living/family areas and less, but larger bedrooms. And a laundry room and garage on the main level.

Now all I have to do is get rid of approximately 2500 square feet of junk in the warehouse and playhouse. And a couple of bedroom's worth of furniture. And about 54,134 homeschool books. (Anybody need 4 years of Latin curriculum?" And about 67,324 yards of material for "all those quilts I was going to make". And about 548 boxes of baby/kids clothes. And about $3,854 worth of "Creative Memories" scrapbooking stuff that I used to complete maybe 4 scrapbooks. And about 784 Beanie Babies that were going to be worth millions of dollars. And about enough Christmas decorations to decorate the entire city of Birmingham. And about.......you name it, we probably have it....and alot of it times eight(one for each member of the family!) And about 789,678 other various items that I might "need" some day.

Sigh.......

On a positive note, I have sold about 15 homeschool books on E-bay. At this rate, I'll be done in about 40 years.

No, I don't USUALLY wash soda cans in my dishwasher.

2009-04-28T20:02:00.008-05:00

Ok, so I haven't posted anything in almost a month. After my last embarrassing post I've had to ponder a bit about just HOW much should one reveal about themselves on a blog for the "world" to see. Especially when it is stupid stuff. About me.

I will answer the most frequently asked questions I received about the previous post. I received quite a few phone calls about the post.

1. Do you always wash your soft drink cans in the dishwasher and if so, why?

Answer: I am trying to make sure my family doesn't contract the swine flu. You
can never be sure what viruses lurk on the surface of soda cans. Don't
forget that people of my generation were taught that we could catch
"social diseases" (back then they only had syphilis and gonorrhea)from
toilet seats.

Alternate Answer: I neglected to mention in the post that I had spilled most of
a bottle of scented diffuser oil into the carton that contained the
soft drinks. I did wash them in warm soapy water twice and they were
still oily and scented. So as I was loading the dishwasher, I got the
bright idea of running them through to fill up a load.

2. Did it not occur to you that the cans would get extremely hot and possibly
explode in the dishwasher?

Answer: No

Alternate Answer: Yes, I quickly recalled the possiblity of demonstrating Charles
Law (temp. increases, volume expands) in my dishwasher, but
being a former homeschooling Mom (who did teach High School
Science to my now College Freshman daughter-who did, btw get
a B in her freshman Chemistry Class) I looked at this as an
opportunity to demonstrate one of the Laws of Pressure to
Clara as they do not get to do too many experiments in Science
now that she is back in PS.

3. Did you not at one point in your working career as an RN work with highly
pressurized devices?

Answer: Yes, I was a highly trained and qualified nurse who worked for about
five years in a wound care and hyperbaric medicine clinic. I never
once in my career blew up any patients.

Alternate Answer: Yes, but that was A LONG time ago and I really don't think
about Charles' Law much on a daily basis.

4. Are you not the Vice-President of Holmes Health Care, Inc. owned by you and your
wonderful husband Thomas and doesn't this company provide Hyperbaric Medicine
Services utilizing chambers pressurized with oxygen for hundreds of unfortunate
people/patients each month?

Answer: Yes

Alternate Answer: My "unofficial" title is VP of Pleasure and Companionship to
the President. I really don't have to deal with anything that
might jeopardize a patient's care at any time. One time I
did Fed-Ex the payroll to our
employees for Tom before we had our office manager Cathy.
I think it took Tom about two weeks to find it as I put it
in a Fed-Ex Envelope and put the envelope in a UPS Box.
You may be suprised to hear that I haven't had a raise
or Christmas bonus in approximately nine years. I do how-
ever get lots of money in my Clothing, "Blow Money",
Dining-out, Entertainment and Grocery envelopes. (Thanks
Dave Ramsey) I also got a wonderful Macro lens for my
camera and two Photography Workshop Weekend Retreats for
Christmas. And a seven day cruise with my sister for my
50th birthday last month. I guess I won't strike or any-
thing.

Coming soon.....Updates/pictures of the house we are building.

WARNING..........do NOT try this at home

2009-04-02T10:09:00.011-05:00

....unless you have NOTHING ELSE to do and want to clean up messes caused by your own stupidity.

Wisdom does NOT always come with age.

What happens on the Cruise Ship really SHOULD stay on the Cruise Ship....

2009-03-28T10:16:00.005-05:00

This gentleman appeared and established himself front and center here on this perch on the Lido Deck at the Bon Voyage celebration. He established and maintained his position here for much of the cruise, providing as much "entertainment" as did the Official Entertainment! Please note that he was not a member of our party. I'm not sure, but I am highly suspect that alcohol may have been a contributing factor in his dance skills.

"Ode to Our Commode"......or "I feel BLUE, without YOU!"

2009-03-23T12:49:00.017-05:00

CLARA....as "The Thinker"

Well, the bathroom remodel is very much underway. While I was away last week, basking in the Eastern Caribbean sun, sipping on fruity drinks, feasting on unlimited food, reading to my heart's content...etc., Tom was basically trying to kill himself trying to remodel the bathroom and have it ready as a nice "surprise" for me when I got home.

Thankfully, I think/hope he really believed me when I ask him NOT to kill himself doing the near-impossible. I would much rather return to have a sane(well, reasonably sane anyway) and LIVE husband than a brand new perfect bathroom. Besides, we've lived with the swirly blue faux marble vanity tops, blue sinks, shower, toilet and lovely blue-speckled tile floor for seventeen years.....what's a few more weeks/months/years anyway.

Also, he had a few other responsibilities to deal with...like
(1)taking care of a "Mommas girl" ten year old
(2)taking care of odds and ends in preparation for closing on our construction loan
for the new home we hope to begin building soon.
(3)checking in on his parents/seeing if they had any needs to be attended
(4)taking ten year old on an overnight backpacking trip with friend and friend's
Dad
(5)cleaning the house so that the housekeeper can clean the house
(6)helping to prepare for a birthday party on Sunday for our family's March
birthdays....MASON - 20, JENNY - 26 and Me - 50! An overwhelming THANK YOU
to Haskey, Laura, Blake and Jenny for taking care of most of this-especially
the YUMMY food.
(7)And running his business which FEEDS/CLOTHES and pays tuition for A LOT of
people.....just to name a FEW things off the top of my head.

So most of the remodel effort centered on demolition, moving some plumbing and electrical, buying fixtures, returning and repurchasing fixtures that would not fit in their designated positions. And the frustration in realizing that as in all remodels, the reality of the amount of work required to accomplish said update is always exponentially greater than the estimated/hoped-for amount of time AND money spent.

Returning home from my vacation, I was greeted with the sight of this.....on the driveway.

While some might be embarrassed and try to hide/cover this evidence that one does indeed live in "redneck" country, I found myself a bit choked up, feeling a little sentimental and saddened to be parting with this long-time, intimate and always trustworthy friend.

So many great thoughts/ideas have evolved and some flushed away while perched on this blue throne. Hours spent pondering of the mysteries of life here. For me, countless conversations with children through the closed door of our bathroom while trying to slip away for a moment's peace and privacy. No way to even BEGIN to calculate the amount of time spent reading occurring here. Reading selections from the Great Classics to Reader's Digest and even an occasional People Magazine.
Our family, ever on the quest to stretch the mind....

A lot of spiritual pondering and revelation here. MUCH prayer time spent here. Tom even read his Bible through the first time while sitting here.

How DOES one just "cast-away" such an important "fixture" in one's life?

I'm just not sure I can part with it. Maybe a yard/garden ornament over at the new house? (which, btw, construction begins next week) What about placing a big blue Gazing Ball on it? Or maybe just putting some dirt and fertilizer in it and planting a couple of plants?

Good-bye, old friend. We've shared so many memories.
May your future life at the dump be well.

We Be Cruisin'

2009-03-12T16:56:00.011-05:00

After digging out of the "Blizzard of '09", we are making some headway into embracing and enjoying Spring....

Some of us are heading out to enjoy this......

Whitewater Raft Guide School/Wilderness First Aid Course, in hopes of increasing the chance of getting a job this summer at a girls camp doing water sports or guiding rafts on the Nantahala.

...sounds fun, but with water temps on the Nantahala about
-10 degrees....well, I'll pass on that.

Some are heading south to enjoy a week on the Gulf...(thank you Tom for sacrificing by working on the coast and having to have a place on the beach which children can crash for free!!)

Some of us are.....

...hoping to take a short backpacking trip to the Bankhead Forest with BFF ....Dads and Daughters...and maybe a crazy brother or two!

One of us is......

getting to enjoy a week of luxury/rest/relaxation and fellowship with my sister and friends celebrating my upcoming 50th, YES 50th birthday.

Meanwhile, back at the Holmes Ponderosa....
One of us is.....

working his "hiney" off to finally remodel our sad blue 70's bathroom. Four years ago when we pretty much did a total remodel of our house, this is where I had the nervous breakdown and said NO MORE. I could take NO more of men folk in my house daily working diligently to update our house....which involved A LOT of sheet rock work. (I am totally empathizing with you Sandra with your recent sheet rock work) All this during the few months just prior to having five children graduating from various schools/hosting a big graduation party/preparing for the marriage of our oldest/hosting out of town guests for said wedding......you get the picture. The only other more traumatic remodeling incident occurred when our kitchen was gutted Thanksgiving weekend and we were expecting Tom's large extended family for Christmas. Oh yeah.....and I had just had C-Section number four a month earlier.

THANK YOU TOM, for ALL that you do, sacrificing endlessly and tirelessly, ever-supportive of ALL of us, physically, emotionally, financially and most of all, spiritually. A man who is always willing to serve, a man after God's own heart.

We LOVE YOU!!!

Got Milk? Got Bread?.......GOT SNOW!!!

2009-03-01T11:44:00.030-06:00

Well, the forecast was heard....and we made the necessary life-or-death preparations.

After having James Spann down to his suspenders dealing with tornadoes on Friday and temps in the 70's last week, we awoke to this.....

and this......

which led to this....

The family "beasts" were in shock...

Cheese-Puff and Whitey (not-pictured...cowering on the porch) were less than impressed. After getting over his initial fear, Pierre (the maltese in much need of a grooming session) jumped, chased, barked and leaped joyfully and chased the poor kitties with their bad attitudes.

After retreating into the house to thaw and enjoy a bit of hot chocolate, Clara roused again for another round of fun....

I got a chance to play around with my new Macro lens that Tom so generously gave me for Christmas....

Hmmmm...looks like I need a bit more practice here...in my defense with the blurring...the wind was really blowing!!!

Friends breezed by with Clara's BFF....sweet little SKatie....

Three hours later.......snowman carnage.....the fun was done!

(and yes, we do still have Christmas lights up....for Lent, we gave up taking down the Christmas lights....)

OK..WE'RE DONE WITH WINTER FUN....BRING ON THE SUN!!!!!

Thirty-seven years ago...........

2009-02-23T18:24:00.031-06:00

Thirty-seven years ago, this little person entered my life and I became an "Aunt" at age twelve. I had not been around many babies prior to this, save my bratty little brother, the "Bullard Boy King", "Favored SON" "Family Heir"!!!
Sorry David, I had to throw that in as I am "the middle-child-mal-content" and a "second-daughter" at that!

I was pretty quickly enamored with this little girl, which is saying a lot as I was deep in the throes of Female Pre-Puberty Hormonal Bipolar Disorder. (otherwise known as generally "witchy" and a royal pain in the hiney). I was pretty much concerned with only myself 99.99% of the time, devoting the other .01% to tormenting my little brother. I had always been a big tomboy growing up and spent quite a bit of time lamenting the fact that I was missing out on all the privileges that only being male brought-you know, they can go to the bathroom out in the woods SO much easier, can go without shirts in the summer, etc. Plus, I had to wear stupid DRESSES and hide my pocket-knife in my purse for church on Sunday. Oh yeah....and I was VERY skinny, (not slim) wore glasses that looked like the bottom of coke bottles, and was generally kind of "homely", to put it nicely.

But something changed in my heart, mind and ovaries when I laid eyes on this beautiful baby girl......I had found something that was more fun than climbing trees, building tree houses, and threatening my brother with my pocket knife. I never knew a little girl could talk SO much and impart such wisdom and sometimes painfully truthful honest observations of the world around her. My favorite nick-name for her was "Mouth of the South", which she lovingly thought was a compliment. You could get her to do ANYTHING for the promise of a Slush-Puppy...well, at least until she actually GOT the darned Slush-Puppy.

We kind of spent a few years growing up together. Most of my paychecks from my first job...big-time cashier at TG&Y were spent on clothes and toys for her. She insisted on sitting in the living room with my first boyfriend and I while we were "courting". For every kiss I received, she had to receive an equal (well, maybe not quite equal in intensity and slobber) kiss. She accompanied me on many dates and was a pretty good chaperone....she told on me for everything and probably kept me out of a bit of trouble.

I did get to experience a brief period of "pay-back" when my oldest son was small. Traci would pick him up and drop him off at the Elementary School on her way to the High School. Since I had trained him well regarding the virtue of TRUTH, he reported faithfully to me when Traci had a minor car accident (which she might have otherwise been able to "let slide") or received traffic tickets from the Htown police!

A bit of funny trivia for any of you who know Traci now.....she was a BIG Alabama Football Fan for a number of years!!! And it is a bit funny that her undergrad degree is NOT from Auburn, but she and David both received their Graduate degrees from "Boo-Bama" (as Connor and Ellla refer to Alabama) I don't think she is any the worse for it though!

Thank you Traci, for being the one that helped me see that being a female is a blessing from God above. (well, except for when we had "company" once a month) I am sorry that you inherited the "Drama-Gene" from me. And I am sorry that poor, sweet, gentle, kind David has had to introduce this into his bloodline! But thank you SO much for having growing up as my "baby" and my friend. Also thanks for birthing Ella B so that between me, you, my girls and Paige, just when I think I've seen it all............Ella B pulls another one!

Oh Yeah....the wagon-wheel picture was taken just before she loaded up in the covered wagon for the move west to Montana! And she came back with a pretty good husband to boot...even if they gave up homesteading and came back to Alabama in a Isuzu Trooper with a baby (not banjo) on her knee!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRACI!

More "Blog Anxiety"....

2009-02-11T17:12:00.008-06:00

A.B.A.D.--- Affective Blog Anxiety Disorder ...I am beginning to wonder if this may become the newest anxiety disorder. Well, our family has certainly done more than it's share to contribute to the financial well-being of the Family Counselors/Psychiatric Therapists community, so why not here in the blogging arena? It makes me feel kind of cool to have this new, hip disorder. I feel a bit more saavy with this more 21st century disorder rather than the old standbys like PTSD, OCD or even the common everyday agoraphobia. A.B.A.D. is way more cool.

So what am I anxious about? I just realized that February is almost half-way over and I'll have to change this blog background. I have no idea how to begin. I will probably somehow end up accidentally deleting all my past entries. If so, I guess I will just have a cute new "themey" blog each month. So, three guesses what next month will be.........LEPRECHAUNS/CLOVERS/St.PATRICKS DAY or should I go with the traditional March winds KITES theme. Or maybe an "ANTIQUES" look since I will celebrate being one half of a century old..........off to put on some of that "botox-in-a-bottle" face cream.

What happens at our house when I get my camera out....

2009-02-11T15:11:00.016-06:00

OK....well I suffered from an extreme case of "blog-anxiety" for two or three days after setting up this blog. Trying to come up with something "cute" or "catchy" was my first angst. Followed quickly by a certain fear that is easily recognized by anyone who is the parent to more than one child-making sure I posted about each child an equal number of times. After riding this anxiety wave out for a day or so, I pretty much did what I think most everyone else does.....just got busy and didn't have time to worry about this blog.

Many of you know (the two or three people/family members who know about this site) that I have been "dabbling" with photography and Photoshop. "Dabbling" would be a good description. For the most part, I just take about 1000 photographs at family events and/or of Clara and Tom performing activities of daily living while watching from my post on the left corner of our couch. Ususally in those 1000 or so photos, I might luck up on four to five decent shots. Most of the pictures I take look like this...........

Or this......

Which quickly progresses downhill to this.....

These would be me trying to give myself a "home face-lift" so I don't have so much CHIN and NECK for the pictures.

Tomorrow......I will post a few of the "nice" ones I got!

2009-02-01T21:55:00.000-06:00

Well, I'll be darn-tootin'-She was RIGHT! and even about those little tool-symbols ---"duh Mom, they mean edit"

Since we have nothing exciting in our lives to buh-log about, I'll follow the general blogging trend and post some pictures of my lovely and perfect children doing nothing very spectacular except being cute. Or handsome...(sorry Mason)

First Post

2009-02-01T19:32:00.000-06:00

Well, I was trying to figure out this "blog-thing" so I cheated/copied and went to one of those "fill-in-the-blank-blog-makers". So after about 64 and 1/2 hours of following the easy instructions, I had a blog background......YEAH ME! The only problem was it had some "stuff" on it.....some little thingies that looked like screwdrivers and wrenches and something about posts or edit or something like that.....I can't remember exactly because that was almost 65 hours ago. Anyway, I was just SO excited that we had our own "FAMILY BLOG BACKGROUND" that really looked good I decided to show it to Clara. I told her that I wasn't sure how to get rid of those thingies, but I really liked our "FAMILY BLOG BACKGROUND" so much that I might just leave it like it was and go look at it every-s0-often. Then I could pretend we had a blog, feel good about it, not put alot of work into it and not develop "blog paranoia" about what other people thought about my blog- assuming someone would actually read our blog. She took one look and immediately said "Mom, you need to make a post to get rid of that stuff. And the tool thingies mean edit" Since most ten-year old children know more about computers/texting/cell phones/blogging......etc. than us old-timers, I am giving her the benefit of the doubt. And also the honor of the FIRST post!!!!! .
Congratulations Clara! Now let us go VIEW the blog and see if you are correct!