CHAT

If I am standing in line in front of or behind someone and we’re having to wait on some ignoramous lovely person who has made a ridiculous perfectly acceptable request of the cashier (such as “Could you go check the price on that item, I’m sure it was on sale." please lady just read the freaking signs they put up and save us all some time) or who waits until the cashier has completed his/her tallying of the items before giving him/her their coupons, the question runs through my mind of ‘to make conversation or not to make conversation’ because a can of worms surely could be opened up should I decide to strike up some friendly chatter.  

I am never quite sure if conversing with those around me is a good idea or not.  What if that person is of the impatient nature and is just dying for the opportunity to let loose with some select words pertaining to the situation at hand?  Granted, usually this type of person, we’ll call her CrassAss, would already be gabbing about the situation and the decision is made for me.  Sometimes, however, CrassAss needs a bit of prodding.  Just a smidge.  Something like, “It’s really hot outside today, isn’t it?” and she’s off with a bitter tirade about the level of the cashier’s education, the ineptitude of the customer, and her general disdain for the establishment in general.  Seriously, who wants to risk an encounter of this sort?  What if the conversation ended up being with LongWindedLoudmouth?  Someone who keeps talking even after the long wait has ended and I have checked out and am trying to leave the store- but she keeps on talking?  About how, now that the weather is nice she needs to plant her garden but can’t get her family to help her out at all and what she thinks she’ll do and how that might motivate them to get up and lend a hand and blahblahblah.  And then decides to follow me out to my car and finish the one-sided conversation?  What then?  Suppose it’s NegativeNelly standing there.  I comment about the nice spring weather and she goes off on how it’s too hot and that she hates to sweat and hates living here and wishes that it would not get so hot because it takes her energy away and brings all the tourists into town and they’re all morons blahblahblah.   Or, what if it’s PoliticalKnowItAll who somehow finds a way to criticize the government and the economy based on my comment about the nice spring weather?  Or ShortTemper who just snaps a response to me like, “I guess.”  Or SnootyNose who ignores the question/statement altogether?  On the other hand, what if a little light conversation is just what the waiting-in-line neighbor needs?  What if this person has been treated badly all day by the likes of the aforementioned people and my comment changes his/her entire day---for the better?    

  

I have encountered all of those personalities in my years of standing in line while cashiers deal with difficult customers.  There are times I have left wanting to smack someone and kicking myself for not smacking them and hoping that someone else does get the opportunity and acts on it.  Other times I have kicked myself for opening my big mouth and promising NEVER to open it in that situation EVER again—which has never happened because I really CANNOT keep my big mouth shut.  And then there are the few times when I’ve chatted with someone who may have started with a frown, but ended with a smile.  I would love to say that the reason I continually take the risk of starting up a conversation with others while standing in line is because of those positivie encounters when someone's day is made brighter.  But that's not it.  

The whole fact of the matter boils down to one point:  I simply cannot keep my big mouth shut.  My talk switch is always ON and, apparently does not have an OFF switch.  But, just so you know, [this is the part where I go off on a tangent BUT, in my defense, it is somewhat related] I come by it NATURALLY.  Everyone on my mother's side of the family is a talker like you wouldn't believe.  When I call my aunt, whom I love dearly, I have to make sure I have at least an hour to spend on the phone.  When I'm on the phone with my mother and tell her I have to go, she just continues talking.  No one has to use a GPS to find their way to our annual family reunion even though it's out in the woods at a state park---we just follow the sound of people talking which we can do because they all talk at the same time and get louder and louder in order to be heard over one another (multiply this by the AT LEAST 100 relatives in attendance every year and you'll get the picture).  Hub's family, by the way, is known (practially world wide) for their ability to talk the ears off of anyone-anytime-anyplace.  His father used to follow us to our car and walk beside us as we drove down the driveway STILL TALKING.  If Hubs needed to ask his dad a question, he would beg me to call and ask for him.  No way dude!  That was always a two hour, one sided conversation filled with the longest pauses you've ever waited through.  What about our daughters?  They always brought home excellent grades from school but the comments were always along the lines of:  A pleasure to teach and know but talks too much during class.  Deanie's kindergarten teacher said, "I don't know what to do about her talking.  I put her in time-out and she just yells across the room."  

Yep, they got it.          

This is the 26th day of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) for the month of March. The theme for this month is: in a word! My chosen word for today is: CHAT in response to last Friday's prompt: You're standing in line behind someone you don't know but who you really want to talk to. What do you do?

New

I am participating in a new (to me) Friday HOP today over at Hilary's Feeling Beachie called Follow Friday Four Fill-In Fun!  

Hilary writes:  Each week, I plan on listing four statements with a blank for you to fill in on your own blogs. If you want to join the fun and come up with four fill in’s of your own, please email them to me at feelingbeachie@gmail.com. If I use them, I will add you as co-host to the hop!


Sounds like fun right?  Just click on the link above or the button and join in!

1) I can’t help it, but every time I see OUR DAUGHTERS I smile.  I suppose that's an obvious answer but they are truly smile worthy!

From left to right: Birdie (DD3), Birdie's BFF since they were 3, DoodleBug (DD4), Deanie (DD2), Breezy (DD1)

 
2) Every time I smell FRESH HOMEMADE BREAD I am immediately transported back to my childhood. My grandmother made homemade biscuits every day of the week and homemade yeast rolls at least once every week!  Of course, everything she made was from scratch and DELICIOUS!

My grandmother and perhaps the best southern comfort food cook that has EVER BEEN!

3) When I was little I wanted to be a PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYER.  It's true!  And, when my grandmother's brother told me I could, I was thrilled!  I have always LOVED football!  I was a huge Dallas Cowboys fan.  I still love the Cowboys but the Carolina Panthers took over first place when they entered the NFL in 1995...and they have pretty much been breaking my heart ever since. Seriously what can you say about a team whose leading scorer is their kicker?

I hate it if the Cowboys and the Panthers have to play each other! 

4) If I had to eat only one meal for the rest of my life it would be THANKSGIVING DINNER WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS.  Although I wouldn't want to have to prepare it every single day!

This is the 25th day of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) for the month of March. The theme for this month is: in a word! My chosen word for today is: NEW because I am participating in a NEW to me FRIDAY HOP!

ANNOYING

There are times when it seems that the main objective for Hubs is to annoy me.  I ask the dear a simple ‘yes/no’ question and I get a dissertation.  God love him, he still knows very little about email and needed to print something off.  It didn’t go well.  So, stupidly, I ask, “Do you need me to go into your email and print those forms off for you?” 

 “No, I was just going to print them off and call those people and tell them blahblahblahblah. And then I needed to blahblahblahblah because if I don’t then blahblahblah.  

“Ok, all I asked was if you wanted me to get it printed off for you.  I don’t need all of that information.”

“And then I wanted to forward something to Breezy but I don’t know how.” 

“It’s easy,” I begin, “all you have to do is hit the ‘Forward’ button, type in the email address, and click send.” 

“Ok, so I just click the ‘Forward’ button and it should send?” 

“No, you have to type in the email address and click ‘Send.’”

“Oh, ok.  So, click the ‘Forward’ button, put in the address and it should go?”

“Yes but you have to click ‘Send’ before it will actually SEND IT.”

Birdie came over for lunch on Sunday and to do some laundry (read: let me do some laundry for her) and we all played a game of Farkle!.  It’s a fun game involving dice but it’s different from Yahtzee.  Whenever it’s Hub’s turn, he has to analyze his roll.  For example, let’s say he rolls two 3s, two 6s, one 5 and one 2.  He will look at them for at least 10 seconds (the amount of time that the rest of us have already picked up the dice we don’t want and have rolled our second roll), put his finger on the 2 and say, “If this 2 was another 5, or (as he moves his finger from the 2 to the 5) if this 5 was a 2, I would have 1500 points.”  Yes, we know this.  But it wasn’t so why the hell is he even mentioning it?  I have no idea.  He does this every single time he rolls.  I don’t know whether to call him ‘Mister State the Obvious' or 'Mister Take up too much dang time discussing irrelevant points.’  

BestSonInLawEVER (except Sunday when I called him SonInLawWhoIsNOTFunny) took a picture of Breezy and sent it to Deanie with the caption:  “Breezy’s new haircut.  Drastic.”  Deanie sends it to me and Breezy has had her hair cut really short and IT LOOKS FANTASTIC!  So I send her a text: OMG! I LOVE your hair!  And she sends me one back:  “It was a wig! LOL”  So, SonInLawWhoIsNOT Funny took the picture and sent the message but never told anyone that it was a wig.   Breezy:  “He was trying to fake you guys out.  Guess it worked.  LOL” (Oh yeah, he’s real darn funny like that—can’t imagine the fun he’s going to have when babies start coming along).  I share the story with Hubs (including the part about it being a wig and a joke and show him the picture.  

“It looks really good!”

“Yes, but it was a joke.”

“So she didn’t have her hair cut?”

WTH?! 

What exactly is it Hubs hears when I open my mouth to speak?  

Last summer I asked, “Can’t you take a couple of those barrels and make rain barrels out of them for watering the garden?  Oh, and can’t we get one of those flats hoses with holes in it to lay across the raised beds for watering?  It takes hours to get them saturated.”  Sunday, Hubs said, “We need to set up a couple of rain barrels and get some sort of irrigation going for the raised beds.”  Really?  What a freaking cleverashell idea.  On Wednesday he says, "How about looking up on the internet what I need to set up some drip irrigation for the garden.  The raised beds aren't even getting wet three inches down and it takes hours to get them wet all the way through."

I must be speaking in a foreign tongue.  

This is the 24th day of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) for the month of March. The theme for this month is: in a word! My chosen word for today is: ANNOYING because that's what Hubs is being this week.  Just keep looking for the humor, right?

Support

Wednesday Words of Weight Loss- the HOP

Patrice, at Everyday Ruralty, hosts Wednesday Words of Weight Loss every Wednesday!  It's a fun HOP that offers encouragement and company on the issue of weight.  It's never too late to join!  Come on, this is your week to join in the FUN! 

 

Questions
1. Do you feel better in skirts or pants? Pants, pants, pants!  No doubt.  Without question.  Pants.  

2. Do you remember a time when you felt like "a million dollars" or anything over 50 cents?  Yes.  I remember feeling that way on several occasions when I had lost weight and gotten into clothes that I really liked and felt good in.  Only, on those weight loss episodes, I only had 10 or 20 pounds to lose and it came off pretty easily.  Now, it's 20 x 5 pounds and some of it is re-losing the pounds I put BACK on after losing my last 83 which really sucks that I let myself do this.   

3. Walking or running? I walk 2-3 miles every day but it's a face paced walk.  I did run in college but I hated it then so I don't see me loving it now.  

4. Have you ever had any "ah-ha" moment about health or eating habits? Now in English- have you ever felt like you made a discovery about health or eating habits. I haven't made any discoveries on my own but I have discovered that some of the things others have discovered are true.  Does that sentence make sense?  For example, I have discovered that if I cut the sugar and bad carbs, my body really does burn fat  AND I stop craving the carbs!  I have discovered that what I heard this man say (I totally forgot who it was but he was either on a morning news show or The Doctors or something like that) something about we are letting our thinking control what/how/why we eat holds some truth with me as I have discovered that I am very good at deceiving myself--the entire time I was putting the weight back on I kept telling myself that I wasn't even though there were signs that I was.  AND I have discovered that I live amongst enablers.  I have discovered that chewing your food SLOWLY really does make a difference in how much I eat. I have discovered that stopping the late night snacking and going to bed by ten o'clock makes a positive difference.  I have discovered that nothing will work unless I am ready to get serious about losing the weight.

5. If someone could do something really nice for you, that would make you happy, what would it be? Bring Deanie home for her 24th birthday next week.  (I do NOT like this living NINE hours away business).  

Deanie at 3

Deanie and boytoy--aren't they just the cutest?!

 This is the 23rd day of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) for the month of March. The theme for this month is: in a word! My chosen word for today is: SUPPORT because that's what you get from this particular HOP every Wednesday!

Different

When I thought about how to sum up the first year’s experience of living in an empty nest in only one word, my initial response was EMPTY.  Upon further reflection, however, I realized that the word ‘empty’ only relates to the girls not living at home not to the actual experience of living in this empty nest of ours.  A better word to sum it up is ‘different.’  

Obviously, our home is different with only two of us living here as opposed to six (then five, then four, etc).  The bedrooms are different because the girls have taken almost all of their possessions with them and I have made some changes in those rooms.  One bedroom has become a guest room and the other is now my study.  Further changes are coming that will make them even more different-fresh coats of paint, new curtains and rugs- are all in the works.  The noise level is certainly different.  It’s quieter now.  And we’ve really come to appreciate….enjoy….ok, we LOVE it.  We really notice this when everyone comes home.   Calling them LOUD would be an understatement.  They have the television blaring so they can hear it over the conversations.  The conversations get louder to be heard over the television and, well, it becomes a vicious cycle of constantly increasing volumes.  Of course someone is going to grab the dobro and start playing it as well and it may be coupled with some singing so, at some point, there could, quite possibly, be tv, conversations, dobro playing and singing all going on at the same time.  Oh, and then Breezy might decide to play with Tucker and start squeaking his favorite ball which makes him start barking… So, without using any powers of imagination at all, it’s easy to grasp an understanding as to why we don’t get teary eyed when they all leave anymore- which is also different.  Oh, we’ll miss them, but we also miss the quiet when they are here.  

Taking on a hobby is different because the amount of free time is different.  Instead of having a daughter (or two or three or four) fill up our hours for us, Hubs and I can now fill the time as we please (which my selfish nature ADORES).  My favorite new hobby is photography and I combine it with birding.  Who would have ever thought this would be so satisfying?!  Who had the time to make the discovery before empty nest?  Hubs doesn't have any new hobbies yet.  He's still busy with his all time favorite hobby of annoying me.  We have filled our time with a garden- three raised beds and one fenced in area for the squash.  Good thing we have all this time now though, because I have to spend many hours trying to figure out where I went wrong and got very little other than peppers and tomatoes.  I’m spending this gardening season searching for that elusive green thumb.  My flowers, however, were beautiful!  I plan to apply the ‘square foot gardening theory’ to our raised beds this year.  AND I won’t start from seeds anymore until we get the greenhouse up- also something different now that we have the time (of course, it will take Hubs several more years of talking about doing it before he actually put some action with those words).  I’ve had the time to organize all sorts of things in the house that have been living in chaos for the 23 years we’ve been in this house (and by organized I mean that I moved the chaos around so that it doesn’t look quite so…chaotic).  I had time to start a blog! I had time to hand-make everyone a gift for Christmas last year.  I had time to learn how to knit scarves, hats, fingerless gloves, baby blankets and sweaters and SOCKS!  When it comes down to it, Hubs and I now do what we want, when we want, where we want.  This freedom from time constraints and schedules is not only quite pleasing and easy to get accustomed to, it’s also liberating.  

We are now in the second half of our second year of an empty nest and the word I would choose now could very well be: adjusted.  Or, at least, almost adjusted.  Hubs and I have worked hard to find ourselves in this empty nest called home.  And we’re nearly there.  I’m looking forward to more and more discoveries—all related to the positives of having an empty nest.   

This is the 22nd day of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) for the month of March. The theme for this month is: in a word! My chosen word for today is: DIFFERENT.

Java

Looking for a way to make Monday more enjoyable?  Hop on over to Java's Meet Me On Monday at Never Growing Old and join in some much needed Monday fun!

Questions:

1.  What jewelry do you wear 24/7?  Only my wedding rings and the ring Hubs gave me for our 25th anniversary.  I'm not a jewelry person.  Back in the day, I wore the earrings and necklaces but no more.  The earrings kept bothering my ears (pierced) and necklaces I usually only wore if we were going out somewhere.  Slowly, I just stopped wearing either.  And I don't miss them at all.  Our two older daughters wear jewelry pretty much all the time.  The two younger daughters wear a couple of rings and, on occasion, earrings and necklaces.  But we do all really like sparkly things!  

2.  Do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it?  Most of the time I start out twirling and end up cutting.  Sometimes, when the girls were growing up, we might have been seen doing something like this:

3.  How many siblings do you have? I have three brothers.  You can read about them here. 

This is our first Christmas together.

4.  Were you named after anyone?  My middle name, Ann, was my great-grandmother's and is my mother's middle name, and my dad's mother was Anna.  All four of our daughters carry family names- first and middle.

5.  Coke or Pepsi?  Neither.  However, back in my soda drinking days, I was a Pepsi girl. 

This is the 20th day of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) for the month of March. The theme for this month is: in a word! My chosen word for today is: JAVA for Java's Monday HOP:  Meet Me On Monday! 

Age

Is it true what they say (I don’t know who THEY are, but I’m pretty sure they’re the ones trying to sell us on something by saying this) about things getting better with age?  I’m not referring to wine or cheese.  I’m talking about us.  When I was younger, there were so many qualities I wanted to possess but didn’t.  I wanted to be that girl who walks with an air of confidence so high that she makes people look at her and wish they were even half as confident--when I tried to exude confidence it was often interpreted as bitchy—I never quite got the hang of it.  I wanted to be that girl with the quick wit delivered by a sharp tongue—I just looked like an escaped asylum patient having a conniption fit, thus, losing all credibility.  I wanted to be that girl who had the long straight hair that glowed in the sunlight- my hair was wavy and one side would look great, but ONLY one side; the other side did just what the hell it felt like doing every single day of my life.  I wanted to be that girl who had all the answers in class and in the world. Usually, if I did have those answers, I kept them to myself because the fear of being wrong was greater than the satisfaction of being right...   

         

As I have aged, I still see things in others that I covet here and there, but, I’ve become quite comfortable with who I am.  I can even see where there are some things about me that have gotten better with age.  I know that my attitude has improved tremendously.  I am more positive now than I’ve ever been in the past.  I don’t walk around all smiles and feel-good all the time, but I do view things in a more positive way—I’m much more of a glass-half-full gal now.  It’s become easier to see the positive since I’ve reached my fifties and, I believe, that is due to the fact that I am more patient and take life a little slower--smelling all of the roses, not just the ones I happen to pass by.  I take the time to think about things before jumping in; I take the time to make a plan (although I’m still flexible enough to go with the flow when the need arises); I’m much better at waiting (meaning that my explosions at having to wait have not ceased, they just don’t happen as quickly as they used to—it takes a few days instead of minutes…might still need to work on this one); my temper has mellowed over the years- I’m not as quick to jump down someone’s throat although, I will still jump.  However, now, when I do the jumping, it’s not like a crazy lady went off on them, I simply give them a tongue lashing that they won’t soon forget (this really is better, even though it doesn’t sound like it); I am more tolerant of other’s stupidity (meaning I have come to accept that there are stupid people in the world and that I am going to come into contact with them unless I want to live in a cave all alone for the rest of my life); I can easily walk away from an argument with anyone, especially Hubs, because I have come, in my aging years, to realize that most arguments are stupid (meaning, I’m right and don’t need to listen to them shout their opinion at me so why bother—another one I might need to work on); I’ve become a bit more clever and quicker with the wit- my come-backs are soon to be coveted (well, maybe not coveted but most are quite clever); if I take on a project, it’s because I want to and I take the time to do it right instead of hurrying through it haphazardly just to get it completed (which is most likely the reason no projects have been started); I know the answers to more questions than I ever thought I would and, the answers I don’t have, I either learn or just let them go unanswered AND I don’t care what anyone else thinks about my answers or whether or not I have one.  And my hair?  I just pull it back every day and refuse to worry about it.  No, I’m not there yet.  But with aging has come some level of peace, calm and acceptance.  Maybe some of us have to grow into that girl we wanted to be.  Maybe she’s the one who comes with age.  

This is the 19th day of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) for the month of March. The theme for this month is: in a word! My chosen word for today is: AGE and is loosely based on Thursday's prompt: If you weren't who you are, who do you wish you could be, and why?