The Intruder!

I have a little dog that only barks when someone, that she doesn't know, comes to our house. Other than that she is pretty quiet. But a couple of days ago she barked, and barked and barked ALL day. She was driving me crazy. After a couple days of this I finally found out why she was acting so upset. I'm sure that she was trying to tell me that we had an unwanted and uninvited intruder.

I was putting some clothes away in my husband's drawer when I saw the evidence that we had been violated! After I jumped up and down, screamed and ran around the house yelling, "Ew. . .yuck. . .gross. . .@#*%," I went back into the bedroom to look again to see if I really had seen what I thought I saw. Yes it was there, proof of an intruder, staring me in the face, as if to say to me, "Ha ha. . .Catch me if you can!!" Stratigically sitting on my husband's WHITE t-shirt and WHITE socks were several. . .yeah you got it. . . MOUSE droppings! How disgusting! How could this happen. . .well I guess it does happen when you live in a place surrounded by grain and potato fields. Where's the neighborhood cat when you need one? My dog may be a barker but she's not a hunter! Anyway all of a sudden the detective, CSI investigator and "cleanliness" patrol in me kicked in gear. "I'll show you" I thought. Nothing invades my home with out a fight!

(Okay he wasn't this cute)
Anyway. . . after I got my composer I jumped in my car and ran to get an arsenal of weaponry. I was gonna take that baby out!! So after setting up several traps with yummy cheese and peanut butter and putting out lots and lots of DeCon, I sat and waited. And waited and waited.
24 hours went by. . . and nothin. . .that little devil was playing games with me. And then it happened. . . last night when all was calm . . . I was reading a good book and I heard it. . . SNAP! What a joyous sound. But I couldn't look so I sent Joe in to check. VICTORY! (Ok all of you animal lovers don't write me hate mail) Don't get me wrong. . . I love some mice. . .Mickey and Minnie, Jerry, Fieval, Stuart Little and even the 3 blind mice. But when they break in and go into places that they shouldn't be. . .they've crossed the line.
Anyway. . .the mystery is solved, the dog has calmed down, the clothes have been washed and we are back to normal. But the weapons are still in place, protecting our home, just in case he has a relative who comes looking for him.

Don't ever give up on your dreams!

This is an amazing video of a guy named Paul Potts. He is a singer who became the winner of the first series of ITV's Britain's Got Talent, singing operatic arias and impressing the judges in all of his performances. At the time of his victory on Britain's Got Talent, he had been working in The Carphone Warehouse, but following his win he has been signed by the show's judge Simon Cowell to record an album. Potts has previously worked in unpaid opera productions from 1999 to 2003, however, a series of illnesses combined with a bicycle accident in 2003 brought an end to his amateur opera career.

Watch this amazing clip of his first performance. You can go to youtube.com and type in Paul Potts Final to see his winning performance. Sit back and enjoy!

Hitting the books!

Well my 5 1/2 month break is over and I'm back in school. I went back to college 3 yrs ago. I am in my junior year and I am majoring in Sociology with a minor in Marriage and Family Studies. This semester I am taking 12 credits. My classes are: Social Psychology; Religions Effects on Society; Anthropology and Covenant Marriage. It is great - I love it! But it is very time consuming. So I may not be posting as often, but keep checking back because I love having this blog and I will try to post something as often as I can.

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers.
This includes age, weight and height.
Let the doctors worry about them.
That is why you pay "them!"

2. Keep only cheerful friends.
The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning.
Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever.
Never let the brain idle.
"An idle mind is the devil's workshop."
And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things..

5. Laugh often ... long and loud.
Laugh until you gasp for breath.
(Go see the movie "hairspray with your friends.)

6. The tears happen.
Endure, grieve, and move on.
The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves.
Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love ..
whether it's ... family, pets, keepsakes,
music, plants, hobbies, whatever.
Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health.
If it is good, preserve it.
If it is unstable, improve it.
If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips.
Take a trip to the mall ... even to the next county .
to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them~
at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.

We all need to live life to its fullest each day.

Mooove on over Bessie!

I hate traffic. I hate delays in traffic even more. Traffic problems are one thing that I don't have to worry about living in a small community. Well . . . not usually anyway. The other day my friend and I decided to go golfing. We decided to get an early start in the morning to avoid the crowds and the heat of the afternoon. We headed out, were making good time, even took a cut across, short cut road to get to the golf coarse quicker, when all of a sudden we came over a hill and we couldn't believe what we saw ahead of us. A big traffic jam!! It wasn't at a total standstill but close to it. The traffic was barely moving. As we came up on it we just couldn't believe our bad luck. How much was this going to delay us? How long would it take to get through?

As we inched along my friend, being the dare-devil that she is, decided to try to go out around and pass the traffic and try to get ahead of it. I couldn't believe the attitudes of some of these individuals as we were trying to pass. Some were just sitting, not even trying to move, just eating their breakfast, enjoying the beauty of the morning. Some were quite rude and just cut right in front of us and others were downright stubborn and wouldn't let us pass them for anything. In fact they were acting like real PIGS. . . well . . .more like . . .COWS!



A whole herd to be exact! They weren't in any big hurry and they really didn't care that we were. They were just enjoying their morning commute from one field to the next.



Well we eventually made it through with only a few cow pies on the tires and some dust on the windshield to show for our travel delay. It didn't slow us down much . . . in fact we were still the first ones on the golf coarse. Animal traffic . . .one of the joys of country living.