What's your "thing"?

You know it. Everyone has one. It's the "thing" that builds our character. It tests our patience to the limits. It confirms (to me, anyway) that God has a sense of humor. Ha-Ha. Soooo funny. I like my character just the way it is thankyouverymuch. Do I need these character building moments? I think not.

*sigh*

This is my "thing" right now:



And you know what? It's getting personal with me, too. I'm ready to drive 4 extra miles to the next closest pharmacy. I'm not completely understanding why filling a prescription that we have had for OVER 4 YEARS is still such a complicated undertaking. And a new prescription? Heaven help us all.

Hopefully this "thing" will pass. But I will always have my block-an-intersection-because-you insisted-on-not-keeping-it-clear-through-a-traffic-light-and-the-light-turned-red-and-now-I-can't-go-because-you-are-in-my-way "thing". It's always been my favorite anyway.

What's your "thing"?

Really.....

In my email today:

Greetings!

I have been waiting for you since to contact me for your Confirmable Bank Draft of $800,000.00 United States Dollars,but I did not hear from you since that time. Then I went and deposited the Draft with FedEx Courier Service, West Africa, I travelled out of the country for a three Months Course and I will not come back till end of December

What you have to do now is to contact the FedEx Courier Service as soon as possible to know when they will deliver your package to you because of the expiring date. For your information, I have paid for the delivering Charge, Insurance premium and Clearance Certificate Fees of the Cheque showing that it is not a Drug Money or meant to sponsor Terrorist attack in your Country.

The only money you will send to the FedEx Courier Service to deliver your Draft direct to your postal Address in your country is ($165.00 US) Dollars only being Security Keeping Fee of the Courier Company so far. Again, don't be deceived by anybody to pay any other money except $165.00 US Dollars. I would have paid that but they said no because they don't know when you will contact them and in case of demurrage.You have to contact the FedEx Courier Service now for the delivery of your Draft with this information bellow;

Contact Person: Mr.Fred Michael
Email Address:fedex-courierdelivery@hotmail.com
Tel: (+234)8027974507

Finally, make sure that you reconfirm your name, address, occupation and telephone number to them again to avoid any mistake on the Delivery and ask them to give you the tracking number to enable you track your package over there and know when it will get to your address. Let me repeat again, try to contact them as soon as you receive this mail to avoid any further delay and remember to pay them their Security Keeping fee of $165.00 US Dollars for their immediate action. You should also let me know through email as soon as you receive your Draft.

Yours Faithfully,
Mr.Leonard Jefferson.



I'm thinking about sending him this response:

Dear Mr. Leonard Jefferson,

This is great news!! I have been waiting 2 months to hear from you and your timing is great. I am currently in need of this money to pay for my son's college, my daughter's high school tuition, pay off my house, pay off my vehicles, spay my cat and get a pedicure. This money has come at just the right time.

And since I will already be confirming my name, address, occupation and telephone number, I'll just go ahead and also confirm my birthday, social security number, mother's maiden name, checking and savings account numbers, place of birth, first born child's blood type and name of my favorite pet.

My oldest son is currently working for FedEx. I KNOW! How great is THAT? So I'll just get him to confirm all YOUR information for me. I'm sure you won't mind since it IS on the up-and-up. Right? RIGHT?

Yeah. Right.

Yours truly,

Cheri "I'm not an idiot" Pryor

DID YOU KNOW???!!!

Run...DO NOT WALK...to get your Happy Meal today!! Okay, maybe I'm the only one running here. But I'm excited about this, people!!



Some of these are repeats from last year, but I'm on a mission to collect the ones that are brand new!! Yes. I'm THAT big of a fan. Yes. I'm THAT big of a dork.

And can you even guess how excited my husband is?

You probably didn't know this

but I actually have THREE dogs.

You've already met these two trouble makers...the escape artist and the runaway:



But I've never mentioned the best of the three.

Meet Patches:



It's very clear that Hamish is Troy's dog (he was a Christmas gift for Troy a few years ago). It's also clear that Tilly, although loved by all of us, is Lindsay's dog. She is the one, after all, who rescued her from the back yard at her grandmother's.

But Patches? She is....unequivocally....without question....no doubts....mine.

I'm not saying that she is the best of the three BECAUSE she is mine. She is the best of the three because, well, she just is. Patches is the epitome of man's....errr, woman's....best friend. She is loyal to the core. I cannot walk anywhere on my property that Patches is not two steps behind me. Sometimes only a half-step and we trip over each other. But that's okay.



Patches isn't one of those annoying dogs that jumps all over you when you come to visit (*cough-cough-Hamish-cough-cough*). She is also not an annoying licker (*cough-cough-Tilly-cough-cough*). All those annoying qualities dogs sometimes have? Patches has none of them.

And I'm totally serious.

She doesn't bark unneccessarily. She doesn't get on the furniture (well, except the very corner of my bed at night). She sits good for her baths. She gets along well with the cats. Okay, she ignores the cats. She gets along great with the other dogs. I think she secretly tries to mother them and I'm pretty sure she feels my frustration with my teens as the other 2 dogs go willy-nilly about their lives, escaping and running away. I'm sure Patches wants to tell them how stupid they are and ask them if they know how good they have it here in Pryorville. She LOVES to ride in the car. It doesn't matter that I'm just going to the gas station to fill the tank. Patches is all over that! She greets me at the door when I come home. She lays her head in my lap when I'm upset.

I love her.

And she loves me.

So there.

And all three dogs? They were all rescued in some form or another. We are like that at our house...rescuers. I even rescue teenagers. But that's another post.

You know Tilly's story. Hamish? He came from a testing lab. I will say this lab took IMMPECIBLE care of their beagles. He was healthy and wonderful when we got him. I won't go in to the details of the lab. Just trust me when I say it's not all ugly and horrible, warranting picketing from PETA. It's not.

And Patches? Her story is the most entertaining, actually. We used to have this dog named Maggie that we rescued from the pound. Maggie was an escape artist, too. But she was also a runner. A very. fast. runner. But she was kind of stupid because whenever she would escape she would RUN back to the pound. It's what she knew. What she was familiar with. But it was tiring getting the calls from them. They laughed. I didn't.

So one day when I'm at the pound to once again retreive Maggie, I see a co-worker there. We'll call him Felix. Because that's his name. Anyway, Felix was there with Patches. I ask about her and he tells me she is a Catahoula. Seems as though Patches wasn't behaving very well at their house and was not getting along with their Rottweiller. I think the Rottweiller taught her all the bad habits, but that's just my personal opinion. So I look at this dog....all shy and meek...and instantly fall in love with her. I decided to rescue her, too. Felix followed me home, Patches sniffed Maggie's butt and they went to the backyard together. The rest is history.

It's a modern day love story. Well, if you love dogs. And I do.

But I won't be sniffing any dog butts real soon.

These are a few of my favorite things

I'm big on nostalgia. Remember the whole Wizard of Oz thing? Yeah. *sigh* Anyway, I love to look around on the internet for remnants of childhood things from my past. It's always fun to run across that one special thing you remember so fondly from your younger years. And seeing them up for auction makes my heart pound and my brow sweat slightly. Because I want them. I really, really do! All the images you see in this post are from around the world wide web....and they are images of toys/games that I actually had growing up. *sigh*

I go back in time often to think about all kinds of things from my childhood:
Television shows
Commercials
Food
Music
Clothes

But my absolute favorite things to think about and search out on the internet are toys and games. Mostly because those are the specific things that make me feel young again, know what I mean? I loved my toys, people! And games....oh, the games my family had!! *sigh* Those are some wonderful memories.

I *sigh* a lot when I'm walking down memory lane.

And we all have our favorites. The ones we remember distinctly. The ones you can actually still smell if you close your eyes and think hard enough....or can at least recreate the smell by going to any toy department and smelling all the new toys. (Be careful nobody sees you doing that. You are bound to be questioned.)

And my favorites? Well.....barbie certainly topped my list. I had a ton of them...and she was well dressed and lived a life of luxury!








And before the "Kelly" barbie...there were Liddle Kiddles. I had tons of these things, but those pictured are the ones I distinctly remember. I still have the pink-haired one, but her pretty smelly hair has long since been replaced by the lovely smell of vintage...and one foot has been chewed off by someone or something. I'm not playing innocent here. I chewed on stuff. It totally could have been me.






And there were flatsy dolls....





And my other dolls (I liked dolls. What about it?) .....





And the games....lots and lots and lotsandlotsandlots of games....








But BY FAR my most coveted memory of all....is this:




Let me just explain Baby Go Bye-Bye for you. First...how cute is that little car she cruises around in?! Do you see the little butterfly on the hood? That's what you use to wind up the car. And this was no plain 'ol forward motion car. This little sucker swerved and circled all over the place and you never knew exactly where it was gonna go bye bye to. I LOVED THIS DOLL!! (Can you feel my excitement?) And the doll itself was too cute for words. But here's some words anyway. Her little head bobbled a little.....so as the car was zig-zagging all over the place, her little head just bobbed around with her cute little pigtails and rosey litte cheeks. I LOVED THIS DOLL!!

And I had my favorite childhood doll until I was 24...then someone stole a bunch of things from our garage and she was never to be seen again. Baby really did go bye-bye. *sigh*

I sigh a lot when I think of my Baby Go Bye-Bye.

This one is actually for sale on Ebay right now:



Box and all. It's mint. I'm very tempted to bid on it. I bid on one just like this a couple of years ago....and almost won. I would have, actually, if I would have been willing to up my max bid to TWO HUNDRED FREAKIN' DOLLARS!!! And this one is certain to go that high. Maybe I'll bid on one without the box. But it MUST be accompanied with the car. It's not the same without the car.

Childhood nostalgia shouldn't be priced so high. *sigh*

For now I suppose I'll just keep surfing the net and watching auctions. I know one day I'll have it. I must. My husband isn't opposed to it....as long as I bid and win on HIS favorite:




Must be a mid-life crisis. I'm sure we'll both get over it soon.

Miss Tilly is Home!!

Little stinker. Was sad she got left at Grandma's house, so being all ninja-like she scurried out of the backyard to find me. But she couldn't find her way back home.

And she was only 2 houses away. She's not a very good ninja.

We are so happy someone took the time to search for her owner. And we are thrilled she is safe at Grandma's house again....but I think Daddy is gonna give her a good talking to when we have her back in Sacramento.

Oh Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone...

Oh where oh where can she beeeeeee? *sniff*



So while I was finishing up with our move back to Sacramento (mopping floors/cleaning ovens/wiping counters at the rental in Red Bluff) Tilly was over at my mom's house. I guess she got lonely for me because she went in to the back yard and then OUT of the backyard shortly after I left. She's looking for me.

I've searched high and low for our sweet doggie. My in-laws continue the search without me because I had to leave Red Bluff. I'm working tonight. *sniff* The pound has been notified. An ad in the local paper has been placed. Craigslist ad has been posted.

Now we wait.

Please come home, Tilly.

Since I like comparison photos so much....

Here are pictures of what those rooms in my house NORMALLY look like...with the ones of how they look now.

Living Room





Dining Room





The dining room picture is a slightly different perspective since the "post-move" picture is actually taken from the other side of the doorway. But you get the idea. And since I can't even get in the living room to take a picture of the dining room from the same perspective, it's the only idea you'll have to have.

Thanks for sharing in my chaos.

Are you still holding on to your britches?

Sooo....yeah, this post. I went on about my secret double life I've been living for the past year. Well, two years specifically if you count the moment my daughter left to live with her grandmother. One year as a part-time spouse to my husband who has been living up there with our daughter. Two years as a part-time parent to our ever-increasing emotional teenage child. (What teenager ISN'T?) She needed her mom, people. Bottom line? All the traveling back and forth is over.

No, I didn't find that elusive job.

No, we didn't sell the house.

We were all just tired of the situation. Very tired. VERY. TIRED.

My daughter started the ball rolling by having somewhat of a mid-teenage crisis (which is something like a mid-life crisis...without covering gray or buying a fast car....but with text messaging and MySpace and telephones and 3-way calls and boys. Ugh! Boys!) She just wanted to be one whole family living in one whole place. No more part-time anything. And deep down inside (well, not even deep down...it was right there in plain sight) I wanted it to be over, too. But I struggled with the idea of it all because of the school situation and the reasons we moved her up there to begin with. Even though I was tired of the situation I really needed to do what was best for MY CHILDREN. All of them. Not just my daughter.

But what was the best thing?

Troy and I weighed all the pros...then the cons...then the maybes...then the what if's...then back at the beginning with the pros. My husband made the final decision...because, frankly, I was just too emotional to be involved with it. I kept praying for a sign...an answer...some direction. I was driving MYSELF crazy going back and forth and back and forth andbackandforthandback... well, you get the idea. I'm sure I was driving my husband crazy, too. The answer to the prayers? The direction I finally got? The brick-in-the-face moment of "AH-HA!"? It came to me. Eventually...but not before I became a crazed lunatic wrought with emotion. I called my husband from work after crying all the way there and said, "I obviously cannot make this decision. It is not MY decision to make. You need to make it for us. Tell me whatever you want the family to do and I'll be okay with it."

"We're moving back to Sacramento." He wanted it to be over, too. So it was done. And I was immediately relieved and at peace.

So last weekend my husband, his father, his brother and myself took an entire day to load a 26 ft. UHaul with all the belongings we had in Red Bluff. Sore, tired and exhausted, he drove the 2 hour drive back to Sacramento with the UHaul while I stayed back to take care of a few loose ends. When he arrived, 5 teenage "men" took 1-1/2 hours to unload the entire thing while he fixed the air conditioning in my house.

Yes. 1-1/2 hours.

Yes. He had to fix the A/C in the middle of everything else. Chaos.

This is what my living room currently looks like:



And this is what my dining room currently looks like:



Yeah. You can't even *see* my dining room. You can barely see my living room. See the couch? That's where my daughter is currently sleeping. There is no reason to show you my bedroom. Or my family room. Or my garage. (It's actually my husband's garage. Thank God.) Or my back yard. Or my.....well, again, you get the picture.

It's chaos. We can't move around. We can barely cook dinner. It's tight. We've had a few tense moments because of the chaos and basically living on top of one another. Emotions are running high.

Have I mentioned the chaos? Yeah. Those pictures frames will probably be ignored for awhile longer.

And you know what else? I'm the happiest I've been in 2 years. I'm sure the rest of the family will catch up.

Life it is a changin'....

Remember this post? Hold on to your britches...update on my secret double life coming soon!

A differnt kind of Tag...

Tagged twice in a week? Unreal. But kind of fun at the same time since this is a different kind of tag.



Jennifer Sizemore tagged me yesterday. But it's a lot of pressure, this tag. I had to really think about 7 blogs that I read all the time. My favorites. Only 7. And people....I stalk a lot of blogs! So I've got it narrowed down to 7, but trust me I could probably list about 32.

This is how it works:

(1) The winner can put the logo on their blog.
(2) Link the person you received your award from.
(3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
(4) Put links of those on yours.
(5) Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated

And the nominations are (in no particular order except the first one because I'm seriously addicted to that one)....

The Pioneer Woman - Daily. I MUST visit this place daily....or risk missing something exciting!! Let me just say that I will NOT be linking her to let her know I nominated her on my blog! Her blog is HUGELY popular and I really think my little comment among 567 others may...*may*....go unnoticed. I seriously love this place. It's a blog on steroids. Different sections, contests and giveaways, etc. I'm addicted.
Cassandra - An internet friend that I had the pleasure of meeting in August of this year. I love this woman and her fun, goofy kid, Spencer. Lots of fun stories about the going-ons of a single mom raising her wonderful son.
Patti - Another internet friend who's scrapping I simply adore. She does weekly uploads of her pages and posts fun pictures of her adorable grandkids. She's got her own funny stories to share!
Ashley - A mom/wife who I have the greatest admiration for. This woman is a rock. Love her scrapping style, love her beautiful voice, love her adorable son Clayton and cute husband Brian.
Without Wax - Meet Pastor Pete from Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN. I love this guy's approach on life today and how God fits in to all of it. He's funny and insightful. Being a shift worker, it's hard for me to physically sit in a church and get my fill of spiritual food...but his guy seems to have a lot of good things to say that touch my heart directly. I love it! Plus...he's kinda cute.
Grow A Brain - I LOVE this blog. I don't even remember how I originally stumbled upon it, but it is filled with links to bizarre, funny, weird, crazy, and sometimes thought provoking places throughout the world wide web. It is PACKED with stuff. You can seriously lose yourself in this place with recent posts and all of the archives. Seriously fun if you are seriously bored!

and

Lesle - Now, this is a bit of a cheat for me. I do read Lesle's blog...when she updates it...*cough-cough*...but I have her blog roll bookmarked, too. And I read ALL of those. Weekly. Not everyone on that blog roll update weekly, but I visit. I don't always leave comments, but I try. So even though I'm only supposed to list 7 here, I cannot. Blog stalking is my newest hobby and it keeps me entertained for HOURS.

I hope you enjoy these places as much as I do. Boredom doesn't have a chance around here. Besides, I scrapbook, too. And I guess I *could* fill those picture frames...