Five years ago today......

.....my mother passed away. I drove to the assisted care place where she died and parked my car in front of the window of her room and sat in the car for awhile. I got there at 5:33 which is approximately the time when she died. I remember it like it was yesterday.

It was a cold and snowy night and when my youngest son got there, he heard a small meow coming from somewhere. Huddled and shivering near a bush was a small white kitten. He brought it inside and in the middle of our grief, we all smiled and oooohed and aaaahed at the little kitten. Everybody wanted to hold it. The nice lady working there said she would take it home for her daughter and give it a home. My mother loved cats. She would have liked that....also she would have liked knowing that there was a cat near her when she passed away. Maybe she sent the kitten to us. I would like to think so.

I miss you mom!!

Little Sad Mini Sue.....

This is how Mini Sue looks all day now. She has her sad eyes. No more big round Chihuahua eyes...just those little brown sad eyes. She doesn't want to play. She just looks out the window looking for her buddy to come home.



See how sad she is. No more bright happy eyes. She's the saddest girl in the world.




She isn't sleeping...she is just laying there looking so sad. Poor little Mini Sue doesn't have any friends anymore. She's all alone in the world.

Sit...Heel....Stay....

I went to Petsmart today and decided to register Mini Sue for some classes so she can socialize with other dogs. She is still depressed over Lucky, and she is having too many sad days. So instead of getting another dog (which I'm not ready for yet) I decided she can attend classes with other dogs. I decided to put her in the Puppy class instead of the Beginner's class so that way she will be with other small dogs instead of the possibility of big dogs being in the class like the Beginner's would be. The age for the puppy class is 10 weeks to 5 months, so at 9 years old, she will probably be the oldest dog there...haha. But I will feel safer if she is around smaller dogs to start out with. She will learn to socialize and also learn the basics like sit, come, stay which she doesn't do anyway...so she will learn. They also do potty training and since she still pees and poops in the house at her leisure, she can also benefit in that area as well. And maybe I can learn a few tricks, too. She always depended on Lucky ringing the bells by the back door to let us know he had to go outside and she was always right behind him. She learned to depend on him to let us know. Now that he isn't here anymore, she doesn't know how to tell us. I push her nose against the bells when I put her outside, but she doesn't get it. And I'm sure that the stress she is under with him not here anymore is also contributing to her "potty accidents". The class will be on Saturday afternoons for an hour for 8 weeks. Hopefully, she will pass with flying colors, and be a happier dog.

Today I made the mistake of saying Lucky's nickname (Louie, Louie) and she heard it and she ran out barking into the family room looking for him. I picked her up and she was so excited and looking around. I felt so bad for her. He wasn't here and then she got all sad again. I'm just hoping that there isn't another dog in the class name Lucky or Louie!!
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Today I had an appointment with a new OB/GYN doctor. My main doctor has been sick for a long time and she has someone else taking over. I'm not too crazy about the new doctor but I don't have to go back for another year. I hate when they keep bugging me about taking a bone density test. It's been 2 years since I had one. I refused it last year and I refused it again this year. Yes, I know I have it in my left hip. I've been taking a lot of calcium in the last 2 years. I'm hoping that it is improving. But I'll have my primary regular physician do it. I told her that I come there for pap smears. My regular doctor takes care of the rest of my body. And I will NOT take any of those osteo drugs they prescribe. Either the calcium does the trick or it doesn't. Too many side affects with those drugs. she said that they have other drugs besides Fosamax. I told her to write the names down and I'll research them. Of course, she didn't....cause she knows that they all do the same thing and have the same side affects, just different names, different dosages, different companies....same shit.
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When I was driving home, a song was playing on the radio and it was like "F*** this, F*** that, Mother F*****, G'damn........" I was so shocked thinking that a station was playing a song like that with no censorship at all!! Then I realized that it was my Kid Rock CD playing...!!....haha....

End of the weekend....

Well, it's Sunday night and another weekend gone. Yesterday I went to my son's girlfriend's house for her daughter's birthday party. It wasn't going to start until 5:00 so I went to an estate sale and hit K-Mart to make a return first. Then I drove to my son's house. Earlier he saw a good-size concrete Egyptian Cat statue on Craigslist that was near my house and he wanted me to go buy it for him....only $10, cheap! I had the cat in my backseat so I was finally able to get it out and he has it sitting in his backyard for now next to an old gas pump in front of his garage.

Then I followed him to her house. She and her daughter live in Trenton area with her dad and stepmom. They have a really nice house....a newer contemporary style home with the open floor plan and high ceilings and a massive fireplace. Not my style, but it is very very nice. I prefer my traditional living room in the front of the house and my cozy family room in the back of the house, where I can sit in either room and not have to look at my kitchen. Where they have a nice combination kitchen/dining room/living area all together in the back of the house. The living area is small and then right next to that area behind the wall off the hallway is a family room area which is also used as an office. I don't understand the two rooms right next to each other. Personally, I would rather remove the wall and have it be one big room, and separate the area from the kitchen/dining area with a wall. But that's just my opinion.

And the attached garage is in the front of the house, and there is no front door, just a side door that opens up to an area where their washer and dryer are and the stairs to the basement and a bath. Then everything else is in the back of the house. I personally like to look out windows into my front yard and see what the neighbors are up to....

To each his own. I sure wouldn't pay over $300,000 for it though....

Anyway, there were alot of people there and I met her parents and grandparents and cousins and uncles, etc. Very nice family! Then Alexis also had a sleepover with her friends so there were lots of little girls there. There was pizza and salad and snacks and dip and beer, and we girls made coffee later and put Baileys in it....yummy!

I got home around midnight and stayed up awhile watching TV. Then today I went back to K-Mart to do another refund and hit another Estate Sale. I had bought this black velour hoodie top with matching pants. The pants were way too long, though. So yesterday I just wore the top with cords, and I took the pants back. They would have fit fine if I was 6 feet tall....

I talked to hubby today and he and Mini Sue are coming home tomorrow. She says she has been in a depressed state since I left. She won't even get out of bed. The other day she stayed in bed until after 4:00 in the afternoon! She is very sad. He put the phone by her ear and I was talking to her saying "Mini Sue, Mini Sue, Mini Sue.....I love you!!!!" He said she perked her ears up.

Guess I'll get to bed....I'm bushed...

Ciao

Fridaynight/Saturdaymorning....

Brrrrrrrrr.....it is so damn freaking, bloody COLD! I hate it!! I totally completely without a doubt in my mind HATE HATE HATE WINTER!!!! It is so cold that I swear I thought I saw a polar bear in my backyard......

Most people when they retire they go to places like Florida, Arizona, Las Vegas, or Mexico....not the f'ng ANARTICA!

Maybe someday I will move someplace where it is warm year-round....but as long as this house is standing I will probably die here....wrapped in an electric blanket huddled next to the fireplace....

.....literally cause after getting a $350 gas/electric bill (and that's after we didn't even have power for 4 freaking days!!), I have turned my thermostat down from 62 to 58. And I even put it at 57 for awhile but I'm afraid that my pipes will freeze if I go any lower....
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My car heater is working better...go figure....
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I went to Karl's Cabin tonight for my high school class reunion meeting. There were 10 of us that showed up. I'm in charge of door prizes (with another classmate), and the Memorial photo display. We're meeting again next month to get the mailings out to everybody to let them know the details...which is again the weekend of my wedding anniversary...Sept 18-20. I spent last anniversary in a hospital, and I guess I'll spend next one with classmates. The last reunion Saturday night biggie was on our wedding anniversary, so hubby had to go in order for us to even be together, and that was so not fun.

Hell, I don't know why I fret so much about my wedding anniversary. I mean, who the hell cares after all these years. Hubby sure as hell doesn't. He doesn't want to do anything anyway. To him it's just another day that he is expected to take me out to dinner somewhere. And going out to dinner is a major project for him. He totally hates it. I get so disgusted. I hate having to cook all the time. I want to retire, too. I want someone else to cook and bring ME dinner. Other couples I know or see are out having dinner together a couple times a week. I'm lucky if we go out a couple times a year.....not including eating at the Eagles or going out with our son....just him and me at a nice restaurant. Hell, maybe ONCE a year...like our anniversary. If I don't get that, then I get nothing.

So maybe that's why I fret....
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I miss Christmas already. Tonight I watched "The Christmas Story" on tape, and looked at Xmas pictures on my camera.
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Tomorrow I'm going to my youngest son's girlfriend's daughter's birthday party. So I guess I'll meet her parents......MEET THE PARENTS!!...OMG!...

Alexis is going to be 10! Happy Birthday Alexis.....
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Why is it that I always have a million things going through my mind that I want to talk about in my blog and then I get into my blog and type about nonsensical (is that even a word?) crap???

Good night...

Back to life at home.....

I finally got back home today. Well, actually I got back Wednesday and since it is now after midnight Wednesday is technically yesterday. But anyway, I drove home Wednesday. I spent two weeks in Caseville and all it did was snow, snow, snow. And the temps were below 0 at one point. I was driving back from Bad Axe one night and the temperature actually read -8. And I had NO HEAT!

I had went to Bay City earlier and noticed that I was still cold in the car even when I got there which is about an hour's drive. The car just wasn't warming up much. I figured that maybe my heater or thermostat wasn't working very well in the low temps we were having. Then I went to Bad Axe and had no heat at all. By the time I got home, my fingers and toes were almost frozen. I had to run my hands under warm water to get them to thaw. But I noticed that if I left the car idling, then the temperature gage worked and the car would warm up....but once I drove the car the temp gage stopped working and no heat again. Weird....

Hubby says it's the thermostat.

Hubby and Mini Sue got up there last Friday. Then we went up to the Eagles for dinner but was back by 8:00 so I could watch "Ghostwhisperers". Last Saturday was terrible weather. I had made another trip to Bad Axe to return stuff and by the time I got home the snow was blowing and there was so much snow on the roads I could hardly see the lines in the road to drive. So I got a couple movies and we stayed home and watched movies.

Last Wednesday I went to the Eagles and played Bingo with my neighbor and I won the jackpot and won $200!!! That's the second time in my life that I won the jackpot...last time was a long time ago and I won $300. Also when I was up at the Eagles with my friend playing those tear-off tickets I won $30, and I won the 50/50 at the Eagles meeting. So I had a pretty lucky week. I played some lotto numbers with the money but didn't win a dime...guess my luck is over with now.

Hubby and Mini Sue are still in Caseville. They'll probably be back after the weekend. Friday I'm going to a HS reunion meeting. Our reunion is set for next September and I'm on the committee so we'll be having meetings more frequently so we can get things organized. I think we're getting the first mailings out this meeting. I hope we get a good response and turnout.

Of course, I watched the Inauguration events all day/night Tuesday. It's pretty exciting and I'm hoping that our new administration will start getting things straightened out. But that's another subject....

I'm home all by myself, but I keep thinking I hear a dog barking downstairs....strange

It's after 2:30 and I suppose I should get to bed.....

night

Going away.....

I'm leaving for Caseville tomorrow for a couple weeks. When I left last time I had put up some snowmen and Xmas decorations so it would look all pretty for when we came up for New Year's. But we didn't make it up there. So now I'll get up there and my place will be all Xmassy and I'll just have to take it all down....bummer.

Hubby says he will drive up by the second weekend...(not this weekend, the next). In the meantime he will get all the outside lights down and put away. I have a high school reunion meeting on Jan. 23 so I'll be back by then and he will stay there through the weekend and then come home. I'll leave Mini Sue with him when I leave, so I don't have to worry about her being home all alone when I go out that Friday night. I still don't feel comfortable leaving her home alone. Before Lucky was always here for her. He was her company and her protector and her babysitter. Now she gets scared when she's left by herself. I'm planning on taking her unless she wants to stay home with hubby and come up when he comes up. She hasn't made up her mind yet. She'll let me know tomorrow. When I'm ready to go and if she stays in the living room by the window to watch me go, then I know she wants to stay home....but if she is at my feet then I know she wants to go with me. So guess I'll find out tomorrow. Today she looked sad cause she hates to have to make that decision. She prefers that we are all together at the same place at the same time. WELL GET OVER IT MINI SUE! I'm leaving with or without you!
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"Nip/Tuck" was FINALLY back on for another season tonight. I just love that show...and hubby so hates that show. So he went into the living room and watched TV there. I think he doesn't like the racy parts. Every show there is at least one really racy scene. Tonight I was just thinking that nothing racy was happening yet....and then BAM....Christian and Sean met these girls at the bar, took them home, and WOW....I think the producers really outdid themselves. But it was the season premiere, so guess they wanted to really juice things up for their addictive audience and keep them watching!
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So I got this tiny medical bill informing me that it is "past due", so I better send them their seven bucks or they'll be sending the big guys out for me.....oooooooooo, I'm so scared! So I write them a check and then realized that the bill was very similar to another bill I just paid last month. I get my copy and it's the same damn bill....same dates, same procedures, same amount. I paid them Dec. 10! So I wrote a nasty note on the bill to send them, but hubby told me to just call them and straighten it out. Mmmmmmmmm, might be more fun. I can chew out some dumbass over the phone.
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My jeep is packed full of crap. I'm taking boxes of stuff I want to sell at my garage sale that I am having Memorial weekend. Also, we got a large wheelie cooler and a wet/dry vac for Xmas that I'm taking up. But the front passenger seat is empty so Mini Sue will have a place to sleep if she decides to go. She better make up her mind fast....

I'm hoping to get to the library to use their computers so I can post, but if not, I'll be back in a couple....

Some Xmas Pics.....

All my Xmas stuff is back up in the attic....hurrraaaaay!! Won't be seeing most of it again for a couple of years, cause next year we will be spending Xmas in Caseville. I'll put up my trees but that's about it....everything else will be staying in the attic til the following Xmas. I'll miss my snowmen. I have these Hallmark snowmen that I buy every year that sing that I display on my wall unit in my family room and one in my kitchen....4 all together...and I have a couple in Caseville. So they won't be singing again for awhile. I downsized my tree to a smaller table top version and I call it my "crystal tree" cause all the decorations are crystal with some berries and poinsettias stuck in.










Next year only the corner fiber optic tree will be in my living room. This year everything was out. I had my new village scene set up in the corner of my mantle but you can't see it very well in the picture....and look at the blazing fire I had going to keep warm!




My house looked so pretty outside. There were also green lights running down the entire length of my vinyl picket fence along the property line and lights on the side of the house.




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Today I baked two loaves of Zuchinni/nut/banana bread. Then I cubed up the rest of the ham to freeze for later use, and simmered up the hambone and made soup. I threw in some carrots, celery, green onion, potatoes, noodles and lots of seasonings. I made it in my cast iron pot that I finally found at an estate sale....I've been looking for one for ions. The soup was so deeeeeeelicious!! I have plenty leftover so I guess we'll be eating soup for the week.

I watched The Bachelor tonight. Of the 15 girls he narrowed down to, he only picked 5 of my picks. I'm rooting for the Michigan gal!

That's about it for tonight....guess I'm getting tired enough that maybe I'll get to sleep.

Been busy getting all my Christmas decorations down and packed away. It is much more fun putting them UP than taking them down, I must say. Trying to decide which stuff goes into which boxes and trying to fit everything in the way it all came out is a royal pain. I think I packed, unpacked, and repacked in a different tub several times. I eliminated a lot of things while I was putting things up so I was hoping to cut back a tub or two.....wrong! I still have as many tubs as I started with. Gee, could it be because of all the "few" extra things I've been buying?? My husband uses two tubs for all his outdoor lights. I had bought a couple of really large tubs a while back, so I gave him one and told him to see if he can put all the lights into the one tub. Hopefully, he can. I also told him that all the outdoor stuff like lights, snowman, etc. will now go up in the garage attic space instead of the house attic which is much more difficult to get up into to. Also, that way if we get mild days around Thanksgiving and he gets in the mood to start putting up the outdoor stuff then it is all in the garage and we don't have to climb up into the attic. Of course, he needs to clean out the garage.....which is a major project in itself. One that was suppose to have been done last summer, but things got a little crazy last summer, soooooooo definitely this summer it will get cleaned out! In the meantime, he can find room among all his other crap in there. I swear that everything I have ever "thrown away" is somewhere lurking in that garage....

For example....when we had no power I remembered that I have a small screen little TV that works on batteries. I went and bought new batteries for it and we tried to get it to work. The last time I used it with the regular plug it worked fine. I sometimes use it in my computer room. Well, we couldn't get it to work. Then all of a sudden it started making a weird noise and smoke was coming out of the compartment where the batteries are. The batteries were so hot that my husband couldn't even get ahold of them to pull them out. I had to go get a towel to be able to handle them. So the TV is useless. Plus, after February it ain't gonna work unless I hook up one of those convertor boxes to it, and it's an old 5" TV so why bother buying a box for it? So I told hubby to throw it out...it's done for. Thursday night was garbage night. Friday the trash guys came and picked up all our stuff. So why is the little TV sitting in my utility room hidden next to the furnace?? And I'm betting that it will soon be in my garage. God only knows why....I have no clue.

Sometimes it works to my advantage though to have a pack rat husband. Cause sometimes I throw something out and regret it later....and voila!!...hubby brings it back in the house.
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I bought a guitar! For months and months now I have been wanting to buy an acoustic guitar and teach myself to play it. (Stop Laughing Holly!!) I don't expect to be able to play "Gloria" as well as my brother, but maybe I can pick and twang a little and pretend I know what I'm doing. Anyway, I need a hobby. And I love watching Dylan and Baez sing and play on YouTube and they make it look so easy and fun. Awhile back I bought a guitar at a thrift store but it turned out to be a classical guitar so I resold it on Craigslist. There is this consignment store on the way to Caseville that sells musical instruments and I saw one I liked but when I stopped there the next time I drove up it was gone. Everything else they have is too expensive. But I've been checking back and checking Craigslist. During my Xmas shopping at Kohl's I saw they were selling a full-size acoustic guitar for $140, marked down to $80. Thought about telling hubby for a Xmas present but figured he wouldn't buy it anyway. He thinks it will be a waste of time and it would just end up leaning up against the wall in my computer room. So after Xmas I was up there checking out their markdowns and lo and behold, there was the guitar marked down to only $42!! So I bought it. There is a website that teaches you how to play and I'm checking it out. Right now, it's leaning up against the wall in my computer room.

Happy New Year....Back from the dark ages

We had a great Christmas. We spent the day just the two of us, and I stayed in my Xmas PJ's all day. We took our time opening up our gifts. We always buy lots and lots of presents for each other. Every year we each try to outdo each other so it gets to be more and more....some main gifts, some small gifts, and some silly gifts...but lots of presents to open up! Hubby got about 15 presents, and I am remembering 10-12 that I got. The main things I got are Kid Rock CD, Dark Knight DVD, Bissel carpet sweeper for my area rugs, a Mouse Nutcracker, Necklace and earrings that I wanted, Marley and Me book, a daily planner and notepad, and a scarf that I ended up returning...plus a few silly things like candy and bubble gumballs for my gumball machine in Caseville. So Santa was good to me this year.

Then Friday night my middle son and his girlfriend came over and Saturday night my youngest son and his girlfriend and her daughter came over. I was hoping that they could come over the same night, but with their schedules it just didn't work out, so it was a busy couple of days. Everything was going so well.....and then....

I guess early Sunday morning we got terrific winds coming through. So when I woke up Sunday morning, we had no power. It isn't the first time we lost power and usually it's back on in a few hours. But not this time. This time it was a major problem and we had NO POWER for 4 Days!!! We had planned to leave on Monday for Caseville to spend New Years there, but those plans were shot down. Instead we stayed home and tried to keep warm anticipating that any minute our power will be restored.

Apparently at the last house on our block a tree fell and tore down the power lines. With the melt we had on Saturday the yard was full of water and the power lines were laying in the water sparking and smoldering. The Power people came and put yellow caution tape around the whole yard and across the next 4 houses' yards. Eventually they sent DTE public safety people out to basically sit in their car and monitor the down lines. But no workers came to do anything about it. The house where this happened is a vacant house. The people couldn't sell the place because of all the dead ash trees in their yard....so now one of them fell and created all this damage. There was no power on most of our block on our side (other side was fine) and the street behind us, and maybe the next block down...I didn't see any lights when I drove down that block. A guy behind us had a generator that was running 24/7. By Monday night my neighbor got a generator, and then the next two houses had a generator going. We don't have a generator, so we had to tough it out. Actually it wasn't all that bad...it was actually kinda like an adventure, like camping...haha.

Luckily, we have a gas wall heater in our family room so we had heat there. Then my husband put up a piece of plastic in the doorway to contain the heat better and it was really very toasty warm in there. Plus, we have a fireplace in the living room. So I bought tons of firewood and kept a fire going from morning until we went to bed. Hubby slept in the family room where it was warm. Sorry, I want my own bed, so I slept in the cold bedroom and had about 4 blankets on the bed and wore my socks and robe. But me and Mini Sue slept fine.

We had tons of Christmas candles so we had candles burning in every room...even the bathroom. I had bought my husband one of those hats that has these two LED lights in the brim for Xmas. He thought it was stupid and wanted me to take it back. Welllllllll, guess what?? It sure came in handy. I wore it and I was able to read my books by the fireplace. I could see fine going from room to room. He had a flashlight.

My son's girlfriend had given us a cooler on wheels for Xmas and that came in handy too. We set it outside in a snow bank by the side door and filled it with things from the refrigerator. Then we filled up a box of stuff and put it all in the garage. I still threw most of it out later. I think I'll just buy new stuff.

Since I couldn't watch TV, I decided to at least go to the movies and see a movie, so I went and saw Marley and Me...which is a real tearjerker at the end. I was practically choking from trying to hold back the tears (the end was a little too close to home for me). And you could hear people in the audience sniffling and getting out tissues. But it was also a funny movie....Marley may have been the "worst dog in the world" but he was also the greatest!

By New Year's Eve I was starting to get mad....okay the camping was fun but now I want MY TV! I wanted to watch Dick Clark's Rockin Eve. It's bad enough we didn't get to Caseville and party there. I at least wanted to watch the ball drop at midnight. So then I saw them......a caravan of 5 huge DTE trucks coming down our street. They worked all day...first at one end of the street and then near our end. It got dark...it was after 6:00....Will they get it done and our power on by midnight?? They did!! By 7:30 we had power again.....OMG, and then there was light!!! So we burned the last logs in the fireplace and watched Dick Clark and the ball drop at midnight.....

Happy New Year!