That's Southern, Ya'll.

I survived the weekend by staying in the bed. I also stayed in the bed Monday and I would have yesterday and today but I'm OUT of sick leave. Being sick sucks. Being sick at work sucks even more.

The main thing is that I've got to get better by Friday. I have a weekend planned in Birmingham with my friends from all over the U.S. and I want to feel good so I can enjoy it thoroughly! I know we'll be running around and staying up to the wee hours. I'm so far behind in getting ready. Do I know what I'm wearing? Nahhh. Shoes chosen? Nahhh. Hair colored? Nahh. Suitcase even halfway packed? Nahh. I may end up going looking like a haint.

Know what a "haint" is? It is a common expression here in the south for a ghost or something scary. I suppose the word comes from "haunt". Being from the south with all of our colloquialisms is so much fun. I can't think of anywhere else in this country where there are so many sayings!

Full as a tick.

Mad as an old wet hen.

Mean as a dirt road lizard.

Shut my mouth!

Richer than Cooter Brown.

Tighter than Dick's hatband.

I'm fixin' to.

I reckon so.

It's over yonder.

He's all laid up.

And one I heard a kid from Texas say last night on Hell's Kitchen..."Whistlebritches"! I laughed out loud when he called John-Phillipe that! It's been a while, but I've heard that expression all of my life.

Those are just a few that came to mind. There are literally dozens more but my mind is blank right now. That's just a taste of what southern talk is, ya'll.

I'm so proud to be American by birth, Southern by the grace of God!!

Words of Comfort

2:54 a.m. and I'm in the den in the recliner. Jimmy's "allergies" sure were contagious. My head is all stopped up, my ears itch and I feel yucky. So, here I sit, cat by my side, on Seth's laptop. Other things are weighing heavily on my mind and I just can't sleep. What little sleep I did get was fitful and I had to have James Taylor singing to me via my ipod and ear buds so that I could relax.

Sometimes I wish I could wave a magic wand and make everything great. Nobody would be sick, there would be no kind of stressors in my life at all. What I'm babbling makes no sense to anyone but me. This blog is a source of therapy so I'm just going to babble on. Forgive me.

At times like this I find comfort in certain Bible passages.

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Psalm 91:1-2

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. John 14:18

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. Revelation 21:4

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. John 14:2

And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Luke 12:29-32

Lastly for tonight (this morning?), here is my favorite hymn, which kind of goes along with my favorite Bible passage, Psalm 91.

He hideth My soul

A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
A wonderful Savior to me;
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
Where rivers of pleasure I see.

Refrain:
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock
That shadows a dry, thirsty land;
He hideth my life with the depths of His love,
And covers me there with His hand,
And covers me there with His hand.

A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
He taketh my burden away;
He holdeth me up, and I shall not be moved,
He giveth me strength as my day.

Refrain

With numberless blessings each moment He crowns,
And filled with His fullness divine,
I sing in my rapture, oh, glory to God
For such a Redeemer as mine!

Refrain

When clothed in His brightness, transported I rise
To meet Him in clouds of the sky,
His perfect salvation, His wonderful love
I’ll shout with the millions on high.

Refrain

Teary Eyes and Rainy Days

*

This morning I woke up, realizing that once again I had overslept. It is raining outside and I seem to be able to sleep on and on and on when it is. Somehow I made it to work on time and I even had my makeup on, including mascara!

These days it seems that I'm quite melancholy. Simple things make me tear up. I despise to be this way because I'm not a weepy sort of person typically. Maybe it's a seasonal thing. Time is flying by so quickly! September is half over! And before I can turn around Christmas will be here again. As much as I love Christmas, a part of me is always sad. I miss the people who aren't here anymore. I've always been sad that Jesus had to come to earth to live and die for stuff I have done. Yes, yes, it's a good thing, a happy thing, an humbling thing, but it still makes me sort of sad. Am I crazy? Am I the only person who has ever looked at it this way?

Thankfully I do have several trips planned for this fall which should take my mind off being melancholy. These trips always make me laugh until my sides hurt and make memories that I treasure. Hopefully I'll snap out of this funk soon.

*Artwork is by http://strawberry-ike.deviantart.com/art/Crying-Eye-118422623

Big-Bad-Bird-Hater~I don't think so!

Sometimes my husband does something that just makes me smile. Last night we were getting ready to go to bed and he covered up the bird. That in itself is a miracle. Jimmy says he hates Spunky. He will not touch him, he pokes at him and irritates him every chance he gets. But last night Jimmy did something that made my heart just melt. He put the two throws that we use to cover Spunky over his cage, and then he gently tucked them in on all the sides like he was carefully tucking a child into bed. Well, that just proves that Jimmy is not the Big-Bad-Bird-Hater that he says he is! I didn't say anything to him about it last night, but today I hugged him around the neck and told him how sweet I thought he was to do that. He said he just didn't want him to get cold. Now would a Big-Bad-Bird-Hater do that? ;)

Pajamas, Sweatshirts and Perfect Weather

Today is a blahhh kind of day. I wanted to stay in bed or at least stay home in my pajamas. It has been three weeks since my B12 shot. And I feel it. Every month I start to fade on the third week. Got to hang on another week until I can get my little miracle in a syringe.

But on a high note, it's my favorite time of year. My calendar at work shows a little dog sitting by some pretty gold and russet-colored mums. (My Bo calendar has an adorable picture of Bo and Aidan, but I digress...)

If the weather would just start getting the "nip" in the air, things would be groovy. I love what I call sweatshirt weather. Putting on a sweatshirt and being outside in the sunshine surrounded by gorgeous red and gold leaves and not being hot is heaven! I like for my nose to be a little cool, too. Dogs are healthy if they have cold noses! I feel the same way.!

Last year my family went to Maine to visit Layke while he was living up there. My goodness, how perfect was that weather? The scenery there is more gorgeous than any I've ever seen. We visited several lighthouses and being there on the coast was one of the most peaceful times I've ever spent in my life. I would love to go back. The picture at the heading of my blog was taken in Maine last year. Isn't it pretty?

Hmm. This little trip down memory lane has kind of snapped me out of my blah-ness. And that's a good thing!

Happy Labor Day

Today has been a little different than I anticipated, but it's different in a good way.

First thing this morning Jimmy woke me up from dreaming I was videotaping a gorgeous beach. When I told him he interrupted a beautiful dream he said he might have saved me from a tidal wave. He's goofy.

Now this was early morning...6 something, and he was rushing me to get dressed. We were going to "First Monday" in Scottsboro. Ok. I drug myself up and got dressed in comfy jeans, a tie-dyed shirt and my old feed-the-dogs crocs. Slapped on a little makeup, donned my "designer" sunglasses and we were off!

First stop was Hardee's. We went inside and ate, which was nice. I can't stand to try and eat going down the road! I had a bologna, egg and cheese biscuit. Yes, my northern friends, you heard me right. Fried bologna is the bomb!!

Full on our breakfast biscuits, we headed out on the 45 minute drive to Scottsboro. Of course we had to stop and get gas. And Jimmy forgot his hat, so he bought one. Can't let that pretty balding head get blistered, now can we?

We got to Scottsboro and it was just not as crowded as I remembered from years past. Some of the stuff was way overpriced, but I did find that my McCoy bowl brings $45 bucks at the flea market. My favorite vendor there had four tables of goodies for $1 each. I found some wine glass charms. I've always wanted some; now I have six pretty pewter ones. I thought one of them was an ear. Jimmy said it was a flower with stems! I'm pretty dense sometimes! LOL

I found some glass earrings like I've been wanting for $3. They sell comparable stuff at Peebles Department Store for close to $60. Can you say bargain, boys and girls??

After we had made the rounds around the town square, we loaded up and went to Unclaimed Baggage. My goodness, if you've never been there you should see it! This place buys unclaimed items and luggage from airlines and there is some awesome stuff. They have clothes, jewelry, perfume, shoes, books, cameras, you name it. Pricey stuff, too, like Coach purses. I ended up getting a couple of shirts.

As we were leaving somebody suggested that we ride on to Huntsville, visit Ross (my favorite store in the entire world!) and have lunch at Dreamland. Jimmy and Layke just weren't in the mood for grilling today. So off we went.

Ross had more clothes than I've ever seen there before. I dug through the racks and ended up with two shirts. I could have chosen several more, but I limited myself as to how much I was going to spend. I love a good deal!

I could have kept on looking, but the guys were encouraging me strongly to come on, so we left and headed to Dreamland, just a short way down the road.

It smelled heavenly! We entered and the wood smoke was all around. We were starving! We ordered and in no time we had a plate of white bread and bbq sauce, our ribs, slaw, beans, fries, pork sandwich...all the things that we had decided to have.

Jimmy started complaining immediately about the ribs. They tasted "old" to him, and to be perfectly honest, they are in no way as good as the ones my guys can cook! But they were not as bad as he was letting on, and when we got the bill...well, his eyes bulged out of his head! But he just says he's counting it as a lesson learned! No more ribs except what we cook at home. We're spoiled!

We got home around 3 in the afternoon. I've been in here on the computer, talked on the phone to Debbie, Mother and Rachel, and have done some laundry. My boys are watching "The Patriot" DVD that Seth bought today.

It's been a good one, but not a typical one. A little change every now and then keeps things interesting, don't you think? And my kitchen is clean today!

Labor Day is almost here! I'm looking forward to a long weekend and for once, Jimmy is going to be off, too. Usually the chicken business continues on without a break, but this year it's a hol-i-day! Whoo Hoo!

First on the agenda will be getting some meat to smoke. Ribs, brisket, pork loin, pork butt...I'm not sure what all he'll choose. Usually he is the one who makes the smoking decisions. He and Layke consider smoking a sport! Jimmy will get up all through the night to babysit his brisket. And let me tell you, the man can smoke a brisket! Layke is the champ with ribs. Oh my. My job is always to provide side dishes. Typically I do corn on the cob, potato salad, slaw, stuff like that. I might prowl around some cookbooks or websites and try to find something new and unique to prepare. Anyone have any suggestions? I tried a new slaw that a guy at Jimmy's work makes the last time we smoked and it is fabulous! It has hot peppers and chopped tomatoes in it. Sounds weird, but honey child, it will make you want to slap your grandmaw. ;)

A Different Kind of Slaw

Chopped cabbage

Finely chopped hot pepper, about a half of one

Finely chopped seeded tomato

Mayonnaise to taste

Chopped onions

A couple of capfuls of cider vinegar

A little bit of sugar, about tsp.

Salt & Pepper

Aside from cooking, I also plan on having plenty of margaritas. I'm not a big drinker as my friends can tell you. One, maybe two of something is my limit. But these margaritas...oh my. I had gotten a margarita at Santa Fe when I was having dinner with some friends. One of them asked the bartender what kind of mixer he used. He said Finest Call sweet and sour. So, off to the store I went and got some and followed the recipe on the bottle for margaritas. Oh. My. God. I really have to watch myself with these. I limit it to two, but I think I could drink them until my eyes bugged out!

Well, that's about it for today. Unless I think of something else. OH YEAH...a funny from Rachel that I've just got to share~

Rachel purchased some Nag Champa incense the other day (I love the stuff) and burned a stick in her apartment. She went out to walk the dog and when she got back there was a note taped to back of the outside door. It said: "To my pot-smoking neighbors, please raise a window, it stinks!" She cracked up and left them a note telling them it was Nag Champa, not pot, but she wouldn't do it again! I told her, "Welcome to apartment living!" She said it wasn't worth pissing off the neighbors to burn it. I just thought that was humorous.