Feel Like Complaining

Yesterday was a strange day. Traditionally we put up our Christmas tree on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We get up, make some homemade hot chocolate and start the whole process which takes about 2 1/2 hours. But we had to postpone it to be able to go to our friends husband's memorial service. My husband and I haven't been to a funeral since my step-dad died 12 years ago. In your mind you don't really want to go but you feel you must. It doesn't matter how close you were to that person, it's just not something that you really want to do. We didn't know Mike very well and had only seen him a few times. But Sally is our friend and we wanted to show our support and love for her. And I was wrong about Mike's age, he was exactly the same age as my husband. They have been through a lot in the past several years. Mike had liver and heart problems as well as Parkinson's. He spent the last few years basically in bed and she cared for him. Her health was not the...

1. My husband has a job and even though he works about 50 hours a week, we are grateful that he is working. 2. Our fridge and bellies are full, sometimes too full. 3. Hubby got his first early retirement SS check today. 4. We are healthy. My friend's husband just died last night, he was younger than my husband. 5. We may have a milder winter than we've had the last few years. 6. Heating oil prices were so much lower this year we only spent about half of what we did last year to fill our tank. 7. Our daughter gives us constant reasons to be proud. 8. I'm thankful that I live in a country where I can complain if I want to, about anything. 9. I'm very thankful for friends I've had for years as well as newer ones I've never met.

We all get the same spammy/scammy emails I'm sure. The ones in particular I'm talking about always have the same common theme to them. A widow who was married to some important rich guy and now wants to move millions of dollars into your awaiting hands. But in this one, the money can only be used to fund churches, orphanages, and widows around the world in her name. Oh, and she's also dying of cancer. But what really got my attention in this one is the kind of cancer she's got, pabcreas. So sad really, you rarely recover from pabcreatic cancer. And then they always close the letter by saying that the Lord blesses you or something as if that's going to make any difference whether I fall for their crap or not. "Oh, Ella said the Almighty Lord blesses me so Hell yea I'm going to believe her and fall for this one." If you're going to try and scam people at least try to look credible and use a spell check. I usually delete them but guess I had some extr...

What The Hell Wednesday was started by sisters Elle and Stacy at Blue Monkey Butt . Jump on over to read what the other sassy ladies have to say about their day. Ever since the outbreak of the swine flu I have been doing my best to stay healthy. I've mastered the sneezing and coughing into the elbow techniques. I've been washing and sanitizing. Sanitizing and washing. My hands are raw from being so damn clean. So WTH happened? I caught a cold. One of those real fun ones when your head is so clogged, you can't speak, breath, or eat without your mouth hanging open. My family really must love me to put up with the blob of pajama wearing-nose honking-nasal rinsing-woman that I was over the weekend. WTH , how in the heck can this happen? I don't hang out with visibly sick people. I wash after coming home from anywhere in public. I wash before preparing food. I survived a ER waiting room full of sick people. Are run-of-the-mill cold germs stronger and mightier than swine fl...

Have you seen this yet? I was waiting for an appropriate time to use it. Now's as good a time as any ;-)

My daughter started High School this fall. Fourteen years old already; where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday that I brought her home from the hospital. Only two days old, I had not quite mastered the art of breastfeeding. By that night my milk came in and my breasts felt like two hot bags of rocks. Full, hot, and lumpy. I felt like Bessie the cow trying to express some milk so she could finally eat. After a lot of tears, hers and mine, we were finally in sync. We’ve been in sync ever since. When I think back, all of the ‘terribles’ were not all that terrible. The so-called terrible twos weren’t bad. The first day of Kindergarten was tearful, hers and mine, but we got through it. Her first grade teacher told us she would be on the honor roll some day. I laughed and said, “have you seen her handwriting?” In the second and third grade I had to beg her to read something more than baby books. Now I have to beg her to put a book down to get her to do something else. In forth ...

What The Hell Wednesday was started by sisters Elle and Stacy at Blue Monkey Butt . Jump on over to read what the other sassy ladies have to say about their day. This past Saturday I took a chance and headed over to my local Walmart for their early Black Friday sale. They're going to be holding early sales up until Thanksgiving. This particular sale was all electronics, including XBoxes, Blue Rays, big ass TV's and laptop computers for 298 bucks. I've had my eye on a laptop for a long time and I figured with a minimum of 10 per store I had a chance. I always feel guilty when I buy a big item so I truthfully told my husband that it was a WANT and not a NEED. He knew I have been wanting one for a long time so he said to go ahead. Not that I need his permission but it made him feel better, ha. I drive up to the store a little before 7:30 as the sale started promptly at 8:00. There was no one outside. WTH? Am I the only one here? Didn't they get the memo? As I get closer t...

Dear Diary, I've had a couple of bad weeks and I need your shoulder to cry on. It will be hard to condense down to one paragraph so you better go grab a glass of wine or something. And while your at it, bring me one too. My husband's ex is a very sweet woman and has been sick for quite awhile. She was finally diagnosed with Cranial Hypotension. The best way I can explain it is that her cranium is leaking fluid somewhere and they can't figure out where. She had one procedure to try and repair the leak but it didn't work. In the meantime she has lost about 50 pounds, cannot take care of herself, needs a walker, and has spent the last 7 weeks in a care facility. She is only 61. One of my step-sons lives in town and the other one lives out of state with his wife. Last weekend her sons moved her into another apartment which will be cheaper for her and will allow some kind of assistance. The younger son really has his hands full. Before it was really known how bad his mom was...

What The Hell Wednesday was started by sisters Elle and Stacy at Blue Monkey Butt. That sounded like something right up my alley so here is my What The Hell story for the week. Halloween has come and gone but before the big day we had a local dentist on the morning show talking about his Halloween Candy Buy Back Program. What the hell? He was offering to buy back candy from kids who bring in their loot for $1.00 a pound. What the hell? He claims that all that candy ruins their teeth. Well so does fluoride but they advocate that don't they? Last year he received a little over 300 pounds of candy. But we're not talking guns here people, candy is not going to kill you. Sure, you might get a gut ache and maybe a cavity. But if your parents are as bright as they think they are by trying to sell your candy that you worked so hard to get, why don't they just tell you to brush your teeth after eating the bad, bad candy? What in the hell is the world coming to when a kid can...