Count your blessings

The holiday season always seems to be a busy time in my profession. It is only Wednesday and I have already put in 38 hours and been apart of 4 funerals with 4 left to go before Christmas day. I have fallen in love with each and every family that I have been blessed to be apart of so far this week. Everyone's story is so completely unique, from the young couple that will bury one of their twin baby boys on Saturday to the grown man who cried like a baby at the funeral of his 85 year old mother today, I try to be a comfort to them, but with out fail, they truly end up blessing me beyond measure. As we celebrate Christmas with those we love this year, let us not forget all of those whose holiday season will be forever changed by death or separation.

We will be spending Christmas at home this year with no other family members joining us. I think this officially makes me an adult. There are gifts under the tree, some still to be picked up at stores and still some hidden in unknown places. I have no idea what I will be serving Christmas day for dinner, my house is a total wreck and I can't find the Christmas stockings, but I am so thankful for my two spoiled and sometimes ornary but loving boys and a wonderful husband that I know even if we have to simply clear a path for walking through this house, we are blessed beyond measure and we will truly have a Very Merry Christmas!

An attempt to update

I have not even thought about updating on this blog in forever it seems. I just get so busy that when I do get time to sit down at the computer, I spend all my time catching up with my favorite blogger friends.

I have to admit that the Christmas season is not my favorite time of year. All the commercialism and hustle and bustle just seems to add more hurry to my already hurried life. I am off of work for the next 4 days (crossing fingers) so I hope to finish up my shopping, decorating and maybe even do some baking which I always enjoy doing. Thank goodness my Mom did put up my Christmas tree while they were here for Thanksgiving and the boys do have a few presents underneath but I am so far from being ready. Of course here it is 12:30 PM on my first day off and I have accomplished absolutely nothing so far, at this rate I will get nothing done. I was at the gym by 5:30 this morning, took the boys to school and then went back to bed and slept til noon. OK here I go, I'm getting motivated now....waiting.....waiting....its just not happening....maybe if I just get off my butt and start moving.

2006 CMA Awards

Today has been a great day! I am trying to enjoy my last few days off. I will go back to work on Wednesday so today I have spent most of the day cleaning up the dog hair left behind by my parents sweet, sweet Border Collies. They took the precious angels home on Sunday after a week of shedding and having accidents in my house. I truly think this is something I need to write "Dear Abby" about. I adore my parents and feel I owe them a lot in life, but their dogs wreck my house every time they bring them. Yes, I have a dog in the house, but my Sissy does not shed the way these dogs do, and she rarely, rarely has an accident of any kind.

On a lighter note, I thoroughly enjoyed the CMA awards tonight even though I think the face of Ronnie Dunn is a face only a mother could love, I enjoyed the personality of Vince Gill much more when he was the host. I loved seeing all the Country Music singers, if this makes me a Redneck then so be it. I have to say that I got to see Kenny Chesney in concert when the boys were showing at Houston last year and it was a great concert even though he had a broken leg during the performance. I think he is well deserving of Entertainer of the Year. I often wonder what happened with him and that actress he married. Wow, guess I should get a life.

I will say goodnight now as I enjoy a few Zesta crackers with Miracle Whip on top!!!! Yum, yum. Did I mention I was afraid I would gain weight while not being able to exercise the next couple of months?

No more stitches

The past few days have been uneventful and it is glorious. It has been such a blessing that I have not had to go into work. I think I could get used to this, but I would be totally worthless because I am not good at self discipline and would lay around watching T.V. and blogging all day long.

Quentin had a game in Breckenridge tonight and they won but I have forgotten the score. He actually scored a touch down but there was a flag on the play so it was called back. He did score 2 points later in the game though. I wish I understood football better. I could not tell you what positions he plays even though he has told me a thousand times. Shannon tried to explain the game to me as we watched tonight and I just get so frustrated trying to figure it all out. Am I the only one who finds the game confusing? So many rules :( I am a keep it simple kind of person, maybe thats why I am more of a baseball fan.

I had my two week check up today and got my stitches out. My foot looked great at 2PM today and now it is swollen up like a balloon after going to the game. The football bus is due back into town at 11PM and then I can prop this baby up on a pillow.

Hello again

Well I went through with my foot surgery on October 19th and I am getting around very slowly but trying to carry on with my normal routine as much as possible. The first few days after the surgery were very rough as I was extremely nauseous from the anesthesia but once I was over that everything has been good. I worked half a day on Friday and then again today. I must say I have enjoyed the break from work tremendously. I am very envious of my friend, Jonathon's tails of hiking these days as I am missing my daily exercise routine and feel my butt growing wider everyday as I sit here with my foot propped up on a pillow. I will have a lot of catching up to do when I can finally get around again.

We had a wonderful weekend for the most part. Shannon and I worked together to get everything cleaned up from the house to the vehicles and then my parents came through Sunday on their way to spend a week in Mountain View, Arkansas. As is my regular duty, I will be babysitting their two Border Collies until they return. Q, went on an overnight trip with his youth group on Saturday and we took Blake to the Wylie Fall Festival and then to a party at a friends house. The reason I say it was a wonderful weekend "for the most part" is that on Saturday, I sat the Guinea Pig cage out on the front porch since it was a lovely day, thinking they would enjoy the fresh air and while I left them unsupervised, our male golden retriever drug the cage out into the front yard and tore it up, getting both Ginny and Dixie from inside and killing them. It was very traumatic for Blake.

Fun statistics

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 423 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Friday the 13th

It did not dawn on me until I was writing a check for Quentin this morning that it was Friday the 13th.

"Oh, Quentin it is Friday the 13th" I said.

His reply, "Don't worry Mom, I don't think it is one of the bad ones"

This has really been a great week for me, which is a complete turn around from how I was feeling this time last week. I have been really stressed out because I knew that the funeral home I work for had been sold but they were being very secretive about the new owners and all the details of the sale. On Wednesday, I had a chance to meet these new owners and they were wonderful. I feel like I have been rescued. I have been working for the big corporation for 4 years now and it is just not for me. This is a small company and more tailored to my small town mentality. The transition will not take place for about 6 weeks but by the time I am laid up for a couple of weeks with my foot surgery, maybe the time will fly by.

Shannon and the boys will go to the High School football game tonight which will give me my much treasured alone time. Being a mother of two boys comes in very handy sometimes especially during football and hunting seasons!!!!!

Vacation Get Away!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

I haven't said anything to anybody about this until now because we wanted to wait until things were final.

We just purchased a one bedroom condo near Sanibel Island in South Florida as an investment property.

It finally closed last week, so I thought that we would let you all know in case anyone is interested in accommodations for an upcoming getaway.

It's available for weekends or on a weekly basis. For now, I will be handling bookings until I can find an agent.

Weekends will cost about $150 for three nights and $350 for the week. These prices are low because YOU are friends and family.
Prices will be a bit different for people we don't know, but we will discuss that on an individual basis.

In any case, it's a one bedroom, high-rise unit that overlooks the ocean, nestled among lush greens, and has an awesome ocean view from every window!



See a photo below.

Let me know if you're interested. Talk to you soon!

GOT ME TOO!!! I WAS PACKING MY BAGS

This too shall pass

I am feeling much better now. Saturday was a wonderful experience even though I had to work on my weekend off. I actually did a funeral in a small town near by where we lived the first 12 years of our marriage and where I actually got my calling into the funeral business. I saw many dear friends and it was indeed like going home. Other than work on Saturday it has been a very relaxing weekend and Shannon has been very helpful pitching in on all the catching up I needed to do. I got so down last week that I just gave up on keeping the house in order and it was in pretty bad shape by the time he got home. I also cooked today for the entire week, so no eating out (hopefully) and my family is in casserole heaven!! School is out tomorrow for Columbus Day so we both went ahead and took the day off so we will have another day to catch up (and sleep in!!) Blake has a friend over tonight, so as long as we can keep the wrestling to a minimum, it should be a peaceful evening.

Church was wonderful this morning, we talked about being a "Front Porch" kind of church and how we have gotten accustomed to just sitting in the air conditioning and not venturing out to get to know our neighbors and share the love of Jesus with them. I can so relate to this but was thinking the whole time what wonderful neighbors I have; as I returned from the grocery store on Saturday night, I discovered some delightful treats and a beautiful pumpkin my neighbor and friend Natalie had left me while I was gone. This brought a smile to my face and helped me along in my journey of seeing the world as a brighter place once again.

Warning, this post may depress you

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty rough day. It seemed by the end of the day I was just an outsider looking in and thinking, I don't even like myself right now. I talked to several friends and they seemed to be feeling the same way, so maybe it is just the weather. I feel like I have been burning the candle at both ends for so long and I am completely out of energy. I am seriously questioning if I should remain in my profession. When I first started on this endeavor I felt like being a Funeral Director was indeed what God intended for me to be. I met with families and felt that I was making a difference and showing the love that Jesus would have shown. Now I feel like it is a "job" and it has consumed my whole entire life and most of the time my own children are the ones who make all the sacrifices. To top it all off I went to the podiatrist and am now scheduled for surgery on October 19Th. They will be doing a bunionectomy and injecting a heel spur. This should put me out of commission for at least 6 weeks and I will not be able to keep up with my exercises and will probably gain weight. Well this post is getting depressing so I think I will go take a nap.

http://www.tfda.com/associations/1339/files/Funeral%20Directors%20Proclamation%202006.pdf

Guess I should have been an "Administrative Assistant" or something, at least I might have gotten a plant.

I love Maxine!!!

Dreaming of a day off

So much for a day off. There was a death during the night and even though I am not on duty, I have already buried two people in this family so they only want to deal with me and I don't feel right not going down to take care of them. So, I'll meet with the family and dress and casket today, visitation on Friday and probably funeral on Saturday. Guess I can always hope for Sunday and Monday.

Yoga

Nothing like a good yoga session to relieve the stresses of the day. I had not been to a class in over a week because my favorite instructor was gone. I tend to get really aggravated with the ones I am not used to and an hour and 15 minutes is a lot of time to waist if you are not going to feel good when your done.

I have longed all week for the relaxing feeling we all felt on our vacation to Colorado in August. I have been looking through our photos and remembering what a good time we had and especially having fond memories of the slow pace. I am attaching a photo of the boys fishing that I took from our bungalow. A good time was had by all. I am looking forward to the next several days, I am supposed to be off Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday!!!! I have my doubts that will happen but one can always dream. It is so hard to plan anything when you are in the funeral business and that is a huge cause of burnout in this profession.

Tomorrow I go to the foot doctor and will probably be having surgery on my left foot soon. I have a bunion and a heel spur that are both killing me. I had the right foot done about two years ago and have been putting this foot off but have decided I should have it done on our current insurance before Shannon (hopefully) changes jobs.

Yuk

Don’t forget this brand of fresh lettuce, folks. What probably happened is the water the lettuce was washed in contained polliwogs and these became fresh new frogs, right in the packages. So if you're looking for salad fixings with a little more body, then be sure and try this brand. Don't forget, it's the extra care that Mexican companies take that makes the difference.

I'm a grandma

Jenny became a mother sometime between last night and when we returned from church today. She had two babies and one of them didn't survive. I can't believe how big guinea pigs are when they are born. We have had a wonderful weekend, Blake turned 11 on Friday and we have been celebrating since Thursday. He is such a precious baby boy, at bedtime he gave me a hug and told me "thanks for absolutley the best birthday ever" I told him that tommorow he becomes just a regular guy again.

Discovery

Oh my GAAWWWHHHH!!!!! We discovered today that one of the Guineau Pigs that we so graciously took into our home is soon to be a Mother. Guess that makes me a grandmother????? So yet another visit to Petsmart and walla, ($95.00 later) she has her own private residence in which to make a loving home for her expected kiddos. I already know that one of these precious angels will be going to my nephew since my sister was so kind to think of my kids when her hamster gave birth earlier this year, making us the proud caregivers of Sandy (a.k.a. Stuart, or the escape artist) Now according to the online search engines, we can expect 3 to 5 babies so leave your comments to get on the waiting list.

Impulsive?

You Are 52% Impulsive

You're quite impulsive, but you never are reckless.You qualify as a very spontaneous person, but you still know how to honor your commitments.And while responsibility doesn't come easy to you, having fun does!

Are You Impulsive?

Updates

We have had several busy weekends in a row. Last weekend was the County Fair. Blake placed 2nd in his class, which we were very pleased with. He also had his spot on the news which was very cute this time. He was not quite as nervous, plus they put a microphone on him while he was in the ring showing and it was much more natural. The cutest part of the clip was when they caught him at the end putting his head on Emmits and whispering "Good job Emmit" My parents were in town for the events as well. Quent was in the calf scramble on Friday night but didn't catch anything.

We returned late tonight from going to visit Shannon because he did not get to come home this weekend because he was on call. It sounds weird to say that since I am the one who is on call all the time. You could tell he was not used to the routine, every time we went in somewhere I had to get the phone that was issued to him for the weekend. I told him he would not make a very dependable Funeral Director, my pager has become such a part of my life that I feel naked without it.

Shannon has not heard anything from the interview he had here at home a few weeks back. He had such good vibes about it, but now we are getting a little discouraged. I pray that we hear good news this week. We had a chance to explore this weekend while we were visiting him. It is not a bad place at all and if it were not for school concerns, it would only make sense for us to relocate, none of us are ready to throw in the towel just yet though.

Problems with commenting

It has come to my attention through several emails that it is not possible to leave a comment on my posts. :( Since I am clueless about this whole blogger thing, I have no idea what is wrong or if there is anything at all I can do to fix it. PipeTobacco http://frumpyprofessor.blogspot.com/ said that it was a possible error in the Blogger Betta system which I signed up for thinking that it was the newest so therefore must be the best. Evidently I was wrong. Either I have done something wrong or they don't have all the kinks worked out yet.

Here it is 10:35 PM Texas time and we have just finished 2 homework assignments that Quent has known about since Tuesday but decides at 8:3o tonight to tell us about despite the fact that they are due tomorrow. I have asked him everyday when I pick him up at football, "OK. Quent, go through your day in your head, is there anything or in particular any homework you need to remember?" Always the answer is "No" I don't know what else to do. I have purchased calenders for him to write in, he is on ADD medications!!!! AAAWWWRRRGGG. I don't know how to get this boy organized other than to go to his classes with him everyday.

I don't know exactly how to do this, but Happy Birthday to my friend and neighbor http://www.annejones.blogspot.com/ Anne Jones. Ok, I have no idea how to make it just say Anne Jones and be a link to her blog, so bear with my stupidity.

A star is born!

Yesterday around 2PM I received a phone call from a local news anchor interested in filming the boys with their steers to promote the local Fair and Rodeo that begins today. I accepted with reluctance for several reasons, 1) Shannon was gone and I am not that great at "wrangling" these 800 LB. animals 2) Although I am ever so grateful for recent rains, the careless weeds have taken over my yard and I am not exactly anxious to show the surrounding area how behind we are on mowing 3) I had a feeling the boys would be quite shy and not give them a lot of material to work with. I did end up calling Shannon at work and asking if he could possibly leave work early and head home since he was coming home last night anyway because he has a job interview this morning!!!! Yea, I will keep you posted on how that goes.

All of that aside, the news showed up about 5:30 to film. They only filmed Blake because Q's steer is sick and he is not going to participate in the fair this year. Now Blake is my youngest and I have always said he has the "gift of gab" but he really froze up when that camera was pointed at him. It aired on the 10PM news last night and once the did their editing, it was a really cute piece. They are going to follow him all through the fair as he weighs in, grooms his steer, and finally shows. So they are doing an entire series. I hope Blake will warm up to the camera as they go because he has such a cute little personality to be captured.

September

I can't believe September has already arrived. The boys and I have made it through another week on our own. We are getting in a pretty good routine and I have to brag that all three of our beds have even been made everyday for the past two weeks. This is a first for us, I have never really been one to make the beds unless I know company is coming but I have decided that was not a very good example for them. Is it four weeks for a habit to be formed? My job has been a real challenge lately. There are so many interesting things that happen through my profession. I have been a Funeral Director for 7 years now and just when I think I have seen everything I am surprised by yet another family. I know I could get endless blogging material from these encounters but I fear that I would compromise the confidence these families place in me. Today I spent two hours with a man who came in to "pre arrange" everything because he was planning to take his own life in the near future. I felt truly inadequate but tried to counsel him as best I could. He refused to take any crisis numbers I could provide him and would not allow me to make any phone calls on his behalf.

No time for blogging

Well I have discovered that this blogging thing takes alot of time and I can't seem to fit it into my schedule. What time I do have, I like to spend reading other peoples blogs rather than working on my own.

Things are going well. My oldest son turned 14 this weekend and decided to get into the whole paintball thing. This is quite an expensive past time and he far exceeded his birthday budget but he is playing with a group of boys mostly from his youth group at church and I figure if this will keep him occupied and I know who he is with and what he is doing it is well worth the investment. My Mom and my son share the same birthday so we had a great time meeting family for supper Saturday night. It was a long drive (2 1/2 hours one way) but worth it for them to celebrate together.

The farm grows bigger!

Well it has been a few days since my last post. I can't decide if my life is really so boring that I have nothing to say or if it all happens so fast I don't know what steps I have taken enough to write about them.

The weekend I will have to admit would have been a bore to anyone else but I enjoyed it thoroughly. Even though it was my weekend on call, I did not get paged a single time. I rented 6 movies from Blockbuster and got 4 1/2 of them watched. That's a good indication of just how lazy I was. Not only did I watch all those movies, I even managed to sneak a couple of naps in. Shannon did not make it home this weekend because of problems at the plant, otherwise I probably would have felt compelled to at least act like I was of some use.

Today, was very busy. I was up at 5:00, at the gym by 5:30, home at 6:30, got the boys up and we were in the van by 7:45. Dropped clothes off at the cleaners before work. Now..... the reason for my title. When I got to work this morning, the office manager walked in with 5 guinea pigs... and of all days to turn our office into a pet adoption center, we were having our BIG BOSS from Houston arrive at the airport at 10:20 am. Well guess who got volunteered to take all five guinea pigs home to hide them????? Three guesses, and the first two don't count. Well now that my boys have seen them, they think they both have to have one, and being the push over mother that I am, ( or could it be that I always feel so guilty because I work so much) I told them yes. So $65.00 later (cage and all the accessories) we are now proud Guinea Pig owners, names yet to be determined. The other three are anxiously awaiting loving homes if anyone is interested.

Sandy (the hamster) is now jailed in her new cage with bars ($35, I am going to have to get a second job to pay for all these cages), 3 nights past and she hasn't gotten out yet. I did find where she had been camping out during her escapes and she had made quite a comfortable little bungalow for herself. No wonder she was wanting out. I thing she had everything she needed in there with the exception of cable TV.

Well once the piglets were all settled in, hiding out at my house, its back to work, I had a 2 PM funeral, picked Blake up from school by 3:30, brought him home, went back to work, picked up Quent from football by 5:15, made supper and then had to go to an open house at the Jr. High from 6:30 to 8 PM. Whew, it is 11 now and I am loosing steam and this will all begin again tomorrow at 5 AM. I think I'll hit the hay.

The Capture

Well, I have just captured Sandy once again and I have used nearly a whole roll of masking tape to secure anything that could possibly move on that cage. If she is still there in the morning, I shall venture down to the local Petsmart tomorrow and get a new cage, if she escapes again, I don't see any point in spending the money because this will tell me that she has some kind of secret powers.

My first post

"My two guys"

Well this will be my first post on my new blog. As usual I am a little behind the times and have just now discovered the blog world. My life is very busy and I am hoping stopping to make note of some happenings will help me collect my thoughts.

School is back in full swing as of yesterday and thank goodness work is slow right now so I can rev up to speed slowly. I had lunch with my youngest son, Blake on his first day and Quentin my oldest, had me make several trips to the Junior High to take things he had forgotten for football practice. Had they been things for his regular classes he would not have worried about them. Back to school is always like another new year in our house. Lots of resolutions mostly on my part, the boys just go along with me knowing from experience that all my "schedules" will go out the window in time. It is tough doing this all on my own. Shannon (my handsome hubbie!!) has been working out of town during the week for 6 months now and I never realized before how much I depend on him. Prayers continue to go up that his job here in Abilene will be restored.

I call this blog "Welcome to our funny farm" not only because of the craziness here but because of our host of animal friends that are such a part of our family. The boys both have steers that they show for 4-H (3 total), Cooter, Emmet and Tony, two golden retrievers (Katie and Frazier), my house dog, Sissy who is a sheltie, two cats, Beets and Chip, and an escape artist hamster, Sandy. Sandy gets out of her cage at least every other day and despite our many attempts to find where she is getting out, she always seems to find another way. I caught her last night about 11 (again), yet another thing I have learned to do, without screaming I might add, out of desperation since Shannons absence.

Well that is all for now, I hope to get better at this as I go.