All Messed-Up

Ever have one of those days when your right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing?  Well, I feel like that this morning.

Natalie is not going to school today.  Diane or Sean is still here and hasn't left for work yet.  One of them left for work and it must have been Diane because it is almost ten a.m.  Sean must be working until late this evening.  I just heard Sean come out of their bedroom and say, "Good Morning!" to Bob and Maggie; and right now he is saying hello to the cats.

Bob turned on the TV down in the family room and it is so loud I can hear and understand every word of the program he is watching; but I can just barely hear what is happening up here in the loft where I am watching another TV.  In Bob's defense I will tell you he has to have it turned up loudly to hear it, but it certainly is annoying.  I think that is the bane or tale of woe of most wives because the men in their lives are hard of hearing.

The Lost Is Found

For a year I have been looking for a twenty five dollar gift card for Texas Roadhouse that Diane, Sean, and Natalie gave me for Christmas.  The lost gift card is found!!!  When Diane and I started unpacking our Christmas decorations the other day; there was my lost gift card.  Bob quickly put it in his billfold, so we would know where it is.  Yeah!!!  We can now go there to eat!!!  I love their six ounce fillet - med. rare covered with mushrooms, a loaded sweet potato, and a salad, plus a roll.  Texas Roadhouse!  Here I come!!!!

It is almost one o'clock in the morning and Natalie is still up working on a poster that is due tomorrow.  I can remember being up until three a.m. typing a paper for one of the girls and a few other late nights while they were in high school.   This is the first late night-er I have seen Natalie do.

Diane reminded me tonight that tomorrow is John and Beth's wedding anniversary.  I don't remember how many years, but it must be twenty years or so.  Hard to believe!  My, how time flies.  Also the eighteenth is Beth's 42th birthday.  My word!!!  I am blessed to have such a fine family.  

You can hear the wind howling around the corner of the house and being from northwest Indiana, you immediately think of it as dangerous cold outside.  It is probably in the fifties or maybe forty something like that outside the house. 

Demoted To An Elf

For over forty five years I have been a very faithful hard working Santa's Helper First Class every Christmas season.  I would always have my home decorated for Christmas by the end of Thanksgiving weekend.  I did my Christmas shopping early and had it under the tree.  I made certain that no one I knew went without a gift and always found an extra Christmas gift for someone who needed one.  I thought my job as Santa's Helper First Class was safe forever and ever. 

 I even endured the Bah-Hum-Bugs from Bob with the annual warnings that he didn't need a Christmas gift and to go easy on the money spending.  This year he even brought out our last money account statement showing me that we had lost half of our savings in the money market during this last Stock Market fall a few months ago.  Oh, well!!!  The Stock Market will go up again and go down again,  but I am not going to worry about it. 

Something went really wrong this year I think because Diane and I didn't decorate our home for the Christmas season until the week after Thanksgiving.  On that Friday night Diane said to me,  "OK Elf, get ready to start putting out our Christmas decorations!!! " 

I couldn't have been more surprised!  I asked her if she was talking to me?  An elf?  I had never been an elf in my whole life, except maybe when I was in fourth grade and was able to help Santa put out his toys, dolls, and clothes for my sisters.  That was the year Santa brought me a beautiful, emerald green dress coat that was reversible into a leopard print fur coat.  It was the prettiest coat I ever had.  I also received my last doll from Santa and I still have her in a box packed away with one arm missing, but I have it, so she can go to a Doll Hospital.  The dress she has on is one that Grandma Dora Simons made for her to dress her up for me.

Anyway the next morning, "Bright and Early" Diane called to me and said, "Elf, get up out of bed, it's time to decorate for Christmas."  So Rusty, the orange Tabby Cat and I reported for work to do what Diane told us to do.  The other animals, Maggie, the black dog; Patches, the girl cat; and Bandit, the lazy cat did not report for duty.  Bob told us that he didn't do Christmas.  Natalie found the boxes of Christmas and a small Christmas tree to use to decorate her bedroom and that was the last, we saw of her.

Sean had brought home a brand new tall Christmas tree of the living-dining room area and had set it up on Thursday night.  Sean left and was gone to Arkansas for the week-end Diamond hunting.

The top of the fireplace is arranged with two, three, and four Santas deep of all shapes, sizes, and shades of red.  Some are home made ceramic (my sister, June, made one set of my Mr. and Mrs. Santa), some are cloth,  a couple are from Mexico, some are made with red and green buttons for legs, some fat, some thin, some tall, some short with every one of them unique in their own way.  The top of the sewing machine is filled with an overflow of  Santas.  I haven't found it yet, but I have a very old Coke Cola tiny Santa that I love.

 It would be remissive of me to not tell you that my mother fostered my love for all things Christmas.  Some of my Christmas ornaments are more that fifty years old.  When Mother wrapped our Christmas gifts, she added a Christmas ornament tied on each present with ribbon.  Mother and Daddy would shop after Christmas to catch the ornaments on sale to use on the next year's Christmas gifts.

Diane and I still have to finish decorating the tree, we have only started with only one box of beautiful ornaments.  We have several more to open and unpack.  And - to "Aw and Oh" over as we pull them from the boxes; thrilled once again with their unique beauty or lovely memories of Christmas' pasts.

Well; I may only be a lowly elf now. but I still enjoy decorating for Christmas.  I will try to put some more  ornaments on the tree and try to clear off the dining room table loaded down with Christmas items.

It's beginning to look like Christmas!!!!!!!

Found My Forgotten Blog

I can't believe it has been so long that I have posted on my blog.   Guess I forgot I had one.  YEP!!!  I am getting old and forgetful.  Yes, it is true.  To tell you the truth, I don't know what I am doing most of the time.  I know I thought to myself last evening that I should telephone my two daughters in Indiana.  They probably think they have been orphaned.  Shame on me!!  I should set myself a routine to call them every week.  Mother called me or I called her about every Sunday.   Sometimes I called more than once a week.  I kept pretty good track of what they were doing or where they were going when they were out of state and in Minnesota or Texas.  I sure do miss them.  At this time of year I could always count on them to come over before a big family holiday dinner to come over and sit at my kitchen table to clean, slice, and dice food which was always a chore when preparing a holiday dinner or family gathering.  As I am writing this, I am watching Food Network.  I love cookbooks and tv cooking programs.  Paula Dean is cooking right now.  Her food looks great, but she looks like she had a hard night.  Good thing, no one can see me or they would tell you I look like heck!  I think my hair needs a trim.  I do not take the time to look in the mirror any more.  What's the use?  Forty five years ago I looked good enough for Bob to pester me about marrying him, asking me at every opportunity, until I finally said ,  "Yes."  Then the night before we were married, he kidnapped me, so that I would sleep on the couch at his and his mother's apartment, to make certain I would show up at our wedding.  Yep!  That is a true story.  We celebrated our forty fifth wedding anniversary this past July.  Can't believe our marriage has lasted so long, after I tried to run away from it so many times.   Yep! A true story, altho Bob doesn't like for me to say it, but he kept after me until I said "I do!" in from of a minister. LOL!!! 

Smells Good Up Here...

Whatever Diane is cooking in the kitchen, smells good from up here in the loft.  Natalie and I moved some of my boxes from the loft, put some more into the attic space.  The only thing is that we have to move them back out if we want to find anything stored in the same space. 

Bob , now has some plastic bags to move up on the shelf in our closet.  I can hear him groan, "Oh, no!"  I probably should throw away some things, but it is all good stuff.

Time to eat, so I am out of here and down the stairs to fill my plate.

If "Seven Score And Seven Years" Equal...

If  "seven score and seven years" equal seventy seven; then that means that Bob is "seven score and seven years" old.  I am not that old!!!  LOL  LOL

By the way,  June,  I don't see a wrench and whatever you said on my MAC laptop; therefore I don't have the tools to fix anything or, maybe I should say "the brains" to fix anything connected with the computer.

Didn't Abe Say...

Didn't Abe say in his Gettysburg Address, something like this, "Seven score and seven years ago..."?  Well, if he did and "seven score and seven years" equal 77 years, then I am "seven score and one year" old in age.

Don't you ever think about things like that?  I do and I swear I am not crazy, or up too late into the wee hours of the morning, like 4:48  a.m.

Do you think my sleeping pill does not work?  I don't think it does.  Dag-gum-it!!!!!

I Knew It Was Going To Happen

Well, I knew it was going to happen when Bob told me that he would drive me any place I wanted to go, because he doesn't want me to get lost and have to have a policeman bring me home like I did when we lived in Edinburg after living there for fifteen years.

First I have to explain how up and down the stock market has been the last few weeks.  You realize it has lost a ton of money; therefore Bob assumes we lost a fortune also; true or not.  Time will tell.

SO-O-O-O, this afternoon I asked him to take me to Michaels, so I could use one of my 50% off coupons.  He said he would; but we should be careful about what we spend for awhile; because he just bought some shelves for $160 dollars, and a new weed eater for ??? dollars.  I didn't know he had done that.  What else that he isn't telling you is that he spends $40.00 dollars a week on cigarettes; and I stopped smoking 5 years ago.  (HINT! HINT!  Look at the money I have saved from not smoking; of course I haven't told you how much money I have spent on my relative new hobby of greeting card making with rubber stamps or that I spent $80 dollars last night on Cuttlebug folders to support my habit of gathering items to make greeting cards.)

The outcome of this whole outburst is that I didn't go to Michaels.  Dag-gum-it!!!!!!!!!!  AND I knew  this would happen, that he would try to control my spending by insisting on driving me everywhere I go.  You would think I spend all of our money and I didn't earn any money or earned retirement money. 

P.S.  Since this appears to be a "Bash Bob" blog today; I have to tell you what else he did.  I keep an empty Walmart or HEB plastic bag for my trash beside the couch where I spend the most of my time in the loft here at Diane's house.  Bob always takes my bag of trash to the larger trash can and leaves me without a small plastic bag.  

Well!!!!!!!!!!!  This afternoon he tried to take my little trash bag and I told him,  "NO-O-O!!!!!!!!  it wasn't full."  He gave me one of those disgusted sighs and looks and left it.  Thank goodness!

Sometimes I think we are like oil and water; but we have been married for 45 years, so-o-o-o we must have blended together some time or another.  LOL  LOL  LOL Oh - we have 3 daughters, 3 sons-in-law, 6 grandchildren, 2 grand-dogs, and 5 grand-cats and maybe I have counted wrong.

EXPORT BLOG

Wish I had a computer expert to take me thru the steps I have to take to import my old blog and blend it in with the new mjbcoffee blogspot.

I am too tired to think this through tonight.

Until I Can Put My Now Two-Parted Blog Together

This part of my blog - mjbcoffee is located at my new e-mail address because of my poor?? memory  and inability to reach my old e-mail address which was disabled.  New blog address is joybob63.blogspot.com.  My new e-mail is joybob63@gmail.com.  I think you can still read the old part of the blog at mjbcoffee.blogspot.com.  I couldn't access my old blog mcfaddenrobert@sbcglobal.net because I had my blogger disabled there because I couldn't remember my password for that e-mail or my password, plus Minnesota e-mail account which was joy7076@cpinternet.com

If you can make sense of all of that; you are better than the Blogger website, where I can't get an answer or talk to a real person for love or money!!!!!

Will take more time tomorrow if I can settle down and think about what to write.  Bob won't let me drive by myself, because he is afraid I won't be able to find my way home.  LOL  LOL  This past spring I was in downtown Edinburg and couldn't find my way back to Diane's house or back to Orange Grove where we lived; so I asked a policeman to take me home. 

He had to receive special permission from his supervisor to take me to Diane's house and then out to Orange Grove to Jean's place and finally to our place where Bob was home, shaking his head in disbelief.  He figured if I could not find my way back home in Edinburg where we had lived for the past 15 years; he doesn't want me out with the car in the Katy/Houston area.  LOL  LOL

He wasn't too happy letting me drive off in the car the two months we were in Minnesota.  LOL  I think he was afraid I would get lost going left out of our lane to June's or going right out of our lane to Orr.

Try This Again

I want to see if this goes on my old blog pages or the new one.  Cross your fingers and toes that it goes to the old one.  I will be so happy!!!!

Cross Your Fingers

Cross your fingers and your toes and hope this works.  I think I am back on my blog.  Time will tell.  I haven't been able to update my blog because I couldn't get on with the change of e-mail addresses from Edinburg and Minnesota.  I think I have it worked out.  I sure hope so.