NEED A LAUGH

I hope I can stay awake long enough to type this.   FOUR more days to get in the ORNAMENT GIVEAWAY.

So comment again and you will get another chance.
 
We have just finished up a marathon few days in another town…
As in you would not believe all we did in 48 hours.  Just Terri and I travel. 
We had the weekend all mapped out….Get a little rest and sleep in on Sat and leave in time to get to the first house around lunch.
This happens to be the sweetest gal, a girl my sons age and someone we love spending time with.
 
We had already planned our slumber party.
Tree decorating, wine and LSU football.  She threw in some great EATS.  I will even share two new recipes with you that were the BEST.  (next post)
We were almost to her house and I called her only to find out her 2 year old had burned her leg on the stove and she was gone to get a script filled.
(her husband was 10 hours away), but is a doctor and knew what Sage needed.

We arrive at her house, start unpacking ornament boxes, trees, garland, ready to go full speed. 
I pulled open a black trash bag with a tree in it AND things changed.
 

Out jumped a Mouse/Rat!  It did not matter to us what you called it. 
It hit the floor running and sounded like it weighed 50 pounds.  (probably weighed 3) 
I had no idea that mice were Amberly’s greatest phobia….mine would be snakes, but none of us were interested in seeing the MOUSE and I do not mean MICKEY.
  
You will have to just imagine this….This is a HUGE GORGEOUS house….

I ran in the laundry room and jumped on the washer, Terri ran outside and was standing on the car in the garage and Amberly holding Sage jumped on the kitchen counter (bruising her ankle) all of us screaming.  It was a reality show at its best.  NOW WHAT?


We had no clue where it went. Her pest control man just had a message machine.
We then called 1_800 Terminex and they said call back Monday….that would not work.

We had the broom, flashlights, alternating between laughing and feeling like crying….

There was no way I was sticking my hand down in my stuff because it had all been in open containers and the “creature could be in one of the boxes”!
Amberly could not get to her
phone so I finally came out of the laundry room and rescued her phone…while Terri was going door to door in this very prestigious neighborhood trying to find a man to help us. 
Amberly called everyone she knew..no one home.  Terri found one man home and he said he could not help us as he had an abscess tooth. Remember that excuse if someone ever wants you to help catch a RAT!  At this point we still thought it was.

Finally she decided to call her husbands partner and see if he could get him to come help us. 
Ran him down and he agreed…By this time we are 3 hours late getting started on the decorating.  Terri and I decided to start on the tree by standing on the stairs where we could at least have a good view if the “rat” was near us…

All of a sudden we hear this scream and heard Amberly say “He is running straight for me”! 

Now we knew he was at least in the master bedroom and headed either for the closets or the bathroom….
So one of us stood guard to make sure it did not try to exit before her friend arrived…

In the meantime her dogs got out…It was getting funnier by the minute.  Our hero arrives, gets on his hands and knees and crawls all over the area we think it is in…NOTHING….Looks like Hampton Inn hear we come.
If the animal was not caught we were not sleeping there.
At this point we are starving and looking for the WINE. 
Getting more behind by the minute…FINALLY, I hear “HE FOUND IT”! 

Guess where ….in  the toilet paper holder in the master bathroom…and it was not huge…but it was a MOUSE. 
So the ordeal was over and we proceeded to the wine and decorating and it was a LONG LATE night.  LSU got a win….and we were mouse free!
We finished the next day and then headed to the next house.  Came home yesterday tired beyond words…
But we did it and at our age that it a BIG DEAL. This is Amberly and Sage.




So that’s our story of the weekend….Tree decorating really is full of funny stories. 

Ok, get your comments in and have an extra chance to win the ornaments..

ORNAMENT GIVEAWAY

**** Well it is now 5 PM so you can see I did not get this posted last night….a little boy came down the hall with bed head and was just needing his Grammy to hold him…

Its almost 3 AM and the day is winding down.  Trees everywhere, more ornaments than my house can hold, ideas running rampant in my head, scheduling problems that always happen, looking for energy boosters, Band-Aids on several fingers, stuck a piece of wire in my thumb and that has been so sore today,  nails need filled in, white as a sheet (meaning I need to spray tan), my shop looks like a tornado went through it and we are only into the third week of decorating. 


Plus this is the week that my head elf and I travel and work on houses in another town. 
Stacks of paperwork (which I hate the most) are piled up, the house is less than clean, I have not changed out our closets from summer to fall (that means I wear pretty much the same thing everyday)!  That’s my life right now…

How I would love a night to read blogs.

Instead tonight Parker and Jack spent the night and I let everything GO and just hung out with them. 
It makes my “to do” list longer for tomorrow, but it was sure great fun tonight.  No pictures…Neither was interested in pictures. 
Parker and I had a long talk about bullying and what it meant and who did it.
His school had addressed it several times and he shared with me what he had learned.  I was so impressed that he got it…Bullying is not cool!
 
Jack and I watched the same movie twice.  Only a grandmother would do that.  When the credits rolled the first time, he laughed and said “Let’s watch it again”, and we did.


We do have some pictures and some new ideas and I plan to post on the holiday blog Thurs.…maybe some ideas you can use….that’s on my list.

Since I have so many ornaments right now, it will be a good time to give away a basket of ornaments.  I have some neat cross ornaments that I will include in it.  All you have to do is leave a comment and this blog and the holiday blog (so I will know there are still readers over there)!
Also tell me if you would like to share some of your holiday traditions and do a guest post on A Baby Changes Everything.

I know if you are like me you feel like your problems are HUGE!!!!
 
Here are two blogger friends that desperately need prayer.

Paige and I only know each other through blogging, but I feel like I know her so well.  Her husband has pancreatic cancer.  It’s a vicious battle…He had to be admitted to the hospital this afternoon.  My heart hurts for her.


I don’t know this lady but all I can say is she is superhuman….Praying for Tripp and a word of encouragement would probably make her day.
 

If you want to read a fun blog read about this family Hope in a Boys World.  She is an excellent writer and the neatest family.

If you want to think, read my friend Amy at Snoodlings…she makes me think…This is a gal I know and love.


If you want to hear a real story teller, do not miss this special lady at Cow Patty Surprise.


Ok, that’s enough reading for you…Leave a comment and get in on the ornament giveaway…


Post it on your blog and then let me know and I will have a special drawing just for you for another ornament group.  I love to give ornaments away.


Check the holiday blog and you will see some neat ideas….Give me about a day…to get them up.


I am doing the 30 days of Thankfulness of November on Facebook, so will try and include my list on the blog too. 
Day 1  For Hope in a Dark World
Day 2 For My Family

Have a good week!!!!!

THE LAST THING I NEED TO BE DOING

It is very late on Saturday night and the last thing I need to be doing  is blogging.  My “to do” list is two legal pages long.  I have about 20 tree emails to answer…a full plate

I just made me a cup of Island Coconut coffee and decided I had been thinking about a post all day, so the to do list could wait.

We have finished two houses that took a LONG time and we have another huge house tomorrow AND my legs are screaming.  (as in drugs screaming and rubbed down with bio-freeze)

Even after doing trees for almost twenty years I still forget how the first week is getting your legs back under you.  That probably only makes sense to a tree decorator.
I have a giant bruise on my hand from bending my little finger back last night…I feel bunged up after 2 days.
 
But that’s not the post….
Not even sure why this is on my mind except that  the day before I started trees I did something I still can’t believe I did.

We drove a couple of hours to see one of my dearest friends.  Oh, how I wish there had been more hours to stay. 
Jack and  Jack aka Woody went with me…For the most part Woody was a wild man but I am so head over heels in love with him that his antics hardly move my needle.   Plus I am his Grammy. 

He had been with me most of the week while Amanda and Micah moved. (he is not good moving help)
He had made me laugh so hard and given me a thousand kisses, so he could get by with almost anything.
He is just a free spirit. 

While he and Pop watched  TV and ate all the fabulous goodies Pat served them…
She and I set in two green leather recliners,  drank wine and caught up on life.  She gave me a foot massage and then a head massage and then a (pre-tree) shoulder massage (that’s a friend)…and it was heaven.

She told me about her mission trip to China where she cut 20 heads of hair a day…She is an awesome hair stylist.  That is how we met 25 years ago. 
Her clients get their hair done, their make up touched up, lipstick applied and then a shoulder massage.  That’s her trademark.

We talked about kids,  about life, deep stuff, funny stuff.   We  laughed and hugged and wished we lived next door. 
I was reminded again why I love her so. 
She is the hostess with the hostess and every visitor she has feels like they are the most special person on earth.
 
If you are reading this Pat, you are a gift to every person that calls you friend.

We had fabulous soup, chicken salad, coconut cake, wonderful coffee..all served as only Pat serves…with love and flair.

I came home with some goodies for me and some for Amanda's new house. 
I forgot to mention she is my favorite decorator of all times.
 
On the way home, I am beginning to move into panic mode as I think about all I did not have done. 
I have a new iPhone 4 and so I got that and my Ipad out and was going to update them.  That would be making good use of a couple of hours on the road.  I updated Facebook and somehow an entire new look came up on my Ipad. 

I have 1000 plus friends on FB and that’s nothing to brag about, (I am not that great of a friend) but we have just lived a lot of places, coached a lot of kids.
 
I hit friends and instead of a list coming up, the faces of everyone came up…like in  nice big sizes..

I started scrolling through and was overwhelmed at all the people that I loved…how my path in this thing “called life” had crossed with all these people.

I took a trip down memory lane…It was so sweet. Many people I know  better than others…

Some I have years of history with.  Some I only know from the blogging world. 
Some I know because they are friends of my kids, some from my childhood (which was a thousand years ago)! 

It was one of the best ways to use those two hours…Just realizing I know some very special people and being thankful.  Try it and take your own memory trip.

Amanda and Micah are all moved in.  I have been little help with tree season here,  but hope to get a day soon to help her…

This will be the picture of the week.  Dana kept Jack (Woody)  today and tonight.  He and Gray are having a slumber party.

Greg not only married a beautiful wife, he married ONE BRAVE WOMAN.
 
This is  Hobby Lobby and a picture she sent us today…Gray and Jack in Hobby Lobby!  Enough said!





I am not a big baseball fan, but I love the World Series…..

Scotty McCrerry made me so proud singing the  National Anthem a few nights ago.

I was so impressed with him just singing the song and not adding anything…Totally loved it. 


Have a great week.  I will be under a tree or on top of a ladder or in a bathtub of HOT WATER.