Near Winter Park, Colorado.

UPDATE: This photo was not photoshopped, I saw several of these coming into Winter Park, along the main road.  It does look like the hoop is a sticker of some sort.

Hey, today is the 50th Anniversary of the hula hoop!

I don’t intend to sound mean, cranky, whatever but it’s a little annoying when the sounds of songs and clapping drift through the window above my tv. They’re about a block away, but I don’t know which house. I do know, this is a residential neighborhood with five churches within a mile of us. So I think it odd that “church” is being held in someone’s yard.

This past Wednesday, tired after our long journey and feeling more than a little cranky over it, I bitched and moaned. Yep, I did. Hubby got up to peek out the window and see if he could see where they were and as he pulled the drape aside it fell down upon his head with a loud KA-WHACK!

As he rolled around on the floor in agony, the words of their song wafted in.

Reign(Rain?) down upon my head

Hm, hmm, hm

The Ghost of the Holy Spirit

Raining down upon my head.

Hm,hmm . . .

That’s all I caught but it was enough to send me into cackles. Hubby didn’t believe me when I was relaying the words to him so we were silent and he heard it too.

Me - God smote you.

Him - Smote? Are you sure that’s a word?

Me - I think so. Yeah, like smite, hitting hard, etc

He pulled himself up off the floor and I went to the window

Him - If it falls on you too we’re going over there and joining them

You probably thought I’d show you some Crayola Crayons,

Or Colorful Candy or Confections,

Or even a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store.

Maybe you thought I’d show a Church or a CD,

Or a Colorado Catalog,

Or even a Casino. (If I had waited a couple of seconds the lower portions said “Craps”.)

But instead I wanted to share with you Charlie the Constipated Cow and his Cornrows.

Charlie used the Crème de la Crème to make Cream style Corn.

Charlie’s Captive friends, Callie the Communicative Collie, Carina the Conscience Cat, Charlotte the Complex Chicken and Capri the Cranky Cub lived as a Commune in a Crumbling Cracker Castle.

Capri was Constantly Complaining.

So Charlie Crushed a Column so they could escape.

As they Cavorted a Cross-eyed Cobra Crept into the Clearing.

Soon, they were doing the Complicated Conga. But poor Charlotte was so Creeped out that she Crapped.

The Cobra Casually Consumed each Chunk.

Caution: Cattle Crossing!

Carl the Creative Cockatoo was busy using Cookie Cutters to make Costly Cookies on a Coaster. Cautiously, Colton the Catapulting Colt, came out of his Collapsible Coach Container Cave. He wanted some Chocolate Coffee, Combined with Coke, in a Cup.

Carl Called a Crazy Creature Celebrity on the Cell phone. (all photos taken with a Canon Camera and loaded onto a Computer)

Clarence the Crocodile was happy his Chemo was over and he could leave his Crock and enjoy his Cheese by the Crowned Cactus.

Chubby Cows Craving Cranberries.

Old photos for “C”

Christmas Ornament

Child in a Cemetery

Caching (and Compass and wooden Coin)

Chicago or City

As you can see, I had a lot of fun with "C", if you are interested in joining in our A-Z photo challenge pop over and say, "Hey!" to Martha.

Really?  A dog humping a USB drive?  What will they think of next?!  And don't you love how they blurred the "parts"!  Oh if you feel you gotta have one I stumbled upon it over at The Coolest Gifts.

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Winters cause us to wear multiple layers of clothes. Hubby found it time-consuming to try to make a tinkle (he’ll love that wording).

It’s like trying to find the lost city of Atlantis.

It’s not that small.

Neither was Atlantis.

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While watching Poseidon.

Finally, I’m glad he died, he reminded me of Matt Dillion.

That was Matt Dillion.

Happy Easter!

I will be popping over to see what the Easter Bunny left for Tristan this morning. But thought I would leave you with a few photos from Tristan’s first Easter egg hunt. It went through my mind how monotonous it would be to fill 16,000 plastic eggs. And I wondered about the hiding of them. But, due to the snow, the “hunt” was more of a grab. It appeared the eggs were just dumped in the mall parking lot. Three separate areas for different age groups.

Doesn’t he look like he’s ready to take off running to grab eggs?

Do you think it’s because I shared some of my Mocha Frappuccino with him?

After his initial taste he kept wanting more and more and more. Until his mama said, “No more.” and tried to distract him with the eggs.   Then the grab hunt was on.

His Daddy helped him gather eggs and protected him from getting stepped on by the other parents.

*Dennis took the two photos of Tristan drinking the Starbucks, I was busy holding the straw.

Four pushers and one squatter were on each team and they raced their homemade potty on a short course including one long downhill and one short uphill stretch. I must admit it was pretty entertaining!

Lining up to get their numbers.

Lining up for the race, start and finish in the same spot.

I situated myself in a good position to see each one full of energy taking off. . .

. . .struggling up the short hill. . .

. . .and finishing exhausted.

There were 12 teams (4 more than last year) and one team was entirely women - The Ladies of the Loo.

I think it’s safe to say all the squatters had fun!

But I had the most fun watching the stumbling on the hill.

One squatter got scared enough to actually poo themselves, thankfully they were already in an outhouse. Too bad the loo had a leak.

Sure.

He comes home, grabs me and we drive the 30 minutes to Barnes and Noble. I get four new paperbacks and some bookmarks. As we start to pull out of the parking lot, I say, “Thanx for the new books, honey!”

I know you like books and thought you might like some new ones.

After a few moments of silence, my brow furrowed, I quietly ask, “Are you leaving me?”

He rolls his eyes, laughingly, “No”

This may not sound like a funny exchange to you but there’s history there. When I first started dating him I was working at Home Depot, in the phone center and I read a lot of books in between phone calls. I was very scared of him leaving me and I would often joke, “Well if you leave, I still have my books.” Over the years, I have tried to release him from any obligations of sticking with me (kids, cancer. . . ) by occasionally reminding him that I would be ok, I still had my books. I may clean out closets and get rid of “treasures”, but my many heavy boxes of books have made it through every move.  No matter what life throws at me, I can lose myself in another world, I still have my books.

Sayre has made her request:

Every day as I go to work, I see things around me that make me laugh. Usually these are in the forms of signs. So take your camera with you as you go about your business and take a picture of the things that make you laugh along the way (but it doesn't necessarily HAVE to be a sign).

And if the weather would have cooperated with me I could have shown you a few new things. But we spent most of the week out of town and the weekend snowed in so, you get some photos from a while back.

Maybe I’m a little warped.

And the master is?

Where does the rest of me go?

Frozen Lake Winnebago.

Have you seen fractional streets anywhere else?

Still cracks me up after all this time.

Coming from the kitchen.

There was a monster in our back yard!

He was so brave,

Wanting let outside,

So he could protect me.

He cautiously approached,

Inched a little closer,

The monster hissed,

He barkingly retreated,

Back to the safety of his mother’s arms.

 (side note - I finally figured out how to do the degree sign, edit the html and type º right after your number.  Cool!)

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Wal-Mart sucks!  I LOVE that we have self checkouts here so I don't have to deal with the rude cashiers.  But I'm a little miffed that today I decided to go through a cashier because I had quite a lot and knew my groceries would total more than $100 (the amount that you need approval for in the self lane).  The cashier never said one word to me!  Trivial?  Maybe, but I felt it was very rude and I wish that they, the powers that be, would replace her with a machine!  I even said, "Have a nice day." in a cheery voice as I grabbed my cart and she still said nothing so I mumbled, "No wonder I normally check myself out."  Maybe I'm PMSing even though I can't PMS?  I have just been feeling very bitchy lately.  I hate getting bad service.  Does bitchiness come with age? 

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Lighter note:

The morning after our blizzard, Haden, Dennis and I pulled the car out of the garage and were greeted by a nice little pile of leaves, on top of all the snow that had drifted into the driveway.

Haden - I wonder where all the leaves came from.

Me - I was wondering that too.

*pause*

Me, thinking (It is January, not many leaves left on trees and a good foot or more of snow on the ground, where did they come from?!) - Hmmm, I guess they came off the trees.

Dennis - You guys are brilliant!

*stinking tongue*

Fwd: There’s a lot of people who walk in ur life but very few leave footprints! Send to all who have left footprints!

Spam on my phone now? Is it still spam when someone you love sends it to you? What do you even call that? Is it too much to want the text messages I receive to be original words?  And are all of my fingernails going to fall off if I don't forward it on?

My son got the same message, at the same time and he texted back, “Sorry for my muddy feet” - Why can’t I have that wit when I get woke up by a ringing phone?

And why did my mom get spammed a few days before I did? Does she have better contacts than I do?  Is she more popular?  She’s supposed to be kissed by someone cute on Valentine’s Day. Get your pucker ready, Dad!

*kiss, kiss*

I wanted to call this post Tasteless Texting but it just didn't feel right.  And did you know the thesaurus considers 'Vanilla' to be a synonym?  And the photos are mine, not sent on my phone.

Years ago, my wife and I were exploring this really cool gravel road that winds along the Mississippi River for a few miles and offers some beautiful views that inspire a sense of adventure. The biggest adventure (for us) was when we reached the halfway point of this narrow cliffside road in our big, old motorhome and suddenly Anne looked ahead with big round eyes and said "Now what are we gonna do?!", to which I replied...

And, a slight pause, a holding of breath, before we  squish beneath the overhang. If an RV can do it we can too. But, do you see anyplace to park to get to the cache? No? We didn't either. So if you decide to go for it can you sign the log for the bandits too?

Should we really be teaching our babies to drive while talking on their cellphones?

I want you to tell us your favorite joke and/or show us your favorite cartoon, don’t worry if there is some duplication that just means more than one person found it funny. So come on and regale us with your best joke and/or cartoon, remember its New Years Eve and we feel like a good laugh, before 2008 comes along and does its thing on us.

PS, I've left myself too much time to think about this..... we all have more than one favorite, Right!! hit us with your best selection!!!!!

I have a tendency to “delete” immediately after reading any funnies - sometimes before I read them. So this was a little harder than I originally thought. But I found two.

Yes, I know I already showed that photo but there is a good reason that I am showing it to you again. Actually a few reasons.

Thanx to my husband for tweaking the original for me. You can see the original Santa photo below. Doesn’t it look so much better after fixing the dof (depth of field)? Hubby is still getting accustomed to CS2 so I pointed him to Joy’s linky love post where he was able to get assistance from a tutorial.

Now, the other things I wanted to point out in that photo are:

• The tiny little Grinch - I imagine a child gave that to Santa but I’m really not sure. It’s cute though isn’t it.
• The “list” - Those papers are drawings a little boy handed to Santa as I came up to take his photo. Nice little stroke of luck though. I really wanted a shot of Santa smiling into the camera but alas, it was not to be. Children everywhere kept his attention and he spared none on me. Hope that doesn’t mean I’ll be getting a lump of coal.
• I never knew Santa was pagan. Did you notice his crystal? Check out the close-up. Interesting.

Isn’t that baby just a doll?!

As for yesterday, I appreciate your honesty about the cell phone thing. I used to use mine but the one I currently have isn’t bright enough. However, my husband’s phone is bright enough to use for our romantic candlelight dinners.

I did not put glue in Brodi’s ear but I did have the bottle in my hand and the lid unscrewed, his ear flipped back and ready to squeeze when I realized I had grabbed the wrong thing. Whew. But you guys cracked me up with your willingness to share your own slip-ups in my comments. I want to make sure everyone knows how silly you are so you will find the comments below with links to the nutty person’s blog. Go make a new friend, you know you wanna. Then come back and tell me your silly slip-up and I’ll add you to the list.

• I sprayed my hair once with scrubbing bubbles spray..i grabbed the wrong can under the sink, I was in a hurry. It took a couple of seconds to realize, gee, my hair smells clean.... 'Nekked Lizard Lady'
• I once sprayed hair spray under my arms. That's not something I would advise. It's kind of...er...sticky. 'Sauntering Soul'
• One time a few years back our garage door was making a lot of noise when it opened and I grabbed what I thought was a can of spray silicone. The garage door sounded worse after I sprayed the tracks. Later when I was going to spray some more I realized that I had used a spray clear coat Varathane. Oops. It could have happened to anyone....both cans were silver. I am probably lucky that it ever opened again after I "fixed" it up! Beckie
• My mom took a swig of oil once many years ago. It was in a similar bottle to the drink she had right beside it when cooking. ~ A friend of mine had her third child the same day I had my third child. We call them the twins. They were both having trouble with burping and gas. I found a couple of drops of peppermint extract in 4 ounces of water just before feeding the baby would help her to burp and she didn't have the troubles any more. I told my friend about this. A week later she called in tears saying she just about killed her kid. She put the drops of peppermint extract in his mouth, a dropper full. Of course he screamed (for a long time) and he had nice minty fresh breath.  'dawn'

I feel like sharing some link love so please spill the beans on yourself or on another.  What a good time to introduce yourself if you've never commented before.  Step on up, nothing but lovin' here.  And I promise we're laughing with you, not at you.

We were on our way home from the cities when my cell phone rang. It was Khris but I ignored it because it was close to dieing and we would be home in about 30 minutes. About 10 minutes later the cell rang again. It was Khris.  I quickly answered.

me -Hey my phone’s going to die but we’re almost home.

Khris - What? Oh, where’s Lake DuBay?

me (thinking, 'Can't this wait until I'm home') - It’s in between our house and Mikal’s. We’ll be home in just a little bit. Are you needing directions so you can go fishing?  We'll be home in a few minutes

Khris - Uh, no. . . I’m lost and I wanna come home.

me *laughing* - Wha. . .

*phone dies*

I grab Dennis’ phone and call Khris back.

me (amoungst giggles) - You’re lost? Ok, what do you see around you?

Khris - Well I just passed Lake Dubay.

*laughing*

Khris - It’s not funny. I’m lost and I wanna come home.

me (Trying to suppress my giggles) - So what do you see around you?

Khris - Well, I’m on the highway and went passed Lake DuBay.

me - You’re on the Interstate? (This is going to be easier than I thought)

Khris - Yeah, I see a sign that says 'Locker Road'.

me - I know exactly where you are. Just take the next exit and turn around and go the other way on the Interstate until you get to exit . . .

After we were all home together Khris told us that he had taken a coworker home and was puzzled when he was driving for 20 minutes. And how sure he was that we could help, since we’re geocachers. It’s true we knew the area he was lost in very well because of caching the area. Tristan went with us to one of his first caches there when he was 2 months old, and it’s a day I’ll never forget.

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•  
  • Cost of getting your driving license: $33
  • Full tank of gas: $40
  • Getting lost your first day on the road: priceless

People's comments about the pet rock on Karmyn’s entry made me remember a story of my husband's.

When he was in First Grade (70s) a girl gave him a pet rock but he had no clue that the rock was supposed to be special and he threw it in the flower bed. The next day when she asked him how he liked his pet rock, he secretly went searching for it. He couldn’t find the rock so he just grabbed a similar one. He showed it to the girl proclaiming to love it. She ran away crying.

It was the wrong rock. He’s never recovered from his first lost love.