Just Simply Holly

Good morning and TGIF! I for one am very happy today is Friday, it’s been another long week and I’m ready for it to be OVER!

My hubby and I had a nice anniversary yesterday! We went to go out to dinner last night and both of us realized that we really weren’t that hungry so we decided that we were going to go out for pie and coffee instead and found the BEST pie place in town, a little place called Schmuckers! OMG, their pie is to die for! My hubby ended up not being able to make up his mind because they had so many different pie choices so he got a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie as well as a piece of dutch apple. For me, it was not as difficult of a choice, I ended up getting coconut cream and it was the absolute BEST coconut cream pie I’ve ever had in my life! We also ended up splitting an order of onion rings…LOL! I had no clue that onion rings and pie could be so romantic

I wanted to share a picture with you that I was able to take yesterday. As you know we are dog owners times 4 with the latest addition coming to our home about 2 months ago. Two of the older dogs have really warmed up to the puppy very well, so much so that I caught them doing this yesterday:

What you really need to know about the recliner that the 3 of them are in is the fact that it is not a normal sized recliner, it’s actually a very small one that I received from my mother and she got them from her mother. They are more suited for an older child or a petite adult, my hubby can’t even sit in them comfortably! In the picture are Willow (the black dog), Riley (the white dog) and Sage (the puppy). Willow and Riley are the largest of our dogs, so it was just very funny for me to see the three of them all piled into that chair like they were! Especially when a fully sized couch is just a few inches away from that chair…LOL! But it was just so cute and I was tickled that I was able to get a picture of it before they all decided to get up!

Not sure what all is going on today. I’m hoping to get in a nap at some point, I woke up at 4:00 AM this morning in the midst of a fairly major asthma attack. It was bad enough that it woke the hubby up and scared him. So I’m pretty tired right now, to say the least! The temps today are supposed to be wonderful, we could possibly hit 80 degrees, but we also run the chance of severe storms this afternoon. Ah, the joys of spring…LOL!

Not only is it Friday, it’s also going to be 80 degrees here in NW Ohio! How cool is THAT?

I’m not exactly sure what’s going on today, I have to run into town here in about an hour and take my son somewhere. While he’s doing what he has to do, I’m thinking about driving around to see if there are any good garage sales going on, I haven’t been garage saling in a VERY long time! The only bad thing about doing that is that there will be four dogs left home for a couple of hours, so it may not be the best choice, but I”m trying to save gas after paying nearly $70 to fill my van last night, which just about made me choke! Fortunately I don’t do much driving, so that tank of gas will last me about 10 days!

Other than that, I just want to be able to enjoy opening the windows and smelling the fresh air, which is one of my favorite spring things to do! I also have a good amount of things that I need to get taken care of here in the house, including some laundry that has piled up over the past couple of days, but nothing major. And I’m still needing to make that batch of chocolate chip cookies, but just haven’t had the time to get that done, so hopefully today!

Have a great Friday peoples!

I’ve had a rough couple of days. Wednesday evening I started not feeling so well and by yesterday morning I felt like butt warmed over! I spent the bulk of yesterday resting and was sound asleep with my puppy, in the recliner, when hubby got home from work around 6:00 or so. He helped me make dinner, and after that I went straight to bed! I slept straight through until shortly after 4:00 this morning and when I work up I felt TONS better. I still feel drained, but I don’t feel sick!

But “THE DEED” I’m talking about is tackling my kitchen! Last weekend we got several kitchen cabinets from my sister and brother in law. They’re coming down tomorrow so that my hubby and brother in law can get the cabinets hung. I spent the first part of the week getting things a little better organized, but haven’t had the time to give it a major cleaning. So that’s my job for today! I have to get the kitchen cleaned 100% and ready for them to come tomorrow and put up the cabinets. After they’re up I’ll have to clean and prime them, then I’m going to paint them the same color I painted the other cabinets when we first moved in here, which is like a hot cocoa type color.

So that’s what I’m doing today. What are you going to be up to?

OK, I GIVE UP! It’s March, we have had decent snow amounts all winter, so why are we now getting slammed with snow storm after snow storm? Last week we had two different snow storms that gave us well over a foot of snow between them. Tuesday night we started out with freezing rain that turned into an ice storm that turned into 4+ inches of snow and another snow day for the kids from school. Then this morning I’m seeing on the news that we’re once again in the path of another significant snow storm, this time they are calling for anywhere from 5 to 9 inches of snow, depending on which weather man you listen to. BUT, if the path of the storm forges North just a little, my area could possibly get as much as another foot of snow!

Honestly people, I’m SICK of snow, I’m SICK of ice and I’m REALLY SICK of cold weather! Yes, I know that I have the option of moving somewhere that the weather is not cold like it is here, but my husband has a good job and we really can’t take the risk of moving somewhere and him not being able to find comprable employment. On top of that, my oldest child is in high school and we really don’t want to change his school right now, we want him to be able to finish out high school where he’s at!

I just, well, I’m just really frustrated with the weather this winter! I’m so ready for spring to be here and I’m also ready to stop being cold all the time! Maybe I should think about hibernating the rest of this carppy cold weather away…LOL!

YAY!! It’s Friday!!!!!! I am so ready for the weekend and being able to sleep in, I am so totally exhausted from several near sleepless nights this week, including another last night! I need to learn to deal with being here alone with the kids over night. I know that it’s more that I just don’t know the noises from the house in the night than anything. Last night, after hubby left to go back into work, we were having a little bit of wind, nothing major, but enough that it kept setting the motion flood lights off out front. Every time the dogs seen the lights go off they would go crazy barking, I finally ended up having to close the curtains on the front window before they finally shut up….LOL!

The kids went to bed good for a change, but I simply wasn’t tired, so I stayed up and played for a while. I think the motion lights going off out front kind of spooked me because I kept hearing noises, so I went through the house and pulled every curtain and blind closed that I could and make sure all the windows and doors were locked as well. When I finally went to bed, I laid there and kept hearing this noise that was freaking me out! It sounded like something scratching on my bedroom window, but that’s not possible because there are no trees or anything near my windows. I laid there looking out in the hall watching for a shadow thinking someone had managed to get into the house. I finally worked up the guts to try and find out what the noises I was hearing was, turns out it was my sons pet rabbit……LOL! I finally fell asleep about 1:30 AM only to find out that my hubby had reset the alarm clock when it went off at 4:30. I was SOOOOOO mad! I turned it off and laid back down, just for a second ya know…LOL! Only to wake up about half an hour later to someone knocking on the front door. I was so totally out of it that I opened the door without even looking out to see who was there. Good thing it was my hubby…LOL! Somehow he didn’t have a house key on his key ring.

So, it’s 7:30, the kids are gone to school, the hubby is sleeping and I’m tempted to do the same…LOL! But before I do that, I wanted to post today’s song, it’s from my all time favorite Country Duo, Montgomery Gentry.

Merry Christmas from the Family

Good morning everyone!  TGIF!  The days are getting colder and going faster which means Christmas will be here before we know it!

This time of year is sometimes difficult for me.  Twenty-eight years ago next month I lost my father to cancer.  Although it’s been a very long time, it is still sometimes difficult to think about the fact that I will never see his face or hear his voice and that he never got the chance to see any of his grandchildren.

I received a phone call from my sister a little while ago.  She wanted to let me know that our brothers wifes brother was rushed to the hospital and that things don’t look very good.  This is a young man that is just a year younger than I am, but has had a VERY hard life!  At the age of 20 his older brother and best friend committed suicide, and he never really recovered from it.  He has spent the last 20 years battling drug and alcohol problems and has spent most of that time homeless and living on the street.  He was a brilliant young man who had a heck of a future before him before losing his brother.

Because of the life that he lived, it was very rare that family members would see him, and when they did it usually wasn’t a very pleasant experience.  His mother and step father banned him from their home because of several incidents where he stole from them to support his habits.  But through it all, his sister (my brothers wife) never turned her back on him.  She would go to him any time he called and help him as he would allow her to.  She has been by his side since she found out he was admitted to the hospital and is having a very difficult time with the thought that she could very well lose him.  From what I understand, she feels that somehow she should have been able to help him and prevent him from living such a difficult life.

I hope to be able to go and visit him in the hospital later tonight.  I haven’t seen him in many years and would like the chance to see him again in case the doctors are correct in their diagnosis that he doesn’t have much time left on this earth.

My message to you, my readers, is this.  Sometimes the people that we love don’t make the best choices for their lives, and sometimes it is necessary to distance ourselves from the people we love the most.  Even if we have to distance ourselves from someone we love, it doesn’t mean we have to stop loving them and caring about them.  It just means that we have to give them a little bit of tough love in the hope that it will help them realize how much the choices they make are affecting their lives and ours.  Don’t give up on someone you love, keep them in your thoughts and prayers and let them know that although you may not love the choices that they are making for their life, you do still love them as a person.  I think this young man has spent most of his adult life feeling unloved and unwanted because of the bad choices that he has made.

Anyway, I need to get ready for work.  Thank you for listening!  Make sure you take the time to let the people you love and care about know how much they mean to you!

First, I guess I should give you an update as to how day one went. My “normal” smoking habit is any where from one to two packs per day, depending on how busy I am, how stressed I am and many other factors. Yesterday I ended up smoking a total of six cigarettes. Granted, that’s not quitting 100%, but it’s much better than even a full pack!

Today, so far, I have smoked one cigarette! What is amazing about that is that it’s been a VERY stressful morning! My daughter has Michigan - Ohio day at school today in honor of the big Michigan - Ohio State football game that’s happening tomorrow. So she decided to paint half her face blue and the other half yellow, along with wearing Michigan themed clothing. As a matter of fact, here’s a picture I snapped of her this morning:

My son had one of his “can’t wake up” mornings.  I’m not sure if he stayed up late watching TV or what, but getting him up and moving this morning was a nightmare!  And for the second day in a row his friggin bus was 20 minutes early this morning!  This time, even though I yelled for the driver to hold on a minute, she didn’t and he ended up missing the bus.  I got on the phone with the bus garage screaming that this is CRAP and was given the lame azz excuse that his normal driver is on vacation this week so they’re splitting the route up between 2 drivers so that’s why the bus is so early.  I asked the dispatcher why it wasn’t possible to let the students and parents know that this was going to happen because for God’s sake, it’s hard enough to get a teenager up and around in the morning, but expecting them to be ready 20 minutes early with no warning is almost humanly impossible.  She apologized and said that his normal driver “should” be back on the route Monday.  I told her that for her sake, if the bus comes 20 minutes early again and I need an extra minute or two to get my son out to the bus, the driver had better wait or all hell would break loose!  That’s just CRAP!

On top of that, I some how managed to run out of creamer for my coffee without realizing it, so I had to use milk for creamer this morning.  Can you say BARF????  LOL  But, all is OK now, when hubby took our son to school he stopped at the store on the way home and picked up some creamer