Hair And I Don't Mean The Show

This morning a friend of mine burnt herself with her straightening iron. I saw the burn and asked her what happened, she does have lovely long straight hair. My daughter and granddaughter use a straightening iron every morning.
This is going somewhere trust me. I've decided I'm totally weird. I spend more time on my dogs hair than I do mine. Granted I don't brush his hair every day but when I do it takes longer than my hair. And that's what I do to my hair, people don't shriek and run when they see me either. I know I'm not pretty but I'm interesting looking and have been told I have beautiful hair. Yeah if you like a horses tail. But I just wash it, condition it, put a little mouse on it and brush it. Takes maybe a minute in the morning to brush and spray a bit and if it's messed up a few seconds when I get to work, pin it up if it's hot. End of story. Same way with makeup, if I don't get results I don't do it.
The dog is a bichon, they take more grooming time than some dogs but the results are well worth it. He's a little fluffball. He hates being brushed and likes to go outside with me so he's shorter in the summer but a bichon frise is one of those dogs that look like a q tip with black eyes.
I don't think I'm special because of this, I think I'm lazy and get results with little action so I don't bother. But I'm just wondering what it says about me that I work with the public and spend more time on my dogs appearance than I do mine?
OK, the dog is spoiled and I am nuts about him but he's cute?

Blogging Help Site, SEO, Image Search

OK, here's the link.
I'm still reading it but have lots of work to do evidently. SEO, and blogging ethics are about as far as I've gotten. This is a great how to site, how to use Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, what to really do to get your site noticed, besides writing good content of course. I could go on but I'm reading.
Now I need to go to enhanced image search on webmaster tools. Go to the link and you will find out all about it.
Happy SUNDAY!! Grandkids are here, I'll have a post on my animals blog later.

Thanks to My Husband or My Lawn and Obsession

This is my husbands idea of a lawnmower, it's a finishing mower from PA. I argued against him buying it but now I'm glad he did since we mow acres and acres. It's his fault too no matter what he says. But it's our hobby together. We need to plant grass seed and it's been very cool so far this year.
He also has an Allis Chalmers 200, I can see it out the window, that's how I know what it is.
This is the view from the front door, this was 2004.
This is the front sidewalk in 2004.
I get obsessive about planting, mowing and watering, can you tell from the elephant ears? We didn't use the front door much.
This is my 2nd yard pond before I got it all finished, I need to work on it again. This was 2004. The labrador ate the pump and most of the tubing. He also did away with the ornamental frog.
This was May of last year.

And this gives you some sense of the size of the lawn. This was taken last May 3rd. The biggest compliment I ever got on my lawn was when my 4 year old grandson woke up @ a beautifully landscaped park in Kansas City once and asked if they were @ Grandma's house? He is a good boy. Yes I'm crazy when I get to planting things outside. The splotches up by the house in the last picture is a 50 ft wide circular garden with a fountain in the middle, has peonies and mimosa trees @ each corner, four o clocks @ the entrances, iris and wildflowers, some roses, coleus in the shady parts,wildflowers in the sunny parts, tried to start boxwood @ edges. Used to have spotlights on the fountain @ night, my daughter said it was a bit much, she helped me pick out the design, I think I need a pagoda somewhere don't you? I told my cousin (who swears she has a brown thumb) what I was doing making a huge circular garden and she said she guessed it was OK as long as I didn't like sacrifice anyone in the middle? I didn't say it was a Druid garden did I??? Some days I'm tempted to dig it all up and plant it by the house like a normal person but then I go out and see all the neat things coming up and all the work I have put into it and ...........

Back outside to finish, I'm riding the regular lawnmower, he's doing the tractor thing.

Blogging Tips

Ok, here's the link to 25 tips to better blogging.

Pretty informative, I'm on twitter, thinking about facebook, no problemo getting web space, I free lance for a web design company. The rest of the tips are worth thinking about. Go with what you feel comfortable with, there is no sure formula for blogging success other than good content, great pictures but other things can make it happen faster.

If you look @ my other blog Animals That Give Pause it has quite a bit more traffic than this one. Why? I wrote more regularly, I commented more on blogs with animals on them, I was on an animal forum, I included more pictures, but the one thing I think that actually brought so much traffic? A lucky break and keywords! That's it. So keep up whatever you are blogging on, fine tune it, and like the movie says, "they will come".

So what is everyone elses opinion?

Oh WOW A Really Good Blog, I Mean It

Ok, it's The One Minute Writer, it was a blog of note.
For all of you who think you don't have time to blog or lack inspiration, read it. Pretty Cool huh, I'm dating myself again re the Pretty Cool huh.
In other news, dog still hasn't gotten a bath, need to take trash out, husband home tomorrow and hopefully we will get to meet our almost 2 week old granddaughter, Zowie Jean. I have loaded up on a mobile and various sleepers, t shirts and a package of almost newborn diapers. Almost newborn you say? She was almost 7 lb, not big that way but 21 inches long and I'm sure she weighs 8 lb by now. Pictures to follow of course.

I Joined Twitter Thus I Tweet

CNN said this may be the beginning of the end or the beginning of something big for Twitter? Link to CNN story on Twitter here.

I joined yesterday, the day Aston Kutcher got 1 million tweets and Oprah tweeted for the first time so it's a momentous day all around. I just think it's sort of weird but probably more people joined yesterday than any time before. I'm still a baby tweeter, trying to figure it all out.

Right now I'm following mostly animal tweets and self improvement, a few blogging or twitter gurus, my id is TCblogger. I always thought my grandkids would be impressed with things like this but they never are. (they weren't with the sports car grandma used to drive, they really worried when I traded in one of grandpas trucks for a more sedate cts, it was just grandmas car, they hardly believe I can drive a semi, I do prove useful for computer problems though, they just wish I would bake more?)

I Think I Forgot How to Clean House?

Ok, I'm on Twitter first of all, my name is TCblogger. So far I've found my cousin and my niece and am following some lady from Canada who is a life coach? We will see how that goes?

I have a job, a 40 hour a week job, I might not HAVE to work now that my husbands business is doing better but every little bit helps and he has the impression that I like my job. OK, I have stories to tell him when I come home but I find myself counting the hours and minutes till I can leave, the days till my next day off and so forth. Since I've had this job housework has been kept to a minimum. Since there are only two of us and two dogs here in the house it doesn't get very dirty. BUT I know what a CLEAN house looks like. I just don't remember how to get there.

I ran my husbands business for like 3 years, had a lady come in and clean house one day a week and then I did yard work, laundry, extra cleaning, and cooking, kept me busy. Then we lived in a 35 ft camper and then a 38 ft camper for a couple years while in MS and FL cleaning up after hurricanes which I could just about clean with q tips in a day. Then I did ebay and stayed @ home and cleaned when it needed it. Then ebay dried up and I got a real job, I've worked outside the home many times before and @ jobs that required longer hours but now I just come home and plop down and read, blog, take a bath, put a few clothes in the washer, make sure the animals are fed and go to bed if husband isn't home. So I guess I will have to slow down on the reading and the blogging if I want a clean house?

What caused this sudden interest in cleaning house? My daughter has a "friend" she is bringing home, daughter is 33 (I really was a child bride) and they are coming for mothers day. He has a mother but lives much closer to her than my daughter lives to hers. I just can't see the 2 TVs sitting in the family room, my husbands desk full of paperwork, the small refrigerator that is supposed to go somewhere that has had it's home on the bench by the door, or any of the outside junk by the back door (shovel, battered imitation wrought iron table with dead plants on it, garbage can, storage box for gardening stuff, cat shelf, ancient bar b que grill) impressing my daughters "friend"? Much less the dog needs brushed, his nails clipped and I have to lay out clothes for tomorrow and get to bed! We won't even talk about the second guest room which is full of stuff from the camper we moved out of or the extra room off the kitchen which is supposed to be a sewing room, right now it's called the library, that doesn't mean the books are on shelves, it does mean the jeans that need thrown away or patched are in there and all my extra baskets, movies without a home, and the dog and cat food sits right inside the door. Glorified messy closet. Anyway here's pictures of my living room,

I'm proud of it, there are muddy cat paws prints on the windows though in the dining room, egads!!! Does anyone have any suggestions? Just get up and do it? I think it's the energy thing that has me stalled out?

BTW my panic may be caused by unrealistic expectations, I just don't seem to be able to find the dividing line between clean and dirty, a happy medium. I used to clean my Venetian Blinds weekly when I was very newly married, like WASH them. I used to bleach my white painted kitchen cabinets and kitchen linoleum weekly not too long ago, I realize I went too far then, I just want to get some of that ability back? Now sometimes I don't run the dishwasher all the way through weekly? Just rinse till I get a full load. The guest room closet has things in it from about 4 people who don't live here but store their stuff here and part of it is on the floor, pardon me my grandkids extra clothes are in there too..... Help!!

Health Insurance

Ok, I have this job. I'm doing OK, well more than OK, sometimes I don't feel I fit in quite right but as long as I can get like 5 people to laugh uproariously I really don't care if I fit in. Or if I actually do some good.

BUT I have health insurance through an employer for the FIRST time in my 52 year life!!! WHOOOO HOOOOO, I still have to pay for it (a small amount which is a big amount of my paycheck?) and stay full time but hey, I really don't care and it's for my husband too who is shall we say closer to 60 than I am (and I have dental too) We never get sick (well there were a couple bad years in there) but have NOT had health insurance more than we have had it.

Just a day to celebrate. BTW the picture came from The Pet Care Company link here, thought I'd say that, I know it has nothing to do with health insurance except for pets but I liked it.

My Guilty Life

The above picture is of my parents the winter before they got married I believe, they were in their mid twenties. I actually do look like both of them but more like my father. Of course I never knew them like this or even remotely, when I came into the world they were 18 years older and MUCH heavier. They had one child, my brother and thought they were through because my mother couldn't eat while pregnant and almost died. I was a mistake, an afterthought, a whoops if you will.

I couldn't go to sleep easily last night, no particular reason but this thought came to me then. My mother watched my kids when I was working and going to college for about 2 years off and on, not every day because sometimes my husband did and I only had night classes the last 3 months of college. She would watch them sometimes after that but I stayed @ home mostly until they went to school and then I started working outside the home again. I always felt guilty about that and nothing really against my mother (I've come to terms with all of it I think) but she encouraged the guilt. Reminded me of all she had done etc. etc. Not only watching my daughters but other things she thought I should feel badly about.

I had a rather unique 20s and 30s, I thought I sort of paid my parents back even though I had a house partly rent free and the loan of a vehicle when I needed one, as long as the trip was OK with them. LOL. I cleaned their house every Friday, washed and set my mothers hair every Friday afternoon, they were getting older and I took them to doctors appointments (I didn't work for awhile because of too many doctors appointments), went over paperwork, helped them grow the gardens they were so intent on growing, cleaned the basement when it flooded which was sometimes weekly (it still gets damp and we live on top of a hill?)and chauffeured my mother around a great deal of the time, and mowed the lawn and cooked quite a few BIG family dinners @ their house, I'm not complaining, we had a good life. We also cut 21 cords of wood per winter for two houses and a shop. My dad, my ex husband, the kids when they were older and I did the wood, mom went to the woods once and lost the pin to the tractor hitch and never went back, probably because we reminded her of it and she didn't like the outdoors. My dad became crippled because of a botched knee operation, he figured out the cartilage in his knee was gone when he JUMPED down off of a big tractor @ the age of 72. All that is neither here nor there. I think I paid my ex husband back for all the work too when I let him stay on my parents farm after the divorce and I left!! So he moves his girlfriend in and she throws away 1000's of $ worth of antiques (old spice, medicine and oil containers are worth something?) but.........

So I'm thinking about the guilt I felt in specific for my mother watching the kids, they weren't bad kids but they would get into mischief. Shall we say adventuresome? That's a good word. Then I realized my husband is only a few years younger now than my mother was when she watched the kids. He could watch a handful of them with one hand tied behind his back and watch football and take a nap to boot, he'd probably have them cooking and getting his tea too but that's not the point. He wouldn't make anyone feel guilty about it. We practically raised my second oldest step grandson for the first two years of his life, he started calling about 5 people mama. But he had a single mama (divorced) and needed us and Tate was soooo cut and he was ours no questions asked. BTW one of the last memories of my mother I have is her holding Tate, she was in a wheelchair in the nursing home and he was so quiet and good on her lap. I watched my grandkids when they came along, I never really thought about it till last night but since there are 4 of them and the oldest is 14 I'm sure I've put in much much more time than my mother did. I didn't work or I worked out of a home office or took them with me when I worked for my husband, no problems, and I wasn't going to be the continual babysitter grandma. I don't want my daughter to feel any guilt and she shouldn't, I did what I could and should have done more probably but she had a sister to help too. Now I feel guilt if I can't do things for them because I'm working. I must say when the grandkids are here you can hardly call it watching, other than feeding them and diapers when they needed them and a lap to cuddle in they didn't require much entertainment, they were GOOD kids, and that isn't just grandma talking.

So why all my guilt? I'm 51 years old and have to look @ everything from a new perspective now, a little guilt is good, I put clothes in the washer this morning and stripped the sheets from the bed because I felt I must do something even though I have a glorious 2 days off. I have to go now, need to make time because I just realized my grandchildren don't have most of their mothers children's books or mine, I have to go hunt them down in the old house if I can so I can take them over when I go to Easter dinner over there. I'm not contributing to the dinner, guilt again. So the problem wasn't my mother wanting me to feel sorry for her, it's my conditioned guilt. I know this isn't a great psychological light bulb but most cognitive theories don't seem to apply to your life until it just hits you one day, there is no need for these bad feelings, they are not good for you or the people around you.

I hope everyone has a HAPPY EASTER and maybe a little time for self examination. What are you carrying around that is a needless burden? Comments anyone?

Burrito Diet?

Here's the link to the diet.

And here's a link to a news article about it?

This guy has come up with something, although burritos are NOT the most low calorie food it all makes sense. Maybe it's because I've ate soft shelled taco's for several days but it seems to be an excellent idea. 3 burritos a day plus light snacks and protein shakes? Works for me. BTW he didn't pay me for this, I just ran across it on google.

I do have a history of dieting but you wouldn't know it since I just ate a large sugar cookie, I scraped the icing off though. Both of my parents were overweight, Mom close to 280 @ times, my dad was over 300 but quite a bit of that was muscle. I weighed like 105 or 110 for most of my life, got back down there a couple times, hit 170 and now I'm closer to 140, maybe 130, haven't checked lately. My husband also lost like 20 lb in 2 months while eating 4-5 times a day, the secret? Soup, salad, sandwiches, fresh veggies, we don't avoid the sugar and white flour like we should anymore but I rarely eat anything fried and a doughnut is a treat. And I'm on my feet 8 hours a day working retail. BUT this burrito diet sounds like it's worth looking into. Also him not liking all the hidden sugar in food wins him my vote. I never drink pop or soda or whatever part of the country your from cola unless it has alcohol in it. Think about it, pop is chemicals? I've had two severe infections in my life, partially brought on by stress. Other than that I'm healthy as a horse. I don't drink pop. Every other member of my immediate family has had some health concerns before they were 45 but not me. OK my nephew isn't 45 but we won't talk about him, he eats pizza, hamburgers, and froot loops. I'm off my soap box now. OK? Oh and I drink coffee by the gallon with half and half in it, yum yum good but NO SODA!!!

So if you are looking for a new diet check out this burrito diet.