CAUTION: Woman In Progress

Not. Sort of. I did a vewy bad ting yesterday. I went to BK for lunch. *sigh* It was with the very best of intentions, though. I swear! One of my pals was having a HORRIBLE, AWFUL day--there were tears involved! So another friend, my mom and I whisked her away from the evil-dooers driving her batty and went for a relaxing, soul-soothing burger. She did actually perk up after that so I can't feel TOO badly for the double cheeseburger, medium fries (I ordered small but Mama wanted to trade!) and sweet tea. If it makes a friend feel better, it's just a sacrifice I have to make. :-) Needless to say, supper was a cheese stick and three crackers. I was WAY over my calorie limit. Well, at least 200 calories over the 1500 I'm allowed. *sigh* But after the burger, I wasn't all that hungry by supper anyway. And I do love those sharp cheddar sticks Sergento's puts out. Yum. :-) I've been such a slug this week. Seriously. My butt has almost fused to the sofa, I'm such a...

My poor BIL got sent out over a week ago (maybe two weeks. I can't remember) to do a couple of jobs (aerial photos from a helicopter for a survey company). First they had snow in Arkansas and couldn't do the photos so they moved on to the job in Kentucky. Now they're snowed in there. lol Here's what he had to say about Lexington: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. NOT! Its been snowing so hard that its almost like rain. Early this morning some of the flakes were well over 2 inches in diameter. We have power at the hotel, but its out sporadically all over town. Tree limbs are scattered everywhere, worse than you would normally see after a major storm with high winds. The fire department has been getting a work-out for the last two days. We hear the sirens and watch the trucks go by the hotel at least every three or four hours. Probably nothing compaired to what some of you further north experience all the time in winter, but BIL's a southern boy...and I don't...

I used to adore this man. I've watched Signs, The Village, Ladder 49 and Walk the Line more times than I care to admit just to see him, hear his voice. So what the heck happened to my Joaquin? It's not fair. I has an unhappy. In case you haven't recognized him, that's Joaquin Phoenix. Yep. Mr. Hottie himself doing his impersonation of a homeless man. I guess I'll just hafta focus all my drooling on Zachary Levi (aka Chuck) now.

The weekend went great--right up until the end. Had to have some drama somewhere, right? Or what's the point in family getting together? ;-) So Friday night the sis's and I went to supper together. And immediately ran into one of Sis2's aunt-in-laws. Got seated at the table right across from her, actually. Yay. (or not) Granted the aunts aren't as bad as the MIL but still...can't go ONE NIGHT without seeing SOMEONE we didn't want to see. lol But supper was fun. I ate all my steak and most of my garlic mashed taters. Didn't get the frou frou girly drink I wanted because their machine was broken. Color me disappointed. :-( But I hafta say this--My sisters don't listen to me. They apparently think that since I'm single I don't have a clue about what it's like to have problem. And I can't possibly have any wisdom to offer. :-P~~ Okay, it happened like this...Sis2 and Goofus are taking this Bible based class on money management. Sis2 was shar...

Ugh! Until I get the rest of these extra pounds off, I guess I'm gonna hafta give up casual Fridays. lol These jeans are driving me nuts. And they aren't even really all that tight. I think my gut is just protesting the restriction of jeans. Must remember to change into slacks before I go out tonight. I really want to be able to enjoy that steak! hehehe The sis's and I are going out to eat to celebrate Sis1's 35th b-day. Her b-day isn't actually until Monday but she gets a weekend long celebration. Mama's cooking tomorrow for her. Actually Mama AND Daddy. Daddy's smoking a Boston Butt. *swoon* It's like butta baybee. This'll be the first birthday in a year or more that we've gotten to go out to celebrate for. Last Jan. we were throwing the g-parent's 50th Anniversary party so Sis1 hardly knew she HAD a b-day. And for mine and Sis2's last birthday's Sis1 didn't come home. I think I may have gone for Chinese with Sis2 and BIL but ...

Lyssa and the Devil Pup check things out.

So apparently, my parents are going through what I think of as a "Job Phase." (As in the book of Job.) Daddy's unemployed, Mama's having health issues and now her car is back in the shop, possibly unsaveable. It's been a rough few months for them and I'm at a complete and utter loss as to how to help them. I don't know why I feel like it's my job to save them, I just do. I feel like there should be SOMETHING. Mama is borrowing my car for the time being--which I guess is a small something. Not nearly what I wish I could do to help out. But it's something. Anyway, her car problem was the big drama of the weekend. It had been making a weird whiny noise for the past couple of days. When we got in the car Friday afternoon it didn't want to change gears. It wouldn't go beyond second. Well, we ran a couple of errands and decided to stop by the shop on the way back to my apartment to see if perhaps she was low on transmission fluid. She'd had a...

I don't write my blogs in quite the same manner that I used to. It's weird, too, 'cause I don't really consider myself to have changed all that much in the past three years. I suppose I have, I just didn't realize it until I started a project that entailed printing out all my past blog entries. In doing so, I've sort of skimmed through some of them from when I first started this blog. I was a little surprised to see that my "voice" has changed a lot on here since then. For one, I finally started remembering to use spell check. Something, I'm sad to say, I didn't do a lot of back in the day. And boy, can you tell it! My spelling is atrocious! LOL I even have a post here somewhere that details that fact but still...if a publisher were to ever read this blog they'd never even THINK of signing me to a book contract. hehehe For another thing my LIFE has changed a lot in three years. I've been injured, gave a dog away, got a new dog, moved ho...

As I've mentioned often enough over the past month or so (two months maybe?) it's rained buckets for weeks at a time. Last week was all about flooding rivers, etc. Well, remember the lake I used to live on? It built up a mighty bit of water, too. My mother had been telling me how high the water had gotten--it flooded some of the campgrounds and at least one of the piers was under water. Well, Sunday morning on my way out to the folk's house, I stopped and took some pics. :-) Wish it hadn't been so overcast that day. All the pics look a little dull. But it was cold and threatening rain--as usual. The larger pier is just about under water. A few more days rain and I think it would have been. For comparison's sake, here's a shot (different angle) of the same pier, taken in Nov. 2007. The ducks were out in full force, too. They didn't seem to care at all that I was standing in the middle of them, either. They just honked at me and kept doing what they were doing...

To lose this extra weight. My favorite pair of slacks are still tight and it's making me want to cry. *sigh* Funny how easy it is to pack the pounds ON but how seemingly impossible it is to get them OFF. I know, slow and steady wins the race. But sheesh! I want to be able to wear my fave slacks and not have a permanent imprint of the fastener on my belly. lol In other news, sometimes I'm too southern. *sigh* It's like FREEZING here (well, to me, it's freezing. To others elsewhere it's a veritable heatwave. lol) and guess who forgot to pull out her gloves and scarf this morning? Yep. AND I pulled my hair up in a ponytail this morning, like a ditz. Needless to say my ears and neck were quite cold on the walk to the building, as were my hands and my nose. At least I remembered to grab my coat, right? hehehehe I think I'd like to ship my student assistants off to military school. They're a bunch of slackers. Second week of school and they're already calling ...

That's my new name. hehehe *sigh* Did I fail to mention who I saw at the funeral yesterday? I probably did. Well, several people from my childhood were in attendance. People with whom I'd attended church with all the years I was growing up--back when this particular preacher was our pastor. And well...my childhood crush, R, was there. (The one I cyberstalked on MySpace recently. hehehe) I actually followed him out afterwards though I didn't realize it was him until we were out of the building and he'd gone one way and I the other. I didn't actually SEE him until I was standing outside with the folks and Sis2. I happened to glance over my shoulder and saw him. He was shaking hands with someone else we'd known back then. I couldn't help but stare. The boy still looks gooooood. When he looked up and glanced at me, like a dork, I spun around away from him as though he'd caught me peeping through his window or something. *groan* Yup. Ima Dork. That's my...

The weekend was mostly good. I managed to control myself and only ate out at breakfast both Sat. and Sun.. I'm a breakfast ho, what can I say? lol But I stayed under budget while grocery shopping so kuddos to me. I officially have nothing to eat but I'm under budget, dangit! hehehe Spent most of Saturday morning cleaning the house. Got the kitchen sparkling--even the table is completely cleared of all the junk that has resided there for the past however long. Got the carpet vacuumed, the DP's toys picked up, linens changed on the bed and all the laundry done. By the time I sat down at 1:00, I was exhausted. My neighbor and her daughter came by selling girl scout cookies. I've determined that Girl Scouts are evil. LOL I bought a couple of boxes to help her out. Am determined that I SHALL NOT eat them all in one night. Fortunately I have until mid-February to convince myself that I'm not full of crap. hehehe Sunday after church, Mama and I went to my g-parents' ho...

The Devil Pup sleeps with my foot.

This first week back has been a pain in the neck. Seriously. My neck and shoulders are killin' me. And I've got so much I need to be doing that I'm seriously overwhelmed. Don't know where to start. Yesterday, at least, was easy to decide. Had to do some gen. research for a patron. Waiting to hear back from her on that now, though, so can't do much more with that. The rest of it...I can seriously feel my crazy full book truck glaring holes in my back. A truck load of files that needs copying and re-filing. Ugh! And then there's the stack of periodicals I've been shifting around all week that needs checking in. Not to mention the closet full of newspapers that needs marked for clipping. I can hydz unner desk nao? The first week back is always the worst, though. Getting back into the drudgery of work, the earlier mornings, the longer days of mind-numbingness. The back killing sitting. Next week'll be better, right? Err, right??

So I've been back in the land of the interwebs for a couple of days now. I love ya'll, but I wish I were still on vacation. lol I had a great two weeks. I slept in, ate out, discovered and become addicted to McDonald's Cappuccinos (hazelnut and caramel are my faves) and indulged in my other addiction of Sonic's Java Chillers (mocha and hazelnut, fyi), scrapbooked, worked on crafts for gifts, shopped, watched television, napped, played with my girls--all in all, it was the best Christmas Vacation I've had in years. I made frames out of scrapbooking supplies and gave the gift of Jana and Libby. hehehe To make it even better, my duplex neighbors left the Saturday before Christmas and didn't come back until Jan. 2! Peace on My St and Good Will toward Men. hehehehe In fact, this being a college town, a LOT of the folks on my street were gone for a couple of weeks. It was glorious. The DP and I got SO. SPOILED. ;-) It was so peaceful and quiet. Bliss, I tell you. Blis...

And so it is 2009. So many things to reflect on from 2008. A year of changes behind me, a year of changes ahead of me. 2008 saw me moving from the home I first made for myself at the tender age of twenty-two. The home where independence lived for the first time in my sheltered life. It was a good (ish) home for most of the time I lived there. Not without it's problems, certainly, but it was the house freedom made. At least, that's what it was for me. But as happens often in our lives, a time comes to move on. No matter how comfortable a soul might be, when the bad outweighs the good, it's all you can do. And so I did. It was the biggest, the hardest and the most freeing decision I'd made in a looong time. Here I am seven months into my temporary holding place, praying for a new home in 2009. Possibilities are abundant and my faith is strong. God took me from what had become a personal hell and placed me in a new apartment with new experiences, new headaches and a cleare...

See ya'll next year!

I don't know whether to be depressed or high. LOL They're painting in the library this week. Right outside the department back door and most of second floor. First they were mudding the repaired drywall and now they're painting. And the fumes, they are a'rockin'. lol Meanwhile, outside it's still cold. Still raining. Still utterly depressing, muddy and all around yucky. My feet sink into the ground and make this awkward sucking sound each time I take the DP out to do her business. The ditches look more like creeks and the popcorn on my popcorn ceiling at home is starting to crumble off in soggy chunks. *sigh* Tomorrow is forecast for a slight reprieve before another bout of rain sets in for the weekend and most of next week. Looks like North East Mississippi is in for a WET Christmas. And not wet in any sense of anything fun. (in case all you gutter dwellers were wondering. hehehe)

This was actually taken when I babysat Tues. afternoon, but it's basically the same scene. Just a different outfit. LOL The little stinker would take my Tide pen and pretend to write in my book. Kept wanting to know why I wouldn't take the cap off of it. *shakes head* Something tells me she and I are going to have to have some serious talking when she gets old enough to understand how upset Aunt Jana would be were she to write in one of Aunt Jana's beloved romance novels. hehehe I joked with Goofus that what should get Lyssa for Christmas is a big back filled with junk. It seriously keeps her occupied for hours. Friday night I eventually had to put my bag on the table to get her to settle down and possibly go to sleep. Something about purses and bags just fascinates her. And of course we made a game out of her wearing her toboggan. We're trying to get her used to wearing one since it's been so cold (of and on). The stinker won't hardly keep one on her head. So I...

So I've kinda lapsed on the WR's in past weeks. Ya'll probably don't care much because honestly, it's not like anything I do is all that interesting anyway. lol But because it's good for ME to remind myself that I don't just sit on my butt all weekend, here's an attempt to get back to what used to be a great way for me to start my Mondays. So Friday Sis2 called me at work and asked me to babysit. I'm pretty sure that one of the biggest reasons they moved back here was for the free babysitting but you know I don't care. lol Alyssa and I spent a happy four hours together. She's such a joy. She emptied my purse out two or three times (one of her favorite activities). I have this giant purse that's normally full to capacity with junk. And she loves exploring all that junk. hehehe Then we ate supper (she ate all of her green beans, most of her taters and some of her apples but got distracted when she saw me eating vanilla wafers--of course she...