CAUTION: Woman In Progress

A couple of months ago, my neighbor on the south side of my property allowed his grandson to live in a camper on his property. While the neighbor's trailor sits way back and out of site from my property, the grandson's camper is practically on the property line. Which isn't the problem. The problem, my friends, is that the grandson brought his dog with him. For the first several weeks, he kept the dog chained outside the camper and the dog would bark at me and Libs every time we went out. I'm not a huge proponent of keeping dogs chained up outside but it did, at least, keep the dog away from me and Libs and out of the road. A couple of weeks ago, however, the dog broke the chain and has run loose every since. The problem with THAT, my friends is that now Libby and I can't step outside without him racing over and getting all up in our business. While he's not overly aggressive, he also is not submissive, either and I fear one wrong move from Libby would have him ...

So, I met up with some friends for drinks tonight. I had to work a few hours today so I hung around town long enough to catch them when they got out of the Fifty Shades sequel. I had no interest in seeing the movie but I did want a mudslide and conversation. So we met up at Applebee's and as the waitress brings us our mudslides, my friends go around the table talking about how they don't drink very often and a couple of them said they hadn't had a drink since the last time we met up for mudslides last summer. I just sat there and sucked on my straw because I've had three coffee martinis this week and Bailey's in my coffee on the nights I didn't have a martini. Hell, I had Bailey's in my coffee just this morning! So apparently, I'm the lush in my group of friends. Lord, nobody tell my mama!

So, I realize that this is a terrible angle for a photo but I was merely documenting what a pain in the booty this girl can be. haha   "What? Stop bothering me, Woman. I'm busy."   So, the other night, I was sitting at my desk going through the mail. I'd been doing little busy stuff like that ever since I got home from work instead of, you know, worshiping the Devil Pup like a good mama. So as I'm sitting there, Libby starts sniffing around, barking, and pawing at the craft cart that lives along the entry wall near my desk. I rarely ever use the craft cart anymore because I rarely do crafts anymore so the thing has not been moved in AGES.  But she's over there trying to get at something and my first thought was that some sort of critter had gotten into the house and was hiding under the craft cart. I've had birds and lizards get into the house before so it's not outside the realm of possibility. I was just praying that it wasn't a mouse....

One funny thing about what I'm doing to improve my quality of life is, I haven't told a SOUL in my family or small circle of face to face friends about any of it. Obviously, they've noticed the salads at lunch and I've taken a mild teasing about it but I haven't mentioned any of it to my family. Partly because I know they never take anything I say seriously, and partly because if I fail, they never have to know. And also, when I do indulge in lattes or Boston Cream Honeybuns, I don't have to hear a lecture or have them ask, "I thought you were on a diet." Because I don't need that negativity in my life. Likewise, I haven't mentioned my detox from FB or my goal to decrease daily use of it overall. Just don't need the hassle. And I CERTAINLY do not under any circumstances discuss my mental health because the jokes and/or the competition starts and y'all...that is just not on my list of things I want to put up with. Y'all who read he...

I made it an entire week without reading Facebook! Cue the confetti. haha I admit, that I did go on there Thursday to post a Happy Birthday note for Sis1 who turned 44 but I was good and didn't stick around to read anything. I finally checked my newsfeed late Sunday evening and scrolled through for a little bit before putting it away again. I think the strongest pull of it has diminished and I am trying to teach myself to take it in small doses. Leave nothing but joy there (mostly Libby pics) and do my best not to get sucked in by things that don't BRING joy. I may need another week of detox, though. I was odd how much more energy I seemed to have when I wasn't tethered to FB. How much less depressed I was. Less angry. I was able to keep up with cute puppy pics on Instagram but by and far, Instagram is a much happier place to be. Lots of food pics from food bloggers. Home décor pics from shelter blogs. Lots of adorable dog pics from adoring dog owners. Much less political. ...

Warning. Imma 'bout to talk about Facebook. If the topic of Facebook makes your head explode, stop reading now. BTW, this is meant to be a fun post on my experience so no judgment about FB or me is necessary or desired. Now. On with the post. Y'all. I'm on day two of a Facebook detox. The withdrawals aren't as bad as I thought. The first evening when I made the split second decision to detox I found myself reaching for my phone more out of habit and boredom than anything and since then I've been fairly good at not even looking at the Facebook icon on my phone. I still check Instagram a couple of times a day but it is VERY different than Facebook. Facebook is a major time-suck. And the past several months on FB have been unnecessarily stressful. I would spend all that time on a forum that used to be really fun and a fun way to stay in touch with friends and family and then come away angry, disappointed and stressed. Like, physically ill, at times. And there are now...

That one time Snapchat made me  think I was the heroine in an old black and white TCM film. :-D Jana Eyer. Casajana Stormy Jana PS: Those are not my eyebrows and also not my lips. At least now I know what I'd look like if I had actual eyebrows instead of these light little dashes above my eyes. haha

This ended up going on our Christmas card along with our selfie. Efan in his Snoopy pj's waiting on us to get the goody making train going. Yes, he is sitting on the table. He's a rebel like that. haha They legit used two bottles of sprinkles on the chocolate covered pretzels. Well, I think they also ate sprinkles by the handful, too. The cutest pair of cousins I ever did see. It was Christmas Eve Eve before I got all the presents wrapped and Libby was so over it all. But I managed to get her to pose with them anyway. Peanut Butter Truffle aka Buckeye. That was my Christmas Eve breakfast. Emmy was able to come a couple of days BEFORE Christmas this year which meant she got to participate in Christmas Eve Brunch. Usually it's Christmas Eve Breakfast but she insisted on going hunting that morning which is why she slept all the way to town and why it was brunch instead of breakfast. She did not get a deer the entire time she was here, much to he...