Go Saints :)

Well...I haven't been here(blog) for quite a while so I thought I would share New Orleans. I have been staying in New Orleans for two weeks now and I had forgotten how rottingly charming it is. I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder. Living in Mississippi only a few hours from La. I hear such horrid things about it especially since Katrina blew through. It is such a diverse dirty city with loads of beauty, quaintness and charm. I use to drive down all the time when I was young(about 22 years ago) and party in the French Quarter. Now that I have returned with mature eyes I see so much more than beer and skanky women! I revisited the French Quarter along with Downtown New Orleans this weekend and the buildings could be taken right out of a painting. The architecture structure of the French Quarter leaves me in awe. The ongoing shops and resturants filled with so many different cultures of people is amazing to be a part of. Each little building be it a bar, a hotel, a store of some sort, a hole in the wall or a resturant has it's quirks and old style structure with neat passages and turns you wouldn't expect. I love walking along further past the business part of the French Quarter and examining the houses all connected with there neat doorways and side gates with long secretive passage ways! I am in love....

<3 Vaseline!

My mom has been yackin on and off for a week about home made lotion! Apparently she heard it from my favorite Sis in-law but she didn't understand how to make it. I thought I would surprise my mother with a batch so I called up my Sis and got the scoop! It goes like this....

All of these items can be found at Family Dollar, very cheap to make!

It's suggested that you use :
Vaseline
Vitamin e cream
Johnson baby lotion

What I learned after researching this in my handy google is that you can use basically whatever lotion you want just keep the vaseline and vitamin e cream. Some people do not want to smell like a baby's butt! This is what I did...

I bought : (first kind of lotion)
2 small jars of vaseline (or petroleum jelly)
1 jar (pretty big) of Vitamin E cream
1 8.8 oz container of Mango body butter :P

seeing as I was making some for me and my mother I also bought : (2nd kind of lotion)
2 more small jars of vaseline
1 container of Vitamin E cream
1 large bottle of Aloe Vera lotion

First batch:
All I did was get a huge mixing bowl and scooped out the 2 jars of vaseline, the entire container of Vitamin E cream and the container of Mango Body Butter.
After getting it all in the bowl (vaseline was challenging) I used a hand held mixer (don't be scared, it comes clean in the diswasher!!) and mixed it all up.
That was the first try and it is my favorite actually....I call it my Mango Lotion :) It's very vaseliniiii and I love me some vaseline!

Then I tried the second batch but opted to not use all the vaseline and vitamin E cream this time around :

1 jar of vaseline
1/2 container of Vitamin E cream
entire bottle of aloe vera lotion

Again I mixed it all up with a mixer and POOF! Lotion!

The Aloe vera batch was a bit thinner than the Mango because I used less vaseline. It's whatever your preference is and you can play around with different lotions and scents. Some people use Coco butter with the vaseline and vitamin e cream. I also read people putting in drops of different oils for scents and added moisture.

If you have dry skin or your a tanner this is great! With the vaseline/vitamin e cream added it's so much better than just lotion alone.

Just experiment with your measurements and enjoy! I had a blast making it, the vaseline was gooey and fun! You can reuse the vaseline and vitamin e containers to house your new lotion or grab some tupperware! My mother was pleasantly surprised! I made it Saturday night and have been lubing up ever since!

Ok so I have mentioned before that I am the only female at work. On occasion (like all the time) I will leave on my hour lunch break and just grab something and find a nice place to park, eat in my car and then relax. Today I got Taco Bell because who doesn't love Taco Bell! I ate and as I ate I of course dripped Baja sauce all down the side of my face. I pulled down the rear view mirror, tilted it towards my face, wiped off my mouth and continued to eat. OK...BAD IDEA! Leaving a mirror pointed at the face of a almost 40 year old female! So as I ate...I starred. Then after I ate I starred. What is it with wrinkles? I don't have laugh lines cause I don't smile alot (I'm mean :P ) but WOW...somewhere between 38 and now I acquired some changes! I continued to analyze my face, then my hands and my feet and ended up snapping some pics! Anyone know how to get rid of those deep lines down under your eyes (bags?). My hands are wrinkly and so are my feet!!! Don't get my wrong...I'm not being emo, I like myself...I guess It's shocking to see how much your features can change even overnight! -sighs and crinkles up her nose-

So other than getting sleep which I haven't done in 16 years...how do you get rid of that deep line running down under your eyes?

Belize

I have 7 years to go! When my youngest turns 18 and get's out of high school, I'm leaving. I have thought about it since I was 19 years old. Yeah ok I should have gone then but then I may not have the two beautiful boys I have now. So I am being a parent first as always and then I will offer for either or both of them to come and I'm gone, gone to Belize. Will I come back? -giggles- hopefully not :)

Musca domestica!

Ahhhhh summertime in the South. I love the weather in the South even down to the unbearable heat but there are two things associated with this heat that drive me nuts!! Fleas and Flies! Fleas because I have dogs and it's a constant financial battle to keep them free of fleas but FLIES!! My youngest and his friends can't seem to understand "SHUT THE DOOR" when going in and out of the house. Wintertime no problem but when the heat comes the flies come with it. He, being Andy my youngest, left the door open yesterday for a minute until he couldn't stand my screams of horror any longer and when I walked into the living room I saw about six flies on the window! Mice I can handle....snakes I can handle, roaches...no way....fleas aren't on me just my Ellie, the love bugs all huddled in my car having wild sex as they fly around, I can handle but Flies? No no no no no! Unprepared as I always am (no fly swatter) I began to spray the window down with Clorox Cleanup! It worked but I was defeated as I walked into my bedroom to find two more on my bedroom window!

Facts about flies :
Flies have over 4,000 facets for sight in each eye. ( WOW)
Flies are attracted by movement more than color.
Flies have a smelling distance of over 750 yards.
A fly's feeding range is usually limited to two miles.
A single garbage can, if not emptied, can be the breeding ground for 30,000 flies.
During warm weather, a fly can produce a family generation in less than two weeks.

House Fly -
~The housefly, Musca domestica, is one of the most common of all insects.It is a worldwide pest in homes, barns, poultry houses, food-processing plants, recreation areas, etc.
~House fly eggs are laid in almost any type of warm organic material.Animal or poultry manure is an excellent breeding medium. Decaying vegetation such as grass clippings and garbage can also provide for optimum breeding conditions.
~Houseflies are strong fliers and can become widely distributed by flying, wind currents, vehicles and animals. Generally, though, flies are abundant in the immediate vicinity of their breeding site.
THE BEST WAY to get rid of flies is simple and fun.
Open a fruity alcoholic beverage like Smirnoff or mikes hard lemonade, drink half of it, and let the other half sit outside. Flies will find it irresistible as they die by the dozen. Last summer it filled to the top with dead flies.

OR :

Take an orange and "juice it" (just take out the middle) and fill it with salt. Place this
anywhere in your home that you want to get rid of flies. They disappear!
The oranges last for a couple of months, then you just get new ones.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!! EWWWW! -begins to swat the air around her-

Boo!

I am a huge scary movie gal! I have been noticing that the scary movies out in the 20th century are just not scary at all! Although the Saw movies were not scary, I did enjoy them alot so I will count those as the best in 2000 so far. What has happened to the edge in scariness? Seems like every movie out is completely predictable. Some of my favorites from the past are:
Thirteen Ghost
Rosemary's Baby
The Shinning
Seven
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Exorcist
Jaws
The Others
Hellraiser
The Omen
and of course Psycho :)

I do go and see most of the ones that come out in anticipation and hope that I will once again have that tight feeling in my gut and the excitement in my heart....but excluding Saw It has been one let down after the other. How many versions of "The Ring" and "The Grudge" can we get? It's all the same.....Give me something GOOD HOLLYWOOD!
I need a Tales from the Crypt and Twilight Zone marathon weekend!

Ugghhh.....

So I have been fixated on this one particular scar on my desk at work...by scar I mean a deep cut that has been here since I have and I'm sure by the looks of it much much longer. Why have I been noticing it so much? It's an old desk, been used over and over, it doesn't get much love in the decoration or cleaning department and it harbors things that in the end really are not important. The only time I have ever liked this desk is when Ellie was perched upon it but that hasn't been recent because my boss apparently thinks he should be here! -rolls her eyes- I think I am scared of being like the gauge in my desk. I get up and go to the bathroom, even though my job is not hard in the least it's completely boring, and I look at myself in the mirror....Everyday it seems like my face is showing scars just like that desk! I have bags and lines under my eyes and apparent older skin and it's different every time I look again! What am I scared of...if anything....to just get up off my old ass and go! It's definitely not the pay that has me here and it's not the city. Quite frankly it's not even the people. Yet another day passes and another mark has crept upon my face. I ammmm so feeling like my desk.

GAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! -slams her stappler down on the crack in her desk-

Smile?

I have been thinking about my teeth alot lately....probably cause I find myself for the first time in my life without Dental Insurance! My teeth are pretty, I think I have a cavity though...-crinkles up her nose- but anyway...I just started thinking about teeth! How many people really take care of them? What will happen to mine without insurance!!! EEEEK! I found this site and thought it was sorta funny....funny really that it's been researched!

Where the teeth bite!

Poor Mississippi is in the bottom with everything....even a state with bad teeth!

Hmmmmmmm!

It's hummingbird time and with everyone here in Mississippi talking about the beautiful birds I have been thinking of getting a feeder or two or three :) The more feeders you have the less fights occur between the male hummingbirds!
There are tons of hummingbirds but the ones that are associated with Mississippi are these :
Ruby-throated, Rufous, Buff-bellied, Black-chinned, White-eared, Calliope, Broad-tailed, Anna's, Allen's, and Green Violet-ear. The most popular of all the Mississippi residents and nation wide is the Ruby-throated hummingbird : ) The male is probably the easiest of all hummingbirds to identify.... this hummingbird has a ruby-red throat, but it also has an emerald green back and a forked tail. The female Ruby-throated Hummingbird is quite differently marked than the male with the only trait that is the same being the emerald colored back. The rest of the female is quite different from its male counterpart with its breast and throat being white and its tail being rounded. One other characteristic that is different between the sexes is that the female Ruby-throated Hummingbird even has a longer bill than the male.

You can hang feeders around your yard, basically anywhere you want them and you can purchase already made nectar or you can make your own and it's really easy to do! All you need is sugar water! Mix up some water, sugar and red food coloring. They are attracted to red. Another option to attract these flittering wonders is by creating a hummingbird garden.
Here are some plants that hummingbirds love!
Lobelia ~ this is a flowering plant and it also attracts butterflies!! Whoot! That's a plus in my book:)
A few more plants are :Hydrangeas , Geraniums and Coreopsis , an unusual daisy like flower. There are much more but I'm not getting paid for this so find them yourself!
They are smart things too...did you know that if you put up a feeder they remember and will come back to yard the next season looking for your feeder?!! Better keep up your feeders!

I wanted to get my back yard fixed up, it's a total mess, before buying feeders but I know with the cost of the major u-haul my backyard needs it won't happen soon so maybe I will just go ahead and buy some feeders and make up my own sugar nectar! I'm excited!!!!

The Glory of Love....

This is a song I've been singing for a long time. It's like an old friend. But, you know, I think it, it's only recently that I discovered what it's really about.

"You've got to give a little, take a little,and let your poor heart break a little.

That's the story of, that's the glory of love.

You've got to laugh a little, cry a little,until the clouds roll by a little.

That's the story of, that's the glory of love.

As long as there's the two of us,we've got the world and all it's charms.

And when the world is through with us,we've got each other's arms.

You've got to win a little, lose a little,yes, and always have the blues a little.

That's the story of, that's the glory of love......That's the story of, that's the glory of love."

One of my favorite songs ever so I thought I would share the lyrics. Beautiful words.

~By Bette Midler

Ok, so I still very much have an Ellie Addiction! Right now we are eating popcorn together! What a great doggie to eat popcorn with meeeeeee :) My boss is off to Mexico for an entire week this week and normally that would be a reason to be happy at work, but for me I am so excited because I can bring EllieBelly to work with me and keep me company. She will bring some beauty and sweetness into a tobacco spitting, fart smelling with an occasional burp mine field! I just love this dog! Mwah Mwah Ellie!

Increasingly annoying!

A B C D E F G....H I J K L M N ..O....O.....OHHHHHHHH !

Today's letter is the letter O...

Everyday I work with numbers, invoice numbers, order numbers, customer account numbers, fax numbers, phone numbers, part numbers...and no where in those numbers is there a letter O ! But for whatever reason even after my constant corrections to them, my co-workers need to refer to the number zero as O....

Them ~Ang, I need a release please

Me ~ Ok, your order number please?

Them ~ It's 236OHHHH437

Me ~ Try again....

Them ~ 236OHHHH437

Me ~ Try again...

Them ~ I said...236OHHHH437!!!

Me ~ Erm.....there are no O's in the numercal system...TRY AGAIN!

Them ~ 2360437.....

Me ~ Thanks, it's released. :)

I'm not sure why this is becoming an increasingly annoying part of my day but the madness must stop!!!!

Butterflies :)

Butterflies in your stomach? Anyone who knows me well knows I adore butterflies. Yeah I know...you feel like puking! Hey I can't help what I like!!

Round the world, butterflies are seen as the departed souls of our ancestors. Indigenous people recongnise the chrysalis as the soul trapped inside in the body. The emergence of the adult butterfly symbolises the freedom of the soul upon death.

The modern day symbol of butterflies in the western world is one of freedom, fun and joyous times. It is also a symbol for a state of nautralness and purity.

The Greeks associated the butterfly's constant flitting from flower to flower with the restlessness of the mind, constantly changing from subject to subject. Infact the Greek word for butterfly is "psyche" from where we get our word psychology!

In Germany the sighting of a butterfly is regarded as an Omen of birth where as the Maya describe butterflies as spirits of the dead in disuguise as they return to earth.

A butterfly flying in one's face indicates the coming of cold weather. Butterflies aslo represent abundance. Different tribes in Mexico use them to represent the harvest of summer.

Butterflies have also been known to symbolize witches due to their inherent transformative abilities and the magic of the witch. The Serbians see the butterfly as the soul of a witch and their concept of the soul may explain why many medieval angels have butterfly wings rather than bird wings or feathers.

Butterflies also display beauty and grace, representing the male and female sensuality and femininity.

They are the classic metaphor of transformation and ultimate freedom, as well as impermanence and fragility.

To me they are a beautiful change that lies within us all.....it's when things happen in our life bad or good....we are given an opportunity to make change just like the butterfly. I want to flutter....

Oscar Mayer?

Cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A .....Oh...sorry, I got carried away :) Ok who eats bologna?!! Meeeee! Like rolly polly's with the exception that I don't eat rolly polly's... bologna has been with me since I was little also! My favorite thing before I eat the bologna is to eat out two eyes and then a mouth :) I used to do this for my kids when they were little as I did when I was younger. I always heard that bologna was made up of some nasty stuff but I didn't wanna know because there is nothing better than taking a piece of bologna sandwhich meat and frying it in a pan, toasting your bread and sticking it between two pieces with some mayonnaise! Yummmmm warm bologna samiccch! So here is a bit about bologna...

"The meat is ground and chopped very fine, and at the big bologna factories, it's pureed so the machines can pour into casings. Like other sausages, bologna is covered in either a natural casing made from the gastrointestinal tracts of cattle, sheep, and hogs, or a synthetic casing made of collagen, fibrous materials, or even plastic. All bologna is cooked and smoked to pasteurize it, so it's ready to eat when you buy it."

Meat as in cooked, smoked sausage made of cured beef, pork, or a mixture of the two. Yes there are some "what the hell do we do with this body part" mixed in bologna such as organ meats, trimmings and end pieces of other meat trimmings.
American bologna sandwich meat got's it name from northern Italian town called Bologna.
In Bologna, the town, the meat was referred to as sausage. Traders picked up the sausage there and the town became popular for it which led to it's Americanized name "bologna" :)
So bologna didn't start with Oscar Mayer, but they sure have made it fun for American kids...and some of us adults!

Rolly Polly's !!!

Ok, on to more important topics like ROLLY POLLY'S!
Don't you just love them? I was thinking about them today as I drove to Walmart ,which I hate so that's another blog, and I remember rolly polly's from when I was little bitty right up till now. I still get a warm feeling when I see one and I always pick it up and play with it and let it go making sure it's safe. My boys liked them when they were young and although they would not admit it now...I know they still have a sweet spot in in their heart for them. How could you not?!! As I was driving and thinking about them I realized "Hey, I don't even know what they are! Are they rolly polly's? " So this prompted me to research my life long friend.

Pillbug, sowbug, or rolly-polly. A terrestrial crustacean, not an insect, with 7 pairs of legs. Eats decaying wood, leaves and vegetable matter.
Some people call them tumblebugs or doodlebugs too! The correct name for them is actually Armadillidium vulgare but they will always be rolly polly's to me :)
So when you see one remember they are harmless and sweet , pick one up and watch it curl up in your hand and when your done put him away safely!

Ellie Addiction!

So I hate small dogs :P I had a toy poodle for 14 years and about 11 years ago I had to put her down for different reasons. I loved that dog and at the same time was relieved she was gone....she was such an annoying little dog, always under my feet, in my lap, barking, trying to nip at strangers and peeing! When she died I said I would never do that again...so I ended up with one of the best dogs I have ever had, Riley, my yellow lab who this past Christmas after battling cancer was put down while I held him. I had sworn off small dogs forever...big ones were just more my thing..my thing..until....Ellie. A few months ago she bounced her way in my arms and I have been a complete sap for this dog! I HATE SMALL DOGS ..remember? I think about her all day and coming home has never been more fun than when she comes bouncing and rolling down the hall to greet me! I have taken loads among loads of pictures of her, it's worse than having a baby and I have completely fallen in love with a small dog...

Summer time

I love the summer...warm weather, top down on my mustang and all the wind blowing me around..."I hate it here" is what I have always said. I have lived in some beautiful areas in my life and this place is by far the worst. I have been thinking hard about moving..relocating to a place that offers more for me and my boys. A place that isn't economically behind in pay and job opportunities. Loads of more options for fun and future for my kids. But now it's summer here in the south....summer.....maybe it's the small things that make me stay.

Reckon?

I get up from my desk, the place I spend 80% of my life, I turn to see how big my butt has gotten before I venture out into the main area of my work. As I make my way through the minefield of all men who are forever swatting, pinching, tripping and trapping me as I try my best to make it to the bathroom door, I hear this....

I seen one
Reckon why?
U'ont to?
I bedog
pertinear
HEAH!
I swunnie..
Aw-ightden
dadnabit
yerderntootin
I heerd that
Melk
done did it
youaughtto

Then as I pass back through, I watch them all pull out the garbage cans and spit their tobacco, smell their farts as I pick up speed to get out of the war zone and I wonder....I am from the south also but they have supper at night and I have dinner, they drink coke and I drink soda! All we have in common is "ya'll" and "fixin". Is this misuse of words ignorance or is it southern charm....

Quarter for your thought?

It sat there and sat there. I'm not sure how long exactly but it had been there in that same spot for at least two months. The corner of my living room, a quarter sat heads up on my pretty wood floor. Unusual? No, but the fact that everyday I carefully swept and mopped around the heads up quarter in the corner. It wasn't crammed in the corner but more perfectly centered between each wall. When I say I swept and mopped everyday I wasn't lying. After working my 8-5 job I would come home and almost as fast as I walked in the door I had the broom in my hand. Having a dog that sheds all day is somewhat an obsession of mine and I have an un-natural urge to keep my floor hairless....which to all my efforts...never works. So? It sat. Never once did I reach for it...as tight as money is for me and my struggle to pay my everyday debts, it sat. I thought about it at least once a day. Thought about why I wouldn't pick it up. It couldn't be that I'm lazy, not with the floor cleaning every damn day. Am I that spoiled to think a quarter makes no difference? Regardless of the reason it all came to a bitter end this past Sunday as my mother and father stopped in to say hello, he met me in the hallway with his hand laying flat out with my quarter in his palm. As he offered it to me with his explanation of finding it, I felt a strange, sad sensation rush through me as I smiled out of habit and thanked him.