I'll Be Even More Thankful When Winter Is Over!

Have I mentioned that I hate winter? Because I do. Winter should end on December 26, and we should then have a delightfully long spring, with blooming flowers and budding trees and green grass and open windows to let the light breeze dance inside and stir the curtains. 

I say this with great longing, because we are currently immobilized by black ice. For those of you not living in the weather armpit of the nation, black ice is invisible ice covering roads and parking lots and driveways and sidewalks and anything else you might want to walk, drive or step on outside. It was caused by freezing temperatures coupled with misty weather, and it is more treacherous than snow on the roads, because, well, it's invisible and surfaces only look like they are damp or barely wet. And they are far more than that. When the state Department of Transportation salt trucks are sliding off the roads, then that's slick.

It's kind of a bummer that this forced imprisonment didn't happen on a weekday, because we all know that I LOVE getting a snow day, but our preschool Valentine's Day parties are this week, and I want to get them over with enjoy them as scheduled.

On to this week's Ten Things of Thankful!

1. Emma came home for the weekend, and we have had an enjoyable, lazy weekend (we can't go anywhere anyway, but that's not the only reason). 

2. I forgot I had sheets in the washing machine for a week, and when I found them this afternoon, I made the happy discovery that they had not soured and could be put directly into the dryer. 

3. My husband is not a sports fanatic, and I'm thankful for that. I dated a guy once who had an ENTIRE BEDROOM in his house filled with sports memorabilia, mostly baseball. Posters, signed pictures, bobble head dolls, LIFE SIZED CARDBOARD STAND-UPS. (It should have been a clue that there was no future here, but in actuality, I had to be hit over the head a couple of more times before I finally conceded that point.) It's not that my husband doesn't enjoy sports, but he doesn't live and breathe it, and he usually only watches play-offs and bowl game kinds of stuff.

4. That being said, my husband is tickled pink about the Olympics! He is especially into curling and has researched how it is played and strategy and all that. It's cute. I like watching him get silly excited about it (and it will go away and not resurface for four years).

5. I'm thankful for biscuits. More on that later this week.

Flaky, homemade buttermilk biscuits.
They rose sky high, I tell you. Sky high!

6. I used my Movie Pass and went with several friends to see "The Greatest Showman" for the fourth time. Have you seen it yet? It's everything you ever want, it's everything you ever need, and it's here right in front of you. THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOW!

7. I had a six month check-up with my oncologist, and blood work, etc., were all aok. Woot! Woot!

8. My husband got me a sweet pair of blue tooth headphones for Christmas, and I LOVE being able to use them at the gym. I always set my phone on the elliptical machine, and I was really bad about stepping off of the machine with my earbuds still plugged into both the phone and my ears, thus yanking my phone off its perch. 

9. I got to hold an itty bitty baby goat this week. It was three days old, a triplet, and (this is a fun factoid that you may or may not know) mama goat only has two teats, so she gave this little baby the boot (or the hoof). Her owner brought her to work with him at the church where our preschool is held because she had to be bottle fed. If she stayed just that size, I'd want a goat.

She has the same coloring as Nora!

She didn't smell goaty. I assume
that won't last long.

10. Leftover biscuits. Going to have one right now.

How was your week? Did you look for the thankfuls?

Linking up with Josie Two Shoes and her Ten Things of Thankful blog hop.

Pitch: A Six Sentence Story

She heard the rumble of thunder, at first gentle, like a tummy growling, and then louder and more insistent, and just as she stepped out of the kitchen and glanced out the west-facing window in the front room, the heavy, dark clouds moved in. The bright April afternoon turned immediately to an artificial dusk as the clouds swallowed up the sunshine, and a small hand slipped into hers for comfort when a big clap of thunder shook the window.

"It's dark as pitch out there," she said, drawing her son close as the wind lashed at the trees and rain came down in sheets.

"Grandma says that when it's really dark and you say that and I don't know why you both say that," he said, his brow furrowed.

"I say it BECAUSE Grandma says it and because MY Grandma said it, too, and probably her Grandma said it as well, and it reminds me of being little and hearing them talk, and it makes me smile inside."

"I'm going to say it, too, mama, so I'll always smile inside and remember being little, just like you."

Linking up with Ivy at Uncharted for Six Sentence Stories with the prompt "pitch".

Little Thankfuls That Add Up To A Lot

When you KNOW you're going to be writing a list of thankfuls for the week, your focus shifts from all the things that could be better about your week to all the things for which you may be thankful. I've mentioned before that I am a hopeless optimist, and it certainly lends itself to coming up with a thankful list. Now here are my Ten Things of Thankful for this week:

1. So many kind comments, both on the blog itself and on Facebook, welcoming me back to the TToT. I cannot tell you how incredibly happy that made me!

2. I found 11 cents on the ground at the gas station when I stopped to get a drink. 

3. Labor intensive preschool crafts that turn out super cute, like this one that I found on Pinterest:

4. Painting the hands of 25 preschooler BRIGHT RED without a single mishap.

5. Our 50th day of pre-k was celebrated with a 50s-themed party. I don't like parties, so my thankful here is that it's over (although I will have to do it again with my T-Th class; it takes longer to get to 50 when you only have class two mornings a week, so it won't be until late March or early April). 

6. I participated in Ivy's Six Sentence Stories this week, which you can read here. It felt so good to see the prompt and have an idea pop into my head. 

7. Movie Pass. Have you heard about this? It's kind of like Netflix, only with movies. For $10 a month, you can go to a movie every single day if you want to. We got our cards in the mail on Thursday, and we have now seen "The Post" (I fell asleep), "The Shape of Water" (I loved it), "Coco" (my husband and daughter sobbed at the end), and "Molly's Game" (which was better than I expected). 

8. So very thankful for helpful cats. Nora helps me do laundry, make my bed, put on make up, tie my shoes, make stuff with paper, load the dishwasher, sweep the floor, take a shower, and, this week, she helped me sew: she laid on the fabric as I was cutting it, bit the thread as it came off the spool, tried to grab the needle and the presser foot as they moved across the fabric, and knocked everything off the sewing table except the actual machine. Good times.

Nora Pearl

9. There's a chance of nasty winter weather on Tuesday afternoon, and with that, there's hope for a snow day. I hate nasty winter weather (I hate WINTER), but a snow day is a gift. THIS JUST IN: SCHOOL IS CANCELED FOR TOMORROW BECAUSE OF THE LIGHT BUT EVIL SNOWFALL WE HAD TODAY!!!

10. My daughter turned 19 today. 19. She's grown into a strong young woman, and I am so proud of her! Happy birthday, Emma Kate! 

How about you? Can you find the thankfuls in ordinary life?

Linking up with Josie Two-Shoes and her Ten Things of Thankful blog hop.

Dress: A Six Sentence Story

She picked it out with such care, going from bridal shop to bridal shop and trying on dress after dress, each one discarded as too fluffy, too straight, too lacy, not lacy enough, until the salesgirl, frazzled and frustrated, just like each salesgirl at each shop she had visited before, pulled a dress from a rack that was perfection. She left the shop with the dress tucked into a garment bag, and with a soft smile on her face, cradled the dress in her arms on the train ride, rocking slightly and humming to herself as other passengers, looking from her to the store logo on the bag, smiled as well.

The train pulled into the station, and with a quick glance at her wristwatch, she made her way to the ladies room, pulled the dress from the bag, and slipped it over her head, where it fell into place as easily as it had in the dressing room at the bridal shop.

Her soft smile still in place, she walked out of the ladies room, leaving her clothes in a heap on the floor next to the empty garment bag, and serenely walked out the station door and down the street, pausing as she reached the large stone church before pulling open the massive wooden doors and stepping inside. 

She blinked a few times, and as her eyes adjusted to the candlelit sanctuary, she focused  first on all the surprised faces turned her direction and then on him, so handsome in his tuxedo, standing at the front of the church. She rushed down the aisle, and as she neared the alter, she saw his face, his beautiful, dear face, turn to the woman beside him and gather her protectively in his arms before the darkness swirled around her and the floor rose to meet her....

Linking up with Ivy at Uncharted for Six Sentence Stories with the prompt "dress."

Thankful To Be Back!

How do you start blogging again when you haven't done it in, oh, six months? I guess you jump in with a Ten Things of Thankful, so here goes:

1. The College Boy is no longer a College Boy and now a Med School Student. University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Class of 2021. Boomer Sooner!

Moving day!

White Coat Ceremony

2. My daughter is halfway through her freshman year at University of Arkansas and, as those follow her on social media can attest, is loving it. LOVING it. She's in a sorority, involved with student government, volunteers, has made oodles of friends, goes to many, many Greek functions (MANY), and still managed to get a 4.0 her first semester. Woo Pig!

Moving day. It rained....

Bid Day! She's a Zeta!

3. We are Empty Nesters. Empty nests aren't always a bad thing.

4. As nice as that Empty Nest can be, i.e., we eat when we want, we eat WHAT we want, we go where we want whenever we want, having one of the little birds fly back for a few days is SUCH a good feeling!

5. Smart phones. Both of my kids text me pretty much every day, and Emma calls me several times a week (occasionally several times a day), especially when she's walking on campus alone, and we Facetime sometimes (usually when she's homesick and wants to see the kitties). When I was in college and living in a dorm, I had to use the pay phone down the hall to call home, collect, of course. Now there's a phone that shoots a signal to outer space or something and back to the person you are trying to reach in an instant. How 'bout dat?

6. Power steering. Not that there has been anything wrong with the power steering in our cars, but remembering the dorm payphone reminded me of the car I drove in college and how much effort it entailed to turn a corner (unless you were going at a pretty good clip, not that I ever did that...).

7. There's an entirely new kitty dynamic at our house. Our 14 year old cat, Fletcher, went to kitty heaven this past summer, leaving 12 year old Pete (the asshole of the family) and our one year old ball of fire, Nora. Pete has HAAAAATED Nora since we got her, but after a couple of weeks of it being just the two of them, he stopped hissing and/or growling every time (and I do mean EVERY time) they crossed paths. They have progressed to playing chasing games and sleeping on the bed together, and while they don't quite spoon each other, they can be close enough that they're alllllmost touching. Pete can still be an asshole, but it happens less and less often, and Nora can still be a complete pill, booping him on top of the head when he passes by and now brave enough to grab him around the neck in a chokehold periodically, but for the most part they are harmonious. 

Her feet are barely touching him.

8. Our veterinarian. Some of Pete's assholiness stemmed from a puncture wound (a gift from Fletcher) that he had in his upper arm. He had had it since some time in the early summer, and it just wouldn't heal. It started getting worse in the fall (I'll spare you the details, but there was oozing), and I finally admitted it wasn't going to heal on its own, and it was time to go to the vet. She tried stapling it closed, giving him an antibiotic, and making him wear a lampshade, but after two weeks, it was no better. He had to have real surgery at this point, and afterwards, she said he was all kinds of messed up inside that arm and it was more involved than she thought it would be. Back in the lampshade for two more weeks (which he figured out how to ditch, so we made him wear a t-shirt), and he's finally healed. And is a nicer cat, which makes me feel really badly that he was in pain and I didn't even know it (cats are masters at hiding illness and pain). 

When you ditch your lampshade, you gotta wear a shirt.

9. My husband and I (you know, the Empty Nesters), joined a gym. We have one here in town that costs less per month the more you use it, (I know, right?!), so we hustle our fannies there 4-5 times a week. My only complaint about the place is that they keep the temperature set on "poach," and I'm a little worried about how that's going to feel come summer. Wait, I have one more complaint: there is a row of televisions hanging from the ceiling in the cardio area, and one of them is always set on Fox News. I listen to music when I work out, but you can't help but notice all those tvs, and my eyes seem to be drawn to the one airing Fox, which can get me all kinds of worked up. I guess if it gets my heart rate up without giving me a stroke, I can deal. For now.

10. The Greatest Showman. Hugh Jackman. Zac Efron. Sigh.

I did it! I did it, I did it, I did it! And I'm thankful for that! And for the shout out on Facebook by Clark that I needed to get myself back to the TToT - here I am!

Linking up with Josie Two-Shoes and her Ten Things of Thankful blog hop.

(Well Deserved) Arachnophobiaaaaaaa!!!

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick....

Is that the clock, ticking off the minutes before the end of the weekend and my chance to post my Ten Things of Thankful for the week?

Or a time bomb?

Or A DAMN TICK, the kind that crawls on you quite softly and hides in your hair and then you JUST HAPPEN to brush the hair at your temple away from your face after changing clothes, after retouching make up AND HAIR after a day spent out in the country at an auction and you feel something, SOMETHING, not right. Hard. A piece of a leaf? We were standing under trees quite often at the auction, it being the first of July in Missouri, and you pinch it with your fingers and flick it into the bathroom sink AND IT CRAWLS. AND IT'S REALLY BIG (for a tick) AND IT WAS FIXING TO ATTACH ITSELF TO MY HEADDDDDD!!!

Thankful #1: I got that little fucker before it went bottom's up into my scalp. It makes my stomach flip flop to think how close I was to having that happen. And it's not even that ticks harbor horrid illnesses, because they do, at least around here, and they can be deadly; it's because they're ICKY ICKY ICKY ICKY ICKY.

Maybe, MAYBE, I wouldn't have freaked out so much about the tick (it really was HUGE and blood thirsty) if I weren't already suffering at the hands (or mouths) of a cousin on the tick, a little something called an oak tree mite. What's that, you ask? It's a microscopic arachnid that blows out of oak trees and bites whatever it lands on. Not sure how I came into contact with an entire fleet of them for the first time in my life, but that's the best guess of the Nurse Practitioner at the urgent care clinic that I finally went to after a week of an increasing number of bites on my legs, from ankles to above the knees, and my inner arms, from wrist to bicep (apparently, they took a look at those guns and went the other way). I did a little yard work a couple of weeks ago, and it's possible that I had a delayed reaction to the bites. Regardless, my legs look so hideous that I can't even show you a picture. That bad. Plus, the itching was relentless to the point that my legs felt as though they were on fire.

Thankful #2: I got a round of steroids that seem to be helping.

Thankful #3: Because I haven't slept more than about four hours since starting the steriods (fun side effect), I have gotten all the laundry done and cleaned the washing machine with a toothbrush.

Thankful #4: Unlike straw mites, which my daughter and about a dozen of her friends contracted last fall at a bonfire, oak tree mites bite and go. Conversely, straw mites burrow into the skin, and when one gets them, one has to use a special cream and coat one's skin from neck to toes and then wash it off 8 hours later. Plus, they itch. Burrowed. Under. Your skin. 

Yesterday, my husband and I went to my dad's and the three of us headed to the aforementioned auction. It was out in the country, on a farm, with lots of shade trees (probably full of oak tree mites and ticks). Unlike the sale my dad and I attended a few weeks ago, this one had a number of items we were interested in, so we got our lawn chairs out of the car and settled in for the long haul. There was quite a bit of old furniture, a lot of which had been in storage in an outbuilding. I got a solid oak, antique dining table for $40. And I got an antique oak rocking chair (it was kind of a mistake; I was trying to tell my dad that my husband was interested in a bench that was going to be the next item auctioned, he misunderstood me and bid for the rocking chair, and we got it for $20 - fortunately, it's a lovely little rocker and is comfortable and the bench went for way more money that we were willing to pay for it anyway). My dad got a stool with a spinny seat for $5 that he is going to use in his shop at the lake house. We people watched. I scratched oak tree mite bites. We sweat. My husband and I lugged the table and rocker to the Sequoia and got them loaded, but not before we found out they were LITERALLY crawling with spiders. Big spiders, little spiders. Fat spiders, skinny spiders. Big spiders with long legs who were grabbing egg sacks and running with them. Oh, and egg sacks. We used a newspaper to beat them, poke them, swat them, shoo them, and otherwise (dear God, I hope) eradicate them from the furniture.

Just needs a little TLC

Thankful #5: as is common with auctions in these parts, there are always Old Order Mennonites there. The last auction attracted just men and boys, but at this auction, there were about half a dozen families there, including one family with five little stair-step girls (ranging in age from about 5 to a baby) that were completely precious. I got a picture of three of them walking by the tables together:

Thankful #6: I sweat so much I didn't have to avail myself of the porta-potties. 

Thankful #7: That this guy is not representative of everyone in the Missouri Ozarks:

I know he thinks his hat is very clever.
I wanted to set it on fire.

I was looking at some salt and pepper shakers and other collectibles on some tables and let my dad get out of my sight for ONE MINUTE (maybe just a few more), and I walked up just as he won the bid on some power tools: a router (which is big and heavy and was mounted on a bigger, heavier board) and a planer/jointer (which is bigger and heavier and was mounted on a board that was mounted on a metal stand). He only gave $20 for one and $10 for the other. The reason they were so cheap? They had been stored in an outbuilding FOR YEARS and were beyond filthy. The cords were frayed (in actuality, probably chewed by rodents). The planer/jointer weighed over 200 lbs. The Sequoia was full of a table, a rocker, a spinny stool, three lawn chairs, and spiders. Our only choice was to leave them there and come back the next day and try to get them home.

Frayed much?

This is a very old planer/jointer.

Thankful #8: Not long after we finally made it home from the auction (and lunch, because you've gotta have lunch), I had my tick encounter. This is not a thankful. The reason I was messing with my hair and make up was because we then spent the evening at the stock car races. It was a fun evening, not as dusty as last time we went, and there were fireworks during intermission.

Green flag.

This morning, the three of us trooped back to the auction site of the previous day, armed with an assortment of tools, so we could load the two saws into my dad's van. It had been determined that the planer/jointer would need to be dismantled in order for it (a) to fit in the car and (b) to be a manageable weight. We (okay, mostly them - I planned to take pictures and call 911 if necessary and no more) laid the planer/jointer on its side, removed a couple of bolts that attached it to the heavy cart, and cleaned it as best we could of mouse nests, ancient sawdust deposits, mud dauber nests, webs, and....spiders. Big spiders, little spiders. Fat spiders, skinny spiders. Big spiders with long legs who were grabbing egg sacks and running with them, and both unclaimed and empty egg sacks. Sigh. I used screwdrivers and a big crescent wrench to smash the mud dauber nests and smack spiders and remove mouse nesting, all while flinching and brushing myself of any and all spiders, oak tree mites, and ticks, real or imaginary, that could be crawling on me.

Thankful #9: We (okay, they) got the planer/jointer dismantled enough to load it in the back of the van, along with the router on the giant board and any spiders that survived my attempts at extermination.

During the dis-assembly, my dad immediately
noticed the sticker on this round thingy
showing that the former owner bought it
from my dad's old store.

Thankful #10: I hereby remain tick-free.

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

Linking up with Josie Two-Shoes and her Ten Things of Thankful blog hop.

A Food And Road Adventure Kind Of Week Of Thankfuls

I wrote last weekend's TToT before the weekend, so this 'un is going to wrap two weekends up in one. 

1. I went to my dad's last Saturday, and he and I went to an auction that afternoon about five miles north of town. We didn't stay very long (it was HOT), and there wasn't anything we were terribly interested in (it was some household goods and the rest was all taxidermy supplies, guns, and sundry other items), but country auctions make for great people watching and are very entertaining. This one in particular had drawn about 15 Old Order Mennonite men and boys, and it was particularly enjoyable to watch the boys sitting on and admiring some ride-on mowers and motorcycles that were up for auction. 

They can't ride them, but they can admire them.

Lots of men, standing around. 

Watching as guns are auctioned.

Horses and buggies tied up in the shade.

2. We left the auction with the intention of going back to the house. My dad rode shotgun and was in charge of directions, and we took a side trip past where my grandma had once lived, then ended up driving all over that part of the country, turning randomly here and there. We took gravel roads and one lane bridges, and eventually, we were close enough to the tiny town of Hume to make it worth going there for lunch. We went to Sisters & Friends Restaurant, and I had one of the tastiest hamburgers I've had in a long time. My dad got a pork tenderloin sandwich that was as big as a plate. We left full and happy.

3. My husband, dad and I went to the stock car races that night. THIS is small town living in the midwest and south! Didja know stock car racing began during prohibition, when illegal moonshine was transported in souped up cars, at night, with no headlights, along winding country roads, as the drivers eluded the "revenooers"? The last time we went to the races, the College Boy (still need a name for him now that he's graduated) was two, and he played in the gravel under the bleachers the whole time. My dad always loved going to the races; my mom, not as much, but she went with him. After they bought the lake house, though, they spent their weekends at the lake and stopped attending stock car races. I'm so happy we finally made it back there this weekend. Very little has changed with the track, and it felt a little as if we stepped back in time about thirty years.

Green flag.

Me and my daddy at the races.

4. The day had been hot, but there was a stiff breeze that made the temperature that evening quite pleasant.

5. So the Nevada Speedway is a 1/4 mile dirt track. Know what happens when cars go flying by a few feet away from you on a dirt track? You get some dirt thrown on you. When you factor in some wind, you end up covered with a pretty good layer of dirt. On your skin. In your eyes. In your hair, all the way to the scalp. In your teeth. It's okay; I'm washable.

Here's one improvement at the ol' Speedway: the bathrooms have been upgraded. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the bathrooms were indoors, and they DID flush, but there were no doors on the stalls. No. Doors. NO. DOORS. So, SO thankful for the upgrade. SO thankful.

6. My dad really enjoyed the evening and had no problem walking into the venue or with the gravel under the bleachers. He said several times, "This has been a really fun day!" and he was right.

7. I met two friends for dinner one evening this week, and we talked and laughed for two and a half hours.

With Allison and Amy after our marathon dinner.

8. Emma and I drove to Kansas City (everything's up-to-date there, you know) on Thursday and did a little Going To College shopping. We love our girl getaways, even if it's only a day trip.

9. This weekend, my husband, the College Boy and I headed to the lake house, because my dad wanted to take us to an old grist mill turned recreation area (College Boy opted out of this activity and went to a water park with his girlfriend instead). It was 70 miles away by road, probably 40 as the crow flies, and took us two and a half hours to get there (we could have made it in two, but Barfy McBarf Barf in the back seat got queasy the last fifteen miles of twisty roadways, and I had to slow down considerably). The place is called Rockbridge and has lodging (cabins and such) and a restaurant, and the creek is stocked with rainbow trout. We couldn't go inside the grist mill, as the floods in April caused considerable damage to it, but we walked down to the creek and then ate at the restaurant, where I had yet another tasty hamburger to cap off my week.

Creek flowing over the dam at the grist mill.

Trout lurking in the water.

10. Before leaving for the lake, my dad came by my house so he and I could go to the Spiva Center and see a sculpture exhibit by the man who lives across the street from the lake house. His name is Tim Cherry, he's extremely talented, and if you ever hear that he will have an exhibit at an art gallery near you, go see it! 

All three of these are bronze sculptures.

Man, I had a busy week, but not too busy to give thanks.

Linking up with Ten Things of Thankful.