Posting Is Hard ( with no computer )

I have been trying to post as much as possible for the post a day month. But it is hard with my computer being down. Dave still doesn't have it fixed. He keeps saying, It's not talking to him yet. Whatever that means. Anyway, I posted three posts on the sixteenth, so maybe that makes up the 17th and 18th. I will be out of work all next week and the week after. So if you don't see another post for a while it will be because I didn't get my computer back today. Pray that I will. I can't see myself going without it for two weeks. Its worse than cell phones. Do you remember when we didn't have cell phones? I wonder sometimes, how did we get along? Ha Ha! Anyway, if anyone is leaving comments in my c-box, I can't read them right now. For some reason, my c-box is surf-controlled from corp and I can't see it. But I can see Ambre's and Becky's, go figure.
Well, I'm going to sign off and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Hopefully I will be on tomorrow on my own computer. Bye!

Post Post Post!!!

Today is Tuesday and I am thankful for nieces who keep me on my toes and give me encouragement.

Unconcious Mutterings!!!

I say ... and you think ... ?
Travel :: Not right now
Expensive :: Groceries
Backspace :: too many times
Traffic noise :: non-existent
Now see here :: angry motorist
Vegetables :: green
Chat :: as little as possible
Your calling :: Potter
Weekly :: paying bills
Oh! :: my aching feet

My Life's Soundtrack

Thought this sounded fun! You should try it too!
Some of them are quite funny.....Thanks Becky!Here's how it works:
1. Open your music library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie.

So here goes!
Opening Credits: Only Time by Enya
Waking Up: Thats What Friends Are For by Dionne Warwick
First Day of School: We've Only Just Begun by The Carpenters
Falling In Love: Rainy Days and Mondays by The Carpenters
Fight Song: Cold As Ice by Foreignor
Breaking Up: The First Cut if the Deepest by Sheryl Crowe
Prom: How Deep is Your Love by Beegees
Life: Baby Come Back by Hall & Oates
Mental Breakdown: Cyclone by Baby Bash
Driving: Dancing Queen by ABBA ( That's funny 'cause I have danced a car before)
Flashback: There Goes My Life by Kenny Chesney
Wedding: I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder
Birth of A Child: He's the Reason For the Teardrops on My Guitar by Taylor Swift
Final Battle: Baby's Got Her Bluejeans On by George Strait
Death Scene: Put Your Head on My Shoulder by The Platters
Funeral Song: Waiting For a Girl Like You by Foreignor
Final Credits: Unforgettable by Nat King Cole

and yes I do listen to these Golden Oldies. Jen

Computers

I wish I had more fonts to play with on this thing. Anyway, I miss my computer. I am thankful for Dave Dufresne, who is working on my computer and he doesn't charge me anything. But I always buy him a special gift for doing it. Usually a small wizard statue. He's known around here as the C&A Wizard. Only now I guess it would be the IAC Wizard, since C&A is no more. Things are not looking good around here. We will be off for two weeks, Christmas week and New Years week. Some will still be out the week after as Toyota is shut down that week. Barry, my boss has mentioned that our corp office is making inquiries into our earnings at this site. He is afraid that they are about to get rid of one person and that will be me. I can't afford to lose my job, although I would like to stay home for awhile. But if I give it up, I will lose my 10 year seniority and my insurance and if they ever decide to hire me back, it will be at a lower wage and position doing something I can't handle all the time, like receiving. I will never be at the level I am now. I don't understand why they wouldn't let Barry go. He will be retiring soon and they will have to hire a new manager and I am already here and knowledgeable in everything. I think the only thing that will save me is for Jack Davis to stand up and say no way is Jennifer leaving. I know a whole lot more about this plant than Barry and even some of the people who have been here for years.

Todays Post

Well, today is Sunday and I am still without computer. I am using Ambre's right now. This is going to be short. For Saturday I am thankful for my daughter. She is my best friend. For Sunday I am thankful for laughing babies.

Had to share.......

I just had to share this. It's very uplifting!

Comments

The last comment left on my blog was Nov 22. Apparently no one is visiting or they just don't want to leave a comment. A comment every once in a while is nice so that I know that someone is visiting. I try to visit everyone's page either everyday or at least once a week. If they have a new post, I try to leave a comment. Lord, I am thankful for being able to type on my blog right now.

Rainy Days

Today is Thursday and it has been raining here for three days. Flash flood watches in effect til this evening. I'm really not complaining. I love the rain and also the fact that it is not 27 degrees outside. B-r-r-r-r-!!! It has warmed up nicely and was 60 degrees on my front porch this morning. Have not worn a coat for two days. My problem with this is - why couldn't we have gotten some of this back in the growing season when we needed it. Things didn't grow very well this year in the garden. The grass turned brown and some of the trees lost their leaves before fall. Although, we did have a beautiful fall ( late of course, but beautiful just the same). Today I am thankful for the rain, which we still need very much.

Wednesday Happenings!

Well, Jamie came thru his surgery OK. he's back home and doing well. Thanks for your prayers. Today has been a disturbing kind of day. Barry, my boss, told me that there are some things going on at corp that he is worried about. They have been asking a lot of questions about our site. With the auto industry in trouble, the trickle down effect is beginning to work here also. We have lost a lot of business here at IAC and there have been a lot of layoffs. We are not doing as well as we have been and they are wanting to cut this site back to one person. That means I may lose my job. Please pray for me. I really need to work. I am thankful I have a job and would like to keep it.

Patience and Control

Well, my computer has died. So I guess I will be posting when I can. I have missed Sat., Sun., and Monday's blog of thanks-giving. I will have to take my computer to get it fixed and this is not the best time of year to be doing that. So it will have to wait.
Got a lot done at home on Saturday. Sunday church was great. Chris came home sick from his Mom's. He caught a stomach virus and it threw his sugar out of whack. I couldn't get it to come down so I took him to the hospital yesterday morning. We were there for 7 hrs. He's doing fine now. For Saturday thanks, I am thankful that I was able to work in the house some. It was hard, thought I would die a couple of times. Having a bad time with asthma. New meds Doc gave had not kicked in yet.
Sunday, I was thankful that the Lord led me with wisdom to do a good job teaching the sunday school class. Monday, I was thankful for the doctors that got Chris thru his little trial. And today I am thankful that I feel better ( meds have kicked in). Also, please pray for Jamie. He is having his shoulder surgery today and he's really scared. I will I could be there but I could not get off.

Bloggin' When I Can

I am having to post blogs when I can. My computer at home got a virus. Well, Kojak got that fixed but then an advertisement bug got me. My computer has 78% free space on it but all it can do is hang up and is so slow, its worse than low speed dial up. Ads are still popping up every once in a while. I guess I will have to have it wiped clean and redone. Just can't afford it right now. Anyway, that's why there are no pictures right now with my posts 'cause most of them are being done at work. I am thankful for my computer at work.

OH NO!!!!!!! I Forgot!

OH NO! I forgot! I got so busy yesterday afternoon with having to pick Annabelle up so she could go to Bible Study with me. And getting supper and picking up the other ladies that go with us. I forgot to blog. So I'm doing two thank yous today. I am thankful for my little Annabelle, who informed her Mama the other day that she HAD to go the school church with Nana on Wednesday night. She does my heart good. I am also thankful for MarySue and Jean who ride with me to church on Wednesday nights.

Blog a Day

Well, today is the second day of Post a day month. Thanks is the theme for this month. I am thankful I am a Christian and Jesus is my savior.

Post a Day ( NaBloPoMo)

For the month of December, I will be trying to post everyday for National Bloggers Post Month. The theme this year is "thanks". So here goes. I am thankful for my family! They are the one constant in my life that makes me happy.

The Dead of Winter

What does that mean? The dead of winter! Does it mean the middle of winter? The deepest part of the winter season? Or does it refer to everything that was green is now dead.

As you can see in this picture, the pods that held the Rose of Sharon flowers on this bush are dried out and dead. All the leaves are gone. And as you can see in the background just about everything is dead and leafless.
This is the big beautiful maple in our front yard. Totally leafless. The cold has set in. I am dreaming of spring and beautiful greenery again.

Name Change

Well, Chris has changed his dog's name. It is now China. And she does bark. Not much but I was beginning to think her prior owners had had her voice box removed. ( some people do that you know, awful isn't it?) Anyway, just thought I'd let everyone know.

Introducing!!!!!

Introducing Saphera, pronounced " Sah-fear-rah". She's Chris's new dog. He has been wanting his own dog for awhile. His Mom rescued her from the pound. She's a little over a year old and well trained. I haven't heard her bark yet. They took her to have her spayed yesterday, so she's still a little slow. She doesn't like Casey yet though. But anyway, he has to take care of her. And she is his dog. She even growls if he touches Casey. She's already jealous.

Autumn Colors Abound!

Autumn has come late this year to the foothills of NC. I have never seen the colors take this long to bold out. It is usually halfway through October for the peak of the colors but the seasons are changing so much every year. We have had a lot of dry weather and some trees were already losing their leaves before they started changing. I was afraid I would not be able to get any good pics, but on the way to church this morning, Danny and I spotted some beautiful ones in his cousins yard so we went back after church and a visit to the hospital to see a friends new grandbaby and took some pictures. Afterwards we rode around and found some more. Following you will see some of our efforts. Enjoy, the colors are spectacular!!!

An Internet Meme!!

Never heard of an internet meme? Me niether! Until the other day when my niece, Becky, did a meme on her website. Apparently you are supposed to pick at least three other people to do a meme when you do yours.

The term Internet meme is a neologism used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet. So here goes!!.

1. Unlike when I was a younger person, I now have a tendency to let people run over me to avoid confrontation. Or it just may seem I have this insane desire to be nice to people.
2. I love my children and grandchildren beyond measure and they know it and use it against me. ( Also, they think I don't realize this )
3. I love science fiction, action, and some types of horror movies and I despise love stories and comedies. Although one of my all time favorites is " Somewhere in Time" ( I think it may be 'cause it has a little science fiction thrown in.)
4. I miss my Lily tremendously. I think about her everyday and cry about her in private.
5. I have a twisted foot that cost $8000.00 + to correct and it didn't work.
6. I wish I had finished college.

Now I must name three people who I think should be a meme. So here goes! Melissa, Theresa, and Katy. Let's have 6 random tidbits of info about yourselves. Go for it girls!

Cruisin'

Well, we're back!!!! The escaped turkey's have returned safe and sound, but very tired. We had a great time. The weather was gorgeous. It rained the night we left port and we had some rough seas going out. Danny was very seasick. I felt really bad for him and he made me really feel bad when he said I had run off and left him to puke on his own. But I was just sick enough that if I had stayed to watch I would have been joining him with my own head in a bucket. The seas stopped rolling during the day on Tuesday and was quite pleasant the rest of the trip. Key West was a very nice place. We walked all the way across the island to the Southernmost point in the US. Nassua was OK, but there really wasn't enough time to really look around and maybe see some of the sights. The next time we go, I think we will try to go in a different direction. I have included some pictures and will try to put more on as we have them developed for the picasa album.
This is the St Johns River Suspension bridge in Jacksonville. They are in the process of repairing and updated the cables. If you look real close you can see where the cables end on the bridge. My Dad and the company he worked for built the approach bridge up to the suspension part. You can tell how overcast it is right now and it was raining. We were standing on one of the decks near the top. We passed underneath this bridge headed for the ocean.

Here we are docked in Key West. The water here was the most beautiful blue green I have ever seen.

Here is Dad and Theresa and Me and Danny at the southernmost point in the US. Look at the color of that water. B-U-T-full!!!. I didn't get in the water here, mostly because there was a lot of trash and messy stuff out of the ocean washed up on the beaches from the last hurricane. They were still in the process of cleaning it up. It just didn't look to healthy to me. But it was a pretty place and I would like to visit it again.

This is a picture of the ocean between Key West and the Bahamas. That is such a beautiful blue color.
This is a picture of part of Nassua as we were coming into port. The low white building on the left is what is called the Straw Market. It's mostly a flea market where everyone is selling basically the same thing. All in all the trip was wonderful. I enjoyed being out on the ocean a lot. I sat out on the balcony and watched the ocean almost every night. It was very soothing. We had a great time and looking forward to doing it again.

More Pies!!

Last night, I made the first apple pie I had ever made. I had a piece, Chris had a piece, Jamie had a piece, I sent a large piece home with Beth and girls, Ambre and Haley had a piece and there was one piece left for my hubby of 39 years ( that's a long time to wait for an apple pie).


Anyway, by the time the pie was done, he was already in bed asleep. He said I'll eat mine tomorrow when I get home from work.


Well, I told Jamie and Chris (who was already in bed) not to touch the last piece, it was for Poppie.


When Chris and I got home today, I went down to Ambre's to watch the kids while she went to school. Chris came up to the house and was going to come down later and spell me while I cooked supper. When I got up here, he had eaten Danny's piece of pie. I just about had heart failure. He said, he didn't remember me telling him not to eat the pie. So anyway, Jamie and Chris took off for Teresa's and got more apples and I made a couple more pies. Not too bad!!



I think I'm gettin' the hang of this! It's not that difficult. Now I wish I had tried it sooner. I still need to work on my edging though. Anyway, I made sure Danny got a piece of one of these. I cut one and put him a piece in a container for his lunch. Nite Nite!

Apple Pie!!!!

Hi! Everybody! You know, ladies are supposedly not supposed to divulge their age, but this one time, I am going to say that I am 57 years old. I hate to cook!!!! No doubt about it!!! I hate to cook!!!!. I used to love to cook but somewhere down the line of preparing meal after meal and being told that " you know what would have made this a lot better?", I kinda lost the desire to try and create anything in the kitchen.

Now don't get me wrong. I do cook and feed my family everyday, but I despise it. Anyway, a few weeks ago, the Pioneer Woman, Ree, was visiting her sister and her mother made them a blueberry pie. Well, it looked so good that I decided to make one. About that same time, my niece, Becky, posted a pie crust recipe that I thought maybe I could handle. You see, that is about the only thing that has kept me from making pies throughout my married life, was the pie crust. Well, I tried it with Ree's Moms BB pie and WOW was it good.

Everyday I pass by Danny's cousins home and she has two apple trees in her yard and I have been watching them turn red for awhile. I stopped by on Friday and asked it I could get a few for a pie and Chris and I went and picked some. At the ripe old age of 57, I made my first ever apple pie. I must say it turned out pretty good!

So, what do you think? Chris said it was just right. I thought it tasted pretty good too!

I Hap'd Upon A Fairy Ring!

On my travels to and fro

Not traveled once but time and agin'

not noticed when passed by before

I hap'd upon a fairy ring.

My poetry is really bad I know, but I couldn't resist when I looked up information on fairy rings and found out how many time they had been mentioned in literature through the years.On my way home the other day, I passed by the hospital and noticed an unusual phenomenon.A beautiful fairy ring of mushrooms in a spot that I had passed by many time before and not noticed. According the information, they don't just pop up all of a sudden they are formed ove many years and can grow to great widths. The oldest one known to exist is in England and is over 800 m across and 700 years old.

In the photo above you can see the ring as it appears during the normal season. If you look real hard you can see an even larger one in the background. The dark grass is formed on the outside perimeter of the ring and is called the death ring. They are usually formed during a very dry season ( which we have had this year). The inside of the ring contains the mycelium which is the fairy fungus that spreads out like long tenticles underneath the ground ending at the necrotic zone or death ring.

The ring above is found in Namibia in Africa. These are fairly new occurences which scientists are trying to figure out their causes. Some have even suggested they were caused by radioactivity but soil sampling have proved negative. They are still trying to figure it out as we speak.
This is a forest fairy ring. I was just reading about a fairy ring in the state of Oregan that is believed to be over 2200 years old and could cover over 1600 football fields. But with the intrusion of logging and homes it has all but disappeared. Sad!!
And now, this is my fairy ring. If you look real close you can see the dark ring, just inside the mushroom circle. The mushrooms are a fungus which grows mostly on dead or dying things, hense the death ring. Sadly, the next day it was gone ( they cut the grass). Fairy rings are mentioned numerous times in European literature and lore. It was believed to step inside a fairy ring brought certain death in some form or another. But I just think they are a phenomenon worth a few words of mention. Thanks for stopping by. Jen

Maiden Voyage

Well, today we took the new, slightly used boat out on Lake James. After trying for several days to work on the motor, Danny finally took it up to Green Hill to see Tim Garner. Tim found the problem almost immediately and fixed it. Tim is Mike Garner's brother and for those of you who don't know, Mike is probably Bo's best friend from forever. Anyway, we took Jamie and the girls with us.

Here's Jamie bringing the boat into the dock so we could all get on. Look at that water! Man, I just couldn't wait to get in it. We went over toward where Danny's jobsite is at and anchored for a little while and did a little fishing. Then after much pushing we finally convinced Danny to travel around the lake a little ways. Don't understand why but he wanted to load back up and come home right after we fished for about 30 minutes.
Here we are tooling around the lake. Gabby took this pic. Don't be concerned about the foul look on Danny's face. He was scowling because Gabby stood up the take the pic and it kinda scared him.
Gabby and Annabelle had a great time but all they wanted to know was when I was gonna get off the boat and go swimming, so they could too. Well, shortly after this pic was taken, I finally convinced Danny to stop and let me swim in the middle of the lake ( the fish finder depth goes to 120' and there was no bottom on the finder, so we were in deep water). I dove off and then Jamie put Annabelle in and she freaked. Then he put Gabby in and she freaked even worse. Needless to say, they were both scared of the water. When we got back to the dock area, I took both of them over to a little swim area nearby. Annabelle actually went out over her head ( with a vest on of course), clinging to one arm and was laughing and having a good time. Gabby was still afraid. I'm gonna have to work on this one a little harder. But we still had a great time and are looking forward to a lot more. I have to go now. It's 1:30am and I have church in the morning. Good night all. Jen

Is it gooses or geeses?

Every year our little Lake Imogene at ICC college is invaded by Canadian geese. They have started coming in early this year. Before it's over they will cover every inch of spare ground area around the lake. There will be thousands of them. They have started already.

This picture was taken from the car in front of the foundation building. There are already hundreds of them. I really need to load a shotgun and have it handy so I can shoot one as it flies over the house. They sometimes fly over our house on their way to the pond. Goose for Thanksgiving, UmMMM!!!.
Not to worry, my family probably wouldn't eat it anyway. But I would. So they're probably safe from my gun. But they are beautiful and sound wonderful when they honk. I love it!

The New Toy

Poppy and I bought a new boat ( well, not new but new to us ) a couple of weeks ago. We are really looking forward to taking it up to Lake James and doing some fishing. Poppy and Jamie have been working on it this weekend. It hasn't been cranked since last year but had just had the motor overhauled. So far they have not been able to get it cranked but getting pretty close. It has sputtered a little. I think Danny keeps flooding it. Anyway, here is a picture of our new slightly used boat.

We installed new seats on the front and back pedestals and recovered the inside driver and passenger seats. Next we are going to install new carpet. Everything works, the fish finder, the trolling motor. We just have to get the big motor to work. Wish us luck. Bon Voyage.

The Mound

Well, I said on my first post that I would give you a picture of the mound that Thompson's built when they moved the old driveway and here it is.

As you can see, it looks like its 500 ft high from down below, but probably only between 150 to 200 ft high. But the bottom is very close to the driveway. In the bottom left hand corner is the ditch probably two to three ft deep filled with the runoff from the other day. You can also see where they dug the ditch out and piled it up on each side where the slide occurred. I think they think that is going to stop it again. Ha! Ha!. But on the bright side, look how green everything is. This is the most rain we've had in months, everything was turning brown. It's really pretty, this green stuff.

Little Visitors

Beth came over tonight to walk, so the girls stayed out here at the house with me and Poppy and their Daddy. Annabelle and I went down to Ambre's house for a little while to visit the boy's. We ordered pizza in and while Beth went home to get a bath, the girls stayed here and ate pizza with us. Afterwards, they both fell asleep on my bed.

If you look real close you can see Annabelle's kool-aid lip. Anyway, school started here last Monday. I can't believe the things that the schools do here. Parents are already stressed out with buying clothes and school supplies and two days into school, they send home packets for purchasing class rings ( $50 deposit required ). You think they'd at least wait a couple of weeks.

The one Chris wants costs $600.00. Oh my Lord! I don't know if I will survive high school again. Pray for me! I'm already stressing. But on a another note: I want to say how proud I am of Ambre. She has been working hard to get all of her pre-requisites done, so she can join the nursing program in January. She crossed another hurtle today when she passed her written exam and skills exam to update her nurses aide certification. She takes the PSB test on Wednesday then has the interview. If she does well on these she will be in the program. Please keep her in your prayers.

First Blog

I started this blog to keep friends and family posted on the happenings around the hill. And hill it is. We live in the foothills of NC near a gravel pit. Danny's family has lived in this area for over a hundred years but about 1965-66, the Thompson Brothers bought the land near the corner of Miller Rd and Maple Creek Rd and started blasting away to get to the mountain of gravel underneath. At that time, Pawpaw, Danny's Dad owned some land that was behind the area on the back side of the hill. The original driveway crossed the top of the hill behind the office and equipment yards that Thompson had set up. The property belonged at one time to an old black man and his family that sold the land to Danny's Dad around 1953. Pawpaw ran cows on the property which also connected to two other pieces of property he owned nearby. We moved back up to NC in 1983 from Florida and soon moved out here onto the hill. And we've been here since then. A number of years ago, Thompson had some test drilling done in our driveway ( which actually came over their land ) and found a huge supply of stone. They wanted this stone so asked us if they could build us another driveway, so they could get to the stone. We said yes but they had to make sure it was stable and they had to keep it maintained ( that's a law anyway ). The first try was a dismal failure. It was too steep in one area and the dam they build almost washed away the first really good rain we had. Anyway, nearly a year later they finally got it pretty right and we started using the new driveway. It's rained a few times and they have had to repair it several times but it's mostly been good. Anyway last winter they started to move the dirt from the old driveway and shift it over. In the picture you will see below, you can see the top of the mound they made in the photo. It runs almost the length of our new driveway. At one point, it is extremely close to our driveway. I asked them not to dump anymore dirt in that area but they kept at it. Well, we had two full days of rain this week and guess what. MUDSLIDE!!!! Yep, on the left hand side of the picture the mud is about three feet deep. But they came right out and cleaned it up and needless to say it will probably happen again.

Well, I thought you could see the top of the hill they built in one of these pictures but it must be on my phone. I'll try to take another pic tomorrow and show you the work they've done to try and clear this little mishap up. I just can't wait to see the next rain. Anyway, bye for now.