All Kinds of Random Stuff

Here you see my Campfire vest. I was thinking about how much I love Russell Stover chocolates and it all began here. The cactus looking patches represented how many boxes of candy I sold. All I remember about them is that the red ones were for selling 15 boxes. My best was that yellow one which signified 100 boxes. The box of chocolates sold for $2.00 a box, the peanut brittle was 75 cents. I can remember a few times that I ate the candy without having the  money to pay for it. To this day, I can recognize every, single one in the box. My favorite is the cherry nougat followed by the maple cream. The beads were earned for all different things. I did one heck of a lot of babysitting, dishwashing, leaf raking, and a zillion other things to earn all those beads. The back is covered.

This is a post card I sent home from Camp Derricott.  Even then it was all about the food. "Seconds" in our house was rare---especially if you were a slow eater. The biggest treat at camp was getting as much food as you wanted. Don't get me wrong, we all had plenty of food to eat at home. but we didn't have snacks around and mom didn't make many desserts. Saturday nights were the best---remember "Saturday Night at the Movies" on television? Dad made malts and mom made popcorn. Sometimes we had soda ---which mom had every day at lunch and dinner---so unfair---we had to drink milk.

Looks like someone "stole" my mirror idea and had it published in a magazine!
Too bad, I didn't think of the gallery rails.

 My new car that I ran out of gas on the highway before I ever put gas in it for the first time.

Now I'm not known to be the most observant person in the world. But when describing my car, I said that it is top-of-the-line-fully-loaded with 2 bottom of the line features. One is the manual (rather than power) adjustable steering wheel and the other is the cheap tires. I just liked them better. Turns out, I didn't get the cheap ones after all. Butch just told me on Friday night in front of Jack and Connie that I got the expensive ones! That's pretty bad. But what's worse is when we picked up the car, I said something about the color. Butch couldn't believe I picked the same as his. I said, "no I didn't." Yes I did---and even after having his car around here for 6 months, I had no idea. I swear, it looked different on the lot---darker. I like my new car and "love" certain features---like that auto start, OnStar and handsfree phone. There's also this little foot rest that is just perfect for me. Taking it on a road trip the day after picking it up probably wasn't such a great idea---it was filthy inside and out---not to mention the gum Butch had to get off my new carpet---I didn't even know I had "drug" it in. Thankfully he cleaned it all up just like brand new again.

Mindy gave me this orchid for my birthday. This is the only bloom that remains.

So, Jeanne, my orchid looks like your ammaryllis---should I toss it? I think not. I'll wait and see if I get another sprout. Orchids are tough.

And now, a report after one year of retirement. It's really worked out pretty well. I've adjusted to having Butch's "office" in the kitchen. I gave him a big basket which helps keeping the table clear most of the time.

I have discovered that he's a "compulsive compactor"---especially when I'm trying to nap.

Seriously, I don't know what I would have done without him this year---helping with the girls, moving Mindy while I was dealing with mom's death, fighting with the cell phone company over fraudulent charges and a bunch of other household chores that really helped me out. Last week, while I was at the scrapbook retreat, he even went to Michaels and bought 25 photo boxes for my classes. "Bless his heart," (when southerners start off a sentence this way, you know that something not very nice is following---hinting that the person is a little dimwitted---as in "bless her heart, she had no idea her husband was running around on her." Or "bless his heart", he's not the sharpest crayon in the box."---you get the idea). "Bless his heart, he carried all of those boxes upstairs and stacked them neatly---only for me to have to haul them all back downstairs again." He's a great errand boy---luckily he can't sit still for too long.

Today, I had an issue with him "printing over the top of me." We share a printer. He was working in his "office" while I was in mine. I was printing labels for my next two sold out classes. All of a sudden, my labels came out with his "crap" printed on them. Labels aren't exactly cheap! Frustrating. But then....

You can hardly stay aggravated with a guy when you discover that he cleaned out the refrigerator. That was a nice surprise. He does a lot of stuff around the house. We usually unload the dishwasher together, but if anyone does it alone, it's him more often than me.

I had a shredder mishap yesterday. Since inheriting mom's shredder, I've really used it a lot. Yesterday, I realized too late that I shredded the bills before I actually paid them! I shredded 4 before I caught myself. I was able to remember what they were. I had cross-checked my receipts with my credit card bill and couldn't remember exactly how much that was, so I just guessed "high" to be on the safe side. The others, electric, and gas, I just paid what I paid last month plus $25.00. The last one was Church and I send the same amount every month, so that was easy to figure out. I really must pay more attention.

And lastly, I could really go for a vanocolate malt from Steak and Shake. Go ahead, try to pronounce it. I've already warned Janice and Jeanne that I'm using it in Scrabble.