Blogging again? Maybe...

You know, I always enjoyed blogging. I was never a biggie, rarely got paid, never got free stuff, just had a few fun followers and made a couple of friends who are still my friends today. I think I had higher ambitions and when they didn't come to fruition, I kind of faded out.

You can see from my sidebars that my blob is seriously outdated.  I'll work on that.

But here's the thing. I LOVED blogging. Sometimes I think I can write here better than I can talk in person. Maybe because 29 people aren't interrupting me, but still. I've read some of my really old blogs and I wasn't embarrassed much at all. In fact at times I was pretty impressed with me.

I feel like I'm at a bit of a crossroads in my life right now, changes are a'happenin'. Maybe writing about my experiences here will be fun, help someone, or just help me.

 So stay tuned, never know what may happen.

The Pioneer Woman on Food Network!

Y'all, I've been reading The Pioneer Woman's blog for over 4 years. The first thing I remember reading is the recipe for this sandwich. And I cooked it. And we loved it. Over the years I've cooked many more of Ree's recipes, and let me tell you - they are AWESOME.

I don't read as many blogs as I used to, but I never miss a Pioneer Woman post. I've read about her kids, her dogs, calf nuts, book tours and her husband's chaps. At the risk of sounding like a stalker, I feel like I know this woman.

So last fall when Ree did Showdown with Bobby Flay? You know I DVRd it. And watched a thousand times, pausing to explain to Paul who each and every person was. Paul was thrilled. Well, I was seriously thrilled, because this chick? Who I know? Sort of? Was on the TV! That's like one degree of separation, except for the minor detail that she doesn't know I exist. But still.

Now you can imagine my excitement when I heard that Ree was doing a REAL show on Food Network, just like Miss Paula Deen!

Hey, guess what? I'm about to get to my point.

The Pioneer Woman premiered (I think it was the premier) this morning! And don't you know that I watched it. And loved it.

This is not your average cooking show. I mean, I'm sure the exact recipes are on the Food Network site, but here, Ree just lives her ranch life with an emphasis on cooking. On today's episode she made Chicken Fried Steak, etc., for dinner and Breakfast Sandwiches for - you guessed it - breakfast. And there were lots of kids and dogs and cowboys and cows...y'all, I absolutely love this show.

It's a hard one to explain, so just do yourself a favor - watch it. It's scheduled for 10:30 CT Saturday mornings, but I imagine it replays throughout the week. Check Food Network for showtimes.

Memorial Day Report-A-Thon

I haven't much to report, but in the interest of keeping this here blob current, I present to you some randomness:

I sincerely honor all of our servicemen and -women who have given their lives so that we may live in a free country.

In honor of the holiday eve, Court, Mag and I watched Shrek Forever After yesterday - two and one half times - while Big Daddy took Ab to the Rangers game. Where the Rangers won. Go Team!

I need a new header for my blog DESPERATELY. I'm working up the courage to tackle a tutorial and learn how to make myself a new one.

I am such a sewing sewer lately that it's scaring me. And making me happy. Latest projects include Easter skirts, cute kiddie art kits and hemming all of my girls' cut-offs. Well, not all. There a few still in the To Do Stack, and a few of them we left all fringy. Fringie? I dunno.

My next sewing projects will probably be shirts for Buddy (the Chihuahua we rescued but I haven't blogged about), purses for Court and Mag and maybe some organizing type things for myself.

Cause you know you were totally wondering.

Good movies on the TV this holiday weekend! Better go find me some and hunker back down in bed because it is totally too early to be up on a holiday.

Eight Years Old!

Y'all, my baby is turning eight today.

It's unreal.

She's growing up and staying a baby all at the same time, and it's killin' me! I don't have baby pictures on this computer (a separate hard drive is on my wish list), but here are some of the almost-eight-year-old:

We cut her hair a few months ago, for the first time in about 4 years. I absolutely LOVE the way her little bob looks, but then when I see photos of her with long hair it makes me a bit melancholy.

I'm fickle like that.

Maggie is an artist and a songwriter and Oh, so emotional. Even as I'm typing this post, she's singing an original song - most of them are original. And they

go on forever. They start out beautiful and poignant and heart-grabbing, and then after about 5 minutes it's like, "Dude, you're no Don McLean and this ain't American Pie." I'm a lovely Mom, huh?

I'm sure time will refine that.

I'm sure of it.

So Happy Birthday, my sweet Maggie Mae! Mommy loves you more than she ever knew she could!

15 Months

Fifteen Months!

That's right, I haven't posted on this here blog in fifteen whole months. But I'm thinking that's about to change. We'll see.

So let's see if I can bring you up to date.

Milestones? We lost both of our beloved dogs, Bear and Buster last year. Bear was 16 and Buster was 15. It sucked.

After we lost Buster in January, we also lost our dadgum minds and drove 100 miles to buy a puppy that was advertised as a Dachshund/Beagle mix just like Buster. We named him BJ and enjoyed him oh, so much. Until his legs got longer than mine. Uhm...neither Dachshund nor Beagle, and WAY too big for my dainty girls and our other dogs.

That's right, dogs. Because while we were wild with grief, we also rescued Princess, a Pom/Yorkie mix who was pregnant.

Bear was not amused.

Princess had those adorable puppies on March 30 of last year, and we named them Smoke, Choco and Daisy. The birth experience? Requires a story of its own. Dang, I wish I'd been blogging back then.

For those of you keeping count, that brought our canine total to SIX. Bear, BJ, Princess and 3 pups. We were rebels in violation of city ordinances.

BJ was the sweetest boy but just terrorizing everyone in the house, and we eventually found him a home with a Doberman rescue guy. The guy was a little off, but absolutely spoiled and doted on all of his Dobermans (Dobermen?) so we felt great about sending BJ off to his new home.

One of the puppies went to live with my cousins, making us legal here in our city.

And then in September my sweet Bear left us. Y'all, I had Bear longer than Big Daddy. But he couldn't stand or walk very well any more and he was just ready to move on. It was one of the most difficult experiences in my life.

And that's all I have to say about that.

My girls are all awesome and think they're grown and have crushes and are such young ladies these days. I'll post pictures soon. I'm still homeschooling but we're planning on attending a Charter School in the fall. It will be quite a transition for them all and I'm trying to be more structured here to prepare them.

Pray for them. And me.

Nine paragraphs on my dogs and one one my kiddos. Clearly I have some catching up to do on the girlies.

And on that note, I'm gonna go to sleep so I can get up in 3 hours to feed these crazy dogs and take them outside. Because the minute the alarm goes off they start licking my face and won't stop. No snoozing for me these days, my friends.

Later.

American Idol - Top 12 Girls Compete

Hey, look at me! I'm writing a blog post!

I know, I suck at blogging these days, huh?

Let's see how I can do at blogging American Idol.

Paige Miles - Started out good, but I think she junked it up in the chorus.

Ashley Rodriguez - Pitchy.

Janell Wheeler - I like her voice,b ut was underimpressed at the performance overall.

Lilly Scott - Dang, she lived in her car, y'all! I wish she had just a little bit of color in her hair tho. She's not really my cup of tea, but I think she did the best just so far.

Katelyn Epperly - Love the hair. And her performance was good. Not great, but very good. I may be having a problem with the sound or the arrangements or something tonight; not sure.

Haeley Vaughn - She really put her own spin on such a well-known song. Good job.

Lacey Brown - I totally want her hair. Totally. Plus - TEXAS! Not feelin' the song, though. I sorta like it and I sorta don't. But have I mentioned that I love her hair? Cause I DO.

Michelle Delamor - Meh.

Didi Something - Man, I like this girl's voice, but so many of these songs tonight are not my thing. That is all.

Siobhan Magness - Like her.

Krysal Bowersox - Hey I know I misspelled er name bu some of my keys ae sopped working. EEK. Wa's weird is a ey work eery were bu Blogger.

I qui+

So hey, I guess I didn't have much to say after all. But I'm puttin' it out there nonetheless. See ya tomorrow night for the boys.

Sayonara.

Loral Langmeier Scam

So yesterday I mentioned that I was less than happy with the Loral Langmeier organization, and I bet you don't even know who that is, huh?

Raise your hand if you know who that is.

Anyway.

Back in December, while riding in the car one night, Big Daddy and I were listening to talk radio and heard a lady who was very inspirational, very motivational, very Get Your Butt In Gear, etc. She was offering a free book, which you and I know is never really free, but I called the 800 number to get the details.

The operator assured me that the book was, in fact, free, but that we would have to pay for shipping. I was fine with that.

Oh, and you also get a free month of Loral's magnificent online community, web coaching, whatever the heck it is, and if you don't cancel in the first month, we'll just start charging you $67 a month. No biggie.

Yeah, NO. I do not want the "free" membership.

The operator informed me that the 30-day membership would begin the day we logged into the site, so I thought, "Hey, I just won't ever log in."

Yeah, that didn't work. They charged me anyway. AAAAAGH!

I called the Customer Service department Wednesday, and could tell that this is what they deal with EVERY day, people who didn't want to be charged, who tried to prevent getting charged, because the whole point is - THEY MAKE THEIR MONEY BY OFFERING FREE BOOKS AND THEN RIPPING PEOPLE OFF FOR $67.

The Customer Service rep told me that she would order a recording of my phone call and we would listen to it together, just call me back in 24 hours.

Guess who hasn't answered her extension since then?

I'm so aggravated, both at the scammers and at myself. Because I should have seen this coming. I should have hung up the minute they mentioned the stupid online membership. I thought I could handle it.

But they beat me.