Taco Night 2016

Otter may have moved out to her own place, but we still have Taco Night!  Usually, the night before her birthday but sometimes it's a few days before.  Occasionally, it's on her birthday - depending on what/where/when her birthday dinner is.  This year, she chose a Mexican restaurant and the actual mean will be ON her birthday.  But Bill and I still had bean and cheese tacos for dinner tonight so I think it counts.  :)

Also, this is one of the 3 times per year that we actually have bacon.  Otter's birthday, Bills birthday and Christmas.  I just realized how much that sounds like Texas Seasons:  Summer, Summer, Summer, Christmas.  :)

Beyond that, it's been a pretty good week.  Bill is happy and non-stressed and that is a very nice change.

Just A Nice Sunday

Today I have really noticed the lack of the crushing stress we've been dealing with for the last 2+ years.  Sunday evenings are usually when I would start thinking about what I was sending in Bill's lunches for the coming week and also I made sure that his shirts were ironed along with making sure he had clean jeans for the week.  I did iron his shirts, because there may be times when he wants a nice golf shirt to wear and they are hanging in the closet where they usually do.  But they will probably be hanging there for a while as opposed to needing to be washed, ironed and hung up again for the work week.

I still need to do meal planning, but that's the normal "what are we eating for dinner this week" thing that always happens!

We had a nice Easter dinner.  Otter had to work until 5:00 today, so she came over when she got off work.  We had ham, rice, brown gravy, rolls and green bean casserole.  And Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream pie that I picked up at Braums on Friday - Froggy, you didn't get on me about it when we were talking on the phone!  You must be slipping.  :)

Maggie Moo has had a nice day herself - she's spent most of the last few hours snoozing.  I did try to get her out in the back yard earlier, but she wouldn't even move off the deck.  She was very happy when Otter got here.  That is about the only time the little fluffbutt actually got out of her bed!

Now that things are so much calmer around here, I am thinking I'll probably be blogging more.  There was just so much stress to deal with.  It was constant and never seemed to get any better.  Until suddenly, without warning, it went away.

And it's really nice.

Easter 2016

WHEW! ALL DONE.

I have referred to a stressful situation a few times.  I also referred to last year being one of our worst for reasons I wasn't specifying.  At the time.

(It's actually been closer to 2 years, and it's been almost overwhelming at times.  Overwhelming to the point where it's affected both of us in terms of health and there were times when I seriously worried that Bill was possibly in danger of a stroke or heart attack.  It was that bad.  Soul crushing would be a good term to describe it.)

Today, I'm specifying.  An example of some of the issues.

Nearly 18 years ago, Bill changed jobs from the one he started with when we moved to Tulsa.  We moved out of Tulsa a few years back but are still somewhat close to Tulsa.  His job was actually in Tulsa and it was a fairly major Tulsa employer.

It started out good and had a pretty bright future.  But the last 2+ years have been beyond bad.  The bright future?  Well, it evaporated.  His department head retired and he (and the rest of the techs) were transferred to a different department head that had been in charge of their department in the past.  The department head wasn't very good then, but the situation was tolerable.  But then, just over 2 years ago, the department head started making changes which culminated in his hiring someone as a supervisor who is supremely unqualified for the job.  Basically, he put an unqualified bully in charge.  The bully started making life miserable for as many people as he could and the department head basically let him do it.  When anyone would complain, they were targeted for even worse treatment.  Apparently, the bully (and the department head) viewed anyone with any brains, experience, dignity, morals, etc., as a threat.  Bill was one of the first ones targeted.  He wasn't the only one, but he was the one getting the worst pressure.  We probably had grounds for a hostile workplace suit, among other things.  We were looking at options and considering what to do, it was pretty obvious that the supervisor was angling to fire Bill (and probably not just him) and he had (more than once) made up things or falsified things and even though Bill always proved that he (Bill) was not guilty of whatever he was accused of, the department head went along with whatever the supervisor said/did.  There is a lot that went on but I'm not going into those specifics.  We've prayed ourselves into near-exhaustion over what to do.

A couple of weeks ago, those prayers were answered.  In the form of a cost-cutting measure which basically was a contract buy-out offer to over 500 employees.  Bill was one of the eligible employees.

We realized that this was the answer we'd been praying for.  The timing was too perfect for it to be anything other than God's timing.  The buyout process was too perfect for it to be anything but God's timing.  The actual buyout offer was too perfect for it to be anything but God's timing.  He took the offer and turned the paperwork in this week.

Today was his last day actually being there although he is still technically an employee.  He has some vacation time which he's taking next week so that he's still actually employed but that ends at 3:30 next Friday, April 1st.  There is no way that he will change his mind.  It's a done deal and he's done with it.

And we are not worried at all about what the future holds.  We know that God is still in control.

Rambling

Just normal stuff going on around here. Mostly.

Today is National Puppy Day.  That means Maggie Moo pictures!

And, since he will always be my puppy:

Can't believe it's been nearly a year already.  Miss this boy!

It's been extremely windy the last few days, but that is normal for this time of year.  So far, the broken limbs are still in the tree but at least one of them has moved a little.  It's not a huge limb, but there is one piece in particular that is very big although it's not broken off completely.

I put my yarn pieces out for the birds last weekend.  I also discovered a nest being built inside Otter's trellis.  Not sure what kind of birds though.  We are trying to avoid getting anywhere near the trellis.

And, since it's spring and the bugs are out:

I saw the first one at work yesterday!  INSIDE THE OFFICE.  I was standing in the kitchen area when it came from somewhere behind me (which means from inside.  Again) and crashed into the kitchen window.  It was probably trying to get out.  I eventually got it on the end of the broom, then I slowly and carefully took it outside.  And then I crushed it into a million billion pieces.

Hate those things!

Honeybees, now they are welcome.  They have plenty of bluebonnet blossoms to visit!  The redbud has lot of blooms left although some are beginning to blow off and I've seen a few leaves on the tree.  But I did see at least one honeybee on it as well.

Otter goes back to the dentist tomorrow for the 2nd of 4 visits.  I'll bring her back home afterwards, she'll probably get as far as my couch and then she'll sleep for a couple of hours.  She asked me if I would make potato soup tomorrow, of course I said yes.

More later!

First Day of Spring 2016

Today is the first day of Spring.  Of course, I'm still waiting on it to actually be winter!!  We didn't have much of one, so I guess the fact that we didn't have as much firewood as we usually do (and need) didn't really matter all that much.  I think we maybe only used the fireplace twice.

While I don't mind at all not having to deal with icy road conditions, and I'm not at all upset that Bill and the Otter didn't have to deal with them either, the lack of cold weather means that it's going to be a bad bug year.  I've been seeing flying things for a few weeks now, which is way early.  We may have to deal with worse ticks and fleas this year, thanks to the warm winter.

And the allergy situation will be bad this year as well, it's already started for most of us.  Part of the reason for the allergy forecast being so bad is because things are blooming way early as well as being staggered.

I'm not trying to gripe, I know it sounds like it.  I'm actually enjoying seeing the trees bloom and the birds are already starting nesting.  I'm just also already having allergy issues is all.

There really isn't a lot going on around here to blog about.

I'm not complaining about that, either! :)

Trying...

to get back in the swing of things as far as blogging goes!

Maggie Moo, however, has never changed her routine of sleeping as much as she can.  We've been leaving her in the house all the time for a few months, we used to put her and Frasier out in the garage on the days we were not home all day.  They had a dog door to the back yard, water in the garage and outside and also a mat to lay on so they weren't exactly being left in the garage for hours on end!  But a few months back, we decided to try leaving Maggie Moo inside while we were gone since we realized that a lot of the leaky issues were quite possibly Frasier's age creeping up on him.  Maggie did still have a few accidents and may still, she is a dog after all and is about 12 years old herself.  But she seemed to be mostly having her accidents in the spots where Frasier had his and we think she was probably drawn to the smell.  So, we got out the carpet cleaner and hit a lot of places and then we started leaving her in for short spells of a couple of hours.  Then when she seemed to be doing ok, and it was becoming winter (well, the calendar said so anyway), we started just leaving her indoors and she seems to do fine.  She probably sleeps a lot!  She has plenty of places to sleep, she has her food and water plus the dog doors so she can go outside when she needs to.  Although at the moment, she is sprawled across one of her beds, a pillow and two of her blankets - snoozing!

My redbud tree in the back yard is pink all over!  It's really pretty and I'm enjoying it.  Not that the outside is being kind to me at the moment - it's going to be a B.A.D. year as far as allergies are concerned.  Thanks mostly to the non-winter!  Even though we did not plant tulips last fall, we have a few coming up in the tulip bed.  The last time we planted was Fall 2014 and some of the bulbs were 2-year bulbs.  The daffodils have already started coming up and some have bloomed.

But we have something else starting to bloom.  Something very special:

The whiskey barrel is overflowing with them and there are several plants sprouting around the whiskey barrel.  The buds are beginning to open.

Yes, I do think Otter was right:  The Teenager has been talking to them!

The Day After

Yep!

Froggy - Maggie Moo did enjoy her beffday bone, she was quite happy to eat it.  After she hid it 5 or 6 times!  She didn't act like she was leaving it out like she did with her Christmas treat bone, but she did hide it and move it several times before she decided it was time to eat it.

However, I still hate Daylight Savings Time!

March 12

Hey!!

It's meeeee, Maggggiiiiiieeeeeeeee Moooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!111

It's my beffday today!  I knows thissssss because my mommom telled meeee.  I'm gunnnna gett a treeeatt soooooonnnn,  I hopes itz a bone like lasstt timme.

I'mz all by myselfs now.  My big brudder Frasier had ttooo go ttooo the Rainbow Bridge alreaddy.  He didnnn't waited for me to goes wifs himm but he telledd meee befores he wentted that he'll comme mmeeeettt meeee when itz myy turnn but that it wontz be mmyyyy tturnn for a lotz of times.

My mommom and Dadd plays wifs mmee alotz of times.  My firstest mom lives in anudder den nows.  She comez to seeeeez me lottss of timez.

Gotz to goez now.  I wantz my beffday treat.

Yay!  It's a bone!

180 Years

Our History

No, it's not American history.  Although I've seen it called that.  Usually by non-TEXANS.

I understand their confusion.  Most of them just don't get it.

Yes, we are American.

But we are TEXAN first.

Forever.

(I did not write this although I have annotated it.  I can't find the original author to credit it.)

You know you're from Texas when...

• You measure distance in minutes.

• You can say “110 degrees” without fainting.

• The local news reporter actually fries an egg on the sidewalk.

• You say “Yes, ma’am” and “Yes, sir” to your own parents.

• You’ve ever driven 2 hours just to eat lunch, and then driven back.

• “Spring” is the grass being green for two weeks - then it’s brown...for the rest of the year.

• Directions include "down yonder".

• The rivalry between A&M and UT results in some people’s ideas of good and evil... and don’t even bring up OU.

• There is a Dairy Queen in every town with a population of 1000 or more.

• You see more roadkill on the highway than cars.

• The speed limit on the freeway is 70 but you are stuck behind a tractor (or john deere tractor) going 15.

• You know exactly who has been down your dirt road by the tire tracks...

• You can make a U-turn ANYWHERE you want... regardless of what the signs say.

• You discover that you can get a sunburn through your car window.

• You listen to the weather forecast before picking out an outfit.

• School gets canceled for 1/2 an inch of snow, your "snowmen" are less than 2 feet tall, and a majority of it is sand and leaves.

• You have BEEN HIT by a deer, but have yet to hit one.

• You know that roadrunners don’t say Beep Beep.

• You know the best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.

• Hot water comes out of both taps.

• You realize asphalt has a liquid state.

• You carry jumper cables in your car ... for your OWN car.

• You have known someone who has had one belt buckle bigger than your fist.

• You know what "cow tipping" and "snipe hunting" is – and you know better than to go “snipe hunting”.

• School is cancelled for Stock Show/Rodeo.

• You have 5 pairs of boots and they all serve different purposes.
1) Work boots
2) Rodeo boots
3) Dress boots
4) Casual boots
5) Huntin’ boots

• You attend a formal event in your best clothes, your finest jewelry and your cowboy boots.

• You shop at HEB.

• You can wear a T-Shirt one day and the temperature drop 50 degrees with ice on the ground by the next morning.

• You can drive all day and not leave the state.

• When it rains, everyone is smiling.

• The Pastor wears boots.

• Four generations of the same family sit together in worship.

• You see more Texan flags than American flags.

• You know someone who ate the 72 oz steak and got it for free.

• You prefer Whataburger to McDonalds.

• You're disappointed when a food doesn't come in spicy flavor.

• You can tell a rock from an armadillo at 300 yards.

• You know people with black cars and/or leather seats are just asking for it.

• You know what Lone Star Beer is.

• Your idea of the perfect summer involves floating along in the sweltering hot July sun while your butt freezes in the cold Guadalupe for 8 hours straight!

• 45 minutes to work is the average... on a good day.

• Texas has two political leanings: Conservative and Austin

• On any given day, there's something someone's allergic to somewhere in the air.

• You know that that plural of “y’all” is “all y’all”.

• Yes, it is possible for it to be 3 A.M., 85º and 95% humidity. And then there's Houston...

• There are days when your towels won't dry.

• We have four geographical regions; how many do you have?

• It's called a bluebonnet. Leave it alone.

• Let's get this straight; it's called a "gravel road". Your Lexus WILL get dirty.

• You drive a pickup truck because you want to.

• You know 4 seasons - summer, hot summer, scorching hot summer and Deer Season. (Or Summer, Summer, Summer, Christmas.)

• You go to the gas station and there is a sign in the window that reads, “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service!”

• You have used/heard the term “booze cruise” when bored on a Saturday night.

• So every person in every pickup waves. It's called being friendly. It's not limited to pickups, by the way.

• A Mexican restaurant can be judged by its salsa.

• Yes, by "Mexican", we mean "Tex-Mex" -- the only version that counts.  We are talking about food here and are not trying to be rude about people or their heritage/nationality.

• You eat what you catch...as long as it isn't out of the back pond.

• You've swam in a pond, creek, crick, "fishin' hole", cow trough.

• You had a tree house...or two...now that you think of it there were houses in all those trees.

• You've ridden a bull or know someone who has.  They may be relatives, too.

• You've had to sit through traffic on Tuesdays and Saturdays because the sale was going on.

• You've been in the town newspaper for something other than felonies and your teachers notice.

• You didn't have cable...you had channel 4, 6, 12 and a handful of Spanish language stations..

• School was cancelled because, no lie, the entire school was sick.

• You have done one or know someone who has done one or more of the following with hot wire:
- Peed on it to verify the myth
- Grabbed hold of it
- Clothes lined yourself
- (For those of you who don't know what a hot wire is...hot wire = electric fence...and you're lucky if it's a pulse model and not constant current)

• Stay off the road - there are no speed limits.
  (This one isn't actually legal!)

• The same hot wire that shocked the crap out of you will not keep the bull out of the neighbor’s pasture....that's why all the neighbor’s cows had all black claves.

• High school football is a way of life.

• You were in 4H, FFA, FCA.

• The girls have the biggest trucks.

• You can find the party Saturday night by the road with the most dust kicked up.

• You have bean and cheese tacos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

• A funeral procession for one of your family members can take over half an hour.

• You can tell how many people live in a house by counting the trucks parked in the front yard.

JUST TO NOTE:
It's a common misconception that everything is twice as big in Texas, really, everything is 1.965 times bigger, but we round up.

It's a common misconception that we have killer bees, fire ants, gigantic roaches and mosquitoes and other awful insects, tornadoes, hurricanes, and damaging hailstorms. We tend to think of them as a few bitty bugs and a bad hair day.

It's a common misconception that everyone speaks with a Texas drawl. Y'all just don't know what y'all are talkin' about.


Finally, you are 100% Texan if you have ever heard this conversation:

“You wanna coke?”
“Yeah.”
“What kind?”
“Dr. Pepper.”

One Tired Ottermom!

It's been a tiring day, although I haven't done a whole lot to be tired from.

I did manage to go to a church yard sale, I found a few books but nothing else.  I looked at a sale that is put on in a local storage place, they have one every few months and I don't usually go but I had time today.  It is located in the same shopping center as Otter's store, she was just getting to work when I was about to park so I stopped and gave her coke money.  She was pleasantly surprised.

I also met Bill up at the booth.  The owner of the booth thought that if he would come by and actually play one of the pachinko machines it might lead to a sale.  We've actually sold several lately, but from our website and not from the booth.  Although the machines were at the booth so we had to go get them!  Anyway, he spent about half an hour playing pachinko and did get some attention but I don't really think it will help sales.  Neither does Bill, but he didn't want to tell the owner of the store that because she really is trying hard to make a go of the store.

Maggie Moo is a happy beagle.  She wore one of her beds out and she got a new one yesterday.  It came from Otter's store.  Maggie has spent quite a bit of her time snoozing in her new bed, I think she likes it.  She's sprawled out across it at the moment, she moves every so often but only to change position.  She doesn't actually want to get up!

One good thing did happen today:  KN3 got married!  That's Froggy's daughter, she's the third of Froggy's three kids so that's why she's called K(id)N(umber)3 on here.  For a couple of reasons, it turned out that I wasn't able to go after all but we're very happy for them.

Froggy - you better send me lots of pictures!

Just Hanging Around

The tree limbs are, anyway!  We've had a couple of windy days and one somewhat windy thunderstorm and the tree limb is still in the top of the tree.  But it probably won't be through the spring, if we get the kind of storms we usually do.

Maggie Moo found a sunny spot to sleep in!

Just because it's cute.

Yep, this one's 101% true!