Wooooo Hooooo - It's Race Day!

Racing season is finally back! Yippy Skippy! Today was the Daytona 500 -- congrats to Ryan Newman for his win (yeah - he was one of my 5 fantasy racing picks!). I felt bad for Kyle Busch -- SO close and yet so far. And Dale Jr. was a bit of a disappointment, but at least he did better than his team mates, which is good. Jeff and I normally tape the race on our DVR, then watch it an hour or two after it starts because we like to fast forward through the commercials. Today, however, we decided to watch it live so we could have Sirius radio tuned in to the driver channels at the same time. But Holy Cow, there were a LOT of commercials. The race ran about 3 1/2 hours, and I bet 1 1/2 hours of that was commercials. Every 10 laps or so they did another 3 minutes of commercials! I know this is the "Super Bowl" of racing, but UGH... more racing, less commercials, please! Once the race started, I called Mary's house and asked what she was doing (cleaning) and what Brayden was doing (playing), so I asked her to turn the TV on and put the race on for him. She thought I was crazy, but when she turned and asked Brayden if he wanted to watch a race on TV, you could hear him running and yelling RACE RACE RACE! and then UMMA! UMMA! (that's me) as he headed for the television. Jeff and I are training him well! LOL We have races on DVD here and he likes to watch them with us. He has knows the "names" of his die cast cars -- Terry, Bobby, Dale and Kevin! And he can pick those cars out on television. Yeah baby - another race enthusiast in the family!

Do you believe in miracles?

I'm not a big believer in miracles, per se. Yes, the sun rising in the morning, flowers blooming in the Spring, the birth of babies, etc., are certainly miracles. But have you ever witnessed a non-nature-related miracle? I have. My daughter has a pinched sciatic nerve. Right after she had her son (almost 2 years ago), she went through a period of agonizing pain. I mean, this girl would get out of her car and stand in my driveway and scream like someone was killing her. She couldn't stand, she couldn't walk, she couldn't sit without screaming. It was absolutely horrible to witness, especially since as a Mom, I wanted to "fix" her and couldn't. She went to doctor after doctor, emergency room after emergency room. They wanted to either pump her full of drugs or push her on to the next doctor. Appointments sometimes took weeks to get. No one seemed to care. Her family suffered. She was not able to take care of her baby son. She missed work. If not for a very understanding boss, she could have lost her job. This dragged on forever and we just could not find any answers or anyone who would help her. Doctors (and nurses in their office) just seemed so heartless and just didn't care that she was absolutely in agony. Honestly, they just did not care. The answer to everything was drugs, and she didn't want drugs because of her past history of drug dependency and abuse. One day when she was exhausted and in shreaking pain, I got on the Internet and looked up every doctor in a 20 mile range. We started calling - one after the other. No one cared. Two weeks to an appointment, a month to an appointment, go to the nearest ER. No one cared. Until Mary made the phone call that literally changed her life. The name of the place is the West Chester Back and Pain Clinic and it was less than 2 miles from my house. At the time, it was in a strip mall and we'd passed it a thousand times and never noticed it. She called and they said "Come right in!". Mary arrived and had to be brought in in a wheelchair, moaning and screaming with pain. Forty-five minutes later, Mary walked out of Dr. Shrickel's office with a smile on her face. The pain was gone. No drugs. No pushing her to the next physician. This doctor stopped the pain then and there. It was a miracle to witness. I can't say enough about a docto who cares and who has compassion for his patients. This doctor actually gave Mary his personal cell phone number in case she needed him OVER THE HOLIDAYS! He opened up his office on New Year's Day for her -- with his children in tow! The funny thing is, our family is not a believer in chiropractors, and if we had known Dr. Shrickel was a chiropractor, Mary would never have gone to him. But we didn't know (fate)... and she did go. And he stopped her pain and made her life livable again. This past week she went through a similar incident. The pain wasn't quite as bad (at least, I didn't hear her screaming, just crying). But when she called Dr. Shrickel, he was away to a conference until Friday! She missed all but one day of work this week because she couldn't sit, couldn't stand, couldn't function. Lo and behold, she got in to see him on Friday afternoon and what do you think? Forty-five minutes later she walked out with a smile on her face. The pain was gone. Before Mary went to her doctor on Friday, I promised myself that if this worked for her a second time, I would make an appointment to see him for my back problems. One time, I said, could have been a fluke. But TWO times -- the man knows what he's doing. So this week I will gladly call for an appointment.

Picture of the Day

Blog picture of the Day

Happy Valentine's Day to the people I love...

I love my family. My son, JJ (28), and daughter, Mary (26), are so precious to me. They're grown and have their own lives now, but deep in my heart, I will always think of them like this:



I'm so lucky to be married to the world's best husband and have the world's best grandson in my life. So many grandparents these days don't know their grandchildren because they live far away. I'm so lucky to have Brayden nearby!



Happy Valentine's Day everyone -- my good friends, my family, my blog readers. I wish each one of you a special day and know that you are appreciated by me.

More pics found on blogs

I think I've found a new hobby... no, wait.. I don't need another new hobby! But finding pics like these sure is fun!



My sister-in-law, Wendy, is scared to death of bridges. Can you imagine how she'd feel if she saw THIS road up ahead of her?? LOL!

I have no idea where this bridge is, or who to give credit for this photo. But I'm betting it wasn't THIS photographer!

So true!!!!

Thanks to my daughter-in-law, Lisa, for emailing this to me. I love it! This was written By Regina Brett of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolls over to 70 in August, so here goes: 1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good. 2. When in doubt, just take the next small step. 3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. 4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does. 5. Pay off your credit cards every month. 6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree. 7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone. 8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it. 9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck. 10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile. 11 . Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present. 12. It's OK to let your children see you cry 13. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about. 14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it. 15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks. 16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind. 17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful. 18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger. 19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else. 20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer. 21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special. 22. Over prepare, then go with the flow. 23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple. 24. The most important sex organ is the brain. 25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you. 26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?" 27. Always choose life. 28. Forgive everyone everything. 29 What other people think of you is none of your business. 30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time. 31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change. 32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick.. Your friends will. Stay in touch. 33. Believe in miracles. 34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do. 35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now. 36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young. 37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable. 38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved. 39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere. 40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back. 41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need. 42. The best is yet to come. 43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up. 44. Yield. 45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

A nice freebie

Here's a great freebie I found today on the USPS web site. A *FREE* (and beautiful!) card for writing a letter -- put out by the Post Office and HBO in celebration of the upcoming HBO series about John Adams. And - ta da! - the post office pays two-way postage! You select the card you want, personalize it with photos if you want, then they mail it to you so you can hand write your own letter. Now, you know you have a friend or relative who would love to get a handwritten letter from you! Here's the web site: http://poweroftheletter.com You'll find the "John Adams Greeting Card" in the left-hand column.

Weird stuff

OK, I need to head up to my quilt room. I'm sitting here wasting so much time cruising other blogs! I love hitting that "next blog" button at the top of the page just to see what I find. Sometimes it's good, sometimes not. Today, I collected a few pictures along the way. See if you find these interesting!

The two photos above are from http://cenasdoarcodavelha.blogspot.com/ . They both made me smile. The next photo is from http://agatelessjapan.blogspot.com/ . It's a little sad, isn't it?

My northern friends will laugh

This is what stopped the greater Cincinnati, OH area today -- about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of snow. At last count, there were 175 school, work and group closings. If you look at the local traffic cameras, there's almost no one on the roads. Accidents were abundant. The photo was taken looking out my front door.

The difference between snow in New Hampshire and snow in Ohio? Attitude! In New Hampshire, winter is a way of life -- you go skiing, skating, sledding. The kids make snow forts, throw snow balls, create snowmen. The road crews know what they're doing and stay on top of things. Rarely do schools close for anything less than six inches of snow -- and not even that if the roads are plowed!

In southwestern Ohio, winter is nothing but a nuisance. When it snows, people panic. The lines at the grocery stores are long (in case that half-inch keeps you in the house for a month!) and people buy batteries, snow shovels, milk and bread. Road crews dream of Spring when they can go back to road construction. They see dollar signs with every snow flake because they can put in long days putting SO much salt on the road that you can literally shovel it off in great scoops. Schools close when snow is FORECAST, even though it often never arrives. Local television stations send out multi-person crews to cover exciting snow news -- people scraping their windshields and putting ice-melt on their walkways.

In New Hampshire, this storm would have come and gone almost unnoticed. In Ohio, you'd think the blizzard of 78 had hit the Cincinnati area.

Either way, I'm in my house, safe and warm. Rain is due in this afternoon, so we don't even need to shovel -- the rain will wash the 1/4 inch of snow away on it's own.

Red Sky in morning

Pretty sunrise from my back deck this morning... Red sky in morning, sailor's take warning. I haven't listened to the full weather report today, but I understand 3-4 inches of snow is on it's way tonight and tomorrow. Fine by me -- I don't have to go anywhere! Besides, if it's this cold (yesterday we reached 14 degrees), we ought to at least having a pretty snow landscape to look at. Right now we're looking at bare trees, dead grass, and mud. Snow would be much better!

I went grocery shopping at WallyWorld on Saturday. I don't normally do grocery shopping there, but I had other things to buy so I thought I'd combine trips. I don't know how people shop exclusively at WallyWorld. I came away without buying any meats at all (other than a package of Hebrew National hot dogs). Their meats are very expensive and everything is pre-packaged (as in, no butcher in the back) and just doesn't look appetizing. Other items that I buy regularly (Kroger brand coffee, Millstone coffee, and more) aren't available, so I end up going to the "real" grocery store after going to WallyWorld.

I spent $170, but it included a lot of non-food items -- 3 new shirts (found on sale for $3 each), a new pair of sneakers, new undies, a new mop (Jeff broke mine), two pair of shoes for Brayden (again, on sale for $3 each!), new toothbrushes, and more. I think I spent about $80 on groceries and $90 on "other". If I'd gone to Krogers, I'd have bought more meats, but we'll get by just fine on what I did by. I had to re-make my menu's for the week, since I didn't come home with the meats I wanted. So here are this week's menus.

Sunday - Baked Tilappia (fish), sugar free coleslaw (homemade), salad
Monday - Spaghetti with italian sausage, onions, peppers
Tuesday* - Tomato soup, grilled cheese
Wednesday - Veg stir fry, chicken egg rolls
Thursday - Baked chicken, brown rice, salad
Friday* - Frozen pizza, salad
Saturday - Hot dogs, wheat rolls, leftover coleslaw, baked beans

* Brayden's here all day and I'm too tired to do much cooking at the end of the day, so these days are always fast meals.

I use DREAMFIELDS pasta. If you've never tried it, it's really worth trying. It's very high in fiber, low in carbs, and actually tastes like PASTA (as opposed to meany of the healthier pastas that taste like cardboard - or worse). You absolutely cannot tell the difference between this pasta and "regular" pasta. They have elbow macaroni, spaghetti, linguine, penne and lasagna noodles. Good stuff! Want a coupon? Go here!

Brayden stayed overnight Saturday night. He and Mary met us at the local Chinese Buffet restaurant, and we were all shocked when Brayden ate more than his fair share of chinese food! He loved noodles, chicken fingers and cheese sticks, and along with those ate cantalope, grapes and bananas. The little boy's only fault is that he is a really fussy eater, so it was amazing to watch him "chow down" like he did.

Mary left us at the restaurant and we brought Brayden home with us. He'd brought his harmonica, which he loves to play and actually does quite good (though he hasn't yet developed the concept of a "song" -- but he does love music!). I normally have Sirius radio on "Kids Stuff" channel -- and Brayden now stops whatever he's doing when he recognizes harmonica music, puts his hands up to his mouth and blows, like he's playing the harmonica! LOL! His new words over the weekend were "Warm" "Easy" and "Hard". Easy and Hard come in to play when he's stringing wooden beads -- some are thinner (easy) and some are longer (hard). The "warm" came into play when I gave him a bath -- I taught him that if the water isn't hot and it isn't cold, it's warm. He understood completely.

Today is laundry, laundry and more laundry, combined with ironing. I did iron several of Jeff's shirts last night, but still have more to go. Also washing some fabric for a Box Swap my Yahoo group is doing.