Happy Happy Shopping Day

If you can jump in the car and be at a nice mall in less than half an hour, then this story will make no sense to you. However, if you are like us and the two hottest clothes store in your area are Wal-Mart and Goodwill, you can probably feel my pain here.

Don't get me wrong, I love Wal-Mart and FarmerGeek has developed an obsession for Goodwill "finds". But occasionally, I feel the need to indulge in retail therapy. Since our tax return came in, we were able to do our part to stimulate the economy. We decided not to go into our nearest big city, we would drive an extra half hour to go to the bigger city that actually has a Barnes and Noble, JoAnn's Super Store, Berean Christian Store, Bed Bath and Beyond, Body Shop, and Michael's. (No half of these stores are not in our closest big city and NONE of them are in our town. Our anchor stores at the mall nearest us are Elder-Beerman, J.C. Penney's and a scrapbooking store!)

The day was dubbed "Happy Happy Shopping Day" and I had looked forward to it for weeks.

I woke up in the morning with a mild migraine. Now "mild" with "migraine" is an oxymoron. A mild migraine for me means that I have blinding, agonizing pain shooting through my brain, am completely unable to tolerate light and sound, but I'm not nauseous. I knew the right cocktail of OTC meds and it subsided. Then I just felt wrung out and used up. But I resolved I would go.

The choring was done, the house ready, and I only felt like ass instead of honey bunches of ass, so I went to get ready. The bathroom door hadn't been closed even 5 minutes when I heard the noise. BBBRRRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPTTTTTTTTTTTT squirt. Now I knew FarmerGeek was sleeping upstairs, so it wasn't him. (Is it bad that I automatically thought it was him? Or is it conditioning?) Then before I could figure it out, the stench- oh the stench!- wafted out to me. GAG! Sure enough, the older dog caught what the puppy had and it was everywhere. Luckily we hadn't put the rug shampooer away yet.

Well all was said and done, we didn't get out of the house until nearly 2:30- only 2 and a half hours late! We plugged in Carmen the Garmin and set out for the big city. One of the places we really wanted to go was Barnes and Noble. Sure enough we found one in the Garmin, and as we followed directions we realized it was indeed taking us to a Barnes and Noble- only the Barnes and Noble was the local college's bookstore!!!! Sigh. So we put in Lane Bryant. I had coupons and a merchandise credit! Oh joy! Oh bliss! Oh wait- there's a mall over there... I had to stop. I just had to. (Even though "in point one miles, arrive at Lane Bryant, on right".) So we pulled into the mall parking lot (recalculating) and I took a deep breath.

Ah the smell of gratuitous commerce.

There we found a Body Shop, and spent money. (YAY!) We spent enough to get the free shower gel. Then we decided to stroll around and look for the Lane Bryant (which we found out was in the mall). Unfortunately, it was kids' and families' day at the mall. I think there's a video game in this- dodging strollers while trying to get to something. Anyways, we find the Lane Bryant. I don't know what happened, but suddenly their clothes don't fit right. The shoulders are too big, the waists are too high, and my absolute pet peeve is the horrible cut of every skirt they make. They're all the same mermaid cut no matter how long it is. Ugh. Finally I bought a ridiculously expensive shirt and some Cacique stuff. The lady said they were "throwing in a Figure magazine today". I'm thinking BONUS- free stuff total, one shower gel and a magazine. Yesterday I looked at the receipt and I got charged for it. Note she never said FREE magazine. We strolled around some more, and didn't find anything else at the mall. So we left and went to find a Borders. We had to get the rest of the Twilight series. So we dropped the $35 for the last two books. (Ugh!) AND there was a Michael's across the street!!!! I didn't even know that there was one, I couldn't find it! Only, I couldn't find anything I wanted there. So we went to JoAnn's. Which was good enough. I FINALLY found the yarn I wanted, in the color I wanted. So it started to look up. As we were leaving, I spotted-was it- it was! A BARNES AND NOBLE!!!!!! Oh joy, oh bliss! We walked through the doors and I saw the escalators. I'm afraid to say, I drooled a little bit. Although I was in shock over the prices, it was still nirvana.

On the way home we decided to stop for dinner at a major chain that boasted southwestern grille and has a phallic symbol for a mascot. (You know who it is...) It was disgusting. The soda/pop was off, my plate got put to close to the heat lamp and my mashed potatoes were actually burned. I was eating the chicken and it had that gross hard mystery piece in it. Gag. Not to mention that the service sucked. It pretty much capped off my day. By the time we got home the dog had been sick again. He managed to get sick on the power strip that the router and modem were plugged into so no internet until we got it cleaned up.

I guess I just shouldn't spend money on myself.

Dog Poop and Other Liquids

I was going to post about our disastrous shopping trip, however, instead I am searching the house for dog diarrhea. I guess during the night Faust got sick in the upstairs hallway. I found it this morning. He hid it. It's disgusting.

So I went to the vet to pick up some medicine for him, and while I was gone, he or Dante pushed into the boys room and Faust got sick on the hardwood floor.

And like all little brothers, Dante has decided he's the only one in the house that gets my attention and I'm not even allowed to pet Faust (much less take care of the poor thing) without Dante jumping on his head, lunging at my face, or generally being an a$$hole.

And I felt awful yesterday, so now I have a pile of laundry, dishes stacked up, and the usually Monday chores on top of the fifteen million trips to the door, locating that smell that is permeating our house from another mystery spot in the house somewhere.

Shopping trip from hell story late tonight or tomorrow...

Saturday Morning Cartoon.

This one's for Farmer Geek

Heroes and other Regular People

Every morning I get up, get going and read my blog list. This morning, one of the blogs had me in tears. I'm not sure why, it's a happy post. Yet here I sit, bawling my eyes out.

I never met the person who write the blog, never talked to her in real life. I'm not sure, but I don't think I've even exchanged e-mails with her. Yet the fact her "baby" girl made it home safely from her tour of duty in Iraq has me tearing up again as I type this. (If you'd like to read her blog it's www.dylnz.com)

For those of you who don't know, there's a group I found through facebook called "Hats 4 Heroes". They make hats, scarves, slippers, and other homemade items to send to our troops overseas. There are guidelines of course. I support them, and when (if) I ever learn to knit well enough I'll be sending stuff over there. www.hats4heroes.org Take a look at their website. Perhaps you can't knit or crochet or anything, but they could also use help with postage etc....

As a last thought, I leave you with John 15:13;
"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."

One TRILLION Dollars!!!!

What does one TRILLION dollars look like?

All this talk about "stimulus packages" and "bailouts"...

A billion dollars...

A hundred billion dollars...

Eight hundred billion dollars...

One TRILLION dollars...

What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so I thought I'd take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.

We'll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.

Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.

While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet...

And $1 BILLION dollars... now we're really getting somewhere...

Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we've been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros.

You ready for this?

It's pretty surprising.

Go ahead...

Scroll down...

Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...

Notice those pallets are double stacked.
...and remember those are $100 bills.

So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about.

From: http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

"I is a lap dog..."

... says the 70 pound dog....

Saturday Morning Cartoon.

I'd post a Saturday morning cartoon (or kid's show) that I miss and hope you all enjoy it!

Happy Spring!

I decided to post this this morning instead of yesterday. As of the moment this is posted, it's officially SPRING! We made it through the winter! And this is what we get for it.

It's been a hard year with a lot of loss for us. This little bloom reminded me that there's always a spring after a winter. Always.

For those of you who don't know, FarmerGeek and I moved into this house at the end of last summer. By then, of course, all the spring blooms had wilted and were gone. So finding the little sprouts popping up through the dirt was doubly amazing. Finding flowers that had been planted by someone else last year (or even years before) was like a... like a...

Miracle.

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day

I have another post coming later, but I'm feeling pretty off today. For some reason the death of Natasha Richardson hit me pretty hard. I mean it's just horrible. All she was doing was learning to ski with her kids. Anyways, I thought I'd post this to cheer us up...

Announcement!

Even though we haven't finished up our official site (it's coming soon) our business venture has it's own blog. Hop on over to cadwellgardens.blogspot.com and see what we are up to!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Here's some pictures of my trip to Ireland a few years ago. One misty, foggy morning, I found myself in a field in Galway with a camera. If you look really closely you may even be able to spot a pooka or two. Actually, you can't see it in the pictures but there's a fairy mound right near my feet.

Just kidding, it's not from my trip to Ireland. Our backyard is just really foggy this morning!

Brewing Up a Little Pot of Passion

I like the Tazo Passion tea. That and their Refresh are my favorite.

I don't know about where you live, but out here in the sticks it was a gorgeious (I had to add the i for emphasis, it was a moral imperative) day. I would guess it was low 60's, high 50's today and bright and sunny and gorgeous. My friend and her man came out to help us do stuff to get ready for the increasingly looming homestudy. I turned the inside of her nose blue. Don't ask.

Where was I going with this?

Oh yes, it was such a beautiful day I thought I'd brew up a pot of passion and walk around in the gloaming.

I love that word. Gloaming. Gloaming. Gloaming. It's so.... Scottish...

I hope wherever you are, or whatever you did, tonight you are sitting with someone you love and thinking, "This was a good day."

GiveAway Winner!!!

I used www.random.org to get my winner (it wasn't hard at all). And the winner is....

CELESTE of etsyitup.blogspot.com/

Celeste, I'm going to be e-mailing tonight or early tomorrow morning to get arrange a mailing date. (BTW I like the song on your blog, who is that?)

There will be another giveaway coming soon soon! With more than one winner!

Big things are happening at the farm, stay tuned to our blogs for updates.... and giveaways...

Thanks everyone for playing!

Contest Closed

My contest is now closed. Winner will announced at 5:00 tonight (EST) so I have time to figure out randomizer (and when I can't, I'll have enough left over time to pull a number out of a hat.)

Thanks all- and good luck!!!

Thanks for trying.

Well all, thanks to those of you who tried to support my blog through looking at the advertisements on the sides. However, just as they were supposed to send our first check, Adsense decided to disable our account and thereby not pay us. There was no reason given except that we were "detrimental to the finances of their advertisers". Which basically, to me since there was no explanation, means that their advertisers would have to aqctually pay for the advertising we gave them. I have appealed their decision and assured them that we had not violated any of their terms of service. Again we were denied.

So thank you all for trying.

It must be nice to be able to get something for nothing.

And if Google doesn't like this post and decides to shut my blog down, wait a few days and check www.divahick.com or . If I have to, I'll pay for the domain name and blog there. Otherwise keep checking here to see who wins my giveaway Saturday morning.

75th Post! (And giveaway)

Hello all! This is my 75th post. And I've just come back from the dentist (which has nothing to do with anything, but I thought I would mention it). And I saw a bunch of robins. Which means only one thing....

SPRING!!!

And because of it, I thought I would have a giveaway. The gift is going to be something to get you ready for spring, but a surprise. All you need to do is leave a comment on my blog with your name or screenname or something to identify you as well as whether you'd want a male or female gift and you'll get entered once. If you forward this on to your friends, and they drop by and mention your name, I'll enter you again (and I'll enter them too!)

All entries must be posted by 11:59 PM (EST) Friday night.

Good luck and happy entering!!!

New Pringles Flavor

OK, if you are like me, you saw this can of Screamin' Dill Pickle Pringles and said "Ew..." We were standing in Wal-Mart and FarmerGeek showed me these and said they were really good. I think I made vomitting noises.

But he bought them anyways.

And we brought it home




















And we opened it up...















And you eat one. And gag cause it's a ridiculous horrible dill pickle flavor coated in salt.

But there it is, just sitting on the table saying, "This time it'll be better. C'mon you know you want me." And of course it's salty goodness, so you do...

And you do...

Maybe you'll try another one...

And another....

Cause after all, they really are good... if you can get past the first one...

(By the way, that's not me in the pictures, my beard isn't that thick.)

Hey

Does anybody know where the camera cable is? I thought I left on this shelf, because it doesn't really have a home, but know it's just gone.

Could someone please return it so I can blog with pictures again?

Thank you,
Management

Friday Free For All

My brain is going through random stages today, so I thought I'd share with you all about the nonsense that is going on in my head. Be prepared...

I really like Country Sampler magazine. I wonder how my splurge went from high end cosmetics to a home decor magazine. And for that matter I love shoes. I miss buying shoes. My new hot pair of shoes is going to be a pair of Wellies to slog through the mud. Speaking of mud, it can't be spring yet, I haven't finished the fall cleaning. And my mother-in-law (God bless her) is coming on Sunday to help with the house. I'd love to take her to our favorite Chinese place. They make everything extra spicy for Marc. You can actually see the difference when they bring his dinner. The movie that's on Hallmark just said that they need a permit for anything over $300 in the house. I wonder if we need to file permits for anything we're doing at our house. I doubt it. I have to shovel the dirt back on top of the septic and I think it would be neat to plant our spring bulbs over it for next year. I read somewhere that it'll warm up sooner and they'll pop up sooner. That makes sense. I need to reorganize my kitchen this spring and put in the dishwasher. I want to brighten up the place for spring. I love spring colors but I hate spring. I can never breathe in the spring. Do you think I should replace the curtain on the front door? I was trying to figure out how and finally I thought that putting in a Roman shade would brighten up the place. Maybe a yellow flowery one. You know, the last time we went to Lehman's they were out of lamb butter molds. (There really is a logical jump here, we always have butter lambs for Easter, which is in the spring. Yellow flowers=spring.) HEY did I tell you my peas are sprouting up pretty good? I have to start my tomatoes tomorrow night. And we have lettuce and spinach growing in the basement. I really hope that the homestudy doesn't think we're growing pot, I really worry about it. I love the wind and I wish I could rip off all the storm windows and open the house wide to the wind and let it blow my bad mood away.... and maybe my thoughts will blow around in a mini tornado of leaves blowing against the corner of the house. And they'll collect in to coherent thought.

Thanks for reading this far, if you've made it to here... You win a cookie! (Not really, cause that wouldn't mail well.)

Compassion

Compassion: sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it. -Webster's Dictionary

I don't know how many of you read The Pioneer Woman's blog, but she is constantly giving away things on her blog. Gift cards to Lowe's, Amazon.com, Kitchen Aid stand mixes, knives.... you name it, but it always has to do with something in her life. A couple months ago, her husband and two older children took a trip to the Dominican Republic to visit the children that they sponsor. Everyone in her family sponsors a child, but it's so much more than writing a check. You write letters to your child and pray for them and their families. It's a responsibility. P-Dub (as she refers to herself) didn't feel her family could take on any more children when it came to that responsibility, but they are fortunate enough to have more to be able to give. That is why she chose to give away 10 sponsorships to her blog readers. Now for those of you who need me to do the math, that's about $4000 a year.

Well, I was lucky enough to be one of the people who got to be a sponsor.

After I submitted our names, I started to panic. Mostly, what were we going to do next year? I can't imagine committing to someone and letting them fall by the wayside. I should have known the people at Compassion International had thought of that. They partnered us with a girl, excuse me, young lady who is turning 18 this year.

I only got my packet a few days ago, and I've written her once. Already it's changed me for the better. There's someone on the other side of the world who's waiting to hear from me, who is happy that I'm part of their life. I've never met her, but I worry about her and wonder about what the future brings. I'm already figuring out how we can pay for a sponsorship for next year. If we just skip one dinner out a month, it'll more than pay to help change this child's life.

Today on the radio, they said it was The Day of Compassion. I invite you to stop over to their site and learn as much about them as you can. http://www.compassion.com/

I've never won a stand mixer or a gift card, but I think I won the best thing she ever offered.