one of your kids disobeys….not the little things like feeding broccoli to the dog…I’m talking about…well, I won’t embarass the girls….but when your dog totally does something so unexpected that it leaves you speechless…now that is shocking.

Marley…..

Marly’s total reason for living is to love his family…”He” always says that we didn’t adopt blind-in-one-eye Marley because he was smart, but, because he is so darn loving and adorable.  My only problems with Marley are the fact that sometimes his ears get gunky and he continuously pulls when going for a walk.  Rewind to yesterday afternoon.

The siders were at the house when I got home, so I decided to take Marly and Devil-dog, Frannie for a walk instead of letting them out into the yard.  Everything was going fine until we got close to our house.  Marley was tugging and when I pulled back on the leash, his collar unhooked and he felt the freedom.  He took off running down the road – think of Sesame Street Snuffleupagus…it smiled because he looked so happy and free…I knew that when he got to our driveway he would turn in and wait for me….sure enough, when he got to our driveway he stopped, looked to the west over the open field and took off, wind blowing his ears, he was loving it..I was in a state of shock…I got Frannie in the house and circled the 1 mile square area of farmland in my car…no Marley, I yelled, I walked a ways into the field…No Marley…I called “him” to see if “he” could leave work early and was on the way out to the car again when he came proudly walking across the field with the head of a possum in his mouth and he smelled worse than a week old cat litter box.  He wouldn’t drop the possum head but wanted me to share in his joy…he smelled so bad.  “He” pulled into the driveway about that time and was able to get Marley to drop the head…Marley ended up in the backyard for the evening.  Around 2300 hrs, “He” gave Marley a bath and he smelled and looked loveable when he greeted me this morning.  He’s still adorable…

I want to preface this spouting by saying, I’m not against the search of airline passengers.  I believe it is a very sorry State of the World…I also do not feel that my rights are violated, I don’t care if they do a fully body scan or any of the other little tests they do on passengers…knowing full well that if they got a positive result they would probably pee down their leg.  What I do find atrocious is giving perceived power to many of these idiots.  I probably shouldn’t say perceived power because they actually do have the power to mess with people under the guise of national security and what choice do passengers really have if they want to board the plane.  I’m not a new flyer, I’m an overweight 56 year old woman, I dress conservatively and honestly try to follow rules.  I take my shoes off before prompted and remove my outer jacket before they have a chance to bellow remove all coats and outer garmets, I have my liquids packaged in the correct size plastic bags, I remove my cell phones, etc..Are you with me here…I’m a rules follower.

The Des Moines airport TSA agents are a bunch of assholes..plain and simple.  I’ve been thru a lot of airports since 9/11.  I’ve never been disrespected, searched, talked down to etc etc like I am everytime I go thru the Des Moines airport.  This while they are advertising on TV to use the DM airport because it is there…notwithstanding the fact that you can travel 2 to 3 hours in any direction and board a plane with less hassle and always cheaper than you can fly out of  Des Moines. 

The Ecuador trip, the asshole dude had to search my bag which was okay…but after all of the hubaloo, they missed a bottle of mosquito spray, didn’t go thru my makeup bag which he said – Oh I assume this is makeup – Hello…that is where I carry my explosive, you dumb SOB.  At the beginning of the line, they told me I could only have one plastic bag of liquid products and made me throw the other one out.  Then at the end of the line, he gave me another plastic bag to put some items in that he felt might be considered a danger…BUT DIDN’T EVEN OPEN MY MAKEUP BAG!

Wednesday AM…flying out of Des Moines, I was sure to put everything that could conceivably be considered un-TSA-worthy in my checked bag.  There were so few things in my carry-on, that it was funny…but the TSAss and the chick behind the screen were looking and pointing..then he looked at me and said, we need to run this thru again.  Had they only opened up this bag, the would have seen it was full of air, pajama tops and bottoms, my wallet, IPAD and his Kindle…so…

I packed the carry on bag on the way back because we had made some purchases…I had chips, oatmeal, brown sugar, splenda, all kinds of miscellaneous things – it was heavy…it went thru at Akron/Canton without a blink…they were courteous – not screaming at people at the top of their lungs….

If at all possible, I encourage you to fly out of Moline – much cheaper – 2 hours from my driveway to the Moline airport…not that I want you to leave from my driveway.  Unless you have to do it, don’t fly out of the Des Moines airport.  This is an anti-ad for the Des Moines airport.  You have many other options.

Until next time….

Why do people who don’t go to church during the year show up at church on Easter Sunday morning.   

When I was a child, I always wore a hat and white gloves to church on Easter Sunday…along with a new easter dress…it was important to Helen to go to church on Easter Sunday.  Apparently it wasn’t important to go to church any other Sunday of the year.  Perhaps one Sunday will do it.  Puts a lot of pressure on the minister, I would think.

Thank Goodness with Easter comes the freedom to wear my white sweatpants…I love them and I will be honest…I did wear them not too long ago but I kept looking over my shoulder for the “don’t wear white pants, shoes or carry white purses before easter” police.

As a “weight watcher”, I’m rather irritated that I cannot eat my stomach full of chocolate eggs today.  Oh..I could..there is no can’t in WW – Becky – our WW goddess tells us it is a choice – you can eat snickers candy bars and pepsi all day if you want to but you have to count up the points…so I choose not to eat a chocolate easter egg…

For my easter dinner, I had salmon pattys and lettuce salad with dressing.  This is a treat for me…but right now I’m kind of focused on the candy left over on the counter by the coffee pot…

Until next time…..

So…I read online that Thomas Kinkade died of natural causes at the age of 54.  How could dying at age 54 be natural? Furthermore, what does natural causes mean in the first place?  Does that mean that he wasn’t murdered nor did he end it himself.  Natural causes…and what age can you really say natural causes…at the age that insurance actuaries say you have a reasonable chance to die?

54 is young…life changes at 50…for the better for the most part…so many reasons why it does…the only reason why I would want to go thru the early decades again is to take better care of my body and only if I could take with me the knowledge that life does get better.

Until next time…

I found the mouse in the hobby room…he was up against the door in the blanket that I had layed on the floor to keep him from getting into MY area of the house.  I carried Baxter over to him…he stepped over to him and went to the kitchen for a snack…I picked up Billy and put him in front of him…Billy stepped over him..oh for crying out loud.  I went to get the broom to push him out the door…..

I give up….the mouse is now outside…run little mouse..run….

I always find myself irritated to hear parents talk about not letting their children believe in Santa Claus because it is lying to the children…that along with the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy…ya whatever…to each his own…my issue, folks, is with Micky and Minnie Mouse…Here’s the deal…children grow up seeing Micky and Minnie on TV or at DisneyWorld..that fun loving, cute little mice…then one day…reality sets in…it’s just like the day my oldest daughter learned about mice.  She was about 3…we came home in the evening and she was running around doing her non-stop talking…she kept coming from the otherside of the kitchen island trying to tell us something…unforunately for her, I’m the one who walked around the other side of the island to see a dead mouse in the dog bowl…I did what most cartoon women do…eeeeeeekkkkk or was it really a scream from the gut that critters for miles around stopped what they were doing and immediately felt dread…Jenny included, she started screaming and quite frankly, she hasn’t been the same since.  Over the years of country living – 32 years – I had not seen as many mice as I have since we brought cats into our lives.  Worthless cats….

When I got out of bed this morning..they were all hanging out in the corner of the dining room.  I believe there is a sign that says Welcome Mice here.  It is where they always go thinking they are hidden…the cats all sit around and watch…Baxter – the dark cat is really the only one who has enough energy to take chase and the only one who is obviously smart enough to pick the mouse up…but none of them are killers…they play with the damn mice…until it gets away and then they lay in wait…

Oh ya…hide in plain site Baxter.. Micky will come out..he’ll never see you there

I will give Truman credit…he did make his way behind the TV stand…ya quite the hunter

At this point, 3 of them are in the hobby room..watching and waiting…What could be the best part of my day is that “he” has left a pair of shoes near his desk…need I say more.

Listen up kids…don’t let your parents lie to you..Micky and Minnie are mice…ick

Until next time…..

I wish I could remember what day it was two years ago when I last talked to Brett when he was lucid…We are coming upon 2 years of his passing and I still have things I want to talk to him about.  I had a good little melt down cry last night when I saw that Christa had changed her profile picture to the two of them.  I figured if she did it, it was time to go there again…when I got on Facebook this morning, I noticed Jenny also switched her profile pic to Brett and Katy and her.  I’m very sad…I miss him.

My heart hurt this morning when I read @SuzyQ_Darnit she may have visited her brother for the last time..he is fighting cancer…that “C” word…so devastating.

Today is my Friday…I have a short work week next week because we are flying out to Ohio to see the Bug and her husband.  They just moved into a townhouse in Cuyahoga Falls…I really like this little community and am glad they are back there. 

I need to do the work thing now…so

Until next time…

get out of the business of politics.  I’m disgusted with the political nature of religion…just this morning, I’ve been taken aback by some of the stuff going around on Facebook…cementing the marriage of republicans/tea party and christians.  Oh MY GOODNESS. WWJD and all of the other propoganda insinuating that if you are a christian you are a republican and vice versa…versus those evil democrat devil worshipers…those democrats who want to take care of the poor, make sure everyone has health insurance and attempt to protect our society…ahem..exactly what I see as Jesus values…WWJD, indeed.  Why aren’t mainstream christians screaming their lungs out about their beliefs being drug thru the mud with words from these extreme right wing radicals.  Wake up people.  I don’t care what you believe, but christians who have ounce of self respect and true belief in Jesus values need to speak up.  What happened to a personal relationship with the creator and attendance in church on Sunday morning as an edification and rebalancing yourself with Maker…I think christians today are being viewed as radical republican hate mongers rather than meek, loving people who want to serve and bring glory to the name of God.

Would someone please help me down from my soap box…I feel better.

Until next time.