Of Princes and Toads?

Did I ever mention that supposedly I am a direct descendant of a European King? I guess that I was so very impressed with this little bit of info that I can't even remember what country. I'm thinking that info and a dollar bill ..........well, it won't even buy you a cup of coffee now days. My sis-in-law has gone OCD on genealogy and did our full family tree back to the 1600's. She came up with that little tidbit on family a while back. I reminded my brother, that I had always told him that I was a princess and needed to be treated like that. Still doesn't work.

SO-O-O-O-O, I did my royal duty today. I got up about 4 a.m. this morning and watched the wedding of William & Kate. I'm such a sucker for a good romance and a good celebration. Like so many of us that watched Charles & Di and all of the craziness that happened, I feel a little protective of Prince William. (Boy, does that sound sick.) Anyway, I still see those sweet boys crying over the loss of their mum and I just want to put my arm around them. Kate seems like a great girl and looks like a perfect match. It is so nice to see someone with some substance do things in that family. As far as a bride, I thought she look breathtaking and carried herself so amazingly. It was a beautiful wedding filled with many ugly and strange hats. I did not wear one as I did not have one that matched my PJ's. My grandmother was a hat designer in San Francisco forever ago. I don't know if she is rolling in her grave or loving them. I thought many of them showed a lack of taste. (Did they look in the mirror?) The women could wear those hats as birds in the Lion King. But don't forget Pippa Middleton! She looked beautiful, too. I want to look like her when I grow up.

Now about the toads.....there is nothing like a toad to bring you back down to reality. I always thought that Texas had strange names for towns. Arkansas is right up there with Texas. When we were looking for a home, I told Hub that I refused to live in a town called Pickle Gap, Lost Corner, Birdtown, or my personal favorite......Toad Suck. Isn't that lovely? Well, guess what started today....Toad Suck Daze. Evidently, it is a pretty big festival around here. On the news today, they said it was BYOT: Bring Your Own Toad. Guess that will leave us out. We said last year that we would make sure to catch it this year. They have several bands playing; crafts; shopping and good food. Tonight Chris Allen was suppose to play. (He won American Idol a couple of years ago and is from this area.)

So if your day ran the spectrum from royalty to toads.... you might be a redneck. Welcome to Arkansas.

Later, Gator.

My Own Personal Little Miracle

Emotional days. Up and down. Least important, yet highly emotional in my world, "All My Children" has been cancelled. What the heck? It's an institution. How many times can Erica Kane really get married? I'm sure she's good for many more "I Do's". How many people can come back from the dead in really crazy ways? We will never know. I'm in mourning.

A quick synopsis of my April would consist of:

• Made it through the tax season. Yea!!


• Made it through the "end of the tax season" party that somehow got to be my baby. That tends to happen because when you get me started on something like that, I tend to run with it. Anyway, good food, great decorations and good fun!


• I am happily unemployed.....for now.


• Hub changed the date for the adult children to move out from May 1 to June 1. No one is surprised that happened after #1's latest altercation. We need to kick him out and keep the girl. At least she is trying and actually seems to be grateful for the help.


• We have spent the last three nights watching the weather channel on TV (whenever the satellite would cooperate) and checking the computer to see where the storms and tornadoes were. The tornado sirens have gone off so much lately that we are not paying them as much attention. Our big gate was broken off the hinges but that is about all the damage we have had. Others have not been so lucky. I don't think I like April in Arkansas. Our home had the roof taken off in a tornado in April 2008, before we owned it. We thought that the past owners were just talking about shingles; but no, it was the whole roof. Tornadoes don't hit the same place twice. Right?


• Is anyone else obsessing over the news of the Royal Wedding? I am planning to get up at 4 a.m. Friday and watch the festivities live. I did that with Diana and Charlie. Gotta love a good Cinderella story. My family will probably find me asleep in the den when they get up at 6:30.


• Went to the doctor today. Not surprised that I need some dreaded tests. Hopefully, this will just be a fire drill. Too much coming up for anything else.

About a week ago, I thought that I had been blessed with my own personal little miracle. I dropped by Lowe's (love home improvement stores) to pick up some assorted home stuff and also a hanging basket. I was by myself; it was a beautiful evening and all was well. Did I mention I WAS BY MYSELF? That's the best part. I was wandering around and enjoying the plants outside when something caught my eye. A baby hummingbird was having a feast on some flowering plants. It wasn't even paying any attention to me. Just going from bloom to bloom having a feast. This little guy was maybe 1-1/2 inches long. I thought "This is too good. I have got to take a picture." Then I realized that I needed to make use of the movie camera on my smart phone. I dropped everything in the street and I am down about a foot from my little bird, just having a great time. How special is this? Then I realize that the camera is not really on. (Note to self: Learn how to use the features of your phone.) By the time I figure out how to start it......my little friend is gone. I do have a bit of film of the camera flitting around the flowers looking for movement. :( I waited around for about 10 minutes stalking the flowers before I went back inside and asked the clerk if she had ever seen a baby hummingbird around. "Security. Crazy person in the garden center!" I told everyone about my encounter. I went home to try to pull up a picture on the internet to show everyone what I had seen. That's when I got the bad news. My baby hummingbird is actually a hummingbird hawk moth. www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8076PK7-r8&NR=1 Evidently, others find them fascinating as well. They are still pretty cool and I guess I will just be happy that it totally delighted me.....whatever it is.

Later. Happy Spring!

Disaster Averted

As I sit here with "egg on my face" and my heart racing, I thought I would share my stupidity. I will preface this with the fact that our oddessey in raising adult children continues. It has been a tough 48 hours. Will this saga never end? Anyway, I'm sleep deprived and frustrated. Not the time, to start another battle. Hub left town for the week this afternoon. He came by my office before he left to sign our taxes and have me sign a joint account check that had come in. We have had some large unexpected expenses so it's one of those times where "Valentines of the green kind" is a really good thing to be going to the bank. So tonight while I was cruising my computer, I decided to check the ol' checking account. No large check deposited. Did he put it in savings? NO! Not a good thing. Now I realize that Hub can become distracted at the drop of a hat. It is probably still in his shirt pocket where he put it. Still walking around with a large endorsed check is not a good thing. Hub had failed to tell me where he was staying tonight. He travels so much that sometimes the details escape us. We've talked a couple of times this afternoon, but I had forgot to ask him then. We generally stay in the same chains so that we can rack up points, so I pulled up the hotel websites to see where he had made reservations. Didn't find anything for tonight but another reservation jumped out at me. One at the Crowne Plaza on the 6th......HERE. He is not suppose to be back until the 8th. THAT S.O.B.! I'm sitting here hurt, mad and thinking of what a stinking time this is to pull something like this. It's going to be a long night. So what am I going to do now. My husband is in another state with a large signed check; has not left an itienary and has reservations at a nice hotel here for tomorrw when he is suppose to be in a different state. This can't be good! I thought about getting in the car and driving tonight where he is. That's 4 hours away and I'm too tired. Should I just show up at the Crowne Plaza tomorrow night and try to catch him? Do I want to catch him? I decided that I wasn't going to sleep and might as well tackle this tonight. I called his cell and immediately got voice mail. His phone is off. PERFECT! I pulled up the list of hotels in that city and called the one that I thought would be the most likely. The desk clerk on the phone took a while finding his reservation. Then he wanted to know who I was. I said Mrs. ______. He acted like "someone's going down tonight" and finally rang the room. Hub answered the phone half asleep and I told him that he needed to sit up and talk. First I said that I had decided to join him on this trip and was coming out tomorrow. "Fine" he says. JERK! Then I said, "Or maybe I'll just meet you at the hotel tomorrow night here in town". He says "Huh?" I told him that I knew about the reservations and who was he with and who would he be meeting. He wanted to know where I was getting all of this and told him from his hotel reservations. He tried to tell me that I didn't know what I was talking about and that they must be old. I pull the reservations up and start reading it to him. I said "It says it right here. Crowne Plaza - 1 night - March 6, 2011." He reminds me that we are in April not March and tells me to go to bed. I remembered that he had a meeting there last month. OOPS!!! He just told me to go to bed and hung up. So like I said, I have "egg on my face". I have already left him a voice mail, a text message and e-mail to apologize. I'm sure there will be more and at least this disaster was averted. Silly woman! Later.

Legacy

Did you ever think about what kind of footprint you will leave after your gone? I thought a lot about it this weekend. I'm pretty sure that I will only be a name on the family tree that future generations will fill out when they do the required school project. Yes, there I will be: Ms. Thing; 3rd wife to Mr. Thing; mother of Thing 1 and Thing 2.....and that's about it. I wonder if there will be anyone there to tell them about me. Of course, what would be newsworthy two or more generations down the line? Can't think of anything. HOPEFULLY, it will not be the way I died. I had much rather have it be the way I lived. I would consider it a successful life if it was because I was the mother of two men who turn out to be happy and productive citizens. I would be thrilled just to only be known as "She was the mother of _______." That would be a fabulous legacy. There is a scripture that says "and her children rise up and call her blessed". I don't see that happening much. The reason I have been delving into this self evaluation is that good old Facebook brought to my attention this weekend that people were talking about my Daddy. I had one of those third-handed updates that someone I had "befriended" had a note or left a comment from someone else and there was a link attached to that. This gal is actually a "friend of my sister" and drives me a little crazy by always telling us and anyone who will listen that we are cousins. (I have heard the story of how she figures this and I don't think I buy it. There is a common last name farther back and that's about it. But I digress.) Anyway, this one caught my eye as it was linked to the church my family attended. The minister was a man that Daddy took under his wing when he moved to our home town. He was a fresh faced kid who had gotten his first church. He was estranged from his family and quickly looked to my Dad as a father-figure and mentor and Daddy helped him to not screw things up too badly. Now he is a grandfather himself; still at the same church; and a distinguished member of the community. Anyway, he had preached a couple of sermons that were based on my Daddy's life and the way he lived it. Several people had written in some of their memories of Daddy. They spoke of their love for him and the way he showed love for others. These were random people. Not his children that miss him so much but others that his life had affected. I was so touched and proud. I left a comment thanking them for the kind words and more came in. Isn't that cool? Did I mention that my Daddy died over 26 years ago? Now that's a legacy! Maybe they will just say about me "Daughter and third child of _______." I would be good with that. Later.