Static Guard, did you know it lasts for-ever?

Our youngest son, Ryan, spent the night with us last night.  He was in the area on a business trip, and was able to visit.  I made his favorite dinner, meatloaf, potatoes and carrots, corn and coleslaw, with brownies and ice cream for dessert, and we laughed and talked and the years melted away and he was a young boy again.  Well, not quite, because Lindsay and Abby crept into his conversation constantly.  It was so nice to have him for a visit, yet it was odd, because the rest of his family wasn’t with him and I missed them.

But that’s not my story.  Ryan is a pharmacist, so he regularly goes through my medicine cabinet, checking all the bottles, throwing away anything that is either expired, or going to be expiring, he’s passionate about it.  And he’s also passionate about food, so he’s constantly checking my refrigerator for expired dates, throwing away food that is past it’s prime, because neither hubby or I are diligent about whether or not the salad dressing expired last week, last month, or heaven forbid last year.

So this morning, after he bribed me to iron his shirt, reminding me of what a good job his grandma always did, he announced that he needed some static guard for his pants, and asked if I had any. “Of course I have some, it’s in the cupboard in the utility room,” I told him.  So he retrieves the can and starts laughing, practically doubling over he’s laughing so hard.  “Look at this label,” he says.  And sure enough the girl on the label looked really dated, with an apron and beehive hairdo.  He checks the can, and sure enough, it’s dated 1983.  1983, how in the world did that happen?  How could I have possibly had a can of that since 1983?

Well, to be honest, I haven’t used Static Guard in years, but 1983, that was twenty-eight years ago.  But it still worked, it did the job for him, despite it’s age.  Geezy Pete, doesn’t time fly…

Ginger Rogers dances Salsa at 92 yrs old, it’s Sarah Paddy Jones

This lady, Sarah Paddy Jones,  is actually seventy-five, not ninety-two,  but isn’t she amazing?  Thanks for sending this Marti, just wait ‘til she rocks out and strips out of her gown.  She will blow you away.  ~ jan

When I'm good, I'm very, very good....

And when I'm bad, I'm horrid!!!

Last night LC ran by the grocery store, and in a weak moment I told him to bring home a package of Little Debbie Nutty Bars, a delightful concoction filled no doubt with unpronouncable chemicals and lots of nasty trans fats.  I haven't indulged in this sinful treat since the boys were children, but sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, and I have been craving Nutty Bars for about as long as I craved that raisin pie.

He came in the front door, threw me the box, I tore into them like a rabid dog that hadn't eaten in days, and oh my, they were just as wonderful as I remembered.  Crisp, sickening sweet, peanut butter, cookie wafer, what's not to love.

And this morning, I woke up totally refreshed, after a great night's sleep.  I swear it was the Nutty Bars.  But no, I'm not going to start buying these things, there are 350 calories in two little wafers.

But oh my, were they ever good!  Miz Scarlett went to bed with a full tummy and a smile on her face.  And today, I'm baking brownies, a recipe from long ago when I was a teenager.  Ryan will be nearby on a business trip and he's spending the night.  So Mom's in the kitchen today, baking brownies and sending some home for Lindsay and Abby to try.  Life is good in Heavensville this morning....

 

I wish I could blame this on being old(er)

I am such a dork!  Hubby took me out to breakfast, then we did a little shopping, we were on our way home and I looked down at my windbreaker.  It was on wrong side out.

I wore that in the restaurant, in the stores, you would have thought that he would have noticed.  You would have thought that I would have put it on and checked to see that it was right side out.  But oh, no…  I had to go around looking like a doofus.

It’s not like this is anything new, I’ve done this kind of things for years.  Oh, if I only had a brain….

Oldie but a goodie, Cybil Shepherd singing “The Menopause Blues”

The McGhee Sextuplets

 

This family was on Oprah today.  What a wonderful couple, and what sweet little children.  These parents are simply outstanding!  Go to Oprah's site or YouTube and see if you can watch a clip from the show.  This mom is cool, calm, collected, organized and Dad is right in there, helping her.  

Find of the week - Micro Tweeze

 

I'm running a bit late with Sunday's Find of the Week, but this is a great product if you want to wax your eyebrows at home.  There is a video on YouTube, a young girl is using this product, but seriously, I do a much better job than she does, and I'm going to share what I've learned.

When I first bought this, I would put it under my eyebrows in a thin coating with an orange stick,  it wouldn't come off, just little chunks would peel off, it hurt, it was messy, it was totally useless.  But instead of giving up, I kept working with it, and finally got it right.

Here's what you do:

Warm the container in the microwave.  You don't have to make the entire pot liquid, just warm it enough that there is a melted hole in the middle, this will take between 1-2 minutes, depending on the wattage of your microwave.

The instructions say to use an orange stick, but that was a disaster, because to make this as painless as possible you have to put a big blob of the stuff under your eyebrow and you can't load an orange stick up with product.  I take a q-tip, twirl it around in the wax, it strings when you take it out, so don't get it on your eyelashes, and yes, I did that once, too.  Anyway, now you have a big wad of the stuff on your q-tip, just dot a thick blob under your eyebrow, move over a bit toward your ear, and make another connecting blob.  Of course you can't get right up to the brow line, but who is brave enough to do that anyway, that's just asking for disaster, and yes I've done that before, too.  Just get the majority of the stray hairs and you can easily clean the rest of it up with tweezers.

You let it cool for a minute, no need to use a cloth strip, you just pull up the edge, and quickly rip it off, tearing it off against the hairs,  toward your nose.  That's all there is to it, it works great, is relatively painless and almost every bit of wax comes off.  You can use a bit of Vaseline to get the rest of the residue off.  This is a super product, the jar lasts forever, and you don't have the hassle or the expense of going to a salon.  It works equally well on moustache and those nasty post-menopausal chin hairs, too.

I bought mine locally in a beauty supply house, but you can order it here from Amazon.  It's really inexpensive, $13.99 and it lasts for years.  Look at how much money you are saving, the price of this is no more than one salon visit. The reviewers say to use a popsicle stick to put this on, that would probably work well, but who has popsicle sticks laying around?  

Give yourself a few attempts to perfect this, but you have any problems, just give me an email.  The secret is to put it on really, really thick, but it works great!  Pinky swear it does.  ~ Jan

This really is amazing, seriously....

Grammie's brag, that's that what we do, so here goes.  

Lindsay put Abby's puzzle in front of her this morning, and started to help her fit the pieces in the right slots, she swatted mama's hand away and proceeded to put the entire puzzle together with no help.  

That's pretty good for a sixteen month old.  

Sally Hansen Salon Effects

I saw these on Denise Richard's twitter feed.  She says they are amazing.  Hmmmm, can't imagine...

I went to YouTube - here are a couple of videos if you want to check them out -

Sally Hansen Bling Effect

Sally Hansen Promo Video

My take on these - if you're a 20 or 30 something, these would be fun.  At my age, the color choices would look silly.  Sooooo, another idea bites the dust.  Oh, getting old is such a pain in the patootie!!!!!  How do old(er) women have fun?

But back to the nails, I was just telling Lindsay last weekend that I can't wait until Abby is old enough to paint her toenails.  I love, love, love little girl's with different colored piggies.  A yellow one, a purple one, a pink one, maybe little polka dots on one of them, too.  Oh, won't that be cute peeking out of a pair of sandals, or even better flip flops.

I know, she has to grow up a bit, but oh, what fun we're going to have...

One of the finalists from Pioneer Woman's Love Photo Contest

This picture is so precious, it brought tears to my eyes.  I simply adore Pioneer Woman. She's just the BEST!!!!  Check out the rest of her photos, they're wonderful!

 

 

By Sara. Nel

The Dancing Goat

Jean sent me this early this morning. Aren't animals just a joy! This is so cute!!!!!

Houseplants, normally not my thing…

Despite my success with outdoor gardening, I have a bad reputation when it comes to houseplants.  I overwater, or ignore, they turn yellow, they turn brown, they die, you know the routine.

Well, the palm tree in the sunroom, I got it last year at Nashville Flea Market.  The vendor that was selling it said it was thirty years old.

Thirty years old, what an obligation I felt, to nourish this through the winter.  It had been alive for so many years, I couldn’t just couldn’t let it die at at the end of summer.  So into the sunroom it went last fall, and I’ve actually managed to keep it going, it actually looks pretty good considering who has been taking care of it. 

I’m looking forward to spring days when I can once again drag it out into my little front courtyard, but right now I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself that I didn’t kill it!  But not pleased enough to bring more live plants into the house, I’ll leave that to my friends that do a better job than me.

Oh the things I put that man through…

Today was the day,  I decided that I wanted to move the furniture in the sunroom.  Poor LC, he moved everything out, and rearranged it the way I wanted it.  He pushed and pulled and vacuumed, and then I stood back and looked at it and I hated it!

It looked terrible, everything  was lined up against the walls, a look that drives me nuts! Whatever was I thinking? So he took a nap, and then he pushed and pulled and moved everything back the way I had it in the first place.  Now the sofa is angled in the corner, the tree and plant are behind it, just the way it was before, the way it’s been for the last eight years.

I’m usually a creature of habit, once I get a room the way I want it, I don’t change it.  I must have had a touch of spring fever this afternoon.  Either that or dementia, probably the latter.  Whatever it was, it was not one of my better ideas.  But I am going to look for new toss cushions for the sofa, something with a summery feel. That should do it, a little change without a major redo…

What a difference a week makes…

A week ago, Trish and I were out on the golf cart, with the cover on.  It was twenty-five degrees, we were bundled in coats and hats, drinking mugs of coffee to keep warm.

Today, hubby put the flaps up on Milly, we took the M&M’s for a ride in our shirt sleeves, it’s 72 degrees in Heavensville.

It won’t be long now until spring.  Today is just a tease, I know.  But it’s glorious…

Happy Valentine’s Day….

Abby at 16 months...

She’s a little whirlwind, why walk when you can run.  We visited them this weekend, Lindsay warned me that she has discovered her screamer, and she’s right.  She runs through the house barefoot, squealing at the top of her lungs.  Then she stands on her tippy toes and walks across the floor.

Despite my repeated attempts to get her to call me “Grammie” she refused, opting instead to refer to her grandpa as “Bampa.”  I was so desperate I tried to get her to call me “Bammie” but it was hopeless.  She would just look at me and say “no.”

That’s her favorite word, “no.”  She says it for everything.  She shakes that little head and is very emphatic about it, too. 

She’s a busy little bee, doesn’t want to sit on your lap, only cuddles when she is tired, she has too much to do, exploring her world.  She is totally in love with Handy Manny, watches his cartoons intently, while clutching her Handy Manny doll.  She tries to use the screwdriver to screw things from her Handy Manny Toolbox, and of course hubby thinks that’s the cutest thing ever.

She has definite ideas about food.  She does not want anybody feeding her, she wants to do it herself.  She enjoyed dunking her french fries in yogurt at Cracker Barrel, and speared chicken with a fork and fed to anybody that would take it.  Did she eat it herself, of course not, she only likes Chick-fil-A.  I discovered quickly that she would much rather feed you her food than eat it, except for yesterday when she ate half a bag of my Baked Lay Chips.  She put those chubby little hands into the bag and crammed them in her mouth as fast as she could, not once offering to share with “Bammie.”  She’s just like her mama, she loves anything salty.

She’s crazy about her daddy, he’s the only one she will always give a cuddle to.  She lights up when he enters the room, yells, “Dada” and runs to him as fast as she can with those little arms in the air to pick her up.

Sixteen months is a precious age, I wish I could make time stand still, she’s changing so fast…

Waking Up is Hard to Do!

This is great, thanks for the send, Carlene!

Is this a hit, or a miss?

I need your opinions. This is a picture of the back wall of my kitchen, the prep area, I’ve reorganized things, put what I need to bake with in these cabinets, and changed out my mismatched canisters that I put my Splenda and Oat Bran in.

First I bought these standard issue glass canisters from Target (third picture), brought them home, and hubby told me that there were old square canisters stored in the garage.  So I sat the Target canisters in the utility room, ready to take back.  Then he brought the Seifert ones in the kitchen for me, washed them, and here’s the result.

Is this Seifer’s Pretzel’s on the front ugly?  It doesn’t work to turn them to the back, as you can still see the logo from the backside, and it looks even worse. *if you click on these pictures, they enlarge a bit*

I did a poll in the sidebar, what’s your take on this, should I ditch the Pretzel Canisters and use the Target ones, or none of the above?  Oh, the poll is completely anonymous, but I really want to know what you think, or I wouldn’t be asking…

~ jan

Men, don’t they just annoy the holy bejeezus out of you???

Today for lunch I made wilted lettuce, using this wonderful leaf lettuce in the picture, green onions, bacon drippings, red wine vinegar, put together in my favorite, mother’s big stainless steel mixing bowl, and I’m sitting at the bar, eating, and reminiscing, thinking about how I’ve loved wilted lettuce since I was a little girl and how nobody made it better than mother did.  I was dipping another serving of lettuce out of that bowl onto my plate, and hubby waltzes by.

He asked if he could have a bit, and I graciously shared with him, then asked if he liked it, because I have this irrational need for approval of the food I make.  He walks away, muttering that it tasted like what an old person would have for lunch!  WHAT????  He’s four year older than me, the old fart, what a stupid thing to say!!!  And what did Mr. Food Critic have for his lunch???  Cream of mushroom soup out of a can.  Talk about what an old person has for lunch!

Grrrrrrr, he better watch what he says, it might just show up on this blog!

Men Schmen!!!!

Are the snows really almost over?

Our local weatherman said this morning that he’s pretty certain we are 90% finished with snow this winter after one more snowfall today.

Oh, please let him know what he’s talking about.  He never gets it right, but maybe the weather is finally changing.

The girls have been little troopers, trudging thru the wet stuff on their little Yorkie legs.  You can just see the looks of resignation as I put them out in the cold.  They do their business and run for the door, instead of dawdling, and sniffing everything as they normally do.  No perimeter checks, no nose twitching, they just pee and run for the house.  I always have the fireplace on for them, they head right to it, to warm up.

Now if I can just get hubby to fill those bird feeders today and get some activity, I’ll feel like we might really have a shot at spring.  Darn, darn, why didn’t I plant those bulbs last fall! 

This is how she rolls at my house…

I have issues with telephone handsets.  I lose them, frequently.  In fact, last summer hubby threw what was left of the old ones away and bought an entire new set of phones because I had lost most of the old ones.  He was smart this time, the base unit is corded, so I can’t lose it.  But the other three phones are cordless and we didn’t have the new phones a week until one of the cordless ones came up missing.  I really felt bad about it, and we never did find it, despite his turning the house upside down looking for it.  He couldn’t understand how I could lose so many phones, and of course, as usual, Ditzy Dora here was totally clueless.

Well, today he was digging around in the sofa in the den, who knows why, and he felt this hole kind of in the side of the couch, and lo and behold, not one, not two, but three handsets had fallen in the hole.  Two of them were from the previous phones, and he found the one I lost right after he bought the new ones.  He had gone through all the sofas many times, but didn’t realize that there was this empty pocket in the side where things could fall through.

I really feel sorry for the man sometimes, I seriously do.  I am just such a space cadet with telephones, with no forethought about putting them back where they belong after I finish talking.  I seldom lose my cellphone, and I never lose car keys, that’s his thing, losing the car keys, but for the life of me, I can’t remember to put those stupid phones back on their chargers. And, even though we have a little finder button on the main unit, the handsets have to be charged for them to beep, and if they are lost, of course they aren’t going to beep, their batteries are dead.

But life is good in Heavensville this afternoon, all the phones have been restored to their rightful places, and I was even motivated enough to finally set up the phonebook on the main unit, even put in my speed dials. 

Now what else can I do while I wait out this weather.  I need to redo the index page of munchiebusiness.com, maybe I’ll work on that later in the week, or maybe I’ll just talk on the phone, or maybe I’ll do none of the above, but I won’t be making another pie for a long, long time, that’s for damn sure.  Weaning myself off sugar today is not a good time!