Black Heel to Tractor Wheels

The past few nights my nightly routine has been getting a glass of ice cold water, turning my lamp on, propping my pillows up and starting to read Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond. What? Wait! This could not be happening, I hate to read! Literally anyone who knows me knows I would rather watch the movie than to read the book. Am I turning into my mother? This is her nightly routine. Oh no, the thought of it. Well I wouldn't go that far as to read a new book or two every week, even though I have really enjoyed this book thus far. I cannot foresee my future of reading more. I just don't have the patience to sit and enjoy a book. Well unless they are books by Mrs. Ree Drummond! ;)

I highly recommend this book. I also cannot wait until her Charlie the Ranch Dog child's book comes out. I'm sure it will be a fun spirited book filled with her witty child-like humor!

For those of you who have never read about Charlie, he is Ree's basset hound.

Tongue-tied Thursday

Tidbits

I'm sure some or most of you have received this email at some point and time. If not, here is a tidbit of information you may or may not know already. Enjoy!

In the 1400's a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb.
Hence we have 'the rule of thumb'.

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Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled 'Gentlemen Only....Ladies Forbidden and thus, the word GOLF entered into the English language.

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The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

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Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. Treasury.

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Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.

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Coca-Cola was originally green.

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It is impossible to lick your elbow.

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The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska

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The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% (now get this....)

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The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%

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The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $16,400

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The average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given hour: 61,000

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Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair...

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The first novel ever written on a typewriter, Tom Sawyer...

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The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

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Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:
Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs - Alexander the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar

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111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

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If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.

If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died because of wounds received in battle...

If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes .

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Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4: John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

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Q.. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace

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Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested?
A. Obsession

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Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter 'A'?
A. One thousand

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Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers have in common?
A. All were invented by women...

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Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey

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Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year?
A. Father's Day

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In Shakespeare’s time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase...'Goodnight , sleep tight'

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It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

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In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts...
So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them
'Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.'
It's where we get the phrase 'mind your P's and Q's'

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Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service... 'Wet your whistle' is the phrase inspired by this practice.

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At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow!

~~~~~~~~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOW YOU'RE LAUGHING at yourself.
Go lick your elbow.

Wednesday Ramblings

- My mom called me this morning to tell me she fell down the basement steps again! This is twice in the past year. She's okay just supporting a lovely concussion, swollen head and a sprained neck. So she is very sore today. I plan to skip my lunch today so I can leave early and bring her favorite snack, a sundrop and cashews.
- Today marks the first day with our new water system hooked up or I think it's hooked up all the way. Well I'm not sure if we are going to get charge yet or if they will wait to do the final hook up when everyone on our block has theirs. I DO NOT LIKE THIS. This means my little water bill is now going to sky rocket literally about 3 times.
- Rolla was getting ready for St. Pat's this morning. It's the biggest holiday for Rolla. I've already seen a few MO S&T students this morning doing the tradition of carrying their decorated tree with the roots around town. Also several city workers were clearing the sidewalks to prepare for the parade next Saturday. I wish I would've had my camera. It was kind of funny pulling onto 9th street seeing about 15 of these workers all in orange hoodies, black coveralls and sunglasses clearing the sidewalks with their leaf blowers.
- I am really hoping the big weather the farmer's almanac is calling for at the end of the month is wrong. I have so much due at work around that time. Yes, I am already stressing about it. It used to take three people to do all the special projects now it's just me! So for this month I have two chamber directory magazines to put out, one is 80 pages and the other is 40 along with several special tabloids going out. In the end the overtime will be very nice on my paycheck! :)
- This Saturday my work is putting on a swap and shop. I have six dresses to be sold, so crossing my fingers I will make some money this weekend. They are all dresses from weddings except for one which was my junior prom dress. Hard to think that dress is seven years old, but it actually looks in better shape than the newer dresses I have.

Video

Not sure how to turn a video on my computer. So you will have to bare with me!

Book Signing

Ree speaking at the introduction of her book signing.

Shelley, me, Ree and mom.

Mom and Ree.

Mom trying to get close to Marlboro man for a picture.

Weekend REEcap

Friday I had to work late.

Saturday I got up early to meet mom then we picked up Shelley and headed to St. Louis. Went to the Dove mall, target then on to the Galleria mall with about a two hour time span between the two malls. :) We thought we would come along good shopping areas by the library, but everything seemed to be vacant including a mall! Seemed like such a waste of good buildings. We also planned to stop at the Big Foot store, but they were closed as well. Around 3:30 we decided we better head back to the library to wait in line. I knew the line would be long, but never imagine the extent of it. There was already a long line 2 hours prior to Ree Drummond's book signing. It was a little chilly out but nothing we couldn't handle. Finally at about 5:30 they let everyone in to find a seat. Then there she was... Mrs. Ree Drummond and her husband (Marlboro man). She looked even taller in person. She did an introduction to her book signing and answered questions. She announced several times how she hated public speaking and was terrible at it. Well she did awesome despite the weird questions people were asking her. After the Q & A's she was brought into a private room where everyone went in groups to meet her and to get our books signed. I may have to break down and actually read this book. Anyone who knows me, knows I hate to read unless it's a magazine. We were group #2. I am so mad at myself for being so nervous around her. I said maybe two words, hi and thank you! Yes, April Elrod was star struck! Even after the signing I was still shaking. I felt like a nerdy fan! ;) After the book signing we headed home. I stayed at mom and dads since I knew we would be getting back late and grandma was also having dinner the next day.

Sunday dad fixed breakfast: bacon, eggs and toast! YUM! Played lazy most of the morning before heading to grandmas. She made ham and beans, mashed potatoes and gravy etc. All very good along with the company of great family! I didn't stay as long as I would have liked due to a headache coming back. It started at the book signing the night before then finally went away on the way home. By the time I got home it went into a full migraine. Been years since I had one that bad. Took some medicine and slept all afternoon and most of the evening.

Tongue-tied Thursday

- A day late.

Wednesday Ramblings

- This weekend is the weekend. St. Louis bound with my mom and Shelley to do some light shopping and more importantly meet the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond at her book signing. Going to be a long day for us, but well worth it!
- My girl scout cookies finally came in this week. I may be nice and give one to mom and dad. :)
- I finally broke down and bought a new pair of tennis shoes today on my lunch just in time for this weekend. My white puma's that I am so fond of has now became my go-to shoes that are okay to get dirty. I've brought it back to life three times by washing them, but now there isn't much hope for the old squeaks. I guess it has been almost 3-4 years since I bought them, plus I wear them all the time on weekends. Still some life left, just not a very pretty one.
- A tidbit of info: don't buy the seamless shelves from Target! I wanted a couple of small ones for my bathrooms. Well Monday night Mike and I put one up in his bathroom and the shelf wouldn't stay up right. The holes were in the studs, holes were level with each other and we even tightened/losen the screws up to see if that would help. Nope, still the same. So much for that, at least I saved the box it came in because it is going directly back to the store where it belongs. Didn't use the anchors, that could have made a difference, but I didn't want to mess with it since the screws didn't seem to be the problem. So now I have two holes on my pretty blue wall.
- It's so hard to believe that next week it will be MARCH! This year is already flying by.

Gone Country

My house went a little more country as of last night. My hutch needed something on top of it. So through my cabinets I went to search for some red dishes to go on top. I honestly don't know what to do with all my dishes. Seems like they are taking over all my extra cabinet space. I'm not sure I can trust them being in the hands of our basement. So I will just have to bare with it. To me this seems like clutter, but I'm slowly adjusting to it. If only my grandma was alive to see her dishes were given tender-loving-care and given a proper home on/in my antique hutch. I have just a few out for display. Didn't want to over do it, I figured the more I set out then the more that would be most likely broken over time.

Weekend Recap

Friday Mike had to bowl in the late shift so I just stayed home. Watched a few movies and went to bed early. Gee I sound like an old person, don't I? Well it satisfied me, so that's all that counts in my book.

Saturday I had planned to sleep in. That idea went out the window, in fact I've not slept late at all since we moved into the house. I usually get up about 7 or 8, unless you count the days I've been able to sleep until 9 or 9:30 as sleeping late? Got a lot of deep cleaning down around the house and I've found I strongly dislike cleaning walk-in showers. It's a pain to get the glass clean clean. That afternoon Mike and I had planned to take the four-wheeler out to play in the mud. Those plans quickly changed as it began to sprinkle followed shortly after with a huge down pour! So we browsed the gravel roads just to kill time and to enjoy the scenery. That evening we headed to Kitty's to eat supper. I ended up going ahead and walking home since Mike was busy visiting with the guys, both old and young. It only took me 2 minutes at the most to get home! I could have took the truck, but it was a nice clear night so I enjoyed it. Again I went to bed early! This half way to 50 age must be kicking in (ha) - not really, but it does sound like a good excuse to me for going to bed early! ;)

Sunday I woke up early, had time to watch a movie and then got ready for church. I have a confession... I haven't been to church since right before we got the house. I know, I know there really is no excuse! I need to make a better habit of this. After the church service they had a chicken dinner. I love church dinners! The food is always so delicious. When we were done eating mom and I headed to the lake to do some minor shopping. I did manage to find a mirror for Mike's bathroom for $29 and a few other items for the house!

New mirror. Ignore the areas where we still need to do some major touching up with paint after my dad had to relocate the plug in.

Word of the day

Dipwad [dip-wah-d]
adjective
1. lacking good judgement or intelligence.
2. Slow to understand

Used in a sentence:
Barbara Jean you're a dipwad, you can't use a coffee filter to hold spinach juice from leaking onto your potatoes and meat.

*This word was NOT copied out the of dictionary. It's not a real word, hence a made up word used by two people. Both mom and I use this word a lot - mostly to each other! ;)


Sad to say, but Barbara Jean (aka my lovely mother) did try this last summer. Both dad and I watched her as she was putting spinach onto her plate on a coffee filter. Finally after moments of silence and look of confusion from both my dad and I. I asked her what was she doing.

Mom, what are you trying to do?

Well the spinach juice always runs into the rest of my food. See this way I can stop it. You guys are just jealous you didn't think of this idea.

Uh, you're using a coffee filter?

Yea, I thought it would stop the juice. It's not working as good as I had planned though.

Mom! It's a coffee filter! - said with a snicker.
(At this point, dad's face is beat red trying to keep from laughing)

Yea, it works for coffee so it should work for the spinach juice too.

Both dad and I couldn't hold it in any longer, the laughter began...







.... still laughing




Mom! It's a coffee filter! How do you think the water drains through it to make coffee!
(again still laughing)

Oh (with a chuckle), I guess you're right.

Now we're all laughing at her dipwad moment. :)