Unfussy

  Hi Everyone! This is going to be a very quick and sweet entry. I am absolutely exhausted. I worked really hard today and it was a fantastic day at work :) But when I got home, all hell broke lose with you-know-who. Not to get to personal (lol) but I'm so done with this crap. I just got to hang in there a little bit longer so I can transfer and NOT lose my status at my new job which I adore.

The GREAT news is that Theodosia (our alpaca boarded in MO) gave birth to a healthy baby boy! He is so precious. At the ranch they were all calling him "Choco", but I want to name him after my loving companion of 10 1/2 years Hershey. It fits him perfect! Now what his "long" name is going to be I'm not to sure yet and I'm still thinking about it. Plus, Oreo is really getting big. He is now 8 months old and oh so cute :). So below, here is a little picture show I put together for you all. I have more pictures on the way. The pictures of Hershey are when he was only about an hour old. ENJOY!

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    Hi Everyone! I apologize for the long absence but I've been working HARD..lol. I come home and take care of the dogs and collapse. I was off this weekend, but we had so much to do and get done I felt like I was still at work...haa haa. Today I have a bit of reprieve but only by accident.

Briefly I will explain we have had some issues with "creatures" at our home. What's new. Hubby handles this with a grain of salt, I do not. For me at times I have to take medication just to get through the night. Things wouldn't have been so bad if it wouldn't have been for my long time pest control company (Delco) deciding to NOT give good customer service, nor honor their "written" contract. Best thing for me to do after arguing with them for close to 2 weeks, and all the while having "creature" problems that are NOT getting fixed or addressed was to begin interviewing other companies. And that's just what I did. I am now with a new company--family owned and operated and have been in this area for over 45+ years. They came today and did an awesome job. Plus told me thing that made, much more sense echonomonically and common sense wise. I'm very happy, extremely happy with this company.

 I'm so sorry to make this entry so short, but I have a lot to do today and ya-da- ya-da ya-da. The tomatoes at one point I thought were goners, all of em'. I got all the way down to only 20 tomatoes and they weren't looking too good. I was very upset :( Now, this week I have about 18 to 25 new tomatoes (babies--more on the way) and several of my big ones that survived are growing even bigger and turning red!!!! I'm going to include some pictures for you to see. OK. They are really cool.

Have a great day!!!

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     The weekend and this week so far has been good and weird. (lol). I hope all of you that were off this past weekend has a great one. But lately to me, every weekend is off for me. That is going to change VERY soon. I start my new job (orientation) on Wednesday and I'm guessing I will start my work schedule right after that, which would be either Thursday or Friday. I'm so excited!!! We went to Wal-Mart today and I got some nice Khaki colored pants/jeans and a few really cute navy blue tops. The jeans are really cute and are boot-cut and fit low on the waist--I won't wear anything else! Having to wear pants that fit above my belly button are just so uncomfortable. There not too low where they look trashy, but they are attractive and cute. And oh so comfy! They have that stretch stuff in them which I have never worn before, but I like it! I have no idea but I'm so dam nervous about tomorrow. Everyone is so friendly, helpful and eager to welcome me aboard. So ALL those nasty rumors you have heard about WM are simply not true. I'm sure there are ex-employees that have nothing good to say about this company, but so far I feel GOOD about my decision. You know me, I investigated this company thoroughly and I'm fairly certain I made the right decision. And the benefits? Oh my gosh, there are fantastic! Oh, and in the future I will have to be VERY, very careful about what I talk about. So on this journal I won't talk about the details of work a whole lot, but have set up a private journal for that. (http://journals.aol.com/schoolgal040/unfussylove/ ). The name is "Unfussy Love". I have already added a bunch of people to it, but if I somehow forgot to add you by mistake please email me and I will add you.

Although today it's just a little breezy right now, the last week and a half it's been so extremely windy here. What the hell is going on? I'm so completely sick of it. I'm sick of the dust, it's been really hard on my tomato plant (sniff, sniff), the dogs hate it, hubby most of the week has had to be outside in it-loading and unloading materials (metal, HUGE copper cooking pots for some of the ritziest restaurants in LV, and other very heavy materials) and it's constantly blowing garbage into my front yard. ARGHHHH! Not to mention that the wind makes me a nervous dam wreck. Since I was a child, I've always been afraid of the wind---high winds. My Mother was the same way. It just makes me so very nervous and on highly on edge too Now we have gone from high temps last week of 95' to 106' to around the 60's. I'm not sure what the temperatures were last night, but it was chilly. And it's very outcast today and they are predicting thunderstorms and rain for today and the probably off and on the rest of the week. You can just feel it in the air. If it stays like this, without the wind, I will be very happy :) I'm just not ready for the summer heat and I'm NOT ever ready for the wind. (lol)

One more thing I want to say before I close. It's about the families in Texas from the sect FLDS and what they have all been through, especially the children. I do not agree with this religion in many ways but I won't get into it because it would make this entry way too long. Lets just say that I am familiar with Mormons and have done extensive research on the both LDS and FLDS years ago. But this is the US and freedom of religion is one of our privileges. As long as no laws have been broken, abuses happening, emotional abuse and so on. With all that said I will say again, that I do NOT agree with this religion or the LDS in anyway shape or form. But, I feel what has been done to these children and families is a tragedy. Can you just imagine having 468 children uprooted and taken away? And they still have not found the "alleged" girl who made the phone call. I hope and pray that this all works out for the best for those children and families. The children are the innocents here and the MAIN reason for me posting this. It just breaks my heart that this whole thing has happened.

Have a great Memorial weekend :) 

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  Happy Sunday to you all. I want to wish each and every one of you Mother's out there a very, very special Mother's Day. So many of you here in J-Land I consider not only my friend, but my family. You ALL mean so much to me. I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the special Mom's out there, and in no particular order: Linda, Sonya, Joyce, Lyn, Sandra, Donna (Texas), Kelly (chicken lady...lol), Brandy, "J", Karen, Nelishia, Donna (Kansas City), <AHREF="HTTP: ? life-on-a-bison-farm wwfbison journals.aol.com>Jeanette, Derasta, Donna (Hockey!), Brenda, Pauline, Rosemary, Monica. I am sure there are some people I missed and for that I am sorry. I've kind of wrote this in a rush, but I love each and every one of you and wish you and very, very Happy Mother's Day! 

   Today is a bittersweet day for me. It's been three years since I lost my loving, kind and supportive and oh so very beautiful Mother to lung cancer. Not a second goes by that I don't miss her. I think of her and feel her with me ALWAYS. It may sound nuts, but I feel Mom watching over me and guiding me through this difficult time in my life or anytime in my life. She may be gone but she is "with me". Without her I wouldn't be as strong as I am now. Sound crazy? Not to me and I love her for that. She was special when living and special when gone :).  To me this all makes sense. I love you Mom! I saw this passage and thought of you: 

  In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out.  It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being.  We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.  ~Albert Schweitzer

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Happy Wednesday to you all. Sorry for the long delay in posting en entry. I've actually been busy. That' something new. Hubby's son, daughter-in-law and grand baby stayed over at  hubby's parent's house (just a few miles away) for a week, I've been caring for the neighbors animals (2 horses, a Cockatoo that I've fallen in love with and about 8 outside cats (cute!), I have had two awesome interviews at WM and got a job! (scored very high on aptitude tests which will qualify me for a lead/supervisor position--plus help me if I ever want to move and transfer) I will be starting off in the shoe department for now to get my feet wet in retail and go from there. Very big department! And my co-workers are so sweet and overall this is such a friendly store. I can't wait to get started.

 I had planned on going to Reno today for one week before I started my job. I wanted to see my sister and my Dad really bad. Man I miss them. My sister and "J" are moving to Colorado on the 22nd so who knows when I'm going to get to see them. I can re-use my ticket and fly up there for 4 days once they get settled in. We have already talked about it. Maybe I will like it there? They have plenty of room for me. A beautiful house on 170 acres!! I'm so happy for them. It's hard to go into detail why I cancelled my trip. I even started packing, but realized that I would be at such unease leaving here after having my interviews at WM. I would worry about Hershey and Yager so much, I would worry about the neighbors animals (the usual kid that she uses is suppose to show up on Sat to take care of them until Tues. when "J" gets back) are being cared for and loved. I asked hubby if he would please, please just check on them until Tuesday to make sure there ok. I would quickly show himwhere everything was and it's easy to care for them. And he wouldn't! I was so MAD. They live 100 ft from us and I would just die if anything happened to those animals. Not to mention that I've gotten extremely attached to all of them, most especially that beautiful Cockatoo Peggy.      She now comes out of her cage every time I go over (which is only suppose to be twice, but I usually go about 4 times..lol) every time, gently taking my arm. She loves to sit in my lap and let me pet her or preen her. Loves to be talked to. Peggy then either gets up on my shoulder or my head to check the world out while she stretches her feathers. So cute! Never tries to get away from me or bite me. She even gives me kisses on my face and hands. At first she would make this kind purring noise and was opening and closing her beak softly. Couldn't figure out what the hell was going on..lol. Well Peggy was wanting to give me a kiss I finally figured out a few days ago :). And she lets me kiss her right back---very gentle cockatoo!  

   I give the horses apples everyday when I got over now. When they here me coming they snicker and get real excited. The brown one jumps up and down. It's so cute! The brown one is really friendly. He is like a dog...lol.  The other day I even hunted down the brushes and stuff to help keep the flies away. Last night I even bathed the brown one and he was so happy!!! I know he felt like a million bucks. And the stuff to help keep the flies off them was great! "J" has ordered "fly predators" (comes in the mail and these "predators" or other good flying bugs eat flies--that's all they do and that's all they eat) and they will be here on Wednesday. But the other stuff is helping so at least they can have some peace. I felt so sorry for them until I could get that other stuff on them. And when I go to leave, the brown one always stops whatever he is doing and follows me, calling for me to come back. Makes me cry. I think these animals may be a little on the lonely side. But "J" has told me I can come over and visit anytime. I'm glad that she and I have gotten to know each other better. I really like her. We might even go riding together. YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

  Ohhhhh, and the best news for last. Officially today, I have 17 tomatoes on my little Early Girl plants!!!! Can you even believe it? Plus, there are oodles  and oodles of flowers and other tomatoes ready to pop out. I have had a problem with those dam fruit flies and I did buy some good bacterial soap/insect killer but it's not working like it should. When "J" pays me, I'm going to go get some Neem. It's the best stuff. But what I do for now is about 5 times a day, especially at dusk, is I go out and pick them off. And Ialways get them before they do damage to the plant. I'm sure it would be much, much worse if I had not sprayed it. But I'm so excited over 17 tomatoes. And their healthy!They seem to get bigger everyday :)

  Right now I have over 400 emails and who knows how many alerts. Tonight I am going to do my best to get caught up on everything. Just might take me the whole weekend...LOL But I will get caught up :)

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If you click on the graphic above it will give all the details of the challenge :) The trick is, the photos must be in black & white and can be a landscape or a photo. My understanding is you can enter both. Which is what I will do. At the bottom of this entry, will be my two B & W photos.

PLEASE NOTE: My Black & White photos are at the bottom of this entry. Thank you :)

 I decided with some time on my hands and such fun stuff out there in J-Land I would participate in this callenge.Im' sure I do NOT have as fancy a camera as some. It's just a little old (well 2 years old? JVC/Video/Stills digital camera but takes really great photos! As for landscapes I had to think, get creative. I have such a love for trees and their shadows they cast. And that's what I photographed.

I also photographed-----drum roll please---dddd ddddd ddddd TSH! My very first ever in my life time tomato plant! And, I have my very first tomato! Saw this the little fella this morning. There are many more, about 7. But way to small to get a picture yet. Here is one of the color pictures.

Photo Challenge-Landscapes

Landscape

Photo

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 A very happy Saturday to you all. I'm hoping and praying that my eyeballs will stay open long enough to get this quick entry in. I've basically been awake all night (again). Finally at 4 AM I decided to mop all the floors in the house and get them ready for waxing, a light wax i plan on dong later today. Now I'm tired but more than anything it's a "mind" tired. But it Saturday and as soon as I finish this entry it's off to sleepy land for me. I truly don't think I will have a problem falling and staying asleep..LOL. So far here in Vegas the sun is just coming up and it's so beautiful. Total eye-candy.

     This is a little slide show I made just a few minutes ago. As you can see from the first picture, you  can see "Bob's rage" and he basically kicked those beautiful plants right off our deck and they landed way out on the far side of our back yard What a yerk!So I quickly jumped into action to save them. I mean they were scattered everywhere. I was told to leave it alone and my reply of course was "Screw you the horse you rode in on." (excuse my french) And as you can see from the pictures they are thriving and doing very well. I spend every minute enjoying taking special care of my Early Girls and my other plants of course.  I watch constantly for undesirables and other critters that I not want on my babies. And the blooms? My gosh, there seem to be a new group or new bloom every morning. And as we all know each of those blooms represents a tomato, it all goes well.  But even those hubby did something very stupid that he isn't even sorry for, at lease the story has a good ending. And they already smell so good! I'm just crossing my fingers that I've done everything right and we will have lots and lots of delicious tomatoes.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy your Saturday! :)

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     Today is Earth Day and even though I'm a smoker (Bad, bad), I still feel this is an important day. I also year for everyday to be "Earth Day". Just like my lungs, it's the only earth we have and it's in serious trouble. If anybody doubts global warming or "being green in lifestyle" just watch and watch it again "An Inconvenient Truth"  (<<ClimateCrisis.net) or go to Mr. Al Gore's website and read some of the littlest things and biggest, that you can do to help with our climate crises. You, me, us and everybody can make a difference. Sorry to sound like a preacher or an expert because I am neither (lol). I'm just passionate about this, and of course other things in life. There is also a LOT of information on Google's homepage today when you click on the banner above. It takes you to blogs full of information about the climate crisis, websites celebrating Earth Day, website after website of information and your's and my questions answered. It's really extensive and terrific. I have saved so many websites that I plan to go back over and save important notes and information to my great program called Microsoft One Note. So, Happy Earth Day to you all! :)

  This little slideshow I made has pictures of my Early Girl tomato plant and a beautiful bush in front of my house. If anyone knows what this bush is, please let me know. Please? (lol) For the life of me I can't figure out what it is! It's all flowered now and it's just beautiful. Before it flowered in the last week or two, it had those red berries all over it. Ifthat helps anybody who can identify it. And then yesterday as the shade was just starting to cover the bush, I took these great photos with bees on them.      I just can't believe how great they turned out with my camera. I used my digital video camera that also shoots stills. It's only got like 5 or 6 megapixels, but it has a 32x optical hyper zoom on it. It's funny because I called JVC when I first bought the camera to ask a question about the DV wire (this is for hooking it up to your PC to transfer pictures. I have about 5 different ways that I can transfer pics to anything: PC, laptop, phone, iPod and my other "new" SanDisk MP3) and we got to talking about taking still pictures with it. And he told me because of the "low" megapixels it would take really bad pictures that woultn's be that great. Boy was he WRONG! This camera takes unbelievably clear, stunning photos. And what kind of bee is that? (lol) Another question I have and would like answered...ha ha ha! Oh, you know me. I will sit down and do a search until I figure it out. Exhausting ALL and every research I find to figure it out :)

 Not too much else to write about today. I'm just chillin' and reflecting on a few things. And of course I'm anxiously awating my call from "V" for my work schedule. I was told it would be this week, but their seems to be a bit of miscommunication between the manager (really nice guy, I like him) and my supervisor "J". She is trying to get answers and hopefully I will hear from her today or tomorrow. The manager "M" is at a week long conference so she is trying to get the assistant store manager to give her permission to get me going! I'm sure she will.

Right now I am off to color my hair and get rid of the dam gray!. I'm trying a new color called "Chocolate Caramel", which is a medium mahogany brown. I've always wanted my Mother's haircolor which was this beautiful, deep and shiny dark auburn. It was awesome! So now I'm going to try it. I have been using Garnier Nutrisse haircolor since it came out and would try nothing else, except when I go to the beauty parlor...LOL. Garnier and Neutrogena is a truly good products. I use nothing on my face but these two. I use them to cleanse, moisturize and my nightly face creme (with Retinol + Anti-oxidants).Wish me luck! :)

Have a great Tuesday all...........

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  Sometimes long absences from writing in my "public" journal is a good thing. But other times it's not so good. In this case it was a good thing. Not to sound selfish or say that I haven't missed you all because I have---very much. But after my revealing entry of a week or so ago I have been totally consumed by depression, anxiety, worry and my very own pity party. Pity party's that go on for long periods are a waste of precious time, energy and on a personal level I think they're just a defeat of my goals and happiness. Make sense? LOL It does to me but it's hard to put into words. I'm just not a gal that has pity parties ya' know? Yes, I'm sad about my situation and other things too. And I'm sure that on some level I'm depressed, but I have no intention of letting it overcome me...ever. Even if that means asking for help professionally I will do it in a heartbeat without hesitation. Right now I'm OK and I just take one day, one moment at a time. And it's working so far. So just a little low-down for you all as to why I have not been online very much in the last week or so. I keep a personal journal that I write in everyday and sometimes more than just once. Microsoft Word 2007 is a great program and I have not only a pretty journal to write in but easy to use as well.

 During the time I've been absent I have actually kept myself busy. Staying busy and keeping your mind and body active can really be the best medicine for the blues. Although I did have a three days where I only got out of bed to care for the dogs, get myself coffee or a Mountain Dew, shower, play with the boys and that's about it. Pretty pathetic wasn't it? I think so anyway (lol). While in bed I read my great book that I'm almost finished with "Beautiful Boy" by David Sheff. I found myself going back many times and re-reading several of the chapters because of the emotions in Sheff's writing or the detailed medical facts he wrote about meth. addiction and his son's struggle to beat this demon. By far this is the hardest drug to beat and be successful and stay clean by far. Something I didn't know. I always thought that heroine was #1 to eat and be successful but I was way wrong. Meth. addiction goes way furtherSo many details I discovered about the long-term effects of this drug that scientist are now discovering important details of helping all meth. users to be blameless. This book touched my heart in so many ways, even though I've never touched the drug I can certainly understand now after reading this book and doing some research on my own that this drug is not what I thought. It goes much, much deeper than that.. You can find this book at almost all libraries and don't need to buy it. You may have to go on a waiting list, but it's worth it. But keep a dictionary handy--I got an education in words that I had NO idea of their meaning...LOL . I had to use mine quite  a few times, but hey I learned a lot during this great read. And of course I read my Friday, Saturday and Sunday delivery of the NY Times. Every single page and just about every single article this week. and I loved it of course :) Another audio book that I'm reading that is quite good (audio book from the library) is called "On Chesil Beach" by Ian Mcewan and read by Mr. Mcewan. I just love listening to his British accent. Call me silly but I have a"likeness" for British men :). Great book and a surprise to me because I didn't think it was going to be the book I thought it was.

I have also discovered (again) Podcasts (<<Click here for all info for iTunes podcasting) from iTunes. Did I mention that is completely FREE and works great. So many really great podcast to listen to. I was pleasantly surprised. If you get a chance, check it out and see what interests you. I'm sure you will find something that you would love to listen to.

 What finally brought me out of bed was when I picked up my two favorite quilting books and all those beautiful 5" squares of fabric given to me by my MIL. I have decided on which quilt I will make and it's called Polka-Dot Party from the book "Creative Scraps: Quilting With Bits & Pieces" by the publisher House of White Birches. They are many quilting designers who contributed to this fantastic collection of quilts in this book. And of course there is my "quilt bible" as I call it "Quilting: The Complete Guide" by Darlene Zimmerman. Every quilter should have this book whether you are a new to quilting like me or a seasoned quilter. It's spiraled bound and just packed full of 255 pages of quilting info. It's small, easy to carry around and I am constantly reading it. :) I really think this quilt is going to turn out great and I can't wait to get started. But before I do, my MIL is going to come over and help me with a few questions I have about color and my ideas that I have about it. Plus, I want to purchase my backing color before and some of the border colors I will need before I begin.

   Yesterday in Motegi, Japan, history was made by the USs' own Danica Patrick. She has won her first Indy car race. Congratulations to you Danica and a job very well done :). I'm so extremely proud of her and her win and many accomplishments in this sport. Some of you already know but for those who don't I am a huge racing fan--even Indy cars. But I must say that NASCAR is my personal favorite with Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhart Jr. being two of my favorites drivers. I am devout fans of these two. Oh, and lest we forget my love for the NHRA: National Hot Rod Association or "funny cars" or "drag racing". I love it!! The loudness, the smell, the speed, the parachutes at the end of their run and just ALL of it. Last year I got to see my very first hot rod racing live at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I've lived here since early 2003 and it was my first time there. One of the best day's of my life, even though I had a cast on for my broken foot....LOL. I was highly upset that the "jerk" didn't even let me know that last weekend was the funny car (NHRA) races, but that as always his brother "B" had invited us. I was so pissed-off. But who knows? Maybe wherever I go when I leave I will have another chance to see NASCAR (I've never seen a "live"race), hot rods again and my first Indy car race. :) But back to Danica and what she's accomplished with Indy cars. It's a dangerous and exciting sport. She is one brave little gal. And a gal that just made history for women, yes WOMEN!

Well I think I will close for now. Nobody worry about me ok? I'm hanging in there and doing the very best I can, which is pretty dam good. I have a great sister, her love and my Pop who are supporting me in a reflective and encouraging way. Just what I need and like .There is nothing like family in times like these. My sis especially has been my rock-day and night. I love her so very much :) So enough of blah, blah and blah! (lol) Things will be fine, I know this. Not easy of course but OK.

Have a wonderful, peaceful and enjoy this awesome Sunday. I know I am! :)  Peace.

PS: Thank  and Thank You for all the warm birthday wishes I received. And also for the support from ALL of you I means more to me than I could ever express. You all are the best and I do not ever, ever forget it :)

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OK, I've lost this entry twice but I'm not going to panic! PANIC! It's 3:30 AM my time and I suppose to have this entry in last night. I was so sick I didn't get it al lin.

Today on CNN they are running all day special an autism awareness: "unraveling the mystery of autism." I encourage everybody to watch for 20 minutes, 30 minutes or if you can most of the morning. Maybe even TiVo it or DVR. The link above will take you directly to the CNNs autism page. EVERYTHING is there! Stories, resources, Dr. Gupta doing an intensive investigation, places to get help and so much more!

I am so sorry for not getting this entry in last night. I woke up with a start, grabbed my laptop and started typing this. I haven't even had coffee yet or the sleepies out of my eyes..LOL. But this is important. This is worldwide coverage, not just here in the US. There will be a certain time and I believe it's around noon my time (PST) where they will devote an hour or longer to autism.  Also, Larry King, Anderson Cooper and other nightly shows on CNN are also dedicating all to autism.

Thank you for listening to be babble.

PS: Please give a special prayer to those in need in Zimbabwe. They recently had an election, I beleive we are on day 3 or 4 awaiting election results (ridiculous) and it's their hope and prayer to oust the absolutely cruel dictator of almost 30 years Robert Mugabe. I have been following this closely, why I'm not to sure. It just sparked my interest as so many things do. The NYTimes wrote a pretty great article (and others) in today's paper.

Huggers,

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