I was outside in the nice spring sunshine, standing on the edge of the dock at high tide and all I could think about was the fact that I was in dire need of a pedicure. It's flip flop weather, time to take action and get those little toes into shape.
I had a dream about funnel cake last night. I woke up with the biggest craving for fried dough. It's terrible....well, no, its good, yummy... good, but terrible for the old growing waist line. I should really just make my own. It's easy enough to do. I don't know, I think it just tastes better when you are surrounded by the swirl of colored lights, playful music and people screaming. I guess when I am home, I will have to try to find a county fair somewhere. That would be nice, especially since I will miss the Johnson county fair by a few weeks.
Today there was an air show at Jones Beach. The blue Angels were doing aerial stunts and they would fly inland to get ready for their maneuvers. They came in so close at times that you could see the colors of the planes and read the markings. My battery was dead though, so I didn't get any close ups...Darn it. But here is a picture of them heading southwest, the Jones Beach tower and concert hall are visible in the background if you happen to know where to look.
Take my word for it...I know what posion ivy looks like. I should know, I have been spraying the stuff with Roundup for two consecutive years. It grows around the grape vines in the backyard and along the fence line behind and around certain shrubs. Cliff is super allergic to the stuff so I scope out the area...spray and warn him to stay away from the area. We don't really need to make another trip to the emergency room because he isn't paying attention and starts pulling weeds.So anyway, I was over at the Leach's today and I was invited to help them pull weeds and all the baby trees out of the yard. They get tons of baby maples and there were even a few locust and elm trees. Anyway, they have a large lot and they have a thick over growth on the side of the house along the property line. I found some huge trees growing in that patch and was holding the branches underneath out of the way so Jim could dig up some of the trees that we couldn't pull by hand. I have on my FAVORITE shoes and I am looking at the ground when I realize that I am standing next to some posion ivy. It was almost touching my ankle. SOOOO, I moved and said, "Uh, Jim, we have a problem here. You have posion ivy in here." Jim said, "WHAT! Where?" I pointed to it and he said, no, I don't think tha tis posion ivy its just some vine. " I stressed that he was wrong and that it WAS indeed posion ivy. I then pointed out a bunch more and he took a closer look and finally agreed with me. At that point I got the hell out of the bushes because I didn't need to rub up against the stuff with my bare legs...plus those shoes have holes on the top. I went and told Jean what I found and she made me show here what I was talking about because she didn't know what it looked like. Crisis deverted!
On a side note, Katie was downstairs typing away on facebook to Dartmouth Matt...not to be confused with the several Franklin and Marshall Matt's or Conn/Dude Ranch Matt. She mentioned me. He knew that I had been over the night before too...anyway, Katie told him that I was invited to come over and help them do weeding. She said, "She likes us so much...she actually showed." He thought that was pretty funny. The crazy Leachs are my East coast family...so you show up and pull weeds....that is the way it goes.
I usually have lots of pictures of Katie on here but very few of Chris. That is because Chris has been away at College and off having a good time. Case in point....lol, I think Chris dances like his Dad. Hence the lower right hand picture. I have no idea who Miss no bra with the bright pink dress is...but she's not his girlfriend. Anyway, Katie stole these off of Chris laptop when she visited Chris last week. He had no idea she emailed them to herself, even though he was sitting on the other side of the room. AH, that's my girl...sneaky, I taught her well. Anyway, that is Chris in all his glory.
Yep, that is right! I grabbed the mail a little bit ago and what did I discover? A puffy mailer...ohhhh yeah....love those! Anyway, I tore into that sucker so fast you would have thought my britches were on fire.
How many Angel food cakes do you think that Michelle, Amy and Annette could eat in a 24 hour time frame?
This is Danielle Louise Lyons at her 8th Grade Graduation in Axtell Kansas. She looks pretty happy to be moving on to high school. Four more years until College....Did you hear that Cindy...your baby leaves in 4 years. Someone hand my cousin a tissue please!
I have a memory box. It wasn't meant to be that but that is what I turned it into years ago when I was a little girl. My Grandma Slater gave it to me to use as a jewelry box. Inside the lid it had a mirror which I quickly broke out. The superstitious child in me cringed at another 7 years bad luck. I had already broken a little hand mirror....the torture of having to live out more years of bad luck than I had been alive! It seemed like FOREVER!
I was sitting upstairs thinking about what I should blog about in the future. Lets face it, you never know what you are going to get with me. One minute I am all serious and the next I am totally goofing on someone, if not myself. I kind of like it like that. I've been told that my readers don't want to hear about my rants....that they come for my humor. I don't think that is true. I think they like not knowing what they will find, especially the people that comment, because in a round about kind of way... they are my friends. Sure, I may never meet them face to face but, I don't care about them any less because of that. I mean, goodness, when Kip stopped blogging (for a very good reason) I was so sad. I missed him and I still do. He was just so much like me that it was a little scary...I swear we must have been related, that is why we called each other Cousins. Speaking of Cousin Kippy, I should email him. Things perked up because then I discovered Lexie, Sue and Miyon.....all wonderful people, plus I suckered my girlfriends from home to start blogs. Now if I could just get them to blog more. My real cousins also blog so that keeps us close. 
Yep, I'm a cat person all right. Do not fear! I will not become one of those crazy cat ladies. I don't care if they promise to design an action figure after me...I'm not going to become that person. I don't want to own more than two cats. If by any chance I do decide I need 5 cats....please have an intervention on my behalf. Enough is enough, right.
I was just clicking through pictures that I had scanned last year and I came across this one. Its of Shannon who just graduated from high school, holding Danielle who just graduated from 8th grade. 
Shannon and Malory skipped out of the gym after they graduated. Then Shannon spent the rest of the day being chased by our barefooted Aunt Vickie. You think I am kidding, but I'm not. Shannon aka Skippy (NO, its not the name of a horse... well it is, but not exclusively) will be joining the Air Force in August. She wanted to enjoy a little bit of her summer first so she is taking a trip to Phoenix, AZ with a friend. I think I should have my Uncle Cecil follow her around to make sure she behaves....he's retired Air Force himself.
I slept like crap last night...BUT, I was up before the sun actually popped its little self above the horizon. See the moon up there? It was lovely out, cool but not cold. I actually managed to catch the sprinkler system going off in the side yard in front. I noticed that my flowers by the street were not getting much water the other day and I couldn't figure out if the sprinkler head closest to the street was working right or not. This morning I investigated while it was on and adjusted it to actually hit the flowers and not the driveway. That is what the sprinkler guy...Bob aka No personality or Mr Mono-tone...is supposed to take care of when he starts the system up but I really don't think he does. Now I don't have to drag the hose out to the street every day...AH, finally! Allergies suck, but life is good!
Yeppers, works for me. Ok, OK, Mikes face isn't as round...and he doesn't have those ears, and his nose isn't that big. Its the area under the nose that does it and the area under the lip to the chin....am I the only one seeing this? Just picture Mike bald. Hehehe....now you are seeing it, aren't you!
I couldn't find an example of it on google but I did come across this example of one of their bags. I just think it is to easy to slap a simple logo on a package and call it done. Why not make it something different. I'm all for different. I'm just so sick of the same old warning labels and product endorsements. Thank goodness there are marketing people out there that are as strange as I am. I'm sorry, but I like anyone that will put something so random on their packaging...like referring to the Jetsons and "that treadmill thingy" on a drink label. Ahhhh, my kind of people!
I was just barely 5 years old in this picture. It was taken at the south park in Pawnee City Nebraska. Shortly after this, Uncle Randy came to live with us....Because he was in the high school when I was in kindergarten. Anyway, please note that I cute out Uncle Richard and his wife Cheryl on the left and Uncle Cecil on the right, that is why the picture looks squashed. So, we are left with My parents, Allen and Millie, My maternal grandparents, Virgil and Martha (Martha just had her 90th b-day in April~remember) And that is my little sister, Tisha.| Your Famous Last Words Will Be: |
 "I can pass this guy." |
I was kind of surprised Dean Martin wasn't on there...he was the other day. Deano is the bomb. I was listening to the musical Rent last week and last night I was jamming to the Big Chill Sound Track....Joy To The World by Three Dog Night.....Aint Too Proud To Beg by The Temptations...Bad Moon Rising by CCR...Stuff like that. This morning while I was on the treadmill I was listening to Gavin DeGraw and Mozart.
There are times that I wish I could be invisible for a few hours....or even days. A person could have a little fun if certain other people couldn't see them. Oh, the havoc that one could cause. Ok, of course I can do that when I am visible but it would be much easier to pull of some major league punks. It almost makes me drool, just the mere thought of it. You know, it would even be fun if you didn't stir up any pranks. Admit it, there have been times in your life when you would have paid a pretty penny to be a fly on the wall. I have! When you get right down to it though, sometimes its better to be ignorant about certain things. Why take all the mystery out of things? When you get right down to it...It's the little mysteries in life that keep us entertained.
It's easy to have fun with good friends, especially when those friends are Raine and Kissiffer. Kissiffers birthday was in April and for his present, Raine and I went in on tickets for the Depeche Mode concert at the Jones Beach Theater. If you have never been there, let me explain that it is an open concert hall that sits right on the water at Jones Beach.. It gets cold at night with the wind coming off the ocean...at least this time of the year. 
It was also an overcast day and had been raining most of the week. I had been worried that it would rain the whole night...but we got lucky. It was windy as hell and chilly. I had reminded Raine and Kissiffer to dress warm for the show. Raine brought a polar fleece jacket that I had given to her...Kissiffer wore a t-shirt with a thin little zipper hoodie. Raine said she had warned him that it would be cool. I saved the night though. I brought the new polar fleece blanket that Tami sent to me for my birthday. It came with this cute little strap that you use to carry it around with. I think Kissiffer was a little embarrassed because we made him carry it in the parking lot. Mwhahahha....its kind of girlie. HE didn't complain about crawling under it though. It came in handy. Just ask Raine. She placed herself in the middle of me and Kissiffer so she was nice and toasty. I'm telling you that girl is a smart cookie but I got the genius award that night. Hey, it doesn't happen often so when it does I have to boast a 
Anyway, I had a great time. The concert was really good but what made it wonderful was the company. Frankly, I would have a good time just sitting around doing nothing, as long as I was with Raine and Kissiffer. 
