Break. As in taking one.

It's been great fun answering your questions for me.  I hope I haven't left anyone out!  This post wraps up the final questions.

Mari and Susan asked about Princess, our 17 year old daughter.  She is a Senior this year (homeschool) and her plans for after graduation are still "up in the air" circling somewhere.  Still nothing definite yet.

And, the final question (from Say What?), "How did you handle, 'Sorry. We don't have any Sweet Tea?', while visiting NYC last May?  It was simple, "I drank Margaritas!"  Just teasing!!  I actually drank bottled tea while we were there.

Thank you to each of you for playing along by asking your questions.  This was a special birthday treat!

* * * * * * * * * * *

NOW,

* I.AM.GOING.TO.TAKE.A.BLOGGY.BREAK. *

I'm not sure how long I'm gonna be away from the keyboard, but please don't forget me while I'm resting my brain.  Sometimes a girl just needs a little R&R to clear the cobwebs, ya know?!

The Girl with "more answers". Part Duex.

I am having such a good time answering the questions that you asked me on my recent birthday. So here we go with Part Deux.

Beverly wants to know how I manage to post so often.
 I seldom let the fact that I have nothing to say stop me from blogging. *blush  My daughter can assure you that I never let the fact that I don't know the words to a song stop me from singing along with the radio.  Same sort of thing.  Blogging is my therapy and I need therapy OFTEN!

Yaya wondered what my family gave me as a gift.
I got an assortment of things, gift cards, scentsy wax "thingy", etc.  Mister totally bombed on a gift this year but since there is nothing I really wanted/needed I'll forgive him, since he for "no reason" bought me tickets to see Brad Paisley in concert  next month.  I'm more about the celebration than the gifts and he "celebrated" me very nicely.

Anonymous wanted to know if I baked cookies.
Actually Mister is better at baking cookies than I am.
I am more of a cookie "eater" than a cookie "baker".
A sad truth.

Parsley asked what the best/worst gift I have ever received.
The best gift I ever received was for the first Christmas Mister and I were married.  He found a way to buy me a rocking chair and hid it so well that I was shocked to find it under the tree on Christmas morning.  We couldn't afford the chair, but somehow he made it happen.  Pure magic!
Worst? A set of glasses from my inlaws for my birthday.  I was young, stupid, and totally non-appreciative.

Laurie asked if I had ever visited Canada?
No, I haven't, but would like to some day.

"What is my favorite meal to cook for my family?", is what Laney asked about.  I actually enjoy baking much more than cooking, but the most requested food from my family is "Chicken Fried Steak".  I must non-humbly say that I cook a mean-to-die-for Chicken Fried Steak.  I seldom cook it though as I try to keep my family away from fried foods as much as possible.

Madi and Mom wondered where my traveling gal pals and I would be travelling to for our annual get-together.  How did you remember that I do that Madi and Mom?  I'm sooo impressed.  Actually, this years "Fest" will be in Atlanta, GA.  I can hardly wait!!

BUT WAIT - there are even more questions and answers. . .

To be continued tomorrow!

*Now I wish I had one of those cookies that Anonymous asked about.*

The Girl with ALL the answers.

I had a wonderful birthday and I appreciate each and every one of you who stopped by to wish me well and ask me a question.

Many of you asked me questions regarding my birthday.  (Shelly, Bobbi, Deanna, Handsome's Wife, Kay G., Shannon Romein, Karen, Kelli, Joyce)  You wanted to know how I was going to celebrate, if I celebrated an entire week, what my "perfect" B-day would be if I could do anything/anywhere, and what my birthday wish would be????)

I spent my actual birthday low-key, at home answering Happy Birthday phone calls from friends and family.  However, I did celebrate an entire week, a special GF took me out for lunch, Mister & Princess took me out for a Shrimp Dinner and a movie, then I enjoyed a BIG family dinner celebration in Tulsa.  It was a very special birthday. . .If I were to choose a EXTRAVAGANZA of a birthday party I would want to be with my friends, including YOU, and family on a cruise ship, sipping margarita's and watching a GREAT comedian together - I love to LAUGH!!  It wouldn't matter where we were cruising, as long as the weather was perfect and the water was silver/blue...My birthday wish would be for a year of perfect health and happiness for me, my family and friends.

Cheri asked who I would want to have sing "Happy Birthday" to me.  I didn't even have to think about this.  Garth Brooks.  No explanation needed, I have had a "thang" for him for years!

Joy Tilton asked if I ate cake for breakfast.  I did for years and years but now that I am "mature" I have left that habit behind.

Calamity Jane asked how I stay cheerful all the time?
I'm always surprised when people ask me this and I take it as a BIG compliment, so thank you, Calamity Jane.  I TRY to look at the bright side of life, and one usually sees what they are looking for.  Also, I surround myself with happy, upbeat people who are people of faith.  Knowing I have friends and family who pray in my behalf is a "Happy thing", and I know that GOD hears and answers our prayers.  Life is pretty good when you have a friend at the "top"!

Skoots1mom asked if I had a scriptural life verse.  I had never thought of a verse exactly in that context, but I do wrestle with fear from time to time and the verse that speaks peace to me in all sorts of situations is  Joshua 1:9.  "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

? ? ? ?

You had more questions for me

and I will answer the others tomorrow.

Would you do me the pleasure
of answering at least one of
the questions I was asked
in this post?

Weekend Peek-a-Boo.

THE WEEKEND IN MY WORLD -

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A

wedding for our nephew

and his pretty bride.

Just had to show you the groom's cake.

What would you expect from a family 

of Oklahoma Sooner fans?!

Let the record show I did not eat any wedding cake!

I was a very good girl.

FUN with the Granddolls!                                           

Oh-How-I-Love-These-Girls!                                        

This lovely Granddoll and I happily share the
same birthday!                                

Of course one cannot have a birthday

without a birthday cake!

YES, I succumbed to this

yummy cake, but only

one piece!

* * * * * * * * *

ANNOUNCING . . .

The winner of myBirthday Give-Away

IS

Shawn Felkins

HANDSOME'S WIFE

from the blog

"Just Livin', Lovin' and Laughin'"

So, Handsome's Wife please send me your
address so I can get this card in the                          

  mail to you soon,
you can email me @  bunkodeb @aol.com       Congratulations for being the
Happy Birthday Give-Away Winner!                                                                                                                                      

Special Friends

My good friend took me out for a Birthday Lunch,

and look at this handsome guy we met up with!

He flirted with us so we agreed to have

our picture made with him.

(We're easy that way.)

There is no such thing as dieting when

celebrating one's birthday.

"Right?"

My how I love me a BIG present!

and what's a birthday without

a silly card?

Look what I got!!

Isn't this beautiful???!!!

I LOVE sunflowers, they make me happy.

I'm gonna put it somewhere

I can see it every day.

But do you know what makes

me even happier than sunflowers do?

A good friend who remembers

and celebrates my special day

with me!

Thank you, Girlfriend!!
*special friends are a blessing*

Happy Birthday GIVE-AWAY!

I LOVE TO CELEBRATE MY BIRTHDAY!!

If every day, every hour, every minute,

and every second,

is a gift, then another YEAR is an

OVER-THE-TOP 

EXTRAVAGANZA!

I am excited about another new year.
I just MUST share this good feelin'
with a friend, sooooo
I am giving away a . . .
(drum roll)

$15 gift card/certificate from Amazon.com

I would love to be able to give you all one,

but since that's not the case, ONE of

my bloggy friends will be the recipient

of this.

Here's what you need to do,

and it's VERY easy!

1. Leave me a comment to this post wishing me Happy Birthday 
2. AND, ask me a question about something to do with me or my blog.

This Give-Away offer ends Sunday, 8/19
at midnight.  Comments must
be made on or before this time and date
to be eligible for the drawing.
A winner will be drawn and announced
on Tues., 8/21 at noon.
  

That's it!

I HOPE YOU WIN!

Thanks for stopping by to celebrate with me.

Please enjoy a glass of Sweet Tea

and Birthday Cake before you leave.

Lesson Learned.

EWWWWW!!

I went shopping.
I pulled my checkbook from my purse to pay for my purchase and when I opened the checkbook, a fine, white, powdery substance fell from between my checks and onto the counter.  I dusted it off and wrote my check.
Hmmmmmmm.

At the next stop of the day I reached into my purse for my wallet.  When I opened it to reach for my money I noticed the same, fine, white, powdery substance. . .When I got home I dumped the entire contents of my purse onto the kitchen table.

This is what happens when you carry a pack of crackers in your purse for waaay too long.

Lesson Learned.

(Just thinking about purses reminds me of
"Betty Jean's Purse", but that's a post for another day.)

Ya'll come back again, ya' hear?

"Sassy Senior", a blogging experiment

I'm feeling just a tad bit nervous,

as in I'm not sure if this is a wise

thing to do or not,

but I've decided to take the

advice of Nike and 

"Just Do it"!

With that thought in mind

I thought you might enjoy

following a brand new blog

that began yesterday with the

very first post.

"SASSY SENIOR"

This blog is written by my youngest

daughter to document her life and

thoughts during her senior year of

high school.  See why I'm a little

uncertain about sharing this?
This could be dangerous territory.

I'm sure many of her posts will be upbeat and benign, like her first post,

BUT -

if you've raised a teenager you understand that sometimes things don't go exactly like they'd want and that can make for a whole lot of ROARING.  So, with that thought in mind, if you're willing to take a walk on the occasional wild side, please go by to visit and "Follow", if you dare.

*Just remember, she's 17, and I'm not going to edit any of her comments.  The thoughts and opinions are hers alone and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts and opinions of the management.*

(my apologies for the strange spacing problem that continues to plague my blog)

*Here* is where the best friends hang out!!

The Pity Party is over!
The crying towel is in the hamper
and MaMa's got her groove back.

Thank you so much for all the kind comments and encouragement you left for me after my last whiney, sorrowful, pathetic, despairing, down-in-the-mouth, sad, pitiful  post. I keep going back and re-reading all your words and each time I am "lifted" by your kindness.  No one understands women, more than other women. Sometimes we walk, sometimes we run, then sometimes we whine and rage and cry and kick our feet, but there is always someone to help us up after our fit and point us in the right direction, right when we need it the most.  Thanks, Friends!

I have been re-evaluating my life.
Time to quit whining and adjust to the idea of a "new normal".
*I tried to sell my kids on the idea of a Commune but no one wanted "in".
So now I'm onto plan B.

*Stay tuned*

Core Ache.

This is how I feel
and I know you can barely contain yourself waiting for me to reveal my innermost thoughts.  This IS your lucky day 'cause I'm gonna throw it out into blogland, simple and raw.

I feel sad.
I feel sad because my son and DIL (remember the wedding photos from June?) are packing up to leave Okla and heading to Washington state.  No longer will I be able to visit easily and I'm feeling very sad about the entire situation.  Our close knit family is splintered; we live scattered across the states.  I live in Louisiana, and I now have a daughter in Okla, a son in Georgia, and in a couple of weeks I'll have a son in Washington.  Who knows where Princess will live when she is "out of the nest".  All my older chicks have flown and with it go my Norman Rockwell dreams of holidays together, birthdays together, and grandchildren at my knee.  Those things are not gonna happen very often.  I will have to find new dreams and that is not always an easy thing to do.  Yes, I know I'm whining, but old dreams die hard.  Reasonable or not, this is how I feel.

This is what I know.
I know that my children's lives cannot be about "me", though I had hoped to be involved in their life at least to a small degree.  I know that change happens, whether we like it or not.  I know that my son and DIL are excited and happy about the move, and I comfort myself with this thought.  I know that it is going to take me a while to emotionally adjust.  When the oil & gas boom fizzled in Okla and we saw that a move was necessary for Mister's job, we were willing to move only as far as a day's drive away from our adult children.  That limited the places we could relocate.  Louisiana was a suitable move for us, as it is a 6 hour drive to Tulsa and a 12 hr drive to Georgia.  Washington is a 36 hr drive from our town. That fact is a heart-breaker for me. There is just something about knowing if you wanted or needed to reach your family that it would be doable in a reasonable amount of time.  That will no longer be the case.  I am not a smothering, helicopter parent - I PROMISE.  I think all my "kids" would vouch for me on this one, but I am about family, right down to my core.

I have a core ache.   

Tea for Two

During Princess' high school years we have made 

it a tradition to have a back-to-school lunch

at the Glenwood Tea Room.

School will begin on Monday.

Princess will be a Senior.

The tradition ends with today's lunch.

*sob* boo hoo* waah*

Fancy napkins.

Tea Cups on quilts.

We had Strawberry iced tea,
dainty little finger sandwiches,
and a cup of their signature soup.
Yummy!

School starts on Monday!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Just a side note:  Our table was directly beside

the table of two women who appeared to be
in their 80's.  Their voices were a little loud
so we were privy to their conversation.
They provided out entertainment as they
chatted about their families and their
church activities.
Grand ladies, both of them!

Jabber Jaws

WHAT DOES A CLOUD WEAR UNDER HIS RAINCOAT?

"THUNDERWEAR!'

We had rain last night - good ol' thunder and lightening RAIN!!  Our crunchy grass is so happy today and I didn't even complain when the dog tracked mud into the house.

Some of you have asked about my eye.
Thank you for caring enough to ask. . .it is getting better each day.  Still using the eye drops and should be good as new by Friday, so the doc says. In the meantime no contact lenses and I am so lovely going about my business in my huge, old "Coke bottle" glasses.  "Don't hate me 'cause you ain't me."

Lest  you think I've totally lost my mind with yesterday's post about "dill pickle ice cream".  That little story was meant as a "parable" to reflect what is going on in my life, but it actually sounded as though I meant it LITERALLY.  *blush*  I think I'll leave the parables to Jesus from now on, 'cause I obviously don't have  the knack for writing them.  The cake, the ice cream, the pickles, they were each meant to represent something.  This little episode never really happened.  There was no Hot Fudge Chocolate Lava Cake.  Yep, I'm still on this dang diet.  And certainly I would never accept Dill Pickle Ice Cream - not even on my wackiest of days!

My life is going through some changes right now and my emotions are bouncing all over the place.  It's nothing bad, but it is change, difficult change.  It will be ok, but it simply takes a while to wrap one's head around change sometimes.  That's where I am now. . .I will share it with you soon, but right now it's not mine for the telling.  What would I do for therapy if I didn't blog??  Run Mister and my real-time girlfriends CRAZY!  Blogging is such a healthy thing, probably even better for us than raw spinach leaves.
 Just sayin . . .

I'm outta here girls, and off to slay a few giants before the day is done!

PICKLES in my ICE CREAM!

A Parable

I looked at the waitress and said, "I'll have my favorite,  Hot Fudge Lava Cake with a scoop of ice cream", she nodded and in a moment she returned with the cake, but she had placed a huge scoop of DILL PICKLE ICE CREAM right on top of it.

It will be alright, after all, 

I love Hot Fudge Lava Cake

AND

I love Ice Cream. 

I just hadn't counted on the pickles...
It will take some adjusting.

Do you think one can be both
HAPPY and SAD
at the same time?

BUYER BEWARE!

It began as any other day.
I awoke and stumbled to the bathroom to put my contacts in my eyes.

The split second when the contact lens touched my eye SOMETHING was terribly wrong!!  My eye reacted to the intense pain, clamping shut.  I struggled to remove the contact lens but couldn't.  I began to flood my eye with water from the faucet, till at last I could remove the contact lens.  My eye felt as though it was on fire!  IT.WAS.INTENSE.

This was the offender!

Do not buy this stuff unless you are SURE what you are doing. It is sold right beside the regular disinfecting solutions in most stores.If you or someone in your family wears contacts you need to know THIS.  It also comes in generic packaging, so be VERY careful what you buy.

I have worn contact lens for umpteen years.
When I went to purchase a new bottle of disinfecting solution the store was out of my brand but had a generic solution (Equate) next to the empty spot.  I saw that it was for my type of contact lens, and purchased it.  Little did I know that this was not the generic equivalent to what I normally buy, instead it is a very dangerous solution which should never be used without adhering to the specific instructions for it.

I have a chemical burn on my eye as a result of this product.  I later found (online) that many consumers have sustained injuries from this product, much in the same manner as I have.  My eye will be alright (I think).  The past 24 hours have been very painful, but I am feeling better now.  I will use prescription meds on my eye for a week as it heals.

I want all my Bloggy friends and your families to be aware of this.

BUYER BEWARE!

Catalog Day!

When I was a wee girl I used to walk ten miles to school in the snow with a hole in my boot and no mittens.  How's that for a long sentence?  Truth-be-told, I NEVER did that.  Not a single mile, nor a flake of snow.

But, it is true that in August I was always the first in the family to run to the mailbox to see what the mailman had brought.  I wondered which would arrive first each year.  Would it be "Aldens",  "Spiegel",  "Sears", or " JC Penney"?  If you are familiar with those then you probably remember receiving the Fall & Spring catalogs each year.  My favorite was the Fall one, since it arrive in late Summer when I had lots of free time.  I spent countless hours on a quilt out under the big Elm tree (Geez, I really do sound old!) looking through the catalogs picking out pretty dresses and such, hoping I could talk my Mom into ordering them for me.  Mom made most of my clothes, but what she didn't make was ordered from the thick pages of one of the catalogs.  Looking back, I'm not sure why we ordered clothes, rather than shopping in stores, but that was the case until I began high school. I just assumed that's what everyone else did too.

Do you remember any of those catalogs?

Do you do any clothes shopping from catalogs now?

10 things I Love About August!

1. Root Beer Floats
2. Slow starting days
3. Back-to-School Sales
4. My 1st Grandoll and I sharing the same birthday!
5. The smell of Honeysuckle in the air
6. The gentle purr of room fans
7. Snazzy Sunglasses
8. Ice Cream Sandwiches
9. Crepe Myrtles in full bloom
10. No cold or Flu in our area  (yes, I am a Germaphoeb)

What do you like/love about August?

Yes, I really want to know.