The Cell Phone

It was a wonderful Friday morning, a bright sunny day outside.  I was suppose to go to my parents house after work, and decided to call my mom after Bebe asked me to come home first so we could have supper together. 

I parked my car in the lot outside of my work and called my mom on the cell.  My phone has been with me for over 2 years…it does everything for me!  We get lost, I bring out my phone; we need a random fact about life, I bring out my phone; I need to text you a funny joke, I bring out my phone; I need to call you, oh yes, that handy dandy phone is put to use.  I touched my moms cell phone in my address book (it’s a touch screen) and it dialed her number.  This is when a great day turns horribly bad…the phone never rang, it just went to a noise.  The noise sounded like someone breathing heavily, and then mixed a garbled undertone of whispered nonsense, which would then return to the heavy breathing.  What in the world is this?!?

At first I thought, my mom must have answered with her purse (like a purse dial aka as a butt dial or pocket dial but instead of a dial it was answering).  So I waited a few more minutes for my mom to say something, and then I said “Mom?”  Then it went from the heavy breathing to a really loud and mad sounding garbled undertone of yelling nonsense.  Oh My Gosh I made it angry!

I had two options…(trying to think clearly as the noise on the other end went from being mad to whispering nonsense to heavy breathing on the other line)…

A.) I could rush in and tell my coworkers to listen in because it was just too freaky!

B.) Hang up and call my mom again and hope whatever was on the line now didn’t pick up again.

I went for option B, because I didn’t want to rush in and ask them all to listen in and the thing get really mad or for it to just shut up and then I look crazy.  And also because I needed to talk with my mom.

I dialed my mom again and it rang and she picked up.  I asked her if she had heard the noise too, and she said she had.  I asked her if she had called out my name to see if it was me and if it had gotten angry.  She had called out my name, but the noise did not get angry…so the thing must have had mommy issues. 

When I got off the phone with my mom and went inside to work I told everyone in my office about it…lets just say they all thought I was going to be abducted and because they knew me, they too, were going to be abducted as well.  It was aliens, a possessed phone, or an airplane mixing up the signals.

I made it through the weekend, and nothing happened…I am hoping it was just a misplaced signal…but it was weird and that misplaced signal had real mommy issues. 

Bella’s New Duck

I bought Bella a duck last year.  It is a plush stuffed toy duck and it squawks whenever you squeeze it. Anyway she loves it.  She picks that toy over any other toy that might be around.  You put your arms out for her to come and cuddle with you, and she will run to get her duck because the duck just can’t be left out of a good hug, now can it? 

After a whole year of her tugging it around everywhere she went (it’s like a security blanket) Bebe and I finally decided it had to go.  It went from a bright shade of brown and white to a nasty shade of gray over this time period and it had a hole near the neck where Bella held it most often.  But Bella can’t go a day without her Duck.  She goes crazy when she can’t find it, or she just gets depressed and sleeps all day (well she does that anyway, but when she can’t find her duck she has a very sad expression on her face when she sleeps and she has nightmares where she is running away from something…or maybe running to something…like her duck). 

She left it downstairs one day and spent all day looking through every room trying to locate it, and finally when I went downstairs to do laundry and she followed me and came upon it, you would have thought it was the best day in the whole world for her.  She jumped on it, and ran up and down the stairs with it in her mouth until I came upstairs to play with her and the duck.  So there was no way of getting rid of the duck totally.

So I looked everywhere to try and find a replacement duck…but it needed to be the same type of duck and it had to make the same kind of noise.  I got her a squirrel toy, and she didn’t play with it much, my mom got her a raccoon, and she played with it only because I forgot to bring her duck with us and then she tore the raccoon up, my mom bought her a skunk and Bella likes it, but she rarely plays with it she always picks her duck over it.  I have bought her bones and other toys and she never touches them.  The duck was nowhere to be found…it wasn’t at the original store anymore, except for in a much smaller size, it wasn’t at any pet stores, and it wasn’t at the hardware stores.  So where was I suppose to go?  THE INTERNET!  I got online and put in Dog Duck Toy, and BAM! There it was!  So I ordered it (spent $13 on this little toy) and it was on its way! 

When the new toy finally came, you would think she would be all pleased and forget about the old duck.  WRONG!  She now plays with both the old duck and the new duck.  She gets confused about which one she should play with so we get to play with both.  One duck is in her mouth, the other duck she is kicking along with her feet towards you.  I doubt we are ever going to get rid of the old duck now. 

Three things I did, and three things I did not do, over the Christmas holiday.

Three things I did Not Do:

I did not get to watch A Christmas Story.  I know I said I would, but every time it was one, I got distracted or someone wanted my attention (more on this in the Three things I did do section). So I still don’t know why the lamp is shaped like a leg or why a little boy would put his tongue on a pole in the middle of winter.

I did not blog after Christmas…I know I was a horrible horrible blogger…I just haven’t had the time, but I promise to make it up to you all (you’ll understand why in the Three things I did do Section).

I did not get sick! YAY! Which is a huge achievement for me…usually every Christmas I am either sick, or coming down with something.  This Holiday season I was way too busy to be sick.

Three things I did do:

I did say “Yes” to Bebe when he asked me to Marry Him.  There now can you see why I have been busy. He asked me Christmas eve (that story to come later) it was perfect and wonderful.  That evening while we were at his Grandpas house A Christmas Story was on, and I wanted to watch it, but I was busy talking with everyone about the wedding planning.  Then Christmas Day when it was one we were at my families Christmas and we had the same problem.  So still I have never seen A Christmas Story all the way through, but I don’t really think you can blame me on this one…blame Bebe.

I did plan a wedding.  Basically I had two weeks after Bebe asked me until my work started up again.  So in those two weeks I did nothing but research places, buy things, and plan out everything (well as much as I could so I wouldn’t have to worry about so much when I went back to work).  It was a really rough two first weeks of engagement.  But I figure if Bebe can stick with me through those first two weeks we will be good together for life together. 

I did get to spend a lot of quality time with my family and my future in-laws.  That is one of my favorite things about the Holiday season.  With all the planning and organizing and everything I spent a lot of time being with everyone who is involved.  I had a wonderful time being with everyone and spending a wonderful holiday with them all.

I apologize for my absenteeism, but I will be posting more regularly now that more things are finished and my worries (remember I am a worry wart) are put to rest (well some of them are).  Happy Dance is back to Dancing Happy :)

Just what I wished for!!!

What it did at my house Christmas Eve Day/Night! I was so excited to wake up and see it.  Isn't it pretty?  I always dream of a white Christmas, and this year I got my wish!

P.S. That tree is the same tree where Bella dug up the squirrel...fun times.



I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday!

The Green Drink

So my moms side of the family has many Christmas traditions, but the one that is by far the best and most honored tradition is our Grasshoppers! 

Now we don’t spend our summers out in the fields jumping after the little buggers to freeze and eat on Christmas, no this is a drink.  Though, I think, the later would be a very interesting thing to explain to the neighbors.  This is a drink that is made of different liquors and ice cream.

This drink comes two ways A.) Leaded (alcohol, though not very much alcohol at all) B.) Unleaded (no alcohol).  When I was very little, my grandma only knew how to make it leaded…so that made for some VERY fun Christmas Day evenings! I was giving just the smallest amount and then I would fall asleep.  Then when I reached the age of five, she learned how to make it unleaded, and that was what I was given until I reached 21. 

The drink is a very dark bright green when it is Leaded and a very light bright green when it is unleaded, so no tricking anyone into thinking you had one when you really had the other. 

This drink has become infamous in my family, and with some of my friends.  Ryno comes over for Christmas ever year, and somehow always manages to come in the evening, just in time for a Grasshopper, or two.  Da’Da’ has had one, and went back for seconds.  Bebe has had one…and I don’t really know his opinion on it, at that point the was pretty full from the meal that is searved all day on Christmas day at my house, so he was probably too full to really enjoy it.  My two youngest cousins, on that side, though, make the drink even more special for me ever year.

My oldest youngest cousin, Andrea I remembered drinking all of her unleaded and always asking my grandma for more.  My youngest youngest cousin, Andreas sister Karney, also came to love the drink.  Every Christmas Day evening the ask over and over and over again whether or not the Grasshoppers were going to be made soon.  That seems to do the drink to bring my grandma into action.  Once the drinks are done they sprint into the kitchen and grab there unleaded cups and head into the living room holding the cup with both hands, face beaming, teeth showing, and eyes bright and wide staring intently at the drink.  The kids (and I) almost always get served first, and we almost always go back for seconds.  You could be stuffed and if you ate/drank another morsel your body would combust and you would die a horrible death and I think we all would still have a Grasshopper.  You just can’t turn these things down!

Karney, Andrea, and I always sit at the “kiddies” table and watch TV - usually a cartoon Christmas special - and tell stories and jokes while the “adults” are sitting in the dinning room talking about “adult” things.  We laugh and talk and drink our drinks.  In about the time it takes for you to get a brain freeze, are drinks are down and we are ready to go back for more.

This to me makes Christmas officially awesome.  It is this truly bonding experience of us having our families traditional drink, getting a brain freeze at the exact same time together, and talking about goofy things that have no relevant meaning to life other then we think it is awesome and funny.  It helps make our family stronger and brings us together every year.  It makes the whole day of traveling, stressing about whether or not someone is going to like your gift that you got them, the weather conditions, etc…all fade away into things not important and puts the things that are important like family and friends totally in perspective. 

I am so happy my family hasn’t gotten rid of this tradition, I know if it ever came to that, I would step in and make it…but then again that might not turn out well…we all know how well I do in the kitchen.  So if it ever does come to that, I know with the love this drink has brought to my family and friends at least my cousins, and probably Ryno, would be there to help me not ruin the drink that year and still continue on with it.

Country Christmas

Out in the country there is this little farm house and an older gentleman who loved Christmas.  Every year he would put up this huge display all around his front yard, his side yard, on the barn, near the silos, and through the surrounding fields.

It was a Christmas Tradition for families in my town to go out the mile or so outside of town to this farm and see the lights every year.  It was gorgeous and really got you in the Christmas sprit.  My sister started taking me when she first got her license and we would slowly drive through the farm yard and see all the lights, pointing at the ones we loved, and ohhing and awwing over everything. 

When she moved and I got my license I started taking my youngest cousins, Bria and Brad,  (same ones from the Annual Wrapping Paper Ball Fight post) to see the light display.  We would blast Christmas music and sing along and once we got out to the farm we would slowly go through the display.  This became an annual thing before we went to the church for the candle light service and before our Wrapping Paper Ball Fights. 

Every year it was something we looked forward too, and couldn’t wait to bust out of the house and see it again.  The display never really changed, things were placed in the same place, and I don’t think this farmer ever added new lights (since it was already really big) but we didn’t care, it was wonderful to go and see.  My small town usually has snow on Christmas eve, and usually the power goes out right around the time for the candle light service in my church there (very cool if I do say so for our service all by candle light) but something that my cousins and I would have to beat before it would go out so we could see the display in the country. 

Then sometime one year the farmer passed away, it was in our local newspaper about weather or not the display would be shown one last time, since the farmer passed before Christmas time.  His family wrote in that they would put it up one last time and then the farm would not have it again.  Once I heard this, it was my main goal that Christmas.  My friends and I went out there and saw the lights, my mom and I went out there and saw the lights, and my cousins and I were out there Christmas eve to see the lights before that candle light service.

It was amazingly beautiful and the image of  the picture perfect light display will always be a photograph in my mind.  It was Christmas card perfect.  It was bittersweet, the last drive through with my cousins.  It was sad to break it to them, that this display would not be there ever again, but it only made that one last trip even more special. 

Since then I have seen light displays at houses that would blow that farm out of this world, but it doesn’t matter, that light display on that farm will always take the gold medal in my heart for some of the great Christmas memories of mine.



Now my horrible picture that does no justice to what the farm really looked like, but it was bright and gorgeous and just very Christmasy! :) (There were a lot more light displays and Christmas objects throughout the farm land)

Christmas in July?

So there is this thing where apparently people can’t go too long without some Christmas in their lives, and so Christmas in July comes around.  And even though I love Christmas and the Holiday spirit I don’t feel like we need Christmas in July to feel the love of Christ and to share his love with the world.

But one year in July, in my small town, Kat and I were walking around (it’s what you do when you are from a small town and have no gas money), and decided Christmas was what everyone needed.  It was a hot day, the sun was beating down on us, and really we probably should have just watched a movie but instead we wanted to go out into the world (or just out of our parents houses) and see what there was to see.  Well in my town you have some stop signs, some yield signs, some animals, trees, a courthouse, a few businesses, and people who know you, everywhere. 

While walking we would talk and joke.  But that day it felt like there needed to be something much bigger involved then just talking and joking…there needed to be singing!  So that is exactly what we did.  We held hands, skipped, and sang songs.  NOT just any songs…we sang Christmas songs.  Baby it’s Cold Outside, Jingle Bells, Oh Holy Night, We Three Kings, Emanuel, oh yes we went there! 

We had a lot of people sing along with us as we passed by, other that requested tunes once they heard us belting it out.  It was caroling in the scorching sun and it was a lot of fun!  The best part was when we went by a house that had roofers on top of it.  They yelled down “Jingle Bell Rock” and we quickly went to that song and waved and went by.  We could hear the roofers whistling it after we had passed. 

It was a great feeling of bringing back that spirit of love and joy to those around us when on the really hot day, they probably needed it most.  Plus the people who we did pass either gave us really weird looks, which was just funny, or joined in and enjoyed it.  So either way our day was made, or the peoples were.  Plus we got to skip around town…and once you get to high school skipping is something that not a lot of people do, so we totally brought it back that day. 

It is one of those things that will always bring a smile to my face when I think back on it.  It was so random and such a perfect day.  So now in July…even though I don’t buy into the whole tv stations and radio stations Christmas in July thing…I have my own private Christmas music listening/singing party…or Kat is there too, and we sing at least one song and smile.  And now whenever I hear those songs it brings back memories of skipping down one of the main roads in town taking requests and caroling in July.