mountaineer musings

nice surprise visit

my Aunt Wanda and Uncle Robert came through Amarillo tonight on their way to Colorado, so Bikey, Pappy, and Aunt Couple (that would be Aunt Carol and Mark, who are inseparable) and i met them at a restaurant for some good eatin'. we had gotten settled in at our table and ordered our drinks, and this tiny little 23 year-old girl walked up and asked if there was room at our table for her. it was my cousin Misti, whom i used to see every single holiday but hadn't seen in at least a year and a half (she stopped coming around the family). we all sat there stunned (except Aunt W & Uncle R, who were in on the surprise) until finally it clicked with Aunt Couple who this purty little bebe was. so we all stood up and waited in line for the hugging, and when i finally got to hug my little cousin, i started crying so much that it could have been called weeping. we expected as much from Bikermommy or Aunt Couple, but me, i'm the ... oh, who am i kidding? i'm a big cry-baby. but for some reason, they were all surprised that it was i who wept.

so happy to see her, and so thankful.

all about thanks

i have several many numerous lots of thanks to give out....

to our founding fathers, for founding the greatest nation on the planet. and they did it in such a hilarious manner; those guys sure did have senses of humor.

to our Armed Forces, past, present and future, who are the best protectors and defenders in the entire world. my deepest gratitude, and a Happy Independence Day to all of you. (i know it's late, but i'm generally about 2 days behind on everything, so really i'm right on time.)

to our MilBloggers, who keep it real for us.

to the fabulous Bikermommy, who writes tough-love mail at least weekly (and that just brings a tear to my eye), and who cleaned my entire kitchen while i was gone. seriously, the kitchen is huge when it's not stacked full of boxes and laundry and dishes and furniture and whatnot. hooray for Bikermommy!

to Chad, who's helping me with the blog conversion, though i keep threatening to quit.

to wordpress... for nuthin'.

to movable type... for even more nuthin'.

to Sandy for hosting me for the weekend.

and to Jason, for preaching 2 excellent sermons Sunday; it's been a while since i've heard even one, so that was a welcome gift.

UPDATE: ::sheepishly bows head:: and i'd like to thank my wonderful faithful fans, all 4 of you, for sticking around. y'all really are the bestest.

grill

Pappy's pappy Bert gave me a charcoal grill (the best kind for flavor, if you ask me. ask me. now!), for which i am quite thankful.

then Joe made me new handles for the grill, and they rock. he actually made them out of a cedar tree that he had chopped down himself!! way cool. speaking of way cool, Joe has the coolest loom and makes the coolest rugs, etc.

so now i have a new grill with beautiful new cedar handles. i plan on making lots of burgers to go with the lots of ice cream i'm going to make this summer.

woohoo!

did you notice...

...the new banner? how awesome is that! so much better than the one i made in 5 minutes on Blog Day 1.

gracious and generous reader Chad from passtheammo.com saw my whine about needing a new banner and took it upon himself to help me out.

what a nice surprise for the inbox!

the banner may evolve some after i get settled in in my new digs and new job, but i'm now in no rush for that. yay!!

thanks, Chad!

UPDATE: Chad has sent me 4 different banners to choose from, and they're all awesome. the one above is my favorite.

kewl

Bikermommy rocks. as soon as we have the go-ahead on the adorable rent-house, she's going to go over and start getting it ready. she's going to clean it head-to-toe (WOOHOO!!) and told me that she'll just let me know how much i owe her for anything she buys. like what, Bikermommy? "well, you may need curtain rods, blinds, stuff like that." "um, i'd like to be involved in picking those out, if you don't mind." "oh. [sad voice.] okay."

and Spidade rocks too. he's coming over after church tomorrow to help me pack boxes, and i think the Stepmo' might be coming too. YAY! other people out there, y'all should definitely follow suit and offer your help! i'm moving in 2-3 weeks, yikes!

monday mayhem...

i'm the new what??? despite my shameless kissing up to the judges of Frank J's IMAO T-Shirt Babe Contest, i still managed to win the contest, which makes me the new and first-ever IMAO T-Shirt Babe! i was sure that i was going to be the Jim Carrey of Frank's World, getting a lot of the fan vote but snubbed by the academy, but whaddaya know? after a long long weekend of waiting (man, it seemed like forever!), the judges made me the babe by a very slim margin (1 pt - how much slimmer can it be?). runners up were Willow, Serenity and the Berkeley hotties Reva and Carissa. all of Frank J's babes are hot stuff, so what an honor! i'll have a speech up soon...

responsibility, bah! so i leave this evening for the Panhandle; i interview tomorrow in one town and Wednesday in another... it's funny how having a job directly affects one's ability to pay the rent. so i'm putting in my notice at my complex today, which is a little scary, since 1) i have no idea where i'm moving to, 2) i have so much to do by way of packing (any volunteers?), 3) i don't know where my job will be, though it's apparently not going to be in Arizona (choice #1), because i can't wait around forever... oh well, the Panhandle gets me closer to mountains, farther from psychos and only 12 hours from the north rim of the Grand Canyon (woohoo!).

i'm back!!

i'm thankful i made it there and home safely, thankful that my kitties missed me. and thankful to Adam, who took care of my girls while i was gone.

and thankful that i didn't get any tickets!

i'll tell y'all about my weekend tomorrow... it's good to be home.

i should eat out more often

so i went to eat lunch at Big Bowl with the little sizzle Jessi; for those of you who don't know, we're both tiny, blonde, and cute, of course. ;) she's 20 & i'm 7 years older (which makes me 22). naturally, we get a lot of looks from the fellers when we're sitting together; of course, last time we went to BB, we got looks all thru lunch from the fellers, but that was more due to the fact that Jess was having a particularly bad day, complete with wailing and tears.

anyway, today Jessi got to watch all during lunch as our waiter and another waiter (actually the one who waited on us on the previously mentioned wailing day) spent all their spare time watching and talking about ... ME! WOOHOO!! Jessi said she's not going to eat lunch with me anymore, because there's something that's just not right about that.

so i would just like to gloat for a minute, because i'm thankful that I'VE! STILL! GOT IT!

tsssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

clean dishes, hooray!

thanks to donna, my stepmo', for cleaning the kitchen today, dishes & floor even! woohoo!

productivity

as much as i hate being productive (because i prefer to just sit on my butt, eat bon-bons, stare at my 'nsync bobbleheads and paint my toenails have someone else paint my toenails), i'm so thankful for this week. i've not had a real headache since monday, and i've been most productive all week. made much progress in packing, cleaning, did 8 loads of laundry today, even made my bed & changed all my pillowcases, yay me!! bikermommy is so proud. i even walked for an hour (at fat-burning pace) twice this week, and considering that i've been incapacitated & flat on my back for most of the last 3 weeks, that's harder than it sounds.

as a reward, i shall watch playoff hockey tonight. well, i'd do that anyway, but it's nice to think of it as me treating myself.

GO STARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!