H is for

Honey Hot Wings- from Native New Yorker. They are really the best. I do not like ranch so I can't eat hot or suicide or whatever, plus I am a HUGE whimp.
Hobbling- I am hobbling around today, I have pain in my knee.
hobbies- scrapbooking, gardening, homemaking
homesteading wannabe- I am working toward being more self sufficient and good to the earth. We have chickens and ducks, I compost and recycle. My goals are to have more animals, plant a veggie garden and fruit trees. I also cook from scratch most often.
helpful- I try to be as helpful to other people as much as possible.
honest- I work really hard at being honest w/ myself. I am honest w/ others easily.
houseplants- I used to have quite a collection, and now I am getting a few started again. I enjoy them.

G is for

Gross- teenage boys are gross.
goofy- teenage boys are goofy.
Glass- I like cobalt blue glass.
gravy and biscuts- my ds's favorite breakfast that I make.
grass- even though I live in the desert I love to see green grass.
grenadine- I like to make shirley temples!
george forman- I love my george forman grill.
garden- I love to garden. My garden is mostly flowers, and herbs. I can not physically do everything I want to do, so sometimes gardening frustrates me.
goals- I am a goal oriented person, and a list maker.

a few holiday questions

Hot Chocolate or Egg Nog? I like both, but I would choose hot chocolate usually.
Does Santa wrap the presents or just set them under the tree? He used to wrap but now he doesn't anymore.
Colored or white lights on the tree/house? Blue
Do you hang mistletoe?-sometimes
When do you decorate? the friday after thanksgiving
What is your favorite holiday dish? the ham,lol
Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve? yes, the jammies and then everyone can choose one.
What kind of cookies do you set out for Santa on Christmas Eve? We used to set out sugar cookies.
Snow! Love it or hate it? hate
Can you ice skate? no way
What is your favorite Christmas Carol? The Little Drummer Boy
Are they fake or real? Er, I mean...What type of tree? Fake

F

is for-
four- the number of people in my immediate family.
family- I have a dh, and two ds's.
freezer- I got a new deep freezer this year and love how much money I can save at the store, and how much easier feeding those two teenage boys has been.
fresh herbs- I love to grow mint, sage, basil and parsley.
fantasies- I love to daydream about winning the lottery and what I would like to do outside on my property.
fragrance- my favorite is warm vanilla sugar from bath and body works
freecycle- a wonderful "thing". I have both given and recieved items on my local freecycle group.
friends- I love my friends, my irl and my online friends. I just recently started making friends. I hooked up w/ my exdh when I was 15. I allowed him to become the center of my universe. After my divorce, I was really busy raising my two ds's. I really like that I have taken the time/effort to make friends.
fried chicken- one of my most requested dinners. Pretty good if I do say so myself

E

E-
Eeyore- " Thanks for noticing me"

Enter- most used space on my keyboard,lol.

Easy- life is not easy

Eating-I love pizza, onion rings, hot dogs and dark chocolate.

Earrings- have to be at least 14 K gold or I get a horrible rash

Eyes- blue w/ little yellow specks in them

Emu- I want one, dh says no way. I had the chance to get a flock of 5 for free but dh would have nothing to do w/ it.

Escape- in the computer or in my scraproom

Excercise- with the exception of gardening and housekeeping, I do not excercise. My motto is " No pain, no pain"

Excessive- I drink an excessive amount of chocolate diet cokes from Sonic.

Excellent- Josh says I am an excellent mom, scrapbooker, and cook.

D is for

Dork- I am a dork. I cry at movies, commercials, any sort of sappy stuff.
Dina- my sister, three years younger, also a teacher.
Dianna- my best online friend. She is just super, always there for me.
Denim- my favorite fabric. Practical, goes w/ everything.
Direct TV- I don't watch a lot of TV but I am sure glad I have it.
Dining room- my whole dining room is filled w/ old stuff I love. The table was my parents first table, and one of the chairs is marred by my booster seat. I can not imagine eating anywhere else. My china cabinet is actually my bedroom furnature as a girl, the dresser/hutches.
Ducks- my favorite farm animal. I just love our 5 ducks and this spring I will probably get a few more.
Dogs- my favorite "inside" animal. Chows are my favorite breed. I love them for their loyalty, and because they are less "dog-like" than other dogs.
Dude- Joel's bassett hound

C is for-

Children- mine, other people's, I love children. I love to look at this world throug their eyes.
Chickens-I have 10. We do not butcher them( guess I am a city girl still,lol) but I love the chickens, and the eggs. Nothing tastes like farm fresh eggs.
Coffee- I do not like black coffee, but I like sweet coffee drinks.
Computer- I was so resistant to start using it and was practically forced to in my last job, but now I can not imagine life w/o it.
Chat- I love going to chat, and my friends from chat. Again, I would be really sad to give that up.
Clue- I love playing Clue w/ my kids.
Crock Pot-my favorite kitchen appliance. I am using it today!
Cougars- my kids' school mascot! Go Cougars!!!
Chris- my DH
Checkerboard- my favorite pattern

the letter B

B is for-
Boys- I have the blessing of being mom to the two best boys in the world.
As a preschool teacher, the naughty, ornery boy was my favorite to teach.I loved the challenge, I loved their curiosity.
Blessings- I have so many. My family, my friends, my home, my car, we eat good food every day. We have access to good medical care, I have a hobby I love, and so does each member of my family.
bath and body works- warm vanilla sugar
bread machine- love to make rolls, and warm pretzels.
baby animals- aren't they cute??
baskets- I love baskets!
butter- real butter, no margerine here!!
bassett hounds- joels favorite dog

I also wanted to blog a bit about my dh. This is the one year anniversary of his heart surgery.
After an average weekend morning of yardwork, chores ect, my dh came in and ate lunch. Shortly after that, we came home from picking up a fish tank for my youngest ds. My dh was helping carry it in and he said he needed to rest. I thought he was messing around w/ me because he was not really in favor of this fish tank. He sat down, and drank some water, and told me he was really having trouble. I went and sat next to him, and he was very clammy and agitated. We called an ambulance, and they rushed him to our local hospital.
There, they were monitoring him because his symptoms were indicitive of either a heart attack or a diabetic shock. Every test was normal though, and my dh was still in extreme pain, and said he could not see. They decided to do a CAT scan to see if there was any damage to the aorta.Bingo.
He had an ascending aortic dissection ( a tear in the upper aorta). You have three walls to the vessel, and two were split. If the third splits, he dies immediately. This is the condition that killed John Ritter, and I firmly believe that his death brought awareness to this condition, that was formerly not even thought about in emergency rooms since it is fairly rare.
He was airlifted to University Medical Center, which is one of two heart hospitals in our state. The hospital is about an hr from our local hospital. My mom and dad met me, for my dad to take the boys, and for my mom to come with me.
My dh "refused" to go into surgery until I could tell him that is what he should do. His wonderful, wonderful icu nurse hooked up a phone so he could talk to me. He does not remember the flight or my phone call, but he agreed to go into surgery w/o me being there.I got there about an hour after they started the surgery.
We waited anxiously during the 6 hr surgery. His nurse came out occasionally to let us know how it was going.
His doctor, who we later learned was the top heart surgeon in this state, came out later to tell us " Your husband almost died but he is fine now" LOL- that was all he had to say.
A few hours later they let us see him, and then they said that they would be keeping him sedated the rest of the day and night. My mom and I went home so I could get my meds and to make further arrangements.
His recovery took a long time, much longer than we had expected. He almost died twice more, and was in a medically induced coma for 2 weeks. He got a nasty bacterial infection and it was just yukky all around. He had the best care imaginable,and everyone at the hospital, from the cafeteria employees, the houskeeping staff, to the doctors were all helpful and extrememly kind.
He came home on New Years day, and he still does not remember most of the first two weeks at home( due to pain meds). He was off work for 3 more months, and then went back PT, and eventually back to full time. We have had a very tough time financially this year ( nothing like being out of work and having extensive medical bills to do that to a one income family,lol), but I still feel like his care was a bargin, and that we are so blessed to all still be here this year.

a little idea I saw on another blog

Every day she chooses a letter and does this:
A is for:
Arthritis- life changing. Good ways and bad. I think I will do a longer entry about that one day.
Animals- I love animals, all kinds.
Apples- Granny Smith and MacIntosh are my favorites.
Acetaminophen- my best friend,lol.
A&E- love cold case files
Albertsons- one of my favorite grocery stores

my guys

Ok, I have never put a photo in my blog before, so this is really an experiment,lol. This photo is of my sons, looking out at Sunset Point. Sunset Point is a really beautiful place between Phoenix and Flagstaff, AZ. Kinda hokey, for us natives, but I guess I had never pulled off the highway to let my ds's see this before. I think I will stop again in the spring, when everything will be so much greener.
Today is the first time in 3 months that I have had the house to myself for the day, I am looking forward to that! I plan to do some decluttering, and some resting, and some scrapping. 

craptacular

I am really getting frustrated w/ people lately. Well, not just people, but PEOPLE,lol. People who are responsible to me, or to my kids, and who are shirking their responsiblities. They have a lot of nerve, then, to tell me that I am either A) a crappy mom or B) such a good mom, that is why they can be so darn irresponsible.
I am ticked off at my DH too, because he has really gotten lazy and unmotivated. I don't have enough energy to pick up his slack.He really seems to feel that he should be able to go to work and then, do nothing else ever. I know we all need relaxing and down time, but I did not mean to marry the poster child of it,lol.
I was watching outlaws on CMT today, I guess I still have a thing for the bad boys,lol. I loved it!!
I got a wonderful surprise in my email today, so I am trying to cheer myself up w/ the GC that I recieved,lol.
I have scrapped a little every day for the last 3 days. I have finished 2 LO's and partly finished another. I feel good about that.
I am still plugging away at my mini album, too.

in and out, in and out

That is my life these days, letting the dogs in, letting them out. Over and over. I always teased my dad, for doing this w/ his dogs and now karma has come back to bite me, and HARD!
Today, Josh says he needs to get back to drinking enough water. I asked him, how do you know you have not been drinking enough, and he said
" My pee is too yellow" LOL. I guess he listens to me about something.