My kids have grown up around a wide variety of music. Everything from old standards to jazz and big band to rockabilly, country and Bob Marley. I’m a die-hard Harry Connick Jr. fan and I love Frank Sinatra. My husband is an old school metal head and it’s no secret that the whole family loves Queen and Zeppelin. But, I was born and raised in Bako and my grandparents listened to Willie Nelson, my grandpa was a big Vince Gill fan so I have an affinity for country music. I think unless you are hell-bent on resisting it, that country kind of gets into your blood around here, just a bit.

Over the last year my Kate has gotten into country music and not only is she diggin’ current cutie pies like Blake Shelton (especially Blake, she’s been on a die-hard crusade to get Blake’s attention on Twitter for months), Keith Urban, Billy Currington and Brad Paisley, but she’s even pulled out a few of her mama’s favorites too. Nothing cooler than seeing your daughter singing along to Lorrie Morgan or kicking back listening to David Lee Murphy. Even better is to find out that songs she loves by current performers were written by guys I loved back then. And, she loves George Strait… the really old stuff. She’s also a big fan of Willie Nelson and I think her great grandpa would be pretty proud of that.

We spent most of the summer with the stereo blaring over our home made Bocce Ball court the playlist hopping from Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, stuff my grandpa loved to Jason Aldean, Zac Brown Band, Kenny Chesney and tons of Blake Shelton.

I wasn’t too surprised when Katie begged for tickets to see Blake in concert this March at our local concert venue, Rabobank Arena. Santa bought Katie and mom tickets and for Katie, a membership in the fan club… that’s right, my girl is an official BS’er.

In case you are interested, these songs are topping our play list currently:

Honeybee

People Are Crazy

Take a Back Road

Chicken Fried

Out Last Night

Dirt Road Anthem

That Ain’t My Truck

Party Crowd

I cannot stand clicking on a video of a PREVIEW of an upcoming episode of a show I watch only to find a commercial before the preview. A PREVIEW is a COMMERCIAL. So now, we have commercials FOR commercials? This sends me into whirlwinds of pissed off that I can’t even begin to describe.

For what it’s worth? TV Squad used to be one of my favorite sites to visit daily. I loved the reviews and recaps of my favorite shows. Then, Huffington Post took over and ruined it. It’s a mess. I can’t find anything I like and it looks just like the rest of Huffington Post, which is to say, an ADD sufferers DREAM.

TV Squad isn’t that big of a loss considering it routinely did something else that is a pet peeve of mine… auto loading video clips. If I WANT to watch the video, I know where to find the play button. I don’t need you to play it automatically so it competes with the current Blake Shelton or Billy Currington song I’m playing.

On a mostly unrelated note, ne of the most tedious, boring tasks is photo scanning. I don’t have the patience to screw around with a scanner and wait for it to go back and forth over my picture, document or whatever. I have even been known to just take a picture of a picture just to save myself hassling with that stupid scanner.

No joke.

This brought to you by Friday nothingness. I doubt this will be a regular occurrence around here but… you never know.

I spent much of 2011 going through various transitions. I guess every year has transitions and changes but 2011 was fairly significant for me. I’ve struggled with blogging for the past few years and it seems like every time I think I’m finally done something pulls me back here. I’m just not quite willing to give up my little spot on the ‘net yet.

For so long I’ve kept things very quiet and private around here (and Facebook has not helped this either ) because there are people that are no longer in my life and I don’t want them having the privilege of this tiny window to peep through. The problem is that I’m me and what made blogging so much fun from the start was being me. When I felt the need to circle the wagons and close the blinds I didn’t know how to keep blogging when my blogging has always been based in the off-beat antics of my family.

I was discussing this with Katie the other day and now that she runs her own website she has a better idea of where I’m coming from. I’m finally reaching a point where I realize that my children are who they are, in part, because of who I am and it’s okay to take credit for that. My daughter is absolutely amazing and is wise beyond her years sometimes. She also has this incredible backbone and deeply rooted ethics that I really respect. It was no surprise when her thoughts were very simple, “Screw what anyone else thinks, either get back to doing what you do or shut it down.” I’m not sure what else I could have expected from the girl whose email signature reads:

“There’s so much good in the worst of us,
so much bad in the best of us,
it never makes sense for any of us,
to criticize the rest of us” -Amy Grant

I think I still have a few more posts percolating in the back of my mind, I just have to figure out how to get them out. It seems I’ve been shut down for so long that it’s harder to find the words than it used to be. No worries… my husband would be the first to tell you that I’m never at a loss for words for very long.

If you get a second, Follow my blog with Bloglovin.

It seems everyone is moving either due to the economy or well, mainly due to the economy. If you are faced with a domestic or international move you might want to look into ShipSmart.

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Good luck and Happy Moving!

That bit of ridiculousness was brought to you by me, courtesy of Katie who has played it roughly 8 billion times and turned lines from it into the most obnoxious earworm on the planet. I swear. Personally, I thought it was just “okay” the first time I saw it. What made it funny was our good friend, Nate, who would recite lines in response to completely unrelated conversations.

Which, brings me to my next thought, I know what you’re thinking out there, oh yes, I really do. Something like:

“Zomg. She never blogs anymore and when she does it’s this cheesy drivel or nonstop talk about fishing and OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG… that SUCKS.”

Indeed.

Why you’d almost never know that I am a huge fan of Russell Brand as a stand up comedian (Arthur, sucked out loud, I’m afraid) and that I really love a good dirty joke, would you?

*seagulling*

Bwahahahaha.

Nope, around here it’s all glitter and unicorns and ridiculousness.

You see, the interesting happens when I am safely ensconced in my Facebook tower of magnificent ivory glory. The interesting often includes uninhibited snarky, bitchy rants and yes, the occasional tipsy utterance that even then is safely relegated to only a few eyes on a very exclusive list. Said list is fairly tough to get on, I either have to know you very well or you have to happily imbibe on a regular basis.

The number of wonderful souls who actually fit into either category is far too small.

I was watching Jim Jeffries (a standup comedian from Australia that my darling, Nate-R-Tots turned me on to) the other night, look him up on YouTube only if you have a legit sense of humor and are not a prude of some sort. Sadly, THAT list is far too long! Nevertheless, you’ve been warned.

Anyway… *sigh* he has a great bit about how you just can’t trust people who don’t drink. Lord, isn’t that the truth? You really can’t. Most of the people I adore most imbibe now and again. Now, I’m not talking about sloshing around fully-loaded all the time or full-blown alcoholics! I’m talking about people who know how to loosen up and have a good time. If you can’t manage that… well, get on with yourself then and no, don’t give me the old stink-eye because I enjoy a lovely pint of Stella Artois or Peroni with my pizza on Friday nights.

or a gorgeous Modelo with my chile verde.

or a cold, dark Guinness on a chilly winter evening.

Time and place, people. That’s all I’m saying.

Time and place.

I continue to be impressed with how far manufactured homes have come. Depending on what part of the country you live in they are either an affordable options or a major financing obstacle. If an evaluation is necessary then they have to be compared to other manufactured homes, you can’t compare a manufactured home to a traditional “stick-built” home. Which means you have to plan on putting your manufactured home in an area with a lot of other manufactured homes.

Which means that, at least here in California, you might want to plan on living in a more remote area like somewhere up in the mountains where traditional construction costs are high because you have to truck everything in and it’s not as easy as it would be in a regular city with free ways and wide streets. Manufactured homes become a more reasonable and affordable option.

I spent a lot of time going through a website for AZChampion the other day and not to be too redundant but, I was impressed at how far they had come. It’s amazing to see modern manufactured homes that don’t even look like manufactured homes at all! Granite counters, tile, etc.

Around here there are many families who have mobiles homes parked on land up in the mountains or over at the beach. Considering the beach is about an hour and half drive and the mountains are about the same it makes for an easy escape from the God awful heat we endure around here during the summer.

I love the idea of having a cute, manufactured home tucked back into the woods somewhere with a lake nearby. I love the idea of it being a weekend getaway and eventually a retirement retreat.

We’ve looked into doing something like that I think it’s a realistic possibility for us to pull off in the next few years. I love the idea of packing up and disappearing for a weekend without having to worry about hotel reservations or whether the camp ground has really clean bathrooms and showers.

Guest article today – typically I find insurance in general to be a snore inducing topic but the older I get (and the older my husband gets – ha!) the more my thoughts are turning to these types of topics. Here’s a little FYI for ya. Enjoy!

The Importance Of Medicare Supplement Insurance

Once a person reaches the age of availability for medicare they have many questions surrounding what it covers and even more questions about medicare supplement insurance. This is insurance provided by private companies, for a fee, that allows for gap coverage. It is a way to supplement medicare and prepare for the unexpected. The cost for medical care is high, and when something unforeseen happens, the need for gap insurance becomes critical. No one should take the chance.

There is no reason to not be prepared when you arrive at retirement. Still, many have not put back enough, and some of those that did were hit hard by the economic crises that has affected the entire globe. Nevertheless, medical expenses remain and occupy a large portion of the budget every month. When something unexpected happens supplemental insurance can pay for itself many times over.

So the issue is not really whether or not to purchase this insurance but rather what type to buy. There are a number of choices that vary in a number of ways, so the purchaser must be thorough in their research to make certain they understand these differences in an effort to obtain the supplemental policy that best suits their situation.

In fact there are twelve plans available, even though some are not options in certain states. Some refer to these plans as something called Medigap insurance. Prices and benefits vary, and for those that are not available in certain states there are other similarly priced options that provide the same level of benefits.

One thing of importance to note is that the benefit these plans offer are the same from one company to the next, however the premiums are frequently very different. Understand that paying more does not equal more benefits for a given plan. Even the process of making a claim is the same. There will surely be salespeople who indicate otherwise, however the law overrides their sales pitch ever time.

On the first of January of each year, adjustments are made to the price of the premium as a result of inflation. Because the benefits through a supplemental plan follow those of medicare, the premiums for the supplemental plane will increase for this reason every year.

Premium prices are set for Medigap policies in three different ways. The first is called attained age, where premiums typically increase every one, three, or five years, and this is in addition to the cost increase as it is adjusted for inflation. The second is issue age, where cost is based on age at the time of enrollment. These premiums do not increase with age, however they are adjusted every year on the first of January. The third community-rated. In this case, everyone in the same geographical area pays the same premium.

Clearly there are many options along with a number of pitfalls. Still, with a little research there is a plan available that can meet anyone’s needs.
Medigap and Medigap plans are talked about a lot today. If you would like to get a low cost medigap plan, then we can help you with it.

Source: http://www.articlewood.com/3104/the-importance-of-medicare-supplement-insurance.html More information on life insurance for senior citizens found here.

Upon review of my mailbox this week I found a parcel from the always amazing, Chickie at SkitteringThoughts.Com. There is nothing like stretching out your birthday with a surprise package. Last year I sent Chickie antique pickle forks. It’s a long story and would only make you shiver so I won’t elaborate further except to say that those pickle forks resulted in this:

“Beware the Picklefork of Doom” t-shirt, because it makes us laugh… a lot.

Thanks to Chickie I have acquired an addiction to bath bombs and subsequently so has Maggie which is why “Santa” put Neopolitan ice cream and birthday cake scented bath bombs in her stocking this year. Otherwise, she would have raided my meager stash since baths with bath bombs are nearly an obsession with her.

I’m always checking in with Chickie to see where her latest “go-to” stop is for bath bombs. She turned me on to a really great website, BaubleBath.Com. Which is why I was stoked out of my mind when I received this:
How cute is that? I think Chickie is rubbing off on me a bit because I waited until later in the evening and curled up in bed with this pretty package and really took my time opening it. I could smell the contents through the wrapping!!! Citrus and hints of lavender teased me from inside, it was too much and the anticipation was killing me! Once opened, it was like Christmas/Birthday all over again!

I was so excited I almost forgot to take pictures!!! Hand made soaps!!! Oh! And, that jar? That would be a scrub that is supposedly “Sunshine” scented but I swear to you right now that it smells exactly like the orange popsicles I used to get out of my grandmother’s freezer!!!! See the bath bombs tucked in there? I’ve had to hide those because I think Maggie already used hers from Christmas.

Nothing beats a hot bath with one of these handmade bath bombs. Seriously.

Thank you SO much, Chickie! You made my birthday AND you also managed to stretch it out into the next week! YAY!!!!! And, sadly – it beats the hell out of antique pickle forks.

Oops. Wouldn’t you know it, I went and professed my “love” for a television show and this is what happened, it seems NBC has cut their order of episodes of The Cape. Now to wield my power for good…

Dear Universe,

Can I just tell you how much I loooooove reality television? Apprentice – I ADORE it! American Idol – more please!!! Survivor? Squee!!!! Oh… love love love love love. Oh, and I would just explode into millions of rainbow confetti bits if I could get another spin-off of “Real Housewives” and more Jersey Shore! Snookie – YUM YUM. Even better! Can you give Sarah Palin another shot at a reality show? How about Kate Gosselin? Oooooo!!!! I’m just shivering with anticipation!!!

Oh and while I’m professing my love for such wonderful, quality television content can we please have a dozen or more medical/mystery/forensic dramas? There just aren’t enough out there and I have loads and loads of time on my hands!

Sincerely Diggin’ All The Above!

Amy

The Cape started off on Sunday nights which thrilled me to no end. I don’t know what you watch on Sunday nights but my family has long been addicted to all the animated stuff that Fox lines up on Sunday nights. I’m TIRED of it.

I fondly recall watching “Murder, She Wrote” as a kid at 8pm on Sunday nights. Whatever you might think of the show now, as a kid addicted to mysteries this was pure television awesomeness for me. It also made me feel very grown up watching it which didn’t hurt either.

The Cape did so well on Sunday nights that NBC in all it’s brilliance switched it to MONDAYS, completely screwing up my Monday routine. Now, I’m not a big, hot shot, television executive, but it would seem to me that when you have something working for you (especially after sucking for so long) that you LEAVE IT ALONE. But, OH NO, it’s like a gambling addict on a brief and unusual winning streak.

I’ll gladly switch from Hawaii 5-0 to Harry’s Law… and for the record, I don’t HATE Hawaii 5-0 – I just said it was cheesy. What I really meant was that it was cheesy from time to time. Still, it didn’t hurt my feelings to switch over to the snappy, witty, smart Harry’s Law. What DID bother me is that I do love Mike and Molly (oops… hope the Universe stopped reading a few paragraphs back) and I love Two and a Half Men almost as much as I love ROUTINE and CONSISTENCY.

I have reminders set up in my Blackberry to let me know when my shows are coming on so I don’t get knee deep in knitting, chatting, or chasing children and forget to watch. Swapping The Cape from Sundays to Mondays jacked up my Blackberry reminders and clearly, has not fared well for The Cape either.

Now, I know there are some issues with the writing, under-developed characters, etc. But, good grief! Does everything have to be Emmy and Oscar worthy? Can’t we just have something that’s entertaining and allows you to check out for an hour? Besides, it’s their first year, they deserve a little time to find their rhythm!

The truth is, I’m just as finicky as the powers that be over at NBC. I’m biding my time because the split second “Memphis Beat” or “The Glades” or “Sons of Anarchy” start back up – I will drop any show I’m watching right now like a hot potato if I have to.

With her faithful fur-child, Thunderbutt, at her side my good friend, Marissa Turner is not just a blogger , animal lover, avid reader and writer of all sorts of creepy vampire fiction (no wonder she’s interested in phlebotomy) she also knits (woah, back to that needle thing) and in her “spare time” she is working toward a degree in nursing (and we’re back to the blood and needles thing) – that’s not all completely accurate though. I would say that her education is her top priority but she’s got a pesky j-o-b and all the normal trappings and obligations that the rest of us adults have as well. In short, Marissa is one busy chick. She also has an amazing sense of humor and is the inspiration for my latest hobby – knitting.

Most of our conversations don’t go into detail about her education and career aspirations beyond, “sorry it took me so long to get back to you I had roughly a billion pages to read and six papers to write!” So, I decided to send her a few quick questions and poke around in her brain for a bit. Now, I don’t recommend that everyone poke around in Marissa’s brain for the fun of it because she stores some seriously freaky information in there.

If you ever wondered about phlebotomy, nursing, or becoming a paramedic – here’s some interesting information from someone who is roughly elbow deep in that particular ocean.

1. What certifications do you already have? What has this qualified you to do?

I am a licensed phlebotomist in the state of Georgia, meaning I can work in any hospital, doctors office, or clinic in that state. To be able to work anywhere in the US, I still need my national certification.

2. What is your ultimate goal?

To be a paramedic, and to get my AA in nursing. To become a paramedic is equal to a two-year nursing degree, and costs the same, but nursing looks better on a resume

3. What education/degrees do you require to reach your ultimate goal?

An associate of nursing degree, a two-year program.

4. I know you are a huge animal person – why haven’t you gone into veterinary medicine?

I know that I would not be able to put an animal to sleep, no matter if it is what is best for them or not. I don’t trust that I would be able to keep control of myself when an abused animal was brought in by their ‘caring’ owner.

5. Do your classes require a uniform – if so, are you allowed to wear whatever scrubs/uniform you want or do you have to wear a standard school scrub uniform?

My phlebotomy class required we wear a blue scrub top, white pants, a lab coat, and white shoes during our clinical period. After that, we were allowed to wear anything. As far as I know, unless you’re assigned to a peds/oncology ward, or if you’re an ER doc, you’re not required to wear a uniform each day. As long as the nursing scrubs are neat and clean, and aren’t going to offend anyone, they’re okay.

6. Do you now or have you ever had to wear a lab coat for courses, labs, or intern experience?

Yes, and I loved it. I pretended I was a female Dr. Howser. I had a retractable clip with my name badge on it (it hooked on the edge of the lab coat, and was easily yanked off in case a patient grabbed it)

7. What courses have you enjoyed the most / least?

I loved my clinical. I detested Diet and Nutrition Therapy. I loved my practical tests, I excel at hands on. It’s everything else I have to hem and haw over.

8. Do you like wearing scrubs? Do you have a particular brand or style of scrubs you prefer? Typically what do you look for in scrubs – colors, designs, etc.?

I prefer cotton, it is breathable and easily washable, and it doesn’t go all wonky when you hit it with peroxide to get out a bloodstain.

I’ve recently found scrubs that look like ‘normal’ clothes. Fitted tshirts and bootleg scrub pants in fabrics that are breathable and don’t make you look like you tried to thread a needle with a space shuttle.