President of McKinney TX SPCA Starved Pet Dog to Death!

A woman who was the PRESIDENT of SPCA in McKinney, TX (next to us) was just convicted of STARVING HER GERMAN SHEPHERD PUPPY to death!!! And what did she get? 3 days in jail, $500.00 fine and 3 years probation!!!! Can you believe it?

Postcrossing

I hope you've looked at my other blog called Postcrossing. I'm really enjoying it. In case you wonder what it is, I'll tell you. I go into the website called Postcrossing. I ask for an address to send a card to someone. I'm assigned a number to write on the card. Then, when the person gets my card, they register the number on the website and my address will go to someone to send me a card. I have an album full of great cards for all over the world! And, I have new friends on Facebook now that I got from Postcrossing. I have three friends from Finland and one in France! What fun. You really get to know people and what they do by getting cards. And, for people who like to collect stamps, wow, there are some beautiful stamps from other countries. I'm afraid that our country doesn't have a good stamp for international mailing so I have to get two regular stamps and one ten cent stamp per card. I try to get cute or pretty stamps. I usually send out Simpson stamps. I think everyone in the world must know who they are. Anyway, check out my blog and see the beautiful cards I've received. It's goblepostcrossing.blogspot.com.

Halloween is Almost Here!

It seems as if Halloween is getting to be bigger than Christmas! People are really decorating their yards this year. Of course, we haven't had very good weather for October. In our area, October made the record for the most rain this year. It's really rained a lot. Denny had almost all of his games to umpire canceled because of the rain. That's a big loss when it comes to money for us! They've extended the season to December 6 so maybe he'll be able to make up for the loss. I hope November isn't as rainy as October.

New Pictures of Izzy

Sue Bronson sent me some new pictures of her darling little granddaughter, Izzy and big brother, Brady. So cute!

Ashley Goble

There are pictures of Ashley in the blog but not a section of just her. She is our second grandchild, first granddaughter. Ashley Nicole is 17 years old and is a senior in high school in upper New York. She lived with Randy until a couple of years ago. She visits often and was at the hospital by Randy's bedside after his accident. She's a very nice young lady, going to school, working and sports. I have some nice videos of her when she was a tiny girl and visited us at Sandy Pines.
Here are some nice recent pictures of her.

Pumpkin Patch

Sue, Dallas and I went to the Pumpkin Patch last Saturday. We had a really good time. Dallas got to ride on the ferris wheel and an airplane ride and she rode on a train.

My Polls

Hmmm, I notice that not very many people are voting on my polls. No one will know who you are when you vote! Just scroll down my blog and vote on the polls. I think they're pretty good questions!

House Cleaning with A Three Year Old

OK, I know it's frustrating to try keep a house clean with a three year old, very active child underfoot. Especially when you're a young mother and you want to have a nice clean house for your husband to come home or really so he doesn't think you've been doing nothing but watch soap operas all day! I've been through those days three times! Now I'm a grandmother of three. But it's only the youngest grandchild that is underfoot. Jamie and Dallas live with us. We love having them here, even though we have to give up the idea of having a neat and clean house 24/7.

It's not as frustrating now that I'm a grandmother instead of 'just' a mother. I figure I'll never have this house (which is only 3 years old too) neat and clean like I thought it would be. I take care of Dallas while Jamie is at work.

So this is the way I have to clean...I have to stop a minute because Dallas is trying to take things off from my desk and I have to get her busy again. I thought that she was going to take a nap. Didn't happen that way. When I think it's quiet in the living room with her watching Max and Ruby on the TV, in she walked, still ready to go, go, go.

I took my phone away from her and she's interested in another show now. Maybe she'll fall asleep.

This morning I took all of the chairs out of the kitchen so I could clean it good. I wanted to clean the counter and the walls behind the counter first. I didn't see Dallas take my spray bottle off from the counter. She did and she was spraying the walls that I didn't plan on washing. Then she sprayed me before I could get the bottle away from her. Counter tops clean, walls behind the counter tops clean and the walls that I didn't plan on cleaning but had to (or have streaked walls)are all clean. I thought that I'd mop the floor next. She left the room and was playing train with my kitchen chairs in the family room. I got the bucket and mop out. I already swept and vacuumed the floor. She saw me! "Me, I help you, Mamo!" (all of her sentences start with 'Me' since they all start with 'I'. So I got her little mop out too. Here's where the patience of a grandmother come in. She's dunking her little mop in the bucket and mopping. I tell her to mop in front of the refrigerator. That doesn't last and neither does the water in her mop. She has to keep dunking it in the bucket because she says there's no water in it. I just keep mopping and eventually, even with her help, I get the floor all mopped.

She isn't ready to quit. And I still have two bathrooms to clean. So off we go to the little bathroom. The bathroom she uses now that she's finally potty trained. And the tub is full of bath toys because, naturally, that's where she takes her baths and, naturally, there are going to be toys in the tub...until she's a teenager. We start our mopping and, again, she thinks she needs more water. Since this room isn't big, she dunks her mop in and knocks the whole bucket over on the floor! Good use for the toilet besides her potty training! We both were laughing while we mopped up the floor, rinsing them out in the toilet bowl. (Clean water, by the way). Again, it's the grandma patience I used. That done, we left the room with a nice clean floor. I decided to do the other bathroom later. I said that I was practicing patience but I didn't say I was a saint. A kitchen and one bathroom is enough for today.

Now it's time to vacuum. This is the game that Dallas loves! I can clean the family room, dining room and living room all at the same time. I have to chase her through the house with the vacuum cleaner. She yells "Get me, Mamo!" and the chase is on. I get every spot of the floor clean! She runs to the couch in the family room and jumps up on it. I'm always right behind her. Then she jumps off the couch and takes off running again, yelling "Get me, Mamo!", into the living room and jumps on the couch there with me right behind her. This goes on for a while as I try to get other spots while I have her trapped on the couches. It works! The carpet are clean! Did I mention that I have to pick up Tinkertoy, blocks, babies and sippy cups before I can vacuum? I think that's enough work for today. Jamie will be home from work in a couple of hours. Denny is watching TV, Dallas won't take a nap today and I'm sitting down for a rest. Hey, I got my exercise. While other women are taking walks for their exercise, I'm running through the house with a vacuum cleaner in hand. That's like running on a treadmill and lifting weights, in my opinion. In closing this story, I hate to tell you but all of the Tinkertoy, blocks and babies will all be in their natural spots on the floors before Jamie can come home from work. I'm glad that Denny was home to see it because I'll bet Jamie thinks that I didn't do anything all day. And she comes home tired! Awww, poor girl.

Halloween

Why do people celebrate Halloween?

Halloween is a combination of holidays. As a night of ghosts and witches it was started by the Celts. They were people who lived "France" and the "British Isalnds" hundreds of years ago.

The Celts had a holiday called "Samhain" (pronounced - SAH-Win), which means "End of the Summer". They believed that the spirits of the Fruit and Vegtables, and the ghosts of people, visited the earth n Samhain, which was October 31. The Celts would light large bonfires on hill tops to scare the ghosts away.

Many years later when the Celts beame Christians, they celebrated "Allhallows Day" (now called - All Saints Day) which is November 1. It was celebrated to remember important Chirstians who had died. The Celts called the night before (October 31), "Allhallows E'en", or Holy Evening. Later in time it was shortened to "Halloween". Of course many of the customs of Samhain were continued on Halloween.

How did Trick-or-Treating start?

Trick or Treating started in Ireland. People went from house to house and begged for food on Halloween. They promised good luck to those who gave and bad luck to those who did not.

Who was Jack-o'-Latern?

To the Celts, Jack-o'-Latern was the spirit of the Pumpkin. The Celts would carve a pleasant-looking pumpkin face to show Jack was a good spirit, not a nasty one.

The Irsih claim that Jack-o'-Latern was a person who couldn't get into heaven because he was too stingy. But the devil didn't want him, either. So ever since, he's had to wander about carrying a lantern. The Irish had no pumpkins, so they made Jack-o'-Lanterns from the turnips and patatoes.

Why do people wear spooky costumes on Halloween?

The custom of wearing spooky costumes on Halloween began with a group of Irish Celts called Druids. The Irish believed that the evil spirits roamed about the earth on Halloween. The Druids wanted to fool the evil spirits into thinking that they were spirits, too. So they dresses as ghosts and goblins.

Randy Finally Found His Cereal

Randy was looking for his favorite cereals and was having a hard time finding them. Denny told him that he and Sue found them at Walmart. Well, Randy got his cereal...40 boxes of them! He wants to be sure not to run out!




Is your favorite here?

My Movie Review of the Week- Zombieland

It was a good movie. Funny. I didn't know Bill Murray was in the movie. He had a guest spot and he was funny in the small part he had. It was bloody but after a few shots in the beginning, it was possible to eat popcorn and still watch the movie. Woody Harrelson is his usual funny self. He's a good actor. I'd recommend seeing it. I'll give it a 9.

One Year Ago Today

It unbelievable that it has been one year since I got the call from Deda telling me that Randy, my son, was airlifted to the hospital because he was in an accident on his motorcycle. I can remember the warmth that went through my body, the same warmth as having an anxiety attack! It was an awful day. You can read about it and watch a video of him when he first started to wake up and talked to me. We were only able to spend a week there. It was a scary week for me. Thank God, Randy is ok. Congratulations to Randy for making it and for having Danielle for a wife. Without her, he may not have survived.