It's ONLY Thursday??!!

This has been one lonnnnng week!  And I didn't even get started on it until Tuesday!!  We've really gotten busy at work and my computer has been out of commission for a week.  I finally got it back today and I had a pile of work to catch up.  I was glad to get that out of the way. I'm just a tad bit obsessive about such things.  I don't like for anything to be left undone, at work or at home.  Makes me crazy.

We had some folks from Primerica (a Citi company, grrrrr) come do a presentation for us at work today about saving for our retirement and getting out of debt and that kind of thing.  It was very informative.  I'm always looking for ways to save for the future.  I don't have any debt except for my car and I'm SO proud of myself for that!  I have simplified my life SO MUCH in the last six years and I have never been happier. Less is more, y'all.  That's the truth.  You don't have to compete with anyone, have what they have, to be happy.  Stuff will NOT make you happy.  Anywho, they came and talked to us and they brought along sub sammiches, chips, cookies and drinks for us for lunch.  I tell my co-workers all the time that I've got to find another job!  All they do is eat!!! Candy, chips, bakery stuff in the mornings, cookies (and that's just on Mondays!  Ha!).  Plus we have drug reps coming all the time with ice cream and milkshakes in the afternoons and chicken biscuits for breakfast.  I'll be big as a house if I stay there much longer. Speaking of which, it'll be SIX MONTHS August 5th.  I never expected to stay there that long but I just like it so much!!!

We got some much-needed rain this week but surprisingly, the rain at night has not made me sleep any better.  I have high hopes, a bubble bath and some homemade catnip tea on the agenda for tonight, though. The Sandman better bring his butt over here!!

After work today, I met one of the nurses I work with and a friend at O'Charley's for appetizers. O'Charley's has appetizers 1/2 off from 4:00 to 7:00 so we ate like queens for super cheap!  It started pouring rain just as soon as we got in there and stopped as soon as we were leaving. Perfect timing!  When we walked out, we saw this beee-u-tiful rainbow in the sky!  If my dang cell phone battery hadn't been dead as a doorknob, I would have snapped a picture.  It was absolutely gorgeous. Vivid colors and it was HUGE!!!

After supper, we went to the theater and saw the new Katherine Heigl/Gerard Butler movie, "The Ugly Truth".  It was hilarious!!  I laughed out loud so many times.  It is a really good telling of the way men and women look at love and how different we truly are.  And the restaurant scene easily rivaled Meg Ryan's from "When Harry Met Sally".  Very funny stuff!  I highly recommend this one.  Just don't take the kids!

Rosemary Chicken and Roasted Potatoes

Here's a recipe that I just made up myself and it is really good!!  I make it a lot because it is so easy.  I made it today!

Here's how!

Ingredients:

• Chicken pieces (I usually use thighs 'cause they're my favorite but you can use whatever you like)
• Olive oil
• Seasoning (I just use salt, pepper and garlic powder)
• Fresh rosemary (two sprigs should do it!)
• Red potatoes, quartered (I used 5)

Drizzle two teaspoons of olive oil in the bottom of a baking dish.

Season the chicken and layer them at the bottom of the dish.

Position the quartered potatoes around the chicken.

Top everything with some rosemary.

Bake at 350 for an hour.

Yum!!!

If you're using chicken with skin like these plump little thighs, you can tuck some rosemary under the skin for extra flavor.  That's what I do and they turn out great.  

I'm SO proud of that rosemary I used today 'cause it's some I grew myself!

The Times They Are A' Changin'

I am only 42 and I'm already hearing the M word.  That cannot be possible.  I am only 42!

I am too young for this, right?

Wrong.  

I have the blood test results to prove it.

I am beginning the perimenopausal stage and the more I research it (and I've been just devouring everything online!!), the more I realize that this crap has been coming on me since I was 36.  Thirty-SIX.  It started as horrible mood swings that my doctor diagnosed as PMDD, pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder. She gave me some happy pills and I went on my way.  

That's as bad as it got until April. As in three months ago. Aunt Flo totally forgot how to get to my house and then when she found it, she completely trashed the place and would NOT freakin' leave.  It's been that way ever since.

I still have the mood swings but they don't seem to be getting any worse but something else has happened to me since 'round about April.  My sleep is ALL messed up.  I go from sleeping all the time (as in taking 3-hour naps every day when I get home from work) to not sleeping at all. And twice, I've woken up drenched in sweat and had to take a shower in the middle of the night.

Good times.

I'm determined to just roll with it and embrace this new journey in my life with the best attitude I can muster.  Poor Larry.  We are learning all about this together.  Neither one of us has a clue.  My doctor and I are trying some things because she also believes that I'm too young for this. I tend to lean more toward the natural way of doing things than she does but I hope the combination of our two approaches will slow this train down.

Choo choo chugga chugga chugga.

This Girl Needed A Beat Down

Um, yeah.

There is something VERY wrong with Esther.

I just went to see this and I enjoyed it waaaaaaay more than I thought I would.  I love horror movies but ones about baaaaaaad li'l chillun, not so much.

Not to give too much away but the story is this little 9-year-old girl is adopted by this couple who recently lost a child to stillbirth.  They have two older children.  So they go to an orphanage, pick this little chick out and bring her home.

Bad move.  Wrong turn.  HUGE mistake.  Get yo' stuff and get out. Don't take her back to the home.  Just let her HAVE y'all's house.  Whatever. Just GO.

I loved it.  That cool little twist at the end was awesome.

I sat there for most of the beginning trying to figure out who this child is.  I finally got so wrapped up in the story that I just didn't care anymore.  She's Isabelle Fuhrman and she played Grasshopper in "Hounddog", that very controversial movie that starred Dakota Fanning a couple of years ago.  THAT'S where I saw her.  If it wasn't for the internet, that mess would've kept me up all night.

I Cannot Wait To See This!!

The Time Traveler's Wife in theaters August 14th. I will be there!!
Larry and I read this book five or six years ago and we loved it.
With our love story being what it is, I could really relate to this
very different kind of love affair.

I am SO happy that Rachel McAdams was cast as Clare. She will be awesome. Who didn't just love her to pieces in "The Notebook"??

Southern Girls

I found some of these online and I added a few of my own.  Feel free to add some more!

A Southern girl:

• Always refers to her father as "Daddy". 
• Never leaves the house without her hair done and her makeup on.  What if you run into somebody you know???  And you know you'll run into somebody you know.
• Never tells her true age, even if she has to be 39 for 20 years.
• Never loses her temper in public.  Airing one's "dirty laundry" just isn't done!
• Acquires at a very early age the art of making sweet tea, pecan pie and banana pudding.
• Always makes her Rhett Butler feel like he's the one in control when everyone knows who actually runs the show!
• Knows you don't scream obscenities at little old women who drive slow.  You say, "bless her heart" and go around her.
  
• Always has at least two homegrown tomatoes on her kitchen counter in the summertime.
• Knows that cornbread cannot be made without a cast-iron skillet.
• Knows the difference in a hissy fit and a conniption.
• Also knows that you HAVE a conniption and you PITCH a hissy fit.
• Knows how many fish, collards, peas, beans, etc., make up a mess.
• Knows exactly how long "directly" is, as in, "I'll be back directly."
• Knows the best thing for a grieving family is a platter of fried chicken and some cold potato salad.
• Knows that "just down the road" could be one mile or twenty.
• Makes friends while in line.
• Knows the plural of y'all is all y'all.

And from the mouth of Kenny Chesney...

If you don't get it, bless your heart!

It's Feeling More Like October 'Round Here...

...and I am loving it!!

It's making me think of apples and pumpkins and Halloween and the fair (sorry, Ami!). It's been so cool and dry and a little downright crispy in the mornings. I've been using my clothesline for drying sheets and towels and I've even been thinking 'bout making homemade vegetable soup! Okay, well, maybe it's not that cool. But it's getting there!!

Today is three weeks since I woke up with Bell's Palsy and it's completely gone now. I realize how blessed I am about that!! The Big Guy was really looking out for me with this thing. A lot of people have BP for months, sometimes years. We've had a couple of little patients come down with BP, along with a parent and then me, all in about four months. That's been a little weird, like something's contaminating the water around here!

Now back to the fair...I always, always forget from one year to the next what a major pain in the butt going to the fair is. Parking is a nightmare and it's crowded and usually hot and it's a lot of walking and you get WORE SLAP OUT but I don't remember HOW BAD IT IS until I'm there in the middle of it. 'Round about this time every year, I'm just la-la-la-ing along THINKING I want to go. Like today, I found out Montgomery Gentry is gonna be there this year. I LOVE MG!!! I want to go see 'em. I've seen so many great concerts at Reaves Arena. I've enjoyed every single one of them. Ones involving four long-haired guys from Alabama most of all. Plus I absolutely love fair food, from the Italian sausage sammiches to the fried Snicker bars. And I love looking at all the exhibits and the kids' crafts and projects, too. I don't know. I still have two and a half months to decide.

It won't be that bad.