what an afternoon...

So I know I told you all that I had gotten a brand new PINK bike and hubby has a bike now too. And we've been riding as much as we can. Well it has drizzled on and off here for a few days, and hubby had to do some adjustments on my bike. So this afternoon, it was clear, hubby had tightened my chain guard, it was a nice cool afternoon. So I grabbed my mp3 player and off I went. I got 1/2 way through my ride. Which was a pretty good walk from home, and the chain came off. Well I HAVE NO CLUE how to put the chain back on the bike, not to mention that things are dangling and frankly I think my brand new pretty pink bike is broken!!! So I walk ALL THE WAY HOME PUSHING MY BIKE (i am sure neither the bike or i looked so pretty then) and called my husband at work. (hubby is in bold type)
"Thank you for calling Panera, this is Keith how may I help you?"
"WHAT did you do to my bike?"
"Excuse me, ma'am?"
"I SAID WHAT DiD YOU DO TO MY bIKE?"
"Oh baby, it's you, what do you mean?"
"It is broken and I had to walk all the way home!"
"What is broken, explain it"
"Well the thingy is hanging, the chain is off the bike, and the peddles are going all fast but don't do anything when you peddle them!"
"Ok you have to be more specific. Thingy? Chain is off the bike ENTIRELY?"
"I DON'T KNOW!!! IT IS JUST BROKEN!"
"Baby, I think I need to teach you how to change gears, b/c i ran through them all and it was fine."
"NO IT IS NOT!"

By this time I am so upset trying to explain, I am tired and coughing from walking in the cold (it has been in the 80s here, today was in the 40s and b/c I was ridinhg I wasn't wearing the WARMEST CLOTHES.) And my poor husband has no idea what is wrong with the bike, if anything, and is totally frustrated with me I know. He finally says....

"Did you call me just to yell at me?"

God bless him, he must really love me!

MY NEW BIKE!!!

I AM SO EXCITED! I got a new bike! NO COMMENTS about my SO VERY TRENDY outfit, or about my hair. But you can see a little of my tattoo on my left ankle! :o)

I had an old bike at my mom's and was going to get it and get it cleaned up, but when I called her about it, she had sold it. Which was my fault, should have gotten it before now. But she told me she would buy me a new one. So I found a PINK ONE! It is a Schwinn Cruiser! And I LOVE IT! Thanks goodness Keith knows about bikes and has gotten the seat at the correct height, the handle bars right, and he can tighten the chain and such. Plus he got a bike too, so we can ride together! We went riding last night at 11:30pm when he got home from work. It was NICE AND COOL out, and we took a pretty long ride. I just love my bike. SO VERY MUCH! It is a really good work-out, but I am always still smiling when I get done! LOL!

Now add that to a very busy week of dinner with Shonna & Brad, and giving doggie's haircuts and baths. Well that would be enough to tire ANYONE OUT. But add in that we used some horse clippers on Missie Moo because the doggie clippers weren't strong enough, so we borrowed Lester's (my FIL) horse clippers, and Keith went TOO LOW. She got a razor burn, and she looks like she has the mange on one side of her body! Thank GOD we found (THANK YOU TO MY MOTHER IN LAW!!!) a groomer called "FURRY CHILDREN" and she was able to take Missie this coming Tuesday. She is just going to shave her completely down for the summer, poor baby. But Missie does have some skin issues, and I think this might help us get some conditioning done to them. I won't post a picture, because Keith & I will get hauled off to the pokey for doggie abuse. I had a panic attack it was so bad. Oh my poor poor baby.

Right now I am sitting here at Panera waiting on Keith, blogging, and playing on the computer. I met Shonna for lunch and a movie today, and with gas prices it is just easier to ride to work with Keith and bring the laptop and kill time until he can leave. Which at Panera is usually around 10:45pm or so. So not too bad. I will say I get a good dinner out of it! A yummy Asian Chicken Salad, and he fixed me a Mango Smoothie with Raspberry Drizzle - YUMMO!

Ok enough of my blabbering today. I am ready to head home and ride some bikes!
Love & Blessings...

a beautiful Sunday afternoon

I am sitting here looking out my picture window, blogging away, while Marlie is enjoying sitting in her daddy's chair watching everything going on in the neighborhood. I let them both outside to play, but Marlie wanted to come back in (and Missie never wants to stay outside unless you are kicking a ball for her.) So here we sit enjoying the windows being open, and the sound of the washing machine. WE MISS DADDY THOUGH! He is at work, and we pouted and asked him not to go, but he said he had to - LOL! He said it was really hard to leave us because we were all so cute. Gotta love that man of mine!

We have been trying to rent movies all week, always out of what we want; then we tried going to the movies and I got sick before we got there and we had to come home. UGH...I just thought I was going to die right there standing outside my truck. But I made it home and went to bed. Keith went out to his mom's to see his step-dad's new outdoor fireplace he'd built. I think we were just trying to relax after the emotional day we had on Wednesday. So...last night Keith got to come home reasonably early and he took me to the movies. We went to see Prom Night. Yes I know cheesy, horror movie. But I have loved those types of movies since Scream came out in college. So we get our tickets, our popcorn, our drinks and head to the theater. I am so excited because I NEVER get to see good scary movies in the theater. We go in and of course we were probably the oldest people in there at 8:50pm at night, but I digress. Then we take a seat in our "perfect" location (we always go to the local theater and we know EVERY ROOM and the PERFECT SPOT!), sit down, and about 4 minutes into the movie, it begins. The door (which we are beside) opens and closes about 3 MILLION times. People are up/down/up/down/up/down the stairs, of course you hear all these teenagers laughing and acting stupid. And I mean I TALK during movies, so I could care less, but don't do it so loudly that I cannot hear the movie! THEN, this one poor couple (who looks about our age) goes to leave the theater. The husband tells the wife to sit near the front and he will be right back. And when he comes back he has the security guard and manager with him. NOT SURE what those kids were doing in the back, but apparently they pissed these people off. After watching the scene it seemed the kids were throwing stuff. It was THE WORST experience I have ever had at a movie in our town. I mean awful. I enjoyed the movie and I paid attention as much as I could, but good golly miss molly - kids are RUDE. And with that statement I realize I have become the grown-up I used to think was a BITCH for looking at me with glaring eyes when my friends and I were actin' LIKE TEENAGERS in the mall/movies/anywhere. So funny how the tables just turn one day and there it is.

UPDATE on the FIL: ok he is a clueless jerk. I mean really he is. I blogged about my experience with his new girlfriend on New Year's Eve. So finally this past week we had to run by there to pick something up & Keith tells his dady "You need to apologize to Lori for your girlfriend cussing her out on New Year's Eve." He acted like I was NUTS and he had no clue what I was talking about, and that he wasn't standing RIGHT THERE when it happened. So I repeated the entire story, and he still looks at me like HUH? OMG! Can you say DUMBASS! He is, truly a dumbass. He has NO CLUE! I know my MIL (who divorced him years ago) has told me this since I met them both, but it just becomes more and more painfully clear as time goes on. Thank God my husband is NOTHING like his father, and he was raised by his mother!!!

So had a very busy last week: funeral, Keith has flat tire on the way home - have to pick him up, and that one flat tire ends up costing $1000.00 (it was more than the tire,) sick as a dog, laundry piling up for days, and terrible experience at the movies, and all the normal OCD stuff I deal with everyday no matter what...Honestly that just sounds like a week in our crazy life! (Oh and yes I know I sound like a neurotic mess, it's because I haven't slept since Friday night...LOL!)

I did a bunch of layouts last weekend, so once I figure out my new camera, I will take some pictures tonight and post them, along with pictures of my tattoos. My ankle finally looks good, so I am ready to show the world my latest. I got it 4 months ago, but wearing pants and socks over it during the winter, plus the way your skin gets dry in the winter (no matter how much lotion you put on it) made it take a little longer to heal than usual. OH - and check out my ebay auctions...ok honestly I am stopping now, really I am, I have to b/c I am rambling...
OH wait...PRAYERS NEEDED for some special friends Beth & Lottie, they are having some medical issues in the family; and prayers for another special friend of mine I haven't heard from in a few days and I am getting worried about her.
Love & Blessings...{for real this time :o)}

rough day today

I had therapy at 10am this morning. And although it was one of the good sessions, it still makes me tired. Then as soon as I was done we headed to Waverly for my Great Aunt Delsie's Funeral. Luff-Bowen in Waverly has been torn down, so they were operating out of a temporary facility, which was kind of strange, since I have been in Luff-Bowen since I was very young. Seeing all my cousins and everyone was so emotional. I felt so bad for Aunt Delsie's children. It was so hard to watch them walk up to the casket the final time before they closed. And then several of them broke down. Very hard for me because I have been through that with my dad and my Mama Elsie. It never occurred to me that we would go to the graveyard when Keith and I planned to go to this funeral. And then suddenly I realized talking to my mom at the funeral home that she would be buried where my Mama Elsie was buried. And that just hit me so hard. Mama Elsie died in 1995 (one day from being EXACTLY ONE YEAR from the date of my dad's death.) I have not been to the cemetery since that day. Then watching the screen with all the pictures of Aunt Delsie, and seeing my grandmother in them too. Seeing those four sisters, their parents, their kids, etc. So I had told mom well we'll probably go to the grave then b/c I would like to see Mama Elsie. So a few people asked if we were going, and on the way out of the funeral home, I just lost it. Donnie & Ellen were standing there (my uncle and aunt) and Ellen just held me. I said I just felt so bad that I hadn't been out there. And I love Donnie and he says "She'd love for you to come say hi." It is so strange that you forget it is their mom, not just your grandma? Ya know? So I was very upset, all the way out to the grave yard I was weepy. We went to the final prayer for Aunt Delsie and then walked over to Mama Elsie and Daddy Walter's graves. I couldn't even get all the way to them, and I just fell into Keith and started to cry. Then my mom, Aunt Betty, Donnie & Ellen all came up - Donnie said "Well did you say Hi yet?" And that made me laugh. Then Ellen said "she is probably thinking come on Lori hurry it up, Delsie is up here now and I gotta catch up with her!" After people stopped standing over me, I got closer and closer to the headstone with Keith. And finally I just knelt down and cried. Keith told me to talk to her, and to tell her that he was taking care of me now and that she didn't need to worry. And I finally told her I was sorry it had taken 13 years to get out there, I said "I'm sorry it took so long." And stayed there for a while and cried and then kissed her and stood up. Ellen and Mom went back to talk to Aunt Delsie's kids (they asked that we leave while they did the final stuff to the grave site.) And Keith and I stood there, and Donnie stood pretty close by for the entire time. My uncle Donnie. What can I say? He means the world to me. I love him so much, and he and I have always had a "connection" of sorts. He has his kids and other nieces and nephews, but I always know I can go to him for ANYTHING, I mean ANYTHING. And him just standing behind us, just comforted me.

It is funny, b/c I told them standing there before I got close to Mama Elsie, that my dad died one month after I graduated from high school (July 5th), the next summer Mama Elsie died on July 4th. So those couple of summers pretty much sucked. Not to mention that I was off at college, away from my family, and I felt like I never got to talk about here, and grieve like I should have, about my dad too. It just felt like we didn't talk about how sad we were, and it just wrecked me. Therapy has helped, and I have gone to my dad's grave and let it all go. But going to see my Mama Elsie was different. I don't know why. I'm glad I went, and even though I am completely WORN OUT now from this very emotional day of saying goodbye to the last matriarch of our family (so to speak) and talking to my grandmother, I am glad I did it. I am glad I faced a fear, and I am very thankful that Keith was there with me, to hold me, to love me, and to just BE there. I am off to bed.
Love & Blessings...

Death in our family...

My mom called today and told me that my Great Aunt Delsie died. I know for some families you might not even KNOW your great aunt. But in my mom's family WE DID. We had yearly family reunions up until my grandmother passed away, maybe a couple after, b/c she planned them. All my grandmother's sisters (she had 3) lived in the same town, one lived right down the road from her. So we saw all of our cousins and aunts A LOT growing up. Aunt Delsie was my favorite great aunt. She was always so fun and full of life. Dancing and singing. She was so much fun. I have the most memories of time with her. I remember her quilts and remember wanting one so badly. And at my bridal shower she gave me one. I was SO HAPPY! I know she didn't remember me telling her I wanted one, but I felt so special to receive one, and Keith and I still treasure that quilt to this day, it will be a family heirloom along with the one my grandmother made. This just makes me so sad. The funeral is tomorrow, so quick - but all of her family is near, and doesn't have to come from out of state. Keith and I are going to the funeral, and of course I am freaking out already. But she was in her late 80's and she lived a long life, and I am honored to have known her and called her family.
Love & Blessings...

MULE DAY PICTURES

I have been so busy listing ebay auctions that I have totally neglected my blog. So I wanted to post some pictures from the Mule Day parade last weekend. It was so much fun. The first picture is of the Pony Mules, then just a really pretty pair, and then the final pic is of the latest trend - putting car seats in your wagon. IT WAS HILARIOUS! I have never seen this before, and I've been to the parade many times. Keith and I had a lot of fun. We were right at the start of the parade, so we got to see everything, but the border collie herding the sheep. He of course was just let out to round up the sheep at the start, so we didn't get to see much of that. And NO BANDS from Maury County in the parade. OH NO it is SPRING BREAK, so we had Jefferson County Band from Georgia. THAT IS SO STUPID! I remember as soon as I was old enough to be in the high school band we could no longer go away for Thanksgiving because I had to march that Saturday in a parade. People just don't get commitment anymore. And think, my Thanksgiving holiday was only 3 days at most off from school plus the weekend. Kids around her get TWO FREAKIN' WEEKS for Spring Break - so stupid.
Ok I am off to list about 40 more auctions between now and tomorrow night, so I'll try to spot some more fun stuff later!!!
Love & Blessings...

EBAY AUCTION EXTRA PICTURES