Puzzles

One thing that I love to do is put puzzles together. Now I am not a fan of putting a 1000 piece together, I like the 500 or 504 (not sure why the extra 4 pieces) piece puzzles the best. They make me relax. I get at the end of my dining room table and start sorting the edge pieces out. I especially love puzzles that are very colorful. I just completed a puzzle of a red barn...which if you look at my past blog you will know that I have a thing about red barns. I buy most of my puzzles at Dollar Tree or Dollar General. They are usually only $1. That is cheap entertainment for this day and age. Lots cheaper than going to the movies....can you believe the price of tickets not to mention popcorn and a drink. I completed two puzzles this past weekend. I was keyed up with all the rain, so sitting down and listening to my video of the "Golden Girls" was very relaxing to me. Doing puzzles drives some people crazy.....like Mark. They get on his nerves, but I find them very calming and gives me a sense of accomplishment. I have to keep some new puzzles in the waiting wings of my activities. I have 4 puzzles sitting on my bookshelf right now awaiting me to put them together. I love the one with the chair and flowers. The chair looks like our dining room chair. Then the hot air balloons are so colorful. I went up in a hot air balloon once....it was the ReMax balloon. It went a total of 20 feet off the ground....wooohooo. That is my only claim to fame of riding in a hot air balloon. After a rousing week of taking care of dementia people....I need some relaxtion.

Sam's Club

There are things in life that intrigue me and I want to find the answers to my questions. Although I am sure that what I want to know would be rude to ask the person. I am talking about the things people buy at Sam's....what are some going to do with these items.

Sunday a family of 4 had 12 gallons of milk in their buggy. Are they going to drink 12 gallons (and I know it was 12, b/c I counted them)before they expire? Are they having a milk party, or planning on eating cereal for every meal?

One lady, an elderly lady had 4 ten lb bags of sugar in her buggy. Is she getting a jump start on her Christmas baking? What she is going to do with that much sugar??

Then one couple checked out with only bananas. They would fight the parking lot and that crowd for banana's? Banana's are cheap at Sam's, but not that cheap that I would fight a crowd for them.

One lady had 14 packs of ribs. Yes, I walk around Sam's and count things in people's buggy. Is she having a barbecue or throwing a reception of some kind???

These are some of the questions that I have as I look into people's shopping carts. It makes me wonder about their lives.

Now on Saturday if I see 2 to 3 men with lots of eggs, bacon, juice and coffee, I just assume they are a church group getting ready for their monthly breakfast.

When I see people loading up that large flat screen TV, I have to wonder...did they come to buy that or was that an impulse buy?

Then I look in my own cart, and wonder what people think about the things in my cart. Water, bubble envelopes, grilled chicken sandwiches, 3 dozens of eggs, detergent, flowers, videos and adult bed pads.

The last one probably makes people wonder if I have a bladder problem...NOT. My dog, Lilly, is pad trained, and Sam's is the cheapest on the pads. So, I guess we really don't know why people buy the things they do at Sam's.

17 Years Ago

17 years ago, Mark and I started our journey through life together. It was September 26, 1992 at Forest Hills Baptist Church at 3:00 pm. I had never been so happy in my whole life. Waking up with a smile on my face and little butterflies in my stomach. I thought time would never pass by that day. Three o'clock seemed so far away. Finally the time came and we were pronounced husband and wife. We set out like most newly wed couples, with lots of dreams and a little reality on our side. Mark is a pastor, so we went on our honeymoon and then started our first church. Moving to a new town, starting a new life as a pastor's wife and newly married never frightened me, it revved up the excitement within me. It has been a smooth and rocky journey through our life. We have had great moments in life and disappointing times in life. We have lived some of our dreams and had some of dreams never come to reality. In my opinion, we have had a wonderful 17 years. Life is not always a bed of roses or a bowl of cherries, but it is wonderful during those bad times to have someone beside who loves you and walks through the bad times with you. Mark has taught me a lot through the years....patience would not be one of those things. LOL Ever since being married, we have been together 24/7, except for a few times that I had a public job. For most couples that would probably led to divorce, but it made us stronger. I hate it now when we are apart. We learned early on to draw from each other's strengths and help each other with our weakness'. I have enjoyed my life so much with Mark. He makes me laugh and gives me plenty to think about. I am looking forward to another great 17 years plus many more.

Ebay

In 2004, EBay opened a whole new world for me. A world where I could sit in my office in my PJ's and make money. I loved the fact that has I was sleeping at night there was a little imaginary cashier cha-chinging my sales while I slept. On the advise of friends, I just started with things in my house that I no longer wanted or needed. It is like a giant yard sale that is world wide. I have shipped to Germany, England, China, France, Holland and Israel to name a few. EBay has allowed me to stay home and still earn money when illness hit our family. I am not just a seller, but a buyer as well. NWT (new with tag) items saturate eBay all the time. Where else can you get .99 Erika Capri's w/ free shipping. Or over 100 food coupons for .99 (that is cheaper than the Sunday paper. Amanda, I hope you are reading this. Sometimes you hit the jackpot selling on eBay. I bought an I Love Lucy doll at a yard sale for $10, and it sold on eBay for $120. You don't do that everyday. But sometime you are lucky enough to buy something for $1, and it sell for $30 on eBay. I did sell jewelry for years on eBay until the bad economy. Now I sell vegetable seeds for those wanting to grow their own gardens. I couldn't believe at how profitable it was for me this past spring. I did a lot of research on each vegetable that I sold, so I could advise my buyers. People ask me all the time about selling on eBay, and most think that they are going to make $300 in their first week...this is not true. You have to build trust in the EBay community by your feedback score. This system allows buyers and sellers evaluate how well you conduct business. I advise people to build their feedback number first before selling. Buy lots of little things that have free shipping to help build this number. People are more likely to bid higher amounts with someone that has a feedback number of 300 than someone who has one of 20. I have over 5100 transactions on EBay, and have earned a reputation as a trusted seller. I just took a little over a year to become a Power Seller on EBay, a fact that I am very proud of. You will never know what treasure you have lying around your house....you could be holding on to motivation tapes that are worth $30. I sold Richard Simmons walking tapes for over $20. Or that ugly old vase aunt Susie gave you, could be worth $10 on EBay. You never know, so log on and set up a seller account.

Thrift Stores

I have a new love in my life...thrift stores. Some call them vintage stores, but I call them treasure stores. I have found the most interesting and unique things in these stores. I got Yankee Candle Tart Warmers for only .50 each (I found 3 of them). A new Tanya Lee quilted purse for $1. My pedestal dish full of glass candy for $5 (one store sells each piece of candy for $5 each). A travel Scrabble game for $1.50 and Battleship for .25. 3 boxes of children's books for my nieces for $2. I have found lots of books, which I love. There have been tennis balls, ball gloves, fall decorations, wire shelves, step ladders, pictures, and a host of other things that I have brought home. I especially love The Whispering Pines Thrift Store in Moore County. They have lots of very nice items (some new) at a steal of a price. My whole porch is decorated for Fall with items I found at a thrift store. I have found a new Tupperware modular mate for $1 last week. We have a radio that looks like the old timey radios that has a turntable on it. I found Christmas albums today for .25 each. I am like Mark, there is just something about listening to a record. I just go crazy when I walk in a thrift store hunting for that one special deal. My motto now..."Why pay retail". Let someone else pay the high price.

Books

I have an extreme love of books. It is not like I take everyone that I see, I am a little choosy. I first remember falling in love with reading in Jr. High. I read "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain, and I just fell in love. I got completely lost in the book, and before I knew it; I was floating down the Mississippi with Tom and Huck. I found that books offered a whole new world to me. Not that my world was bad, but through books, I could visit places that I could only dream about. I use to only like fiction, but now my genre has expanded. On my shelves that my super great husband put up for me, you will find a mixture of books and authors. There are cookbooks, biographies, gardening, birds, religious and how to books to name a few. Authors you will find on our shelves are Mark Twain, O Henry, Phillip Gulley, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Bob Dole, Barbara Bush, Billy Graham, Dennis Rogers, Charles Kuralt and a host of other authors. Reading opens a whole new world and experiences for you. I search thrift stores, yards sales and library sales for my books. Never pay retail for a book. You can find some great books even at the Dollar Stores. Fall in love with reading is my advice.

Hay, Barns and Cows

As we have traveled the roads of NC, there are 3 things that catch my attention every time. 1) a red barn...it has to be red 2) the big round bales of hay (not the little square bales) 3) cows (they have to be black and white). I guess this is because I have always wanted to live on a farm. I think about moving to Montana or Wyoming and buying a ranch. I would paint my barn bright red and raise hay to bale so my black and white cows would have food to eat. The funny thing about this is that I have never been close to a cow or even been inside a red barn, but I have sat on a bale of hay. I am not sure why this intrigues me, but it does. I had Mark to pull off the side of the road to take pictures of barns and hay. The good old days fascinate me, but in the summer time I like modern times and AC. And I guess fetching water from a spring a half a mile away is not too appealing to me either. But regardless of the times, I still love red barns with round bales of hay with a black and white cow eating from the bale.

Sleep

I'm having problems sleeping, even after the doctor prescribed something for it. I take my meds around 9 pm, get sleepy and go to sleep; only to be awakened at 3 am. Maybe I should get a third shift job? Although during these insanely early hours, I am at my best. I write the best stories and come up with the most brilliant ideas (in my opinion LOL). Mind you that I never write any of this stuff down, but it is brilliant(trust me..it is brilliant). Then between 5 and 6 am, I fall back to sleep and never remember the things that I wrote in my head. I am thinking of getting a mini recorder to put beside my bed to record these fantastic ideas. Although what if I do that, and it turns out to be crap. How disappointing would that be! The funny thing is that all I remember is what I planned on doing for the day. Tomorrow or should I say today, I plan on going to Walmart and moving a file cabinet and taking all these excessive priority boxes to the PO. But my story about a fish is already totally lost in my brain.

MY NEW ADVENTURE

I finally decided to start a blog today for several reasons. First, my husband has encouraged me to do this. Secondly, I am sure my Facebook friends are tired of reading the mini series that I write on there. Hope you find things on here interesting.
I bought a 500 piece puzzle yesterday. I chose one with lots of color, because I thought it would be easier to do...WRONG!!! 3 hours later and just the edges and a few pieces on the inside are complete. I think I will stick with my seek a word books.
Looking forward to the fall season. Wish it would just turn cool and stay there instead of flirting with us with those temps in the 70's for a few days, then in the 90's the next 5 days.
Picked some grapes yesterday, and think I got more mosquito bites than grapes. Do they love grapes?? I just needed to run into my other nemesis...the fire ant. Fire ants are my sworn enemy. My best weapon of defense for them is Amdro. Sprinkle in around their mound and the next day they are gone.