Quirky!!

Like most people, I have a few quirks and hang ups. I am not sure if quirks define a person or not. Everyone has things in their personality that screams odd to some people while being complete rational to others. We each have our own quirkiness to a degree. Some have to sleep with a light on at all times. Others can only eat things in even numbers. This use to be considered quirkiness, but now it is called OCD. We just love to put a name to things. Now poor old Aunt Ethel would have OCD instead of being the eccentric of the family. I know by now you are dying to know what my quirk is...well, maybe not dying but your curiosity has sure been peaked. Okay, here is one of the oddities in my life. I DON'T DRINK BATHROOM WATER. It is just that simple. No water from the bathroom is going to cross these lips. Laugh if you want, but that water is nasty. First of all think about what a bathroom is used for..UGH!!! Then the cold water in the bathroom is always luke warm...spew it out. Then my personal opinion it taste like there is hair in the water to me. I have a thing about hair...I hate to touch it. That should clear up why my hair looks like it does. Mark cleans out my hair brush. Touching it causes an anxiety in me. This could be quirkiness number two for me. Getting back to the bathroom water. I have attempted to be tricked on this matter. Mark got me some water when we were first married. He didn't know, and got it from the bathroom. I told him that I don't drink bathroom water. He thought this was crazy. He went to the kitchen to get me some water. I took a swallow and spit it out. This is bathroom water I cried. How can you tell he asked me. I just can!!! Sure enough he had gone to the guest bath at the other end of the house to prove that it was all in my head. Well, the joke was on him...I know the difference. He loves me still quirks and all. We thank God everyday for bottled water. Now this probably explains a little bit of my personality to you. LOL. NO BATHROOM WATER!!

Snow on the Coast of NC!!!

We had a rare event at our house....SNOW!! Yep, that is right...the white stuff fell here along the NC coast. The only thing that I didn't like about it, was the fact that it fell at night. The joy of watching it snow is totally lost at night. I don't know how many times I walked to our door and opened it Friday night to watch the snow, then shut the door quickly as not to let the heat out. Our heat is another story. Came home Friday and our gas heater would not light. Called the gas company for a service man to come, only to find out he was off for the day. I can't blame him for wanting a day off, but have a back up person to fill in (no one was coming to fix anything). I explained this was our only source of heat. They were not that sympathetic to my situation. They told us to blow out around the pilot light with an air compressor or compressed air. We tried this, and it didn't work. Their next suggestion was that our thermal coupling had gone out. The service man can come and fix it first thing Monday morning. Uh, no thanks...it is going to snow tonight. I don't have heat tonight. Mark decided that before the snow was going to hit that he would go and buy us a Big Buddy Heater. They are very nice and they run off the cylinders of gas like a propane camp stove. He came back with the heater and 6 bottles of gas. According to the directions, those little bottles wouldn't last too long. We had the oven door open trying to heat the house. Then Mark hooked up the Buddy Heater and instantly we felt heat. We didn't want to go to sleep with any of improvised heat on, so we got up every so often to cut everything back on to warm up. Then Mark decided to try blowing out the wall heater one more time...it worked. Our 5 brick gas heater lit up like a torch and stay on...Thank You Jesus!!! We had heat!!! About 6 am this morning, I was out trying to take some pictures of the snow. I opened all the blinds in the house to see the lovely 5 inches that now blanketed our yard. I could hear the laughter and screams of excited children coming from my cousin Steve's house as his boys ran through the snow making snow angels, snowmen and I think I saw a couple of snowballs whiz by. I just stood on my porch and took pictures. I was suppose to perform at a Valentine's Banquet tonight, but I received a call that they were cancelling; but rescheduling for tomorrow at lunch. Hopefully I can get over there then. We got out today and the roads seem to be clear. The snow is especially beautiful in the pines and cedars around our house in the front. The thing about snow on the coast...it doesn't last long. Already starting to melt and tomorrow it is suppose to be in the 50's here. We have missed the snow every time in Moore County, because we have come home...but this time we got to see some of the fluffy white stuff.

My Valentine's flag!!!

Our front yard that is lined with cedars and pines.

Our back yard!!

This angle is the corner of our back yard. Don't know if you can tell in the picture, but our yard is fenced in. The snow was piled up on the wires of the fence...so pretty.

My bird feeder looks like it is going to break with all that heavy snow on it. You can see the fence in the picture really well, as the snow has piled on the wires.

This is a picture of a massive grape vine that has took over a tree on the side of our yard. It has the black grapes on it. I can never remember their name, but they are good. If you can beat the birds to them.

This picture was taken around 6 am on Feb. 13th. I love the lighting of this picture.

On Your Mark Get Set...GO!!!

What in the world makes people get up and go out shopping at midnight after Thanksgiving? I have never understood the fun in this tradition. To stand in the cold with strangers (who are crazy as well) for some bargain that you may or may not get. To me it is like the retailers are the "puppet masters" yanking every ones string. Holding out deals in front of you, making you drool that most of the people in line don't even get. People get rude and nasty when they "think" they are about to save a few dollars. I mean people have died on this day from being stampeded to death!! I don't get it. Maybe the reason that I can't wrap my mind around this is because I have been shopping since May. I have about 2 more gifts to buy and I know what those are and no one is putting gift cards on sale. I shop a little along, then I am not broke at the end of the season nor do I have "scared to open my mail" credit card anxiety in January. A friend one time stood in line 5 hours to get a $10 digital camera. Know what they got? A $10 crappy digital camera that took horrible pictures. Boy, wasn't that worth the wait in line. I will just let everyone else snag all the good bargains, as I stay snuggled down in my bed. I am prepared this year. Almost all shopping done, all Christmas cards addressed, and lots of goodies baked and in the freezer. Let the Christmas season begin!!!