The back of my neck...

So, thanks to Locks of Love, you can now have a great view of it -- the back of my neck, that is. Got a new 'do. Here's before pics, pics of the donation ponytails, a pic with my stylist, and pics of the new 'do. :-D







Love & Shipoopies,
L

Wetwie

Okay, folks! It finally happened. Eli (my nephew) finally learned to not only recognize me, but to say my name when he sees me! :-D (This is very exciting as Leslie is not the easiest of names for a toddler.) You havet o make it to the very end of the video and he's a little excited, so it's kind of distorted. (He CAN say it more clearly.) But you will TOTALLY get the gist. He is some kind of precious! :-D




Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Do-over

Well, we've made it to redecorating the kitchen. (Our first re-do was our master bath. I'll have to post before and after pics of that some other time.) I'm including a before picture of the4 kitchen. Please note the "stone" wallpaper. You can't really grasp the loveliness that is this wallpaper in the pictures (as people keep saying, "I like it" upon seeing the pictures), but TRUST ME. It's FABULOUS!!! The only in process pictures I'm missing are the ones were the top layer of paper was removed and the paper backing was still there, along with the bright lemon yellow paint that was under the lovely stone paper.

Before

Lovely gray primer (with tons of stuff piled on the table and on the dining room floor).

The mostly finished product. (The orange is going to receive a glaze to darken it up a touch.) Thanks to Mama and Munner for sewing the beautiful curtains.

A better view of the curtains. Please note gameday food on the table and the "childproofing" backwards garbage can (from Eli's visit). :-) tee-hee

We're very pleased with the change. We're also pleased with our lovely IKEA bookshelf and plant on the living room side of the half wall. (You can see them in one of the after shots.) If we're not careful, we're going to make this place a home. :-D

Love & Shapoopies,
Les

Luckyyyyyy

How lucky are those who know exactly what they want to do with their lives?!? I wish I knew. Lots of things I love to do, but not sure how any of them could be a living made. ho-hum...

Old enough to appreciate history???

The older I get, the more I appreciate history.

I find as we furnish our house, that I am enjoying finding furniture from our past. I feel like having furniture that is a part of our memories, or better yet, a part of our parents' or grandparents' memories, makes it feel more like HOME. From items with which we have short histories, like the table Drew got from Shorter and our couch - my first piece of furniture I bought new - to items that connect us with family history.

We will soon be getting a pair of chairs that were my Mamao Tucker's (Munner's mom). I'm sure they were Munner's at some point as well, but for the entirety of my childhood, they sat in my parents' bedroom. We played in them, had long talks in them, and even kept clothes in them. :-D They are full of childhood memories, and I also can't help but think of my sweet Mamao Tucker each time I look at them.

Then there is this --

This is the chair in which Drew and Matthew were rocked as babies. It's teh chair in which Cindy was rocked as a baby. It's beautiful. It's comfortable. Heck, my feet COMFORTABLY reach the ground while sitting in it. Though it was given to me as a bribe from my mother-in-law (I saw the wink-wink, nudge-nudge in her eye), I LOVE that it is now part of our house. I can't wait to get it in our house. (Drew wants to febreeze any "other house" smells out of it before bringing it in so Cosmo doesn't feel the need to "make it his" like he did with our China cabinet.)

And this --

This desk belonged to Drew's Grandma Mary (Ricky's mom). It sat in her entryway (as it does in our house). It was in Ricky and Cindy's home. It's LOVELY. And Drew had so much fun cleaning it up and making it beautiful again. It's now OURS.

How great to have families so great that we want to bring them into our house!

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Glimpses

I haven't blogged yet since the move because I was waiting to upload my pictures, then on some amusing anecdote, and then on finishing some rooms to get some good "after" pictures. I was just waiting on something amazing and amusing for you guys. I finally decided that though I still haven't found the perfect anecdote, I should share some last glimpses of Louisiana. This is a pictorial (with bits of commentary) of our last days in the big BR.

We went to Alligator Bayou (an educational alligator farm that lets you see, feed, and hold alligators and teaches you about the ecosystem of bayous) in our last week in Baton Rouge. It was SOME KIND OF HOT before the sun went down, so they gave us "parasols". As you can see, mine was VERY effective. (Leave it to me to be amused by an umbrella amongst live alligators.)

One last crawfish boil in Mandeville. Though I'm not a fan of eating the little creatures (which, by the way, in Louisiana, must NOT be called "crawdads" or "mudbugs" as we call them in Bama), MANY of our Louisiana memories revolved around crawfish boils and the fun that ensues at them. This is the Louisiana version of a fish fry or barbecue - only there's MUCH more alcohol and you get the added bonus of playing with and chasing your food BEFORE cooking it. :-D

At the very end of May, we made it official. MASTER Bowers

Back to the Alligator Bayou. Quite possibly the WORST picture ever taken of me, however, it does show me holding an alligator. In my defense, I was MUCH calmer holding him (and YES, he proved he was a him during the "Pass the alligator around" session) until the man in the red shirt behind me put the baby alligator he's holding on my shoulder. I thought it was the ginormous snake that was being held behind me...hence the face!!!

Thanks to my friend Marisa, we have a great pictorial of our last night at our condo. All of our friends helping us move... our stuff in boxes... our mostly empty condo... Cosmo trying to get out of seclusion... and our GIANT truck. Let me just tell you, folks, caravaning with a truck THAT large GREATLY increases the travel time. :-D

As hot and humid as a post-nap mouth; overcrowded from Katrina; loud, chain-smoking, college-kid neighbors; and a teenie-tiny condo, but it was still HOME for us. We made so many amazing friends, learned so much about an amazing culture, ate some great food, improved our skills at trivia, ate an enormous amount of seafood, tailgated like crazy, and just had FUN!!! Baton Rouge is a culture that will always be a part of who we are. Though we're glad to be where we are now, we LOVED Baton Rouge and all of our wonderful friends we made there!

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Georgia on our minds - and soon to be on our tags

Well, folks, we're in! And, by "in", I mean it's all somewhere within the confines of our walls and/or garage and/or parents' houses. (We still haven't collected all of that.) But we have our couch, mattress, clothes, and computers inside. We also have a cat who LOVES windows close to the floor and running up and down stairs. He has also decided that he LOVES to scare us by sleeping on the railing that looks over the two story living room - meaning that if he fell, it'd be a LONG way down - AND he's decided that he loves to pee on our new china cabinet. That's fun. :-/

I'll put up pics VERY soon. (I'm currently in Clanton and therefore away from the camera and its USB cord.)

Blast is July 20 and 21. If you're in Clanton (or can get there), you should come. Should be a good one!!

Love & Shipoopies!
Les

On the Road Again!

Well, Drew goes and gets the ginormous truck this afternoon. (And yes, this puppy is so big that we read somewhere in the fine print that we have to go through all weigh and agricultural stations. -- And by the by, where in the heck do they have agricultural stations? I mean, I live in Alabama and I've never seen one.)

Anywho, we're exhausted and excited.

This is probably the most ahead-of-time packing we've done before the actual loading. The packing has been getting done (rather quickly as our boxes didn't get here until Wednesday) and it's been pretty organized. So far, no really random boxes. We've done the occassional, "I have a hole. Do you have something that fits there?" conversation while loading a box but for the most part, it's all been pretty together.

I'm so very excited about the new place -- all of the space and different rooms and a yard!!! Definitely looking forward to being closer to everyone (except Uncle Randy and Missy, and I guess I'm actually moving farther away from you two, huh?!?).

Nevertheless, moving is always emotionally difficult -- saying goodbye to your favorite places and people. In the whole scheme of things, we haven't really been here that long, yet we have really bonded so closely with so many of our friends here. Goodbyes are just hard. Tears, and the hopes that you won't become those friends who say they will call, but never actually do. Or even worse, that it won't become one of those relationships where one of you calls and the other never returns the calls. Of course, everyone says they will keep in touch, but it's hard knowing that some of them really won't.

Anyway, I suppose that's enough deepness (or maybe too much) for 7:30 in the morning on 5 hours of sleep. :-)

I love you all and hope you'll come see us at our new place soon!!


Love & Shipoopies!
Leslie

What's that you say?!? A REAL house?!?

That's right, folks! We have a contract on this puppy!

By the end of June, we should actually be living in this baby - IN Georgia!!! How tremendously thrilling!!! :-)

If you'd like more pics and haven't received them yet, drop me your e-mail and I'll send you a power point with all of the pics in it. :-)

Yipee!!!

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Potter Pals

Okay, so I just found these little puppet videos called Potter Pals. I watched a few, and some of them are quite disturbing, but this one is friggin hysterical! Since most of my small viewership are Potter fans, I thought I would share. Enjoy! (Turn up the sound!)




Love & Shipoopies!
Les

Ahhh, the joy

Well, folks, it's official! We are moving back to Georgia!!! Yipee!!! Drew got THE job at Milton High School in Alpharetta and we will be moving there sometime this summer.

Sometime in May, we'll be visiting to look for a house. It's all so very exciting!!!

Yipee Skippy!!!

Love & Shipoopies,

Leslie

Phrases I hate

So, as most of you probably know, I am a total English dork. I'm one of those people that has favorite words, despised words, and I occassionally even congratulate folks on the use of a good word. I enjoy grammar and its uses. I love word play. I'm just a goob in that way. So along that thread, here are a few language-related preferences...

1.) I hate the word "engorged". What a disgusting sounding word!! That's not to say that I never use it because sometimes it's the only word that truly fits, but it's still a repulsive word.

2.) I hate when people say, "I could care less." Well, if you COULD care less, then your feelings on the topic aren't really strong enough to be worth commentary, now are they?!? The phrase is "I COULDN'T CARE LESS"!!!!! It drives me nuts that the incorrect way has become acceptable. Even very educated people use it incorrectly. Drives me nutters!!! (Admitedly, this is not a trip for which you need to fill your tank.)

3.) I think "over top of" is one of the strangest, most awkward phrases I have ever heard. It's either "OVER" or "ON top of". I don't understand the need to combine the two to make this modern marvel of awkward language. "It's those things that make ya go hmmmm..." (Who remembers this song? Anyone? Anyone? Beuller?)

4.) One of my new favorite phrases is "Less Worse". Now, I understand that this is a bit hypocritical, since I dislike other phrases based almost solely on their gramatical incorrectness. However, I have a reason for liking this one so much. Drew's graduate Orchestral Conducting professor is Chinese and has a delightful way of expressing things. This is the man who, when Drew wasn't conducting emphatically enough, told him, "You captain, maybe Colonel. I need (and I will spell phonetically here) Fie Stah Genrah!!!" (That's Five Star General for those of you not as random in the head as I am.) Anyway, when he's trying to get a student to fix a problem in their conducting and they change something, but it's still not what he wants, he tells them that it is "Less worse". I LOVE IT!!!

Ahhh, the English language! What a grand thing!!!

Love & Shipoopies!
Les

Fascinating Stuff

So, here's what I learned from a student of a teacher whose sister is a nurse. (That's totally not related, just sounds funny.) Apparently the thing we've been taught to do all of our lives to pop our ears - namely, hold your nose and blow - actually pumps more liquid into your ear. The correct way to pop your ears is to hold your nose and sniff as hard as you can. All of these years... really makes ya think....

Love & Shipoopies,
Les

AAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The new Harry Potter book now has an official date -- July 21!!! I'm so excited!!!!! I may wet myself!!!
(Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but I am so excited that my stomach is flipping over and over like I'm about to go on a first date with someone or something.)

Yipee!!!
Love & Shapoopies!
Me

Check, one, two... Is this thing on?

Just wanted to let you guys know that I am INDEED still alive and kicking. I will be back to blogger world VERY SOON!!! I promise. The holidays were a blast, but they swallowed me. Still trying to dig my way back out. (Not stressed, just busy.) Heck, I was so busy I even forgot to read my daily blogs, much less write my own. :-)

In the meantime, for your very much viewing pleasure, here are two 3-generation pictures taken at the reception after Drew's Graduate recital. We didn't intentionally take them in such an identical manner, but here we are in the same places and everything. :-)

Enjoy!




Love & Shapoopies,
Leslie

Could it REALLY happen?!?

Do you remember these?










Some time ago, I posted some pictures of rooms I have painted and shared that this is what I LOVE to do. Some of my paintings are bright and boisterous. Some are muted and sophisticated. Either way, I find peace in creating them and joy in their completion.

Well, a friend from high school saw them on MySpace, sent them to a friend at Southern Living who sent them to a friend who is doing a book on Windows and Walls. She finally sent her contact information to me and said that she would be interested in using some of MY STUFF in her "bookazine". Of course, there are many ifs and maybes in between now and it actually happening, but it is getting closer to reality and I am VERY excited!

I thought I would share this blessing and prayer request with you all!

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

What we're made of

I find that at 2:30 am, you discover what you are really made of -- good and bad. For if you are awake at this time in the morning, it is almost certain that it is because your heart is being tested in some way -- either because you are still awake pondering the workings of your life, life in general, God -- the big stuff, OR because you have been called on by someone.

2:30 am can make or break you -- mentally AND physically (at least when you're OLD like me. :-) ha!)



As another random thought, my life is blessed with so many wonderful people to love and to love me. Friends, family, and acquaintances alike -- my days are blessed over and over with those who show affection, show appreciation, show me my strengths AND weaknesses, and show me how to be better by example. I think that ALL people are put into our lives for a reason -- sometimes to be there for us, and sometimes for us to learn about ourselves by being there for them. God is amazing and mystifying!

Cliche' as it may be, take a moment by yourself this Thanksgiving to find the small blessings in your life (not just the big, obvious ones). Find the people and situations God sent to you to challenge you -- to show you who you are deep inside. Sometimes these people show you strengths you didn't know you had, and sometimes they show you things you need to work on. Either way, they are a blessing.

If you are reading this, then chances are, you are one of my blessings that I thank God for each time I pray. Thank you for the love you show me, the courage you give me, and the things you teach me.

Have a great Thanksgiving!
Be careful, be joyful, and be full!!!

Love & Shipoopies!
Leslie

The results are in... no, not the election. Something MUCH more important!

Okay, guys! Since you helped come up with costume ideas for the "Song Title" costume party, I thought I would show you the costumes that actually showed up (some clever and some not so much). :-)




"Devil Inside"



"Always Something There to Remind Me"



"Material Girl"



"Kung Fu Fighting" (that's what her shirt says)
and
"Cat Scratch Fever"




"Yesterday" (The party happened on October 7th.)



"Hit me, Baby, One More Time"



"My Humps"



"Fire and Rain" (That's red hots glued onto her rain cap.)

White and Nerdy

Okay, I have previously seen clips from this video, but I finally saw the entire thing today (at #2 on the VH1 top 10 countdown, I might add) and it is freaking hysterical!!! You MUST listen to the words (even if you don't like rap -- which I don't). It is totally worth it. My favorite line is, "My rims never spin. To the contrary, you'll find that they are quite stationary." Classic. However, the BEST part is that Donny Osmond is dancing in the background the whole time. Weird Al is a genius!!! (and if you argue that point, then you are kidding yourself becuase deep down, we all appreciate his art.)



Love and Shipoopies!
Leslie

Something to look forward to...

Okay, guys! I realize that it has been ages since I have posted. Work is nuts. (I clocked 56.5 hours last week alone.) However, I have been stashing a list of posting updates in the back of my brain that will get posted as soon as earnings is over at work. They will include an interesting survey of books in my life for which Nolan tagged me, an update on the costume challenge (including pictures from the party), and a bit of a story of my Gazelle.

Until then --

Love & Shapoopies,
Les

A Halloween Challenge

Okay, guys and gals! I have a challenge for you!

I am hosting my Bunko group's halloween Bunko and decided to have a costume party where your costume has to be a SONG TITLE. Now I have seen a few good song title costumes before and I have a great idea for my costume. But as I got to thinking about different possibilities for costumes, I realized that the people who read my blog (and the people who read and comment on their blogs) would probably be REALLY good at coming up with ideas for this challenge.

So I am putting the challenge to you folks. And please pass on to the brilliant people who read your blogs! If you were going to a costume party where you had to be a "Song Title", what would your costume be?

The Daily Show

Okay, from now on, I am only posting YouTube video!!! :-) ha! My favorite part of YouTube at this point is discovering The Daily Show! I had heard other people say it was funny, but never actually watched it. To be perfectly honest, it doesn't matter what Jon Stewart is talking about. He is freaking HILARIOUS!!! Take, for instance, this clip about Dick Cheney's "hunting accident".

Enjoy!!



Love & Shipoopies!
Les

It's "Wicked" how funny this song is!

Now, this is one of my favorite songs EVER!!! Listen to the words! They are hilarious!!

If you don't know the show "Wicked", it's about Glenda "the good witch" and Elpheba "The wicked witch of the west" BEFORE they became who they are in "The Wizard of Oz".




Love & Shapoopies!
Les

YouTube Junkie!

Okay, so I've become (like everyone else in America, I suppose) a YouTube junkie! I decided to share a few of my favorites with you guys!

This one cracks me up!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Z_eTJq3bY

Maybe even funnier than the first (but much shorter and alot less "white trash"):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of0pIBxySKQ

Happy Friday!!! Laugher for everybody -- on the house!!!

Love & Shapoopies!
Les

Underoos and the like

Ahhh, Snoopy Underoos! Those were the days!


Okay, so sometime last August I told my mother that if she would give me all of her old family photographs (boxes and boxes of them), I would get them organized and into albums for her. It only took me around a month to get them all organized -- (If I've never explained to you how I MUST do things like scrapbook, knit, and sort pictures while I work to remain awake, I'll explain that part later. I'm not REALLY just a glutton for punishment.) -- but then I had this BRILLIANT idea (read: more work for me) that in the year of 2006 and all of it's technology for preserving history, that I would also SCAN all of the pictures in an organized fashion so that they wouldn't get any more faded than they already were, PLUS this way, I get a copy; Scott gets a copy; Munner can have a copy, etc. Great plan in theory, but I discovered that the actual scanning will take me much longer than just getting them into albums becuase I can't SCAN while I'm working. Needless to say, that even though the pictures have been "organized" since September-ish, I'm just now starting to scan them. I finished scanning the "Scott" seciton, got them into an album, and am about halfway through the "Leslie" section. After that, I have "Ricki and Sheri before kids", "Our family (McKee)", "West Family", "McKee (extended) Family", "McKee/West families together", and "CCHS/Friends" left to go. :-) [Should be done by the time Drew finishes his doctorate. :-) ha!] Anyway, it has been tremendously entertaining to sort through the old pics of Scott and me and so I thought I would share just a couple of the "gems" to provide you all with a laugh break. :-) Enjoy!




Paris, look out because "That's hot!"



First of all, note that this is a SUPER-COOL Polaroid pic. :-D
Secondly, I ask you, should 3 year olds really be giving "come hither" looks? :-D ha!



In the realm of really cool things, this would be my brother and cousin Robby playing their horns as part of the "entertainment" at one of Scott's birthday parties -- and his friends are ENJOYING IT! That is some serious fabulousness right there!



Words can't express... :-D

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Advice to clueless men (not relationship related)

Men,
I understand that you live in a world where most things are not truly threatening to you -- and I don't mean threatening in an "I must prove my manhood and increase my testosterone" kind of way, but in a "my life might just be in danger" sort of way. I think that's great for you! Really, I do. Yea, men!
The thing I think you DON'T understand is that most women feel threatened WAY more often in life. If a strange man starts approaching us (even if the real intent is to innocently pass by) while we are at the ATM, getting into our car, going into our house/apartment, etc. we feel threatened. Our brains (or at least most females I know) are genetically formed to flash warning signs in any of these situations. Now, that's just the normal woman. Add to that that some women have TRULY been injured or violated by a man in some similar situation like this - whether it be rape, stalking, or just serious aggressiveness. For these women (and they are a larger percentage than you would probably think), these events don't just send off a chorus of "Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! Danger" in our head. For these women, these "innocent" moments can instill TRUE PANIC!!! Irrational though you may think such a fear is, it's there and for pretty good reason. Women are attacked DAILY at ATMs, while getting in to cars and apartments, etc. by random men who appear to be simply walking by.
PLEASE keep this in mind ANYTIME you see a woman alone. Don't walk right beside her. Don't walk right past her car door or her apartment door. Don't approach her at the ATM -- even if you are TRULY just trying to get a deposit envelope to save some time or trying to get to the other side of her car or apartment door. WALK AROUND. Pass through the cars a couple of cars over. WAIT until she is done to get the deposit slip. Go another way past her apartment door or wait out of the way until she is safely inside. You may think that you are just passing by her, but to her, you may be the guy who is fixing to force his way into her car/apartment/bank account/life and that is NOT good.
This all comes from the fact that I truly believe some guy was fixing to force his way into my apartment as I unlocked the door to go in and something made him not. I don't know what. Of course, for all I know (even though he did about 8 fishy things before this moment that I saw), he could just be Joe Schmo trying to get to his apartment 3 doors down.

Just a tip from a lady to men that I know don't mean to frighten strangers.

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

One Year

This Sunday, it will be a year since my sweet Anna Banana died. There are things that make me feel it must have been just yesterday, like when I do something stupid and want to call and tell her about it and other things that make it seem like 10 years, like when I try to think of the last things we did together or the sound of her voice.

What an angel. Man, I miss that smile. I even miss the 17-year-oldness that used to drive me crazy.

Those of you who are prayers, please pray for our family -- especially the Withams -- this coming week. I'm sure this entire spring has been hard for them with all of her friends going through senior activities and graduation, but there's something about marking a year that makes it hard to believe. I know it is a hard thought for me to wrap my head around and she was only my "pretend child", friend, "sister", cousin. I can only imagine the sorrow of marking a year without your child.

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Respect Are Country!!!

Ahhh, it has been a while since I have imparted my wisdom upon the few of you who are worthy. One can easily fall into the drudgery of life and begin to find nothing worth commenting upon. HOWEVER, in the past week, another delightful aspect of the "American people", if you will, has been brought to my attention more readily than usual (becuase it has certainly been brought to my attention before as an English teacher and just walking down the street).

I will preface my thoughts on the great intelligence that the general public possesses by saying that I am NOT expressing my views on the immigration issue (or "migration issue" as many of our bright citizens have called it). My thoughts on the immigration issue and requiring English to be spoken by all are so deep, complicated, and filled with "if"s, "but"s, "only"s, and "except for"s, that I couldn't begin to type long enough to express them. The one thing I will express my feelings on today, however, is the irritation it causes me when people who will argue that they shouldn't have to speak CORRECTLY when using English becuase "You unnerstud whut I said, din ya? Then it don't matter none," begin arguing that it is somehow a disrespect to our country or the English language for immigrants (or "them Mexicans" as they are widely known by these people) to speak anything other than English when they are inside the borders of the United States. Case in point --


In a public news conference given by the President of this great country earlier this week, in the one sentence I listened to (because when I hear his voice or see his face, I immediately change the channel since, as a "retired" English teacher, he makes my skin crawl) he used the "word" (I use the term lightly) "hisself" three times. The man, who is the PRESIDENT OF THE FREAKING UNITED STATES, used a word that is NOT A WORD three times IN ONE SENTENCE!!! Now, I know this is not surprising coming from Dubya, but (and I remind you that I am NOT in any way trying to express my opinions on whether or not immigrants should speak, sing, write, or spit in English or their native tongue) this is the man who is arguing that IMMIGRANTS should only be able to sing the National Anthem in English. It makes me wonder, could Dubya, 'hisself', sing the ENTIRE National Anthem in correct English? I mean, do you think he can actually pronounce ALL of those "BIG words"? I doubt it.

Now, as if that wasn't bad enough, then I saw THIS GUY during "Headlines" on Leno the other night.


Now, I'm not even talking about the fact that he wants us to boycot MEXICO -- not the Mexicans in our country, but the ACTUAL country of Mexico. I mean, is any of our immigration problem REALLY their fault? I think if someone were angry about the immigration problem, one would be better served to boycott Mexican establishments -- or protest at the White House, but that's not even my problem with his sign!!! (and let's not even get into the fact that so many of the "Mexicans" aren't even FROM Mexico, but other Latin and South American countries.)

My problem lies in the second of his two signs. I don't know that I can even express my frustration with this man and his sign. I think the picture really speaks volumes for itself. If you can't look at that second sign and figure out why I HAD to blog about it, then you probably don't enjoy most of my rants.

I guesss my point here is not to try and impress upon anyone that immigrants should be able to speak whatever language they want OR that they should all have to speak English all of the time. MY point is shouldn't we worry about getting the people in our country who "speak English" to ACTUALLY speak English before we worry about anything else? I mean, the majority of the people who are arguing publically that it's a travesty (though they would NEVER use that word because they've never heard it) for "all them Mexicans" to speak "Mexican" rather than "American" are the ones who say things like "Them Mexicans ain't got no sense if they can't speak American rather than Mexican. I can't understand nothing they say." REALLY!!!!!!!!!

Whooo, I feel MUCH better now. :-)

Love & Shipoopies!

Leslie

A few observations...

For those of you who have been following Cosmo's journey, I thought I would make a few observations for you. The first is that Cosmo loves to help. His favorite thing to "help" with is my work. This began with his pacing across my lap in my chair while I was working. It then progressed to sleeping in my lap. It became lying in my lap for a few minutes, onto the desk, pace to the window, sit and look out the window for a few, then back to my lap. However, I was not giving him "ample" attention today during the pacing route, and this is what it became...


He actually plopped down ONTO my hand while it was on the mouse -- paws outstretched to the keyboard. What a crazy cat!!!

My second observation is this -- Cos is a bit of a klepto. He has tried to steal a number of pieces of paper off of my desk. We've also found him with some of my hair clips and a quarter. However, the BEST of the thefts was early Friday morning when I stepped out of the kitchen and looked toward the living room looking for Cosmo and I saw a Mardi Gras mask walking towards me. It was literally floating above the ground moving towards me. I, of course, could not get to the camera fast enough, but Drew held the mask so you can see what this would look like (without his hand, of course).



Cosmo had stealthily removed the mask from the shelf upon which it rested and got it into his mouth JUST RIGHT so that it looked like he was actually WEARING the mask. Below is a picture of the guilty party trying to look innocent right after dropping the mask. :-D



He cracks us up more and more each day. And also, just for Nolan's knowledge, he made it into the bedroom by Thursday night (2 whole nights later). Drew actually calls him to bed when he's heading that way now! :-) Drew's loving him.

Love & Shipoopies,
Les

Ahhhh.......

I could be wrong, but I THINK he's starting to get more comfortable here in BR. :-)




Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

"Very Obvious..."

I have a confession to make. I married a "Peanuts" enthusiast. He loves Charlie Brown and his wacky friends. We have the movies (so many of them), a book of the Complete Peanuts 1957-1958 (thanks, Robby), and a daily calendar for the second year in a row. Though (and I hope I won't be stoned for saying this) I don't always find the Peanuts cartoons funny (I really don't like the ones with the Snoopy's brothers and I rarely like the ones where he's the WWI pilot), occassionally one comes off of that calendar that is a keeper. Most of these keepers involve the classroom. The man had a way of getting to the heart of a preteen/teenager. Hysterical!!! I wanted to share two of these gems with you guys!









Very obvious...

Love & Shipoopies,
Joe Bania

beCosmo

I wanted to update you guys on Cosmo's transition (for those of you who have been following Cosmo's journey on Nolan's page). We picked Cosmo up in Slidell, LA last night and brought him to our place in Baton Rouge. The ride was pretty uneventful and Cosmo slept most of the way, though every time we would have to slow down drastically, it would wake him up and he'd meow a few times -- just restating his objection to the whole process. :-D ha!

We brought him inside, fixed his cat box and food dishes and then let him out of his cage. He immediately began pacing and sniffing, which he did constantly for at least the first hour. This, at one point, included a discovery of the piano and the noise it makes when walked upon (which scared him tremendously). He's been pretty funny scaring himself. :-D He then began finding temporary hiding places for rest between bouts of pacing and sniffing.

He hid under our television cabinet with the weights,

came out to pace some more,


hid under Drew's desk,


and under the dining table. What you can't really see in this picture is that he was finally starting to assert his "ownership" once he made it to the dining chairs. He's sitting in one with his paws stretched out all of the way across the the chair opposite him. :-D Pretty funny.

This morning, however, he has let us pet him for more than a split second, hopped up on the couch with us, and even jumped into my lap at my desk with me a few times (though never more than a minute). He's starting to figure this place out and get comfortable. Pretty soon, he'll be the king of the palace. (What cat isn't the king of his palace?!?)

Drew is pretty excited about the whole process. He keeps watching Cosmo's every move and questioning it. He pouted when Cosmo wouldn't let Drew pet him or play with the laser pointer last night and ran to excitedly tell me when both happened this morning. He also called after he left for finals this morning to make sure that I could still SEE Cosmo because he "didn't see him sneak out, but they can be pretty fast, you know." There was also mention last night of MAYBE opening the bedroom door after Cosmo had had a few nights "on his own" to get settled. :-D All of this from the man who doesn't like "indoor pets".

Love and Shipoopies,
Leslie, Drew, and Cosmo

Doing what I love

Since many of you have never seen them, I thought I would share some pics of the thing I love to do -- paint crazy things on peoples' walls (with permission, of course).

This is a little girl's room in a house I did in the ATL before I moved. The circles were time-consuming and it was a real PAIN to find the right green, but I LOVE the finished look. So cute for a young girl, and it can grow with her with minor changes in the room.


This is my parents' kitchen. Before the paint job, it had TEN YEAR OLD wallpaper that was more yellow than white (its original color). Mom likes blue (in case you have some sort of color-blindness). :-)

I love the subtlety of these stripes. Very elegant, yet more interesting than just plain walls. I've actually since done this in my own house in the dinning room.

This is my latest creation. It's in my friend Angie's "craft room". If this doesn't inspire you to do something, not much will (unless what you're trying to reach inspiration FOR is sleep). :-) ha

Love & Shipoopies!

Leslie

PS - You'll notice a change in the spelling of shipoopies. My father corrected me on my spelling of this made-up word. Silly, I know, but his creation, his spelling, I guess. :-)

What have I become?!?

I have fond memories from a time around my Junior/Senior year in high school shortly after my grandfathers passed away when, for a couple of months, my Uncle Ric -- a super-cool, super-funny, sarcastic hippy who normally resides in Pennsylvania and with whom until that time I had spent most of my "visiting" on the phone -- lived in Clanton helping Munner adjust to life without Grandad and helping us fix-up my other Grandad's house so we could live in it. (He's a carpenter by trade.)

When he was at "our house", he replaced a wall of windows and a window seat with beautiful French doors and windows that lead out onto a deck that he built for us. The deck was perfectly built to our specifications with a place built for a grill (with a hole underneath for ashes), "tables" for mother's planters and our drinks, and benches built to my height specifications for "laying out". I found his work fascinating -- learning about levels, chalk lines, and the like. More importantly, I found HIM fascinating. This was one of the first times when I spend QUALITY one-on-one time with him since I was old enough to appreciate one-on-one time with adults. He knew so much and was so funny and I found myself spending much time with him listening to his stories and learning about "handyman" kind of things. The one thing about those days that stands out the most is listening to his "Classic Rock" station with him while he worked.

Now, I was raised on oldies -- it's almost all we listened to in my house -- and I still love them, but we never listened to "classic rock". My parents were more into the animal groups -- you know, the Beatles and Monkeys -- than the Stones and Hendrix. Uncle Ric opened a new world of music to my ears, and though I didn't like it all since I couldn't sing along, I still associate MANY of those songs to Uncle Ric when I hear them. They entered into my memory box of sounds and smells so that when I hear them, I want to think of some supremely witty comment and call my Uncle Ric so he can remember how "cool" I am. :-) ha! They are part of my "cool hippy uncle" descriptors.

Fast forward, now, to last week. I was (and you'll excuse the confession, but it's relevant to the story) in the shower trying to find a station on my "shower radio" which is pretty complicated. (Reception isn't so grand in there.) The only station I could pick-up was a "classic rock" station. I immediately thought of Uncle Ric as "Give me Three Steps" came on. I drifted into a world of memories of time with my cool hippy uncle who listened to this OLD music. "Give me three steps. Give me three steps, mister. Give me three steps towards the door."

However, I was in for a rude awakening when the VERY NEXT SONG was a "rock" song from when I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL!!! I almost fainted. When did I become "CLASSIC"? How is it possible that MY MUSIC is now in the same category as Uncle Ric's? What has come of me? When did I become this "classic" person grouped with hippies and oldies? Where did my young, cool self go? Who knew one could so quickly become OLD?!? So Sad!!!

Henceforth, if any of you needs me, you can find me thumbing through the adds for retirement villages and nursing homes. I might as well! The time can't be TOO FAR off. :-D ha!!!

I need Blogger help

Okay, for all of my friends who are wizards at the Blogger format, I need help with this one. I am used to another format and I can't figure out all of the neat things you have on your pages like "blogs I like" and the other little notes that are in the margins of your page.

I have (as you can see) figured out how to add a picture into a blog. (I am very proud because I just discovered that I can do that.) But I haven't figured out how to get a picture into my profile.

This picture, by the way will be most appreciated by Nolan. This is our SEC-touring family photo. The Bama fan and her Aubbie husband living in the world where they spell it "geaux".

Thanks in advance!

Love & Shapoopies,

Les

The tax people...

Drew and I decided that since we were going to have many new deductions that we were unsure about (due to my having a full-time home office now) that we would go to H&R to have our taxes done this year. We decided that the papers are complicated and it was our first time writing-off some pretty complicated stuff, so we'd better go to the experts. Now, I must say first off that after about 5 minutes with the two ladies still at H&R at 6:15pm it was crystal clear that "expert" was a VERY strong word to be used in this situation. "Yeller", "Food smacker", "person who talks with her mouth full", "Person who guesses at things more than she actually knows how to do things" -- all of these would be more appropriate terms to describe these two ladies. That said, after spending 2 1/2 hours (Yes, you heard me right TWO AND A HALF HOURS!!!!!) trying to get everything done (at least an hour of this was spent "guessing" how to make the little green flag saying something wasn't right go away), we are getting a fabulous return and for that I am grateful -- VERY GRATEFUL!!! :-) (Woo-hoo!)

However, because we were filing in two states (having moved from Geawgeeah to the hurricane-infested sauna that is Louisiana during this year), they had to send our state taxes to be done by someone who does "Allstate". (I'll add here that they kept using this term as if it was some common terminology that all Americans should know. As far as I know, Allstate is a car insurance company and should, therefore, have nothing to do with filing my state taxes. My best guess is that she, the woman who does "Allstate", does taxes for ALL STATES meaning they can only do Louisiana and she knows how to do other states. That's just my guess, though.)

Now, understand that this means that someone we've never met will do our taxes without us there to explain things to her. She's going solely on the knowledge and paperwork she has received from "yellie-yellerson" and "smackie-smackerson" (described above). When we finally got to look at these state taxes (surprisingly only 2 days after we did our federal taxes), it had us owing the state of GA (in which we only resided 7 of the 12 months of the year and for whom we witheld taxes all 7 of those months) almost $800. Now, I will say that we always owe GA some money over what we withold (which I have always found strange), but it's usually around $100. How can the same jobs with the same tax forms have a $700 difference in taxes from one year to the next -- especially since the later of the two years wasn't even a full year?!?

We called and after much run around from one office to the next and messages back and forth, Drew finally got to talk to the "Allstate" lady who actually IS an expert. It seems "Yellie" and "Smackie" told her that we lived in Georgia for the entire year. Now, I find it odd that she didn't see a problem with that as she filed our Louisiana taxes at the same time, but still... Since we weren't full-time residents of Georgia for the entire year, she fixed the taxes and Georgia owes us $400!!!!!

I don't know how many of you are math whizzes, but if you haven't figured it out, that's a $1200 difference from what we were originally told. TWELVE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!

This is just a friendly reminder that if your taxes look iffy and were filled-out by anyone who makes the name "tweedle" start popping into your head, CALL AND CHECK!!!

Oh my gosh!!!

Love and Shapoopies!
Les

Learning

It's amazing how we, as humans, can get so arrogant as to think that we have "learned it all" in any area of our lives. Of course, this never lasts long, for, almost immediately after one gets comfortable in the "knowledge" they possess, some new knowledge will present itself. In school, church, friendships, and marriage -- especially in marriage. All of the kinks can be worked-out and then WHAM!!! Something happens and you are reminded that every conversation and situation presents something new to learn about life, about people, about yourself. Always learning....

It's not half bad if you think about it.