family and friends – Page 2

December 22, 2012

Christmas Traditions Can Differ a Lot

When I was a kid, we had Christmas on just one day – Christmas Day – and it was a very busy day for us. We always woke up early and tore into the presents under our tree in the living room. Then we had brunch, got dressed up and visited my Grandmother at her house. We always took gifts to her house for her and she always had gifts for us waiting under her tree. We visited for a couple of hours and then left her house and went to my other grandparent’s house for a huge family party.

I am amazed to learn that many people open their gifts on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas morning. Some families hang stockings and some don’t. Some families don’t even have Santa come visit – I think that is sad. Even when the kids are grown, everyone still likes to get a little gift from Santa!

December 17, 2012

Alligators Dancing for Christmas

One of my good friends was born and raised in Louisiana. I found this cute graphic of alligators dancing while wearing Santa hats. I posted it on his Facebook wall and he got a great laugh about it. I think it is so cute!

November 25, 2012

Peace love and pets

Peace, love and pets is what we all need in life to be happy. I wish everyone could enjoy having a dog or cat in their home, a peaceful life and lots of love. That’s what it is all about. I have been blessed with many pets throughout my life. I love my dogs and I miss my cats. But in this house, we can’t have cats anyway.

November 19, 2012

Happy Birthday Cassandra

My girlfriend, Cassandra, who used to live here but moved away to Oklahoma is having a big birthday today – she turns 30! Wow! That is a milestone.I wish she was still living here so we could go out and celebrate with a nice dinner and some fun! We still keep in touch with our blogs. Her’s is called The Twin Diaries – because last year she had twin girls and had to move closer to her family for help with all her kids. At least they promised to help but then after she got out there they didn’t do shit for her and now she is stuck out there.

My dad used to tell me that where you are are in life when you turn 30 is an indicator of how the rest of your life is going to turn out. Such as, if you are married and doing well financially, you will probably be stable and secure for most of the rest of your life. But if your life is a hot mess at 30, then you are probably never going to be happy and successful.

I don’t know why 30 is the magic number, but he pointed out a lot of good examples from friends and relatives who were doing well at 30 and still are, and the few black sheep that were having drama at 30 are still pretty much having drama in their daily lives.

for Cassandra, I think it could go either way. She has been working toward a more stable and secure life, but she has a lot of family issues and too much drama from all the baby daddies. I sure hope that things just keep getting better for her and her kids. Maybe she will find a way to move back out here – I would love that!

November 14, 2012

Surrounded By Difficult People

All day today has been really challenging for me. I feel like everyone around me is going out of their way to be difficult. Even people who are normally very sweet and friendly are acting rude. Maybe it is something in the water? It’s not the full moon, so we can’t blame that. But I have bitten my tongue way too many times today in the interest of keeping the peace and not offending anyone. I hope tomorrow these same difficult people change back to their normal selves and appreciate how much trouble they’ve been. If they show up grumpy again for a second day, I think I will have to leave early and just escape. I don’t think that I can put up with so much stuff two days in a row. I don’t have enough patience to be babysitting everyone who is supposed to be a grown up anyway.

September 28, 2012

FB Friending Dilemma

I have a friending dilemma on my Facebook account. There is a girl who I do know in real life and I like her. But she is friends with my ex. I don’t like the idea of my ex possibly using this friend to stalk me on Facebook. So I don’t really want to friend her, but I don’t know if this is a real concern of just me being paranoid.

My other friends say that she is in touch with my ex and although no one has told me that she is dating him, I would not be surprised. So I have to figure out how to find out if she is really friends with him or dating him or what. And why this sudden interest in being Facebook friends?

May 28, 2012

Be Careful What You Share

Sometimes it seems like Facebook has been around forever. I use it every day and I love to keep up with family and friends. Facebook makes me feel closer to the ones I love and I have met some new friends, too.

Smart people will use Facebook like the tool it was meant to be and should be careful about what they share. You never know who is reading what your share and what they will do with that information.

April 25, 2012

Girls Night Out

My girlfriend, Vicki, called this morning and wants to get a few girls together and have a girl’s night out. I think that’s a great idea. Sometimes we need to have some girl time together, to talk about the things our men folk aren’t interested in and just have some girl fun. Its nice to spend a lot of time with your man, but every good, healthy relationship allows for – in fact, needs – some time apart.

April 9, 2012

He’s Home!

Really great news this morning – my cousin made it home safely from Afghanistan! His wife had a custom sign made up and put in their front yard as soon as she heard he was heading home. It took over a week for him to get here, but he’s finally home!

I don’t think he wanted her to take his picture, but I’m glad she made him do it so she could post it on Facebook. He looks great!

April 2, 2012

On His Way Home – For Real This Time

The Army told my cousin in Afghanistan to pack his gear and report to the air field in 4 hours. Of course, he was already mostly packed – he thought he was leaving for home several days ago. Then they told him he can’t leave that quickly. Then they told him the day AFTER he was supposed to leave that he can leave. The Army works in mysterious ways.

So, he and 8 other men were put on an airplane and delivered to a staging area away from the war zone. This place has real restaurants with real food and ice cold beers. He and a couple of his friends spent the first night there eating and drinking beer for the first time in many months. He posted a photo on Facebook so we knew he was really out of there.

I’m so glad that they made it out of there safely and can’t wait for them to be back on American soil.