Petting Zoo Adventure

I managed to corral the whole family into going to a wonderful Animal Park that is so much more than just a Petting Zoo, yesterday afternoon. The weather was perfect, the cost was minimal, was a nice long healty walk and a good time was had by all. It is located only 15 minutes down the road and I had been there 6 years ago or so and have been trying for all these years to get the family to go and enjoy all the interesting and entertaining animals that this place has to offer for the public to come and see.

We even purchased some of the feed that they sell by the bag, to feed to some of the animals that were allowed to be feed, many are on restricted diets and are discouraged from feeding them any type of food items at all. The sheep, goats, many varieties of deers, and the llama’s all feed greedily from our hands and it didn’t take long for the bags to become empty. Other animals that we enjoyed seeing were the several types of monkeys, bears, buffalo, a lion and his lioness, camels, exotic birds, a black panther and many more that I can’t even remember them all. I did however bring me camera and hopefully some of the many pictures will come out that we can put in our scrapbooks to remember the nice time we all had with the animals and nature.

 

Younger Brother

I come from a fairly large family with brothers and sisters that do all kinds of things and have lived in all kinds of places.  As a kid I did not enjoy having so many siblings, I was not a very happy child, lonely as can be, even with all those other kids around.

Now that I am older I am grateful for each and every one of them. I honestly don’t know what I would have done without them all.  Each one has assisted me in one disaster or another in some way or another. And I in turn will do anything that I can for them when they are in need.

Hubby comes from a large family also, it is unfortunate that they are not as close to each other as mine are, and are not always willing to come to each others aid when needed, such a shame because they each have so many talents and skills to offer also. But we were raised that family always comes first and they take care of each other no matter what.

My family has a plumber, a car mechanic, an electrician, a construction worker, a heating & air conditioning specialist, a writer, an office worker, a computer whiz, an engineer, a tax preparer, a car sales person, a school bus driver, a package & shipping specialist and the list goes on as they all move around in their careers and locations. Each and everyone would be there for me if I needed them, gotta love it!

One of my younger brothers has been incarcerated for the past 15 years and has just now been released and has been looking for work since his release.  He is staying with another brother for a while until he can get back on his feet, which my take some time.  It isn’t easy for someone who has been locked up to get back in the swing of things, it takes time and patience. Finding employment has been one of the biggest challenges for him, but things are looking up for him, I just got an email from him telling me all of the things that he has been up to since his release, which was right before Halloween. The family had a really nice Thanksgiving holiday this year with him being home, where he belongs, once again.

In his latest email he was telling me that he has finally landed a job in the field that he was in before everything went haywire 15 years ago.  He had worked in industrial electronics/construction and was getting really good in that field, but a lot of things have changed in that field in that amount of time so he needed to be refreshed in it all before he could get back into it. So he took some classes, did good in them (of course, he is a very smart guy) and then started looking for work.

He finally has landed a job at a company, Zycon. It seems that Zycon is an industrial directory. Engineers, contractors, industrial companies, etc. can use this directory to find manufacturers and distributors of the industrial products and services they need. He was going on about grommets, blowers, flow meters, quad rings, lock pins, pneumatic cylinders things like that are so foreign to me, but are second nature to him of course. Of course I checked out their web-site www.zycon.com and boy was I over my head on that site, but it seemed to be a good place to find things that one would need in that field.

I’m so glad that they are giving him this opportunity, with his record and everything, I hope that they treat him well and give him the respect that he deserves and needs at this point in his life.  I wish him luck and look forward to getting more of this kinds of positive emails from him more often.

Paintball Anyone

The only thing that I really remember about my one time experience with paint balling, back in the 80’s, was that it did sting a bit when you got “hit” with a blast.  I was younger then, but it was great fun and I know that I walked a bit funny after the fun was over on the next day!

I’m surprised at how much there is to offer now a days in the paintball industry, but a lot of things have changed in past 30 years, I suppose.  There a store right down the street from use that sells paintball accessories and military/police items as well.  I have never been in there before, but Hubby and his friend walked down there one year way back and looked around a bit, I remember them telling me about all of the merchandise that was for sale in there. The parking lot is always full, so they must be doing something right.

If you are into paintballing you might want to check out pntball.com and see all of the things that they have now for paintballing fun.  Hubby was looking over my shoulder the day that I ran across their web-site while I was surfing the net, and the next thing I know, he is sitting in the chair and had taken over the PC so that he could look at the products better.  You can order piece by piece or they have whole kits geared to get you started at. Their stock has a full line of cheap paintball guns, paintball markers, paintball gear, barrels, hoppers, harnesses, tubes, and paintball masks, by many different brands.

Hubby seemed particularly interested in the one Tippmann 98 custom Paintball ACT Marker Sniper gun package. It regularly sells for $429 and is marked down to $299, so Hubby was drooling at the mouth.  I’ll have to keep that one in mind, maybe for Father’s Day, wouldn’t that be cool.

Starting An Online Business

A few months ago my oldest daughter and I were talking about possibly creating our own online printing business and decided to give it a go. Her husband had said he also wanted to be apart of it, so we waited until he had gotten back from his business trip to discuss our options and our plans with him, so we were all on the same page.  When he finally had gotten back from his business trip, we had all gotten together to discuss what we had in mind.

A problem we had was how to start an online business and how to customize it to fit our styles, wants and needs. My daughters husband jumped on the net to look around for help to do just that, and not too long after starting his search he found the perfect solution for our problem. Thankfully it didn’t take long at all to start the process of web 2 print solutions, and found that the site offers more than we could ever ask for, and our business took off right away.

Our site has brought so much business, its unbelievable and exhilarating to all three of us. We couldn’t be any happier and couldn’t of asked for better help at such a great price we just couldn’t turn our heads on. We recommend anyone who wants to customize their own web page for their online printing business, to visit this awesome site, and the extraordinary people who are behind it. You will not regret it, and you will be impressed with all the options you have to create your own online printing business as we are.

Shark’s Tooth Island

Every summer we used to go to my parents summer home which was right on the water, we had boats, big boats, little boats, fast boats, slow boats, fishing boats, John boats, motor boats, sailing boats, paddle boats, and a jet ski.

The folks would pack us kids up on the boat and take us for a ride and we would always end up at Shark’s Tooth Island.  We would spend hours walking up and down the coast line where you could find all kinds of cool shark’s teeth, colorful sea shells, and beautiful stones that have been washed up onto the sand, just waiting for you to pick up. We have jars and jars chocked full of shark’s teeth that we will always treasure.

We would go water skiing off of the island for hours at a time while the others were swimming and playing in the warm salty waters. There was always a good time when we went there and I miss it so much.

Sharks Teeth
Various Sharks Teeth

South African Hunting Adventures Anyone

How about we pack up and head out for a really cool once in a lifetime adventure and try our hand in hunting big game in Africa.  My brother and his buddies went a few years back and he highly recommends using T. Jeffrey Safari Company, LLC a full time, full service, hunting and sport fishing consultancy.

I went online and see that they have a great website that offers big game hunting safari trips to Africa.  They can help arrange a hunt here in North America but if you are going to do it, might as well do it right and they offer such bargains for several traditional African Hunting safaris as well as numerous Namibia safari hunting trip packages that are all-inclusive, in the Southern part of Africa.

The variety of programs that they have to offer is amazing, everything you ever need is there in order to get your trip up and going.  I am amazed that there are so many women into this type of hunting such big game as leopard, cape buffalo, lion, elephant and rhinoceros.  So I guess if they can do it there is no reason that I can’t give it try, but I don’t want to go by myself that is for sure.

 

 

What happens in Las Vegas…well you know the rest

We still receive phone calls now and then from people that we knew from way back.  I love hearing from them, you never know what to expect from these phone calls.

Laurie and I go back 25 years or so, she was a bartender at the bar Hubby and I used to go to back in day.  She is now living and working as a card dealer in Las Vegas, while still going to college, and still has her son living with her.  She seems to have done pretty well and is in the process of looking into buying a condo and wanted us to look at the one Web site hone-lasvegas.com  and check it out.

These Las Vegas condos include five towers, each one is 18 to 20 stories high, with loads of spacious grounds which is guard gated, it looks like they offer all of the goodies that one would expect at such a beautifully landscaped residential community, such as spas, pool, boutiques, exercise and fitness rooms, I mean the whole kit and caboodle.

If she decides to purchase one I can’t wait to visit her and check it out my self. I have only been to Vegas once in my life and we were broke, not the best place to be when you are broke!

Reality Shows – A Bunch Of Nonsense

For the most part I don’t mind once in a while watching one of the many court room judge television shows, but I can tell you that I never, ever watch Divorce Court (how very depressing is that show) nor will I watch Judge Judy. That is one scary woman with a lot of attitude and a lot of power bestowed all onto one menopausal woman.  I can’t imagine allowing myself to be put on national television in front of God and everyone, to be belittled by this wacky woman and have her try my case for any reason what so ever.  As far as going on national television during a divorce, are you frigging nuts or what?

I don’t know anyone personally that has made an appearance or knows anyone who has. I can tell you that when and if I ever do I will have so many questions for them that I really want answers to. I have a relative, through marraige, who made an appearance on the Jerry Springer show about 5 years ago. I never got to see the episode, but hubby did and wasn’t impressed. It was all 100% nonsense. Our relative made the whole thing up and was urged to act “over the top” by the folks that got them on the show. That was a real eye opener as to what is really going on with many of these “reality shows” that people are enjoying more and more these days. I say that if you want to see what goes on in a court room, then get your butt down to your local courtroom and spend the day in the various courtrooms there!

Gas Prices Hinder Visits With My Sister

Just hung up from talking with my sister that lives a little over an hour away, she sounds so miserable that I have decided that I am going to drive down for a visit on Sunday.  I don’t work that day and Hubby will have the youngest with him at the flea market, so I see no reason to jump in my car and spend some time with her and her family. The cost of gas is the only concern, it will take over $20 to drive there and back and gas is getting really close to the $4 a gallon mark. It hasn’t been this high in a good long while, this is really scary folks, I’m tired of this roller coaster ride that we have been riding year after year after year – a carnival ride from hell is what it is, with no opportunity in sight to get off of that ride.

Good thing that I have a gas charge card that I can use if needed, it seems as if it is needed now more often then before, which sucks.  I am trying not to use my charge cards at all. This was the first year that I didn’t use a single charge card for anything the whole Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season. I just now paid one credit card off last week and hopefully next month I will pay another off as well, that will help when paying bills time comes around again the first of the month.

 

Background Playsets Chesapeake Va

When the kids were real little we wanted to buy them a playset for them to see and enjoy on Christmas morning. We figured we could just trot on down to Toys-R-Us or possibly Walmart pick one up and bring her home and keep stored in the garage until Christmas eve, which is when hubby planned on putting the darned thing together. I always feel so bad for the Dad’s on Christmas since they are the ones that usually spend so much time putting things together before, during and after all the excitement is over with with the gift giving and receiving that is so exciting for kids.

Weren’t we surprised when we could find a single playset in town. We were told that these playsets are considered summer merchandise and that they wouldn’t be getting any of those products until March or April. We really had no idea that this would become an issue. We ended up finding a used playset – can’t remember how we found out about it. These were the days when we certainly had computers but not anywhere like we do now or else we could have searched online and found the perfect playsets chesapeake va or even have one customized for that matter.

Playset
Backyard Playset

It all worked out though and hubby was up real late that Christmas Eve putting that playset together in the middle of the night all by himself and it was one of those real cold Christmas Eves, but he never complained and the kids were totally surprised and thrilled that Christmas morning when we had them look out the back window. It was worth every bit of time and effort put into that wonderful playset.