Curating Sweets and Book Reviews

 My Facebook timeline is filled with book reviews, book suggestions and favorite reads of the season. If I have leisure time I take a look at most. The best ones yet and there are many, are the ones that give the book title, a brief synopsis and then lines out the major themes of the book. Why thankyou, now I don't have to buy the book cause the top points have been shared. Whether the book be a business book or self improvement or Christian book, the points all start sounding alike. The main subject matter is know yourself, embrace change, cultivate connections, open communication, slow down, cultivate gratitude, embrace imperfection, find meaning and purpose, practice mindfulness, embrace uncertainty, declutter, learn from nature, find joy in the small things, value experiences over things....and on and on and on. These are all from different books ranging from how to lead, how to get rid of toxic people, how to simplify and how to get ahead. Some of these books use $10.00 words to describe these values, but if one is trying to simplify doesn't this go against the grain? Also, I received an email from a company and based on my browsing, they have curated some  tasty treats I might enjoy. Several of the choices were fruitcake related. Lies, I tells ya! I dislike extremely any type of Christmas confections be they in cake or cookie form, in any way at all being related to fruitcake. If there truly was curating going on, it would be about gingerbread and sugar cookies. 

If I used all these principles for living, the rest of my time could and would be taken up with exercise and health activities. Now I am all for doing those things, but by the time you add up all the do this exercise three times a day reps of twenty as well as use the red light thing, or dry brush for lymphatic health. In September I began using Rowe Casa products and just about everything I have used is a keeper. Just a couple things I probably won't reorder. But all the magnesium products, lymphatic cream and lotion, deep sleep products, and some hair products I truly love. 

Somehow I have picked up a "bug" of the cold type. Runny nose yet stopped up. It was the worst on Sunday morning and out of desperation right before leaving, I took a pill so I wouldn't have to blow my nose during the lesson. Well, mission accomplished on that but the side effects have always had an effect on me, I get a little loopy. I was hoping the loopy would wait till the end of class but no, it arrived right in the middle of the lesson. Y'all, I took some bunny trails and while funny were not Sunday School material, although I think I tried my best to make it worthy of fitting into a lesson. Ugh! Since I still felt a bit congested we did not go to First Pres in Weaverville for their Christmas concert on Sunday night. Of course there would be such beautiful music but I would have to take a cold/flu pill and I might of stood up to sing with the choir. No, it was the best decision all around to stay home, read, watch football with Roy and play with the kitties. 

We have more good than bad nights getting the kittos into bed. Our problem child is Chubola. She missed out on the best part of her supper and only had dry food after taking such a long time to wrangle her in. The kittos love GMoey and like to hang out with him. GMoey is so laid back and takes their antics in stride. Willie is warming up slowly to them. He has quite the competition as the big bully. Buster seems to be the alpha cat for the kittos and somewhat with The Boys. The other day five of the six were on our bed having wrestling matches. They used that thick comforter for defense, offense, and strategic hiding. Quite entertaining to say the least. I love watching Roy with the kittens outside. The six sleep in a box filled with straw and only two of them wants to venture out into the cold but their venturing is fast and Roy always checks to see if they want to come back in. 

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A fog filled morning to start off this Tuesday. We are considering several options for the day. Haven't decided yet but hey, that's a great part of being retired. Roy is hunting rabbits I mean cats. He has an appointment for two tomorrow. So far he has caught several already members of the spay and neuter club. Just came in and said there is not a cat anywhere. Maybe they'll be around for supper. He won't put as much dry food out for the afternoon. Good news, Roy just caught a black cat. Just one more to go. Now, several hours later we are still holding at one cat. Caught three more members of the club so it was a catch and release thing. Roy has the two he wants to take in. Had a small kitty but he traded it out to let it gain a little weight. 

The fog being long gone is replaced by a whole lot of burning going on across and cattycornered from us. At first I thought it was the house but no. Saw no flames and nobody seems alarmed by the white smoke. Maybe we have a new pope in the area, who knows. 

I've been doing some research on ADHD and I am seeing some of the why of what I do. The little things that stop me because they are overwhelming to me but to others it is nothing. Now I wish some of those book summations had a little more to do with this rather than other subjects. Oh well...... 

Just the Daily

 Another golden morning. I was thinking about this the other day and pondered why I had missed so many of these golden moments. Well, I had a change of place. Roy and I traded living room chairs and side of the room. My view is now out the kitchen windows and the sun making its track across the back field of our neighbor. Lovely, lovely sight. Oh, I know the earth revolves around the sun I am merely looking at the path made most sunny mornings. 

With the exception of Wednesday, I have hunkered down avoiding the cold temps outdoors. We got a few and by few I mean very few, Christmas decorations out. No decorating on the inside this year. No reason to tempt six cats to destroy everything Christmassy in sight. Really, that is the thought outside as well. 

I just about have the lesson for Sunday written out. That is always a huge responsibility off my shoulders. Last week's lesson, while written out, was not something I had thought about much. I spend a lot of time thinking about what I've found and sometimes it is a detriment because I get hooked on one point and the whole lesson doesn't get that attention. Last week held many distractions. Not related to studying but somewhat in that genre, I am reading Mark Batterson's latest book. Of course the title escapes me but it is about seeing God's miraculous in our everyday lives. Well, that is kind of the theme of life right now, slowing down to actually observe all these little, haha, miracles. I've read that every teacher has a constant theme no matter the subject matter. Since moving here my life theme has changed and developed into the see God at work theme in the ordinary. 

Looking around the front room upstairs with books and papers covering the day bed, books stacked all around the room and a comfy, cozy blanket, I realized all of these things are like when I was a little girl. Must have been around 2 or 3 and every afternoon when my mom put me down for a nap, I would wait for her to leave, close the door and I would climb out of the crib. I'd gather all my books and stuffed animals in the bed and I would climb back in. My mom would check on me and find me happily reading to all the stuffed animals that I had gathered round. 

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Good Tuesday morning. We spent most of the morning out running errands at all the usual places yesterday. Got the kitties all set up to eat and poop. That is their life with some naps and play mixed in between. Seems like we have them on a schedule that they like and cooperate with. There are exceptions, always exceptions. The Boys are reluctantly accepting that the these kittos will be around. Willie is used to getting his way by intimidation but these three kittos are not easily intimidated. So, while he interacts somewhat he spends a majority of time upstairs. Mr Mo, well he is jealous and deals with it the only way he knows which is counter act with demanding attention. GMoey, he is so chill and he hangs out with the kittos. Chubola likes hanging out with him. Baxter is now more Roy's cat. His attention turned toward Roy last week. He still comes to sit on my lap but he follows Roy just like Fido does outside. 

Sunday night our praise team helped the children's ministry present, Through the Eyes of a Shepherd. The kids did a great job telling a familiar story. Roy said he learned a couple of things and I probably would have too but my ears were not cooperating. Costumes and staging were great. All over the country at this time rural and small churches are presenting the Gospel with the children telling the story. A Methodist church in our area did their presentation a little differently. They invited children churched and not churched come to be a part. I thought that was pretty neat with just about two practices. 

December 13

Well, things and schedules got crossed up but all ended well. With Roy's help, which means kept me focused, we put together the favors for tonight's Ladies Christmas Supper. So so out of my sweet spot, but think they turned out okay. 

All the Acts commentaries and books have returned to the bookcase. Now to find the Exodus books. That is the next book on the schedule. 

Once again I find myself just finding brief snippets of time to blog, so I will wrap this up and hopefully, next week I will have concentrated time to sit here and write a few thoughts. 

Herding Cats is Not For The Fainthearted

 It has been quite a morning with unexpected vet trip thrown in. Chubola seemed to be having a few issues and the vet was able to get her in for a check up this morning. I wonder if I identified as a cat just for an appointment if I could get in. Faster to get into the vet office than it is to a doctor office. No, I will rethink that and rescind that idea. Thankfully, Chubola has a minor issue so we can continue to afford to pay the electric bill. 

Roy had deacon meeting last night so that means he won't have a meeting in December. He and Billy brought the food for the meeting and it was kind of a snacky buffet. While he was at the meeting I visited with Dena. We needed to get caught up on all the happenings and I actually had happenings to talk about. We laugh quite a bit and that was so fun. 

Monday, we roused ourselves to get over to Sam's. The Plus membership is the way to go cause you can enter before 10:00 and not deal with a lot of crowding, especially in the popular areas. Although, the pet aisle is crowded at anytime. Got cat essentials and moved onto other sections of the store. We were in and out. That left time to head into Weaverville for Publix and Ingle's. Stopped on the way home at 6 Pig BBQ truck for lunch. 

On Wednesday last week, we saw not so much unusual blatant intent to deceive at Ingle's. The lady in line before us at checkout had just one big old turkey in her cart. At first I thought it was a backpack, but then I've been sick...haha... She wanted the checkout clerk to scan the turkey but you see to get this low low rate on the turkey you had to buy $35.00 worth of groceries. The clerk called for management back up. The lady was getting a bit impatient and demanding the girl to scan the turkey. I did not know this but if you scan it you cannot take it off and she would get the discount price without buying the required amount. Around this time I told Roy I needed to go sit down in the truck, so I left. Guess I missed quite the show but I tell you she gave quite a show in the parking lot. Yelling and gesturing and she scared a few waiting for the mountain transport van service to pick them up. She could have gone across the street to Publix and buy a turkey on the cheap without having to purchase other groceries. A lot of people here think Publix is expensive and it can be but the local home grown store that didn't have any competition for years is more expensive in my opinion, but they do have better deals on Pepsi products. 

December 2

I didn't have too much of a chance to sit down and write over the Thanksgiving weekend. We had a lovely Thanksgiving. After years of being at the beck and call over the holidays with my father, we welcome, dare I say cherish these holidays because of the freedom of doing whatever. Our schedules are like what schedules? We fixed a simple lunch and enjoyed leftovers into Saturday. We worked around the house but with all these little ones, the projects are eternal and ongoing. The Kittos are acclimating with The Boys. We still have to put them up in the playpen for the night but we hope to be able to get them upstairs in the bonus room each night.  

December 4

I think I will wrap up this post. The days of getting morning time to blog are seriously reduced to just a few days a week. Nothing exciting keeping me from blogging but it is difficult to focus when every few minutes there is a cat fight to break up or a noise to investigate or a sound of things crashing to the ground from the top of the bookcases. Not the Kittos but one very guilty GMoey. 

It never got above freezing yesterday but today we will. Then the bottom drops out again temperature wise. We had an appointment for two feral fam members at the ASPCA but Roy cancelled yesterday due to the iffy conditions of the road this morning. I think the roads are fine but it would have been cruel to have two trapped Feral Fam members in the garage while others enjoyed the free access of The Garage on the Catmore Estate. 

Well, their second nap of the morning was short meaning The Kittos are back at it, playing, being on tables they are not allowed to be on and of course the sound of silence things going bump in the morning. 

One of My Favorite Blog Posts Ever!

 This is one of my all time favorite blog posts. I had fun writing it back then and I may have, dare I say, guffawed in laughter 

My Thanksgiving Day by Nancy Mon

My Thanksgiving Day

By Nancy Mon

Roy and I did Thanksgiving differently this year. Roy has been talking to me for weeks about going to the Houston Zoo on Thanksgiving Day. Believe me I have been less than enthused and tried to use every opportunity to discourage the idea. First the weather men gave me great hope that the morning would be rainy and overcast. Then they changed their forecast to overcast, warm and rain free. Roy was making reservations for his staff Christmas lunch with McCormick and Schmidt downtown yesterday and they tempted him with the offer of an 11:30 opening for Thanksgiving lunch. Well, I hesitated to tell him, there wasn't anyway we could do the zoo, then be ready for an early lunch. Roy thought we could come straight from the zoo and eat because they told him dress was casual. I had to break the news to him that they didn't mean zoo casual more like business casual or casual chic...whatever that may look like. We couldn't traipse in with camo shorts and workout capris. Then as we began discussing the whole thing, which by the way in Roy's sweet way he was trying to make the day fun for me, we decided there wasn't any reason to go eat all those extra calories when we had planned a perfectly fine lunch. The fine, fine folks of the Play Grocery , and God bless the hands that prepared the meal, had a fine array of dishes to order and seeing that I am all about the economy, ordered several things to go along with a delicious smoked brisket that was in the freezer. We talked through options for the day and then came the brilliant plan of going out to breakfast first and then going to the Houston Zoo.

So we went to Mimi's in Pearland and had delicious pumpkin pancakes. I had heard they were awesome and so instead of getting my usual, Belgium waffles which are so good, we ordered pancakes. We were not disappointed! It took breakfast at Mimi's to get me out and about so early in the morning. I repeatedly pointed out to Roy how overcast the sky was and the probability of staying at the zoo for more than an hour was imminent. Roy joined the zoo society, nothing but socializing with monkeys for us, and admittance is free for us upper crust zoo types so leaving so quickly wasn't a problem. We headed down 288 and were at the zoo in no time. We even parked on the front row...which is nearly impossible most days. Much to my surprise there were several others who had this insane idea of going to the zoo on Thanksgiving Day.

So here in pictures is our Thanksgiving Day at the Houston Zoo

This is all too familiar to me now. Roy constantly takes pictures of me while I am doing mundane things like...you know...picking my teeth or making a face or rubbing my nose. No I don't rub my teeth and pick my nose. Honestly I don't pick my teeth but that sounded funny to me at this moment.

This is a dead plant that is located in the elephant area.

The elephants weren't out because they wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving indoors inside their cages.

Here is some more space of where the elephants would be if they were out.

This is the empty giraffe area. The giraffe's have been moved to African Forest section of the Houston Zoo, which isn't open yet. When I was a little girl this very same giraffe house was painted green. I don't have any idea why I felt like that had to be shared.

Oh boy! Time for some refreshing dippin dots to relieve us from the humidity and warmth. Oh, not open...closed for Thanksgiving...

Nothing like the combination of nachos and cotton candy. That would hit the spot. Oh, I see closed for Thanksgiving. The zoo is open...for business, no eating.

Maybe perchance a quick trip through a gift store. This one is located near the carousel which was open for business.

Oh, never mind, the shop is closed for the Thanksgiving holidays. By now I was getting nervous to even checking into whether the restrooms were open...

Here is the stage where the sea lions would be performing and also educating us in the ways of the lions of the sea. Oh, I see, Thanksgiving...they are eating their fish inside with their trainers.

Nothings says I've been to the zoo like sausage on a stick! Protein in abundance...oh, let me guess, closed for Thanksgiving, but the zoo is open.



OK, I intentionally did this to aggravate Roy while we were at the zoo. I told him I thought I would share our fun but closed day at the zoo. Actually, there were some concession areas open for business. And we got to see the new baby elephant, but through glass. We got some great pictures of lions, no tigers and a sleeping bear...oh my! I will share those in another blog post.

We did have a few scary moments though. Taking in the sights at the zoo and being constantly on the move was probably more excitement, don't laugh, and activity I've done since they zapped my heart. Since then my pulse rate has ranged from 39-54. Right there in lion country I had several moments where I thought I was going to faint. Of course Roy's answer to feeling faint has always been keep walking...till we found a bench. I really felt bad and thought I might have to flag down one of those golf carts that kept whizzing past us to get me back to the entrance of the zoo. The heart monitor watch said my pulse was 43. We had been there for almost 2 hours and I kept telling Roy I'm not faking anything just to be able to leave. Because, to tell you the truth, I was really having a good time. We got to the front and we bought some water. That helped and then I had the miracle moments to recover and have enough energy to go to the gift shop where Roy purchased some very cute gifts for me. I also showed him a couple of things I wouldn't mind seeing in my Christmas stocking. They really have some cute things there besides stuffed zoo animals.

The train wasn't running which I would have really liked to ride, so we walked a little bit around the duck pond and then headed home. We fixed a delicious Thanksgiving meal, thanked God for all His blessings and grace to us, ate, and then I took a long Thanksgiving nap with Godfather I and II in the background. And we didn't even have turkey.

I will probably post the "fun" pictures from the zoo tomorrow. I am so thankful to the Lord for all of you, known and unknown who read my blog. Thank you and God Bless!

Winter Season Has Arrived

 Roy has taken the Tundra for tire rotation and balancing. Just me and The Boys and The Kittos at home and all is quiet cause they are all taking naps. What has been a comfortable temperature day is now a bit cooler as the wind picks up. Tomorrow, it will begin snowing in the higher elevations while we here in the lower elevations will have a dusting of snow or not. It will be a lot colder though. 

This morning we were out and about by mid morning. Ran a couple of errands, then to the grocery stores. Publix crowded with a mixture of ages. Mainly old, like us, well I think they all were a lot older and crankier this morning. When we stopped at the Fresh Market over in Arden yesterday, it was way crowded too. Only it had a vibe...It was a familiar vibe from al long time ago. We were the ones who looked out of place. Purposely, I wore my best workout pants, a Baylor t-shirt and a quarter collar fleece cause I want the least amount of clothes weight for the weigh in at the doctor office. Roy was in jeans, t-shirt and fleece jacket. Everyone else was dressed up for the trip to the grocery store. We were given some snotty looks. That's okay if they came out here, away from the fancy smancy stuff, they would get some looks too. Too bad they can't see me today, Uggs, jeans, long sleeve Baylor shirt with a flannel shirt over the t-shirt and an Eddie Bauer vest. Now, there is something to discuss except if the same people were going downtown, they would want the local vibe such as my outfit. 

Last Sunday as we continue our journey through Acts, I kind of camped out on a point. I didn't mean to just seemed to go that way. It was so good that the Jerusalem Church sent Barnabas to check on the Antioch church. It could have totally gone the wrong way if a legalistic, rigid type person had been sent to give the report. After spending time in Mark and Jerimiah this year as well as previous years with John, there are a lot more legalists than I had any idea of. One example I used was, what if Lifeway came to our Sunday School room to report on what was going on with The Joy Class. No Lifeway maps of the Holy Land, (I save the church money by not doing the kit) or no tracts or having different blinds, three windows the same and one window has mini blinds. Yep, they could audit our surroundings, but  the truth is this, the Joy Class is a praying and caring class. We like to help in our church and in our community. We laugh and encourage and sometimes we learn things...only if the teacher stays off the rabbit trails. I had really planned in teaching to hit a few points on legalism, like we think to have a daily Bible reading plan for the new year it has to begin in Genesis. Nay, I say. You'll die in Leviticus. I did take the rabbit trail of what Leviticus is good for if one is looking for odd things in the Bible and told them the story of the two doves I cut out of a women's product box and gave them to Peggy with Levitical instructions. We also learned the term, on the straw. Hey, we had the two or more thing going. See, we just went on a rabbit trail. Roy does the NT every three months. I think this is the second year he has done that. There isn't much of a difference like the NT Jewish Christians and now, rules we make up on top of the way Christ has taught us how to live...well, it keeps a lot of people under a burden we aren't supposed to carry. Or it can be following our made up rules is easier than being Christ like at home and in the world. 

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Speaking of freedom The Kittos have had a morning of roaming free range in the house. We have kept them restricted in a sense and my October illness set back the timing of this. Once can't be the caregiver and the warden for cats at the same time. The two orange cats, Buster and Baxter enjoy the freedom and yet will come sit on my lap or come over to be petted. Chubola, not so much. She is living in the land of the free range and doing her thing, within reason. It has been a fun morning but we have to remember to keep a close eye on things. They really just chase each other around a lot of play with a toy. Buster is the one that can most easily entertain himself. 

The first batch of taco soup of the season was pretty good. On Sunday the first pot roast of the season was good as well. Those are my winter meals that turn out pretty good. I am going to try my hand at making buttermilk chicken. We shall see.

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It is snowing! Even with the warmer temps and ground temps it is beginning to stick. It won't last long but it is so pretty. First snowfall of the season. We saw a few flakes yesterday afternoon but today counts as the official. Since it is snowing I am having snow donuts for breakfast. Roy decided he would have taco soup since he was starving. 

I lost the Merry Christmas, Darling contest this year. CourtneyS heard it in the car and she is singing when I answered the phone. The best part, the conversation and laughs we had. 

Day one of The Kittos roaming about in the house went rather well. Chubola does not socialize with us like Buster and Baxter. She is wild and wants to live on her own terms. Had to trick her last night to catch her so that won't work this evening. The six get along good enough but Willie is still nervous around them. Buster and Chubola wear out GMoey. They are so intrigued with him. Mr Mo had been going outside with The Kittos so the one we were worried about the most is doing fine. He is such a jealous cat but he is getting attention and that is what counts with him. 

We opened The Garage at the Catmore Estate yesterday afternoon. We have a full house and breakfast was just served. They did not make reservations so the guests are crowding around the bowls. Roy's kittens are holding their own in the garage.

Good Report and Maybe Some Snow

A cold sunny Monday morning. After Wednesday of this week the temps drop into the highs in the 40s. Brrr...but I like cooler/cold weather. 

Saturday was our first foray into East TN. Wow! Still six weeks from the storm and it looked like a war zone. Not that I have seen a war zone in person but looked the same as the WWII documentaries on the history channel. The metal buildings wrapped around and the tanks that were probably underground stacked together in one spot. The houses, the trees and all the rocks moved by the river brought tears to my eyes. The TNDOT has done a fabulous job of opening one lane each way on I 26. We took the Erwin exit to go to Food City but if we had wanted to go to The Farmer's Daughter, turning left was not an option. Read that so many of the small bridges on the way are damaged or gone. I had read the exit for Erwin coming from Johnson City was closed but later we found out that they had opened it. Thus we stopped at Pals for a delicious lunch on the ride back home. 

Tuesday morning we noticed that the water wasn't that hot. Of course we know what that means. So we got on the phone, called around looking for a plumber. I remembered using a local guy several years ago. Roy called and he could be at our house by noon. Long story short, needed a new water heater. Roy helped a little bit and that is in the crawl space. Ugh! We had hot water by 5:30 pm. As Roy and the plumber visited, he told Roy that normally we would have had to schedule several weeks out because he was that busy...until he wasn't. Helene has disrupted his business. When water is murky coming out of the faucet you're not scheduling any repairs until the water clears up. At the right time the water heater went out. I think that water heater was about 12-13 years old. That is commendable service. 

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Today was one of those days I had been dreading for several months. We stacked Roy's ophthalmology appt and my cardiologist appt. In between the appointments we ate at Zaxby's and went to the Fresh Market. Traffic was getting worse the farther we went down Hendersonville Road. Zaxby's was a great choice because you do not want to eat a heavy meal before being weighed in at the doctor office. We did buy celebratory cake at Fresh Market in anticipation of a good appointment. We got to the cardiologist office a few minutes early. I had fixed my cough syrup in a small bottle and gulped it down. It is the only thing that stops this coughing. My Rowe Casa order should arrive this week with more cough syrup. We got in to the waiting room. I had just sat down when they called my name. All those old people sitting there hated me at that moment. I was seeing a PA, not one of the doctors. I still have kept off most of the weight I lost from the October sickness. My blood pressure was good and my heart rate was back in the 60s. They been keeping it lower but all were pleased with the result. EKG, looked really good and they have pushed back the stress test a couple of months, maybe even after my May appointment. Here's the thing...when I was checking out I asked when I should call to make a May appointment. She said, I can make your appointment today. What? Mission Hospital/Asheville Cardiologists is coming into the 20th century? I know it is the 21st century it just seems like everything moves so slow here. I then told her she nearly put me in shock with this news and guess it was a good place to be revived. That is the first time I have ever seen this woman laugh. She tends toward cranky. I left the office, got Roy from the waiting room and we were off...with a jump in my steps. 

Being in Arden reminded me too much of Houston. The traffic, the traffic and well, the traffic. I am so glad we didn't want to buy anywhere that was just like Katy or Houston. Ah, this rural life is great. It has been a while since Roy has been in a Zaxby's and although his eyes had not been dilated they had put drops in his eyes that hindered some of his vision. I order a salad and he asks about hamburgers. It got real quiet around us. Told Roy Wendy's was next door but we were at a chicken place. He ordered a sandwich and went back and got an order of egg rolls. Those egg roles were pretty good. 

We may get some snow on Friday. The fall has been a little warmer than usual so it seems like quite the surprise. I used to not get cold often but now that has changed. If I could carry a space heater with me everywhere, I would be so happy. There are no battery operated heaters, at least there weren't the last time I checked. Just checked, still not good choices. 

Found Friend, Feral Fam and Fortuitous Detective Work

 This past weekend doing the regular, an especially joyful moment occurred. I was going over lesson notes and marking for particular interest for me as well as for the lesson. An example from long ago had popped into my brain as the perfect and humorous memory of a bridal luncheon from yester year, a brief look at legalism. The story involves a coffee cup and some head shaking. Sometimes when those memories come, I google names and see if there is any social media footprints. I've looked up my vanished friend many times to no avail. Stories from those early days of being newlyweds, buying our first home and navigating the waters of being a grown up contain some of the happiest and funniest recollections. We needed those cause the being a grown up was such a hard season of life. Last week I remembered one of the funniest stories that my crazy friend D told me with the long lost friend, J. The story takes place a few weeks before J got married. J wanted D to come spend the night so they could laugh and talk about memories and such. Now D was a total opposite of J. It didn't help that J lived near the apartment pool and D thought it would be fun to go out there. No said J, so they had a very early dinner and eating dinner with J was always an adventure. The several times we were invited for dinner at her place Roy would say, either we eat dinner before we go or afterwards cause dinner with J, well, it leaves me hungry. This is way before Roy practiced portion control and J was ahead of the times. Back to the original story, so J takes a shower to get ready for bed and as D tells it, the sun hadn't even began to set. D is starving so while J is in the bathroom, D scours the kitchen for something to eat. She finds a box of graham crackers and she scarfs down the whole box, then takes the box out to the trash dumpster and makes it back in before J is out of the bathroom. Little does D know that when J returns to the kitchen, J announces she is making a special dessert for them. She begins to look for the box of graham crackers. J looked high and low. No crackers. She is getting a little perturbed she cannot find them anywhere. D never told her what she had done, leaving J a bit frustrated. That story although it doesn't seem funny as I tell it, is so funny in how crazy D told the story. 

So, this past weekend I once again looked for J and there she was, on a church website from two or three years ago when she taught a Wednesday night class. The first time I watched the video for a moment or two, I wasn't sure that it was her. I watched a bit of another video and she mentioned her husband, yep that's J. She still has a little bit of that staccato way of speaking, she still kind of laughs at the same things and her mannerisms still the same. Yep. I don't know if they attend that church or if she is still even doing any teaching. In the past I would have wanted to contact her but I don't want to. Think that is why I found her this time. Clearly with very little social media footprint, she doesn't want to be found or bothered. We would probably have very little in common to talk about now, it would be one of those constant remember when type things. When I found D that's all it was and even still being in the Houston area and I was still there too, she didn't want to meet for lunch or have the four of us, she has remarried, meet. We talked a few times and then at least for me, I wasn't interested cause it truly had been a wonderful and fun friendship back in the day but I felt I had outgrown the friendship and it came to mind, that a lot had changed with her. Always so beautiful back then but I had a feeling she had grown obese just like her aunt who never wanted to leave the house. Also, her financial situation had changed and I think she was embarrassed about that too. That would be the best grace extended, to let her go on. If memory serves me correctly about J, there was some turmoil and hurt from a church they had worked at. I had heard they had left Houston and moved somewhere on the east coast. Have no clue but if they did, they made it back to the Houston area. We lost touch with them no one we knew back then had seen them socially, but D had married and moved to Tulsa and she was the glue that held us together as friends. I am joyful that life turned out well for them. She just wanted one child and it looks like that is what happened. She mentions a son on one of her teaching videos. So joyful and happy, as I have skimmed a few videos and that is good enough for me. 

Roy just got two more of the Feral Fam to take to the ASPCA tomorrow. He said they are none too happy about it all but once they calm down a bit I will look and make sure these two are good to go. Roy said no left ear trim and they aren't the most recent kittens. Today will be a big day for the kittos, we are expanding their territory. They might not know what to do. Nah, they will know. The Kittos are recovering well. Chubola is back to being herself, not all hopped up on hormones and the attention of all the boys. She has returned to her preferred style of eating, spreading herself across the bowl so no one else can eat. I spent some time with them on the back porch yesterday. We got some playing in and of course, we had rest time too. 

The case of the maligned mailboxes may have been solved. A week ago Saturday Roy had just come home. He went to see if we had any mail. Lo and behold the mailboxes were smashed like someone had taken a baseball bat to them. Roy sent a pic and a text to our neighbor who built the mailbox area. Steve said it looked like maybe bears had messed with him cause his dogs went nuts at some smell around the box setup. I thought maybe a delivery truck had hit them. Well, the bear theory was thrown out pretty quickly...this morning Steve texted us that as he got to work on the boxes it was looking more and more like a delivery truck had done the damage. So with their notice they received about a delivery and Roy's photo with meta info, Steve is going to file a claim. Lots of great detective work happening around here.