sometimes it's the little super absorbant things...

Considering what normally goes with it, I usually grimace and shudder when I look at one,

but today,

A tampon actually made me smile!

I keep a cute little makeup case with hearts on it, under the cabinet at work so that those pesky femine products can be a bit more discreetly stored, but still be at hand when needed. Well, today I unzipped the little case and looked in and just had to smile. There, nestled with the assorted "flavors" of my usual brand, was one with a different wrapper. It was left over from my trip to Arizona and was taken without permission from my sister's stash. Upon revealing my theivery, her immediate response was: "that's what sisters are for"!!

Gosh, I love my sisters.

I think I'll leave it in there forever!!!

OVERHEARD...

I was so extrememly tired after my trip to AZ, (which was wonderful. look for blog to be posted) so after eating lunch with the counselor, I decided to spend 35 glorious minutes napping in my car at the park. Of course, there are only two and a half trees on the entire property that actually provide any shade, so all 22 vehicles were trying to crowd into a very small area. Fortunately the nap gods were smiling upon me and a veh moved just as I turned in. I gratefully took the spot which was in between a great big camo clad military guy napping in a tiny little sports coupe and two tiny little teenage blondes smoking in a great big jacked up, and beat up green pickup truck. Since the soldier was so relaxed, I decided there was probably no immediate danger of terrorist attack, so I let my seat back and got as comfy as I could in my car and closed my eyes. Just as I was about to doze off, this young blonde voice drifted through the open window. That's when I heard:

"Daddy says he won't do it again if I promise not to do it again either..."

Not sure what else was said, but I didn't get my nap 'cause my mind was spinning wildly to come up with any possibilities as to what that sentence could have been referring.

We are in Alabama after all...

I'm just glad I was able to serve my country in some small way. By being between the girls and the soldier, at least his nap wasn't disturbed.

FISH TACOS & FAMILY FUN

(FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY... i realized yesterday (9/08) that this had not been finished and published when it was supposed to have been. So, I finished it. I thought. Actually, for some reason it published the unfinished draft, sooooo if you saw it between yesterday and today, you've only seen part of it. I wanted to share with any of you who are interested, so I'm going to leave it here for a few days, and then I'll tuck it back into its place in May.)



I just got back from an amazing trip to Tucson, AZ!! It was so much fun despite the fact that the counselor (Roger) stayed at the "camp" with the security guard (Jiro). I truly have a wonderful if somewhat, um, well let's see... yeah, there's just no one word to describe my family, but wonderful, funny, strange, intelligent, eccentric, weird,... wait..., gotta add LOVING & LOYAL... yep, those all work. Sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed by my family, but mostly I just feel Blessed.

I got to watch my "little" brother go through his commissioning/graduation ceremony. I got to visit with Mom & Dad, another little brother, two sisters, their men, a nephew, and tons of other kids. I was also introduced to FISH TACOS for the first time: I have 3 words: MMM, MMM, GOOD!! Thanks lil' bro!! Sometimes I forget how great the hullabub can be with that many people in one place. And though it can be the sourse of a massive headache, the fact is, I miss it sometimes. Along with the noise and activity and general chaos comes the feeling of LIFE. No chance to grow stagnant because there's too much going on. Of course, I was grateful for my little office/room and some privacy, but all in all, it was wonderful!! Here are some pix of people, places and activities. (sorry if you've seen this on the family blog, but I have other people you know!!!)

Some of the PEOPLE

The PLACE

... and other THINGS

(a NOT so extreme, but lots of fun, home makeover - bedroom edition)

Always check your panties for holes!!!

1 LILLY WHITE BUTT CHEEK

+

10 MINUTES IN TANNING BED

=

'NUFF SAID!!!

Now I'm Back and Happy as a Clam!!!

Life truly is good and I'll be back bloggin' with a vengence soon. There's so much to tell. Bear with me and you'll see...

I'm BACK, & I'm a bitchin'...

What "they" Cullman Primary Care sent me on 03-04-08 with my name "filled" in the blanks:

Dear:_____You were scheduled for an appointment on___ with_____which you did not keep. We want to be sure you are all right, and of course, we would - like to complete you examinationltreatment as soon as possible. It is very important for you to notifr our office if you are unable to keep your appointment; This time can be used for another patient who is need of medical care. Will you please call our office today? The telephone number is734-3202.
Sincerely,Culinian Primary Care. P.C.
Date: ___________

What I sent back on 3/5/08 on the reverse side of their letter:

To Whom It May Concern:

While I appreciate your “concern” for my health and well being, I am not at all pleased with the reprimand that I received from your office yesterday.

If you had a better plan in place that would allow you to more adequately attend to your phones, you would have seen that I DID call to cancel my appointment. I am certain that this is not the first complaint that you have received over this problem in your office as it has been an ongoing problem for years, but just to be sure that you properly understand the situation I found myself in, let me explain.

On Thursday February the 29th 2008 at 8:00am I made a phone call to the office to see if I could schedule an appointment with my regular physician, Dr. Elliott. I do not call my Dr’s office on a regular basis and never for anything other than a real illness. I was suffering, as so many others out there are right now, from the flu. I had already visited my Dr. two weeks earlier and was still sick. I had put it off as long as I could, but finally decided that I needed medical attention. I called but held for at least 10 min. so I headed out to CPC Urgent Care. On my way there, I decided that I would give one more effort to call the office and get an appointment so that Urgent Care could have the spot for other people. After being on hold, as usual, for another 8-10 min, I finally spoke with someone who was, thankfully, able to give me an appointment for 2:40pm that afternoon with Dr. Elliott. By that time I had arrived at Urgent Care, and was feeling so badly that I went on in to see if they were way behind. Not only was I feeling dreadful, but I knew that the sooner I could get some medications, the better off I’d be, and I also knew from prior experience that if I waited until my 2:40 appt, I’d be lucky to even get back to see the Dr. before 4:00 and by that time, there was no telling how I’d be feeling. So I signed in, gave them my cell phone # (what a great idea) and went out to my car to wait. After being seen by Dr. Saltz, I left urgent care to get my prescriptions filled and to go home to recuperate from what was tested as being the full blown flu.

I’m not sure exactly what time that morning I called back to your office to cancel my appointment, but it was before noon and I lay in bed and held for at least 15 or 20 minutes, listening to the message over and over and being told to press this ext. and that ext. for different reasons. Finally, after getting no answer so that I COULD cancel my appointment and “leave it open for some other patient” I pushed either ext. 103 or 105 and left a message that went something like this: Hi, this is Elena Caudle birth date 11/3/69 and I have an appointment with Dr. Elliott at 2:40pm today. I realize that this extension is not specifically for cancelling appointments, but I’m horribly ill and can’t hold my head up to continue holding for someone to answer the other line. I figure that whomever this extension belongs to will listen to the messages and I would very much appreciate it if you would pass this message along. I need to cancel my appointment, I have been to Urgent Care and I don’t want to keep another sick person from being able to see Dr. Elliott. Thank you and good bye.

Evidently the lines of communication within the office are not much better than the lines between the office and the public.

I am sorry that you did not get my request to cancel my appointment. It WAS made and was made in a timely manner. I also understand that people are not very considerate of our Dr’s time sometimes, but I think that consideration of people’s time needs to go both ways.

Sincerely, ME
SO THERE!!!

Steven is SAFE

... BEEEEEE-CAUSE, after the 35th or so "take"

of a 5 line scene,

I have decided NOT

to throw my hat into the ring

for the "Spielberg heir" elections.

This movie making stuff is not as easy as one might think.

On the other hand, we DID get 58 seconds of

really great footage.

Yeay, US!!

Coming soon...

Time flies!!

JIRO IS ONE YEAR OLD ON OCTOBER 1st!!

Unbelievable!

Within a couple of weeks of being 1 YEAR OLD!!

9 months old

7 months old

5 months old

3 months old

2 months old

7 weeks old.

(Hey, everyone does it for their kids...)

:-)

Would I do it again after 19 yrs?

Anytime, Anywhere, in any Season,

& once again for the

EXACT same reason!!

with every fiber of my being...

I Love You.

cough, cough, sputter, sputter, AHEM!!!

Dang, It's dusty in here, but I'm getting geared up to do some updating. For the time being, just so you all don't think I've completely vanished, I want to share a couple thoughts that have really come to mean A LOT in the last few months,

"Oh ME of little Faith!!"

"The smallest good deed is

MUCH better

than the grandest good intention!!!"

Now, I'll get back to my "little" project, but hopefully, it won't be long until I can clear the spiderwebs out and start blogging with you all again!!

Hostess with the LEASTEST

Thankfully, our meal was very good, our server was very attentive and efficient and willing to make the few adjustments that we asked for. And in the end everything wound up being fine.
BECAUSE...
The hostess on duty, (06-19-07 @ 12:00pm) was extremely cold, most unfriendly and was an outwardly unhappy person. Definately NOT hostess or greeter material. I very much hope that something drastic had not just happened in her life because if so, she should have been at home dealing with that situaion instead of being the "first impression" for Ruby Tuesday. Seriously, we tried to give the benefit of the doubt, (maybe she was having a bad day, or her cat was sick, or something) but the longer we sat there and watched her roll her eyes at every request made by other customers, and noticed that she never once smiled, or acted as though she remembered that we diners were the ones providing her income, the more we felt that the situation needed to be addressed. I work with the public every day and I was taught that no matter how I feel, my customer should NEVER know it. Instead, the customer should feel welcome, and important, no matter the situation!!

Just thought you should know!!!

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK/PLANT

Just wanted you to meet the 5 newest residents at the camp:
Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo,
and
Jeffery

These guys are baby Praying Mantis' and they are soooo cute. I saved them from certain death in the "back room" & moved them to their new home on my sweet potato plant. I have NO idea what they eat, but with my luck they HATE sweet potato's, but I have a feeling that they are more likey carnivorous than not, so maybe they can find plenty of "no-see-ums" in the dirt around the plant.

THE NURSERY

See how small & defenseless they are

(that's Meeny I think)

LOOK!!! There's Jeffery

That's 2 of them...,
there WERE 5 of them yesterday...,

HMMM???...
did I mention that I think they might be
Carnivorous?

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE I PUT THAT RECEIPT???

I’m thinking about seeing if I can exchange the new Security Guard for a different model.

Ya wanna know why? Let me start by saying, I am by no means an expert at this, but I’ve been working with dogs for a couple years now, with some success. However, I think I must have done something dreadfully wrong with this one. Oh, he’s cute as all get out and ton’s of fun at times, but something seems to have gone really wrong with his circuitry.

In the last couple weeks, I’ve seen THAT look in the eyes of my 4 month old security guard. It’s the one that says “I’m looking at you and I see your mouth moving, and I know you’re wanting something, but all I hear is BLAH-Blah-blahblahblah-BLAH” I’ve been staying up beat and happy and trying different things and EVERY now and then I see a spark and I think I’m onto something, and we finish our session and all is well. But then the other day, THAT look took over again and wouldn’t go away. SOOOO, I mentally hit rewind and listened to the recording of what to do in instances like this…

“When training, it’s very important to be consistent, gentle but firm, and keep the sessions short and happy so as to avoid burn out. When you do reach a point where it seems as if the student’s mind might be wandering and he quits paying attention, then you want to either quit the training session completely, or, as another trainer puts it, “wipe the chalk board clean” by changing tactics.” (As you can tell from the reference to a Chalk Board, the other trainer has been at this a LONG time, so I trust her completely and I always try to keep her advice in mind.)

… and I decided it was time to wipe the chalkboard clean…

Here’s the problem, MY security guard is obviously NOT a “chalkboard” model. Instead, he must be one of these new fangled “computer” models. And instead of simply wiping the chalkboard clean, I must have hit CONTROL –ALT- DELETE and ESC at the same time, because I think I saw a puff of smoke, and now, instead of the cute, fuzzy, smart, interested puppy I used to have…

… there is a tall, gangly being who is all legs, big feet, floppy ears, lolling tongue and drool. And whose only interests seem to be food, fast moving objects, chewing on things, playing with balls, licking himself and humping…

OH CRAP!!!...

I’ve got a (gasp!!!) 13 yr old boy…


NOW WHERE’S THAT RECEIPT?...

What a shower!!

01/14/2007

Jiro's Puppy Shower!!

On the way to the paaarteeeee!!

Alpo - (aka: chili) & Treats appropriately served in Doggie Dishes

Puppy Cakes, Puppies and People

Puppy & the GANG!! Only TRUE friends throw Puppy Showers!!

One tired Pooch who was thoroughly showered!!

IF, as they say, a picture is worth a THOUSAND words,

then here are 10 thousand words to show what wonderful friends

I'm blessed to have and to say...

THANKS 10 THOUSAND!!

There's a new TOSA in town

Meet JIRO,

the new SECURITY GUARD

@ Camp WHATTALOTTALOVIN

After loosing our beloved security guard Niko back in March of 2006, and after interviewing possible candidates from around the world, (literally), on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006, were finally able to fill the position with this ferocious predator named Jiro.

Beware!!

Anyone who visits the camp may be in danger of melting due to excessive licking and/or suffer bruises dealt by a viciously wagging tail!!

New Camper!!

Meet RL's Kurosinju Jiro-chan

"JIRO"

Born 10-02-2006

1 of a 13 puppy litter, and yet he's definately ONE of a kind

Black with a white front left paw, white toes on left rear paw

Arrived at his new home on 11-22-06

11lbs at first weigh in after we got him

Jiro w/Ma and big Sis

and there's Jiro w/Pa (aka: the counselor)

Puppy Paradise thanks to Sis

First Gator ride. He loved it!!

Colton's sure to be one of his biggest buds!!

Jiro w/big Sis

Whether he came as a Late Birthday or Early Christmas & I'm full of THANKS-giving!!! The camp is soooo happy to finally have him home.

Thanksgiving Forever!

****************

Our Heavenly Father,

Thank you for this day and for the glorious abundance of Blessings that you continue to shower upon me and those I love. Thank you for the amazing husband you have blessed me to share my life with. Please watch over him and protect him from all harm. I am so thankful for the home I live in, my job, my boss, and my dog. I thank you for the life you have allowed me to live, and pray that it will continue.

I thank you above all else for the gift of your Son. For the Peace, the Comfort and the Joy that comes from knowing that, because of HIS sacrifice, if it be your will, I have the hope of a place in heaven someday.

I beg for your forgiveness of my innumerable sins, and I ask that, in spite of those sins and shortcomings, you continue to show your mercy and love towards me.

Please be with all those for whom I should pray. I ask that you be with my families, both genetic relatives and heart relatives and please be with my friends. Please watch over those who are sick and those who are grieving. Give them comfort and consolation in the knowledge that all will be well because, in the end, you are in charge. Be with the leaders of our country, especially our president and be with our military and her leaders. Give them wisdom to make the decisions that are most glorifying to your name, and then give them the strength and courage to stand up for and fight, if necessary, for those decisions. Be with your children who are away from home. Wherever they may be, please guard them and bring them back as safely and swiftly as possible.

I ask that you be with me Lord, please guide, guard and direct, my thoughts, words and deeds. Please give me the hope of being a better person someday.

I trust with every fiber of my being that you will continue to care for me and my loved ones and supply our needs, and for that I am eternally grateful. I ask that you also continue to consider our wants and desires and bless us with those things, material and immaterial, that make our lives so easy and so much fun.

Finally, Lord, I ask that you go on with us through life. Again, please forgive me of my sins, and at last in heaven receive us.

All these things I beg, in Jesus’ name and for his dear sake.

Amen.

GIFTS, GAB, & GUILT!!!!

What more could a girl ask for on her Birthday?

The Gifts - The day started out with me finding my annual Birthday Bear, from the counselor, sitting on my pillow. I also got a purse by Vera Bradley and a Red one by Tommy Hilfiger. And then the Ultimate Gift was the Hardbound, Boxed set of the complete works of Gary Larson’s FAR SIDE COMICS. Unbelievable!!

The Gab - And then it was off to work, where my day was broken up several times with phone calls from friends and family, including “alphabet” the soldier boy, and Jac. Some of them usually only correspond by e-mail, so it was such a pleasure to not only have them remember the day, but it was wonderful to just get to chat with friends and do a little catching up!! Then on the evening of my birthday, while having a coffee with the counselor, I got a sweet, sweet call from my niece and one of my nephews. It was “Happy Birthday to you…” complete with “Deeear Aunt Lenkaaaaa”. It was spectacular. I made the sister, who also put her good wishes in, call back and have them do it again on my voicemail so I could keep it.

And then…, AND THEN…

The Guilt – the other sister, (and I totally believe her) thought about calling earlier in the day, but it was too early to call me, so she wound up forgetting until the next day. So when she called me I could tell that she was riddled with guilt and remorse, and even though I assured her that it was the though that counts, she must have wallowed all day long until she came up with the PERFECT restitution: A PUBLIC APOLOGY, complete with an irresistible picture of the nephew!! And it worked. She’s forgiven forever!!

Yep, I’m one lucky gal to be so loved. And I want to just say Thanks to you all and I LOVE YOU back!! Ya’ll don’t forget next year now, ya hear?!!!

Casting Stones, Casting Votes, Casting Pearls before swine... what's the difference?

...but I did it anyway!!!

I can honestly say that I have very little idea of WHAT I voted for, or even WHO I voted for. I tried, HONESTLY, I tried to sift through the trash talk and the dirty politics and the mud slinging. Even endured two candidates using CANCER as a political power play. It's total limbo in more ways than one. Not only do the voters just get hung out there with no sure direction to take and no real place to go to, but the candidate's theme song seems to be "how low can you go?"

...but I did it anyway!!!

I think that throughout this whole campaining/election/voting process, I came away with only two real pearls of wisdom and they are:

1. Voting is like picking your favorite mosquito out of the swarm
2. If voting REALLY worked, the government would have made it illegal a long time ago.

...but I did it anyway!!!

I decided that if nothing else, I needed to step up and exercise my civic duty. I considered it a way of "preserving my right to gripe"!!

...so I did it anyway, and I all in all, I feel pretty good about having done it.

I'M FALLING, I'M FALLING...

... Because I have absolutley NOTHING of any REAL importance to share. I thought I would at least show you the "fruits" or "vegetables" of my labor's here at the office.




Here's my Radio Flyer Wagon with a color-fall dress on.

A Bowl 'O' Apples

And the "stalk-er" at the Entrance!!









I LOVE this time of year!!!
Thank goodness, I have a GREAT job, and get to enjoy it!!