Mommy Said There Would Be Days Like This

Mom has been under a little stress lately.  There I said it.  My mom is weird though.  Instead of letting things out, she holds things in and gets really quiet.  Like super quiet.  Which is so unlike women – come on all of us can admit that.  Us men know that when women go quiet, there is something brewing and trouble is on the horizon.

So here she is trying to exercise, lots of things on her ‘to do’ list, sweating deadlines and you know before too long she is going to blow.  Shaking my piggy head.  This can’t end well if you know what I mean.  So I think I’m going to let mom explain the rest.  Take it away mommy.  Remember I love you ❤

Thanks my sweets.  Mommy loves you too.  I’m better today.  Really I am.  But I think a lot of people can relate to stress – especially when things pile up and you just can’t get it off your back.  I’ve had lots of deadlines lately – work deadlines, September surprise deadlines, government deadlines, accounting deadlines.  Usually I just juggle everything and off I go but this past week.  WOW.  Everything added up until I ran into a wall.  Like for instance….

Here in Georgia we get our car tags every year which are due by your birthday.  My tag is coming up due so I was going to get it one day last week.  Went to the local government office to get it.  Stood in line for what seemed like forever cause you know there was only what 20 people in front of me.  Finally got to the window to realize that I forgot to get my emissions checked on my Jeep.  Really?  How could I forget that?!  I’ve only been doing it for YEARS.  So, I leave the office and in my favorite Scarlett O’Hara voice reminded myself that tomorrow is another day.  

The next day I get up early and decide that I will get my emissions/tag on the way to work.  I have plenty of time – famous last words.  I go to an emissions shop that I normally go to.  Guess what?  They are closed because their computer is down.  Lovely.  

So I go on down the street to another emissions shop and pull into the facility.  Their machine is working; however, the guy using the machine is pretty new at this.  You can tell because of his clumsiness in getting around everything.  I keep repeating to myself be patient.  Then the young kid… did I mention he was young too?…plugs his contraption into my car that turns on all of the lights on the dash – which is the point of said contraption.  But the young man starts getting excited telling me I’m not going to pass because my check engine light came on the dash.  This kid is acting like he won the lottery jumping around and waving his hands.  I thought maybe I had missed something.  He rambles on and on when finally he takes a breath.  I tell him that all of the lights come on during this stage to verify they work.  That’s when this kid did some incredibly stupid.  He told me oh no I was wrong.   

Okay so maybe at this point I closed my eyes and counted to ten while this kid continued his rambling about the check engine light.  I finally held my hand up to him and asked for the manager.  He went and got the manager.  Walking back to my car I could hear Mr. Excitable explaining to the manager what happened.  The manager stopped him and pretty much told him the same thing – that’s suppose to happen.  I was good.  I promise you I was good.  I didn’t say a word but sat there smiling like the southern gal I was.  But I admit, it took a lot.  And guess what?  My car passed emissions.  I got my paperwork, paid and told them to have a good day.  

I then proceeded back to the government office to get my tag.  The Gods were with me.  Maybe they were paying me back for not going off on the young kid at the emissions office because I was able to walk straight in and get my tag decal.  Now is that tag on my Jeep yet?  Nope.  I keep forgetting to put it on.  Shaking my head – I think I need a secretary myself.  

So I’m ahead of schedule so I’m thinking I need to take care of one more thing before work.  Remember back in April when I had my car accident?  The accident made one of my tail lights go out on the Jeep.  I had it replaced and last week the darn same light went out again!  Of course, that was bugging the heck out of me.  The place I had it fixed at only takes appointments.  Really, appointments at a service department.  What about last minute things that come up.  You have to make an appointment two weeks out?  Drives me crazy.  So I thought I might just go to this place this morning and check it out.  

I enter the office and it was full.  There was 5 consultants and they all had people they were helping.  So I stood waiting patiently.  No one acknowledged me but hey I’m good.  That was until a MAN walks in and everyone jumps to wait on him.  WHY do car places do this?!  I don’t get it.  What?  I’m a woman so I’m invisible?  I’m a woman so I don’t know how to think?  Okay that might have been the point that I turned in my southern charm card.  I might have said really, REALLY loudly, “So much for waiting in line.”  Maybe I said it too loudly because I do believe I heard a mouse fart in the corner.  Of course then someone finally acknowledged me and offered to help me.  

I told him what was wrong with my car and that I was just in to get it repaired.  I advised that it should still be under warranty and I wanted the bulb replaced again, that if it quit working again I would take it to the Jeep dealership.  Mr. Service Guy just smiled at me and get this had the gall to say – are you ready for this? – “Okay little lady we will do just that and it will be about an hour.”  What the heck?!  I think the look on my face might have been his first clue that I was fixing to blow.  I took a breath and told him, “First off, I would like to say thank you for calling me little and thank you for *finally* waiting on me.  However, an hour of waiting for you to replace a simple bulb is totally unacceptable.  I’ll give you 20 minutes and thank you.”  Needless to say, I was out within 15 minutes.  

So come on friends.  You know we’ve all had these kind of days, right?  LOL

 

 

Journey with Friends

Welcome my friends to our weekly issue of Journey with Friends.  This is a time that we come together for support, for encouragement, for fellowship – all with one single goal in mind – to live better.  Welcome to our journey to share our goals and our accomplishments and our disappointments and frustrations.

Together we can do this!

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Oh friends – how was your week/weekend?  In the words of my pig son, “Oh my piggy heavens!”   I admit that we didn’t make the best of food choices last week.  I tried to stay on plan the best I could do but it was one of those weeks that you chased to keep up with.  Can you relate?  And I knew the weekend was going to be busy.  There were so many errands to run.  When you think about it, it’s unfair how we get two days of the weekend that is meant for rest from your work week but is used to play catch up with errands. And then you have to work five days.  Tsk-tsk so unfair in my book – LOL.

So Saturday, we hit the door running.  We had a few things planned that somehow ended in snowballing into a cluster of errands.  I’m not sure how that happened.  But the list of things to do kept growing and growing like kudzu here in the south.  First off on the list, to get my hair cut and colored.  There is nothing like getting pampered with a cut/color and just having some time to yourself.  Of course, my cut and color turning into several hours but that gave me time to work on my to-do list on my phone.  But, I do like the results.  I feel younger, more relaxed and more me. Afterwards, can you believe we went Christmas shopping and finished?  Yes we did.  Now that deserved a drink and trust me, mommy got one…or two.

I know it was the marathon from the day before that did it.  Sunday morning I felt like a zombie trying to move in bed.  Oh my!  It hurt to even move my toes.  Finally after some slow moving, I did succeed in getting up and dressed.  The goal for this day was to have a quiet breakfast with the hub unit at one of our local places.  We walked out to the Jeep and guess what.  The Jeep was feeling it too.  One of the tires on the Jeep was barely filled with air.  It might have been during this time that I lowered my head and thought, “Why me?  Why today”.

That’s how our Sunday plans got changed.  Instead of breakfast that we wanted, it was to our local Sam’s Warehouse to get tires installed.  So while waiting for our Jeep, we had the breakfast of champions at the Sam’s snack bar… pizza.  At least the hub unit was thrilled.  And at least 2.5 hours later, we left with nice tires… amazing how a Jeep runs with full tires.

So my friends, how was your week/weekend?

 

Spotlight Thursday – Meet Jeep

Spotlight Thursday

Welcome my friends to our edition of SPOTLIGHT THURSDAY.  This is the time that I will introduce you to one of my fellow anipals so you can get to know them better.  Some of them, you may already know.  We hope that you enjoy this new series!

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UPDATE:  Jeep turned ONE yesterday – OMP – Squeals – Let’s all wish him a Happy Birthday too!

Name:  Neutron the Jeep, (call me Jeep)

Age:  20, well, 10 months but compared to humans I’m at that physical stage in my life

Location:  THE BEACH!!! (Indian Shores, Florida)

Web/Blog Page:  Neutron Jeep – Facebook (Be sure to pop over and say hey – remember to tell Jeep that Bacon and Houdini sent you.)  

What were your first thoughts when you met your new parents?  Thank God! They look like they love doggies

What was the defining moment when you knew you were in your forever home?  Mommy did the “flipty flip” thing with me while Daddy filmed it.

What has been your biggest “Oh no, now I’ve done it” moment so far in your home?  I growled at Daddy while I was eating his leftover steak bone. He threw away the bone and put me in “time out” it was very sad.

Who do you have wrapped around your paws more – mom or dad – and why?  Daddy. He likes to act tough but he can NEVER resist loving on me when I brush up against him

What’s the biggest misconception that humans think about you?  I’m a “cute”, “sweet”, and loving little dog. I’m not that little. I’m not always “good” and CERTAINLY not always “sweet”.

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 Hope you enjoyed meeting my friend Jeep – check back next week for another Spotlight edition!

 

A Message From My Mom

Women – I have something to discuss with you today.  I just know this is going to touch your hearts as much as it touches mine.  Are you ready for the topic?  Car problems.  There you go – I heard your sighs all the way here at the Hotel Thompson.  Why do car problems bother us so much?

As a younger woman, I tinkered with cars.  Can you believe that?  But coming from a large family where I have seven older brothers, my dad made sure I knew my way around a car.  I have a fond memory of when me and Jim first started dating.  I had a Dodge Omni at the time that was unreliable as a Dollar Store pregnancy test.  One time, I was going home from his house.  His mom/dad followed us because they knew my car was unreliable.  About half way home, sure enough my car stopped running.  I pulled over to the side of the road and got the flash light out of the glove box.  I handed it to Jim where he proceeded to look at me like a deer in the headlights.  He said, “What do you want me to do?”  Without missing a beat, I opened my door and said, “Hold the flashlight for me.”  So there we were outside of the car, hood up, Jim holding the flashlight and me tinkering underneath it with the carburetor.  That’s how Jim’s mom/dad found us when they rolled up beside us… of course they were laughing hysterically and yes I got it running again.

So, I’m not a stranger to the makings of a car; however, with all of the newer electronics in cars these days, I’m not as good as I once was.  That’s when last week on Thursday my check engine light came on and I squealed like Bacon.  Really?  It’s already a tough time of the year.  I’m closing the year 2015 at work and I can’t begin to tell you that my mind is mush from all of the number crunching.  I had so many errands to run last weekend – grocery shopping, pharmacy, plasma donations, Houdini needed a bath, Bacon needed piggy chow and the purr things were about to abandon the Hotel Thompson if they didn’t get some treats and fresh litter.  So my hands were full as well as my calendar and wallet.

Being resourceful though and Jim still to this day not having a mechanically inclined touch in his entire body, I did what any solid mind girl would do.  I sat down and had me a cry.  You know one of those gut sucking the world is coming to an end cries.  Of course this was outside of the Hotel Thompson.  Had it been and the anipals heard me, I would have been licked to death 🙂

And do you know what else doesn’t work when your Check Engine light is on?  Take a guess – your remote start.  Now, remote start is one of those things that I didn’t think I would use all that often if ever and I never thought I would miss it.  Let me tell you something.  I missed it totally!  I use it to turn on the Jeep in the mornings to get the frost off the windows.  I use it running to the car in the evenings to turn on the heat before I get in.  Gosh, I was missing this!

After my cry, I hit the internet and researched the problem with the Jeep.  That’s when I learned two things.  The Jeep has a lot of extras that I didn’t know about (which is good) and I found the problem (which is better.)  You see, if the check engine light comes on and flashes – then you have an engine problem – good to know huh?  But if the check engine light comes on solid, then more than likely it’s a gas problem.  It could be either you got cheap gas, the gas cap is dirty or the gas cap is not tight.  Looking back at where I got gas the last time, I think it was dirty.  So with a paper towel in hand, I took the gas cap off, cleaned it and then put it back on tight.  Now it says in the manual that you may have to crank, drive around and park it 4-5 times before the light goes off – if you fixed the problem.

For the entire weekend, it never went off.  Really karma?  Can’t you throw me a curve?  So there I was running errands and with every re-crank begging to the Gods to fix it but it didn’t.  I had enough Sunday night so I went to bed early.  I was tired, cranky and frustrated.  I get up to go to work Monday, walk to the car, crank it and oh my glory heavens – the light was gone.  I swear I heard angels singing.  Really I did.

So my question women – why do car problems frustrate us??

 

Houdini is Behind the Wheel – OH NO!

So Houdini gets to drive the new Jeep and I can’t?  How wrong is that picture might I ask?  Look mom, his paws don’t touch the gas pedals either.  I want my turn!  See, I found these pictures.  Nope, I wasn’t snooping on mom’s iPhone either.  See mom forgot about this called the Cloud.  It holds everything – snorts with piggy laughter.  Her pictures get saved to the Cloud therefore I don’t *need* her iPhone anymore – ha!  Just don’t tell her okay my friends.

So I see this picture of the little guy driving the Jeep.  I’m like so that’s what he gets to do when he goes out with mom.  Boogers – I want to drive too!  Then I’m like why are they stopped?  And is Houdini’s paw on the horn – why?  Then I saw the next picture and went that’s why!  There was a geese crossing in downtown Jonesboro.  I guess that would stop traffic… as if a dog driving wouldn’t stop it before that – snorts with piggy laughter!

And I wonder where these geese were going?  To get to the other side of the railroad tracks?

 

 

It was a LONG weekend – I mean really LONG

Oh my friends.  Have you ever had one of those weekends where you did so very much that you finally just prayed for Monday to get here STAT because of being tired?  Can you relate?  Mom and dad had one of those weekends.  Mom was already feeling slightly under the weather with her flare up.  But Sunday night, she could barely walk.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  So this is what those two humans of mine did.

Saturday – They got up for breakfast early and tried a new restaurant.  Yes mom took pictures that I will post soon.  They looked good too.  After breakfast, they had to go to Kaiser to pick up some prescriptions.  Then mom finally got her nails done – which was long needed.  Then they went to Petsmart.  Trust me, all of us anipals here at the Hotel Thompson wanted to go to Petsmart.  But mom/dad said we couldn’t go because they were running all errands this morning before coming home to crash… which mom did 🙂  So after Petsmart and doing what dad said was ‘buying them out’ – rolls piggy eyes, they went to Wally World – Walmart for those that know the place.  Daddy then got a haircut and afterwards, he and mom looked around for some things they needed.  So, you see mom/dad did a LOT of walking all over the place.  Which normally wouldn’t be bad but with mom’s current flare up situation, it wasn’t good.  They left the house this morning around 8AM and didn’t get back home until way after 2PM.  Then they had to unload the Jeep and put everything up.  That’s a lot of work.  With mommy not feeling too well lately, daddy wanted to go someone special for their date night tonight.  So they left the house again at 4PM to go to a restaurant that is about 35 miles away.. not just any restaurant though.  They have crab legs 🙂  Yum…. not that they brought me any back tonight – snorts.

Sunday – They got up for round 2 of shopping and getting errands done.  They got up and went to a local place for breakfast – Cracker Barrel.  Afterwards they had to go to a home improvement store named Lowes.  Mom had some stuff she needed to return and they had pick up light bulbs and air filters for the Hotel Thompson.  Of course, one things leads to another and the next thing they know they have a buggy full of stuff.  But some of the things they found my friends – Oh my piggy heavens.  I’ll share with you on another post on that – my parents are too hilarious!  After dropping off these items at the Hotel Thompson, mom and dad wanted to go to another Wally World location to see if they had something they wanted that the other store didn’t… so off they went again.  Not only did they find some things they were looking for but of course they found some more stuff.  Did I mention that mommy *hates* shopping?  She does.  She can’t stand it.  So she waits and makes lists and then tries to get everything at once.  Silly mom huh?

Afterwards, it was time to do the monthly shopping so off they went to Kroger.  Once there, they had to pick up some other medicines they had filled at their pharmacy.  Then the major shopping for the Hotel Thompson.  And did I mention that mom is a HUGE coupon shopper?  She tells us anipals that she has to be so she can’t keep us accustomed to the way we are living.  I don’t get it – do you?  Mommy keeps up with her grocery list on her iPhone – there is actually an ap for that – snorts.  So when we are out of something, she adds it to the list for the next trip.  She also keeps up with her coupons on her iPhone.  Mom says the one thing about shopping with coupons is organization and that it takes time.  So they were at the grocery store for over two hours!  Daddy told mommy at one time that just because they have room in the Jeep now doesn’t mean she had to fill him to the rim in this one trip – snorts – silly daddy.  But then daddy also said that thank goodness they had Casper the new Jeep because everything they got would NOT have fit into Albert the Smart car.  See all of the stuff in the back of Casper.  You want to take a gander of the cost?  Now mom/dad grocery shop majorly every 2-3 months.  They will go every other week just to get milk and bread.  The total cost of this shopping spree came out to be $178.00 – she then handed the cashier all of her coupons and told him to ‘make it rain savings’.  Snorts – that’s my mommy.  After mom’s coupons and such, it came down to a final price of $127.00 – mom said even the cashier was shocked and amazed at that.  All of this for two somewhat adults, one pooch, two purr things and of course me who daddy says eats like a small child – snorts.

Then they came home to unload everything.  Now mom has a great conclusion to this.  She says, you shop all over the store and put things in your buggy.  Then you have to unload everything at the register to be rung up.  Then you have to load everything in your car to take home.  Then you get home and have to take everything into the house and THEN put everything up.  What a crap play huh?  But daddy knew that mommy wasn’t feeling to good so he parked her in the kitchen and he brought everything into the house for her… aaww – that was sweet.  Mom put everything up and crashed on the couch afterwards.

There she was medicated trying to get some rest while waiting for my Auntie Tina and cousins Savannah and Maverick to make it home.  See they are visiting for a couple of days and was due to arrive at Nanas Sunday night.  Mom finally got the call and her and dad then went to pick them all up for dinner.  They went to a great pizza place and talked, laughed and got caught up.  Afterwards, Auntie Tina and my cousins came to the Hotel Thompson to visit all of us anipals.  That was great fun!  We are all older now and loved the extra attention.  And a certain piggy may or may not have done some cute things for that extra attention – just sayin’ .  When they were done visiting, mom took them and Houdini up to Nana’s for a short visit.  She was only there for a little over 30 minutes and then came home.  After doing the medicines, for the week, she crashed pretty hard.  Who cards that it was only 7PM, right?

So you see, we are all kind of excited that this past weekend is done.  Completed.  Over.  Finished.  All but one little itsy bitsy thing.  What you ask?  Snorts – I’m glad you asked.  Tonight mom/dad are taking Houdini to a new groomer.  This should be fun.  Their appointment is at 6PM, right after mom’s work.  Houdini doesn’t know yet.  I’ll keep you posted on the results my friends.  And one little question, is it the weekend yet?  Snorts

 

Mommy Smartypants

My mom.  She can be really sneaky when she wants to be.  We all know that.  But no one here was more surprised than daddy when she told him something that she wanted to do.  Something that was new and adventurous.  Between me and you, personally I was done with being adventurous since being at Summer Camp last week – snorts.

Well when sneaky mommy smartypants gets a bird up your hiney (what dad likes to call it), she doesn’t play.  You know how much that woman loves Albert her Smart car.  She would zip and zap all over town in it.  The only down side to Albert was that he didn’t have much support in the suspension department.  I know this first hoof.  When mom would roll over the smallest bump, you would feel it.  The small bump could be the size of a penny, you would know about it.  And let’s not even talk about railroad tracks or bumps in the road.  One time, I thought mom was going to literally fall into the hole – shivers – that was so scary!

And of course,  the Smart car only held two humans and a pig… maybe a dog too at times.  That’s why we also had Tank the Equinox.  Mom used Tank when we had family outings with Nana or vacation.  But being that mom was the only that drives here, the economical sense of having and maintaining two cars just didn’t make sense… so she told me when she picked me up from camp.

So this is where she got the bird up her hiney.  She wanted to trade both cars into the dealership and get an awesome car that she (1) she always wanted; (2) would hold all of us anipals and Nana and (3) would financial be more beneficial to the family.  So what does she do?  She buys a new car.

 She went to the dealership, told them what she wanted and after much paperwork and running around for titles and standing her own for what she wanted, she got what she wanted.  Now do you know where I get my pig-headiness from – snorts?  And of course, mom gets things while still smiling like the Southern gal she is.  She was able to cash in 7 years of extended warranty that she didn’t use on Albert.  She also stood firm for what she wanted for Albert.  AND she was able to stand firm on what she wanted for Tank.  And of course cutting back to only one car in the family, she was able to cut her insurance in half.  AND, she was able to pocket some money for the offer on the vehicles.  That’s the best part cause she can buy me some more Animal Crackers that Scout ate at Summer Camp 🙂

So let me introduce you to our new ride – a Jeep Patriot Latitude.  Mom has named him Casper.

I know – I know Casper is white.  But she says that the blue in the car reminds her of Casper’s beautiful blue eyes.  Shakes piggy head.  My mom is so crazy!

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