An introduction...

I don't think I've ever done an "official" introduction!

If you've come over from The Blogging Tribe - hi!!  

Welcome to my sometimes weird little corner of the Interwebz.

My name is Lisa Love (hence the LOVE Shaque)  I live in the 'burbs north of Detroit with my husband Randy & 21 year old Spawn Miss Angela.  We share our tiny little house with 3 cats and an elderly Beagle.

Me & Randy

Me & Spawn at Zombie night at the local baseball park last summer.

Jack

Maddie

Rusty & Daisy

I'm pretty eclectic with my interests. I'll do a Cliff-notes version since the "about me" tab covers it all and more.   I am a ham radio operator - the N8LTG in this url is my callsign.  I'm a US Navy veteran.  I belong to the VFW.  I'm a member of a search & rescue team.  I've worked in the billing department of a trucking company for almost 19 years.  I was a dance mom for many years.  I love, love, LOVE Halloween and do a big cemetery display in my front yard every year.  I go to Weight Watchers (oops, sorry - it's called WW now) and post about my struggles with that.  I have a weird fascination with cemeteries.

Me & Kisses at a PR event for the search & rescue team.

Kisses is actually my sister's horse but she's mine for SAR. 

Let's see. I've been blogging since before 2009.  I started out on Yahoo 360 but didn't export my posts out before it closed down.  I really don't think I lost much (or any) quality content from there anyway!  I used to have 3 blogs, but did a merge and now just have 2.  This one is just a random, diary type blog and the other is for my Halloween display.  

I don't have this blog attached to my personal Facebook or Instagram pages, since *some* of my extended family members make me want to throat punch them with their commenting.  A link to the blog is attached to both of my bios, but I can count on them being technologically challenged and not noticing.  Randy & Angel both know about it and as far as I'm concerned, they're the only ones who matter.   I do share posts to blogging FB pages I follow, tho.

Blog #2 is Maple Grove Cemetery and it's got ALL the social media attached.  I post there all year long but of course it's slowed down a bit for the time being.  I also have a skeleton mascot named Chuck who travels with me a lot (#maplegrovechuck on IG) who has googly eyes and wears a tuxedo onesie.   The riffraff, I mean family, do know about this blog and FB page and follow me / Chuck.

This pic was actually taken last Saturday!

I do several blogging challenges over the year.  The big ones are the April Blogging A to Z Challenge (every year since 2012!) and Countdown to Halloween & Creepmas with the MGC blog.  And I have my own coffee chat type posts called Timmy T'ursday (typically my usual day of stopping at Tim Horton's for breakfast on my way into work) and also like to join in fun linkups like 'What's Up, Weekend' with the Peaceful Posse, etc. 

So that's about it...hope you come back to visit!

What's up, Weekend! 1/4/19

As usual, I'm linking up with the lovely ladies Lindsay, Beth & Charlotte at the Peaceful Posse to share things that made me happy or grateful in the past week.

I was quite shocked at how easy this year's word came to me.  Last year's "consistent" bombed, to be honest.  Consistently scatterbrained, maybe!  But on NYE, I'd just turned out the light and thought something along the lines of "what word shall I try out this year?"  

The thought barely formed in my mind when the perfect word popped in.

Focus!  

Something I truly need to work on!

Because...

I sometimes think I have ADD or something since I get distracted so easily.  Of course having a dog on water pills - I take him outside pretty regularly, but if he asks to go out?  I'm stopping what I'm doing right now to take him outside!  Or else I'm cleaning up a BIG puddle.  2 out of 3 cats see me sitting at the desk and want to be on my lap.  And Heaven forbid they lay down & go to sleep - they have to stand & whop me in the face with their tail & turn around in circles & get in the way of the keyboard, like cats do!   And that's just when I sit down to try to write a blog post or upload pics.  It happens in everything I do.  I'll try to do one thing, but then oh, I need to put in some laundry.  Then oh, I need to load the dishwasher.  Then oh, need to do this.  Then need to do that.  So yeah.  I need FOCUS!  

Is it wrong that I was hoping my sister would come over while we were in Arkansas and gather up the cats to take to her house so mine could "accidentally" burn down?  My house isn't exactly dirty - but it's cluttered something fierce.  We have a LOT of stuff in a very small house & no place to put it.  Which means I need to get rid of stuff!  

But where to start???  Anyone want to come over & help?  I'll supply pizza & beer!

Actually - they'd be more likely to be tripped by one of 4 mobile (feline/canine) boobytraps!

Have you ever heard of FlyLady?  One of her mantras is "you can do anything for 15 minutes".  So that's how I'm going to combat my spazziness.   Use a timer & force myself to do one thing at a time.  I have a lot going on this year, so I'd like to be able to function as a somewhat acceptable housewife.  I've been failing epically lately. 

I have literal shit-tons of search & rescue training coming up.  Besides it taking a minimum of an hour to even get TO each of the trainings, there are 4 different classes I'll be taking that will take the entire weekend.  The next 5 Thursdays I have Wilderness First Aid, then CPR.  They're going to have canine / equine first aid probably also in February.   We were told to expect another activation drill sometime in the next 3 months.  They're always looking for help with K9 training - I'm doing that again this Sunday.  We take turns being the 'victim' (lost in the woods for the dogs to find us) or 'flankers' for the dog handlers to keep track of where we are and make sure the dog & handler don't wander into harm's way.  And I know there's more, I just didn't grab out my planner to check.

I can't believe I didn't mention this before!  Right before the holidays, I let Miss Angela talk me into taking the adult dance classes with her at the studio!  She aged out of the competition team, so the only options for her were the adult classes and recreation classes.   So I'm doing hiphop and tap!  She thought I would have trouble with hiphop.  Ummmm nope.  The teacher is of course taking it a lot easier on us (a bunch of moms of which I am the thinnest one) then he ever did with the comp team.  Plus I've done Zumba so I'm pretty confident in being able to hold my own.   Tap was a different story.  The first week I didn't have proper shoes, so it was kind of awkward.  The second week I'd gotten my tap shoes & it made a world of difference!   

I can't wait to go back next week!

Maddie checking out my New Year's wine.

LOL!

I had to work New Year's Eve day, so Timmy's did happen!

It's sad when the dog has a better weight loss record than you!  And at his appointment this morning, he was down another .2 lb.  Don't worry - the vet seems OK with this!  Jack is old (15) and has heart disease that really amped up in the last 2 or 3 months.  He's lost all this weight, but his legs are swollen, hence the water pills.  They don't make doggie compression socks, so I just try to take him for a little walk every day to keep him moving.  Down to the corner of the block and back or around the yard. 

They say he's currently stable and comfortable, so that's about all we can do.  He seems pretty chipper and still eats like a champ. He gets soft food with his meds, day & night, and hard food is down all the time for him, but he tends to snack on that at night.

I took advantage of sunny 45* weather today to take down the Christmas blowmolds from the front yard.  I was fighting a headache all afternoon and was really looking forward to a nap after work.  But it felt good to be outside when I took Jack out so I at least got them all to the backyard.  And may or may not have left all the cords in a tangled pile right inside the garage door. 

Then I took my nap!

Tomorrow is the day I'm going to start with my 15 minutes per room.  And maybe get the Christmas tree taken down.  I'm in no hurry to put all the nutcrackers away, tho!  

Happy New Year!

We just got home from visiting the Mother-in-law Saturday night & I had to work today, so this is the first real chance I've had to sit down & post!

So obviously we're having a really wild & crazy New Year's Eve!  Randy is over lying on the bed, watching videos on his phone, Angel went to a party (with strict instructions to stay there for the night or call us if she had to come home!!) and I'm here on the computer.  

FYI, this is my 79th post of the year - so much for my 2018 word of the year "consistent".  

Anyhooo.

 Random shot of the gift I got for my boss at work.  She loved it!

We left Thursday the 20th for Arkansas.  Of course we made multiple stops at Chic-Fil-A while we were gone.  Randy & Angel are huge fans!

 A rest stop in Indiana had a working pay phone! 

So we got to Hot Springs Friday the 21st.  Normally we'd immediately go grocery shopping, since Mom apparently empties her cabinets before we get there.  But this time we got there, unloaded the car, had some dinner, then went up on West Mountain since it was supposed to be the clearest night of the whole trip. 

Stunning!

Saturday we went to Church - after Mom spent a good hour trying to justify her reasoning from leaving her Baptist church for the 7th Day Adventist.  Look, we don't care, as long as you're happy!  

It was a very nice church & service.  It's neat to experience other views - and it was very different from Catholic services!  We got to see 2 new members welcomed in and a baptism, too.  

Sunday we didn't do a whole lot, but after dinner, Angel & decided to go finish up some Christmas shopping!  We drove almost into Little Rock to Kohl's and hit a few other places.  Normally I'd think it was weird that stores were open so late, but it worked out to our benefit this time. 

 The MIL has this 1908 Sears catalog that was kind of fun to browse.

And the buggies were like $35-$55!

Santa visited our kitties!

Speaking of - he was good to us.  Randy got me a pair of hiking poles that'll be great for search & rescue stuff.  He also got me (by request) one of those Flawless facial hair removers that I used pretty much immediately.  Then a new makeup bag & brushes.  Assorted clothes & slippers.  He also got me & Angel both heated seat cushions for the cars.  Angel loves hers since she'd got leather seats.  

The day after Christmas, we went to "take the waters" as usual.  

I'll have to dedicate another post solely to it.

Heavenly! 

Another exciting field trip - Randy had to go to Lowe's to get some stuff for his honey-do list and I for LED spotlights for 50% off!  A couple days later we had to go back and I got 2 more blue ones & 2 green for 75% off!  They're destined to be in the Halloween display next year.

Angel broke 2 of her nails while we were there, so we used that as an excuse to get out of the house for a while.  The random place we chose to go to was a nail BAR!  I'm sure they didn't think she was old enough and didn't ask, but I'm sure if I'd gotten some work done, they would have offered complementary beverages!  They had a whole wall of wine, smaller bottles of rum, vodkas & 2 margarita machines!

Randy always feels bad that it's kind of boring for us when we go visiting (I go every other year at Christmas and on the off years, he goes at Thanksgiving) and it can be but I make sure to take stuff to do & look up places I want to explore while I'm there, and of course go to the bathhouse.  Then he can take care of his Mom's honey-do list and I can do my thing.  And since Angel was able to take off work, I had company!  

We left to come home Friday the 28th.  We had breakfast with Mom & his sister and left from the restaurant.  

Saturday night - not seen is cat #3 on the pillow behind my head.  

I think they missed us!

I thought this was a good tie-in to the Blended Blog's prompt for today.

So in a nutshell - every other Christmas we spend at the MIL's in Arkansas. On the years we're home, we all gather Christmas Eve at one of my sister's houses - I wish my house was bigger so we can have people over!  Then every year since 2009 when Dad passed away, we've gone to Frankenmuth to have dinner at Zehnder's on Christmas Day.  Even tho it's one of the few days that Bronner's (the Christmas Wonderland - an awesome year round store) is closed, they keep the parking lot all decorated & lit up and it's still pretty magical to drive around and look at the lights there.  

New Year's is always pretty low-key.  Randy & I stay at home and flip between watching the celebrations in NYC and Toronto (the benefits of being so close to Canada, we can pick up the CBC on regular TV).  

Have a Safe & Happy New Year's celebration!