A little of this, a little of that

I'm here today with a meandering post of pictures taken with my phone.



Here we have Oscar. He is an at-least-6-year-old dachshund (we got him from a shelter and couldn't be sure of his age then and people are always saying he looks older, so maybe he is). Here is Oscar's morning routine:

-Get out of little dog bed beside people bed
-Follow Kimberly to see if food will be immediately served.
-Sit and stare at Kimberly to see if this will induce her to immediately serve food
-Give up; find the softest possible place on the couch
-Move only when food is served

When he's really full of himself he likes to make a small complaining "uhhhhh" sound just under his breath if you disturb him when he is in such a state. Like, if you ever so softly stroke his silken ears...he goes "uhhhhhhh...uhhhhhhh...." with each breath to make it clear that you are surely causing him mental and emotional, if not actual physical, pain. He is spoiled, and its a mystery to me how he got that way.

I love me some Oscar.

We saw this product in a store that was going out of business. Anything look strange to you?

How about the 4-year-old with the mustache? Maybe he's in some sort of a costume, but that isn't readily apparant to me, so I rate this picture "Weird".

My favorite colors as a little girl were pink and purple. Can you imagine the hyperventilating had I seen this car way back when? (On the right just behind The Pink and Purple Wonder you can see the front quarter panel of my beloved light blue Blazer. Aren't you glad I told you?)

This was enjoyed by Walt and me this past Saturday at the delectable Grits and Groceries. This is:

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Miss Linda's Scallops: Pan Seared in a Lemon Caper Sauce with Cheese Grits, Mushrooms and Chopped Bacon.

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Yes, all those words need to be capitalized in order to convey the delicious-ness of Miss Linda's Scallops. They were preceded by Hattie Mae's Tomato Pie and followed by a slice of chocolate chess pie. Can I please go back next Saturday and every Saturday after that??

Animal Abuse

Why is this dog wearing a chain and padlock around its neck?

This dog was playing with another dog in the parking lot at work as hubs and I left for lunch today. It was not a very big dog, maybe 30 pounds or so, and the chain was big. It looked to be a Pit Bull mix and the other one, who seemed to be wearing an actual collar, looked like a Beagle mix with a smidge of Basset Hound. Both dogs came right up to us when we whistled and were only too happy for us to love on them for a couple minutes.

Of course my mind jumps to dogfighting and assumes that this chain is evidence that this dog is being trained to make its owner money, because that is something that I have learned recently does happen in our area. I just don't understand how someone could treat an animal with so little respect. Gabby of Sweetest Pea recently talked about her soft spot for animals, and I could identify. It really hurts to think of animals who suffer at the hands of those they should trust to care for them. This type of activity happens when the rest of us do nothing; please check out the Humane Society's website to find out if there is anything you can do to help prevent animal abuse in your area.

Maybe this dog's owner simply thought it would be cool to replace this sweet pup's collar and tag with a chain and padlock. Again I ask, why?

Mission Skydive #2: Accomplished!

I did it again! Jump-out-of-airplane #2 happened on Saturday, May 2 at about 5 pm. Aaaiiiii, it was FUN!!!!!!

Here's the video!




When my feet were back on the ground after my first jump in November I knew I wanted to jump again, and I couldn't pass up the chance to buy my second jump at 50% off original price if paid for before I left the drop zone that day. Those skydiving people are crafty ones.

It was imperative to jump before hot, humid summer arrived. I don't like to sweat and there would be nothing but sweating going on were I to be wearing that long-sleeved jumpsuit on pretty much any day in June, July, August, September or even late May for that matter, thus May 2 was chosen. My friend Jill, who has wanted to go skydiving since she was 16, was very excited to accompany me for her first jump...jumping with a friend is so fun!!

I did notice that in the weeks leading up to May 2 I felt oddly nervous when I thought about jumping for a second time. I got to the point where I avoided thinking about it. I don't like to feel nervous...it can lead to sweating. I started checking the weather about 10 days out: scattered thunderstorms for Chester, SC. Oh no! Except the closer the day came the more I noticed a tiny little part of me that thought, "Maybe they'll have to cancel and reschedule...", a tiny traitorous part that actually sort of hoped for a reprieve to give me some time to work out my nerves. The weekend arrived and so did Jill (bearing lemon cake, bless her heart! Jill, you come back anytime now, y'hear!) and I started to think about all the fun things Jill and I could do with our day when we wouldn't have to make the drive to and from Chester, PLUS Jill could come back for another visit the weekend of the rescheduled skydive...perfect!

The morning of the EVENT weather.com was calling for storms to start at 3 pm in Chester...we were scheduled to jump between 4 and 5 pm. It didn't look good/it looked great! (dang traitor in my head) Maggie, the very sweet woman at Skydive Carolina who talked to me every time I called to ask what the weather verdict was, finally admitted that they couldn't be sure what the weather would do, and it was our call...and darn Jill and her excited yet rational self...she pointed out that this could just as easily happen again when we rescheduled the jump, thus we should take our chances and go. Sigh, ok, here we go.

Don't you know the sky was sunny and blue with puffy clouds floating lazily along when we got to the drop zone around 1 pm. At one point during the afternoon there was one ominous looking dark cloud that hung around for about 15 minutes and then drifted away. I began to realize that I wasn't going to be getting out of anything...except for an airplane at approximately 14,000 feet. I was so nervous! And I still have no idea why! I had no worries about anything bad happening, so I really don't know what my deal was. My tandem instructor did tell me later that it was common for people to be more nervous about their second dive. Ok, so I'm not a lone weenie at least; there are lots of weenies sort of like me!

We hung out and watched several plane loads go up: I was nervous.
We sat around and watched a team practice their freefall formations before going up: I was nervous.
We watched people repack parachutes: I was nervous.
We watched the "you can't sue us if you die" video and went through the training with Chuck, my instructor from my last jump: I was nervous.
We suited up and I met Robert West my tandem instructor for this jump: He was so nice! I was still nervous.

Oh and remember how that small suit didn't work out for me last time? Um, the medium suit was MIGHTY SNUG this time...sigh...so, eating too much + not exercising enough really does have the effect they say, huh. Well, I'm working on that now. (I should say I'm relying heavily on God to help me work on that now and stick to it. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! (And so can you if you let God help! Grab a Bible and read Phillipians chapter 4, verse 13)) We got on the plane, and BOY WAS I NERVOUS.



Even my hair looks nervous.

Honestly I don't remember the last time I have been so swamped with fear. I was praying as hard as I could and just deciding that I wasn't going to let the fear overwhelm me. It was a struggle, and I clung to God the whole time. I watched my altimeter on the way up so I'd be prepared when the instruction came to put my little diving hat on and get ready. We goofed around for the video, got all hooked up and suddenly that plane door was sliding up and people were falling out left and right...on purpose...and my turn was coming.

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My goal for this jump was to keep my eyes open during freefall, and I was determined to follow through. I even paid for another video plus still pictures to encourage me to make the expense worthwhile. That's why I got them...not because I love to see myself in pictures or anything (haha...ha, ok, that was sarcasm). So I was thinking, "Keep your eyes open keep your eyes open, Kimberly, YOU HAVE TO KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN!"

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I did actually help with the scooting down the bench this time (as opposed to last time when I wasn't actively resisting, but I sure wasn't helping Chuck get us closer to that gaping hole in the side of plane), but only because I was practicing wearing my big girl panties. Oh, look, there's my dear friend there by the door about to--oh, there she went...we're at the door, Robert says, "Ready, And, Arch!" and out we go. And I am staring at Terry my video flyer with all my might. And my eyes are open! And it is AMAZING! I am immediately really excited and proud of myself and trying to take it all in and mug for the camera, and did I mention I was proud of myself? These big girl panties sort of fit, don't they! (And that is no comment on my slightly too-snug, size medium jump suit)

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My only issue this time is that I can't figure out how to breathe with all the wind in my face...so I'm gulping like a fish the whole time. If you watched the video you may have noticed this strange behavior. Gulping results in pictures like this:

Yeah, not cute. But that just means that I have goals for next time! (That and my atrocious form...arms were supposed to be bent 90 degrees, not straight in front of me Superman-style, and I was supposed to arch so that my legs were pushed up behind me, not dangling down in front) Terry offered the mid freefall spin just as video man Pete did last time, but I wasn't ready for that yet, so you can see me in the video try to let him know a couple times I'm not up for the spinning. This gesturing resulted in pictures like this:

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But gorgeous pictures skillfully taken of me making horrid, unflattering faces aside, THE JUMP WAS AMAZING! Keeping one's eyes open adds SO MUCH to the experience! Duh, right?? Makes sense...I was absolutely overwhelmed by the sight of the clouds and the sky and the ground and the tiny trees and Terry falling right with me, and the loud rush of wind. So overwhelmed and absorbed that I forgot all about checking my altimeter at any point. In the plane Robert had showed me the rip cord attached to me and said, "If you get scared or you see that we are at 3 or 4000 feet and I haven't opened the chute, you pull this", and I said, "Ok!" I am very glad Robert was awake and on the job because I was having such a good time I didn't think anything about how many thousand feet up we were at any given moment.

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Once he pulled the chute and we slowed down I couldn't help but yell, I was SO excited about the amazing freefall. Bless Robert's heart, he's trying to do his parachute thing and I'm all, "OH MY GOSH THAT WAS AMAZING! WHOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WOOOOOOOW! THAT WAS AMAZING!" I was so full of the amazing thing we had done I just couldn't keep it in. He said it was a great jump as we had been stable (falling on our stomachs) from the very start without any flips or rolls. Cool! I like to think I helped with that in some way. I didn't, but I still like to think that.

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The canopy ride was of course absolutely fun and amazing; I could even see Jill and Chuck below and in front of us. The wind was right for Jill and Chuck to do a stand-up landing while Robert and I scooted to a very soft sit-down stop. Jill has actually written up her experience here, so you can see what it was like from her perspective.

What an amazing adventure it was. It was SO much fun to share this experience with a friend, and I can't WAIT for my next jump!

Adventures of a goat wrangler or my life in crime: Part 1

(Photo credit: chromatophobe on flickr)

I feel a need to share some of the situations in which I've found myself during the course of my life. Maybe I need to clear my conscience. Mainly I hope to make you laugh. In any case here we begin one of those stories.

Hubs and I had been involved with a community organization that helps animals (I'm leaving all names out to protect the innocent) for about 4 months when the group received word that, through an unfortunate turn of events, a herd of goats in a neighboring town found themselves with no caretakers. They had broken through their fence and periodically wandered around the neighborhood wreaking havoc, and I guess eating things that didn't belong to them. Our group was led to believe that the town would appreciate our help with the goats. We decided to see what we could do, and hubs actually located a family, we'll call them Dave and Leeane, with pasture land who would be glad to have a free herd of goats. We told the family where to find the goats; they borrowed a trailer and met one of our group members at the site one morning a day or so later (a Wednesday I believe and the day before Valentine's 2008) and between them got 14 of the 30 or so goats loaded up with the idea to drop them off and return for the rest of the herd. That's great! We were so excited to have helped so quickly!


Evidently when Dave returned later in the morning for the rest of the goats some person stopped to talk to him; the details of this are fuzzy, but whatever happened it kicked off a day full of more entertainment than strictly necessary. Just after lunch I received a call at work that there were policemen waiting for Dave and he was told if the 14 STOLEN (!!!) goats were not returned by 5 pm that day he would be LOCKED UP! I should stop here and say that I was highly suspicious of the lock-up story, but had no way to get to the bottom of things before the 5 pm deadline (I was at work for goodness' sake). Later I heard from a different source that some member of the police department lived down the road, noticed the trailer go by, and dropped by to inform Dave that these particular goats were wrapped up in a probate court case and could not legally be removed from the premises. Supposedly this guy was off duty and just informing Dave of the facts of the situation...which wasn't quite the SWAT team scenario I was first given, but who knows what really happened. In any case it turned out that our group had been misled as these goats had not actually been eligible for assistance. Antics ensue.


I felt strongly that hubs and I needed to help Dave and family get those first 14 goats returned since we were the reason they knew about the goats in the first place. Just shove the lot in the trailer one more time and dump them back in their field, right? Wrong. I guess Dave in his panicked state imprudently shared the story with the owner of the trailer who, fearing some sort of trouble for himself through indirect involvement, decided his trailer had best stay safe at home with him. Now needed: one trailer.


I have lived in small town South Carolina my whole life, so you might assume I know something about livestock. The sum total of my involvement with farm animals consists of driving past pastures containing horses and cows and goats (and maybe rolling down the window to moo at a cow every now and then. Don't lie, you've done it). I hope to own some goats and chickens one day, but at the moment the approximately 160 pounds of dogs running around my yard is as close as I get to the barn yard. I don't have a trailer, and I don't know anybody who has a trailer. I called any and everyone I could think of. I called our local farm supply store to ask if they knew of trailer rental places and was told "No..." in a tone that suggested the employee felt there was something wrong with my brain function. What was I thinking asking the farm store if they knew where to find some farm equipment?!?!

I was at the end of my ideas, so I called hubs (who had taken the day off work) and said, "I can't find a trailer anywhere; what are we going to do..." And my man came up with it: U-Haul. So simple, so unexpected, yet...it just might work! When he said that magic word all worry went out of my head. Hubs can do anything, so I knew once he settled on a plan our lock-up fears were over.


Crisis management team Hubs and Co. sprang into action. I called various members of our group to see if anyone could help us return the "stolen" property. I called Dave and Leeane to coordinate when we would arrive (hubs and I had to plan around the play practice we had immediately after work. We were Auntie Em and Uncle Henry in our community theater's production of The Wizard of Oz...we may not be farmers, but we play some on stage...God has a sense of humor, people). Hubs secured the truck. Yes, truck. 14 ft moving truck to be specific. I wondered if we could fit 14 goats in the truck...I felt royally stupid later when I saw the goats and realized that even though these were BIG goats we could have fit about 50 of them in there.

To be continued...

And they say there's no hope for our young people...

(Photo credit: nbklx17 / Sandy)

Argh: so much to blog and so little time. I'm sure none of you out there have that problem...

My 22 year old brother just called to apologize for seeming short when I called him yesterday to ask him an important question. The facts:

1) The important question: "So I'm in Marshall Homegoods, and I'm trying to decide between the fig and cocoa spread from Croatia or the walnut preserves from Armenia. What do you think?"

2) He may have rolled his eyes or thought, "Are you kidding me..." but he didn't let on and instead gave me his opinion: fig and cocoa spread.

3) He is a senior in college (I swear he was 4 years old yesterday...where has the time gone!?!) and has an avalanche of papers and projects due. I knew this and only expected to be on the phone for about 30 seconds.

My thoughts on this situation after his call today:

1) Could you ask for a sweeter 22 year old, male or female?

2) His future wife will no doubt greatly benefit from this level of thoughtfulness.

3) I love this guy!

I assured him that he was so sweet to apologize, but that I knew he had a lot to do and I hadn't thought twice about his hopping off the phone after solving my crisis situation.

What a great kid. I have a lump in my throat right this very minute.

Butt cheeks

I am not your typical person. I don't say this in an "I'm sooo amazing" way...more like a "wow...I'm so weird..." way. A way that makes hubs shake his head and wonder sometimes...and be SO glad that he'll be entertained for the rest of his life, you know it!

Example:

Conversation between hubs and I as we left Wal-Mart several weeks ago:

Hubs (holding out little tin of saddle soap): "Know what that's for?"

Me (having absolutely no idea but deciding to throw something out there) : "Um, your baseball glove."

Hubs: "Nope! My butt cheeks!"

Me (somewhat surprised hubs was divulging this information as he tends to keep subjects such as this fairly private, but not wanting him to feel like he shared more than he should have): "Awwww, babe, are they chapped?"

Hubs (pause, furrowing brow and looking at me in the "What the...?" way): "Ok...what do you think I said?"

Me: "Butt cheeks"

Hubs (feeling like he shared more than he should have): "I said BOAT SHOES!"

I doubled over in the Wal-Mart parking lot and laughed hard for quite some time. Hubs shook his head and wondered at the fact that he had all this to himself for the rest of his life.

"My Deodorant Failed Me" or "Danger: Too Much Information Ahead"

You read the title, right? There is definitely TMI ahead, so consider yourself warned.

Um, today was rough. I guess mostly the end of it where I smelled worse than I've ever smelled in my life. And I really had no good reason to, like running 10 miles or even just 1.

I am trying to save the world. I have reusable grocery bags (which I actually remembered to take to the store for the first time on Sunday! I've had them for months), natural dishwashing paste (mixed reviews on that one...it left my stainless silverware cloudy), whole wheat pasta, lots of tofu and the chemical-free deodorant alluded to above.

There are lots of chemicals in most of the mass produced soaps and cleansers we find in stores; these additives are harsh on our skin and bad for the Earth. I've found great natural soaps that perform beautifully, so several months ago I embarked on a mission to switch to a chemical-free deodorant. I first tried out Tom's of Maine in one of the scents...I think it was Lemongrass. That worked pretty well if I really put it on heavily, but it was a bit harsh and burned a bit after a while and actually made the skin around my armpits (can you believe I typed THAT word on my blog?!) peel a little bit. So next I tried Tom's of Maine unscented which didn't irritate my skin, but every once in a while it would fail me a bit. I remember the first time I noticed it I was reaching for a paint sample in Lowe's and got quite an embarrassing surprise. I had had a dinner date with my brother earlier that evening after which I definitely hugged him, so I had to call him and apologize for any...offense. So embarrassing. So I redoubled my efforts to apply plenty of natural Earth-saving Tom's.

In light of the ok results with the Tom's products I decided to audition a new player: Kiss My Face Active Enzyme Fragrance Free. I think I started using that this past Sunday. Monday went pretty well. Than came Tuesday.

Its late afternoon today and I'm washing my hands after a bathroom break. While reaching for the paper towels...yes, you guessed it, another embarrassing surprise. I was like, "Shoot! I'm just trying to save the Earth here!" I had sweated a tiny bit while running errands at lunch time (to clarify I didn't run at all...it was pretty warm today, though), but not enough to warrant an embarrassing surprise. We were done for the day just a couple hours later, and I decided to wait and shower after the 30 minute walk (2nd one in two days...we're trying to save ourselves along with the Earth!) with hubs. It was just a walk! But by the time I got back the situation had gone from bad to horrendously worse. I couldn't help but LAUGH really hard at the horrendousness. It was CRAZY! Kiss My Face let me DOWN! Absolutely the WORST I have smelled in my life. I don't know if I've EVER smelled another human being as offensive as I was.

What am I going to do? I want to save the Earth, but I also want hubs, with his ridiculously keen sense of smell, to want to be around me. And friends are nice, too. Sigh...there are a couple other brands I can look into. I shall continue the mission, but I might have to smell like a man tomorrow...the only other deodorant in the house is hub's, so hopefully he'll let me borrow it.

Stick Figure Family

Haaaaa! I just found a link on Tracey's blog to this website where you can order those family stickers for your car. I couldn't resist mocking up this sticker for us. This sticker would cost me $47.25...I gotta lose a couple random animals or something.

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Please note! Hubs wears a helmet when riding his motorcycle...the site only offered a head with a football helmet or a hockey helmet...and then you would have laughed and mocked him for wearing the wrong kind of helmet. Don't say you wouldn't.

The Way Men Are

(Photo credit tanbob)

I have permission from hubs to share this; you all gotta know I do whatever I can to keep my hubs happy including asking his permission to post his business. I love to see my hubs happy!

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Hubs set up a Google document for a guy at work we'll call Tim. The document was empty so that Tim could populate it when he got a chance. A few minutes later hubs sent the link to the document to several people so they'd have access to the work sheet when Tim finished with it. Within a few minutes a guy, we'll call him Michael, called hubs.

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Michael: Hey man

Hubs: Hey, what's up

Michael: Hey, that document you sent is empty.

Hubs: ...did you read the email? I said the document is blank until Tim populates it.

Michael: Oh...yeah, ok, I see that now. Thanks man

A few minutes later hubs heads to a meeting and when he gets to the room another guy we'll call Dan says:

I looked at that document you sent; it was empty

Hubs: Did you read the email?

Dan: I never read the email!

Hubs: In the email I said the document is blank until Tim populates it.

Dan: Oh! Well that makes sense then.

Haaaaaa! Michael and Dan both opened a document entitled "Tim's document" with absolutely no knowledge as to what could be in Tim's document, but they were not concerned by this. They felt pretty confident they could look over Tim's document and figure out what they needed to know.

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If we called hub's email "instructions" and Tim's document "something complicated" then it all becomes clear, doesn't it. How many men do we know who would rather eat dirt than look at the instructions? On the other hand, I let the big new camera hubs gave me for Christmas a few years ago sit in the box for weeks because I was intimidated by it and thought I needed to read through the instruction booklet first which I just never got around to doing. Finally hubs took the camera out and fiddled with it for a few minutes and showed me a couple things, and I got over myself long enough to play with it a little bit and get comfortable with it. There's a happy medium between "ignoring the instructions" and "death grip on the instructions", but that's a sermon for another day.

Here's to Michael and Dan, fearless conquerors of blank documents belonging to Tim!

Circus Treats

This cup freak anybody else out?


This is just one of the wonders we saw at the circus this past weekend. I could not in good conscience buy that for a small child...I am just juvenile enough to laugh nervously every time I look at it and say, "You're eating out of a pony's head" and no child should have to go through that.

We took hub's little sisters and his mom to the circus for Muffin's 5th birthday (no, no one named the child Muffin; I just can't put her real name on here). Meanies that we are we didn't buy them any pony brain snowcones or whirling light up sticks or clown hats or anything. I grew up lamenting the fact that my meanie parents NEVER bought me anything at the zoo/circus/ball park, and now I see why!! A bag of cotton candy with a cheap wizard hat was $12!! Insane!! Good job, Mom and Dad! I'm glad you stuck to your guns! I had too much stuff to play with anyway. (Note: Here I use the word "never"..."never" is a strong word and I'm sure they got me something at some point at a place like that, it just wasn't the norm.)

Asia the elephant gave a painting demonstration before the show and you could enter a drawing to win that painting. Who won the painting you ask?? Have I ever told you that hubs leads a charmed life?



How cool is that!! We have a piece of art painted by an elephant! Hubs keeps saying, "Really? Are you sure?" whenever I tell him I'm excited we got it. Art by an elephant! That's cool!

Hmmm

Saw this in a feed and seed store...

I live in small town South Carolina, so there's a lot of huntin' and farmin' that goes on around us, but I have never in my life seen a product like this, and it amused me greatly. "Wild BEAST Attractant"...have never heard that combination of words in my life. And I love that hogs can't resist "crushed berry and molasses flavors". Heck, berries and molasses sound pretty good to me. Hubs, please keep tabs on me next time we're tromping around the woods. If I start sniffing the air and running around scratching at the ground you'll know I'm looking for the "BEAST FEAST".

Lemonade Award

Lisa over at Antiques and More has given me the Lemonade Award; thank you, Lisa!

This award is about bloggers who show great attitude and gratitude.

Here are the rules:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 8 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
3. Link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

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What a great award! I think a good attitude just makes life easier. Things aren't always going to go my way, so if I just accept that and decide to have a good attitude I think I'll be a lot happier as I travel through this life. Try it! Decide to have a good attitude and see if you aren't happier in the end!

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And the gratitude: I am so thankful for each of you who drops by and checks out my blog and for each and every comment left. It is so exciting and motivating knowing that actual real people, some who know me and some who don't, are reading what I write!

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I am breaking the rules (rebel that I am) and challenging each of you who read this post to take me up on my challenge to have a good attitude and also to think about the reasons (big and tiny) that you have to be grateful. I do recommend Tracey's blog Notes From A Cottage Industry. She has the best attitude, and her posts are so sweet and uplifting. If there is someone who jumps out in your mind as a blogger with a great attitude and full of gratitude, shoot this cute little award his or her way!

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Thanks again, Lisa!!

I've been tagged!

So I feel quite silly (that would be a picture of me looking silly). I thought I got a message a while back saying I had been tagged, but later when I went back through my email and a bunch of the comments on my posts, I couldn't find the note anywhere, so I thought I must have imagined it...on Monday I was reading through Jenny's archives over at The Red Bulletin Board and saw in one of her posts that she tagged me! Sorry it took me so long, Jenny!

Here are the rules:
* Mention the rules on your blog.
* Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself.
* Tag three others
* Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they are tagged.

Ok, here goes:

1) Chaotic movies have always freaked me out. Could NOT handle Alice In Wonderland as a child...to me it didn't move in a logical linear storyline. The pink elephant scene in Dumbo? Pretty much gave me nightmares.

2) I just found the recipe for some candy strawberries I had at a church potluck when I was about 4. I've been dreaming of those delicious strawberries (made of ground up nuts among other things) and trying to find the recipe for years. I was given a huge stack of old magazines a couple weeks ago and guess what I found in the December 1977 issue of Southern Living...so excited to make these things, I can hardly stand it.

3) I have eaten very few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my life. It was just never my thing.

4) I do the majority of the cooking in our house, and I very rarely make the same meal twice. It bores me. I have a couple standbys (mom and dad's spaghetti, etc) that I love, but other than that I prefer to try new and different stuff.

5) I've been doing the majority of the cooking for 3 1/2 years and have yet to make a macaroni and cheese casserole...I was born and raised in South Carolina and LOVE mac-n-cheese. Is there something wrong with me?? Part of the reason: my husband and I get home from work too late most nights to make dishes that take a long time to cook. Someday though I will make up for lost time!

6) I love pizza. I love it so much. I told my husband earlier this week that I wished I could eat pizza for every meal. Sigh...pizza, my love. Incidently if you haven't tried Pizza Hut's The Natural pizza, GO TRY IT!! Its supposed to be made from slightly less processed ingredients, and I can personally vouch for the Rustica version...YUM. Add some peppers, onions, black olives and mushrooms in there, and its practically good for you, right?? :)

Since it has been over 2 months since I was tagged (spaz that I am) I am going to let sleeping dogs lie...or dead tag cycles be...or something.

Thanks for my first tag, Jenny!

SKYDIVING!!!

This picture is NOT me, but it will give you an idea of what I did recently!!! This photo was taken by Les Duggins, Jr. and is part of this article on skydiving. The guy wearing shorts is Chuck Hammond who was my tandem instructor.


This past Sunday, November 9, I went skydiving!! Here I have posted a VERY LONG second-by-second account for any and all who would like to know every single thought that went through my head during this experience. Get out now while there's still time.

SKY DIVING!! OH MY GOODNESS!! Hubs surprised me with this for my 27th birthday. It wasn't totally out of the blue; we'd seen a bumper sticker when we were dating advertising a skydiving drop zone and agreed that we should "do that someday". I think I'm the one who suggested it because I honestly thought it was right up hub's alley; he was always up to new adventures (still is). Then a delightful lady moved into the office next to mine at work, and she suggested we get a group together one weekend to go skydiving! I was a tad surprised she'd said skydiving (I guess I figured she was going to say "go hiking" or something), and I said, "Yeah...Cool! Let's do it!" I found out she has jumped over 35 times and just loves it. Here Hubs had someone to grill for info on all things skydiving; he's so good to do his research. Wednesday night, Nov 5, at about the stroke of midnight, so that technically my Thursday birthday had begun (why in the world were we still awake??) he couldn't wait any longer, so he handed me a piece of paper that turned out to be the confirmation email from Skydive Carolina in Chester, SC. I couldn't believe it!


Come Sunday afternoon I was at the drop zone; I had filled out all my paperwork, signing things like, "You understand that this is dangerous and it is possible that you could die?", and was outside watching as each plane load of people went up and floated back down. We could just barely make out the plane about 13,000 feet up. They would announce when the jumpers were in the air, but we couldn't see anything for a minute or so until parachutes started popping open out of thin air.


In the time since hubs had revealed the surprise I had watched several You Tube videos of tandem jumps at Skydive Carolina and, boy, were they exciting. Except I could not help actually squealing out loud in a very nervous sort of way when seeing people actually leave the plane. I was not ever scared for my life, just slightly nervous as I thought about the actual jumping out of the plane part; I figured falling through the air might challenge my sense of self preservation.

Our training seemed to last all of 15 minutes and consisted of us first watching a video of Skydive Carolina's attorney making sure we understood that we had signed papers saying we couldn't sue if something happened and if we did sue we couldn't win; and then one of the tandem instructors describing what would happen during the jump, how we needed to hold our bodies in the air, etc. He said we'd actually need to hold the toggles that steer the parachute for a minute or so as our instructors readied the harnesses for landing and that we might need to steer toward a certain point. I was like...what? Steer "toward a certain point"? What point? So I raised my hand (why did I do that? There were 2 of us in there with the guy...and I raised my hand??) and asked, "So...they'll tell us where they want us to aim??" The instructor's all cool and like, "Oh, yeah, it'll be no big deal". I worry A LOT about not knowing what to do in an important moment...I did not feel it was not a big deal :)

I was still calm after getting the jumpsuit on over my clothes (the guy who got us our suits suggested I should wear a small, bless his heart...I can't believe I went through the motions of getting the jumpsuit legs down over my jeans and getting my jeans all situated only to confirm that, um, no this behind is not fitting in a small, thankyouverymuch...thankfully the medium was fine).

Look at that; picture of coolness right there.

I was still ok when Chuck got me all harnessed up.

Boarding the plane: no big deal. That's Chuck in the white sweatshirt holding on to the back of my harness.

However the higher we got the more my stomach fluttered at the thought of that first step.

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When we got to a certain elevation Chuck connected our two harnesses together with me facing out strapped to the front of him so snugly I couldn't draw a full breath, and honestly, it was reassuring. Around 14,000 feet they slid up the clear plastic door panel and people started sailing out...into thin air! There were a couple groups of solo divers that were doing formations or something because they jumped with their arms linked together. As people jumped and space became available Chuck scooted us down the bench (seating consisted of 2 benches, one running down each side of the plane's interior). I was getting more and more nervous and was not helping with the scooting, but Chuck was not giving me a chance to pause.

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Much quicker than I would have liked we were crouched in front of the door looking out. I was absolutely freaking out in my head. Chuck had me lay my head back on his shoulder, so that when we jumped my head wouldn't snap back and hit him in the face, and cross my arms over my chest until he gave me the signal during freefall to put my arms out Superman-style to help keep us stable. We rocked forward into NOTHING ("Ready!"), backward into the plane ("And!") and then ("Arch!") WHOOSH Chuck launched us out the door. I was seriously going, "Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod" in my head...freaking out. I feel safest when I'm all curled in on myself, so even loosening up enough to open my mouth to scream was not an option. My teeth were clenched and my eyes shut TIGHT. I barely peeped maybe twice during the freefall part before Chuck opened the parachute. Saw a glimpse of someone else near us in the air and saw part of the ground and just could not handle it mentally, so I kept my eyes closed.

I didn't feel my stomach drop like on a fast elevator ride or on a roller coaster. You really don't have a sense that you are falling. You just hear and feel the overwhelming rush of wind (like if you stuck your arm or head out the window of a moving car) from beneath you. And you know that there is NOTHING HOLDING YOU UP! CRAZY!!

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I was just holding on to my sanity long enough to get to the canopy ride when the chute opened. I wondered afterwards what would have happened if I had kept my eyes open. Obviously nothing would have happened to us, but I guess mentally I just couldn't do it. Maybe I would have really freaked out and by keeping my eyes closed I kept myself calm...dunno. Also I was congested already and was trying hard to pop my ears, but not being successful, and I HATE the feeling of full ears. At one point I could feel us spinning and knew that Chuck was doing it. He couldn't see my face or know that I was freaking out; it was just one of the fun things the instructors can do to make the experience even more exciting. I was not excited. I felt that last little bit of control I had ahold of slipping away so I waved my hands back and forth in a, "No more of that!!" motion hoping he'd see, and I guess he did because we stopped.

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FINALLY Chuck opened the chute; he had said there would be a weird dropping and then jerking sensation after he deployed the chute. It takes a beat to open thus the little drop before the jerk. At that point we were about a mile up, going nice and slow, and we could talk. He asked me how the free fall was ("TERRIFYING!!") and how my ears were ("Bad") and told me to hold my nose and blow gently. Since I had come that day with head congestion, the normal ear clearing tricks weren't working (my right ear finally started to open back up around Tuesday night) but I did try and just decided not to worry about it. There was a lot of pressure on my eardrums though.

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But there was no fear. The canopy ride was AMAZING!! I guess it would have been frightening on its own had it not been for my sheer terror during the free fall. The canopy ride felt like the safest thing ever. The view was gorgeous! Green trees and fields as far as I could see. Chuck pointed out the field where the final battle scene in The Patriot was shot. He pointed out the sunset over my shoulder (we were the last plane load of the day right near sunset) and the faraway glint of light off the buildings of Charlotte, NC. He pointed out the runways of the drop zone. They looked so short, yet they were each a mile long. He had me take the toggles, and it really wasn't a big deal...I get so worked up over nothing sometimes. Pull on the right strap to turn right and the left strap to turn left. He had me put them both all the way up and then pull them all the way down, and we came to a virtual standstill in the air which was weird. We did a practice landing while we were way up high where he had me pull my legs and feet up in front of me (oh why haven't I been working on those ab muscles??) I guess so they wouldn't drag on the ground and make us face plant. He took the toggles back and did a couple deep swoops one to the right, one to the left and those made me a little nervous. I asked him if, after 12 years (you know that was one of my first questions to him! And sir, just how long have you been doing this??), this ever got old and he said not with tandem students.

If you click on this picture to enlarge it you can see about 11 little tiny parachutes. One of those is probably me!!

2 of the tandem jumpers from my plane load. The one on the right could be me, but I can't really tell...I don't remember being this close to another chute, though.

Before I knew it we were coming in for our landing which was flawless! Tandem landings tend to be of the sit down variety, sliding to a stop unless the wind is right for a stand up landing. We did do the sit down landing, but it was so smooth. I had seen a couple earlier in the day that definitely seemed to land with a "whump!" that didn't look too comfortable on the behind.

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We had paid to get a video (got to have me a video!) so Pete the video guy who filmed the freefall and then boogied down to the ground to film my landing came over and helped me stand up. Chuck started undoing the tandem parts of the harness and then my legs started shaking. It reminded me of January 12, 2007 when I was laying in the chair at the dentist's office waiting to be sedated to get my wisdom teeth cut out. I was so nervous and my legs were shaking so much as the doc probed that darn needle around in my arm to find a place to put my IV that my shoes were making this very loud "SLAPSLAPSLAPSLAP" sound on the vinyl chair. And I couldn't control it! That's how my legs were shaking after the dive. Though I wasn't scared, and I was actually having a great time doing my post-jump interview. The lady at work told me it was the adrenaline dump and that makes sense.

Chuck, me and Pete after we landed. There's my parachute on the ground! Love that piece of fabric!

Pete did ask if I actually opened my eyes, and I confirmed that, no, that had not been an option for me. He had told me before the jump that he would come up to me in the air and offer me a hand and if I wanted to take it I could and we would spin. He told me afterward that he never offered me his hand because my eyes had to be open for that part. I assured him that I was not the worse for missing the opportunity.

Here's hubs, me and Chuck. Please ignore the ridiculous face I'm making. I was laughing at something and the fellow taking the picture seemed a bit tipsy, and I wasn't sure I could impose on him to take another...sigh.

It was all amazing!! I definitely plan to do it again. My goal for my 2nd jump is to keep my eyes open during the freefall. I'll probably be a sucker and pay for a second video, because I want to be able to compare the two jumps. I would include a link to my first video, but a copyright violation issue surrounding the Tom Petty song used as part of the soundtrack is currently keeping us from posting it to You Tube. Hopefully I can get Skydive Carolina to send me another video with a different song in the background. Click here to see some random guy jump at the same place with my instructor...that's what my video is like! Except with me!

I highly recommend a tandem sky dive at Skydive Carolina! If you ever happen to be in Chester, SC let me know and we'll go :)

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Update: Here's a link to the video of my skydive! http://www.viddler.com/explore/waltyates/videos/1/

Thievery

NOTE: 11/12/08 I should point out that the card in question was my debit card. Don't think I said that.

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Well we've just had something weird happen to us.

Yesterday while waiting to be tossed out of an airplane (TERRIFYING!! AMAZING!! Post coming soon) the Mr. had his laptop going using their free wifi (what, your local drop zone doesn't have free wifi?? How gauche), and he says, "Hey our bank account has this much in it...does that sound right? I heard the single number he said and assumed it was an abbreviation to indicate how many of the base units of money were in the account. "Yeah, that sounds right," I say scanning the sky as the most recent plane load of jumpers starts sprouting parachutes. It actually sounded high, but we'd just been paid and hadn't had time to fritter it all away yet (just kidding! We are very responsible with our benjamins...retirement accounts, emergency funds, the whole bit). He must have noticed I wasn't paying the closest attention so he started looking around and found several charges to gas stations that were hovering around an amount we might use if we were gassing up the H3 and commuting to work 2 states away every day. We do not own an H3 and thankfully the gas prices around us have come down to around the $2 mark so unless we were gassing up every 4 wheeled item we own (cars, lawnmower...gas powered radio control trucks??) plus the leaf blower, electric chainsaw, refrigerator, DVD player and those little light up earrings I got at Christmas last year there was absolutely no way we could use that much gas...or buy that many snacks.

Then he notices a couple major shopping sprees at Publix. The nearest Publix is an hour drive...and those commercials might make me weak in the knees, but they sure don't make me want to drive an hour (of course that's what I was doing wasn't it...I was filling the car up before AND after driving to Publix to buy 2 months worth of groceries...I just forgot to tell the Mr.!!!!).

I went through my envelope of receipts to mark the legitimate charges and hubs heads to the bank today. After an hour with a most wonderful woman at our bank he comes back with news of a total amount taken that would go a long way toward making not one, but two very Merry Christmases for us and our families. One of the late breaking charges in the "Point of Sale" category turned out to be a $200 spree at Bath & Body Works; he eyed me suspiciously when he told me that one. Just kidding! He was with me the last time I went to B&BW and saw the $7 candle holders I got at 50% off. Turns out the charges are coming from somewhere in Florida.

The strange thing is I did not lose my card, and I shred all mail with personal info on it. Maybe a waiter or someone else I gave my card to during a trip we took weekend before last wrote down the card number?? Who knows.

So weird! I thank God that he alerted hubs to all this before charges started bouncing. Our bank is filing some paperwork, and we should get the money back in the next few weeks. Also THANK GOD that we are in a secure enough financial position that this will not devastate us. We'll have to watch what we spend, but we'll be able to pay the bills and eat.