Well what do you know...my computer has a minor crash and now I'm able to update my web page (shhh--don't tell my husband but I suspect it's due to the fact that all his questionable virus programs have quite running. He says I'm vulnerable to attack now, but at least I can make some web page changes in the meantime).

So I made some changes tonight, which actually didn't take too long considering I'd almost completely forgotten how and I also had to deal with a sick child that vomited over everything made of fabric in her room....

I have quite a few pictures I want to add to my finds page, BUT my pictures are all on the part of the computer that is no longer working...so, it might be awhile until I can post them. At any rate, my dream of a web page that insults the hicks around me is almost a reality.

Now I just need to find the paperwork/bill that I received for the domain name of livingitrural.com....it's on my desk somewhere.....



- posted by Christine @ 12:01 AM

 
A woman tries to buy her couple thousand dollars of Wal-Mart purchases with a pretend million dollar bill. Funny since the U.S. doesn't even have a million dollar bill.

When they clerk wouldn't take her big ol' bill, she tried to pay with a couple of Wal-Mart gift cards that only had a couple of dollars on them.

So she tried her million dollar bill again. The police were notified.

I'm not going to say much about the intelligence of your standard Wal-Mart shopper, as I too can be found meandering down it's aisles, but what was this woman thinking? Did she honestly think the cash register on aisle 8 could give her $998,000 in change?
- posted by Christine @ 3:04 PM

 
My little guy was digging through his room yesterday and found a sea shell he'd painted last year in preschool. "I find my shell!" He said. "His name is Shelly."

He carried Shelly around with him all day yesterday. He carried it in his pocket when we went out. He put Shelly on a pillow next to him while he was watching TV. Then he fell asleep with that crusty, painted shell clutched in his hand.

I figured by this morning he'd have forgotten Shelly, but not so. He carefully wrapped Shelly up in a newspaper and put him in the car for a ride out in the sun. He took Shelly to the beach so he could "find him friends." He carried Shelly along the sidewalk to a restaurant as he tripped on the uneven pavement. He flew forward, and we heard a crack of shell hitting cement. Little guy has lost his shoe, but bounced up and yelled, "Shelly!" Shelly was okay. So was little guy.

He carried Shelly around most of the day, except for the couple of times that I told him I'd carry it as I was afraid it would get left behind. At one point in the car his eyes filled with tears and he said, "I weft Shelly at the 'useum." My husband pulled Shelly out from a basket in the front seat, "Here ya go."

At this late hour, I see my little guy fast asleep on the couch, and Shelly on the coffee table next to him. Why can't my kids attach themselves to something more normal, like squirrels.
- posted by Christine @ 11:08 PM

 
And my aunts thought it was bad that one of them had found a fingernail in their food. How about a the entire fingertip? Good eatin' nearly everytime!

Well it's been an interesting day. Besides getting probably the finest streetmattress picture I've ever taken (real man waving to me inside a real mattress), I decided I needed to do something with the chicken coop since I could hardly move it anymore. A combination of hay, chicken "output", grass, feed, mud had all piled up into a huge mound on the chicken wire that covers half of their run. It weighed the coop down so much that I could barely slide the coop from one spot to another (remember--my chickens are on wheels).

I'd asked my husband to take care of it for me, but when I asked last night he groaned really loud, and besides he's never here anyway. So today I found a pair of wire clippers in his "official" tool ball-bearing box, and went outside to get this chore done.

First I coaxed the chickens into their little covered coop area so I could close the door and not be pecked to death. Once that was accomplished, I threw a tarp down in the run and crawled in through the little door. My hips barely cleared the sides. From there I had to prop myself up on the tarp and lean over the "heap of debris" to snip four sides of chicken wire, some of which had been buried under brown nasty stuff.

I would've asked my little boy for help in getting me a hand shovel, but I was so scared that he'd let the chickens out while I was still in the run and I'd be forced to try to wedge myself out of their coop while being attacked. So I didn't call for him. He didn't notice mom in the chicken coop.

Anyway, it took awhile, but I got the chicken wire loose and was able to move the coop to a nice, lush grass area without straining any muscles. Though it's hard for a chicken to smile through a beak, it did appear they were happier.

And the day is only half over!! I wonder what else I can manage to accomplish today!
- posted by Christine @ 2:39 PM

 
I don't know if my 4-year-old son is a DJ in the making or what, but he has this fascination and desire to carry around a radio and play music for me. If I tell him to turn it off, he completely breaks down into a blubbering mess of skin and tears. Yesterday I was sick and needed to lay down. "Mama! I want to play da music!" So I said OK, I was going to close my eyes and he could play something quiet. He pops into his machine a cassette of Austrailian bird sounds (where did he get this tape?) and it actually wasn't too bad. Only trouble was when a quiet bird would come on, he'd accuse me of turning down his radio. He'd turn up the volume only to have my ears pierced with the next really loud Austrailian bird.

I didn't get much of a nap.

At four years old, he raids my battery supply and is oftentimes coming up to me and saying, "Da C batteries dead. Get me more Cs." At Christmas time he was very persistent that he only wanted a radio that played CDs. Then when he found my highschool stash of cassettes, he decided he needed a tape player. Thank goodness I'm not old enough to have 8-tracks.



- posted by Christine @ 11:36 AM

 
Well I guess I'm getting the winter blues because I'm already thinking about summer and thinking road trip.

I love road trips. If you've read my summer 2003 trip (link on main page), you'll see it doesn't have to be the most flawless trip for me to have fun. In fact, the more troubles the better (discounting losing a child and having the car break). Makes for a better story, anyway.

I do have to say, however, I will never ever drive to Las Vegas again.

My parents are driving to Florida, from Washington state, this spring. How long will it take to get to Florida, six weeks? My husband drove from Los Angeles to the East Coast in his old Pinto, all his belongings crammed inside, alone, with no radio when he was going to basic training. He said he stopped once and it was miserable. Hopefully, for my mother's sake, my dad will stop the car more than once.

So, crossing Florida and Las Vegas off my list, where should our next road trip adventure lead us to?

Since I've been married, we've driven to the largest mall in the world (Edmonton, Canada), down the Oregon Coast, over to Eastern WA, and then the infamous Vegas trip. We've toyed with the idea of driving to Southern CA to see where my husband grew up, but last time I checked my atlas, that's almost as agonizing a drive as Vegas.

My aunt, cousin, mom and I took a few long drives, the longest one probably the trip to San Francisco. We kept ourselves incredibly entertained with road games, lots of snacks, and tons of laughs (the hot water on the pancake occured during this trip and hasn't let down since).

I've taken multiple drives with friends in my younger days. I've been up and down the coasts of WA and OR, through the center of the two states, and back. Although most trips with friends ended in fights and included sleeping in less-than-adequate hotels whose roofs sunk in when it rained, we always had fun. Just getting there is always the best part (although, now with children, getting there also includes having toys thrown at you, listening to whining about getting the same Happy Meal toy as the last stop, and urine-soaked pants).

So now it's February and I'm getting an itch to take another drive this summer. I'd leave tomorrow if I could. Where to go. Preferably a trip that would take less than two days. Fun stops along the way. Somewhere I haven't been before.

Any ideas?
- posted by Christine @ 2:18 PM

 
Driving down the road, half mile past my daughter's school, slowing down to stop at the stop sign when something hits the roof my car, hard.

My little boy in the back looks up from spinning his Calliou CD that he's been carrying around for weeks. "What was DAT?" he yells.

I slow down and look out the windows. "I don't know" I said. Except for that enormous crack across my windshield (a cop magnet), there wasn't any broken glass. The tires still seemed to be rounded. The roof of my car didn't appear to have a meteor sticking through.

When we got home I looked atop the car to find....nothing.

Kind of odd, but there were trees along that part of the road, so I'll just chalk it up to a dead squirrel or something and let it go.
- posted by Christine @ 11:19 PM