My Chick Lit Life

My life has turned into a bad chick lit novel. Seriously. You know the books. They're always about a young woman who lives in the big city, going through adventure after adventure while living the single life. Yup, my life is now kind of like that, just more embarassing and less exciting. Something happened yesterday that just about killed me from embarassment. Seriously, it was through no fault of my own. Okay, maybe it was partly my fault, but most of it was someone else's. Is this confusing you? Good, then I'm not the only one! Sorry, no further details will be given to protect the pride of the embarrassed. (That's me.)



If you're looking for a good chick lit read, try one of these on for size. They're great.

Jemima J., by Jane Green

Good in Bed, Jennifer Weiner

Asking for Trouble, Elizabeth Young

Angels, Marian Keyes

For Better, For Worse, by Carole Matthews

Sharing the Love... er, Savings

Last night A. and I went to a local feed and supply store to get Lucky a new halter. The bighead now needs a "yearling" size. It's hard to believe. Well, she is almost two, but still! She's a blessing, traviesa that she is. Anyhow, last week we got a coupon in the mail for $10 off so it was the perfect time to go and pick up the halter.

You know how sometimes you have a coupon that you don't need, but you wish that someone else could enjoy the savings? We got in line behind this guy who was buying a pair of workboots... and our other coupon happened to be for 15 percent off leather shoes/boots. I was a bit embarrassed (okay, I turned red) but I asked him if he was using a coupon for his shoes. When he said no, I offered him ours. He was surprised, but after a half-second he said yes. :) He saved $19 with the coupon!! When he left he thanked me for offering it. It just made my night. Plus it saved him a few bucks.

Why don't you try to do something nice for a stranger today? Even if it's a bit out of your comfort zone. You might make their day- or yours. One site that I like to visit is Operation Nice. It's all about being nice to others. Why don't you go by?

Remember These?

Isn't this the cutest cassette ever? Do you see how it's personalized? Yup, I did that! And you can, too. You can make your own here.

You can even make a VHS, too. Don't pretend you don't know what those are! I have tons of VHS that I can't bear to get rid of. Maybe they take up more space than DVDs, but I paid good money for them (50 cents to $1.00 at garage sales and thrift stores). There's no way I'm getting rid of them anytime soon!

Wow- An Amazing Apron Giveaway!

Calamity Kim is having a terrific giveaway. It's shock full of interesting crafty/crafted items. The goodies include a tea-drinking doll, a signed copy of an apron mag, a cookbook, an apron dishtowel, a mini apron, etc., etc. There are too many things to name. This is the type of giveaway that a person can win and then spend hours exploring. :) If you can, you should run on over and sign up. Good luck!

What Luck!

It's been a day full to bursting with luck. Both good luck and bad luck. What do I mean? Well...

Good luck: A. and I won tickets to the 2nd Annual Ladies Night Out Expo.

Bad luck: It was already dinnertime when we realized that the chicken house door was open and all the chickens but one were running wild.

Good luck: A. caught all the chickens.

Bad luck: While chicken-chasing, I noticed that there were mushrooms in Lucky's area. Which meant that I had to shovel them out before Lucky decided to eat them.

Good luck: We won a $30 Home Depot gift card at the Expo. Yay!

Bad luck: I misplaced my housekey and we had to wait out in the cold until my folks got home and let us in.

Good luck: My folks rescued us in time for me to take an online exam due tonight.

Bad luck: After taking the exam I noticed it's not due until next week. Which means I would have probably done better if I'd actually studied.

Good luck: Having a picture of Loca looking out the windows at the silly humans shivering out in the cold. Perfect to add to this post.

No, none of this is made up. Yes, it's actually in order. LOL! What a day of ups and downs.

Video of the Day: My Funny Valentine

My favorite sister in the whole wide world sent me a CD yesterday. :) The Waiting to Exhale soundtrack. Oh, yeah! I'd forgotten how it totally rocks. Here's probably my favorite song from the whole CD. Isn't Chaka Khan gorgeous? Enjoy!

A Good Night's Rest

Yesterday I took care of some stuff around the yard. Pelon, our ill-fated dove friend, was buried close to our little black hen. Lucky got the chance to run around and eat a bit of the green grass on the other side of the fence. Big Mama was finally chased into the henhouse, etc., etc.

After going in and eating a sandwich of itty-bitty-bantam-egg salad for dinner, I crashed. It was probably about 9 p.m. Wow. It felt so good to get a full night's sleep. No staying up late taking care of things in the house or reading up for school or anything. Pure bliss. Do you get a good night's rest every night? If you're not sure, maybe you should take a scientifically validated test to find out. Sweet dreams!

BTW, this pic was borrowed found here.

Handmade Jewelry Online

One of the things that I have been loving lately is handmade jewelry. Not handmade by me, but handmade by gifted artisans that live in the internet somewhere. Not too long ago I got daughter A. a cute necklace from SweetHeartSinner, a wonderful artist on Etsy. This is one of her necklaces. Doesn't it just scream girl power?

BTW, this pic is borrowed from sweetheartsinner's shop on etsy.

Just the other day, though, I found a terrific site called artfire.com. This is just like etsy.com, but it doesn't charge seller fees like Etsy. This sometimes means that the sellers adjust their pricing accordingly. A good deal for all around, right? :)

Now, if I can only keep myself from buying really cute stuff that I really shouldn't. Like cherry earrings from Paw & Claw Designs. Yes, cherry earrings! Doesn't everybody have cherry earrings? Well, if you don't, maybe you should hurry. As artfire's featured artisan of the week, Paw & Claw Designs is offering 20% off and I just found out that today is the last day to get the discount.

BTW, this gorgeous pic is borrowed from Paws & Claws's shop.

Video of the Day: La Vida es un Carnaval

This song came on the radio and I thought of A. Baby, this one is for you.



The following lyrics came from here, I just changed them up a bit to make them a tad more accurate.

Translated lyrics:

All of those people that think that life's unfair,
Need to know that it's not like that,
Because life is a beautiful thing, you have to live it.
All of those people that think that they are alone and that that's bad
Need to know that it's not like that,
Because in life no one is alone, there is always someone

Ay, there's no need to cry, because life is a carnival,
It's more beautiful to live singing.
Oh, ay, there's no need to cry,
For life is a carnival
And your pains can be alleviated through song.

Ay, there's no need to cry, because life is a carnival,
It's more beautiful to live singing.
Oh, ay, there's no need to cry,
For life is a carnival
And your pains can be alleviated through song.

All of those people that think that life is always harsh,
Need to know that it's not like that,
That there are just bad times, and everything changes.
Everyone out there, that thinks that this will never change,
Need to know that it's not like that,
The bad times will turn, it will all pass.

Ay, there's no need to cry, because life is a carnival,
It's more beautiful to live singing.
Oh, ay, there's no need to cry,
For life is a carnival
And your pains can be alieviated through song.

Ay, there's no need to cry, because life is a carnival,
It's more beautiful to live singing.
Oh, ay, there's no need to cry,
For life is a carnival
And your pains can be alieviated through song.

You should laugh.
To enjoy, to triumph.

For those that complain forever.
For those that only critisize.
For those that use weapons.
For those that contaminate us.
For those that live sinning.
For those that make war.
For those that mistreat us.
For those that make us sick.

Farm Life

So, do we live on a farm, or what? Yesterday, we had an exciting day. Not all in a good way. One of our dogs got our little black hen. After she got ahold of her by the neck, the dog wouldn't let go. It took a good five minutes to get the hen away from her.

They say that a good way of breaking a dog of being a chickenkiller is to tie the chicken around the dog's neck until it starts to rot. The dog will then stay away from chickens from then on. But how could we do that to the sweet little hen? There's no way. So now she's buried in the yard, with a nice pile of Lucky soil on top for good measure. Poor thing. She was caught unaware, so surprised that an egg popped right out of her. She's the only chicken that would get out and she'd been getting out for a few days now. Hopefully none of the others will find her secret passageway.

After the burial, you'll never guess what we had at the end of our driveway. A beautiful little bull. I was afraid that he'd go off and get hit by a car, so we tried to catch him with a pile of hay and a bucket of grain. I figured I'd just tie him to a tree until his owner came looking for him. Armed with a smallish stick (his pretty horns looked fierce) we tried to catch him, but he was skittish. Luckily, his owner swooped in with and went after him instead. He was adorable. The bull, not the owner. Maybe we should get a cow? Then we'd have eggs and milk. Sweet!

Here's a pic of a little bull that looks really similar to our visitor. Only our visitor had pretty little curved horns like Elsie the Cow, just a bit bigger and way sharper. His owner said that he's not a Zebu, but some kind of cross- a Gazebu or something. :)

BTW, this pic was found here.

Mending Fences

Our feisty filly, Lucky, used to be bored and lonely until we put the chicken house right next door to her. It's the ideal location. Now the chickens have their spacious chicken house and Lucky has round-the-clock chickovision. She'll just stand there for hours watching the crazy goings-on right next door to her.

You know how someone once said that good fences make good neighbors? Well... this Saturday Lucky and the chickens weren't good neighbors- for lack of a good dividing fence.

The culprit:

We didn't discover the gaping hole until late Saturday. Thank God all the chickens turned out alright. They're now all accounted-for. Black&White, my favorite rooster, was camped out on the covered porch. Big Mama was sleeping in a tree somewhere. The others were tucked away in their house.

So while other folks were out enjoying their evening, A. and I were busy repairing a fence. Truth be said, this was my first real fence reparation. Personally, I don't think it looks that bad. Then again, it was hard to really see it in the dark!

Spurs/Mavs game

Last night A. and I went to the game at the American Airlines Center. Somehow, what I had envisioned as a Mother-Daughter outing a few months ago had changed into an extended family affair. After a hurried drive and a McD's run, we got there in plenty of time. It only took a trek almost completely around the arena for us to find our seats. Come to find we were almost totally surrounded by rowdy Mavs fans. Can you imagine?



Anyhow, the first half of the game rocked, with the Spurs leading almost continuously. Then something happened and the Mavs fought back. It was an exciting finish. Los Mavs won. Drat.

BTW, see that pic? Yup, I took it on beautiful pink camera #2. We couldn't let the game go by without snapping some shots!

Buying Feed

Yesterday, A. and I hit the feed store. Nothing makes a person feel more self-sufficent than going out and buying feed. We picked up some bales of coastal, bags of grain, chicken scratch, even pigs ears for the dogs. Sorry, but the girls are meatlovers. It was funny. After giving the dogs their treats, I tried to call one of them to me. She took off instead, thinking that I was going to take away her goody!

Anyhow, self-sufficient women that we are, we still welcomed a bit of male assistance putting everything away after we got home. Of course, it's not that A. & I couldn't do it ourselves, it's just that help is always nice. :)

BTW, this pic was found here. :)

Dedicated to My Husband

Today's video is of Ana Gabriel singing Selena's Tu, Solo Tu. I tried to find a video of Selena singing this live (near impossible- thanks, Quintanilla family!) and instead discovered Ana Gabriel's homage to her.



Like many things in life, this song's lyrics can have more than one meaning. Here's my translation of the lyrics from Spanish to English:

Look how I am, my love
Because your love
Drunk and passionate
Just because your love

Look how I am, goodness
Inclined to drunkeness and perdition

You, only you
Have filled my life with mourning
Opening a wound in my heart

You, only you
are the cause of all of my crying
Of my disenchantment and desperation

Only your deadly shadow
Shadow of evil
Follows me everywhere, obstinately

And because I want to forget you
I throw myself into drunkeness and perdition

You, only you
Have filled my life with mourning
Opening a wound in my heart

You, only you
are the cause of all of my crying
Of my disenchantment and desperation

Depressing, huh? Sorry, it's still a great song!

Bad Weekend

Without going into detail, let me just say that this was the worst weekend of my life. Saturday night a friend came by to help me through it. We sat around talking and drinking. Talking and drinking is a lot better than crying and worrying, don'tcha think? Well, we ended up going out to a C&W place with another friend. It was a distraction. Such a distraction that the cruda stayed with me until about 5 p.m. on Sunday!

Today's video reminds me of the music that they played Saturday night: