Thank You John Rich!

This means so much to me. Being from here in Michigan my families roots are in the American auto industry. Proud people who have spent their lives on the line trying to make a good product.

I've watched my family & friends lose jobs they've held for 25+ years, lose benefits, seen guaranteed retirement packages "un-guaranteed" and cut.

John Rich from the country duo Big & Rich wrote this song about "Shuttin' Detroit Down" in the last week or so.

Here's a link to a clip of him talking about the song on a local Detroit radio station, where he debuted the song for the first time anywhere. It's just him discussing the song and his reasons for writing it. For some reason it doesn't have him playing the song in studio.

http://wycd.com/John-Rich-on--Shuttin--Detroit-Down--/3736399


Here's the only video I could find out there so far of him actually singing the song, at a radio station in New Jersey. Skip to about the 2:30 mark to bypass the other stuff if you just want to get to the song.



I don't know much about why the big banks got their bail out, but I can tell you about what I see here in Michigan. Proud hard working people doing often crappy jobs, but coming in and doing them every day.

My dad worked in the foundry for awhile. It's filthy, it's loud and it's about a million degrees in a foundry where they melt down metal. That makes standing on a line all day trying to put the same part on the each car every single time seem like a picnic. Shiftwork? Yeah lots of it, afternoons & midnights. When my dad was on the day shift he was up by 4:00 am every morning to be on the line by 5:00.

My grandfather, uncles, almost all doing this same work. None of them expect a medal for it, it was or is their job. They just hope for some loyalty so they can keep bringing their paychecks home, keep food on the table & maybe enjoy a little vacation "up north" on their weeks off.

What's sitting in your driveway?

One World One Heart!

OK, so I decided that I have to be a part of this amazing blog event. In just it's 3rd year, Lisa "oceandreamer" Swifka's event has over 600 bloggers worldwide participating in her gypsy caravan. The point of this, to meet new bloggers & give stuff away! Fun, huh?

Click here for Lisa's thoughts about this awesome event.

As a last minute participant, I just threw together a few things.

A magnetic family phone list, this is dry erase & awesome for all the info you always need & can never find.

A cute dishtowel with the little removable star.

A rose covered notepad that also has a magnet on the back to stick to your fridge.




I have an idea twitching around in my brain for a couple other things that I may throw into the prize pot, so keep your eyes peeled!

While you're here relax & take a look around. I'd also like to invite you to check out my other blogs.

Devotional Daze is my journey through this life on a Christian path.

The Daily Oskar is the adventures of Oskar our miniature schnauzer.


Back to the main event, here's how to enter.

Leave a comment on this post. Any comments on other posts are appreciated, but not eligible for the contest.

I must be able to contact you. If your post doesn't link back to a blog, please leave me an e-mail address where I can contact you.

Entries for this giveaway will close on Wednesday 2/11 at midnight. Winner will be announced Thursday 2/12.

Don't forget to stop by One World One Heart to check out all of the other fantastic giveaways!

Not Me Monday

I did not force my son to help me make a bucket brigade of hot water to free my pot of soup that was frozen on the patio.

I did not make my cat wear a sweatshirt that I knew she would hate, just because I knew it would make me laugh.

I am not so addicted to blogging that I started a third blog...for my dog...

My husband in no way understands how this male lion feels.

I did not fling down & then stomp on a whole stack of paper plates because they are so glued together you cannot seperate them. This would set a bad example for the children.

I did not laugh in my 16 yr. old's face when he tried to broach the subject of a spring break trip to Florida. Okay, I'm lying, I totally laughed in his face, I'm still laughing, BaaaaaHahahahahaha!

I did not spend over $30 on re-usable shopping bags only to leave them in the van every single time I go shopping.

For more "Not Me Monday" check out MckMamma's Blog.

Musical Monday

Music, more than anything else, can take me back to a place in time. Good ones & bad ones. That's why I love Music Memory Monday hosted by Diane & Jori.

Elvis. Do NOT leave me a comment dissin' Elvis. Fat or skinny, the man had an amazing voice. I think it's just hearbreaking that people took advantage of him, used him up, to the point of ruination.

Did you know that the only international concerts Elvis ever played were 5 concerts in Canada in 1957? His "manager" Colonel Tom Parker was legally unable to leave the country, so Elvis didn't do any world tours.

Anyhow, this is a fun song that Chris & I found when we were on one of our infamous road trips in northern Michigan. It's just so happy & full of 70's silliness that it makes us smile. Chris knows that this is one of the songs that he can play for me, that will make me smile, no matter what.

How do you not smile at the line, "But we've yet to taste the icing on the cake that we've been baking with the past"? Pure 70's genius I say!

And really, the little teen girls can yell about the Jo Bros' all they want, but none of them is gonna look like this anytime soon!

The Next Step Is Love

BTW ladies, if you've never seen what all the fuss about Elvis is try watching his 68 comback special. The black leather is killer!

Great Giveaway!

The new button on my sidebar is for a fantastic giveaway from April at April Showers. You have chances of winning one of 2 blog makeovers or one of 2 baskets of goodies from Mark by Avon!

Go, now, I'll wait!

I Have The Maturity Of A 12 Year Old Boy

OK, every time I see a commercial for this new medication I giggle like a fool. It's a medication for acid reflux.

It's called AcipHex. This is pronounced ass-eh-fex. Or in my puerile brain ass effects.

I'm laughing just writing this. No wonder my boys claim that I'm "different than the other moms."

Book Review

Normally I put my book reviews under the "Books" tab at the top, but this book was so good I wanted all of you to read about it.

The Geography of Love is a memoir by Glenda Burgess. It's a love story about her relationship with her husband and eventually his cancer. I read a lot of memoirs, biographies & autobiographies, but this one really moved me.

The emotion in her writing & storytelling caught me in a place that few books do. I cried. I felt her story. But unlike some writings about cancer, even through the agony & ugliness there is always beauty in her tale.

I would recommend this book to everyone, it will really move you.

Scrambled Eggs & Sunshine

Last night JD asked me how to make scrambled eggs. It was 10:30 at night & I wasn't feeling well. My first thought was negative, but it only took a second for the lightbulb to go on. My grunt-for-an-answer, I don't need your help, almost 17 year old son was asking for my help!

A chance for real interaction with my boy. The angels were singing here in Mimi-ville.

I hopped up & got out the little pan, while I told him to crack the eggs on the counter, not the edge of the cup. Cracking them on the counter creates less chances for bits of shell to get into...

The eggs were cracked on the edge of the mug. My son explained to me that he had taken "lifeskills" and in that required class they told him how to crack eggs. On the rim of the receptacle. In Lifeskills class they learned how to crack eggs to make brownies. They also learned how to make root beer floats. If the class is called Lifeskills wouldn't scrambled eggs actually be a more useful life skill than ice cream floats?

Anywho, guess who had shells inside of his eggs? Of course I had to pick them out becasue my Sunshine will not do any activity that required his fingers to get icky. Ever. In preschool the teacher thought he had been badly injured when she put his little hands in finger paint. I was at the school & they called me into the room because they couldn't figure out why he was howling. He was crying too hard to tell them that he didn't want his hands glopped up with paint.

Once we got the stray shells out, (I did make him try), I put some margarine in the warm pan & told him that we needed to wait for it to bubble. I had to laugh watching this 6 ft. tall, 16 year old holding his mug of eggs, waiting, waiting, waiting for the butter to get hot enough. Patience is not the strong suit of my Sunshine!

I've never worked harder to make something so simple come out perfect. I wanted him to know how much these few moments meant to me. I showed him how to cook the eggs slowly & move them around to get flully curds of egg.

He said "Thank you" and proceeded to put ketchup on my perfect plate of eggs, but it didn't matter. Those eggs were a type of love letter, a thank you for the small moments that I have learned to appreciate above almost all other. The times I miss the most as he grows into his own man and away from being my Sunshine.

Our Sunday Pork-O-Rama

My younger son Jack LOVES bacon. All of us are pretty fond of pork breakfast products.

A while ago I found a recipe of sorts online for a bacon cheese log. Jack has been begging me to make one ever since. Since I couldn't leave well enough alone, and because I didn't know if the bacon cheese log would be tasty or disgusting, I also made sausage balls. I got the sausage ball recipe from my friend Alicia at Confessions of a Snowflake.

The first step in the bacon cheese log is the weaving of the bacon.



Jack sending his bacon-y goodness into the oven. (Those are his pj's, not a bad fashion statement)



This is how it looked after we cooked it in the oven.



Add the layer of cheesy goodness,



A boy and his bacon. Our bacon was too crispy so if folded instead of rolling.



Ahh, at last we can sit down & enjoy our porky feast!

Musical Monday

Diane from Good Mourning, Glory & Jori from Jeff & Me + 3, are hosing Musical Monday.

Now I can happily go from a John Denver song to a Suicidal Tendancies song on one I-Pod play list (my husband accuses me of giving him musical whiplash) so this always seems like a huge choice to me, what to pick?

My theme for today is happiness, so I pick a Tim McGraw song that makes me happy every single time I hear it. (I totally did not get distracted looking at images of Tim McGraw while I was looking for this video {sorry honey})

Just To See You Smile. I couldn't find a good video, this one is mostly just words on the screen, but enjoy!

Not Me Monday

It was not me who fell asleep while eating Milk Duds on our fold out couch. It is also not me who was "found out" when her family noticed carmel stuck to the rear of her sweatpants & on the quilt I was laying on. Anyone know how to get carmel out of material. Not that I need to know!

It was not me who whined all Friday about having to start college classes Saturday morning, only to have a great time on Saturday & then decide maybe I should pursue a further degree. It has not been me who has taken 5 years to get a 2 year degree.

It was not me who let my sons off the hook when it came to cleaning their rooms, because I just didn't have it in me to care anymore.

There is no way I got up & drove to the bank & library this morning only to find them closed for MLK day. I would know it's a national holiday since my kids are home from school today!

I did not start crying when I was typing a forum message about my dream for 2009 being to feel happy on a regular basis. Depression robs people of their happiness, I am not gonna be that person anymore! (for reals)

Dang it, I also didn't burn the last 3 pieces of bacon that I was using to make my sons lunch. There's no way I would burn them because I was typing this blog post!

For more Not Me Monday fun, check out MckMama

Camera Critters

This is Amani the baby aardvark. He was born 12/23 at the Detroit Zoo.

This is his press release photo, not one I took, but I figured how many times do you get to see a pic of a baby aardvark?

For more info on Amani click here.

For more Camera Critter fun click here.

No Soup For You!

I love to make soup. It's like therapy for me. I make some really good ones too. Potato with ham & bacon, 15 bean, roasted tomato.

A few days ago I made a nice minestrone. Lots of veggies, some beans, pork & pasta. Since my fridge is full (even though we have "nothing to eat" according to my teen boys") I put my pot of soup on the back patio. It was about 35 degrees, so it was great.

Then the cold snap came to town...today it's in the negative degrees without the windchill factor. We also got some drizzly snow. Now my soup sits right outside my sliding glass door, mocking me. It looks like this.



It's frozen in place really, really well & covered over with thick ice. At least it's frozen so I can eat it once I can get it out!

The Game

If you're here to play the game, have a look around for on my blog a clue can be found!

(This is a game set up by Tina from Life In The Lapadula House, if you didn't sign up for it, just disregard this post!)

1. Mom Knows Everything

2. Mummy Diaries

3. Life In The Lapadula House

4. Super Mae

5. It Is Nap Time

6. Music Mondays

7. I Beati

8. Screaming Mimi

9. Live The Life Of ADreamer

10. Max A Dogs Story

11. Lady Banana

12. Game Freakz

13. A Little Girl Talk

14. Tell Me The Truth

15. Gossip Avenue

16. My Sweet Escape

Picture Tag!

Lynette over at Lynette's L.A.M. Blog tagged me with the picture game. I had to go to my fourth folder & pick out the fourth picture. No cropping or editing allowed, so here it is.



I think most of you have met Chloe. She's my chubby calico kitty. She's made herself at home on the coat that Jack was supposed to wear this year. My mom goes to all the end of season sales & buys stuff for my boys. She got this coat for Jack a couple of years ago. Last winter is was still too big. This winter, too small!

Hey, it's still hanging new in my closet. Lynette, thanks for tagging me with this, I'm gonna grab it & drop it off at a shelter tomorrow!

Now I'm supposed to tag 4 people.

Lynnette at Diamond in the Rough

Diane at Good Mourning, Glory

Rachael at Scientific Nature of the Whammy

Kat at Kat's Daily Inspiration

Disparate & Multifarious

Disparate: containing or made up of fundamentally different and often incongruous elements.

Multifarious: having or occurring in great variety.

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Do Xanax & caffeine cancel each other out? I'll let you know.

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During the day I occasionally catch one of the "Watch Me Pop Out A Baby" stories that are on.

I'm often struck by comments that make me roll my eyes so hard I'm afraid they won't return to normal.

Comments like, "I never imagined that anything could go wrong", (usually uttered by a woman who considers armpit hair freeing & names the child Snow Fawn Xenu). You wanna have a natural experience, great, but given the mechanics of the operation how can you not imaging things going wrong.

"I didn't expect it to hurt so much", crazymammasaywhat? Do these women not know how the baby is supposed to exit?

And the one that makes me laugh out loud, "Now that we're home from the hospital, we can get a good nights sleep", yes, now that there is no one to take your baby to the nursery so you can sleep, all your troubles are solved.

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In the winter I usually don't wear a coat. They make me feel trapped & smothery. I keep a warm coat, hat, mittens, etc. in the mom-van in case of emergencies. I would just prefer to walk from the car to the store and be cold for a minute than wear that coat. For all the people out there,

I realize that I am not wearing a coat! I do not need you to point this out to me!

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I know that working at a fast food restaurant may not be the job that some people want to do, but don't you think that they could at least try to hit the bun with the meat/fish patty? This is especially annoying on the sandwiches with cheese. The cheese cements the patty in place, so that when you try to remedy the situation you just tear up the bun.

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One of the 49 Duggar children got married. Like all else Duggar, it will be a TLC special. In the previews they show Dad Duggar, starting to explain the facts of life to Groom-to-be Duggar. Do we really think that after Mom Duggar has been knocked up this many times, this young man still thinks the stork brings the baby?

Tuesday's Tip Jar

At holiday time there are often ham and turkey carcasses left over after the yummy meals. I bring these home & use them to make homemade stock.

Cover your meat bone with water, add a small quartered onion, a couple of broken carrots & a couple of broken sticks of celery. You want to clean your veggies, but you don't need to peel them at all. Simmer for about 2 hourse uncovered.

Skim out all veggies & bones then pour stock thru a cheesecloth lined strainer. If you don't have cheesecloth you can use a nice clean kitchen towel, just make sure it's not a fuzzy one! I freeze my stock in 1 & 2 cup amounts to use in my soups.

It's really not a lot of work & the taste of homemade stock is totaly worth it!

For more Tuesday's Tip Jar, check out Blog Mommas.

**I'd like to invite all of my Tuesday Tip Jar friends to stop by my Devotional Daze blog to enter my Inspiration Giveaway. Today is the last day to enter!

I did not fall back asleep this morning not waking up until after 12:00 noon completely blowing my whole day.

I did not forget about ground beef browning on the stove because I was looking at a gossip website.

I did not tell my Dad, who is working so hard on my bathroom, that the power was out, because I just needed a day of quiet

I did not to a crappy job of "Not Me Monday" because I have no time, since I did not sleep until noon!

<For more Not Me Monday fun, check out MckMama

Camera Critters

This is the story of Oskar. Say hello, Oskar.

Well Oskar seems to be sleeping lying-in-wait, but he says hello.

I've gotten some questions on why his name is spelled the way it is instead of Oscar. The answer is that my husband is 100% German & schnauzers are German dogs. My mother in law says Oskar is the authentic German spelling of the name.

When we met Oskar he was 2 days old.

8 weeks later we brought him home. To little Oskar the world was a very big place.

Oskar worked hard protecting Jack, his youngest boy.

God makes baby schnauzers very cute, so that their people don't kill give up on them, because baby schnauzers, or at least baby Oskars, are very naughty. See how cute?

Chloe! Get that look off of your face, this is a story about Oskar. Maybe you can be next week.

As you can see, Oskar grew to be a good camper,

sun bather,

and occasional hat model!

Oskars do not care for thunderstorms. Hey, even Superman had his kryptonite!

Oskar adapts easily to many situations. Notice how he transitions easily from everday napping...

to holiday napping, without even breaking a sweat?

Since we live in Michigan it can be very snowy.

Oskar works very hard to help clear the driveway, by bringing as much snow possible into the house.

As you can see, miniature schnauzers are very helpful pets. Say goodbye, Oskar.

**I would like to invite all of my Camera Critter friends, to stop by my other blog, Devotional Daze, to enter my Inspiration Giveaway!

For more Camera Critter fun click here.