Creeping Creepers

Giving me the jeepers!

The time I was almost scared to death.

Let me set the scene.

The players…my gorgeous daughter.

And my sweet girl Salem.

Also, my husband was in on this “plan”.

See how in this photo, the chair has it’s back to the windows. Those windows are the back door. Straight in front the chair is the front door. So, if say…I was SITTING in that chair. I could not see the backdoor, but I could see the front door. And really? I don’t have to worry. The dogs go ballistic when someone comes to the door. Anyone! Even me.

So, imagine me in the chair pictured above. I am watching TV and minding my own biz. The dogs are lounging (remember I have three). Then, they set off to the front door, but not barking. I thought maybe Jason and Sydney got home, they had dropped the little kids at their mom’s. Is it possible they knew it was them and didn’t bark? A miracle!

Turns out they were just doing recon. They just kinda stood around, and didn’t seem to “sense” any presence. My biggest dog, Salem, turns around from the front door to the back door and immediately her hair STANDS ON END. And she starts barking like I have never heard her bark in my life. It’s like paws down, back up, and every muscle tense in fight mode. Her bark is at full roar.

In my mind, I thought… OH MY GOSH, she is barking like someone is at the back door.

That’s when I turn around and I SEE FACES at the backdoor.

I, nearly, lost it.

It was just Sydney.

And Jason.

Laughing at me while I clutched my chest about to keel over.

And that is the time I was MOST startled in my life.

Someday…..I’m going to get them back for that.

2.) Describe a time you felt startled.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Launch

On January 10, 2012 By AngeliaIn Life is what you make it.22 Comments

The march of a clock’s hands advance as if catapulted into the future.

Our lives follow….tick tock…..tick tock.

The Future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is. ~C.S. Lewis

Time is a brisk wind, for each hour it brings something new… but who can understand and measure its sharp breath, its mystery and its design? ~Paracelsus

Each moment has its sickle, emulous
Of Time’s enormous scythe, whose ample sweep
Strikes empires from the root.
~Edward Young

Whether we wake or we sleep,
Whether we carol or weep,
The Sun with his Planets in chime,
Marketh the going of Time.
~Edward Fitzgerald

Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires. ~Charles Caleb Colton

I don’t know about you, but as I age, the years fly by faster, than the years before. The days stream one into another as TIME launches its way through our lives; Rampant and hungry for more.

Would I stop time if I could? I would highly consider it.

Hope you liked a different take on the challenge.

Mom’s Easy Lasagna Recipe

On January 9, 2012 By AngeliaIn FAMILY, Temptation station15 Comments

It’s been a while since I posted about cooking with Mom. I still have TONS of recipes, and hopefully, more future cooking time with her.

If you don’t know me, let me just say…..cooking is not my thing. Burning is my thing. Spilling is my thing. Sloshing stuff on the stove is my thing….but cooking? Not so much. Your welcome.

However my second Mom, Jason’s Mom, is an amazing cook and a very wonderful person inside and out. Being with her is like getting a great big HUG. You leave feeling loved and like you are a better person from just being around her.

Jason loves to cook. Sydney loves to cook. Mom loves to cook.

Guess who watches, takes pictures, and eats?

That’s me! I love to do all three of those things. And I love Italian food, especially anything pasta-related. Spaghetti is the #1 on my favorite foods list. If you can make a mean spaghetti, I will love you forever.

And this lasagna? Definitely a top ten.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

I wasn’t there for the mixing.

Happily, I was there for the final product.

So do follow the directions, and you will end up with this……

Steaming hot lasagna….

We had this lasagna for dinner tonight. It was DELICIOUS. I am really glad I married a man that cooks (thanks to a mom that taught him). You can only eat TV dinners for so long.

What’s your favorite food?

The Internet Experiment: Unplugged 24 Hours

On January 8, 2012 By AngeliaIn Days and Nights24 Comments

I wish I could say it was easy.

I wish I was one of those people who engages and connects with physical things and not so much more with cyber things.

I wish I could say it didn’t change me, but it did…..

You wouldn’t think it would. A mere 24-hours with no access to games, Facebook, or email. No big deal, right? Normal people do it every day.

Do you know the last time I was without internet access? Before my laptop days…..before my smart phone days…..too long ago to really remember.

It makes me realize how I traded out one set of addictions for another (theory of my life).

The good news is…I did it.

I shut down the Mac. I powered off the iPhone and I put it on a shelf for 24-hours.

In fact, I left my phone on the shelf and left town. It was not even in my possession.

In a way I think I cheated a little. I knew I would be in a car for 6 hours of the 24, and in my defense, I have service during those three hours. But isn’t it a little easier to entertain oneself in the car versus a regular every day? Probably…

At 8pm, I faced the unknown. What do I do with NO social networking? No screen to tap. No notifications to review. I felt really ~~bitchy~~ twitchy. I felt a little out-of-body. I tried watching TV, but I just couldn’t get into it. Finally, Sydney, Brandon, and I went to out to eat. We left Jason on his Mac (no fasting for him!). Upon return, we fired up RockBand and I banged out my frustrations on the drums (such a great stress reliever). We actually toured with our band and did pretty well.

I went to bed EARLY, and the next morning…it wasn’t so bad. We left for Oklahoma to see my mom. I read a book (and darn near finished it). I tried not to look at Jason or Sydney’s phone. I was a little fearful I would SNATCH it from their hands and begin tap tap tapping the screen. I had to hold my fingertips close to my chest. Thankfully, I never embarrassed myself in the heat of an iPhone moment.

I watched the clock most of the day, and hated myself for it.

Sydney and Brandon watched ME most of the day (to see if I’d break down? Cry? Convulse?).

I did none of those things. I imagined life without an iPhone and internet service. I imagined the olden days when I lived in the country and we did not even have cable.

We explored the creek beds. We played board games. We talked. We listened. We had friends and family we visited in person.

Maybe, at the end of this experiment, I realized…….there are a lot of issues about the operation of my life I need to examine.

I’ll be honest. I really didn’t miss much. In fact, I probably missed the internet more than it missed me.

There were certainly some emails I expected to get that I didn’t.

It was disappointing…..yes…..but also, life enhancing.

I don’t have to be addicted to anything. I can put my phone down for a day.

I can disappear and it’s ALL okay.

I thought this post would come out differently. I planned this post to be funny. Amazing what happens when you are faced with yourself and nothing in between you and your soul.

I highly urge you to unplug one day, and just see what happens to the you that is waiting there.