No Daydreaming Today

I have a problem in church sometimes, well, a lot of times. I find the meetings kind of boring and find myself thinking about everything in the world except what someone is trying to teach me. It is something I seem to always be working on - trying harder to pay attention. Especially in Sunday School. We have been in a lot of different wards and branches over the years, and Sunday School seems to be the most boring class ever. Usually I find some excuse to stay out in the hall or in the library - anywhere other than the chapel where we have our adult SS class. Well, today was different. I went because we had a substitute teacher, and I wanted to show my support. As I told him later, this was the best class I have ever attended - ever. I can always judge how well a teacher is by how much I daydream in class. Today's was the first I can remember not daydreaming at all! He was interesting, he personalized the scriptures, he told stories, and he was hilarious. I will tell one thing he told us. He was talking about people going to church and criticizing things about the church, and how they should find a church they agreed with and go to that church. Then he said, "There are doors all over this building." He then went on immediately to another topic, and it took a few of us a couple seconds to realize what he had just said. You could see people's shoulders shaking with laughter. It was a very enjoyable class. I wish he was our teacher every Sunday. So, have you guessed who it is yet? I'll give you a clue. The very first time I met him I was working at a pizza restaurant. He came up to me as he was leaving and asked what time I got off. I was thrilled, thinking he wanted to get together afterwards. I said I got off at midnight, and he said, "That's past my bedtime," and walked out.

I Got A Bid!!!

I am taking an Ebay class at SCC. So last week I put two things on Ebay, then last Tuesday night, at the end of the auction, I had no bids on either one. I was really disappointed. So this week I put three different things on, and last night I looked, and one of them had a bid! I am excited. It is just $9.99, but still. I am having trouble learning about putting pictures on there, and now, of course, I will have trouble with shipping. So, wish me luck!

If anyone wants to see my stuff, one is a Jesus clock, one is a praying hands figurine made out of slag glass, and the other is a gemstone ashtray in the shape of Texas. You can probably find this stuff. I just see it on "My Ebay". Mom gave me this stuff. I need ideas of other stuff to put on. Any suggestions?

Say It Ain't So Eric

Boy was I wrong. All this time I have been pulling for Eric Rudolph. I thought he probably did the abortion clinic bombing, but not thinking anyone was inside so as not to hurt anyone. But the Atlanta stuff I was absolutely sure they had the wrong guy. After they arrested Richard Jewell for it, and then realized he was innocent, I thought they just said it was Rudolph because no one could find him and he was easy to blame. So I was hoping they would never find him and he could just keep on living in the mountains - free as a bird, thumbing his nose at all the G-men looking for him. Now that he has admitted it, and especially today after saying, "I certainly did," and being so arrogant about everything, I hope he rots in prison. And one other thing. How can someone who is so against abortion because he believes in the sanctity of life commit these crimes?

An Unprecedented Event

This is going to be a long story - kind of. I don't know if any of you readers out there watch American Idol or not, but I have gotten into it this year. I now see why so many people watch it. It is cool. It reminds me of all those times I got out my pen and paper during the Miss North Carolina or Miss America pageants and did my own judging of the talent. There is a theme each week, and all the contestants will sing a certain song going along with this theme. For example, a song from the 80's, or a song from Billboard's Number One songs, or something like that. So it is fun to see which songs they will pick out and how well they do them. And then the really fun part is to watch the judging. Randy Jackson is pretty much positive about 70-80% of the time. He says things like, "You're the bomb," and says "dawg" a lot. Then there is Paula Abdul - she of "Straight Up" fame (and a few other 80's songs). She is about 95% positive. Hardly ever says anything bad about anyone. And then there's Simon. He is my favorite, and what he says usually goes. He is just, IMO, right on the money every time. Me and Mom were talking a couple nights ago about how he always says exactly what we were thinking about the performances. It is amazing. And so, if Simon doesn't like someone, they are usually either in the bottom three or booted out altogether. And, of course, if - in his opinion - they did a great performance, they will be around for awhile.

So, now to the gist of my post. Last week there was, in host Ryan Seacrest's words, "an unprecedented event" in the history of American Idol. What happens is on Tuesday nights the singers all do their performances, and at the end of the show the phone lines are open and all of America (or almost all) calls in to vote for their favorite performer. Then on Wednesday night they have a half hour show where they go back through the night before and then announce the bottom three, and then say who is the very bottom and is off the show - which is a little on the cruel side if you ask me. So, last week during the Tuesday show when they showed the phone numbers to call, they screwed up three of the numbers.

So on Wednesday night, which was supposed to be the short show, Ryan came out and explained what had happened the night before and how they had to throw out all the results of the phone calls, and they ended up doing the whole Tuesday show again, just showing clips of the performances. And then the phone lines were open at the end of that show.

Now, this is a long story to tell this next part. Because, I guess, they have to be on a tight schedule, they decided to have their short show the next night on Thursday. Now, this Thursday night show was only decided to happen on Wednesday. It was not advertised in TV Guide, or the newspapers or anything. So, I was thinking, well, no one knows about this, how are they going to know it is even on. And then it hit me. Most people in America were watching Wednesday night and heard him say it would be on tomorrow night. So, to make a long story short (or just to end it), today I saw in the paper the ratings for last week. Guess what was #4 for the whole week? Thursday night's no advertised show! What power.

An Easter Memory

Bennie had a post about Easter memories, and it reminded me of Union Grove. When I was 16, 17, 18, and 19 years old I went to Union Grove on Easter. It was a huge Fiddler's Convention that happened every year for three days on Easter weekend. It was estimated that 150,000 people attended this event. I loved going. If you can imagine a huge farm - I'm not sure how many acres - filled with tents. These were the old fashioned canvas tents that all looked alike. There were Port-A-Johns every 50 yards or so. Anyway, I didn't attend the music part - hardly anybody did. It was just a huge party. There were people from all over the country and some in Canada and that I met. All hippies. You could breathe and get high. The tents were lined up so there were wide paths like streets. We would walk around for hours. Everyone was really friendly. You could walk down these paths and half the people you walked by would invite you to come sit a while, talk, and smoke some pot - or hash - or opium, which I had never seen anywhere except this place. It was never around Elkin or Jonesville. There was no law enforcement that I saw. Kind of like a country Woodstock. My friends and I would get in free because the Starmount band director's father owned the place, and they would let us in. They had to close it down a few years after I stopped going because they had no control over it. I guess they realized just out of hand things had gotten. Anyway, I was just remembering this. Even though I'm a different person now than I was then, I still have sweet memories of that time.

Out of the Ballpark

Is anyone else getting tired of this baseball stuff? And didn't Mark McGwire tell everyone in the world - without saying anything of course - that he was a big steroid user? And doesn't Jose Canseco look goooooood? Just some thoughts.

I have a desk calendar of George Carlin (which Justin has too) that is really funny most days. On the 14th he was talking about cooking lobsters, and he made the comment that if lobsters looked like puppies no one could ever drop them in boiling water while they were still alive. But instead they look like science fiction monsters, so it's okay.

One more comment - Hooray for Ketek!!!!

Holes

I just saw this movie last night. It is a great movie. I had never heard of it until a friend at work mentioned it a couple weeks ago, how her family had liked it. And then it came on a free weekend on Starz, so I taped it, having no idea what it was about. It is one of those rare quirky movies that is actually good. There are a lot of quirky movies, and most of them are just dumb. I can probably count on one hand the good ones - Princess Bride, Neverending Story, Oh Brother Where Art Thou. So, how come I've never heard of this one? If you haven't already seen it, you should.

And while we're on the subject - has anyone read "The Broker" yet? John Grisham's newest. I am almost at the end - finally. It took a long time to get good. Usually I love his books, but this one is the exception. If I'd wanted an Italian lesson I would have taken a class. And that's all I have to say about that.

Oh yeah, Forrest Gump. One of the good ones.

On To The Regionals

I wanted to give an update on Starmount. They played in the conference tournament a couple weeks ago and won. Then last week they played in the sectional tournament and won that also. This week, on Wednesday, they will be playing in the regional tournament. If they win Wednesday and then Saturday, they will be playing in Raleigh for the STATE CHAMPIONSHIP! They have been good all year but have really improved in the last few weeks, IMO. During one of the conference tournament games, against South Stokes, Ryann Abraham broke the school record by scoring 46 points. He is so much fun to watch. The favored team to win the state is Thomasville. They will play Rosman at 7:00 on Wednesday, and then Starmount plays Maiden at 8:30. I am really hoping that Rosman beats Tville. And of course that we beat Maiden. I'll let you know what happens this week. GO RAMS!

Mouse in the Car!

I will tell you about what happened yesterday morning. Bennie and I had gone out with Rita, Robert, Seth, and Bente on Saturday (and had a really great time!), and Bennie had driven. So every time I get back in my car after he drives I have to take about five minutes to rearrange everything back to fit me. So, Sunday morning, Bennie had already left for church, and I went out to get in the car. So, I sat in the driver's seat and reached over to the passenger seat belt to get my clip. For those of you who don't know, I always use one of those big bulky paper clips to hold my seat belt back so it won't be so tight. And when Bennie drives, I take it off the driver's side and put it on the passenger side. SO ANYWAY, back to the story. I had reached over to take off the clip and then turned to put it on my seat belt on the driver's side. It was then that I heard the mouse! I turned to look, and the mouse was trying to climb up the seat belt. Well, that's what I thought. All I saw was the seat belt moving and just knew it was because a mouse was trying to climb up it. I was just about to jump out of the car when I realized it was just the seat belt going back into place after I took the stupid clip off.

What A Weekend!

I am resting today - which is good because this is a day of rest. I have had a hard weekend. It all started on Friday. Bennie and I needed a new television, as our old one has bit the dust. So we have been looking around now for a few weeks and getting ideas and prices. So Friday, we decided to go to Winston and just go ahead and buy one. We got to Winston about 11:00 a.m. and went first to Circuit City. We were walking around looking at all the TV's, when this one just blew me away. I should tell you that we were looking for a 32" flat screen TV for around $450-500. So we saw this Samsung 32", flat screen, but it was HD. I loved it, but it was too much. It was actually on sale for $750. And maybe I should explain, but everyone who reads this probably already knows, but HD and HD-ready are two different things. This is HD-ready. Which means that you have to buy something else for around $300, and then, since we are on Direct TV, we would have to pay $11 a month also. So, too much money. So Bennie and I started shopping around. We went to Sam's, Sears, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, etc., all the stores in Winston that sell TV's. But I couldn't get that one off my mind. Nothing else measured up. So, to make a long story short, we went back to Circuit City and bit the bullet and got that one.

So, now that we had a TV, we needed something to put it on - a stand or entertainment center of some kind because our old TV was a console and stood by itself. So, since we were at CC, we looked at theirs. There was only one that I liked, and they were out of it (of course). But, "the truck" was coming in tomorrow the guy said, and they would have more then. Well, we had planned to go to Boone, so we thought we would just look somewhere else and get one. So, we went back to all the places again and then some, looking for this. We found a really nice EC at Target, but they were out of them (of course), so we went to the other Target, same thing. So, after all was said and done, we went home, arriving around 9:00 p.m. And then, I couldn't help Bennie lift the TV - it was too heavy. So we got a neighbor to help and got it in.

So on Saturday I had the bright idea to look around Mt. Airy in the morning and save myself a trip back to Winston for the stand. So I took about two hours and went to all the places that sold these things - no luck. So it was back to Winston, where the stands had come in and they were holding one for us. And the guy - who was really sweet - knocked $30 off of it.

So now we have our TV and a stand if anyone wants to come and watch with us, because that is all we can afford to do now. (And a BIG THANKS to Quentin for coming up and helping Bennie set everything up!)

My Favorite SBC's

I watched the super bowl last night, but mainly for the commercials. Neither Carolina nor Atlanta made it, so I wanted both teams to lose. Anyway, there were a few commercials that I really liked. These are in no particular order.

Probably my favorite (because it made me cry) was the airport. You see all these people sitting around an airport, and then a group of soldiers come walking through wearing their khaki outfits. The people slowly begin to notice them, and then they all start to stand up and applaud. The soldiers look kind of surprised, and then smile at the people as they are walking by. At the end it just says "Thank You", and then the sponsor's name, which I think was Anheiser Busch(?). Anyway, that was my favorite.

I also liked the Ameriquest ones. I remember two. One was a guy walking into a convenience store while talking on his hands-free telephone. I can't remember what it was, but whoever he was talking to was buying something that apparently wasn't worth as much as he was going to pay. So this guy on the phone, but you couldn't see the phone, was talking to him, and as he walked up to the counter he was saying, "You're being robbed, you're being robbed", or something like that, and he also puts his hand into his coat pocket to get his wallet. So the store clerk just hears him and sees him going for his gun. So he starts spraying him with pepper spray, and then gets a ball bat out and starts hitting the poor guy. Then a woman comes up and gets in on it too. It is really funny. Then it says, "Don't be too quick to judge" or something like that.

The other Ameriquest was this guy comes home from work and starts cooking supper. He is fixing a big pot of spahetti sauce when his cat jumps up on the stove and knocks it over. He was getting ready to cut the bread and has this big knife in his hand. He has just bent over and picked up the cat by the scruff of the neck with one hand, with the knife in the other, and the puddle of red sauce on the floor when his wife opens the door and sees what looks like him murdering the cat. Again it says, "Don't be too quick to judge".

And the monkey ones were good too. Especially the butt-kissing monkey. And of course Paul McCartney was great! I just wish he had done different songs. Of all the songs he could have sung those were probably some of my least favorite. And I liked the four way screens. How did they do all that?

FINALLY!!!

The snow is here! And it is beautiful. There is just not enough of it. It started off this morning as sleet but quickly changed to big fluffy flakes, and then to that fine snow that covers the ground quickly. But then, after a few hours, it fizzled out and stopped. I was sitting on the couch earlier and heard a noise outside. I looked out the window to see a site I don't think I've ever seen before. Our neighbors have two sons, ages around 7 and 3. The mother was driving her lawn mower down the unscraped road in front of our house pulling behind her a sled with her two kids. Her husband and great dane were walking along. What a cool idea!

Thoughts On An (Un)Snowy Day

I just read Megan's blog, and I feel the same way she did about updating. I want to update this blog more often, but I have no idea what to talk about. I'm sitting hear waiting for snow, which hasn't come yet. I'm all ready to make some snow cream. So far all we have is a soggy mess outside. There was an article in the Journal on Thursday, I think, about Ryann Abraham. He is one of the Puerto Rican kids playing for Starmount this year. It talked a lot about his basketball, and then it mentioned the fact that he had never seen it snow, and he was looking forward to it. It quoted the coach saying that the week before Ryann had sat out on the back porch for two hours waiting for the snow because the weather report was calling for it. When it never came, the coach said that he got mad and asked why the weather people would say something like that if it wasn't true. That's the way I'm feeling this morning. I want it to come on NOW, not tonight when I can't watch it.

Last night Quentin came in from High Point, took a shower, and left for Charlotte around 8:30. It was supposed to be doing stuff last night, and I told him that and not to drive to Charlotte, but does he listen to me?? Anyway, he went on. A couple hours later I turned on the TV and it showed traffic backed up for miles on Hwy. 77 because of several wrecks. The guy was talking about how bad the roads were with all the black ice. So, I got immediately on the phone to call Quentin to make sure he was okay. No answer. I left a message and asked him to call me back right away. Does he? Of course not. He told me later that when I called he was watching a movie with some friends and "couldn't answer right then". He never did call back but made it home just fine around 3:00 a.m. or so.

Which brings up another point. It is very hard to be a parent of grown children. I know Josh and his family live in the snow and ice all winter, but I don't know when they are out in it. And I don't know when Justin and Vanessa are in any danger. But when they are home and go out at night, and stuff goes on like bad weather, then I can't help but worry constantly until they return.

Oh well. I've got a pot of soup on, getting ready to play some Yahtzee, and just waiting for SNOW!!!

Good Reads

I was talking to Justin this afternoon, and we got to talking about books. He had just finished "The Da Vinci Code", which I had given him for Christmas. That is one of my all time favorite books, along with its prequel, "Angels and Demons". Both by Dan Brown. So I was thinking about all my favorite books. I have some recent ones I've liked, and then there are the lifetime favorites. First, my recent ones:

Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Sidney Sheldon
Redbird Christmas - Fannie Flagg
The Zero Game - (I forgot who, but it was good)
And the two mentioned above. I can't remember what I've read good lately besides these.

Now, for the lifetime favorites:

The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis - my all time favorite books!
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien (and The Hobbit)
My Side of the Mountain - (can't remember who)
The Forgotten Door - ?
All of Janet Dailey's thick books - Touch the Wind is the best.
All of John Grisham's - The Bleachers and The Partner are tied for best.
All of Fannie Flagg's - Fried Green Tomatoes is best.
Wild Bells to the Wild Sky - Laurie McBain - the all time best romance novel ever!
Most of Stephen King's (the earlier ones - he's really gone downhill in the last ten years).
The Flame and the Flower - Kathleen Woodiwiss - the third best romance novel.
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
Which reminds me of - Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card - the all time best sci-fi novel ever!
Lazy Liza Lizard - ? - a great book to read to children. I first heard it when my third grade teacher read it to us. I checked it out when my kids were little and read it to them.
If Tomorrow Comes - Sidney Sheldon - I like a lot of his books.
All of Jan Karon's books

Well, that's all I can think of now. If anyone wants to list their favorites, please do.

My New Favorite Place

Yesterday we took the Dobson youth to the temple in Raleigh for baptisms. Afterwards we went to this restaurant for lunch - The Italian something, Pie? Anyway, right beside that restaurant was a place called Ralph's something. As I was walking by it to go to the pizza place something caught my eye - Italian ices. Well, I love Italian ices. I always get them when we go to the beach, but I've never seen them anywhere else. (I'm not counting the frozen Italian ices in the grocery stores)

So, after lunch I talked everyone into going to this Ralph's place for an Italian ice. I was just expecting a few flavors and figured on getting cherry or something. This place blew me away! It had one section of what the guy called "water ices", which was what I was thinking of, with about 20 flavors. And then there was a section called "cream ices", with another 20. Then a third section of, I guess, creamier ices. And then a fourth section of "gourmet ice cream". And the good part was that you could try any of them and see what you liked. I tried several and ended up getting a coconut "cream ice". It was so good that I dreamed about it last night.

President Jarrell saw the Snickers flavor and tried that. He said, "Well you can't beat that," to which the guy behind the counter said, "Oh yes I can," and he pointed out another tub of Snickers with fudge swirled through it.

Anyway, I had thought that the frozen custard place in Raleigh was really good, but this has it beat. I told the Young Women today in church that next time we go to the temple (in March) we are definitely stopping there afterwards.

State Champs!

Tonight I went to see Starmount play basketball for the first time this year. I've been wanting to see them but just haven't had a chance until now. They are an incredible team this year. I predict that they will WIN the state championship! They played Mt. Airy tonight, and the halftime score was Starmount 44, Mt. Airy 7. The final score was 80+ to 20+. And the second and third strings played most of the game. It was actually pretty boring the last three quarters. There are three Puerto Rican kids on the team. The senior is the best. He scored 43 points in a game a couple weeks ago and broke Carlos King's school record. He has already signed with ASU. The sophomore is fast and is always laughing. He seems to have a good time playing. The freshman is like 6'10" or something and easily dunks the ball. He gets all the rebounds, and no one can score against him - he just crams it back down at them when they try to shoot. And did I say he is just a FRESHMAN? Anyway, they are fun to watch.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas! I had a great one except for getting sick. I was finally able to rest on Sunday and skipped church. It was a good day - and our Panthers won again! I hope they make it into the playoffs.

I always try to make some New Year's resolutions - so this year I will try HARDER to diet and lose weight, I will try to be more patient, and I'll try to serve others more. Does anyone else have any resolutions you want to share?

I wish everyone a great year in 2005!

"All I Want For Christmas Is You"

This is my favorite Christmas song. Who sings it? I came up with a bunch of Christmas trivia questions this week for the kids at church, and I thought I would share some with whoever might read this. So, have fun.

Who is the cowboy who sings "Rudolph"?
Who was Scrooge's partner?
What are the names of Santa's eight reindeer?
Where were the chestnuts roasting?
Where did Frosty lead the children?
What is #9 on "The 12 Days of Christmas"?
What did Bruce Springsteen say that Santa would bring Clarence?
What happens every time a bell rings?
Who kept hearing people tell him, "You'll shoot your eye out kid"?
In the same movie, what happened to the other kid's tongue?
What unlikely two famous people teamed up for "The Little Drummer Boy"?
What is the real name of the poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas"?
What do you hear on every street corner?

And last of all, what beautiful Christmas song did Vince Vance and the Valiants sing?

One of Life's Great Truths

Men can't find anything! I have lived with men all my life. I grew up with two brothers, and then I had three sons. And I don't understand why men can't find anything. I have seen my husband or one of my sons standing in the kitchen looking in the cabinet for something, and it will be RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM, and they can't see it. Or, all they may have to do is bend over a little bit to look on a lower shelf, or, and this really gets me, they may have to MOVE SOMETHING TO LOOK BEHIND IT to find the item they want. Well, last night was another great example. Bennie had washed his clothes and went to put them in the dryer. When he turned on the dryer there was this loud banging noise that clearly meant something was in there besides clothes. So Bennie goes to get whatever it was out, thinking maybe it was his fingernail clippers. So he goes to the dryer and opens the door, scrounging around, and can't find anything. So he takes out all the clothes and puts them in a basket and - wonder of wonders - STILL can't find anything. So, he just puts the clothes back in the dryer, turns it back on, and goes back in to watch TV, forgetting about it. Well, I didn't like the noise, and as I said, CLEARLY there was something in there that shouldn't have been. So I went to look. I got the basket and started putting clothes in it, checking each article as I went. About halfway through I noticed a pair of his pants seemed extra heavy. I felt around, and there was a HANDFUL of coins in one of his pockets. It was amazing that they had stayed in his pocket the whole time through the wash, but what was even more amazing is that HE COULDN'T FIND IT! What is it with men?

Seventh Time's the Charm

I played Nintendo last night for the first time in probably over a year - Super Metroid. I got to the really hard guy that gives you the Varia suit - he's like a dragon that shoots out surfboards and Chinese stars. Anyway, Quentin has always killed this guy for me - ALWAYS. I can't remember ever killing him myself. So, last night I got to him - and no Quentin. So here I go, getting killed over and over again, and getting extremely frustrated. Finally, on the seventh try, just as I was about to die again, this dragon starts dissolving into the victory fireworks (as I think of them), and I HAD HIM. I was so thrilled. I just wanted to tell about this.

One more story from yesterday. Mom and I had planned to go to Boone to see Megan and Isabella. It was pouring down rain, and Mom had called that morning wondering if we should go another time. Well, I thought we would do all right, so we planned to go on anyway. When I got to Mom's house, she was waiting on her carport with her umbrella in hand. I wanted to get as close as possible so she wouldn't have to get too wet. So, I pulled up beside her car, putting my car in her yard. But I was close. So she came on and got in. I put the car in reverse to back out, and nothing happened. We were stuck in the mud. The harder I tried to get out the stucker we got. There was mud flying all over both our cars by then. We just looked at each other and laughed. What can you do. So we went in, and I called my dear husband who always helps me out. He said, "Well I guess you better call somebody to pull you out." Fine. So me and Mom got in her car and went down the road to a garage. I asked them about pulling my car out and how much it would cost. The guy said, $125.00. I couldn't believe it. Well, much to my relief, another guy was in there and said that he could probably just put a chain on his pickup truck and get me out. I asked him how much, and he said, "Oh, about $20.00." So, that is what happened. Still $20.00 was a hard lesson, but a lot better than the alternative. After all that, Mom REALLY thought we shouldn't go to Boone (she thought it was a sign), so we will try to go next week.

Be It Ever So Humble . . .

Today I visited an old friend from high school. She was one of my best friends, and we had a lot of good times together. Our class is getting ready to have our 30th high school reunion, and she and I are working on the decorations for it, so I went down to her house in Lewisville to do some planning. Did I say house? More like a mansion. It is 10,000 square feet. I forget how many bedrooms, but there are a bunch. And eight bathrooms. The grounds are also impressive. It looks almost like a park with a pond, stonework archways, big trees, shrubs, well you get the picture. Inside the house the walls were covered with stuff - artwork, flowers, pictures, and there were rugs and throws everywhere. Overstuffed furniture. There was a study just like you would imagine a study to look like - wood paneling, leather furniture, big desk, huge picture windows and bookshelves covering the walls, with plenty of family pictures. In the basement was a big bar, like you would see in a restaurant, a room with a pool table, and a workout room. The third floor had guest bedrooms, a large playroom, and the "nanny's quarters", which is what she called it. This included a full kitchen, living room, den, bedroom, and bath.

Anyway, as opulent as all this was, I was telling Bennie that I would hate to live there. It just wasn't "homey". If I had a million dollars (BNL's), I would still want to live like I am right now. I like my kitchen better than hers. Believe it or not, but my kitchen has more cabinets and counter space. And I would hate the inconvenience of having to walk all day long just to get to another part of the house.

So all this got me thinking about happiness. It seems like we are always wanting more in order to be happy, but how much is enough? Do we ever get to a point where we stop wanting more and are just satisfied with what we have? I guess I just feel very grateful for what I have. I have a great family, and I love our house. I have a good job with three day weekends. I try not to dwell on the things I don't like about my life but instead concentrate on the good things. So I guess that's what I'm doing with this post. Counting my blessings and being happy.