Friday, August 24, 2007

"And diamonds are a girl's best friend...."

Are you ready for this??? On Wednesday I had $23,000 worth of diamonds on my little finger!! No lie, I swear! One of the girls at work, Jane, owns the ring and here is the story: Jane's mother-in-law is a home health aide and was taking care of a lady on the outskirts of Hennessey. The lady passed away and her husband gave Jane's m-i-l her jewelry box saying he just didn't want any of it around. This was about 2 years ago and the gentleman has also passed away since then. Anyways, Jane's m-i-l told her to go through the box and pick out a few things....one of the things she picked was what she assumed was a cubic zirconia ring. It has a three carat stone in the center with a swirl of smaller stones around the top and bottom and it's in a beautiful deco setting. So...Jane decides to get it appraised (since high quality cubics can run up to $200) at Ediger's Jewelry and finds out the ring is currently worth $23, 650.00. Isn't that amazing?!?!? So Wednesday she said she just felt like wearing it and she showed it to me....I loved the deco setting (it really reminded me of some of the Sarah Conventry settings) and asked if I could try it on. She said of course I could and tah-dah! The Todus had $23,000 worth of diamonds on her hand!!!! I realize this may only be fascinating to another magpie like myself but I just had to share the experience!

"But square cut or pair shape these rocks don't lose their shape,
Diamonds are a girl's best friend."

Sunday, August 19, 2007

"Let the river run...."

Aunt Cawnin just called to check up on me so I thought I'd put a quick blurb here for anyone else who might see the news about OK. The flooding happened in Kingfisher, which is about 45 minutes (or 45 miles) South of Enid. We had just a bit of rain this morning then nothing the rest of the day. Everyone here is fine, it's just hot and muggy outside. Big *HUGS* to Aunt Cawnin, and thanks for checking up on me. Hope the news story didn't scare you too badly. *HUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGS*

Saturday, August 18, 2007

"Hey Bobbi...it's your birfday....

...it's your birfday..." *LOL* Okay and there you have it - my one and only homage to anything remotely "Rap". And ONLY in honor of my big sister and the fact that today is, indeed, her birthday!

Bobbi, I hope you have a GREAT day and I wish you many, many, many more to come. *HUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGS* Always remember, no matter what age I am...you'll always be older than me!!! *ROTFLOL* Just couldn't resist that one!

Happy Birthday Bobbi Girl!!!!!


Friday, August 17, 2007

"Let the little girl dance..."

Sabra won!!!! Sabra won!!! Yeeeehaaaa!!! *LOL* Okay...made it down to the last two contestants...they had already eliminated Lacy....sad, but okay....then they eliminated Neil..... exceptionally sad but still okay......I was gritting my teeth that it would NOT be Danny. Don't get me wrong, technically Danny was almost flawless but performance-wise yuk. I really only started to see him show any personality at all in the last two weeks but he always showed A LOT of arrogance. Anyways, Sabra might not have had flawless technique but she is a small girl who dances very big and has a way of pulling you into the dance with her. She truly dances from her heart and it flows throughout her whole little body.

So they announced the winner and it was Sabra! What do you know....America got it right two years in row! *LOL*

Sunday, August 12, 2007

"Another Pleasant Valley Sunday..."

Sunday already and the weekend wasn't long enough....it never is. *L* Actually this has been a fairly relaxing one so I shouldn't whine, but I can if I want to, so I will! Hah!

Anyways, not a lot going on around here except heat, heat, and more heat. The poor air conditioning is struggling to keep up once it gets to be 2:30 or 3:00 and the sun is baking everything into a hard crust. We have some pretty elephant ears that were doing great all through the wet spring and beginning of summer but they just keep getting droopier and droopier now. We've watered, fertilized, given them sun, given them shade...they still droop. I guess we'll just wait and see how they do for the rest of the summer. Then we'll have to take them in and cover them for the winter months.

Ooo...we got some
Amish Cinnamon Bread starter the other day and baked it up. Yummy!! The bread itself is pretty basic and more of a dessert bread than a sandwich or toasting bread. One of the ingredients is a box of instant pudding and you change the flavor of the bread by changing the flavor of the pudding. We made chocolate and it was wonderful!! I can't wait to try some other flavors. We also want to try it with raisins or dried cranberries or dried cherries in it...maybe using the vanilla or french vanilla pudding in those. I have to retype the instructions before we give any starter away though...whoever did them made a few spelling mistakes and I'm way too picky to let them get by me. *LOL*

Oh yeah...if you have cable and you get a chance there's a show that's set in Oklahoma - it's called "Saving Grace". A very odd show and I haven't completely made my mind up about it yet. It's pretty raw, fairly funny, kind of gripping at times, a little bit of a soap opera at times, the tiniest bit spiritual (almost all handled tongue-in-cheek) and just plain unpredictable. They actually film it in Toronto but the setting is OKC and they use skyline shots and location shots from the city. Holly Hunter is Grace and you just gotta love Earl the Angel....I just wish he wouldn't chew. *L* The jury is still out for now on this one but if you get a chance, give it a look. My opinion and suggestion only of course!

Saturday, August 11, 2007

"Happy birthday to you...."

"...you live in the zoo.....you look like a monkey and you smell like one too!" *ROTFLOL* Today is my brother, Bill's, birthday soooooooooo....Happy Birthday Big Brother!! I hope you had a fantastic day and I wish you many more to come! Love you and miss you!

Thursday, August 9, 2007

"Where have all the flowers gone....."

My older gentleman gardener has harvested his sunflowers. *le sigh* No more smiles on my way home from work. I guess I'll content myself with looking at the sunflowers on the earrings and bracelet set that Aunt Cawnin sent for my birthday. Those are absolutely beautiful! And speaking of birthday gifts, one more HUGE thank you to Susan for her story...I'll cherish that for the rest of my days. And I'm very glad y'all wouldn't have eaten me anyways. *ROTFLOL*

Don't have much in my head today, I think the heat melted it all. *L* I can't complain really, we made it all the way to August before we got zapped with temps over 100 degrees. That's saying a lot for Oklahoma - we usually start seeing the 100's in June! We had a very rainy beginning of the summer and I think we're going to pay for that now. There was a thin line of thunderstorms Southeast of Enid this morning but they're all gone now and nothing else is coming as yet. We're going to be sunny and steamy and icky for the next several days according to the weather guys.

I can't wait for Fall to arrive. At Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby they already have all the Fall colored flowers and such out in the craft aisles and it's so pretty. I've even picked up a few Christmas presents already! And believe it or not, I even have ones for the older guys. *L* They are the hardest to shop for and I'll grant you...they'll be getting the same thing...but I think it's a pretty cool thing.

Oh yeah, for my birthday I also got an mp3 player and some new earphones and the fifth season of "Scrubs" on DVD. All in all a pretty cool day in my opinion! *G*

Sunday, August 5, 2007

"Caledonia, you're calling me..."

Woohoo!!!! I didn't miss taping "Celtic Woman: A New Journey" and it was AWESOME!!! I'm not a huge fan of women with high soprano voices but these ladies have such clear tones and the Celtic songs are amazing! I'm less enthusiastic about the regular songs, although those are done very well too. The Celtic stuff just blows me away. My favorites were "Caledonia", "At The Ceili" (pronounced like kay-lee), and of course, "Danny Boy". Except for the later outfits (some were not so very pretty) the whole show was excellent. Might have to look into getting some of the CDs...I bet the Christmas one was too cool. *L* *sigh*

"I don't know if you can see
The changes that have come over me
In these last few days I've been afraid
That I might drift away
I've been telling old stories, singing songs
That make me think about where I've come from
That's the reason why I seem
So far away today

[Chorus:]
Let me tell you that I love you
That I think about you all the time
Caledonia, you're calling me, now I'm going home
But if I should become a stranger
Know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had

Now I have moved and I've kept on moving
Proved the points that I needed proving
Lost the friends that I needed losing
Found others on the way
I have kissed the fellas and left them crying
Stolen dreams, yes, there's no denying
I have traveled hard, sometimes with conscience flying
Somewhere with the wind

[Chorus]

Now I'm sitting here before the fire
The empty room, the forest choir
The flames have cooled, don't get any higher
They've withered, now they've gone
But I'm steady thinking, my way is clear
And I know what I will do tomorrow
When hands have shaken, the kisses float
Then I will disappear

[Chorus]

Caledonia's been everything I've ever had
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had"

Saturday, August 4, 2007

"Dance like nobody's watching..."

Okay, I admit it. I'm completely hooked on the dance shows. I loved the last two seasons of "Dancing With The Stars" (although I thought Layla was MUCH more personable than Joey, I'm still glad Apolo won) and I haven't missed an episode of "So You Think You Can Dance" in what, 3 years now? Can't help it on that one, those kids are talented! I was so glad when Benji won last year - he may not have been the best dancer but he was definitely the best performer. This year I'm fairly torn - Danny is the better dancer but very distant, while Neil is a much better performer. He has really grown on me a lot. Pascha is an excellent partner and he seems to try really hard no matter what dance they throw at him. As for the girls, Sabra seems to have it all - great dancer, great performer, everything. But I also like Lacey...she's an excellent dancer with a great personality and a lot of fun to watch. Lauren I could care less about - in my opinion she's there only because she helped one of the choreographers last season. If you made me choose I'd say that Sabra is the winner at this moment.

Ever notice how really pretty sunflowers make you smile...almost whether you want to or not?? There's an older man lives on the corner of Lookout and Antelope and every year he plants a small garden. Around the fence edges of the garden he plants these tall sunflowers. I see them every day on my way home from work and no matter what the day has been like, they always make me smile. I was never a big sunflower fan when I was younger but lately I seem to like them more and more. Not so much as a motif in decorating or anything, but the real live flowers are just so darned pretty. *L*

We just spent the entire morning and afternoon out shopping. OK is having their annual back-to-school "No Tax Weekend" and several of the stores are having sales. So veni, vidi, Visa - We went, we saw, we spent. *LOL* Actually I didn't spend a thing - Eric got shoes and some t-shirts for school, Richard got some t-shirts and shoes for the Y, Laura got some shoes for the Y, and together they bought a new cable to connect the camcorder to the DVD recorder to make copies of the wedding video - no tax on anything but the cable. I didn't find anything I especially wanted so I spent nothing. Now last night at Wally World (Wal-Mart, of course) I had the pictures printed and bought a small frame for the one for Poppy, but that's the extent of my spending this weekend. I was a VERY good girl. *G*

Well crud. I just realized that I missed "Celtic Woman: A New Journey" last night. It was on PBS as part of AugustFest and I meant to have it taped but I forgot. Dadgum it, I really like the Celtic music shows they put on and I can't believe I missed this one.

Oh, one thing I didn't miss though....I finished The Deathly Hallows! Good enough book.... a bit different from what I expected, but all-in-all a good read. It's been around long enough that I'm going to miss the series. *L* I'll have to re-read the books and be content with the movies...although, compared to the books, the movies are too choppy and don't explain enough for me. I know, I know....they have a limited amount of time to tell an entire story but still. The first movie was really good...I loved being able to actually see Hogwarts and Diagon Alley and all - but in the later movies there are always so many details glossed over or left out. *shrug* Anyways, just my opinion but I definitely prefer to read the books.


Well...I guess my head is empty again for now. *L* "You got to sing sometimes like you don't need the money...Love sometimes like you'll never get hurt....You got to dance, dance, dance like nobody's watchin'....It's gotta come from the heart if you want it to work..."

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

"And the thunder rolls..."

Yep...it's thundering outside. We could be in for a decent storm this evening, or it could break up and flow around Enid like it usually does. *L* We can be really lucky like that...unless you're in the mood for a good old fashioned noisy blow. Then it sort of sucks.

I called the Poppy on Monday to see how he was doing and since Sunday was their anniversary. He sounded pretty good actually. Neither of us brought up the anniversary although we did talk about Nan for a bit. I saw a beautiful plaque in a Harriet Carter catalog just yesterday and it made me cry, but the sentiment was sooooo beautiful: God saw her getting tired, a cure not meant to be, so He put His arms around her, and whispered..."Come with Me". Okay, every time I read it my eyes spill. I know Nan wasn't a big believer in God but I'd really like to think that her moment was kind of like this. My heart speaking of course, my head tells me that faith is for the living because those who have gone on know the truth.

I warned you that this would be whatever was going through my head. 'nuf said.

Changing the direction (but not changing the topic completely), we've lost a few of the fishies lately. First it was Gabriel, our big white beautiful angelfish. He lived a good long while though and was absolutely huge with long flowing underwhiskers. We also noticed that one of the Chefs was no longer in the tank. Not sure where he went but the other Chefs have been accused of practicing their sashimi skills again. We really couldn't tell them apart when we got them so we decided that, to remain true to the show, Michiba was the one that left. And after outliving his two women our red velvet sword, Inigo ("My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die"), has also left us. I definitely want to get more swords, they are gorgeous, and this time I want to try and raise some sword babies. Last time we raised fancy guppy babies and those have done quite well. We're starting to get low on really cool names though...and let's face it....our fish have had some of the coolest names EVER. *LOL*

Have you ever noticed that sometimes a YooHoo totally hits the spot?? Bryan says that YooHoo is my "beer" - he could be right since I hate beer (bitter, ick) but I LOVE YooHoo. Sometimes it can completely de-stress me. *L*

Well...I guess my head is empty for the moment. See you back here when it fills up again! *G*