Chewlee has a bad habit of taking off her shoes whenever she goes somewhere.  She runs around either barefoot or in socks most of the time so she really doesn't like to keep them on.  I think most kids are like this.  My youngest brother hated clothes on.  As a toddler, he could strip himself naked almost before you could say his name.  He was always, always the last of us kids that was dressed whenever we were going somewhere.  If you turned your back on him, he would make his way outside on the street and kids would be yelling, *Your little brother is running down the block NEKKID!*  **Sigh** Which meant a run for one of us older ones to try to catch him and carry him back to the house to get re-dressed.

But, I digress.  Yesterday, when the Princess dropped off Chewlee, I was half-asleep in the recliner here in my puter room.  When she came in and climbed into my lap, she only had her socks on.  I didn't think much of it at the time because it's happened before that she's taken her shoes off in the car on her way over.  Her mother usually catches it and makes her put them back on before she can get out of the car.  Sometimes, it's just a matter of waking her up too early and it's just too much of a hassle to get them on her so she is carried into the house.  Unless I am up and watching, I'm never quite sure.  Seeing her shoes usually helps but, for some reason, I never saw them yesterday.  I assumed that her mother brought her over in just her socks.

Tonight I found out that she HAD them on and the Princess saw her take them off and put them on the coffee table.  That is when the house gremlins apparantly came and stole them because I didn't see them later when we went out to eat something and didn't see them all day.  I really and truly was baffled when the Princess called here looking for them so she had them for Chewlee in the morning.

I searched the house, even looking under the beds and in the closets and could find neither hair nor hide of them.  I pulled all the baskets out from underneath the coffee and end tables to make sure Chewlee hadn't hid them in there.  I am totally baffled.  After I called the Princess and she reassured me that she had seen them put there, she and I were both stumped.  Well, *I* am anyway.  I am pretty sure the Princess thinks I am just too old to have *looked everywhere*.  I know the baby loved those shoes so I am pretty sure she didn't dump them in one of the garbage bins.  Now I feel bad, however.  I guess I am going to have to buy the baby a new pair of sneakers.  I'll have to find out what size she wears and do that on Monday. 

In the meantime, I will also have to let the little house gremlins know that I am very, very upset with them.  Moving my stuff or hiding it, that's one thing.  But not the baby's.  *making evil face here and looking around*.  There will be punishment.  I miss the sound of screaming. 

Just watch now.  As soon as I buy her a new pair, the old pair will show up.  That's how these house gremlins work.  Just nasty enough to do that and think it's funny.

It was a mild day here today but windy.  Later this evening, it started to rain gently.  Just enough that the dog won't go out to pee until he's got a totally full bladder and can't wait.  He's a real wuss that way.  It's worse when it's cold out and, heaven forbid if there is snow on the ground at all.  Even rime on the patio or porch deck will send him immediately back into the house.  I've seriously considered buying him some doggy boots.  I was stunned to find out they actually make them.    It's still something I am thinking about for him for Christmas.

Gotta go now and get my shower and get ready for bed.  I haven't been sleeping all that well the last few days, mostly because the Beast has been so restless.  His tossing, turning and throwing his heavy legs on me keeps me from resting well.  And then there is the charley horse thing going on with my right leg.  Well, not one like you normally think of....it's the muscle next to the shin bone on the front of the leg.  It hurts just as much, trust me.  At least it didn't happen last night,which helped a little.  Looks like the daily vitamins are not working as well as they should.

The Beast is proving to me that old age is not for the faint of heart.  Somewhere along the line, however, you have to admit you ARE getting old and no longer capable of doing some things you never gave a second thought about when you were young.  Like the 6 hour drive (that's round trip) to Atlanta.  It's not too bad the first time for the Beast but to do it a second time with just two days to *rest up* , along with getting up at an ungodly hour, has proven too much for him. 

He's spent much of today *resting*.  That includes the two hour nap he took but not the time in his recliner with his eyes closed and snoring lightly.  He's walking around moaning and groaning besides.  I told him he just can't do those things any more and he shot me a look that would have killed me had he had any super powers. 

When you get *older*, you suddenly have to deal with things you never considered.  Aches, pains, illnesses that all have to do with growing older.  Arthritis.  Osteoporosis.  You become more susceptible to things like pneumonia, bronchitis, flu, cancer, diseases of the kidneys, prostate.....you get the idea.  It all has to do with the fact that your whole body is old, tired out and not capable of throwing off or recovering from things like you once could.  It's not a pretty sight, nor a great thought. 

But, if you accept the fact that you are older and need to take a little better care of yourself; not push yourself beyond your limits and to know what those limits are.  That's the real trick and it helps you live a longer and healthier life.

That's my battle with the Beast.  He won't accept the fact that he just can't do what he sets his mind to like he did when he was younger.  The drives we once took and drove straight through for 24 hours....out of the question now.  Thankfully, the road systems now have cut the time but we find we MUST stop for the night on longer trips.  We no longer like driving when it's dark outside unless its early in the morning and we can watch the sun come up. We HAVE done that more than once. 

If I am driving to...say, Chicago.  I don't even think about making that trip in one day.  We live closer now than we used to but I will stop over at Buttmunch's and spend the night since she is just a bit under halfway.  If she wasn't going to be home for some reason, I would probably drive just a bit more and then stop for the night at a motel.  I KNOW I am not young.  I don't FEEL old in many ways but I have learned to accept my limitations and I am comfortable with that.

I worry about the Beast because he could become dangerous to himself and others if he is overtired.  Since his strokes, he tires easily.  He fights it in his mind but his body isn't up to it.  One day, he will kill himself one way or another.  I just do what I can to temper that with him.  Not that he listens but I do try.

We had made a couple turkey sandwiches (with mustard...ack!) for her to eat on the bus and she took a couple cheese and peanut butter cracker packs, too.  She had packed a couple sodas in the HUGE purse she had brought with her and then snagged another one when they left.

She had asked what time they were leaving to find out if she had enough time to straighten her hair.  You know teenagers and how they worry about  their hair being *just so*. 

We went a little nuts trying to find the pictures the Beast had printed up for her of her and Chewlee and one of just her next to a tree that she wanted for her boyfriend.   We knew where she had left them to dry thoroughly but couldn't find them.  Then I remembered going through a bunch of those sweepstakes things you get in the mail (I always mail them back but don't buy anything) and staking up the papers about where the pictures were sitting on my desk.  It gave me an idea and, sure enough, they were in MY trash.  Nothing had been thrown on them after I had thrown away the Sweepstakes stuff, thank goodness.  We just dusted them off because it seemed like we should and then put them in an empty photo paper envelope with tissue in between them.  After they left, guess what I found on the floor where her purse had been sitting?  You got it!  Her pictures.    I guess I will have to mail them to her.  It's really okay because the Beast has a few others he's going to print up that she wants but he needs the proper size.  I'll just send them all together.

I went back to sleep after doing a quick check of my email and getting rid of the spam.  Gawd but I hate that stuff.  When the Princess got here with Chewlee, she let her wake me up which meant she lightly touched my one eye and called my name.  That brought me instantly awake and I knew who it was. 

Since this is just an update post and the second one of the day, I must leave you now and go get a few things done around the house while Chewlee is resting.  I guess she is finally tired.  She's already eaten her lunch (soup and crackers) so she is probably feeling full and content.  Her cold seems to be getting better since she no longer has a runny nose and she hasn't coughed like she was doing for a while.  Of course, even while she had it, it didn't slow her down much.  I take advantage of her nap when I can and get a few things done that she won't try to *help* with....today is mopping the floor.

By the time I got all the food out of their serving dishes and into containers, cleaned off the counters and did the countless other things you end up doing after having company for a big meal, it was late.  I mean LATE!  I darn near crawled into bed and then laid there for an hour, wide awake.  Second wind?  I DID finally fall asleep around 3:30am or so.  At 6am, I woke up in agony with the muscles on each side of my shin on my right leg acting like a charlie horse.  The muscles were so tight that walking right was out of the question.  I got up and did a kind of duck waddle with a touch of Igor (from the Frankenstein movie).  It took almost 20 minutes to get those muscles unknotted so that I could even sit down without them contracting into more knots. 

It was light by that time and I had managed to get to the coffee pot and throw the water in.  I stood at the counter for the three minutes it takes to brew.  It's the reason I love my Bunn coffee pot.  Once I started drinking coffee, especially since I threw some of the expresso grounds into it, I was wide awake and my hair was standing on end. 

I read the news and my email while the house was quiet and the baby wasn't awake yet.  She finally came bouncing into my room about 8am.  So much for peace and quiet! 

She was in overdrive all day long.  She was running all over the place and throwing herself into my lap at a dead run.  You would have thought someone gave her a sugar IV or something but this was before she had ANYTHING.    I guess SHE was well-rested.  She didn't want to take a nap and I didn't want to fight with her because I knew she would just cry and keep coming out of the room.  I let her run around, play with the dog, play with her cousin, Sheepie and she was even doing somersaults. 

After lunch, she was still very active and I was falling on my face from being tired.  Since Sheepie was here and having fun playing with her and Baron, I laid down on my recliner in an attempt to take Chewlee's nap for her.    So, what happens?  Chewlee starts running in here while I was half asleep and yelling, *Gramma.....(insert several stupid statements of your choosing  starting with "I").  It was like she suddenly decided she had to tell me every single things she was doing or was thinking of doing.  When I started to yell at her for her exuberance, I knew I was totally overtired.  Not a good thing when the Beast and Sheepie have to leave very early in the morning to get to Atlanta in time for Sheepie's bus home.  So I guess I will be in bed much earlier than normal.  When I get to the point that I am yelling at Chewlee, I am definitely not being a good gramma!

About the only good thing that happened to me today was finally getting a couple pictures I can post here.  The first one is a picture of our Sheepie with Chewlee.  I really don't like Chewlee's hair since the Princess straightened it to show off how long it's getting.  I prefer it with her soft curl but, hey...whatever floats their boat.  For Chewlee to sit still long enough to let her mother do that is a little short of a miracle anyway.  So here's the pic:

  The next one is of the Princess with her daughter. 

Good looking kids, aren't they?  The whole family really is good looking....or at least we have great personalities. 

Sheepie and the Beast will be leaving here around 5am tomorrow.  That means getting up at 4:30am.  I need to make her a couple sandwiches to eat on the bus (per her request) and I almost gagged to find out what she wanted was just turkey and mustard.  Nothing else.  No cheese.  No lettuce.  No tomatoes.  Turkey and mustard.  UGH!  I'm going to put some chips in a ziplock baggie for her and give her a couple packages of the cheese crackers with peanut butter.  She suffers a bit from motion sickness but, from the way it sounds, it's more like she is hyper-aware of movement in her peripheral vision.  She can't even read while she's in a bus or a car due to that problem.  So she eats and then sleeps when she travels.  I feelso bad for her because of that.  She loves to read, too. 

Time to close.  The Beast wants to swap video cards to solve a problem he's having with HIS computer.  I told him *NO* but I really didn't mean it.  I want him to swap my dvd so I can send the one in this computer (which works great and has the correct connections for Bratfink's computer).  Going to send this down the Internet so it shows up on time for a change. 

Okay, I DID change the title but only because when I went to my archives, the title told me nothing.  So my SUB-title will be as it is.

Today was an incredibly busy day for me as it is for many others.  I had to start prepping everything to make tomorrow so what needs to be cooked can be and what should be cold will be.   I made 3 pumpkin pies but only because I did not have my glasses on () but those that know me will not find this difficult to believe.  So, I read the recipe wrong and in order to salvage it, I had to add one more pie to the mix than I planned on.  Oh well.  That's a little thing.  I made my sweet potato casserole and put that in the fridge along with the casserole dish full of the oyster dressing I promised to make the Princess and the Beast.  I also made my normal dressing and that is ready for the oven after a short rest in the fridge also.  The potatoes are ready to peel, the cauliflower is cut up and ready to be steamed.  The only thing I have not prepared ahead is the green bean casserole.  It's so easy and I was so tired after all the cutting, chopping and mixing that I couldn't face one more dish.

I made my nut cups yesterday and have had to keep a sharp eye on the Beast.  Thankfully, he had to leave early this afternoon to drive down to Atlanta to pick up Sheepie.  I straightened up the house in between doing the food preparation to break up the routine.  The end result was that I was so organized, I even had time to play a few games on Pogo.

The Beast and Sheepie got here around 10:30pm and I didn't have to feed them because they  had stopped at Arby's for a sandwich, fries and a drink.  The Beast loves Arby's and what teenager doesn't like pretty much any fast food? 

Sheepie decided she was going to spend the night here with us.  She wheeled in her bag and went right to the guest room.  She then jumped into her jammies and settled down to talk and nosh a bit.  She remembered the nut cups and told me her mother (Buttmunch) had told her about her disaster with HERS because I had given her the wrong amount of butter to add to the filling.  *Sigh*  It wasn't until I was making mine that I realized what I had done but I was too late.  She had already made hers.  She said she had tasted them and they seemed ok but the crust absorbed all the excess butter while cooling and turned into a tasty but nasty mess.  Color my face red here.

The trip for Sheepie was uneventful except she had an annoying seat companion.  He had earphones on for his Ipod but the sound was jacked up so high, she could hear it.  And she didn't like his choice of music.  He also kept sleeping, straight up with his eyes partially open in little slits.  She says she timed how long it was before he would catch himself awake and then change his music and do it all over again.  It was exactly 12 minutes and 15 seconds.  Self-hypnosis, perhaps?

The Beast, upon arrival in Atlanta, parked his car and a man came up to him and told him it was $4. to park.  So, he opened his wallet, gave the guy the $4.00 and went in to wait for Sheepie.  He brought Baron with him on his leash because those depots are not in the best parts of towns if you are familiar with Greyhound depots.  It was while standing there that the Beast suddenly realized that he had been *taken*.  He wasn't parked in any parking lot and the guy that had gotten the $4.00 off him was actually a homeless person at the very least.  Talk about not having your wits about you.    Sheepie thought it was hilarious and had to text her boyfriend all about it.  HE also thought it was hysterical and I'm sure he passed that along to his family to enjoy the humor of it.

It's late (and I apologize for that) and I am tired.  I have to get my turkey on at 7-7:30am so that it's ready for when we planned on our dinner.  I'm going to say goodnight (Good Morning to you by the time you read this) and I wish each and every one a Happy Thanksgiving.  May it be filled with good food, good friends, a loving family and happy times.  Enjoy.

Preparations Begin For The Feasting !

I had a hard time getting my mind into *start* today for some reason.  I had to *start* thinking about what I was going to make for our dinner, what would need preparing early, what..what..what...!  I balked.  I finally got my mind in gear after about six cups of coffee and pulled the turkey out of the freezer and put it in some water in the sink.  I want to get it partially thawed before I stick it in the fridge.  I need to get inside it and pull out the goodies that make the dog start to slobber.  I also cut up some of them (very fine) and throw them in the stuffing.  It's a trick I learned from my mother when I was young.  It was the only way we ever ate the *good* stuff full of all kinds of vitamins and minerals (her words).  I DO know that it really does make a difference in the taste.  I also don't use a hell of a lot of sage in the dressing like some people like.  But I do like adding green onions along with regular onions. 

I have to remind the Princess that she promised to make up something the Beast loved that his aunt always makes.  Something with pistachio pudding.  I know she's going to have to shop for the ingredients in it.

I really, really need to talk to Sheepie.  It seems the Princess talked to her tonight but I am not really sure if she was pressured into staying at her house or not.  At least here, I know we have an actual bedroom and bed for her.  I really, really need to find out. She said she told Sheepie about going shopping at Belk's for a special sale they are having and she said she wanted to go to it.  I don't know if she has money for that or not.  But it would mean me keeping Chewlee here overnight, which you know I really don't mind.    We would all be going to bed at a decent hour regardless.

Well, that's about it for tonight.  Gonna take a break and get my mind wrapped around what I have to do tomorrow.  I'll be busy most of the afternoon.  But I WILL have my morning free so I can take my time waking up, drinking my necessary coffee, etc. to get the blood flowing.

Yesterday, when the Beast returned home, it was obvious that Baron was happy to be home.  He was so excited he ran up to me and almost jumped up but caught himself.  He winded himself around me like a cat, ran quickly around the house to make sure everything was where he remembered it.  He hadn't eaten so I opened up a can of his favorite (expensive) dog food from Pet Depot and he ate.  That was the last normal thing he did until late today.

Once he ate, he went into our bedroom and discovered I had the electric blanket on top of the quilt and it was turned on low.  He jumped up on it, curled into a ball and stayed there for the rest of the day.  When the Beast went to bed, he reluctantly got off the bed and curled into a ball on his bed next to ours and went to sleep.  He was still in that ball when I went to bed later and I reached down to pet him briefly and feel his nose to make sure he was feeling well.  He was so I went to bed and slept soundly although I halfway expected him to wake me up to let him out back to do his business.  He didn't.

When the Beast woke up and got out of bed, Baron (as he usually does) got up on the bed and curled upon top of the electric blanket again.  When I got up a bit later, he jumped down, stretched and went to the back door to be let outside.  He quickly did what he needed to do and came back to the door to be let in.  He trotted into the bedroom, jumped up on the bed, curled into a ball and stayed there all day long.  He wasn't interested in eating, playing, taking a drink of water, just stayed in that tight curl and slept.

Since he is only 2-1/2 years old and, for a Doberman male, that's still a kid, this is NOT normal.  The Beast finally went and prepared some chicken with some nice cooked vegetables for him.  He came into the bedroom and fed him some of it by hand and then carried it out to his stand and left it there.  Although he had eaten the food out of the Beast's hand, he didn't seem to be interested.  That lasted all of about five minutes.  He did, eventually, get down off the bed and go eat.  He cleaned out the bowl and went back to the bed.  It was at that point that I told the Beast, if he is still acting like this on Tuesday morning, he is going to the vets.  He agreed.

Later, after dark, Baron got up and needed to go out.  The Beast grabbed his jacket and went outside with him so that he might take his time.  He seems to like it when one of us is out there with him.  While he was down in the yard, something in the dark (and it is VERY dark outside here in this area at night) caught his attention and his head jerked up.  He went into the typical Doberman *alert* stance and suddenly barked.  He then took off running (chasing something we couldn't see..and, yes, I had joined them).  We could hear something and it wasn't small but we had no idea just what it could be.  Once he knew it was out of the yard, he trotted back towards us, acting very proud of himself.  It was like he was almost smiling and saying *See?  I kept you safe!*

That was the end of his curling on top of the electric blanket.  After that, he joined the Beast on the recliner (which is normal behavior for him and never fails to crack me up when I see that huge dog trying to be a lap dog).  I gave a sigh of relief.  Whatever it was, Baron seems now to be acting more normal.  I may regret being happy about it but for now, it works.

Buttmunch emailed me yesterday and wanted my nut cup recipe.  I wrote it down for her and emailed her right back.  Then, this morning, she called me to ask for it again.  She hadn't gotten  the original email so I got it out of my Sent Mail and resent it to her.  She got it while we were still on the phone.  Later on, as I was putting mine together, I realized that I had made a basic mistake on the recipe (sometimes you can't rely on memory) and I called her right away.  Too late.  She had made them and I told her what the problem was.  She thought they were fine but called me later, after they had cooled, and said she discovered what the problem had caused.  But, since it was minor and they tasted fine, it worked for now.  She had just used twice the amount of butter needed in the filling so the crusts ended up rather greasy.  But, since it IS butter, it's at least tasty.    She will know for next time.

I've always been the type of cook that could tell more by the texture, taste or look of something I was making whether it needed to having ingredients adjusted.  MY great-grandmother taught me a lot about baking and the texture of cookie doughs and other things that have served me well over the years.  The problem comes in when I try to tell someone these same things without the benefit of actually having them with me while I am making them.  It's so much easier if THEY can feel the way it NEEDS to feel to be *right*.  That's how great-grandma taught me.

I also learned that a little bit of spices goes a long way.  Most spices taste grows stronger when cooked or simmered so you shouldn't *taste* it and keep adding more of it until you think it's right because once it cooks, the taste may overwhelm you.  Add a bit, cook or simmer, taste then make an adjustment if needed.  Of course, we ALL sometimes forget this...LOL.

Since the Beast left his phone home, I called the Cottage to see what time he left.  I found out I had missed him by about 30 minutes.  I slept in so no surprise there.  AM said he was going home via a different route because of the rock slide.  It still had not been removed.  So, he had to head towards Atlanta and then cut across enroute.  I did a rough estimate in my mind knowing the terrain and figured he would be home around 3pm if it was smooth sailing and 4pm if not.

T urns out, he had rain all the way so it was a good thing I didn't put my stuffed shells in to cook until a little after 3pm.  I figured it right and he got home just as I was taking the finished product out of the oven.  I had only put the cheese over it about six or seven minutes before he got here.    I had everything on the table for our eating pleasure by the time he dragged all his stuff into the house.

He was just miserable about the drive up there and hated the detour he had to take.  It made the trip almost another hour and a half longer because of the windy roads and no crossroads to take back to the original road.  Poor baby.....he just hates those kind of disruptions.  He just has never learned to roll with the punches.

He brought home some great pictures of mountain streams and a couple waterfalls.  None of them are regular tourist areas either.  Just ones he came across during his *detours*.  See?  Sometimes there are advantages and opportunities. 

I'll probably go ahead and make my nut cups tomorrow since they are kind of labor intensive and I can get it out of the way.  They taste better made ahead and are easily stored.  That way I can pretty much prepare everything else and have it ready on Wednesday instead of spending two days in a row doing it all.  The only other labor intensive thing is the stuffing.  I DO intend to get the giblets ready and cut up on Tuesday so I can get all the garbage out of the house that might smell before garbage pickup.  I'm always thinking.  Besides, we will have enough stuff after Thanksgiving.  I also have to clear out the fridge tomorrow and make sure there is enough room for what I am making ahead.  I'm sure there are some science experiments going on in there. 

Well, enough.  The Beast is busy looking through all his pictures he took and trying to decide which one's he wants to keep.  He's already printed one up that is just gorgeous and he will frame once it's thoroughly dry.  He's going to do up a couple to send to KP for her *wall*.

Love you all.  Have a great day and a great week.  Be sure to smile a lot and get ready for Black Friday shopping for some decent deals.  I'm finding some already at Walmart and want to check out a couple others tomorrow only because I HAVE to go out so I figured I might as well.  Make our your Christmas list now and it's time to think about getting all those Christmas cards ready, too.  Fa la la la la...........!

Chewlee is really talking better and better although, when she gets excited, she starts talking a mile-a-minute and it's tough to pick out one or two words in ten.  She will barely pause for a breath and it sends me into a fit of laughter every time because it is just so damn cute.

At one point I laid down on the floor with my head on her Dora chair. It's made of foam rubber and has a nice soft plush cover and it's also the perfect seat height up from the floor to be comfortable for my neck.  She grabbed her blanket and baby doll and laid down next to me but on my shoulder and jsut snuggled while we watched Sponge Bob.  A little later, she decided it was time to eat so she gets up, heads for the door and stops there to look back at me and says, *C'mon Gamma....time to eat.*  When I didn't just jump right up, she runs over, grabs my shoulder like she's going to help me up and says it again.  At that point, I rolled over on my side (yes, it really IS a bitch to get old...LOL) and got myself up on my feet with only a little moaning and groaning.  She ran ahead of me over to her high chair and then proceeded to click in the seat belt while I got her bowl of cereal ready.  Even though we were alone in the house and I told her a couple times, she kept yelling at the doggie towards our bedroom and saying *Doggie is sleeping*.  I tried to get her to go look to see he wasn't in there but she wasn't interested in that.  She just ran to the room, waited for me to get inside it and then closed the door so *the doggie can't get in!*  She can be sooooo strange sometimes....LOL. 

She put her Dora chair next to my computer chair aimed at the TV while she held her doll and blanket and I knew she was getting tired.  I decided to just lay down with her in my recliner because I don't have to fight with her and she usually goes to sleep a lot easier.  That was true today except she woke up instantly when I tried to move and made me stay.  So, neither she nor I really got much in the way of a nap.  Later on, we had an Uncrustable peanut butter and jelly sandwich for our lunch.

About that time, I had to rewind my elastic bandage around my elbow and, while I was doing that, she decided SHE needed some elastic around HER boo-boo on her arm.  She found a little freckle on her wrist and then excitedly found this 1-1/2" piece of elastic scrap I had in my drawer here and decided that was *JUUUUUST right!*.    After I got done, I wrapped it (loosely) around her wrist and used a small green safety pin to secure it and she was just as happy as she could be.  Every once in a while during the afternoon, she would touch it and look at me and tell me that was for *her* boo-boo.

I swear this kid waits until late afternoon (this is almost an every time thing with her) and then pees every single bit of fluid out that she's taken in all morning.  Today that was about three glasses of Juicy Juice (100% fruit juice as the Priness has consistently repeated to me like I need to be reminded...LOL).  She suddenly jumps up from her Dora chair (thank goodness she had gotten off MY lap shortly before) and says, *Ut oh...it's wet!* and she proceeds to show me a small wet area.  Sure enough, I feel it and it is and, at first, I was puzzled because she hadn't been drinking anything to spill it on it.  Then comes the dawn and a light bulb goes off in my head.  I turn her around and, sure enough, her jeans are all wet.  With that I peeled them off her, put her down on the floor and changed her diaper while she sang me a song.  We then walked out to the kitchen where I hand washed her pants, rinsed them well and then threw them in the dryer.  Although she had a cut, long-sleeve pink turtleneck on, I was worried about her legs getting cold walking around this house.  So, we put a pair of her footie pajamas on her since it was only about an hour or so before I knew she would be picked up. 

She was all for that since she just loves those type of pajamas for some reason.  Maybe because they ARE warm, who knows?  I then had to read to her what it said on them and we went over each letter, one-by-one.  It says *Love* on it, just FYI. 

When poor Johnnycakes got here to pick her up, she wanted him to actually *pick her up* and the poor guy was so sore.  It seems he joined a gym and was dumb enough to try to pick up right where he left off out of high school when he was working out while he was in football.  He looked at me, serious as hell, and says *I'm must not young any more.*  I couldn't help it.  I laughed at that statement.  I don't think he realized my laughter wasn't agreeing with him, it was at how ridiculous it was to ME!  If only he really knew.....! 

I ran around and gathered up her clothes and shoes (and forgot her darn jacket) and put them in a bag for him to take home, including her (now) dry pants.  She kept asking to be picked up and he finally bent down and did it and I felt kind of bad for him because he really IS sore.  I told him he's not supposed to do that stuff every single day.  He's supposed to skip a day to let his body rest and all the various chemicals restore themselves.  I told him that if he reads about it, he will find out that he will do better doing it that way than acting like he's trying to be a body builder.  Trust me, he's not!  He just wants strength and endurance, although his wood chopping helps that way I think.  Yes, he really DOES chop wood like they do out in the country folks.  They must be doing thier bonfires again like they did when they were just dating.  Toasted marshmallows and S'mores!  Yum!

As soon as Chewlee left, I laid back in my chair and promptly fell asleep for about two hours until Buttmunch called me to tell me I had screwed up and put my granddaughter Sheepies REAL name in yesterday's blog.    I know!  I was shocked too.  I was also surprised because usually my sis catches that so even she had to have been tired when she read it.  Oh well.

I'm going to go back and relax in my recliner for a while now.  It's gonna be my last night alone, I'm sure.  Next week will be a busy one for me since I have my nut cups to make and a few other things to get ready.  I told the Princess we would be eating around 3-4pm.  The only thing I need to get some time in the next day or two is some oysters because I promised both the Beast and the Princess some oyster dressing.  I'll be making both because I love regular.  They both love oyster.  I don't mind having a bit of it at first but it's not something I actually crave. 

Love you all.  Hope you are all going to have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family, friends, loved ones or at least some combination of them.  If not, at least watch the Thanksgiving Day parade and remember...you ARE loved.