Plum Crazy Millers...where purple, passion and peace reside.

No, not to Kevin Bacon, but the temperature here at my house today...in VA...in January...Winter. Yeah. Was Christmas really only two weeks ago? Somehow it just bypassed me.

I was thinking, while sunning my face in my shorts and t-shirt on my deck this afternoon, about sitting on the roof in college studying for exams.

That's what today felt like, minus the stress of course.

It also got me thinkin' how a little thing like change in weather can bring back things that happened 20 years ago like it was yesterday. New Year's Eve was spent watching the Top 100 songs of the '80's. Big hair, pure emotion, great tunes and a lot of one hit wonders from England.

Did you know Prince's Little Red Corvette was about pure unadulerated S-E-X. Seriously. The line, "She had a pocket full of horses, Trojans, some of them used," refers to Trojan condoms. The "Jockeys" represent men who have previously slept with the girl.

Did I know this? Apparently not until about 12:15 a.m. January 1, 2007. Almost 20 years after the fact...nice little bubble I live in. The voices in my head told me so....yeah.

We had a very cool Harvest moon the other night and me without my camera...we did end up going out to the zoo...here are some of the photos I took with my new toy...love, love, love my zoom lens!!

These little guys were about 200 feet away...very cool! Did I mention I LOVE my new camera?
My sister and her kids are leaving tomorrow after their 3 week vacation. I'll be sad to see her go...but I'll have my house back. We've all been through various stages of the same illness so today was good to "air out the house". I'm ready for some serious snow!! You folks out in the Denver area...send some our way okay?

Peace.

I'm supposed to be planning for the New Year...ha! This is way more fun. It's a balmy 54 degrees here in VA. My sister and her kids are here and we're all one big happy family. I've been sitting here most of the afternoon re-vamping my life. Good thing to do on New Year's day don't you think? Well, first and foremost..Happy New Year all. We spent last night watching movies like My Cousin Vinny and When Harry Met Sally and relaxing. Something I've had trouble doing since...oh about August when I went in for my yearly "spread'em-and-talk-about-the-weather" exam and the results came back positive for abnormal cells.

Lovely.

Next appointment didn't go so well either seeing as how they couldn't reach places unknown due to muscles locked down tight (hence the reason both of my kids were C-sections-shouldn't they know this already?). So I ended up in the hospital for outpatient surgery and what we thought was an "extreme measure but better safe than sorry" procedure a couple of days before school started and low and of course teh test results were not good news. They removed a lesion from my cervix that was classified CIN-II...in laymen's terms...2 steps from cancer. WTF did this mean? NO ONE in my family has cancer..NO ONE, and said Dr. just continued to flip the word around like she was ordering coffee...gah.

Nothing like starting the school year out with some good news....heh. I was instructed to come back in 3 months and to call if I had any "problems". Problems? Was this not problem enough? I was not terribly pleased with my 32 year old Dr. know-it-all....not a fabulous bedside manner by any stretch of the imagination... considering after all of this, I still wasn't sure what I had or how I got it...

I was prepared for the worst and hoped for the best. The next three months of living Hell started with J-man's school not opening on time due to incomplete renovations. I then did 3 PTO newsletters for our Secretary because she's a single mom with too much to do and can't say no (just stamp "SUCKER" on my forehead okay?) ran 5 meetings, did 2 fundraisers and a Holiday Shoppe almost completely by myself while working 5 days a week, running son #1 to 3 baseball practices a week and a games on Saturdays plus Boy scouts every Tues and the hubs out of town on business at least 2 1/2 weeks during that time. Can you say doing too much?

I'm not one to complain...complaining brings people down. Do you like to hang with whiners? Me neither...so I hid instead.

Right around the 1st weekend in December I had minor breakdown and cried for an hour. I don't cry except at really sappy or happy commercials and what I like to call S.A.C. songs (Sappy-Ass-Country Songs) I had gotten results back from my 3 month check up in Nov. and they were positive.

Again.

They were sending the sample back in to test for HPV.

Another 10 days of waiting.

I couldn't take anymore.

Lucky for me I have the best friend in the whole world in my hubby and he was my rock when I really needed him. I prepared myself for a radical hysterectomy, finished up all the shopping, wrapping and preparing for Christmas; went to my son's Christmas pageant with a smile and a camera even, decided that everything happens for a reason and believed it.

This time the results came back negative ;0) Merry Christmas to me!!!

Things only got better from there. This is what the hubs gave me for Christmas! Can you believe it??? I couldn't..didn't.. It was way more than I expected and I've been playing with this lovely new toy ever since. I also got a new dryer...not for Christmas but a fabulous gift nonetheless. It only takes me 40 minutes to dry a load now instead of 140. Yeah..not a biggie to you maybe..but the way things have been lately...

So...there you have it. Life is so much better now. I WILL NOT be doing PTO crap next year. What a thankless job...no one is ever happy. Another story for another day. We have tomorrow off due to the Federal Holiday that was declared in honor of Gerald Ford. First President I actually remeber being elected.

My sis is heading back out to CO at the end of the week. Glad she's here right now instead of there...her husband went back to empty grocery stores and closed highways.

Say a little prayer for all those still stuck out there would ya? Every lit bit helps.

Peace, all.

I'm alive and well ...really. Just really stressed and busy..aren't we all? Have a fabulous Holiday everyone! Be back soon.....Peace, all...

Sorry...been out. Had some minor surgery on Monday. Way more info than I should share here. Couple words for you..Biopsy..netheregions...waiting...no pain...starting school...busy....will know results soon. Ta ta for now!

So school is over, camp is over. and the 1st of July has arrived. We leave for what will turn out to be a very fun, very long vacation. We headed to Irvington for our annual 4th of July celebration. As you can see the guys, once again had a "blast" blowing things up for over an hour. Want to see what approximately $15,000 worth of fireworks looks like? That's a pool table's worth and then some! Crazy I know, but we have a fabulous time every year. Our hostess vowed not to invite so many people next year though. There were 7 couples and their kids, two singles and their significant others and one loner. Totaling 18 adults, 14 kids and 5 dogs. We filled two houses, a camper, a tent and an RV. Talk about crazy!! Here's the crew after all was said and done...another successful year!

From here, on the 5th we drove 9 hours to Myrtle Beach. No neighbors to meet us there like last year, beautiful weather and the anticipation of some good friends joining us for the weekend. And they were cooking!!! We were a little nervous at first because of our previous experiences with friends coming on vacation with us. You know how there are some people you can take anything from and others...well, let's just say, it's not always such a pleasant experience.

Anywho, these folks are proving to be people we really get along with. Their son is in J-man's class and a great kid. They are both Italian and fabulous cooks!! More about food tomorrow ;0)