Is hell a cuss word?

When my son was about 7 or 8 years old, he asked me, "Is hell a cuss word?"

"It depends on how you use it," I said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," I said, "if you are having a discussion about Heaven and Hell, then it's not a cuss word."

"So...like...it would be okay to say, 'Hell with it. Praise the Lord?'!"

"Umm...not exactly."

Please do not use this image without written permission from Heath Elijah.

Flashback Fridays - 2nd Post

I know I already posted today, but I just visited Tara over at Too Much Information, and decided to join her party. Go on over to her blog and join in. This sounds like a lot of fun.

This is a picture of me, circa 1967 or so. I am playing with my cackerpickers. I used to go to the big tree in granny grump's backyard and put a bunch of caterpillars in that white box. I would then take one and chase my granny through the house with it. She would run from me, screaming for my mom to get me...I am laughing about it now.

Then I would go outside and take them out of the box and let them crawl up my legs...it tickled. Then, my little sister (2 years younger) would come out on the porch and stomp on them, squishing them as I was trying to rescue them by putting them back in the box.

I think I'll get even with her by posting some of her old pictures here...revenge is best served cold.

Crappy Crafts and Useless Information

Crappy Craft

Here's my crappy craft project. It takes about 5 seconds to make. Hey, I added the coffee beans all by myself and it was my idea.

Useless Information

Well, I guess I've lost it. I no longer have my gift. I was informed this week about two pregnancies and I had no fish dreams. Man, am I bummed! That was my only gift, my only talent, my only ability, my only thing. I definitely should have had at least 1 fish dream because the young lady is related. Dang!

A Wiener in the Snow


I'll let you decide which weiner is in the snow...

The old man here is 13. I can only get him to go outside twice a day.







Some Pics for John

Here's the firepit, Babe. Just wanted you to see how much snow we finally ended up getting. It's pretty bad when you go to Russia and get out of the cold. Did you get one of those big Dr. Zhivago hats yet?

How about your veranda? You have to admit. These icicles do look really cool. You probably wouldn't want to walk underneath them unless you had a death wish, though.

I just threw in this picture of the sundial. Look how the little thing (I'm sure it has a name) is peeking out of the snowball. It looks like a nose.

Now I'm going to have to look up what that part of a sundial is called. It will drive me crazy if I don't.

What Should the Big One Be?

As most of you know, I have a giveaway site.

"What kind of crap are you trying to pull, lady?" I'm sure is what some of you are wondering. I'll tell you in a minute.

Every Monday, I give something away. Yes, I actually send something out in the mail that I paid for with my (I mean my husband's) own money to someone I don't know and have never met nor will ever meet.

I need your help in coming up with ideas for the giveaways in March. I try to keep the Monday giveaways under $30 and the big giveaway at the end of the month under $300 (budget constraints). The big one for February is the Nintendo Wii. Thank goodness I found one. We went all over town for a week and no one had them and I was getting a bit nervous.

The big giveaway has to appeal to everyone. My first one was a Coach Purse. I paid $300 bucks for it, but it was not a hit. It only appealed to half the population, which was not a good idea if your goal is to get page hits.

I was thinking maybe this camera. I got this camera for Christmas and I love it. It retails for about $250, so it keeps me in my budget.

Even I can take good pictures with it and I suck. When my son gets ahold of it (see Lulu's slide show), it absolutely Sings!! The question is, will this camera appeal to a large number of people? I know it will appeal to bloggers, but what about the general public who is online searching for free stuff to win? Since that is where most of my traffic comes from, I need to appeal to those people.

The Crap I am Trying to Pull

My dream is to get enough page hits and a high enough page ranking that I can get advertisers to pay for the items I am giving away. I can then give away bigger, more expensive items, more often...yippee!

I can't tell you how much fun it is to get an excited email back from someone after I have told them that they have won something. I would love it if I could do this forever. Can you imagine? I mean, who wouldn't love giving away prizes worth thousands? That is my dream...I guess I'm a Ty Pennington, Ed McMahon wannabe.

So, if you have any idea what the world wants...please let me know. Or, you could just let me know what you would want.

Ugly Weather - Beautiful Photos

For those of you not from Ohio, we are SNOWED IN!! It is not just snow, it is ice covering everything. If it was outside, it is now encased in ice. Everything is closed and we are under a snow emergency.

It is still coming down. It is rumored that we are going to have accumulated 10 inches by the end of the day. I hope not.

5 Amazing Cell Phone Tricks

I just got these tips from the hubs and I didn't know any of them, so I thought I would share.

1. The worldwide emergency number for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you and, on some devices, 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked.


2. If you have a remote keyless entry and you lock your keys in your car, you can call your spouse or some at home who has the other keyless entry. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at home press the unlock buton, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. This works even if the person is hundreds of miles away.


3. If the battery in your cell phone is very low, press *3370#. Your mobile will restart with this reserve and show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your mobile the next time.


4. How to disable a stolen mobile phone. Right now, while you are thinking about it, write down your mobile's serial number. You do this by keying in *#06#. A 15-digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. If your phone gets stolen, call your service provider and give them this code. They can then block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everyone did this, there would be no point in people stealing cell phones. Score one for the good guys!


5. We do not use 411 often because it costs us money. All you have to do is dial (800)FREE411 or (800)373-3411 without incurring any charge at all. Program it into your cell phone now. I haven't tried this yet, so I imagine you will have to listen to an ad, but, hey, it's free right?

I am glad I was hungry when I went to the grocery yesterday. Snowed in today with the two girls, a lot of food, some firewood and board games. Not going to be too bad a day after all.

Hi Honey

I know you will read my blog as soon as you get settled in your hotel room. According to my calcs, when you land, it should be about 3:00 a.m. my time and 2:00 p.m. on Monday where you are. Isn't it weird to fly into the future? You are a huge fan of the sci-fi channel, though.

Let's see...what has happened since you left?

I drove home in blizzard conditions. Yikes!

Lester helped me finish cleaning the house and she gave the dogs a bath. She didn't put Winnie's pad down fast enough so Winifred left a tootsie roll on her freshly mopped floor...oops!

Lulu got in trouble for head-butting Starbuck, knocking his treat out of his mouth, then eating it. To add insult to injury, she started humping him, vigorously, a few minutes later. The poor guy couldn't catch a break.

Emily did her laundry!

Yes, you read that correctly.
Emily did her laundry!!