Don’t you hate nights when you are dog tired but for some dumb reason you can’t seem to go to sleep?  I do it all the time.  It seems to happen more when I know I have to get up at 5 am too.  I think my problem is in my genes because my mother and 3 of my sons are the same way.

   I used to be the kind of person that was up until at least 11 pm or later every night but once I started having to get up so early, I learned to go to bed much earlier.  Maybe that has something to do with having trouble sleeping some nights.  I don’t know what it’s from but it sure makes for a long day the next day.  Well I’m going to try again to sleep and hopefully this time I’ll succeed.

   My husband just retired after working since he was born, or that’s what it sounds like to hear him tell it.  Well I decided I needed to send out a special retirement party invitation for a surprise retirement party.  Retirement is kinda like having a baby but in reverse, sort of, and you send special cards for baby showers and I wanted something special for him. 

   I found a really great place to create just what I wanted.  At  Photo Card Invitations I could put in the picture I have of him when he was about 3 in his bibbed overalls beside a picture of him now wearing basically the same thing.  The border-less full color photo card would be perfect for that.  What do you think?  It would look best vertical since there will be two pictures side by side I think.  Inside you can put whatever you want.  Mine will say something like “You’re invited to RD’s much anticipated retirement party but don’t tell because it’s a surprise.  Diaper make perfect presents for such an occasion, don’t you think?”   And then add the usual, when and where stuff of course.  You can do it too basiclly on any card you create.  Even if a card says “Merry Christmas”, it can be changed to anything you want it to say.  Couldn’t be easier. http://www.cardsdirect.com/CardDetailEx.aspx?Pro__ProductId=1307923

  Are any of you as crazy about ‘Dancing with the Stars’ as I am?  I totally love that show.  I can’t believe it’s almost over again.  I was just a bit disappointed in the 100th show thing they did the other week.  I guess I was disappointed in the top 10 dances.  I totally think the best dance ever on that show was Drew and Cheryl dancing to ‘Save a horse, ride a cowboy.’  I totally love that dance and the comment one of the judges made about ‘Brokeback Mountain the musical’, well I almost fell off the couch laughing at what Drew did with his hat!!!  Too funny. 

   Wanna hear something even funnier?  My father, the man that wouldn’t let me take dance lessons, watches the show faithfully!!!  I couldn’t believe it when my mother told me that. 

Last night my ex-husband’s new wife of 6 months called me. She’s a sweet person to my son but I haven’t really talked to her so I had no idea what she could have wanted to talk to me about. Would you believe she asked me if RJ had ever had any trouble in the sack? I was totally dumbfounded. Of all the questions she could have asked me, that was not one I expected.

I told her to maybe check out some information on Cialis. See, ever since we had the youngest, I don’t know what went wrong but things just weren’t the same after that. I found the best prices on edrugstore.md on things that help with erectile dysfunction. She might even want to try Viagra and if that doesn’t do the job, I hear Levitra works good too. I sure wish her the best of luck with everything and I do mean everything.

   I don’t know if it was windy where you guys are today but it was totally unreal here.  The mountains had hurricane force winds.  The mountains of all places.  My son Anthony has a dog kennel that has a cover over it for his dogs to have some shade.  It sits beside the building he keeps his riding mower in.  He called me earlier today and told me that the wind picked up his dog kennel, threw it over the building and just mangled it.  One panel of a 6′ high 10′ long dog kennel is heavy in itself but this wind picked up all 4 panels.  I was ‘blown away’, ha ha!!!!!

      At first it was kinda funny but it wasn’t after I thought about it.  You see, my ex-husband isn’t the brightest crayon in the box when it comes to what most people call ‘common sense.’  Someone got a credit card in his name and ran up a huge bill.  He even accused me of doing it since we were once married and I would have enough information on him to get one after all, as he put it.  Now you know one of the reasons he’s my ex. 

   Well it sure wasn’t me and it sure got me thinking about protecting my own identity.  Luckily I have a very smart daughter-in-law  that told me about lifelock.  It’s a lot cheaper than I thought it would be and a heck of a lot cheaper than what my ex had to pay to get out of the mess he got into.  Check out the site.  It’s really simple to protect  your hard earned money once you find LifeLock.

   It’s Mothers Day and even though I’m a mother, it isn’t about me.  It’s about my mother.  You see, she wanted 6 children but that just wasn’t meant to be for her.  She had a horrible time bringing my younger brother and I into this world.  She (and my father of course) adopted a little girl that was sort of left on our doorstep literally.  These people asked my mother to babysit while they move and they never came back to get her so we adopted her.  She was about 13 months old I believe at the time.  Through the adoption process, my parents were asked if they would consider taking in a foster child.  They did and all of a sudden, I had an older brother.  My mother loved those two just as much as she did the two she gave birth to.

   My mother wasn’t your usual mother either.  Yeah she was a stay at home Mom until we were all in school and then she went to Beauty School and became a beautician.  Yes she kept the house spotless and cooked dinner every night from scratch and not from a box.  Yes she hugged and kissed each of us and welcomed all our friends into our home as an extention of our family.  She gave praise when needed and would bust our rears when needed too but all in the name of love and all with love.

   What was unusual about her was she rode a motorcycle herself instead of only behind my father on his Harley back in 1972.  My friends thought I had the coolest Mom there was when they saw that.  She listened to the same music I did and would even dance around the house to “Horse with no name”.  You should have seen that, I laughed my hiney off.  She even started driving 18 wheelers in 1976 and ended up training other women to do it too back when women just didn’t drive those things.

   Yeah, my Mom was and still is pretty darn cool.  She’s the glue that keeps the family together.  She’s the shoulder I lean on when life knocks me to my knees.  She’s my best friend, the woman I most admire in the world and I’m lucky enough to call her Mom!!!!    HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM!!  I LOVE YOU MORE THAN WORDS CAN SAY!!!!!!

   My husband is a semi-pro bass fisherman and his favorite store should come as no surprise to most men.  It’s the Bass Pro Shop.  It seemed that he was in there all the time.  I made the mistake of going with him one day.  Of course we had to look at all the fishing stuff but I was amazed at the other items they carried that women actually enjoy.  They have some of the prettiest clothes in there for women.  I was totally amazed.  I thought it was basically just a store with fishing and hunting stuff.  Boy was I wrong.  If you get the chance, stop in a Bass Pro Shop and just walk around.  I’m sure you’ll find something you like in there too.  I actually look forward to going there with my husband now and even get a little angry when he goes without me.  Who would have thought?

   I love my computer.  It keeps me in touch with friends, helps with my sons homework, and well you know all a computer can do.  The only problem is mine is a PC and I find myself stuck to the work station all the time.  I have been thinking about purchasing a laptop so I can take it with me when I go to visit my parents at the beach or even out in the yard for fresh air instead of just being stuck inside.  I went online to www.Dell.com and found all kinds of good deals on refurbished laptops.  I can’t afford that much but can get a much better laptop on there for the same money I would have paid for one that didn’t have half the features on it that those do.  If you’re in the market for a laptop, that’s the place to check out first.

  My hubby and I fished in The Jim Ledbetter Memorial Team Bass Tournament for The V Foundation Saturday March 8th and won the husband and wife division for the third year in a row.  Everyone keeps asking us what kind of lure we use but when we tell them we caught them on a Zoom Fluke, they don’t believe us.  That’s the only thing we used that day and I caught a 4 pound 7 ounce bass.  Man was that fun too.  We were on TV and on www.fishwithdj.com too.  We just found out the tournament was talked about in the May issue of Bass Times too.  How cool is that?