Fallin' back, baby!!

Aahhhh. I love fall. Have I mentioned that in previous posts? If not, I love fall. But I especially love the fact that I can stay up late one night, reading a book called High Spirits by Peter Funk (an excellent read), and then wake up the next morning, having completely forgotten to fall back. What a wondrous feeling, that although your clock is trying really hard to convince you it's one time, it's really a whole hour earlier than that.

I feel like I could swim an entire ocean...or ride a bull named Hell Breaketh Loose for a full 8 seconds...or move a mountain. Unfortunately, the third and final choice is the one that will be happening today. Plural, actually. How could we have mountains and mountains of laundry, just sitting there, waiting for me to do something with it? I'd take pictures of it to share, but I just can't. It's that embarrassing. And although I say this every week, I'll say it again now: I will get it done today. It's my own little mantra, like the Little Engine That Could. I will get it done today.

Saturday morning ritual

Many Saturdays, I wake up to do the same thing. I go to the library to turn in books and check out ones that I've requested. Then I spend the remainder of the morning at the local pet store, which has an adoption day most Saturdays where a no-kill shelter brings in puppies to find homes. I want a dog so badly I can taste it. Now granted, we are broke as a joke...don't have a pot to pee in...can't even pay attention. So I would never go out and purposely buy a dog we truly couldn't afford. However, if a stray just happened upon our property, there's a fairly good chance that I would take it in (any strays out there reading this post? Here's your chance).

Today I was greeted by two dogs. One, a lab/pit mix named Charlie, and the other, some sort of beagle mix, named Dixie. Oh. My. God. Big Boss Man is a lucky son of a gun that I didn't walk into our home with one of those two pups. Adorable, sweet, playful puppies that needed a home because their shelter is closing. Sigh.

Now, I have an old-fashioned dream...I want to move back to the country. I "grew up" on a farm of sorts. An out in the middle of nowhere, fruit tree orchard, chicken coop-having, 4 acre farm. We had no cattle or horses, but we had chickens, about ten million cats and one alaskan husky. We had a workshop, built by my dad and grandfather, on the back of the garage. We had a barn (well, two actually, but one of them got torn down...the memory of pulling that thing down is still fresh-like-yesterday in my mind). We had a treehouse...a two-level treehouse in our backyard. I fell off that treehouse, backwards, when I was young. The memory of that, unfortunately, is also still fresh-like-yesterday to me. I almost get the wind knocked out of me just thinking about it.

Seeing others tell stories of the day-to-day workings of a real life ranch, such as Ree, the Pioneer Woman, makes me long for this life even more. It's so simple. It's refreshing. It's damn hard work. But what a life. So someday...we'll pack our family up and move to Montana or one of the Dakotas or Wyoming. And we'll have our little ranch. And having a dog is just part of making that dream become a reality...after all...every good ranch has to have at least one dog.

I am all SMILES

Yes, I know...I've gone on already about how much I love the upcoming time of year. I don't care. I'm going to do it again. And you're going to deal with it, because you love me and want me to be happy.


I walked into work this morning, expecting the same ol', same ol when it comes to Fridays...long day, but okee dokee because, well, it's Friday. But today was going to be different...oh so different.

I was suddenly all smiles. Overnight, literally, my store had become a Christmas wonderland! We're talking permanent smileage here folks. I couldn't get over it. I actually took my camera out and grabbed a few shots of a few of the many wonderful things available for purchase to make our home all Christmasy.

Heaven in a box.

I'm fairly certain I could live on coffee and Almond Rocha. I might not be able to fit through any doors, or sit still for any period of time, but I'd be livin', baby!

Disregard the glare...it was on a top shelf. These are just the cutest oversized Christmas bulbs ever...they are for the yard.

Finally...bulbs for Big Boss Man...he believes that ALL Christmas lights should be those old colored bulbs...the huge ones. Well, here ya go hon!

And these...giant ornaments...I don't know where I'd put them, but I'd find a spot to watch them sparkle.

The camera doesn't near do these justice. They were simply sparkling.

Gorgeous for year-round use, but lovely in a Christmasy way too.

Hard to tell, but they glow...they actually change color. Nothing like a color-changing snowman. Cheesy? Maybe. But I like 'em anyway.

Ahhh...more cheese.

Lots of happy snowmen, snowwomen, and snowchildren.

Jingling snowmen, snowwomen, and snowchildren.

As you can see, I'm totally psyched about Christmas. I had people staring at me like I was a true freak (and not just the one I play on TV). I'm the first to admit: I don't do decorating. I don't really have a style (well, unless you consider "clutter" a style). But Christmas decorations are just neat. How can you not smile when walking into a room filled with deep greens, bright reds, sparkling silvers and crisp whites? It speaks of winter and Christmas. It exudes comfort and family. It almost pukes warmth and happiness. And I'm all for it!