Can You Hear Me Crying???

Thursday, October 29, 2009

I'm sad today.

Today, I got a form from a friend that is also one of the best local real estate agents here at the lake.  The form is one I've received many times before, completed and returned without any emotion.  But today, I would have done just about anything to not complete this form.  You see, I am the Treasurer of our homeowner association and when people sell their homes and move, they can't close on their house until I sign off on it.  I have to confirm they are paid up with the Association.   And today I had to complete the form on our next door neighbors, Mike and Kim.

Although I tried to convince my friend, their realtor, that they owed $28,000 and hadn't paid their homeowner dues for 8 years, she knew me too well.  Dang.  Dang.  Dang.  So, here we go.  They are scheduled to close in about 3 weeks and this just simply isn't enough time for their neighbors who love them dearly to wrap our minds around the fact that we will no longer have the wonderful homemade Saturday night dinners that Kim is famous for; we will no longer have the EP3 (the name of our group) Rock Band concerts in their living room till late in the night; no more Saturday night charades that leave us rolling on the floor laughing; no more lawn mower races between Chuck and Kim and no more Charlie's Fan Club President.

You see, Mike and Kim are family to their neighbors on Eagle Cove.  We vacation together; we shop together; we share our immediate families with each other; we know each others deepest, darkest secrets.  They are what helps us full-timers separate the weekend from the weekdays.  There has been a dark, black, rainy cloud hanging over Eagle Cove since they signed the contract a week ago.

I know I'm sounding as if they're going away forever and we'll never see them again.  Actually. they've promised us they will be back every other weekend to cook and mow for us (kidding!), and we did promise to put their name on the door of our guest room which I'm working on as I write.   Truth is, Chuck and I feel so incredibly blessed to have such dear friends like Mike and Kim.  We feel blessed to have the wonderful, unforgettable memories they have provided us and we thank them for making our life fuller.

You will be missed (at least every other week), my dear friends.

Lance #62

My nephew, Lance, playing his final Homecoming football game as Center for Midwestern State University.

Who Is My Congressman??

Saturday, October 17, 2009

I don't know about you, but I've never been that interested in knowing who my State Representative is in Washington or how to contact him/her.   But in light of all the crap (uh...I mean "stuff") coming down the pike from Washington these days, Chuck and I have felt the need to know who the dude is that votes on our behalf and to let him know easy it would be for us to FIRE him if he doesn't vote appropriately.

Soooo....I googled and found this really great site that allows anyone, no matter where you live, to easily find your representative; see what he stands for; see what he's done for (or against) you; see if he was one of those Democrats that "slipped" out of the room so they didn't have to vote on Countrywide; and how to contact him.  Thought I'd share it with you so you, too, could make your voice heard:

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

My neighbor, Becky, and I went last month to Longview in the pouring rain to our very first, but not last, Tea Party opposing this ridiculous health care reform issue.  It felt good, I've got to tell ya, to be doing something....ANYTHING......to be heard; plus, we got to carry cool signs and I thought we looked kinda cute too!

So, as most of you know, I'm not usually much into politics; actually, I took Government twice in high school cause I wasn't paying attention the first time, but I feel strongly that we'd be negligent to NOT be doing what we can to be heard; irregardless of what side you're on.

So, my Blogger Friends, use this website to find who represents YOU and see if they stand for what YOU stand for; and if they don't, let them know.  And if they do stand for your issues, let them know that too!

"In God We Trust"

Sallie, Larry and Jerry Jones.....All In One Day....

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Geeezzzz, where to start......

Well first, as you could see by my last Blog, it's been raining, raining, raining............It's times like this, I like to reminisce about the moments we were all hanging out in what used to be the middle of the lake, praying for rain......googling "rain dances"......trying to jinx the gods into sending rain.....so we could get our boats out and stop having golf cart races out on the dry land that used to be called Lake Cypress Springs.  The dry land is long gone; the septic alarms are screaming from full tanks of rain water; and we are having to canoe to get to the mailbox........

But I digress; yesterday, as I was still in my PJ's doing yoga to my Wii Fit (quit laughing....I can hear you!), I get a call from our neighbor Steve doing what good neighbors do; checking to make sure I secured the jetski's and raised the boat lift due to the rising water.  Well, I hadn't.  So, deja vue to May, I'm in the same PJ's (pink with horseys on them), grabbing a jacket, ball cap and galoshes and heading to the boathouse in the pouring rain to secure everything.  As I'm trying to find the lock for the jetskis, here comes my good neighbor, Steve, to the rescue (check him out on the Harley).  Such a good guy, that Steve-o!!  Anyway, I digress again.  About the time he gets to our boathouse, I hear someone calling out from the backdoor of our City-Laker neighbor's house (that's our slang word for neighbors who live in the city but come to the lake on the weekends)....that is located between Steve's and our house.  Now, whats so unusual about this, is our City-Laker neighbors are in Colorado right now and there shouldn't be anyone at their house.  Hummmmmm......I know their house is For Sale right now (they put it up shortly after I was caught taking pictures of their daughter & her boyfriend through the window (see Blog from 7-27-09.....but they swear it didn't have anything to do with that...uhh huh....), but I just couldn't imagine in my wildest dreams a realtor showing houses on such a dreadful day.  Anyway, I can't hear what they're saying, so Steve asks them to repeat and all we can hear them say is, "Did you get the Cayman fixed yet" and "It's Sallie and Larry"....As I'm trying to process this in my weee little rain-soaked brain, it occurs to me that I only know one couple named Sallie and Larry and we only knew them for approximately 3 hours.

We had met a couple named Sallie and Larry while we were traveling this summer in Colorado Springs. They were staying at the same wonderful campground and we had the same type of motorhome; a Monaco Cayman.  Now, if you followed my Blog this past summer, you know we had a few, well.....what I'd like to call "hicups" with the motorhome on the trip.  Well, they had "hicups" with their Monaco that Chuck helped them with and we had issues with ours that they helped us with.  That's how we know Sallie and Larry.  And here they were in our next door neighbor's house with a realtor.  As strange as that all sounds, it wasn't totally a coincidence.  Sallie, who has been receiving my Blogs, checked out my website and saw pictures of where we live.  Finally, someone was actually checking out my website (www.LizEtheridge.com)!!!  She loved the look of the lake and told Larry if they ever made it to Texas, they were going to check out Lake Cypress Springs!  And here they were!!!  Unfortunately, they were here viewing beautiful Lake Cypress Springs at its very worst..........but they loved our neighbor's house! (Check out the picture of Sallie and Larry with their adorable pup, Buddy)

So, there you have it.   Isn't that amazing??  Isn't that crazy cool???  Isn't that just......just......the most unbelievable thing ever?????

And to top the day off of unbelievable stuff, I want to know what anonymous wiseguy mailed me a picture (obviously photoshopped) of Jerry Jones signed, "To Liz, hugs and kisses......Your Friend, Jerry Jones"????  I have it narrowed down to about 25 people.  CONFESS!  Everyone knows Jerry Sucks!  But that Blog is for another day.........

It's Raining, It's Pouring; My Old Man Is Snoring....

Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize.....Is It April Fools Day???

Friday, October 9, 2009

Seriously; a Nobel Peace Prize???  Are we all being Punked???

Ya, ya, ya.....I know its a dangerous road to travel to Blog about politics, but how can I not?  Can someone please tell me what Barack Hussain Obama did to warrant getting a Nobel Peace Prize?  Anyone??

This might be a good time to share a little trivia with you about this Joke-Of-A-Prize......

* Did you know that the deadline for nominations for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was February 1, 2009?  That means Obama had only been President for 12 days when the nominations were closed.

* Did you know that Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler also were nominated for this obvious Joke-Of-A-Prize?

* That Bill Clinton is the only Democrat President in the past 50 years that has not gotten this prize?

* And this is my favorite: Al Gore received the prize in 2007 for doing a "slide show on global warming", beating out a lady by the name of Irena Sendler?  If you haven't heard about Irena, let me tell you little about this lovely lady:

During WWII, Irena received permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto as a plumbing/sewer specialist.  She had an ulterior motive to working as a sewer specialist, though.  She knew what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews.  Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried in the back of her truck.  She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.  The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.  In all,  she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.  She was finally caught and the Nazi's broke both her legs and arms and beat her severely.  Irena kept a record of all the names of the kids she smuggled out which she kept in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard.  After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and reunite the family.  Most, of course, had been gassed.  Those kids she helped were placed in foster family homes or adopted.  In 2007, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.....she LOST.  She was beat by Al Gore for his slide show on global warming.  Irena died on May 13, 2008, never having received the recognition she deserved.

Do you still wonder why I call this a Joke-Of-A-Prize?

I find it amusing that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on the same day that he's becoming the first POTUS to bomb the Moon........And I believe this is the first time they have awarded the Peace Prize to someone because they were breathing..........

I Want A Taser Gun.......

Thursday, October 1, 2009

I want a TASER! A pretty camo-pink Taser........

Ya ya ya, I know I live in a 99.999% crime free neighborhood; and yes its true, the worst crime in Mt. Vernon last week was reported by a woman on Main St. who reported losing her checkbook; it's orange with ladybugs on it and she last remembers having it in her car after church. But you just never know when you're going to need a Taser....Big City Crime sometimes finds its way to the Country, you know!

My niece, Jacque, and I were talking on the phone the other day about how we each need a Taser. A pretty camo-pink taser! We're willing to take Taser-Control Classes if need be and earn a certificate; why, I'm even willing to practice the Tasering on her! But we figure we're both safer with a Taser than a real gun. Who knows whether that guy running up behind you is truly planning on hurting you or maybe he was just returning your checkbook; you know, the orange with ladybugs on it checkbook. I'd much rather "electrocute" the guy with 50,000 volts than shoot a bullet through him if he was just returning my checkbook. Eventually, he'll get over the electrocution, but he may never get over that gunshot wound.

The pictures you see are of my niece Jacque and me PRE-taser.......the next picture is of my niece Jacque POST-taser........see, she's still alive!!

I can remember when I first realized I needed a Taser. Mom and I had taken the train at Union Station in downtown Dallas to downtown Ft. Worth last year for an event. We had planned on catching the 7:00 pm train back to Dallas, but unfortunately missed it. We had to wait for the 9:00 pm train which put us at Union Station in Dallas around 10:00 pm. We noticed this dude staring at us on the train, so we were keeping an "eagle eye" on him through the reflection in the window. As we got off the train, he went one way and we went another. We were relieved. We started towards the car, when we noticed another crazy-looking dude running out of a building right towards us yelling something. As I attempted to "hurry" Mom to the car, I was thinking, "Wow, I sure wish I had a Taser about now". See, I really could have used a Taser right then! We successfully made it to the car, but wow, a Taser would have been awesome!! Teach him to come running towards us yelling stuff......

And why camo-pink?? You know, I'm not really a pink-kind-of-gal, but I figure that if Charlie ever gets mad at me, he'll NEVER be caught dead borrowing my pink Taser and hurting me with it and if its Camo, he won't be able to "see" it anyway! It's CAMOUFLAGED! Win-Win!!! Plus, I just think its cool.

So, with Christmas coming up in 3-4 months, I figure I'll get my family thinking about the Taser idea.........and I hope they remember it needs to be a Camo-Pink Taser......afterall, I'm a girl and I live in the country now....