The Mist By Stephen King

Years ago my mom started me reading Stephen King books. That is probably where I get my love of being scared silly, and scaring the kids silly.
One night, while my infant brother slept in another room, my mom, my cousin Nicky and I were reading a Stephen King book aloud. I can't remember what it was even called, but there was a man walking in the mountains and a dog started playing with him and as he traveled up the mountain the dog started jumping in front of him and growling, trying to stop him. Eventually he started to leave and something happened and the dog jumped between him and whatever was going to attack him and was growling.
Right at that moment my mom's dog started growling something fierce! We started screaming! We were just petrified. No one else was home, and we were in a bedroom and couldn't get to a phone. We were so afraid of whatever would make a very happy dog growl so fiercely in the hallway that we were to scared to even go check on and grab the baby!
Nicky and I were just teenagers, but my mom should have run for the baby, wouldn't you think?
That is kind of what happens in The Mist by Stephen King. A mist surrounds a grocery store and it is too thick to even get to the cars, much less get anywhere. Eventually they figure out that something is in there and their true characters start to come out. It is almost more frightening in the store than out of it.
The trailer for The Mist scared me. I wasn't sure I could even handle watching the movie. Donnie thinks it looks great, so we'll have to go see it together, and I know he will leave with bruises and nail marks on his arms. I would NOT go see the movie with my mom, though. Sorry, mom, but I know you too well!

My mom, the artist

My mom painted this picture. Normally she doesn't like her paintings, which is crazy because they are nice. But this one she liked.
This is not my favorite, though. I love two that she did for me and my favorite, that is everyone else's favorite too, must have been given to my brother.
My mom has had so many different artistic "jobs" over the years. Not just painting, but crafting stuff, too. A long time ago, she used to paint ceramic bells with her sister, and they would sell them to touristy shops in Arizona, and I think they even shipped them out somewhere. I recently saw someone post a pic of a bell with the same kind of paintings that they did.
I don't paint or draw like my mom, I most definately did not inherit that talent, but I do think a lot of my creativity comes from my mom.

I'm a sap

Every time I read this book I bawl. I don't just shed a tear, I have to fight body wracking sobs. Crazy. So I bought it for all my moms one year for Mother's Day. (hmmm, just thought of a great gift for my sister in law!)

So, today, Trinity insisted I read this book. I always refuse the other kids because they want to see my cry so they can laugh at me. But Trinity just wanted to read a book. Besides, I know it all now, and I am not pregnant, so I will just NOT focus on the words and just mindlessly read it.
But I got into the book. It captivated me and drew me in despite my determination to not hear the words I was reading.
Soon, I was bawling. Tears running down my cheeks, and my chest heaving just a bit as I tried not to disturb Trinity's enjoyment of the story. But I couldn't hold back the sobs.
I have NEVER read this book or heard it read without crying. And I first heard it over 12 years ago while living in Germany.

Here is Robert Munsch's website about the book. You can hear him read the book even. If you do not cry, you are heartless.
This mom has a new baby, and she rocks that little baby and sings it a song, all the way through the terrible twos, the horrid teens, and even adulthood. Then she gets sick and calls for her son, but she can't finish the song because she is so sick. And then the rest of the book happens and I bawl.
(oh, and I just read why he made up that song, and I want to bawl some more! He made up the song in his head after his wife and he had two still born babies, he sang it for them, but couldn't sing it aloud without crying!)

State Fair

My mom's group trip to the zoo was cancelled due to rain, but that did not stop us from going to the State Fair! Donnie really loves going, and this is his only day off. Rain or shine, we were going. We bought umbrellas and barely needed them! But we were glad to have them.
I have one major goal at the fair, and so does Donnie. He wants to try all the food on a stick there is, and I want to get all the freebies. He also wants to go to the political booth, and I want to hit the local Christian music station booth. We managed to get it all squeezed in.
We started with the most amazing new food, Scotch Eggs! It is a hard boiled egg wrapped completely in sausage and deep fried and on a stick, then they offer a selection of dips, maple syrup, ranch dressing, honey mustard sauce. Oh my gosh, it was amazing! We are going to try to make this on our own.
Then we had a deep fried Snickers bar on a stick. They put batter on them and deep fry them, oh so good! And that was Sam's favorite! Next we had a pork chop tenderloin on a stick with amazing barbeque sauce. Oh, it was sooo tender!
We did not stop there! We had to have the deep fried macaroni and cheese and the sloppy joe on a stick! The mac 'n cheese is wadded up and battered and deep fried, the sloppy joe mix is put in a hot dog casing and then battered with what they say is hamburger bun, but not sure about that, then deep fried and on a stick with a side of the tomato sauce. Way too good. I do not like mac'n cheese, so you'll have to take Sam and Donnie's word on it being good, because I think its nasty.
Then we had a foot long corn dog on a stick. And a thing of garlic fries.
What we didn't try was the Hotdish on a stick at the Ole and Lena booth! I heard it was great, though. Or the "New Egg Sandwiches." Or the gator on a stick. We did the gator last year, it was ok, but not worth buying again.

Sam was awake until we were walking to the car. He had a great time waving at everyone! He also did not nurse the whole time we were gone today, and only nursed a little bit when we got home. I have decided that I am going to nurse along with giving him some more foods and milk in a bottle. He was not all that excited about the chocolate milk, but today he had strawberry milk and was ga-ga over it! I am going to work on not nursing him at night, just before bed and then his breakfast time around 7am. (he doesn't actually get up then, or I would make it a bowl of oatmeal or something) I refused to nurse him last night, and it did work. I had to get up and walk him a couple of times, but I did not nurse him.

I had a great time getting my freebies, I am actually going to have to go and count all the free bags I got. No less than 3 from colleges, probably 4, and at least 2 others, I'm thinking 6, not including what we gave to my mother-in-law. And two from the radio station. Tons of pencils and college information for Kaytlin. 4 seedling trees, Sam got a pair of sunglasses. We got a ruler, a pen, and who knows what else I got!

Then we got to go to the airport. We made it there about 15 minutes before we expected Devon's plane to arrive. Donnie was tired and has to work in the morning, so I left him to sleep in the car and Sam and I head out to find Devon. He plane info says he is on time. And we have no idea if he tried to call and say there was anything wrong or delays because the kids did something that unplugged the phone all afternoon! Well, after the plane was 1/2 an hour late they finally updated the screen and said the plane would be just over an hour late! The time went quickly for me because Sam was entertaining person after person and having a grand time with all the attention!

Then Donnie came in to see what was up, and soon Devon's plane landed. Oh, the joy of seeing Devon! Sam just hugged him and squealed! He couldn't stop grinning! But his joy could not match the exuberance of Trinity's first sight of Devon when we got home. She started squealing "Devon" at the top of her lungs, in spite of it being nearly midnight. In spite of the neighbors being asleep, and some not having A/C, so they have their windows open.

Apparently my mom embarrassed Devon quite thoroughly at the airport before he left. I warned him it was coming, but it still surprised him. My mom is a crier. She cries, no, bawls, whenever we have to part. We feel so bad for her that we hardly want to see her to make her cry that hard! Devon said he was getting all settled and everything was fine, and then she was bawling, sobbing, loudly. Drew and Kaytlin went through it, too, and they did NOT warn him or want to warn him. And mom said that she cried so hard that when he got out of sight she had to go sit down to get through it. I can honestly say that no one in our family ever wonders if my mom loves them.

Kaytlin called

Kaytlin called from my mom's this morning. She had some time between mom going to work and being picked up by her step cousin and step aunt to go to a lobster fest on the coast of Maine.
My mom lives on a mountain area. And I know there are all sorts of creatures out there, like porcupines and wild turkey for sure. And my mom has a cat, Midnight, who they affectionately call Nightmare, and she doesn't like people much. She pretty much isn't seen by guests. Drew stayed there for nearly a month once and he rarely saw the cat. Mom told Kaytlin that the cat doesn't go all sweet and follow you around and rub on your legs like normal cats.
But then why was Kaytlin tripping over the cat so much and having to brush off layers and layers of black cat hair off her pants? Its because Midnight LOVES Kaytlin. Like all cats do.
Kaytlin was on the phone with me, sitting out on the deck admiring the view................. of spiderwebs. She counted 12 huge spiderwebs on one side of the house. My mom is a creature lover, she doesn't get picky about what they are. She admires the spiders spinning their webs. And Kaytlin spied the spiders that make those huge webs. Their bodies are the size of Kaytlin's thumb! And at least 4 of them live over a door to the house. I would NOT be walking in that door! And my mom asked her to photograph the spiders, yuck!!!!
As we were talking she started kind of freaking out, more like getting creeped out, by something following her and clicking. She went in the house, but she heard it again later, too. Then it flew over the house! She thinks it was a locust. lol
I can't wait to hear how much fun the lobster fest was! Maybe Kaytlin will do some guest blogging while on her vacation!

Look who's blogging now!

I finally talked my mom into blogging! Bring Your Own Cheese, The Whine is Free. We thought it would be great for her to blog about all the weird stuff going on in her life. She is raising two of her 24 grandkids because of some bad stuff going on, and all the hardships that has brought to their family because of it. (like a convicted murderer calling with threats, accusations of molestation, her husband can't live in the house for awhile, then all is well) Then there is the whole being landlords drama! THAT has brought its own level of bizarre. (crazy tenants, missing tenants, seeping sewers, $10,000 worth of dirt)

Maybe in the future ABC will make a soap opera out of it.

Well, then add in both her boys having tattoos, and her only daughter wanting to get one, and you have plenty to whine about! But the whine is pricey, so bring your own cheese to go with it! Check out her Wordless Wednesday post, its a joke she played on me after my last WW pic from her house, the hole in the snow......

My Mom and the maze that is my home

When Samuel was born my mom came to stay with me for a week to help out, since we knew I would have a c-section. She was the biggest help! She got more laundry done in a week than I'd seen done the whole time I had morning sickness, lol. Of course she PAID my kids to let her do thier laundry! Yep! She paid them $20 to bring their laundry down for her to wash. How could it get any better, I ask you?

But the best part of the week was watching my mom get lost in my house 4-5 times a day! We have a circular path on the main floor. You can walk from living room to dining room to the tiny hall outside the nursery to the kitchen to the hall with the bathroom to the living room again. So, she'd be heading for the bathroom and end up in the nursery. Or she'd be trying for the bedroom/nursery and end up in the hall to the bathroom. Every single day. Without fail! The funniest was when she was in the hallway to the bathroom and asked one of the kids where the bathroom was!

I told her we'd never know she was lost if she'd just keep going, since its a big circle, but then it wouldn't have been nearly as funny, either!

Hi, mom! You knew this had to come out one day! You know, not even Trinity got lost the first day we moved in, and she was only a year old. This is really funny!

But, if you all want to laugh really, REALLY hard, head over to It Coulda Been Worse and read her post on The perfect gift. Seriously pee your pants funny! I was laughing so hard that I could barely read it to my husband, who was trying to figure out what I was in hysterics about. My 17yo ds was wiping tears away, too, lol. It has to be THE best post I've ever read! EVER!