Image by Linda Duchaine via Flickr

I have been just lazy today. Surfing the world. Going all over the place. Installing new programs. Trying out some plugins for firefox. Trying out the new beta win 7. It’s ok, so far. Also found this thingie. Live Writer from Mircosoft. So that is where I am blogging from at the moment. I want to see the results. It has a few plugins I can add to make adding pics and video easier.It’s pretty nifty.

I think it works with any blogging host.Blogger, typepad, google,etc. So lets try the plugins.

cool!

From our deck.

Over the last few weeks I have been a bit quiet. I had planned on making this blog a place where I could open up and shine. Show the world that I am a person of many colors. I’m not just black and white. There are dark colors that bleed red like blood and blues that match the skies. Yellow as a sunflower, royal as a kingly purple. There are many colors in my rainbow. So I am embarking on a new world. I want to share with you my stories and my life experiences. Can I  do it? I’m not sure. I am going to try to share, but I am a very private and shy person. This doesn’t come easily.

Let’s begin….

As long as I can remember I have been a writer. I have always had pen and paper near me. I never thought much of it, but now I have been looking back and thinking there might of been a reason for it. I pulled out all my old poems I had written in my life. Realizing that there are a few of them. Not all of them are good but as I read them, I realized that I wrote them to reflect that time in my life.

My first one I ever wrote was simple. I was about 8 years old.  I now will share it with you. As simple as it is, it still brings back memories of a time when grass stained knees, ice cream trucks and running through sprinkles were so very important.

A little Smile

I was walking on the grey sidewalk, when I saw a bottle cap smiling at me. It was blue and had a white letters saying “smile” and a happy face that was also white. I leaned down to pick it up, but it disappeared.”How can that be?” I thought to myself. It vanished out of sight and I’ll never see it again.-Karin Nickel

Meat Muffins

1 pound ground meat(beef,chicken,pork)
Spices(I used Mexican,but you can spice the meat how you like)
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped mushrooms(optional)

Fry all that together till brown and yummy. I let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Then drain the fat out. Put in paper towels to squish the rest of the grease out. Let it cool down.

Make some pancake batter. I used Krusteaz’s buttermilk pancake mix(found it at Costco). You want whatever mix you make to be a bit runny so it pours. Take a muffin pan and fill the bottoms of each just so they are covered. Then spoon in the meat  and cover with the rest of the batter. Makes 12 muffins.

Put in preheated oven(375c) for about 20 minutes or until the tops are brown. Remove let cool and then….

NOM NOM NOM!!!!

It’s that easy!

Seriously, I don’t think you want to know every detail of my boring life. I eat, I sleep and I use the washroom just like everybody else. Only difference might be that I use my left hand before my right. I also step out with my left foot first. I hold my coffee mug in my right hand so that I can use my mouse with the left. I throw with my left and catch with my right. But when I play tennis I use both hands. Crazy, I know.

I don’t wear socks unless its dead of winter. I will go barefoot almost anywhere, but not on grass. I don’t shave my legs, I wax them. I brush my teeth in the shower every morning. Yes, I brush my teeth after every meal at the bathroom sink. It’s not like I need to get in the shower to brush my teeth every time.

I get tiny blisters in my mouth when I eat tomatoes. Yup, I still eat them. I drink water with a straw. I can sit and eat a whole watermelon to myself and still be hungry. It’s not something I will do now. I collect buttons. Send me your buttons! I have stuffed animals in my bedroom. I don’t have real plants in my home, I tend to kill them.

I don’t like to be around lots of people. I am shy. I look in the mirror and think I am fat, I know I’m not. I like to do word search puzzles. I draw. I can also paint. I crochet, but I don’t like to knit even though I do know how. I buy clothes that I don’t have to iron. I make lists for everything. I also know how to make beaded jewelry.

I have purple dragonflies all over the condo hiding in trees. I have my motorcycle license, but no more bike. I love the water, but hate to swim in big bodies of it. I don’t swim in lakes. I will swim in the ocean, but not here where I live(yuk).

Have I covered it all? Is there anything else I need to inform you about? There probably is but I can’t think of any more at the moment. So now I am going to go have a hot bath using my homemade bath bombs. Afterward I plan to put on a big t-shirt and climb into my bed and watch a movie. What movie you ask? I think it will be Gran Torino. You know the one with Clint Eastwood. After the movie I will go pee and then go back to bed and sleep.

Now you know everything

Hmmm….

I haven’t had much to blog about as of late. I’ve been busy with a lot of scanning  Gregg’s dad’s slides from his trip around the world. Takes time to scan. I can only scan so many a day. Afterwards I will need to touch them up. A lot of them are faded and worn looking.

What else am I up to? I’m actually starting to writing again. I guess I am feeling creative lately…lol. At the moment I’m taking things that I experienced and writing them down. Once I have done that I will see what I can do with it. I find that all this writing has been very therapeutic for me. I’ve even had my poetry bug coming out. I used to write all the time when I was younger. No idea why I stopped? Maybe it was having kids around? There was no time to write.

That’s about it for now. Oh yeah, that last 10 lbs is finally on the move! yipppeee!!!!

I did have a few girl friends that were close. One in particular I talked with and saw almost daily. She and I were very close for about 9 years. We were like sisters. The only time we weren’t together was when we slept. We went to our homes and in the morning we talked again. I would even go keep her company at work. And when she moved away, it wasn’t long and we moved closer.

When I left, I left her behind. It was a very hard thing to do. I really loved her like a sister. We were 2 of a kind. I miss her some days. Other days I don’t. There were a lot of hurt feelings. Some of those feeling of hurt are still there.

The friends I have now are close, but yet at a distance. I’m afraid to get close. I don’t want to get burned again. Yes, there is good reason to be cautious. It’s a long story and I will tell it some other time.

My friends I have now are good people. Most are online people. Since I spend a lot of time online. I meet people as I travel through the online world. Some stay and become friends and others move along after a few days. The ones that stay I chat with daily, even if it’s just to say HI.

The ones I know in the real world I talk with on the phone from time to time. I’m not much for phone chatting. I keep up on Facebook or Email.

But this is about friends. What are they? They are special. Some are good for a laugh and others will give you a shoulder to cry on. There are those that don’t really care either way as long as it’s about them. Some you can have coffee with and chat about the kids and the weather, but never talk about personal things. There are even family members that can be friends, sisters or brothers that you are so close with that you share every secret with them. Then there are the lucky few that you grow up with and stay best friends all your life. That is a rare friend.

I guess over these last 10 years that I have slowly made my life changes; I have found one friend that I will always keep close to my heart. Yes, it’s Gregg. He is my dearest friend that I will always have. Now, I don’t say this easily. It took him a long time to get this close to me. He knew the pain I went through when it comes to friends. Even after we married, I was still not willing to let him in completely. There is still times where I second guess myself. Wondering if letting him know all my secrets is a good idea.

But, I trust him to never use anything against me; so far I was right in my choice of trust. I have made a best friend in him.

So what is a true friend? Honestly? I think we all have true friends in our lives; we just need to look a bit deeper to see them. Sure, you might pick the wrong one and you could get hurt. But isn’t that part of life? We need to make those mistakes so that we can learn from them. Sometimes we make the mistakes again and again. We wonder if we will ever learn not to. It will hurt for a while. Then we do it again. Then it happens, that one person finally shows you what a really friend should be. That is the person you need to hang on to. Keep them close. You will be rewarded with a great friendship that can even outlast a life time.

I know it can’t be easy living with his Dad. But let’s not start talking about that. It’s old and I’m tired of thinking about all that crap.

He sure does have my cheeks and my fat bottom lip…lol

Happy Birthday Colbster!

I love you!

I had a few tears, but they were happy ones. I did bring him a slice of watermelon. Like I said I would. I even took a bite. I’m sure he would of shared. We stayed for a bit and I thought about how much I missed him. I took the first small rock I saw from top of his grave and put it in my pocket. It will travel with me for this year.

I don’t know if I’ll go back again. I know he isn’t there. I know that he is in Heaven. I just hope that Heaven isn’t butting heads with his stubbornness…lol. He always liked to argue that he was right, I was wrong. True, many times he was right.

Anyways, we decided to head over to Mom’s for the afternoon. My brother’s with their wivies and kids also showed up. We had a nice early dinner and chatted for a bit. Then it was time to head home.

Today, I have thought about him again. It’s hard not to cry. I guess that I will always miss him. You only get one real Dad in your life. I’ve lost mine. For those of you that still have your Fathers, make sure that you take the time to get to know him. You might be surprised at what you find in that man.

I can never say thank you enough times for the chance of getting to know my Dad before he died. Thank you.