Reagan Ticker

Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Another Year Older


Happy Birthday to my great friend Lisa today!! We grew up together basically and lost touch some through college like most do. Now, we talk a good bit and I am so glad she is back in my life regularly. Like BeneLisa. Ok sorry sick joke. Anyway, there are many stories that I could share about Lisa but one day I too will have a birthday and I'm sure retaliation would be involved. I'll spare you and her the humility. Your welcome.

Lisa is a great wife, mother and friend. She has a beautiful family and I am lucky to have had her as a friend all these years. Happy Birthday Lisa!!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The Curse of the Camry


As most of you know I drive a Toyota Camry. This car was extra special to me when I bought it because it is the first car that I bought by myself with no help from my parents. Now, I think it's cursed. Not long after I got the car, not even 2 months, somebody backed into it at work. I didn't notice that the whole freakin side of my bumper was smashed in until I got home that afternoon. I had a bunch of stuff that I was carrying to the car that afternoon after work and just never thought to check and see if some idiot in Mountain Brook hit my car. So I had a melt down in the driveway of parents house until my Daddy got home. He gets under the car and pops the bumper back out. As he did this, he pulled a muscle in his shoulder. He had to go to the doctor several times for it. It really hurt him bad. At this time I was also planning and paying (for some) of a wedding. I didn't have the money to get it fixed. I'm sure it would cost a good bit because I need a whole new bumper. Anyway, as time went on other things came up and the sad bumper never got fixed. Well, a few months ago I noticed that my windshield had a chip out of it. And you all know where this is going. Now I have a huge crack that goes from the middle of the windshield to the right side of the car. It looks great.

There was also this one time that I was moving my car from behind Zac's truck so he could back out and I got a little too close to the retaining wall on the side of our driveway. Yeah, so now there is a big place on the front right side bumper. Then, this morning, I hit somebody's mail box in our neighborhood. They apparently left the door open on it and yup, totally hit it with my right side mirror. The crazy thing is, that the mirror just fell out. It did crack the casing just a little but it literally looks like the mirror just got scared and jumped to its death. So, not knowing what to do I just kept going. I just had to call somebody and Zac was at home asleep from work last night. The only other person was my Daddy. I called and told him what happened. He said "Did you stop and pick it up" Me "No, should I go back?" Daddy "Yeah, go look for it. If it isn't broke we'll just glue it back on!" Me "Really?" Daddy "Yeah it will work. Who knows maybe they are built that way so you can just snap it back on" Ok, so I head back to my neighborhood. At this point its already 7:30. There will be no getting to work for me at 8. I send everybody (who cares) at my office a text and tell them I'll be late and why. I just know they are all sitting there laughing their heads off. As I get back into the neighborhood, I think, I must have really jacked somebody's mailbox up. I need to put a note on there and apologize or something. Well, as I'm passing the spot where I thought I hit the mail box, I see one that looks bad and kinda dented up so I think "Oh that must be it!" As I keep driving I see another one that looks pretty bad too. "Well, was it that one?" They all look like they've been hit before! What am I going to do and where is my mirror?!? The people on the front road of my neighborhood really need to step it up a bit and get a new mailbox by the way. So I drove back and forth for a while until I figured if there was anybody home they might call the cops. I never did find my mirror.

This just freakin sucks! Why is it that this happens to me? Something so small that its pointless to call the insurance company. I am totally convinced that my Camry is cursed! I just need to buy a new car and be done with it. I've been wanting a new car for some time so now seems like just as good a time as any. Think Zac will go for it? No, your right, he won't. Dang!

P.S. Exciting things coming up! You don't want to miss this folks!!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Old McSpanick had a farm Ei, Ei, Ooooo!

The day finally came for us to go pick up Gus Gus. ( Oh, we did finally get a freezer to put Gus Gus in. We got it from Lowe's, which I hate, but that's another blog.) What a crappy day it was too! It had to rain but of course its rained everyday for the last month it seems. Anyway, so the morning started by getting up at 6:30 so we could get ready to go eat breakfast with my parents and get Gus. So, my dad wanted to eat at Jacks, mainly because that is the only place to eat breakfast at in Odenville. As we are on our way, he calls and says, never mind we are going to eat and Bowling's. Which never crossed my mind because when they moved out there it was like they disappeared really. Never mind the fact that when they were in Moody I ate there every morning of my Senior year in high school. (During that time they were called Shaw's.) Ummmm...Hashbrown Special! Ok sorry, I think I kinda drooled on myself there. Anyway, so it has and always will be the "local Moody government official" hang out joint. The same 5 or 6 men are there every Saturday at 7 am. Which include, a previous mayor and the current sheriff of St Clair Co. Of course, my dad knows them all. So we eat and I reminisce with a plate full of hashbrowns and talk to a girl I graduated with. Her parents own the place and she works there. After that we are on the road again. Oh, Side Note: My dad had to tell everybody we talked to that we were "headed up to Dollar's to pick up a cow". They were all intrigued.

So, back on highway 411. Deep in the heart of Odenville, AL. Which, by the way, is only 10 mins from our house. Of course, we are passing the usual trailers and run down houses. As we approach our destination, I wanted to scream " NO! YOUR GOING THE WRONG WAY! YOUR GOING THE WRONG WAY!!" (A line from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the one will Jessica Biel) It literally looks like a scene from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Picture an old run down wood shed type thing. There was one we drove past. Oh, before that there is an old sign, you know the one with the lighted arrow at the top, that sits right off 411. It says Dollar's Sausage and something else through the moldy plastic that covered it. So anyway driving up to the place where they do the processing, we pass a shed with many old rusty things in it. Then we come to this building on one side it has this rusty metal fence. Kinda like what you would see at a rodeo. I assume this is where they keep the cows before they are put through the processing part. Then as you look across the building looks like a metal version of the shed we passed before. When we pulled up I told Zac, "I'm not going in there" He laughed. "No really, I'm serious. I'll just stand out here in the rain" So we all get out. Side Note: My dad had surgery on his foot a few weeks ago and is on crutches. Obviously, with my dad on crutches I have to help load up Gus. As we walk in I just know I'm going to see dead cow parts everywhere and its going to smell like rotting meat. To my surprise I did not see cow parts but it did smell funny. I guess you just can't get that smell out though. They already had him frozen so all we had to do was put him in the boxes. We loaded up 11 boxes of meat. Our part of Gus was 317 lbs. Roughly, that comes out to .50 per pound for what it cost to have the meat processed. Not too shabby.

We get home and unload Gus into the freezer. When we first got the freezer I was super stoked because I thought "now we can buy in bulk!"and have a place to keep it. Wrong! Gus takes up the entire freezer but we will have plenty to eat. So, as my cow story comes to an end, I'll leave you with some pictures of our first Gus Gus meal. Spaghetti! It was really good too!!




Thursday, October 1, 2009

Here a Moo, There a Moo Everywhere a Moo Moo......

Ye-haw and howdy friends! Well, the cow finally made its way to the processor last week. (Please see last post for the beginning of the cow story) Fortunately, we split it with my parents and our half is 350 lbs. Yes, that's 3 HUNDRED and 50 POUNDS! We have to pick him up next Saturday. What a great way to spend a football Saturday, picking up 700lbs of cow from a slaughter house. Yumm-ee! Not to mention that is the same day as one of my best friends in the whole wide world's wedding day. Good thing its at night! I hope I have time to take a good shower before then. Anyway, we still have not gotten a freezer. Still trying to find one for under $600 mind you. So literally, Zac has to pour a concrete slab in our pretend basement to put the freezer full of 350lbs of cow on. (Side note: We call it the "pretend basement" b/c we live on the side of the biggest mountain in Moody and our crawl space has a full size door.) So in the frigid months of Dec-Feb. someone (Zac) will have to go outside to the back of the house and go in the pretend basement to get whatever beef we feel like consuming at that particular time. (Additional side note: This is why I NEED a new house!!) Thankfully, for said person (Zac), we (Zac) are putting in a nice terracotta sidewalk from the backdoor to the pretend basement so its a little nicer than just tromping through the yucky dirt. Real nice Clark, Real Nice.

Stay tuned folks, more to come!