Addendum To My List of Learned Things

See previous post to see where I left off....

a. Toilet paper rolls and bailing twine are multi-functional.
b. You haven't lived until you've crammed three people on an ATV.
c. Driving an ATV while singing Wilson Phillips is totally the cool thing to do. Basically anything involving singing Wilson Phillips is cool.
d. People who don't know how to turn off their cell phones in a movie theater after the THIRD time it rings need to be shanked with a dull rusty razor blade.
e. Riding in a car is a pretty much a lullaby for me.
f. It's ok to eat champagne and strawberries for dinner.
g. Carrie so should have not cheated on Aiden...and why did he leave her after they got back together? (A total random thought that has no relevance to this conversation)

I will be published again this week! Woohoo!

Things I Have Learned In The Last 24Hours

1. When making corn on the bbq one must flip it over so as to not char one entire side.
2. No bathroom is complete without a picture of you and Rush Limbaugh hanging in it.
3. I have a thing for the smell of bug spray. Weird turn on #54.
4. Singing Wilson Phillips is best done karaoke style in a dive bar in the middle of nowhere.
5. Anything green on a 900 acre ranch in the middle of summer equals death. In other words green=poison oak.
6. Gin is not reserved strictly for tonic and is a game I am rather skilled at.

Sunshine Day!

My faithful readers have been begging for a new post...I hope they will be just as excited to read my articles on city council meetings when I really make it big!!!! So here it is: I am back in the beautiful Chico sunshine and am enjoying thawing out and letting my toes actually breathe for a change. I actually forgot that I had ankles and shins!!!! I even went swimming ( TONI'S Dictionary Defintion: Swimming: the art of sitting in a chlorinated body of water and slightly bobbing every once in a while while still keeping your hair perfectly in place and mascara from running. At no time does the head go under the water. Splashing by others is not tolerated) with the small children on Tuesday. Last week at this time I was still wearing my rain boots and having my pink umbrella turned inside out from Wizard of Oz magnitute gusts of wind. Oh what the West Coast can do for you.

Adjusting had been a bit rough but as through all things God has clothed me with a tremendous amount of strength and comfort. I already am missing my coffee mornings with Brie, watching endless hours of tv with the roomies, and even have a slight desire to see that MAC lab one more time-though maybe just to egg it. The past few days have been a mental, emotional, and physical challenge like no other I have experienced, but its given me such an opportunity to take joy in the little things in life: sloppy chocolate faced kisses from little ones, the feeling of crisp new cool sheets on a hot afternoon, ZUPPA TUSCANA SOUP (oh how I had missed it so!) and of course those hugs from friends when they hold you just a little bit longer and tighter just because.

So enough of the weather and gushiness and to the stuff that matters most. Blake has made it through one more week. Which means that I still have one more night at the very least to see him sing his heart out to me. And the other 20 million that view the show. But we all know I am his muse. And while Blake may be in, Blair sadly is out. I will no longer have a prime minister to swoon over. And the Supreme Court Justices are on my bad side. I may have to leave politics for a while and stick with my entertainment crushes. What has the world come to when I can't find a world leader to have the hots for?

I Might Be Meeting The Tin Man

The trek across the U.S. is now full fledged into the second day of travel. After visiting the birthplace and grave site of my dad's dad, we cut through Ohio, Indiana and tonight have ended in Columbia, Missouri.

Despite all odds, my dad and I have yet to kill each other. Today was nice, being able to see the cute little country town that he went to visit his dad in over the summers and also to be able to see a part of the country that I have never been to. I was thouroughly disspointed with Hardee's though and its misrepresentation as a Carl's Jr. You cannot carry the Star if you don't carry Western Bacon Cheeseburgers and Crisscut Fries.

Tomorrow might be somewhat of an adventure. We are just outside of Kansas and have to drive across it tomorrow-and tornadoes are ripping through the state. My little red truck night become a flying little red truck.