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....

I Knew It Wasn't My Fault...........

Tuesday, September 29, 2009


Remember back in May when I blogged about a little "incident" that happened to me while driving to the marina for dinner?  If not, here it is again:  


"It was a beautiful evening.  The stars were out; the sun was setting and Liz was dared to go 90 mph in her old lady Toyota Camry.  Never being one to turn down a dare, she did as she was dared.  Unfortunately, the gas pedal stuck in the DOWN position and nothing she did could get the car to slow down much less stop.  Another unfortunate part of this story was she was on the road that leads directly into the lake......yep, the LAKE was getting closer and closer and she was running quickly out of road.  As she tried in vain to stop the car by standing on the brakes to no avail,  and passing the Marina going 90 mph, all the friends waiting on her to arrive there thought that the blur that just went by looked like her, but just weren’t sure.......until they heard the grinding gears and burning rubber of the car going into neutral.  They waited anxiously to hear the “splash” that they just knew was about to happen.  Fortunately, that never happened.  She got a glimpse of intelligence & turned the car off.  As she tried to turn down the volume of Chuck yelling at her and making sure her backseat passengers, Troy and Becky, were okay and hadn’t soiled themselves from fear, she discovered the floor mat had wedged itself on the gas pedal which caused a near-catastrophe.  And that was Friday."


Wellllllllll.........I saw an interesting tidbit go across the TV screen on Glenn Beck this afternoon that brought the whole incident above into focus.....and I quote, "Runaway Toyota Recall

In its biggest recall ever, carmaker warns that floor mat could jam accelerator. (Ya think????) DETROIT -- Toyota Motor said Tuesday it will soon issue a recall for at least 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles to fix a potential (Did they say, "Potential"????) safety problem caused by a car's floor mat jamming the accelerator.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, meanwhile, urged motorists not to wait for a fix. (I didn't; I sold the car soon after) "This is an urgent matter," (again.....ya think!!)  said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. (Someone give Ray a raise!!)   "For everyone's sake, (especially the passengers in Liz's old Camry...) we strongly urge owners of these vehicles to remove mats or other obstacles that could lead to unintended acceleration." (and one last time....YA THINK???......)

Ha!  I knew it! I knew it wasn't my fault, although you couldn't convince those in my car that day of that.  They are still in therapy from the experience and always say a prayer before getting in the car with me........

P.S.  I added the picture of Glenn Beck just because........... I like Glenn Beck

We Learned SO Much Today!!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - Petit Jean State Park

Well, here we are on the last night of our mini-vacation.....hate to pack it all up and head home tomorrow, but we must.

Today was a good day.  Didn't do much; learned how the park got its name; really cool, romantic story.  Won't give you the massive details, but here's a quick synopsis:  Some young French dude named Chavet needed some land, so he asked the King of France if he could sail to Arkansas and check out the land and keep whatever he found.  The King said "Ya, whatever".  Now,dude Chavet was engaged to a beautiful girl from Paris who wanted to go with him to discover Arkansas, but he said, "No, its rugged out there...its no place for a girl".  (Such a male chauvinist!!)......Anyway, his fiance wouldn't take NO for an answer (you go girl!), so she snuck on board as a cabin boy which the other men called Little John or "Petit Jean" in french (didn't know I knew French, did ya?!?!).  When they sailed into Arkansas, the Indians met them at the river and said "Welcome to Arkansas!  What's up, dude?". Well, Chavet thought the Indians were pretty cool so he and his sailors stayed the summer.  Finally, the day came for Chavet, Petit Jean and his sailors to head home to France.  They told their Indian friends "Adios....we'll be back next year to take your land away from you" and boarded their boat.  But Petit Jean was feeling sick and they postponed the trip.  She continued getting sicker and sicker and within a few days, she was near death.  Before dying, she confessed her deception to Chavez and asked to be buried on the mountaintop.  Now her spirit hovers over the mountain named after her which explains the overcast weather we've been having.  THE END.

You know, Chuck and I have never been the "rugged" camper type, preferring instead to have a nice bathroom, microwave, refrigerator with ice maker with us at all times, so of course we had no idea what to do with this shepards rod-looking thing that we found at our campsite.  We kept looking at it, wondering why they would put a plant holder at a campsite.  Then it hit us........its a Pet Holder!!  I love this campground!!


P.S.  No Animals Were Injured in the Writing of this Blog......

Is It "Hump" Day??

Tuesday, September 22, 2009, Petit Jean State Park

Is it Tuesday already???  Seems like we just got here and our time is already half over.......

Well, we made it through a very rainy, storm filled night and woke up to beautiful sunshine!!  YEA!  We were afraid we were going to be stuck in the RV all day watching it rain outside and checking out old reruns of Bonanza.......but nope, nope, nope......it was a motorcycle day!!

We scoped out our ride for today and realized that yesterday we just went the wrong direction on Hwy 7.  We were still in search of the "Grand Canyon of the Ozarks" and figured that maybe, just maybe, by going North instead of South, we stood a better chance of finding it.  So we headed North to Russellville among dark, rain threatening clouds and then on towards Harrison........I researched the heck out of this ride and knew right where to go.......at least I thought I did.  We arrived at what was suppose to be, and I quote:  "Of all the roads in the area, this is the most memorable. Hwy. 123 has everything going on. You'll get your monies worth from your tires on this road. Road gets tighter near Mount Judea." Yep, that's what the website said.......but it was headed in the opposite direction from the map on the website.........so we just flipped a coin and turned left.  What a good choice!  Still wouldn't have used the phrase, "Grand Canyon of the Ozarks" but beautiful nonetheless.  As a plus, it had AWESOME curvy, twisty roads that put a smile on our faces!!  


Here's some of the highlights on CR 123:  1)  Three dogs in the middle of the road; two "getting lucky" and the other watching.  They wouldn't move nor stop what they were doing; we had to go around them.........all I've got to say, is those are going to be some bad, ugly babies in a few months.....2)  An awesome one lane bridge  3) The sweetest little Yorkie dog and his best friend, a mutt, walking down the center of the two lane road who appeared to be homeless or at best, living in the ghetto.  We turned around, pulled over and called him over to us.  He ran right up to us and was definitely, the ugliest little Yorkie I've ever seen, but oh, what a face he had.  I scooped him up and immediately noticed he had fleas running all over his little body....did I mention what a sweet little face he had??  We got him safely off the road and knew we couldn't keep him.....but oh, how we wanted to.....he deserved a good home.....and then, to break our hearts even more, he chased after us when we left......until he saw a grasshopper on the road and then he forgot all about us.


After a long day of riding, we finally made it back to the RV late in the afternoon and not a drop of rain hit our helmets all day.....


Murphy was only too happy to see us and decided to take out his built up frustrations out on Senator McCain in front of the RV and the world.  Our boy body slammed that poor man around for 30 minutes.....neighbors walking by were watching....other dogs were sitting around watching......it was embarrassing.  He had his leash so tangled up on McCain it practically severed his head.........took 30 minutes to untangle it.  


The day ended with Liz chasing Murphy around the RV to give him his Bronchitis medicine; went to stand up and hit her head on the bottom of the dining room table.  As I'm holding my head saying ouch, ouch, ouch (& yes, that IS what I said!!), what do you think my dear, sensitive husband Chuck had to say???  I quote, "Ohhhh....you almost hit your bald spot".  Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..........

Did You Know There's A New McDonalds in Hope, AR??

Monday, September 21, 2009 - Petit Jean State Park

Well, today started with the sound of a helicopter....then another.....then another......then another.....I think we're over the flight path of the helicopterport or something.....but we seriously had helicopters going over every 5 minutes for an hour or two.  No idea why.....

Then we headed out on the bike to what was suppose to be "The Grand Canyon of the Ozarks" according to MotorcycleRoadsUS.com.  THEY LIED.  Not that Hwy 7 wasn't beautiful; it was......but I guess we're just comparing "The Grand Canyon of the Ozarks" to....well......The Grand Canyon and that it wasn't.  But we did ride to Hot Springs, had ice cream, and then headed back a different route.

While in Hot Springs, we were enjoying our double dip waffle cone ice cream when we noticed out the window that there were people checking out our trike.  Now, we get this all the time.  We hardly ever go out when people don't come up and ask us about the trike....but this time, we noticed they were taking pictures of each other in front of the trike.....then as a couple in front of the trike.....then thumbs up in front of the trike.....we just sat there and enjoyed the show.  They finally moved on and we finished our ice creams and headed out to the trike.  Along comes another couple.......now, I'm going to try and be sensitive here when I say they were a little "simple" (see attached picture).  They were super nice; asked if I had been in Hope, Arkansas lately (why Hope, Arkansas.....I don't know) for which I said we had driven through there yesterday on our way to Petit Marie State Park.  The guy just said, and I'm not making this up, "Shucks, I guess you know about the new McDonalds then."  Well, I told him I didn't know about the new McDonalds but was that where they were from?  He said, "Nah, I'm from San Diego."  Turns out, she was from Memphis and he now resides in Oklahoma and they just got married last Saturday.  They were on their honeymoon.   But I'm so glad I now know about the new McDonalds in Hope, Arkansas.  I bet my friends Troy and Carla didn't know about the new McDonalds in their hometown, though.

Once we arrived back at the campground, Murphy and I decided to head out on the trike in search of a waterfall hiking trail........which we found.....only after a two mile hike.  A LONG two mile hike......  I discovered I'm clearly out of shape when an elderly grandmother and grandfather and their three small grandchildren pass me by on the trail.  That was humbling.....  But Murphy did great...quite the good hiker....it must come from all the exercise he gets body slamming his Senator John McCain doll......

They're predicting rain tonight and tomorrow......I wonder if it will ground the helicopters????

On The Road Again......

Sunday, September 20, 2009

On The Road Again....Just can't wait to get on the road again......yep, we're on the road again and so HAPPY to be traveling again!  We've not gone far....but far enough!!

We are in Arkansas at the Petit Jean State Park just northwest of Little Rock, and plan on staying here till Thursday.......a whole week without doctor appointments......YEA~~~~~~~ This state park has it all; waterfalls, great trails to explore, an RV spot with a view of the lake, TeePee's AND an Airstream convention!  We are totally surrounded by Airstream travel trailers..........and what a rowdy bunch of 80 year olds they are!

Anyway, today was a travel day, so pretty uneventful.  We'll see what kind of trouble we can get into tomorrow!

Our Munchkin Has Bots.....????

Thursday, September 18, 2009

Ok, this is not for the faint hearted......and this is not for those of you with a weak stomach or those of you prone to nightmares......I've given you fair warning, so don't blame me if you're grossed out.

Last weekend, our little munchkin, Murphy, had a nasty, no-good, very bad cough. We couldn't tell whether he was "snorting" from his nose or "hacking" from his mouth or both; we just knew he wasn't right. We did notice, however, that his Senator McCain doll was losing some of his innards and had some fluffy white stuffing laying around. We thought maybe he ingested some of Senator McCain and it was caught in his throat.

So we headed to Doc Reed, Mt. Vernon's resident Vet who works on everything in town from baby kittens to donkeys. His assistant, Pam, is definitely one of the most interesting people I've ever met. It took me about three years to figure out she just has a very very very very very very dry sense of humor (remember this fact; you'll need it later). As we explained to Pam our concerns regarding the possibility of Senator McCain's innards being stuck in Murphy's throat, she just sat there, stone-faced; no words coming from her mouth; I don't think she even blinked; she just stared at me.........After what seemed like 2 1/2 years, she shook her head and asked us to leave Murphy there so they could run some tests and check him out.

When it was time to pick Murphy up later that afternoon, Chuck and our neighbor's teenage son, Dylan, went to Doc Reeds to get him. Once they arrived home with our little patient, I met them at the door eagerly wanting to know what they found out. This is a somewhat paraphrased transcript of that conversation: LIZ: "Well, what did Doc Reed say was wrong with Murphy?" CHUCK: "I don't know." LIZ: "What do you mean you don't know?" CHUCK: "I couldn't hear what Pam said." LIZ: "What do you mean you couldn't hear what Pam said?" CHUCK: "I could see she was talking, but I couldn't hear her. You know I have bad hearing. She just kept saying something but I couldn't hear her." LIZ: "Dylan, what did Pam say?" DYLAN: "I don't know; something about Bots." LIZ: "Bots??????? What's that??" DYLAN: "I don't know; but I think our horses had it once." LIZ: "Chuck, why didn't you have her write it down?" CHUCK: "I don't know; next time you go pick him up." Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

So, I spend two hours on Google trying to figure what the heck "Bots" was. WARNING: Here's where it starts getting gory......It appears that Bots is a "bug" that is caused from flies laying their eggs on blades of grass and cats and dogs get it on them by walking through the grass. This "bug" then gets inside the cat or dog and lays eggs or hatches or something, but it grows these ugly white worm things that we've all heard of called maggets.....yep.....our boy supposedly had maggots. And to make things worse, these maggots can come through the skin in the form of a HUGE zit-like sore....ALIVE. I know this, cause I watched the YouTube video showing these two Venezuelan guys popping these zit-like sores from their poor German Shepherd and dropping the maggots on the ground. They then proceeded to talk about it over a dinner of quesadillas. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Well, you can imagine who wasn't sleeping with us that night..............

The next day, I called Pam to find out whether this Bots thing was contagious to other animals, humans, pillows, etc. Here's my conversation with Pam: LIZ: "Pam, can you tell me more about this Bots thing that Murphy has? Is it contagious to other animals?" PAM: "What Bots?" LIZ: "Chuck said ya'll diagnosed Murphy with Bots." PAM: "Nah, I was just kidding about that. He's got Bronchitis."

So, there you have it. If it weren't for Chuck, I'd have nothing to Blog about.............

Nine Phrases Women Use

Friday, September 11, 2009

Remember my last post? Well, I'm still reeling over the "Rogaine" incident......which led me to think about how my sweet, innocent, typical male, scatter-brained husband Chuck, not unlike most men, lacks understanding on what not to say to a woman. This isn't going to be a "pick-on-poor-old-Chuck" blog, so the Chuck Etheridge Fan Club can settle down, BUT, he, like most men, haven't yet learned what a woman "means" when she says certain things. You can't always take a word at face value when listening to us women; so for this reason guys, I'm going to help you out. Check this out and LEARN................

So there you have it. I couldn't have said it better if I had produced the video myself!! Some enlightened guy finally got it!

The responses I received from the "Rogaine" blog were quite interesting. They ranged anywhere from "I've never noticed the bald spot on the back of your head, Liz" to "I have some time this week and thought you might like to update your "Doghouse"; it sounds like you may be spending quite a bit of time there." Quite interesting, indeed!

He Said I Needed "Rogaine"........

Monday, September 7, 2009


Ok, listen up MEN! Don't EVER tell a woman they need Rogaine to help reverse the progression of hair loss. Chuck knows not to do this now, so let his little mistake help you avoid one.

Picture this: We're at Dairy Queen. I am wearing ugly lime green work-in-the-yard pants and my now short hair is up in a itsy bitsy tiny ponytail. I'm looking BAD. We are sitting in the car waiting on our order to be brought out to us when Chuck, out of nowhere, says to me, "We need to get you started on Rogaine". As I felt my head take a couple of extra Linda Blair-Exorcist-Type turns around my body, I heard the words, "What Did You Say??" come out of my mouth. With as straight a face as I've ever seen on Chuck, he repeats himself, "We need to get you started on Rogaine". Had he cracked even a slight smile on that face I was about to slap, all would have been well. But he didn't. He was quite serious. He's sensing at this point that all is not well in his universe and proceeds to "explain" himself. Supposedly, according to Chuck, I have a "bald spot" down the back of my head that he, innocently, thought needed some help. As, in his own words, "I was just trying to help" and "It's really not all that bad" were flying out of his mouth, he scooted further and further away from me. That was the smartest thing he'd done since we arrived at Dairy Queen!

As I tried to explain to him, I don't have a "bald spot" on the back of my head. I have a "part" that likes to separate down the back of my head and my hair picks a side and goes there. I also have a spot on the top of my head where the neighbors' garage door hit me when I was 10 years old and the hair grew back "kinky". Strange....yes; Bald....NO! Errrrrrrr.....

So men, let this be a lesson to you. Don't ever, EVER, tell a woman she needs Rogaine........even if she does!! Just ask Chuck!

I've Been Crowned Mrs. Eagle Point!!

Friday, August 28, 2009

There she is......Mrs. Eagle Point.......yep, its true!! I would like to thank my family, friends and fans for voting for me. What?? You didn't vote for me?? That's ok. You, just like me, probably didn't know about the contest. I think I was the only contestant. I'm so honored.....I only wish I had dressed a little better for the event......

It all started last weekend when our neighbor, Wanda (remember......my fellow-forkee with the alias name??) was 1st runner up in the Ms. Mt. Vernon Pageant here in large metropolis Mt. Vernon, Texas. She was just beautiful up on the stage and we were so proud of her! Well, I was over at her house the other night ooohing and aaahing over her trophy and I "might" have even been trying on a crown or two that she had won from prior pageants. Before I knew it, flashbulbs were going off and people were asking me to pose over here; then over there; it was fabulous. I felt like a white Oprah Winfrey when she won Miss Fire Prevention in 1971! Eventually, Wanda took her crown back and my reign came to an end..........or so I thought!

The next day, I headed to Dallas for the day. Upon arriving home that evening and coming through the front gate of our neighborhood, I glanced to my left at the bulletin board and imagine my surprise when THERE I WAS......Big As Life.......on the Bulletin Board next to the obituary for Buddy our deceased neighborhood dog! I had been voted Mrs. Eagle Point!!!

I'm so glad the contest didn't require me to do a "talent" or anything.....and I really wish I hadn't been trying on Wanda's brothers' hideous boots at the time of the picture, but hey, who knew I would be crowned Mrs. Eagle Point!??! Who knew there even was a Mrs. Eagle Point Contest??? Obviously, you didn't cause you didn't vote for me. I wonder if I get to eat for free at Dairy Queen now?? WOW!

Well, enough about me........its time for a Murphy update. The poor little guy has been learning so many new tricks lately that he's getting his words confused. If I tell him to "shake", he rolls over. If I tell him to "roll over", he sits down. We have a little more work to do before making another YouTube video for ya.

UPDATE ON JOHN MCCAIN'S LEG: We still have not found the missing John McCain leg yet either. As you may recall, Obama originally confessed to removing the leg due to the cost of repairing it at John McCain's age, and now it appears he didn't act alone. An anonymous new witness came forward this week with a damaging photo that implicated Uno, the dog next door, as an accomplice to the crime. Here's the picture that was sent in by National Pet Inquirer Magazine showing Uno's involvement. He will be apprehended upon arrival in Mt. Vernon this weekend.

How Many Etheridge's Does It Take????

Friday, August 21, 2009

Take what, you ask......??

Last weekend, Chuck's younger brother, Doug, and his family were out to the lake for the weekend. You may recall, the last time we all got together in May, we had "The Flood". This time, the water stayed in the lake and we had a BEAUTIFUL weekend to spend playing in the water, horsing around on the jetski's, driving the Workhorse exploring creepy new paths in the woods and catching up on everyone's life. Super fun time!

But back to my question........How Many Etheridge's Does It Take..........

1) To fit on the tiny, tiny tube? The answer is 1. My nieces Tiffany (28) and Christy (25) both tried to get on the smallest tube EVER made to be pulled around the lake. They found out the hard way this was a bad idea. It was sure funny watching them discover this, though. Kinda reminded me of the time 4 years ago these two took the canoe out and got stuck in a swampy creek in some brush with snakes and water rats.....I won't go into detail, but I will say our neighbors are all still talking about it and its always a source of conversation when we're needing a good laugh.

2) To clean up the doggie diarrhea? Well, usually 1, but since Christy was about to "hurl" trying to clean it up alone (sorry Christy; I just had to mention this...), I'm going to have to say 2.

3) To teach Drivers Ed on the golf cart? This is easy; 1. Our two 2nd-nephews, Brandon (12) and Garrett (8), are both superb drivers! Their parents shouldn't have any problem letting them start driving the family car at 14. I'd let them drive me anywhere........well, almost anywhere........We had a blast exploring and making new paths in the woods on the Workhorse (golf cart). They drove us places that I didn't even know existed......

4) To wave down help when the boat died? Let's see; that would be 5. All five of us.......yep, the boat's battery died on the opposite side of the lake while fishing Sunday morning. We eventually floated over to a stranger's dock where we called for help and lined up, waving frantically. Eventually, help came in the form of Doug and Ray on the jetski with a new battery; that, by the way, didn't work either. Which leads me into my next question...

5) To maneuver the dead boat into the boat slip? 10. It would have been 11, but we couldn't wake Garrett up.

6) To get the splinter out of Garrett's foot from the stranger's dock while waving frantically? 4. Let's see, there was Scott, the surgeon aka his Dad; Liz, the nurse; Stacy, the comforter (also known as Mom) and Brandon, the distractor (the brother)...oh ya, I think Murphy and an Ipod Touch helped a little too!

We've Decided To Sell the RV & Buy a Hearse.......

Friday, August 14. 2009

Well folks, thought I'd update you on several things.

First, I've had many of you want to know the outcome of Senator McCain's missing leg. It wasn't easy finding the culprit, especially when one of the suspects just wanted to talk about "Health Care Reform" and "Change" all the time. But low and behold, I think we've got the right guy. Yes, it's true; Obama is the guilty party. He claimed the reason he did it was because of Senator McCain's age; it was easier and cheaper to just "remove" the leg as opposed to repairing it since he only had a limited amount of years left.

Now that we solved that issue, I've got to tell ya, its been a busy week! First, remember a few months ago when we had the "Hurricane at Lake Cypress Springs" (Check out the YouTube video at "MurphysMom1" for a reminder) and we lost the canvas top to our gazebo on the boat dock? Well, Chuck came up with a brilliant idea on how to replace it. He thought we should replace it with shingles and make a wood roof. Sounded like a good idea to me; until I realized it meant LIZ was going to be the roofer! Yep, thats right. I can now put "Roofer" down on my ever-growing resume. I've got to say; it looks pretty good.........at least until the next hurricane hits.

After roofing the gazebo, I headed into Dallas to spend some time with Mom and Dad as well as get the gray covered up on my head. As I arrived at Mom and Dad's place, I panicked just a bit when I pulled into the driveway and saw a "hearse" parked across the street. Yep, you heard me right; a HEARSE. This hearse had a 7-11 Big Gulp sitting on the dashboard and clothes hanging over the windows. The rear license plate was from Oklahoma and the front license plate was from Texas. Dad said it had pulled up there the day before and he thought they were using it for a motorhome. I don't know whether to say, "Just like an Okie" or "Wouldn't you know they're from Texas". Crazy funny, though.

How many of you have a specific quiet time each day to talk to God? Well, for years, my quiet time, without fail, is in the shower each morning. Its the one time each day that I'm usually not rushed; don't have the phone ringing (however, Chuck does have a bad habit of bringing me the phone while I'm in the shower.......I've never understood that!!???) and I'm alone with just my thoughts and God. Well, during this Wednesday's talk with God, I felt an urgency or need or necessity to pray for "conscience". I pray this for me most every day, but this day, I prayed that He would give our politicians, as well as those who make it a daily part of their life to wrong others, a "conscience"; that they would feel bad or regretful for doing things they know aren't right. I didn't think much else about it, as many times I've had a "feeling" I should pray for something and not really know why.

Well, I had a Frosty appointment a few hours later. You remember Frosty.....she's my hairdresser. When I arrived at Frosty's salon, she wasn't ready for me yet, so I sat out in the hallway playing Crash Bandicoot on my Ipod Touch (great game, by the way!). It's important to note that I had also brought in my Laptop case as it was too hot to leave in the car. After a few minutes, she called me in and started the "getting-rid-of-the-gray" process. After about an hour, something told me to check on my laptop case. I looked down where my purse was and there was no laptop case. After restarting my heart, I realized I must have left it out in the hallway. Oh man, I jumped out of that chair and ran to the hallway and saw two women standing there with one holding my case. After assuring her it was mine, she proceeded to tell me that she was the manager of the large salon of suites that Frosty works at. She said she had seen a gruffy looking man walking around with my case for quite awhile. She thought it was odd as he just kept walking around but didn't appear to have business there, so she kept a close eye on him. At one point, he walked out the front door (with my laptop case) and a little bit later, came back in with it. She quietly followed him and saw him place the laptop case back where he found it and left the building. I had to restart my heart again after hearing that story. She even made the comment, "I guess his conscience wouldn't let him take it." That's when I remembered my prayer that morning. WOW! I have lost count of how many times I've thanked the good Lord since then for nudging me to pray for "conscience" just 3 hours earlier. And who doesn't believe in the Power of Prayer???? WHOA.........

We're gassing up the jetski's and boat; blowing up the tube and getting ready for a wonderful weekend on the lake with Chuck's family. Let's hope the water stays in the lake this time........

Senator McCain Lost A Leg

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

BREAKING NEWS:  Yes, I'm sad to say, its true.....Murphy's Senator McCain doll met with a tragic accident over the weekend which has caused him to be a paraplegic.......all the details are not in yet, but we are closing in on who might be responsible for this horrible injury.  We have attached pictures of the suspects.