How do you stop a habitual mail snoop? In my case, I know that our neighbors - the undisputed gossip king and queen of the area - have always snooped through our mail and I've always HATED it!

• We've asked them to stop and they will for a while, but then start right back up again.

• I reported them to the local postmaster and she said, "That's always happened out here." As if that's any excuse!
  

There's even a local joke that if we are wondering what happened, we should ask them. I do not consider that even remotely funny. If I wanted everyone to know I had a student loan or my car loan was with so-and-so bank, I would tell them!

How would she feel if someone snooped through her stuff and then reported to all and sundry?

Now, I'm seriously considering a stake-out to get the evidence I need to assure them my warnings to cease-and-desist are NOT a joke. If they continue to snoop, I am determined to prosecute them to the full extent of the law.

Wishing you much peace, happiness and success,

Penny (CJsMonnie)

We are pretty rural (45 mins. to town) and anyone with any unwanted animal or plant knows where to come knock. I now officially have:

• 4 dogs (no where near as many as our record) 

• 9 cats [including 6 kittens] (also not near our record) 

• 1 frog 

• 1 lizard 

• Several greedy little wild birds who tap on the windows when they run out of food (inherited with this homestead) 

• 1 "pet" black snake who comes and goes as she pleases (outside; she's the "rattlesnake shield"; also inherited) 

• 1 good-sized group of javalinas that also come and go as they please (through holes they dug the chain link fence and re-dig if we cover up)

That's not counting the skittish cats that come and go (at least 4 by our counts).

As for the plants, well, let's just say it's a good thing we have so much space. LOL

We bought a dozen crickets for my son's "new" (they'd been my son's outside buddies for a few months before we got them habitats) frog and lizard last night. I got one of those cool little "Critter Keeper" things so I wouldn't have to actually touch/grab them but then ... I couldn't get the crickets to come out the way they were supposed to. I upended the container to shake a few into the lizard's tank and bamo!

Two crickets ran away and three landed on the lizard (she only ate one and let the others bask on her). I grabbed the closest kitten and tossed it at the crickets. Soon, the other cats and kittens had gathered too. "Hmm, what are these things? I'm scared." or "Hmm, what are these things? They look interesting, so I think I'll just watch them." I guess that's what happens when they've got tummies full of cat food! LOL

When it was the frog's turn, I did a little better. The crickets cooperated and three plopped into the tank .. once again, on top of the frog (he/she is a piglet!).

You should have seen me trying to transfer the frog and lizard from their temporary habitats into their new ones. I almost screamed (um, well, I did scream) when he/she jumped. Nevermind it was trying to get away from me, not come at me. LOL

My son is still pestering me for a corn snake even though he couldn't stand to hold one (we were both a little freaked out) because it felt "weird". "It's okay, mom, you can take care of it."

Uhhh ... about that ...

My best friend is 7 months pregnant. When she called asking for help with "re-doing" her 4 year old daughter's room to make space for the newest little girl, I said "sure! I'll do anything I can to help you." I figured we'd rearrange furniture, spruce up a bit, and maybe add a few baby furniture type items.

Then she told me what she had in mind: since she was pregnant and couldn't be around the fumes .. would I mind "helping" to removed the old wallpaper, put some new one up, repaint, and add a border? Oooh, boy. I'd just started a cleanse and so ...  *sigh* I'll tolerate those fumes if you can tolerate mine.

The things we do for friendship! LOL

Wishing you much peace, happiness and success,

Penny (CJsMonnie)

Sometimes you see things you'd never expect to see. Jerry Jones realizing that owning a team is waaaay different than successfully managing one, supermodels at healthy weights, snow in he - er - South Texas.

To paraphrase Estelle from the Golden Girls, picture this: South Texas, December 24, 2004. It's a little colder than usual but it's winter, so .. By nightfall, the temperature drops rapidly. By 11:00pm, the outside animals are squeaking, squawking, and distracting the family from an unusual late night satellite fest. The family immedialtely suspects the coyote pack they'd heard not long before and rushes out with spot lights.

After the initial shock wore off, we all ran to do our best imitation of the Michelin man. (This being South Texas, no one had snow gear.) Next item on the agenda: grab the laptop, hook-up the digi cam and mic and run back out to the snow!

NOTE: The video within this post was shot with my first digital camera: a 1mp affair with no audio. I had to record the audio separately and have it somewhere in my now 1tb worth of media stuff ...

Early the next morning, everyone rushed out to investigate. CJ (with his ever present slice of bread), his girl Little Cat, my dog Molly, ... Well, you get the idea.



Due to the low quality of the camera, I failed miserably in my attempt to capture the amazing depth of the snow. Anywhere the sun hit, the image was totally washed out. There was actually a herd of cows attempting to dig up their food on the other side of the right fence.



At the time, we lived on a rented homestead further in the country (that paint color wasn't my thing LOL). Our young Silver Gray Dorkings acted more like puppies than chickens. Maybe it was just CJ's addiction to sliced bread and the Dorking's hopes for a few crumbs but whatever the reason, my boy was the Poultry Pied Piper.



Sure, we'd experienced snow before. Well, all except CJ anyway. What made these 6" different was the location. Deep South Texas isn't exactly known for being a snowman's paradise.

Wishing you much peace, happiness and success,

Penny (CJsMonnie)