Reposting because, well, it is rather fitting right about now, yes?


HOUSE # 1:

A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home.

This house is not in a northern or Midwestern 'snow belt,' either. It's in the South.

HOUSE # 2:

Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university,this house incorporates every 'green' feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system.

Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE # 1 (The 20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned (and peace prize winning) environmentalist Al Gore.

HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as 'the Texas White House,' it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.


Yet another story you WON'T hear on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC or read about in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Indeed, for Mr. Gore, it's truly 'an inconvenient truth.'

Labels: News

Anita Renfroe and I both have a LOT in common! LOL.

This clip is pretty much what I say in 24 hours every day. I bet other Moms of older kids (Celebrating Women!?) do too! Parents of little ones... take note!





Anita Renfroe
(sung to the William Tell Overture)

Get up now, get up now, get up out of bed,
Wash your face, brush your teeth, comb your sleepy head.
Here’s your clothes and your shoes, hear the words I said,
Get up now, get up and make your bed.
Are you hot, are you cold, are you wearing that?
Where’s your books and your lunch and your homework at?
Grab your coat and your gloves and your scarf and hat.
Don’t forget, you’ve gotta feed the cat.
Eat your breakfast, the experts tell us it’s the most important meal of all,
Take your vitamins so you will grow up one day to be big and tall.
Please remember the orthodontist will be seeing you at three today,
Don’t forget your piano lesson is this afternoon so you must play.
Don’t shovel, chew slowly, but hurry, the bus is here,
Be careful, come back here, did you wash behind your ears?
Play outside, don’t play rough, would you just play fair?
Be polite, make a friend, don’t forget to share,
Work it out, wait your turn, never take a dare,
Get along, don’t make me come down there!
Clean your room, fold your clothes, put your stuff away,
Make your bed, do it now, do we have all day?
Were you born in a barn? Would you like some hay?
Can you even hear a word I say?
Answer the phone, Get off the phone,
Don’t sit so close, turn it down, no texting at the table.
No more computer time tonight,
Your ipod’s my ipod if you don’t listen up.
Where you going and with whom and what time do you think you’re coming home?
Saying thank you, please, excuse me, makes you welcome everywhere you roam.
You’ll appreciate my wisdom someday when you’re older and you’re grown.
Can’t wait til you have a couple little children of your own.
You’ll thank me for the council I gave you so willingly,
But right now I thank you not to roll your eyes at me.
Close your mouth when you chew, we’d appreciate,
Take a bite, maybe two, of the stuff you hate.
Use your fork, do not burp or I’ll set you straight.
Eat the food I put upon your plate.
Get an A, get in the door, don’t be smart with me,
Get a grip, get in here or I’ll count to three,
Get a job, Get a life, get a PhD, get a dose (of reality?).
I don’t care who started it,
You’re grounded until you’re 36,
Get your story straight and tell the truth for once for heaven sake.
And, if all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?
If I’ve said once I’ve said it at least a thousand times before,
That you’re too old to act this way,
It must be your father’s DNA.
Look at me when I am talking, stand up straighter when you walk.
A place for everything, and everything must be in place.
Stop crying or I’ll give you something real to cry about.
oh....
Brush your teeth, wash your face, get your pj’s on.
Get in bed, get a hug, say a prayer with Mom.
Don’t forget I love you (kiss)
And tomorrow we will do this all again
Because a Mom’s work never ends.
You don’t need the reason why,
Because, Because, Because, Because,
I said so, I said so, I said so, I said so.
I’m the Mom, the Mom, the Mom, the Mom, the Mom!

Labels: Happy Housewife, YouTube

The recipe for the quickest, easiest and simplest lemon cookies is up at the Housewife Barbie site!

Get it while it's hot... I made chocolate cookies tonight so I'll be posting a photo and recipe tomorrow if time allows.

Labels: cooking

The Three Bears

It's a sunny morning in the Big Forest and the Bear family is just waking up. Baby Bear goes downstairs and sits in his small chair at the table. He looks into his small bowl. It is empty!

"Someone ate my porridge!" he squeals.

Papa Bear arrives at the table and sits in his big chair. He looks into his big bowl and it is also empty! He roars, "Who's been eating my porridge?"

After several minutes of confusion and commotion, Momma Bear finally yells from the kitchen, "For Pete's sake, how many times do we have to go through this?"

"It was 'Momma Bear' who got up first."

"It was 'Momma Bear' who woke up everybody else in the house."

"It was 'Momma Bear' who made the coffee."

"It was 'Momma Bear' who unloaded the dishwasher from last night, and put everything away."

"It was 'Momma Bear' who went out into the cold early morning air to fetch the newspaper."

"It was 'Momma Bear' who set the table."

"It was 'Momma Bear' who put the cat out, cleaned the litter box and filled the cat's water & food dish."

"And, now that you've decided to drag your butts downstairs and grace 'Momma Bear's kitchen with your grumpy presence... listen good, cause I'm only going to say this one more time..."

"I HAVEN'T MADE THE DAMN PORRIDGE YET!!!"

We're home from camping and somehow, the huge fat reddish brown beetle that crawled out of my suitcase as I started to unpack, symbolizes the trip in some way, but I'm not quite sure how yet.

We couldn't check in until 4:pm so I figured shooting for a 1:00 pm take off time was perfect. We'd shoot for 1:00 and if we were out of here by 1:30 it would be great, as it was a 2 1/2 hour drive and this allowed for an extra 30 minutes of 'whatever' might happen. In hindsight we should have left around 11:00.

We pulled out around 1:30 and saw firsthand why the weather reports were warning of wicked winds. They were! We pulled over just 3 minutes out of town so my husband could adjust and check the straps on the boat cover. I suggested that he run the lines over the top of the boat to strap it down as well as using the under-straps that were in place. He considered my idea for two seconds to be polite and then dismissed it.

After a few minutes we were back on the road but as we watched the cover in the rear view mirror we saw how the cover struggled in the wind. It didn't look good. Five minutes later I realized my Google directions were crap and we had no state map in the truck. I had cleaned the truck out a few months ago and brought all the state maps in the house. The only maps in the truck were city maps which were even less helpful than the useless Google. It was not a good start.

Carrying on, we got 20 minutes down the road when the straps to the boat cover snapped. "Oh Shit!" Coffeehusband exclaimed as he started to pull off to the side, changed his mind, hesitated.... back and forth.... (he doesn't do well in emergencies) and I finally said "PULL OFF AND STOP ALREADY!"

The ties had snapped. We spent the next 35 minutes on the side of the highway jerry rigging the boat cover and he decided that perhaps my idea of reinforcing the cover with top straps wasn't a bad idea. He was also thankful I had put a pocket knife into the center consul of my truck "just in case we may need it" when at the time he wasn't happy about doing so.


We finally got back on track and looking over the google directions that made little sense, decided to use the "coming home" google directions instead and just follow them backwards. I told him to watch for the highway sign we needed and I watched the boat cover. The next thing I knew we were approaching the interstate. "How can we be to the interstate?" I asked, "The highway we needed was before that. You overshot the exit. Did you miss the sign?" I don't think he was even reading signs.

We took the interstate and now had taken one hour to get to the exact spot that normally takes 20 minutes from our house. This wasn't looking good. Now all our directions were useless, the boat cover and the wind were causing stress and we had no map whatsoever. We headed towards the general direction we needed to go and I calmly told dh that ultimately we needed to go South again and hook up with the road he missed. So any exit would do, just get us going South.

As he approached exits he again panicked and would shout at me; "Where do I go?"

"I. DO. NOT. KNOW. If I had a fucking map I could tell you."

As he straddles the center line of the exit and the interstate I realize he is in capable of making a decision at all... so I say; "GO STRAIGHT."

We get to the next exit and again I state; "Take this exit. It leads South and ultimately we are trying to get South. I would give almost anything for a freaking state map right now."

Long story short is the road we were on led South. We caught up to the road I told him to look for in the first place, we got back on track and the boat cover was seeming to hold in the wind since we reinforced it with the top straps.

We were way behind schedule and the road detours and signs made NO SENSE at all in two places, but with luck we found ourselves at the campground. We should have made it there at 4:00 and instead we were about 1 1/2 hours behind schedule. But we made it.

We unpacked everything and as the girls relaxed outside the cabin I started in on making dinner and I sent Coffeehusband and Coffeekid back 'into town' to get gas for the boat, a half gallon of milk and a loaf of bread.

Continued.........

Labels: vacation