I have two questions for you this holiday/end-of-year season. But before I get to the questions, I wanted to tell you about a special little boy I know. His name is Cody. Ten or twelve years ago, he was born premature and with many physical/mental challenges. They said he wouldn’t live more than a month. Well, little miracle that he is, he proved them wrong. Sure, he has problems, but he’s still here, and he’s…well…special. I can’t really describe it more than that. You just know it when you meet him. There’s just something special there.

I don’t get to see Cody very often. He’s the grandson of a cousin-in-law, so I see him now and then at family gatherings… Continue reading

Posted on December 16th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
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Taking a break for a few days. Everyone enjoy!… Continue reading

Posted on November 21st, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
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If you’re serious about your work, you may find yourself forgetting to enjoy the perks of working from home. I know I sometimes forget to take some extended time off for play. I take lots of small breaks every day - lots more than I would at one of those j-o-b-s I used to work at. But I rarely take hours off at a time during the day. Once in a while though, we all need to remember that being our own boss means we can take a weekend break in the middle of the week. Today’s my day.

We’re heading out to the Gulf Coast to play in the casinos, eat some casino buffet food, and do a little outlet… Continue reading

Posted on October 10th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
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Today is my anniversary, so I’ll be taking the day off from thinking too much. To help me celebrate, why don’t you do something nice for someone today? Make it out of the ordinary and unexpected. Even something as simple as a note saying Thanks, or Good Job would be fine. Just a little token can make someone’s day. And don’t forget to have a great day yourself… Continue reading

Posted on September 6th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
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My second grandchild is incubating. This newbie is due to arrive mid-January, making him or her a Capricorn like me. That’s got to be a good thing! The kids (that’s what I call the newbie’s mom and dad) are hoping for a boy so they can use the boy’s name they picked out when my granddaughter was born nearly two years ago. I’m hoping I can somehow talk them out of the boy’s name they’ve chosen, although I doubt I can.

They want the name to be Damien. They claim they don’t care that the name evokes images of a demon child based on some old movie that came out before they were born. Ok, I guess I can sort of… Continue reading

Posted on May 22nd, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
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If you recall, a month ago, I confessed that I cannot cook, and that an 18-ingredient recipe should NOT categorize itself as EASY (referring to an empanada recipe I stumbled across). Today, I stumbled across two recipe-related sites, and I really like them both.

The first was a vertical search engine for recipes called FoodieView that runs a search against multiple recipe sites. Through it, I then discovered this truly easy empanada recipe that I will try next week. I printed it out and then realized that I can also add the recipe to an online cookbook at the site (which is RecipeZaar.com). I like that idea, so I registered as a user and plan to really use this site a lot. I… Continue reading

Posted on May 11th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
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Yesterday, we had a portion of our land cleared of brush. During the clearing process, a little nest of baby birds was discovered. Unable to put the birds back into the same spot (which no longer existed), we propped up the branch containing the nest in the same general area, hoping that would be enough to save them.

Sure enough, the mom and dad birds found their babies in their new location and started taking care of them, which made me very happy. However, this morning, the wind knocked down the branch, spilling the nest and the babies onto the ground.

We rushed outside to help put everything back in order. As we started scrambling to gather up the babies, they began to… Continue reading

Posted on May 9th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
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Nearly two years ago, Hurricane Katrina struck, and I learned then what I wish I’d had on hand when it happened. Since then, I’ve made it my mission to stock up on everything I needed but didn’t have during that emergency. I thought it would be useful to list everything I keep handy in the hopes that you won’t get caught without these needed supplies. These aren’t just for hurricanes. Any kind of disaster, earthquake, tornado, damaging storms, terrorism, and other forms of natural or non-natural disasters can be devastating. Keep in mind that you don’t want to be running to the store at the last minute for these items. Most likely, thousands of other people will be doing the same thing, and… Continue reading

Posted on May 5th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Life | 1 Comment »

I can’t cook. There, now we’ve gotten that out of the way. I’m a lousy, horrible cook. And yes, I’m cajun, and I STILL can’t cook. But I’m nevertheless expected to cook on occasion, usually a couple of times a week. I try to get by with serving Subway sandwiches once in a while, but now and then I have to actually put a real meal together. So I am constantly trying to find EASY recipes.

Since when is a recipe with 18 ingredients considered easy? I was browsing a recipe site just a few minutes ago, and the list of recipes is categorized by the amount of effort involved in creating the… Continue reading

Posted on April 10th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Life | 1 Comment »

The worst appears to be over. The first two days of being nicotine-less were pretty rough. As I mentioned, I’m a cold turkey kind of gal, so no patches or gum or whatever is used these days to soften the blow. The fact that I didn’t take anyone’s head off (trust me, I so wanted to), and didn’t damage anything at all is an accomplishment. I felt terrible. Really terrible. And mad. Oh boy, was I mad. Every little pore in my body was filled with anger.

The first day I was hurting and made the mistake of actually being near people. The second day I wised up and stayed in bed most of the day, reading a book. Today, the… Continue reading

Posted on April 1st, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
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