The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!

Today has been that kind of day...good, bad, and ugly! I'll start with the good by showing you a couple of pics of the front of my house. This is my favorite part of my home...the porch faces north and is pretty much in the shade most of the day. The large window to our living room provides the coolest breezes all summer long! And I love sitting out there during a good rain storm. When my youngest was little, he would often see me sitting out there, grab a blanket and climb in my lap to cuddle up and watch the rain with me.

This is our pink Dogwood, in full bloom. Being from North Carolina, I knew when I moved here I had to have my Dogwoods, Azaleas, and Rhododendrons (or as they call them out here, Rhodies.) This sits at the corner of my front porch.

(Click here to see what this tree looked like on Christmas day!)

On to the bad, but guess it's really a "good". I went by and picked my hubby up at his office this morning so we could meet with our lawyer. We're in our early 50's and have never drawn up any kind of will. Needless to say this is not the most pleasant thing to have to do. When you start talking about estates and executors and trust funds and living wills and burial plans....well you start thinking about your own mortality. It's really a sad thing to do and you start realizing how short your time here on this wonderful earth really is. And you begin to realize that yes, you should probably eat better than you do, and yes, you should exercise more that you do, and yes, you should take better care of yourself. It's amazing how that little visit to the lawyer's office has made me look at things a lot differently.

And finally...the UGLY! After our stint at the lawyers, hubby and I went to have a little lunch. We decided to head over to Dixie's BBQ (the healthy eating thoughts had not sunk in yet!). Well, Dixie's is known for their "MAN" barbecue sauce! It's a butt kicking (and I'm saying the kinder version here) sauce that only the toughest can survive. As hubby and I sat out on the porch eating our sandwiches, the "man" came around to the tables with his little "pot and spoon." Hubby had already warned me about this stuff, having fallen victim to this sauce several years prior! But since when did I ever listen to any of dear hubby's warnings! And of course, I wasn't going to let this "lady" be outdone by any ol' MAN sauce. So I allowed this man to spoon out a bit of THE most UGLY sauce I'd ever seen. Hubby, meanwhile, is over there shaking his head and telling me NOT to do it.

It was just a TINY little dab I put on a TINY piece of chicken. It couldn't be THAT bad! I kid you not...that was a BIG....no, HUUUGE mistake! I have never tried anything so hot in my life. Granted, I like spicy foods...but this was not spicy! This was fire burning HOT! Tears started rolling down my cheeks. My teeth literally started hurting. And I thought my throat was going to close in on me. I was beginning to see those three little numbers...911...on my cell phone! I could no longer eat my sandwich for each bite felt like hot coals in my mouth. And during all this, dear hubby is over there saying, "I can't believe you did that! I told you not to try it!" Needless to say...the rest of my sandwich is sitting in my fridge, uneaten!

As I drove my hubby back to his office and I began to feel my tongue once again, and as my teeth stopped hurting and I finally felt like I was out of the woods, I made one more mistake. I rubbed the corner of my eye with my finger! Another HUGE mistake, for I guess I had a little sauce on my finger. Have you ever tried driving down the road, tears streaming, and with one eye closed! Not an easy or safe way to drive!!

And so...the moral of this story is: Maybe, just maybe, every now and then, there MAY be truth in what dear hubby says! Oh...and I think I have now found the perfect diet. Before eating a big meal, dab a little of this sauce on your food. It will definitely curb your appetite! ~~Annie