Happy New Year 2013-2014

May every day of the New Year glow with good cheer and Happiness

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 This year I resolve to be less awesome since that is really the only thing I do in excess.

My friend Gail of At The Farm wrote a poem that speaks well for the new year.

here is the first and last  verses, to read the rest CLICK HERE

Do we reflect our goodness

To the people we meet?

Or does our badness show

As plainly as our feet

For only in a moment

Can we decide for sure

How we will reflect our light

Let it be good and pure

There is a party going on at Fourpaws

Well, there is one thing I do in excess... can you guess what it is?

Even if you guess, I do not intend to resolve to no longer do it in excess....

Taking Time Off

Taking a little time away from the computer, my back is bothering me again. see you soon. Comments are off..

OH NO! Not Coal......I WAS good....

All day Christmas Eve, Eve, I sang Santa Baby and waited to see what Santa would place in my new stocking.

I was Good, Really good...

I found this in my backyard, right by the edge of the pool deck...OH NO! he did bring me a piece of COAL.

There were three ways this could have  appeared in our yard.

1. Our back yard has a hidden coal mine

2. Bob was hiding it waiting to sneak it in my stocking

3.  The brats kids next door stood on top of their fort and chucked it in the yard trying for a splash down in the pool.

Number 3 gets my vote! NOT that they have done anything like that before. last time it was oranges...

Messiah-The Gift

Thanks be to God, for His indescribable gift.

2 Corinthians 9:15

Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is God With Us. Matthew 1:23

Santafied Santa by Sandra Claus

Above photo of the Santa that stands under the tree at the Rehab Facility is Straight out of the camera, you can see it is a little yellow due to low light, below I did a quick one click edit in PicMonkey.

Being Who AM..... I took the Santa to visit PiZap..... and you know the Rest of The Story.....

Sandra Claus gone MadSnapper on Santa Claus....

The OTHER Cards....

In a previous post I gave you my E-Christmas Cards, these are the other three I created and did not use...

What nationality is Santa Claus? 

North Polish

Just before Christmas there was a honest lawyer, a kind politician and Santa Claus together in a hotel elevator. Just before the doors opened, they noticed a 20.00 bill laying on the floor. Which one picked it up?

Santa Claus, of course! the other two don't exist...

My stocking came in the mail from Deb at My Two Boys and Two Granddogs
it's hung and waiting..... no coal please

Walmart Christmas Art

Why does Santa have three gardens?

So he can Ho-Ho-Ho!

Why did Santa spell Christmas N-O-E?

Because the angel said "no-L"

Pink Posing Posies

 These two beautiful Pink Posies are hibiscus about to open. As I did my morning walk around the pool, I noticed these two that looked like they were reaching out to each other... they were posing and begging me to take there photo.

December in Florida

One man said to the other, "You know, there are really only three kinds of people in the world: those who can count, and those who can't. 

from Joke of the day...

Pine Cone Devils and the Crafty MadSnapper

Each time the MadSnapper walks out on her deck  barefoot, there are loud Ouch! OUCH! Darn little Devils! and maybe a few other choice words... 

The little devils sit up in the tree RIGHT OVER THE DECK. the tree is HUGE, it covers half the yard and if they sat anywhere else, the sharp thingys they nibble off of these would fall where I don't walk.

Above is what is left that falls to the ground with the sharp thingys. in a fit of Feeling Crafty caused by seeing all of you crafty bloggers CREATING, I picked up a few.

I laid them in a circle thinking Wreathe or some such nonsense.

I made little trees and added lights and even a flower, doubled them up and NADA! NOTHING!

the craft gene is not in my body.

I have a coffee can full of these left overs from the Devils Table.

 if anyone has any ideas. or wants the cute left over pine cones, or wants the little devils, I think I can get a few them  in a coffee can to.

It seems I have about 13 coffee cans waiting for me to think of how to use them.

Candlelight for you

There are two ways of spreading light.
To be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
Edith Wharton

May Magic fill your days and all your dreams come true.

If you need a smile fly on over to Whimsy Willows Farm and see what Christmas Chickens look like.

The Mad Mad Speech Therapist

Think Southern Belle reading to Yankee from PA

Each day for the past 6 days, I have read out loud the words from the homework assigned to my husband to retrain his brain with his new hearing aids. Now you will know why we laugh when I say the word and he tries to mimic me.  Can you hear me now?
Can YOU repeat after me?  

P.S. the hubby who can now hear has cleaned out the motor to the fridge Just Because He Can Now Hear the LOUD humming... glad to say the HUMMING is gone.
Also, my computer HUM is now gone because he can hear it. For some reason these things did not exist when I could hear them and He could NOT. This working frenzy also is caused by wind to 20 knots that grounds his RC planes.

P.S. AGAIN... I had no idea that cigarette lighters now come in USB Recharable... Found in Cashier waiting line at Wal-Mart..

Winter Wonder Land - Florida Style

Photo's taken by MadSnapper, Saturday December 14, 2013 at 10:36 AM

No edits, Straight out of the camera except for re-size for web.

Winter Wonder Land-Florida Style

 by MadSnapper

In December we have no snow, no sleet, no ice..

Outdoors is so very nice.

Sunshine and flowers and a balmy breeze

the temp is a wonderful 77 degrees.

Below is using Auto setting on my Canon Rebel, above photos were taken by setting the shutter speed at 1/125

What a difference..

Powder Puff Tree

Our self decorating tree is busy this week putting out it's fluffy decorations. they start out as tiny buds the size of a BB and end up as big as the palm of my hand.
The bottom middle of the above collage had 19 buds on the tip of it. It's a little late this year because of our unseasonable warmth.

To view the whole bush click on Twas The Day After Christmas 

The limbs like the one below, are 6 to 8 feet long and hang down with the tips covered in brilliant red balls.

Ready for the season with no help from me. 

Lots A Latte

MadSnapper Recipe for Home Made Latte.. OK, first let me say I had no idea what a Latte was, and when I looked it up, this is not what one is... but for the purpose of this post, we will pretend it is a Latte invented by MadSnapper.

I am Cheap to the Bone... Thrifty, Penny Pincher, Tightwad... call it what you want. I refuse to spend Five Dollars for a cup of coffee, no matter what it is called.
I poured myself a cup of Maxwell House coffee, I make mine strong, very strong. I put my Cremora in, I added my sweetener... I dropped a couple of drops of Vanilla Flavoring and stirred.

From my collection of bottles, use any size you want to

I grabbed the bottle with the yellow top, I put just a sprinkle of sugar in it, poured it half full of Whipping Cream, tightened the lid and shake..shake.shake and shake again... pour that whipped cream on top of the coffee and OH YUM...
the fun thing is, you can customize... add chocolate, add a few sprinkles of instant hot chocolate, use what ever coffee you LOVE... get creative.. and you can have about 20 of these for the cost of One of the bought ones.

My Man Can Hear

My husband has worn hearing aids for 7 years, they stopped working 2 years ago. He refused to go for a hearing test until this week... His hearing is only a few decibels above legally deaf.

Tuesday morning, we came home with new hearing aids, computerized digital customized to his problems. Yes, they cost a LOT OF MONEY...

But.... The Man Can HEAR! Hallelujah!!! he is walking around saying "this house is noisy"   he can hear paper crinkle, brooms swish, refrigerator humming and Hallelujah again, the TV is set on 18 not 52...

I came home from a doctor visit and he met me at the door...

"I heard a plane, I heard a helicopter and a weed whacker... when I went to pour my coffee, I thought I was being attacked and turned around and it was my eggs frying"

there is one problem. Now he is back to making fun of my accent again. Think spider using 3 syllables...  he is back to mimicking every word I say.. and I say Thank you Lord...

Doc said he will have to retrain his brain to hear the words,that the left side of his brain is not talking to that ear and the way to train it is doing his homework, 3 pages of words, that each day I have to read 2 rows of them and he has to repeat them back... we laugh so much we can't breathe. each day he gets a little better.

the good thing is I am getting better at reading. When a person gets older, we stumble looking for the right word. the doc said we should read out loud to ourselves every day... and the more we do it the better trained our words will be.
it is working. when I am reading my kindle, I read a page out loud... at first I stumbled, now I don't.
Of course when I was reading out loud to myself in the examining room while waiting an hour, the people in the hall might have been thinking the person in there must be MAD....and I am MadSnapper

Studies of adult brain plasticity prove absolutely that repetitive auditory stimuli can change the way the brain operates... quote from Auditory Training manual