Top Ten Reasons My Family Hates Me

Good day, Blogpals,

Okay, admit it. You thought T/T-M/M/L/E had blogged her last. Real life had finally gotten the best of me. Actually, real life has gotten the worst of me, and YOU, my friend-fams, have gotten the best of me! Read on. As the year comes to an end, I've decided to reflect on my life. I'm sharing my thoughts with you. Are you ready? Here are the top ten reasons my family hates me....


10. I forgot my great-nephew's names on my Christmas letter. That's right, I welcomed 3 new Bridwell clanbabies, but forgot the fourth: Drew Kirby, Kit's adorable bambino. I have offered to feature him prominently in next year's Christmas letter.

9. I get people into trouble without even trying. In my Christmas letter, I bragged about my daughter-in-law Megan setting up my printer. This led to her own mother wondering why she never did such things for her which led to Megan spending Christmas day setting up her own mother's printer and DVD..and well, you get the picture. I just never learn to keep my mouth shut.

8. I can't make decent Christmas cookies as you can see from "Mr. Snowman". Well, at least we did get a lot of laughs out of our attempts. Thank God for Teresa Foster who takes pity on the O'Connells throughout the year and provides us with properly constructed, perfectly baked sugar cookies while we burn batches while doing I don't know what at the kitchen table and not hearing the buzzer.

7. I have irrational fears of opening my front door or the garage door. I am nearly an agoraphobic once I get into my house. For one thing, it's been freezing cold here and everyone but me seems to think our outdoor cat deserves to come inside and warm up. The cat heartily agrees and tries to worm its way inside every time I open either door. Now, tell me, why did God give the creature a free fur coat?? For another, we had yet another wild animal episode last week with a possum getting into our garage because a certain person left the garage door open "just a bit" so the cat could get to her heating-pad, space heater-warmed bedstead. The man of the house resorted to Nancy's internet-fueled suggestions of throwing ammonia-soaked cotton balls at the critter which seemed to bring on another internet-supported condition -- a frozen state of shock (on the possum's part, that is). For the record, animal control doesn't consider possums in the garage an emergency, only possums in the house. So, now I'm afraid that a possum or a cat will attack me should I open any of my doors... You should see the recycling and garbage piling up at my door...

6. I forgot to turn on the oven Christmas Day and we ate 3 hours late...Yeah, this is a new one, even for me. I had to ply them with shrimp, crackers, cheese, beer, wine, whatever.

5. I fix food they hate. That's right. They all complained about having ham for Christmas and wanted lasagna instead.

4. I give them wastebaskets for Christmas. Isn't Cody (Molly's boyfriend) cute showing his off?

3. I can't use my new cell phone. If you get a text from me that reads "a...," it means, "Hi, how are you?" Just don't expect me to write back or to read what you write back. I don't have a clue, and Nancy is out of town. Bob and I have nearly resorted to cans and strings for our communication. (You young readers won't know what that means..)

2. I haven't mastered my new Kindle yet. Tim (the dear boy) patiently showed me how, but my success so far has been in turning it on, but having to ask Bob how to turn it off..

1. I blog instead of trying to improve myself. I could be reading my cell phone manual right now or perfecting my sugar cookies, but I am writing to you instead, dear friend-fams.


Hope you all have a happy new year! Now I expect you all to comment and tell me why you LOVE me!! Or even more reasons why you don't. I don't care, just say something.

Hamming it up,

I remain
Tizzie/Tiz/Tizmom/Mom/Liz/Elizabeth

Caked in Tradition

Hello, Sunday Slackers,

Is it snowy and below zero where you are? If so, I'll be happy to provide you with some cooking advice. See what great results you can get? You, too, can "bake ahead" like me and be ready for the holidays. The photos capture my trademark "lemon cake". I know what you're thinking, "That cake certainly looks like a lemon to me." I included it to make you feel good about yourself. If you haven't wasted your time and dirtied your kitchen, you're a step ahead of me..which isn't saying much...I've already had a minor "Christmas miracle". Promise you won't tell?? About 3 weeks ago, I discovered that I had lost the Master card. Not wanting to upset anyone, I kept this information mostly to myself. I checked online every day to confirm that no bandit was buying big screen TVs. Why the secrecy? Well, you see, I have a bit of a reputation to live down. I recently lost my driver's license. And earlier this week a young man called and woke up Nancy saying he had found my cell phone on the ground out side the bookstore. I hadn't missed it. And to make matters worse, Nancy lost the Master card twice last year, so losing Master cards is a sore subject around here. Christmas is a bad time to do this, too, as Bob makes his yearly trip to the mall about now with --you guessed is --his Master Card. Just when I thought I would have to fess up, an envelope arrived in the mail. The contents? New Master cards! Unbeknownst to me, our cards were expiring in January anyway, so I was saved from myself!..In other news, my friend and I took our elderly former neighbor out for lunch. While at the nursing home, I spied another former neighbor. As I walked over to greet her, I could tell that she didn't know who I was. I explained myself, and she replied, "You've gained ten pounds and gotten old." At least one reader will know who this is if I reveal her initials : RG. I wanted to say, "Do you find yourself a little short on visitors, R?" But my good manners kept me from doing any such thing...So, I hope you feel good about yourself after reading this. You are superior to me, a spaced out "loser" (both figuratively and literally) whose only talent is raving on.


Old, bold, and a sight to behold,
I remain
Tizzie/Tiz/Tizmom/Mom/Liz/Elizabeth


P.S. Remember that I have no idea how to change the order of the pictures, but you can figure out the order, cant' you?

Giving It My Best Shot

Hi, Blogmates,

Lots of things annoy my husband (I won't mention any names here), but this one took me by surprise... He hates it when people say, "Shoot me an e-mail." He claims he never has and never would use such terminology. I had not really thought about this particular misuse of the English language, so I have been surreptitiously observing my office mates the past few days to see how many "shooters" I can find. You could say it's open season in my office as everyone is either shooting or being shot at all day long. Well, shoot, I had no idea!...Aside to my niece Kit who gave me a most generous gift the last time I was in Paris,IL -- a CD that a lady was throwing from her float at the Chrisman Christmas Parade. Well, I listened to it all the way back to Columbia and I quite enjoyed her rendition of "Danny Boy." I thought I was back in R land...Holiday preparations? Well, the girls got the tree up and decorated 5 days ago, but somehow I have failed to get the mess that accompanies such an undertaking sorted and put away. I would shoot ..er..I mean take a picture of the state of my living room and post it, but I'm afraid it would destroy your Christmas spirit as it has mine. I think I'll just blog while watching Conan model a pair of jeggings even though I have no sheets on my bed and and 2 baskets of laundry beside me. All because I love you guys..or I'm a lazy slob..

Shooting you a blog,

I remain
Tizzie/Tiz/Tizmom/Mom/Liz/Elizabeth

P.S. Mom and the 2 "Mouseketeers"; Gabe, Sarah, and Emily; Mom with 4 Patrick Coadys