All This Talk of Other Countries

I've noticed much talk about other countries on the blogs: things French, things Italian, things English and such that I've decided to do some posts about living in other countries. Personally, I love seeing photos of other countries and having visited other countries I just cannot imagine living anywhere else but the USA. I know most of you love to travel and wish you could travel more, but with some first hand knowledge of living there I find I'm happy just exactly where I am. But more of that later. First, let's visit a typical middle class home in France. Second, be happy where you are and for what you do have. I am.

In this photo I'm intrigued by what they've done with the ceiling. I've never seen a ruffle hanging from there before but I kind of like it.

Stone walls and floors in the bedroom would make for a very cold bedroom I'd think but with the fireplace it wouldn't be so bad. And, lots of ambiance!

When we moved into our house, which was brand new, and noticed how all the plumbing worked so well that we could turn on both showers, the washing machine, dishwasher, flush toilets all at one time and still not notice a bit of drop in the pressure, I was sold on new construction. I doubt I would ever be happy in an old fixer upper or old plumbing. I had enough of that in our last house!

Very sweet vignette in the bath.

I'm not too sure I'd want a living/sitting room this rectangular though.

I do like the round top doors though.

Wine cellar? Only the French. ;-)

Lovely bedroom for visitors.

Neighborhood markets would capture my attention also.

The view from the house across the lush valley.

Beautiful walkways but I don't think I'd want to be climbing up and down daily. I'd guess the whole village must be in great shape from the meandering streets.

This little place in the yard would certainly be a blessing though.

Beautiful views just walking in the evening.

But tell me, how do the cars navigate on such narrow streets?

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My brother-in-law and his wife lived in Italy and Belgium. When they lived in Italy they had to go out and buy cabinets for the apartment they rented. When Italians rent an apartment or house, it comes with absolutely nothing except maybe a toilet. There is no flooring. There are no kitchen cabinets. And when they had a broken window it took weeks to get it replaced. They just don't have Home Depots there to go in and get a piece of glass. I've forgotten most of what they told us it was like but I think they were glad to get out of there.

Here is an account from a friend that lived there:

We lived in Italy and it was not a walk in the park. It was poor, lots of stealing going on. It was not the dream I imagined it would be. I was thrown into a big, old, dirty, filthy city and it was hard for those 3 years. The food was wonderful. The traveling was a blast, but I would not want to live there again. And oh, the healthcare was horrid. It was scary to go into the hospitals. They are like 3rd world countries, just didn't feel sanitary or clean like what we have here. And they don't make appointments. They wait for first come, first served. You have to bring your own bed linens, nightgowns and food. You bathe the patient; they don't. And they sandwich them all into a room like sardines, not a pretty sight. Yeah, I love where we live here in the good ol' U.S.A.!
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Pink Saturday 1/7/2012 English Country Rooms

Happy Pink Saturday once again and thanks to Beverly for hosting it. Visit all that you can or at least one new one you've never visited before. Have fun!

Click on the logo below to see what it's all about.
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Here I've shown some scenes from English country life. I love England and the British Isles, but I wouldn't want to live there. I love my country, as I'm sure the British do, but home is home. I can not even imagine living anywhere else in the world. Too much is romanticized about living abroad, but that's all it is: romanticized. Having visited other countries I do have knowledge of them, plus we have family members who came here from other countries. They risked much to get here and have become U.S. citizens. They tell me other countries, especially where they are from, would give all they could to come here. So be careful what you wish for, sweet bloggers.

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Random Thoughts:

Over on her blog, Claudia has been blogging about the English language used today, and I'm definitely with her on this one. But I have one more thing I hear a lot in conversations and that is: there's. When speaking there's is singular; plural would be there're or there is and there are. I majored in English so trust me on this one. Example: There's the men of the organization coming towards us. Incorrect. It should be: There're the men of the organization coming towards us. Men is plural. Okay, I'm OCD about proper English, but a nation that can't speak well because they aren't taught well and aren't corrected when wrong because someone is afraid of hurting their self-esteem, shows its ignorance. And that brings up the proper use of its and it's.

It's is a contraction for it is. Its refers to possession. The bird was preening its feathers. It's the bird that is preening its feathers. Get it. You will be thought of as well-spoken if you master this one and a few other very, very common English errors. Speaking well shows knowledge and intelligence.

Oh, and anyone reading this has my permission to use this in your blogs. Please! We must be better educated with our native language. Help me to get the word out.
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Love bunny and I go to restaurants at least twice a week. (Read previous post for why.) A restaurant is a place to eat. Their goal is to make good food, have happy customers and make money. Okay, for those of you out there that have a problem with people and/or businesses making money, let me ask you: What would you have a business for? Making money, right? Yes!! Okay, with that being said, the restaurants aim would be to make you happy so you'll come back. If you don't see something on the menu that you'd like, then ask if they can fix something for you that you'd prefer. A good restaurant will try and most will be happy to please you. Trust me on this one also.

Recently at Applebee's we noticed they had taken 2 of our favorites off their menu. Mine was Asiago Peppercorn Steak. I LOVE that! Voilà, I now order it though it is not on the menu. Problem solved or I would have gone elsewhere. I'm an assertive woman who usually gets what I want, being gracious and smiling, of course. There's no reason to be rude...ever! I'll tell you about my letter to Olive Garden in a later post. ;-) Ooooh, and the apostrophe in Applebee's? It's because it's intended to show possession as in Applebee's Restaurant; we just shorten it. Besides, it's the way they spell it.
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More 24 and Jack Bauer.

It truly amazes me how many traitors get into CTU (counter terrorism unit). I hope that isn't true in our actual government; although, looking at it makes me wonder!
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I can't think of one instance where Jack Bauer has been wrong. Why don't they believe and trust him? Boggles my mind.
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Most spoken phrase: "It's imperative this stays between us." Then the man or woman turn on their heels and run to spread the news. Sheesh.
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Another popular phrase: "Everybody's losing it.
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Jack Bauer should be given a bill for everything he's destroyed. That man goes through some equipment!!
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They keep giving the traitors a gun.
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They are constantly on their cell phones, and they never go dead. I want their cell phones!!
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Tough guys don't have to act tough. Example: US Marines, my heroes!!!
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But all in all, I absolutely still love that show.
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Until next time...and there will be more. And if I've made any errors here it's because I'm too lazy to go back and read it again.
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Girl Talk...About Me.

Girl Talk...

I see and visit blogs that have certain styles whether it be decorating, cooking, humor, crafting, family, genealogy and I love them all. I've narrowed down my favorites from almost 200 to less than 50 though because I just don't have the time to peruse them all anymore. I'm not sure I can be put in any specific category because I'm such a varied person. I love decorating but I can only do so much in our "retirement" house. I love humor but sometimes I just don't have anything funny to say. I love crafting but I can only hold so much in 1800 s.f. house, I love eating but don't particularly like to cook...alright, let's face it: I hate cooking. I'd much rather eat out—let them cook AND do the clean-up and dishes. Fact of life, chicks! I'm getting lazy in my old age.

But mostly I am a very, very visual woman. I love seeing photographs. So it would be rare for me not to post something visual. Hence, the photos of old English kitchens below, but then read on below that and I shan't take up much of your time with descriptions, just look.

I love the larders the English have. I'd love having a "room" to store all my food.

Ooops, now how did that cute chick get in here. ;-) The love of our lives. Did you really think I wouldn't post a picture of our little great granddaughter? Fooled ya, huh?!

We had a house once with baseboard heating, which is much like the old steam radiators. In my opinion, it is the best heating there is. It is an "even" heat and not blown in air that hits you in the face or feet, but comforts the whole room. Loved it!

This is one of my favorites. I love the green painted cabinets. It's a very colorful kitchen.

Okay, so great-grandchildren can be boring to look at, but we so adore this kid we have to show her once in a while. Too much would be boring I know, so I'll keep it to a minimum.

With all that being said, someone asked me about me so I thought I'd post a bit more about me than what you might have seen (Let's face it, not everyone reads the sidebars anymore since some bloggers list their hundreds of favorite blogs and it goes on
F O R E V E R! You'll never see that here. I only post interesting things. ;-)
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I love Big Hair.
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I have feet bigger than I'd like: size 9.
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I hate Spam loaf, spam email and regular junk mail that the postman brings.
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I love pink and live in a pink house with a retired Marine I call Love Bunny or Bubbie.
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I actually do live my life in exclamation points.
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I'm a very positive person and love to laugh and be humorous.
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I love eating lunch out with a friend. For me, one-on-one is best but I love eating with 2 or 3 also.
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The 2 best presents I ever got were a flashlight given to me by my hubby (That took some thought into my comfort while camping!) and false eyelashes put on by a professional given to me for Mother's Day by my daughter-in-law. NEED I SAY MORE?! A fantastic and very original gift. You can see my eyes here with them applied:
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I'm a wall flower at large parties.
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In smaller groups I'm a chatterer.
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My voice sounds much younger than my age. It hasn't changed my whole life; I still sound like I did as a teenager, but it's a very authoritative voice. I usually get what I want but I'm never rude or nasty, just authoritative with a big smile.
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I have a tremendous amount of mental energy but physically it's waning so fast I could cry. :-(
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A friend loaned me the video The Help. I didn't like it at all. Others have raved about it but I just didn't care for it.
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I love reading more than just about anything.
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I'm doing a Mission for my Church. It's Guest Relations and I can sit here for 4 hours and answer calls directing them to departments that can help them. It is one way of giving service that I can do. I'm loving it actually. We all need to do more service for our community and others.
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Happy New Year 2012

This holiday season is officially over, but hubs and I both noticed that there was no big celebration on the news sites this year as in years past where they at least have the ball dropping in Times Square. I mean the internet sites since we have no television. It kind of fizzled out with a whimper. I wonder if it's the apathy or are people actually realizing the reason for this celebration or if it's just the mood of the country: tepid and/or frustrated with how things are going in general. I love this time of year but we just don't celebrate much and try to keep the spirit of the season. We don't have small kids at home though so it's very easy for us and I truly have everything I need and most of what I want. At any rate,

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE

Again, just look at the homes below without any descriptions from me. I'm too lazy to do it right now.

We went to the cinema today to see War Horse. A strange thing happened though.

We bought the tickets and actually splurged on popcorn and sodas for a total of $33.50. I thought it was outrageous but I wanted popcorn. Hubs "scrooged" a bit but he finally stopped complaining and got a soda, and I shared my popcorn with him. In 20 years we've only been to the movies about 5 times and 2 of those were free tickets from our home teachers in our ward. I'm not interested in movies much but I cannot understand how a family of 6 could even afford to go on a regular basis. With just popcorn and drinks it would easily be $100.00. Now I know why Netflix is so popular.

Anyway, we went into the theater for War Horse according to the ticket person and the marquee inside the theater. The movie started with several coming attractions, and by-the-way, the only one I would want to see is Mirror, Mirror with Julia Roberts, a take on Snow White with humor. Absolutely my kind of flick! Then what I think was a cartoon about self-esteem. Ooooh, puhleeze! How politically correct can we get? Then a muppet cartoon also. I thought it was kind of strange to list so many credits at the beginning of the cartoon, but after about 20 minutes, hubs said, "Give me the tickets." I did; he marched out, came back and said, "We're in the wrong theater!" It was a muppet movie. But we were so clueless as to cartoons and such that we actually thought it was a cartoon.

We got up and went to the cinema manager and told him what had happened. He said the movie we wanted to see was about 20 minutes into the story and we could go in. I said, "No, I want to see it from the start, so we'll come back at a different time." (I am NOT a wimp and very assertive—VERY!) He said that was fine so we elected to see it at the 6:30 time.

Bottom line: If you haven't seen War Horse, go! It was absolutely wonderful and a true family movie. No swearing, nudity, sex or anything that you wouldn't allow your kids to see. Just a great movie.

More in a few days. I have much to say lately.
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English Country Rooms

For this Pink Saturday's participants, just click on the logo below and go to Beverly's Blog where you'll see all the participants. It's my favorite thing to do on Saturday, and Beverly is just a sweet person to know.

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For Pink Saturday I'm going to show a painting a dear sweet friend of mine painted and I bought a couple of years ago. She has gifted me with several of her beautiful roses paintings also. She does beautiful work. Her name is Lorena. I believe she incorporated pink into the Christmas stocking in a dazzling way. Just love it!

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The holiday season is almost over, and it's calmed down here quite a bit, so I'd like to try and get back on track with blogging. I spent the Friday before Christmas in bed and didn't get out until Sunday night when Love Bunny cooked the whole turkey dinner for me. We believe I got food poisoning from a bad jar of salad dressing I used on tuna salad a few days before. I'm fine now though. And his dinner was superb. I did mash the potatoes for him however.

I'm sick to death of food at the moment. I ate my way through about 2 boxes of chocolates, a pumpkin roll a friend surprised me with (DELICIOUS!), numerous Milky Way Simply Caramel bars, cinnamon rolls, a Dutch apple pie, a pumpkin pie, Coldstone Creamery LARGE (Is that one called Gotta Have It?) chocolate ice cream dish, Olive Garden Black Tie Mousse pie, Applebee's Triple Chocolate Overload cake, pumpkin cookies, a popcorn and nut mix with chocolate drizzle, a cake that sent my taste buds into survival mode with all the sugar in the frosting and a Jack in the Box Chocolate overload cake also. My sugar level is right up there with the National Debt, trust me.

So with that being said, let's view some pictures of some English homes I love. I incorporate English, a touch of French, Traditional, Romantic, Shabby, Chic and a bit of ME thrown into the mix in my decorating. I always have thrown in a bit of ME, but certainly over the years my styles have changed. Just view the rooms without me saying too much about them. Pictures speak louder than my words ever could.

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And just for your information, I'll have more pictures this week with more thoughts on 24 and Jack Bauer very soon. ;-)
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