The AC Menagerie Bulletin

Welcome to the September 16th addition of

 The AC Menagerie Bulletin

The AC Menagerie Bulletin is a weekly digital newspaper highlighting brief accounts of the week's happenings around the Zoo (our home) and on blogs by myself (Nita Davis). Sit back, relax and enjoy while you catch up with the Davis family.

Automotive News  Update

Well, the guy at the car parts store was wrong. The battery is perfectly fine. However, the alternator is shot! We had to order the part and it won't come in till this coming Tuesday. In the meantime my oldest boy has lent us his little beauty.  

Life News 
While I am very thankful for the use of my sons car, I am not so sure I like his car. Every time I get behind the wheel I feel like a little kid that needs a booster seat! Here is a photo of me in the driver seat. My shoulder doesn't even come up to the bottom of the driver side window! I have to sit very straight and tall to see over the steering wheel. LOL

Community News
On Monday we participated in a special event in which participants, found little ways to spread kindness. I am not sure one of our deeds qualified, but it was sure fun. While shopping in Walmart Lexi and I decided to re-arrange an almost empty bin of dinosaurs in the hope that it would bring a smile to other shoppers. To find out more about the event check out my Spread Kindness post.  

Creative News

Last minute preparations, that is what you get when you have a preteen in the house. Last Friday Sissy had a friend spend the night and of course neither girl woke up Saturday till almost 11am. When the got up they told me they were invited to attend another friends birthday party at 2 on the same day. When I asked if they had presents to take to their friend both girls started to panic because of course they did not. They also had no money to go buy anything. So I pointed to the crafting closet and said well you better get busy. They managed to make some fun and useful things for their friend and even made a card and special bag to put the gifts in.

Pet News
Lexi's named her new kitten Moments because as she says 'he has precious moments eyes'. Let me tell you, those eyes can be deceiving! I usually call him Devil cat. No one can do anything in the kitchen without Moments running into the kitchen to 'help'. He likes to sit on the little step stool and watch what is going on. When I started to open the dishwasher to unload it he jumped onto the stool and refused to move. Which I guess is better than jumping in the dishwasher, which by the way he does every time I try to load it. And what cat likes lettuce?!!! I droped a leaf of lettuce and before I could reach down to pick it up he was on it and munching away. By the way he hates raw eggs. As a matter of fact he is terrified of them. Maybe he is really a dog.

Comics 

The Blog Review

Here is a list of this weeks posts. To visit them just click on the blue linked title.
 

On Artistic Composition this week:

- SIMC:Upper Falls: This last Sunday I shared a portion of the gorgeous waterfalls in Sioux Falls, that I don't often share.

- Spread Kindness: After being reminded of the importance of spreading kindness I wrote this post with it's accompanying motivational quotography.

- Wonders N Wishes: This weeks wonder is not a person but an amazing wonder of nature. 

 On Nita's Photography this week:

- South Dakota Sunday: Palisades: A photo trip to the beautiful tranquil Palisades State park is South Dakota.

- Controlling Exposure with Shutter Speed: Examples of how changing the shutter speed controls the photos exposure.

- WW: Prehistoric Revolt: A fun photo taken at the same time as the dinosaur photo above.

- The Challenge: Texture and Silhouette: Photography challenges four and seven of a 30 challenge series.  

- What's Better Than a Full Moon?: Check it out too find out the answer.

Have a Fantastic Weekend!

Linking up with Willy Nilly Friday 

To Be or Not To Be

To Be or Not To Be ... What?

I have a feeling that if you ask anyone 25 to 35 years old the answer will be 'an adult'. Sure there is much they love about being an adult but often it isn't what they had envisioned it to be. They have even coined a new word ... 'adulting'. Yes that is now the term being used to describe the everyday actions of a responsible adult. Typically this term is used when expressing ones frustration with adult life, but it is also used as a way to laugh at those same frustrations. As Shakespeare taught me, to enjoy life to the fullest we must be able to laugh at the tragedies as well as at the comedies, so I am embracing this new term.

Each time my oldest daughter says she is "So Over Adulting" I just laugh and reply join the group. And who hasn't uttered this next phrase?

After playing around with the idea, we decided to add a humorous 'Adulting Sucks' section to our gift shop and these are just two of the fun designs. We also asked around and came up with a couple fun list.

While I do sometimes wish to take a vacation from being an adult I am very glad that I choose the To Be, because who wants to be a child or worse yet a teenager again? So what do you choose, To be or Not to be?

Have you, or will you be embracing the term Adulting? If so stop on over and check out all the fun designs and products that we hope will make every adult smile about the frustrations of adulthood.

Click Here to check out our Adulting products

  

Having a Bad Day?

Next time you are having an off day 
just be glad you aren't a knife thrower.

Surviving Children

Anyone who knows me knows that I have always loved children. Even before I became a parent I surrounded myself with children. In high school I volunteered with disabled children and at the elementary school. I went on to teach in a private k-12 school and finally I was blessed with children of my own. Our home was always full of children of all ages and now I am blessed with grandchildren.

As much as I love children I will be the first to admit that they require not only a great deal of love but also a great deal of patients, and if you are not prepared to face the difficult days with humor you are going to go crazy.

This morning I came across an article on Yahoo about a parent that has demanded the school district investigate one of their teachers because she posted this cartoon to her personal Pinterest account.

My first response was to laugh at the cartoon and then to wonder if the fanatical drive for political correctness has resulted in a large majority of society losing their sense of humor. Then I remembered history is full of such humorless groups. The difference is that now, thanks to the internet, the narrow-mindedness of such humorless radicals is ever in the spotlight.

Most times I don't read the comments but this time I did because I hoped to see people standing up for the teacher and for the most part they were, especially when one commenter going by the name Loki attacked with this comment "Seems like this was written by a teacher who has no idea what a real job is like....no one else gets 14 weeks of vacation every year, and a 6.5 hour work day...." Obviously this Loki person has no idea what it is to be a teacher. 

One of my favorite comments was when one parent said "I have told my children at one time or another they are the reason some mothers eat their young.  This is probably a great teacher because she will find the humor in things when other teachers are actually out getting a bottle of something."

This got me to thinking of some of the phrases and exclamations I have used when my children were being particularly difficult;

"I swear you're driving me up a wall and we can't afford to keep re-wallpapering!"
"At this rate a small white padded room is sounding very nice!"
" You're driving me crazy and trust me I don't have far to go!"

Now for my cartoon contribution.

My oldest son's favorite thing to say to his daughters and nieces and nephews when they become overly rambunctious is "Just keep it up, I can always sell you on E-bay" 

It was a traveling band of gypsies that my daughter Lexi would tell her kids she was going to sell them too. Which turned even funnier when Bubba at 3 years old got frustrated with Lexi and told her he was going to sell her to a traveling band of bitches. He had speech difficulties and I guess gypsies was just too hard a word to say.....LOL 

I guess some people might consider our sense of humor mean but it isn't. We never say it mean but always with a twinkle in our eyes and laughter in our voice and our kids, even the little ones understand it as a joke and laugh and even play along with the joke making silly and smart comebacks. Often it is this ability to joke that defuses what otherwise can be a tense situation. 

Seems like this was written by a teacher who has no idea what a real job is like....no one else gets 14 weeks of vacation every year, and a 6.5 hour work day....

Seems like this was written by a teacher who has no idea what a real job is like....no one else gets 14 weeks of vacation every year, and a 6.5 hour work day....

Night Owl or Early Bird?

When Cows Fly!

When pigs fly was a favorite euphemism of my Grandmothers. Growing up I am certain I heard it at least a dozen times a day. She was a hillbilly and a writer making for a rather interesting imagination and vocabulary. I soon learned that there was not a more emphatic no than 'when pigs fly'. 

For the first 40 years of my life I had no doubts about the aerodynamics of four legged farm animals. Pigs, cows, sheep, goats and even the family dog did not fly! It was a law, or so I thought.

That was of course until I saw with my own eyes that cows in Iowa seem to have discovered the joy of flight. Imagine if you would my shock at discovering that my Grandmother may have been wrong all along. 

It happened on a sunny summer afternoon along a two lane road in the heart of Iowa. My fourteen year old son who had just got his learners permit was driving when we saw a pick-up truck pulling a cattle trailer approaching in the oncoming lane. From behind the trailer we saw a flash of black and white sail through the air only to land in the center of our lane and casually walk to the side of the road. As my son hit the breaks, I exclaimed "What on earth was that?"  "It's a cow mom, A COW!" 

Just then a calf flew out of the trailer, and I repeat, a calf FLEW. It did not fall out of the trailer but jumped flying through the air. Landing smoothly, the calf proceeded to walk toward the cow. By this time my son had slowed to a crawl and was honking the horn as we came even with the front of the trailer. 

A third cow must not have been convinced she could fly, for just before the end of the trailer came even with us, the last cow jumped out of the back of the trailer and unlike the two before, her landing was anything but smooth. She was okay though and got to her feet and wandered off to join her friends. The driver of the truck must not have realized what had been happening as he never slowed down, and soon he was gone. To this day I wonder what he thought when he got wherever he was going and found his trailer empty. 

So the next time you hear 'when pigs fly' just remember anything is possible even if only a little bit.

image source

FF: Crazy Summer

Hi Everyone!

I hope your summer is going well. My summer is really crazy, there is so much I would love to do and yet no time to do much of anything. Thank goodness for Fridays and Mrs. 4444's Friday Fragment blog hop. So let's get fragging!

Back at the end of May I considered taking a summer break from blogging however the idea just made me sad so instead I decided to just post when I could. Obviously, that has been really sporadic. 

Available Here

Maybe I need one of these. Time management is often a battle for me. Some might say I have poor time management skills, I prefer to think of it as being pace challenged.

The other day Miss M (my youngest daughter) had a doctors appointment.  During my rather long and boring wait I noticed this little sign on a nearby table. As soon as I read it I thought 'yep, that is exactly what I need.'

A friend that I haven't seen in years asked me if I could put up a picture without a camera in front of my face....lol So I have been trying to get a decent selfie with my cell phone..... so far no luck. So I played around with the shots I did get, here are two that I kinda like.

This next one I only liked after playing with it.

At the end of last month I found the perfect quote to add to one of my favorite photos from THIS photo shoot, and have been meaning to share it so here it is.

Have a terrific weekend!

Laugh At Yourself

The serious side of life can zap the life out of you if you let it. I believe laughter is the key to unlocking the weight of the world that often sits on our shoulders. Being able to laugh at ourselves and each other has been instrumental in our families resilience. We are blessed with quick wit and the ability to find humor in even dire circumstances. Looking in one may think we are totally insane, but in all honesty if we could not find the humor in life I believe we would all go insane.

With that in mind I would like to share a bit of the story behind our most recent humor design, which is available on T-shirts in our Cafepress gift shop. First let me say, we do not make fun of individuals who face physical or mental challenges, and although our humor may at times be warped it is not mean spirited. We do however make fun of our own challenges. My daughter and her husband were joking around one day and he said he saw her on the short bus to which she replied that she was only there to keep him from licking the windows. To which he replied 'licking windows is fun'.

Available for both men and women

Available for both men and women

and for children

Our local neighborhood watch on the job.

So whether we are here in Norfolk or some other city we try to find humor in our everyday lives.

Humor Is Important

Taking life too seriously can cause a great deal of stress and cause one to grow old quickly. So I am very happy that my family embraces a more humorous approach to life. We can be serious when the need arises but we also enjoy letting the our hair down. Now you may look at these photos and think Oh My God they are crazy or drunk. Well, we may be crazy but the hats actually went on before the first drink was poured. Four of these tinfoil hat wearing individuals actually went to the store with their hats on just to see what peoples reaction would be. As you can imagine they got quite a few odd looks and some laughs. With them all prepared to ward off any invasion of mind reading aliens I thought it would be fun to create a photo that captured that theme. The wording is slightly off set to allow them to use it as a Facebook cover photo.

From this:

To this:

As you can see if laughter and humor keep one young we are never growing old.

Linking up with

And Wordless Wednesday at