Amy Currioman

Sometimes I wonder if I had a previous life in which I died in a fire.  My parents tell me that I’ve never been in a fire, but I have recurring dreams where I am traveling home and arrive home to find the house engulfed in flames.  When I was a little girl and told my parents about my nightmares about the house burning down they would just “poo poo” my dreams. 

I can’t recall ever seeing a fire extinguisher in my parents house anywhere.  They carried one in their boat (I think it’s required by law) but I never saw one anywhere in the house.  Do you think that’s odd?  Come to think of it, when I go to my friend’s houses I never see fire extinguishers there either!  I wonder if they are just creative and clever about hiding them.  And I wonder if hiding them is a good idea!

I have one right beside my kitchen door, near the stove.  I figure that is the most likely place that I would need to have one.  No one in the house smokes, so there really isn’t a lot of danger about fires in other areas of the house.  Come to think of it, a good housewarming gift for new homeowners would be a good fire extinguisher!  I wonder if they would think it is too much of a “pun” between “housewarming” and fire extinguisher?

Over the past few weeks I’ve been letting my hubby and son take over the grocery shopping, and help with a lot of the meals and dishes.  Mainly because I had come down with a bad cold and asked them to take over some of those things while I recovered.  I didn’t ask why we weren’t having many veggies with the dinners (just meat and potatoes) – I was just grateful to be sitting down and having food put in front of me and no worry about the prep or clean up. 

Well, yesterday we had company and I was feeling better so I decided to rustle up the dinner.  I discovered that we were all out of veggies!  Apparently we have been out of veggies for quite a while and no one bothered to put them on the shopping list or buy them.  Well, that explains a lot!  Now I have to rummage through the pantry and figure out what ELSE we are out of and generate a GOOD shopping list and do the shopping!

One of the things that I like about giving gift baskets is finding one that not only is full of goodies, but that the basket itself is adorable and reusable and relevant to the person who is receiving the gift.  For example, one of the best holiday gift baskets I’ve ever seen is one that I’d like to give my youngest son – the gift basket itself looks like a drum, and he is a percussionist.  Every Christmas I try to give him something that is related to drumming that is not pieces of a drum set itself, and it has been getting more difficult as time goes by to be creative in that way.

And for my hubby, who has a Harley Davidson Wide Glide, the cutest gift basket I’ve seen for him was when I was looking for gift baskets for men and found one that took shape in the form of an insulated ice chest that was big enough for a six pack stuffed with a teddy bear dressed in biker leathers, a picture frame that looked like a motorcycle with the wheels area cut out for two photos, and party snack mix along with other edible treats that he would love to eat!

With a little bit of thought about the recipient, it really isn’t all that hard to find and give a great gift basket that lets the recipient know that you didn’t just run down to the grocery store and buy a “generic fruit gift basket.”  Gift baskets CAN be really nice gifts!

This morning I slept late.  It was a luxury that I don’t get to enjoy very often.  When I got up my hubby was already up and watching a movie he had rented from Netflix – I think it was called “City of the Gods.”  I’m not sure how far into the movie he was, but I watched it while drinking my morning tea.  (Which he fixed for me – thanks honey!)  Anyway, the movie was essentially about a gang war in a city in Brazil.  The movie was very disturbing, full of violence, drugs, and death.  The most disturbing part of all was how the gang war went from one generation to the next – much like most wars do I suppose.  All about control and revenge.  Very sad.

There are some adorable and trendy maternity clothesfor sale online at kikisfashions.com. They are the nicest maternity clothes I’ve ever seen, and the prices are unbelievably low.  I can recall when I was younger and pregnant that all of the maternity clothes looked like I was simply obese.  There really is no other way to put that gently.  These clothes at Kiki’s Fashions are feminine and are designed to make pregnant women look stunning!  Simply stunning!  Without breaking the bank!  How can you go wrong?  I don’t think you can.  I’m going to order this dress pictured on the right for my pregnant niece to wear to work.  I’m sure she will love it!