A Spot of T

Fun Monday #31

This week's Fun Monday is brought to you by Nekked Lizard Adventures.  Here is their assignment....

This week's Fun Monday is a really simple one:

FIVE PICTURES - FIVE WORDS PER PICTURE.
Any 5 (FIVE) pictures, any subject, and any 5 (FIVE) words to describe and/or explain each picture. 

Nekked Lizard asks.....CAN YOU DO IT???

And I say.....Yes I can!!!

Except for borrowing the PEI map, all pictures were taken by me except the last picture of Gregg and I which was taken by our oldest daughter Kelsey at Gregg's birthday this past February.

Fun Monday #30

One of my favorite bloggers...and fellow Phil stalker.....Robin from Pensieve is hosting this week's Fun Monday.  Here is Robin's assignment....

"...please share words that inspire and motivate you--brief or bloviatory, silly or serious, from great world leaders to last night's Comedy Central...from a Hallmark greeting card to your favorite book.  Choose one, choose many; let the quotes stand on their own or tell where you first read or heard them and how they affected you.  There's a lot of leeway with how this topic can be handled."

The very first job I had when I moved away from home at the age of not quite 17, was with an architectural firm in the City.  A man named 'C' at the firm took me under his wing as he saw this country bumpkin try and 'fit in' in the big City.  He would take me for lunch and supper and sometimes we'd spend an entire saturday or sunday together.  He was 6 years older then I was and he was always curious why I never shared much about myself.  He encouraged me to talk and open up and genuinely wanted to know what I had to say.  He would want me to tell him why I liked to be alone so much and it was something I could never really answer.  I just liked being alone.  He never understood why someone, in his mind, would want to be so lonely.  I would try and explain to him that I never felt lonely.

As someone who had never been anywhere in her short 17 years, I loved hearing his stories of all the places he had traveled in the world and could have listened to him 24 hours a day.  And sometimes did.  I was fascinated by everything he had done in his life and loved hearing all the plans he had for his future.  It was a companionship I cherished at such a young age and sadly one I have never found since.

Six months after I started that job, C moved away.  Before he left we went out for lunch one last time and while we were eating he handed me a piece of paper.  He had been reading a magazine and saw this quote and instantly thought of me.  He said when he read it......it all made sense.

Skip ahead 27 years and I take a Photoshop course not that long ago.  The teacher stood up in front of class and wrote this exact same quote on the board and gave us our assignment.  The assignment included this quote I hadn't seen in 27 years and a self portrait of ourself.  The assignment was easy and brought back a flood of emotions, but I learned taking a self portrait was not as easy.  Which is why the picture sucks so bad and it looks like I'm choking myself.  Which somedays I suppose is exactly how I feel but in reality it was the last picture I took before the batteries went completely out in my camera and the picture caught me arranging the turtleneck I had on to hide my fourteen chins.  It was also the only picture where I was in focus so I had no other choice but to use it.  So be quiet and ignore the picture and focus on the quote I used in the photoshop assignment because it's the same quote I want to use for the Fun Monday assignment.

There are also two other quotes I have found in my lifetime that I liked and wrote down as well on this subject.....

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer - "You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with."

Jean de la Bruyere - "All of our unhappiness comes from our inability to be alone."

If you would like to see who is hosting next week's Fun Monday, head over to Ms Cellania and look at the top of her right sidebar.  What a fantastic lady to always have who is hosting next.  I have clicked over there more times then I care to admit so a big thank you to chrisb!

Fun Monday #29

This weeks Fun Monday is being hosted by Mariposa's Tales and here is her assignment.....

1. Please share to us how the NAME of your BLOG was made?  I can't wait to hear interesting funny stories!
2. Please share to us (in words or photo, though a combination of both will be a bonus!) your favorite/ most common dish!

How my blog was named?  Nothing interesting and certainly not funny.  But it was totally by accident.  I mean I wanted to call it A Spot of T....but it was supposed to read 'Tea' not 'T'.  I believe it was on msn (I think, I can't remember) where I first started a little journal type blog thing and when it asked me what I wanted my name to be, quick finger Mcgraw here quickly typed in 'A Spot of T'....but before I could finish putting the 'ea' in Tea....I pushed the send button and there it was.  It had given strict instructions to make sure the name you wanted was correct before pushing the button because any mistakes could not be undone.  Ya.  So I couldn't erase it, I couldn't change it.  There it was.  A Spot of T.  Not A Spot of Tea how I had originally wanted it.

At first I thought "Aww jeez Joy, what a goof."  But then I looked at it and it just made sense.  Kill two birds with one stone sort of thing.  See, my last name begins with the letter T.  Add in that I drink tea on a daily basis and absolutely almost love every kind of tea out there.....well it just fit.  So when I started what I call a real blog, I kept the name because I liked it a lot.

#1 was easy.  #2 I thought was going to be just as easy but then I got confused.  Oh be quiet, it happens.  Now I knew, unlike some smart alecs out there, Mariposa didn't want to see our favorite dishes/china, but do we pick the favorite dish we ourselves cook, or just our favorite food?  I mean as a mom, I cook all the time.  All.  The.  Time.  And my kids love my cooking.  But when it comes to me?  I love going to a nice restaurant or just getting out someplace other then here once in awhile.  Probably because I cook...all....the....time...at home here so it's a huge exciting thing in my life when someone else cooks for me.  So I decided to go with something that my family probably doesn't even know I really like but I could eat all the time.....

Fish and Chips.  Really good crispy well made fish and chips.  What's amazing is I'm not a big seafood lover.  I like crab, don't mind lobster, but that's about it.  But when it comes to fish and chips?  I love them and can't get enough of them.  I know I probably don't eat them like most humans do because there's none of that tartar crap sauce for me.  Nope.  Give me lots of lemon to squeeze over my chips, lots of vinegar to put over both fish and chips, some ketchup to dip my vinegar laden chips in and...well....it's just a little bit of heaven right there on earth.

Fun Monday #28

This was a tough assignment for someone like me who loves music more than most people probably should.  Now I hardly doubt this is the song most people think of when they think of me, but 'I' love it.......

"What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong.  I'll be curious to see how many people pick this song because I have no doubt it has touched many lives over the years and mine is no different.  To the point that every time I hear it?  I weep a little bit.  I know.  What a goob.

Not tears of sadness though but tears of utter content.  Whatever.  It's hard to explain.  But no matter what I've gone through in my life, no matter how many unkind words are thrown my way, and no matter how hopeless I have felt at times, there's just something in me that constantly believes it truly is A Wonderful World.  Which makes me a really weird person I know, but I just can't help it.

Lyrics to It's A Wonderful World:

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself:
"What a wonderful world"

I see skies of blue and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to my self:
"What a wonderful world"

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands saying "How do you do?"
They really say: "I love you"

I hear babies crying, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll ever know
And I think to myself:
"What a wonderful world"
Ya, I think to myself:
"What a wonderful world"

Thanks to Ooh, a shiny pen for this weeks assignment!  Next week?  SayreSmiles is hosting.

Fun Monday #27

  Tiggerlane, the Neophyte Blogger is hosting this weeks Fun Monday and here is her assignment for us....

Have you heard of The Bucket List?  Well, that's what I want from you! Make a list of things you want to do before you die. It must be at least five items - and you can make it as long as you desire. Photos are optional. And let's hear about some of the wackiest, most bizarre to-do's on your Bucket List!

This was hard!!  I thought about this assignment a lot.  Too much in fact.  I kept drifting to serious things for my bucket list.  You know, things like working on my marriage, being a better mom, making tons of friends, etc., etc., etc.  But thinking about it, really thinking about it, well, the marriage is what it is and it certainly takes more then just one person to make a marriage work.  My children?  I have a fantastic relationship with my children and one I'm proud of.  As for friends?  I'm a loner and a hermit by nature which means to someone like me?  If I have friends in my life then I have friends in my life, and if I don't?  Then I'm ok with that too.  All things I thought of and all things that are pretty darn good in my life.  But it doesn't focus just on me.  Which is what the Bucket List is all about...I think.  Coming to terms with who 'you' are.  Everyone who knows me knows I'm a wife and a mother first.  Those two things always come first.  But I'll bet you a gazillion dollars there's not a person in my life who knows who 'Joy' is.

So then I stopped thinking so much, stopped being all serious and got down to what the Bucket List is all about.  Taken from the Bucket List..."a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do before they "kick the bucket" and an unrealized need to come to terms with who they are."  Very cool.  And so who am I?  Well here's just a few of the things in my Bucket List to give you an idea.....

1. I want to travel.  Circumstances are that I will most likely have to travel alone and where I used to fear it would stop me.....I've decided it's not going to.  I've decided I'm going to be ok with travelling alone.  No way do I want to die without seeing at least some of this world.  Walking on that Great Wall of China, the mystical Egypt, going on an African Safari, the list is endless.  So much so that if I didn't travel?  And I died today?  It would truly be my biggest regret in life. 
2. For years now I have wanted to go dog sledding.  And when Gregg and the kids read this they will be rolling their eyes that I still want to do it.  Years.  I used to be quite obsessive about saying I wanted to go dog sledding too, but people got annoyed and thought it was stupid and I eventually just dropped the idea of going.  But today, on my bucket list?  It isn't stupid and I don't give a hill of beans who thinks it is.  I still want to go dog sledding before I die.
3. I want to see polar bears.  Again, for years now I have wanted to travel to Churchill, Manitoba and see the polar bears.  What's even nicer now is I have a really great camera so I can take some really crumby fuzzy pictures of those polar bears.  But at least I'd have pictures.  Much like the idea of going dog sledding it was a, ahem, stupid idea.  But not to me and before I die I would love to see a polar bear in it's natural habitat.....and before it becomes extinct.
4. I want to go white water rafting.  You know the kind.  Where there are a whole bunch of people in one of those big raft thingys and you have to wear helmets and life jackets and and.....ya.  I want to be scared out of my mind and scream my guts out.  Maybe even pee my pants a little bit because THAT'S how scared I'd be.  This would be a 'face your fear' type of thing because I've always been deathly afraid of the water, not to mention deathly germaphobic about what's in the water.  I was watching tv one day a couple years ago and this episode on white water rafting came on.  I was mesmerized by the fear people expressed but how fun it looked and I said to myself that some day I was going to go white water rafting and face this fear I have.  And I'm going to.
5. I want to see as many WLRA's as I can.  What are WLRA's?  Why that would be World's Largest Roadside Attractions of course.  You know, World's Largest Easter Egg, World's Largest Mushroom, things like that.  I got so frustrated trying to collect them, I eventually stopped.  Let's just say Gregg thinks taking pictures of these things are completely foolish so we never stop if we happen to be near one.  And if I do manage to convince him to stop?  Ugh do I hear about it.  But that's ok because I don't think it's foolish at all, so before I die I want to visit and take pictures of as many WLRA's as I possibly can.
6. It's been just about 7 years since my sister passed away and I still don't know if her ashes were spread or where they were put.  So before I die I would like to know.  Because if they were put somewhere I would like to go there and bring her flowers.  Because she deserves having a place where people can go and visit her....and because she loved flowers so much.

There you have it.  Ok that last one was a bit serious, but give me one will you.  Just six for the Fun Monday bucket list.  I have to say, once I got started I actually have a few more I added to my own private bucket list.

As hard as this Fun Monday started out to be, it ended up being a really fun assignment and I now have my own bucket list locked up away somewhere.  It sure made me think...in a non-serious good sort of way of course.

Fun Monday #26

Angela over at The Lurchers is the host for this Fun Monday.  Her assignment is.....

So continuing in the spirit of "being interested in people", I would like to know, or see, what's on, in or under your bedside table! So open those draws and bare your soul to us! Is there anything special there that has a story or a memory that you can tell us about? Books that you keep there to delve into from time to time? Trinkets that you don't know where else to put? Let's see!

I'm sorry but I couldn't help laughing at this assignment.  And only because I happen to have some friends who keep some pretty interesting things in their bedside table.  But maybe I just hang with pervs.  I'm sure none of the fine upstanding participants of Fun Monday would have those kinds of things in their nightstands.  Nightstands.  I've never heard it called a bedside table before but either way, it's a good thing none of my pervy friends blog or there might be a few blushing Fun Mondayers.

And after that we now move on to my nightstand below.  We have two nightstands, one for each side of the bed which I think is pretty standard in most homes.  With Gregg hardly ever home I get both nightstands to myself which isn't anything special because I barely have enough things to fill one nightstand little own two.  On this nightstand I have the phone/alarm clock and the remote control for the tv.  And you can't see them because they're specially made to fit my ears and made out of silicone so they're hard to see, but there are ear plugs beside the remote control.  Why are there ear plugs?  Because if the dog is downstairs and completely on the opposite side of the house....and farts?  I hear him and wake up wondering what the hell all the noise is about.  Let's just say I'm an insanely light sleeper.

99% of the furniture in our home has either been handed down or is used furniture.  The bedroom furniture were from friends of ours who were moving into their big new million dollar home and didn't want their old furniture.  The great thing about millionaires is when they want to get rid of things they sell it real cheap.  And since we are not millionaires we like to buy real cheap so it was a perfect deal.  The lamps I found and fell in love with at an antique shop and each lamp weighs about a hundred pounds.  Ok not really but those suckers are heavy.  This room needs some 'major' renovations done to it so that's why the walls are such a boring color and there are no pictures.

The picture below is inside the top drawer of this nightstand and it holds dust along with photography magazines and a sewing book I thought I had lost.  Note to self....get on with buying new sewing machine already so you can use those cool new sewing books you bought ages ago.

Next picture is the second drawer to the nightstand and it holds dust and Part One and Two of Season Six of the Sopranos.  I like to go to bed with Tony.  Wait a minute.  I like to go to bed with Tony by my side.  Wait that's still not right.  Oh never mind.  I also see the coil bound Christmas Card List book I thought I threw out and then there are two CD's...one U2 and one Barenaked Ladies.  Underneath everything is an extension cord and there should be a heating pad in there but bloody hell if I don't see someone took it out.

So there you have it.  Completely dull and boring just like me.

Fun Monday #25

Today is a special Fun Monday because it's the one year anniversary of when Fun Monday started.  I thought I came in near the beginning of Fun Monday but if it's been a year there's no way I could have because this is only my 25th week.  Ah well.  What is even grander is Vicki from Catching Light, who was the very first host of Fun Monday is again hosting it one year later.  Today's assignment is just like it was one year ago.  Vicki would like to see the view from our front door.  And because I had an incredibly productive weekend and didn't get to the computer until now, I had to wait until it was light enough this morning to go take some incredibly bad pictures so I could actually participate.  My bad.  I would also like everyone to know the temperature out here this morning was -23 C and when I wiped my nose at one point....it fell off.  Ok no it didn't but it sure felt like it was going to.  Brrr!

Taken on my front step.  You can see our impossibly nosey neighbour's home across the road.  That's right.  The neighbour guy who owns a set of binoculars and isn't afraid to use them.  Ew.  You can also see the little white fence Gregg made me for Mother's Day one year and also the white pots that should have been put away before the snow fell.

The above picture was taken when I walk off my front step and walk to my left.  It's beside the house.  You can see where the teenage boy DIDN'T shovel the sidewalk yet and you will also see the lower deck where Gregg hasn't quite gotten around to putting up the railing yet.  The picture is quite deceiving because if you fall off the back of that deck?  It's a helluva drop to the ground below.

Come walk with me down to the end of the driveway to go get the paper.

It's just a mailbox right?  Well Gregg will be thrilled I put this in here because I swear the man is as proud of this mailbox as he is his own children.  14 years ago when we moved to this home I called to have the City paper delivered.  Along with the paper, the Edmonton Journal will give you a blue mailbox to put up so you have somewhere to put the paper.  No way was Gregg going to have an ugly blue mailbox at the end of his driveway, so the next thing I knew there were pieces of stainless steel brought home from god knows where.  Don't ask don't tell is the policy in the T home sometimes.  When Gregg was done making this mailbox and it went up?  Well lordy was it the talk of the neighbourhood.  Amongst the men anyway.  I could care less.  I just thought it looked pretty.  The guys in the neighbourhood would stop, get out of their vehicles and stand there and gaze longingly at it.  Men are so weird.

This picture is pretty much useless but I didn't want to show the entire house because...well I'm not quite sure why not but I took this picture to show we live up on a hill.  And to show that bare hill that used to be filled with poplars which meant you couldn't see our house from the road.  Remind me one time to tell you how all those trees got bulldozed down one day and now our house sticks out like a sore thumb and Joy cried for months after.....and wanted to choke a certain bulldoze driver.

Fun Monday #24

Today's Fun Monday is being hosted by Ann over at For The Long Run.  Her assignment is......

I want to hear about a web site and not just about any old web site. I want to hear about a web site that's changed your life. A web site that you can't live without. A web site whose inventor you'd like to see win a McArthur Genius Grant.  Maybe you want to sing the praises of a dating web site for helping you meet your spouse. Maybe the only thing getting you through the dark days of winter is an Internet comic. No story is too big, no story is too small - I want to hear it all on Monday.

I wasn't going to sign up for this Fun Monday because I couldn't think of a website that had ever changed my life.  It wasn't until about 3:30am one night when I woke from a deep sleep, sat straight up in bed and said "ChemoAngels" that I decided to sign up.

ChemoAngels has been a huge part of my life for the past 6 1/2 years.  ChemoAngels is an organization who supports people with cancer.  If you are a cancer patient you can sign up for an Angel and if you are someone who would like to help other people going through cancer, you sign up to become an 'Angel'.  There are different Angels in the organization.  Card Angels, Special Assignment Angels, Senior Angels and then there is an Angel like I was.  A Chemo Angel.  An Angel who sends a letter and a small gift once a week until the patient is done treatment.  This can be a month, two months, or even a year.  It is a huge commitment that brings the greatest of pleasures.....to the Angel.  Of course it brings a ray of light to the patients as well, but speaking as an Angel it's the greatest feeling in the world to bring a smile to someone you don't even know.  The patient can write back to their Angel if they want to but quite often they don't.  These patients are going through chemo, radiation, surgery, etc., and are never expected to write back to their Angel.  We are there strictly to bring them a smile and a ray of sunshine and to let them know we are thinking of them as they go through their treatment.  We are only allowed to write about uplifting things, never sad.  This is not a penpal type thing and you are made aware of this when you sign up.

My story is a bit different on how I became an Angel.  Normally people get involved with ChemoAngels because they have either gone through cancer themselves or they have known someone in their life with cancer.  I have never had cancer and to this day I have never known anyone in my personal life who has had cancer.  Which is amazing now that I think about it.  My story is different in that on one of my many sleepless nights while my sister was in the hospital, I came across ChemoAngels while surfing the internet.  I was looking for a miracle cure for the disease my sister was dying from.  When I came across ChemoAngels I was intrigued by the organization, loved what they did, but simply wrote their name down on a small ripped piece of paper and tucked it away in my desk.  I understood the commitment it would take to become an Angel and with every waking hour focused on my sister, I knew it wasn't the time.  Then things went from bad to worse with my sister and I forgot all about ChemoAngels.  Then my sister died.

About a month after her death, well I won't get into how I was dealing with her death.  On the outside and when people were around?  I was a pillar of strength.  And because I'm one of those people who didn't shed a tear...in front of anyone...I could tell Gregg was some worried about me.  I think he thought as close as I was to my sister I'd have a serious breakdown after she died.  And to be honest there were days I thought I would too.  But I didn't.  I spent my days doing what I do best and that was dealing with my unbearable grief alone and in my own way.

One particular day I decided I was going to clean my desk.  I hadn't cleaned it in awhile and decided to just take the large stack of papers on there and throw them out.  After all, I hadn't looked at them in months so obviously there was nothing in there of importance.  As I was putting the stack of papers into the green garbage bag, a little ripped piece of paper came out of the stack and fluttered to the ground.  I picked it up and threw it towards the green bag.  It missed and fluttered to the ground again.  Mad, I grabbed the little piece of paper and when I went to throw it in the bag again, I happened to catch what I wrote all those months ago.  "ChemoAngels" and underneath that "don't throw this out Joy, look into it more.  IT WILL DO YOU GOOD!"  So I did.  And it changed my life.

I put my grief aside and wanted to focus on being an Angel and within the month received my first patient.  I Angeled different patients for just over 5 years before leaving the organization.  In those 5 years though, a ChemoAngel Canadian group was formed and to this day past and present 'Canadian' Chemo Angels are still friends through this group.  As a matter of fact, we will finally be having our first Canadian Angel Gathering in PEI in June of this year.  I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about this.

ChemoAngels came at a time in my life when I have never felt more lonely, isolated and scared.  My patients gave me a reason to get up in the morning and they gave me a reason to focus and write about the happy, uplifting and funny things that were going on in my life at the time.  Without ChemoAngels, I could have surely only focused on the sad.  Never the sad though when it comes to ChemoAngels, never the lonely, only focus on the good and the happy and share those moments with those who are going through the hardest fight of their lives.  What I was going through?  Seemed like nothing in comparison to what the patients were going through.

The patients/buddies I have heard from over the years are always so grateful for the letters and items I send to them.  They have no way of knowing how grateful I am to them for giving me a reason to always focus on the good and the happy in my life.

Fun Monday #23

   

Fun Monday is being hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Chaos this week.  Here is Lisa's assignment....

Let’s meet your pets.  I think most of us have at least one pet and I would like to see your fluffy or scaly pal.  If you don’t have a camera you can tell us about him/her/them. If you don’t have a pet tell us about a pet you had or a pet you want. If for some weird reason you hate all animals we want to know why gosh-dang-it.

SUCH an easy assignment.  Ok not really.  Ok really.  Let's just say I have four million pictures of my pet Mushu and as easy as it is to take pictures....it's not always easy picking the ones you like.  So I did what any really amateurish photographer would do.  I took more.

For those who have never stopped by my blog before, let me introduce you to my dog Mushu.  He is an eight year old Bichon Frise.  He falls under the sign of Sagittarius as his birthday is December 12th and....too much?

The below pictures are from yesterday afternoon.  As you can see, he likes to keep his nose in the sunbeam as much as possible on a sunny day.  Actually he will do this a lot if I am below in the front room reading.  I will often get the sensation of 'someone watching me' and sure enough I know I will look up and see Mushu peeking through the bannister watching me.

 

The minute he spots me looking up at him, his ears will perk up and he'll wait for the words he dreams about in his sleep.  "Hi pup.  You want to come and sit with me while I read?"  To which he comes bounding down the stairs and jumps on his favorite big pillow.  The pillow he knows he's not supposed to sit on....but he does anyway.

Then his human mom goes all nutty and starts taking his picture.  Which he loves.  For the first 10 minutes.  Then he ends up turning away and refuses to look at me again.  Oh he stills looks at me to see what I'm up to, but as you can see he refuses to LOOK at me.

Until I say "Ok ok I get it.  You want to come and cuddle instead?"  And that?  Makes Mushu putty in my hands every single time.

Fun Monday #22

Sorry everyone but somehow word verification has been enabled on my blog and even though my settings are set so it shouldn't be....it is!  Frustrating to say the least on a day when so many people are visiting.  I'm hoping to get Typepad to turn it back off but patience is a virtue with them.

Kaytabug is hosting her first Fun Monday and I would like to find her and squeeze her oh so tight for the easy assignment.  Because after the fantastic and great weekend I had....I am also feeling my age and I'm plum worn out.  Here is her assignment.....

In the spirit of the season I would like to see your favorite Christmas tree ornament. Not to be confused with the WHOLE tree. I want you to zoom in and show me one or a few(you know I can't choose just one!) of your favorite ornaments. If you don't decorate a tree, show me your menorah or dreidel, Kinara, or Yule Log. I want to see your favorite decoration for this holiday season.

I don't fill our Christmas tree with anything 'special'.  Over the years it's just been whatever bulb type ornaments I had in the boxes downstairs.  A real mish mash and it was great.  Last year however, we talked and agreed it was time for new ornaments for the tree.  Half the ornaments were broke or cracking and it was just time after 20 years.  So I decided to go with a color theme.  My youngest daughter Samantha and I decorated it and we had so many compliments on the darn tree that year.  I'm serious when I say we didn't want to take it down.

I've shown the above ornament on here before...for a Fun Monday I believe?  I dug out the above photo of my favorite ornament the kids and I made in 2003.  Every year it was tradition for the kids and I to make a new ornament.  I have to say making the above ornament was the best year ever.  Lots of great memories watching the popcorn pop and filling the ornaments, then painting.  We had to try a few before we got it down to a science on the timing of those kernels even after the microwave has stopped.  Too few kernels and the glass ornament doesn't look right and too many kernels makes the glass ornament go 'kaboom'.  Well ok, no kaboom, but it will break the glass if there is too much popcorn.

The secret is adding a few more kernels but stopping the microwave when the ornament starts getting close to being full.  There are always some kernels that continue to pop after the heat source is turned off.  It's always best to have too many kernels because the unpopped kernels you can just shake out.  Not enough kernels and you are poop out of luck because we tried adding more kernels after and reheating the ornament but it was a huge mess.  The popcorn in the ornament would burn by the time the new kernels were popping.  Always go for more kernels.

Also?  The glass ornaments?  Get very hot so wear oven mitts.  This I learned the hard way.  Really handle the ornament with care because even if you put it down too hard when it's hot, the ornament will crack.  This I also learned the hard way.