A Little Bit About Me

I guess if you're reading this blog, you'd like to know a little bit about me. My name is Carla and I live in Missouri, in the Ozarks. I live at a lake, but in a very small town. It's one of those places you go on vacation and think "I can't believe people actually live here year-round!"

I live near the campground and several of my neighbors are "weekenders," meaning they own property here at the lake, but live somewhere else and only come here on the weekends and holidays; usually with a bunch of their redneck friends who camp out in the neighbor's front yard, which just happens to be right across the street from me. Nice view from my kitchen table and living room. I'm sure I'll talk more about them later and maybe even post some pictures.

I am divorced (twice), but I have a boyfriend and he lives next-door. (He gave me flowers on Valentine's Day!) I have two big kids from my first marriage, a 23-year-old son and a 20-year-old daughter. My daughter has two children, my grandson and granddaughter. I also have two little guys from my second marriage, one is 9, the other will be 8 next month. The two little guys are the only one's that live with me, but they spend most weekends at their dad's house. I'm sure I'll talk about him later. Maybe not.

I live on one acre of land, in a double-wide mobile home. It's not as bad as it sounds, really. I used to be a snob and never dreamed that I'd be TPT (trailer park trash), but being poor makes you change a lot of things. Besides, I don't live in a trailer park and my house looks like a real house, with shingles and wood siding and all. It's not metal and I don't have a couch or a refrigerator outside. I do have a big silver, shiny quonset hut next to my house. I'll talk more about that later, but it's my storm shelter (for now).

The boys and I live on a very tight budget, so we do things like heat my house with wood instead of propane, which saves me about $100/month. We also eat at home every day, since the nearest McDonald's and other fast food is 25 miles away!

Our town is very small. I'm guessing we have about 300 people that live here year-round. The entire lake has quite a few more than that, but that includes several small towns, of which mine is probably one of the smallest. We have a post office, one convenience store, a boat dealer, two small beauty shops (one beautician at each place), a dog groomer and a junk store/flea market. We have to drive 10-12 miles to get to a grocery store.

Now that I've bored you to death with some of my details, I hope you look forward to reading more of my blog in the future. I'll be talking about life at the lake and as a single mom. Oh, and what it's like to live in a town like Mayberry.