Day book

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...It’s still raining.  Something was banging against the house which is why I’m up so early.  Probably a good thing as the clouds have eaten the sun.

I am thinking... Well I woke up thinking about costumes and as I write this I’m still thinking about them.

I am thankful... That we live so high up that flooding won’t be an issue for us but worried about others affected by it.

In the kitchen...  There’s a crockpot of tomato sauce waiting for me to attempt to can it.

I am wearing... pajamas

I am creating... ideas and lists

I am going... to rehearsal later to fit the kids into costumes

I am wondering... when I’ll get the emailed list I was promised last night for more characters in the show

I am reading... I just finished Prairie Rose…might have to look for Prairie Fire

I am hoping... to take pictures of the kids in costumes so the director can approve of them sooner than Oct 19

I am looking forward to... what God has in store with all this rain

I am learning… I’m sure there’s something.  Brain not fully engaged yet.

Around the house...something smells bad

I am pondering... hopefully the smell is an easy fix

A favorite quote for today... it’s too early for quotes

One of my favorite things... this bathrobe.  Oh and coffee

A few plans for the rest of the week:  costumes, more costumes, the observatory (probably a rainy night tour) and then more costumes.

A peek into my day... Once I get done with my morning chores, I’ll start canning that tomato sauce and then head to the basement to work on the costumes.

diet update: down 15 lbs since the beginning of my saga.  I still think 5 more might be good, although they're tougher to move now.  I'm adding carbs back in small amounts, but tacos with rice can't be resisted.  the rice was thai black rice which really does NOT go with tacos, but it tastes good.

Let sleeping dogs lie

recently 2 different people I know posted online requests looking for homes for very hard to place animals. 

 In both cases the animals in question are rescued feral animals.  In both cases the animals are going to need some extensive foster care in order for them to even attempt to be pets.  In both cases the rescuer can not take on keeping the animals themselves.  And while I love animals, I question why.

I do know in both situations that the lives of the animals were at the least going to be considerably shortened since the animals had to fend for themselves (something they were used to doing)...and at the most the animals could loose their lives rather quickly due to humans.  In both cases the animals were being abused and in cultures where animals as pets isn't the same as what we are used to here.

I know that had I been in the same situation I would have been equally heartbroken about how these poor animals were living.  However, I would like to think that I would be more realistic about the chances for these animals.

Yet, the animals were brought here.  Where there are an over abundance of animals for adoption who have way fewer issues.  Animals who are used to humans, are housebroken and who need good homes as well.

I guess the best I can hope for in both cases is that the animals go to good patient foster care.  sigh

Perhaps I feel this way because in the past I did rescue wild rabbits.  They were never completely tame.  Left in the wild these rabbits would have died quickly (silly momma rabbit had her babies in my dog's back yard!)  In my care the rabbits lived a long time for wild rabbits, but alas they considered us stoopid humans nothing more than care takers. 

And that perhaps is what I should take away from this... we are merely stoopid humans.

A Tail of two cats named Buddy

yeah, I know that's for the animal tail, not a tale.

The house behind mine is a rental.  Folks usually live there for at least a year, so we kind of get to know them over the fence.  A few months ago we noticed a new cat roaming our neighborhood.  She is a very pretty calico, very smart but pretty timid.  I assumed that she belonged to my next door neighbor as she hangs out there...but there is more to her story.
See Buddy (as she is known now because my neighbor didn't know that calicos are all female) used to live in the rental house behind us.  But when the renters moved out they left her and a bunch of their stuff behind for a month.  Leaving poor Buddy to fend for herself.  When they finally returned to get their things my neighbor asked if she belonged to them.  They "graciously" said that my neighbor could keep her.  My neighbor told them that he wouldn't give her back to someone who would abandon a pet.  She's a happy girl now and waits on the front porch to greet my neighbors when they come home.  She likes to hunt so we don't have any rabbits in our flowers this summer.  That's okay.

The second Buddy I just met today.  He is a very friendly boy.  And like Buddy the girl, he too was left behind.  Buddy is the resident cat at the new groomer that I took Lilly to today.  He doesn't quite get it that he is a cat, so he gets along with the dogs just fine.  Even Lilly who normally chases cats got along well with him (she ignored him!)  Buddy's story is that his former owners asked the groomer to cat sit for them while they were gone.  It was supposed to be just a month.  Buddy has been at the groomer's for 4 years now...and it is his home.

For every Buddy who has found a new forever home out there, there are too many others who aren't so lucky.  Pets give unconditional love to anyone who treats them well.  Don't abandon your Buddy!

thoughts and ponderings on losing weight

After quite a long time of being a sloth and mindlessly eating and being up to the most weight I had ever weighed in my lifetime (including being pregnant)... I decided to make a change in my lifestyle.

When hubby and Darly were away for nearly 2 weeks each, I did some "radical" changes to my diet.

I cut out carbs as much as I could.  I had noticed that I am very addicted to carbs.  I could sit and eat half a box of crackers without giving it a second thought.  That was bad!

So I did things like no bread, no pasta, no rice, no potatoes.  :'(  Instead of pasta, I would have zucchini.  Instead of rice or potatoes, I would have cauliflower.  and instead of bread...well I just wouldn't have any bread.  I haven't really figured out how to do a sub for bread yet.

I also added a supplement to my diet.  I really have no idea if the supplement is working or not.  Online articles claim it doesn't work at all.  What I noticed is that when I take it, the scale moves.  When I don't, the scale doesn't move.  So for now, I'll take it.  It doesn't cost too much, isn't harmful and doesn't taste bad.  Raspberry Ketones in case you're wondering.

For lunch I have a really big salad.  It is full of veggies and instead of bottled dressing, I pour the vinegar from my banana peppers on it.  Sometimes I have some cottage cheese with it too.  It fills me up nicely and I don't really get any cravings for anything else.

For dinner I have what the rest of the family is having...only instead of their starch, I have more veggies.

Sorry start of rant here!

I don't know why exactly, but this seems to bother hubby... A LOT!  This man has some really weird and conflicting views on weight.  For him, he can eat pretty much whatever he wants and not gain an ounce and he thinks that if everyone would just eat normal portions they would have the same results.  He doesn't understand that hormones make weight fluxuate.  (he also doesn't seem to get that women are built differently and have different requirements for other things either!...but that's another rant!)  I know that some of hubby's issues stem from his parents who didn't get it either.  At one point he'll say that you should eat small portions but on the other hand he'll say you should clean your plate and it isn't right to throw out food!  I can't tell you how frustrating it can be.

We had a servant auction at our Church and one of the items for bid was lessons on how to make cinnamon rolls.  I already know how to make cinnamon rolls, but I don't because trying to get bread to rise in my kitchen is a royal pain and I'm not a fan of baking anyway.  Hubby LOVES cinnamon rolls!  So he bid and won the lessons.  He took the class and came home with not just the two 9X13 inch pans of rolls, but also some left-over chocolate cake that the gal wanted to get rid of.  Hubby expects Darly & me to help him eat all these rolls and is bothered that these rolls are not part of my diet.  grumble!

Okay rant over if you wanted to skip it!

So after a month, I've lost 10 pounds.  I'm feeling great and except for a few times when I would CRAVE potatoes, I'm doing really well.  I did "cheat" back when we had chili and tortilla soup, but I only had a tiny bit of carbs with them (corn bread and tortilla chips) and held steady on those days.

I'm really sure how much more weight I would like to lose.  At this weight, I am where I was back when I was working out regularly and wanting to lose 11 pounds.  But I'm not so sure I still want to lose 11 pounds now.  There's a lot that factors into that though.  One being that finding clothes that fit me at the smaller weight is really hard.  I can just alter my clothes though, but it seems a pain to pay for something that I know I'll have to fix.  Another is some areas tend to be really floppy without the extra weight.  So for now, I'm just going to try for another 5 and see how that looks on me.  If that helps the body areas that I don't like still, I'll stop there.  Course it will be interesting to figure out what it takes to maintain that weight also.

hummm  

Mid-Summer's garden report.

I've been waiting to post my garden report in a fit of superstition.  It seems that every time I post a garden report we get hit with hail and all my lovely almost veggies get beat up and I have to go and buy my produce for the year.  :'(

Well this year my garden has been extremely slow going thanks to the very late start we got from the late freezes and then all the rain we were getting.  Perhaps I'm just not allowed to have a garden?  I don't know.

Here's the old location of my garden. 

old garden with volunteer plants.

I picked this location when we first bought the house as it was a nice sunny place that got everything my plants need.  As you can see, some plants still do well here.  But as you can also see, it doesn't get the sun it used to.  Thanks to these...

Apple tree, came with house.

Pine tree was 4 ft 10 years ago!

But even with all the shade, some of my plants continue to thrive in the old location.

Looks like I get spinach for lunch today! :D

These are all volunteer plants (seeds from previous years).  Sorry about the weeds, I've been neglecting it for a while.

Of course over the years the trees grew and started shading the garden space. So I had to move the garden. I still haven't done anything that is permanent yet as I'm trying to figure out where the plants like to live the best. So I picked this location due to it being good for plants and I wanted to prevent Lilly from jumping off the retaining wall and hurting her leg anymore.

peppers with tomatoes in the back.

Zucchini appears to be all male flowers.

Hey!  I finally have two green beans!

the green bean planter, zucchini in the back there.

Lettuce is coming in.  Herbs in the green planter.

cherry tomatoes.

We also suffered quite a setback with my tomatoes.  I bought these planter boxes not really realizing that they were a grow system.  I just wanted the boxes because they were portable and they have this water reservoir in the bottom.  I didn't realize that they came with fertilizer also.  Which is great, the plants exploded!

Unfortunately due to the fertilizer ratios, while I got huge plants loaded with fruit...I also ended up with this...

This is blossom end rot.  :'(  It causes the fruit to ripen early, but be totally unusable and rotten inside.  So I've had to go pick as much as I can find and then go back to the garden center and get some Lime to add to the plants to give them enough calcium to grow. 
The good news is that some of the later tomatoes show no signs of rot and hopefully we'll get some more flowers before our season is over. 
I'm also hoping that I can (with help) move the pots to my back porch when the temperatures start dropping and extend my growing season.  I might even fashion some "green houses" over the pots if I can keep them healthy enough to continue to produce.

Fingers crossed!

A great way to drive hubby nuts!

So I've been drooling over this set of furniture from Oakwood Interiors forever.  I probably even mentioned it here before.  So I had pretty much given up on ever getting this bedroom set because the company went out of business.

However, when I was at a friend's house she mentioned that I look on Craigslist.  So since then I've been doing that...and guess what?  I found the set.

But of course that set sold.  bummer

Then I found the set again...and it sold.  bummer!

Now I've found the set a 3rd time.  Only one small problem...they have the sleigh bed instead of the panel bed that I wanted.

But all is not lost...yet.

I figure I can get this set, put the sleigh bed in our guest room and then order the panel bed that bought out all of Oakwood Interior's inventory.

Oh and since this set doesn't have the armoire, I thought we should get a flat screen tv and put a two way mirror over the tv.  Then it looks like a mirror most of the time but when hubby wants to watch the ball game, it's a tv!

Genius!

UPDATE:  The listing for the furniture is no longer there.  I hope it means they pulled to repost this weekend, but I fear that someone else snagged that great deal.  sigh!  

UPDATE #2 - Hubby strikes back!:  He says "Why didn't you go get it?"  grumble, grumble, grumble...it's a very good thing he isn't in town right now.  But I just thought... I could turn this into a green light to get the next set that comes along.  w00t!

all of it with some TMI thrown in for fun

So Darly is off to Girl Scout camp this week.  She was a bit nervous to go... in fact she was saying that she did not want to go right up to when we left for camp.  I think she was a bit worried about me being here without her and she likes to fret about the unknown as well.  I teased her that she was sounding like someone else we know (no, not me!) that gets really annoying when she doesn't know what is going to go on.  (NO SERIOUSLY!  I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT ME!!!)

I just threw that in to be funny.  Yes I do tend to get a bit annoying when I don't know what's coming up, but this other person is like me on crack or something.

We drove through some rain to get to camp (and I had to drive back through the rain to get home again).  Let me tell you that there isn't anything more fun than flying down a mountain road that curves back and forth with the road covered in water and cars all on the one side and a drop off on the other.  Fun times!  And the really sad part is that even though you try to take it slowly, the other cars get annoyed and think you're being a sissy.  Well to that I have to say that I wasn't the one pulled over by the cops!  I learned that they have gotten MUCH better at disguising unmarked cars now.  I was totally shocked when that black suv suddenly turned into a "christmas tree" with lights flashing and all.

So since I won't be catering to miss picky eater this week, I've decided to try out some new ideas on the culinary front.  Last night was my first foray into this adventure.  I tried out making "pasta" out of zucchini.  I pulled out my mandolin slicer and the julienne attachment and sliced the zucchini lengthwise to get long strips.  That was fun as after about half-way the zucchini didn't want cut evenly anymore.  I had to keep adjusting the finger guard to keep the pressure even on the veggie.  Otherwise I had "noodles" that were thick on one end and super thin on the other.  I cooked the zucchini in the microwave with my favorite seasonings and then grilled some shrimp with lemon juice & garlic salt.  It turned out really yummy although it took me a while to get over the fact that there were only two things on my plate.  So used to having that starch there also.  I think that tonight though (I usually do plan overs) I'll chop up the shrimp because it was difficult to have both zucchini and shrimp on the fork with whole shrimps.

Or maybe I'll make one of the other dishes.  I will also be trying out making cauliflower "rice."  In fact that's probably a good idea to make that this evening.  I was going to make chicken & "rice" for this meal.  I already have some chicken stock in the frig that I need to use up.  So that will be good.  I can throw some mushrooms into that also.  yum

In case you haven't noticed, I'm also trying to drop some pounds.  I know that part of my weight gain is my being a sloth.  But I also think that it could be my age and fluctuations in my hormones.  I can't be sure but I believe that I've finally experienced some hot flashes... I can't be sure because they haven't really bothered me like other women have reported.  I suppose that I could go see my doctor and have my hormones checked, but I REALLY want to do this w/o pharmaceutical hormones...and I have yet to find a doctor who agrees with me.  Who can blame them really when they get kick backs from the drug companies...right?  I'm betting that finding a doctor who not only would agree with me on not taking anything AND actually knows how this process is supposed to go naturally would be a small miracle.  So for now I'm holding out.  sorry, I am so disenchanted with doctors that I have to be pretty much dying before I go in.   I get enough out of them when Darly has to go in for her physical to go to camp.  I think I posted about how our doc who is supposed to be more holistic tried to push us into getting a vaccine that I am totally against.

Another thing on my agenda for while Darly is at camp is spending more time at the gym and also cleaning out my frig & freezer.  I guess that means I should really get off this computer though.  LOL!

I'm a Girl Scout Leader again

So when Darly & I went up to Tomahawk Ranch June 1st we met up with some very friendly scouts who live pretty close to us and have a very small troop of girls (just 3 scouts) a bit older than Darly.  Darly loves scouting and was missing it since we disbanded the troop I used to lead.

I asked "Tink" the troop leader about Darly joining them and after several chats we decided to go ahead.

Well when Tink called up the GS office she learned that her co-leader wanted to take over their old troop (kick Tink and her daughter out) but still keep the troop going. 

To have a troop you need at least 3 registered scouts and 2 registered leaders. So to start a new troop for Tink's daughter "Boo Bear" we needed another leader and hey guess who is a former leader? ah Renee! no one asked me!  They needed a leader, and just signed me up... I found out from GS, not from Tink.

I got the first email, letting me know that our new troop had been set up with the Leaders being Tink & myself.  Second email said "welcome back!"  

Actually Tink and I have been in communication a lot about this, but it is all after I get an email from GS. They aren't sending Tink the emails which is ODD because Tink paid my membership. :-/   Tink still doesn't even know how much they are charging her for the memberships...but I'll pay her back as soon as we find out how much...in fact I may just pay her the old rate and then the difference when we find out for sure if they charged the old or new rate.

It is sad funny what a mess GS is in due to lack of funds. They just laid off another 17 people from the office and no one there knows what is going on.

Darly will be heading to GS camp in about a week.  Boo Bear is working at the camp this summer.  Hopefully if things work out Boo Bear will be up there as well (it is kinda iffy because Boo can only work the first week of this two week camp.  Normally they want the counselors to work the entire camp, but we're hoping they make an exception.)  

In other news... We found out yesterday what theater classes we have to choose from and we found out two weeks ago what shows will be put on in the fall.  We're still waiting to hear who will direct the shows before we choose our show.  I might not be doing costumes...we'll see.

How did they know?

That this is exactly what I need...

AMC> is On-The-Go

Whether you’re sitting on the couch, pumping iron at the gym, or daydreaming at work, you can plan your next trip to AMC.
Check out the new features!

• Plan potty breaks with RunPee. Click the ‘RunPee’ button on any movie page and find the best times to go, so you don’t miss any crucial plot twists or action sequences. We’ll let you know what you missed, and if there’s anything after the credits.

When we went to go see Les Mis I was happy to find that our theater has a bathroom under the risers of each movie theater.  So while I couldn't see the movie while I was in there, I could still hear everything that was going on and I didn't have to trek half way across the theater to get there so I didn't miss out on much.

This new app sounds wonderful though...

Too bad I don't have a smart phone.

updating...

I was about to tell you that I've been up to a whole lot of nuthin but apparently that hasn't been the case.

after Darly's show was over we had to hurry up and get her physical so that she can go to Girl Scout camp this summer.  The doc says she's totally weird, but that shouldn't keep her out of camp.  Sometimes our doc is cool, but I was a bit floored when she recommended that I get the HPV vaccine for Darly because it prevents cancer.  She knows I don't vaccinate and I told her that the HPV vaccine was one of the main reasons I chose not to.  She asked why that was and I told her how the manufacturer fought to have the HPV vaccine mandatory for all girls entering the 6th grade!!!!!!!!!!!  She had forgotten about that.  The reason I was shocked that she was recommending it is that she told my husband to not get the pneumonia vaccine (even though his other doc recommended it) because like the flu vaccine, it is made from last year's strand so it's worthless.  @@

Then I had fun scanning and uploading all the documents onto the GS Camp registration website...only to get NO confirmation that they had all the info.  So I emailed them and yes we're all set, she was supposed to send me a email by last Friday...didn't get it though.  hummm

Next we had to get ready for Darly's very late birthday party.  That was the one with the murder mystery.  Everything went off very well.  Hubby & I were the detectives and interrogated all the suspects.  Then the kids voted on who they thought might have "dun it."  It turned out that we had a tie vote...which meant they did it together.  So I had to figure out HOW.  LOL!
One of the guys had come here from London.  He was a detective there but was unable to bring his gun with him...he said the gun was at home.  The other guy was a mercenary (his character was based on a video game).  So we surmised that Mr London tried to come here to murder our victim, but his gun was confiscated by TSA agents, so he hired Mr Mercenary to finish the job.

The very next day we had another birthday party for a friend of ours to go to.  Her husband had won a Irish step dancing show and gave that to her for a present with the party.

The following weekend Darly, her youth group & I went to Lutheran Valley Retreat to help them with chores to prepare for their summer camping season.  Darly & I helped strip and re-wax a floor (note we NEVER want to see another wax floor in our lives!)  We also helped make dinner and cleaned more floors and bathrooms.  so much fun, so much muscle pain!

We get to do this again here soon for the Girl Scout camp, but I'm sure they won't have us stripping another floor...normally we get tent set up duty.  That should be a walk in the park compared to the mopping bonanza.  lol

Praying for Oklahoma!  Heard from OK Chick, she and her family are good.  Just got a call this am from hubby's employer making sure that we're all okay...including family.  I have a feeling that they'll be going down to help out.

Facebook is censoring

Yesterday my friend posted the following article on her status http://keithhennessey.com/2013/04/24/smarter/

The timeline that she copied it from and hers both had the article deleted.  Apparently Facebook found the article not in keeping with their TOS.  We're still trying to figure out why as there isn't anything we can see that is against the TOS.

So if you're on FB share this like crazy!  Let's drive them nuts!

Costume Closures pros & cons

Okay, I need to figure out how I want to hold these costumes closed for our current play.

Well I can easily rule out buttons as 1) they don't go with the look we want and 2) are a pain to do.

options are:

Velcro:
pros: makes changing go quickly
cons: difficult to put in the costume, hooks tend to grab onto and mess up fabric, noisy, and gives out or comes out over time.

Zipper:
pros: easy to install, lasts a long time
cons: frustrating to young actors and can be expensive.  Also tend to be tricky (grab fabric, etc)

Hook & Eye:
pros: easy to install, lasts a long time
cons: frustrating to young actors and easily ripped out (especially by young actors in a hurry)

Snaps:
pros: lasts a long time, easy for young actors to fasten
cons: time consuming to install

Honestly, I would like to just safety pin these!  But I have to choose one of the options above.

Pieces of Me - Review

My friend Eisley Jacobs had just released her latest book "Pieces of Me".  

This Young Adult SciFi Thriller is very intriguing.  The story is full of adventure, twists and turns that keep you interested ... so much that you might just read the entire book in one day like I did!

Here's a bit of the teaser on the book...
Imagine having amnesia. . . imagine having recurring amnesia. . .  you have no recollection at all of your name, your family, the day before. . . imagine pieces of your life written on sticky notes in various locations ~ sticky notes to guide you through your day. . . because tomorrow you'll forget.

Pieces of Me, Chapter One -- http://eisleyjacobs.com/novels/pieces-of-me-chapter-one/ #YA #Thriller #ScienceFiction #Fantasy "Fast paced thriller with tons of heart!"

My disclaimer:  I did not receive anything in exchange for this review.  I bought the book, read it and gave you my honest review of it.  However, I am trying to win a contest to get an autographed copy of the book because Darly refuses to read my epub version. ;o)  I'm also trying to spread the word so my friend's book gets into more hands.

Dogs don't like to go to the store!

Today I saw again a car with an extra "alarm" of two poor hot dogs waiting while their owner went into the grocery store. 

I would like to take this opportunity to remind folks that your car gets baking like an oven out there in the parking lot...all that heat can cook your poor puppy's brain. 

Your dog is not happy to go shopping with you, they are stressed because they've been left alone in the car and all these strange people keep trying to come and steal your stuff.

Have you ever had to wait in the car while some other person said "I'll be right back"?  No matter how fast they do come back it seems like FOREVER!  This is what it is like for your dog and why they are so happy when you finally do come back.

While the car is in motion your poor dog is trying so hard to not fall over.  An unrestrained animal in the car can become a projectile if you need to stop suddenly or are in a crash.  I saw today a poor husky get his head stuck in the cracked window...if the driver had stopped quickly the dog could have been strangled, had his neck broke or worse.

Sure your dog acts like they love to go for rides in the car, they want to be with you.  Even my Lilly runs for the car and jumps in, but as soon as we get going (with her secured in her crate) she starts whining because she does not like riding in the car.

Unless your dog suffers from separation anxiety they are much happier at home, doing their job of protecting your house from vicious mail carriers.

Birthday Plans

Darly's birthday is next month and she wanted to come up with something "epic" for her party.  Surprisingly she wasn't at all interested in doing any of the go somewhere else type parties.  Being highly sensitive to noise I can see how having her friends at home would be more appealing.

So after googling many versions of Fabulous Birthday Party Ideas we came across ...

Murder Mystery Party!  She liked that right off the bat.

But she also wanted her friends to be able to dress up as any character they wanted to...not just the characters in the mystery.  So we have...

Comic-Con Murder Mystery Party!  and now her friends can be anything...  but how to tie this in to the storyline?

Well we had to write our own story.  Hummm that seems hard.  So we did some more research trying to find a murder mystery kit that would fit in with our theme... um not so much.

And then we found where someone had their guests come up with their own character for the mystery.  Ah HA!

So now the guests will come up with their own character, and name (so for the party they'll be 3 people... who they really are, their costume character, AND their mystery character)  bwahaha!  They will each write a brief bio of themselves with how they know the victim and then an alibi. 

At the party each guest will read or act out their part and then we'll vote on who we think "dun-it"  The person with the most votes is our killer! 

DH asks: "What if there's a tie?"  - they did it together!
"What if it's a 3 way tie?" - they hired a hitman!
"What if it's a 15 way tie?" - we'll have to provide more evidence and vote again.

The invites went out today and the guests are excited...most are involved in theater, so this should be really fun with all the drama!

Due to scheduling the party isn't until May... but I'll try to have pictures.

Flakers

Okay, I really wanted to stop being so negative on my blog, but I guess that just isn't going to happen.

Unfortunately I am exposed to a lot of people who are flakers.  (yeah, my spell check doesn't like that word)

A flaker is someone who says that they will do something and then later either totally forgets about doing the thing they said they were going to do or just before they were supposed to do it, says they now can't (and the reason isn't very good).

I wonder if this is just a homeschooling phenomena or if this happens with other folks too?

It seems that we either get a lot of folks who will sign up for our homeschooling classes and either forget that they've signed up or they schedule to do something else and are no longer available to come.  It gets really frustrating because as homeschoolers we struggle to be seen in the community as legitimate educators for our kids and when we get someone to give of their time it is easier to get them to do that if we have a sizable group, but if we say we are bringing a group of 20 kids + their parents and then the day comes and only 10 kids and parents actually show up it looks bad.  Also frequently you need to have a large group to get the discounted price.

I know that many of my homeschooling friends feel my pain.  I think that I get irritated by this so much because to me flaking is like lying.  Or maybe it seems as if something better came along.

I understand having to cancel if your kid gets sick...trust me, if your kid is sick I want you to stay home because there is nothing I hate worse that someone who shares cold germs.
I understand other emergencies.

What I don't understand is setting up an appointment when you've already said you would do my class.

Google reader

I visit most of my friends' blogs via google reader.  But this week I was notified that reader is going away.  :'(



apparently I was just barely accessing all the power of google reader.  I learned that I could have been using it to do much more than just blogging.  but alas, seeing as they're doing away with it...no point in figuring that out now.

However, never fear, I figured out how to continue to access everyone's blog updates.  blogger let me subscribe to all of my reader feeds.

now to see how long blogger stays around.  I guess if they do away with blogger then I'll have no blog.  That will be a bummer.

Happy? Monday

I see that it has almost been an entire month since my last post.  :p

Since then well we had that dog's 12 week post op appointment.  The update on Lilly is that she is still doing very well although she does limp and hop in the evenings...usually because she decided that it was worth it to "spaz out" a time or two during the day.

Darly started rehearsing for her new play.  She is the Old Widow & a Maiden in Robin Hood.  NO not maid Marian, but one of her back up dancers.  As the Widow she has 3 children who insist on pulling her arms out during their number.  Hopefully that quits soon as Darly needs her arms.  ;o)

I've been busy getting costumes for the show.  Turns out that our show and the other show by the same group are a week apart and both the same time period...so we are "fighting" over costumes.  Robin Hood is first so I "got" first dibs on the costumes.  I need to send the other show pictures of the costumes we are using so that they can use them for their show also.

I had a director's meeting for my homeschool group...it didn't go so well.

Took Lilly to the groomer.  At first I was pretty upset because they were taking so long with her, but then I found out they did that because they were going easy on her leg.  She still looks really good.

We had a blizzard and Church was canceled.

More CYT - costuming the kids

Ice skating with the church youth group.  I fell down after the Zamboni had come through...also my skates were about as dull as they come.  I've decided to shop for our own pairs again...we had some a few years ago, but of course Darly out grew her pair and mine weren't the right size.  Hopefully Darly's feet have stopped growing as these will be hers for life.

Darly took a class on needle felting.  She likes it.  I don't know what to do with the homemade dust bunnies though. ;o)

More CYT costuming!

oh and we had that time change thing.  oye!

Yesterday Darly & I met some of her friends and saw Oz the Great & Powerful or whatever it's called.  It was really very good.

Happy Monday

Oops!  It's Tuesday.  LOL

I got this from my friend over at Woodstone Prairie and decided to take her up on it.

Things that made me happy yesterday... hummm?  Well since yesterday was a federal holiday, dh was home.  Normally having dh home isn't always a good thing.  He tends to get cranky when he sees how we do things when he is here.  But yesterday he had a project to keep him happy...and he was.

I started a new math program with Darly and while she complained a lot about having to do it, she didn't have a hard time with it.  I'm happy that I was able to find a lesson that EXPLAINED why she needed to know this.  She gets so frustrated with math because it is all "Just Do It" and when she asks why the only answer is "because I said so" which of course isn't good enough for her.

But of course as soon as I got up to use the restroom she left and was gone.  However, I managed to get my main goal done.  So we're good...and today she can just double up.  right?

That's about it for being happy yesterday.

Today is still youngish.  But this morning I took Lilly to the vet for her 12 week post-op check up.  This is her final check up on her ACL surgery.  And the vet was very happy with her progress.  she has about 1/4 of an inch of muscle mass to build back up on her leg, but has been progressing very well...so much so that I've had to start being the mean mom again.  Silly dog still thinks that she can fly.

Lilly & Koda

Koda is my friend J's dog.  She's a very sweet Norwegian Elkhound (I had to go look it up for spelling!)  By the way, Lilly and Koda have never met as Lilly is quite freaked out by dogs larger than her.  Must be from her days in obedience class with being drooled on by that Bernese Mountain Dog.

Well as Lilly approaches her 12 week post-op appointment next Tuesday... our friend Koda is going in for ACL surgery Tomorrow.  Poor puppy.  From her "mom's" description she may have messed up her knee a lot worse than Lilly did.  They have Koda on two pain killers and she is still in pain.  Where Lilly was too fine on just one painkiller.  She ended up messing up her knee some more before her surgery.  But the surgery replaces the entire knee...she's all bionic in there.  I know Koda's vet will take good care of her.  I'm a bit concerned for Koda's recovery as J is also taking care of her daughter.  I wish I could take care of Koda for at least two weeks for J, but I know that Lilly would flip out at having a larger dog in the house.  And Koda needs to be an only dog for her recovery.

Lilly is doing super awesome on her recovery.  I've had to reduce her pain killers again as the silly pup keeps wanting to jump over the retaining wall instead of going around it.  I know she feels much better but she's not supposed to do such things until she is 6 months post-op.

I need to convince hubby that we should put my vegetable garden permanently against this retaining wall so that Lilly can't be a flying dog anymore.  She's 10 and a half years old now but she insists that she's still a puppy...sounds a lot like a Seinfeld loving blogger friend I know. 
 

Lilly update

Lilly went in for her 10 week post-op check up Tuesday.  And she is doing great.  She is using her leg more and more and now I have to watch her even more.

The other day she ran for the retaining wall.  I hollered "Don't You DARE!!!" and she looked at me as if to say "then how?"  I said "Go Around."  and she did.  (don't tell me my dog doesn't understand!)

She's been running in the house.  But still slipping on the kitchen floor.  Oh well, can't have it all.

Not sure who's worse!

My mom is quite the nag.  I've mentioned her several times here before.  She makes me quite glad that I live so far away from Florida.  When we go to visit, I make sure to book us at a hotel...a really nice hotel.  The last time that I stayed with my mom I regretted it...that was the time I went for my grandmother's birthday and I only stayed there two nights!

Well now we get to the title of my post here...  My aunt!  My mom hasn't talked to her sister in at least 20 years, probably closer to 30 years now.  It has always been an issue.  I wish that I could say that my mom is much happier not having her sister in her life, but she isn't.  Another story!
So when I go to Florida to visit, I try to schedule a visit to wee my aunt and grandmother, but sometimes that doesn't happen.

Recently my aunt signed up for Facebook.  She friended me and went through all my pictures and "caught up" on my entire life.  And for the most part she doesn't bug me too much...except for if it has been a month since she's been on and she goes and "LIKEs" everything that I did while she was gone.  o.O

Well she saw that I was sick and decided to write on my wall that she thinks I should go see a doctor.  Hummm I'm over the cold/flu (except for that cough that lingers) but she thinks I should go and get a blood test to see if I really had the flu or not.  I don't think so.  I don't really need to know if I REALLY had the flu, it's over...let it die!  And here's where it gets like she's trying to be my mom or something...she was insisting that I go to the doctor.

Whatever!  I just started ignoring her. 

So tired!

This past week was another wonderful CYT show.  Darly & I worked our tails off for it...even though we both caught the flu (we stayed home while sick) but as soon as we were well we went to work.

I'm assuming that I'm so tired from being sick.  I don't know what all is going on though.  I keep waking up around 7am (that's normal) but then about an hour later I feel as if I need another 4 hours of sleep.  ugh!

Well until Sunday we have nothing going on, so hopefully I can catch up again soon.

But next week we start work on another show.  Yes, we're gluttons for punishment. ;o)

Deadlines mean nothing

to some people that is.  o.O

Recently we had this person who signed up for her free trial on the homeschooling board that I help run.  When her trial ended, I sent her an email ("pay up or we delete your account" but much nicer of course!) and didn't hear from her so I deleted the account.  SEVERAL months later she emails asking why she can't get in on the board. ???
So she renews and then wants to know why she can't get into co-op.  Um because the deadline was yesterday, another one will be coming up in April.  :p

Then I sent out financial statements for my church yesterday.  I would have done it sooner but I was having connection issues with my computer.  The deadline for getting them out was today.  Today I get an email that someone forgot to turn in their receipts that they want counted. :p  I could be wrong but I don't think that you have to turn in the receipts to where you give something to be able to claim them.  I know the IRS doesn't allow the receiver to put any value on the items.  Oh well.

I would love to adopt the policy "Lack of planning on your part does not create an emergency on my part."  But alas I have to be sweet and some folks consider that snarky.

It's the little things in life...

Day 3 of my cold/flu thing.  I don't know what this thing is anymore.

But today I took a shower!  w00t!  LOL!  Course I nearly hacked up my lungs in the shower, but I felt good for a little bit afterward.

Actually except for sounding bad, I feel pretty good...I'm getting tired now though.  But for most of today I felt really good.  Going a long time between coughing fits... my back and abs are thankful for that.

I didn't get to use the internet much today because my provider shut me down.  I ordered a new modem and wasn't allowed to use it until 5pm.  :p  jwerks!  But that's all up and running.  or walking.  I don't know why but this seems slower than what we had even though it kept konking out.

Some lady showed up at the front door.  I looked through the peep hole.  She resembled a politician, a petition gatherer or a social worker.  Needless to say I did NOT open the door to her.  I have a policy...  If I don't know you're coming and you don't have cookies, then I don't open my door.  I'm sick and tired of everyone and their brother coming here trying to get their hands on my money.  So now I avoid them.  I don't answer the phone for numbers I don't recognize either.  Sucks for my friends with cell phones, but if they talk to my machine I'll answer them.

We had a cold snap today, so I cooked up a batch of turkey broth.  It is cooling on the back porch before I move it to the frig.  I'll finish it up tomorrow...maybe. ;o) 

Oh I found the set of bedroom furniture that I want on craigslist!  Since I can't pick it up until next week I have to wait and see if it is still available then.  sigh and tapity tapity.

Sick, sick, sickedy sick!

Remember how I was sick for New Year's...and for my birthday?

Well I had that super nice lingering cough that hangs around after a cold since then and then Saturday... WHAMMO!  I picked up the flu bug.

I woke up Sunday morning feeling pretty good, took my shower, got dressed for church, fixed my hair and then started feeling woozie.  Ut oh!

Houston, we have a problem!

I started running scenarios of how to get to church without infecting everyone there (especially not the poor lady going through chemo) because I had to DO stuff at church.  I'm the financial secretary and I'm also doing a fund raiser for the Mission Trips.

But as the minutes passed and I started feeling worse and worse I finally realized that church would go on without me...I was too sick to go.

So I trugged back upstairs and changed into my pajama sweats combo.  I gave my husband and daughter instructions for how to take care of my jobs and plopped on the couch.

Oh and my internet decided to go down too...God's way of making me rest?  Yeah, I think so.

After a while I realized that I had been shunning fluids and I was hungry.  So I made myself some soup.  There went the last of my chicken/turkey stock.  Ah well...it was for a good cause.

Now I need a cold snap and to be bug free to make some more.

That was yesterday.  Today I feel better...my entire body doesn't hurt.  But that could be from the pain killers.  I'm still coughing up a lung and all the fun that comes with coughing up a lung.

YAY  :p

lotta nuthin but gratuitus links

Well since my last post I haven't really done all that much that seemed blog worthy.  But I've noticed that I get a lot more traffic on my blog if I link to other stuff...so I'm going to see how this post does.  lol

On Jan 5th I went with Darly to go and see our friends from Colorado Improv do their show.  Had a great time laughing which hurt my back, but it was so worth it. 

On Jan 7th I had a board meeting for Common Ground Homeschoolers of which I've been a member of for over 10 years now and been on the board forever.  We discussed all sorts of interesting and not so interesting things, but ended up seeing some folks from CYT while meeting at Panera.  We actually got "thrown out" because we didn't realize what time they closed (we do that a lot though!)

On Jan 9th, Darly and our church's youth group met up at Village Inn  for Prayer & Pie night.  It's a fun social event that they do and don't let me go to. :(  That's okay though as I don't really need the pie.  But on this occasion I ran into an old friend that I haven't seen in a long time and while chatting I invited her to our church...so that was cool.

On the 10th Darly had her CYT class  and since I didn't want to cook dinner that night I hung out and chatted with the Bye Bye Birdie costume team about the upcoming costume parade.  So since I had no dinner ready I zipped over to Little Caesars.

On the 11th & 12th we did more CYT stuff (but I've linked to them numerous times above).  oh but I did get lunch from King Soopers.  They have a great ready made sandwich department.

On the 13th I was asked to attend a meeting before church so I had to get up early and pretty much forgo my coffee.  bummer.

and then last night was my homeschool group's Teacher's Night Out that I went to at Whole Foods.  While there and using the wifi I was able to freak Darly out by posting on her Facebook status.  LOL that was funny when I got home.  Oh and Whole Foods had to toss us out again.

If you happened to stop by because of one of the links above.  Welcome!  I hope that I didn't bore you too much and you swing by again sometime.  And if you're one of my regulars, I'm glad you still stick with me. :D

What a birthday

I've had some bummer birthdays before, but this one really took the cake (btw: the cake was amazing though!)

First I was still sick...still am.  bummer

Second I threw out my back while trying to pick up the dog to take her to the vet.  oye!  I ended up taking a muscle relaxer that night which helped a tiny bit.

Since my birthday was on a Friday night, and I was sick, and my back hurt, I decided that instead of trying to figure out where to go for dinner that we would just stay in and DH & Darly could make dinner.  Darly like the idea and planned the menu.

But then Darly got the nosebleed that refused to quit so DH ended up making more of the dinner than either Darly or I thought possible.  Mostly because when you try to give DH direction he QUESTIONS everything you tell him.  Like he knows more about cooking than even I do?  o.O

However, dinner turned out pretty good.  My cake was good also but I made that myself the night before.  My gifts were great...gotta try out my new comfy jammy pants!

Next year I hope to not be sick and never pull my back out again.  Oh and I still have a birthday dinner out to look forward to!  Now to figure out where in the world I want to go for that.  :-/

"Ringing in the new year"

...sick as a dog. :p

a few days ago I started feeling this bug coming and yesterday it started making me KNOW it was coming.  So I got to ring in the new year while being sick.  Unfortunately that made things a bit less for the rest of my family as well.

Luckily I had a freezer full of chicken stock so I made us a nice chicken & rice soup.  Since I really can't taste any difference anyway, I decided to add red pepper flakes to my soup.  I think that it helped to clear up my sinuses a bit...sorta!

I spent the majority of New Year's Eve on the sofa either reading, watching a bit of TV and sleeping.  (Yeah, I know how to party!)  I found the two New Year's Eve celebrations on TV to be rather lacking in anything I wanted to watch...so I watched other shows while I was alert enough to care.  This seemed to bother my hubby a bit, but he didn't fuss too much as he doesn't care for that garbage they were showing either.

At 11:55 I switched over to NBC and then ABC to see what they were up to.  Both were still very lame, so I just kept switching back and forth.  We saw the ball drop (I don't know which channel we had it on for that) and Lilly decided that something was going on (she had no idea what) but that it must require running around all excited with numerous stops at mom for reassurance.  LOL!  What a nut dog!

We toasted in the new year with a glass of bubbly... sparkling apple cider (yup, we live large!) and then switched the channel to some movie or something before I zonked back out again.

We are expecting more snow here soon, which will be good as the old snow is mostly a mess of black slush.  :p

I'll be spending the day dosing myself with every cold remedy that we have...vitamin C, salt water gargle, etc and will probably zonk out on the couch again here soon.  w00t!

Oh and I have a new nephew, born on Dec 29th and today is my "little" brother's birthday.  (I used quotes because all of my brothers, while younger than me are all taller than me.  That's a good thing though because really being a short man in our society isn't so good, but folks don't care if you're a short woman.)

Social Media strikes back...with a vengeance!

 Yesterday while on Facebook I learned the following...

http://www.epbot.com/2012/12/shame-on-you-redbook-magazine.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+epbot%2FfOpU+%28EPBOT%29

As you can imagine I was pretty upset...as were pretty much every follower of Jen Yates of Cake Wrecks fame and Epbot (her other blog).  Jen is pretty socially connected out there and this isn't the first time that Jen fans have stepped up and used social media forces for good.

http://www.epbot.com/2010/11/geek-girls-activate.html

Soon Redbook's Facebook page was covered in comments on every status update demanding that Jen get credit for her ideas.  It didn't take very long for Redbook to realize they had made a mistake and they posted that they were "looking into" the error.

finally Jen received an email from Redbook with an apology.  http://www.epbot.com/2012/12/redbook-makes-it-right.html

What I love is that Jen was also fighting for the other Pintrest folks who had their ideas published in the article. 

Lilly update 5 weeks post-op

At Lilly's 4 week post-op checkup the vet was really pleased with the progress that Lilly has been making.  So much so that she bumped up our post-op exercises by a week even though her healing is probably closer to being 2 weeks advanced, she didn't want to over stress.
The vet did this check where she uses a plastic tool to measure how far Lilly is able to move her new joint and on the lifting her leg up Lilly scored a 25/25 meaning that's the best she could ever get as that is a regular joint movement.  On extending her leg Lilly scored a 150/160 which pleased the vet.

The vet recommended weaning Lilly off her pain meds, which I had already done because we had run out.  At the time I didn't really see any difference between her being on the meds or off, but now I'm beginning to wonder if I should get her some.  Of course seeing as the vet charged me 3 times what I can get them for online, you can see my resistance.

Lilly has been going in for Adequan injections and has one more of those left.  They are Glucosamine and some other stuff.  While a bit pricey I wanted to make the investment of the surgery have the best possible chance for Lilly having normal function when we're all done.  Yesterday the receptionist let me know that I can get a rebate on the shots once she has taken all of them.  It's only $20 but that's better than before.

The vet also recommended that Lilly start taking glucosamine supplements.  I went ahead and purchased those before Lilly had her surgery.  However, I got her the supplements at the grocery store.  When I told the vet this, she got a bit bent out of shape because ...well she told me that the supplements in the stores aren't regulated.  However, I know that the so called made for animals medications and supplements have even less stringent regulations and figured for a supplement saving money for store bought over the 3 times mark up at the vet's office wouldn't matter.  My SIL used to work for a vet and told us stories.

Thanks to my blog friend Leigh, I discovered that adding gelatin to Lilly's diet would also be helpful for her joints.  So I started researching how to get that into Lilly's diet.  At first I was just giving Lilly gelatin capsules, but those are pricey.  I looked at buying gelatin powder, but wanted to check out all my options.  I also looked into making gelatin from bones.  I found this one blog where the woman just keeps her crock-pot going all the time cooking down her bones.  I don't know if she just mixes all the bones she has or what, but that seemed a bit much if I were to have separate crocks going for each kind of bone.  I thought about just making and storing the gelatin...but I would actually have stock and that takes up space that I don't currently have since I have a small freezer and don't have a pressure canner to can and put in the pantry.  (maybe one day!)

In my research I found that Osteo Bi-Flex makes a combined glucosamine and gelatine powdered supplement.  That seemed like the perfect answer as Lilly really didn't like eating the glucosamine pills (although coating them with peanut butter worked very well!).  And my store had the powder on sale, buy one get one free.  So we started Lilly on that, last night.

Exercise has been pretty difficult to do.  We've been having a lot of snow and I'm allergic to the stuff.  So that on top of my annoying neighbors who let their dogs run off leash has made taking Lilly for walks very difficult.  The vet suggested taking Lilly someplace quiet for walks...I don't know where that place might be.  Even our own back yard is surrounded by other dogs and Lilly is a spaz around them.  So instead we've been walking around the house.  I know, not ideal, but it puts less stress on the both of us.

Oh SNOW!

Tonight is supposed to be our Advent Service with a cookie exchange.  I say supposed because we are getting hit today with quite a bit of snow and while the weather radar shows that this should pass soon, it doesn't appear to be following the plan.

Now as you know I am highly allergic to snow.  So I'm staying hunkered down inside right now and medicating with hot chocolate.

Hopefully this cloud moves on and I'll be able to shovel or sweep off the snow (that the wind is doing a really good job of taking care of at the moment) so that we can get out and not be snow bound... especially since my teenage daughter claims that there is "nothing to eat" in the house.

Oh, I should get my "nothing to eat" roast in the crock pot!

Christmas Ornament tutorial - Round ornament

Here is how to make the round ornament  [picture of finished ornament]

Supplies you'll need:
round flat ornaments - from craft store
school glue
glitter
transparency sheets - from office supply store
permanent markers
ribbon
paint brush, scissors, pattern, funnel

Skills needed:
Actually this ornament is very easy and looks complicated.  You'll amaze your friends with it.

First step- Glitterizing the back of the ornament.

Water down the glue so that it is more runny.  I think ours was not quite one part water to one part glue.  Using a paint brush, transfer some glue to only the back of the ornament's inside [picture of glue & putting it in] drain out excess glue - make sure to not get any glue on the front side of the ornament.

Now using a funnel pour in your glitter into the ornament and after covering the back, shake out the excess glitter.  Allow to dry completely.

While your glitter is drying you can make the design sheets.  Trace your design or pattern onto the transparency sheets with your permanent markers, making sure your design is just a tiny bit smaller than the diameter of your ornament.  (I used 3 inch diameter ornaments, they do come bigger)  {note: I tried to just print off my design using my computer's printer but I couldn't get the toner to dry on the sheets... I suppose that I could have put the design on with the printer and then just gone over it with the markers, but my way was cleaner.} 

Cut out your transparency film in a circle to fit inside the ornament.

Now roll your transparency film into a tube so you can fit it into the neck of the ornament.  We found that rolling so that the design was on the outside of the roll worked better for the next step. 

shove your rolled up transparency into the ornament.  If it doesn't pop open all the way, you can use your paint brush handle to help it and then your fingers to adjust the design so that it sits in the right direction.

almost done!

Now put the cap/wire thingy back on and add a ribbon bow to the neck of your ornament to hide that wire that holds the thing together! 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Ornament tutorial - felt dove

Here is how to make the felt dove ornament. [picture of finished ornament]

Supplies that you'll need:

Felt - I got these 9X11 sheets of felt at my local craft store for about 30 cents each and got about 5 ornaments per sheet.  You can also buy felt by the yard at fabric stores.
Pattern - I got this one from the internet.
Freezer Paper - from my grocery store
Embroidery Floss - from my craft store (I had some at home so I don't know how much it costs, but it's pretty cheap and a little goes a long way)
Polyfill stuffing - from your craft store.  I already had some, but I think they're only around $2.50 for a bag that will last you a very long time.  You could also use cotton balls, but they're pretty pricey. 
Pen, Scissors, Iron

Skills you'll need:
Ironing
back stitching
blanket stitching
French knot for the dove's eye

First find your pattern and transfer it to the freezer paper's mat side.

Next iron the freezer paper (the glossy side) to your felt.

Now cut out your shapes.  don't worry, the directions for how to do this are on the freezer paper if you get the name brand. 

Note: Embroidery Floss comes in skeins that the floss is 6 threads thick.  Cut off about 18 inches of floss (or shorter - too long and you get a knotted mess!) now separate your floss into individual threads.  I used two threads in my design, but you can use 3 if your colors are close and you want to see your design better.

Next we'll put our design on one of the dove's sides (you'll use two dove cut outs for each ornament).  I used a French Knot to make the dove's eye.  Then I started back stitching the words I wanted on my dove.

Don't make your stitches too tight so that if you make a mistake you can pull out the stitches and try again.

Once your dove has the design you want you'll next want to sew the two halves together with a blanket stitch.  Make sure to cut a length of Embroidery Floss to make a hanger with.  Don't separate these threads, just knot it and stitch that in while you're blanket stitching. 

Leave about an inch open and stuff with polyfill until your dove is as full as you want it.  You don't need to make your dove too fat and you still have to close him up.

Now close up your dove and you're done!

Merry Christmas!

What we're up to now...

well aside for taking care of Lilly and getting ready for Christmas things here are pretty calm.

Darly isn't doing a play right now, but she and I are helping some with the current show.  I'm supposed to have this weekend off though.  I hope that still stands and that the chairperson let her co-chair know that. ;)

Darly is singing in our church choir instead.  She's having a great time and loves singing.  I don't think that she'll try a solo again (she did last year for Christmas) but one can never tell.  So our Thursday nights are pretty busy as she has a class from 4:30 to 6:30 and then choir practice is at 7.  We have fun trying to figure out how to get some food into her.

Hubby decided to wait until last weekend to finally show us his Christmas wish list.  How funny that I had totally forgotten him mentioning (very casually of course) the things on the list.  The one year I paid attention to those casual mentions I got in trouble for getting him everything he asked for.  So since I didn't pay attention I bought him things I thought he needed...like pants to replace the ones he insists still fit him from his High School wardrobe that don't.  I'm sure I'll have to take the new pants in though because unlike Jerry changing his 34's into 31's, I know that these pants will be at least 4 inches too big in the waist.  *roll eyes!*

Darly asked for sensible things this year however finding her sweaters has been quite a challenge.  I don't know what is up with the buyers for stores... it is winter, in Colorado... we NEED sweaters that actually keep you warm.  Not that you have to put another shirt on under...because while we will put another shirt on it is because we're heading out into sub zero temps...not to look cute!

sigh

and our latest project

One of the ladies at church requested that our Youth group look into getting Christmas Ornaments with our church logo on them for a fundraiser.  But when I looked into doing that the prices were CRAZY expensive.  One gal had suggested that I look into those places that will put your logo on the round glass ball ornaments... but they want set up charges and a minimum order...  looking at at least $350 just to get going.  OYE
I also looked into those places where you can DIY your logo on their stuff.  But their ornaments were around $12 each plus shipping.  And then when I set up our account, they put our logo on everything BUT the ornaments.  I needed the "Premium" account to choose the products.

So instead I looked into just making ornaments our selves.  And I came up with two really cute ideas that aren't too hard to do.  Sorry I don't have pictures of them here yet, I forgot to take the pictures and then left the ornament samples at church... so I have to make some more and then get your pictures.

Pictures coming soon... I promise.

As promised...

After I get some more photos, I'll do a post on how I made them with a cool trick for how to cut out the doves!

Lilly update

So today is 2 weeks post-op for Lilly.  She got to go in and have her staples removed.  She wasn't all that happy to go.  A bundle of nerves was more like it.  Even more nervous than when she goes in for her shots.

So the doc is happy with her progress.  She said that Lilly is doing better than she expected her to be at this point.  I had to rat Lilly out for jumping the retaining wall again.  I don't know how we are going to keep her from doing that other than actually walking her on the leash each time she goes out.  sigh...it is cold out there!

The doc said that her Mother in law had staples once and said that it was very painful to get them removed, but that the dogs don't even flinch.  Course I'm sure her MIL didn't have someone holding 3 of her limbs and holding down her head with their forearm.  ;)

Now Lilly keeps following me around the house.  It is very annoying.  I sure hope I don't actually trip over her.  Perhaps Lilly is upset with me for leaving her after we got back to go Christmas shopping.