a bittersweet day...

(Shimmer Angel)

Amidst the excitement and festivities that are Christmas at our house, we've got sadness. Our dear Shimmer has passed away from a sudden illness. Last Saturday she was fine, I held her and felt nothing. Tuesday the girls felt a small, almond sized lump on her side. By this past weekend it was larger than a chicken egg, probably cancer. She was a spunky little pigger with a cantankerous and bossy "Miss Piggy" personality. We'll miss her.


(Merry Shimmer)



(painted hutch with handmade decorations)



(I think Amy did this one last year)


(red metal cart in the dining room. notice the paint swatches)



(top of the china cabinet with vintage ornaments and decorations)


In Other News...

A-1 Medical Equipment and Supplies is officially servicing patients!!! Mark is thrilled to finally be going. I hope they aren't too busy over the holidays though!

My parents will be here Friday!!!!! I'm trying to plan some meals and snacks for us. Last night my party mix plans fell through because the store had NO cereal, not one box! I'm headed that way in a little while to try again. I also forgot raspberry extract for our hot cocoa(a little gourmet secret) and hopefully they'll have peppermint too(they were out of that too).

Ryan has a Christmas party with his youth group tomorrow night, then our homeschool party, then another homeschool party on Friday with a different group and then hopefully nothing! Sarah's AWANA class is having a jingle party tomorrow so I've got to sew a bunch of jingle bells to a shirt for her. Should be cute!

Guess that's all. The dogs need fed and let back in. Its freezing here... no really it is. We try to wash and dry clothes to help keep the dogs warm since our dryer vents to the garage. It does work but with temps not out of the mid-30s all day it will be a struggle.

I'm spending the morning with apple cider, lightly spiked with buttershots and caramel syrup. Tastes like a caramel apple in a cup!

Some Cuteness Going On....

(Gypsy, Tallulah and Jasper taking a nap on Sarah's bed this weekend)

These are all my friend's dogs, Sally and Honey and the cat, Sister. I'm kicking myself for not photographing the 5-week-old cuteness that belongs to the neighbors. Its one of 5 little Golden Retriever/Black Lab/? mixes. The one we got to hold looked just like a Golden. There are 4 others that are fuzzy and black. Oh my stars it was soooo sweet. If anyone local is interested, I'm sure I could score you one for Christmas!!


(Sarah's new best friend)


(Honey is the big one)

The Walk...

It started beautifully....
(please click each picture to enjoy the full-size version)








Got even better...







With many neat discoveries...

















Then, luck turned and we had to head home...

It is SO nice to be wanted...

I can finally post about our mysterious "good news" that I mentioned a few days ago. Mark didn't want it out quite yet. I'm still not going into real specific details yet. Anyway...

The job is something similar to what he did before but for a national company with slightly different responsibilities. It would be better than where he is and a good job for him but probably not a perfect match. He is waiting for word from them after two interviews and he's done the drug/tb tests.

In other news...

I got my hair cut yesterday afternoon! It is stacked in the back and long around my face with bangs. I LOVE it and promise to post pics as soon as the batteries are charged.

Today is homeschool park day and Sarah wants to take Buddy. Should be fun. It was 48 degrees when I got up this morning so we'll be a bit chilly.

We're having some kind of sausage and kale dinner tonight. I'll have to find the recipe I posted a few weeks ago.

Rats!

We REALLY wanted to sleep in this morning but the dogs were barking early, just driving us nuts! Mark got up around 2:30 and put them in the kennel and they stayed quiet til just before 7. I finally went out to see what was bothering them, it was definitely a "there's something out there" bark.

That's where the rats come in...

There were two dead ones and six live ones. I scooped them out and deposited them in the grass beside the pool to dry off. When I went back out to check if they'd vanished, they were still there, shivering. Soooo, we wrapped them in a towel and sat with them in the sun for about an hour. I took them, still in the towel, back to the woodpile. Hopefully they've found their mama again. What scares me is what might have chased them into the pool. We smelled a skunk outside last night. It probably rooted them out of their nest and ate what didn't make it to the water. A snake or bird would have gone in after them.


(they were absolutely tiny, I have no idea about the age, maybe 2 weeks? A dime would fit on the top of their head between the base of their ears)


(we warmed some of them in our hands for several minutes before putting them in the towel "nest")


(although they are reeeeeally cute, we are off to buy rat poison this afternoon)

Buttercup said, "Yerrrrr're ON!"...

When Buddy tried to steal her favorite forbidden toy.(remember to click to enlarge the pics)


"Yerrrr're Durn Tootin' I'm On!!", he growled right back at her.


"I got the tooooeeeeey, I got the toooooeeeeey!"


"Yep, still got it"


"Uh, you can have it if you want. I'm tired."


In other news...

Mark and Ryan went fishing tonight. We had a rain shower come through so they are thinking it will be a good night for it. Sarah had a birthday party to attend so I rode with Mark to a used tire place to get one for the boat trailer. Then we went by his new office so he could help the driver out with a delivery(Mark did the ticket and inspections and such). This isn't his regular job there but he's in the call rotation so every little bit of experience helps.

In exchange for me "letting" them go fish, Mark set my temporary desk up beside the fireplace in the living room(it is in the place of the glass-front hutch you see in the second picture above). He had to go in the attic to drop the cable down and found out why our kitchen light hasn't been working. It seems a critter decided to taste the wiring and got fried. He didn't see a mark on the wire but there was a burned spot on the insulation in the shape of a critter so that's exactly what happened. Mark's a bit unsure of how to proceed with that sort of wiring.

And, the girls went to their friend's to spend the night and go to church with her in the morning. So, I'm here trying to decide if I want to color my hair, find something on teevee, or play around on the computer. Hmmmm, tough choices. I do have to reload the china hutch though.

Oh yeah, I did a repeat of our spinach, chickpeas and couscous dinner tonight but I left out the garam masala and added onion and garlic powder and a spoonful of Promise(margarine). We loved it both ways, it has proven its versatility!

Blug, blug, blug

We have a bug! I can't complain too much, this is the first time any of us have been sick in months and months! Mine started last Friday with a mild knotty throat thing, then a headache and on and on. The girls felt so bad yesterday that they took naps and we've elected to skip park day tomorrow! Other symptoms are chest congestion, body aches, exhaustion, and now I've got the oogies(feels like I just stepped off a roller coaster). When Mark's alarm clock went off this morning I was hoping he'd get out of bed without too much flopping around because every little movement made me barfy. How fun. So, I have some completely random pictures to share so this won't be a PWOP.

Mark has been working 14-hour days lately because his company acquired the assets of another business with an office about 2 hours or so from here. He's been back and forth a few times so far. This weekend he'll take call for the drivers because one is going on vacation and the other would have had call for 5 weekends in a row. I'm sure he'll get called out at least twice, maybe more, since they have 8 hospice accounts now. Hopefully they'll all be in town. Yes, he is sick too.

My computer is still on the floor in the dining area. I was planning on painting the desk to match the cute little shelf I found at Goodwill but the paint didn't look good to me. Also, I have to move the china hutch somewhere else and plan so that the left side of it is up against a wall. The glass got broken years ago and the cats now get in there and eat the birds' nests and squirrel tails(don't read Anet, lol). It needs to go in a common room but there aren't any walls that suit it for now. Since we moved the metal fabric shelf from our bedroom it could go in that space, and probably will, but that isn't were I really want it. Sigh.

The pool fixer people are here today!!! Woot! They are replacing all the nasty rotted wood that goes between the earth and the new liner. We shall see when that ever gets here. It was ordered way back when but they are behind on putting them together. With custom vinyl liners, they have to have the seams heat sealed and all the corners molded so they are put together as they are ordered. The pool guy cancelled our 1st order and reordered it as a "special" and it is supposed to go ahead of the regular orders, or some such as that. GRRRRR. I HOPE it is done by next weekend but I'm not holding my breath.

Today is also the 19th anniversary of the Blind Date. Mark's friend Jeff and my friend Tami are brother and sister, I met her when I was 15 or so, Mark has known them most of his life. So, how come it took so long for me to meet him? I don't know. What I do know is this. Tami and I were at another girl's place having beer and pizza and primping and doing girly stuff. Tami was trying to get one of Mark's co-workers to notice her so she called Mark up and made a deal. She'd set him up with me if he'd set her up with this guy. I went out with Mark on July 2nd, 2 days later the other guy went out with another girl from work(and got her pregnant!) so that didn't work out so well for Tami, she should consider herself lucky.

July 2nd is also my grandmother's birthday, her wedding anniversary, my mom's late friend's birthday and my bff's birthday. Popular day huh?

Here's the pics:


(Basil last Christmas)


(the girls and dogs this father's day)

This Just In...

Puppy-girl rolled in stink bait. I'm gonna have to fumigate!!! UGH!!!!!

Thank God all my quilts are off the floor!

Another Exciting Day!

Late yesterday, one of the girls' friends came to spend the night so she could go to Park Day with us. So we went. That event wasn't too terribly exciting, nor was the decision to skip a very crowded Chik-fil-a and grab some fried calamari from the freezer at the grocery store. No, the excitement didn't start til we got to about 100 feet of our driveway. That's when we spotted our friendly neighborhood escape artist and her side kick, little old daschund man(I swear he's probably 20). I carried the groceries in while the girls captured the dogs but when I turned the key in the front door I heard barking from the other side. Our 4 dogs were in the house!!! Ack!! So, Ryan had to round them up before we could come in with the strays and food. Meanwhile, there was a wreck on our street but it was far enough down that someone else was helping out(it was just a fender bender as far as I could tell). Sigh, I could do without all this excitement, I'm tired!

Now we've eaten our fill of calamari and are starting in on the ice cream. We were invited to stay and swim when we take the friend home. Can't wait!

Goodwill Today...

We had 3 or 4 leaf bags full of clothing, bedding and fabric plus about 100 more books to drop off at Goodwill this morning. Mark was busy fiddling with the boat(actually, one of the trailer tires ruptured!) and he was on call so I decided to take the girls with me for an adventure... and boy was it!

Gypsy is helping me model this lovely twin sheet. It isn't a great picture but the fabric is extra-soft and sweet, probably not all that old though. I was hoping to find some good stuff for our camping mattresses but everything else they had was scratchy and pilled. Not sure what this will be for, maybe a quilt back.



This was my second fabric find, a good-sized pillowcase. Pickin's are usually slim at our Goodwills and we don't have many other thrift stores in town. I don't know why we don't get much vintage stuff coming through, maybe people just toss it thinking nobody would want it.



I have plans to turn this into a tote bag or purse. Isn't it just summerlicious?
***updated to add that this is from 2004, not an old piece at all. Didn't want anyone to think it was vintage. Still cute though.





This salad plate is from the Mikasa Natural Beauty collection, called Fresh From the Garden. They had a handful of matching(but plain) saucers and six dinner plates. I almost got them but we have a ton of my mom's Mikasa Stylecraft, Walnut Grove dinner plates that we rarely use. The kids and I almost always use a salad plate for our meals and saucers for our snacks.



This is one of four salad plates I got another time. They are my favorite of the two, wish I had a whole set. With these I'd use the dinner plates and all, I love them!



The girls found this lonely one and loved it, just a plain brown and green saucer, no label or anything on it. Dontcha love my proper-upper? Its a set of headphones.



I can't believe these espresso cups were there, aren't they adorable? There was another set in white with the words Espresso in cobalt blue, not nearly as cute, but I saw them in someone's shopping cart right before we checked out so I'm glad I nabbed them when I did!



And last but definitely not least! This was how I knew it was going to be a good day at Goodwill. I remembered(finally) that I wanted to find a chandelier to decorate and this was the first thing I laid my eyes on! My plan is to scuff it up good and spray paint it before decorating with some crystally beady things. I found one at Heather Bailey that is to die for but mine is a bit more formal and probably wouldn't look good in that shade of green(although I LOVE it for the one she's painted).



After spending a grand total of $15 at Goodwill, the girls and I went to Jake's for piggie bedding and then came home to eat and crash. Doggie still hasn't been spoken for but she's comfortably tied in the front yard with plenty of cool water and shade instead of in the miserable garage. We can't bring her in too often because she's obsessed with the guinea pigs and tries to get in their cages! If nobody claims her by next Thursday or Friday, I'll find a good home for her.
***updated again to say that we found the dog's owners and she's back with them! They live 5 houses down, how or why they didn't see our sign is a mystery. Nobody was home when we took her, a neighbor opened the gate and she ran right in. We're hoping they aren't out of town for a long time or something but we know where she belongs if she escapes again. Whew.

Guess that's all. Mark is on delivery to a place about 50 miles from here and he's taking Ryan and a buddy fishing tonight. I won't see him til after midnight, I'm sure. Guess the girls and I can watch a movie and play with Bevo for the last time. He's going to his forever home tomorrow with some HOMESCHOOLERS, yeaaaah!!!