Soshie. I think she's on the mend!

We got Soshie in November of 1996, just before Amy's first birthday. She was being given away along with a carrier full of siblings in the parking lot of the Nacogdoches Walmart. The owner claimed they were barn cats and she appears to be. Soshie loves to be petted(by me) but will not let anyone hold her or cuddle her on their laps(even me). She's a very petite, high-strung kitty but also really sweet and smart.



About two weeks ago I noticed she was rapidly losing weight and was spending almost all of her time crouched on the computer monitor(pic is from this summer, before her illness). It seemed as if she had a bad tummy ache and was using the warmth of the monitor to sooth her pain. She was barely eating, taking maybe two to four bites of food a day, not even eating cooked chicken which she loves and not using the litterbox. I assumed she had something bad wrong with her, like cancer(she has mammery tumors) and would most likely be leaving us soon.



Last night, I brought her to our bedroom as usual and she got in the litter box. She strained and finally went. I saw something glittery and was thinking it might be a tapeworm or something. On closer investigation I found it to be a metallic pompom strand from one of Ryan's toys, about 10 inches long. She seemed to feel better and purred louder than I've heard in several days. This morning she was even marching around on the bed asking for "daddy pets" from Mark. She is definitely more alert and hasn't made her way back to the monitor yet, choosing to stay on my bed. Maybe she's turned a corner and will be fine. I hope so.

Bizzy, Bizzy, Bizzy!!

Yes we ARE!!! It has been a very busy weekend here at the Casa Sonier.

Friday afternoon we had a visit from a (former) homeschooling friend and her daughter, and someone from a church came and got two big bags of fabric I had to give away. Friday night Ryan had church and the rest of us did a bit of housework.

Saturday morning the girls and I got up REEEEEALLY early to drive 40 miles out of town to get raw milk for a small group of families in our homeschooling community. There are around 10 of us but not everyone orders every week. The man who offers it has it as a first-come, first-served basis so I was afraid we might not get any on a weekend unless we went very early. Anyway, we had orders for eight gallons but when we got there he only had six so we took what there was and headed to another of the family's homes to drop it off for distribution. The milk is certified organic, hormone and antibiotic free from Jersey cows. It tastes WONDERFUL but I can't have too much because it is whole milk and wrecks my diet!

While we were out doing milky stuff, Mark took Ryan to flag football and ran around the track. He ended up taking Ryan to his friends' home to spend the night, came home and got us girls and we headed out to Lowe's, Kohl's, and Walmart for various sundries. I got paint to do our hutches, a dark blue called Indigo Cloth, which I'm supposed to be primering this afternoon.

Mark and I got up early and cleaned on our garage. Last night Amy discovered a most unwelcome visitor(a RAT, eek!) out there so we decided it was past due for a clean up. I piled two tables full of junk in the yard and put a free sign on it. Finally someone stopped and took every bit of it for a church garage sale. Turns out it is the church Ryan attends! Mark picked up Ryan and a friend from church and stopped by his office for some leftover pizza they had from Friday. I love no-cook Sunday dinners!

The COWBOYS come on at 3pm so I'm not sure how much more work I'll end up doing.

There, I'm updated, now I feel better! Sorry no pics, maybe tomorrow or Tuesday. I do need to tell all about the fabric and quilty goodness that came my way last week. I am very blessed by all of it but won't keep but maybe a fourth of it.

Are you a Halloweenie?

I am!!! We love to decorate for Halloween here. I love the thrill of finding scary things that really aren't so scary after all. Here is our fireplace, the only place we'll put Halloween stuff this year until Halloween Night when the trick-or-treaters come.


I found this vintage Jack O'Lantern last year at the local Methodist church junk sale.



We bought wooden cut-outs, and glitter and had a paint 'n' glitter session yesterday afternoon, isn't he cute?



I did the paper chain Friday. My grandmother made the ceramic Jack O'Lantern and my dad did the pastel farmhouse scene many years ago, I think it looks spooky! The needlework owl is another junk sale find from this year's sale. It cost a whopping FIVE dollars!



My mom made this cute cross stitch wall hanging for us a few years ago. It is one of my favorite decorations and I have a Santa one she did for Christmas too.



I don't like to have fires in the fireplace because it is rarely cold enough but the candles look great in it. The cat was a find from last year.



Here it is all put together. I have a piece of fabric that I'd like to put with this and some green spider web stuff but haven't located either one yet. I'm sure we'll add to this over the week.


Here are the girls and I from several years ago, Amy had already taken off her forest queen costume though. Sarah was 2.5 years and had just cut her hair all by herself!

October

(although our east Texas leaves don't do this til mid-November or later most years... and our sycamores were taken out this summer for being too close to the house- I miss them very much)

O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
- Robert Frost, October



Looking on the happy Autumn-fields,
An thinking of the days that are no more.
- Alfred Lord Tennyson



The harvest moon hangs round and high
It dodges clouds high in the sky,
The stars wink down their love and mirth
The Autumn season is giving birth.
Oh, it must be October
The leaves of red bright gold and brown,
To Mother Earth come tumbling down,
The breezy nights the ghostly sights,
The eerie spooky far off sounds
Are signs that it's October.
The pumpkins yellow,. big and round
Are carried by costumed clumsy clowns
It's Halloween - let's celebrate.
- Pearl N. Sorrels, It Must be October

Today is a Better Day...

I feel like those mice from Babe, how they'd make little comments between scenes. Ya know like "Pork is a nice sweetmeet" and mine, coming between icky last night and this beautiful morning. The way the sun comes through the sweet gum tree at this time of year is really pretty. It highlights all the orb spiders' webs in our yard and across the street, and makes the gum leaves glow. They haven't changed yet to the gold and red like this picture but the green is still nice. The sun also shows off all the moths and other flying critters. If you've ever seen the show on the Travel Channel called Most Haunted and seen their "orbs"(lit up moths in old houses) you know the look I'm talking about. Little glowy dots floating and zipping along. It is really a spectacular show to watch(the one in my yard, not the tv show).


My blood pressure was high last night, 143/88, and I just generally felt weird. I had three different whacko dreams(and I didn't take so much as an advil!). After the dream, I'd check the clock to see if I could get up yet(1:37, 3:45, 6:04) but none of those times worked for me so I went back to sleep each time. I hope tonight won't be so bad.

Sorry if this post is less than coherent. I'm unable to drink coffee(decaf chicory) until I get my milk tomorrow afternoon. We've started getting organic raw Jersey cow milk from a farm north of us. The kids LOVE it, the taste is so fresh. Amy said it was like it was alive and that the old kind of milk tasted dead. Last week we got a gallon and it was gone by Tuesday. This week we ordered 2 gallons.

Today is also Park Day with our homeschool group. Will be interesting to see what kind of dangerous critters Ryan comes up with this time. I am bringing my camera just in case. Yesterday he and a friend went to the creek at the end of our street and came home wtih 2 black widows and a black and yellow garden spider, some wasps and a jewel beetle. Sigh.

Three. More. Days.

Do you think I can hold out that long? Sigh.

I'm tired, tired, tired.

Someone keeps calling after 9pm, sometimes as late as 10:30, and hanging up after 1 or 2 rings. I HATE that. It makes me nervous. And it happened again tonight.

The dogs bark. At anything. Especially noises. And squirrels/rats/skunks/bugs. And coyotes. And sirens. And air. Ugh.

He'll be home late Saturday afternoon. I hope.

I'm tired tonight...

We ended up with three sick piggies out of the deal with Ginger. I'm hoping to not add 3 more to that since we have one more girlie(not showing symptoms) living in the same cage, and the two boys who visited them all through the bars this morning before we knew there was illness afoot. First we noticed that Shimmer was lethargic, then that Rainbow was breathing funny. I made the kids go with me to the vet. Each piggie got a $20 shot, total bill was $120. Later in the afternoon we realized that Stella(our new girl who was recently put in the big cage with all the girls) was also breathing funny. Soooo, another $60 vet visit. Stella and Shimmer weighed in at 2lbs, 2oz, Rainbow was 2# even. I really hope we are done. Shimmer seems to be feeling better but Rainbow's breathing is worse. She sounds like a cooing dove. Please keep the dear piggies and their keepers in your prayers.

Ryan has done well doing his chores while Mark is away. He hates feeding the dogs and loading the dishwasher but will do it. We have to round up garbage stuff tonight and I need to finish sorting more fabrics. I'm almost done with one of the larger tubs and have about half a tall kitchen trash bag full of fabric to give away or sell. Hopefully I can fill it and then some by the time I'm done. I have fabrics from ten years ago that wasn't pretty then and is WAY not pretty now.

Oh yeah, we did pizza again for dinner! And I made bread sticks from some of the dough. I punched it down, rolled into sticks and let it rise again while the pizza cooked. They are a little crusty and slightly dense but very tasty! Adding a few shakes of Italian seasoning, garlic and onion powder probably helped. I will be experimenting more with it because it is SO freaking easy.

I've still not heard from Mark tonight. I did call to let him know about the piggies, he was not happy about the charges. Anyway, he said he'd call after he got settled in so it should be soon(it is 9:15 his time).

****edited 9:36pm to say that I did finally call Mark. He had fallen asleep in his hotel room soon after he got to Orlando. I woke him up. Hopefully he won't be so tired tomorrow.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a bright sunny day with happy, healthy piggies all around.