Our Furry Friends....

Puppy-girl is our oldest pet. We bought her from a Cairn Terrier breeder who'd had an *accidental* pregnancy(her nephew let the dog out when she was visiting for a wedding). The father is a Daschund, she said long-haired but we think wire-haired by the looks of P-girl's face. She turned 13 on October 7th.


Muffin is our oldest kitty and the last one we have from our Nacogdoches days. We got her in June or July of 1996 after she was secretly transported in the engine or some other part of a car. She jumped when they stopped at the corner in front of our house. She's a weird cat.


This is Daisy. She has just turned 4 years old. We have no idea what kind of dog she is. Probably a border collie/lab mix(she weighs about 40 pounds). Any guesses? She has lots of mental and emotional *issues*, it seems like we've had her forever!


Daisy and Buttercup in their usual place, on top of the dog house. They love to sleep up here and keep watch too.


Buddy is Buttercup's brother(she is hiding behind him). They were in a litter of 14 with a Chocolate Lab mom and a Yellow Lab dad. Five of them were black but have a sprinkling of gold. They will be 2 this July. We got Buttercup when she was about 4 months old, after we'd met Buddy(who was known as Judas then). His owners were unable to take him when they moved to California so we adopted him last June after they had him neutered.


This is Buddy again. He is a gorgeous dog and very loving.


Ruby and Rosie will be 5 on April Fool's Day. We got them from our cousins in Oklahoma.


Tom is not really our cat but he lives with us 80% of the time, especially when it is cold out. He sleeps on our bed and is 16 years old.

I didn't include pictures of Jasper and Gypsy, scroll down a few entries and you can see them!

A Fullin' Fool am I...

Well, not yet anyway. I need all yall crafty ladies, help me!! Please, direct me to your favorite fulled(or felted) wool crafty sites or blogs. I found 3 books at the bookstore but only one used sweaters, the others were for knitted objects that were then fulled to make a specific shape(I don't knit so those don't work for me!).

Here's the stash:





I wish the pictures had come out better. The dark one next to the mint is a medium-dark mossy green and beside it is a navy blue with the lighter top.

The white/cream sweater on the right side has some embroidered detailing and a ribbon sewn around the hood and across the front. Should I remove this before I full? I'm thinking yes. I should probably also do two batches, a light and a dark, huh? And, there are two sweaters that look like they've been accidentally fulled. Should I go ahead and do them again just to make sure or clip a piece to see if it unravels? It is hard to tell on one of them but the other is obvious. Any advice is most welcome!!

Super Bowl Sunday!

First, I made some of this:

(8oz each fat free and regular sour creams, about 6oz light mayo with Hidden Valley Ranch Original Dip Mix)

Then, I made some of these:

(filling of mayo, mustard, relish, egg yolks)

At the same time, I started this:


(orange cake from box with pokes filled with sugar free raspberry jello, frosted with french vanilla cool whip)

Along with this:


(secret recipe chili= pinto beans cooked with salt pork, turkey meat, chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, cayenne, green peppers, onions, tomato sauce and diced tomato)

****updated 9:37pm, MY CHILI WON FORTH PLACE out of TEN!! Wooohooo!****

Then, after I wished for(but didn't get) a nap, I took pictures of these two cuties:


(Jasper snoozing under the nightstand)


(Gypsy-that Jypsy thing just isn't working for me- checking in with her piggies)


(she just knows they'd be great playmates!)

I am wiped out! We are expecting rain tomorrow, a good excuse for movie watching and/or napping!

Just call me Rip!

~~****Updated, 10pm, to say that the kitties are NAMED!! Boy cat is Jasper and girl cat is Jypsy(yes with a J, since his is), no longer Nuala. Five people trying to name two kittens is not fun. We are all happy with these names even if they aren't first choices****~~

I was feeling kinda nappish after lunch today even though we really needed to get to the pet store for some kitty toys and the grocery store for some food. So, I thought I'd take a cat nap before we went. Actually, my intent was to sneak some reading time. I've started the LOTR trilogy again, first time in about nine years. Neeeways, it was 12:44 when I glanced at the alarm clock after climbing under the covers. Next time that happened it was 2:47, when I just happened to wake up to shift or something. The next time was 3:54. Then it took several minutes after that to pry my body from the bed. Not sure yet if I'm refreshed or not but I had some Crazy-Daisy dreams! It truly feels like I stepped into another time.

Now for last night's dinner!! This will probably be the last of the food pictures for a while. I love sharing them but remembering to take pictures at various times during the process isn't something I'm real good at. That and I foresee several days in which I don't cook, or cook something simple like baked potatoes or sandwiches. I am making chili for Ryan's Super Bowl party with his church's youth group but that doesn't sound like good photo fare.


I use this dough for pizza and bread, it is fantabulous!!!


Kids pizzas just into the oven, Ryan's has mushrooms, girls' doesn't.


The grown-ups' pizza just out of the oven, my side is the one with onions.

I divided the dough into three pieces, then one of those in half for the kids. I used one of the thirds for ours and the last third to make a calzone with the leftover meatsauce filling and cheese, which I baked to a dark golden color. It made a huge one and I had a bit of it for lunch today. It was as good as, or better than the pizza was! It was hideously ugly so there wasn't a pic.

Fionnuala and Who??

That's right. He still does NOT have a name! We are down to Seamus(shaymus), Angus, Eamon(ay-mun). I think. Why is this so hard?







I had a name for both of them before they ever got here but Nuala's didn't fit her at all. She was going to be Breda(breeda) but she is definitely a Fionnuala. Boy cat is proving harder to name. His name was Lughaidg(looey) but Noola and Looey don't sound right together, plus it isn't his personality. His previous owner said it might take a while for him to become himself, he's a bit freaked out from the move to our house and becoming an inside cat. It may be a while before he is named then.

I want something Irish but not something real whack. I love Riordan or Tadhg but nobody else is going for it. Or Emmett or Kermit even. Sigh. Whoever he is, he's darn cute!



I'm done with the dinner challenge from Carrie's so I'm not posting my pizza pictures tonight. Maybe I'll put them up tomorrow.

In other news... We joined a health club!! It our birthday present and Mark's too(in April). Both of us need to get in better shape and he has just burned out on running for now. It wasn't as expensive as we first thought but we're only signed up for 3 months to see how it goes. If we like it and it is easy to do, we may re-up for a whole year. The club isn't big at all but they do have lots of equipment and a basketball court for the kids to play on while we work out. The exercise stations are on the sides of the court in "cages" so we can watch and talk to them. I think we're going to get a free eval/program by a personal trainer on Saturday so we'll know how to use the stuff. It has been a looooong time since we've done a health club, like 1991!!

Last Night's Dinner Challenge...

We were expecting rain but it didn't start til after we went to bed. So, I had Mark start the grill and we did Chicken Fajitas(no recipe, these are easy). My favorite part is cooking them and eating them. Oh wait, that's two parts isn't it? Oh well.





In other news... These two ragamuffins came for brunch today and decided to stay. They were born on Halloween and were ready for a new home. Perfect luck wasn't it? We haven't officially settled on names but the girl(right) will most likely be Fionnuala(FinOOla), called Nuala(Noola) for short. Her name, in case you wondered, means "Lady with White Shoulders" in Gaelic. The boy(left) might be Shadow or Seamus, or Lugh, I keep getting shot down with Fergus, Tadgh(Tyg), Angus, and Merlin, among others. They are just adorable and have settled in quite nicely. They are used to kids and other cats so we've not had much to worry with except the boy is a bit more timid that Nuala.

We had fun today!

But I didn't take any pictures(this is a quick, and really bad, pic of a few from my collection). We went to the East Texas Gem and Mineral Society's annual show with another homeschooling family. It was AMAZING!!!! If you are interested in gems and minerals, check out local shows and shops. Here's a list of minerala, Rainbow of Gems to start and a GREAT resource for kids and grown-ups too(I love this site) called, Rocks For Kids. I took my "mammoth tooth" along for the ride to see if I could get it positively identified(I had a feeling it wasn't what I thought). Turns out, it is petrified wood and I'm going to have it cut and polished in the next few weeks! I am hoping for some nice surprises inside!! I love, love, love rocks!!! Rock-a-holic I am.


(Ammonite that belonged to my grandfather, don't know where he got it)
****edited to add this: I'm so glad you told me Rosaline! I figured it was found in Oklahoma but had no idea where. For some reason I was thinking northwest of Rush Springs, don't know why. It is the neatest rock we have, I love it! There were some at the rock show but they were much smaller(about like a smooshed tennis ball), and not nearly as detailed. They were all incomplete like ours, guess it is hard to find a whole one.****

I did manage to keep up with the Dinner challenge, just didn't feel the need to post our dinner on Friday of scrambled eggs in corn tortillas or last night's baked potatoes. Tonight, however, I did a variation on our favorite pizza pasta.



1 chicken breast, cooked in a cup or so of water til done, don't drain unless you have more than a cup of water at this point. Add 20 slices of turkey pepperoni, 20 black olives(halved), 1 can diced tomatoes, 1 can tomato sauce, 1 chicken broth cube, italian seasonings and garlic powder. Simmer for 15 minutes or so. Cook half a box of whole wheat elbow macaroni noodles(amounts are not real important in this). Combine drained noodles, sauce mix, 1 cup cottage cheese, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, and 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, in 9x13 baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes at 350.