If its not one thing, its a mother...

And I don't mean mine!! Yesterday afternoon my lovely 18-year-old Suburban, affectionately known as "The White Jeep" broke down on me. Sarah and I had gone to get our raw milk and visit for a while and when we got ready to leave it wouldn't turn over. It wasn't the battery, nope couldn't be that simple(or cheap).



(The White Jeep)

Its the fuel pump!! Yeah! Soooo, $400 will vanish before our eyes. But, at least I wasn't at the farm collecting the milk!! That's about 50 miles from here. And, at least it wasn't dark yet, or cold or in a parking lot somewhere. Mark happened to be right around the corner, literally, playing racquetball with a co-worker so he was able to come get us right away. I got up at 5:30 to take Mark to work so he could get a vehicle to drive to the health club. Our homeschool park day is today so I had to. Thank God for coffee.

Last night I had a dream about Tom dying. There was a big, wide staircase with metal railing in the middle of an atrium(like an office building or mall might have) and Tom was wanting to come down, or go up, I couldn't tell. A black cat(our long-deceased Blackie) had scared him so he couldn't decide which way to go. Then our Junior cat(also deceased) came down and helped them both up the stairs to some hay bales that were covered with soft blankets and rugs. It was a very strange dream. Tom is worse today than he has been so I'm going to take him home tonight and let them have him put to sleep. I think it is time.

My computer is back to hating my camera so I can't show you the pictures of the girls' newly painted room, or the cute shot of Jasper playing with a toy under my computer chair. Grrrr. I will try to get it going again tonight. This afternoon when we get back from the park I have to touch up a few thin spots of paint and then we can move the furniture back! I'm looking forward to having a few days to play with my needle felting stuff finally. This weekend I'll get our room prepped for painting and start that on Monday of next week(I think). When I went back to Lowe's to get that second gallon(of course), I asked about the purpleness of the gray paint. They guy said that my swatches were probably not big enough and were playing against the yellowness, think vanilla ice cream, of the existing paint. That made sense, the dirty looking beige-peachy-pink color of the girls' room really brightened up to a lovely pink shade when I started putting the blue on the walls. Anyway, I came home and put a BIG swatch on a few walls and it doesn't look nearly as purple. Whew. It will be a beautiful shade in the end.

Photo from my stash:


(MarySunshine)

This is a coy-dog. Mom was an Australian Cattle Dog, dad was a Coyote. She belonged to some of my cousins in Oklahoma but sadly was killed by a car on their country road several years ago.

Play all night, play a little longer... purr all night, purr a little longer...

(Jasper a few days ago)

(Gypsy a few days ago)

(Both, right after we got them)

Aren't they CUTE??? I love how Jasper is peering in that last picture, shows his personality for sure! He's definitely well adjusted to us and isn't afraid of much these days. He isn't as loving as his sister but he does purr when we scratch his chin and face. Gypsy gets on our bed at night and just purrs and purrs, she's such a sweetie!


(Rosie after her second favorite thing, the first being food)


(Ruby having a nap with friends on the girls' quilt)

Ruby and Rosie are the same as they've always been. They've adjusted well to the new babies but aren't ready to be friends yet. Ruby does act like she wants to play with them. I wish she'd join in and see what happens. Muffin is still our ghost cat, we rarely see her.


(Tom napping on the coffee table- he rarely sleeps there any more, having taken up in a corner in our bedroom)

Tom is still among the living but definitely slowing down. I'm thinking he won't be around come Springtime. He seems to want to be here more than his owner's home, in fact, he hasn't asked to go outside since Valentine's Day. I think he is lonely and wants our company. Why else would a cat who has always been a mostly outdoor "only cat" decide to move in with a family that already has 5 cats, 4 dogs(2 who want to eat him), all the guinea pigs and 3 kids who are home all day long. It has to be complete chaos to him compared to his first 15 years! I do feel really bad for his owners, I know their dad misses him, but they know he is being taken care of over here. If they thought we were neglecting him I feel sure they'd come get him. Still, it makes me wonder why he doesn't find a nice corner in their home to live out the rest of his days, there must be something missing over there that he gets here. Animals are funny critters sometimes. I tried to turn him out on Saturday afternoon. I carried him across the street, put him in their yard and clapped my hands to make him go up to the door. As I neared our front door, I turned around to see where he'd gone and he was causing a traffic jam coming back across the street to us. Sigh. Guess he loves us!

We're having Turkey Tacos for dinner tonight, no recipe. I'm about to get the first coat finished up on the girls' room, pictures tomorrow!!! One more coat on theirs then I get to start ours. Yeah!!!

Dogs and their Bones...

I *must* get more of these, the doggies LOVED them!!!


(Buddy)


(Daisy)


(Buttercup)
****edited for this update****
I'm still painting today, in the girls' room. And drinking coffee. But, the Obama rally was yesterday, another classic case of our online newspaper not being very well organized, it was listed as a headline for today. We would have gone had I known about it. Drat. It makes me curious though, the campaign headquarters are in the exact same area that the flashlight/pipe bomb was found last week(when we took the dogs for their shots). I mean, probably within 50 yards or so, sounds pretty dang fishy to me anyway... And, there was grafitti on the walls this morning, some idiots who couldn't spell "racist" if their lives depended on it. Stupid dingdongs spelled it "racits".

The post in which I catch up... sort of....

Weather-wise:


(full moon)
This is the night before the eclipse, also the last time we had a clear sky. It was supposed to be 60 yesterday and it got to 38. Yeah, well maybe it got near 60 in the early morning hours, I did see it at 52 when I woke up but 38 by 2:30?? Come on! The low last night was supposed to be 38 but it was 33 when I checked at 8:30 this morning, it was also supposed to be sunny yesterday and today. Hahaha. I get weather-induced headaches occasionally, due to barometric pressure changes, and I'm going on day five with a bad one. I'm more than ready for this weather weirdness to blow out of here. Mark and Ryan have a fishing trip planned for Sunday morning, hopefully things will be as they should be by then.

Piggie-wise:


(the girls, clockwise from the left, Rainbow, Shimmer and Magic Panda)
We are still deciding what to do with Bevo. He is so aggressive with Basil and starting to be mean to Moonshine as well, plus he now nips at us! We will probably build a coroplast cage to put on the top of their existing cage. Right now they are sharing a cage divided down the middle with grid squares but it is not healthy for them to be in such a small space long term. The fleece bedding and alfalfa litter boxes get changed twice a week(per cage) so I was really hoping not to have another one added to that mix.

The other stuff:


(LNJ photo)
Lets see... The week we saw Bill Clinton was a busy one. We were gone EVERY day, for hours at a time! This is not like us and we don't enjoy being away from the house like that. It is all such a blur that I can't even remember exactly what it was that we did, I think its the week Ryan had his orthodontist visit maybe.... I do recall going to the health club every other day to work out and going to get the milk, taking the kitties for shots and worming, going to Park Day, grocery shopping, Ryan having church and then two friends spending the night on Saturday, health club for 2 hours on Sunday...

Oh yeah and I made the BIG(and painful) decision to give away the rest of my homeschool books. I had about 2,500 books to sell. Several weeks ago I put an ad in the paper and 9 people showed up. I made about $60, maybe. Very disappointing. So, rather than hang on to the 3/4 of them that were leftover, I offered them up for FREE. I had two people inquire. TWO. The first woman drove about an hour to get them on Friday and said that if nobody else got the others she'd come back the next day. So she did. Two carloads(trunk, back seat and passenger seat) of books left our garage. I wish her well with them! It really is nice to have the space freed up in the garage too.

This week has been just as crazy. We had an early park day on Tuesday, then that afternoon we took the female dogs for their shots. Already, a neighboring county has found 4 rabid skunks this season. Dragging the dogs to the clinic is an ordeal of epic proportions, trust me. Buttercup is stronger than a pony and Daisy is freaked-out scared and aggressive at the same time and Puppy-girl is just her contrary old self. It is definitely an adventure. A woman arrived after they closed, complaining that she was late because traffic was being re-routed. We later learned that the city's police department had the other end of the road blocked off because someone found a bomb-yes a real bomb-in his hedge just yards from the clinic. Oh joy.


(chrome shelf, very lightly "decorated")
Tuesday night I made Mark take me to Target to look for containers to put my fabric in, like what Sarah has at The Misadventures of Mama and Jack(or click for her Feb 19th entry). I didn't find any to my liking(big enough or cheap enough-they weren't $6 at my Target, they were $19 or something) but did find a really nice chrome shelf. It is HUGE!! 72 inches tall by 48 inches wide by 18 inches deep huge. This is to hold all the fabric that has been stashed in two very large rubbermaid bins and many, many smaller containers. I'm going to make a flat panel curtain to hide the contents, something that will cover the top and hang down in the front and on either side, with tie-backs for when I need to see whats in there.

I worked out Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we did Books-a-Million Thursday, Wednesday Sarah had a play date with one of the other homeschool families in our group, and I've been up to my eyeballs in fabric and....


(valspar signature color, Sterling)
When I dropped Sarah off at her friend's house I ran up to Lowe's and got paint for our bedrooms. Yes I did! Ours is the gray, "Sterling" and the girls' room is called "Woodlawn Blue Angel", a pretty sky blue. It is hard to choose a gray that doesn't end up too blue or too brown or too something other than gray. When I first did the test areas it had a slightly purple cast to it but has since cured to be more gray. At first I didn't like it but now I LOVE it and can't wait til the walls are totally covered.

Other decisions include:

Headboard. It will be a simple wooden shape, possibly rounded slightly but maybe just rectangular, that will be attached to the bedframe. I'll cover it with foam and batting and a basic white fabric and make a few different slip covers for it with ties on the ends. This might be a few weeks down the road.

Curtains. Some kind of tab tops, maybe tied to shaker pegs mounted above the window or a nice decorative pole. Currently we have some vanilla ice cream-colored brocade formal pleated curtains but they aren't my style at all. The only reason they are up is because they are heavily lined and keep the light out. Our neighbors have floodlights on their shop that shine in our window all night long so we have to have something very heavy to keep the room dark enough for me. We might do blinds but I'd rather not. I am a true princess and can't have even the slightest beam of light hitting a wall, the clock and other electronics have to be covered as well.

Quilt. I have picked a pattern and fabrics for a new quilt as well. It will be a Turning Twenty Again for our bedroom, out of deep blues and purples with some teals. The main fabric is a stormy background(in deep blues) with a large whitish-gray unicorn on it, accented with silver threads. Just beautiful, a lot whimsical, but dramatic and strong at the same time.(pics later) I've also decided to make my Anvil Quilt big enough for our bed. Its done in vintage fabrics and 30s repros with a buttery yellow background(pic in my sideline-in UFOs I think). At first I was just going to do it for a child's cuddle quilt but it will look great with the wall color so there!

After Lowe's, I went by the gym and did my workout, then got Sarah and we headed to Hobby Lobby for a picture frame for my print of Sarafina Shimmerfoot. Back in January I entered the naming contest at Art and Ghosts and WON!! The prize was a book, Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing, but the REAL prize was Sarafina! She is beautiful and I'm so happy to have her!! A nice bonus that she matches our (new)room so well.

I also bought myself a needle punch felting contraption. A bristly rectangle base and a 5-needle punching device, plus a bag of roving in pretty Easter colors. I had this less than 24 hours before Sarah got hold of it and broke 4 of the 5(veryfragileverysharpverydangerous) barbed needles. So far we've only found 2 tips. I'll have to replace that part before I can continue. To console myself, I might have to buy a book that I saw at BAM, Needlefelting by Hand or Machine, by Linda Turner Griepentrog and Pauline Wilde Richards. Meanwhile, I did manage to snap a picture of the whole shebang with my practice piece. This could easily become my next favorite thing, it is VERY addictive!


(Rosie as prop master)

Friday night I made a new recipe! Made it up, that is...

Spicy Chicken Corn Chowder (serves 10, about 5 points per serving)(no pics, batteries dead)

3 large bone/skinless chicken breasts, in small cubes
1 onion, chopped
3 medium potatoes, in small cubes(smaller than the chicken)
6 cups water, or to cover potatoes
3 cups frozen corn
1 can green chilis
1/2 cup green chili salsa or tomatillo salsa(mine was rather spicy-you'll want it that way)
garlic powder, oregano, and cumin(about 1-2 teaspoons each)
2-3 cups milk(this will depend on how juicy you want your chowder)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup grated cheese plus extra for serving(jack or cheddar, whatever you like)
tortilla chips, crushed

Dice potatoes and bring to boil in the water.

Dice the chicken and brown with the onion. I did this in a non-stick skillet and used no oil. After it is well browned, add the corn, chilis, salsa and spices, mixing well. Turn down to low and stir now and then. When the potatoes are tender, scoop out much of the water, leaving about 2 cups or so. Add chicken mixture and heat for 30 minutes or so on low heat, covered(I did this because I had to take Ryan to church and wasn't ready for the next part). Add the milk, sour cream and cheese, heat through for about 10 minutes, and serve over crushed chips and more cheese.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming! I hope to be blogging more regularly next week. I've got more to tell, more to share and all that good stuff.

Have a great weekend!!!

up for air

(South Toe River, Carolina Hemlocks Recreational Area)

I've got lots of stuff(good stuff) going on so I probably won't get to post til the weekend, then it will likely be a blog explosion like never before!! I feel like I'm in the rapids, things are going on, decisions have been made, tasks are being completed(mostly), it is crazy! But, I am nearing the calm, deep pool. What does this all mean? Nothing wild and crazy just that things are hectic here. But I did win some stuff and have received it all, need pics to go with. Hopefully I'll be through the fast waters soon.

It Isn't Every Day That a President Comes to Town...

But boy is it exciting when it happens!!

(Les Hassell, Longview News-Journal photo)

(Molly's photo)

Only 3 Days til the Weekend!!

It is only Wednesday but already it has been a long week. Monday I was nursing sick kids, yesterday we had to run errands and today we had to take Ryan to the orthodontist to get started on his braces. He is completely healed from having his adenoids out so they should be able to get him going real soon. Turns out he's gonna need about $40,000 worth of work done on his mouth, including a jaw extending surgery. We have to find an insurance plan that will pay, currently his state insurance will not.

We went to the gym so I could work out after that and had lunch with Mark at the mall. That, of course, included a shopping spree at Bath and Body Works where I picked up hand sanitizer for $3 and some new lotion. Sometime this afternoon we'll stop by our co-op leader's home to pick up our raw milk for the week and I think I'm dropping Sarah off there for a play date. Whew! And I still have to get some crafty things and housework done.

Last night we had Beer and Brats, inspired by Sadira of Foolsewoode fame. I browned them in a skillet and then simmered in beer til cooked through. I also simmered some cabbage but I'm the only one who ate it. They just don't know what they're missing!

That's Shiner Bock from Shiner, Texas. Love that stuff!


This was Ryan's with yellow mustard. Yes, the plate matches the cookie jar cat. I got them at Mervyn's several years ago along with coffee mugs, each plate and mug has a different cat.


I like mine with grainy mustard.


Doesn't this look healthy? Why won't they eat it?

In other news....

There isn't any other news today, except that the woman who sued Mark's company was awarded $15,000 but the other party(not their driver) in the wreck is having to pay 90% of the costs because he was at fault for running a red light(as per several eye witnesses). Of course, this is the guy who never showed up and they were unable to reach so good luck wth that. Mark overheard the woman's lawyer complaining to the judge that he'd already spent $30K on this mess so I guess someone is out some money. She should have taken the settlement. 'tard.

Oh, and I think the oil company is about to start tearing up our driveway. They have a leaky saline line that bursts about every 2-3 months and they've probably gotten some heat from the city about fixing it permanently(instead of the way they have been) since they don't have a stake out there with the company name or phone number and the city has to send out a fire truck and track down the owners every time so they can come out and put duck tape on it(or whatever they do that hasn't worked to this point). Last week they went up and down for 3 blocks marking the natural gas, phone, and water lines, now they have turquoise(water?) pipes on site along with a bunch of "bubbas" standing around staring at it. Looks like we may be parking in the street for a while.