Follow Friday 40 and Over!

Happy Friday, Everyone.

Java at Never Growing Old has just started a new Friday follow for those of us who are thirty-ten and over.  So I'm playing along.  You should too!

Thanks for stopping by.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Happy Tuesday, Everyone!  Thanks to the Un-mom , we have Random Tuesday Thoughts.  Go check her out, link up and play along. :)

Sunday was my birthday.  I'm almost in my mid-40's (being ONLY 44, I still consider myself in my early 40's, thank you very much.)  You may have noticed in my side bar that I am now a member of the over 40 bloggers.  That's thanks to my new bloggy friend Java .  Check out her site.  BTW, our lovely Ms. Bambi  isn't over 40 yet, so she can't join.  Although she is a member of AARP.  You'll have to ask her about that.

Speaking of Bambi, I'd like everyone to know how much I love her.  She's the bestest sister in the world and I just can't imagine not having her around.  I say this especially today because one my favorite bloggers, Daffy , has just lost her sister.  My heart goes out to Daffy.  If you have a sister or brother, go now, I'll wait, and send them a note telling them you love them.  Done?  Good.

Today I'm picking up our first share of veggies from a CSA garden that we joined this year.  What's CSA? That stands for community supported agriculture.  It's like a co-op.  You pay to have a share, go out and help pull weeds, or spread mulch, etc., (or pay a little extra if you don't have time to volunteer), then go get fresh, homegrown produce when it's ready.  We actually got some strawberries last week.  They were ready early.  We'll get more this week.  Good thing, 'cause they were amazing!  We'll also be getting lettuce, spinach, kale, radishes, baby carrots, pearl onions, pea shoots, pac choi, cilantro, lemon balm, spearmint, oregano, and savory.  Are you soooo jealous?  You can just imagine how excited the kids are!

Speaking of kids, we had to make an emergency trip to Wally World today.  Yesterday they decided to play in the water with the neighbor kids.  Great idea.  It was hot.  But they needed to have shoes on in the yards (we have dogs, plus one could always step on a bee or something).  So when they came home their sneakers (yes, the only pair they have that they can wear to school) were soaking wet.  I told them to put them on the deck to dry a little then I asked my hubby and kids to remind me to put them in the dryer later that evening.  See where this is going?  Yup.  I forgot (we all forgot) to put them in the dryer. So they are still soaking wet and the kids had no other sneakers to wear.  One of them didn't even have another pair of shoes to wear.  And the one that did, needs sneakers today because they are going on a walking field trip to the park.  I'm not a fan of Wal-mart.  But I have to say that I was glad it was there this morning.

Chili is feeling so much better.  Yesterday she was running around the yard like a puppy.  That made me smile.  And lessens the pain of the $600 surgery.

Well, that's it for today.  Have a great Tuesday!

UPDATE: Here's the produce we picked up today.  So my youngest, with the saddest puppy-dog eyes he could muster, and the corners of his mouth headed straight for the floor, asked, "So, does this mean we have to eat vegetables for dinner?"

Six Word Saturday

Ginger checks out two big frogs.

Boys will be boys, of course.  But I did insist the frogs go back to the creek.  Check out other Six Word Saturdays here .  Then link up and play along!

Sassy Sunday 5/16/2010

Hi Everyone.  It's Sunday.  Time for Sassy Sunday with me, Sassy (of course).  

Well, we've had a busy week.  My poor little Chili (yup, I called her my Chili) had to have surgery.  Barb mentioned it the other day.  She'd had Chili checked out for a limp before.  The vet had told her she had a slippery knee cap.  Not an uncommon thing in little dogs, apparently.  The instructions were just to watch it.  But it got worse.  

So, Barb decided to get a second opinion.  Never hurts.  No one is perfect.  But the new vet said that he couldn't get her knee to slip out, but was sure there was something wrong with her hip.  So he took an x-ray and yup, her hip was broken!  And it was an old break.  We'd been letting her limp around on a broken hip for weeks!  Barb felt soooo bad.  Of course, she was just doing what the other vet had told her.  So it's not her fault, damnit!  

Anyway, Chili had her surgery this week on Tuesday.  Just look at this big incision!

Poor baby.

She is not restricted on movements, except for jumping off stuff.  The vet said to let her do what she wants to do so that she gets her movement back quickly.  She's got to rebuild that muscle that's pretty much wasted away to nothing!

We had some pretty cool visitors in our yard yesterday.  And the people would not let me or Ginger or Chili out to say hello.  I just don't understand.  I wouldn't have eaten them.  Not all of them anyway.

There were 3 boys and a girl.  I like those odds!

OK.  That's it for another Sassy Sunday.  Come back next week, same bat time, same bat channel!
And thanks so much for stopping by!

Treasure

Hi everyone.  Thanks for stopping by.

Today I was supposed to meet my 3rd-grader's class at the Watershed Nature Center for a field trip.  The Watershed is a community treasure.  All of the local schools do field trips there.  I didn't get the memo that they'd cancelled due to weather.  So I decided to walk the trail myself.  And since I had my camera with me.....

There is a beautiful walking trail through the woods.

There is an amphitheater.  And lots of birds.

and some other stuff

like a thousand wishes

Well, I gotta go pick up a kid.  Thanks for sharing the watershed with me! (I did see two people walking their dogs, but, for Ed's sake, did not take their pictures.)

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Hi All,
Thanks to our good friend Keely at the Un-Mom for Random Tuesday Thoughts.  Stop by, link up and give us all your random thoughts!

Why is there a fishing tackle box on the kitchen table?  Well, I know the reason.  A kid left it there.  So now the question is do I put it away?  Or do I wait for said kid to do it?

I'm quite upset a little unhappy with my vet today.  My sweet little Chili is about to have surgery for a broken hip.  A broken hip that was missed by my vet.  He told me a couple of weeks ago that she had a luxating patella (that her knee cap slips out of place) and that we should just watch it.  Well, I took her to a different vet yesterday to get a second opinion and he said her knee caps are fine (showed me on the x-ray) and that she has a broken hip!  She also has hip dysplasia, poor thing.  So now she's in surgery.  A surgery she should have had weeks ago.  Ok, I know no one is perfect.  But this is the third major misdiagnosis I know of by this vet.  I've been trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.  But I'm switching.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate the laundry?

I had to have the dishwasher repair man here today.  Hopefully, now our dishes will come out without the crust of sandy, gunky stuff they've had for the last some time.  Poor guy even cut himself on a shard of glass he found in the bottom of the dishwasher.

Spooky has decided to forgive me for leaving him for 4 days.  Night before last he wouldn't sleep with me.  He usually does.  He came back last night.  I slept much better night before last.

Well, I'd better get to the laundry.  Go see Keely
And thanks for stopping by!

Memoir Monday - Meeting More Bloggers!

Hey Everyone!  Monday yet again.  If you visited me last Monday, you'd have learned that I met several wonderful bloggers at the Tornado Alley Roundup 2010.  It was great!

Well, this past week I got to meet another one of my favorite bloggers.  Her name is Sara and her blog is Turning Stones.  I missed getting to meet her last year when she hosted Blog Camp Reno (Bambi was there) and again when I was in Reno over Christmas (although Bambi went to see her without taking me).  So this trip to Reno I made sure to call her and invite her to lunch.  She accepted and here we are with our other sometime (not-really) blogger Zena.  (and we called Bambi to make sure she knew we were having lunch without her.)  (But I'm not bitter about having missed blog camp Reno or the visit to Sara's at Christmas!)

I realized after this wonderful lunch that I'm wearing the same shirt I wore to the TAR party last weekend.  Maybe this should be my lucky-meeting-bloggers shirt.

Why was I in Reno? you may wonder.  Well, it wasn't just to meet Sara.  I was there to help my sister and mom unpack.  Ya see, my big sis just moved in with our "Outrageous Older Woman" mom.

(I stole borrowed this picture from Bambi so the focus is her issue)

(BTW, I love Bambi.  It may seem that I'm slamming her a bit this morning.  But really, I love her.  She's the best baby sis anyone could ask for!)

Here is a not so great cell-phone pic of what the dining room looked like when I got there.  Once we got down to it, we had all those boxes unpacked in less than a day.  Why had they been sitting there for over a week?  I guess my sister was just waiting for me to get there.  No wonder my mom was stressed and begged me to come help!  Anyway, I unpacked box after box for 3 and a half days.  When I left there was still a bit of a mess and lots of stuff that needed to be put away, but at least all of the boxes were cleared out of the dining room and mostly out of the kitchen.  

Combing households is never an easy thing to do.  I kept suggesting we donate stuff as I pulled it out of the boxes.  My sis was ready to donate me by the time I left.  But one combination from the two households seems to be working out just fine.  It started out a little tense, but as you can see, CJ (my mom's cat) and Missy (my sister's dog) are now friends.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Be sure to go see Travis for more Memoir Monday fun.  It's his baby and we love him for it!

Memoir Monday

Hi All.  It's Monday (I know, Monday's half over.  But I had shit to do this morning!) so it's time for Memoir Monday, thanks to my good friend Travis .  Go check him out.  He loves it!

So I'll be telling y'all about TAR.  That stands for Tornado Alley Roundup and Bambi and I got to go and meet a great bunch of Tornado Alley bloggers that had come to St. Louis to bond with each other.  (that means drink).

So, Bambs and I show up Friday night at the hotel looking for a bunch of wise guys wearing TAR t-shirts. We didn't find any.  So we called Travis.  He said Ed and Coffeypot were there and asked Bambi what we were wearing.  We said nothing!  So he called Ed and told him to look for two naked ladies with big cameras.  He found us right away.  (it was the cameras that gave it away).  Ed pointed out Mr. Coffeypot and Bambi made her way over there and got comfortable.

We chatted awhile, got to know each other, took a tour of the hotel and waited for Travis, the missus, and Kid Funk to get there.  Finally, we got our shirts!  Here's Travis modeling his. :)

We headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe for some dinner.

Travis even did the YMCA song.

Then we headed back to the hotel (in the pouring rain) to have a nightcap and wait for Ms. Daffy to paddle in.

Here are Ed, Daffy and Kid Funk.  It was a really good think Daffy got there before Bambi and I had to leave.  She taught us some very important signs in sign language.  Here are Travis and Bambi practicing the sign for "penis".

Then, alas, it was time for us to leave.  But we had a great time.  I wish we'd have been able to join them on Saturday.  I'm most sorry, Jeff , that we didn't get to meet you!  If you want to know what they did to St. Louis that day, go see Ed or Travis.  They've both got their memoirs up!

Thanks for stopping by.

Barb

Sassy Sunday

Hi, Everyone.  Sassy here.  Or I guess you could just call me "the pillow".  Well, I guess I don't mind Chili sleeping on me too much.  Except that she snores.

We were trying to figure out how we could house a momma dog and her nine newborn puppies at our house.  Barb really wanted it to happen.  The momma had her puppies at animal control and they are all scheduled to die tomorrow.  But, of course, Kim and Jackie aren't about to let that happen.  So they were scrambling to find a foster home for them.  They usually keep these cases at their own house, but they have 2 momma dogs and their litters at the moment!  Anyway, the vet tech that works for the vet they use in Alton is going to take them to her house.  I guess that's probably better than here.  But it would have been fun.

There are also 3 St. Bernard puppies at animal control.  Their time is also up tomorrow.  The breeder couldn't sell them so he dumped them.  Jackie doesn't usually post animals for adoption before she rescues them, but she just doesn't have room for them right now.  So the nice people at animal control took pictures of them and sent them to Jackie.  She posted them on the website and they all have homes waiting for them when they get rescued tomorrow!  Wanna see them?

Well, I don't have much more today.  Thanks for stopping by.  And be sure to come back tomorrow for Memoir Monday.  Barb met a bunch of mid-west bloggers over the weekend and there will be pictures!  She had a great time. :)

Sassy