Monday, December 31, 2007 & Last Day of the Year

This is probably going to be a long blog, so get ready!

We're not going to eat black eyed peas tomorrow. We sometimes do on Jan. 1, but usually we skip them. However, we had them last January 1. And then we had one of the worst years we've ever had! So we're thinking that maybe we should just not have them this time. Instead, being the Texans we are, we're having tamales. I bought them at the grocery store, but they were made in Texas. So we're hopeful, but not overly optimistic. But being typical Texans, we will be covering them with chili and picante sauce anyway!

Ok, here goes:

2007 (Good & Bad)

January: my cholesterol levels were a little higher than my doctor wanted, so I started watching the fat I consumed. I had lost about 10 pounds before I saw the doctor and I kept that up after the physical. So that is good, because high cholesterol with the family heart history is not a good thing and I'm glad that I know.

February: this is when things really started to go bad on us. I had my major nosebleed that wouldn't stop and ended with getting my nasal passages frozen. Even then, the emergency clinic doctor was very concerned that it would start again and he gave me strict instructions about going straight to the hospital ER and not to drive myself (like I did when I saw him). I did have a small one several days later, but it stopped pretty quickly so I didn't have to go to the ER. But it was dicey for a while.

March: Otter's turn for a nosebleed, no warning just a sudden gushing - like mine, only hers was from both sides of her nose. I tossed her in the car and we went straight to the ER. Her nasal passages were cauterized. Which I think was actually worse than the freezing process I had to deal with. That happened a couple of days before her annual physical, her doctor said that everything the ER doctor did is what she would have done and that going to the ER was the right decision. Which is good, nice that she agreed with me - she's one of the few doctor's we've ever used that doesn't think that she's God and can run our lives.

March continued, and this time it was my turn! Although I actually think it started in February, but I didn't know the pancreatitis symptoms. However, now I do and looking back I can say that I was sick for several weeks before the night of the 24th. I had actually had a couple of instances where I threw up in the couple of weeks leading up to the 24th and I'd been dealing with a sudden, severe pain - especially after I ate, in my upper right side of my abdomen, just underneath my rib cage and that was getting more frequent and worse each time. But none of my spells were nearly as bad as that night, which culminated in a trip to the ER early on the morning of the 25th and then a week in the hospital with gall bladder surgery. And then another week off, trying to recover. It took me a good 6 weeks to get back to normal after the surgery, which is mostly because of the massive (and honestly close to being fatal) case of pancreatitis I had.

April & May: Reasonably good, April was a very slow month for me with my recovery, and then we spent a lot of May with a tenant who was thinking of moving out. I think that May is also when it started raining, which continued pretty much non-stop for a couple of months! Otter had a 15th birthday party in April, at a skating rink and she had a great time. She has a bunch of really nice friends, and we're very happy with the school system.

June: June was a pretty good month, Otter went to camp for a week which she loved, she came back on a Saturday and then on the next Wednesday she flew to Texas to spend a week with Nana and she is still talking about how much fun she had. When she came back, she brought Froggy with her for a week - and I'm still talking about how much fun that was! (Froggy, you'd better plan on making it an annual thing where you come see me.) However, June also had a major ear infection for Bill which also necessitated a trip to the ER because he only gets sick in the middle of the night! That was his second round, but I think the first one was in 2006.

July: The rain finally quit for the most part. We had a very nice visit from Bill's brother & his wife, their kids, his sister, her kids. We had fireworks at our house on the 3rd, and the plan was to go to Don and Darlene's on the 4th. But then Bill woke up sick that day, I think he had a bladder infection but he also might have had a kidney stone. Also, July is when our tenant finally made up his mind between staying in the house, buying it from us or moving back to New York. He chose to move back, which we were hoping that if he did move it would be by the end of June since we had time off in July and would have been able to get the work done then.

August: the rent house took up a lot of our time, as it took us weeks longer than we anticipated to get it ready to rent out again. However, a lot of that delay was caused by Bill's Adventures! I think it was on Tuesday the 7th, but it might have been on Wednesday the 8th. The trailer hitch broke, causing the tongue of the trailer to swing and hit him in the back of his right ankle. I'm still not sure how he managed to keep from tearing the achilles tendon, the doctor showed it to me and all I can say is that he must have a pretty strong guardian angel! Well, of course he does - that angel gets regular workouts with Bill! He was unable to work for several days, then he was on light duty for most of the month and the rent house was done but it took us a long time. However, there is a silver lining to Bill being unable to do anything strenuous. We had a heat wave in August, it hit when Bill was planning on scraping down & repainting the garage at the rent house - and if he hadn't had his accident, I am firmly convinced that he would have had heat stroke. So while I would have preferred that he not get hurt at all, maybe there was a Reason?

We did quite a bit to the rent house. We had the hardwood floors repaired & refinished, they look fantastic. We replaced the sliding door in the master bedroom with french doors, we replaced the carpet in that same room. All three bedrooms and the bathroom were repainted. We replaced some of the mini-blinds, the front bay window has vertical blinds that were originally on the sliding door in the master bedroom. There were a lot of little things that had to be done, heater vent covers and stuff like that. It kept us very busy. Also some of the wood around the doors, etc., was replaced & repainted.

Otter also started high school in August. She's growing up on us and we don't like it! But I don't think that we can do anything about that.

September was pretty uneventual, which was a nice change. And the rent house was rented, the new tenants actually moved in at the last of the month but we were just glad that it was no longer vacant.

I think October and November were pretty quiet. Quiet months are nice!
Also in November, I stepped on a scale when we got our flu shots and I've lost just about 50 pounds! November was a good month, we had a great Thanksgiving. It was at our house this year. Bill and Don got to stand out on the back deck, on a slightly cold day, and deep-fry the turkey. The girls and the dogs were smart - we all stayed inside!

December. Well, it's been an interesting month! On Sunday the 9th, we were awakened at 3:00 a.m. by the sound of our power going out. Which was kind of expected, we knew we were in for an ice storm. But I don't think anyone expected that it would be as bad as it actually was. Some places in Tulsa did not get electricity back until right AFTER Christmas. Ours came back on Tuesday afternoon, we didn't lose anything out of the freezer although I think we are in the minority there. The entire area was crippled, although we personally did ok because we are always prepared. Comes from the first winter we were in Oklahoma and not being able to get out for groceries! So I always have a couple of days worth of canned food & water on hand, and we had enough firewood to last for a while. As well as a lot of blankets. And now we have even more firewood!

I've already posted the pictures of the immediate ice storm damage, although it got a lot worse. So I'm not going to put those back up here, you can look back several days if you want to see them again. It's going to really interesting in the spring, when the trees start to bud out again and it will be obvious just how badly damaged they are. Not just ours, but everywhere. We took down the two in the front yesterday that we knew had to come down. There are still two more out there, and the ones in the back that we are not sure about yet. One of the ones in the front, the one by the mailbox, turned out to have quite a few spots where it had wood ants in the middle of it and it might not have survived a good wind storm so I guess that the ice damage to it was a blessing in disguise. But the front yard looks very different this morning.

Also in December, after months of searching and prayer we finally found our church. We had actually joined a different church toward the end of last year, but it was never a good fit and we were never really satisifed with it. So we kept looking, and we finally found the right one for us. So we joined it in early December and we've been very happy with it.

We have spent a lot of money on medical bills this year, so we will at least get a little bit of a tax break on that. Also, there are the expenses connected with the rent house which will also help come tax time. We've pretty much ended the eBay stuff, we will still have overhead projectors for a while and the occasional other stuff but for all intents and purposes, I am done with eBay. Bill handles the overheads, so he'll still have some stuff to do with it. We might eventually start it back up again, but that's doubtful. It was fun, it was a lot of work and it did make us some money but eBay - like everything else - has changed and evolved and it's not like it used to be. It can still work, but it would have to be a full-time job and there are so many things that we would have to do differently now that we just don't really think it's worth it. However, I'm still going to shop there! We just won't sell much on it.

Frasier and Maggie have also kept us entertained. Maggie learned to dance, Frasier learned the joys of an electric fence. They are a lot of fun and we are glad we have them. Frasier came to us 2 years ago tomorrow. Maggie was the next March.

We're going to have a quiet New Year's Eve. Otter is going to her friends house for a party then spending the night there, I think that Bill and I are going to have nachos and a margarita or two, and probably a very early night. Fireworks are not too big up here this time of year, probably because it's too cold!

But since it is Dec. 31st, I've been thinking of 1999 and all the Y2K stuff. I remember going to the grocery store the afternoon of Dec. 31st, I think we had about 4 things on our list and they were stuff like coke & chips. And we had to stand in a very long line at the checkout because so many people were stocking up! The cashier told me that it had been like that all day, and that we were about the only people she'd had to check out that were not acting crazy. It was kind of fun, people watching that day!

We'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and here's hoping that 2008 will be a good year for everyone! Although it is an election year, so there will be a lot to watch! Silly season is about to start.

And 2008 is also the year that Otter should be earing her Black Belt! Yes, she's finally there. Or nearly there, and we are very proud of her.

I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK!...

Next line is: I works all night and I sleeps all day. The rest of the song, well let's just say that it has some gender confusion! (I put on women's clothing and hang around in bars. I wish I was a girlie, just like my dear Papa!) It's sung by a man, by the way. Anyone who is a Monty Python addict like we are will understand why it's so darn funny.

Anyway, we took two trees down in the front yard today. Sometimes I wish that Bill was not an engineer, because then maybe he wouldn't always have to do everything himself! But no major accidents at least. Bill rammed his knee with a log, Otter got a couple of near misses with splinters and my heel is about to kill me. But all in all, it was a day without any Bill Land Adventures so we're happy. Bill and the chainsaw are not terms that go easily together!

We have so much firewood. I can't even begin to guess how much, but several cords at least. We got home from church just before noon, had lunch and then headed out to the front yard. It's just past 5:00 now, and we just now came in. Otter had a chore list, she hates those but she did all the stuff I asked her to do without complaining. Then she came out in time to watch her father playing Lumberjack and then she helped haul firewood.

I was going to do my year-end comments, but I'm just too tired tonight so they will have to wait until tomorrow. Otter will be going to her friend's house for a New Year's eve party and then spending the night over there tomorrow night. But I don't think we're going to be up to any celebrating - we'll probably be too sore to even move!

All for now, a hot shower & a couple of ibuprofen are waiting on me!

Saturday Evening, Trees Tomorrow!

Or at least one tree tomorrow. It is supposed to be cool, but not rainy or anything. So after church, we are going to take down at least one tree. This is something I have some serious reservations about, but we all know Bill and how stubborn he can be!

So after church, I'll run up to the recycling center and drop off our stuff and then when I get home we will get started. The tree we are starting with is the one by the mailbox, right at the corner of the driveway by the street.

I gave Frasier a good brushing this morning. I was petting him and I noticed that my hand was literally covered with dog hair and that it was also flying around him. So I got the dog brush and attacked him. I have a small trash can in the living room. It is literally FULL of dog hair that came off of Frasier! And he looks like he's lost weight, he was very fluffy and now he looks nice & sleek. Of course, I then had to go change my clothes because I was covered in fur. The carpet doesn't look like it ever got vacuumed, so Otter will hit it again in the morning. I'm still amazed at how much hair came off of that dog and how different he looks. For one thing, he's a lot darker than he was before and you can really see the shepard in him. He's been brushed out before, it's not like he's never been de-furred but normally it doesn't change his appearance so much! Of course, once the Magginator saw what was happening she had to come running over for her turn. They both love to get brushed.

And I think that Frasier slept on the new flannel I put down for him. I heard him come into the bedroom sometime in the night, he kind of snorted which I think was his comment on the lack of a pillow but I think he got over that and spent at least part of the night in the bedroom because the flannel was rearranged. Poor deprived dog, he didn't get to sleep on pillows!

Other than that, it's been an uneventful day. My heel is still hurting, but it is better. I've stayed off of it as much as I could today, unlike the last few days. I don't even want to think about tomorrow's activities and how they will affect my foot! Otter is going to be helping, she'll be raking the yard and getting up all the misc. sticks that are still there. They hide under the leaves and I generally find them by tripping over them.

No Lumberjack Songs Sung at My House Yet!

Anybody who is a Monty Python fan will understand what I mean by that title. "I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok..."

We were going to tackle the trees on Wednesday but the forecast was for rain and/or snow. So of course we had neither. Then we decided on today, but the forecast was similar to Wednesday. It's been sunny and dry all day long! We are possibly aiming for Sunday afternoon, but the forecast is the same. Our other day is Monday, rain or shine!

I've been using one of Bill's crutches since yesterday, at least around the house. Plantar Fasciatis is not for the faint of heart! But the crutch does help.

The house is de-Christmased! We took the tree down this afternoon and put everything away. Then Otter had to vacuum the living room, which I don't think she was too pleased about but Oh Well!

Maggie Beagle is in disgrace. Bill was in the garage, he heard her trying to take something out the doggie door and when he checked - she had a dvd case in her mouth! As soon as she saw him, she dropped it and then she scooted out the doggie door as fast as she could. And then she stayed out for several hours. Little art-fay! So now I'm not really sure which dog took the ornament out or which dog bit the other ornament. One of them is a bad influence on the other, we just don't know which is which.

Frasier has taken to sleeping at the foot of our bed, so I bought a remnant piece of fleece-type fabric at Wallyworld and put it where he's been sleeping, we'll see if he sleeps on it. I usually toss the decorative pillows at the foot of the bed, and he's been sleeping on them. But I don't want him to sleep on them, so we'll see if he likes his $1.17 new bedding! It's about as soft as the fleece blanket that he sleeps on in the living room. If he doesn't like it, then he's out of luck and can sleep on the carpet. Spoiled dog. They both are, actually!

Later in the day on Thursday the 27th

Also known as Motorcycle Day! Right, Toadly? (Explanation: Toadly wanted a motorcycle for Christmas. Instead he got a little sister. I've been known as motorcycle to my brother for 46 years!)

We left the house about 10:30 and went to several places. Garden Ridge, Tandy Leather, a mall, Salvation Army. And I did not find a thing! Why is it that when I have money and time, I can hardly find anything to buy but when I'm in a hurry or broke, there are deals everywhere!?! Oh well, I'll just keep looking I guess.

We went to Incredible Pizza for my birthday lunch. Otter did a lot of work for me at work over the summer, and she chose games at I. P. instead of being paid, and we had intended to go at the end of the summer. Right about the time that Bill had the trailer hitch accident that nearly broke his ankle. So we decided to put it off a few weeks and then we forgot about it. Driving past the place a few weeks ago, she and I both remembered so we decided to just go this week since we are all off. Then I decided that I wanted to just make it my birthday lunch. And I'm really glad that we went today, because on Thursdays (maybe just this month, I'm not sure), if you buy or recharge a game card when you place your buffet order & pay then you get double the game money! So for $20.00, Otter got $40.00 worth of games. The food is pretty good, too. As soon as we finished eating, she was off and running and the big kid I call Bill also got several games in. We spent a little over 2 hours there and we all had a great time. Otter drove the go-carts again, and she chose a fast car. And she promptly bounced off the side when she was rounding the first curve! But it didn't slow her down any, she had a good time. But I'm not sure that I'm ever going to let her drive my car!!!!! :)

She found several books at a store in the mall, and even at the thrift store. But then she usually does.

Bill looked on Amazon last night, they have the Ipod that Otter wanted and for slightly less money. So she decided to buy that one instead. WalMart finally called me sometime this morning to tell me that their system was back up but the phone was off at the time so it went to voice mail. I got the message a few hours later, and I just called them back to let them know. They were nice about it. I have a WalMart gift card I haven't used, maybe I'll go shop there tomorrow!

We're going to take the Christmas tree down tomorrow. It's never stayed up this long after Christmas and it's kind of driving me nuts. For me, once it's over then it is over and it's time to put the tree away. I've always been like that, I've even been known to take them down Christmas afternoon! Bill's going to get up in the attic tomorrow morning and get the boxes down, then we'll get the living room back to normal. And I'll breathe easier, because I really feel like we are on borrowed time with the tree and those two dogs. Frasier took out one of the vintage heirloom ornaments to the back yard a couple of weeks back and he chewed another one. So in the interest of preserving my family ornaments, sanity and the dog's head, I think it's time to put it away!

All in all, it's been a very good birthday. I have really enjoyed myself.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I'm not one of those women who are afraid of admitting to my age. It's just a number, it has absolutely nothing to do with how I feel. The number is 46 this time.

Yes, Froggy I did unwrap my gift from you. It's an ornament, shaped like a license plate. A Texas license plate to be specific, and it is just perfect. I think I'm going to put it on the wall of the entrance way, which is decorated with similar Texas-related stuff.

Also, to answer Froggy's comment, I did see the soy eggnog at WalMart a while back but when I went to get some they didn't have any left. Just the regular stuff. Which would have been ok, it's just that I drank a little more of it than I should have with the fact that it's loaded with fat. And I've also consumed more than my normal amount of fat since I eat so little of it now that my body doesn't quite know how to handle it anymore.

We've given up on the WalMart gift card situation, Otter also had a My Choice gift certificate which is where you can choose from a number of merchants to get a gift card. She chose Amazon, and they have the same Ipod she wanted so she's decided to go that route. It will also mean that she'll probably have a little cash left over, since the one on Amazon was a little cheaper than Wally's was. The WalMart situation is apparently still ongoing, we saw it on CNN this morning and it does not sound like WalMart is who actually publicized it. The gift card will be used, it just will be later on. I'll call WalMart later on and tell them that we are releasing the hold on the Ipod. If they give me any grief, I'll remind them that we would have bought it yesterday if we could and that it's not our fault that their system went down. But I don't think that there will be any guff from them.

Maggie is very lazy dog, but she's had a smart moment. She wanted to get her belly rubbed. Otter is sitting at her desk and her feet were back behind her chair. Maggie got on her back, then she slithered around until her belly was right under one of Otter's feet. Then Maggie stretched several times, causing her belly to move back and forth under Otter's still foot. She found a way to get what she wanted after all!

Yes, Froggy - we WILL make peppermint ice cream when you come visit us next summer! And maybe we'll get around to making that peach cobbler at the same time - you know, the one we never got made last June when you were here. Otter goes to camp for a week at the end of June, but at this point that is the only thing she has planned during the summer. But it will change, I'm sure.

Nana is coming to visit us! In April. We can hardly wait. Otter was just beside herself with excitement when I told her. It's just over a weekend, so it will be a quick visit. But we will still enjoy it, just wish it could be longer.

I will probably add to this later on today. For now, TTFN. I think it's time for breakfast!

(Later - I'm just going to do another blog entry).

A Couple More Thoughts and it's My Last Day of Being 45!

Or as Bill puts it, the last day for 6 months that he is married to a younger woman and I'm married to an older man. For the other 6 months, we're the same age.

We've been working today. For whatever reason, the main file we keep our eBay stuff on for tax purposes decided that it wanted to delete itself. Well, not entirely - the file was still there but it was an older version that was last saved on 10/3/07. Each time we work on that file, it gets saved. But for some reason, it decided that we needed it to unsave itself. Fortunately, we haven't had a whole lot of eBay sales for the last few months so we were able to recreate most of it without much trouble. There is still a little work to go on it, but we've gotten the bulk of it done. No idea why the computer did that.

Anyway, on to my other thoughts. Bill got a really nice ice bucket & glasses set that also has the nice coasters. And it's all burnt orange with Longhorn logos! I informed him that the rule connected with all things TEXAS is that they are a) really mine or b) if he ever decides to get rid of them (which he won't) then it automatically reverts to a) really mine. And Otter thinks that there should be a c) really hers. The same rule would apply to anything A & M related, if a certain nephew of mine is interested!

We finished up my leather house shoes last night. Bill did part of them, since my dry skin was hurting my fingers each time I pulled on the lacings. They are very comfortable and my heel is much better - as long as I have them on. Which will be most of the time I'm inside. Plantar Faciatis is not fun when you don't like to wear shoes! But I'm dealing with it. And eventually, I'll be back to barefoot most of the time (another legacy of our Cherokee mother!)

We probably will attempt the mall later on. It's going to be crowded no matter what time we go, but I'm hoping that the major part of the crowd will have been and gone because all the stores are opening early for special sales. There is a Sears that is not in a mall, but it doesn't have a lot of parking and it's on the other side of town from us now. Besides, Otter has two certificates from Hot Topic stores and they are only in the mall. So I guess we'll be heading to the larger Tulsa mall sometime later on today.

Don wanted a gps, and he'd seen one at Bass Pro Shops. So everybody gave him gift cards for Bass Pro and a map so that he'd get the hint about getting himself the gps. We used an older map for wrapping paper, it came out cute and it was funny. I am just about out of wrapping paper (finally!) and was thinking of hitting Wally or Target to see if they have any left but now I'm thinking of all the other things that can be used as wrapping paper and will be fun to use. I feel a craft project coming on!

(It's now several hours later). I'm updating what I posted earlier. We did make it to the mall. Along with quite a few other people. But we were able to find a good parking spot. Otter and I left Bill in Sears, happily looking for things to hurt himself with. She and I went to Hot Topic, and they were very crowded. She found a couple of things to use part of her certificates on and we will probably go to the other mall with a Hot Topic later in the week. We went back to Sears, where Bill was waiting with the SAW BLADES he bought. Then it was my turn. I had been needing a warmer robe, since the last one a) wasn't very warm after all and b) that was 50 pounds ago. I found a nice, blue, fuzzy robe that happened to be on clearance and it was also 2 sizes smaller than the last one so I'm happy! Of course, it's also probably going to make me fully charged with static electricity so Frasier better watch out!

Otter and I went to WalMart, she has been wanting an Ipod and now with her Christmas cash and Wally gift card she has enough for one. It was an adventure, and not a fun one. They had one left of the one she wanted, and I was going to buy her an additional card for it so she could actually buy songs for it. Only problem is that WalMart's giftcard system is down nationwide. The (insert name for unsmart here) clerk sent me to Customer Service, she said that they would give me the $$ for the card (which I knew wasn't going to happen but it was worth a shot), and they told me that she'd been sending people up all afternoon and that they kept sending them back and while I was there the CS manager called electronics and yelled at her. When I went back to electronics to collect Otter, the clerk in question was nowhere in sight! They said that they would hold the item, there was a note taped to it with my name and cell phone number and it was back in the locked case as we left. We meandered around the store for a while, checked back with them a couple of times and I even called Customer Service on my cell phone but they were absolutely clueless. So we got the couple of things we wanted and went to get in line. While I was checking out, the clerk said that she'd heard the system was back up so I sent Otter back to electronics to ask and they said it was still down. I stopped by Customer Service on the way out and they said it wasn't working yet. WalMart does not have a very good track record with me, I can see someone selling the Ipod to another person even though it has the hold note taped on to it. I am going to call them later on possibly, or we'll stop by in the morning on the way to Incredible Pizza (my birthday lunch) and see if they still have it and if the system is working. And after walking around Walmart for so long, my foot is killing me!

Christmas Evening

We had a wonderful Christmas! I hope that everyone else had a good day.

We woke up early, around 5:30 when the dogs were ready to be fed. Otter woke up around 6:30 and got her two "santa style" presents (unwrapped and left under the tree) - Harry Potter 5 dvd and a popcorn tin with Pirates of the Carribbean on it. Then we got into the stockings, mine and Bill's always have a bag of candy - always some type of chocolate. Otters has misc. little things and some candy. She also had coal, which I am not responsible for! Bill thought it would be funny, he found actual coal (not charcoal) at the dollar store yesterday and he bought some for her stocking. Of course, his also had coal - Otter bought a boxed coal joke gift for him weeks ago and put it in his stocking. He deserves it, by the way! :)

We opened up all our other gifts, and then we finally got around to breakfast. We watched Otter's Pirates 3 dvd, which she got from us today. She's just finished hanging up her Pirates 3 calendar over her desk. Notice a theme here?

Among other things, Bill gave me a kit to make a pair of leather moccasins which I did want. And it is perfect timing, because I'm pretty sure I have plantar fasciatis (sp?) in my left heel and the shoes are nice & soft. Otter gave me a bird house, which she decorated with sharpie markers and it's really pretty. I now have plenty of warm pj's, 2 pairs of bottoms from Froggy which are perfect because I've been wearing Bill's pj bottoms with my two sleep shirts and now he can have his back - and a top & bottom set from my Oklahoma mother-in-law. We also got a Cuisinart (sp?) ice cream/sherbet/sorbet maker from my Texas mother-in-law, which is a gift that we will be using frequently! (Froggy - it has a recipe for peppermint ice cream!) Otter got a pair of very much needed flannel pj's, several dvd's and we all got gift cards which we will be putting to use very soon. Possibly tomorrow, Otter has just about talked me into a trip to the mall (urgh!) to use two of her cards. We also still have her book shopping trip to come, which we will probably do on Thursday.

We enjoyed the day, we went to Don & Darlene's and had a great time. We ate too much, but the food was just so good... I'm still paying for the egg nog I had last night - it's not at all a recommended part of a low-fat diet. But I only have it once a year so I'm trying not to complain much.

The doggies got treats, they got two boxes of snacks and they've each had a taste of them today. Gizmo (Darlene's dog) sent them snacks and they absolutely loved them. I discovered that Maggie has indeed been taught to sit on command. But the command apparently has to include a treat! She did dance for me on request, but I'm sure that the treat in my hand probably had a big part in that as well. Happy dogs!

My overfed tummy is telling me that I need to go park myself on the couch for a while and snooze. And I'm going to take my new tan fleecy blanket with me! It's very warm and also something that I will be putting to plenty of use.

The Real Thing

Fireplace Matches

That was Dad's thing every Christmas. Each year, we'd get him a package of fireplace matches. Whether he needed them or not! It was a tradition that I started when I bought a package for him the first year in their last house. Then he teased me about it, and dropped lots of hints about needing them the next year. So I got him another package. And then we just kept it up each year. He had a lot of fun with that. When Bill was starting a fire the other day, he couldn't reach the fireplace matches and I had to hand him the box. Since then, I've been thinking of my joke tradition with Dad and I really miss it.

I did what I said I wouldn't do. I went to WalMart this morning! But only because we were out of eggs and we need them for the baking that Otter is going to do this afternoon. While we were there, I grabbed a couple of other grocery items (and Bill got cookies) but we avoided the busiest sections of the store. It was a little crowded, but it looked like most of the shoppers were on the opposite side of the store from the grocery section. They seemed to have trouble keeping the grocery basket area full. We also went to a dollar store while we were out and to the post office. I don't think we'll need to go back out again today. Thanks to Bill and the dollar store, we now have a freezer full of chocolate candy. :) That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Otter and Bill have a discussion going about coal. Specifically about who should get it in their stocking. Otter discovered this morning that there was a note attached to her stocking. "Dear Santa, I've been very bad so I need lots of coal. Love Otter." She was not amused! I seriously considered buying a bag of charcoal at Wallyworld and splitting between their two stockings.

Bill wanted to work on taking the tree down today, but I told him I'd prefer not to celebrate Christmas with him in traction. Wednesday is tree day. I'm thinking of calling the ambulance service and putting them on standby.

Peppermint Ice Cream

One of our Christmas traditions is to get peppermint ice cream. It's hard to find, however. Sometimes we can find it at Braum's, but they sell out fast. We have Bluebell this year, it's pretty good. As I recall, Mom loved it and always bought it when she could find it. Possibly it's one of Froggy's favorites as well? Anyway, I just had some and it was wonderful! Bill doesn't care for it, so that means that there is more for me and the Otter to eat! He's not left out, we got him some other ice cream that he likes. We'll even help him eat it!

We're going to have a lumberjack day on Wednesday. The tree by the mailbox, the one next to the street, is coming down! So my plans for Wednesday will possibly include a trip to the ER for another Bill adventure. We hope not, but with Bill it's always a good idea to be prepared for all contingencies. So watch this space!

Otter and I went shopping today, on a very limited basis. We hit a thrift store, and now I finally have a full set of coffee mugs that go with my everyday dishes. She found a skirt and a book. We went to the grocery store for a few things and to get Bill's ice cream. But we avoided Wallyworld and the mall. Which is a good thing, we had to drive past the mall to get to the ice cream place and the traffic was horrific. We also went to Michael's, Otter found a book about t-shirts and how to make other items of clothing out of them. Finally, she was willing to clean out her closet and get rid off all the outgrown t-shirts! We also cleaned out her sock drawer and pj drawer. Most of her socks still fit, but she's down to just a few pairs of pjs.

We're all off this coming week. I'm so happy that I don't have to get up and go to work tomorrow! We are not planning on going anywhere tomorrow, Christmas eve is not a day I want to be faced with traffic. I think we're going to just hang around the house, and there is some house cleaning that we'll be doing. The dogs were apparently bored with the color of the ceramic tiles in the kitchen so they redecorated them for me. They did a bang-up job of it, too - they first went out in the soggy, muddy back yard and did some excavation work. Then they came back inside and made a paw-print mosaic! Thoughtful, aren't they? Unfortunately, they didn't quite get all the mud off of their feet before they hit the carpeted areas of the house.

We had some snow yesterday, but not that much. It all melted today. It was pretty cold yesterday, we stayed in and in front of the fireplace most of the day. When the dogs were not outside or being artistic in the kitchen, they were snoozing in front of the fireplace. They figured out pretty quickly where to park on the floor so that they get the full benefit of the heater when it's on, and now they've staked out their spots in front of the fireplace. And they don't appreciate it when they have to move so Bill can bring in more wood!

Frasier has now perfected his technique for stealing the blankets. We spent a lot of time yesterday with assorted blankets on the couch. Frasier will act like he wants to be petted, but the entire time he'll be using one foot to pull a little bit of the blanket down at a time, staring the person petting him in the face the entire time, until he's got all of it! Smart dog, and sneaky as well. Maggie is not as sneaky, she just waits until one of us sits down and covers up and then she will lie down on our feet. Which usually causes us to move our feet and when the blanket hits the floor, she'll pounce!

I hear banging sounds from the vicinity of the living room. I'd better go see what Bill's up to!

Busy Wednesday, I'm ready for Friday!

And I'm also more than ready for my long weekend. It's going to be a 10 day weekend. Happy, Happy! Just wish it would hurry up and get here.

It's been busy at work this week, I've been trying to get ahead on stuff so that I won't be faced with an avalanche of work when I get back after vacation. But I'm pretty much done, the next two days will be spent putting out the last minute fires that come up. Because they always do.

We finished piling the limbs up tonight, there are two huge piles at the curb and they will probably be there for weeks. The city is going to start picking them up around the first of January, and they say that it could take them 6 weeks. Or longer. I'm betting on the longer end. Until then, we'll just watch the birds that hide in the limb piles.

Saturday is supposed to be back in the 30's, with a 70% chance of something. Depending on which tv station you watch, we could get rain or we could get snow. Either way, we're bringing in a lot of firewood Friday evening!

Frasier is snoozing at the moment. He's in the hallway, where nobody can move without stepping on or tripping over him. No idea why he's where he is, usually he's on his blanket in the living room or curled up beside me. No idea where the Magginator is at the moment, but if I had to guess I would say that she's curled up in Otter's bed! I actually had to stare at Crazy Frazy for a while, just to be sure he's breathing! He is, by the way.

Virginia said that her daughter's doctor is trying to get Sara approved for an expiremental drug that is having good results with the type of cancer Sara has. It is not a cure, Sara has an incurable form, but it could potentially buy her some time. Virginia said to tell everyone that she appreciates all the prayers.

I went to the post office today. I shipped all my Christmas boxes, and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg! The clerk also assured me that they will be where they are meant to go by Christmas. I hope so, we're normally not this late but the ice storm & related outages put everybody behind. I still have a few things to buy, but they are mostly for Otter.

Bill just told me he's going to go make cookies, so I'd better go with him. I've learned, if I'm not in there to supervise him then it looks like a flour bomb went off in about 3 seconds after he enters the kitchen!

Busy Day All Over the Place!

My busy day actually started yesterday evening. Maggie has had to have her "rear glands" cleaned out before, she's been dragging her behind off & on lately so we knew she probably was due for another butt squishing, as Otter calls it. Last night, she was walking across the living room floor and she suddenly flopped her behind down and dragged it across the floor. Then she started looking sad, very droopy. Then she started shivering. She was not in any pain that I could detect, her ears looked fine, she wasn't feverish. So I called an all-night vet and they said that it probably was those rear glands, that when they get impacted dogs will sometimes act like that. They said that they could take care of it, but that we could also wait until today to see our regular vet. We just had to keep an eye on her in case she had any other symptoms develop. Maggie sleeps in Otter's bed, Otter said that Magginator was quiet last night and not restless. So I called the vet this morning, they said to bring her in at 4:00.

Maggie was not in the yard when we got home. The gates were locked, nothing was missing besides the dog. However, I discovered that the back gate was slightly ajar. And there was a spot at the base of the gate where a dog had been digging. We think that Maggie was digging for a mole, because the hole did not look like she actually dug her way out, and bumped the gate. The gate is not the best, and it's not very sturdy. Otter was a basket case by this point. I went out in the field/street area behind the houses and started yelling as loudly as I could for the dog. After what seemed like forever, but was probably only 5 - 10 minutes, I heard Otter screaming at me and saw a furry blur running by at the end of the street where I was standing. I called Maggie and could see her jumping up as she ran, looking over the weeds to find me since she could hear my voice. I took off running towards her, and she was running as fast as all four feet could carry her towards me. I picked her up and carried her to the back yard, which was hard as she hates to be picked up and she was also in a big hurry to get to Otter. I might have a bruise on my lip and chin tomorrow, in the shape of a dog's snout. We blocked the gate closed with a cinderblock, then we went to the vet.

Magginator got her behind squished and she is much better. The vet said that he didn't see any signs of infection and that everything else looked good. That was one happy dog when we left, she could not get out of the exam room fast enough! I don't think I blame her for wanting to leave the vet's office.

When Bill got home, we secured the gate with a bungee cord and adjusted the cinderblock. Frasier was in the yard the entire time that Maggie was gone, he did not act like he wanted to get out at all. We think that the electric fence probably has a lot to do with that!

It was pretty busy at work, I'm getting ready to be gone next week and there was also a lot of work because my younger boss was gone last week. His desk was piled up with things while he was gone. Now mine is piled up with things from his desk! Tomorrow will be busy, and Wednesday probably won't be too calm either. But Thursday and Friday should be a lot better, I am going to try to get as much done tomorrow and Wednesday as I possibly can so that any last-minute stuff that comes up can be dealt with easily. Because there will be a last-minute crisis. There always is!

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST

I am asking for prayers for my friend Virginia's family. Her daughter, Sara, 25 years old & married with 3 young children, has been given 2 to 6 months to live. I've asked for prayers for her before, but here's the story:

Sara was diagnosed a couple of years ago with a rare, incurable form of cancer. At the time, the doctors said that there was a very strong medication which could probably buy her anywhere from a few to several years, and since she was young and healthy the doctors were very optimistic. However, Sara got pregnant and had to go off of the drug for the duration of her pregnancy. The baby is a few months old now, she shows no sign of any problems and Sara went back on the medication as soon as she'd delivered her daughter.

Sara has had a few problems lately, and she's been hospitalized a couple of times. Virginia and David (Virginia's husband) invited Sara, Jesse (Sara's husband) and the kids to move in with them a few months ago because Sara has been unable to work and they weren't making it on Jesse's wages alone.

On Friday, Sara was in a lot of pain and the doctor admitted her to the hospital again. The test results were not good. Sara has very little time left, from Virginia's email I get the feeling that the doctor is thinking that even 6 months is a stretch, that it will probably be a lot less.

They are all devastated. And so am I, Virginia is my dearest friend and I can't help her.

Tree Trimming!

We've been working on the trees today. We went to church and as soon as we got home, we got started on the trees. We have finished with the front and back trees, but the side tree is still waiting on us. There might be some additional trimming on the front trees, but it will be minor. We will have to take out at least 3 of the 4 trees in the front, but that will be later on. One of them will be "easy" but the other three will be much harder because they are bigger trees and we'll have to keep them from falling on the fence or the neighbor's house. But that is something to worry about at a later date. The two in the back might survive, we'll have to wait and see. There was also a limb that was from the neighbor's tree in the back and it was halfway in our yard so we trimmed that one while we were at it. We have about 2 cords of wood already, and we'll probably get a little more out of the side tree. When we take down the actual trees in the front, we will probably get at least 2 cords out of them. I'm really glad we had not ordered firewood this year, as we would have no place to put what we now have!

We have two huge piles of smaller limbs out in the front of the house, at the street. Eventually, the city will get them picked up. The city has announced that any limbs left by the curb will be picked up, but that they probably won't even start until the first of the year and that it could take them 6 weeks to get it all because there are so many. There are dump sites to take limbs to, but we no longer have the El Camino and we gave Don his trailer back a few weeks ago so we're just going to wait on the city. At least that is the plan right now.

We are both very tired and have sore muscles. I am not looking forward to getting out of bed in the morning! I have discovered that my muscles in the area of my surgical incision get tired very quickly, and they are probably not as strong as they would have been if they hadn't been sliced open! Bill thinks that it's normal for the muscles to still be tender and they aren't really hurting, just sore. I have a feeling that I'm going to regret tossing out the pain pills I had!

We had an automated phone call from the school district, school will be in session tomorrow. Otter only has three days this week anyway. Last week was to be finals, I'm not sure how they will handle that.

It did not get as cold as they thought last night, but it was still cold. It was in the low 20's, which is an improvement over the mid-teens that it was supposed to get to. But today was sunny, so even though it was still cold it wasn't horrible. There was no ice on the roads this morning, we just had to defrost the car a little bit so we could go to church.

The dogs have been silly today. Very playful. I think that they like this weather, cold makes them crazy but it's not icy at least. Last year when it was icy, they kept bringing in huge chunks of ice from the yard to eat. I'm glad we don't have ice to deal with at the moment. Although the dogs probably would disagree!!

Snowy Saturday

It's still pretty cold, when I got up it was 36 degrees and that was apparently the warmest time of the day. It did not snow last night like it was supposed to, but it started snowing about 10:30 this morning. It was not a heavy snow, but it did come down for several hours. We didn't get a whole lot of it, and it only stayed around for a while. But I'm not complaining! It should get into the mid-teens tonight. Parts of Tulsa still have no power and it can't be easy to deal with when it's this cold. A few prayers would probably go a long way. As of Thursday, my in-laws still didn't have power.

Otter did not have school at all last week, they were still closed on Friday. Hopefully, they will be able to open on Monday. They are now two days over the built-in snow days. There are two holidays, Martin Luther King day in January and President's Day in February, school will be in session on both of those days to make up the missing days. Any more missed days will probably have to be added on to the end of the school year. There are supposed to only be three days this coming week, Thursday and Friday are holidays already and then of course the next week for Christmas break. Except that it's actually called Winter Break. But not by me, I'm not politically correct! That's probably a rant for another day.

There have been a few stories of price gouging and a couple of scams in the last week, but I've also heard a lot of stories of people helping others. Like Trina, checking on her elderly customers on her paper route. A local radio station has organized a firewood giveaway so people can get enough for one or two fires to keep warm. The Maytag store has hooked up all their machines so people can do one or two free loads of laundry, as long as they bring their own detergent. The libraries have announced that people can bring in their cell phones & laptops to charge the batteries. Several churches have opened up as shelters for people with no electricity. Things like that. It's good to know that there are still good people in the world.

We're nearly done with our Christmas shopping. Otter and I were originally going to go tomorrow, but with the iffy weather forecast we decided not to wait. She went to work with me Tuesday through Thursday, we went shopping Wednesday and Thursday on our lunch hour. Then she stayed home yesterday, and I stopped on the way home. Just a couple more things that we need to get, and of course I haven't gotten Otter's presents yet because she was with me. It was a lot easier when she was tiny, I could buy her presents while shopping with her and she was too young to know or care!

Only one more week of work, then we're on vacation! Well, I am - Otter and Bill have the week after Christmas off as holidays and then he's taking another week off after that as vacation. Otter and I have a dentist appointment Thursday, she'll go with me to work that day. Then Friday is the last day of work for the year as well.

We are probably going to lose the tree in the back yard, the one that we thought was barely touched. Bill noticed something yesterday - we can see daylight through two of the branches. Not through the leaves, but through the branches themselves! They are both split but it didn't show at first for some reason. Possibly the tree will still survive, but it's not looking good. It's not a big tree to start with, and these are two major branches. We still have a lot of trimming to do, Bill's gotten a lot taken care of in the front but not all of it. The tree on the side is still waiting on us to get to it, and then there are the two in the back. But we are making progress.

Wednesday. Still Cold. Need any firewood?

'Cause we got plenty! And we are not anywhere near finished. There's still plenty more just waiting on Bill and the chainsaw. Bill's boss is out of firewood, so Bill told him to come on over but I don't know if he will or not. He said he was afraid that we'd run short, but I don't think he realizes just how much we will have when we're finished.

Bill went to work today. He'd been gone about 10 minutes when his boss called to tell him that they were closed. Fortunately, the cell phone worked so I could catch him and he came back home. After it got light, he headed over to the rent house to work on the tree. He said it's not as bad as he thought, the tree might survive. But it is badly damaged so it remains to be seen. The tree did miss the house, and the fence has a good sized dent where the tree limbs hit it. He brought home a van load of firewood and left some there, which he'll probably get in a few days.

Otter went to work with me today, Bill came by when he got finished at the rent house and we went to lunch. Then he headed on home and got back to work in the front yard.

After work, Otter and I were heading for WalMart but they were closed. They were open Monday, but they were closed today. Of course, we couldn't tell until we turned into the parking lot and saw the sign on the door - we didn't quite get to park so we didn't have to get out of the car to find out. We turned around and headed for another grocery store, and we were part of an unnofficial convoy of other cars that all went to the same place! I was able to get bread, eggs, milk and a few other things that they were out of the other day. But they were still very crowded and I did notice that they were out of or low on lots of things. There was only one variety of bread that had been delivered, fortunately it was a good wheat bread but I'd have bought it anyway! We also stopped at the gas station so I could fill the car.

When we got home, Bill was still out in the front yard working on the trees. He'd gotten a lot done, but there was still plenty for me to do. He's gotten at least a rick of wood, probably a cord and there's still a lot.

We had a mini-Adventure in Bill Land on Monday! I forgot about it when I was posting the pictures. At one point, he was cutting a limb off that had partially broken off and it fell down to the ground. Then it bounced up and hit him in the face! He came inside when I was on the phone to Froggy, so she already knows this story. He had 3 or 4 small cuts, none deep but he did scare the heck out of Otter! And then I had my own adventure today when I was helping stack the wood he cut for firewood. I smacked myself in the mouth with a log! OUCH! I might have a bruise tomorrow. But it was on the side of my mouth where I have the partial denture on the bottom, so at least I don't have to worry about teeth! :) At that point, Bill sent me back to the front to start stacking twigs and smaller pieces for the city to pick up. He thought I might be safer! But I still wound up with a frozen nose & fingers! At least they felt frozen.

I ran the dishwasher twice last night, and I've done two loads of laundry today. I'm not waiting, we have a good chance of snow the next few days and I'd prefer not to run out of clean clothing!

When the power came on yesterday, there were several instances where it flickered last night. So we had another living room camp out, just in case. And I woke up with a beagle on my feet again this morning!

No school again tomorrow. They have now used all three of their built-in snow days, tomorrow will be made up on President's Day. At this rate, they might not go on Friday either. But we don't know yet. A lot of the districts have announced for tomorrow and Friday, but ours hasn't yet.

I really hope that we don't get the forecasted snow. It would not be a good thing right now. But I have been to the store and stocked up a little bit more, and I'm getting the laundry done. Just in case.

Bill's Dad was still without power when I talked to his step-mom this afternoon. They managed to get some of their food into a friend's freezer, but she said that they lost quite a bit. We were just lucky to save ours.

My friend Trina said that they did not lose power, which they usually do. They are in an apartment, but they have a paper route so they still had to deal with the weather. She said that they have a lot of elderly clients on their route, and they've been checking on them as they deliver. Trina, I think that is very nice of you and I know the people appreciate it as well. Just be careful yourself! Maybe we will get to go thrifting again sometime in the next few months? If the weather ever straightens out, that is!

Monday's Ice Storm Damage

We knew Sunday evening that we might get some ice out of the storm that was heading our way. But it wasn't supposed to be very bad. We all know that the forecasters here are seldom right. This time they were both right and wrong. Right that we did get ice. Wrong in how much! At 3:00 a.m. Monday, I was awakened by the sound of the power going out. I called the power company, even though I knew it was not just ours by looking out the window. But I was the first to report for our area. Bill got up to unlock the back gate, then he set his Blackberry to wake us up at 5:00. At 5:00, he got up and looked out and then he came back to tell me that I wasn't going anywhere. Because of the limb on my car.


It wasn't a huge limb, but it was a good sized one and there was no way we could move it out of the way.

That was just the start of the day's adventures! We let Otter sleep in, and Bill got a fire going in the fireplace. I'm so glad we have it. I have a gas stove, so I was at least able to get water boiling so we could have coffee. Without coffee, it would have been much worse!

Bill was able to get the car moved up closer to the garage door so we could see that it was ok, and he was able to get the van out so he went to get a chainsaw since we knew by then that we would have more tree limbs to deal with. Good thing he went when he did, the store was selling out quick. He went out again later, to borrow a ladder from his dad and he also got ice so we emptied the fridge into a cooler and put it out on the back porch - it was colder out there.

All day long we could hear tree limbs popping and falling. It sounded like gunshots or small explosions. Quite a few of the trees were our own. We have probably lost all 4 in the front yard. The tree in the back might make it, but that remains to be seen. The one on the side of the garage in the front doesn't look too good, either. The captions are below the pictures they are describing.

This is the side tree. All the rest are the front yard, except for the last one which is the back yard. This was early, there was a lot more of it that fell.

This is standing in the street, looking back towards our house. This particular tree was also blocking quite a bit of the street.

This is the back yard tree.

And as bad as these are, it got worse later on. I took pictures later but the disk had a problem so they didn't come out.

Bill loves gadgets, and he has several wind-up radio flashlights. They last for about 30 minutes, so we spent a lot of time winding them up yesterday but at least it kept us busy! That is, when we weren't out in the front yard with the chainsaw to get the tree out of the street. We're going to get a lot of firewood out of this, at least there is that as a bright side.

We camped out in the living room last night, and Maggie beagle apparently decided that my feet needed to be kept warm because when I woke up she was on top of them!

Otter didn't have school yesterday, due to the power being out, and no school today either. So I took her to work with me today. Most of the Tulsa area has been without power, although there are pockets that never lost it. Like where I work. But just a couple of miles away, my younger boss's neighborhood lost theirs. He's in Mexico this week (gotta stop letting him go on vacation, this always happens when he leaves!) and I met my older boss (his father) at the younger bosses house to help him clean out the freezer. Then we brought all his food back to the office and put it in the freezer there. When younger boss gets back, he's gonna owe me big-time! :)

When we left work, we went to the post office and then to the grocery store. I only needed a couple of things, but they were very busy. Most batteries are sold out, they were out of bread and I noticed that their dog food aisle was getting emptied out. I was afraid that if I waited, they would be completely empty so we braved the crowd today. On the way home, we saw a lot of places where huge trees are just destroyed. It looks like a war zone, and it sounded like one yesterday as well. A lot of people are still without power, ours came on mid-afternoon. There are still trees in the road all over the place. We also saw a couple of telephone poles and electrical line damage. Our lines are buried, but they are fed by above ground lines.

The first thing we did when we got home was start the dishwasher!

If anyone needs to talk to us, we are unable to call out if it's long distance. We didn't buy the long distance plan on our home phone because they didn't have any that were very good. So we got unlimited long distance on the cell phone. Which is great - until the power hasn't been restored to all the towers yet! I was able to use my phone at work, but I don't have any service at home. Hopefully, that will be fixed soon.

We've heard from our tenant. The tree in the front yard split, she said that it's pretty bad and the tree might not survive. She said that some of the limbs landed on the front porch but not on the house itself, but that the fence has a dent in it from part of the tree. We were hoping that it would survive, we planted that tree when we moved in to that house and we've always called it Otter's Tree. But at least it didn't damage the house and the tenant is safe. Bill's going over there after work tomorrow to check on it. He's taking the chainsaw. I guess we'll add it to the firewood that's currently all over the front yard!

There is also no school tomorrow, so Otter will go to work with me. Bill called in yesterday, then they were given the day off today.

And we've also noticed that the dogs are smarter than we give them credit for. They only go outside when they have to, and they run back inside as quickly as they can. And then they go to sleep!

Finally Feels Like Christmas!

Because we got the tree up today. Otter did most of the actual decorating, she seemed to be enjoying herself so I just got out of her way and she got busy. Bill got the stuff out of the attic for us, although I still had to make a trip up there myself to find a few minor, unneeded things. Like the lights! And the wreath, by the way. Never came across the Nativity Set, so I'm using a small one I picked up at a yard sale during the summer. I also could not find my wreath hanger, so the wreath is hanging on the front door from a bent up coat hanger - don't look too closely!

My ceramic tree has survived for another year, it's sitting on top of one of the side shelves of the entertainment center but it's not plugged in. It might eventually be plugged in, but I really don't know if I want to mess with moving the entertainment center out which would entail taking just about everything off of it first, so the ceramic tree will probably not be plugged in this year. Actually, there are three of them up there. The big one from Mom the first Christmas we were in Oklahoma, a small one I got at another yard sale last summer and an even smaller one that I painted myself. All three can be lighted, but none are plugged in! But they are still cute.

I know the Nativity set is up there in the attic somewhere, it's just a question of where exactly! It's in a pretty big box, there are a lot of pieces to it. It's the Avon white bisque set that Mom bought for me over how ever many years it took Avon since they introduced one piece each Christmas for several years. It's mostly intact, only one breakage - the angel that hangs over the top of the barn. And I'm one piece short, the last piece that Avon came out with is a cow and it's nearly impossible to find. I've seen it on eBay a few times, but it's not cheap! So I keep saying that I'll look in the spring or summer when it's the off-season. But I keep forgetting about it until Christmas! I probably should put a note on my calendar for about March.

We did find the stockings, Otter got them up by the fireplace immediately. Her Liberty Falls collection of small houses hasn't been seen since we put it up in the attic last year, so it's not out this year either. But she does have a set of Liberty Falls tree ornaments that her Grammy gave her one year, and she put them on top of the other side shelf to the entertainment center instead of hanging them on the tree.

We have more Texas-related ornaments than we realized. Of course, they are all on the tree. Except for one that is sitting on the mantle. There are a couple of other Texas ornaments that we are looking for, I saw one at Garden Ridge several weeks back and I keep forgetting to go see if they still have any of them. I saw it when we were waiting for the new checks & credit card to be sent to us after the theft and I didn't have cash on me that day. Which is a bad time to go shopping, but we were just on a looking trip to see what they had in the way of bedspreads. We're going Christmas shopping next Sunday, hopefully we'll remember to go to Garden Ridge then!

It's pretty cold today. We woke to a little bit of ice on the cars. The street looked ok, so we decided to chance it and go to church. But not Sunday School today. The ice on the car wasn't thick, and the roads were fine. A lot of churches cancelled their services today, but ours was open. There were still quite a few people, although there were a lot that apparently stayed home. Tonight's services at church are cancelled, the pastor said that he really did not want to have to go to the hospital to visit anybody! We were supposed to get more icy stuff today, but all we got was a few rain storms. It's so cold that it will probably be a mess in the morning, but probably not so bad that school is cancelled. Although I'll probably drive Otter to school myself, the bus driver is a menace on a good day!

After church, Otter and I went to Wallyworld because I discovered Friday that I didn't have nearly as much birdseed as I thought. In fact, I was nearly out. I just barely had enough to fill some of my feeders. So I bought two 25-pound bags today. Should last for a little while at least! I have 5 seed feeders & 2 suet feeders up right now, there is still another seed feeder and one or two more suet feeders and I might get them filled & up in the next few days. Since we were at Walmart, we had to stop at the new dollar store that just opened a couple of weeks ago. Found a lot of stuff there, too!

I've been washing blankets today. We have several that we use on a regular basis, usually when we are in the living room in front of the tv. Even though the dogs don't get to use them, I was amazed at the amount of dog hair that I pulled out of the lint filter. It's surprising how much they shed! I guess that is to be expected with a long-haired dog like Frasier.

So far, the hounds have left the Christmas tree alone for the most part. Maggie was interested in all the boxes while we were decorating, but she mostly just looked in the boxes and sniffed them. Then she left them alone. Frasier had zero interest while we were actually working on the tree, but later he went up to it and sniffed a couple of the ornaments. Then he went back to his blanket and his chew bone. I'm still not about to put anything actually under the tree. I know those two very well and I do not trust them any farther than I can see them!

Back to the old grind tomorrow, Otter will be back to school. She's pretty much recovered, although she still has a cough and some slight stuffiness.

December 7, 1941

I just want to make sure we all know what today is, and that we don't forget.

2nd Post for Friday, 12/7/07

I didn't want to put anything else up with my Pearl Harbor reminder, so I'm posting twice today!

We're playing the Asthma Game with Otter today. She has been fighting it off all week, but yesterday the asthma won a round of the game. She is home today, and because it's asthma I stayed home with her. For most things, if she's sick she can stay home by herself. But not asthma. Frasier has been attending to her, Maggie was having a nap and now that Maggie is up from her nap I notice that she's glued to Otter's side. And now Frasier is having a nap. (And he's either snoring or talking in his sleep!) They're like a tag team sometimes. They took care of me when I was sick last spring, and when Bill was hurt in August I noticed that they seemed to pay very close attention to him.

It's in the 40's and misting. Should be like this all day, then tomorrow it might be a little colder. Sunday has a chance of winter weather, and we'll be below freezing or at least in the low 30's for a few days. Guess I should go get my birdfeeders out of the garage and hang them outside. As long as I see bugs, I figure the birds can manage to feed themselves. But when it gets this cold or when we get winter weather, I put the feeders out. The dogs help me, if any birdseed gets spilled on the grass then the dogs pretend to be vaccum cleaners!

Since I'm home, I've done all my laundry and cleaned everything I could think of. So thereotically I don't have to do anything else all weekend. Well, that's the plan anyway! Maybe I'll bully Bill into getting the Christmas stuff down from the attic for me. I was going to get it down myself, but it's a little more than one person can handle. I'll probably climb up there later on and see if I can find the wreath at least.

TGIF!

Got a few more today!

Grey Hares. Get it?

I know I have more than I did this morning. I looked in the mirror. And it's true. And they are all Willie Boy's fault! But then, they usually are.

Today's Adventures in Bill Land involved a missed step while carrying a printer and walking down the stairs. He "only" fell a little bit, he has a few scrapes on his right arm & hand (and bandaids) and a larger scrape just below his right knee. And he's sore. But not seriously injured, which is a nice change from his usual adventures! It was at work, and they made him fill out an accident report. Which is a little extreme, until you consider that this is Bill we are dealing with here. He says he's a good boy, but we all know the truth. But, he did manage to save the printer!

I was expecting a phone call, but I thought it would be Otter because I sent her to school with a sore throat. But she was fine, however now it's smoky and I'm sure she'll react to that as well.

When I got home, after we unloaded a trunk load of groceries, Bill informed me that he thought there might be a grass fire in the field behind the house. Lovely! I went out and there was definite smoke, but no flames and the smoke was thinning out. We kept an eye on it for a while, but I've had a slight headache ever since.

Still no Christmas decorations up, but we did manage to move the sofa table and clean underneath it. I think we clogged the vacuum up, there was enough dog hair & dust bunnies (yes, grey ones) underneath it to make about 2 Frasiers! We dusted every square inch of the table, then we put it back but moved slightly so that we'll have room for the Christmas tree. I think tomorrow when I get home from work I'll get started on dragging it all down from the attic. I'll try to remember to take pictures after I get it all situated and post them on here. But the tree won't have any gifts underneath it, due to Frasier and Maggie!

Maggie has finally learned to dance without having to have her paws held! She started doing it last week, we have been working with her to redirect her from jumping up on people and I think that we are finally getting through to her. She's not the sharpest crayon in the box, but she is good natured and lots of fun. And absolutely devoted to Otter. She will start to jump up but then she remembers what to do and she will stand on her back paws, and dance. It's so cute! Frasier has never been bad about jumping up on people, which is a good thing because the couple of times he actually has started to jump up his head has been above mine! He's a big dog.

Happy late birthday, Amy! You are now 18. You know what that means, right? YOU DON'T HAVE TO LISTEN TO YOUR MOM NOW! Froggy, have fun! Yeah, I know - Otter's not too far behind Amy and my turn is coming.

Happy late birthday to Carolyn, also. For both of your birthdays! She's the only person I know who actually has two official birthdays.

First Sunday in December

We officially joined our new church today! Otter and I also started attending Sunday School, which we really enjoyed. The youth have a Christmas party next Friday evening, and she's looking forward to it. Bill will be baptised sometime after the first of the year, I'm not sure exactly when yet but I'll post it as soon as we find out. I'm also toying with the idea of joining the choir. But not right away.

I took Otter and her friend to a local museum, they have an exhibit every year of Christmas trees. Or what they call Christmas trees anyway. This year's were pretty tame, but some years they can be really wild. There is also an exhibit of gingerbread houses, most made by school and scout groups. They are always a lot of fun and we always leave hungry! We also looked around the museum like we usually do, the girls seemed to really enjoy it. I did, too.

I think that we'll start our Christmas decorations this week. Otter went over to Grandpa & Sweetie's house yesterday to help decorate their tree. She had a great time. She's been pestering me about our tree now! I will probably ask Bill to get it out of the attic tomorrow or Tuesday. Along with all the boxes of lights, ornaments and assorted stuff. I'm not really sure where the wreath is, I guess it's up there somewhere. Hope so, anyway.

There was probably more I wanted to say but I don't remember at the moment. So TTFN!

Friday Thoughts

First thought: Christmas Cards. We are not sending any this year. Just so nobody thinks that they've been skipped!

Second thought: I'm glad it's Friday, it's been a long week. I've been ready for it to be Friday since about Tuesday, actually.

Third thought: I am definetely going to turn Otter's cast iron stove "toy" into a lamp. Bill said that he gets to check it after I'm finished and BEFORE I plug it in. For some reason, he thinks I might electrocute myself. Which I find very funny, considering how many times he's hurt himself! I meant to stop at Hobby Lobby this afternoon and see if they have the kits, but I just wanted to get home and take my shoes off so it can wait. But I might have to go to someplace like Lowe's for it. Which I'm sure Bill won't mind, he's just about addicted to Lowe's!

Ok, I think that is all the thoughts I wanted to chat about right now. TGIF, everybody! Gonna go find my pj's now, then I'm going to take a book & a blanket to the couch and hibernate. I'm sure I'll have company - Otter and two doggies, and if Bill's a really good boy we might even let him have some room on the couch!

It's still not Friday!

But it almost is. And that's a good thing! It's just been one of those days all week long. I've pretty much gotten over the cold I had last week, although I'm still coughing some. But I'm not having to blow my nose every 2 minutes. I'm up to about every 8 minutes now! But I have had two nosebleeds in the last few days, not nearly as bad as the one I had last February that sent me to the doctor. But still not pleasant. Dry air has a lot to do with it, I think. I'm constantly grabbing the hand lotion!

Otter and I got her annual Christmas bear tonight. Dad (Yaya!) started the tradition when Otter was pretty small. He would get one for her every year, and after he died I kept the tradition going because it meant so much to her to get the bears from him. Now she gets to pick out her own bear, and each time she talks about her Yaya. It's one of the few things we go to Wallyworld for now. But they seem to have drastically cut back the collector bears, we just hope that they are not discontinuing them.

I don't think I posted the latest with the check fraud. After we received the notice about the 2nd check, I called the agency and they told me (on two different occasions) that it would automatically be attached to my file with the first check. We got the official letter from them last week, informing us that they had completed their investigation and that my credit file shows that it was a fraud and that we didn't write a bad check. But it only referred to the first one. I called them again, and they did NOT include the second one so I had to fax the paperwork back to them - and I also wrote them a long, very detailed letter explaing the phone calls and what I had been told - by whom and on what date. I have not heard back from them yet, but I'm expecting another letter clearing us on the second check. And I'd better not be disappointed!

We realized this week that Maggie has apparently adjusted to the time change. The second it gets dark, she goes to bed! Poor Frasier, he has nobody to play with in the evenings so he just has to be content with me! He's such a mama's boy, I don't think he really minds too much. He has ways of getting my attention. This morning when I got up, as soon as I staggered into the living room on my way to the coffee pot I discovered that a plastic wrapper from a graham cracker package managed to miraculously appear in his bed spot and that it was accompanied by a trail of peanut shells from the trash can. But he claimed innocence! Unfortunately for him, nobody believed him. Poor doggie! He's so spoiled beyond rotten it's unbelievable.

Just in the nick of time!

That describes the tulip bulb planting event. We have another cold front that has just hit, and while it's not going to be a winter white-out it is at least going to freeze tonight. So I'm really glad we got them planted when we did. Now they can happily sit in their dirt and do whatever they do over the winter, and I don't have to think about them until next Spring!

My stress faires were better behaved today. They were still there, they just stayed out of my way for the most part. I kept finding myself wishing it was actually Friday today, but it stayed Wednesday. Darn.

Froggy, I didn't know that you had a cast-iron stove toy/lamp! I took the lamp parts off of mine many years ago, I think when it became Otter's. But I'm thinking that maybe it needs to be a lamp again. I still love the idea of Sharra's bottle lamp and might make one. But I'm thinking that the stove lamp would look just perfect in my living room, it would probably go with all my mismatched crocks and churns! I have a lot of crocks that I've turned into planters, for those of you who have not seen my house. I like to use different things for plants, not always the run-of-the-mill planters. They are fine, I just like to be different. (No comments from the peanut gallery!)

Also Froggy, I was wondering where Mom's dutch oven went to. I remember it sitting on the hearth in front of the fireplace. And I think she actually cooked in it a few times. I'm glad you have it, I was afraid it was gone for good. If I had it, it would probably have cactus in it.

I think I might be done with eBay now. I posted about 4 things tonight, they were things I meant to post last week but ran out of time. I'm not sure, but I think that I'm finished with everything I was going to post. We will not totally quit selling, there will still be the occasional item and we'll sell overhead projectors any time we can get them. And Otter has discovered eBay as a way to clean out stuff and make a little money - and she's also started shopping there. But for all intents and purposes, we are done.

And I really do think we've found our church home. Bill met with the minister this afternoon, and he was impressed. We have been going to this church about 3 weeks, which is not that long. But it just clicked, everything about it. The Pastor, his sermons, the people - everything about it just feels right. It's an old-fashioned, traditional, Southern Baptist church and the pastor is also a Texan - which is always a good thing! But that is just a coincidence, Bill discovered that in his conversation with him. We joined (re-joined for me) the Southern Baptist church about a year ago, but the church we joined just never felt like the right fit for us. So we started looking again a few months ago. We visited a few churches, and we weren't even planning on visiting this one but I saw it one day when we drove past it and we decided it was worth a shot - although we didn't think it was going to be anything other than a one-time visit. Until we walked in the door and the Pastor started the sermon. And we all walked out with the attitude that this was a church we very seriously needed to consider, in fact not even halfway through the service we all looked at each other and smiled at the same time. Otter and I are going to start Sunday School this coming Sunday, and at that point we'll make our decision. But we really feel like the decision has already been made, just not officially. God is always in control, and we feel like He's led us to Aspen Park Baptist Church. It's not a huge church, but it's the size we like. And the Pastor, David Crump is his name, knew Alamo Heights and might have known Warren Larck. Bill still needs the immersion baptism, Otter was immersed (dunked as mom used to say!) last December but Bill never did have his because we knew early on that we weren't in a church we were staying with. Here's the website for the new church: http://www.aspenpark.net/

Gotta go, Otter is yelling at me that the Shrek Christmas show is coming on! Then Grinch is next.

Just Another Day in Paradise

That's the name of a country song I like. It just fits today. It's been a day where I've been visited by what I affectionately refer to as "stress fairies." Ok, so I'm not affectionate towards them. But I seem to have a lot of them visiting me today! And most of them came in the door at work with my boss, whom I love to pieces but today he was every second of his 92 years and he made sure we all knew it! I think I'm on a first-name basis with the great-great-grandchildren of my stress fairies now, that's how many I had to deal with today. And they might still be hanging around the office tomorrow. Sigh. Just 3 1/2 more weeks until vacation! And it can not get here soon enough!

Froggy, I don't remember if I ever got around to emailing you the pictures of my latest two finds. So I'm going to put them on here.

The tall, brown crock with the silk bluebonnets is actually an old churn, it was Mom's or possibly Aunt Jessie's way back when and I inherited it. The new find is the blue, metal bucket next to it. The bucket is not necessarily an antique, but it is at least vintage. It was made in the USA, so it's got to have a little age to it! The blue paint was probably added way after it was made, and there is a light coat of black brushed on top of the blue. It reminds me of a milk can, but I'm not sure what it really was originally. I just know that it was $3.00 at a thrift store and it absolutely would not let me walk out unless I bought it! So I did. Didn't even know I was looking for one, until I saw it.

The two churns are not extremely new, I got them both last summer. The wooden one is the one Froggy found for me at a flea market, $5.00. The small one with the angel decal came from a thrift store for I think $3.50. The new item is the jug sitting next to the churns. It was a specific item I was looking for, but it's not really a jug. The next picture shows it turned around - it's really a cookie jar! The top comes off of it, but it works for what I wanted it for. I got it at a thrift store, Froggy remember the neat old lady with the corner booth? She was having a sale the day I found it, so I think I paid about $6.00 for it. It was 40% off.

Here's what it looks like on the other side. When I bought it, the seller told me that I had to go home and make cookies! But when I told her what I was going to use it for, and that I had a humongous cookie jar already she said that would be ok, as long as I really did bake cookies. She's really funny, I love to talk to her when we go to that particular flea market. We went back to that flea market last Sunday, she was up to 60% off this time. But no matter how hard I tried, and belive me I did try, I just couldn't find anything there I had to have! But that's ok, just gives me and the Otter another excuse to go back there. I think I know what my next treasure is going to be, my friend Shara (Monkeybox) has a really neat lamp that is made out of an old bottle. It's a tall bottle, if you look at her blog she has a picture of it and she's filled it with Christmas ornaments. I think I'm looking for something similar, or maybe just the bottle itself and I'll turn it into a lamp. (Froggy, remember my old cast-iron doll sized stove? Mom turned it into a lamp when I outgrew dolls. Otter owns it now, she used it with her dolls and at the moment it is in storage for her kids).

The next two pictures are just the kiddos tonight. Frasier is on his blanket, he'd been chewing the nylabone next to him until he saw the camera. Then he posed, like the vain boy he is! You can't tell as much from the picture, but he was smiling and his tail was wagging.

The Magginator was helping me when I took the pictures of the crocks & stuff. She took the tennis ball out of their toy box (it's a shoe box, the bones their toys are in it and they get whatever they want out of it when they want to play - but they don't pick up after themselves), then she threw the ball at me. She tosses the tennis balls up in the air a lot, sometimes she chases them around like she's playing soccer. This time, she did not want to play. But I think she did want attention because when I tossed the ball back to her, she let it sit beside her and gave me the sad-eyed look she's so good at.

If the pictures of the poochies were bigger, you could see all the lovely pawprints they arranged for me today! I don't even want to know how many holes they added to the back yard, but judging by the amount of dirt that they tracked in, it's a safe bet to say that NASA might be landing at any moment! (Think moonscape). The ceramic tile floor in the kitchen looks really bad, leading from the doggie door to the carpet. I can tell that they actually slid most of the way in when they came inside.

I'm seriously thinking that we will need a playpen to put the Christmas tree in! The tree will probably get put up next week sometime, but presents will not be put underneath it. They will be put up on the sofa table. I don't trust either of those furry babies, Frasier has been known to take staples out of paper and they both seem to have an unnatural attraction to paper of any kind. In fact, I'm not even sure if it will be safe to decorate the lower part of the tree! I have a clean/dirty hanger that Mom made for me for the dishwasher when I first moved out on my own. I can't hang it on the dishwasher, it has to be up on the counter because Frasier kept taking it outside when we first got him. After about the 4th time of having to go find it, I gave up on actually hanging it on the dishwasher. Same thing for fridge magnets! The only ones that are down low are the flat ones, because if he can reach them he will take them outside. No idea why he does that. Fraiser does a lot of things we can't explain! And he's teaching his little sister his tricks, she's a willing pupil I might add.

The Tulips Have Been Planted!

And I'm so glad to be done with it for a year, Otter just about tripled the amount from last year. But I'm not complaining, we get a lot of joy out of them in the spring. We were thinking that today's weather would not be conducive to planting, but the only rain we actually got today was about a tablespoon this morning. The ground is plenty cool, the tulips should be fine.

Bill had to go to the rent house this afternoon. The tenant called at 5:15 this morning - she's lucky I was already up! The bathtub faucet was dripping, the hot water never really turned off. It's done that before. Bill replaced a couple of parts, I think that this is about the 4th or 5th time that it's had to be done. For some reason, that one part keeps breaking!

I just had to pick up peanut shells in the living room. They were in the trash can, then when I came back in from putting up the gardening tools they had moved to the floor. And Frasier was suddenly outside, refusing to even look my direction! I think I see a connection there... Probably payback for treating his ears this morning.

Sunday I am taking Otter and her friend to one of the local museums. They have a display every year of Christmas trees. These are not your run of the mill Christmas trees. For one thing, the majority of them are not even trees. They are made out of some strange things, and some of them make me wonder if the artist (and I use that term very loosely) was under chemical influence! It's fun to go to this exhibit. Very imaginative. There is also an accompanying exhibit of gingerbread houses, which are usually made by school, church or scout troops. They are really fun. We were going to go yesterday, but Otter's friend wasn't back in town yet from the Thanksgiving holiday so we will try to go next weekend. Which is actually the last day of the exhibit, so if Otter's friend can't go we'll have to go without her and hope that she can go next year. I hope she can go, and so does Otter. It's an experience not to be missed.

Maggie has assumed her usual position - snoozing! She's behind Otter's chair, Otter is doing her homework with one hand and eating Cheez-it's with the other hand.

Froggy, I'm still waiting on an answer regarding your old report card!