It's MondayTuesday!

Blogger is acting kind of strange again, it's not always telling me when I have a comment waiting to be posted.  So, if you've left a comment and it's not showing up here it might be because I don't know about it!  Blogger does have it's moments...

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yeah.  Monday on Tuesday.  That means that it was busy at work and I spent the day confused as to which day it really is.  I do like the fact that tomorrow is already Wednesday, that means that it's one day closer to Saturday.  So I'm not complaining.

For a few years, I've been trying to get Bill a cell phone.  He kept insisting that he didn't need one.  But then he would turn around and borrow mine for the day.  Then he started his pachinko business and printed up business cards.  What number did he put on the cards?  Mine, of course.  Then he got his website up and running.  What contact number did he use?  Mine again.  Then he placed the occasional ad in the paper and what number do you think he used!?  Ditto.  I finally got him to realize that he really does need his own cell phone, and we were going to make some changes to our plan at this time anyway so he asked me to get one for him when I went to the phone place.  The kicker is that he wanted my number to be his because it would be too much trouble to change the cards & website (he prints his own cards FYI).  But it's ok for me to have to change my number with everybody and their brother!  So, the upshot is that we all have new cell phones - and I have a new number.  To learn and change with the aforementioned everybody and their brother.  Well, at least Bill's got a phone now so he won't have to keep borrowing mine!  (And I won't get strange calls about pachinko machines!).  Otter got a new phone as well, she was overdue for a newer one and she wanted a phone with a camera in it.  The phones I got for myself and Bill are matching, there were a couple of other choices but I didn't like them as much.  Guess I'll have to either make a label for them or see about a new skin (cover) for mine.  So, anybody that might have my cell phone number will get Bill when they call it.  He'll eventually get the voice mail message changed to his voice and not mine.  (If you are someone I need to give the new number to and haven't already, please email me - it's not "out there" for everybody, please understand that I have my reasons for privacy and they are very good ones).

I've started another scarf/hat set for the military dependant donation project.  This one is a deep green.  I am nearly finished with the scarf and the hat won't take too long.  I have a dusty blue that I'm probably going to use for the next one, which I think will make 5 sets that I've done.

This might just be who we vote for in the upcoming Presidential election:

Herman Cain 2012

So far, I like what I've seen.  He sounds like a very strong conservative.  He seems to be very no-nonsense, common sense and we're impressed so far.

Memorial Day

THANKS, DAD.

It is the

VETERAN,

not the preacher,

who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the

VETERAN,

not the reporter,

who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the

VETERAN,

not the poet,

who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the

VETERAN,

not the campus organizer,

who has given us freedom to assemble.

(Protest in some versions) 

It is the

VETERAN,

not the lawyer,

who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the

VETERAN,

not the politician,

Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the

VETERAN

who salutes the Flag,

It is the

VETERAN

who serves

under the Flag,

And whose coffin

 is draped by the flag,

Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

(Attributed to Charles Michael Province, U.S. Army)

Sunday Babies!

Specifically, the chirpy & feathered kind.

Here's mama bird on the nest.  This is a wire/wrought iron planter that was my mother's.  She had it on her covered back porch and might have had a plant of some type in it.  I have a small clay pot with a plastic ivy.  Apparently, it was exactly what mama bird wanted when she was in the real-estate market.  It's safe, secure and protected from the weather.  It's on the front porch.  We've been watching her for days, and trying to go in and out as quickly as possible.

This morning, I was looking out the door to see if the paper had been delivered (something that doesn't always happen lately) and saw mama bird standing on the nest, facing the wall.  I could very clearly see little heads (with open mouths) looking back at her.

There were just two eggs the day I took a picture with my cell phone, and one that had smashed on the porch.  Apparently, when I took my picture mama bird wasn't through - there are 4 little beaks!  We think that they are wrens.  I took this picture very quickly and since it's higher than my head, I wasn't able to aim the camera very well but I still think it came out pretty good.

We've been dealing with a tummy bug this weekend.  Last weekend, I was joking with Otter and told her that if she had any illnesses planned it would be a good idea to postpone them a week so she could finish school.  She laughed about it.  Then yesterday morning she woke up not feeling the best.  She had breakfast but then later she was unable to keep anything down.  She's better today, but now Bill and I both have had a little nausea to deal with.  We're being careful, hopefully it won't be any worse and Otter will be over hers quickly.

She actually felt better this afternoon, and was desperate to get out of the house.  So I took her with me for a short errand.  We left her at home this morning for church, I think the extra couple of hours worth of sleep was good for her.

Movie Review:  We rented I Am Number Four to watch yesterday.  It was ok, better than we expected.  I think it's based on a book.  We're anxiously awaiting two movies:  Rango to come out on video which might be in June or July, and the final Harry Potter movie to hit the theaters in July.

I think I'll go play with a couple of doggies now.  They are not being allowed out in the backyard by themselves for a while, they aren't happy about it.  But they don't have a choice, we don't want a moonscape instead of a backyard!

Final Friday of Otter's School Adventures!

Well, at least part of her school adventures.  There's still college of one type or another in her future.

I still can't quite realize that I have a daughter who is already out of school.  I keep thinking that it's just been a few days since I was buying stuff to start packing her lunches when she was going into kindergarten!  I don't think it's really going to feel real for any of us (Otter included) until the late summer, when we would have been buying school supplies and so forth.  She'll still need supplies and clothing, but it will be a different ballgame.

I'm really glad that it's Friday.  It's been a loooooooooooooooong week.  Last week was absolutely crazy busy with the graduation, Nana visiting, shopping with Nana (lots of that!) and all the activities.  This week was just long.  I am so ready for Saturday.

On that note, I'm going to post this and go read my email.  Then very shortly, we're going to have the meal that Otter chose for her last day of school.  When she started kindergarten, her first day of school was celebrated with her choice for dinner and she chose Luby's.  While Luby's is still good (we don't eat there often, they aren't convenient to us anymore), her tastes have grown up along with the rest of her.  So tonight's menu?  Steak and baked potatos.  Guess she is her parent's daughter after all! :)

Quick Check In

We're ok.  It was a bumpy night, with bad storms all over the state.  We were in the direct line of fire of one particular wall cloud that was about 30 minutes south of us but it hooked off to the right (east) and missed us.  However, it did not miss a very small town called Haskell.  I'm not sure how bad the damage is in Haskell, I don't think it was nearly as bad as it could have been.  But it was still a bad situation for them, I'm sure that they could all use our prayers.

The storms in the western part of the state were pretty bad with more than one confirmed tornado, it looked to be following some of the same path as the 1999 storm that was so devastating.

Pray.

Please

Pray for the people of Joplin, MO.

We went to bed Sunday night, thankful that the expected bad weather had missed us.  We had wind, rain & thunderstorms.  But not anything bad.  Then we woke to horrible news on Monday morning.  The last count is that there are 116 confirmed deaths, but I heard on the news just now that there are still 1,500 + people missing.  This long afterwards, missing might mean something else.  But I don't think that anyone is ready to admit that yet, and they shouldn't.

And more storms are on the way.  We have a very strong chance of bad storms tonight.  Duration, intensity and location depends on many factors.  But we've been warned that it could be a major outbreak of tornadic storms tonight.

We are as prepared as we can be, not that you can ever really be ready for something like that.  But we've been down this road before because we live in Tornado Alley.  Although they can happen anywhere, and at any time of the year.

So, please pray and keep praying.  For Joplin, and all the other areas impacted or that are going to be impacted by tonight's storms.

Yes, Dad.  I hear you.

Sunday Fill-In-The-Blank!

Because nobody can come up with a good title today.  We're a little on the tired side.  It's been a very busy last few days.  Last week was a short work week, I was off Thursday and Friday with Otter.  Bill was off Friday.

Thursday was very busy, it started with getting Otter to the school for graduation practice & final instructions for Project Graduation.  I ran a couple of quick errands while she was at school, then went back to get her and took her to visit her grandparents for a few minutes.  She took her graduation robe & cap so we could get a couple of pictures with them.  Then, we ran to the mall and she got a manicure.  We ran back home, just in time to start getting dressed to go and then Bill got home with Nana who he had just picked up at the airport.  Otter and I went to pick up BF, then we met Bill and Nana at Chili's for Otter's celebration dinner.  We had a nice meal and a great visit.

It was on to the local college campus where the graduation ceremony was held after that.  We had a lot of traffic to deal with which was not a surprise, then we managed to get good parking spaces.  We figured out where to sit, Otter ran off to join all the other graduates and then we had about an hour before the ceremony.

It was well done.  The students were seated in sections by the first letter of their last name, but they did not have to sit in an particular order which actually made it better.  Each graduate had a name tag which they handed to the announcers on stage and the names were read off that way.  There were two lines of graduates at a time, one one each side of the stage.  It went fairly quickly, considering the size of the graduating class.  The speeches were good, the music was good and we really enjoyed it.  The choir was made up of graduating seniors only, and they walked in with their class.  They were first, they were seated together and then they went to the stage for the songs.  Very good way to do it.

After the ceremony ended, we eventually found Otter and then we all had to find each other because we were separated in the crowd.  Bill took Nana back to our house, Otter and I took BF to his house and then I took her to Project Graduation.  It was about 10:30 p.m. by that point.  It was after 11:00 by the time I got home and I was absolutely exhausted.  Too tired to sleep, actually.

The next morning started even earlier, I had to go pick Ottter up at 5:00!  (Before I had any coffee!).  She had about a 4-hour nap after we got home.  We eventually woke her up and went out for lunch.  We did a little shopping and had a lot of fun.  We also did a lot of visiting, we haven't seen Nana since last Thanksgiving.  She left this morning, Bill took her to the airport about 7:30 and then got home in time for us to go to the early church service.  Which was good, but I had difficulties staying awake.  Can't imagine why!

It was supposed to rain last Thursday and there was a good chance of thunderstorms that evening.  The rain held off until Friday morning and we're really glad of that.  It rained most of Friday, but it quit that evening.  We have a chance of rain most days this coming week.

Which is the last week of high school for Otter!  She's not sure if she's going to have any more existential crises over it or not. :)

I've also realized that Memorial Day is a week from tomorrow.  So I have one full week, then a 3-day weekend.  Hopefully, I'll be caught up on my sleep by then!

The movie Rango has finally made it to the dollar theater.  Otter and I want to see it again, so we're going to head off shortly.  Bill's waiting until it hits video, he's going to stay home and work on his latest project for the pachinko machines:  he's learning how to cast parts.

At least it doesn't require the use of any power tools!

Somewhere...

in this crowd is my Otter!

She was on the right-hand side towards the front.

There were 1,043 members of the graduating class.  It's apparently one of the largest in the country.

It was a wonderful ceremony.  We're very proud of her.

Today is the Day!

And all I can see is the little girl I left at kindergarten a few years ago.  It seems like it was just yesterday.

We're so proud of you, Otter!

Sunday Subway

Guess what we had for lunch?  :)

Anyway.  Moving on.

Otter graduates in just a few days.  Today at church the graduates were recognized.  We go to the early service, so there aren't as many people there (yet) as she would have had to face at the second service.  She was the first one recognized, there were two others and one of them was a college graduate.  She was a little embarassed to be called up to the front of the church, but it was still a nice thing for the church to do.  The graduates received a couple of books as gifts and there was a special prayer.  She graduates on Thursday, but she won't actually be out of school for another week.  Strange, but that's the way the local school district does things.  She's picked Chili's as the location for her pre-graduation ceremony dinner.

My craft project I mentioned Friday is going fine.  It's a little time consuming because there is glue drying time.  The actual process for making the project isn't long, it's just that I have to wait for the epoxy type glue to dry before I can put it together and take a picture of it.  It will be on the craft blog sometime in the next couple of days.  I think it might be ready now, but the camera I used is Otter's and it's with her.  She's off with BF today, they were going to Arby's for their standing Sunday date.  So I have to wait.

The weather has been odd lately.  Much cooler than normal and also wetter.  We had a couple of really nice days last week, Otter and I (and the dogs!) spent some time in the backyard one afternoon last week.  Watching ladybugs!  There were a lot of them, we think someone might have put some in their garden and they did what they normally do - they flew off!

Otter's jalepeno and rosemary plants are doing well, they haven't had the warm weather that they really need so they haven't grown a lot.  There is some growth, just not as much as we should have seen by this point.

The cool/wet/warm/dry/cool/wet weather cycle we are having also is having an affect on allergy sufferers.  It's making the allergy season much longer and stronger than normal.  Which we can attest to!

The dogs are not getting much backyard time right now.  We put them out there for a few minutes yesterday and didn't go with them like we usually do.  Of course, they immediately started digging!  Frasier was well on his way to China when I discovered it, but I'm sure that Maggie had something to do with it.  For one thing, she was in the general area prior to the excavation and she was pointing.  Which should have been my first clue that there was probably a mole they were hearing.  Bill mowed this morning after we got home from church, it's an adventure avoiding all the craters.

We have a bird nest on the front porch.  It's a wren, she's built her nest in what resembles a half-cage but is actually a planter that was Mom's.  I have a small clay pot with artificial ivy in it, and the little bird found it to be just what she wanted for her nest.  There are two eggs in it, there were three but we noticed that one of them was smashed on the porch.  Mama bird might have reduced her brood like they will sometimes do if there aren't a lot of bugs to eat, or she might have just been clumsy.  We're enjoying having her out there.  She is used to us to a point, she will now sometimes stay on the nest when we walk by.  We are trying not to spend a lot of time out there, but it's the front porch and we have to use the door sometimes!

Blogger seems to be acting better, but I'm not the only one who had issues with it last week.  I think that there must have been a problem at the main site, there was a scheduled maintenance report prior to the problems but it was only supposed to be down for an hour or so.  The problems lasted a couple of days and I was unable to sign in for a long time.  It's still having some moments, I'm able to get comments but some of the post labels are wonky as I try to post them.  Hopefully, it's fixed now and will stay that way.

Suicidal Squirrels on Friday the 13th!

When your day starts out with a kamikaze squirrel, it really can't get any worse.

I ran over one this morning.  I saw it dash off the curb & into the street just as I got to where it was.  It was not a pleasant experience! I'm glad that I was the driver and not Otter, but it was still not fun.

I'm not superstitious, but it was not a good way to start the day.

At least it is Friday.  Even if it is in the high 50's/low 60's.  Instead of the mid-80's that was forecast.

Blogger was acting up last night and this morning, Froggy made a comment on my last entry and Blogger would not accept it for any reason.  I think the entire site was down, because of what it was saying when I was attempting to sign in.  It seems to be working tonight, but Froggy's comment would not post so I posted it for her.  It had to do with Paypal phishing attempts.  Since then, Froggy's also discovered that her email was hacked into.  That sort of thing seems to be happening more and more often.  It's really frustrating to have to deal with things like that and it can also be costly.

I have a craft idea I'm going to try.  I have to give a shout-out to my blog friend Heidi, because I got the idea from her blog.  It involves a canning jar and I'll post pictures of it on my craft blog if it works.  I don't think that Bill's going to mind helping me with this one, since he's already volunteered the use of his drill.  But in the interest of safety, I think I'll be the one to operate the drill!

Well, maybe anyway.  I'll make sure that I have plenty of band-aids on hand!

Wednesday Ketchup

Nothing spectacular happening around here, but in order to keep Froggy off my back about blogging I thought that I should at least post something.  (Ducking and running now!). (Grin).

We are probably about to get hammered, thunder & lightning on the way with assorted other things such as rain and maybe windy stuff.  It's very cloudy and getting darker.  It's 4:30 in the afternoon, but it looks much later.

We did have one unpleasant thing to deal with this week.  Our Paypal account got hacked.  We got an email from Paypal, confirming a $443 purchase of a laptop computer.  Except that we didn't buy one.  Bill was unable to get into our account because the password had been changed.  Not by one of us!  So, we called Paypal and they said that they thought it was a fraudulent transaction - but they let it go through anyway.  They cancelled it, but they had already sent the withdawel order to the bank so I had to go to the bank and have a stop payment issued.  Paypal also showed that they sent the money back to us, but told us that it could take days and we should probably go to the bank.  Which I did, last Friday actually.  Last night, the withdraw order came through AND THE BANK HONORED IT!  Even though I had it it writing that they wouldn't.  So, back to the bank today for me.  They got a "small" taste of RedHeadTexasWoman and are reimbursing us, since they screwed up.  That could take up to 24 hours, I haven't checked in the last couple of hours but will soon.  It had better be fixed - and stay fixed, this time.

It's been frustrating dealing with this, to say the least.

But all the Paypal passwords have been changed again (by us) and hopefully, this won't happen again.  It seems to be happening more and more often, I've heard of several people who have gone through this.  If we didn't keep such a close watch on things, there is no telling how much we would have had stolen.

Bill's finished two of the wooden chairs we bought for the deck.  He's working on the third one now.  They are really nice and very comfortable.

I'm going to get this posted now, before I have to suddenly turn off the computer.  Then, I think I'll go crochet.  I started a new project for Otter and it's calling my name.

Happy Mother's Day

Just Friday

But what a week it's been!

Obviously, it has been an important week as an American.  Beyond my first post about justice, I have deliberately stayed away from the subject.  I still stand by what I said, it was justice and very much deserved. But I am trying very hard not to celebrate the aspect of the death of the person.  (I'm not posting the name because this blog is not searchable for a reason and there are certain words that will always show up on a search.  That person's name being one of them.  Also, I refuse to justify him with a name or anything remotely dignified).  But I am glad that there has finally been some justice.  Notice that I did not say closure!  Closure in that sense does not exist.  However, I do still think we should pray for the people involved, all of them.

It's been a fast week.  Which is a good thing.  I'm so ready for it to be Friday again.  Actually, I'm ready for it to be Saturday.  Because I'm going to crochet/read/sleep/goof off all day!

Sunday is Mother's Day.  I told Otter that I want two things for Mother's Day:  1.  To go to the zoo, which we are doing on Sunday.  and 2.  I want to teach her how to crochet.  She's talked about it before, she wanted me to show her a few weeks back but then she got sick and that's never a good time to learn anything new.  Whether or not she sticks with it is up to her, but I'm going to show her the basics and then she will at least stick with it long enough to really know what she's doing - it's like any other skill, there will be a period of "I'm going to throw this stuff out the window!" and then she'll figure it out.  Then, it's up to her.  But it's like embroidery - I taught her and she knows how (although neither of us can stand it!), and it might not be something she'll want to do much of but it's come in handy for her a few times already.

Of course, if she does love crochet and gets obsessed about it (which will happen if she likes it at all), then I might have to fight for my stash!

Sighting of the Elusive & Rare

Carpet Shark!

Looks like we are not the only family with one.  This one might even be another beagle.

Run for your lives!

And hide your toes.

A Few Athma Thoughts on Tuesday

Read this:

Asthma on the Increase?

It's an interesting article.  Since I'm the mother of/daughter of/aunt of/victim of it myself, I have more than a passing interest in asthma research.  It's not a fun disease.  It's a hard one to have and it can be potentially life-threatening, as some I know can tell you - she lost her teenage daughter to it.  It's also a very expensive disease, we were fortunate to have really good insurance when Otter's asthma was at it's worst but even with insurance it was still a financial concern.

My mother had it, although I don't know how bad hers was.  I think she had it fairly strongly when she was younger, but it had lessened quite a bit by the time she was an adult.  Froggy's had to deal with it as a parent.  My sister/friend Virginia's oldest child has it and I think one of her late daughter's children has it.  I have it.  Otter has it.

Otter was diagnosed with it when she was about 2 1/2.  It was rough for a few years, she had so many different allergies to deal with.  I strongly recommend allergy shots, they helped her immensely.

Otter is mostly dealing with allergies right now.  They are better, but she's still got them.  She's been taking the allergy medication we got her last week and it seems to be working.  I think it's probably working better than the benadryl.  She's still sneezing frequently, but I can see improvement.

But even as bad as her allergies have been lately, it's still nowhere near as bad or as scary as it was years ago.  So I don't complain, I'm just Thankful that it's not like it used to be.

JUSTICE

For this

Nearly 10 years.  But finally:

JUSTICE

I'm not going to get into the argument about rejoicing over a death, because that is not part of it as far as I'm concerned.  It would have still been JUSTICE, if he'd been captured as opposed to killed.  I'm sure that it will be a lightning rod for people, but we do need to remember that he was still created by God and was special to Him.  The crimes of that person are many, but the ultimate Judge is our Father and we are all subject to His wisdom.

Sunday Rain!

When will it ever stop?  Pastor David said today that he doesn't think we've actually had spring yet.  He's waiting for it.  Frankly, I'll be happy if we skip spring entirely (or at least any more spring storms) and go straight to summer.  Which might be hot, but we can handle that.  Although Bill did say that he's not complaining now, because he'd rather have cool weather than the hot stuff we grew up with.  I do see his point, but I'm beginning to get tired of near constant rainy weather.  (Actually, we did have spring.  It was just very short.  Then we went back to winter or possibly to fall wannabe).

Otter tried the allergy medicine we bought her on Friday.  She said that it seems to work, the daytime version allows her to breathe and that's a big improvement over how she was last week.  Benadryl works for her, but it's a sleepy one so she could only use it at night.  I'm not sure if Benadryl has a daytime version or not, but the alka seltzer cold/allergy stuff works so she'll use it.

I finished my crochet swiffer cover.  Then I put it on the swiffer and decided that I didn't like it.  So I frogged out a little bit of it and re-did it.  The one I bought last summer works, I wound up copying it instead of using the pattern I had.  Since it has been used many times, the stiches are a little smushed together and it's harder to count the number needed as well as tell what the specific stitch is.  But I figured it out and the one I made will work fine.

I'm not sure, but I think we might have two hummingbirds.  I know that we at least have one, but there might have been another one zipping by when the first one was at the feeder today.  Hope so!

We've made two trips to Michael's today.  Both were for Bill.  He's working on casting some small pieces for the pachinko machines.  He bought a mold making kit, but it wasn't very good.  The stuff mixed up strange, not like it was supposed to and he tried it multiple times.  Then we went back and he found another type to use.  I'm not sure when he's going to try the second mold stuff he bought, I don't think he's going to mess with it tonight.  We also went to the dollar store when we were out the first time.  It was "strange people day" at the dollar store.  Kind of like the "People of WalMart" jokes that I've seen, except it was the dollar store this time.

I don't think the dogs like this weather any better than I do.  They were pretty bored earlier, I was in the floor and they started a war.  Apparently, I was base and they kept running to me, away from me and then around me.  At top speed.  At one point, they both ran over me!  I think Maggie was trying to jump over my legs, but Frasier just bulldozed me.  But they seemed to enjoy it, silly babies.

OK, I'm going back to my laundry now.