Monday, July 31, 2006
Rowdy is under the weather....
Our sweetest chicken, Rowdy, is not feeling well. She is lethargic and panting. I am not sure what it is (I really need to go to vet school), but I have isolated her and I am giving her electrolytes and antibiotics. I need to do some research but my first guess is it is a respitory illness, she is egg bound or something is wrong with her crop. Stay tuned. If something happens to her, I may need to get some more chicks.....
Friday, July 28, 2006
Morning run report
I am back to running after the crazy vacation and travel schedule of the last 1 1/2 months. I got a new pair of shoes that I hope will help with my hip pain - which is a new old lady complaint.
Yesterday morning on my run, I saw a mama turkey and her 8 babies. The babies are about half the size of an adult turkey. Daisy was quite interested in them but I told her to "leave it - it is just a funny looking chicken" and off we went.
Every morning lately on the way back from my run I stop close to the creek and pick up 2 or 3 baby frogs and bring them back to the yard to live! I love when they get big enough to croak in the morning. They are hopping all over the place.
Yesterday morning on my run, I saw a mama turkey and her 8 babies. The babies are about half the size of an adult turkey. Daisy was quite interested in them but I told her to "leave it - it is just a funny looking chicken" and off we went.
Every morning lately on the way back from my run I stop close to the creek and pick up 2 or 3 baby frogs and bring them back to the yard to live! I love when they get big enough to croak in the morning. They are hopping all over the place.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Funeral Day
Yikes - Funerals are grueling!
Last nite was a 4 hour wake and today was the funeral. The funeral was really nice. I was doing ok until the army did the flag service, 21 gun salute and taps. That was very heartwrenching. After the service we went to a lunch at my grandparents church. Some of my Uncles had to stop at a bar on the way to lunch to have a one armed toast of Pabst Blue Ribbon for one armed Lenny (my grandpa) -- there are a bunch of crazy people in my Dad's family. I do think we have become more civilized thru the generations! :-) Or maybe the pattern is: one civilized generation, one crazy generation, one civilized generation, etc....
Last nite was a 4 hour wake and today was the funeral. The funeral was really nice. I was doing ok until the army did the flag service, 21 gun salute and taps. That was very heartwrenching. After the service we went to a lunch at my grandparents church. Some of my Uncles had to stop at a bar on the way to lunch to have a one armed toast of Pabst Blue Ribbon for one armed Lenny (my grandpa) -- there are a bunch of crazy people in my Dad's family. I do think we have become more civilized thru the generations! :-) Or maybe the pattern is: one civilized generation, one crazy generation, one civilized generation, etc....
Friday, July 21, 2006
Amelia
Here is one of the "ups" of my life! This is my beautiful niece, Amelia. She looks angelic but my brother often describes her naughty behavior! She likes to be held while she sleeps and screams if he puts her down. With a face like that, I think she deserves to be held while she sleeps.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
The good and the bad
This is a blog about my life and the lives of those I love. Life is a series of ups and downs and fortunately my life has been blessed with mostly "ups". But "downs" have to come and we had one occur last nite - my Grandpa ( my Dad's dad) died. We are so happy that we just saw him in June when we were in Chicago and when we saw him he was healthy and happy and we were at a celebration for my Aunt's birthday....so the memories are good.
The details are sketchy as my parents are still enroute to Chicago but what we know is that he collapsed and died at home. He was 84. I already have a request into GOD that I go the same way when I am 84 - quickly and with no pain while still healthy and mentally alert.
I will be travelling to Chicago on Sunday to attend the service on Monday. I will visit with my Dad's family and return on Weds. We have decided that Jim and the kids will not come since we were all just there.
Please say a quick prayer for strength for my Grandmother, my Dad and his siblings. And hug those people that you love.
The details are sketchy as my parents are still enroute to Chicago but what we know is that he collapsed and died at home. He was 84. I already have a request into GOD that I go the same way when I am 84 - quickly and with no pain while still healthy and mentally alert.
I will be travelling to Chicago on Sunday to attend the service on Monday. I will visit with my Dad's family and return on Weds. We have decided that Jim and the kids will not come since we were all just there.
Please say a quick prayer for strength for my Grandmother, my Dad and his siblings. And hug those people that you love.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Family Reunion
We just returned from Jim's family reunion at Ice Lakes Lodge in Soda Springs (near Donner Lake). It was a great time! The highlights were a hike to Roller Pass, which is way up in the Sierra's, where the early settlers came thru on wagon trains (the wildflowers were amazing), a day at Donnor Lake and a presentation about family history.
We learned a lot on this trip:
* Jim's great, great, great, great grandmother was Sonora Bethena Hughes and walked to California from Independence, Missouri in 1849. That makes her a VERY early settler of California - especially for a woman. (This must be where Gracie's girl power comes from!!!)
* Oxen have 3 stomachs which makes them hardy on the trail
* On their trip to California, they had set up camp to rest. The men went out to hunt and the women were in camp doing laundry. Along comes a bunch of indians on horseback. The women were terrified. The Indians approached and gave the women their loin cloths. The women washed them, returned them to the Indians and the Indians left!
* Gracie's freakishly long tongue comes from Jim's side of the family (see pic). With Gracie is Jim's cousin Bean and cousin Bronwyn.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
The morning routine
We have had Chad the beagle, as a house guest, for 2 weeks and today in our last day with him. So, in honor of his departure, I decided to take he and Daisy for an extra long walk this morning. So off we went....
It did not start off very well when Chad got hold of a piece of chicken that had come out of some garbage that a racoon had rummaged thru. He is obsessively food centered, so he was on that chicken like white on rice! He was gobbling faster than I could run the 3 feet that was between us. By the time I got to his mouth he had about half a chicken swallowed. But....I am an expert beagle watcher so I just opened his mouth and went down his throat! I pulled out a bunch of chicken meat and a full leg bone!!!! ICK!!!! I am sure that whole chicken bone would have caused vomiting! Then I had to go on the rest of the walk with nasty chicken and beagle spit hands!
So off we go...
Like I said, we went on an extra long walk so I took them where we don't normally go. At one point, I was booking along and I realized that no one was following me. I look back and both of them are standing on the sidewalk - side by side - Daisy is holding her front paw up and Chad is holding his back paw up. They had both walked thru a sticker bush and had stickers in their paws! I walked back to them and played hero by removing them and off we went.
We sure will miss that crazy, food obsessive, lazy-butt, medical trainwreck of a beagle!
It did not start off very well when Chad got hold of a piece of chicken that had come out of some garbage that a racoon had rummaged thru. He is obsessively food centered, so he was on that chicken like white on rice! He was gobbling faster than I could run the 3 feet that was between us. By the time I got to his mouth he had about half a chicken swallowed. But....I am an expert beagle watcher so I just opened his mouth and went down his throat! I pulled out a bunch of chicken meat and a full leg bone!!!! ICK!!!! I am sure that whole chicken bone would have caused vomiting! Then I had to go on the rest of the walk with nasty chicken and beagle spit hands!
So off we go...
Like I said, we went on an extra long walk so I took them where we don't normally go. At one point, I was booking along and I realized that no one was following me. I look back and both of them are standing on the sidewalk - side by side - Daisy is holding her front paw up and Chad is holding his back paw up. They had both walked thru a sticker bush and had stickers in their paws! I walked back to them and played hero by removing them and off we went.
We sure will miss that crazy, food obsessive, lazy-butt, medical trainwreck of a beagle!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Movie Reviews
We have seen three movies lately:
Cars: Entertaining movie with a good message but WAY too long - especially for a kids movie. I would recommend renting the dvd.
Pirates of the Carribean: Good movie but WAY too long. It was a little weird because it has a science fiction bent to it with weird sea creature type people who were the bad guys. There were too many fight scenes and the fight scenes were too long. Johnny Depp is funny with all his crazy facial expressions! I would recommend watching the first Pirate movie before you go because there is a lot of conncections that I had forgotten. I would make the effort to see it in a theatre but don't go to the 10:30 pm show or you will be there until the next morning!
The Devil Wears Prada: This was the best of the three movies. It was entertaining and not too long. Worth a trip to the theatre! Great chick flick!
Cars: Entertaining movie with a good message but WAY too long - especially for a kids movie. I would recommend renting the dvd.
Pirates of the Carribean: Good movie but WAY too long. It was a little weird because it has a science fiction bent to it with weird sea creature type people who were the bad guys. There were too many fight scenes and the fight scenes were too long. Johnny Depp is funny with all his crazy facial expressions! I would recommend watching the first Pirate movie before you go because there is a lot of conncections that I had forgotten. I would make the effort to see it in a theatre but don't go to the 10:30 pm show or you will be there until the next morning!
The Devil Wears Prada: This was the best of the three movies. It was entertaining and not too long. Worth a trip to the theatre! Great chick flick!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
We are back from the mountains and back to reality....
We are back from 9 days at in the mountains and are wishing we were still there!
We spent 4 fabulous days at Cherry Lake. As usual, it was the most peaceful place on earth. Nothing significant occured but that is a good thing! We fished at least twice a day in the magic swimming hole and out in front of our camping spot and over the 4 days we must have caught over 100 fish - lucky for them, we catch and release. We did some kayaking and boating and quite a bit of just floating in the lake.
The new gadget of the trip was the new "coleman crapper"! The girls all went to town the day before the Cherry trip and when we returned to the cabin, sitting in the middle of the driveway was the "coleman crapper" - a bucket with the bottom cut out and a toilet seat sitting on the top. The best part is the guys decided to paint it camo and labeled it with the words "colman crapper" - it was accidently mispelled but that added to the laughs! It was pretty funny when we placed the crapper in the trees at the lake - it was so well camoflauged that it was hard to find! We had to tie a paper towel to the tree to highlight its location. Itwill go down in Cherry Lake history!
We spent 4 fabulous days at Cherry Lake. As usual, it was the most peaceful place on earth. Nothing significant occured but that is a good thing! We fished at least twice a day in the magic swimming hole and out in front of our camping spot and over the 4 days we must have caught over 100 fish - lucky for them, we catch and release. We did some kayaking and boating and quite a bit of just floating in the lake.
The new gadget of the trip was the new "coleman crapper"! The girls all went to town the day before the Cherry trip and when we returned to the cabin, sitting in the middle of the driveway was the "coleman crapper" - a bucket with the bottom cut out and a toilet seat sitting on the top. The best part is the guys decided to paint it camo and labeled it with the words "colman crapper" - it was accidently mispelled but that added to the laughs! It was pretty funny when we placed the crapper in the trees at the lake - it was so well camoflauged that it was hard to find! We had to tie a paper towel to the tree to highlight its location. Itwill go down in Cherry Lake history!
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Vertically Challenged
Here is my shortest friend Missy (4 feet 11 inches) and my tallest husband (6 feet 5 inches)!Missy idolizes Jim because he made her a port-a-potty for the Cherry Lake trip! There will be pics of that later.....
The Kids
Here are all the kids on the pontoon mama at Pine Mountain Lake. From left to right: Drew, Jeremy, Tyler, Kayla, Gracie and Maddie.
A bear in the woods....you've been punked!
Hwaaaaaaa.... (that is my evil laugh)!
We pulled the BEST prank on the kids at the cabin.
The kids spent half the day making a fort in the woods. Their building escapades went into the evening. As it got dark, all the adults were on the deck playing cards while the kids were playing in their fort. I am not sure who came up with the idea but we decided it would be great fun if one of us pretended to be a bear and scared the kids.
OK - full disclosure - there were at least some of us who had been drinking beer all day and would have thought buying a bridge in Arizona was a good idea!
So as soon as we came up with the hair brained scheme, Doug volunteered to be the bear and ran inside to get his brown hooded sweatshirt to play the part! And off he went -- slinking into the woods.
Once we knew he was safely in the woods the rest of the adults went down to view the masterpiece fort. While we were getting a tour, Doug had climbed a tree and was rustling the branches. Every so often one of the kids would hear the rustle and start freaking out. We would assure them that it was nothing and ask more questions about the fort. A little more time and a little more rustling of tree branches just heightened the anxiety of the kids.
Finally Doug makes the move and goes running by on all fours with his hood over his head making growling noises. The part that really freaked the kids out is when "calm, cool" Jim screamed "Holy Crap" and started running! The kids went running and screaming like crazy. All the kids got away except for Tyler whose long 13 year old legs didn't seem to work in unison which caused him to slip, do a flip in the air and land in a pile in the ground. "Holy Crap" Jim had to stop and pick him up off the ground. Gracie literally climbed up Jim's body to safety. The rest of the kids made a dash for the cabin.
Once Doug came out of the woods - the kids were good sports about it and we had a good long laugh! Of course, we might have psychologically scarred them for life
All in all - Great fun!!!!!
We pulled the BEST prank on the kids at the cabin.
The kids spent half the day making a fort in the woods. Their building escapades went into the evening. As it got dark, all the adults were on the deck playing cards while the kids were playing in their fort. I am not sure who came up with the idea but we decided it would be great fun if one of us pretended to be a bear and scared the kids.
OK - full disclosure - there were at least some of us who had been drinking beer all day and would have thought buying a bridge in Arizona was a good idea!
So as soon as we came up with the hair brained scheme, Doug volunteered to be the bear and ran inside to get his brown hooded sweatshirt to play the part! And off he went -- slinking into the woods.
Once we knew he was safely in the woods the rest of the adults went down to view the masterpiece fort. While we were getting a tour, Doug had climbed a tree and was rustling the branches. Every so often one of the kids would hear the rustle and start freaking out. We would assure them that it was nothing and ask more questions about the fort. A little more time and a little more rustling of tree branches just heightened the anxiety of the kids.
Finally Doug makes the move and goes running by on all fours with his hood over his head making growling noises. The part that really freaked the kids out is when "calm, cool" Jim screamed "Holy Crap" and started running! The kids went running and screaming like crazy. All the kids got away except for Tyler whose long 13 year old legs didn't seem to work in unison which caused him to slip, do a flip in the air and land in a pile in the ground. "Holy Crap" Jim had to stop and pick him up off the ground. Gracie literally climbed up Jim's body to safety. The rest of the kids made a dash for the cabin.
Once Doug came out of the woods - the kids were good sports about it and we had a good long laugh! Of course, we might have psychologically scarred them for life
All in all - Great fun!!!!!
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