Mr. Cutie Pie

Watching Isaiah, a set on Flickr.

Last week I had the pleasure of watching Isaiah and playing with him most of the day. It's such a blessing to see the world through the eyes of a child.

His favorite words to me for the day were: "Mimi Room, Mimi Room!" That means "Come in my room and play with me Mimi." And yes I did every time he called me to.

Here's a few silly shots I took on my phone from the day. He thought it was hilarious to see his self on the camera when I was snapping the photos. What a joy he is!

R.I.P. Baby Bird

"The Twins"

As I was getting ready to let the dogs in this morning, I noticed Rocket (Rocket has the white snout) had something in his mouth. He caught his first baby bird of the season.

It's all downhill from here, now I have to keep an eye on him for worms and be watchful of all the other little innocent birdies in the backyard. Rocket and Phoenix both watch for birds and squirrels in the backyard in hopes that they can catch one and pounce on it.

I'm sorry little baby bird that two of my doggies have the instinct to prey on you.

Cart Logic

I had to make a trip to the grocery store today, one of my least favorite things to do. Because I don't like having to spend all the time in the store, it's a pain to load up the trunk, come home unload the bags, then put all the food away.

But, one of my least favorite reasons is the fact that nine times out of ten I get one of the loudest, uncooperative carts in the store. Being that it happens so often, I have resigned myself to the fact that I am meant to be heard, even from three isles away with a loud rattling cart.

Sometimes I wonder when people see me coming if they think, "I wonder why she didn't just go back and get a different cart?" If someone were to actually ask me that I would say, "Yeah, it wouldn't do any good, I would just get another messed up cart."

Murphy's Law at work again.

OK

The sun still shines with warmth
Another day still begins and ends

Hope can still be seen
In all the miracles of love

Helping hands reach out
And hold you in their arms

You can see and feel
The love pouring out

From others all around
Willing to give most importantly

Their time
Their support

Their kindness
Their strength

When a world comes together
As one

You know you will be
OK

Oklahoma

My Sweet Rocket

Sweet Pea

Remember These?

I've been cleaning up our Windows desktop computer so we can sell it, or do whatever with it because we converted to Mac several years ago and let's just say I am not a Windows fan. 

I forgot that this Windows computer has a floppy disk drive which holds 1.44 MB per disk. It's amazing to me how fast technology has advanced just in the last five years.

When I went through all these disks it was so time consuming and I had forgotten how slow a floppy disk drive is. But I've found some interesting old photos on these little disks which was a happy surprise.

One Thing Leads To Another

The fence is complete. Although they did have to return for a second trip to repair the gate because the arch on it wasn't straight.

You know that phrase "One thing leads to another"? Yeah, well that's what happens when you do ONE project. It turns into many other projects. We decided it would look nice if we put stones in front of both gates to insure the dogs (one in particular) wouldn't want to try and dig her way out.

So the one project turned into three or four and we keep adding more. We also decided we needed to put down fabric and then river rock on top of that, to deter the dogs and keep mud from splashing up on the lovely white pristine fence we just had installed that is maintenance free.  Ha ha!

Now we have two gate walkways to complete, fabric and river rock to place around the perimeter of the fence and who knows after that.....oh yeah a new roof, and then,

Today I...

Went to Garden Ridge in Noblesville, IN and bought planters and a dog bed.

Replanted Calla Lilies into three different pots that I bought.

Spent to much time on Facebook.

Went through tons of email.

Looked at old photos and came across this one I wanted to share.

My father died in 1990 on Valentine's Day and this photo makes me think about him a lot, as I look into his face.

He's holding my son Jesse when he was a newborn. This photo was taken in Texas at my Dad's house, many moons ago.

My Daddy and Jesse newborn

Chasing Flags

The yard has been marked with flags for the fence installment, which is planned for this coming Wednesday.

Red flags for power lines, Orange flags for telephone lines, and Yellow flags for gas lines. A slew of flags for Phoenix to pull up by her cute little mouth to proudly parade around the yard and then proceed to chew them to pieces.

After many, many times of replacement of said flags I gave up and said

Fence Me In

Soon and very soon, we are replacing our old, worn out, wooden post and chain link fence in the backyard with a new and improved 6 foot white vinyl privacy fence.

I'm excited about it but at the same time

The Vacation Chronicles (3)

And now back to the story.... (to refresh your memory you may want to read here and here first.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

After calling the hotel to find out exactly where they were located and being told "You can't miss us we are on the hill. It's a red roof with a white building." Um, yes actually we could miss them because it is hard to see a red roof in the dark.

We arrived at the hotel and upon parking the car and getting out we were immediately

Tragedy

I decided not to post the continuation of the vacation chronicles tonight due to the tragedy that happened in Connecticut today. Instead I'm praying and thinking of the many, many lives that were forever changed today by one persons senseless act.

To those affected:

 "I pray you may feel the peace and love of God amidst this incomprehensible time of pain, anger, suffering, sorrow and tragedy. May you feel loving arms wrapped around you as you go through each moment and may you feel strength beyond your comprehension. My heart goes out to each and everyone of you."

The Vacation Chronicles (2)

Still Day One - Saturday, December 1, 2012

We had a safe trip on the plane to the Denver airport, despite the turbulence. By the time we arrived and took the shuttle to the rental car place it was about 4 p.m. which really doesn't seem that late but in Colorado they are two hours behind us so it starts getting dark around 4:30.

We used Thrifty rental for our rental car, because I got the best deal with them for a week for a mid-size car. Estimated price of rental $160.48, actual cost of rental $293.68. Just a word of advice I would recommend to not use Thrifty rental because Thrifty isn't so thrifty!

By the time we rented the car we were both exhausted and obviously not paying close attention to all of the additional fees that we were getting charged for. The guy asked if we wanted a second driver, I said sure not thinking that there was a charge for it. I knew more than likely I wouldn't be driving anyway and why didn't the guy mention that there was a cost for it?

We drove away from the rental place thinking we were doing good up to this point then it hit me, I asked Jim, "How much was the rental car?" He replied, "I don't know", and handed me the receipt to look at while he was driving. I took one look at it and said "Honey, they charged us $293.68! This was supposed to only be around $160.48." Being quite angry I got on the phone to Thrifty and they proceeded to explain to me that we were charged $10 per day for an additional driver, and for a toll pass, and so on.

I explained that we were not told there was a charge for an additional driver, but they told me the only way to change it was to come back and write up a new contract. At that point we were well on our way to our destination, so we argued about it for a bit and decided to continue on. Jim got frustrated because I was upset and I got frustrated because he was getting upset that I was upset. Makes sense, right?

We continued on, while making phone calls to the resort to find out if there had been any change in the evacuation situation, but of course there had not. They did give us two different options of places that were offering discounts due to people being displaced. One option was a discount of $130 per night at a lodge (that's a discount?) and the other option was a hotel offering a discount of $69 per night.

Naturally, we went with the second option with the positive attitude that it would be for only one night. Wait till you hear where we ended up spending our first four nights.                                                          

The Vacation Chronicles

This past Saturday we returned from a weeks vacation in the beautiful Colorado country. We went to the Estes Park area with the intention of spending a lot of time at Rocky Mountain National Park. However, nature had other plans:

Day One -  Saturday, December 1, 2012

A few hours prior to our flight time we got a call. I was upstairs doing last minute details and gathering things together for our trip to the airport. I heard my husband downstairs talking on the phone, but didn't think to much of it so I kept busy getting ready to leave. Our pet/house sitter was to arrive in a few minutes and I wanted to go over details about the house and the dogs with her.

I came down the stairs and sat on the couch to put my shoes on and my husband walked in the living room and said, "Well, that wasn't good news."

Unwrapping Christmas

Yesterday, the first packages began arriving from the online shopping I've been doing for Christmas. I brought them in and sat them on the floor knowing I would get back to them in a bit after preparing lunch.

So into the kitchen I went to prepare lunch and to let the dogs in. As I was finishing up the tuna salad I had made, I heard a tearing sound, Riiiiiiiip, Riiiiiiip, Riiiiiiiip! I walked into the living room to find Phoenix surrounded by shredded pieces of cardboard, and in the act of tearing off another piece. "Hey, what do you think you are doing?", I yelled at her, and she ran under the dining room table with a substantial piece of cardboard in her mouth.

What a mess to clean up. Luckily Amazon ships a box in a box so no gifts were damaged from "the little stinker." Although, she got very close to tearing into the actual box with the gift in it.

Destruction by Phoenix

She's lucky she didn't get into that second box.

The Monster

Reflecting

Me & Jesse 7/21/85

I ran across this word document today that I had written some time ago about my son. Here it is, a sweet memory close to my heart...

April 19, 2010

Where Has the Time Gone?

It seems like it was only yesterday that I

Tiny Bubbles

The other night I poured myself a glass of Moscato, but did I drink it? Not until I took tons of photos of those tiny bubbles that looked so artsy in the glass. I couldn't help myself I have a thing for still life photos.

And I'm sorry but you can't say the words tiny bubbles without thinking of this song.

I Totally Forgot

Thanksgiving evening I had these brilliant plans of taking photos of the food I made and of the kids and grand kids while they were here. The kids all sat on the floor and

They're Coming!

When I was a child I never understood why my parents weren't as excited about the holidays as me and my sister were. When it was time for the J.C.Penny and Sears Christmas catalog to arrive at our house we were anxiously waiting.

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I looked through the toy section of the catalog, over and over trying to decide what I wanted for Christmas. With funds being limited for our family it was hard to choose, since we were only allowed one big item.

Now as I prepare for Thanksgiving and begin planning for Christmas I get tired just thinking about it. Now I know why my parents weren't excited, they were thinking of all the work ahead them.

So much work to do, from the cleaning, to the cooking, to the shopping, to the sending of Christmas cards, etc. etc.

Today I spent a good part of the day in the kitchen cleaning. We're not talking about the usual light cleaning folks, we're talking full blown remove all the small appliances on the counter and wash down all the counters then wash down all the small appliances as well. Geez things sure do get dusty around here. The dogs were looking at me like, "Are you ever going to sit down?"

And to think I haven't even begun to cook the first dish yet for Thanksgiving. I'm pooped already and I'm just getting started. Where's the maid? I need one.

In the midst of all this I have to keep reminding myself no one is going to remember if there was dust on something. They will however remember the time spent together as a family. That's what I have to keep telling myself, but the perfectionist in me continues to clean for the company.

Little Mr. Cutie Pie

Watching Thomas on Television

Saturday was spent with little Mr. Cutie Pie Isaiah, watching Thomas the Train (his favorite), Dora the Explorer (backpack, backpack, swiper no swiping, swiper no swiping) sorry its still stuck in my head, and Sesame Street.

We played with various toys in Mimi's toy box, he especially likes the cash register. He's getting an early start on how to spend Mommy and Daddy's money.

Isaiah and Rocket

Of course all three of the dogs were