May. 27, 2008
Memorial Day Weekend
Memorial Day WeekendWe spent the long weekend with dear friends in Illinois. We've been friends for about as long as we've been married - almost 27 years. Met in college, and when we lived in NY and they in MD, started getting together now and then. Then they moved to IL and a few years later we moved to MI, about six hours away, and we visit three or four times a year. It's one of those great friendships where all four of us really like each other.As for the kids, they have a son who is Jordan's good friend, and two girls who have fun with Allison (and sometimes) Jacob. And even though they don't have a child Jessica's age, she has always loved going there too. So this past weekend we went to their house and had a wonderful time talking, eating, playing games, walking, and visiting an antique store (well, two of us did that!) Just before we left, we decided to take some pictures, since their whole family was present and ours was almost completely represented, and it had been quite a while since that was the case. The older boys did a quick count and said, "Hey! We have enough people to make a pyramid!!"  |
May. 21, 2008
My Dog Danya
My Dog DanyaThis is Danya. She is an 8 1/2 year old Australian Shepherd, which, in case you are wondering, are among the smartest, cutest, and barkiest dogs in the world.  Sometimes we call her Bessie. She likes to graze. We also call her a Walking Stomach. She simply cannot leave food, any food, alone, so we've had to banish her from the kitchen. Also, if you are at our house, do NOT leave your lunch/snack/dinner unattended. It will most likely be gone by the time you get back. Besides food, Danya likes to eat legos. She knows she isn't supposed to, but that seems to be a glandular thing with her too, like food. Sometimes she'll help herself to a piece and then just lie under the table with it and wait to see if anyone catches on. If not, she begins crunching. She does that waiting-to-see-if-anyone-notices thing with other treasures, too. One day she had been outside and when she came in, she parked herself by my feet and looked at me. I was talking to one of the kids at the time and so I kind of ignored her, but I did notice there was a string stuck to the side of her mouth. When I finished talking, I looked at her and grabbed the string to remove it. Nothing happened. I now took a closer look, and tugged harder at the string - and it turned out to not be a string at all, and not only that, it was attached to a mouse's body, which was in Danya's mouth! About 3 1/2 years ago, Danya got hit by a car and broke her pelvis. It was pretty awful, particularly because the vet said she would need a $3000.00 operation to put it right. That wasn't an option, so we put her on crate rest. THAT was amusing. For 8 weeks, she was either in her crate, or lying next to one of us in the living room. For 8 weeks, we carried her down the steps to the yard and used a towel sling to support her rear end so she wasn't putting weight on it. Oh, and this was the 8 weeks before Christmas. When she went back for a second set of x-rays, NOTHING had healed...so we just let her do what she wanted. Within a few weeks, she was jumping on top of a big pile of snow again. Aussies really have a high threshold of pain! We're pretty sure she'll have major arthritis issues, as she has started limping quite a bit lately, but that's life! We're just glad she wasn't hurt worse. We decided that one Aussie wasn't causing enough stress in our lives, so we got another one. Tasha. More about her another day. |
May. 17, 2008
My Cats
My CatsLast summer, we got two kittens - mainly because our property was overrun with rabbits who were destroying my vegetable garden and outdoor cats are a great way to keep this under control.Here is Othello, the boy:  He is big and fat and sassy and clumsy. Even when they were kittens, the girl, Bianca (below), would jump gracefully up onto the cabinet in the barn where I fed them at that time, while Othello would try to jump, but wouldn't quite make it and be dangling there by his front paws. An ungainly scramble would ensue before he hauled himself up to where the food was.  Bianca is thin and graceful. I'm pretty sure she doesn't get nearly as much food as Othello does. The other day I saw Bianca leaping in the barn in a way that suggested she was having a lot of fun with something. I got my camera and went outside; as soon as she saw me she came up on the deck to show me her treasure - a baby mouse about an inch and a half long! Well, as long as they are catching rabbits too, that's fine with me. We've had a third cat hanging around the house for a while, and I'm pretty sure I've been feeding it - which might be part of why Bianca is so thin! A few mornings ago, when I went out to feed the cats, the third one was there, meowing piteously. I put out the food and Othello dug in right away. The stranger jumped up on the table to help herself but Bianca was having none of that and hissed at it?him?her? until he/she backed off. Othello kept right on eating, while Bianca watched the intruder to make sure s/he was really leaving - which didn't quite happen until the dogs came outside....come to think of it, I haven't seen the visitor-cat since then. And Othello just keeps getting heavier... |
May. 16, 2008
Friday Feast
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www.fridaysfeast.com Appetizer What is the nearest big city to your home? Kalamazoo Soup On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how well do you keep secrets? Depends - if I know it's a secret, I don't tell. At all. If I'm not specifically told it's a secret, I will probably tell Terry. Salad Describe your hair (color, texture, length). Medium brown with more and more gray as the years go by. Texture: sometimes smooth, sometimes coarse; these days, with menopause lurking, it's pretty variable! Length: chin-length. Main Course What kind of driver are you? Courteous? Aggressive? Slow? SOME members of my family would say I'm too slow and distracted. Okay, at times I am. In general, I'm not very aggressive and I try to be courteous. Dessert When was the last time you had a really bad week? Hmmmm - probably the last time I got shots at the Pain Clinic. They don't really start helping till a week after I get them. |
Feb. 17, 2007
Happy Birthday To Us
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Yesterday was my birthday, and it was also my husband Terry's birthday. Isn't that weird? We found out on the first day we met that we have the same birthday, and I can remember thinking then how strange it would be to be married to someone who had the same birthday as me (not that I was thinking then we'd be married - I thought he was a strange duck!) Anyway...the first few years it was kind of hard to get used to the idea because I wanted to be spoiled on my birthday but also to do nice things for him! For a while we took turns with the birthday cake - one year I'd bake one and the next year he'd buy one. This year - our oldest daughter is married and bless her heart, she cooked for us! Brought over lasagna and green bean casserole and a lovely chocolate cake, and some dear friends joined us for dessert and we had a wonderful evening. Today Terry took me shopping at my favorite clothing store and bought me a few items I really love. My dad called yesterday to wish me happy birthday and had us both in tears - he talked about remembering the day after I was born, how he stood in the hospital corridor with his mother, my dear Oma, who died in 1977 - looking at me through the nursery window (this was long before the day when everyone and his uncle is allowed to be in with the baby). Dad loved his mother so much and I think as he is getting old himself he misses her very much. I miss her too - she was such a sweet, wonderful woman and I wish I could have known her better - so we were both a little emotional! |
Feb. 15, 2007
Definitely Mundane Today
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I'm posting only so no one thinks I'm slacking already. I've been trying to figure out how to do things like put an entry under "about me" and it's not working AT ALL. And I wouldn't mind trying to post favorite links, but after my abject failure at the About Me, I'm not ready to tackle something else yet! I've been feeling somewhat under the weather for a week or so and I'm extremely tired of it. I just have too much to do!! Although, now that I think about it, today I feel better than I have in several days, so maybe I'm on the mend. In our 8th grade home school, we are reading about the Crusades. I'm using a cool book which my husband used to read at his grandmother's house when he was a young whippersnapper, so it has been around for a while, called The Age of Chivalry (it's from National Geographic). This is a very cool book and we have been learning so much from it! Did you know, for example, that there were NINE crusades? Abeka only mentions four, I had never heard there were that many (well, I suppose it's possible they told me in school but I remember so little from those days....). Fascinating stuff. I used to hate history...now it's my favorite subject. Education is SO wasted on the young. Currently reading: The Tapestry by Edith Schaeffer. |
Feb. 13, 2007
A New Blog
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I've had a xanga site for a number of years now, which I mainly started so I could read what my kids were writing on their xanga sites. I update it about once every two months, or more if I'm reading something really profound. I think I update it so little because I don't think that many people read it! After realizing how many people that I 'know' have a blog at homeschoolblogger, I decided I might get more coverage, so to speak, by having a blog here as well, or in stead of....that remains to be seen. So if you see this, please tell me you've seen it so I can feel validated in having taken this step - and I'll try to update more often than I do my xanga! |