Counting Down and Crossing Off...

I think a week out is a good time to start the countdown. This time next week our "company" will be here and we will be in full Christmas mode.

This weekend I've tried to just stay busy. Luckily there was plenty to do. I tried to keep the tv off and the Christmas carols on Pandora streaming.

Friday night was difficult. You want to get information but you don't really want to watch. It's just so tragic. The brave teachers and staff at that school in Connecticut were incredible. We practice lock-downs at school every so often. Of course since this happened at a school I try to think what I might do if this were to occur at my school. I decided I'm not really as prepared as I should be. With my luck and with this current job I would probably be walking the halls anyway.

Let's face it, there are so many things wrong here. First, this guy was obviously mentally ill. No person, no matter how evil, could mow down all these little children unless he was sick. Second, why did this guy's mother own an assault rifle. Why does anyone who is not in the military, need an assault weapon. I get people's rights to own guns, but an assault rifle? No matter how much investigation there is into this matter, it will never make sense, never.

So, I've been keeping very busy this weekend trying to remain distracted. H and I made a long list of things we wanted to accomplish and he was a great help! He got the tree up and the lights on and some of the ornaments on too. We are saving the rest for next weekend so Quinn and Amber can finish. He also unpacked my Snow Baby ornaments for me and got them all set up.

What was I doing during this time?

Baking cookies.

Decorating cookies.

Putting cookies on plates.

Also getting Tyler's package ready for the mail. What do you buy for the guy who has everything? He'll just have to wait until December 25 to find out!

I also managed to take both pups for a walk this weekend.

Zoe got to go on Saturday and Charlie went on Sunday. Charlie got his own Gentle Leader so now they don't have to share.

Zoe's walk was uneventful but Charlie had 3 run-ins today. One of the run-ins was with a woman walking 3 pugs! They were all going crazy. Thankfully I didn't fall down and we were able to finish our walk.

I also managed to get a couple other things done like laundry and cleaning my aquarium, picking up dog waste, filling my bird feeders, getting my hair cut, shopping at Target early Saturday morning, but I don't have pictures of all that exciting stuff.

There is still so much more to do. I haven't wrapped one gift yet and I even have a few more coming in the mail still. I'm pretty sure that everything will be here by Christmas day! Plus this week I have my staff Christmas party, the school parties, a cookie exchange, lunch with my ESL girls and bowling Friday night!

Oh, and I almost forgot. Scott is moving back in tomorrow. He has had a problem with his roommate that can't be solved and he can't stay there. H is taking off a half day tomorrow to help him move his stuff back in. Looks like we will have a full house for Christmas.

Have a good week!

Christmas Prep

Christmas prep is well underway. The Saturday after Thanksgiving H got all the outside decorations up. It looks great out there! I will have to get a picture soon. Maybe once I get the candles in the windows.

The inside prep has been a little slower. I did get my kitchen tree up last weekend, all but the popcorn and cranberry garland which is a bit labor intensive so I haven't gotten to that yet.

Last weekend I also started my annual Christmas letter. Squeezing all the news onto a front and back page was a bit challenging but we finally managed to get it all on there. H showed me a couple Word tricks I didn't know about. Yesterday and today I have gotten most of them printed off, Christmas cards addressed and they will go in the mail sometime this week probably.

Also this weekend I managed to get my Snow Baby tree decorated. It had been sitting next to the vase of sunflowers on the sofa table in the foyer for almost two weeks. I don't have all my Snow Babies out yet but I'll work on that this week maybe.

Last Monday morning at 5:45 we got a phone call from Scott. He said he had been sick and throwing up all night and needed to go to the emergency room. I quickly got ready and picked him up but instead of the emergency room we headed to the urgent care. After a quick exam, blood tests and blood sugar, it was determined that he was in DKA (Diabetic Ketone Acidosis)and the Dr. freaked out a little saying Scott had to go by ambulance to the hospital. They were able to put him right in a room at emergency and continue with fluids. That's pretty much all they did all day, fluid bag after fluid bag. The frustrating part was that when his bag was empty I would have to go search someone down and sometimes it would take an hour to get someone to help us. Around 4:00 that afternoon they finally gave him some clear liquids to see if he could keep anything down. He did and then at 5:00 a nurse came in and said the Dr. had decided to keep him overnight. What really ticked me off was that the Dr. never even came in to see him. By 8:30 he was upstairs in a room and H and I were able to go home. The next morning I went to work and Scott was to call me when he was discharged. The Dr. didn't come in until after 11:00!! Scott told them he wanted to check himself out but the nurse told him if he did that then his insurance would cover anything! I picked him up around 12:30 and took him home so he could rest up and be ready for work the next day. him

Friday night was bowling. We are in second place right now. Behind the first place team by 4 points. We took 3 points Friday night and so did they. We all bowled fairly well and could have had 4 if we hadn't lost the second game by just 3 pins! All of us opened in the 10th. Bummer.

I've started something new this past week. After talking to H about sending Charlie to a doggie boot camp, I decided it was ridiculous that I walk every day (nearly) and my dogs have to stay home because they are so wild and ill-mannered. On Thursday, after work, I decided I would give it a try and see how bad things really are. I'm embarrassed to say I haven't walked either dog on a leash, other than 20 steps from the field to the car, in over 2 years. Well, there was that one time a month or so ago I decided I would give it a try. I didn't even get two houses away. They both saw the neighbor's dog and started going crazy, pulling me, barking. I could hardly hold them back. I was out of breath and had to turn around and go back home.

Thursday went a little better. I remembered I had this handy dandy tool called the gentle leader. It's a special head harness that works much like a harness for horses. Supposedly where the head goes the body goes. Plus I decided to just take Charlie by himself. Let's just say the first 1/4 of the walk didn't go that well, for Charlie. He bucked and jumped around like a bucking bronco. Toward the end of that 1/4 his nose was on the pinkish side from scratching at his "gentle leader". He finally gave it up and started walking nicely. Toward the end of the walk he saw another dog, a huge trigger, and while he barked and jumped, I still had him under control and we walked away after a few minutes of acting like a total a$$.

Since Thursday we have had two more walks, yesterday and today. I would like to say they have been better but they were pretty much the same. He is nothing if not hardheaded. It takes him a while to get it. He still thinks he has a chance to be a jerk. I have remained calm and steady, mostly. There was that one time where he was acting like a total a$$, jumping and barking at another dog and started getting under my feet and almost tripped me. He got an extra jerk and a little louder NO for that one. When he heels, he does it really well. When I stop, he automatically sits.

Zoe has only been on one walk. Hers was shorter and pretty good. She doesn't have as many bad habits but then again, we didn't see any other dogs. She doesn't act like she wants to kill them, she just screams and it sounds like she's been hit by a car. We had none of that yesterday, thank goodness. Of course, we didn't see any other dogs either.

That's about all the news for the past 2 weeks. We are counting the days (13) until we get to see our little sweetie! We are all going to have such a nice time celebrating Christmas, baking cookies, sledding (if we ever get some snow) and resting up!

Have a good week!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Just a note: This was supposed to post Sunday night at 10:00 but for some reason it did not. Oops!! It was nice to have 5 days off. I had the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off too but H had to work. It was nice to sleep in a bit and have a little break. Thanksgiving day was pretty quiet. H and I took a long walk in the sunshine before I started the dinner preps. I made a cheese ball and got the apple pie together before dinner. It was pretty simple fare, turkey breast, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and green beans. We decided not to bother with rolls this year since last year we were all too full to even eat them. It was after 3:00 when Scott arrived and we ate shortly after that. After the guys cleaned up it was on to turkey induced naps. Friday night was bowling but I didn't go. I was having some problems with my stomach and wasn't feeling up to it. I really didn't feel well until today. Some kind of a bug I guess. H went though and said we took 3 points. We were tied for 2nd place as of Friday night.

H spent most of the day yesterday putting up the outside Christmas lights. It was very cold but he got it all done. The last three days have been very gray. Depressingly gray. This is the beginning of the time of year that I have a hard time with. I need sunshine. Too much gray for too many days is just depressing. I saw this little guy the other day.

It's a Junco. Soon after you see a Junco you see this

It varies from a few days to a couple weeks but it's right behind his arrival.

I also saw this guy over the weekend. He took quiet a nap in this cozy spot out in the woods.

Still no sign of Stumpy. His cousins aren't talking.

Amber, Andy & Quinn spent the weekend on the west side of the state with Andy's whole family. Quinn had a blast playing with her cousins. We are so looking forward to spending time with all of them over the Christmas holidays. Someone has already put her request in with Santa.

I'm sure he'll bring her everything she's asking for because she's been such a good girl!

I'm almost finished with my Christmas shopping. We are keeping it simple this year, low key. Nothing much else is new here.

Have a good week!!

So, Time Flies When It's Fall...

I can't believe 3 weeks have gone by since I last posted. Not much is really happening. We have a pretty simple routine of work, chores and that's about it.

We are so fortunate to have a beautiful weekend this weekend. It's been warm and sunny both days. Today when I was taking the pups up to the high school my car temperature registered 69 degrees!

We took advantage of that nice weather and today went out to the garden, turned over the soil and finally got the garlic planted. I had been waiting for the manure to be delivered. It was promised for last weekend but still hasn't been delivered. Very disappointing. Why do they want us to wait until it's unbearably cold to go out there and take care of putting the garden to bed for the winter? Very poor planning.

I planted 50 cloves from my own garlic that I harvested during the summer. I have never tried that before. Usually I plant garlic I've purchased from a nursery but I've read about others trying this so I thought I would give it a try.

And look at this bonus! While we were turning over the garden we found these onions. The tops must have broken off at some point so I didn't even know they were under there.

Bowling has gone well lately. Two weeks ago we bowled a new team. They were all pretty young and had pretty low averages. We actually had to give them more than 100 points! We managed to take 3 points from them. This week we were tied for 2nd place and bowled our partner's son, his wife and their friends. We only took the first game by 5 pins, the second by 30 and unfortunately lost the last game by 3 pins! It came down to the last frame, father against son, so they took that game but we took totals!

H moved into a new office at the end of the week. He spent a few hours this morning moving furniture around and getting organized. Nice view!

Someone got her first haircut this weekend! She sat very still and had a couple inches cut off. Such a good girl!

Today I also baked some more cookies but I forgot to take pictures. They were pumpkins, fall leaves and turkeys! One of the little boys at school has brain tumors and we are doing a fund raiser later this week. So far the diagnosis isn't cancer which is a good thing. He's had several surgeries already.

So, that's it for our exciting weeks and weekend.

Another Week

Another week and weekend have flown past. The week flies by. My new job keeps me busy, checking in here and there, going where needed or making connections that will be needed later. One kindergartner I had been spending a lot of time with has been out sick. Last report was that he has pneumonia and has been in intensive care. Poor kid. Coming back to school, whenever that might be, will be hard for him having been out for more than a week.

I went back to the Dr. this week so he could check my eye. He said everything looked good and I didn't need to come back for a month. The last day or so I've noticed that the stitches seem to be sticking out of my eyelid. I hope that means they are still dissolving. The scratchy feeling in my eye has stopped which is good. Now I just have to go another week without makeup.

Saturday morning H and I went out to breakfast and then to the farmer's market. It's amazing how much stuff is still out there. They close in just a couple weeks. We were stocking up on the pasture raised ground beef but also picked up some salad greens and late season tomatoes. It was rainy and damp most of the day. I managed to squeeze in a walk between showers but we never did see the sun. Today dawned bright and beautiful. What a difference a little sun can make.

We went for a little drive today to visit Scott's new apartment. It's very nice and he seems very happy there. He has a nice view of the woods instead of the parking lot which is really nice for him.

When we returned from Scott's, I took the pups to the high school and they were so happy. Yesterday was too rainy and they spent the day following me around. Zoe was particularly frisky today and did her best to keep the frisbee away from Charlie every chance she got.

From the high school we went out to the garden. I'm sorry to say I haven't been out there in over a month. So bad. I wanted to pick up my tomato cages before something happened to them.

Most plots look as bad or worse than mine. Only a few look like they had been tended recently.

Here's a beautiful Fall picture.

I harvested my carrots. Many of them had been snacked on my something but I was able to salvage many of them.

I also picked some Rosemary. That's really all that was left. The few frosts we had got everything else. I really need to spend a few hours out there and get it ready for Winter. I also need to plant my garlic, and soon. Maybe next weekend.

So that's it. Another week, gone. Bowling this week! Have a good week!