A new place to play

I have found a new place to play! Check out this website! http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/
You can cut snowflakes, share them in the gallery and download them to your computer. Note the fact you can review and undo your flakes, this made my flake making much easier.
I though with all the teachers, librarians, mothers and twiddlers I have visiting my blog all of you would enjoy playing with this.

Not a pretty picture

Nothing new, except my face is now red and swollen ~ apparently a result of the sinus infection. I hope it goes away soon.

*****Edited, I removed the face photo. Too ugly for words*****

Sinus infection

Face hurts.
Head hurts.
Chills.
Disgusting booger nose.
Story due at 5 p.m.
DH working late tonight.
I want someone to take care of me now. :(

How much is that doggy in the window?

We took Ginger in to get her hernia operation today and spent two hours killing time driving around Bountiful, UT because we didn’t want to make the trip twice. Since we had pets on our mind we visited a couple of pet stores.
It was fun, fascinating and a little surreal all at the same time.
First we stopped at Petco where we found all kinds of pricy pets and toys, mostly toys. We could have bought our cat a collar with a LED light attached to it for hours of play time. DS-12 really wanted it and carried it around the store, but we ditched it at the door because it cost $10.
The store had all kinds of fun animals; DS-12 liked the ferrets and the fish. But the most interesting to me was the chinchilla. All I know about chinchillas is the have soft fur … very desirable in coat making. When I saw it I couldn’t figure out what it was. It looked rather like a cross between a rat and a bunny. It was soft and bunny like, but it had a long tail. One of the employees told me the details.
Apparently chinchilla are not particularly friendly pets, but they will warm up with enough handling.
Of course if you buy the coat, you don’t have to spend the extra time to make it friendly.
Whoops, was that politically incorrect of me?
We also stopped in at “Bird World” where they were advertising a “Giant Puppy Sale.” Since we wanted to see what a Giant puppy looked like, we parked the car and checked it out.
Apparently the puppies were not giant, but the sale was.
Puppies were now priced as low as $499.00 for a non-registered poodle mix.
Yikes!
Still, I do like poodles. An acquaintance of mine several years ago had a standard poodle and he was really cool. Later a friend had a pet poodle that DH and I babysat shortly after our wedding. She was funny as all get out.
But I just don’t see myself paying $500 for a dog. It was a swallow hard moment when we had to pay for Ginger, and the price included the cost of getting her spayed and microchipped. Camelot pet spa and resort doesn’t let you have a pet unless it has been altered.
Meanwhile …. Back at the ranch moment

When I grew up dogs and cats were free to good homes as advertised in the local newspaper. The first dog I remember, Annie, named after Little Orphan Annie because she just showed up one day, was ~ I believe ~ part golden retriever ~ and she was a great dog. She regularly had puppies under the bunkhouse and as soon as the puppies were old enough to debut, Dad crawled into her den and pulled them out one-by-one for us all to inspect.
I don’t recall having any trouble giving the pups away, but at some point we did have Annie spayed.
She had a puppy named Goofy that well lived up to his name.
Annie had one run-in with a porcupine and came home with a snoot full of quills. I remember how she howled as Dad pulled those quills out with a pair of pliers. Thereafter Annie kept far away from the wildlife. Goofy, on the other hand, regularly returned from his jaunts with his nose bristling like a pin cushion. He never learned to leave porcupines alone.
Later we had a dog we named “Hopi” as in “Hopi doesn’t get hit by a car,” “Hopi’s a good cattle dog,” “Hopi’s good with the kids.” Alas, Hopi did get hit by a car.
So did my first Siamese cat, Ming. I got her from a dear friend and loved her dearly, madly, deeply.
She was a great mouser and a good mother. Mom had her bred with a Siamese male to get her first batch of kittens, which were born under the dining room table in our ranch house. We all gathered around the box to watch the big event, and her first kitten came out tail first. It was once a common abnormality for Siamese cats to have kinks in their tails, and this kitten’s tail was like a corkscrew. When mom saw that odd looking tail being born she got on the phone with the vet in a panic, but squiggles was born perfectly normal except for the strange tail.
After Ming I got another Siamese kitten, Pepsi, who gave birth to Spock. Eventually Mom changed their names to Pesky and Squawk to better match their personalities.
Squawk disappeared on the ranch; we believe he became food to some other animal. Pepsi live a long life and was eventually put down at the vet.
Mom and Dad also had BoJo, a beautiful golden retriever they inherited from on of my brother’s friends. BoJo proved to be a good companion for both of them. On the day my father died he started to feel sick while taking his last walk with BoJo. This dear dog kept mom company after my father’s death.
We have had numerous other pets in our life. The white cat Vicki so named because of the grey V shaped marking on top of her head; my cat Beau, a friend when I need one in my single world in Montpelier, Idaho. Elvira and Sulu my brother’s cats, Elvira met with a most untimely death and Sulu keep Little Bro company through his bachelorhood. He was recently given a vet assisted death because he was so old and sick.
I come from pet people.
(Well, there is one niece who dislikes cats and her children are terrified of them)
I, like my niece, am in peril of becoming the crazy cat lady. I truly wanted to take the owl finches, the poodle puppy and the rest of Ginger’s litter home with me. (By the way, apparently Cinnamon, the cat we decided not to adopt because she clawed DS-12, is in fact a male. The pet spa discovered this when they checked her/him for spaying/neutering.)
Good thing my DH stands as the voice of reason.

Don't look ... it's gaining on you

Just a reminder for family members so we are all on the same page:
Little Bro. put the Christmas list in his calendar, but for those of you who can’t find yours, here is the list:
R&LD have the Bs
G&RB have the Ls
L &JS have the Ds
D&AL have the Little Bros
R&TS have the Hillybilly sis
Ready or not Christmas is on it’s way!

A low key Thanksgiving

DS-7 came home from school with this headband today. It is made like gum rapper chains but with larger strips of paper. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make gum rapper chains (you guessed it, scrapbook related) so I had him show me the trick.
He was very proud of himself.
We will be having a low-key Thanksgiving this year. DH has to work on Thursday, he had the choice to work Thanksgiving or Christmas and he chose to work on Thanksgiving.
I have rolls rising and have finished baking a pumpkin pie. We will be having a ham dinner tonight in honor of the event. I might even get fancy and put a tablecloth and candles on the table.
I’m currently suffering from some kind of stuffy nose, sore throat, achy body ailment that makes every movement uncomfortable. I hurt in odd places, like on the bridge of my nose and along the jaw line. I’m not sure what’s up, but I do look forward to a few days of not getting up at 7 a.m. to get the children to school.
Ginger is feeling a little under the weather, too. I took her to the Vet Monday to have her stitches taken out from being spayed and was told the bulge on her belly (from the spaying) is in fact a hernia. We have an appointment set for Saturday to have the same people who gave her the hernia fix it. DH isn’t working on Saturday, so we will probably make a day of the trip into Bountiful.
To add injury on top of injury, this morning she was running around and had the front door shut on her hind leg. Now she’s crying and limping. I took her to the Vet again today and the leg isn’t broken.
We have a great Vet; he hasn’t charged us yet for the stitches removal, clipping her claws (yeah!) or checking her leg for a break. We buy our pet food from him, so he does get our business.
I hope all the friends and family out there in blogworld are having, have had a great Thanksgiving.
I’m sending a special shout out to Holland, I hope they find out what’s going on with you. Love you girl!
And the BowlDoggs, have a grand holiday, I wish I could have been there for the wedding.

This is a photo of our next door neighbor putting up the Christmas lights. It was a cold and windy day, and she was perched up there like some kind of bird. It entertained me, so I snapped the shot. Ahh to be young and bulletproof again.

Say whaaaaa...?

I am feeling out of focus and out of control. Now this is not exactly new, but it has been intensified lately with DH working two jobs.
It seems like much of my life is at the whim of forces around me. I never know from one week to the next what DH schedule will be, what work I will be doing for the newspaper and what I should be doing for my children or my church job.
This is not a good season to be feeling so fuzzy. I have stacks and stacks of work to do, as does anyone in charge of the holiday for their family.
As an example:
My boss called Friday after more than a week of no contact and gave me a list of four stories to write this week. He wants two of them tomorrow.
Logan had a talk to write for church today.
We desperately needed haircuts for the boys, and DH had to go to work, so I needed to make sure he had a clean shirt.
At about 5 p.m. last night I threw some chicken in the crock pot to cook it for the enchiladas’ I was going to make for today’s dinner. DH came home after 11 p.m. and asked me what I planned to do with the chicken. Whoops. I can’t smell it cooking, so I forgot it was in there.
While we visited I cleaned out the refrigerator to make room for the crock pot. I put a leftover pork chop in a smaller bowl and talked to DH about his day.
Then I went to bed and left the crock pot full of chicken sitting on the kitchen counter.
Fortunately DH noticed it and asked me if I wanted to put it in the fridge.
Umm, duh!
Sure I do.
If anyone out there has ideas of how I can keep on task, I truly would appreciate the advice.

more photos, as requested

Right now the only thing I am photographing is Ginger. I feared this might be a little dull for blog readers, but as my big sister requested more photos, here they are.

The one thing worst than a dentist

Is not having a dentist when you need one.

Poor DS-12 is not having a good weekend. He had two teeth pulled today. They were baby teeth, but the permanent teeth growing in behind them are crooked so they were not disolving the roots of the baby teeth.

Looks like we have braces (and the bills) in his future.

To add insult to injury the tooth pulling meant he had to miss helping with an Eagle Scout project today and a camp-out tonight. Truth to tell, I don't think he's all that upset about missing the camp out.

What's more, he has to give a talk in church on Sunday.

I guess it could be worse. His cousin H spent a few days this week at Primary Children's Hospital getting a cyst removed from her neck.

Sorry Razer and Hollers, we couldn't make it over to visit you because DH had to work and my car is not reliable enough to make the trip.

I hope you are on the mend, my friend.

Cuz I deserve it

You deserve it.
I’ve been hearing that a lot lately, and not in the snide” you done me wrong and now your foot is stuck in a mud puddle, Ha, Ha, Ha!” way.
More in the “I know this is an insane luxury, but I want it so by golly I deserve it” way.
I saw the most glaring example of this while watching “Doctor 90210” (Yep, I watch crap like that) while waiting for DH to come home from work one night.
The featured subject was a woman in her, say, mid 40s, with three daughters, a doting husband, a nice house and a fine figure.
The problem, under her clothing her belly was showing the effects of giving birth to those three daughters and was saggy and baggy. Raise you hand if you managed to reach your mid 40s, rather or not you gave birth to three children, without getting some saggy, baggy going on in the middle region.
I though not.
This woman, however, was not pleased. Understandable, I’m not pleased, either. And had taken herself to Dr. 90210 to have the saggy, baggy removed and ~ as a fun bonus, lift and separate the girls.
While under the knife she also had some work done to get rid of those unfortunate lines, baggy eyes, etc.
This is all fine and good. I don’t suppose there is a mid-40 woman in America who wouldn’t like to be less ~ well 40 looking. While I don’t see myself getting a body overhaul I can’t say as I don’t understand her desire to do so.
What I don’t understand is the doctor’s statement; “You Deserve It!”
Why?
Why does one saggy, baggy woman in California deserve the lift, separate and de-wrinkle treatment more than say a saggy, baggy woman in Utah?
I frankly don’t believe I deserve it. I deserve the saggy, baggy, wrinkled and droopy face and body I currently sport.
I earned it by golly!
There was a time that growing old gracefully meant getting saggy and baggy and not making a big old fuss about it. Now, I guess it is not allowing the saggy and baggy to occur and go kicking and screaming into middle age.
While I can’t say I embrace the changes, I have come to accept them. Graceful or not, that is who I am.

Updating!

I updated my blogger and I'm playing with the results.

Shane E Pie is getting wed!

I am blogging this from my husband's desktop because that **** cat walked across the keyboard and deleted the toolbar on my internet. Gurrrrrr.


The wedding announcement came in the mail today. I have seen pictures of his bride-to-be on his sister's blog and was stuck by how much she looked like said sister. You can see Shane and Sister, along with my oldest DS who is now 12 in the heart photo.
The thing that struck me most about the wedding photo, however, is how happy Shane looks. It brings tears to my eyes.
Shane is one of the dearest young men you could ever happen to meet, and not just because he reminds me of my father. They had a wonderful relationship and both Shane and I believe my father (Shane's grandpa) is still watching over him.
If this is true, we have to think he's smiling in heaven to see Shane taking such a charming young lady to wife.
Actually, I don't know a whole lot about the bride except she get a glowing recommendation from his sister, who arranged the match.
Bride is young, 20 compared to Shane's 28, and athletic. She has a basketball scholarship and was working as a mechanic at Jiffy Lube when Shane met her.
According to Shane's mom, the bride likes a clean house. Which will no doubt be a novelty in our family. Sister says the bride is uber spiritual.
I am sure she is exceptional, as Shane is an exceptional young man as well. Alas, his shyness had his parents worrying that he would never wed.
This photo is not just a charming photograph of a couple about to start their life together. It is a snapshot of hopes and dreams of many people who love Shane and no doubt will come to love his wife, as well.
By the way, Dogg, if you are reading this. I want more babies in the family at our Easter Egg hunt, A, L and H are officially too old to play now and we have to keep the fun going.

Ohch, get your claws out of me!

Ginger is settling in and we are adjusting. I’m quite sure she thinks her name is “Ahhh, Ouch, NOOOO! Let go!” Due to her tendency to perch on shoulders and climb legs, rather or not they are covered with clothing.
As you can see, she has taken up a rightful place next to the computer so she can keep both eyes on me. I have become her mother, DS-12 a nice companion and DS-7 a large, fun toy.
Augh, I just caught sight of her out of the corner of my eye. She’s circling. Thank goodness I put my blue jeans on this morning.
I must try to sneak away and get a\ho shower (whoops, she walked across the keyboard). 3333333333333333333333333b ngh555555555555555555555
edddddddd
+ - 1 - 1 - 1 -0P
Note to self. Buy a water sprayer and work on teaching her some manners.

Good to know

Last night the phone rang with the dreaded Saturday night call. DS-7 had been assigned a talk in Primary (the LDS Church program for children ages 3-12) and I was blissfully unaware of this assignment.
Now in years past this would be a reason for full-boar panic. But after serving as a member of the Primary Presidency I have developed my own last-minute-talk system.

A) Do not leave the presidency hanging unless your family has been struck with a barfy flu or diarrhea.
B) Invite said child over for a chat. Remind him/her of the talk assignment. Ask what he wishes to use as a talk subject. Some guidance may be necessary here, for example I suggested DS-7 might want to talk about thanks since November is the month of Thanksgiving.
C) Get out a notebook and pen/pencil and ask him some pointed questions. In the case of the Thanksgiving talk I asked what he was thankful for and why.
Write it down, type it up, and let him read in for his talk.
Here is what DS-7 said:

"My talk today will be about giving thanks.
I am thankful for the earth because we live here. It has water and mountains and fresh air.
I am thankful for my new pet cat, Ginger, because she’s fun, she plays a lot and she makes me smile.
I am thankful for Mom, because she helps me and Dad because sometimes he takes me fishing with the uncles.
I am thankful for L----. I like to play split screen on the video games with him.
I am thankful for my teachers in school and Primary. I like to go to school and I like to learn new things.
I am thankful for books,
food,
animals,
trees and my house.
I have so many things to be thankful for, I can’t even name them all.
I think giving thanks is important because it makes me remember how many things I have been given.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I will admit to doing some editing. I dropped the part about how he was not thankful for his brother because he was “mean to me every day” and when he started listing everything he spotted at random “uhhh, the sleeping bag, ummm, paper,” I replaced it with the “I can’t even name them all line.”
The Primary leaders, who have sat through countless badly performed morality tale readings from the Church’s children magazine, find this kind of talk a welcome relief.
The child in question is proud of himself because the leaders offer him sincere complements for his work and the child learns how to write his own talk.
Best of all, I don’t have to thumb a stack of children’s magazines looking for a morality tale for my child to read badly in front of his peers.
Also good to know:
Hair pompadour! If you have baby fine, stick straight hair this is a great way to control the stuff. I was introduced to it several months ago by a hair stylist, or technician or whatever they call themselves now days.
After washing and drying my hair (with a hair dryer, standing on my head and back combing ~ a process us old folks remember as being ratting ) I put a little bit of the hair pompadour on my fingers and slick everything into place. I can make it flip under or up, mold it so the bang’s don’t fall in my face and fluff up the back. It’s great stuff. Try it!

She's heeeeere!

The much anticipated day is here. Ginger is now a member of the family. And as is true when any new creature joins the family there are adjustments to be made.
DS-12 loves and is annoyed by her. She is cuddly. This is great when one is in the mood to cuddle. Not so much when one want’s mom to get of the computer so one can play some obscure fantasy world game.
She is a charming little thing, very much like her predecessor. Difference I have seen: she likes to claw things. Not your gentle stretching out and easing a claw into the carpet, but bold-faces kneading.
She kneads the floor, the chair and the neck of whoever happens to be holding her. Since DS-12 tends to be the one holding her, he is also the one most likely to be clawed.
She is not above eating people food. While not an outright beggar like our cat sitting friend “Boo” she is not above asking for sliced sandwich meat, and eating it when offered.
Other than that, she seems to be a fine little animal.

As we prepare for Ginger

Our kitty is going to come home tomorrow!

Karen tells me she looks like this. I guess we need to buy the books.




Will she engage in cards, cross-species loving or cuddling the computer mouse?
I'm sure she will be crazy, but that's how we like our cats.

Phase one

Part two

I tried to download my step-by-step photos of star making, but blogger wouldn't let me do more than half of them. since I started at the end and worked forward, this is the last 10 steps. Think you can figure it out?

Someone sent me links where instructions can be found on-line.

http://www.d.umn.edu/~cstroupe/archive/3220/process/star/



http://www.highhopes.com/3dstar.html This one sells the paper!