Thank you, Grandma!

Oh we surprised the kids big time yesterday!  Rob’s mom sent us some spending money as a Christmas gift and yesterday, on the way home from a birthday party, we pulled into Toys-R-Us instead of going home.  THEN we got to tell them they could actually purchase for themselves some things that have been on their wish list for a while. What a joy for all of us, Rob and I got to say “yes”and their faces were just lit up!

Zion chose a scooter and a cute basket (thanks to the scooter being on sale).  She’s been wanting one for so long.

Gideon and Elias wanted the same thing so we/they pooled their portion and got them a Batcave add-on to go with their Geotrax train set and they each got to choose a smaller item.  Gideon picked a stuffed Angry bird (a green one of course, his favorite color) and Elias chose a two-pack of Cars characters that also go with the Geotrax.  The love of trains in this house is not going away anytime soon that’s for sure.

Gabe looked and looked but didn’t find anything he’d been wanting.  He perused.  He browsed.  He checked out a lot of things but ultimately decided to shop elsewhere. So after we went home Rob and he went back out and checked out GameStop.  Ooo, we love it there!  And Gabe SCORED!  GameStop was having a sale.  Gabe got two game guides and a set that came with a game guide, a game and a Lego toy.  Wow!

You can see how happy they are.  Well, Elias may be a bit overtired but he’s happy on the inside! Thank you, Grandma Marlene!

And because I’m overdue, puppy shots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are HUGE and they are characters and so sweet, like giant teddy bears and they were a couple of days shy of 4 months old in these shots.  More puppy photos soon.  :)

It Is Done

I sat down with the kids over the weekend and we looked at Towzer’s puppy pictures and laughed about the funny things he would do. 

Monday night we brought him home from the vet where he’d been staying since the incident with Blue.  I didn’t want him around our other pets or our petsitters after that.  But we wanted the kids to have a chance to say goodbye and to get some last photos.  The only one I didn’t photograph with Towzer was Elias, who is so young he wouldn’t remember and is also so young and small that we didn’t want to risk him around Towz.  Mostly because he’s so active and moves so erratically and we don’t know what triggered Towzer to attack our kitten.  Perhaps it was the same thing?  Who knows.

Towzer seemed different. I think I was able to see him through fresh eyes and realize, yeah, he’s in pain and it’s obvious and the time is right for him even if just for that reason.  He had always been the most diligent of guard dogs, never relaxing for even a second lest his family come under an attack (from what, I don’t know).  He deserves his rest.

After the kids, Rob and I had a chance to say goodbye Rob and I drove Towz back to the vet while the kids stayed with a sitter.  And now’s he’s at peace.  And so are we.  Sad, but the house is more peaceful without his intensity and hyper-vigilant guarding of his family.  I do still feel badly that Blue paid for our delaying the inevitable with Towz and try to remind myself to be grateful it was not one of the kids.  Part of me thinks I should have known and part of me thinks there’s no way I could have known that Towz was capable of something so awful.  I don’t know the answer.  All we can do is move on and when I feel overwhelmed (often) I pray to The Comforter for peace beyond understanding.

And ultimately, Towzer WAS a good dog.  A good dog whose pain got to be too much and he just didn’t want his family to know.  We will remember him for the innumerable good things and not the one bad. Moving on…

 

The ride

Life is such a roller coaster ride, sometimes up and sometimes down and sometimes up and down and up and down and up and down all at the same time.  It can be overwhelming.  A bit of our ride lately:

- last week the family got to go away on vacation, that should be so very fun and relaxing!

- a couple of days into it we got a call from the house sitter that our big dog had attacked one of our kittens.  Spent half the day back and forth with the vet on the phone.  It was bad.  On top of visible injuries it turned out the poor thing had a broken neck.  I felt terribly guilty for not preventing this as Towzer had been getting a bit grumpy lately due to his arthritis.  Now, however many days later, I still flip flop between guilt for not preventing it and giving myself grace because how could I have really known?  I don’t know but needless to say it really put a damper on our vacation.  Before we left we prayed for God to protect our critters like we always do and I’m not sure why the answer to this prayer was “No.” except that perhaps now we can prevent injury to one of the kids.  If Towzer, who has always been sweet and playful with cats, can do something so sudden and violent with one I doubt he would show restraint with the kids either.  Thank God our kids are safe.

- this is the third vacation out of the last four where one of our kitties has died unexpectedly.  It’s hard not to feel a bit attacked and vulnerable.

- considering what happened to the kitty we definitely cannot trust Towzer any longer and after consulting a behavior specialist (who we had actually had an appointment with on Sept. 5) we have decided to put him down on Monday.

- also right at the start of our vacation we found out we got an offer on the other house.  Should be good news and it is except that meant we were receiving calls and e-mails from our agent and her assistant for days and having to make big decisions and do paperwork. 

- right before vacation Rob got a new job offer.  The official, in writing offer came in at the beginning of the week while we were gone.  We had until Friday to decide whether to take it.

Rob and I have agreed that, while we still managed to DO a lot of fun things with the kids (who are holding up surprisingly well regarding the cat and dog) mentally and emotionally we were put through the ringer.  We need a do-over.

In just a few days’ time we had to decide to euthanize two of our pets, to accept or decline an offer for our house that was considerably lower than the listing price and to accept or decline a new job.  And weren’t we supposed to be vacating our every day lives?

My heart is so bruised and battered right now.  For the kids losing their pets, for me losing my pets, for the pets losing their best friends (which I know sounds so silly to some but Blue was one of a brother/sister pair that we had adopted and the two were inseparable and Towzer was Rosie’s best friend too).

We did decide to accept the offer on the house even and Rob did decide to accept the job.

I tried to focus on the positive all week while secretly I was practically sick with dread over having to come home.  Every day I prayed for God to give us peace and it was very tangible when we came home today to two less pets than when we left.  We still need to get through Monday (Towzer has been boarding at the vet since the incident happened, I didn’t want the house sitter to be at risk either) but I have hope for continuing peace and that is so big if you have ever experienced that, you know.

And can I also say that I’m so emotionally conflicted, like every year, that school is starting soon.  Summer was so fleeting and I LOVE having my kiddos home with no schedule, nothing pressing but a few chores and a lot of fun.  But we moved this summer and we STILL aren’t fully unpacked so there was less fun than I wanted.  Did I mention that I LOVE having my kids home?!  I’m so not one of those moms who counts the hours and minutes from the end of one school year to the start of the next.  If I wasn’t so distractible and a lousy planner and a total procrastinator I’d home school.  LOL

I’ve got one going full time, one going full days half the school week and one going for half days a few days a week.  There will actually be hours of the day where I only have one kid.  *sniff*

I will not look forward, I will not look back, I will look UP.

Still Alive

Random posting.  I wish I was more consistent these days but life happens, ya know?  :)

We are settling into the new house and by that I mean we have acquired another bunny, two kittens and four goats but we are still not unpacked.  ha ha ha!  One day I will be unpacked but there’s plenty of time for that, right?

I also took another photography workshop and had a great time and I got to shadow a portrait photographer doing a family session recently.  I am a “watch and learn” person to the nth degree.  Hearing?  Nope.  Reading?  Definitely not.  So I jump at the chance to observe someone in action.

We’ve also just been super busy.  Rob is gone a lot these days with both his civilian job and the Navy.  We did get a chance to go away for our 10th anniversary a couple of weeks ago (I’ll post pics, I PROMISE, we stayed at the greatest place) and today we went to the 50th anniversary party of my aunt and uncle.

I had no idea how hard it was going to be to be with that side of the family without my mom there.  It was the first time since she passed it and just hit me hard.  I had a great time visiting with three of my uncles at the end.  So much so that saying “goodbye” took two hours.  LOL

Three of the kids were in my oldest niece’s wedding in June.  It was supposed to be two of them, Zion was a “feather girl” (she tossed feathers instead of flower petals) and Gideon was to carry the ring pillow (with no rings).  At the last minute Gideon decided he didn’t want to do it so we tossed Elias in.  Elias walked part of the way down the aisle and handed the pillow off to a random woman sitting on the bride’s side and walked back out.  So Rob gave the pillow back to Gideon who finished walking it down the aisle.  It was a very casual and fun wedding, amazing really, and I’m so happy for my niece and new nephew.

Elias is the fasted growing boy ever.  A new haircut magically transformed him from baby to boy as those darn haircuts are prone to doing.  He also had a language explosion and has so many new things to say that are actually real words.  Check out my BABY! 

I do have the hardest time not calling him The Baby.  He’ll probably be stuck with that his whole life.  Could be worse, I guess.

I have been a bit nervous about how Gideon will do in preschool in the Fall.  He does not do well in group environments and typically says “No thank you.” to instructions to participate in class activities. 

At least he’s polite about it.

So I got a copy of the class’s daily schedule and set up some “school” days with some friends with similar aged boys.  The first day of school I discovered he had a fever right when the first student showed up.  So Gideon watched TV while we painted with liquid chalk outside.  Zion joined us and they, at least, had a good time. 

The chalk was super easy to make, corn starch and water in a 1:1 ratio and food coloring.  That’s it.  Just mix and go paint!  They decorated our patio and it rained the next day so then they got to decorate it again.

Two of our goats:

The one in front is Rhett, Gabe’s goat, and the one in back is Rita, Zion’s goat.  They have joined a local 4-H group and will get to show their goats (if we can ever find a show we’re not out of town for – gah!). They are even cuter in person, especially when you see how TINY they are!

I also got two goats in a pretty snazzy trade.  I’m knitting a blanket in exchange for two female pygoras. They are absolutely the softest things EVER! 

I named them Cinnamon and Sugar and they will grow a super soft, cashmere like fiber that someday I hope to be able to knit myself something with.  When they are old enough I may have them bred and then we’ll have fresh goat’s milk.  And if you think goat’s milk is gross it’s only because you haven’t had it fresh.  I bought some at the store and nearly wretched at the first sip.  Then I tried some at someone’s house which was fresh from the morning before and it was SO good.  Goat’s milk is like that, it has to absolutely fresh or it tastes like your licking a buck and I don’t know anybody who wants to do that.

So I should call it quite as it’s three minutes to midnight and I’m prone to getting silly when I’m up late. 

 

Ch-ch-ch-changes

So here’s the thing.  We’ve had a lot going on lately.  Lots of changes.  The biggest one being that we’ll be moving soon. This house was never one that we wanted to stay in, we were rather stuck here though. We bought right at the peak of the market because Rob’s employer transferred us here.  We left a small property where we had goats, who we had to find homes for, and lots of dreams of chickens and horses and gardens.

Then right after we bought the market crashed.  Over the next few years the value of our home dropped tens of thousands annually.  *weep*

But then we hit this miraculous balance of having our loan paid off, an inheritance from my father-in-law and a property I’ve been drooling over since we moved here six years ago suddenly having a for sale in front.

I KNOW in my mind that it’s not ours yet and during the sale of a home many things can happen to make the deal fall through but I feel so peaceful about the whole thing that I can only think that God had this planned all along.

I feel secure enough that everything is going to work out that Rob and I went out and bought half a dozen chicks on Friday.  LOL  The new house has a few acres and already has a chicken coop.  I just couldn’t help myself.  They will be nearly old enough to live outdoors about the time we move. 

I have been reading up like made about chickens, gardens and homesteading in general.  Based on availability and my research on personality we chose to buy two Black Austrolorps and two Ameraucanas.  I wanted two Silky Bantams as well but the feed store only had “Assorted” Bantams with no guarantee of breed.  They were also straight run (meaning their gender is unknown).  I was caught up in the moment and thought “Why not?” so we got two of those as well.  Later, at bedtime we prayed that off all our chicks that if any turned out to be a rooster there would be only one.  LOL

On Friday of this week I’m heading off to another location to pick up, hopefully, a pair of Buff Orpingtons and Delawares.  In a few months we’ll have eggs abundant on our little farm.

All that talk, and what a change of topics from the blog previously, and no pics.  What?  That’s simply unaccapteble.  So here you go.  Pics of the chicks from today.

The girls (hoping anyway) are:

Top row left to right: Music and Fluffster (can you tell the kids helped name them)

Middle row left to right: Lucille and Louise

Bottom row left to right: Rio and Sophia

Real quick before I sign off, sorry for the dead air for a while.  I bought a new laptop and had a dickens of a time get my blog writer to work on it.  Now it does and with all the fun changes coming up I hope to be on a lot more letting you all know how things are going.

For The Birds

Quite a ways back an online friend of mine showed pictures of bird feeders she’d made out of orange peels.  They were adorable and I was smitten and have wanted to make one every since.  Today was finally the day.  So here you go, so you can make one too of course.

You’ll need an orange (surprise!), some twine or string, something with which to remove the orange’s edible bits without destroying the peel, and something pokey.  Oh yeah and probably a knife to cut the orange and scissors to cut the string.

I cut the orange off center of half so it would be a little cup.  Cut how you like.  If you’re like me you’ll cut a thin slice from one portion and aim your macro lens at it for a while before finishing the rest of the craft.  Like so:

Resume your craftiness by scooping out the innards.  If you have a daughter obsessed with juicing oranges give them to her along with the other portion of orange.  If not, well, you’re on your own.

Cut three portions of string about a foot long.

Use the pokey thing to poke three holes close to the edge of the orange from which to loop the string.  If your pokey thing has a blunt end like mine did (I used a bamboo skewer) you can use it to poke the string through the holes.

Once you tie the three strings to the orange gather them up and tie them together at the top.

Then you just need to find somewhere to hang it.  I hung the string on the tree and then attached it to the feeder because I found it easier but do whatever works for you.

Fill it up before or after you hang it, again, whatever is easier. 

Isn’t this an easy craft?  So easy.

Then sit back and wait for the birds.

And wait.  And realize the birds won’t come because the kids followed you outside and are making too much noise. 

Luckily it was cold enough that the kids didn’t stay outside long.  Then my only problem is the dirty window. 

While I watched a Dark-Eyed Junco started eye-balling the feeder but didn’t check it out closer.  Maybe it has something to do with this:

The cats moved outside right after the kids came in and Maisy seemed to think the orange peel feeder was made especially for her enjoyment. 

Ah well, I got some pictures of the birds hanging out higher up, maybe one of them will visit the orange peel feeder tomorrow.

I’m happy to see a new species at the feeder, this is a Black-Capped Chickadee.  Adorable but the Chestnut-Backed Chickadees are still my favorite.

The Juncos were very active on the ground tonight but didn’t think much of the dried squash seeds that I put out for them.  Hmph. Darn picky birds.

I got quite lucky with this one.  I believe it’s a Nuthatch and you can actually the seed he has just plucked from the suet.

So there ya go.  A super easy craft that’s very rewarding for you and the birds.  :)

Feathered Friends

I’m a sucker for critters.  No surprise to those of you that know me.  Fur, fins or feathers, makes no matter to me.  Zion wants a bird.  I’d love to have one.  I’d hate to add another habitat to the list of cleaning chores.  I’d hate more for that darn Eva to get her paws on the poor thing and dealing with Zion’s grief if it did happen.  It is a good thing that we have plenty of birds in Washington.  In lieu of a pet bird we have dozens of wild birds that we feed and now that the weather is getting colder our visitors are increasing.  They also make great photography subjects and with my long lens I can get a decent photo without even opening the sliding door (which is good because when I do open it they all dart off).  Recently I bought a field guide for Washington birds, now I actually know what I’m looking at!

The first species we started seeing in the Fall and our most common visitor to the feeder is the Dark Eyed Junco (AKA Oregon Junco).

After that I noticed we have Red-breasted Nuthatches.  They are super cute.

A Nuthatch AND a Junco:

Then on Thanksgiving as we were rushing about trying to get out the door to my sister’s I thought I saw a Chickadee.  I didn’t have time to grab my camera or take a second glance though so I couldn’t be sure.  I’ve been stalking the tree ever since.  Yesterday morning bright and early I was rewarded, finally, with a sighting and he even waited long enough for me to get my camera.  My new little field guide confirms this is a Chestnut-Backed Chickadee.  These little guys are my favorite.  So far anyway.

Yesterday I was at Home Depot buying more seed and a baffler to keep the rain off the feeder and very nearly bought a tree – a whole TREE! just because I thought the birds might like it.  Uh oh.  I may have a problem.

Around the House

Had a great day puttering around the house yesterday.  I’m still amazed at everything I got done.  In addition to general cleaning and normal kid stuff (you know, feeding, changing, bus stop…) I decorated for Fall (a little late to cross that off the to-do list but at least I got it done before Christmas) and organized a couple areas in the house.

First, the top of my cookbook shelf (that would be a four-shelf bookshelf actually, I have a small cookbook addiction – not just small cookbooks either, I collect big ones too, and ones in between – ha ha ha) was a true hazard to anything that might need to be put there.  I wish I’d taken a before picture, but here it is after:

Let’s just say this is a dramatic improvement.  It’s so much nicer to look at this.  The black bowl holds some of the veggies we get from our CSA, this time it’s potatoes, onion and a couple of kinds of squash.  The peppermill and two spice containers were my grandmothers and still hold ginger and baking powder (which I don’t plan to use), the old egg beater and iron came from antique stores a town over, the cotton branch was a find of Rob’s on his last business trip.  I love that he brought it back for me, the kids were fascinated with pulling cotton off and feeling the seeds inside.  We would not find something like this around here, that’s for sure.

I pulled out the Fall decorations box and got the house all dolled up with oranges and browns (my favorites) and used the pumpkins and gourds we got from the CSA to decorate the front stoop.  Now doesn’t that look warm and welcoming!  The CSA sells corn stalks and I was hoping to nab some but I couldn’t fit them in the van with the kids.  Kids?  Corn stalks?  Kids?  Corn stalks?  *sigh*  I guess I have to choose the kids.

Last night I had my first knit night for a while.  When the ladies left one of them pointed out my newly decorated front stoop had welcomed a visitor.

This little guy was sitting on my door handle.  Isn’t he cute?! 

Rosie Update

Rosie is a good dog.  We hit a rough patch for a few days last week.  It wasn’t entirely her fault but it was still frustrating.  She must have got a sour tummy when I switched her food (even though I did it gradually like you’re supposed to) and she kept having accidents in the house.  At frustratingly inconvenient times and in ways that required breaking out our steam cleaner.  Urg! 

She also has proven that she’s not 100% housebroken to begin with (sneaking off to have pee accidents in the other room instead of going to the door).  Also, always at my busiest moments and right when I was thinking “She’s been doing really well, I can probably let her off the leash for a while.”  ERRRRR-wrong!

So poor Rose has been living attached to me by leash or in her crate when I can’t have my attention on her behavior.  Sadly, I can’t just let her outside for any length either because she chews up the kids’ toys.  Once the weather is warmer and our schedule less busy (i.e. when school lets out) I can be outside with her and scold her when she chews on the wrong thing.  She is amazingly responsive to a stern voice.  Rarely do I have to tell her “No” about something more than once – at least when I catch her in the act that is.

She has chosen me as her person and hates when I’m out of her sight.  She really only likes to hang out with other family members if she can still see me.  I hope she relaxes on this a bit once she’s had more time to settle.

While I still suspect she has some Jack Russell Terrier (or as I call them Jack Russell Terrors) she does NOT have a Jack personality at all. She’s my co-couch potato.  The cushion next to my usual spot on the couch is now her place and when I get up she follows me but only to entice me back to the couch.

I’ve been catching her and Towzer in some pretty cute moments lately.  He likes to give her big kisses and they love to play.  Yay!

And today she was most adorable.  Gabe stayed home from school because we’ve been passing around this ridiculous Really Little Cold.  Rosie apparently thought we still needed to get to the bus and WE WERE LATE!  She started frantically jumping up at the baby gate to the laundry room so I opened it for her, she’s never done that before.  Then she scratched at the door to the garage so I opened that too.  Then she dashed around to the side of the van and put her feet up so I opened the door and she jumped in, settled in the back and looked at me like “C’mon, we’re late!”

I had a dickens of a time getting her to come back to me to take her back in the house.  Poor thing was very confused about why we weren’t going to the bus stop.

Yep, she’s a good dog.

A Quickie

Just a few things.

My camera cable broke and I can’t get photos off my camera at the moment.  BIG bummer!  But I’ll take this opportunity to get caught up on a few things this week and I may just get some knitting done.

Rosie is settling so well into our family that it’s almost like she was always here.  She’s such a neat dog.  Look forward to a lot more photos and stories when I have time.

Zion started ballet last week.  I nearly cried watching her first class.  I can’t explain why but apparently it’s not an unheard of phenomenon.  Moms are so funny, aren’t we?

That’s it.  I told you it was a quickie.

 

Everything’s Coming Up…

…roses.

Or Rosie, at least.  We have a new member in our family.

 

Her name is Rosie if you hadn’t guess.  She is a one-year old Terrier mix that we adopted only just this evening.  A second family dog is something we’ve been tossing about for years.  Every once in a while I’d take a peek at Petfinder for dogs in our area.  I wanted something small to medium so the kids could play with her without getting knocked over, a female so I wouldn’t have to worry about marking on the kids’ outside toys (something Towzer does that drives me absolutely nuts) and a somewhat mellow dog. 

I had previously ruled out getting a terrier because they often aren’t good with small children and small pets and they have out of this world energy levels, something I don’t want to deal with. But something about her little face on the website made me inquire anyway.  Her foster mom and I went back and forth a few times talking about her personality before we went to see her tonight.  She was pretty mellow, we’ll have to see if she stays that way after she settles in.

Tonight she got a bath and played with her new toy for a while, tossing it up and trying to catch it – hilarious! And is now sleeping in her new bed.  Not bad for a first night.

 

Good to WOW Week 12–Grass Pt2

Today is the day we get to complete the second half of the Good to WOW challenge.  In order to do so we go to Ashley’s blog and check out the tutorial she posts and then apply it to our photo.  You know, the photo that I wasn’t going to take of grass and then did.  :)

I’m a bit short on time today but that’s OK.  There wasn’t too much to do to this photo.  At least not that I’m capable of yet since I’m joining in late and haven’t had a chance to back track and catch up yet.  If there are any of the past week’s lessons that you feel would be helpful to this photo feel free to chime in.  That said, here’s the photo:

SOOC

Our grass is pretty green but there are nasty dead leaves everywhere and a bit of fence in the corner by Towzer’s head.  So despite not really needing to turn dead grass green as in the tutorial I did think it could use brightening and something to make those leaves less noticeable.  I started with the “nice and easy” recipe I learned last week which really is nice and easy.  Then I did the colorize part and discovered I was pretty limited to that since I’m using Elements and not the full version so I don’t have the option of playing with the reds, blues and yellows to make the green a little more…um, realistic shall we say.  Also, since the only part not grass in my photo was Towz and he represents such a small part of the photo I didn’t do the two step process of adding a black fill layer and THEN painting Towzer white to bring back his “normal” color.  I left the whole picture colorized and then just painted over Towz with black (and now I know what my dog would look like if he ever bathed in green food coloring).  I also dropped the opacity of the colorizing layer just a skitch so it wasn’t so cartoony green.  And here you go:

After

And for you guys out there who would be really disappointed if I don’t show a side-by-side, you know who you are:

Right now I’m not going to put up the hedge photo, but I may go back and play with it when I have more time and am not supposed to be getting the house ready for out of town guests. 

Remember to send some love to other folks participating in the challenge, just click the button.  G’head, it’s so easy.