Christmas ~ New Year's ~ Changes

Well I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!  Unfortunately I haven't been able to get down to Pella to see Dad - yet.  I had planned to go down the Saturday before Christmas - then yesterday.

 

We had a Christmas Eve service at church and then a couple invited me over to their house for food and fellowship and to stay over night.  It worked out that Jim's brother Greg used to be our Assistant Pastor at LWF and is now "planting" a church in Altoona.  Well, Greg and his crew crashed the party which included his awesome wife and five kids :)  We started to watch "It's A Wonderful Life" - got to the scene after George and Mary walk home after taking their swim in the gym swimming pool and switched to "Narnia".  Not sure how far we got in that movie.

 

Christmas I was invited to another friend's family meal and back to her parent's house for opening of presents (I was even included which was a surprise) and then playing a game before I headed home.  I truly have an awesome church family!

 

I hope everyone has a very safe New Year's Eve and New Year's.  I'll probably be staying home tomorrow night and that's ok.  Mike and I started a tradition we learned from Kenneth and Gloria Copeland or Jesse Duplantis - we take communion at midnight to welcome the new year in.  I've done this by myself the past two New Year's Eves and will do it again tomorrow night.  So it's orange juice and a cracker - it's the intent that counts :)

 

And I can't believe it will be 2013!  I remember Mike working for the City of WDM when it was Y2K (2000) and how they had to prepare to have backup generators for things in case dispatch for police/fire/ems went down because of the computers not knowing how to "communicate" a year that wasn't 19XX.  People stock piling food, generators, etc., and nothing came of it.  That was 13 years ago - holy cow!

 

We've had two snows so far this winter - the first one the "big one" so far with a foot of snow?  I can't remember now but it was a lot.  The other snow was a light dusting that with today's temps above freezing the sun melted quite a bit before I got home from church.  I had to run an errand, fill the gas tank of the car (I like to only let it get to half a tank in the winter when I'm driving around town and then fill it up) and the gas nozzle stopped at $19.00 even.  Couldn't have done that if I tried - stopping on an even number.  And since it was above freezing I ran the car through the auto car wash with the dryer option to get some of the crud off the car.  When I got home I pushed the shovel around on the driveway, sidewalk and steps to get the rest of the snow and ice taken care of.  As I've blogged before, snow is a four-letter word in my vocabulary but if the rest of the snows are like this last one, I think I could handle winter :)

 

Well, I haven't put this on Facebook yet but will after finishing this post - I gave Cruz back to the rescue group I adopted her from a few weeks ago.  She was a good dog but there were different things that weren't working out.  A big one is that she was such a young dog and I don't like going out in the cold that I wouldn't walk her like she needed, so to be fair to her she needed a family that would run off her energy.  Plus she was starting to chew the wood on the windowsill next to her crate in the living room - and while that wouldn't be the reason to give her back to the rescue group - I was concerned at the amount of wood that was gone vs the amount of wood scraps I found on the back stairway.  That meant most of that wood went in her tummy.  And then there was the back stairway issue - she would open my kitchen door within seconds of me walking into the basement and sometimes the kitchen door would shut behind her trapping her on the steps.  Those steps are COLD in the winter and I didn't want her stuck in that cold area for hours on end. 

 

While I do miss her and the night she was picked up by her new foster mom was the first night since moving into this house in 1985 that there was not a pet in it (cat or dog) - God worked it out how Cruz was able to get into a foster home so quickly.  The house is pretty quiet but it's ok.

 

Last night I didn't sleep very well and I "wrestled with God" about maybe getting another dog.  A smaller and older dog that if I let it out in the backyard to do it's business that would be enough exercise for it during the winter.  I had it all planned to head to the Animal Rescue League (ARL) to find my dog after church.  I'd put my other large collapsable (sp?) crate in the living room where Cruz' had been.  I'd bring my dog home, put up the crate and then head to WalMart for supplies (leash, collar, toys, food, etc.).  Then.....I thought about how a dog ties me down.  While Mike and I loved having Lucy (the dog before the greyhounds) and then Butler and Milly - they really tied us down.  Now that I'm on my own - it's just that much more to deal with by myself.  If I wanted to be gone on my annual Girls Weekend in October - could someone come and stay with the dog in the house or would I have to kennel it for two nights - let alone going away for a week's vacation.

 

So I thought, "a cat, that's what I'll get, cats are low maintenance" but I didn't want it to be a real long-hair, sheddy cat and it had to have a good personality aka wanting to be around me and not aloof.  So I thought it through about God having the right cat for me at the ARL.  You can leave a cat for a long weekend, if I would be gone a week all I'd need to do is find someone or someones that would be willing to check on it maybe three times during the week.  I had a cat growing up, Mike and I had four cats at one time before Lucy, so I like cats....but they just aren't the same as a dog.

 

So I was back to getting a dog - but then really thinking about being tied down.  How I wouldn't have been able to spend the night Christmas Eve at my friend's house.  I don't mind kenneling a dog but with Mike he'd get off work early sometimes and get the dog taken care of before I even got home - with it just being me I'd have to take the dog to the kennel and then pick it up.  If I kenneled at my vet, the only time I could pick the dog up on Sunday would be when the person would be at the office checking on all the animals that were being boarded and who knows when that would be.

 

So then I was back to a cat but not 100% sold on it and that's when I realized that "poop, I need to think about this some more before running off and just getting a cat". 

 

That said - enjoy the two pix.  Cruz had been gone at least two weeks before I looked up and saw Wubba sitting on the window in the back stairway.  How she got Wubba up there is beyond me but it made me laugh.  The first picture shows Wubba on the window.  The second picture is a shot of the stairway so you can see how high up this window really is..............she was a Goober.



 

Christmas Program and Christmas Goodies

I've been wondering the past couple of weeks if I should continue doing a weekly blog - it doesn't seem like there is much to post.  Or maybe I should blog occasionally.  I may opt for occasionally, so if you aren't one of my 10 that automatically receives each blog update in an email - you may want to subscribe to receive a notice each time I blog.  You can subscribe at the top of the right side column which says "Follow By Email".  Enter your email and click on the Submit button.

We had a fun Christmas gathering for our church small group Wednesday night by eating, doing a White Elephant gift exchange and then playing "Four on a Couch".  My lovely white elephant gift was a fluorescent orange farmer's ballcap (the kind with the stiff, foamy front panel) with get this - face netting that went down over your face to protect your face when you were detasseling corn.  And the kicker was it was a used cap.  Man I tried to get everyone after me to steal my cap but for some reason no one wanted it....hmmmmm don't know why :)

Then we played "Four on a Couch" where everyone's names went on a piece of paper and then we all drew a name.  If we got our own name we had to put it back.  We put two men and two women on the couch and the object was to get four men or four women (four on a couch) and then the game was over.  We had an empty chair and the person to the left of the empty chair called someone's name.  The person with that someone's name then sat on the empty chair - and switched names with the person that called that name.  Then the person to the left of the newly vacated seat called a name.  It took like an hour and a half for the WOMEN to finally win.  I got to the point that I couldn't even remember the name I had in my hand - but it was a fun time.

I'm sure everyone is still thinking about the elementary shooting in Newtown, CT this past Friday.  I know a couple of my friends that have children in kindergarten or first grade took it really hard thinking, "what if that happened at my child's school?"  My heart goes out to that community for comfort during this tragedy.  There would never be a "good time" for this to happen, but during the Christmas season makes it that much worse.  The Christmas season is supposed to be a happy and joyful time gathering with family and friends - along with celebrating our Savior's birth.

We did have a prayer service at The Well on Saturday morning from 6-8 a.m. for anyone wanting to stop by and pray for the people in CT.  We also invited the neighborhood - since we meet in an elementary school - to stop by if they wanted for prayer or to talk about how they were feeling about this tragedy.  I asked my small group leader this morning how the prayer service went and he said it was pretty good - unfortunately no one from the community stopped by but that's ok.

This morning was our Christmas program at church where the 2 year olds through 5th grade (I think it's 5th grade) sang songs.  I didn't think to get my phone out to take pix of the kidlets.  It was amazing the number of kids we have in this age group - I think there were around 55 total.

I was invited to my friend's parent's house for lunch.  I think I blogged about being invited to Thanksgiving lunch and Thanksgiving dinner by two different friends/familys at church.  Where I went today was one of those homes.

Then we headed back to Heather's house to make cookies and candy for her cookie exchange tomorrow night.  It's been forever since I've done that.  I was telling how one time when Casey hadn't been in the Army very long he told Mike and me that if we ever sent food, candy, etc., to him it had to be enough for his whole squad or platoon - can't remember which.  So one Christmas Mike and I got in the baking mood and had NO idea how much we were baking and making until we really looked at all the goodies laying on every available space in the kitchen and eating area.  It was a ton of stuff.  I think we filled a large copy paper box full......  I don't have a clue how much it cost to mail that package but Casey said everything was enjoyed by all :)

It looks like we're finally going to get some snow on Thursday - blick, blick.  I'm just not looking forward to shoveling or blowing snow but if I must, I must.............

Snow - Is A Four Letter Word

Yesterday was a busy day and by the time I was done with everything - I forgot to blog - again.....

The weather here for the first part of last week was awesome!  Then it started to turn colder - blick, blick, blick.

I had hoped the weather forecasters would be wrong for what we would wake up to Sunday morning - the last I had heard was rain early and then some snow but not a lot of snow.  Like the title of this blog - snow is a four letter word and one I don't care that much for.  I'm more of a warm-weather person.

So when I woke up yesterday and looked out the window from my bed, I saw white stuff coming down - but it wasn't very heavy.  The ground was warm enough that the snow didn't accumulate on the street, sidewalk or driveway - thank goodness :)

And I'll admit - my drive to church yesterday morning was very pretty in the wooded area on Hartford which is the street I take before turning onto SE 22nd to get to the school my church meets in.  I even said a prayer to God thanking Him for the pretty scene and the moisture which we really need.

Yesterday was the day the food baskets for our Bread On The Waters grocery collection at church were distributed to the people that would deliver to the families that would be blessed by this outreach.  My small group leader and I were deciding what to do with the frozen turkeys and hams that were sitting right outside the door of the school so they could stay frozen during church.  Me - the little nerd that I am was slightly concerned that someone may find the turkeys and ham during our church service and take them.  But I told him that if they were gone when we got out of church - that meant someone really needed them.  We then put them in the van that we use to move things between the school and The Well :) 

When we went to open the door to the school we found out it had locked behind us - lovely.  We knocked on the door - on the other side in that room is our nursery.  No one opened the door to let us in.  Another church member drove up as we were standing outside and peeked in the window to get someone's attention in the nursery to let us in - it was a little nippy standing outside.

Late yesterday afternoon we had a baptismal service at the southside Y where one adult, three children and a teenager were baptised - it was a great time.  Then after that the church had the pool for about an hour of open swim time for our kids to go crazy in the water.

One of the families at church picked me up to go to the Y and then when they dropped me off - they came inside with their two kids and we had a fun time of visiting - watching the finale of the "Amazing Race" and doing a little cooking in the kitchen. 

Saturday afternoon I did something I'd never done before - I was able to go to a kid's cartoon at the movies.  My small group leader happened to get four tickets to the new "Ice Age" movie and asked if I'd want to go with him, his wife and son.  They live in Indianola so it was at Indianola's "little movie theater" as Rob called it.  He gave me directions where to meet them but of course I took some time Friday night to google to see if I could find the address of the "little movie theater" to get an idea of how long it would take to get there from my house.  When I googled "movie theater in Indianola Iowa" it came up with the theater and it had seven movie screens/theaters so I thought to myself, "that wasn't a little movie theater" :)  I was expecting something like The Holland which was the movie theater in Pella when I was growing up and it only had one big screen..... 

Anyway - a fun time was had by all. 

Rejoice!

I saw this picture on Facebook and it just cracked me up.  When I reposted it someone asked where Rudolph was.  I'm thinking getting the greys to wear the hoodie antlers was a big enough challenge - I don't think they could get a red nose on one of them.

This past week two of the guys from church came over to replace the "inards" of my toilet on the main level - thank you so much!  I did a water meter read two different nights right before going to bed and then right after waking up - and no water went through my meter.  I think the guilty water culprint has been nabbed - and I am blessed to have such awesome guys at my church that are willing to help me out.

Yesterday was Rejoice!, our women's Christmas event at church.  Many people helped volunteer setting up at the Southside Y and the gym looked awesome.  Last year we had a meal but this year the planning committee decided to have hor d' oeuvres instead.  It was amazing all the food we had - and it was all excellent.

We sang Christmas carols, heard testimonies of how God has and is working in different ladies' lives in the church and my pastor ended with a good message.  There were over 100 ladies in attendance!

I'll admit last night when it came to deciding which way to drive to the Southside Y from my house, I gave it a thought or two.  Normally I would drive the "back way" which is around McKinley to end up at Fleur Drive at the corner of the airport - but driving the "back way" could have me seeing deer.  I spent a little time talking to myself and also in prayer reminding me that God is with me and that I also need to get "over it" and just drive the back way.  I'm so thankful God is patient with us :)

I heard on the radio on my way home last night that we would have some fog this morning - they weren't kidding when I woke up.  I couldn't believe how dense it was - I could barely see out my upstairs window into the park across the street.  Thankfully by the time church was out the fog was gone and it was just a very low "ceiling day" as airline pilots might have called today.

We had our annual church membership meeting following our service at The Well.  The Well is a building a block or so down the street from the school we meet at.  I think it was two years ago this time of year when I blogged that we were raising money to remodel The Well from a restaurant into our church offices and outreach ministry for that neighborhood - and we called it the Blue Building since it was blue on the outside.  We still have a little ways to go - but we're almost there.  The outside of the building looks great and they were mudding and taping the walls yesterday.  We hope to have The Well open this spring.

It looks like another decent week weatherwise in Iowa - I'm ok with almost no snow like last winter :)

Thanksgiving and Car

Well I totally spaced off blogging yesterday like I normally do on Sunday - goodness......  I'm going to say it was because I was busy in the afternoon doing other things :)

I hope everyone had a very good and blessed Thanksgiving holiday.  I was very blessed to be asked to lunch and dinner by friends from church - thank you so much.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to get down to see Dad on Saturday like I had hoped but he said he had a good Thanksgiving too.

This past week I was trying to remember how to unhook my garage door opener to be able to open my garage door if the electricity went off.  Mike had shown me how to do this several years ago but as I looked at the opener my mind was a blank and I didn't want to try doing something on my own and then goofing up the door.  So....I texted one of the guys from church to see if he would be able to come over sometime and show me - and he was able to do that yesterday afternoon.  He even tied some cord to the opener so I could pull on that to unhook the opener instead of messing with the actual opener.  Thanks Jim!

Yesterday was the last Sunday to take tags for our Bread on the Waters Christmas grocery collection at church.  I had prayed about this throughout the month of November that God would bless this outreach.  The small group I belong to has organized this the past two years and our small group leader increased the number of baskets of food by two this year.  God is good - all the tags were claimed so we were able to meet our goal.  This next Sunday is the last Sunday to bring in the non-perishable items so if you have a moment - please pray that everyone will remember to bring what they committed to supply.  I also get to make friendly reminder phone calls this week :)  Our small group will be putting the baskets together a week from tomorrow night.

I picked up my car tonight from the repair shop and it's good as new.  Like I posted last week, God watched over me when the deer ran into my car and God blessed me throughout the whole process of my friend being able to come to where the accident happened so I could sit in her car - to the claim being started - to getting the car scheduled for the repair - to the rental company honoring my insurance per diem for the rental so all I had to pay was sales tax each day - to being blessed unimaginably when I picked up my car from the repair shop.

I am so thankful to God for all His blessings, He continues to amaze me almost on a daily basis.

Thanksgiving and Being Thankful

Well here is the Goober aka Cruz enjoying being in the backyard yesterday afternoon.  We have had awesome weather the past few days in Iowa!  I decided to cut back Stick and the butterfly bush yesterday - I didn't cut the butterfly bush back last year....  The butterfly bush was a monster to contend with, but they are both cut back and ready for winter.

 

Thursday evening I had a deer literally run into my driver's door as I was driving to training for our children's ministry at church.  One minute I see a train to the north of me, moving at about my speed and the next minute I see a deer right on the other side of my driver's window....then BAM my driver's mirror goes flying.  Two very nice men that were following me and saw what happened stopped to be sure I was ok, with one letting me use his cell phone when I couldn't get my bluetooth unconnected from my cell phone after making my 9-1-1 call to the police to have an officer come to make a report for my auto insurance carrier.

One of the guys walked back and picked up my driver's mirror and parts for me and both said after looking at my car and seeing what happened - if the deer would have hit a foot further up the car - more toward the front of my car - it probably would have flipped and gone through my windshield.  A great friend that lived close by came and let me sit in her warm car while waiting for the officer and while I called my auto insurance carrier.

Long story short - I lease my car from Toyota and they don't care where I get the work done as long as the car gets fixed.  I am able to use my auto insurance carrier's preferred program vendor - so that helps them out too.  I took the car in Friday morning for the estimate and it's scheduled to go in at 7:30 tomorrow morning.  I may get the car back by Saturday - no promises because of losing a day to Thanksgiving.  Worst case I get the car back a week from Monday.  My auto carrier suggested Enterprise Rental for my rental car and Enterprise is honoring the per diem allowance by my insurance carrier for a rental - all I pay is sales tax each day I have the rental.  My driver's door would not open from the outside - I had to open the passenger door, crawl over my stick shift and emergency brake (I have a standard transmission) and then plop myself into the driver's seat to drive the car.  I can open the driver's door from the inside to get out of the car.

For several years during my morning devotions and prayer time I "plead the blood of Jesus for protection for any vehicle I am in that day" and once again God was faithful.  How - here's how:

• The deer could have gone through my windshield and who knows if I'd even be here to do this post.
• My car was driveable - both guys that stopped to help and the officer confirmed they didn't see anything dripping, any liquid under my car or hear anything hissing - plus the officer said the tire was not going to rub on anything.
• I was able to go from 5:45 pm Thursday night to very early Friday morning having everything taken care of from calling my auto carrier, to Toyota to let them know what happened to their leased vehicle, to getting the car scheduled for repairs, and rental arrangements made.
• When I asked the guy where my car will be fixed if he could look at the driver's door to see if they could get it to work - they did - and my driver's door works from the outside.
• The car rental company is honoring my auto carrier's daily allowance so all I am out of pocket is sales tax for the rental.

Like I posted on Facebook, I am very thankful that I was brought up by two God-fearing parents in a Christian home and know that Jesus is my Lord and Saviour - and God does protect His children.

When I got my water and trash bill this month I about died - my water usage was 6000 gallons with my bill being $20-$25 more than last month!  Now my bill had been high for a couple of months but I didn't think anything about it because I was doing a lot of "Butler laundry" with his speedo and the crib sheet on my bed he slept on - along with some watering of the backyard.  But when my September bill was still as high as it had been and Butler was gone and I didn't do any watering in the backyard I decided to track my usage for the next month.  I did 9 loads of laundry (small to large), 3 loads in the dishwasher, averaged almost a shower a day, etc., and I used 6000 gallons. 

I found an EPA link that stated what normal usage per household item should be - along with another web site that had a chart that I roughly figured what I used last month.  If I used 3000 gallons that would be high per those links.  I talked to WDM Water Works and they agreed I should not use that much water and I had a leak somewhere.  I didn't have any puddles or standing water in the house and the line from the street to the house is copper.  The lady said I probably had a leaky toilet and told me to put food dye in the tank, wait 30 minutes to see if any food dye coloring was in the bowl and if the answer was yes - I had a leaky toilet.  Well, I have my toilet upstairs I use all the time - but I have a bathroom on the main level of the house that I hardly ever use.  When I opened the door to the downstairs bathroom I could hear that toilet running.........  No food dye coloring appeared in either toilet.  One of the guys from church came over yesterday to see if he could figure out what was going on in my tank and evidently the flapper is old.  He tried to bend the arm dealie to get it to shut off but it didn't work - so we turned the water off to the toilet for now.  WDM Water told me that they could come to the house and search for leaks - for free - so I'll see if I can't schedule to get them out to see what they can find.  Jim from church told me that when WDM Water does come, to turn the water back on to that toilet and flush it once to see what WDM Water finds.

Thanksgiving is this Thursday and I have so much to be thankful for - from my family, friends and awesome church family.  I'm thankful to have had an awesome husband and mother.  And I'm thankful for Jesus coming to Earth to die for my sins and that I know I'll see Him, Mike, Mom and so many others again some day.

I hope each and everyone of you has a great Thanksgiving holiday!

Iowa Weather ~ Veteran's Day and More

Man - Iowa has the weirdest weather.  Yesterday it was in the 70's and today it's in the 30's along with being cold, windy and rainy - almost sleety at times.  By the time I got home from church today I was almost frozen completely though...........

 

But I did get to see the black squirrel running around in the park across the street before I drove out of the driveway for church.  There were a couple of brown squirrels joining him.  Like I have said before, it always brings a smile to my face to see the black squirrel to know the little guy is still around.

 

Last Sunday when I was taking my recycle and trash bins to the curb I saw a baby garter snake in my driveway.  I'm like "really?!"  So Monday when I brought the bins back in, I took a quick look in the lawn that was close to the area I had seen the snake and there he was.  I'm thinking to myself, "You can do this McFall.  It's just a little, bitty baby snake and probably fairly cold.  Go get your dust pan and a plastic bag and put him in the bag and then in your trash bin."  Of course the snake fell off the dust pan and back onto my lawn with his belly sticking up - blick, blick, blick.  But I got him in the bag, tied it and the bag went into my trash bin.  Between doing that icky, blicky shuffle dance people do where they shake themselves all over like something is on them - I actually did feel sorry for the little guy for a few minutes.  But I thought it was either him or me and I didn't want him to hibernate somewhere and be a big 'un next spring.

 

I've started a Word document of things that need to be done around the house for Spring and for Fall - and I include pictures when needed.  Like the filters for my furnace - I have written down the description and size along with a couple of pictures for future reference.  I've turned the water off to the front spicket and got it covered - probably the first time it's ever been covered.  The back spicket when I went to turn the water off to it, it didn't feel right and the shut off handle itself started to drip.  I figured that wasn't good so I turned the shut off back the other way.  My neighbor was able to come over the other night and as I turned the shut off "off" he said I was opening it.....  I just looked at him and we went outside to the spicket and turned it on and the water just came out like normal.  So....that meant the shut off was broke because it had been in the "off" position all year and water still went through.  He did tighten the connection so it didn't drip anymore and he said sometime he would put in a new shut off valve for me.  He told me that the back spicket should be ok not covered - the main thing is to make sure the hose was disconnected from it.

 

We started getting some things in this morning at church for our Bread On The Waters grocery project - and lots more items were signed up for.

 

I had a small break through with Cruz this past week.  I've been sitting on the floor close to her and spreading some of her food on the floor between her and me in a line from her to me.  She has eaten some while I've sat on the floor but not much.  The other night she actually took a few pieces of dog food from my hand - I was so happy.  I don't know what the difference is between dog food and things like Pop Tarts, chips, toast, etc., in Cruz' mind.  She'll take all those out of my hand no problem.  I'm also supposed to attach her leash to me somehow when I'm home so we are "connected" for her to get used to me - and then walk around the house with her following me.  I haven't done that yet..............  The picture below is Cruz with her toy Hedgie.  She had been chewing on Hedgie and this is how things ended up.

 

Lastly a big THANK YOU to our veteran's!  Thank you to those currently serving like my kid Casey who has 23 years in the with Army.  Thank you to those that have served.  And thank you to those that are no longer with us like my father-in-law who served in WWII.

 



 

Cruz and Bread On The Waters

Yesterday was really a beautiful day in central Iowa and today is a really gloomy day outside.

 

I changed out my smoke detector batteries yesterday - I try to be a good girl and do this at least once a year when the time changes.  If I'm really on my game I'll do it both times the time changes in one year.

 

Bark Busters came last Monday and Cruz is kind of at a lull in her training/trusting me.  She still won't come to me when I call her inside the house unless she knows it's to go outside - but sometimes she just trots down the stairs with me from the upstairs to the main level to see what I'm going to do.  And she will come near me when I'm in the bathroom doing something - sometimes.  The last few mornings she's really been a goof running around and sliding on the carpet when I'm getting ready to put my robe on to take her out for the first time.

 

She still does her sniffing of me after I turn off the lights and then walks back and forth by the side of my bed with my hand "petting" her.  When my hand gets to the end of her, she'll take my hand in her mouth and turn around so she can walk the other way for me to pet her.  This can go on for 5-10 minutes.  Yesterday she actually did this during the afternoon and the first time she took my hand in her mouth if kind of alarmed me because it looked like she was going to bite me - I'd never seen how this looked in the dark.  So I had to tell myself it was ok, she was just playing and we did our routine for a few minutes.  I knew she wasn't going to bite me but it looked a little scary for a minute.

 

And when I have her on leash and we're on a walk she is a happy, happy, happy puppy.  Likes to jump at me as we walk on the sidewalk on the south side of the house before getting out of the gate and then she'll try to bite at my hand while we walk if I tease her.  She's pretty good at "sit" when I tell her, if she doesn't do it right away I just have to take a step toward her and she sits.  She's pretty good at "stay" too but if I try to get her attention by calling her name to release her from stay - she's looking all over the place - goober.  I realized that when I'd say "free" to release her from stay that I was also giving her leash a tug at the same time I'd say "free" and I didn't want her to associate the tug on the leash to be part of the "free" command so I've stopped doing that.  I've had to say "free, Cruz, free" a couple of times (sometimes) to get her walking again.......

 

The Bark Buster lady said she would ask the home office about Cruz still not really coming to me and then waiting until after I turn off the lights at night to eat her food.  So....I'm supposed to put her leash on her at different times while we're in the house and do some funky things to try to get her to come to me - I haven't done this yet.  And the other thing is to put her food on the floor by me (I have to be on the floor too) and have her eat it - the goal is that she will take the food from my hand.  She sure takes treats from my hand.......  And if after 20 minutes she hasn't eaten all the food I'm supposed to put it up for the night so she doesn't eat after "lights out". 

 

I tried this last night for the first time and it went so/so.  I laid food out by me while sitting on the floor 3-4 different times during the evening - with my hand close to the food.  She'd eat some of the food with me on the floor and then my butt would get sore so I'd sit back on the bed next to her and she'd finish eating the rest of the food.  I'll try again tonight...............

 

When I walked Cruz yesterday I ran into my postal carrier that had left me a sympathy card when Mike passed and had talked to Dad different times last summer when he was staying with me when Mom was in the hospital.  The postal carrier commented on how pretty Cruz was and asked her name.  She then asked if I still had my greyhounds and I told her about putting my girl (Milly) down the winter after my husband passed and then putting Butler down this past August.  She's a real nice lady and after we parted so Cruz and I could finish our walk, I told Cruz how the lady had said she was real pretty.

 

This morning at church my small group set up the Bread on the Waters table - this is our grocery drive to make baskets of food and toiletry times for 22 families this year.  Last year the church got behind this and our goal was to make 20 baskets.  We'll have the table up all of November for people to take tags to sign up for different items to bring and then the first Sunday of December is when all the items need to be turned in by so my small group can put the baskets together that Wednesday night.  Today we had a really good response by the number of tags taken.

 



 

Fall Cleanup

Well Sunday I had a church meeting at 4:30 that lasted until 6:30ish and then zipped home to walk the "wild child" before it got real dark and cold - and forgot to do a post.  So a few days late - but here goes.

 

My hibiscus were still looking pretty good on 10/27/12 - check out the pictures below.  It took me a few seconds to realize what was in the upper right corner of the first picture.....Cruz' nose.  She's such a goober.

 



 

I treated myself (no pun intended) to one of this year's Life is Good Halloween tees.  I wasn't going to get it but somehow the image makes me think of Cruz.......or maybe how she would look with a sheet over her head and body.

Saturday I finally decided I had lost enough leaves in the backyard that it was time to mow (hopefully for the last time this year) with the bag attached to catch the leaves.  I waited until early afternoon for it to be as warm as it was going to get, and the sun started shining, so that helped with the work I had to do.

Lately I had been feeling somewhat sorry for myself that I had to do everything around the house now that Mike is gone.  Take the garbage out - me or it doesn't get done.  Lawn work (or soon to be snow blowing) - me or it doesn't get done.  Cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, dryer finally konks out - you name it - me or it doesn't get done.  And now being in my 50's, that just made it worse in my mind.  But I read in "The Names Of God" that I don't own any of my possessions (home, car, appliances, etc.), everything is God's and He has given me the stewardship to take care of His possessions.  That really hit home when I thought about it and put things in a totally different perspective for me.

So after working on the front lawn Saturday, I headed to the back lawn.  I had used my rechargeable blower in the front yard to get the leaves and pine needles out of the planters and on the grass so the mower would bag everything and when I was finished in the front yard I took the battery out of the blower to recharge it before doing the backyard.  So I headed into the basement to walk over to Mike's workbench to get the battery for the blower and walked smack into one of the overhead vent pipe deals from the furnace - yow.  I have NEVER run into one of those things before but Saturday I made up for it.  I started to cry, grabbed the battery from the charger, muttered to God about being thankful in all situations and kept crying a little as I started to blow the leaves off the rocks in the backyard.  Of course I had no kleenex on me so I used the next best thing - the sleeve of my sweatshirt to take care of my running nose and tears.

I kept plugging away mowing, emptying the bag from the mower into lawn bags and mowing some more.  Then I found it - part of a dead snake.  I just stared at it thinking, "so that's how far you got into the yard after I completely covered you with wasp spray a couple of weeks ago".  And it wasn't that far from my patio - ick.  So I looked at the snake body, and looked at it, and looked at it and finally told myself to stop looking at it, cover it with one of the lawn bags and keep working - so I did.

I have no idea how my handyguy connected my two hoses this past summer but for the life of me (and my niece too) I could not get them to come apart so I could drain them and put them away for the winter.  So I had texted one of the guys from church early Saturday morning if he could help me with my hose issue - he said he could Sunday after church.  I asked him at church Sunday morning if he would be able to pick up a snake body and get rid of it - he said he could.  So after church over come Jim and his wife Katie to help with the hose and snake.  I had my two plastic WalMart bags double-bagged for the body with paper towels ready for Jim to pick up the snake.  I had barely gotten outside, and he had the lawn bag that was sitting on the body as the marker to where the body was - moved, and had started to pick up the snake before I could say "here's a couple of bags for you".  I took one look at what Jim was doing and threw the bags at him and I went the other way - blick, blick, blick.  And before I could say that Jim could put the bags with the body in my trash can, he buried the bags in my lawn bag.  I'm like, "you can't leave the snake in my lawn bag" and his reply was that it would decompose or something like that.  I just looked at him.

He was also able to get my hoses apart - using vice grips - and we stretched them out so they could drain.  After he unhooked the one end from the house he told me I needed some type of cover to go over the spicket (sp?) for winter.  I'm thinking that I hadn't covered either spicket in front or back of the house the past two winters........oops.  So off to True Value the three of us go to find the syrofoam spicket cover dealie.  Got two - one for the front and one for the back.  The front went on slicker than snot but of course the back spicket is not a normal configuration so the cover didn't work.  I went to True Value Monday night to talk to them about what was going on - and showed them the picture of my spicket - they have ordered another cover they had in a supply catalog and we'll see if that works.

And as I headed out to my meeting late Sunday afternoon, I drug my trash bin to the curb placing it by the lawn bags.  I looked at the lawn bag where the plastic bags and snake body were buried, and could just barely see the top of the plastic bags.  I found a stick in the lawn bag that I could unbury the plastic bags with the body, loop the stick through the handles of the bags and dump the bags with the body in my trash bin.............blick, blick, blick.

Girls Weekend and Cruz (of course)

To say work has been stressful the past couple of weeks is a definite understatement but I had my annual Central College Girls Weekend to look forward to this weekend.  My niece was kind enough to say "yes" to coming up and staying at the house with Cruz when I asked her.

 

Friday morning I saw Yellow and Red both had blooms on my hibiscus plants.  I've moved them inside to my enclosed back porch, and they still seem to be doing fairly well.  Check out their pix below.

 

 

 

So I left work at 12:30 on Friday, got some gas and Mickey D's and off to Newton to pick up Jenni.  The last one of us rolled in around 4:30ish.  So after unpacking (somewhat) we headed out to supper a little earlier than we normally did on Friday nights.  After eating at Olive Garden we went to Dress Barn and TJ Maxx for some shopping, then back to the room to get caught up on what's been going on the past year plus look at pictures that some of us brought.

 

Our hotel had a complimentary breakfast so we all funneled down to the eating area at different times Saturday morning.  Then off to Kohl's by the mall on the other side of town.  I was looking for a couple of things - shoes (to replace one of the pairs Cruz had ruined) and long/tall pants for work.  Let's just say at the end of the day I was the only one without a single shopping bag.......and I was disappointed. 

 

If we have time we do a movie at the theater and this year the choice was "Argo".  It was based on the story of bringing out the six Americans that had gotten out of the US Embassy in Iran as it was being overtaken in 1979 - and these six Americans lived/hid at the Canadian Ambassador's house for like 70+ days.  Ben Affleck was in it and he's...just ok in my book but I was pleasantly surprised in both the movie and Ben.  They were both good - and Ben even looked like a hottie with that awful 80's head of hair.

 

Back to the hotel to order Momma Nick's pizza and decide on an inroom movie to watch.  Sometimes our movies are trial-by-error and this year was not that great - Arbitage.  We figured Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon would be good - let me just say if you haven't seen this one yet - don't bother renting it.

 

This morning after breakfast, a little more gab time and settling up the bill with the one that put the rooms on her credit card - off we headed.  Jo to Madison, WI - Claud to Minneapolis, MN - Linda to Rockford, IL and me dropping Jenni off in Newton.  We are thinking of doing something special next year - we had talked about doing it this year but it didn't work out.  We're thinking of VEGAS!!! :)

 

So when I walked into the house - this is what I found in the downstairs back hallway.  That would be left to right starting with the thing by the outlet toward the left:  Kong bone, the white, plastic cosmetic bag that Cruz has been chewing like crazy sitting in front of half of Foxy one of the stuffingless toys (I still haven't found the other half of Foxy....poor Foxy), a mop cover, Squirrel (a grey stuffingless toy), the arm cover of my brown recliner from the living room (this is new) and the Army bag in the foreground that sits on the flowered carry-on bag you can see under the shelving unit in the picture.

So I had laundry to wash, leaves to deal with in the driveway and run to WalMart for groceries along with other things to get done once I got home.  First off I used my rechargable blower to blow leaves off the rocks in the backyard and found a baby garter snake - great.  I did get a chuckle out of blowing the baby snake all over the place as it wanted to get away from all that air....  Anyway - while at WalMart I found a new stuffingless toy for Cruz - Ducky.  Check Ducky out in the picture below in front of Cruz and her crate - and check Cruz out....she's such a goober!

 
I found the picture below on Facebook from a German Shepherd group that I liked.  I saw it last week and immediately burst out laughing because of Cruz and how she gets my kitchen door open.  You can't read the caption in my blog but it says, "Can't open the door they say.  Doesn't have hands with thumbs they say.  I'll show them." 

Digital Scrapbooking ~ Mike's Birthday ~ and More

 

Wednesday would have been Mike's 65th birthday - it was his third one since he died.  It just amazes me how the years are flying by since he's been gone.

 

I'm taking care of my Butler tattoo - done with the hot shower/washes and on to the two weeks of Lubriderm lotion.  The top layer of skin has come off in a couple of rounds and the tat itself doesn't look the best right now but it will.  And the itching came on board last night - I had hoped I would luck out and not have that stage with this tattoo.  Nope.  At least I remembered to slap it - you can't scratch it during this stage.  So I slapped the poo out of my leg last night - and again some today.

 

Chrissy, my niece, stopped by Friday night to learn everything she needs to know to watch Cruz for me next weekend.  I'm off to my annual Central College girls weekend in Waterloo.  I'll leave work around 1:00 p.m. on Friday and get home around 1:00ish on Sunday afternoon.  Before Chrissy drove up I saw the black squirrel in the park running around like crazy and it made me smile - I'm always happy to see that little guy to know he's still alive and kicking.  I hoped he wouldn't run up a tree and disappear before Chrissy got here and he didn't - so she got to see him too.

 

I warned Chrissy about looking for toys in the back stairway and if for some reason when she came in the house and Cruz wasn't in her crate - and the kitchen door was shut - Cruz had gotten herself stuck on the back stairway - what a goober.  I told Chrissy to not even attempt walking Cruz because she can still get a little weird with me at times on our walks.  So when I get home Sunday after being gone all weekend - I think the first thing I'll have to do after unloading the car is take someone for a nice, long walk to "blow off her stink" to use a phrase of my Dad's.

 

Yesterday I spent most of the day at Croptoberfest - a Creative Memories event to work on a digital scrapbook.  I started the book that would be my first vacation without Mike - back to Branson the first time without him from 2011.  That year my sis-in-law and niece went with me and we had a good time - there were some bittersweet moments for me on that trip - but on the whole it was a lot of fun.  I have most of the book done - need to finish it and get it ordered so I can see what it looks like.

 

The last two weeks at work have been crazy - working long hours and not really getting a lunch most days.  Some nights I fall asleep during the evening and then have to wake myself up to go to bed.  Last night I was all excited to watch the NASCAR race that was on ABC and missed over half of it because I fell asleep.  Today my body said "enough is enough" and I just could not get going.  So I ended up not going to church but I did watched church tv.  I'm pretty discouraged about the job situation and some other personal stuff - so my emotions are pretty close to the surface at times. 

 

But seeing Red in bloom on my back porch today made me smile.

 

 



Butler Tattoo and More

While the adventures of Wubba continue - mostly with Wubba being in the back stairway whenever I come home - evidently the white, plastic cosmetic bag that normally lays on my carry-on bag in the downstairs hallway is traveling.  Here it is by my front door when I got home the other day.

 

 

 

Thursday I had my six-month dental appointment.  I love my dental group, they are so friendly and make you feel like they really care and are a part of a little family.  Probably 8 out of 10 times Karen is the hygenist that works on me and I was hoping she would be who I was with for this appointment.  She always asks about Butler and this time I would have to tell her about putting him down and all about Cruz.  Well - the first words out of Karen's mouth when we got into her room were, "You look great!  What have you been doing?"  I'm like "Nothing......but thanks."  :)  We then had quite the talk about Butler and Cruz.

 

Then I had to be at Mid Air & Ink for my 6:30 tattoo appointment.  I got downtown a little early so parked and walked around the Court Avenue district.  I was amazed at all the loft living places that are down there now.  Shortly after I went into Mid Air & Ink my friend Lori showed up.  Lori had gone with me when I got my hibiscus for Mike so she was the first one I asked if she wanted to be there for Butler's tat and she said "yes".

 

I learned from last time when I handed Tattoo Dave (that's what I call him) my phone with a picture of my hibiscus saying this is what I want him to do.  He looked at me and asked if I had any pictures printed out for him.  I'm like nope, sorry, didn't know I had to do that.  This time I had pictures to show him Butler's markings along with the greyhound bus logo that I wanted to be the basic design of this tat.  Below are a few pictures from the experience.

 

I printed the greyhound bus logo out to the size I thought I wanted my tat and colored it in to be "Butler" and then taped it to my leg to see what I thought.  I thought it looked ok but maybe a little too big - so I wanted to get Dave's opinion since he was the pro.  Dave thought the size was perfect - any smaller and there wouldn't be much detail.  I wanted to show Butler's markings where he was white but I didn't want him to have a real white face like he had when he was older.

 

I had decided how I had cut out the greyhound logo didn't work when I taped it to my leg so I cut more around the dog to get a better idea.  Above is Dave starting to free-hand Butler on my leg.

Free-handing is all done - and three Sharpie colors too.  Time for me to look at what Dave had drawn in the mirror to see if I liked it before this became permanent.

Here we go, first jab with the needle.  Dave never lets you look at the tattoo while he's doing it so while I've got two tattoos, I've never seen a tattoo being done in person :)  From the first poke to cleaning off the tat it was right at 30 minutes.  Not too bad - my hibiscus took 2 1/2 hours.  There were a few times when it really hurt but for the most part it was tolerable.

 

I think both tats look pretty good.  Dave decided to do some purple highlighting in my hibiscus - he didn't tell me that until after it was done.  I'm doing the two hot showers each day for five days right now - man that can sure sting when the hot water first hits the tats.  Tuesday I'll be done with those.  Today I started to put Lubriderm lotion on it.  It will eventually itch like crazy and I can't scratch it - I have to slap it.  And then if things go like they did with the hibiscus, I'll lose a very thin layer of skin like peeling from a sunburn.  Dave was really pleased with how the color has held up for my hibiscus.  It helps that neither tat get any sunshine - even when wearing shorts you don't see them.

 

Friday night when I made my usual run to WalMart after work and I was in the Health and Beauty section, I got a little melancholy when I realized I didn't need to buy any more Poise pads now that Butler was gone.  While it was just a little embarassing to have the jumbo package of Poise pads in my cart - I would continue to buy them if Butler was able to be with me.  And I realized I wasn't buying near the paper towels and Duct tape anymore either.  Duct tape to tape his Speedo around him and paper towels to clean up his accidents.

 

After working 5+ hours at work yesterday I came home and decided it was time to attack all the leaves that were in my front yard from my neighbor's tree.  Luckily his tree is almost bare and I gathered the leaves the lazy way - mowing with the bag on my mower :)  I even got to use my rechargable blower to blow the leaves out of my planters.  But even with doing the mower/bag deal I still had to do a lot of bending to pick up leaves to put in my lawn bags because of so many leaves in my driveway - three bags total for the front yard.  Then this morning when I left for church - my tree in the parking decided to dump a bunch of its leaves last night in my front yard and driveway.....

 

I had brought White, Red and Yellow hibiscus inside my enclosed back porch the other night when we were going to have our first hard freeze.  They are all three doing pretty good and enjoying being back outside for this afternoon.  Unfortunately Pink didn't look too good, so she is in the dumpster.  I also decided to bring in my solar fountain yesterday.  Got the bowls all cleaned and stacked together and found a place for them to stay in the basement for the winter.

 

This morning I helped with one of our children's groups at church - Waves which are K-2nd grade.  We learned about King Solomon's wisdom and how the Queen of Sheba traveled to meet Solomon and asked him lots of questions.  The pictures below are the kidlets making their crowns so all the girls could be "Queens of Sheba" and the boys could be "King Solomons".  There were quite a few kids missing today too.  After church we took our annual church photo outside - I had hoped the pic woul be on LWF's Facebook page so I could save it and put it in my blog today - maybe next week.

 

Lastly Wednesday will be a little emotional for me - it would have been Mike's birthday.  I can't believe this is the third one since he's been gone.



Fireworks ~ Sitting ~ And Something "Interesting"

 

Well, the adventures of where Cruz' toys end up continues.  I was excited when I found the small square tile piece the other day on the landing in the back stairway because it had been missing from my living room windowsill for a while.  I went to super glue it back in place...and realized there were TWO small square tile pieces missing from my windowsill.......

 

Foxing standing on his head in the back stairway.

Evidently Cruz has decided she wants to design her own rubber mats because "store bought" just isn't cutting it with her.

 



Through the window of the door to my basement looking into the downstairs hallway.  The black Army bag in the foreground and the white plastic cosmetic bag in the back right both sit on the flowered carry on bag under the shelving unit.  That's good, old Wubba sitting right in front of the flowered carry on.

 

Wubba is a downstairs/main level of the house toy but evidently the other morning while I was taking my shower before work, Cruz decided Wubba needed to visit the upstairs.

 



I honestly have no clue - maybe Cruz thought Foxy was hungry or thirsty?  The rubber toy on the mat is her Kong bone that I fill with peanut butter before I leave.

 

 

I thought Cruz was "playing me" the other day on our walk so I wanted to make sure this was for real - she is "sitting" fairly well on her own, or all I have to do is move my hand toward her muzzle and she sits during our walks.  There are no words to describe how I felt when I realized we had this break through - I was such a proud Mommy.  Now we are working on "stay" and "free" this week.  Baby steps......

 

 

Thursday and Friday morning before my alarm went off Cruz did something really interesting.  There are times I can sense something looking at me and when I open my eyes - yep - there she is sitting on the floor next to my side of the bed staring at me.  When this would happen I'd pet her and talk to her for a second and then try to go back to sleep.  Well, Thursday and Friday morning Cruz started to walk up and down the length of my side of the bed - never done this before.  I let my hand glide along her body as she did this, and then she would turn her head back and take my hand gently in her mouth to kind of get me in place to rub her side as she went the other way.  This went on for like five minutes each morning.  If she would stop - she would sniff my hand and lick it - then back to walking along the side of the bed with my hand gliding along her side.  I think this is good???

 

I had planned to go to a craft show today after church with a friend but due to another friend having visitiation today for her husband that passed away on Wednesday - I headed to the craft show on my own Saturday.  I bought a few things with one being a Bible cover made out of material with dogs on it.  The German Shepherd in the material made me think of Cruz.  Another neat thing I bought was a photo of a little fox kit (or are they cubs) sitting in the hollow end of a tree trunk looking out.  Right next to where I bought the picture, a kid had made frames out of sticks and tree bark - I found a neat frame from him for my fox picture.  Now...his grandfather was working the booth too - I think both of them make the frames.  Grandpa handed me an envelope with their business card and told me to turn the envelope over - it was stamped with a rattlesnake on it.  I'm like "no thank you" and tried to hand the envelope back to him - nothing doing.  He made me open the envelope and it had the rubber band and washer deal in it that sounded like a rattlesnake rattling its tail.  I of course screamed and threw the envelope into the middle of their display - and then gave grandpa the eye.  He told me I was a good jumper - I didn't say what I wanted to tell him that he was :)

 

Last night Cruz and I headed out to watch fireworks.  The City of WDM had their Illumifest event this weekend and to end it last night was fireworks being lit over by City Hall.  I drove to the back of Southwoods 9th Grade/Freshman school on the hill up from City Hall to watch the fireworks with Cruz.  I wasn't sure how she would do and she was a little leery of the few people that ended up with us.  But then the fireworks started and I was too close because she could hear the boom when they were shot off - and that wasn't sitting good with her.  She was ready to go.  I was like, "man....I really want to watch the fireworks".  I'd only seen one deal of fireworks since Mike died and this would be my first time to watch them by myself.  So I put Cruz in the back seat of the car - moved the car over to a better location in the parking lot and stood outside her back door - with her window down with me watching the fireworks and my hand inside the car petting her.  She's such a goober....



Before the fireworks.

Today was another awesome fall day in Iowa and after driving by this bunch of trees after church I turned around to take the next picture.  What a great bunch of colors!

The next two trees are in the parking lot of Stilwell Jr High in West Des Moines.

Across the street from Stilwell Jr High.  Even though these two trees have "black" leaves - they are still beautiful because there is a touch of a deep red in their color.

 

 

T -4 days until I get my tattoo for Butler.................................................

 

Isn't this the cutest thing you have ever seen?  It's one of my cousin's dogs after being given a bath.  My cousin is once again my age today.  She gives me a hard time for being "older" than her - by 9 days.

I went to the visitation for a friend of mine that her husband passed away Wednesday.  When I read the email letting several of us know of Bob's passing I just cried - because I know the road Sandy has started to go down.  I know exactly how she will feel at times - and I just hurt for her.  This was the poem in Bob's program.  I think it's awesome.

You can shed tears that he is gone,
Or you can smile because he has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that he'll come back,
Or you can open your eyes and see all that he has left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see him,
Or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,
Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember him and only that he's gone,
Or you can cherish his memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back,
Or you can do what he'd want:
SMILE, OPEN YOUR EYES, LOVE AND GO ON.

Today at church we sang "It Is Well With My Soul" and that song always gets to me.  It's been an "interesting" two and a half years but I can definitely say It is well with my soul.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.