Spontaneous Combustion ~ Concealed Weapons Permit ~ and More!

Chrissy and I survived the FOUR HOUR concealed weapons permit class last Sunday afternoon.  It was getting a little warm in the small classroom for the 20+ of us there plus the two instructors.  I have submitted paperwork to get my Iowa permit to carry concealed.  The class was for the Utah concealed permit, so once I have my Iowa permit, I will submit paperwork for my Utah permit - Utah has more states I can carry in than Iowa's permit.  I had hoped to carry Mike's 9mm Glock but it's a four inch barrel and I bet I will have difficulty being concealed - I'll either "profile" that I'm carrying, or the barrel will be longer than some of the shirts I'll wear - so I need to find a smaller barrel gun.  I'm not looking to carry all the time, but it would be nice to have the option to protect myself if I feel it's necessary now that Mike's not always with me.

I had some home owner issues this past week.  The first was realizing that I shouldn't keep my paper lawn bag to collect twigs/branches for more than a month.  I forgot they can spontaneously combust....  The bag was sitting outside between my regular trash bin and my recycled bin and when I went to move it the other day I found out the bottom had burned out of it - lovely.  That reminded me of the time Mike had kept one of the lawn bags INSIDE the garage for a few weeks and it combusted.  Thank the good Lord I have a concrete stucco house..........

My weed eater's guard started to fall off this year when I was using it, but I would be able to pop it back on and continue to weed eat.  Sometime a week or so ago - I couldn't get it to stay on and I actually weed eated without the guard - I'm sure Mike would not have approved of that move on my part.  A good friend at church figured out a screw had come out that helped hold the guard in place.  He figured out what type of screw, put one in my weed eater for me and left me some extra screws.  I taped the screws together in a long hunk of doubled over Duct Tape and marked it with a black Sharpie that those screws are for the weed eater.

Then yesteday before running errands, the very old door knob for the door that connects the downstairs hallway with the basement fell off - great.  I put the long part back through the door and stuck the door knob on the other end and it stayed - awesome!!!  That was easy I thought - until I went to use the door and everything fell onto the floor again.  I looked at the door knob contraption closer and saw that it needed - wait for it - another screw.  Off to the True Value at 63rd and Grand I headed where a couple of the guys looked at my door knob - saw the threads were stripped out of the one part - did some minor surgery and figured out what screw I needed.  I bought a couple extra screws and have the little paper bag with the screws taped shut and marked with black Sharpie those are for the downstairs hallway door knob.

Then the fan that I have running upstairs to help the AC keep the upstairs cool was starting to make a noise each time it rotated - that was annoying.  Sprayed some WD40 into the fan and no more squeak.  So when they say that all you need is WD40 and Duct tape they are right - I just added a black Sharpie pen and zip ties to this list and you should be able to fix anything with these four items.

Had to take a pic of Butler sleeping on the bed the other night.  Cruz is still getting used to me - one day I hope she'll realize I'm not the anti-christ when I clean the gunk out of her eyes.  We have been able to take walks and she is a good little sister to Butler staying outside with Butler while he's going potty as I get either my bed ready for him to lay on - or the couch.  The days of the ease of just letting a dog out, back in and making sure they are settled before I leave are long gone as long as I have Butler.  After helping him outside, I help him lay down on the ground, go back inside and fix the bed or couch, go back outside, help Butler back in the house and either upstairs to the bed or into the living room onto the couch, get him settled - then finish getting ready so I can finally leave the house.  If Butler is headed to the couch I have to get his "speedo" with Poise pad inside, Duct taped around him so if he has an accident while I'm gone, the pad and male wrap absorb most of the mess.

Cruz now has her WDM dog license - still can't believe I had to send in an application to a company in NEBRASKA for this.  And had to pay a $4.00 processing fee - my vet never had a processing fee when I would purchase dog licenses from her in the past for the dogs.  And a first for me - Cruz has pet insurance.  I got a 30 day free plan from the rescue group so did a little investigating regarding other pet insurance companies and have her covered with VPI starting August 6th.  It's $25/month but if something happens to her - like hip displasia which German Shepherds are prone to get - almost all of the vet bill expense will be covered.  A friend I worked with at the WDMPD has been with this company over 12 years and said it was amazing the coverage when one of her Shelties got cancer.

Thursday, August 2nd is Dad's birthday.  I'm not sure if he will want to come up to do dinner that day or wait until the weekend - but hopefully we'll be able to get together.

The next pix are of The Well - the building my church bought (debt free) to renovate to house the church offices and be an outreach to the community we meet in.  We hope to partner with River Woods Elementary (where we hold our Sunday church service) with after school tutoring, along with a clothing closet and more.  The past two Saturdays men have shown up in huge numbers to get the siding up so the "blue building" is no longer blue.

The above picture is from our WELLebration day this past April, to show what the building looked like "before".  The next two pictures are from a week ago Saturday with guys getting the building ready for that siding and how the building looked after a long day.  Didn't quite get the project completed but it sure looked a lot better.

The next two pix I took this morning before church.  More guys showed up yesterday to finish the siding on the back side of the building and get the front of the upstairs ready for siding.  What a HUGE difference.

I'm still on a shoe and house slipper quest.  I found my zebra slippers today at the Half Price Store/Gordman's.  I don't know if I'll ever find shoes to replace the ones Cruz chewed up....

The pic below is just a cool idea I saw posted on Facebook.  What an awesome way to show your family "tree" in pictures.

And while my first love will be the greyhound breed, I "liked" a German Shepherd group on Facebook and they have some of the coolest posts.  Enjoy the next two pictures of military and shepherds.

Summer Cold ~ Cruz Went Crazy

Wednesday I started to get a lovely summer cold so I started out taking Zicam then switched to generic Advil Cold/Sinus.  I normally sneeze in threes but I was sneezing in like 20's and my nose was constantly running.  I have no idea how many kleenex I went through that day.  Unfortunately the cold got worse Thursday, and Friday I was pretty fried when I got home from work - today I think I'm on the upside.  This afternoon Butler, Cruz and I took like a two hour nap which I think really helped.

My solar fountain works great when the sun is hitting the solar panel and when the sun isn't hitting it - it still looks pretty.  I finally got my glass stones with sayings on them that I ordered when I ordered the fountain - check them out.  I still need to work on smoothing the edges of my pieces of chipped Fiestaware to put in the bottom bowl.

When I enter the house I go through the basement from my tuck-under garage.  I have a hallway in my basement to get to my stairs to go upstairs and when I got to the hallway Thursday this little, brown surprise was waiting for me on the hallway floor.  One of my Facebook friends wanted to know if it was a brownie - I wish.......  This was my first clue things were going to be "interesting" when I got on the main floor - and that meant that Cruz had not only gotten out of her crate, but she'd figured out how to open the door in the kitchen that goes to the stairs that goes to the hallway.

There really wasn't much messed up on the main floor and I found some of Cruz' toys that had been in the crate with her when I left - jammed into the corners of the couch.  So that means she was on the couch with Butler for part of the time.  A big concern about not crating Cruz is that if something happened when she interacted with Butler and it turned bad - Butler can't protect himself or get off the couch.  Evidently they got along fine.

Then Friday night after work.  I was fried - the cold was full blown and I just wanted to crash.  This is what I walked into.  The kicker is check out the second picture - the bottom latch of the crate is STILL latched, only the top latch was undone.  So check out the top of the crate in that photo to see how much the frame is bent.....  I about lost it and almost started to cry.  I was tired, didn't feel good and dealing with Houdini aka Cruz - all I wanted was Mike to be there to hold me - but he wasn't.  So I dealt with the dogs and then straighten up the living room.

Today I had errands to run so thought I'd see how Cruz did with the door of the crate left open so she could come and go in the crate on her own.  I ran to the bank, stopped by The Well to see how the guys were doing getting siding on the building, then downtown to meet some gals for lunch.  I was kind of excited about lunch because I was going to meet ladies from a widow group.  I showed up at the restaurant early for our 11:00 lunch.  By 11:10 no one - and I had confirmed just this morning with the organizer that lunch was still on at El Bait Shop at 11:00.  I left - don't know where all the other ladies were.

I got home and no damage that I could tell so Cruz got an A for her first probationary report card.  After taking our nap, I stopped at some stores to look for house slippers and shoes to replace what Cruz had destroyed - and then on to Orange Leaf to meet a friend for "supper".  I got home and Cruz' second probationary report card was a low A-/high B+.  She had messed with the rugs in the front room but other than that I think things went well.

A big test will be tomorrow when I leave for church around 9:15 and will be gone until noonish.  I'll run into the house to let the dogs out and then immediately head out again to meet my niece for lunch and then our FOUR HOUR concealed to carry (a gun) class.  I'll end up getting home 5:30 or later.  Should be interesting to see how she does all day.

Cruz ~ IRS ~ Mom ~ Shoes

As I write - I'm on hold with Web TV trying to find out why my dad doesn't get my emails any more.  Dad has already talked to Web TV and they didn't find any issues on their end so when Dad was at my house yesterday he asked me to call Web TV.  So far they say I'm not blocked, I am on his safe email list and he is getting my emails - but there is some filter dealie that the Web TV tech could see that might be blocking something................

Well - the tech had me send two test emails to Dad that did go through and he should be seeing ok.  I'm supposed to call Dad, send another email - see if he can read the two test ones from today and the one I'll send him while we're on the phone.  If he can't see any of them - there is a problem with his unit......

Just when I thought things couldn't get more interesting - I got a letter from the IRS this week that they audited my 2009 return and I owe money.  The worksheet they sent showed a large amount of money that is what I thought I owed them - and since I tend to multi-task when reading my mail - I read it when I'm using my bathroom facilities - I about had a heart attack and fell off my toilet.  Ok too much information probably.  Something said to turn the sheet over and the highlighted dollar amount was a lot less at least.  The kicker is, in 2010 Mike and I filed our returns electronically for the first time - the day before he went into the hospital for the last time.  We filed on 4.13.10.  Do you think I can find that folder form 2009 - of course not.  I see my folder for 2011, 2010 but not 2009 and I had to have had my 2009 folder with me when doing my 2010 returns because I always look at the prior year to make sure I am completing the current year's form correctly.........  Say a prayer for me on this one.

Dad was able to come up yesterday, see some of the outcome of my major decluttering and go through some of my uncle's things (Mom's brother).  He also got to meet Cruz and thought she was pretty cute.

Today would have been Mom's 88th birthday and tomorrow is one year since she passed.  I can't believe how quickly this year has flown by.  I thought the first year Mike was gone went fast but this one really went fast.  I'm not overly sad today because I know Mom is in a better place and not in pain - and I'll see her again someday - but it does bug me somewhat that Mike isn't here to be with me......  Trust me, when I get to Heaven I'm going to schedule some one-on-one time with God and ask Him what his thoughts were with having Mike and Mom both leave me in a little over a year.  Evidently He sees something in me that I haven't found yet to be able to deal with all this and go on with my life - it's really a struggle sometimes when everything depends on me now.  Bug God is good and showing me friends that I can reach out to when I need help.

Cruz is still having fun chewing.  I'm not sure if I shared the next two pictures in my last blog - I know I posted one on Facebook.  Came home from work one day and the curtains on my doors to my solarium were torn down and shredded.  The curtain rod bent to pooey.  I loved having those curtains there to block people from seeing into my cluttered solarium - maybe Cruz thinks I need to declutter that room next and that's why she exposed it to the whole, free world.......  Little turd.

Because Butler has woken me up at 3:00 Wednesday and Thursday morning - my days this week kind of float together.  I think the following pictures were when I came home Friday after work.  Cruz had de-gutted the cute little pillow I found at WalMart that I thought she'd enjoy having in her crate with her - guess not.

I'm amazed at all the stuffing that came out of that little pillow - the pillow "skin" is below.  Such a pretty pillow - such a cruel fate..............

So this picture is trying to show how much Cruz has bent the frame at the bottom of her crate where the little dealie is to hook the "floor" to her crate into her crate.  She has bent the frame so much, it's hard for me to get the little hook thing to hook properly.  So yesterday morning before Dad came and I wanted to run an errand I thought - I'll get some of Mike's zip ties and zip tie the crate together by the hook dealie.  I used four of the really tiny zip ties and cut the long end off so Cruz wouldn't be tempted to chew on it.  Came home and all four zip ties were GONE!  I about died because my first thought was she ate them, they would get caught in her tummy and off to the emergency animal hospital we'd be going in a day or so.  When she came out of her crate to go potty I found two of the four zip ties.  Last night I found the third one and thank the good Lord today I found the fourth zip tie.  I have now used Duct Tape to tape the crate together by the hookie dealie. 

The reason I haven't changed my Church Chuckle lately is because the little daily calendar I get them from is in the lower drawer of my night stand that Cruz lays against - check out my two goobers laying on the floor.  And yes - Butler does have his Speedo on in the picture - but it's not Duct taped to him.  Of course this is the side of the bed I sleep on and getting out of bed can be quite challenging at times not wanting to step on Cruz...........

Last night we had a ladies night out with gals from church.  We ate at a restaurant on the south side that was really good - and when I went to the restroom I tried to leave the restroom by walking into the supply closet.  Why they have those two doors so close to each other I have no idea.....  :)  We then ended up at our pastor and wife's house to play games, gab and eat dessert.  What a fun time.

Oh ya - and while we were standing in the parking lot of the restaurant after eating and waiting for our pastor's wife to leave before we all descended on her house - the SUV we were standing next to made a "huffing" noise one of my friends thought.  Long story short - out comes a guy asking if we were trying to steal his dog (he was laughing when he said this) - hence the huffing noise.  He chatted with us for a few moments about taking his other dog to doggie camp and the dog would be there for like four months or something.  The guy was kind of cute (brown eyes) and I found myself doing something I have never, ever done before.  I checked for a wedding ring - nope no ring.  We get to our pastor's house and my one friend said unfortunately the guy looked 35ish and would be too young for me.  I just looked at her and said that meant he was "trainable" and would be around to take care of me in my old age.  bahahahaha

And on that note - the guy that sent me a real email on OurTime.com that sounded like a decent match that I replied to - still waiting to hear from him again................

After church I went to the mall to see if I could find at least one pair of shoes to replace the two pairs Cruz chewed on Monday.  Of course I couldn't find anything I liked - why would I be able to do that - it's me looking for something.  So the quest for shoes continues.

When I got home this is how Cruz's crate was after I got her out of it.  See how far she had scootched the bottom dealie out of it?  You'll see something light blue at the back of the crate - that's her Kong wubba toy that supposedly can't be destroyed, along with a long grey thing - a stuffingless toy - and in the right corner is Hedgie - her hedge hog stuffed toy that for some reason she hasn't degutted yet.

Today when I got to church the daughter of the couple that were greeters had something to give me - check out her picture below - it's so AWESOME!  Heather said Victoria had been working on this all week because Rigo (Victoria's dad) was going to come over to see if he couldn't figure out how to build a stand for Uncle's Fort Bloomfield sign that's now on my enclosed back porch.  Victoria was going to get to come with her dad to meet Cruz and this is what she drew to give me.  Evidently Victoria thinks I need to wear bright lipstick - that cracked me up :)

Last Saturday afternoon my niece and sister-in-law made some bags online.  I had a $10 off coupon for Groupon or Living Social and used it to buy three "grocery" bags from InkGarden.  I didn't need three bags so Chrissy got to make a bag and Marcia got to make a bag.  We ordered the bags after 4:00 pm last Saturday and I got them yesterday in the mail!  Below is my bag.  I was so glad the first bag I opened - all three bags were packaged individually in the box - was my bag so I have no idea how Chrissy and Marcia's bags turned out but I'm sure they are just as nifty as mine. 

Next Sunday after church Chrissy and I are going to a concealed weapons class in Urbandale - another Groupon / Living Social / and/or Deal Chicken we both bought....................

Cruz' History

Well someone is being wiggly and I'm awake so thought I'd blog - and the guilty, wiggly being is Butler not Cruz.....

First - check out all the blooms on Yellow - I think I counted around seven total.  And White has opened another bloom too!

So Cruz' history - I'm slowly putting together her past from emails and telephone conversations with three ladies from Cruz' rescue group.

Cruz is a little over a year old and evidently when she was about four months, another rescue group adopted her out and she had a microchip implanted.

Somewhere between that adoption and when Panora P.E.T.S. literally trapped Cruz - she had gotten loose, run away or something from her first home - and the family that had adopted Cruz did not tell their rescue group about this to let the rescue group know they had broken their agreement when they adopted Cruz.  That alone makes me want to go to that family and bap the adults on the head.  How dare they want to adopt a dog - any dog - and not be responsible pet owners.  I've never had a dog microchipped but I've learned that contacting the microchip company alone can help start trying to find your lost dog.  Along with letting the rescue group be aware to start looking for her.

Somehow Cruz ended up in the country roaming for two to three months - yes two to three months - between two farms with her sleeping on the porch of one of the farm houses.  The owner of that farm happened to be the sister of the lady that is in charge of Panora P.E.T.S.

Evidently Cruz would lay on their porch and if food was left out for her she would eat it but when someone from the house would try to approach Cruz - she would be off in a flash.

Long story short - the only way Panora P.E.T.S. was able to get Cruz was to live trap her.  The lady that is in charge of P.E.T.S. (whose sister's porch Cruz would stay on) was concerned that someone would shoot Cruz because of seeing her run "wild" for so long.

It took a few days after being caught for Cruz to realize everyone from the rescue group was trying to help her and she slowly warmed up to them.  Cruz's foster mom works at a local kennel so Cruz would go to work with her each day and gently be introduced to other dogs and more humans.

So knowing more of her background helps me know how to approach Cruz and work with her.  And when I share little milestones in my blogs - I hope those reading my blogs will do a little "dance of joy" for Cruz, me and of course include Butler in the mix :)

Sunday afternoon I had an instance with Cruz after taking off her collar, putting it back on, buying her a new collar at Petco, putting the new collar on and realizing it was too large, taking the new collar off and putting it back on - she started to bare her teeth at me.  No growling or noise - just snarling up her nose and showing me her teeth.  I'm like "great......".  I wanted her to know I was the alpha but didn't want to be too aggressive with her to either make her mad at me or even more timid/afraid.  I pointed my finger at her and said, "no".  And we got into an eye-staring contest with me not wanting to break eye contact first but again I didn't want to be too "aggressive" toward her so soon in our relationship.  For quite a while the rest of the afternoon she would bare her teeth at me, but after working with her - sitting on the floor sort of close to her, holding my hand out to her to sniff before approaching and everything - the teeth stopped being shown.

I continue to tell her she is a "good girl" and other positive comments like that - even when she chewed my two shoes yesterday which ended up ruining two pairs of shoes - that was my bad that Cruz was in the position to even have the opportunity do that.

Cruz doesn't eat hard treats which is good to finally know.  In the past starting with Lucy and moving to Butler and Milly - whenever one of my dogs goes outside to do their duty when they come in they get a Milk Bone treat (hard treat).  Butler almost rips the treats out of my hand - that's why I call him Jaws sometimes - but Cruz wouldn't take them from me or eat them when I'd lay the treat next to her.  She is used to soft treats but she does eventually eat the Milk Bone.

Tonight I had a great milestone with Cruz.  Sometimes I buy a package of cheese sticks and share them with Butler.  I break off a small piece, toss it to him and it's gone in a nanosecond.  I've tried to hand Cruz a small piece of cheese a few times, and while she wouldn't take it from my hand, she would eat it fairly quickly if I'd leave it on the floor next to her.  Tonight - she actually took a piece of cheese from my hand.  The cheese wasn't laying on the palm of my hand but I held it between fingers and she took it from me!  Wow.

Now I'm awake because Butler has been wiggly, I've had the bedroom lights on and off seeing if he needs water or food among other things.  One time after turning the lights off and I laid back down in bed on my side with my back away from Cruz (she sleeps on a pillow next to my side of the bed), I felt a nudge in my back.  I thought I imagined it so ignored it - and I got another small nudge - it was Cruz sitting up looking at me when I turned the light on again.  I wasn't sure if she needed to go outside but we went outside anyway.  One good thing - she hasn't had any accidents in the house since I brought her home.

Hopefully mommy here can get a few minutes of sleep now before the alarm goes off.....

Two Blogs in Two Days

It's amazing what can happen in a day around here.  The day started seeing another of Stick's blooms :)

I had called the company that installed my AC to look at the hot water heater and furnace gas leak issue - they were going to come out sometime today and I was ok with telling them the secret to get into the house with me not being here.  But something told me I should be here - so I took off work today - good thing I did.

I did some more cleaning in the basement today and brought up albums that my uncle had placed some of his unique postcards - he was a HUGE postcard collector.  So while I was waiting for the guy to come to work in the basement I took some time to really look at the postcards in his albums.  The two pictures below are of hand-painted postcards and they are beautiful!  I think I'm going to take several postcards out of the album and frame as groupings in several large frames.  I found a place that had "safe" postcard covers or holders that I can put the postcards in and attach the holder to the mat of the picture frames - instead of attaching the postcards directly to the mat and possibly ruining the postcards.



Yesterday Cruz was not open to going on a walk - she actually bared her teeth at me when I messed with her collar.  Today I tried again - while waiting for the guy to come to work in the basement and she was ok with me putting her collar on and we went for a walk around the block.  Evidently I pooped her out from the walk....

All three of us took a short nap this morning and when I woke up the dogs were still asleep looking adorable - so I tried to get a picture of them.  Of course they both woke up - the turds.  And yes, Butler is awake in both pix below even though he doesn't look like it.

So around noon the guy came to work in the basement and I had a question about my AC compressor on the back patio.  I've contacted MidAmerican Energy about their Super Summer Saver program and may have them attach their dealie to my compressor to turn the compressor on and off in 15 minute intervals on peak days.  I wanted the guy to tell me if the dealie could be hooked to the compressor area or if it would have to be hooked to my electric meter.  If it could go by the compressor - I wouldn't have to be here when it was installed.  If it had to go by my electric meter I would have to be here when it was installed since the meter is inside my locked garage.  Good news - it can be hooked by the compressor.

While the guy was looking at that, he realized my compressor was clogged/dirty big time so he took it apart to spray the coil clean.  He showed me how I could do this without taking the compressor cover off.  I had had the compressor cleaned out earlier this spring and was doing a pretty good job keep the area around the compressor clean/clear but didn't know I could actually spray it with my hose like the guy was doing.

I asked if I could run some errands while he worked in the basement - he said sure so he moved his truck out of the driveway so I could get out of the garage.  Off I go to run some errands.

I come back and the guy is gone - awesome.  I walk into my basement and the house is quiet - not good - that means my blower on my unit was not running.  I walked upstairs to the bedroom and it was 86 degrees and the really bad thing was I hadn't taken the dogs down to the main level while I was gone - so they were upstairs in the horrid heat.  I immediately called the company about this and they said they would send someone out to see what was up with my AC.  This is why I believe I was supposed to stay home.  When I found the AC not working it was around 3:00.  If I would have worked today I wouldn't have gotten home until 5:20 or so and who knows how hot the upstairs would have gotten.  At least the dogs would have been on the main level where they stay when I work.

While I was looking around the upstairs after running errands, I found Cruz had been up to some shenanigans while I had been gone.  I found two shoes and my animal print house slippers on my bedroom floor - my shoes and house slippers stay in my closet that doesn't have a door.  The heels of both shoes had been chewed so the shoes were ruined - I was bummed.  When I walked into the bathroom to check the shoes in my closet I had a surprise.  Cruz had chewed the heels on a shoe from one pair of shoes and a heel on a shoe from a different pair of shoes - so TWO pairs of shoes were ruined.  At least my animal house slippers were in pretty good shape, Cruz must have just carried them from the closet into my bedroom.  I was irritated to say the least but I had only myself to blame.  Something told me I should take the dogs downstairs and close the door to the upstairs while I was gone but I thought I didn't need to do that.  If I would have taken the dogs downstairs they wouldn't have gotten quite so hot with the AC off and two pairs of shoes wouldn't have been ruined.

Another guy from the company that worked in my basement showed up and found out that while the first guy had done a good job spraying my compressor, somehow a fuse in the compressor must have gotten too wet and it zorched out - no AC.  Fuse replaced, AC kicked on and the upstairs has finally cooled down.

I shared with my sister-in-law and niece Saturday about some of the guys on OurTime.com and we kind of chuckled.  Well today a guy that is three years younger than me "liked my picture" or whatever they call it on that web site.  I read his profile and it was pretty stinking scary how close he was to my religious beliefs.  Pentecostal, listens to 107.1, no smoking or drinking, likes to do church activities along with other things and he's 6'5".  For the first time ever - I sent an email to a guy on one of these online sites - we'll see what happens.........................

MidAmerican Energy ~ Fireworks and Cruz

Well I decided to not go to the fireworks on the 4th - I just didn't look forward to being by myself around couples and families. Maybe I can go by myself next year.  I went to bed and while I could hear the WDM fireworks go off I decided that I had bought some sparklers and I was going to get out of bed and light them off on my front steps.  So I had fun lighting sparklers and writing in the air - remember doing that as a kid.  Then when my last sparkler went out a couple of blocks down the street someone lit official-size fireworks!  I walked down to my driveway and enjoyed 4-5 HUGE, completely-fill-the-sky fireworks, so I did get to see a few.

Friday night I had my home visit with a rep from Cruz' rescue group.  It went really well and the rep said she would contact the rest of their group to say they should proceed to the next step with me - have Cruz and Butler meet.

The evening of the 4th I decided to run to Michael's to see if they had something that would work for my greyhound tree and viola - check it out below.

I had bought my white hibiscus plant several weeks ago at Home Depot - only because it was a white hibiscus (which you rarely see) and the only way I knew that was because it had a bloom on it - none of the hibiscus had tags to tell you what color they would bloom.  Of course after bringing White home, it didn't bloom until late last week!  Check out the one and only white bloom so far.

 
When I was in college my uncle - the sign painter aka bandana dude - moved from Bloomfield to Pella to live in Pella Manor where my dad was the administrator.  At Uncle's sale before his move I saw the sign pictured below and wanted it.  When Mike and I moved into the house in '85 up came the sign from my folks storage area and into a small room in the basement of the house.  I got it out Friday or Saturday and put it on my enclosed back porch.  A friend is going to stop by this next week, and see if he can come up with a small stand for it to rest on to sit higher up on the wall behind the lounger that I have in front of it.  And sign is supposed to be spelled that way - Uncle loved to spell sign several unique ways.

I've been waiting for Stick to bloom and here is the first one - it opened Friday or Saturday and was beautiful!  There are a bunch of buds ready to open..........

WARNING, WARNING - the next picture is a little gruesome.  I got the new frame to my solar fountain and had it together in 30 seconds - seriously.  But because it was evening, the fountain wouldn't run - the sun must be shining on the solar panel for it to work.  Saturday morning I looked out my kitchen window and saw water running!  I was overjoyed, ran outside to take this picture - and found the dead baby bird in the big bowl.  I'm like, "really, really, really?!"  This would only happen to me.

So to continue my morning I went to the basement, opened the door from the hallway into the basement and was over powered with a terrible smell.  My first thought was gas so I called MidAmerican Energy.  They sent a tech out - I had to get out of my house and wait for him outside.  The guy was really nice and when he walked into the house he said it wasn't natural gas but something chemical.  He asked if I'd used paint thinner or something like that recently - nope.  He went ahead with his meter reader dealie - all throughout the house except my bedroom upstairs and found a slight leak at my furnance.  I have a 1/10 of 1% of a gas leak and it takes 5 - 10% before the gas will combust.  So, I figured God made me have a smell to get MidAmerican out to find this itty, bitty leak so I could have it fixed before it became a problem.

I head out to run my errands and talked to Cruz' foster mom while parked in WalMart's parking lot.  We decided I would head out to her business in Clive around 4:00 to pick up Cruz to bring back on my own to see if Cruz and Butler would get along.  I mentioned that my sister-in-law and niece would be at my house at 2:00 and would it be ok to bring them with me to pick up Cruz or would that be too many people.  Foster mom's first question, "how old is your niece."  I kind of snickered before saying "42."  To which there was a slight pause on foster mom's end and then we laughed.  While at WalMart I thought I deserved some pretty flowers to celebrate Cruz' possible home coming so check out the pic below.

I get home from running errands, grabbed my push mower to mow down the weeds in the yard and ran into the house to take a shower before Marcia and Chrissy got here.  The chemical smell had disappeared in the basement - and while I unloaded the car I didn't smell anything when in the basement.  Well, I walked into the basement after mowing and had THE worst rotten egg smell in the basement - lovely.  I figured it was sewer gas and the trap in the drain in the basement floor had gotten dry - so I ran some water down it.  I wasn't going to call MidAmerican Energy again - but something prompted me to - but I had to shower!!!  I called MidAmerican and asked the dispatcher if sewer gas smelled like rotten eggs - she sort of answered me.  I finally got her to say that natural gas can smell like rotten eggs too and she had to dispatch a tech because of my call.  I'm sweating like a stuck hog, needing to shower, and I'm being told to evacuate my house again.  I told her it would take me 10 minutes before I could do that and jumped in the shower really quick :)

A different tech showed up and immediately when he walked into the basement he said I had a sewer gas issue - like I thought.  He told me to put some bleach down the trap too.  I'm not sure why he wanted to check my hot water heater out but he did - and found out it wasn't filtering/funneling fumes properly - it was probably plugged somewhere.  The hood dealie above the tank was stone cold and he said it should be so hot, he couldn't even touch it like he was doing.  He said it was a carbon monoxide issue and had to turn it off.  I looked at him and said I had woken up the past two mornings in the middle of the night with a headache and wondered if that was why - maybe.  So God works in mysterious ways giving me a chemical smell to get a tech out to find one problem (the furnance) and after that tech didn't find the water heater issue - God made another awful smell happen in my basement so a second tech would find the possible carbon monoxide issue.  Bad part is I'm out of hot water and it's Sunday night.  Should be a fun shower in the morning before work.

Marcia and Chrissy showed up and we had a fun time together and it was time for me to head out to get Cruz.  She was really happy to go for a car ride and the next two pix are of her in the car before I even left the parking lot of where she was staying.

Chrissy took the pic below of me and my two kids.  Cruz and Butler have gotten along perfectly.  They had a couple of nose-to-nose moments to check each other out and that was it.  They get along great.  I have Cruz' crate in the spot she is standing in the picture below.  The crate and couch jjjuuussstttt fit between my solarium door and my front door.

We had an uneventful night last night - except for Cruz running up and down the stairs from the living room to my bedroom.  I finally got the baby gate up in the bedroom so she'd stay upstairs all night.

I decided it was time to wash the stuffingless toys I had bought for Butler and Milly a few years ago - so here they are hanging out to dry before I went to church.  I checked the sky on the way to church and it was a little dark so I was really hoping that if it rained (which we need rain desperately) it would hold off until I could get the bodies back inside the house.

After church I went to Petco to buy some more things for Cruz, like her name tag, then went to my last line dance class.  There were only four of us today in class - it's normally 8-10 - so we had plenty of room to spread out to dance.

The pic below is Butler and Cruz in in the back yard enjoying the cooler weather.



Happy 4th of July!

Two posts in one week - no the earth has not fallen off its axis.

My solar fountain for the back yard has its own saga.  I was excited when it came and the instructions plus the online video showed putting the frame together was a "snap" - ya right.  The frame pieces slipped into place until the last connection and the pieces didn't line up perfectly.  I just couldn't squeeze the two pieces together tight enough to have the last joint slip into place - so I  put a post out on FB to see if any of the guys from church would be willing to help me last Sunday - looking for a strong, he-man that could muscle the last connection together.  My small group leader stopped by the car after church (I had put the frame in the trunk to see if someone would help me) and he tried like crazy to get the frame to fit - no way Jose.  It didn't matter where in the frame the last connection was going to be - it wouldn't fit.  Rob finally got it together good enough that the "bad" connection was at the bottom of the frame and I taped it with black electrical tape when I got home.  I called the place Monday and they sent a new frame out same day.

I forgot to mention that line dancing was interesting last Sunday.  I'm really pretty good at catching on when it comes to line dancing but one dance the instructor tried to teach us at the end of the hour - no one really got, but the instructor kept saying, "but it's a pretty little dance."  That may be but it ain't pretty if I ain't doing it right dude :)  He kept saying that statement over and over and over as we all tried to learn the dance - like that would some how help.

Butler's boo boo is looking pretty good - it's getting crusty so I don't think I need to worry quite so much about flies laying eggs in it and producing maggots now like I had to the first couple of days :)  And....his poo is finally starting to get somewhat solid.  That alone makes me do the dance of joy.

I emailed the rescue group about Cruise (proper spelling) to see how my adoption application was proceeding.  Good news is the rescue group had a lot of applications for their dogs and cats from last Saturday's meet and greet - bad news is the rescue group is all volunteers and they have to make all the calls for background checks, etc., during their lunch hours.  So I don't know if they will get my background check done this week or not.

If God wants Cruise to come live with Butler and me - I will change the spelling of her name to Cruz - like she's going to know the difference.  But spelling her name this way has special meaning for me - the first time Mike and I traded our timeshare to an island in the Caribbean it was to St. Thomas.  We took a day trip to St. John's and the ferry landed in Cruz Bay hence the spelling change.  Now...Dad's not aware of this, but I had planned on naming my next animal Rowdy whether it would have been a dog or cat, male or female, in honor of the horse he sold to pay to go to Bible school.  But because of the connection I can make with Cruise to Cruz for Cruz Bay - she'll keep her name.

I wasn't sure about going to WDM's 3rd of July parade last night but decided to walk to the end of the block and then go one block west to see it.  Seems some years the parade comes down Vine which is the south street of my block and turns on my street south and some years it turns south on 5th Street.  I ran into my neighbor's (Blondie and her husband - some of my family will know who I mean) at the parade.  They had Bath Fitters do some work in one of their bathrooms - the salesman was showing me all the different addresses where they had done work statewide and he wanted to show me work done in my zip code and low and behold I knew someone.  I told the salesman I would definitely be asking Jill (her real name) and Jeff what they thought of Bath Fitter's work.  They told me they were very pleased with the whole experience and their final product.

As I was talking to them an orange tractor came down the street and I wondered if it was an Allis Chalmers - the brand of tractor Dad used on the farm growing up.  I took the picture below on the fly but it turned out pretty good - no idea why the picture is kind of split in my blog - doesn't look that way on my phone.

A shot of the parade as it has turned south on 5th Street.

A shot of the parade coming down Vine making the turn on 5th Street.

And lookie here - another, older Allis Chalmers later in the parade :)

We've been in a heat advisory since 9:00 am yesterday morning and it continues until 9:00 am Saturday morning - wowie.  I did more decluttering in the office and kitchen today - ran a few errands and am back inside thankful for my AC.  I don't know if I'll go to the fireworks or not tonight.

I had a "moment" yesterday when I saw Mike's WDM Public Works truck (it's really a cargo van but he called it his truck) drive past me on the street and some stranger was driving it.  I haven't seen Mike's truck in over two years so that was a little offsetting but not too bad.

I posted on Facebook some fond 4th of July memories.  One being in '88 when R25 (aka me) was able to be in uniform for the first time as a WDM Police Reserve helping direct traffic for the parade.  A funny memory was the year I was in the parade and Mike took Butler to the end of the block to watch for me (we didn't have Milly yet).  Butler had a simple choke collar and when Mike got home he let it go slack - to which Butler backed his head out of the collar and took off running south.  Mike couldn't catch Butler even when Butler stopped to pee.  Mike ended up at the end of the block asking people if they saw him - evidently he was quite the hit with the crowd with people petting him when Mike and he were watching the parade.  One guy points to the curb and there sat Butler next to a little girl watching the parade.  There were many 3rd and 4th of July's that Mike and I didn't see each other with both of us helping with the different events in WDM and U'dale as reserve police officers.  And I have a lot of fond memories of 4th of Julys spent at my cousins with us pooling our money to buy fireworks to let them off when our parents were gone for an evening.  I never lit any of the fireworks but one thing did chase me across their yard in Elkhorn, NE one year.  And the BEST memory was the year we were at my grandparents (Dad's parents) in Bloomfield and for some reason at 9:00 pm on the 4th Dad decided he wanted to go over the border into Missouri and buy some illegal fireworks.  We got back to Grandma and Grandpa's around 10:30-11:00 with Dad lighting things left and right.  It was almost midnight and Grandpa was concerned about the noise - Dad assured his dad that the next thing he would light would be quiet.  Well - that next thing was the LOUDEST thing I had ever heard.  I looked at Dad, who looked at Grandpa and Grandpa gave Dad (his son) one of "those looks" like if I could beat you within an inch of your life I would.  Needless-to-say the fireworks lighting was done for the night :)

Shower Saga ~ Another Boo Boo Drama ~ & More

The decluttering continues - I'm not sure it will ever end.  My list keeps getting longer instead of shorter.  I got the household hazardous waste dropped off yesterday morning.  I'm always early to things, so I got to Valley High and no waste drop off setup.  I'm like what in the world, I know it's today.  Then I said to myself, "McFall don't assume and always read information all the way through".  I'm thinking to myself the drop off could be at Valley Stadium not Valley High School (where it's been the past few years) - thank goodness for my smart phone to look up WDM Public Works to see the announcement that the drop off was in fact at Valley Stadium, so off I head down the street to the stadium - and I was still there before 8:00 a.m. :)

I got half way through the office yesterday and decided I'm on a mission to find those little, white trees that ladies decorate Halloween trees, Easter egg trees, etc., that can sit on a table - I'm going to have a greyhound tree and here are the greyhound ornaments.  I heard from a friend that Hobby Lobby already has those trees in stock......  And yes, those are little greyhound angels and devils that will go on my greyhound tree.

I can't remember if I shared this picture last time or not but I know I posted it on FB.  I come home one day and find Butler buried under the couch cushions, I hear him barking and all I can see are cushions going up and down with his barking.  I was laughing so hard that by the time I got my phone camera ready to take his picture he had unburied himself and here he is.......

Butler's back legs haven't worked very well for over a year, so he has a tendency to fall down a lot.  Here he is sitting on the back patio just waiting for me to pick him up.  And yes - if you look closely that is a little mound of poop by his behind and tail..........

Butler's butt boo boo has healed just fine but he has another boo boo I found Thursday night - on his right shoulder.  When he falls down, he then flops over on to one of his sides and he must have cut himself when he flopped on his right side.  The next two pictures are GRAPHIC of his open sore.  The first one isn't that bad because he has a flap of skin that I'm holding up to take the picture of his boo boo to email to my vet.

By the time I took the picture above yesterday and the time I took the picture below yesterday was maybe three hours.  As I'm talking to my vet on the phone yesterday - while Butler has fallen in the back yard - we're talking about how to deal with his loose poop and new boo boo issue - when I realize the flap is GONE from the boo boo.  After talking to the vet and saying I'll hurry up to their office (it's four blocks away) to get more poop hardening medicine - I find the flap of skin laying on the cement next to Butler.  So I picked it up and took it to show the vet......  I'm cleaning his wound with hydrogen peroxide and putting triple anti-biotic ointment on it.  And as I was told leaving the vet's office yesterday - make sure no flies lay eggs in the wound.  It only takes seconds for them to do this and then I'd have maggots crawling on Butler.  So while the wound is open, and I take him outside, I stand by him and watch him like a hawk to be sure no flies go near the wound.....

Below is a pic of my butterfly bush from a couple of days ago - it amazes me how HUGE it is.  But since I didn't cut it back last fall or this spring......

A pic today of one of Yellow's blooms.  And Stick looks like he can start blooming anytime.  I can't wait to see how large those hibiscus blooms are!

 
I finally decided it was time to do something with my shower - it's had a 17" vertical crack in the back panel for 20+ years.  I get one goober to show up a week ago Friday that has worked on showers for over 30 years.  He jabs at the crack to show me that there is space between the shower and the wall - and keeps jabbing and jabbing and jabbing at the crack.  I was almost ready to start jabbing at him if he made the crack any bigger.  This week I had Bath Fitters come out to see what they could do and long story short - I'm getting a new shower in 4-8 weeks.  They will tear the old shower out, take it away, do any necessary prep and/or repair work to the shower frame, update my pipes to copper, install a pressure valve so when someone flushes the toidey I won't get scalded in the shower, and more stuff. 

There have been different times I wished I had a small fountain in the back yard and one day at Earl Mays I asked if they had solar fountains - nope.  So I go online to do some research and found Serenity Health (or something like that) and they have 2-3-4 different solar fountain styles to pick from but TONS of colors.  I ordered the Red Lava one and it finally came last week.  I tried to put the frame together but just didn't have quite enough hand strength to squeeze the cast iron frame together for the last connection to firmly slip into place.  I put the frame in my trunk and after church my small group leader helped me get it together.  I'll see tomorrow how well the solar part works after it has some energy stored up.  My goal is to remove the round rock area you see behind it and put the fountain there.

I've been having some issues with Butler this past week where I was getting extremely mad at him with having to deal with his bad legs, loose poop and everything - even though none of this is his fault.  I wondered if I should put him down but after a couple of days he seemed to get his old personality back and we'll take it one day at a time.

That said - I texted a friend to see if she wanted to meet at Orange Leaf yesterday afternoon after we both got things done at our homes - of course she said yes.  I had to make a few stops along the route to Orange Leaf with one stop being Petco at Jordan Creek to see if they had some type of "band aid" that would stick to Butler's boo boo better than the band aids I had.  While I was there, a rescue group had cats and dogs available for adoption.  I have never been open to even looking at a dog while I still have Butler because I wasn't sure what would happen to him if I brought another dog into the house.  Would he turn mean or would he die from a broken heart - meaning die sooner than he would without the other dog. 

Well I saw Cruise/Cruz (not sure how they spell her name) and fell in love.  I kept saying out loud to walk away, I shouldn't be doing this but something kept me coming back to her.  She is over a year old and a shepherd mix.  She is very shy but loveable.  I couldn't believe I completed paperwork for her to start the adoption process.  The rescue group will check me out with my vet and then schedule a home visit to see what my home and yard is like.  The gal working with Cruz is fostering her and while Cruz was out of her crate she would let me pet her but that was about it - it takes a while for her to realize not all humans will hurt her.  As I was talking to her foster mom, Cruz came up to me and sniffed me.  The mom just looked at me and said that Cruz has never done that to a human outside of the rescue group.

I don't know if Cruz is the dog for me - I've put all this in God's hands but I know if it wouldn't have been for me knowing my friend was doing some cleaning and our love for Orange Leaf and Butler having a new boo boo, I would never have seen Cruz.  While I want Butler to live forever I know he won't and maybe Cruz being in the house will help me truly know when the time comes to let Butler go and help me get through it.  Again - right now God is the only one that knows how this will turn out.

I can't believe Wed is the 4th of July!!!  One of my three most disliked holidays now that Mike is gone (Memorial Day and Labor Day being the other holidays).  The evening of July 3rd WDM has it's 4th of July parade so I've asked a couple of gal pals from church if they wouldn't want to come to my house and walk to the end of my block to watch the parade.  Not sure what I'm going to do Wednesday but I'm checking out what all is going on in the metro area.  I know I want to do something fun during the day to be outside the house for a while.