Don't know about you but I've become an Olympics junkie just like when I was a kid - watching it every night. But again - this is the first Olympics that Mike isn't here and since it's just me and the dogs now that's probably why I'm watching so much of it. My favorite track and field event's final was last night - the men's 4 x 100 relay. Unfortunately USA got second but I don't think anyone could beat Usain Bolt and the Jamaican team. And the ladies 4 x 100 relay not only got gold but a new world record - way to go ladies!
Cruz has a hedgehog toy that I call Hedgie. Hedgie started out on the main floor of the house in Cruz' crate but somehow, some way Hedgie has moved upstairs to my bedroom. When I saw how lovingly Hedgie was looking at Cruz one night - I couldn't ignore a Kodak moment. Hedgie is in front of the green basket in the upper left corner of the pic - look how she is looking at Cruz and you can almost read Hedgie's thoughts wanting Cruz to play with her. Then check out Cruz.......
Haven't posted a pic of Butler in a bit so here he is sleeping on the bed.
Got a fun thing in the mail Thursday - my Iowa concealed to carry permit! I have up to one year to submit paperwork - which includes a copy of my Iowa permit - to apply for the Utah carry permit.
My handy guy Jon has been spending time at my place this past week. I want him to tear out and haul away the lower planter that is in the front of the house - it's a place that snakes like to live in - and there hasn't been anything planted it the planter since we bought the house in '85. So let's get it out of here. Jon will also be back filling the gaps/holes between the decorate stone of my retaining wall by the driveway - another place snakes like to hide.
Along with that is some work in the back yard. I think Jon said I am going to have 7 ton of river rock delivered early this coming week to do everything. The bad grass and weeds along the south side of the house have been tilled up, felt will go down and then river rock. During this hot/dry season the ONLY thing I have been mowing or weed eating has been the weeds that have grown in that area. Jon will also be sealing any possible snake holes along the sidewalk on that side of the house.
Then when the snake guy came out this past spring - he advised I put rock about 6" out from my patio to discourage snakes from staying in that area - so Jon dug that up, will be sealing any holes, and putting felt and rock down there - see picture below.
Then along the north side of my privacy fence where some trees and my drawf lilac bushes are - that has been crappy grass forever - basically dirt and weeds since it's so shaded. That is getting dug up, felted and rocked too.
While at the Iowa State Fair Thursday morning I saw some small hibiscus plants/bushes at the Earl May display next to the Triangle. I ended up having to go to the Waukee Earl May to get the colors I wanted (a light pink and a darker pink) which I planted between my lilac bushes. I think they look pretty good - check out the two pictures below. This is the first thing I have planted in the ground all by myself since Mike died. Mike usually did the planting and any planting done since then - Dad has helped me.
Below is how the yard looked when Jon left Friday afternoon. The big circle in the middle of the picture is what Mike and I called our missile silo - I think it's actually an old well that is capped. When we bought the house, the lady that owned it before us had a cactus garden growing over the cement cap. We didn't like that so Mike built it up with two layers of decorative brick and dirt - and we'd plant different things in there over the years. Well - this has become another major snake hamlet - so it is gone. Jon is going to ring around the cement cap with yard edging stuff, put a small layer of river rock on top of the cement cap and my solar fountain is going there.
It's Iowa State Fair time and I was able to go Thursday morning - getting in "free" with my coupon from the DSM Register. It actually cost me $1.00 to get in because of buying the paper - but that wasn't bad. At 7:30 a.m. - I thought it was mid-morning on a weekend day with all the people there! I walked through the horse barn, rode my favorite ride (the shuttle through the campground) and walked all over. I did something Mike and I never did - I actually got off the campground shuttle to walk through the little grocery store in the campground to see what all they had. Of course I got my annual airbrush tat on the Midway - check it out below. The "barbed wire" and dolphins were one stencil, I had the guy add Mike's and my initials and then he found a small heart from another stencil to put between our initials.
Yesterday my niece and I had our 3rd Annual McFall day at the fair walking all over. We had a good time checking things out. Chrissy made a new friend with Cy the Cyclone at the 4H building :) Check out the crowd shot below. As I walked out of the gates, I had my two adult admission tickets in hand to find a family to give the tickets to - in honor of Mike. I found the perfect family. There was mom and dad with a couple little kids and one set of grandparents - two of the adults got in free thanks to Mike.
I have no idea why the next picture is over to the side on my blog page - at least it looks that way in the editor mode. The Iowa shaped pin is made from some of the original roof of our capital building. The artist adds a little heart to the pin - placing the heart in various locations on the state - I picked this one since the heart looked like it could cover WDM and Pella. The pin below Iowa is this year's State Fair pin of the Cultural Building - had to get that because Mike and I and now Chrissy and I really enjoy looking at the displays there.
So I rush home from the fair with Chrissy to have a little "down" time before heading back to the east side of town for my church's free school supply giveaway. Now - I had bought a bicycle lock for Cruz' crate to weave the chain part of the lock through the top and side of her crate. Guess who met me in the kitchen when I came up from the basement? I couldn't believe Cruz had gotten out of her crate! And she had slipped her collar off too. The next two pictures show the crate damage - and note the hole to the right front corner of her purple pillow - which is supposed to be indestructible. The pillow is pretty much still in the crate so you can see how far back Cruz had pulled the front panel of the crate. The second picture is a view from above, I bet she pulled that panel back almost 1/3 of the length of the crate.
Tuesday I have my first of three in-home sessions with Cruz and a trainer from Bark Busters. The first session will be between 2-3 hours. I have started my wish list of things I would like Cruz to not do, and what I would like to be able to do with her. Cross your fingers for me.
So after sitting maybe 30 minutes I was back in the car to head to the school supply giveaway. I have no idea why my pix won't upload from my camera but I took a ton of pictures of the event and uploaded them to Living Water's Facebook wall: https://www.facebook.com/#!/lwfdesmoines. If this link works properly you can go to photos and then the Helping Hands School Supply Giveaway album to check out how successful it was. We had hoped to give supplies to 1000 kids (a package of pencils, a packet of loose notebook paper, a two-pocket pocket folder, a spiral notebook, either crayons or colored pencils {depending on age/grade} and a box of Kleenex). We ended up with 750 sets of supplies being given out. We also had hot dogs, chips and Gatorade along with several games, a clown making balloon animals and hats, and music.
My dryer finally quit drying this week - Mom and Dad gave Mike and me our washer and dryer in '85 when we moved into the house. The washer was replaced maybe 10 years ago - but the dryer worked pretty good all these years. So while I didn't want to purchase a dryer on a Sunday - I ended up at Sears at Merle Hay Mall after church. I had to tell the salesman to "ratchet ts down" so he could let me tell him what I was looking for instead of him telling me what he thought I was looking for...... So Tuesday my dryer will be delivered (for $70) and my old dryer taken away (for $10) - wow. Again another first without Mike - buying an appliance. While at Sears I walked past the shoes and guess what!!!!! I found not one, not two but three pairs of shoes that weren't bad pricewise - and two pairs look pretty close to the two pairs that Cruz destroyed.
As for my web site to sell my uncle's antique post cards, MAD magazines and postage stamps - I think I have it pretty well done to get the MAD magazines out there. Check it out: http://roniscollectibles.weebly.com/. This is a FREE web site that was super simple to create. If you've ever wanted to make your own web site, I would highly recommend Weebly.
