Nature and Hazardous Waste

I had a very busy weekend - I told my sis-in-law and niece when I saw them Friday in my sis-in-law's hospital room that I had quite the list of things to do - and I can happily say I got them all done.  Or they will all be done when I finish this blog :)

 

So my sis-in-law had her second knee (her other knee, it's not like she has three or four of them) operated on a week ago Friday and yesterday she was released to go home!  I visited her Thursday evening and I have no idea what possessed me to do this but I did it.  When I left I asked her if the nurses and staff really look at her name on her informational white board.  I changed her name to...Enrique.  She was laughing so hard when I left her room - ok I was too.  So Friday night I saw her name was back to Marcia and I looked at her.  She said, "oh yes" people noticed.  One nurse she hadn't had before came in and was kind of tentative until she went out of the room.  She asked at the nurses station if Enrique was really her patient's name because she had never heard of a woman called Enrique before.  I just laughed and laughed when she told me that.

 

Marcia mentioned a couple of weeks ago after her first knee surgery how Chrissy had put some Ben Gay on Marcia before leaving.  A nurse came in and said the scent of Ben Gay brought back memories.  Marcia asked if the nurse was a widow - yep.  Dad mentioned how he's doing pretty good but there are times when things pop up he wasn't ready for that remind him of Mom - like when he had to use her umbrella one time when it was raining.  My reminder was a week ago at the Dahl's checkout line when the guy in front of me bought two Cherry Mash candies - Mike loved those.  I thought they were disgusting.  I can't believe July will be two years for Mom to be gone - wow.

 

One thing that I smile each time I see them that definitely remind me of Mike are the day lilies he planted in the planter around the tree on my parking.  They are starting to bloom - check out the two pix below.

 

One day I came back upstairs after being on the main level for a short period of time - I had heard something upstairs - and the papason chair that Rowdy and Sadie are not supposed to lay in was tipped over.  You can see it in the background of the picture below.  So I thought again about getting a cat tree for them to play on.

Well, I realized that neither one of their poop has ever gotten solid so I thought I better call the vet.  Saturday morning I dropped off my first hazardous waste - kitty poo - to the vet to have it checked.  Thankfully nothing was found - no parasites or anything - so back to the vet I went to buy a bag of bland cat food to try to get their tummies under control.  While at the vet I asked the name of the company that a couple of the techs had mentioned to look at their cat trees - more on that later.

The second hazardous waste I dropped off was a box of stuff - I don't even know for sure what all was in it - but it had to go.  Yesterday morning was a hazardous waste drop off by WDM Public Works, so Friday night I drug the box out from under some shelves to get it ready to go.  I had just happened to find the box one day by luck and when I tried to lift the box Friday night, the bottom started to give on me - it was damp.  So I go for the duct tape to tape the bottom together like crazy because I do NOT want to touch this stuff to put into a different box.  Well I found out the roll of duct tape I had was "dumb" - it would not tear right any of the times I tried to tear it.  So I cobbled the bottom of the box together the best I could to leave it by my basement door.  I put a hunk of cardboard in my trunk Saturday morning to set the box on, and prayed that God would just let me get it to my trunk - mere feet - and then it would be WDM Public Works problem - success.

So after doing some other things I headed to the Art Festival that was at the Fairgrounds in the Varied Industries building and then to the pet place to look at cat trees - it was on the east side of town.  I was amazed at the different configurations of cat trees and the prices of them.  I may need to take out a second mortgage to get one for the kidlets.  Ok, the prices aren't that bad but they aren't cheap.  I can even configure a tree the way I want it - height, base size, saddle seat, full bed, open bed, etc.  I'll think about this for a while.

Two things I bought at the pet place were a cat Wubba!!!  I couldn't believe it so I had to get it.  And a laser light pointer dealie.  I had thought about how much fun one of those would be with the kittens but didn't think to look for one at WalMart.  Bought one at the pet store and have laughed loud and hard at those two chasing the red light on the floor.  I don't know which is funnier - watching them go bananas chasing it, or watching them go nuts when I turn the light off :)

One thing I had to get done this weekend was cut the suckers off three of the trees in my backyard.  Those are the little branches that grow from the trunk of trees that aren't good for them.  Well I had let them get out of hand and decided this weekend they were coming down.  I couldn't get a couple of them on one tree because they were so high, but I did my best standing on tip toes with a long handled pair of branch trimmers.

I had mowed the yards yesterday and saw the one snake again that had startled me last week.  This time he poked his little head out when I went by with the mower.  I reached down to the can of wasp spray that sits on the mower and sprayed the poo out of his little head and then back into the place he slithered.  I was all ready to spray expanding foam into the hole, once I found it this afternoon, but something was up with my can of foam that it didn't work...

Check out the two pictures below - they were taken when I watched a DVD this afternoon.  Rowdy's eyes look a little possessed in the first one.  In the second one Sadie was a little goofy laying on her back exposing her tummy.  And then there's Rowdy in my laundry basket - goober.

I hope everyone has a very fun and safe 4th of July - and remember to be thankful that you live in a great country that we have the freedoms that we do!

Summer Splash and More

This was an early week for me to be able to get off work in time to help with Summer Splash - I went in early to leave early.  It was a wild four days of work, stopping at McDonald's to get something to eat and then to the school to get registration setup.  Our first night was our highest attendance with 85 kids.  On Thursday night after a shortened version of our nightly schedule, we had a family fun night for parents and all siblings.  Check out the pictures below.

 

 

Final night of Summer Splash singing before family fun night begins.

We didn't know if the DSM FD would be able to bring their big truck to "splash" the kids or not Thursday night.  There was a mechanical problem with the permanent hose.  They had to get permission from the Fire Chief to hook up to the hydrant at the school - this would entail them using a regular hose and having to pack it up before they could leave.  Two hours before Summer Splash started we found out they could be there!

Check out that stream of water!

With this hose they could move the ladder left and right so the kids were running like crazy to keep up with the water :)

The spray from the water got a little close to us bystanders at times :)

Getting the hot dogs, chips and cookies ready for everyone to eat.

Friday night my department from work was going to a doubleheader at the Iowa Cubs - the second game was a make up from a rainout earlier in the season.  I was really excited to go because on Friday night home games they have fireworks after the game.  It was really hot so the first ones of us that got there sat higher in our section in the shade.  Long story short people started moving around and I ended up kind of by myself - actually next to someone's fiancé that ended up having as much fun as I was having.  I wasn't too happy about that and was wishing Mike could have been there with me.  So when the fourth inning ended I got up and came home.  I made it almost home before I started crying in the car - that was a definite low moment but it's how things are.

My sis-in-law had her other knee surgery Friday.  It was supposed to be in the morning and sometime after noon they took her in to the operating room.  She's doing really good and hopefully tomorrow will be moved to the transitional floor at Iowa Lutheran.

There are 11 guys from church that left early Saturday morning for LWF's 4th Annual Wilderness Trip.  They go so far up into Minnesota to the back water that they don't even have cell phone reception.  One of the guys that went is the guy that is taking me to the Kansas City NASCAR race in October.  He texted me a picture of our race tickets Friday night saying he better buy them and print them before heading on the trip the next day :)

Rowdy found my rain poncho I had put in my work bag one night after I was asleep and brought it up on the bed to play with - goober.  I ended up taking it away from him and hugging it under the covers the rest of the night.  And if he didn't do it again the next night.....

This afternoon I attempted and was successful in kitty nail trimming for the third time.  Sadie did pretty good until I got to her back paws.  Rowdy did pretty good.  He got squirrely a couple of times but I got them all trimmed - man they grow fast!

Check out my two kidlets snuggling with Mom.  The first one was Friday night after I had come home from the disappointing ball game.  The second one is from this afternoon.

Road Trip and More!

I got nothing for the picture below - they're just goobers.

 



Some may remember Stick from the past two summers.  Dad brought up a hearty hibiscus for us to plant the summer after Mike died. It literally was a little stick about an inch in height and I'm like, "that's a hibiscus?!"  Well Stick proved me wrong that summer and ever since.  The first summer there was one stalk to have the large, dish-size burgundy hibiscus blooms.  Last year I think there were 4-5 stalks to have blooms.  This year there are at least 8-9 different stalks - you go Stick!

 



 

Two out of the three big events my church has on it's schedule for this month happened this past weekend.  The basketball clinic was a good success and the two day, no price tags, just give us what you think it's worth garage sale with the proceeds going to our first mission trip to Lima, Peru was amazing.  They raised over $1,800 in two days - with NO price tags!  Yowza.  The other big event is our Vacation Bible School - we call it Summer Splash.  It runs next Monday through Thursday.  I think the weather will cooperate so we can hold everything outside - but we do have room assignments in the school if there is rain.

 

My sis-in-law's knee surgery went well last Friday.  I have been able to visit her Fri night, late yesterday afternoon and then today after church.  If she gets rid of her low grade fever - they will move her to the Newton hospital until next Friday when she gets the other knee replaced.  Another yowza.

 

I have wanted to brush up on my high school and college Spanish for some time and one of the guys I work with wanted to do the same.  So I think our instant messages to each other through our company instant message program will be in Spanish from now on :)  I did post something to the effect on my FB wall:  "I am going to take los dos gatitoes on a road trip Sabido to see me padre in Pella.  Me amigos and amigas think I'm loco".  That caused a stir - why am I posting in Spanish, where is the translate button :)  Basically I was going to take the cats on a road trip Saturday to see my Dad in Pella.  My friends think I'm crazy - and I probably was.  This was going to be a surprise for Dad - but more on that later.

 

I decided I better attempt to trim their nails for the second time before the road trip and Sadie's were trimmed without too much problem, but while trimming Rowdy's I accidently passed gas (ok I farted) and it scared the crap out of Rowdy - not a pretty sight.  And of course I keep a death grip on him because my mindset is that I'm trimming nails and I want to "get 'er done" once I started the project.  Note to self - don't fart when trimming los dos gatitoes nails.

 

Other random things about the cats.  I decided to buy a larger container of kitty litter this week since I seem to go through it so fast.  I could not believe how much heavier a 40 pound box of cat litter felt than a 50 pound bag of dog food - seriously.  I about killed myself just getting it over the side of the WalMart cart and letting it drop with a loud clang into the cart.

 

I have a couple "back up" mice when the ones the cats are playing with need to be "buried" and Rowdy found them on my bookshelf - the goober.  I came home Wednesday night after small group and there the mouse was on the floor - package and all.  Back to the bookshelf.  Then Thursday morning right as I was going to start my prayers during my morning devotion - there he jumped on the bookshelf, grabbed the mouse (package and all again), jumped down and started walking around with it.  Took that away from him.  Then I had a pair of my ear muffs that broke last winter I was keeping thinking I could "fix" them.  There's no way anyone can really fix a pair of old-style ear muffs when the plastic head adjustor dealie breaks - so there goes Rowdy with one ear muff in his mouth.  I chase after him to make sure it didn't have any sharp parts and let him keep it then.

 

My morning routine is to get up - contorting myself out of bed to not disturb the cats (there's something wrong with that....).  Go to the bathroom and while I'm sitting on the stool, Rowdy plays with the tie on my pajama bottom.  Well one morning I wasn't overly awake and didn't have myself sturdily sitting on the stool when Rowdy gave a jerk on the tie and about knocked me off the stool - goodness.  Then I clean their pooper pan and walk bent over sweeping up the kitty litter pellets that are all over the floor.  Then I feed them and feed myself...

 

I did find something nifty at WalMart this week - sprayable cat nip - awesome.  I've been spraying it all over the scratching post hoping it will get them to use that instead of one of my chairs to sharpen what is left of their claws.

 

Ok, back to my road trip yesterday.  I had bought a little pan and a small bag of kitty litter to take with me to make a temporary pan for them so they didn't have an accident on Dad's floor.  I also borrowed the infamous pet carrier from my vet that I got to borrow when I took them to the vet for their second of two feline leukemia shots.  I load the car, pick up the pet carrier on the way to the basketball clinics yesterday morning.  Wipe the vet's pet carrier with disinfectant wipes when I got to the school - I got there early - then inside to help with registration for the clinics.  Then back home to start the "thrill" of loading cats into pet carriers for the road trip.

 

I grabbed both cats and tried to stuff one into one of the carriers.  Nope - cat starts to squirm away - try to stuff other cat into carrier - nope - that cat starts to squirm away.  As I'm trying to stuff one into a carrier - I'm reaching out to grab the one trying to get away.  This goes on, back and forth between cats for a few minutes - then Rowdy breaks free and heads for upstairs.  I take Sadie in one hand, turn the carrier on it's end and plunk her in the carrier and close the door - much easier.  Off upstairs I go to track Rowdy down.  Not under my bed - crud he's in my closet.  I crawl back into the very back corner of my closet to grab him by his tummy fat, to drag him out of my closet.  Downstairs to the pet carrier - turn it on it's end and plunk him in, shut the door and off to the car we go.

 

Rowdy immediately starts "talking" to me in the driveway. I'm thinking this is going to be a very long trip to Pella.  Rowdy pretty much talks to me the whole way - in various tones and volumes.  Now-and-then Sadie would pipe up with a little "meow" so I knew she was still in the back seat.  Like where would she go?  I call Dad when I get to Pella to ask him to meet me at my car - I park on the street in front of his apartment building and he can see when I get there.  He thought right then maybe I had the cats with me.  He carries the make-shift litter box and supplies while I carry the two carriers into his apartment.  Check out the pictures below of Dad holding each cat. 

 

I posted the two pictures on my FB wall last night and have gotten a lot of "likes" and some comments from folks saying that Dad looks pretty good.

 

Rowdy and Sadie gave Dad's apartment a thorough checking out.  Before letting them out of the crate to hand to him we close his bedroom door, bathroom door and den door so they just had the kitchen and living room to roam.  After roaming they both crawled under and up into Dad's recliner.  To get them out we had to tip his chair over and I had to reach way down into the bowels of his chair to bring one cat out at a time.  But a good time was had by all with the visit.

I had sent Dad a picture of the mouse I buy at WalMart so he could see what the packaging looked like in case he bought one or two, but sometimes when I send him pictures they don't always open on his Web TV.  Below is a picture of the regular mouse toy (the small one that is minus its tail) and then the one Dad got for the cats.  I think it's really a squirrel but I call it the mutant mouse.  Dad was good to get a brown toy so I knew it couldn't be real.  Last night Rowdy got that mutant mouse between his front paws, laid on his back and beat the crap out of it with his back feet :)

This morning before I left for church I had both crates sitting on my kitchen floor - one on top of the other with the doors open.  I watched Sadie look into the top carrier, jump up into it and just sit in hit like it was her favorite spot - I just shook my head at her.

Before church I helped with pre-registration for the church kidlets for Summer Splash and then thought my small group leader and helper might need some help in Waves since they had 30 kids and the craft they were making for Father's Dad had a lot of parts to it.  By the time I got out of church and over to see Marcia at the hospital - I was ready for a nap :)

Ran a couple of errands after the hospital and then started working on the lawn.  As I was spraying weed killer in the backyard I saw the back half of a snake.  I think my neighbors probably heard my semi-scream.  I ran into the enclosed back porch to grab the wasp spray and when I got back outside (within mere seconds) the snake had finished slithering into the hole under my back patio.  I couldn't find that hole/crack if my life depended on it to spray expanding foam into it.  Wish me luck when I try to find the hole again.

I was pretty pooped after doing the front lawn and called it quits for the day.  All that's left for me this evening is getting the clothes out of the dryer and I'm chillin'.

Servant Hearts ~ Packaging Meals ~ NASCAR ~ Black Squirrel

I have had more fun with this pic.  I imagine Rowdy thinking, "Mom if you don't stop with sticking that flashy thing in my face all the time, I'm gonna bite you when you go to sleep."  I've texted this pic to several kids from my church - to their parent's phone.  The text has been from Rowdy to the child/ren asking the child/ren to talk to their mommy's and daddy's to tell my mommy to stop with the flashy thing already.

Rowdy is here, there, everywhere - including behind my shoulder as I sit on the bed reading a book.



How can I get perturbed at this face - he looks so sweet and innocent now.  But then again at 3:00 a.m. when he's jumping up and down off the bed, I'm not thinking he is sweet at all :)

 

Thursday at work we were allowed to sign up for an hour of VTO time (volunteer time off, which is paid time off) to help with packaging Meals From The Heartland.  I got most of my team to sign up and we had a real fun time.  If you have never helped package meals at Wells Fargo Arena - you should sign up to do this - it's amazing the system they have in place to do this.  The meals we packaged were macaroni and cheese meals that would stay in Iowa - probably going to local food banks was my guess.  Normally meals are packaged to go to other countries.  I found out that around 100,000 meals were packaged Thursday with all the employees that had volunteered to do this.

 

I've been having some problems with my neck/shoulder/arm again and sent out an email asking if one of the guys from church would be willing to mow my lawn this weekend.  I had been to the chiro twice to be popped and cracked last week, and between that, Advil, muscle relaxants and ice - I think things were beginning to calm down and I didn't want to jar everything out of whack by mowing and bagging the lawn.  I got two volunteers that were over Friday evening to take care of the lawn for me.  Then another two guys offered to help me move some things around in the basement Saturday morning.  I am very thankful for these men and their servant hearts.  I am very blessed to have such a wonderful church family!

 

While I was waiting for Rob to show up yesterday morning I saw one of the black squirrels across the street in the park and went over to take his picture.  The two pix below are how close I got to the little guy before he finished zipping up the tree to hide.  I showed the pix to Rob and he said Van and Bonnie don't believe there are black squirrels in Des Moines - only in Newton - so I sent them a couple of pictures.  I also mentioned to Bonnie who I was since Dad had married her and Gene many years ago at the Otley Reformed Church.



 

Who remembers this icon?  I was lucky to be on the Floppy show twice as a little kid.  I got to tell a joke - weren't those the lamest jokes ever?!  And I also got to beep his nose and kiss it.  Imagine now just the thought of all those kids wanting to beep his nose and then kissing it - get the antibacterial soap out!  :)  Anyway I heard on the radio that the Historical Society was going to take down the permanent Floppy display and bring it out for special occasions.  Hhhmmmm....evidently my definition of permanent display is different from the Historical Society's.

I attempted to trim the kidlets' nails the other night and got 1.75 cats taken care of.  I think there are 2-3 nails of Sadie's that didn't get trimmed.  But I was pretty pleased how well it went for my first attempt.

One of my buds from church has been saying he'd get me to a NASCAR race this season and his wife got free tickets to the Nationwide race that was last night in Newton at the Iowa Speedway.  Off we go with their two girls to Newton.  Rain delay.  Crystal and the girls decided to head home because they were getting cold.  Dave and I decided we didn't care what time the race got over - we were going to stick it out until they booted us out.  Well, the track was almost dry when the second big downpour came and they "lost" the track as they say.  There was no way they could get it dry so the race was postponed until 10:00 this morning.  Well church comes first so no make up race for us.  Dave has also said he wants to take me to the race in Kansas City this fall and I told him this morning because we were faithful to God and went to church instead of letting the "idol" of NASCAR tempt us to skip church - we would be going to the race in Kansas City somehow, someway.  I got a kick out of how many people at church commented on my FB post this morning about the race getting rained out - they were disappointed for all of us.

Can I look anymore like Little Red Riding Hood?  Goodness.

 

My sister-in-law will be having knee surgery on one knee this coming Friday.  Then a week to recoup, then surgery on the other knee the next Friday.  Send positive thoughts and prayers her way if you think about it.

 

This coming Saturday is our 2nd Annual LWF garage sale with proceeds going to our Lima, Peru mission trip.  Crystal, the lady I went with her family to the race last night, is actually going on the missions trip - how cool is that?!  And she is organizing the two day garage sale.  It's a free will donation for all items - no price tags.

 

And a week from tomorrow is our Vacation Bible School at church.  We call it Summer Splash - check out the flyer below.  We end it with the super, duper fire truck from the airport coming to spray a ton of water on all the kids the last night.  We have a picnic, games and then the fire truck the last night and have the whole family come to that event. 





Tattoo #3 :)

Well, I have to start out with a pic of Rowdy and his favorite toy, mousie.  Doesn't he look cute with it in his mouth :)

 

I totally forgot to post in my last blog that I was getting my third tattoo last Tuesday night.  Some of you know my maiden name is Hill and since I'm an "only", Mom, Dad and I called ourselves the "Three Hills" at times.  So that's what I wanted to get for my tattoo, three hills with our names.  Dad was able to find examples of Mom's handwriting with all three of our names so off to Tattoo Dave I go.  Lori, my bestie since 7th grade who has gone with me to watch me get my two other tats went along.

I gave Dave a hard time that he did a stencil this time - he did my two other tats free-hand, but to get Mom's handwriting to look right, he needed to do a stencil.  Check out the pix below from start to finish.

 

I also mentioned to Dave that he wouldn't be tattooing the lines at the top and side of the stencil right - giving him a hard time.  He said he wasn't going to, but he would now :)  The faint red line below the stencil is the mark I had Dave make so the tattoo wouldn't go below my short's line. 

 

The hibiscus is for Mike - we were fortunate to trade our timeshare to different islands in the Caribbean over the years and we always had at least one hibiscus in a planter in the back yard.  That tattoo is actually drawn like a hibiscus we had in one of our plants one year.  The greyhound is for dogs, greyhounds and then shaded like Butler.

 

Normally it doesn't really hurt that much for me to get a tattoo because I get them in a pretty "meaty" place on my body.  But sometimes during the outline phase and/or when Dave happens to tattoo over a nerve - that can be very painful.  Lori caught the end of one of my faces when it was a little painful, usually I had my mouth wide open for a "silent scream" of pain.

 Close up of Dave's work.

 

Getting ready to start working on the clouds above the hills.

End product - I love it just like I love my two other tattoos.  And I've already got an idea for my fourth tat :)

A little closer up of the tat so you can see how well Dave did recreating Mom's handwriting.  I'm still in the "hot shock" phase and putting lotion on the tattoo all the time.  The hot shock is a two minute hot water shower on it - as hot as I can stand the water - twice a day.  The tattoo has pretty much peeled the thin layer of skin for the clouds and most of the hills.  Still some of the top layer of the green needs to come off.

I ordered a greyhound wind spinner - the guy that sells these is usually at Tulip Time but not this year.  So I emailed him and he sent me a PayPal invoice which I paid and voila.  I spray painted my shepherd's staff so the wind spinner would stand out.  I could have bought a copper colored spinner but I wanted black because of Butler.

 

When I mowed last Sunday I did something to my left neck/shoulder/arm that I have had problems with off-and-on since I was rear ended Friday the 13th, December 1996.  I've took some Aleve but that didn't do much, so I've been taking four Advil every four hours I'm awake most of this past week.  I called my chiropractor on Thursday and he was on vacation.  His message said he hoped his being out wasn't an inconvenience - oh no, not at all.  Then he gave another chiropractor's name and number to call if needed - I'm thinking to myself - I'm not cracked (pun intended) to get my neck cracked normally, no way I'm going to have some new guy crack it.  So I babied myself until this afternoon and I had had enough.  Off to the doc I go hoping to get a quartizone (sp?) shot - if I was ever ready to get a shot, Mike knew I was really in pain.  No shot - muscle relaxant pills instead....

 

This is the week for WDM's "spring" clean up - this is normally in April.  You can put pretty much anything out on the curb except for appliances, tires, hazardous stuff, etc.  I tossed a little out from the basement but am starting a pile of things for my church's 2nd Annual Garage Sale which will be in June with the proceeds helping with our Peru mission trip.

 

My friend posted an absolute hysterical cat video to my Facebook wall - you should check it out.  Even if you aren't a cat lover you'll be laughing like crazy.

 

And can anyone guess what the picture below is???  Yep - that's Rowdy standing on my window ledge with his paws on the upper part of the double hung window, staring out my window - behind the blinds.  Right after I took this pic, he fell off the window - goober.