spunkybluecat

Our adventures in postcard exchange.

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Back to work..

Well, I managed to make it through my first week back to work. Can't say that it was enjoyable at all. I just really hate that place. It's mental abuse to me. I just miss the little things and the time with my daughter the most. I still don't know how to divide my time so I can see her more. The night shift makes it hard to decide when to sleep and do everything else. I hate having to catch up on things on the weekend to. It's the only time I'll have and I don't want to spend it doing housework and stuff like that. I've been on the computer way too much this weekend trying to catch up on things on here too. It's just irritating and depressing. Plus I go back and find out I'll be laid off for four weeks (maybe more). I'm not complaining about the time off but come on. Birthdays and Christmas aren't looking good this year. I hope we sell the house soon so we can get into a better financial situation.
Here's soem pics from today. Caleb, Allie and Ella.
Ella and Allie Allie and her new lizard friend. I think she named him/her Lizzy or Babycakes.

Ella likes playing with Polly Pockets (I do too). Here she is putting boots on her cats. I wish I had had these when I was a girl. Dennis and Caleb playing catch with the football.
Tomorrow I get to get up and super clean the house because someone is coming to look at it and then we are going to look at a house. Then I have to go to sleep so I can work through the night. I hate when my days are planned like that. You just know time is going to fly when you don't want it to. There won't be any pics like those above tomorrow. Just got to take it day to day and make the most of it. Some people don't know how lucky they are (I sure didn't when I did have my time). Cherish the little things....

chickens and guineas

You can see that the first set of chicks I had posted have grown a lot. They are in the background. My multi-colored silkie is growing up too. I've never seen one with blue on the sides of it's face before. I don't know who to ask about why that is though. Three of the guineas out getting bugs. The one that brought home all her chicks took them to the coup and the other chickens pecked them to death. I had caught three of the ten and you can see them in with the other small chicks we are still caring for. My main roosters and a couple of barred cochins are in the other picture. I have 3 barred cochin hens and they always come up to Ella and I cause we feed them worms a lot. Ella likes bug and creepy crawly things if you hadn't noticed.


I'm a busy girl...

This is my cousin Sarah and her fiancee Tom. They are getting married in September. The flower girl headpieces I posted are for her wedding. I'm also making these magnets for her for wedding favors. Want a new addiction? I have a flower press called the Microfleur. You take flowers and put them in the press, pop them in the microwave and in less than a minute you have pressed flowers. Compared to weeks with the regular drying this thing is the greatest. I have the small 5x5 one. If you get one, go for the larger size (9x9). I'm hoping to get the larger soon when I save up some money. I'm going to press some flowers for my other cousin's wedding, Jessie and Matt. Their wedding is in March so I have a little more time although I have to do the flowers now while they are around or I'll have to grow them myself!

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Meet our dogs...

This ferocious beagle is Max (aka Maxwell). He thinks he's a lot bigger than he is. He was hit by a car last summer but there was no major damage. He's a sweetie. When he's asleep you can pick him up and move him anywhere and he'll stay asleep. He's a great snuggler. He's a favorite of our neighbor. He's actually been inside their house to visit ( I haven't even had that privilege yet)!
The black and tan coonhound is Yoakam (aka Yoke, Yoker) He's a good ole country dog. He greets us in the driveway and I swear he's trying to smile. He'll jump in the car and ride up the driveway with you. He loves teasing the other dogs as well. He and Max are buddies and the only two dogs we let run loose through the neighborhood. He let's the other dogs know how good it is to be free by running past the fence and showing off.

The red colored dog with the graying face is Chassis (aka Chass, Chassis Lynn). She was my first dog and we have been through a LOT together. She's my guardian angel. She's the best behaved dog we have. I couldn't have asked for anything better in a dog. She gets special treatment because she has seniority.
The treeing walker coonhound is Spook (aka Spooky doo). He was so shy when we first got him (hence the name). He is so pretty, the picture doesn't do him justice. He needs to be entered in a bench show. He used to bark at me and run away but we're buddies now (he knows who to go to for spoiling).

The red ticked English coonhound is Earl (I call him lughead). He's still a puppy! He's huge! And LOUD! I really don't know what to think of him. I've tried to talk my husband into giving him up because I think he is going to be too much for him to handle when he goes hunting but I can't convince him. He can be really sweet sometimes but still very clumsy. And he back talks me. He just has to get he last bark in.
The jack russel/beagle mix is Sadie (aka Sadie bug, Buggles). I rescued her from the local shelter only to find out that night she had Parvo. So she ended up being a little more expensive than she was supposed to because I didn't have the heart to put her down. She can jump really high and is full of energy. She thinks she's bigger than she is as well. (I think most small dogs are like that.) She loves to snuggle too. When her and Daphne get together it's double trouble. Sadie's the bad influence though.
The white and red beagle/feist mix is Daphne (aka Daff or Daffodil). We got her from a friend so Sadie would have someone her size to play with. She is super sweet. I love scratching her neck cause her lip curls up like she's smiling. She loves to give everyone kisses even all the other dogs. Ella picked her out of the litter. She wanted the YEYO (yellow) one as her brothers and sisters were black and white. And Ella named her as well-she's in a Scooby Doo thing. Isn't she cute?

The English coonhound (outside pic) is of Ruby (aka Ruby Sue). She is our newest addition. She was shy at first too. I don't think she had a chance to run around and be a dog. She's changed so much in the weeks we have had her. She comes to greet us now and you can just see she is happier than when we first met her. My husband traded some fishing equipment for her! Ruby is supposed to be Caleb's hunting dog. I love to see her running and playing with the other dogs cause at first it was almost like she didn't know how to do such a thing!
The red and white English coonhound (on the couch) is Mandy(aka Mandy Lou). Talk about a sweetheart. She didn't know what spoiled was until she met us. We let her in and she took up residence on the couch (her favorite place in the whole world). My husband swears she hunts better since we've let her come inside (yeah whatever). She's a happy go lucky girl. Mandy is afraid of thunderstorms though. She'll climb on top of you when they are going on and that's a lot of dog to comfort from a storm!

Sunday, July 16, 2006

More pics...

I've been working on headpieces for the flower girls for my cousin Sarah's wedding in September. She has sort of a fall theme with creme, orange and green. I found some candle holders at the Dollar Tree and put them together. They have glass beads on them. Green in the shape of leaves and gold ones too. I put pearls around them too. I hope she likes them. I wish they looked more professional. Allie is going to be one of the flower girls so she modeled it for me.
Ella caught a new friend. Doesn't he look so happy;) We went outside and caught frogs and watched the lightning in the distance when the electricity went out.


More pictures of treerogs. I know, I know. I just think they are neat the way they stick to everything and so cute. There's pics of some of my new flowers too. Pink clematis and a lily. I'm glad it came back this year. It reminds me of my Granny. Those are the lillies I chose for her funeral. The smell is what gets me. I miss her but know she's with me everyday.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Second week over...

Well, the second week of vacation was little more stressful. Word of advice, take the kids to a babysitter when looking at houses especially if you intend to be on the road for more than an hour or two. Whoever invents a blinder or isolation chamber to separate brothers and sisters who annoy the crap out of each ohter for the car is going to be my new hero. House hunting is not going good. We can't really agree. Of course it doesn't help getting stuck in mud and having the wheel fling it on you from head to toe when you push it out (husband, not me). That on top of the kids bickering just makes for a wonderful day. The electricity keeps going out everytime it storms which has been frequently. My gazebo is a disaster. The rain and wind bent most of the roof poles and I've been trying to replace them with conduit. My grandma's dog got attacked by a pit bull. She looks like Frankenstein. Stitches all the way around her neck and head. She looks pitiful but she's lucky she's alive. I thought that 4 of my guineas had been eaten and dragged off somewhere cause they hadn't come home for quite a while. They came back the other day followed by about 10 keets. More babies. And don't mess with them! The Mama guinea is REALLY protective. I'm almost afraid to go around her. She's flown and pecked me several times already. She's attacked two of our dogs. She's one tough bird! I'm really not looking forward to going back to work now that it is getting even closer. Working nights means I won't get to see Ella but a couple of hours a day. Like I only have visitation rights. It's really messing with me right now. Here's a picture of her in the raglan sweater I've been working on. The sleeves are not right but I have made progress! I won't be doing much looming at all after next week so I'm trying to get this done as soon as I can. Wish me luck!

Sunday, July 09, 2006

One week down, one more to go...

It's vacation time here. I survived the first week (I think). The kids are still alive as in they haven't killed or injured themselves. It's been rough. Does anyone have a cure for sibling rivalry? Man, I just don't get it! Besides the constant arguning and picking on each other, the kids managed to catch the white bunny and the dog got a hold of it. They had to bury it as punishment for not leaving it alone. Then when we came back from the lake one of our dogs "mysteriously" escaped from the kennel we had him in and killed 6 chickens and 4 of the older chicks. One of my favorite chickens, Telula, the one who had taken care of all twelve chicks up until that day is dead. She would let me hold her and eat out of my hand, very good with the kids and stuff. Everytime I get a chicken to that point something happens to it. Everytime we go somewhere something happens like this. Someone had to have let the dog out. He didn't dig out, can't unlatch the gate and latch it back or move the top off of it. Guess it's time for security cameras especially when they play baseball with your mailbox as well. But we have a new baseball bat now and I'm sure it didn't feel good to have it knocked out of their hands when it hit the box. I can think of a million other things I would rather do than go around hitting mailboxes and screwing with people's animals. This really bums me out as it isn't the first time. The last time we went for an overnight trip, I lost 17 chickens. Another time all the dogs got loose when the gate that has a pole IN THE GROUND was opened and one our dogs was hit by a car. Am I ever going to be able to leave the house for a little get away and not have to come home to death and chaos? Anyone have any better suggestions?


Here's some pics of a heron that was fishing in our pond this morning. He caught a pretty good size fish. You can see it in the middle of his neck in one pic. The kids thought that was really neat. We had an open house today. Our realtor said we had six people come look so I'm hoping SOMEONE will buy it and we can move. Preferrably where no one can see us packing our car for an overnight trip.....

More critter pics and looming WIPs

Here's is a picture of the duck I loomed for Ella, which I hate. She really likes him so I guess I'll have to look at him for a while. Then there's my baby Mary Jane's in black and pink. Soon to be posted on the website.


We have some wild rabbits who live near my chicken coup. This is a pic of one of the albino babies they had. Then there are my three ducks telling me I need to feed them. A picture of the chicks and how big they have gotten. Some butterflies visiting my butterfly bush and the daylilies on the side of the house. It's hard to see it but there are some cool looking bugs in the flower in the back. Something new everyday....enjoy the little things.






Patoka Lake- Saturday


Here's a pic of Allie and Ella having a good laugh. Caleb kicking back and Gogglehead Allie.


I thought Allie looked so beautiful in this pic. Here's Captain Keith and Caleb checking out the scenery.