Let Me Tell You What I'm Squawking About!

Sleeping Baby

2011-07-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

Is there anything sweeter than a sleeping baby?

Just look at this face and try to tell me there is!

Other People

2011-04-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

We used to be American Idol watchers. This year we decided it's just too much of a time commitment, so we quit watching it. It really was quite liberating. What ever shall we do with all the spare time we now have? I know! We will reminisce by looking at pictures of the times we did watch it. This picture was obviously taken during the season that Ellen was a judge. I don't remember why I hit the info button on the remote - I already knew what I was watching. I was glad I did, though. Someone at Dish Network was having fun that day!

And by the way, I'd like to know why American Idol is rated PG-13!

What Happened?

2011-04-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

Where'd I go? Why did I abandon my blog for so long? I got distracted! You know how it is. I'd think "I need to post on my blog". Then I would start doing something else and forget. I had a lot going on. Here's a picture of me just a couple of months ago:

That was taken on January 31st. Then on March 1st he arrived! It was so exciting to welcome our little Doodle Bug into the world!

He is a month old today. Things are starting to settle down a little. I've kind of gotten the hang of keeping up with everything around the house while taking care of the Doodle Bug. I'm not saying we don't have our moments here, but for the most part, things are under control. We've been taking lots of pictures, so you can expect to be seeing a lot of our Doodle Bug here. Hopefully I'll get around to posting some of the other gazillion things I have pictures all ready for, but we'll just have to wait and see!

I Guess It's Just Fittin'

2010-07-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

I was cutting out coupons the other day when I saw that these two were paired up. I guess they do kind of go together, but it's not something I really want to think about...

The Fun Room

2010-06-16T03:16:00.000-07:00

We have a room in our house that we call the "Fun Room". It is where we have the desktop computers (though we usually use laptops) and books, and we have always intended to put our Pez collection in there. Despite the fact that we call it the "Fun Room", it has been somewhat less than fun in the 5 1/2 years that we've lived here because it is the only room in the house that we never really got around to doing anything with. The proof is in the pudding (I have always wanted an excuse to say that!):

See? Less than fantastic. Not so fun. A bit embarrassing actually, and it also happened to be the room that people saw first when they came into our house, since it was right inside the front door. A little while back we got the hankering to fix it up. We chose a nice buttery yellow color for the walls and picked up some new bookshelves. My hubby went and got some shelves to put the Pez on. I must say, the "Fun Room" is much more fun now than it used to be!

Much more fun now, don't you think? And that's not all the Pez. We have a lot more that we just didn't have enough stands for. Once we get more stands, we'll put those out too!

What's Wrong With This Picture?

2010-05-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

We went to a fancy fund raising event this past weekend where we noticed something that was just a bit off. Do you see it?

In case you didn't see it, here's a more closeup shot. I really don't know how this gentleman didn't feel it when he was tucking in his shirt. That's something I'm pretty sure I wouldn't miss. Or perhaps he is just proud that he has a new pair of shorts?

And here we are with one of the celebrity guests in attendance - Kinky Friedman! Oh, and there's nothing wrong with this one, I just thought I'd add it in for fun.

A Sock Monkey for Zoey

2010-05-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

I had to run in the Walgreen's to pick something up the other day. As I walked across the front of the store, this fantastic little dog bed caught my eye. It was a sock monkey! Not that we had particularly been looking for a sock monkey bed for her, or any new bed for that matter, but it was too cute not to investigate. I spent a good couple of minutes checking out the sock monkey bed. It was only $13 (cleverly disguised as $12.99), but I just couldn't decide whether she needed it or not. After a couple of minutes I went on my way and left the sock monkey bed.

By the time I got in the car, I was already regretting my decision to leave without the precious little monkey bed. Had I made a mistake? When I got home and saw our poor neglected little Zoey I knew I was going to have to go back and fetch her a new bed. Never mind the bed she already had, complete with three blankets of her own, and her special big fluffy pillow that I made for her. They're not enough! So I returned to the Walgreen's for a special sock monkey for our pampered puppy.

How can you say no to this face?

Zoey loves her new bed!

She napped in it all day after I brought it home.

Of course, now I am going to have to get her a blanket that matches her new bed.

I Should Never be Allowed to go to the Outlet Mall Unattended...

2010-05-05T06:34:00.000-07:00

You see, the outlet mall has bargains, and I am a big fan of bargains. My husband had asked me to get him a black tie to wear to an event this weekend, so I figured I would head up to the Van Heusen outlet. That's my favorite place to shop for his dress clothes. They always have good deals. I also needed a pair of shoes to wear to the same event and I planned to hit the Rack Room Shoes while I was up there to find some. A black tie and a pair of shoes. Easy, right?

So I started out at the Van Heusen, where they not only had a black tie for Hubby, but also two dress shirts and a cute shirt for me. After I left the Van Heusen I noticed that the Haggar outlet had up to 75% off, so I thought I better check that out. Interestingly enough they had a polo shirt and shorts that my husband needed. He didn't know he needed them, but he did. The Gap Outlet was next. I can't go to the outlet mall without stopping there, and Hubby had mentioned that he might like a new pair of jeans... They didn't have any good deals on jeans, but they had some really cute shirts for me on clearance that I couldn't pass up. Once I finally made it to the Rack Room, I saw that they had buy one pair get one half off. Danger! So we each got a pair of shoes out of the deal. So on my trip to the outlet mall for a tie and a pair of shoes, I ended up buying a tie, 8 shirts, a pair of shorts and 2 pairs of shoes. And here are a few of the deals that were too good to pass up.

I found these shorts on the clearance rack at the Haggar outlet:

They were 50% off the lowest ticketed price, so they ended up being $7.48

Really cute shirts from the Gap outlet

And check out the price!

More shirts from the Gap outlet

Saved the best deal for last!

The Most Exciting Morning!

2009-12-02T01:05:00.000-08:00

The weathermen have been telling us for a few days that it's going to get cold. This is very exciting to me - I've always loved cold weather for some reason. You know what I like even more than cold weather? Snow! So I woke up this morning and turned on the morning news. The weatherman was on there telling us all about how it was snowing in Denton. The radar only had green (rain) showing in our area, though. I got out of bed and came into the living room where my hubby was working. He works from home on Wednesdays. I started complaining about how it was snowing in Denton, and why can't is just snow here? Then I went to the back door and pulled the blinds back to let the dog out and said "It's snowing!!!" That's right, it's snowing in Texas, and here's the proof!

It's even sticking, but it's supposed to get into the 40s later today, so it won't last long. We'll enjoy it while we can, though!

My Favorite Blog - Vote For Suzanne!

2009-12-01T01:47:00.000-08:00

A while back my wonderful mother-in-law told me about this blog she thought I would like. She said "She's got goats and chickens. You'd like it." This blog quickly became my very favorite website. It is one of the first places I visit on the web in the morning. The blog I am referring to is Chickens in the Road. If you haven't seen it before, you should go check it out now! It is the blog of a romance author, Suzanne McMinn, who went from suburban life to farm life in rural West Virginia. I won't tell you too much, in case you want to visit her blog and read all about it yourself!

I have learned alot from Chickens in the Road, with my favorite things being about about canning and bread-baking, and other yumminess in the kitchen. I think my husband is glad I found the site, because there are so many new things I found there that I just had to try. Canning my own hot sauce, soups, chili, jams, apple butter, and so many other things makes for much tastier meals. After reading so much about homemade bread, I just had to try that too, and it's just so good that I can't imagine going back to store bought.

Suzanne's blog is not just about cooking, though. There are posts about crafts, gardening, the antics of her farm animals and just country life in general. There is also a forum, just in case you can't find anything left that you haven't read on her blog but you just can't bring yourself to leave yet. There are some wonderful people who participate in the forum, and there is even a community cookbook with recipes contributed by forum members. It is an active forum, and the people who participate are there because Suzanne's blog has meant something to them.

So now I will get to the point of this post. Suzanne is a finalist in the Sam-e "Good Mood Gig" Talent Search. She has already gone through one round, and for the final round she submitted a video about why she would be perfect for the job, along with some info you can read. If she wins, she gets to blog for Sam-e for 6 months. It is a paying gig, and it would mean a lot to her and her family. It would only take a few seconds for you to vote for Suzanne on the Sam-e website, and if you would like to help her out, please CLICK HERE! Voting ends on December 7th and you can vote once per day, so be sure to bookmark her page so you can go back and vote each day. Voting is only a small part of winning, there will be judges looking at the finalists' applications as well, but it doesn't hurt to get her as many votes as possible!

Yes, I Know it's Early

2009-11-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

It's early, I know, but I just couldn't wait! Every year, around the time the calendar turns to November, I get antsy to decorate for Christmas. I have always loved Christmas, with all the shiny and sparkly decorations and the fun music. When I was growing up, we decorated the day after Thanksgiving, though I would have loved to bust out the Christmas stuff earlier than that. Once I got married, my husband and I figured we would step outside the box and decorate the weekend before Thanksgiving. We were living on the edge, I tell you! Well, we've been getting really unruly the last couple of years, because we've been decorating for Christmas even earlier than that! So here I am, eleven days before Thanksgiving, admiring our lovely Christmas tree, the North Pole Village and various other festive decorations, while listening to my favorite holiday tunes.

It started Friday afternoon. We always set the village up first, and I had the boxes out and ready to go by the time my husband got home from work. Zoey was watching me from her bed in the corner, wondering what I was up to.

I actually had some of my part of the village set up before he got home. Like I said before, I just couldn't wait! There is still a finishing touch (some nice fluffy snow) to be put on the village displays, and there are a few light bulbs to replace, but they are pretty much finished. The first picture is the North Pole Woods, and that is my husband's part of the village. The other pictures are what I am in charge of.

Saturday morning was when the fun really started. I get really excited, like freak-out excited, when it's time to set up the Christmas tree. I got up that morning and got dressed and wanted to put up the tree RIGHT THEN! My husband, on the other hand, had plans to have a cup of coffee and check his email and whatnot on the computer for a few minutes before we got started. What is WRONG with him? Finally we got on track and boxes of Christmas goodies started making their way into the house. I didn't take any pictures of the actual decorating because I was too excited about it, but here is our tree all finished. All that's missing is some festive packages!

Once the tree was done, I moved on to all the "sittin' out stuff". You know, the fun stuff that sits around and looks cute. Here are the denizens of the Christmas forest.

The kitchen tree - Because even though I can see the regular tree perfectly fine from the kitchen, I still like to have a tree in there.

Here's the fireplace, all decorated. The stockings hanging on the fireplace tools rack are for the dog and the bird. Santa even comes to fill them when they've been bad!

And here's the view looking into the living room. I couldn't get this picture to come out very well, but you get the idea. The tree is actually set up where the bird's cage usually sits. Every year, we rock his world and move him to a different part of the room. We like to think of it as Bob's fun adventure to visit the fishes.

And last but not least, the clothespin reindeer is ready to greet everyone who comes in the front door!

There are some other decorations that didn't make it into this post, but I figured if I tried to get everything on here, there would just be way too many pictures. I hope this got you into the holiday spirit!

Zoey's Sad Day

2009-09-03T15:43:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure I have probably mentioned before that Zoey likes blankets. If I haven't, I'll tell you now. Zoey likes blankets. Actually, she is blanket obsessed. She has three of her very own blankets in her bed, and she tries to appropriate our blankets into her collection. Her blankets are in her bed over in the corner of the living room where she can surround herself in fluffy blankety goodness as she gazes out around her kingdom.

One day, when I went over to her bed to pet her and giver her a proper belly-rubbing, I noticed a stench. I meant to wash the blankets, but I got sidetracked and forgot about it. A few days later, my husband walked over to the fish tank and commented on the foul odor. He wasn't even leaned over near her bed - He could smell it standing up. You see, blankets aren't just for warmth and softness. They are also for licking. Perhaps she has saturated them in nutrients to sustain her until her next meal, or maybe that is just her way of loving them. Whatever the case, her breath is far from a pleasant fragrance, and she had spread the odor to her blankets through her licking. It was time to wash the blankets.

The next morning, I took the blankets and the cover for the bed and put them in the washer. The foam bed form was put away for the time being so she wouldn't try to lay in it and lick it and get it all stinky. It was a very sad day. Just look how sad she was without her blankets!

She waited and waited for her blankets to return. All day long she moped around, mourning the loss of her blankets. Hours went by as she suffered. A little while after my husband got home from work, I remembered that they were still in the dryer, so we turned it on to warm them up before we put her bed back together. She likes it when the blankets are warm.

First came the bed cover. The blankets stayed in the dryer fluffing so they would still be nice and warm when we put them in the bed. Little Zoey could hardly wait until hubby finished putting the cover on the bed to get in it!

Zoey was so glad to have her bed back - Now if she just had some blankets!

Here come the blankets!

Aah... the world is right again... A nice soft bed with warm blankets fresh from the dryer!

Here was the really fun part. Zoey got herself all buried in her warm blankets to take a nap. A little while later, I was working in the kitchen and my husband was sitting in the living room. He suddenly said "What's wrong with Zoey???" She had stuck her head out of her blankets and she was panting. She never pants, because she's just to prissy to do anything that would bring on panting. I went over there and stuck my hand in the blankets and it was HOT in there! She just didn't want to get out of the warm blankets! I pulled her out and made her stay out until things cooled off a bit. She fought me on that, but I put my foot down. I think in the future we'll let the blankets cool down a little before we put them back in the bed.

Construction

2009-08-08T15:53:00.000-07:00

Boy, when that guy said they would be sending a construction crew to fix the main phone line, he wasn't kidding! I was sitting on the couch when I heard "beep beep beep". I thought "Is that on TV or is there a big truck backing up outside?" Here is what I saw out the back window.

I'd say a backhoe qualified the group that was out working in the alley as a construction crew! There were 5 trucks and a bunch of workers out there. They got their work done, so we are crossing our fingers that we're permanently fixed up now. That is, unless the neighbor decides to build another new fence.

Call Before You Dig!

2009-08-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

I am so glad to be back after my brief hiatus from the internet! It was a very sad evening on Sunday when the internet stopped working. We were merrily trying to surf the web when suddenly we lost our connection. We thought maybe our router was acting up, so we went to check it out. This was when we discovered that the DSL light on the modem was red instead of green. Red is bad, so I was going to call the phone company and see what was up, but there was no dial tone. If you aren't familiar with DSL, it comes through the phone line, so when the phone goes out, you lose the internet too. We were trying to figure out what could have gone wrong when we realized that the neighbor across the alley was out building a new fence. Uh oh...

It's a nice fence, don't you think?

I think it's a nice looking fence, and they worked hard on it. I have no ill will against our fence-building neighbor. I know this was an accident. They just wanted to have a nice fence around their back yard! However, I think they might not have noticed this.

Oops!

Hubby called the phone company about getting it fixed, and they said "We can probably have it fixed by Thursday." WHAT??? But I must have my internet!!! This was upsetting, but what could we do? I wasn't even too upset about the phone being out, it was the internet I was really going to miss.

The first day without internet was really tough. I had important web surfing things to do! I had big plans! But if I wanted to use the computer, I had to settle for some fun solitaire or free cell. By the end of the day, I had accepted the reality of having to resort to standard Windows games for computer entertainment. Tuesday wasn't so bad, because I had students that kept me busy, and Wednesday I worked on some stuff around the house that needed to be done. I filled in my free time those days with LOTS of solitaire and free cell.

Today was very exciting, because it was the day we were supposed to get the internet back. I had some students this morning, so that filled up some time, but I spent the rest of my time watching out for the phone company to arrive. As you can imagine, I was pretty excited when they finally showed up.

Once the repair man was done working, he came and told me the scoop. Apparently, our fence building neighbors had not just cut our phone line. They cut a main line underground that provides multiple houses with phone service. We are not the only customers here that haven't had phone service the last few days. The repair man actually had to run temporary lines between the box in the picture above and another box at the end of the alley to get us up and running. They are very dainty looking wires, and they don't look all that sturdy. He said they are going to have to send out a construction crew to replace the main line that got broken.

Here are the dainty little orange wires that are providing us with phone and internet right now. The repair guy said he hopes the construction guys get out soon to fix the main line because he'd hate for the temporary ones to get messed up and have us lose our service again. I hope so too.

I'll feel better when the main line has been fixed, but for now I'm thankful that we've got service again!

My Husband Says I Have A Problem...

2009-08-01T07:34:00.000-07:00

And I think he might be right.

Bunny Buddies

2009-07-31T01:00:00.000-07:00

I grew up in a neighborhood full of squirrels. They were kind of cute, but they were also a nuisance. Fortunately, we now live in a neighborhood where there aren't many squirrels. Every so often, we will see a squirrel and one of us will say "Oh look, there's the neighborhood squirrel!" Sometimes it will be weeks between squirrel sightings. What we do have here is bunnies - Cute little cottontail bunnies. It was the weirdest thing to me the first time I spotted a bunny hopping around outside. A wild bunny was something I had never seen before. To this day, the bunnies outside are kind of a novelty to me, and I love to watch them.

We have a pair of bunnies that likes to hang out in our back yard. They're usually out there for a good part of the day, eating weeds and hopping around. We call one of them "Bunny" and the other one we call "Skittish Bunny". We can get pretty close to Bunny before he hops away, but Skittish Bunny darts away at the first sign of movement. This is Skittish Bunny. He's a little skinnier than Bunny.

This is Bunny. Bunny is the fatter of the pair. Hopefully that doesn't mean we will have more baby bunnies in the yard soon.

Aren't they cute? Despite the gardening challenges (don't plant pansies and petunias!), we are fond of our little friends. They try really hard to help us keep the yard mowed (haha) and they're much cuter than squirrels!

Counting our Chickens

2009-07-30T01:00:00.000-07:00

Hello there, little chicken! You're awfully cute! Would you like to come live at our house? Oh wait - you can't. Here in our city, they have a silly ordinance that prevents us from having chickens. They aren't banned completely, but chicken owners are required to keep them at least 150 feet from property lines. Since our property is not near 300 feet wide and long, we are without chickens. That's sad! Since we are without chickens, my husband's friend from work said I could use pictures of his chickens for my blog.

The person who owns these chickens said that this little brown one is his favorite. It follows him around the yard like a little pet whenever he goes out there. It is a bantam chicken, as are all of his chickens. Bantams are smaller than standard sized chickens. Their eggs are smaller as well, but they are just as tasty! We would like some little bantam chickens of our own, to cavort around the back yard and amuse us and give us tasty fresh eggs. I don't think that's too much to ask! It's not like we want to fill up the back yard - We just want a few little chickens.

And look at the little baby chickens! Aren't they cute? Mama chicken is like "What you lookin' at?" Of course, we wouldn't be having any baby chickens, because we just want hens. No roosters here, since they're so noisy and all. I don't think the neighbors would appreciate a new and unrequested early morning rooster alarm. I wouldn't appreciate that either. My husband asked his friend what he was going to do with the baby chickens and he said "Those are your chickens." But we aren't allowed to have them! No fair!

Some of the chickens have funny heads. They have these big puffs of feathers on the tops of their heads. I don't know what they're called, but I'd love for some of them to live in our back yard. Check them out, and check out the feathers on the feet of the white one here.

We've been wanting some chickens for a while now. We talk about it all the time. We have big dreams of building a chicken tractor and bringing in some fun little hens to live in it. We'd call them "The Girls". What? You don't know what a chicken tractor is? Well, I'll tell you! It's a movable chicken enclosure. You can put it in a different place in the yard every day if you want to. It has mesh sides and tops to keep the chickens inside, but the chickens are still able to enjoy the benefits of playing around in the yard. It also keeps the chickens safe from predators while they are frolicking around in the yard. Some chicken tractors even have the coop attached, so if the chickens get tired of the yard during the day, they can go inside and hang out. That is the kind of chicken tractor we would have if we could have chickens. With the coop attached. It would be the ultimate chicken mansion! Unfortunately, we aren't allowed to have chickens, so I have no chicken tractor to show you. However, I do have some more pictures of chickens for you to enjoy!

We were talking about the chickens one day last week and my husband decided to write a letter to the mayor and the city council and request a change to what we are now calling the "Chicken Ordinance". Really, the worst they could do is say no, so it's worth a try, right? So he sent the letter and we waited. Then he said "Hey, there's a city council meeting coming up!" There is a part at the beginning of each meeting where citizens can address the council about any issue they would like. If their issue is not on the agenda for the night, they can't actually discuss making changes, but they can set a date to discuss it in the future. So we decided to go to the meeting. My husband got all his notes together and we set out on our adventure. Here he is filling out the card before the meeting so they would know he wanted to address them.

After my husband said his piece and sat back down, the mayor said that they had gotten several emails about the chickens and that it seems to be a hot topic. He said he thinks it's something that needs to be looked at, and the council set a time to discuss it. After the meeting, one of the council members motioned to talk to my husband. He chatted about chickens for a few minutes and told my husband that he grew up on a farm. We are hoping that he will push a revision to the chicken ordinance. All in all, the vibe we got from the meeting was positive. We're crossing our fingers that we will soon have chickens of our own!

Canning Adventures#2 - Sweet N Hot Corn Relish!

2009-07-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

The salsa was so easy, I didn't wait long to try my next canning adventure. Here's the story with this one. When we went to my parents' house for my birthday, my aunt brought this really tasty corn relish, and we ate it with crackers, like dip. It was so good, I decided I needed to try to figure out how to make it. I found a recipe online, and with a few additions I think it turned out really good. It has frozen corn, apple cider vinegar, red and green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, sugar, turmeric and mustard powder in it.

I didn't get many pictures of this one because I did most of it before my husband got home from work. Here it is in the pan:

The lids and rings are hot and the water in the canning pot is ready to go!

And here are the pretty jars all processed and cooling off. Really, aren't they pretty? I may be weird, but I think the food in jars is pretty. I should decorate with them!

EVERYBODY RUN!!!

2009-07-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

Look out, She's possessed and she's coming to get you!

Seriously, how could I not post this? My husband wanted to take a picture of her because she was panting. It was over 100 degrees outside and she had just come inside. Because she is such a delicate snowflake, she very rarely lowers herself to any activity that would result in her getting hot or any other sort of discomfort, so she seldom pants. Unfortunately, just as he snapped the picture, she closed her mouth, but her tongue was still sticking out. That plus the ultra neon green glowing eyes resulted in a picture too entertaining not to share!

Canning Adventures #1 - Salsa!

2009-07-26T01:00:00.000-07:00

This year, when my husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I told him I wanted a pressure canner. Yes, I know I'm weird, but it sounded like a fun thing to have! I was very excited to get it, and I decided that salsa would be my first project. It's always important to have salsa on hand for a tasty snack, and home made salsa is MUCH more tasty than store bought.

I started by getting all my ingredients ready. I wasn't sure exactly how much stuff I would need, so I ended up with some extra to save for another cooking project.

Then I chopped it all up in the food processor. I know most people make salsas with big chunks of tomatoes and stuff. My family has always just thrown it all in the food processor and pretty much pureed it, so that's how I do it.

I actually made more than one batch and then put it all in a big pot together and brought it to a boil. I don't normally cook it, but the instructions for canning salsa said you need to bring it to a boil, so I did. I'm sure that has something to do with the cootie-killing process that makes it safe to eat, so I didn't question it. Here it is on the stove along with the canning pot full of heating water and the hot rings and lids for the jars.

Once I had the salsa boiling, I got my trusty tongs and got the rings and lids out of the water so I could start jarring it all up!

Then came the fun part! I grabbed my sterilized and heated jars and started filling them up. This handy funnel came in the canning tools kit my husband got me to go along with the giant pot. It has an extra wide opening so chunks can get through it.

The tool kit also came with this headspace measuring tool. Different kinds of foods require different amounts of space in the top of the jar to properly process. The cootie-killing process is quite mysterious.

Once I got the space right, the lids and bands went on. The jars were hot. After burning myself a couple of times, I finally figured out that a towel made it easier to hold the jar.

All that was left was to get them into the water and boil them! Another handy tool from the tool kit was the jar tongs. They are made so they grab onto the top of the jar so you can get them into and out of the boiling water easily.

After they boiled for 15 minutes, out they came! They were actually in there for way longer than 15 minutes. They were probably in there for about an hour and a half, but most of the time I was trying to get the water to boil. Processing time doesn't start until the water actually starts boiling, and it took forever! After waiting over an hour for it to boil, I decided to try my husband's suggestion and put the lid on the pan. It started boiling within a minute or two.

I got them all out and lined them up all pretty on a towel so we could look at them.

We were sitting on the couch a little while later when we heard the first "pop" of a lid sealing. Why is that exciting? We got really excited every time one of them would pop. It was very silly, but also very cool. Canning the salsa was really easy, and even more fun than I thought it would be. I love domesticated type projects, and this is something I can see myself doing alot of in the future. Be on the lookout for more canning adventures here soon!

Maximizing Space

2009-07-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

Food storage has been something of a challenge in our house. For some reason, the builders of the house did not think to include a pantry in the kitchen, so we only have cabinets. The entryway closet is the closest thing we have to a pantry. It was apparently meant to be used as a coat closet. It has the bar in it where a person would normally hang coats, but the bar really serves no purpose since there are also shelves built in there. I suspect that these shelves were built by another former resident who had food storage difficulties. We had it all worked out where we had just enough room to store all our kitchen stuff and food between the cabinets in the kitchen and the entryway closet.

Well, we did have it all figured out until I decided to start canning food. Where were we going to put all those jars? My husband came up with a great plan to make more room in the closet/pantry so we could store all the new tasty canned foods I will be making. Here's the closet. Yeah, I buy store brands.

If you notice on the bottom food shelf, I like to keep the baggies of dog treats with the extra peanut butter and the minced garlic. It's a tasty combo. Anyway... These shelves used to be totally filled with food. In order to make more space, my husband did this.

He cut boards to fit along the wall from the front to the back of the closet. Then he cut blocks of wood to screw into the wall as braces. Once he got the braces screwed in he set the new shelves in place and screwed them into the existing shelves. Look how much space was being wasted before! It is so nice to have that extra space in the closet. Isn't my husband a genius?

Our Little Boarders

2009-07-22T01:00:00.000-07:00

We have some little rooms out back that we rent out. All we ask in return for providing them with a happy home is to just be able to enjoy having them here. Can you see one of our boarders peeking out?

I think there were two or three babies in there at the time I took these pictures. We could only see one or maybe two little heads peeking out at one time, but I'm pretty sure I heard another little guy cheeping from the inside. The babies would peek out and say "cheep cheep" until their parents showed up with a snack. I happened to have my camera handy when the daddy bird showed up.

When one of the parents would show up with a snack, the babies went crazy with their cheeping! The parents fed them, then headed off to find more snacks. In the meantime, the babies would just stick their heads out of the hole and wait. The day I took this last picture, it was over 100 degrees outside, and I felt so bad for them! They would stick their heads out as far as they could and they had their little beaks hanging open. I'm surprised they didn't cook!

This little family has actually moved out since I took these pictures. They are the third sparrow family we have had so far this summer, and we already have another pair of birds moving twigs and scraps into the other house. I'm sure the behavior and antics of this new family will be the same as the other families we have provided homes for, but I will be no less fascinated by them than the birds who have lived here in the past. They are so simple and I have already spent many hours watching them, but they still never fail to entertain me!

Birthday Weekend - From the Dog's Perspective

2009-07-21T01:00:00.000-07:00

My hubby's parents gave him a fun camera for his birthday, and we figured this past weekend we could put it to good use. We were going to celebrate my birthday with hubby's family on Saturday and with my family on Sunday. It's a fun little camera that attaches to the dog's collar and takes pictures at set intervals. You can pick every 1 minute, 5 minutes or 15 minutes. For Saturday, we chose every 15 minutes because the camera only holds 40 pictures and we wanted to make sure it would be able to take pictures the whole time we were there, without running out of memory. Doesn't this look like something fun to wear around your neck?

We put the camera on Zoey's collar and told her "You have a big job tonight. You are going to document this event for us so can always remember what a fun time we had."

Zoey: I don't know about this camera, Mommy, but I'll try. It's not too comfy."

Maybe I should head to the kitchen first. I am a self proclaimed Chief Crumb Cleaner-Upper, and there's been some cooking going on in there. Maybe Mommy and Daddy would like a nice shot of the kitchen floor and the legs of someone the person sitting at the table.

What's this? A stool? A table? It's a mystery to everyone but me. But don't Grandma and Grandpa have a nice light in the kitchen?

After all that wandering, I'm tired. Maybe I should get in the recliner with Daddy to relax. That's not very productive, but I've been working hard!

Me: Zoey! You hardly got any pictures we could use! You'll get a chance to redeem yourself tomorrow, but you better be thinking about your strategy!

ZZZzzz... ZZZzzz... Snore... Snore...

Me: Ok, Zoey, I decided to set the camera to take pictures every 5 minutes, and I brought the laptop so I can upload them if your camera's memory gets full. It's all in vain, though, if you aren't able to get any good pictures. Have you come up with the perfect strategy to get us top notch doggie cam pictures?

Zoey: I have been mulling it over, Mommy, and I'm up to the task. I won't let you down!

I was on a mission to get better pictures of this event, so I decided to try a different approach Sunday. Positioning myself on the soft warm blanket on the couch would put me at a better level to get the kind of shots Mommy and Daddy are looking for. Plus, it meant I got to lay on a blanket. Blankets are the best!

Look, there's Grandma talking with Mommy's cousin! And I suppose I should try to get Mommy in one of the shots, since it's her birthday and all.

Zoey: Hello, Daddy! I'm here to take your picture! I think I should take a picture of Mommy's brother over there in the doorway too!

What's going on outside? IT'S GRANDPA!!!! My favorite person!!! He's the best! I think I should go see him over there. Wait a minute - What's he doing? He's got meat over the fire! He's cooking tasty burgers!

Oh look, there's Mommy's aunt and cousin! I think they have some dolls on the table there. It looks like they're having a good time. I wonder if they're enjoying the dolls as much as Mommy's sister-in-law is enjoying her cake? Mommy said it was a tasty lemon cake, but she didn't share any morsels with me. Mommy never shares morsels of her cake with me. The nerve!

Grandma and Grandpa's yard is a fun place to wander. Hey there's my little friend Ginger's rear end over there, and some people on the driveway!

Me: Good job, Zoey! You took some good pictures today!

Zoey: Mommy, taking top notch doggie cam pictures is alot tougher than I thought it would be. I'm tuckered. I think it's time for a nap.

I Can Has Cookie, Please?

2009-07-20T01:00:00.000-07:00

The cookies I made last week are almost gone. Their time with us has been brief, but oh how we have savored them! Here they are, the last of the cookies, soon to be only a cherished memory.

Please, Mommy - My kingdom for a cookie! No more eating junebugs or bird seed. I'll learn to survive without a blanket on the couch and constant belly rubbing. If only I could have a morsel of your delicious cookie! Just a crumb would be divine - Just a taste!

Aww, gee, if only they didn't have chocolate in them. Dangerous chocolate. It's only for your safety, little Zoey. I wouldn't want anything tragic to happen to you because I shared my cookie. I guess I will have to eat them all up myself!

It's Too Hot For This

2009-07-18T04:22:00.000-07:00

It's summer, and it's hot. I live in Texas, so the temperatures regularly get around 100 degrees or higher. We do what we can to keep the house a tolerable temperature without letting the electric bill get too high. The thermostat is set at 78, and we keep the ceiling fans going. Drafty areas by the doors are blocked with towels. That doesn't look so nice, but it works. Someday we will get up off our lazy butts and actually fix those drafty places, but in the meantime the towels work well enough. And we wear shorts to keep cool. Shorts are great. Here are a bunch of my shorts.

I like my shorts. They keep me from burning up in the Texas heat. I have a problem with them, though. For some reason, when I went shorts shopping, I was drawn to shorts that have to be ironed. All the shorts in that picture, plus the ones that are in the wash right now, have to be ironed. Besides the fact that ironing is not high up on my list of fun things to do (in fact, I don't think it's on that list at all), it's just too hot to iron! As I do the laundry the pile of clean shorts that need to be ironed piles up until all my shorts are in the pile and all I have left to wear are not-so-presentable boxers that I hijacked from my husband. Unfortunately, this is the situation I am in right now. I have plans this weekend that I would prefer to look presentable for. I guess I better go iron my shorts.

What a Souper Meal!

2009-07-16T14:09:00.000-07:00

This is the first post in a new series I'm doing - Dollar Tree Product Reviews. Be on the lookout for more reviews in the future!

Check it out - It's a complete meal in a big cardboard bowl!

I have always been intrigued by this. I know it's really just a big bowl of ramen noodles, but it says right there on the bowl that it's souper! I decided that this was a good candidate for a review, so I picked up a couple. One for me and one for my husband. I thought maybe he would like to have a giant bowl of noodles too. They were only a dollar, so it's not like I was losing a bunch of money. And they're so souper, so really I should be paying more for them, right? I should be grateful they were only a dollar each!

When I opened it up, I saw that there were three packets included.

This was the most intriguing of the three packets - The "Finishing Touch"! This made it all seem so grand. As if I were going to be a fancy chef making a fancy dinner. I could imagine myself saying "It's almost ready now. I just have to add the finishing touch!" My friends and family would be waiting excitedly as I put the finishing touch on this souper meal. I imagined it all being very grand.

And look! It would be ready in only 5 minutes! And I could cook it in the microwave! This really seemed too good to be true. And not only is it chicken noodles, it's chicken "with vegetable medley". At least we would be getting our vegetables. Doesn't that picture on the bowl make it look tasty?

The directions said to put in the vegetable packet and fill it with water up to the line, then pop it in the microwave. I didn't quite fill it all the way up to the line because I wanted to get the full flavor effect of this tantalizing meal. Here's what it looked like after it came out of the microwave. Not as tasty-looking as the picture, but it wasn't quite ready yet.

The next step was to add the flavor packet and stir it up. It wasn't looking quite as tasty as I was hoping, but I was still holding out for a souper meal.

All that was left was the finishing touch! It was going to be magical, I just knew it would! So I tore open the package and drizzled it in.

The anticipation of the souper gourmet meal was, unfortunately, a bit more exciting than the meal itself. Despite its "souper" designation, its vegetable medley, and the oh-so-intriguing finishing touch, it was still a bowl of ramen noodles. It was more of a high-falutin' version of ramen noodles, but still ramen noodles. It wasn't hideous, it really was actually a decent meal, but that is coming from someone who actually likes ramen noodles and keeps them on hand to eat for lunch. If you don't like ramen noodles you may not like it. I don't think I would agree with it really being "souper" (though it was soup), but I will give it this - It was certainly a meal! There are LOTS of noodles in that bowl!

My Blog is Moving!

2009-07-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

I have set up a new blog on Wordpress! There are some really neat features over there that I want to take advantage of, so I moved all my posts, comments, etc over there. I am not sure how long I will leave this blog here, but for now, I will use it to post my forwarding address. Here is where you can find me now:

http://chickypez.wordpress.com

My Big Debut

2009-07-15T09:33:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new Wordpress blog! I have moved all my posts, comments, etc over from Blogger, and I'm excited to be in my new home on the web. There are lots of cool features that I found here that weren't available to me before, and I have been busy exploring them. Haha I am afraid that there are many things around that house that will go undone because I will be too consumed with playing with my new blog. I have been tinkering around with the basic look of it, and I think I've got that set. There's still lots more I will be adding and customizing though, so be sure to check back later!

Our 4th of July Feast

2009-07-12T13:52:00.001-07:00

Well, this post is a little late, but I thought I'd share it anyway. We ended up just hanging out at home on the 4th this year. It was a nice relaxing day. I figured we should still eat 4th of July food, even though we weren't going anywhere, but we didn't have any hot dog buns! I decided that if I could tackle making bread successfully, I could make buns too. It was pretty much the same as making bread, but I just made the dough into bun shaped mounds instead of putting it in a loaf pan.

Here I am fixing the mounds all up to bake:

And a close-up shot of the bun making action:

I even made some tasty potato salad to eat with the hot dogs:

Oh look! The buns are ready!

Yummy!

The buns actually ended up being larger than I expected, so next time I make them, I will keep that in mind and make them smaller. Haha It sure was a tasty meal, though! Later on in the evening, we sat out on the back porch and watched the fireworks show put on by the city to the south of us. We had a nice clear view of them. All in all a really nice 4th!

We Have a New Friend

2009-06-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

I am excited to introduce you to our new friend! We first discovered him when my hubby was out back mowing and he hopped out of some tall grass. We suspect that this little guy is hanging out under the A/C compressor, and he comes out at night to eat bugs with his gecko friends. He come up to the patio when it gets dark and the lights from the house attract lots of bugs. When we scare him, he hops over and hides under the A/C. I figure he probably likes it under there with all the condensation and whatnot. So, here he is for your viewing pleasure - Mr. Toad!

Bread

2009-06-27T10:38:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to make my own bread, but thought that kneading was some sort of intricate and tricky process that I just wouldn't be able to get right. I finally decided to tackle my fear, and the hubby and I set out on a breadmaking adventure. We thought it would be fun to have a pictorial documentation of the process, so here it is for your enjoyment!

This is the recipe we used, from my Joy of Cooking cookbook:

Here I am mixing the yeast with warm water. I opted to buy the jar of yeast instead of the packets, because it is actually much cheaper in the long run:

While the yeast dissolved, I worked on mixing up some other ingredients in my trusty Kitchenaid mixer. Apparently I had some sort of weird ponytail thing going on that day:

Adding the melted butter! Actually, it's margarine, but that works too:

And a little salt:

And the yeast! Without this, it would have been a breadmaking disaster:

Now just add the flour and mix:

Mix until it looks like this:

And get ready for some kneading fun! It actually turned out to be super easy, so I don't know what I was afraid of for all those years.

Here it is, all kneaded and ready to rise. See you in a little while, ball of dough!

It grew:

And now I get to punch it down - Take, that ya big ball of dough!

Forming it into mounds for each loaf:

And forming it into loaves:

And here are all my pretty dough loaves all lined up in their pans and ready to rise:

Get on in there and cook up into some tasty bread!

Hmm... Somehow I thought it would turn out bigger than this...

Ok, I know that was cheesy, but we just had to do it!

Here's what it really looked like:

So I put it on the cooling rack to cool before I sliced it up.

After much impatient waiting, we finally got to slice it!

Let me tell you, this bread was so good, I don't ever want to buy store bought bread again! As a matter of fact, I have another batch ready to go in the oven right now.

Sports

2009-06-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

I think this speaks for itself. I like it.

I Cleaned Out The Refrigerator Today

2009-06-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

It was due a cleanout since there was no place to put the new food because all the old food was in the way. There was lots of stuff to toss in there. I actually cleaned it out about a month or so ago, but I didn't do as good a job as I could have. So there was stuff I had neglected to take care of during that cleanout as well as the stuff that had built up since then. Fun things like the remnants of our New Year's Day dip fiesta. Uh-huh, you read that right. New Year's Day. It's June now. There was the remnant of a cheese ball that was even on a Christmas plate to add a little holiday spirit to the fridge. There was also the hardened chunk of cream cheese with crusty jalapeno jelly o top of it. Appetizing. Then, of course, there were the requisite bowls of leftovers that didn't get eaten. Then there was something unexpected.

Cheese! Yummy! Not much left in there, but a little cheese is better than no cheese, right? Hmm... Let's check the date...

April 27, 2008. I guess we shouldn't eat this cheese. With it being June of 2009 now, I don't like the chances of still being safe...

Lolly Lolly Lolly Get Your Egg Burps Here...

2009-04-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have more Youtube fun to offer for your enjoyment today. When I was little, there was this educational ad that played on TV. I think they played it during Saturday morning cartoons or something. I liked the tune, and I would sing along with it. Here's the kicker: I thought they were singing about something completely different than what they were really singing about. The ad has some people in a store singing about adverbs. They sang "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly Get Your Adverbs Here..." This is the only part of the song that I "knew the words" to. Obviously I was not paying enough attention to the ad. What I sang was "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly Get Your Egg Burps Here..." I know now that there is a distinct difference between an adverb and an egg burp, and I think if I had paid more attention to the ad when I was little, I may have figured it out then, too. And here is the ad for your viewing pleasure!

I Like Weird Stuff

2009-04-22T14:51:00.001-07:00

Hello! I have something fun to share today. I have had the CD this song is from for years, but I never thought to look for it on Youtube until recently. I like weird kinds of music, and this is one that qualifies. You may not like it, but at least watch it until he starts to "rap", because that's the best part! Feel free to let me know what you think of this artist who I affectionately call "The Bobo".

Darn Bird!

2009-04-14T11:18:00.001-07:00

Hello there! We love birds here at our house. We have lots of bird feeders and we put out tasty seeds for them and watch them eat it. We even have binoculars so we can get a closer look at our feathered friends and enjoy their presence to the fullest extent possible. We have houses for them out back and every spring, we enjoy keeping tabs on the new little baby birds.

One particular bird has me a little annoyed, though. Well, I suspect it was a bird, but there is no actual proof. You know how sometimes the birds fly into the windows? Well, last Friday, I was all excited because I didn't have to leave for work until 10:00. I was having a nice, relaxing lazy morning. I was just relaxing in the tub when I heard a really loud "THUD". I thought "Oh goodness, that bird hit the window hard!" You see, birds have hit our windows so many times that I have gotten pretty good at identifying that sound as opposed to other sounds. Well, this ruined the relaxing bath, so I hurried to check on the poor bird that hit the window. Sometimes they end up sitting around on the ground below the window for a little while before they fly away. And then there are the poor little birds that don't recover from their collision, but we don't want to think about that, now, do we?

Anyway, back to my story. I went around the house, looking out the windows for a sad little bird. When I went into what we call the "Fun Room" (where we have the computers), I saw glass on the ledge outside the window. That's right, the bird broke the window. I was sure that if it broke the window, it would be on the ground outside looking all sad, but there was no sign of it. There also wasn't anything else out there that didn't belong. The only evidence was a broken window. Fortunately, we have those double paned windows and it only broke the outside glass, so it's not like there is a hole there that is exposing us to the elements. Still, I am not too excited about having a broken window.

Here are some pictures of the fun for your enjoyment.

Vintage Card

2009-03-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my husband's boss went to an estate sale. Apparently the person whose stuff was being sold used to own a card shop. There were boxes full of vintage greeting cards for sale, so my husband's boss bought them, thinking that the people in the office would love to be able to get all the free greeting cards. The thing is, they are quite vintage, and mostly very odd. No one was taking any of them. My husband, being an odd person, decided to bring home a whole bunch of them to entertain me. When he got home with them, we sat on the couch reading them and laughing hysterically, wondering how in the world these cards could ever have been considered relevant. Since then, we have given some of them out, which has resulted in many chuckles from the recipients. There is one particular card which I desperately want to give to someone, but I can't bring myself to part with it. I often look at it and wonder what its creators were thinking. I decided that since I cannot part with it, I should scan it and post it on my blog for all the world to enjoy. I hope you appreciate its strangeness as much as I do!

Here is the front.

And here is the message on the inside.

Cola Debate

2009-02-16T19:26:00.000-08:00

Well, hubby and I were pondering cola the other day. We are partial to Dr. Pepper, but my parents like Coca-Cola. Most of the people we know either like Dr. Pepper or Coca-Cola, but we don't know anyone who prefers Pepsi. SOOOOOO... I thought it was time for my first blog poll! On my main blog page, there is a cola poll in the right hand column. If you feel so inclined, I would be delighted for you to take part in my poll! It would be interesting to find out how many Pepsi drinkers are out there compared to the other colas.

Where the Magic Happens

2009-01-19T08:57:00.001-08:00

Hello there! I love my Etsy shop. It's lots of fun. The thing is, when I decided to set up shop, I had no idea how much of a pain in the bum it was actually going to be to have good pictures of my items. Fortunately, my super smart husband was there to save the day - He made me a handy lightbox. It was easy to make, and the pictures come out great! It did take a while to get my method perfected. I'm talking weeks, maybe months. I still frequently find little tricks to make the pictures even better when I am editing them, but basically I've got it down now.

Here's the lightbox. Let me tell you, it's super fancy. It consists of a cardboard box with three of the sides cut out and covered with a sheet of tissue paper.

I just set it up on the floor in the living room when I want to take pictures. That way I can have a Lifetime movie going on the TV to entertain me during my photo shoot. I use three clamp on worklights, each with 90 watt floodlights in them for my lighting. It looks crude, but it really works well. For a couple of months my setup was out of commission because we had to put a couple of the bulbs in our backyard light, and one of the worklights quit working. During that time, I tried every place and every light around the house I could think of to try, and nothing worked as well as the lightbox. In fact, I didn't get any useable pictures at all during that time. I am so glad to have it all working again!

Now, the pictures I take in the lightbox aren't instantly ready to use. I do have to do some editing and cropping to make them pretty. That's where Paint Shop Pro comes in. Alot of people use Adobe Photoshop, but I don't have that. Paint Shop Pro works great, though! Here are some before and after photos.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Pretty neat, huh? I like it!

Zoey's Pretty Collar

2009-01-13T11:34:00.001-08:00

Every year for Christmas, Zoey gets a new collar to add to the rotation. This year, my husband found a really neat shop on Etsy called Bella's Pretty Collars, and we decided that Zoey needed to have a collar from that shop. There are lots of different designs and colors to choose from, and it was hard to pick. We ended up choosing the Hello Kitty collar. The seller was just fabulous! We sent her Zoey's neck measurement and she made just the perfect little collar! It is extremely well made, and just perfect for Zoey! SO... If you are looking to get a new collar for your doggie, be sure to check out Bella's Pretty Collars!

A Lost Christmas Tradition

2008-11-03T14:30:00.000-08:00

Now that it's finally November, we are getting really excited about decorating for Christmas. It's tempting to go ahead and get started on the festivities, but we know it's still way too early, so we are just sitting here twiddling our thumbs, waiting for the time to arrive. I figured that to help occupy my time while I wait, I would tell you all a Christmas decorating story.

When I was growing up, part of the Christmas decor was a big clothespin reindeer. It's probably about 2 1/2 feet tall, and it sat near the front door to greet us when we got home. After my husband and I got married, we inherited the reindeer to help spread the holiday cheer in our new home. There was a catch, though. Mr. Reindeer was in need of a serious facelift. This is where a Christmas tradition was born.

Our first Christmas, we set him out and said "We will fix him up soon." Sadly for Mr. Reindeer, we never got around to fixing him up. At the end of the season, we put him away, vowing that the next holiday season, we would fix him up as soon as we got him out. How sad he must have been when we got him out the next year and he had to spend the whole season in his sad and saggy state. This happened for a few more years as well. We joked that it was a Christmas tradition to pretend that we were going to fix up the sad clothespin reindeer, and we couldn't actually fix it because that would mean we would miss out on a fun Christmas tradition. It was pretty sad, really, because we had this poor dilapidated clothespin reindeer sitting there to greet our visitors, and every time someone came in, we had to explain our peculiar Christmas tradition of not fixing it up so they wouldn't think we were weird for having it there. Well, they probably still thought we were weird, but at least they had the background story for this particular weirdness.

Last Christmas, Mr. Reindeer's day finally came. I like to think that when I got home with the bag of supplies his poor droopy little ears perked up a little with anticipation of the fun that was to come.

Here is what he looked like before. He really was in a sad state of affairs.

As I began dismantling him, I found proof that he is indeed a boy reindeer. Not only is his nose red, his "parts" are red too!

After lots of work, here is Mr. Reindeer, totally refurbished.

Sure, we lost a Christmas tradition, but he really looks smashing, don't you think?

Princess Zoey the Scaredy-Dog

2008-08-22T16:46:00.000-07:00

That's Zoey. Isn't she cute? Well let me tell you a story about her. Before I begin the story, I must let you know that she is afraid of thunder. At the faintest rumble of thunder, she turns into a quivering mess and glues herself to us until all signs of thunder are gone. When it storms at night, Zoey wanders around the bed and pokes us. She shakes and acts pitiful, and if we try to go back to sleep she just wakes us up again.

Well, a couple of mornings ago, we had a thunderstorm. Zoey first woke us to let us know her distress at 5:00 AM. I looked at the radar and it looked like the storm was just about gone. I waited a little while, and when the storm didn't let up I checked again. This was no ordinary storm. You see, this was one of those continuous storms that keeps developing at the back as it moves. Boy were we in for a treat!

When my alarm went off at 7:00, I had not gotten to go back to sleep and I was pretty sleepy. The storm was still going, though, so I figured I might as well go ahead and get up. As I got ready for my morning students that day, Zoey stayed right at my feet, tripping me as she whined about the thunder. By about 9:30, the storm stopped and the thunder finally went away. Zoey was a happy camper and went off to take a nap. Poor little thing - She was just tuckered from the trauma of the thunderstorm! After my morning students, I had a couple of hours to kill before my afternoon students. I sat down on the couch to knit, but I could just barely keep my eyes open. I had been up since 5:00AM after staying up after midnight the night before watching the Olympics. This would be the perfect time for a nap.

I went back in the bedroom and got the alarm all set so I wouldn't miss my afternoon lessons. I laid down on the bed and closed my eyes, and what did I hear? RUMBLE RUMBLE... That's right - Another storm was coming! The little princess came running down the hall and jumped up on the bed, where she proceeded to climb all over me like I was a jungle gym. I finally got hold of her and tried to hold her down so I could try to get a little rest. Guess who showed up then? Mr Blue Jay! He was squeaking and squawking out in the back yard, and Bob decided to answer. He said "SQUEAK! SQUEAK!" over and over... That was fun. I never did get my nap that day.

The Closet

2008-08-05T18:17:00.000-07:00

I have a fun story. One day a while back I noticed a weird little cluster of bug poo on the floor near our bedroom closet. That's a neat story, huh? Haha Ok, so that's not the whole story - It's just the beginning. Well after I saw it, I looked around for bugs and couldn't find any sign of them except the weird poo cluster. I cleaned it up and that was that. Or so I thought.

A week or so later, we were all ready to go to sleep, when we heard a rustling. This rustling brought the poo cluster to mind, and I told my husband about it. We figured that these two things might very well be related. After alot of looking around, we still couldn't find any bugs. It was quite a mystery, what was going on in our closet! We only heard this noise at night, so we figured it must be some sort of nocturnal creature. Haha Nevermind the fact that we really are only in there for an extended period of time at night, so it could have been rustling its little heart out all day and we never would have known! We were afraid it might be a mouse or something, even though the poos had looked way too small to be from a mouse. My husband suggested that we might catch this creature in the humane trap, so he brought it in and got it armed with peanut butter and set it out to hopefully catch the critter. It sat there for more than a week, and nothing happened. The dog didn't even bother it - Maybe I shouldn't buy that brand of peanut butter again.

Anyway, we gave up after a while. We resigned ourselves to the fact that we would be creeped out in our own bedroom by a rustling creature that had a knack for rustling just as we were dozing off. A couple of months went by. During this time, I found poo clusters a couple of times and we were serenaded by the rustling on a nightly basis. It was very frustrating. Yeah, we could have called an exterminator, but that would have taken all the mystery out of it! Besides, we never actually saw any bugs!

Well, last night I was getting ready for the bed. I was standing right at the closet and I heard the rustling. It wasn't coming from the closet, it was coming from the closet door! I thought I must be crazy. When my husband got out of the shower, I told him of this discovery and he set out to investigate. He went over to the door and it happened again. He tapped on the door and it happened a couple more times. You know what? There were ants in our closet door!

Here's my theory. A while back we were going to hang a mirror on the door and drilled holes in the wrong place. We never filled in the holes, so I figure they went in the holes and decided they liked it. We didn't like it, though, so hubby took the door off and carried it out to the garage. He plans to saw it open and see what's going on in there. We will be getting a new closet door at some point. There's not one there right now, but no door at all is better than a door that keeps us up at night!

What to do, What to do...

2008-08-01T13:27:00.000-07:00

I have alot of hobbies. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I think "Hey, I want to sew today!" Sometimes I wake up and I think "Hey, I want to make jewelry today!" Well, sometimes there are days like today. I woke up today rarin' to go, wanting to craft all day. The problem is, I want to knit and make jewelry. Obviously, I can't do both at the same time, so I have been sitting here all day trying to make a decision on which I will choose. It is now 3:30 PM, and I have made no progress towards reaching this decision. I listed a few items in my shop while I pondered, but for the most part I have nothing to show for my day. Just watch - Late tonight, I will figure out exactly what I want to craft, and by then it will be time to go to bed! In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy the Lifetime Movie Network.

How Frustrating!

2008-07-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

I worked hard last week and over the weekend to get a bunch of stuff made to list in my Etsy shop. My big plan was to take pictures of all of it this morning, then spend the afternoon cropping and editing photos and listing things. So... I took a ton of pictures, then I uploaded them. I looked through them to find out which things didn't come out very well so I could reshoot them. I got all those items gathered up and was all ready to start the final batch of pictures when the batteries in the camera went dead. And wouldn't you know it - All the other ones were dead too! Now I have to wait hours until some of them get charged up so I can finish. Oh well.

Who's That Bird?

2008-07-21T11:54:00.000-07:00

In case you don't know me in real life, I should introduce you to my feathered friend. That lovely gray cocaktiel featured on my blog is our little Bob. He's a fun little guy. As you can see, he is not a fan of the camera. He was in mid squawk when I took that picture. He is usually much more friendly than the picture would lead you to believe. At the moment though, Bob is in the process is pretty-birding me to death. He doesn't actually say the words, but he squeaks it out in cockatiel speak. He has been doing this for the last couple of hours. About every three seconds or so he squeaks out his lovely rendition of pretty-bird. Sometimes I tell him that if he doesn't stop I will put him in the closet, but he knows me better than that. He seems to have figured out that the more he squeaks, the more treats I will give him to try to shut him up. Hahaha I guess I better go get him some before he makes my ears burst!

What a Nice Surprise

2008-07-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

Ok, a while back I made some fun fabric Christmas ornaments. I had a whole box of them all made up and ready to sell. I figured that August would be a good time to start listing Christmas items in my Etsy shop, so yesterday, I went in search of the box of ornaments. Hmm... Where did I put it? Oh, no! I think we put it out with the pile of stuff for charity when we were trying to get rid of some of our piles of stuff to make room for more piles of stuff! Well, I figured that it was no big deal - I can always make more. So I went to my fabric stash this morning to get the Christmas fabric out to make more fun ornaments, and do you know what I found? A stack of Christmas fabric, all cut out to make ornaments with! What could be better than that? I'll tell you what - Most of them were already sewn up and ready to finish! What a fun surprise!

Well, here I am!

2008-07-20T16:49:00.000-07:00

I see you found my blog. It is rather sad and empty right now, but hopefully soon it will be filled with interesting (and probably some not so interesting) tidbits from my corner of the world. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law have inspired me to start a blog, but unfortunately, now that I have one I don't have anything interesting to tell you about. Check back, though - I'm sure I will have plenty to say later!