Great Last Day of 2007

Only three more hours left of 2007, and we had a great last day of 2007. We loaded up in the car and headed out to Garden Canyon with the kids and Trinity. We hiked the trails for a little while and Trinity had a great time sniffing all the wild animals that had passed through the trail area near the creek. We saw mountain lion paw prints, raccoon, and deer. She wasn't so sure about crossing the creek at first but then realized that it was fun splashing around in it. All of us enjoyed our slow paced walk along the trails and checking out all of the things out there.

I cant imagine a better way to spend the last day of the year than with Todd and the girls. It was a beautiful day here today, and lots of sunshine for taking pictures of my favorite photo subjects. Tonight's entry is really photo heavy but I had lots of good shots from today and wanted to share. I hope that tonight finds everyone looking forward to the start of the New Year. Be safe! I hope that everyone has a year filled being surrounded by the people that you love. Happy New Year!!

Hey!! This isn't the Mall!!!

Stop following me!

Getting a closer look

Walking out of the old year and into the new

Peaceful end to the year

2007 in Review

I have spent a good share of time tonight going through pictures that I have taken this year. Thanks Gina for the idea of picking out my favorite pictures of the for this year...to bad there are way to many!! Instead I have added some more pictures to my side bar.

With only one more day left of 2007 I think I can say that this has been a pretty good year. We had several milestones passed this year...Steph turning 16, Todd having 2 more years till being in the Army for 20 years. Todd and I being together as a couple for 20 years, married for 18 years. Chey coming down from 2000 mg of depakote daily to a mere 750 mg. Sitting and doing Steph's very last IEP! Paige getting her first piece of art work into the district show. We have all enjoyed this year even with the ups and downs.

There were lots of prayers sent out this year, and thank you to anyone reading on the old journal when I asked everyone to help send the prayers. Gina has a beautiful son, who even with the long road ahead for him due to the surgeries he will still have to have, is perfect in every way. Christy is doing well again after scaring the life out of me this year. Kristen and kids are doing well again, and are working on making a new life for the new year. They aren't the only one's that I thought of this year, but they ranked up there on the list for daily thoughts and prayers.

The new year is going to bring yet another baby to the family since my sister Nellie is pregnant and engaged! I've already started with the prayers for a very healthy new little one, and for a good long marriage for her...she has more than earned the right to be happy.

We are going to do our every New Year's Eve here, stay home and cook something good to eat. Steph will be going out to the movie with friends for an early birthday celebration for one of them. Otherwise the thought is to just stay home and spend time with each other. I hope that tomorrow finds everyone spending time with the people that they love. Have a great, safe New Year's Eve!!

Who wears the pants?

Who wears the pants in this house? Well, tonight I'm guessing that Angel does. No matter what we did she kept heading back to find Todd's uniform pants to curl up in this afternoon. Must just be making it clear to all of us just who really wears the pants in this house. This actually made a better picture for today's felines since the rest of my other idea's just were not working out. It works out well though to end the Feline Fridays of 2007 with a bit of a laugh. So...it is time for everyone to head over to Steve's and check out all of the felines for this week. Don't forget, if you want to play along just post your own and leave a link in comments. I hope that everyone has had a great Friday and that a wonderful weekend is had by all.

The link is just one that will take you over to Steve's blog, so take some time and check out all of his great photo's. http://sepintx.blogspot.com/

Winding Down

I was going through pictures taken this month and found these taken out at Garden Canyon around the 14th of December. I had totally forgotten about there photo's. They were taken before I got asked to play photographer for the Santa with kids at the company Christmas party. Now that there isn't the Christmas Count down going on, I figured they would be a good post for tonight.

We had a great Christmas here, and ventured out shopping yesterday so the girls could use their gift cards that they got. (Note to self...remember not to go out the day after Christmas again!) All of the girls were very happy to find just what they wanted, and spent every dime of those cards. Due to holiday scheduling Todd has had this week off and will go into work tomorrow before the next long set of days off. His boss in the office figured one person per day for the whole day was the best way to go. (Need to remember to send him some treats!) We have all taken an after Christmas chill out attitude here. Amazing how quickly we can all perfect the art of doing nothing at all. About the only things getting done around here are the daily dishes, cooking, and taking care of pets. Oh yeah, and trying to figure out just what our New Year's Eve dinner plans are going to be. The girls are out of school till the 7th of January this year, so come next week I should be really hearing the sounds of children that have been home to many days in a row. I'm hoping that the weather warms up just a little bit so that we can maybe get outside for some small wandering adventures.

Well that is about all that is new for here. Tomorrow I may have to end my chill out days. That Christmas tree is screaming to be taken down here. Okay, so it isn't screaming, I am ending up yelling at dogs and cats way to much to stay away from it now that there isn't anything under it. I hope that everyone has a great Friday and start to yet another long holiday weekend.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas!! I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

One Day Till Christmas...Merry Christmas Eve!!

One more day and a little busy of a day I have planned. The last of the baking will happen today, sugar cookies, pies. If I get working on it here soon we will be having a slow cooked pot of chili for dinner tonight. There are cinnamon rolls baking in the oven right now for breakfast this morning. So since I'm already off and running for today I'm going to keep this entry short. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas Eve today!!

Two Days Till Christmas

Two days till Christmas, and yes even the beta's area of the house got decorated! I really should have drug out one of my tripods to shoot the pictures of this and the lights outside, but since I was in the final trying to get stuff done around the house before Christmas Eve, I guess this will just have to do.

Yesterday was our go through the house cleaning so we don't have to do anything for a couple of days but enjoy time together. Oh wait, I will be doing lots of cooking and cleaning of the kitchen but that is a whole other thing. All three of the girls whipped through cleaning their rooms in record time. Kind of funny how presents sitting under a tree can have a speed up affect on them. I heard few words of complaints about folding laundry as it came out of the drier, and few words of compliant when I asked for some help scrubbing floors in the house. Ah the days before Christmas, the one time of the year that I find all children willing to help Mom with some chores! Steph and I mixed up Grandma Joan's sugar cookie recipe so that the dough has more than enough time to chill. Chey and Paige opted to stand on the sidelines for that one since they really weren't feeling all that well. The sugar cookies are the sign that Christmas is really close. We roll them out and bake them on Christmas Eve every year. They are Santa's favorites! When they were younger it was sugar cookies and coffee that they had to leave for Santa every Christmas Eve. I always found it funny that they never wanted to leave anything chocolate out for Santa, like they already knew that Santa wouldn't eat it. If you ask the girls now about Santa they will tell you that they know who Santa is, and they believe that Santa is in each and every one of us, we just have to choose to do the kind giving things during the Christmas season.

To avoid the 3:30 a.m. wake by Paige and Chey yet again this year, I have planned for them to sleep out by the Christmas tree this year. Both of them are tickled to no end about this idea. Sleeping with the tree lights on?! What could be better than that? Chey cant wait to hear Paige tell her stories...about what I really cant say because they are never shared with anyone but those two. It is like some secret yearly thing when an older sister sits and tells stories to a younger sister who is just hanging on every single word. It has been that way since Chey was just little and if I asked I only get to hear "She was just telling me a story". If I'm really quiet though, I can sometime sneak out and manage to get a sweet picture of the two of them. Paige with her arm around Chey, and Chey leaning her head on her big sisters shoulder.

Anyway, since I have the feeling of starting to ramble on here this morning, I'm going to end this post now. I hope that everyone has a wonderful Sunday, and everyone stay warm. If you find that you have to venture out to a store today, just stay safe.

Three Days Till Christmas

I'm running a little behind today with my count down posting, but I didn't have the picture for today's post and wanted to wait till it got dark to shot it. Three days left till Christmas! Is everyone ready? I'm down to sugar cookies to be baked and a couple of pies for dinner on Christmas.

Christmas season has brought good upper respiratory cold to the house. Chey has ear infections to go with her cold, and as of yesterday a few medications to take for the next 10 days. This morning found all of us sleeping in , which was a very good thing because this cold is taking all of the energy out of each of us. It is a good thing that Christmas break has started for the girls and for Todd. Maybe by the time they all have to head back to school or work they might all be healthy again.

Anyway, I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Saturday and that the rest of the weekend is a great one.

Four Days Till Christmas With A Special Feline

With four days left till Christmas, I can sure say that this has been one heck of a week here. Kids are sick with colds and getting through finals at school this week. Todd and I of course caught the same colds and Todd is just trying to get through work this week. Me I'm just trying to finish up stuff around here for Christmas. Sick dogs to take care of too, so why wouldn't I take time out to save yet another stray animal from our back ravine area? I mean I wasn't really doing all that much anyway. This little feline girl isn't joining our zoo here though. Noel is what the girls called her right away. I found her Tuesday night while outside with a dog being chased through the ravine by coyotes. The dog made a big enough of a barking mad noise to scare off the coyotes. After getting puppy settled back in the house I grabbed a flash light and went for a walk to try to find their prey. Before anyone comments on that not being the smartest thing in the world...I'm aware of that...but I'm not about to stand by and let some small pet be killed just because their owner isn't smart enough to keep them in the house or worse that they just abandoned her. Anyway, this little girl by best guess is maybe 6-7 months old and about 5-6 weeks pregnant. I could see the look on Todd's face and hear it in the words that he spoke to me about not being able to keep this little girl. Noel proved to be a hard decision for me Tuesday night. What to do? I usually take any of the strays that I find to a gal in Huachuca city who has tons of rescue groups that she works with. But Tuesday night was already cold and going to get a lot colder, and Noel was already so cold I could see her shaking. My other thought jumped to the fact that since she is so young and pregnant that she needed to be seen by a vet fairly quickly. My choice was to call the base MP's and have them come out and get her. Not a choice I was totally happy with because I know from the MP's they go to the base vet, and then it is off to the shelter for the animals, and not just any shelter but the kill shelter in town. I fed her till she didn't want to eat anymore and made sure she had lots of fresh water to drink till she was happy while we waited for them to come and get her. Once they got here I made them take extra time to listen to me talk about just how sweet this little girl is. How happy she was to have someone hold her, pet her, give her warmth. They either would think I was crazy or maybe it would help her.

Wednesday morning I got a call from a friend who is a MP here on base, and he told me that Noel had been taken over to the vet and checked out, and that she is going to be spending the next couple of weeks till she has her babies right there and till the babies are ready to be weened from Mommy. So if you are in Arizona and have a feeling of wanting a wonderful, sweet feline think of Noel. I'm sure she would love a home where she can be warm and not worry about having to run from wild things that want to kill her.

It is time for all of the wonderful felines over at Steve's again this week. I'm posting this one pretty early here today so will hopefully get back here later to post the link over to him. I hope that everyone has a wonderful Friday and a great weekend heading into Christmas.

http://sepintx.blogspot.com/2007/12/its-feline-friday-time_21.html

7,6,5 days till Christmas

With the need to catch up because of missing 7 days till Christmas post, I figured I would not only catch up but post extra too. So you are getting the 7-6-5 days of Christmas all in one post. The topic for the girls this week; What is your favorite Christmas treat and Carroll?

Sweetpea's favorite treat is chocolate chip cookies. She would take off with the bags of chocolate chips if she could just sneak away with them...opps wait that is Steph. The 12 Days of Christmas and It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year are her favorite songs of the season. I personally don't care for the 12 Days one but that's okay, I can listen to it at least once.

Cheybug's favorite holiday treats are also the chocolate chip cookies.(I'm seeing a trend here that their Dad may not care to know about.) Favorite songs are Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bells, and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Right now she has a nose as red as Rudolph's due to the cold that has invaded this house just in time for Christmas.

Binky Sue's favorite treats are all the pie's and cookies! It just depends on her mood on any given day as to which she likes more. Her favorite holiday songs are Silent Night, One Little Star in Time, and the every now and then Alvin and the Chipmunks song.

My favorite treats...anything that I don't have to bake!! Oh wait, I do like baking the stuff, it is just with the heavy load of all the different nuts that I don't care for. I enjoy the fact that the girls still get so excited about the baking and are right there to help Mom, even if it ends up with Mom having to tell them all to get out of the kitchen because their endless talking and singing has caused me to burn myself countless times. I love the smells of the house, and the smiles on the faces as they get the coveted "Got the first one" look on their faces with their siblings. My favorite Christmas songs, anything by Mannheim Steamroller, Silent night, Little Drummer Boy, I Sing Noel...to many others really to sit and list out. I like the older versions from when I was a kid listening to them in my Mom's house.

Okay we now have yesterdays, today's, and tomorrows post made. No I'm not trying to speed up the countdown, but figured just in case I forget to sit down tomorrow I won't be missing another day. I hope that everyone is right where they want to be with their preparations for the holiday and that the week is moving at just the right speed for everyone. See you on Friday with a special guest appearance for the felines.

Eight Days Till Christmas

Eight more days till Christmas!! The thought "Let the super mad dash begin" comes to mind right now. I'm just happy that all of my mad dashing is done since we did our grocery shopping yesterday, and I know have the thought that if we don't have it...we don't need it!

Today's pictures are of the Santa Village, and to me not all that great of pictures. I was stuck in a bit of a bull headed frame of mind when shooting these and refused to take the camera off of the manual setting. This is the village that Chey helps me set up. Actually she sets most of this one up because she does such a great job with all of the people.

Cheyenne likes hearing about this one while we work. This one is all of the pieces of a village that I bought for my own Mom when I was a teenager. Every house in it was bought for her over several Christmas years. About 6 years ago she gave it to me to add to our own house. Cheyenne fell in love with it right away when she was 6. She would sit in front of this one talking about Santa and his elves and just how very busy they must be working leading up to Christmas. She would say looking at it was like looking into Santa's world. Paige has spun many tales in front of this one for her baby sister, which would always have Chey hanging on every word that she said.

What you don't see in these pictures is the fact that over the years a lot of these little people have had to be fixed because of falls that have happened because of kids or animals getting to close. But none of the girls want me to find new pieces for it. They like it just how it is, and want it to stay that way.

I hope that everyone has a great Monday, and see you back here tomorrow for the count down.

9 Days Till Christmas

Nine days till Christmas...and welcome to Grimmberg village. Also know as the white village or the snowman village. It always seems to be the first of the inside decorating that gets done. This year the girls worked extra hard with me on this village. The background is a dry pastel drawing that Paige did, and after we take the village down this year I am going to work very hard to make sure to find a safe place to store it. Steph and Chey took their poster board and worked with stickers and named our town. A good German name for the village that all the houses were bought in Germany. This village was comical one to get set up this year since I kept running into problems with the set up. Lights that worked and then didn't work. Lights that seemed to be 500 miles long that just didn't look right in the set up. Believe it or not this one little village took us a total of 5 hours to get set up. It is more than worth the time that it took though, because I keep catching kids sitting in front of it to just look at it. I just won't point that out to the two teenagers in this house that I keep seeing them sitting looking at it.

Since this was the first thing set up again this year, it was the one that triggered the question about "Just how old is some of this stuff Mom?" This is the first village that Todd bought for me. Half of it he had waiting for me when I arrived in Germany 2 weeks before Christmas in 1990. It was our second Christmas as a married couple, and our second Christmas with him in the Army. I was pregnant with Stephanie at the time and just made the deadline for being able to fly to Germany to be with my hubby. It was our very first Christmas without family, and the start of building our own traditions for the holiday. The second half of the village I got the following year. Our very first Christmas in Germany had 4 pieces of this little village and a very small live tree with just a few hand carved wooden ornaments that we picked up at the local Christkindles markt in Augsburg. Such a tiny little Christmas that first one was, but a great one because we were together and expecting our first baby just a couple months later. The small live tree tradition lasted for us the 3 years we were in Germany, because we were able to buy the trees with the roots and plant them after the holiday was over.

Okay enough of the walk down memory lane here this morning. After all we still have 8 more posts of the countdown to get through and more than enough time for strolling down memory lane.

I hope that everyone is having a good weekend and that all plans for the holiday are falling neatly into place for everyone. Have a great day and tomorrow a great start to the week.

Trintiy and Mia join the count down

Ten more days till Christmas, and Trinity and Mia wanted to make sure that they got to be a part of this years count down. The dogs are much easier to pose...umm okay so a little easier to pose than the cats. Bribe them with some of their favorite treats and they will sit there as long as you want them to, but they won't necessarily look in the direction of the camera.

Today has been a very busy day for me here in Arizona. Todd and I got out and did all of the Christmas shopping! We found everything that we were looking for, and now can spend the rest of the time doing baking. Everything is now bought, wrapped and just waiting for girls on Christmas morning. Boy am I tired tonight! Now I just have to finish getting that grocery shopping list done for tomorrow. I hope that everyone is having a great weekend.

Eleven Days till Christmas...Feline Friday

Just eleven days left till Christmas, and I know one thing that I will not be trying again for next Friday's feline picture...I will not be trying to pose either of the cats in this house again! It would have been funny if anyone else had been in the house to see the girls trying to help Mom with several different ideas for Christmas themed photo's with the cats, but it terrified all of us that were trying to get them posed. Angel and Eclipse move very fast when they are upset and not liking things that are going on. When they really don't like things they are vocal...very, very vocal! Put it together and you end up fearing for your very life with the sister cats. The one and only picture that I got last night was of Angel leaping out of a box and letting all of us know just how not happy she was with us.

It's Feline Friday time again over at Steve's so head on over there and check out all of this weeks felines.

http://sepintx.blogspot.com/2007/12/its-feline-friday-time_14.html

I will be back again tomorrow to continue the Christmas count down. I hope that everyone has a great weekend.

Binky Sue...The favorites and dislikes

Let the singing begin there are only 12 more days till Christmas. I don't really think Binky Sue was getting ready to break out into song, but the picture sure kind of has that look. Steph was kind enough to write out her list of likes and dislikes for me so that I could get this one posted earlier in the day.

Likes:

• Setting up the white village (Which will be showing up on here in the next couple of days.)
• Food...the sweets are a real favorite though
• Giving to see others smile
• Good reason for keeping secrets from others (Only time to keep secrets from others is what she actually has written down.)
• All the gifts (She has this listed as least important to her)

Dislikes:

• Setting up the Christmas tree
• Untangling the lights, tinsel
• 50 million ornaments
• Siblings waking you up at 3:30 a.m. on Christmas day every year
• Wrapping paper trash

Now for a big YAY out of my, they all did great with setting up their own picture shots and actually got this one done. Now I need to see about getting them to help me with pictures of cats for Christmas themed feline photo for tomorrow. I hope that every ones shopping, baking and general getting ready for the holiday is going well. Have a great day!

Cheybuggy...The favorites

Thirteen days till Christmas!! Today is Cheybugs day for what is her favorite things about the Christmas holiday season. The very first one that makes her list is the Christmas bears that she gets. (I know...everyone is just surprised by that one!) She loves the presents of course, the food on Christmas day, the sweets that we will start baking next week sometime. She loves the fact that the family is together, and the decorations. She likes when it snows around Christmas time, but that isn't that much for here.

There really isn't to much that she doesn't like about the holiday. Since we are at 13 days till the question is...Are we ready for this? See you here tomorrow for Binky Sue's favorites. Everyone have a great rest of the night.

Well we tried Little Bug

I posted on the 29th of November about Cheyenne's appointment with the neurologist in Tucson and lowering her depakote. Well last Monday I got a call from the school nurse about mid morning because of something going on with Chey. It turned into a 2 day thing for Chey and a headache that is some how connected and always has been, sticking around into this week. Today I got another call and the words "Mrs. G. we have an issue with Cheyenne here". So off to the school again this week to get Little Bug. Once she was home and settled into bed she had two more seizures. A phone call to her doctor which has still yet to be returned, and as of tomorrow morning doctors input or not I'm adding back the amount that we took away on the 30th of November. We tried his route last week of wait and see if it levels back out, and I didn't think last week that it would and I know for a fact this week that it isn't.

Chey is upset about having missed 2 1/2 days of school in the last 7 days, and more upset about not being able to keep lowering her medicine right now. Both Todd and I talked to her tonight though and pointed out that we cant watch her keep going through this, and since we know what was working, we need to get back to that.

I called the doctor today to talk to him about this, but only heard back from his nurse this afternoon and here at 9:15 pm haven't heard anything back. I'm not really looking for his say so on this one...but did want to give him a heads up about what is going on, and now I'm making the choice. At 750 mg we had control and at 500 mg we are losing control. Time to get some control back for my Little Bug.

Sweetpea Tuesday...Favorite things about Christmas

Fourteen days till Christmas, and a return of the girls on their days. Sweetpea's favorite about the Christmas holiday...well her idea for her picture is because of how funny watching people trying to wrap presents can be for her. She also enjoys the fact that while wrapping people get sent to their rooms to keep presents a secret till Christmas day. She enjoys wrapping the presents every year because of the amount of laughter that goes on while it is getting done.

Paige also loves the unexpected surprises that Christmas morning gift opening can bring. Some really good and other's just to priceless as the look on faces is just way to funny for words. (Paige will never forget the ice cube trays from last year!) The worst part of Christmas for Paige is having to clean up all of the wrapping paper after the tearing frenzy is over.

The girls have all be asked to figure out their own picture shots for this week to go with their posts. I think Paige did a great job with her set up for hers today and it seems to go very well with her favorites about Christmas. I hope that everyone is having a good week and see you again tomorrow with the count down.

Let the 15 Days Till Christmas Count Down Start

Time for the 15 days till Christmas count down to start. I'm glad that I did the pre-post yesterday because it helped me come up with a list of possible subjects for the next 15 days. The girls are already working on their topic for this week and planning their pictures.

I'm going to start with "What is the oldest ornament in this house" question from this weekend with the decorating. The little angel in the picture wins hands down for the ones that hang on the tree every year. She was made by my Mom when she was about 5 or 6 years old. That makes this little angel 52-53 years old this year. I can remember this little angel sitting near the top of every tree when I was a child. It was a huge deal to get her from her non Christmas sitting spot and find just the right place on the tree to place her. Always near the top, and always just about centered. Since she came into our house several years ago, it has continued the same way. The sign that the tree is perfect and done is when she comes out of her place where she sits the rest of the year.

There are a couple of angels in this house that are probably older, which the girls have tried to talk me into putting out. They however stay in a safe place year round since the last time they would put out. Cats and small delicate things are not always such a great combination. Joan gave them to me and they were Grandma Halls. But like I said best for those to stay in their safe place.

So now that the count down is started, what is your favorite or oldest ornament? When you get it out of storage does it always bring to mind a great memory of Christmas past? Is there one that is the sign that the decorating is perfect as it is and done?

I hope that everyone had a great weekend, and that this week doesn't pass to quickly so that we can all have enough time to get our last 15 days till Christmas stuff done.

Can I come up with 15 days?

For the last three years I have done a count down of the last 15 days till Christmas. Well, guess what...it is time for it to start again. Okay so starting today will take us up to Christmas Eve but might as well start it.

This weekend has been filled with decorating the house. Two villages, the tree, some of the windows and a couple of tables later we are done decorating! For our snowman village the girls all worked on making backgrounds for it. This year they even gave it a town name. (I will post pictures of it in the next couple of days and let you know the name then to.) Paige did a beautiful dry pastel drawing for the back of the space that it is sitting in and Steph and Chey did side wall stuff with stickers that I found. The snowman village was very frustrating this year due to lights that wanted to work then didn't. Take down, put up new, and repeat! I'm not sure but I think when it takes 4-5 hours to get just one small village done it might be taking just a little to long.

One of my favorite things about decorating that seems to help move my mood into wanting to get it done is answering the questions about "Mom, how old is this?" The winner of the oldest Christmas ornament...a tiny little angel. Hey!! As I'm typing this one up I'm coming up with idea's for posts over the next 15 days, I might be able to get through them all this year!

I hope that everyone has been staying warm this weekend, and has had a wonderful weekend.

Waisting Time

Oh the things I will do when I'm waisting time. My hopes for this week were to get things around for being able to pull out the Christmas decoration for this weekend. December 1st of every year get Paige started on me about the just when are we going to do this Mom? It's not that I don't love Christmas, because I do...I love what the whole season is supposed to be about. I just don't like what it seems to have become for so many other. The race to get that gift that people seem oh to ready to fight over. The decorating of a house just to out do a neighbor. People seem to forget to be kind this time of year. They smile less, they are crabby, and it is the non stop race. Every year I have a harder time getting started with my own. This year I will say it is going even slower than normal for me. Todd got the outside lights put up this weekend, and will finish them sometime tonight now that we have some new sets of lights to replace ones that just need to go. But I still cant find it in myself to drag out the inside stuff. I keep having the thought run through my head that I would rather just skip it all this year. Paige will not let me do that of course. Everyday it is the gentle to not so gentle pushing from her. She is trying to keep her Mom on track here. In a couple more days I'm sure it will become the not so gentle shoving from about getting this house decorated. Until then though I think I'm just going to watch the fish swim, because I'm just trying to waist time doing anything other than what I should be.

My Oh My

It's cold outside this morning but the winds have finally calmed. The little of everything weather yesterday continued till late last night. Today will probably be a day of clean up for lots of people in this area. I know on our circle there is an uprooted tall skinny evergreen that is going to need to be taken care of, several of the road signs are going to need work, and there is a street light that is listing that I'm sure the people who live in the house that it is in front of are going to want checked. Looking around late yesterday afternoon there is a ton of things that belong in backyards that people are sure to be wandering to find and return.

The local paper ran two stories about the weather for yesterday this morning which if you want to you can read by clicking on the links.

Mother Nature

Destruction

As far as I was able to tell on my first trip outside this morning with Mia, we still didn't have anything more than a lot of extra twigs down in our area. I am glad that I didn't have Todd put up the Christmas lights earlier this week though. From looking around at everyone who had already decorated, we would have probably had quiet a few broken bulbs to replace.

Again for family and friends in the Midwest that got hit with a worse winter storm, stay warm and safe, and everyone have a great Sunday.

Wacky Weather

If you tried to forecast the weather for our part of Arizona today, odds are you would get it right by just taking a wild shot in the dark. We have had high sustained 40 mile an hour winds overnight going into the first part of this morning with pouring down rain. Trees that either broke and fell over or that just pulled right up out of the ground at the roots. Street signs laying every where buy where they should be. (Sure hope that everyone knows the roads that they are looking for on base.) We have seen so many rainbows that I actually had the thought of being back in Hawaii again.

We have been up to 60 degrees, back down to 50, back up to 55, down to 48. Pouring rain, misting rain, sleeting rain, snow! Clear sunny, oh goodness black cloudy. Other than hitting temperatures up in the 100's we have pretty much had it today, and there are still several more hours of the day left to get through.

The pictures were taken out in the front yard just alternating between facing east and then west over the course of about 5 minutes. It has been a very fun weather day here and can not wait to see what the rest of the day throws at us.

I hope that everyone is having a good weekend, and to all of the family living in the Midwest...Stay warm and safe!

Pitiful Puppies

Yes a double post here tonight. Figured since I posted a picture of Angel and just why her and Eclipse don't like me. I thought it would be only fair to post pictures tonight of Trinity and Mia and the explanation of just why they don't like me as of tonight. Trinity has spent the whole day upset with me because she couldn't find Mia anywhere in the house. She sniffed, and sniffed...looked and looked but just couldn't find her. Trinity also spent a good share of the giving me dirty looks that seemed to ask "Just what have you done with my baby sister?"

What did I do with her? Well, Mia had her spaying surgery today. So tonight that Mia is home, Trinity is happy but annoyed about the fact that she can not get close to Mia at all. Mia on the other hand is probably very happy to not have to with her big sister tonight at all. I'm sure in a couple of days that Mia will still be trying to guilt me into doing things for her, but for right now she gets whatever she wants or needs. To cut down on her trying to walk to the back door I have even been picking it up and moving it and her closer every time. (Yeah so in a few days I will be regretting all of it, but I really don't care so much tonight.) She has only gotten sick a couple of times since coming, and really hasn't wanted to try to drink anything much. Tomorrow I'm sure I will be cooking up some chicken and rice for her to eat for the next couple of days till all settles down for her tummy. Now if I could just get the rain to stop pouring down on us every time she needs to go outside.

Okay so two posts in one night...one about angry cats, and the other about pitiful puppies. I hope that everyone has a great weekend.

Lucky to get any picture

This week I'm just feeling lucky to get any picture of either of the cats. Last Saturday due to...well just due to bad things both of the cats ended up needing to have baths. No simple amount of wiping was going to make things better, so into the water they had to go. Water, soap...lots more soap and once again we had fresh smelling clean cats. Okay so they both looked a bit more like drowned rats, but they were clean. Out of the whole thing I only ended up with 4 pretty good scratches, and walked away with the knowledge fresh in my brain about just how very much they HATE water. This week has been a very long one for me though. Eclipse pretty much let it go and is at least some what accepting of my saying her name again. Angel on the other hand, well I'm starting to fear for my life with her. Angel had already made it very clear to me that she wasn't happy when she peed on a sweat shirt just seconds before I picked it up to put it on. She made it even more clear when she decided to beat the heck out of my cell phone from any surface that I have set it on. Last night the worst of it got started though, when she started dive bombing me while I slept. Angel may only weigh 10 pounds but when she lands on your back in the middle of the night between your shoulder blades it gets your attention in a quick way. Today was filled with her knocking things off of anything taller than me when I was walking past, and the very worst for today was her diving off the top of the open front door on me. To bad for my friend that I was on the phone with at the time, because it did make me scream...oh and several choice words flew out of my mouth too. I'm thinking she isn't going to let go of the whole bath thing any time real soon here.

Anyway, it is time for the felines to get together over at Steve's blog again. So don't forget to head on over there and check them all out. Hopefully not all cats of the world are holding a grudge this week.

http://sepintx.blogspot.com/2007/11/its-feline-friday-time_30.html

Everyone have a great weekend!

Cheyenne's Doctors Appointment

Today was Chey's neurology appointment up in Tucson. I'm happy to report that I didn't feel like kicking the doctor off of a cliff. Okay so I wouldn't really do that, but I will admit to having thought about it a time or ten.

Anyway, he actually was very clear and once again agreeing that Chey does in fact have Epilepsy (DUH!!) but we are going forward with what Chey wanted at her last visit with him and that is to continue lowering the Depakote. So let's see a year ago this time she was on 2000 mg. The down to 1500, down to 1000, August brought her down to 750, and as of tomorrow she will be down to 500 mg. Come March 1st we will lower her down to 250 mg. The best news for me is that we don't have to go back to see Dr. OCD again till June 2nd!! Well, as long as everything goes well with the lowering of Chey's medication we don't have to see him. Knowing what I do about the medication if there is still going to be any kind of seizure activity we are now going into the zone where we could see it. So it is going to be with breath held, fingers crossed and several prayers tonight that tomorrow morning for the first time in just about 3 years that I will not be telling Cheyenne that she has to take her morning medication. I will have to make an early phone call to the school nurse to let her know just what is going on so that she and the teachers can keep an eye out for anything. Who knew that medication could be such a security blanket for a Mother? If all goes well over the course of the next 7 months, come June we will take a real look at ending her medication and putting a close to the years of Epilepsy.

Cheyenne by the time we got home was bouncing all over the house sharing her news with her sister, who were less than enthused about hearing all of it. I mean they love her and everything, and have hated the times that she has been so bad, but they don't have to take the Depakote so really... Cheyenne's hope is that she will be totally done taking medicine come the start of this summer. I would also like to see an end come to this one, and not just because it would also mean and end to seeing Dr. OCD. Chey has come a very long way in the last 3 years, and it would just be so good to see her so happy about no longer having to deal or worry about the "What if I have a seizure". So everyone reading this send good thoughts her way, prayers, angels, whatever you see fit to do. Like I said tomorrow I will start holding my breath and hoping for more good things for my Little Bug.

I hope that everyone is having a good week and that the weekend gets off to a good start.

Cant Chew Forever!!

New bones for the dogs to chew on, to bad Mia just cant keep up with Trinity. Actually that is a good thing or I would have to be out getting new bones on a weekly vs monthly basis. Mia just doesn't understand Trinity and the non stop chewing of the bone thing that she does. Mia tries but there are so many other interesting things to do in the house than just lay there and chew for hours on end. As of right now Trinity's new bone is just about down to the point where Mom picks it up and throws it away. Which just means that she will switch back over to one of the more solid ones laying in the picture and continue to work that one further down. Mia's bone still looks like it did when I took it out of the package this morning. Guess I better find a good hiding spot for it before Trinity thinks she needs to take that one too.

I hope that the week is off to a great start for everyone, may we all have a good one.

Little snow on the mountains

What an interesting weekend it has been for weather here. We had mid 70s on Thanksgiving day, mid to low 60s on Friday during the day, and then Friday night the storm rolled in. By about 8 pm we had temperatures in the 40s and rain, lots and lots of rain. Yesterday we didn't seem able to get above 40 all day, and then last night we dropped into the freezing area. So with the valley rain and mountain snow we have had our first winter storm. I love the contrast of the snow on the mountain tops and the brown/green of our valley floor here. For me the snow up on the mountains is just right, since I'm not really all that fond of snow. I'm not all that fond of cold either, which is why I really like living here in Arizona because probably a good 7-8 months of the year we have temperatures higher than 70 degrees. To bad both of the dogs loved the cold and the rain and felt that they needed to go out at least every 20-30 minutes to see just what was going on outside.

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, and if you ventured out shopping I hope that the crowds played nice. Everyone stay warm for the remainder of the weekend, and have a great week.

Angel

I'm always happy when Angel is willing to sit and let me take pictures of her. I'm thrilled when she lets me get in close for the photo's. I just really wish that she would have been willing to let me turn the lamp off that she was sitting under, because the light just really washed her out and gave me the yellow hue to all of the pictures. Every time I tried to turn the light off though she would take off till I turned it back on. I'm not really sure what her new day time "need the light turned on" thing is but I got pictures of her sitting very still, so I'm happy.

It is time for Feline Friday over at Steve's again, not sure if he has even posted yet for today, so I will probably come back later to add the link to his blog. I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving and has a wonderful long weekend.

Link to Steve's Feline Friday
http://sepintx.blogspot.com/2007/11/its-feline-friday-time_23.html