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

Happy Thanksgiving!! Binky Sue's favorites

Happy Thanksgiving! Well, at least to what is left of the day. We have had a wonderful Thanksgiving here today, with lots of great food. But before Binky Sue heads off for bed here tonight I figured we could sit down and get the last of the favorites posted.

Steph's favorites are the food, the pies, the food, oh yeah more food. After all of of that she loves the family and how important they are to her, unless she is trying to get her math homework done. Friends and how much they are there for her. Being able to share our home with a single soldier this year. She is also for this year and being one more year closer to being done with high school. Oh and did she mention the food?

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoys a great weekend.

Let the laughter and cooking begin!

The laughter and the cooking has begun!! In between helping me with baking pies and making deviled eggs the girls spent their time being very loud and goofy in the living room. Begs of "Please Help Me!" came from the bottom of a pile on the floor several times. Oh and the "Stop so I can breath" came from some very intense tickling of each other. Then there was the picking up and swinging each other that just had to go on. The whole thing made the time waiting for pies to finish go by very quickly tonight though. We now have a buttermilk, apple, and cherry pie just waiting for tomorrow.

Cheybug...Thanksgiving Favorites

Cheybugs Thanksgiving break started today, much to the great dislike of her sister's. Hmm...they didn't seem to mind having that whole week off in October for fall break without her. Anyway, Cheyenne has been Mom's great helper today, running out to the store with me for a couple of things, pulling china out to get run through the dishwasher, and several other little jobs. Which all goes well with the things that are her favorite about the holiday.

Chey love the fact that the holidays mean spending time with family. Cooking, laughing, watching movies, just all of the time that is spent together.

She loves the food part of it too. ALL that food Mom!! Buttermilk pie MOM!!

Today was on of my favorite things, the pulling out of the china from the hutch. It takes me back in time to when I was a child and Mom would pull it out for the holiday. Wine glasses for the sparkling cider that we would have, and the chest of the silverware. Even better is now doing them with my own children and hearing them say that they look forward to this time of the year.

One more day till the house smells like food all day long and makes you feel like you are starving. If you have to head out to a store today, I wish you much luck, and stay safe. Now it is time for me to get a few last small chores done around here. Everyone have a great Wednesday!!

Sweetpea Tuesday...Thanksgiving Favorites

Perfect topic for the kids this week. What is your favorite things about Thanksgiving? This is Paige's year to name the turkey, so first let me start by introducing you to Toodles the Thanksgiving turkey. He is just over 15 pounds of turkey goodness that started his thawing time in the fridge Sunday.

Paige is very excited about Thanksgiving coming up so quickly here this week. Her favorite things about the holiday are;

The cooking and the fact that she has a dish that she likes to cook, the green bean casserole. Her favorite because she doesn't have to get close to the stove top to work on.

The eating...of course

The laughter and silliness that seems to enter our house come the holidays.

The Macy's Day Parade! She loves it because there is something new every year.

She also wishes that she got more time off from school for the holiday, but knows that Christmas break is just around the corner and that is her most loved holiday of the year.

Today will be the pre Thanksgiving scrub down of the house for me here. Get through all of my cleaning, which shouldn't take all that long here today. You know there is that daily clean thing then there is holiday cooking clean that goes on. I hope that everyone is having a great week so far and is all ready for the holiday.

Just what I'm thankful for

What I’m thankful for…

I’m thankful for family who share those special moments with us even though we have lived so very far away for such a long time. For the phone calls every week to catch us up to date on things going on. For the reminders that we are missed and loved.

I’m thankful for my husband who has worked for very hard in all ways. Who has changed so very much, but is still the one and only one for me in this world. For having him home to share the fun of the holidays with. For knowing that I am loved by him.

I’m thankful for my beautiful daughters who remind me every day that being Mom is a full time job and then some. They share their joys, their tears, their highs, their lows, their successes, and the times that aren’t such a success. I’m thankful that they come to me for advice when needed, to vent when they have to, for kisses and hugs at bed time still. I’m thankful for every minute that I get with them, even the ones that make me want to pull my hair out.

I’m thankful for my friends. For being able to stand with a friend and hold her hand when fear of “what if” was so much. To be able to hold a new life that was prayed for so much. I’m thankful for friends that were willing to pray every day for so many months for that little life. I’m thankful for not losing a friend because the people that were supposed to be helpful didn’t have a clue as to what they were doing. I’m thankful for hearing from a friend that she and her kids are okay, and pray that life for them gets just a little easier in the aftermath of all the bad. I am thankful for friends that have laughed with me, cried with me, vented with me, been goofy with me.

These are the things that I’m thankful for not just on Thanksgiving Day, but everyday of the year.

My favorite memories of this holiday…well it would be any of them that I spent surrounded by the people that I love, which is every year. Seeing my Mom pull out the china as a child and being able to do it now with my own children. Waking up early to help my own Mom get the turkey stuffed and in the oven, and now having my own children doing that very same thing. The planning, the smells, the laughter, all of it is why Thanksgiving is my favorite of the holidays. I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Just what are you thankful for?

With Thanksgiving being just six days away, I think it is the perfect time to to toss something out for everyone here. Just what are you thankful for? Now I know that family and friends usually top the list of things that are said, but what about going into more detail then that? Maybe this week we could share the details about why we are thankful for what we are. Family, friends, children, animals, memories, traditions? What are the things that make the holiday for you? For anyone who is reading this post your own on a blog or even in comments. For Thanksgiving this year, let share these things. Let's say that by Wednesday we take a few minutes before the insane cooking gets started to type up the things that make us thankful. Share the good details, the funny, the moments that make the holiday for you.

It is just a thought, because face come Friday when we are all sitting around because of eating to much, we are going to need something to read!

I hope that everyone is having a great weekend so far, and hope to see some shared thankful thoughts.

Ummm...you cant see me

Yes Eclipse is playing very hard to photograph this week. It has been all week that I have tried and I'm now to tired to try anymore tonight. So it is this the back up photo. She is there, really she is. She is the one behind the curtain, maybe she is playing the wizard this week. She is the Great Eclipse! Anyway it is Feline Friday over at Steve's again, so head on over there and check out all of the great felines for this week. I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend! http://sepintx.blogspot.com/2007/11/its-feline-friday-time_16.html

Doggy Dog Friday

Well, it seems to be a thing for me this week that only one animal of each kind in this little zoo here is going to work with me for doing pictures. Trinity would only let me get her in profile, and Mia...well we just won't talk about those. Enough to say that my lens needs one heck of a cleaning now.

Okay, one more set of pictures to post for today and that will be Feline Friday one's. I'm going to take just a little bit before posting any because I would still like to try and get something other than what I have waiting as back up right now.

Friday Fishy Fish Fish Fishy

Well, my hope of no more helicopters didn't work yesterday, so I had to point the camera at something to keep me from standing and shooting several hundred pictures of those loud annoying things. What better than some very silent swimming animals to help calm the nerves, and a great personal challenge for myself too.

The camera's auto focus was going nuts trying to get focused on anything. I was shooting with the windows right behind and open wide so flooding everything with tons of light. Oh and on macro setting just to make my personal challenge a little more difficult for me. Once I turned the auto focus off...just because I was sure I was about to blow up the camera...getting a good manual focus on just what I wanted was very difficult.

Nami was the fish that I worked with the most, because he seemed to be the one that was most willing to keep coming to the front of his tank to check out what that huge thing was just outside of his tank. He even flared up for me more than once. I kind of like this new challenge that I made for myself and will be trying to get better pictures now. I'm thinking this weekend after I clean the tanks, and not just Nami here. So look out there could be way more of the fishy fish fish fishys.

This is not replacing my Feline Friday for today, actually I'm thinking that I will make this an all animal kind of posting day. Trinity and Mia picture's will be next sometime today and then hopefully the cats will work with me for some feline time. I do have one picture of Eclipse already from yesterday, but she wasn't working with me so well and you cant really see her all that well.

I hope that everyone has a great start to their day, and see you all later with some more of the animals from my little zoo.

Oh please no more helicopters!

I am so hoping that the weather just will not work today for any more helicopter flights here. The last couple of days they seem to be doing some kind of training and living in my house has just been so very LOUD! The thumping of the blades has rattled more than a few things off of the walls in my house in the last two days. The old Hall Circle housing that has been empty since December is now the new training area I guess. At least the helicopters I can hear coming, unlike when we lived over on Hall circle a few years ago and the housing area behind us then was empty and being used for training. Nothing like looking out your windows one night and seeing a bunch of shawdows with riffels walking through. Sometimes the things that you see going on while living in military quarters will stop your heart...and I'm just talking about the training things. I will never forget my Mother's reaction one morning while she was visiting us in Hawaii. Across the road from our house was where they would set up the "BIG GUNS" and most days they seemed to be pointed right at our house. My Mom screamed something about needing to get out of the house, and it took us a little bit to get her calmed down, and explain that this was just one of those things that you see on a military post. My best was pointing out to her that it is just like seeing the signs for the gas chamber on base. Or seeing the whole units out on the roads marching in full battle dress with their riffles. Neither did a great job of comforting her, but over the course of the time she was their with us she calmed about seeing all the different things.

What is funny is this week with the helicopters being so busy flying it has reminded me a lot of Hawaii this week. With Wheeler Army Air Field right across the way from where we lived, the helicopters were a daily sound that you just got so used to. Kind of like the sound of gun fire from the ranges all the time. Amazing the things that you can just get used to. But I don't want to get used to the helicopters here this week. Not unless I can have a schedual so that I can make sure to get all of the things off of my walls first!

End of a good weekend

The end of the long weekend for the girls is drawing near here. It has been a great weekend filled with lots of acting goofy, and laughter here in Arizona. This afternoon was the goofiness of Chey and Steph trying to lay on the floor and play with the dogs. To bad the dogs don't really play all that fair, they like to jump on them and lick them till they are laughing so hard it is difficult for them to catch their breath.

I hope the "animals must be in pairs so they have friends" thing has finally reached it's balance. We started with two beta's, and then last weekend it grew to 4 beta's in the house. As of today the total is 8 beta's, and I'm praying that this is done now. Since Paige bought her stuff last week, Steph took the week to figure out just what she wanted and that was all we were going to get today. Well, of course Paige and Chey both saw other one's and started talking about the fact that they were sure that their beta's were lonely and needed to have a fellow beta friend in the room. I could only resist their begging so long, and since we had most of what was needed left over from the first beta's, paying the $1.57 for each of their fish wasn't a big deal...I'm just getting a little tired of this whole in the store whining thing the youngest two have been doing the last couple of weeks. Anyway, now we have Colton and Nanami or Nami for short who now live in the living room. Arthur and Artimis who live in Paige's room. Millo and Kero who live in Chey's room. Rio and Kaito that now live in Stephs room. I cleaned all of the tanks and now the girls know what they are supposed to do and will be cleaning their own tanks, and I'm hoping that I don't have to hear the words "but my beta need a friend in the room" for a good while.

We have had some really perfect weather to go along with the great long weekend here. Today was a little on the cool side with us only seeing a high of about 65, but we are supposed to warm back up again come tomorrow...back into the 80's again. Todd has one more day off, and then will be back to work for a very short week. Me...I'm starting to work on my Thanksgiving list of just what to cook for this year. The most fun part of that one is when I ask family just what pies they want. It always leads to at least a couple days worth of debate between pecan, buttermilk, apple, and pumpkin. No matter what I win with my choice because I'm the one baking them, so every year there is a cherry pie. For some reason they seem to think that every year I need to bake 4 pies for just the 5 of us. Some years they win, and other's they don't. I'm thinking this will be a losing year for them on that one.

Anyway, I hope that everyone had a great weekend. I'm hoping that this week the girls will come up with some topics or just one topic so that I can get back to some regular posting here.

Official look of Fall

The official fall look is here in Arizona. The Arizona broom bushes are doing their fall thing. This is the look we get right before the true cooler temperatures set in for the fall. Here in probably a couple of days the winds will kick up and the broom bushes will make it look like it is snowing. I'm hoping that the days of up in the 80's are going to be over and let me finally get the ac turned off for good here. I'm really hoping that the breezes will move in and stay so that no matter what the outside temp is getting to that ac can stay off. I have been keeping windows open as long as I can, but I have a rule once the house reaches 80 inside I have to cool it down some in here. With no windows in the kitchen it usually comes around dinner time that the house gets way to warm. So here is to hoping that the fall temperatures roll in here this week.

I hope that everyone is having a great weekend.

Thanksgiving Turkey

All of my family and friends know how very much I love Thanksgiving. Tonight I saw the funniest commercial ever and just have to share this. Who hasn't had this feeling come Thanksgiving?

Cat, Cat, Fish?

We have Eclipse watching and tattling on Angel who is watching Colton the beta fish. Oh the fun of having sibling animals! Eclipse didn't like the fact that Angel was sitting so close to the cool things that just swim around in circles in the glass jars. That is her spot to sit and watch these things that don't make any noise. The first things that Mom has brought into the zoo that don't make noise and don't feel the need to chase her. Angel just sat and watched for a good while, and batted at the glass a couple of time, but when there was no fun of a chase happening, she got bored and left. Off to find a dog to play the wonderful chase me game again.

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

Yawning or Laughing at Me?

I'm not sure if Eclipse was yawning or laughing at me today while I was trying to take a picture of her for Feline Friday. I do know that after shooting 20 plus pictures just about all of them look like these two, so I'm thinking she was laughing at me. It didn't seem to matter what I did, right this is what I got for pictures. Petting, brushing, playing, I even tried a couple of times of begging her to stop what she was doing. I guess the lesson for today is a picture is a picture, and did I really think that the cats would actually work with me for this?

Since it is Friday it is time to head over to Feline Friday over at Steve's blog. Check out all of this weeks great felines and if you want to play along just post an entry on your own blog and leave a link in comments. Everyone have a great weekend, and look out for animals possibly laughing at you.

Life in the zoo

Mia wanted to show off just how big she is getting here. The top picture is of Mia at 8 weeks old. So cute, little and floppy eared.

This is a picture of Mia tonight, the night before she hits 16 weeks old. Amazing how quickly the last 8 weeks have gone. I'm guessing she may weigh about 15 pounds now, she really loves those treats she gets. Trinity and Mia have settled into a pretty good relationship here in the house. (Most days anyway.) She will be getting her last round of booster shots and her rabies shot on Wednesday next week, and her surgery is already set for November 30th. I'm hoping that sometime soon after that I will be able to remove the border walls that I have had to set up in the house. Our house breaking has been semi slow, and the getting along with other's has taken just a little bit of time too, but I'm hopeful that by the start of the new year it will be a calm life in the zoo here.

Speaking of the zoo...we added two more to the collection here. Male beta fish, Colton and Nami. I'm not real sure why we have to have everything in pairs here but I guess so no one will be lonely. The fish have their home on the shelve over the kitchen sink in the hope that the cats will not notice them here. (Fingers crossed that they just don't notice the new pets in the house.) Since it was such a sudden thing I'm really hoping that they don't die. A quick call made to a friend with a mini zoo of her own going on, and I think I should be able to keep them going, as long as the cats don't get any bright idea's.

We haven't had any great thoughts for topics for the regular posting the last couple of weeks, but we are working on it, so maybe we will be back with Sweetpeag, Cheybug, and Binky Sue next week. I hope that everyone has had a good week, and has a great start to the weekend tomorrow.