I love this post that Friend Shannon posted yesterday! Yeah, what she said.

Good stuff to ponder.

I didn’t know how to corral the topics of this post into a title, so I just took the easy way out.

Keelyody and I are not walking this morning. It is raining, and I am glad.

Not because I don’t want to walk with her, because that is always fun, it’s because I have this weird, pinging, hurty thing going on, deep in my left hippish area. Not really my hip, more like where my leg connects with my hip. If you grab the side of the area, right next to your lower bum cheek? That’s the spot.

I discussed it with Mousey, the most athletic person that I personally know,while driving her to school this morning.  I explained all the ins and outs of my problem and told her that for some reason, it didn’t seem like something that I could just walk off.  Like it would only get worse. She agreed with me. She told me that it sounds like I hyper extended my hip flexor. She has evidently experienced this particular weird, pinging, hurty thing. She said she rested it. I’m going to go with that.

The windswept pumpkin is still out on the driveway. Looking forlorn and begging me to love it and put it on our front porch.

I forgot to tell you all about Katie’s eye. For about 3 weeks now, she has been having a weepy eye. I thought maybe she had something in it and tried to wipe it and rinse it out. That didn’t work. That was all we did, except to frequently tell each other, “there is something wrong with that dog’s eye”. When I looked very closely at it, it was looking cloudy, so I assumed that she was getting cataracts, and that must be the cause of the weeping. Because I am an expert.

You can just imagine how attractive this dog is getting. Only about 4 teeth, tongue always protruding out of the right side of her mouth, and now a winking, juicy eye.

On Tuesday, after inspecting the Weepy Peeper yet again, I noticed there was a pinpoint spot on her eye. Now, I’m no dog eye doctor, but that didn’t seem right. I told Abby she probably needed to take her dog to the vet. AGAIN.

Because that is the only reason that Abby goes to work anymore. To pay her vet bills.

She has an ulcer in her eye, which the vet informed Abby could be contracted in a hundred different dog behavior, type ways.  AND, which the vet told Abby,  is very painful. We are the worst dog owners. They gave her 2 sets of drops, and she is already looking less weepy and less like she had a long night at a bar down town.

I never did take a picture of her in all her glory, because everyone likes a cute doggie picture. I am here to give you pictures of her in a happier time.

Last weekend Honey made us “restaurant quality”  ribs for dinner and we gave Kate some bones. Oh, she loves to gum her some bones!

This is her bone chewing pose.  Her bone stance.

Because she is a girly, sissy dog, she understands that she has to eat her bone on the beach towel. She normally likes to take her treats to the foyer rug. But those are clean treats, like her favorite, carrots. Unclean treats must remain on the beach towel. She knows this house rule.

The next evening I prepared to give her another bone that I had stored in the refrigerator. All I had to do was lay that beach towel down and she was prancin’!

Look at her cute little rumpus!

Have a good weekend!

The Little Goomba was here this week after having not been around for a couple of weeks. His Dad, my brother Beeve, was laid off. But he is back to the grind now. And The Goomba is back.

We have now been watching him for a year. And he knows his way around the joint. He likes to do many things over here, but his favorite activity is this, the book basket.

This is his very favorite book. I bought it at a garage sale this summer for 25 cents.

And this is his very favorite page.

 I’m sure I don’t know why. The lamb and donkey page run a close second and third. But he always says the same thing; OHHHH!  LOUDLY. His second favorite book has a snowman in it. It’s a biggie too.

Yesterday, I spent some time taping up his favorites. They were  getting a tad dog eared. Now he can continue with his readership. Yeah, he’s a scholar.

 We have  slowly been getting things done around here. Working things in between a lot of snow and sub zero temperatures. Because that is when I yearn to get in and out of my car 47 times in one day. I think my face was chapped on Monday.

We have a small family, and therefore, not a ton to shop for. Plus, we have tried to scale back this year. Because, quite frankly, our needs  are not many. And Honey needs  for us to give him some piece of mind and stop with the spending. We will be implementing the Ford Fiasco Financial Planning Budget on January 1, 2009.

Mainly,  I have been finishing up the few Christmas gifts that I made. That I will show you after Christmas. Just in case the gift-ees happen to stumble on over to the “blob”. Oh, that and making  peanut butter fudge, shortbread, cut out cookies, and as of last night, the Girls and I waded into chocolate covered pretzel territory. I personally  love a good chocolate covered pretzel. And considering that the Girls are now 19 and 14, the mess was not catastrophic. As it surely would have been several years ago. Our main problem was due to the dog. Who was totally underfoot, as usual, waiting for a dropped schnibble. She dusted the floor on several occasions. Accidentally, of course. What part of “GO LAY DOWN” was she not getting?

We decided to break all the pretzels, therefore ensuring maximum chocolate coverage, except for the small part that was being held. I can’t wait to try the ones we dipped in crushed candy cane. Cause I wasn’t in the mood to taste one when we finished at 10:30 last night. Super easy and fun. We will do it again. And we will keep our eyes open for new and improved ways to make them tastier and more attractive. Maybe we will become known  for our extreme chocolate covered pretzel ways!!!!!! Or it will all fall by the wayside. Who can tell?

This afternoon, we are going out to lunch with our dear friends, The Hostlers, and then this evening we will do our family thing. That involves Honey setting up the tripod, the kids whining that they don’t want to be on camera, one of the kids reading the Christmas story from Luke, and having our Happy Birthday Jesus party. This year, our special “cake” will be Honey’s cookie creation of snow covered mountains, considering God made all mountains. And the sun.

And then we open our presents from each other.

I don’t have a ton of work to do, cause I’m not sure if I mentioned it or not, but we are OFF this Christmas!! We are heading over to Beeve, Stacey and Goomba’s house for Christmas day!!!!! It’s good to be OFF!!!!!!!

This came in a little RBC thingy that we get daily on e-mail. Just so someone won’t think I plagiarized  or something.

Paul wrote that God is at work among people of all nations “so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:27-28).

We should be alert for the Lord’s presence where we least expect to see Him. Jesus may invite Himself to any Christmas party. After all, it’s His birthday. —David McCasland

Merry Christmas to you all. Praying you experience the true meaning  of joy, peace and love. Jesus, the real  reason for the season.

What’s Your Name’s Hidden Meaning?

What Kelly Means

You are a seeker of knowledge, and you have learned many things in your life. You are also a keeper of knowledge – meaning you don’t spill secrets or spread gossip. People sometimes think you’re snobby or aloof, but you’re just too deep in thought to pay attention to them.You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don’t get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in. You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising. You may miss out by not settling down, but you’re too busy having fun to care.

Ab-Cat and I thought this was hilarious!

Mousey has been going to swim practice  Monday through Friday since early August. From 5 to 8.

It has been much  more of a commitment in high school than it ever was in Jr. High. Considering the whole season, practice and meets, was probably only six weeks long.

Around the second week of school she made a startling  announcement. She was changing her horse in the middle of the stream. She decided she was going to dive. She had tried it and LOVED it.

Well, I guess that was fine. Even though we were just  getting the hang of the swimming thing.

 So, Honey and I have been vaulted back into total ignoramus status  again. We know nothing about diving. Except that the Chinese dominated the sport at the Olympics. Which is really not useful for instruction at high school sporting events.

We  expressed our surprise, many times, at what appeared to be a great dive to us, was somehow really the worst dive that particular diver had ever made, and the commentators would proceed to pick the thing apart.  We also are aware that one does not want to move the water AT ALL upon entering. No splash, no flume, and for heavens sake, POINT THOSE TOES. And that, my friends, is the extent of our diving knowledge.

She is now 3 months into the season, and tonight was the first meet she was able to participate in. I guess you have to know 6 dives. And since she had never even been on a diving board in her entire life, she did not have 6 dives. Tonight, she debuted her 6.

We think she did well for newbie. Some of her scores were the same as other divers. She did get some 5’s, which she told us was good for high school. We are going to have to take her word for that, cause like I said, we are a bit out of our expertise.

Our only concern with her switch was that she had practiced so long to swim, and then had to redirect everything to learn the dives. We wondered if maybe she should have just swam this year and then started the season NEXT year with the diving.

We are proud of her no matter what she decides to do. And she looked especially cute in her team swimsuit!

Go Mousey!

That’s from “You’ve Got Mail”.  That Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox, that’s F-O-X, they also loved fall. Well, fall in New York, but whatever.

Today is the first day of school for our senior and our freshman.

The Ab-Cat, who is starting her second year of college, went to the zoo today with her other college buddies.

Honey has to go in to work early.

My brother, Beeve, went back to work this morning after being off all summer.

So it’s just me and The Goomba, hanging out.

And it’s HOT today. And the grass outside is a fire hazzard. I hope one of those hurricane rains will  eventually make an appearance in the mitten state

Tomorrow is a workshop for BSF. It’s the Bible study I serve at. This year’s study is ”The Books of Moses”. It doesn’t actually start til next week. So I have another week before I am reminded of  how much in common I have with those ornery, complaining, stubborn Israelites.

So I guess summer is really over. I don’t know where it went to.

I am ready for fall though. It always seems like a fresh start to me. More so than January 1. So I will unpack my high hopes for the new season, along with my spiffy fall clothes, and start all over again.

Happy New Year!

The Boy has a pair of pants that I hate. Yeah, that’s right , I hate them.

They are just brown and chino-ish, but that isn’t the problem. The fact that he cut the hem off is  the problem. Because he cut them off to the ankle. So they are floods.

So, STOP right there, and let me tell you why I have issues with them. Cause I HATE flood pants.

When I was growing up it seemed to be darn near impossible to buy a pair of jeans that did not shrink in the wash. I would try and get pants that were dragging , I mean dragging, on the ground. I don’t know if fabrics have changed and things aren’t so shrinkable, or if it was my Mom’s laundry skills. But in any case, I have a phobia about my pants being too short. I am a tall girl and I place a high premium on long jeans. I can’t even wear long capri’s. It makes my heart palpitate, and I am back in 7th grade wearing floods.

So back to The Boy. I rather indelicately  told him of my great hate for his pants. He asked “why?”, he LOVED them so? They were his favorite. I said they looked like hobo pants. Later that week, evidently Honey told him the VERY SAME THING!!!

Last week he asked me if I had seen his hobo pants. I said I didn’t have  them. Which was true.

But I might know where they are.

This week he asked me again. He said it had been a week and he knew  that all the laundry had been done, and he still couldn’t find the hobo pants. He was sure  that I had them. I asked him , why , why for the love of all humanity,  he loved them so much. He said because they were so comfortable. But, I persisted, they were flood pants! His comment was that was part of their appeal, so comfortable to wear and cool around the ankles!!!!!

My eyeballs just rolled back in their sockets AGAIN.

Well, I again  said I didn’t have them. He again  said he didn’t believe me.  He said I was hiding them. Or worse, had thrown them away!  He said he was going to start his own  blog so he could tell about all of the mean  things I do to him. Like steal his pants. He asked what should he call it?  I believe my suggestion for the name was “My Mom Stole My Hobo Pants”.

I’ll let you all know when that post comes out.

We’ve got the BBQ back!  WOOHOO!!!

Honey cleaned the stinky thing up. First a trash bag, then he had to use the shop vac to get all of the debris out. Then he scoured and disinfected  it!

End result? Dinner, YUM!

Bye bye birdies, bye bye!