The Cleaning Fairy Didn't Show!

Well they call it Labor Day for a reason.....the cleaning fairy didn't show up at our house this morning so like it or not the dishes had to be done, beds made, floors swept and laundry done.
We did take time to drive into town the back way (going home traffic !!!!) and have a frozen yogurt and then watch some kids trying to walk a tightrope strung between two trees at the park.
And I did get a book finished and ANOTHER doll cut out, so I guess it was a holiday after all.

Thank you Shawna!

Recently my son and daughter-in-law did some remodeling and ended up with several wonderful old windows. When they came to visit this summer they brought me one of the windows and I was told to decorate and use it however I liked.

So I cleaned it and it sat in my bedroom for awhile as I thought about what I would like to do with it.

Finally I collected some flowers from around my yard. Lavender, daisies, pansies, petunias, and other flowers the names of which I don't know.

I arranged them on a big cardboard panel that was covered with a piece of pellon, put another piece of pellon on top and then another cardboard panel and then stacked a bunch of heavy books on top evenly to weight it all down and left it for about 3 weeks.

Then I carefully took it all apart and used "Modge Podge" to glue all the flowers in place on the center pane of glass in the window. Of course I made a mess and ended up deciding to splatter the modge podge on and hope when it dried that it would look like raindrops....which surprisingly it is!!

Sweet hubby hung it up for me today with special hooks and screws (it is VERY heavy) and I couldn't wait to show you the pictures.

I may go get some "Galaxy Glass" which is a paint that you use on glass and it drys to look like stained glass and fill in the small panes around the outside of the window, but I will decide on that later.

Right now, thank you Damon and Shawna, each morning when I wake up, no matter what the season or weather outside, I will see spring right in my bedroom!

The lowly fly swatter

This week with no one here to help me I have found several uses for the lowly fly swatter besides using it to swat a variety of insects!

It is a terrific tool for reaching things that are just out of reach! The loop at the end on the handle is great for "grabbing small objects and pulling them towards you, or can be used to "push" switches up or down.

The handle is also a pretty good "back scratcher", not quite as good as finger nails, but less abrasive, and the handle is nice and long to reach those hard to get to spots!

They come in all shapes and sizes and colors!

AND they can be used as a fan in delicate situations!!

Don't ask me why I wrote this blog..........I've been alone too long!!!!!!!!

Good thing hubby is coming home tonight!

Alone at last....not forever thank goodness!

My sweet hubby left just this morning and will be gone a few days. So it's just Odie and me here in this big ol' house.

Quiet and solitude at last, no cooking, no cleaning, no noise unless I want it.

So far I've watched 2 movies, gone to Wally world and ate a Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream.....

Not handling the solitude so well I guess.

I will be ok and I will enjoy a few days of rest and relaxation.

I also know that I will definitely NOT want to live here alone for to long. I am not afraid, don't get me wrong, I feel perfectly safe.

It's just that this house is bigger than I need and I like, love my hubby and enjoy his company. We have grown into a companionable easy way of being together and still not getting in each others way. We each do our own things and go our separate ways during the day and end up together alot. We don't need to talk alot or even sit together but there is a sweet connection between us that will last forever no matter what.

Meanwhile, I will enjoy Odies company and any of the kids that drop by, and I might do some more window shopping, family history projects and stay in my jammies all day.

I will enjoy my solitude, and eagerly await hubbies return at the same time!

Cartoon & Computer Zombies

We were busy today.

Gage and Luke came over while mom worked and dad slept after working the night shift. Baby Kyle stayed closer in town so mom could visit him several times during the day.

They rode their bikes and ran around the yard and asked gramps a 1002 questions about everything. Grandma took Odie to the vet to have an ugly wart taken off the top of his head (another $138 invested in our million dollar dog) and then we had lunch.

More bike riding, wearing gramps old army dress hat. And then something weird happened......

Everyone was tired and the three guys went into the cougar room and turned into ZOMBIES!

Lifeless, eyes focused only on one thing, the screen in front of them, unhearing and non-responsive to anything.

The living breathing ZOMBIES!!!!!!!

Ah the Miracle of Life

I said I wasn't going to blog for a week, but then this little miracle occurred yesterday so I had to tell you.

Odie brought home a partially hatched egg and I, being the optimist that I am, thought whatever it was would promptly die.

Instead it was breathing and wiggling so Emily, Joe and Mason immediately took it under their collective wings and watched over it all night, making sure it was safe from Odie and warm.

And then this morning I found them with a cute baby mallard all hatched and fluffy. It had mostly "imprinted" on Emily. I know she lost the most sleep over it because she later took a nap.

A few hours later they had "Rudy" swimming in the tank with them. And even later, they were feeding him tiny grasshoppers.

Each day brings new surprises on these happy 4 acres!

The fun and chaos begins!

We pick up 2 of our grandkids this afternoon who will spend the next 3 days here and then Saturday we go get our daughter-in-law and her 3 kids to stay for a week, which means that the other 6 will be here also, along with their moms and dads.
So I will probably not post for a week or so.
I can't wait!! What fun, noise, giggles, fights, running feet, swords clashing, water splashing, crying, and laughter. Sounds like heaven on earth to me!!

Crepe & Wattles

This morning as I was putting my make-up on to get ready for church I moved my eyes down to my neck. No one likes to see that make-up line at your jaw and I like to make sure everything is smoothed out and flawless..... Instead I really noticed the crepey skin and wattle!!
I have noticed this before and not really thought about it but today in the magnifying mirror I have to use to put mascara on so I don't jab myself in the eye, the wattle was waving in the breeze and I was mortified.
Old people have wattles.........oh yeah, I'm an old people!
So I take my hands on either side of my neck and gently pull the skin back. There, nice smooth neck, but what is all that puffy skin just under my ear lobes?? Yep, neck skin re-positioned!
So I try again, and again and finally find a method that works, now if I just had clear duct tape to make it stay!!
This will never work, because I realize that all the excess skin is now at the back of my neck and I will have to grow my hair 4 inches longer to cover the pleats in the back!
Oh well, now I know why some older women look kind of snobby. It's because they hold their head up so high and look down their noses at you because it's the only way to get rid of the dreaded WATTLE!

point and click

See the little map in the right as you are looking at the screen? Those little red dots are people who are looking at my blog and each time you click on my page it adds to the size of the red dot!
Also wanted to point out the blogs I visit which are listed on the right also. There are cute kids (my grandkids of course) on the two Andreasen sites and my "babysis" is "My Threads of Life".
Nature for Kids is almost worldwide and a great source of fun things for kids to do OUTSIDE!!
I visit all of them whenever they update and enjoy them all.
I have fun writing my thoughts, however dumb they may be. It lets me vent, hopefully provides some humor and is a link with my loved ones.
Today was lovely. I played an online game, babysat my newest grandson (5 mo. old and the cutest guy on the face of the earth) and sat outside alot in th beautiful sunshine.
And we had pancakes for dinner!!!!
Now I'm going to go watch the sunset with my wonderful hubby.
Sleep well.

Reasons for Joy!

Just a few of the things that make me proud, happy, laugh and remember that there is great joy to be found in the little things of life!

Have a great day!

Independence Day???

Today is the 4th of July. All our kids went to the big parade in Rexburg and the kids got candy and had fun watching Tyler in the "Car Wash" drill team march.

Gary and I stayed home, we don't enjoy the madhouse of traffic and the hot sun beating on our heads.

Carls family came over and fixed us really great bacon, turkey, provolone, avacado, tomato and lettuce hoagies. Better than Quizno's anyday.

We've been watching Spideyman 2 and lazing around and will go to Eric's for a BBQ and then maybe to Dirks for fireworks and then the rest of the fam will go to watch the big fireworks in town. We will come home because Odie freaks out when the locals fire up the big noisy stuff.

I'm wondering all day if this wonderful country we live in is still Independent or if we are slowly (rapidly??) becoming secular socialist instead?

The party in control of the government is pushing through so many new bills and rules and taxes so fast that no-one can even read what they are voting on and if the new so called health deals go through I feel like they will be "editing the population". Abortion at any stage will be legal, old people will die of common, easily cured ills and the poor will still not get the health care they need. Small businesses will be gone and everything will be run by and for the government.

I truly feel that we as individuals will be fine if we have faith and confidence that Heavenly Father is watching over us. It may be that our faith and souls will be all that we have under our own control in the future. I think that is what will let us celebrate Independence Day.

Early Riser

I like to sleep in now that I am retired and sometimes don't get up until around 8:30 or 9 a.m. but this morning I woke up at 6a.m. and felt rested and ready to get up. Amazing since I was so tired last night that I could hardly walk to bed!
It is nice and cool and a light cloud dusting in the sky with a nice soft breeze. I can hear the local crop duster buzzing right over our house every half hour or so when he goes back to the airport to refill his chemical bin and then back again to what ever field he is spraying.
We have a bazillion birds living in our trees, so there is the usual chorus of bird chatter, an occasional dog barking and car whizzing past on the road in front of our house.
Ah the quiet of country life.
We've been working in the yard alot lately, moving flowers and bushes and re-seeding the lawn, making it all easier to take care of for us old people with bad knees and backs. I think we are done with the major stuff out there now and we have moved into the house.
We've been in this house for about 4 years now and we re-did the kitchen, living and family room fairly quickly, but we finally got around to the bedrooms and "Cougar" room this summer.
The cougar room is Gary's domain dedicated to the BYU Cougar football team. The colors are navy blue and white (blue on the lower part of the walls and white above with a BYU boarder separating the two colors. There are posters and pictures of various pictures of the players and one wall dedicated to our sons sports pictures and awards. There is also an American flag that was flown in Afganistan, where our nephew served in the military, on the main wall of the room.
And now the crowning glory! A 47" flat screen high def TV in the place of honor! And then we found out we have to spend $200 more to get the special high def Direct TV box so that we can actually see the high def!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saving a Life!

Yesterday was a pretty normal day, cleaned house, did the dishes, returned books, did my little church clerk job, made lunch and saved a life!

We have a small wading pool that we filled with water for the grandkids and have left out in the front driveway forgotten for the last week or so. Today I was walking past it to go check the mail and spotted this moth about an inch under water in the pool.

There was also a big stick in the water and the moth was so pretty I thought I would dry it out for the kids to see. So I used the stick and carefully pulled the moth out of the water and took it to the little table on the porch. I continued on to get the mail and took that in the house and got a piece of paper to put the moth on.

He is BIG, about 3-4 inches across wing tip to wing tip and beautiful reddish brown with painted on markings only a master artist could achieve.

I showed him to Gary and then left him to dry.

Next time I walked past him, now on the kitchen counter I turned him over and then back again so he wouldn't stick to the paper.

Next time I walked past ( 1/2 hour later) I noticed the wings weren't flat anymore but curving up off the paper. I flipped him over and back again and lo and behold his little tummy looked like it was moving! No Way, he was under water!!

I wait awhile and go look again and he is moving his wings!! Slow and it looks hard for him. I move him out into the mudroom just in case he is really going to live.

I look him up on the internet and he is a Cecropia or Robin Silkmoth. One of the largest types of moth.

I checked again and his wings are fully lifted, but his legs are still pretty curled up under him.

This morning I looked and he is gone!! I looked everywhere in the mudroom and no Robin moth. When it warms up alittle I will open the back door and hope he flies away, alive, free again.

Hole in the Sky and Waterfalls

I often talk about how life changes from moment to moment and how I think that my life is not in my hands at all, but in my families, my church and my Heavenly Father's.
I really do believe that all things good and bad will eventually turn out for the best if we try our best to live the way we should. Sometimes it is just hard to remember that.
This last month has shown that things definitely not in our hands. There were several personal disappointments for different family members with alot of stress and sadness involved. There was also a couple of scary times with health matters, which thankfully proved to be less scary than believed.
Today both of us felt tired and restless so we sluffed church and took a drive while we talked about all that had been going on and how we felt about it all. We stopped to get a drive through breakfast and saw a police bust going on in the parking lot. A pick-up and 4-wheeler trailer, both loaded with people and 4-wheelers was there along with 3 police cars lights flashing were clustered in one corner of the huge parking lot. Of course we pulled in a parking space where we had a clear view of the proceedings, but could not hear anything said. So we made up our own scenario. Maybe a theft, probably a drug bust. There were 2 females and 1 male standing around talking to the police and one male handcuffed and in the back seat of the squad car. The 3 officers searched both the truck cab, backpacks and all the luggage in the back of the truck and also inspected all the 4-wheelers. Finally it looked like one officer handed one female a ticket and then drove off with the guy still in the back of the squad car. The others took off in the truck and it was all over. Our major excitment for the day! We were also reminded that we are blessed that it wasn't any of our family involved in anything like that.
Then we took one of the many long ways home so we could drive slower than the speed limit and stop whenever we wanted to look at something pretty.
The first beautiful site was the "Hole in the Sky". This almost perfect circle in the clouds that Gary could picture a jet flying through and I imagined as the doorway to heaven.


Then we drove to "Hog Hollow or also known as Monkey Rock" where a canal joins a part of the Teton River. This is a very popular swimming spot where those brave in heart jump or dive off the waterfall and swim in the icy waters below. It is also were alot of successful fishermen visit. I just think it is beautiful in its own small way.

So now we are home, refreshed in body and spirit and ready for the new month starting tomorrow and thankful for the blessing we enjoy everyday, with the promise of better tomorrows.

Graduation & Job Harassment

We went to our 4th grandchilds high school graduation last night. Isn't Tyler Dirk Andreasen handsome! Now he is looking for a job and planning college at ISU next fall. You can tell that his mom, dad and little brother are very proud of him!

I surely hope that Tyler doesn't have to face harassment on the job like Odie does! Here he is stalking a mouse in the lilac bushes in our back yard and the magpie in the bush to his right will not leave him alone! (click on the picture to see it better.) There are two of them and they follow him and swoop at him and walk on the ground right by him squawking like crazy, but being ever patient that he is he just ignores them. You would think that being a bird dog he would attack them, but it's like he doesn't even notice the two pests.

Guess we could all learn a lesson from these two events.

1st persevere to achieve your goals and keep pressing forward to the future.

2nd ignore those that bother and persecute you.

Now if we could just do those our life would be happier.

Empty Nests

Well, after the skunk, muskrat, rockchuck, rat, mouse fiasco in the hen house and good ol' Lucky the rooster deciding to attack me every time I went to feed our fine feathered friends, we decided to give the little chicka's away.
I thought this might take awhile to happen.
Gary made one phone call and Jinger made one phone call and two, no make that 3 days later all the chickens were gone. One neighbor took 6 of the hens and one of Jinger's friends took the other 7 hens and Lucky.
I thought I would be ok about all this, after all Gary and I don't eat that many eggs, and feed is expensive so we definitely weren't saving any money and it was a total hassle to take care of them through the winter. And the ol rooster was jumping at me every time I opened the barn door.
This morning I woke up at the usual 7 to go potty and my old schedule was to let Odie out, open the gate, open the hatch in the coop.
When I remembered that I didn't have to open the coop, I went back to bed and slept 2 more hours. Sad, alittle, but boy did the extra sleep feel good.
What will I write about now???????????

A long walk, horses and skunks

Was yesterdays blog about change??

This morning I woke up to sunshine coming in my window so I got up and for some reason went ahead and got my jeans on instead of slumping around in my jammies. I let Odie out..he has a doggie door but in the mornings he MUST be let out the front door. I went potty and then went out to let the chickens out. (Whole other story involving skunks there, but we will get to that one in a minute).

First let me tell you about my yard. We have a lovely front yard with a covered porch and lilac bushes. The lawn goes around to the back yard on both sides of the house and we used to have a fence on both sides to keep Odie in when needed. A couple of summers ago we decided to take the fence out on the west side of the house, but left the fence on the east side.

Ok, we have the pasture fenced in with several gates, most of them big enough to drive the truck through for feed, logs, you name it. But from the east yard there is a small walk through fence for us to go through to get to the chicken barn. The fence on the east side of the yard has a walk through fence also, which this morning I opened as usual to let Odie in and out (it's too far for him to have to walk around of course).

So I go to let the chickens out and forgot to close the walk through gate to the pasture. I go in open the barn door to let the chickens into their yard and notice the horses we are boarding go by the barn and I'm thinking they want some of the grain that we give the chickens, but as I go out the door to the barn I see the Truth!

Sweet grass!! The horses have gone through the walk through fence and are gleefully grazing on the sweet green grass of our lawn. As yet they have not gone through the east gate to the front lawn so I quickly close that and offer them grain to lead them in the pasture, but N-o-o, they want grass.

I try by myself for awhile to guide them back in but I also know that Sass loves to buck and kick, so I'm a little leary of pushing from behind. I go to yell for Gary to help, he was still in bed when I went out.

And as I come back out I see a horse tail go around the back corner of the lawn heading west.

Yeap, out of the yard and down the road to see the neighbor horses and cows they go.

Let's just leave the rest of the story as a long walk down the road, which is very much like a roller coaster with lots of up's and down's which in a car has always been rather relaxing, but walking on a frosty morning leaves me huffing and puffing with frozen cheeks and ears. Luckily, one of the neighbors cows have also gotten out and the owners have successfully gotten them back in and help Gary, who whizzes by me on the 4 wheeler, get the horses back to our pasture.

Yes he offered me a ride, but I've ridden on the back of that machine before and I thought it would be better to walk thank you very much.

The neighbor offered me a ride in his truck too, but I hadn't brushed my teeth yet and I really didn't think he deserved to die from my bad morning mouth breath.

Now for the skunk story.

We had been noticing holes being dug all over in the chicken barn and coop and thought it was just the mice until we saw BIG holes and ROCKS being dug out. So we cleaned the old straw and gunk out and took down some boards and found a nest of straw, insulation, dirt and a stash of eggs. Muskrat?, Racoon?

Anyway we cleaned it all out and filled and tamped and decided to see what would happen.

Gary went out one evening to close the side yard gate and saw something small and dark scoot across the chicken yard and started to walk across the yard to see if it was a chicken in trouble and then he saw the white stripe.

So yesterday he finished cleaning out the coop and bought some mothballs and I made a broth of onions, chili powder and peppers. I poured the broth down all the holes we could find and Gary scattered moth balls all around the outside of the barn. This morning I could see the holes dug up and tiny foot prints outside the barn in the dirt.

Gone? I don't know, guess we will wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Change, change, change

Boy have I been fooled by the April fools joke! It was so sunny and warm, fooled me into thinking spring was here at last, changed to all my summer clothes, cleaned out the sandbox for the kids, put the chairs, etc out on the deck.
It is snowing this morning and grey clouds over head. The weather man says this will last until at least the middle of next week.
I think life is like the weather.
Each day I wake up and in my mind I plan out the day and what I want to do and how, or what I order I will do these things.
Some times it is the weather that changes my ideas for the day....like today.
Some times what I thought I was going to do changes as soon as I get up and my body tells me otherwise with all it's aches and pains.
Sometimes my sweet hubby has other plans that sound much more interesting or needful that the ones I had.
Before I retired I had all these plans for travel and fun things to do. But reality hit and economic facts changed most of my goals. This is no-ones fault, just sheer reality and facts. Still hard even for a pretty adaptable person like me.
Now I realize that each day is a new adventure waiting to let me know which direction it will take me. I have learned to focus on being even more adaptable than I thought I was and to come to the realization that no ones life is truly their own.
It belongs to your spouse, your children, your grandchildren, your neighbor and your friends. And most of all it belongs to your relationship with your Heavenly Father and what he wants you to do with it.
What will today bring to me? I don't know yet, I'm the only one up so far and it's snowing outside. I'll let you know.

Spring at Last??

Although the weather has been rather crazy lately, for the last couple of days it has been warm and sunny. The grass is green and the tree's are trying to wake up and leaf out.

It has been warm enough to let the chicken's out to run in their pen and Odie stays outside all day long.

I have been painting bedrooms that have been totally white since we moved in. I tried to take pictures but none of them do the colors justice. This is the best one of my bedroom and it doesn't show the lovely sage green on the walls, nor the deep dark forest green of the desk and headboard.Gary's room is a soft tan color and all his furniture is natural wood tones. I still need to hang wall art in my room but I really like the restful colors now. Before it was pretty with lots of creams and reds but think "vanilla".

Gage and Luke have been over too and one day they got to ride on one of the two horses we are boarding for awhile in our pasture. The owner lead them around on the front lawn for awhile.And another day we made masks out of paper plates, feathers and markers. Gage said they made them become Power Rangers!! But Kyle didn't want one!

It has been a good week and I love, love, love being out in the sunshine!

Feeling Better/ All Tied Up

Well Hurray, I'm feeling better today and actually had the sense to take it carefully today and not overdo it again!

We did have some excitement this afternoon. It looked like it was going to rain so we fed and watered the chickens and thinking they were all in the coop, we locked the hatch and went back in the house.

Awhile later Gary yells " Mom come help me something is wrong with one of the chicken's. She has her foot caught on something." So we go out to the chicken pen and one of the white chickens is sure enough caught in some string that is wrapped around one of her feet and a weed in the ground.

It was easy to catch and hold her, pull up the weed and then take her, the weed, string and mud into the house to cut it all apart. We forgot about Odie, The Bird Dog!!

I got a pair of good sizzors and we went to sit down at the table to cut the string off and Odie jumped up behind me trying to grab the poor chicka who immediately went bizerk and I about broke her neck trying to hold on to her.

We had to go into a room where we could close Odie out and finally cut the frightened bird loose and put her into the coop with the others.

Then I finally checked out my clothes which were of course covered in.......yes that's right ............

chicken shit!! The kitchen floor was covered in mud from the weed and I felt like I needed a shower!!

Some way to say thank you huh. Guess chickens express themselves differently that humans.

Oh yes!! I hope you all have a lovely Easter weekend and enjoy remembering the real reason for the season. It's not just bunny's and pretty painted eggs. It's remembering the Christ not only died for us, but then rose again on the 3rd day to show that we could all live again. The best gift of all.