Signs of life

I've given up on spring. But here is something you can do to see that there are still signs of life out there. Here is what I want you to do. Find a watch that you can time one minute on. Do you have it? Ok, now I want you to say the word bop 150 times during that minute. Did you do it? Do you wonder why you did it? Because yesterday we got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time and it was 150 beats per minute. Sneaky little baby, it was laying where the thingy kept wanting to pick up my heartbeat because it was close to my artery that goes to my leg, the artery that goes to my kidneys, AND the artery that goes to my ovaries, so therefore, my heartbeat was very easy to pick up right there. The doctor kept getting a few beats of the baby's heartbeat and then it would switch over to picking mine up. But after a few minutes, we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat very clearly. So that was my exciting day yesterday. Now, unless I'm going to go to work with the turban look on my head, I need to go do something about my hair.

Spring

Spring has finally arrived! I have found wild flowers and leaves budding on trees. Frogs and birds are singing. Enjoy the nice weather!

Things that Make You Go HMMMM....

Ok, so there are many things in life that I just don't understand. Global warming for instance, when it has been an exceptionally long winter that just doesnt want to let go. Spring is finally here, although it is still cold out this morning. But that isn't the question that baffled my husband and I when we got home from work last night. This is what we found. Can anyone identify it?

Yes, the brown stuff strung all over the floor are little bitty pieces of potato skin, which earlier in the day had, in fact, been connected to a RAW potato. You might also notice in the picture that there is also another potato. Not planted by my husband or myself, it was there when we got there.

Now, why would this innocent little puppy (or guilty full grown dog to be more exact) eat an entire raw potato?

Oh, the things that make you go hmmmm......

Mama Birds

I think my robin has abandoned her nest. My husband said I was morbid when I said she was probably dead, but really, why else would she work hard to build a nest, lay eggs, sit on them for a week and then not return? Anyway, I'm going to include pictures of her from last week anyway. I also saw a mama bluebird on her nest yesterday, and she wasn't budging. Then there was this other nest. I know what it is, do you? We stumbled across it and scared mama off for a few minutes, but when we discovered she was on a nest we quickly left the area so she could return.

Rubber Bands

Rubber bands only hold so well. Then they break. This was what I learned yesterday. In an attempt to procrastinate actually wearing the maternity clothes I had purchased, even though my work pants were NOT going to button, I had looped a rubber band through the buttonhole and around the button. Throughout the course of the day yesterday, I managed to break four rubber bands. And even then the pants still werent exactly comfortable, so I give up. Today, I put on the maternity pants I had purchased. I will continue to wear my normal shirts as long as they still cover all essential parts. I only have two pair so far, will try them out this week and see how it goes. Suprisingly they are extremely comfortable.

In other news, we did not do our frog survey last night due to impending storms (which did arrive before our scheduled frogging time). And the robin that i've been watching on my front porch hasnt been seen since Monday. Eggs are still in the nest, so we arent sure if she's just flying away before we can see or if she has disappeared altogether. I'll keep you posted. (because I'm sure you are all terribly concerned about whether or not the robin that lives on my porch is still taking care of her nest).

Frog Survey

The weather is supposed to be nice today, I think. I have to work another really long day, its another frog survey evening. Hopefully we will at least hear some frogs this time! I haven't practiced frog calls too much, so I guess sometime between now and 8 pm I should do that. We should hear American Toads, Chorus Frogs, Spring Peepers, and maybe some leopard frogs, I'm not sure. I guess if I knew what all we would hear before we went then I could leave work at 5 instead of 10! It is neat to go just listen for frogs, but I'd really rather just come home.

Storms

Last night, we woke up about 3 to the sound of crashing thunder, lightning, hail, and a puppy dog wandering back and forth over us until we invited her to cuddle between us. Now the puppy and the kitty are playing in the floor. Kendall keeps taking her toys (small stuffed animals) and dropping them right beside BootsKitty. Boots doesnt really get that excited about playing with toys, but it is fun to watch. So today, here are some pictures of our pets.

Roast

It is my day off. After a busy week at work, I finally have a day off, and I've already gotten my grocery shopping done for the week. Now it is housework and fixing dinner. I'm gonna make a pot roast, complete with tators, carrots and noodles. I always think of my Granny whenever I have roast, probably because for much of my growing up years, we had her roast once a week. And no one does a pot roast quite as good as Granny did. Her fried chicken was something I loved too. And then there was the meatloaf. Granny was a great cook, but meatloaf was not her specialty. I don't think we ever did figure out exactly what went into Granny's meatloaf. Enough Mrs. Dash on top and we'd eat it. It wasnt anything that we've tried to duplicate, but her roast, we've tried, and gotten close but never have gotten that roast just perfect. But that is what I am going to attempt for dinner. Roast, tators, noodles, carrots, and I'm not sure what for sides. Probably rolls.

So now, i have laundry that appears to have exploded in my house, dishes that have accumulated, and groceries that I have purchased but havent completely put away yet, so I should get busy. Have a great week...Happy Turkey Season!

Girl Scouts

This is my weekend to work, and it promises to be a very busy one. There are so many "special" groups in today that I was told I couldnt have any of the rooms for my programs, and then the weather is supposed to be 66 and mostly sunny, so I'm expecting to be busy. Plus today is my big kickoff for the new fun patch for junior girl scouts that I have spent a considerable amount of time during the past year creating. Which basically translates into me doing programs from 830 until 430 with very little break. It is also Hunter's Ed day which means I have to stay at work until approximately 630 so I can lock up the building. But did I mention I'm going to be OUTSIDE all day and it is supposed to be 66 and sunny? That part is great. My only complaint isn't about the girls that are coming, but the girl scout organization as a whole. I used to think of it as a very good program, providing good morals and examples for girls to follow while encouraging them to get outside and explore and learn to stand on their own two feet. Many girl scouts are based with church groups, so the morals are still there with some troops, but as a whole I'm disappointed in the organization. I recently found out who their woman of the year was. A woman that they want all the girls to look up to. The CEO of Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion organization in our country, was selected as a role model for these girls. I'm not sure it was even this last year but I discovered that girl scouts is a big supporter of Planned Parenthood. Therefore if I ever have little girls and they want to be scouts, there is a new organization, church based, called American Heritage Girls, that is similar to girl scouts but hasnt thrown God out the window. Now I shall get off my soapbox and let the dog back in the house. Enjoy your weekend!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today I wanted to dedicate my blog to wishing my grandmother a happy birthday!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Another Unspecified Wish

Again, I wished for something and got exactly what I wished for. I said my kayak wants to go floating on the upper Buffalo....I guess next time I should say with me in it! Yesterday, a beautiful day on all counts, my kayak took off without me, from Ponca to Kyle's Landing. Redbuds were in bloom (I wanna see SOMETHING in bloom). There was the perfect amount of water (at least the pictures look like it). And I received a phone call last night saying my kayak had a little smile on its kayak face. All this has done is make me want to go even worse. Next time, I'm calling in sick!

Birds

Again this year I have a mama robin sitting in the tree next to my front porch. When I looked the other day there was one egg in the nest, but she might have been getting ready to lay more. Last year, there was a nest in that exact same spot...until something came and turned it over, killing two of the three babies. My guess is a stray cat, but I never saw the culprit so I dont really know. I hope this year they make it to fledgling. I'm going to try to get some pictures, but I dont think it is quite light enough outside yet to try this morning, so I'll have to do that later on.

I dont know if there are any nests in my other bird houses or not. I do know that my backyard is extremely muddy so I havent been going out there too much. There were birds drinking from my birdbath (or as Kendall calls it her outside water dish) yesterday.

Whenever we are actually past a freeze I will go ahead and hang up hummingbird feeders. Although it seems like spring and things that come with it like hummingbirds, have been forgotten by the weatherman, the calendar promises they will arrive soon. And yesterday, was nice sunny and "warm". Normally we don't call 50 degrees warm, but I guess, it is all simply a matter of perspective.

Chickens

It's that time of year when you drive past the farm supply store and they have the big banner out front that says "Chick days". There was a time when I would have lots and lots of baby chicks, or at least an incubator full of eggs at this time of the year. And after getting a "bargain" on eggs for $1.29 a dozen, maybe having chickens wouldn't be such a bad idea. If only I had somewhere to put them and they didnt smell! So anyway, growing up I had chickens. They were bantys actually, so they were miniature chickens and they laid miniature eggs. We could still eat them, but they definitely weren't the large variety. Quickster was my first, and probably over the years my favorite, chicken. I hatched Quickster in a little bity incubator in my room, she was the only one that actually hatched. And for the first six weeks of her life, she lived in my bedroom, at which time my mother declared her stinky and made her move outside with the rest of the chickens. Quickster defied the law that chickens are dumb. She was very smart. I could pat my arm and she'd land on it. If we were out in the yard and she got scared, she would jump on my shoulder and she knew that if a concrete block were turned up there was sure to be a big juicy worm underneath. She also knew to fly to the top of the pen one day when we were out in the yard and our dog, Peanut, decided she woudl be a tasty mid-afternoon snack. I couldn't hold it against Peanut, the poor dog would even attack a feather duster, but still to protect my little chicken, I tackled the dog. I was probably about 13 at the time, and the dog was about half my size....too big for me to pick up really, but when yelling for help from anyone for a few minutes didn't work, I lugged the dog to the porch, threw him in the house and took off to rescue Quickster. There was also one night when she was little that a opossum had been in the chicken house. The next morning I was scared because I couldn't find her. I couldnt find any feathers of her either though, and I found evidence of the ones the opossum had killed. After a while of looking around with Mom's help, we located her...above the door in a small nest of chicken wire....evidently she was smart enough to get out of the way of the opossum! I just thoguht I'd share my thoughts as I saw the chick sign the other day....too bad I can't have a chicken now!

Not Busy and What Happened to Spring?

April 12---shouldn't it be warm? Shouldn't flu season be over? Why is it snowing???? These are the questions that have been running through my head this morning. First off, it is cold adn snowing, not exactly nice weather! It isn't snowing enough to stick or accumulate, but the fact remains, it is April and snowing. I always thought April showers were supposed to come in the form of rain, warm, spring rains! And then flu season. My husband isn't feeling well, my best friends that were going to come visit couldnt come because they are sick, and I even have the sniffles (not bad though, maybe I can avoid anything worse!) So today in the nasty weather I took a trek to the post office to mail my taxes (no refund for us this year...we need another deduction:), the grocery store (I rather despise grocery shopping), the vet to get the kitty cat some food and Walmart for cold medicine, kitty insulin syringes, and a toaster. Now, what can I make for lunch that involves toast? Tuna sandwiches (although I prefer mine untoasted), hmmm...I just don't know. So now my big plans for the day include making toast, maybe reading my book I got this week that I've barely opened, and I'm sure a nap is somewhere in my afternoon plans. I actually could deep clean some on my house, if I get to feeling ambitious, but that isn't likely to happen. Probably snuggling with a kitty, puppy and sick hubby are what I'll end up doing, which isnt all bad. Bundle up, stay out of the cold, and avoid colds and the flu!

A Full Weekend

This weekend will be incredibly busy...and I'm glad because I will be busy doing fun stuff. Today, I have to get my house clean, which isn't counted on the fun stuff but it is always a nice feeling to have a clean house. Then tomorrow our best friends are coming for a visit. Its supposed to be absolutely nasty weather, so we will probably stick to inside activities. We have no actual plans of what we will be doing, but we could do absolutely nothing with them and it will still be a lot of fun.

So I'm going to keep this short because I have a lot I need to get done today.

By the way, for my sister who commented yesterday that I should look at ebay, the clothes may be a little cheaper, but they still look like clown suits!

Clown Suits

Why is it assumed by clothing manufacturers that just because a person is pregnant that they want to spend a lot of money to wear something that looks like it best belongs on a clown? I'm not in need of maternity clothes yet, but as infrequently as I go clothes shopping I had some time the other night so I thought I would look. What I found appalled me. At least 90% of the clothes would look much better on a clown, than me. The only "normal" looking clothes were t-shirts which I probably won't be able to wear to work. I have only recently begun my search, and I'm hoping that the stores I've visited aren't an overall representation of what all is out there. My second complaint....clothes that will be worn for a maximum of six months, I'm not paying $40-$50 for one piece of clothing. For that matter, unless it is a pair of boots, I don't think I'd pay that much for a single piece of clothing even if I could wear it for the rest of my life. Needless to say, I left my shopping endeavor the other night with determination that garage sales are good. I have absolutely no problem buying clothes from garage sales to wear, if I can ever find any that look more attractive than Bozo the clown's wardrobe.

The Lorax

You know you have been at work too much when you have dreams about Dr. Seuss's The Lorax. I worked late again last night, developing a puppet show with 7-13 year olds on The Lorax. I will be the narrator for almost the entire story, and on April 26 we will repeat it over and over again. I may not be able to say anything by the time that production is over! It should be alot of fun. We have great puppets for the Bar-ba-loots, Swomee Swans, and Humming-fish, not to mention a great looking Lorax. And the kids are all very excited to get to chop down the trees and pollute the pond with silly string. In 1 1/2 hours last night we only got through half the play, but I'm hopeful that next week it will all come together like clockwork.

So if you don't know what a Bar-ba-loot is, go find the nearest copy of the Lorax and read it. A very interesting story with valuable lessons about saving our forests.

Frog Surveys

Would you like to take a survey? Ok, so we didnt have survey forms we asked the frogs to fill out, we listened to see how many different frogs we could hear. Finally, after three weeks of attempting to go out to conduct our frog survey, there was actually little enough wind that we were able to go. So tromping off through the woods with 5 volunteers, a volunteer's husband, and a volunteer's grandson we arrived at the edge of our first pond. The air was still filled with the smell of smoke from a house fire earlier yesterday morning, rain was threatening but we were all excited because we were going to hear some frogs. In order to do the frog survey, you go to a designated site, stop, and listen for frogs for five minutes. Then you record all the wonderful frog sounds that you heard. Starting out, although not overly chatty, we heard chorus frogs. Listening closely, a picked out a spring peeper or two in the mix. And then a few more chorus frogs. We proceeded to stop number two. If you really listened closely you could hear a chorus frog singing solo off in the distance somewhere (not at the pond we were at). Then the rain came. About 3 minutes in to our second stop we gave up because we couldnt hear anything but the rain on the leaves. Stop number three. We were able to sit in a covered pavilion for this one. Again, distant chorus frogs. Not another peep. We saw no owls, beaver, bats or other nighttime critters that we usually see when we go out at night. They were smarter than we were and avoiding the rain! Anyway, after having to delay this trip three weeks, we are now only two weeks away from our second month survey. Maybe next time a few more frogs will greet us.
Needless to say, I'm tired this morning. After all, frog listening cannot begin until 30 minutes after sunset (although yesterday I am sure they were noisier at noon!), it takes us about 1 1/2 hours to complete our sites, and so no I'm tired. Tonight I will be working late. I am preparing out Kids Club (7 to 13 year olds) to present Dr. Suess's The Lorax as a puppet show at the end of the month. Which reminds me, I need a funnel to take to work.....

Landscaping Possibilities

Today is actually a weekend with weather that is supposed to be sunny, 65, and not real windy. Finally, a decent day. We've had them few and far between so far this spring, and so I'm looking forward to the nice weather today, although I am committed to getting my house clean today so I may spend most of it inside. But the promise of spring has got me to thinking about what I should do for my landscaping this year. I have planted 8 redbuds along the edge of the backyard. In front of the house, I have some bushy things that I dont really like. There are four of them and the two middle ones are barely hanging on to life, so I'm trying to decide what I could plant there if I dug those up. I also have a raised bed in front of the basement window with rather sad looking plants. I was actually thinking I might consider planting some sort of fruit bush over there, that was pretty and then I could have berries, a double win. So if I decide to spend the money on it, any suggestions? Several of you have been to my house, but for those of you that haven't, look in front of the porch and under the window on the left of the picture.

Friday

It is finally Friday and I'm tired, still have to ice a cake before I leave for work and take care of my little furry critters, so I'm going to keep this short. I'll post more tomorrow. Have a great Friday!

Two Speeds

Sometimes I wish I had the speed and energy of our dog, Kendall. Just a trip outside in the morning must give her all kinds of energy. For instance right now, I just let her back in. She has been running through the house, as fast as she can run, between me and Boots. I think he must have been paying more attention or at least she thought he was because she took time to wrestle him on her turn around. This is not an uncommon thing, actually at least twice a day that I know about she will take off tearing through the house, flinging her toys in the air.

Then there is the other speed of the puppy. Sleeping. You'd think, most normal dogs just walk around in a circle and lay down. Well...not our dog. At night, she will stare at you until you invite her under the covers. Then she will lay as close as she can possibly get to you. If you try to scoot away from her an inch or so, she moves that same distance in that same direction. Her favorite spot is actually between my husband and me, where she can touch both of us. And sometimes in the middle of the day, she is caught napping. So for a nice Thursday morning laugh, I hope you've enjoyed the two speeds of Kendall.

A windy week

March left if a rush of wind on Monday, making it hard to even open the door to the house. April arrived with much colder temperatures (isn't April when it is supposed to be WARM?) Today is promising another cool day, with wind and little sun. I guess it is better than last year when March was warm then we had that freeze the first week or two of April that killed everything. Nothing is budded out yet so it shouldnt all be killed. But hopefully we will see some warm weather soon.

I overslept, its trash day and I'm riding to work with my boss so I better get hopping.

Strange Dreams

Do you ever have those dreams that seem extremely real but you know when you wake up that they were far-fetched? I have been having more than my share of those lately. The other night I dreamed I was talking to a friend of mine on the phone that lives 200 miles away. She has a two and a half year old and a six month old. She lives where people have to be coming to visit them to appear anywhere close to their house. So in my dream we are talking about whatever on the phone when suddenly she starts screaming. And keeps screaming and screaming. Meanwhile, I had no idea what was going on but I was trying to figure out how I could call 911 from where I was at for her. She eventually came back to the phone completely calm and said that there had been a very strange looking man staring at her through the laundry that was on her clothes line. Then I woke up, wondering if there was a killer on the loose!

Last night I dreamed that I had the baby. The next day I went to work and my parents were there and my dad wouldnt let anyone, even me, hold the baby. And then when we would show it to people they would ask what its name was and I couldnt remember.

I had a weird dream the night before last too, but all I remember about it was shopping with my grandma at a dime store type store and we kept losing my grandad in the store.

With all the weird dreams....no wonder I wake up tired!