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!