Catching up

What a whirlwind year it's been so far and it's only the end of March! We spent Christmas 2009 in Bradenton FL with the inlaws. A nice time indeed but, as the old saying goes, there's noplace like home! It was one of the coldest winters in a number of years for southern Florida. On our way home we stopped by to see Grandpa Wayne in St. Augustine. People were freezing there! I'm used to the cold but even I had to admit it was cold!

 Happy New Year???....2010 saw the onslaught of a cooooooold January and the snowiest February on record for us. At one time we had over 22 inches of snow! The farther south in Ohio you went, obviously was less snow but the wildest part of the whole thing was the olympics were held in Canada but they had NO SNOW! Global warming. We also went to spend time over a weekend with my brother, Chuck, and his wife, Angel. It was so good to see them but too soon the weekend was over and we had to drive back home. We are looking forward to another weekend with them soon!

March brought the normal routines back into play and the kids were actually thankful for that. So was I to be honest. There's something to be said for knowing what's coming up next.

I'm looking for a sewing instructor! I have this cool sewing machine and sewing table that I am excited to learn how to use. My daughter, Samantha, is looking for a knitting instructor. She has a scarf she started a long time ago but can't remember how to do it for the life of her. You tube has not been as helpful as we'd hoped, lol.

Stay tuned, more to come!!!!!

Next....April.

New year, new attitude.

Over the last month I gave alot of thought to my personality, how I react, how I think, and why I think the way I do. I believe alot of who we are is shaped by how we were raised. It's no secret what kind of life I had as a child and when I was 15 I was on my own. While the harder than most, untrusting soul still lives within there's an older more mature me that's starting to question why I have the same reactions to things in my life. I've done some growing in the last 2 or 3 years but I know I have a ton of potential that needs to be nurtured and allowed to grow. It's good to take stock and reflect on your life. It's even better if you can work to improve who you are. Wish me luck!

Cool, Sunny, and Buckeyes

The weather has been so wonderful this week. The sun has been bright, the air is crisp, and it's just been gorgeous. That means one thing.....football. My wonderful husband gets to attend his first Ohio State game this Saturday as the Buckeyes take on Navy. We as Buckeyes have been asked not to do the traditional booing of the opposing team out of respect for the military. I think that won't be a problem. They are also going to enjoy the first ever military fly over to start the game and I am also told that Ohio's own John Glenn will be dotting the prestigious I in script Ohio. John Herschel Glenn Jr. (born July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio) is a former astronaut and U.S. politician who represented the state of Ohio in the United States Senate from 1974 to 1999. Not a bad experience for my husbands first ever OSU game. Now I'm not a football fan at all but for this game, GO BUCKS!

School is back in session!

I love this time of year! Not just because the kids are back to school but because of all the school supplies that are offered. Yes, I'm an office / school supply junkie. This is a great time of year to restock the kids' school supply tote. I have an 18 gallon tote with a lid stocked well. I keep extra glue sticks, packs of paper, subject notebooks, erasers, pencils, pens, pencil cushions, tissues, highlighters, pocket folders, hole punched pocket folders, the list keeps going. By the end of the year the kids have used everything or close to it. I always shop at Target or Walmart for the best prices but sometimes I get lucky at Office Max.

Another reason I love this time of year is because now is the time to take in Dawes Auboritum. It's a wonderful place to take the kids and pack a picnic lunch. The kids like to go look at the Japanese Garden and walk over the little bridge on the pond. I've been toying with the idea of taking them to the Franklin Park Conservatory. I've heard some good things about them and I think we'd enjoy it.

Best of all, for me anyway, is the leaves changing color. I don't like to rake them up, but I do love to watch them change colors. I like to take the family and go for drives out old back county roads and see all the trees and small road side farm sales along the way.

Hello from the lost island of our home

I can't believe that things got so crazy for so long and here I am so far away from the first post. Where to start! Our english bulldog, Winston, decided he wanted to eat a couple of foreign objects so his care has taken up tons of time. One thing we did find out, he's worse than a 1 year old. Everything goes into his mouth!
Well the kids have had a great summer. We've been swimming, walking, riding new bikes and the best thing so far is that Samantha can now ride her bike! Her brother, Kyle, helped teach her and now she is a little dare devil. She wants to try all sorts of new things and her Dad and I couldn't be more happy for her. It's always a great personal growth when a fear is conquered and your wings spread. She wants to get involved in as many things as you could imagine but she knows time is limited and so is she, physically speaking. I can't wait to see what she decides on and see what direction that decision takes her life in. Now (at 10 yrs old) is the best time to start them in the direction of making informed decisions, in my humble opinion of course. When the tweens and hormones kick in, the brain cells usually check out, so now is a good time to get them well versed in making good decisions for thier lives. She knows Dad and I won't let her make a huge decision mistake, but she also knows that we support her efforts in learning how to make them if that makes sense.

Kyle has had a great summer too. He had not gotten to see his Grandpa C. in Florida in about 7 years. This past week he got the chance to go spend a week in St. Augustine with them. He fell in love with the city and enjoyed his time with his Grandpa and Grandma C so much that he teared up when he left because he didn't want to go yet. He really loves his Grandparents. At 14, he's very well behaved, well mannered, with a huge heart. He's got a good head on his shoulders, even though he does make questionable choices sometimes (as we all do.) I am very proud of the man he is becoming and the person he's turned out to be so far. He's also working on decision making skills but he is in the fine tuning stage. Dad and I have worked with him as we will with Samantha and we have no doubt that he'll be a fine adult in this crazy world.
As for Alan and I, well we are just tired, lol.

Winston's woes

We have an english bulldog named Winston. A week ago, he got sick and we didn't know why or what happened. We called the vet and got the emergency service. Winston couldn't hold down water and refused to eat. Winston never refuses to eat anything. The final straw came when Winston couldn't move on his own. Alan made the phone call and within a few minutes we were on our way to the vet's office with the children and Winston in tow. The vet on call wasn't our regular vet but the regular vet trusts her so we did too. She was good with Winston. He was given an i.v for dehydration, food, and she started him on antibiotics. 4 days later he was doing much better and was given a ticket to come home. The vet felt that he'd been slowly improving and she was feeding him soft foods by then, so it was alright to bring him home that Friday. We were all very happy to have him home. Saturday morning Alan fed him soft food and he was his old chow hound self. He was spirited and happy and acting like our Winston again. Sunday was a different story. He started to slowly drop back down to sick again and by Tuesday morning Alan called the vet again. This time it was our regular vet. Winston had to be returned to vet care and have an iv for food, antibiotics, and dehydration, he'd begun to refuse to eat or drink again and was in pain. He couldn't seem to get comfortable no matter how he sat or laid. Early that afternoon Alan called to check on him and the news wasn't good. Winston had most likely ingested something but we had no idea what because it wasn't showing up on x-rays. If it caused thining of the intestinal tract and had caused perforations, the toxins that would release into his tissues would kill him and there was no way to save him from that. The vet wanted to do surgery. When I got off work we went up to see Winston and be there for him. We were reminded of how sick he really was and was told there had been no real change. We asked if we could see Winston before they took him to surgery and he said sure. When Winston came out, as soon as he saw Alan and I he was happy and spirited and wiggling around like there was nothing in the world wrong with him. He even ate a few treats the vet offered him. This puzzled the vet but we still did the surgery to be on the safe side. He found 2 pieces of hard rubber in his intestines. One was from a toy Winston loved to chew on, the other we have no idea where it came from. The vet said if Winston had stayed the way he was another day, he'd wouldn't have survived. The blockage had killed the intestine around it and had started to thin out. The vet said it was going to be a long night because Winston had to be watched carefully due to the amount of damage that he fixed and the 3 incisions that were needed. One in his belly, 2 in the intestine. He removed 14 inches of intestine to save our dog. We were so scared driving home. We knew he might not wake up. Wednesday morning Alan called the vet and we were told he was very sore but he was doing ok so far. He'd been sedated again to keep him from moving around and pulling the stitches. The vet said he now has a 50-60% chance at survival where he had none before the surgery. We have both learned a very valuable lesson in all of this. Winston is very much like a child in that if it will fit, it is going to go into his mouth. We threw away every toy the dogs had that were rubber and my husband and I will do alot of research and hard thinking before we buy another toy for our four legged babies.

Yard work

Anybody who has been to the house or saw a picture outside our home can tell you the yards needed some love. My husband had 6 very healthy hastas growing out front but they were taking over. He blames me because now he can't go anywhere without stopping to look at the plant selections if they carry plants. The front yard lacked colorand we were both very ready for some color. He wanted to plant geraniums outside because he remembered when he was growing up that his mom and dad always had them in the yard. We have red, orange, loud pink, and purple ones in our yard. There's also pansies and a thriving cherry willow tree in there now. The tree was replaced. The first one we bought didn't make it. We kept 2 hastas in the area and the neighbor was kind enough to give us all of her landscape "boulders". Some were small, some were huge, and I am very blessed to have been the person she gave them to. My husband and son went to talk with her and the next thing I knew, my husband wanted to know where I wanted the rocks. WOW! It was alot of work and our son did alot of the grunt work but hubby was right out there with him. Shortly after those were placed it was off to the local home improvement store for the river rock that is covering the ground inside the fire bowl area. The chairs and loveseat were given to us by our extended family members, Sabrina and David. We've done alot of digging, planning, and work but it sure was worth every sore muscle and all the sweat we put into it. I've posted a couple of shots so you can see how it looks now. I didn't notice the date is wrong when I took them. These pictures were actually taken about 2 weeks ago.