Little bear/Big bear

My little bear is growing up. It's times like this I have to swallow past the lump in my throat, when I realize it's only a few short years until he could be out on his own. It's hard to believe it's High School dances and no longer birthday parties he's going to. He's turning into a wonderful young man and I'm proud of him. He's not my little bear any more. I guess now he's my big bear... but still my bear.

(selfie with my bear - I mean everyone else selfie's right?)

This is Abby, my bear's girlie friend. Interesting back story - but suffice to say that this was something that her mother and I dreamed of doing when they were little, and then it just happened all on it's own. How perfect could that be? Marie (Abby's Mom pictured here) has been one of my best friends for nearly 30 years. She's a beautiful, strong woman and her daughter is just like her. Complications or hazards along the way? Not with these two - those are just speed bumps. :-)

While we were waiting for Abby to arrive I snapped this shot of him. I <3 This picture. It shows just how serious and intense my boy really is.

I did follow him up to the Hall where the dance was, but restrained my self not to take pictures of them up there. I only took a picture of the entrance to the dance because it was truly a magical feeling they had going on there.

My how the time has flown. 

*Shaking head in disbelief*

See you soon!

Barbie~

A day at the 'Pet Spa'

I'm off on one of those posts that get me side tracked.

 

See I was working on one of those BIG projects that I've been talking about the last few weeks.

Sneak preview alert:

Ah - just a blank slate for now. This WAS the kids playroom just a few short weeks ago!

 

 But, I got to the point where I was cleaning the carpets, and one of the kids came in. The tears were falling and through the hiccuping and sobbing I managed to make out that her doggie needed a bath.

 

Now, I have to warn you. This is no ordinary dog. It's stuffed. It's also not of a size that I could just toss into the washing machine and call it a day. Besides. She sleeps with this dog, she eats with this dog. This dog is a part of our family and... well - Have you ever seen what happens to the animals you toss into the wash? I mean there are desperate times and all but this animal? There was NO WAY it was going into the machine!

 

So,  in a brilliant Mom move (I mean, Hey, I've had that title now for almost 15 years it's time I earned it, right?) I dropped what I was doing and we had a Pet Spa day. We brushed those tears off her little cherub face. Stuffed a cookie in her mouth and quickly proclaimed this as the Pet Spa rather than my newest project room. Hey, whatever works for the moment. So. I ran and grabbed a laundry basket to be the 'tub' and a blow dryer. I already had the rest of what I needed...

One dirty dog.

Clearly you can see why the child was distraught. This would be the child with OCD, ADD, and just a touch of ME. LOL.

I had my 'PET Cleaner" (cut off the car part of carpet cleaner and watered it WAAAAY down by 80%)

I simply sprayed the stains on each appendage and then vacuumed them off. Some of the set in stains had to be sprayed and vacuumed more than once, but ALL of the stains came off. Even the marker! Of course this Mama is not dumb. This house only has washable marker around anyway. But after sitting around for so long I would have thought that the marker would not have come off or would have left some staining, but NOPE!

After Vacuuming we brushed and blow dried the pup, giving it the full beauty spa treatment. Luckily my kiddo has no idea about painting doggie toenails or the whole bandanna thing that the real groomers do at their shops. I'm not sure if i could have found a bandanna around the house. Maybe a boa would have done?

At the end of it all the whole process only took about 1/2 hour and my kiddo and her pup were reunited. Of course this Doggie has her own pups and they were happy to see each other as well. I told you that it was part of the family.

But there is something I learned from this experience that I will use over and over again. It's SO MUCH EASIER to do it this way! The animal is cleaner and not all beaten up. The child is less traumatized and she truly enjoyed helping me in the process, too. Besides now I don't have fluff falling out or a tail that needs reattached, an eye falling off or any of the other assorted injuries that happen to these animals in the washer. Of course there are times that a washing machine would be the only way the animal could be saved. After all kids get sick - but for the animals that are just loved a little too much, what a great solution. I'll never go back to the old way again!

So hopefully if you, like me had never heard of anyone vacuuming their stuffed animals clean - now you have! Spread the word because it's too easy to ignore.

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

To blog or not to blog?

Sometimes I have nothing to say. Other times I have so many topics to cover it's hard to know what to talk about.

Sometimes I shy away because I'm unsure of how to go about cramming so many things into the blog. Do I talk about this child today? That child? Work? Garden? Traffic? Weather? This craft? That thing I'm doing? Trip I took....

 

And because I can't decide my blog sits here and gathers dust. It makes me feel sorry for it. Can a blog do this you ask? Yes, it can. Guilt inducing blog syndrome. It exists. I think. At least in my mind it does, therefore -surely it must! LOL.

 

But seriously. There are so many times that I think to myself that I should put this on there, or that on there and never get around to it. I chide myself that I don't have anyone interested in knowing those details of my life. But, that isn't really what it's about, is it? It's about putting it out there and getting it out of my head and into the world. So, I'm doing just that. I'm going to try to get better at putting this project or that on the blog. I do notice I tend to put the more annoying things here so I'll start with my most current annoyance and work my way out from there.

 

OK so some random things, I know I complained about reader problems. I've found my solution. Spurred on by Granny's post I kept searching until I found the right reader for me. I really dislike the name of it, but that is not something I can do anything about. It's called FeedDemon. I'll post about it later today.

 

I also took my kids to the audiologist/ENT recently. I know I've talked about their special needs before. But, to me they are just my kids. I hate the label and I only think about any of the issues that any other them have whenever I am faced with this issue or that. I was faced with another one of these issues at this last appointment. Well, I suppose I should say I knew about the issue, it was just thrust up in my face and left to dangle there. (joy) 2 out of my 3 kids have hearing issues. It's no secret. I actually thought that this trip may have resulted in my oldest getting a hearing aid. I expected it. But, they didn't do that. Instead they said the same thing that they've been saying the last couple years. 'Come back next year and we'll probably fit him then.' I walked away feeling someone confident with this as I have heard it now for a while. Off and on since he was an infant really. But this time he was diagnosed with a severe hearing loss, not moderate or mild any longer. The doctor had explained that because his loss was almost entirely in the high range it wouldn't affect his speech hearing that much...THAT MUCH? As a teenager taking high school courses just a little is too much! So the more that I think about it and the more research I do the more upset I become with this decision to wait yet another year.

I'm going to seek a second and possibly a third opinion. I want my son to have the best chance for success. I don't want him to feel different, but I do want him to be able to understand those around him and not have to be embarrassed by that. He can always grow his hair out if he wants to hide the hearing aids, right?

Someone feel free to chime in here. I feel so torn on my decision! Teenage angst or better hearing? Wait another year until he's past his 9th grade and already settled into a High School? ARGH!

 

OK, so then I've also got this little sewing project I did. I turned this skirt that was way too short into something usable by  teiring it with the bottom of a shirt that was too small... smart way to reuse clothes if you ask me. :-)

 

See the extra layer I added? It fits my long legged girl SO much better now~

 

My beans are sprouting that I planted last weekend, it's raining outside, and I've got some other projects in the works as well. Some really major ones. We've got a really big garage sale coming up in 2 weeks. After that you'll see the big projects start. We're moving the kids rooms all around.

 

Rich and I are also starting to look at house plans for Alabama. We can't do anything yet, but we are looking. Trying to settle on what would work for us and give us the flexible space we may need for kids coming and going from college and what we may need in our retirement years as we don't want too much space then. It's rather interesting trying to get the right mix of space! The main reason we are doing this now is because of how much of the homesteading we are doing ahead of time. We've been planting a few trees each year trying to get the orchard planted, the blackberry brambles are in place now as well. We want to  put in the shed that we will eventually turn into the chicken coop and  start working on the areas that will be fenced in and... well you get the picture. Unless we know roughly where the house will sit we can't continue to do too much more work with permanent/semi-permanent structures.

 

See, I told you I have too much to talk about. I still have only scratched to surface. So, I'll try to blog more consistantly and try not to let the Harvest Monday post be the only post throughout the week.

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~



Long winded

This post could be very long winded so instead I'm going to try to stick to just showing you as many pictures as I can and staying out of it.

 

The trip to Alabama:

Click me! Where is Waldo?

 

Got it?

*SHEW*

 

Well... it was a whirlwind. The kids had an absolute blast, and we were nonstop from the get go.

 

The peach and apple trees I planted last year are doing wonderfully. They were blooming well and had grown in nicely. Hopefully this last cold snap didn't kill off all the buds from the peach trees. I don't expect apples so it wouldn't bother me if they were killed off. But, the peach trees are perfectly capable of bearing a few peaches this year.

 

While we were there we: hiked, biked, hunted, shot skeet, fished, rode the trails, moved the containers, finished the shooting range, and in general went from sun up to sun down. It was lovely. It was only 3 days... LOL

 

This weekend we should be finishing the second tall garden. I can't wait to fill it up with seeds and plants!!!

 

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

 

Our Valentine's Day Party...

Okay, well - maybe it was more of a "Party" complete with quotes. It involved keeping poor Savannah away from all food, candy, etc until after her surgery. Not sure how much of a party it can be with no food or drink, but we did what we could.

 

First thing we did was sleep in.

This is essential in keeping kids away from food. Letting their bodies do what is best, and that means minds completely shut off for as long as possible. Of course my little munchkin woke up not too much after normal time. I managed to coax her back to sleep for another hour and a half though and that helped. Then we hung out in bed for a while and watched cartoons.

 

 

The next thing we did was wander around the house and see what Momma did while the littles were sleeping.

 

 

 

Hey! Imagine that! Someone actually decorated the house. Huh, Wonder who that could have been. Cupid must have been a busy little fella! What with all the love bows he had to shoot and candy hearts he had to bake.

 

Aren't you glad this is one holiday we don't have to try to sneak around for? Sheesh. I did wait until the kids went to bed to decorate, but not because i didn't want to get caught in this case. Because I didn't want poor little Annah around food or thinking about food if she didn't have to be.

 

The heart on the fridge came with a NO - NO note. I forgot to put one on the pantry and sure enough she got in there. I did catch her, but she found her way. Sure enough she did. *sigh*

 

Well, after sleeping in and then wandering around we found a nice little stash of Valentine goodies to keep us busy!

 

In these bags we found a new 'piggy bank' (it was NOT a piggy) a puzzle, and a few low key activities to enjoy for the day. After a jaunt at the puzzle - my girl is a puzzle whiz we went out to gather eggs and it was icky rainy out. SO much for playing outside in the garden for a while.

 

She decided to watch Brave. Fitting for a little girl who had to wait for surgery... did I mention her surgery was scheduled for 2:30!!!? YIKES!

 

So back to relax some more. I have to say at this point more than a few tears were shed.

But you would never know by looking at that sweet, sweet face. Would ya? She was SO mad about not eating and drinking so we hung out upstairs away from the temptations that come from being in the normal living areas.

Contrary to popular belief she does not actually have any brothers or sisters who are hamsters. The red eyes only come out when she is angry about not eating. LOL> OK maybe it's the flash.

It seemed like and eternity, but before we knew it we were all checked in at the surgery center and waiting to go back.

Luckily? Well, I don't know about that part but because we were not first timers there they had all of our information already and we didn't have to wait very long at all.

 

Annah was a super champ and walked right back with the anesthesiologist. According to the Dr and the nursing staff she was the model patient and they wished more kids were like her. :-) She makes me proud.

 

In recovery she looks, well - drugged because she was.

 

We were quickly sent home where she curled up on the couch and was allowed to eat whatever she wanted.

 

About an hour later she was back to normal and happy go lucky!

 

We made cookies, and then she got to frost them and decorate them for everyone for Valentine's Day. She didn't even skip a beat. Just took a little cat nap. LOL.



The surgeon was able to do both ears. A true blessing. He knew he would be able to do one, but the second ear was questionable. We thought we would be back to do the second later in the year. I'm so happy he was able to get them both done at one. It may not be a painful surgery, but it is not only an inconvenience it is also uncomfortable for my girlie each time.

 

Last night was the first time in weeks that she was able to go to sleep without the help of not only drugs, but me holding her and helping her. There were no tears shed! This makes me so very relieved. The best grand I ever spent...even though there will still be the bill from the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, the pathologist.... oye.

 

She's doing very well, and it seems now we may get to go hunting this weekend after all. Here piggy piggy piggy.... *teehee*

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

 

Annah's Valentine's Day plans

Well. It seems I was right. We went to see Savannah's doctor about her ears and before we left we were scheduled for surgery again.

 

Only thing is, this time we won't be waiting very long. Tomorrow is the day! Yup. Valentine's Day. She will miss the class party. So we filled out her Valentine's cards and sent them in to school today along with her contribution to the party for tomorrow.

 

Normally there is a few weeks wait before surgery, so this was a bit of a surprise. I guess it is and it isn't. We know that her ears were pretty bad off and it's not her first (or second, or third) go round. But, it is good that she will have relief before the weekend.

 

In preparation we went last night and got her hair cut (EEK!) so that the gooey goopy ear gunk would be easier to clean up. She's not very happy with me, but it's always a fight in the mornings anyway and this will help us both. I hate what they did to her bangs, but it will grow.

 

I'll try to update tomorrow while my baby girl is recuperating. Wish me luck with keeping her happy about having our own little Valentine's party.

See you soon.

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 2/11/13

It's Harvest Monday again.

 

This time I'm not linking in though. I don't have any pictures, and nothing wonderful to report. I did have a small harvest this week though.

 

1 zucchini and 2 tomatoes. :-)

 

Hey, it may not be much, but it keeps me going.

 

We also harvested the flu and another ear infection. That is why I'm not linking in and why I have no pictures to share yet again. Tomorrow I head back to the Dr's for what I am afraid pretty sure will be the assurance of the next round of surgery for my littlest.

 

It seems each Spring I get to report this event. Unfortunately it is preceded with so many sleepless nights that by the time we get here I'm relieved to get the surgery scheduled and then by surgery day I may be nervous for the surgery but the actual surgery it self is such a relief! Sleep is in my future, I just KNOW IT!

 

We have flu complications as well. Friday Kate was feeling perfectly fine after fending off her bout of flu. Today she is snotty and wheezy. Looks like we will be heading back tot he Dr's again for her this afternoon or tomorrow as well.

 

We had plans for hunting this weekend, but I'm not so sure that is going to happen now as it requires us to leave them each at different grandparents houses. My fingers are crossed for miraculous recoveries for both, but my brain is realistic and preparing for the reality of another quiet (LONG NIGHTED) weekend at home.

See you soon.

Barbie~

Harvest Monday. 7.30.2012

This July has been the worst yet for me on record. Of course, my record is fairly short. But this week things are finally picking up again.

There have been long beans, rice peas, mulberries, a strawberry here or there (for the chickens as they are seedy and kind of tart now) a pomegranate, some peanuts that ended up getting pulled when I pulled the marigolds last week, and a few other assorted things here and there... I didn't get a lot of pictures, but I did get a few. :-)

Peanuts, pomegranate, mulberries, an overgrown cucumber (was still good, btw)

a load of peppermint, rice peas,

 

and lady peas as well - these were delicious!

My gals. the little fluff butts. We got the first eggs this weekend. My what a raucous! You'd have thought the world was coming to an end. Sheesh. I'm afraid the chicken sharing with the neighbor will be coming to an abrupt end very soon. There is no way the HOA will put up with this. :-( It makes me sad.

This proud young lady is definitely the owner of one of the little eggs. Can't you tell? That  waddle looks like it's on fire! LOL

My son is showing off his bounty and contribution to the harvest this week. He and my husband went out with some friends... and my, oh my, did they contribute...

Nomnomnom....

So, while i"m busy eating, Y'all have fun.

Linking in with Daphne's Dandelions. Don't forget to stop by her place and see all the wonderful things that everyone is harvesting from all over the world!

'Till next time!

Barbie~