Does DIxie need a brother?

This dog is so cute...

when he sleeps!

Even sleeps in the car going bye-bye

And doesn't mind his 'new' bed at all...sshhhhh...don't tell him it's a cage. I couldn't help it. When I'd get up in the night to go to the bathroom, he'd think it was play time. And this folks...is playtime....

I can no longer leave clothes sorted on the floor. My Mom came over the other day and asked why my underwear were in the middle of the floor!

I pick up after him all day long.

Because when he's not sleeping, he's going 100 miles an hour.

It's all or nothing and usually consists of tearing something up. (I buy him toys at garage sales. )

Luckily, I could fix this rug. It was the rug my friend made me and it wasn't torn, the loop came loose.

And when he's not tearing something up, he's getting into something.

Thanks Aunt Jeannie, for the coat, but here's the thing....I heard Mom and Dad talking about me maybe getting an older brother...so I might give it to him. It'll fit him better.

Tell me blogger friends - not to go even look. Yes there is a dog that needs a home. It's a male, it's a breed that we were actually thinking of buying just a few short months ago, but we decided not to. I've heard that dogs are better if there are two, and I was thinking of the people I know with dogs. Most of them have two. If I go look at this dog, I will not be able to resist. I won't. What should I do? He needs a home....oh jeez, tell me not to go. My Shug told me to at least go look....What!

And here's the other thing....when he's not getting into something, he's getting out! Dixie Doodle, as we've been calling him REFUSES to be fenced in. He goes along every picket and finds the smallest hole, or a loose picket, and squeezes right through. I am trying to not get too attached (yeah right) because I know someday he is going to wander off. He is. It's in his blood. My friend started singing Don't Fence Me In yesterday. She said it's his theme song. Our fence looks awful now because we have hammered pickets across the bottom of it, I've thrown pieces of firewood along the bottom of it, we've put lumber across the bottom of it, and he still gets out.

We have turned into the neighbors with the annoying dog. Cute. Rarely barks, but he gets out. Yesterday, the South neighbor said, as I was coming back from looking for Dixie Doodle, "I just tried calling you, your dog was in my yard". He luckily has a fenced in yard and was not at all upset. He even tried to help me find out how he was getting out and tried to fix the area. Then last night, our Northern neighbor called. "Your dog is in my back yard."

I know, I just know...it's gonna happen someday. Tell me not to go look.....

Cindy

Ps - My Dad is having knee replacement surgery today. I'll be at the hospital with Mom this morning. Pray that he does not have to have a full replacement. They said it could be partial and partial will be so much easier than full. And pray that he does not get an infection.

Pps - I'm gonna go look.....

Christmas trees and other stuff

Friday, my Mom and I went out Christmas shopping. Just for a couple of hours and I didn't buy one Christmas gift. But I enjoyed spending time with my Mom and I did buy myself some new sunglasses, slippers, and towels. Probably didn't need them and probably wouldn't have bought them had I not went out on black Friday. But I did. And I had the worst headache. I should have seen it coming then. But I took two Tylenol and kept plugging away. Well, Saturday morning I woke up not feeling well, and before noon I was throwing up. Full on stomach flu. So I did not get off of the couch all day Saturday. And here's the thing...I got the flu last year on Thanksgiving. What is up with that?

On this four day holiday I have traditions. I have rituals. I have things to do. Christmas shopping, Christmas tree shopping, decorating and such. And for the last two years I have not been able to keep up with them. This flu thing is making me afraid for Thanksgiving! Usually I go shopping the next morning with my Sister. But last year we couldn't go because I was sick and this year we couldn't go because she went to Disney! Then Saturday we get our Christmas tree and Sunday we put it up. Not the last two years. And last year it put me so far behind I didn't get caught up ever. I was wrapping Christmas presents on Christmas morning. This year I refuse to let that happen.

So....I got the flu and I got over it.

And today, Sunday, we went and got our Christmas tree. Did you know you can get inexpensive trees at Lowe's? We used to do the romantic thing and go to a Christmas tree farm and cut one down. But the trees got this mold on them and they were more expensive.
But for 16.98, these aren't bad trees.


Not tall enough.


naaaaa


yup! This is the one!

Then I came home and finished a project I started on Friday night.

I made one of these felted trees on Friday evening. The pattern is in the Falalala Felt book that a lot of bloggers seem to have. (Brenda...Mel...have you made anything from the book yet)

So today, Sunday, I got Roofus out, the movie The Holiday, and my bags of felted sweaters and jackets and such.

And I made a couple more of them

What do you think?

And now I'm sitting here with my hot chocolate and cool whip, downloading pics...

I am NOT going to get behind this season!

Cindy

PS. The whole reason I put the flu thing on here, is because I wanted to remind everyone to get your "care package" now, while you are feeling well, and hide it somewhere. I buy 7-up, Gatorade, chicken noodle soup, crackers, and popsickles, and I put the first three items somewhere not easily found. That way if someone in the family gets the flu, you are prepared and don't have to go to the store in a snow storm or when you aren't feeling well.

Thanksgiving Day ramblings...

I published this last night - Thanksgiving night - but apparently it posted below some other posts...I had to do some finaggling(sp?)to get it to show up here....who knows...

There are so many things I have been wanting to post about, so I'm just going to ramble. Let's go back to Tuesday....

What an exciting day. I called my friend and said, "Hey, let's go President stalking!"
What? she said. "I did that when Reagan came here and I got in trouble."
"What'd you do?" I ask.
"I got on the roof at Penney's and the police made us get down. It was noted in the paper the next day. "
All these years and I never knew that about her! So I explain that I didn't quite have that in mind. I was thinking more of going to the new Irish Pub for lunch and seeing if he shows up. Maybe hanging out in downtown Kokomo a bit.

When we got downtown, people were lining up down by the fire station. So, we had to go have a look-see. And there he was...pulling into the fire station! Twas exciting. So I was snapping pic after pic after pic on my cell phone. My husband took my camera to work with him, because the Pres was going to Chrysler that day. Well, long story short....somehow I have lost all the pics on my phone. All of them. They're gone. 80 pics gone. So much for that story.


So, thankfully my husband had his pics. And I know how to download pics from my camera without losing them. And for the record, the Pres waved at me and my friend, but My Shug....well he got to shake his hand.

And since this is not a political blog, and it is MY blog, I'm going to say this....
I was reading this book by Elizabeth Gilbert, "Eat, Pray, Love." And this very wise Balinese medicine man says the following when Elizabeth tells him some people like to argue about God. "Not necessary," he said. "I have good idea, for if you meet some person from different religion and he want to make argument about God. Never argue about God with him. Best thing to say is, 'I agree with you.' Then you go home, pray what you want. This is my idea for people to have peace about religion."
I feel the same about politics.
Let's all sing together.....Leeet there beeee PEACE ON EARTH and let it begin with meeee.....(I SAID SING WITH ME- now come on .....sing)



So, yesterday when I was making pies, I was thinking....I make my edges like this....with my fingers bent...I use my knuckles to make the rippled edges. My knuckles and a finger, not a thumb.


So would I be allowed to join the Coop Keeper's "Pie Gang" http://http//talefromthecoopkeeper.blogspot.com/search?q=pie+gang
or would I have to start a separate chapter, for those people who use knuckles


(notice the fresh flowers Queen? I do that because A24 does it! So glad she's back by the way.)

So, for Thanksgiving we went to my parent's house. I made pies and a turkey. Instead of one big turkey, Mom made one and I made one. When my Shug came home from checking on our house that we are building (it rained all night and he wanted to see if it was flooded - it was not) he walked in and saw this

and he said, "yeeaaa, Martha Stewart's back!" I used to do A LOT of Martha stuff. I'm slowly making a comeback.

And did ya see that blanket thrown across the chair in my picture above? It's old and torn and I thought I'd make a white Christmas with it. So, I made this star.

I was going to make several of them and hang them by threads here and there, and maybe make some pillows with Noel, Joy, and other things embroidered on them. I'm trying to do some simple crafty things because I don't seem to have time for much else. It felt so good to sew again. And speaking of crafty....I'm starting to get a little envious of The Queen and TH. Did you see the things they've been making. Elfin hats, hand warmers, and chicken pot holders. Yes, I'm envious. TH even knows how to download pics from her phone.

Another crafty person is my President stalker friend. She's the one with the booth at Treasure Mart. 20% off of everything in the booth Friday, Saturday and Sunday of this Thanksgiving day weekend.




She took old fashioned pins and put them on ornaments with ribbons. Only 2 bills each.


If you need to get this wreath down



you can quickly borrow a chair from a neighbor's booth. But do it quickly, and make sure no one is around to see you. And don't break it for crying out loud. And remember, no one can see you do it.


I need to go now. I'm tired. I've been having heart palpitations. I do that sometimes and it wakes me up at night a lot. And I need to cut out some coupons for shopping tomorrow. I'm not getting up that early though. I don't really have that much shopping to do. You do realize only one month until Christmas right? Are you going shopping? Or are you making your gifts this year?

Chat with ya later,
Good night and Happy Thanksgiving weekend,
Cindy

HAPPY

THANKSGIVING!!!

Shopping Trip - part two

This is a mug that Vickie (my cousin) had made for all of us. As you can see, we have dressed alike on this trip through straight hair, big hair era, and back to straight hair again.

And remember the blanket picture where we were all looking at the backside? This is why...my cousin Gloria ironed on all of these pics on the backs of our blankets that she made for us. I have very crafty people in my family.

My sis had a great idea. Wrap up with our new blanket, get some hot chocolate, and a book and just sit and relax. mmmmmm....

And this my blogger friends, is the necklace my Mom gave to me. The necklace which symbolizes the fact that she is no longer going on the shopping trip, and she is turning over "the key" to me, her oldest daughter. I tried to give the key back to her. She had us all in tears. We want her to go, but she's ready to call it quits. She has tried to quit going for about four years now but we refused to let her. It will not be the same trip without her.

I'm thankful for all of these happy memories with "family friends". Yes family friends. They are family, but they are friends. I love them and I'm thankful God gave me this family. Crazy as it is....and this is just a tiny portion of my family. Mom and Dad both had several brothers and sisters and a lot of them had kids, who had kids, who had kids. We'll be having a reunion soon and I won't even know half the people there!

Now on to other stuff I'm not so thankful for....remember I told you that Dixie is mental? Well, the entire time I was gone, he would not eat, nor would he have anything to do with my Shug. He wouldn't even be in the same room with him! When my Shug tried to pet him, he'd start to pee! When I got home, Dixie was upstairs and Dave was downstairs! And my husband is the nicest animal person there is....nicer to animals than I am actually! When I came in the door the dog ran downstairs and jumped all over my husband like they were best buds. Then he went and ate, and he's been nice to us since.

I don't know what happened to this dog in his previous life, but I'm thinking some man did not treat him so nice.

I was ready to not treat him nice after he came in the house tonight looking like this....

and not for the first time I might add. Yes those are burrs. More dog pics later....let me just say, he's a handful. "He is a HANDFUL."

Cindy Bee

Christmas Shopping 2010

Hi there,

To answer some comments from the previous post,

You're right Queen, we did talk about Dixie's restless, wandering, heart. What we didn't talk about and should have, is his mental state. He's got one! More on him later.

TH. I was trying to avoid the whole 'hoarding' conversation about yarn and food. Yup, we hoard folks. Material and books too. OK - fess up, what do you hoard and why?

Rebecca - I had a small brown dot on my forehead a little less than the size of a pencil eraser. It ended up being Basal Cell Carcinoma, and I ended up getting a "spot" removed about the size of a quarter with several stitches. This was years ago and the scar is hardly noticeable now, but had I not checked on it, it would have kept growing.

Brenda - you are not a blog stalker. She knows who she is! But just this weekend I understand there is another one out there. TC - You blog stalkin' cuz?

OK - so on to this past weekend... I went on a shopping trip that I've been going on for at least 30 years...maybe longer. It was foggy out.

We went anyway.

Yes, we all have the same type of t-shirts on...say not a word. I mean it.

Mom started the same shirt thing back in the 80's. These people are my Mom, my sister, and three cousins.

Mom had us all in tears...more on that later.

What are we all looking at?

More on that later too.

This guy made a lot of bonus points


We ate lots of nutritious foods..... Dan's Donuts

(I told her not to get the pink donut but she wouldn't listen. Did you eat it Sister?)

Vickie's famous cinnamon rolls

And Vickie's famous temper! She was not happy with McDonalds.

The girl behind the counter was just "not with it" that morning. Enough said about that.

One of my favorite places to shop... (I know I know - I've got to stop!)

We bought a lot of Christmas presents.

and stuff for ourselves!

Yes we use a car top carrier. We have six people and we spend the night in a motel, shop at both malls in Ft. Wayne, and we need the room. There have been times when we've come home with bean bag chairs on our laps!

The weekend went fast.

And the trip is over.

Cindy

Went to the skin Doc today.

Apparently that new mark right above my lip there on the left is a beauty mark...."nothing to worry about." I'll probably start looking a lot like Cindy Crawford now. {sigh}
But, do you go to the skin doctor, once a year, just to have your skin checked? You should. Especially if you're fair (or is it fare) complected.


So, last night I had an important meeting at BDub's. The Queen, TH and I met to discuss my busy life and quitting my Community Garden job. The Queen said "I don't blame you, you're too busy."
'nuff said.
We went on to more important things...like
Why don't I text?
How to post links that say "here" and "here" instead of this..... http://www.thepalacepost.blogspot.com/ and when you click "here'" it actually goes to the website. Which just does NOT work for me.
When it's absolutely necessay to drop the "F' bomb. I really wanted to drop it at a local building supply store today.
Obama's visit to our town.
The high price of food.
Chicken wings and how they will be "sent back if they arrive to small at the price of $7.99."
We discussed this yarn color...is it too pink? will it work with the light pink? and the red?
How long should the Queen's elfin hat be?

I say down to her butt. Did you see TH's elfin hats? Cute. Check them out "here" http://thesearetheplaceswheregraceis.blogspot.com/2010/11/elves-among-us.html
(so frustrating)

We also talked about blog stalkers. They are the people who never leave comments, you don't even know they are watching your blog until you tell them something and they say, "yes, I know, I saw that on your blog." Then the next time you tell them something they say, "yeah, I know, I saw that on your blog." B.P. I told them about you.....blog stalker!

Anyway, we made a lot of very important decisions, and I recommend the chips, salsa, and very berry margarita on the rocks!

Cindy Bee

Stuff, Stuff and more Stuff!

Before y'all start worrying about my sanity, no need, really. I do this all the time. I commit, commit, commit, and I HAVE to do a good job. It's the way I am. And doing a good job takes longer. I always think I have time because I'm only a beekeeper, I'm only a child care provider(taxi-cab driver), I'm only a Community Garden Coordinator. Those things are only part-time, seasonal, etc. But they are all the same season. And I forget to take into account real life stuff. Like an 87 year old MIL that occasionally calls because she has fallen and cannot get up. For real. It's not funny. Especially when it's 12:30 in the night. Or your parents decide to move and their house sells in one week! Or you decide to build a house. Plus I'm 52, I want to have fun! So anyway, don't worry....

and look what I did!

Sunday, during one of my melt downs....I emptied the contents of my closet! And I put it all on our bed so I HAD to clean it up before the day ended! I wish I would have taken a picture of the closet beforehand. But I didn't think of it until the contents were dumped. It wasn't planned, it just happened.



Had to use the floor too.


But look!

I have very small closets.

Then I started on other stuff.

Stuff stuff stuff

I took a bunch of clothes to a new resale store in town.

They took some of them, and I have more to take. They didn't want some of them, which doesn't surprise me. I've never been accused of being fashionable! I go on binges where I might shop at Kohl's, or go to Indy and shop at Coldwater Creek, J. Jill, or Chico's, but then I also go to second hand stores and garage sales for clothes. One thing is for sure, I have too many and they are going.

And yesterday, I took the STUFF to my friend's booth at Treasure Mart.

Teresa's Treasures.....

She's going to have a big sale on Black Friday.

Cindy Bee