IS IT SUMMER, YET?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

It's the next installment of "A Few Of My Faves..."

For one thing, I can't stand the fruity waters. They just taste like sugar. I also can't do Gatorade or Propel, because of the sugar content. I know it sounds crazy, but this stuff just tastes better than any other water. PLUS, it has electrolytes! I'm campaigning for Smartwater to deliver 75 gallons at a time to my house. For some reason, they are not responding........

Sabra hummus~~~So incredible yummy! (Specifically, with pine nuts) I get it at Costco, in the BIG tub. It goes great with carrots, peppers, and pita chips!!

Pascual Torso cabernet( Argentina). I have sampled many wines in my day. I have experienced wine tasting in Napa Valley (twice) and Estes Park, CO. This is the best cabernet I've ever had. The best part? It's only $9.99. The bad part? I can only get it at World Market, so it requires organization when planning a special meal.
Oh yeah...................sleeping bags for my feet!!!!!! (Many of you know the slipper debacle of '06)
More on warmth..This stuff I get from Mom. It is fabulous! It softens my hands during the winter, and yes, I DO believe it actually warms my skin. It does not possess a fruity/flower smell, so it's purely a functional treatment.
All tea is good tea. However, after purchasing boxes and boxes of teas that were good, I've found my favorite that's great.

Harmony Stables

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Green

You're green, the color of growth and vigor. Good-hearted and giving, you have a knack for finding and bringing out the best in people. Green is the most down-to-earth color in the spectrum — reliable and trustworthy. People know they can count on you to be around in times of need, since your concern for people is genuine and sincere. You take pride in being a good friend. For you, success is measured in terms of personal achievement and growth, not by status or position. Rare as emeralds, greens are wonderful, natural people. It truly is your color!

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/rd/50651/color/index.jsp?testname=colorogt&resultid=C

Kim posted her color, so I just had to post mine!! I'm really not sure if green is my color. I DO know I have been wearing more green lately. Does that make any difference?

Very fun. I love these little surverys/quizzes.............keep 'em coming!!

A while back, I posted about my effort to use "reuseable" bags for grocery/store shopping. Well, most of the time, I forget. I know. It's bad. I completely forget I have these bags in the back of the van. So, today, I vowed to myself that I would remember to take them with me.............I did! Yay! I took a big bag into Target, and the check-out lady was very intrigued, and asked me many questions. I was feeling very proud of myself. I then take two more big bags and bought another smaller bag in the grocery store.
Am I really the first person to bring in my own bags to this particular grocery store? No. I'm sure not. In fact, I saw someone else with a reusable bag walking in as I was walking out. However, the check-out personnel acted like they had no idea what to do with these bags. One guy only filled it half-way. The cashier yelled for another gal to bring it back and fill it some more. Oh yeah, and take the grapes out. They all yelled/communicated with each other the entire time I was there regarding my bags. This was a huge inconvenience, I guess. I ignored them and concentrated on the kids and tried not to feel embarrassed. After all, this is a good thing. I am helping the environment, right? So when I finally grab the cart and start to head out, I still have about 6 plastic bags in my reuseables. WHAT?! Ok, you have to wrap the meat. I get it. They wrapped one package of meat into three different plastic bags!!! #$&*^@ idiots!!!!!!!! I am trying NOT to use plastic bags, so they put one package of meat into one bag.............x3?? WTF?! I'm sorry, but it's really not that hard. I helped guide them before things got all testy. I told them that I didn't care that the bread was on top of the apples. So, I guess from now on, I'll have to take in my used plastic bags so that I don't end up with 25 more. Is it really so hard? I made the effort to actually remember the bags, and end up with more plastic bags. I realize it's still about half of what I would have if I had NO reuseables, but still..........................ugh.

Some winter fun!!

This was a great opportunity to skate on the ice. It was really frozen and not much snow on it, to trip us up. (cuz, ya know that's the ONLY reason we would fall...............:)

From the moment this dog came in to our home, he has been hell on 4 legs. I am officially fostering this dog, so I cannot just go get rid of him. Not that I would, anyway, because he would have been put down already if he was at a pound. That reason, alone, is why I just couldn't take him to the pound. However, let's just run down what this dog has done, shall we?

1.Peeing and barfing in the house (the very LEAST of our problems with him, but worth mentioning)

2. When left out in the house while I was gone for only 15-20 minutes, he got in to the pantry and tore open the flour bag. Flour everywhere!!! On a different occasion, he tore open the potato bag and took bites out of three or four potatoes.

3. RickyBobby has swiped food off the counter/table on half a dozen occasions. No scruples, this one.

4. Because I couldn't leave him out in the house even for 15 minutes without getting in to trouble, I began putting him in the kennel we have. It is a wire kennel, that we had used for Boo with no issues. He would escape from it all the time. He would bend the gate, actually eat/bend/chew the wires OFF the kennel and get out a tiny little hole only fit for a guinea pig.

WE'VE ESTABLISHED HE IS A HOUDINI, SO ERIC REINFORCED THE KENNEL WITH OSB BOARD

5. This dog actually moved the kennel across the room (concrete floor, since we are renovating the basement) to an area where we had furniture that was being refinished due to scratches left on them from the last dog from hell we had here. RickyBobby chewed the furniture into firewood. Completely ruined. He also ate the drywall we just had done. That wasn't even the end of it. He also chewed the cord from Eric's table saw into three pieces.



Now, he obviously has severe separation issues. I had tried leaving him in the kennel in small increments...10-20 minutes at a time, to get him used to it. Nope~didn't work. I would leave a tv or music on while he was in the kennel. We got a muzzle for him, which worked for about 3 or 4 days, then he got it off and chewed it up. He's had bones and Kongs in the kennel with him to keep him busy. Doesn't seem to care. I tried two different kinds of anti-anxiety remedies. These were "natural" and I had been told they work VERY WELL and with any dog. Nope. Not with this guy. Didn't affect him at all. I was at my wit's end. I tried calling the humane society to let them know I couldn't do it anymore. The new director and I played phone tag for awhile. In the meantime, Eric asked our neighbor if we could use her big kennel. It's about 10x10 and he put it in the garage. I had thought that it was a good thing the director and I didn't connect, cuz the new big kennel worked for quite a while. Plus, the humane society was in peril, due to a situation where a foster family got fed up and told them they had 24 hours to come get the 6 dogs and horse they had at their house. The last thing I wanted to do was to call her to tell her I had, yet another dog that needed placement. So, the big kennel seemed to work. I would put all three dogs in it when I had to leave and they did just fine. I even told the director this when she called to say someone was interested in RickyBobby. We decided he was not a good candidate for them cuz they work all day and have no other animals. RickyBobby would destroy their new house. The very same day, I had the dogs in the kennel because we were cleaning the house, and it was impossible to do so with all three big bodies laying around. When I went out to get them, RickyBobby had made another hole in the big chain-link fencing

around the kennel. He has also chewed the cord from the space heater I had out there to warm the mutts, since it was so cold outside. So, in addition to the furniture, table saw, drywall, muzzle, electric collar, and various other chewed and/or ruined items, we now have a junk space heater. That was it. I called the humane society. Three women came out to assess the damage. They agreed I have done quite a lot to help this dog. With some prescription medication and the promise to help me train him, I will be giving it one more last try. I have to say that I am skeptical regarding the abilities I have to actually get him "kennel happy". I really feel for this dog. He was obviously left for very long periods of time in a small space before he was dumped or ran away. He was probably also beaten. My love for animals has been the driving force behind this big venture. However, I can only take so much. The amount of stress this situation has caused is affecting my family. I spent a good thirty minutes last night crying while waiting for the humane society to arrive. But, I will give it my all. At least I will be able to say that I did all I could, if I end up having to give him up. Other than the separation issues, he is really good. He's a normal dog with the swiping of food and chewing of toys. Ugh.

Furniture $250, Table saw $500, Wire kennel $75, Electric collar $100, Muzzle $20, Space heater $40, Anti-anxiety meds $30.....................Getting rid of the dog from hell.........priceless.

So, after a long hard ride (a whole 25 min), Minnie just had to roll in the dirt in order to ..........get the human stank off her? Anyway, she rolled and rolled while Eric snapped picures.

We started working with George. Can't ride him, but we start out just putting the saddle pad/saddle on him and walking. He was doing great!
NOT to be outdone, Georgie had to follow mama and roll on the ground, too. Unfortunately, he was not used to having a saddle on. Kinda hard to roll on your back with a saddle, George.
Whew! That was exhausting!! I tried so hard, ma. I just couldn't get over. Please help us if the horse is as dumb as the dogs.

What a great weekend here! It was warm and sunny. Ally had been begging to take Minnie out for a ride. And, in true Ally fashion, wanted to ride her "by myself". Wrights got us a new bit, so it took awhile to get it adjusted. Minnie was so patient. She took the bit, spit it out, took it again........ finally we were ready to go.

Eric got a new camera, and took this opportunity to catch some great shots. I wish I could post them all.
I have to explain the yellow wiffle bat. In order to keep the horses from accidentally stampeding us to death while feeding them grain, we were advised to get a bat to smack our boot, the wall, or just wave around in order to let the horses know who's boss. I was very resistant to this idea at first, but warmed to it once I realized I didn't even have to touch the horses with it, to get them to behave. Al had trouble getting Minnie to move, cuz her little legs couldn't give Minnie enough of a punch to let her know to go! So, Al tapped mama on the butt to let her know it was go time.
This is Georgie. We had to tie him up while we worked with mama. Have I mentioned that he is a mama's boy???? :) Although, neither of the horses like carrots or apples,(WHUTT?!) they DO like alfalfa treats.

We surprised the kids last Friday with a trip to Fort Rapids Indoor Waterpark. I picked them up from school and said we were going "somewhere". They all guessed a movie or out to eat. It was a blast!!!
This was the huge dump bucket. Every minute or two, it fills up and dumps water. Very cool. It also had little, medium and large water slides. Al just missed the height requirement for the largest ones, so we started off on the medium ones. As we started down, I'm thinking, "Holy $#*&, this is scary! Ally's gonna freak out!!!" So, we come out of the tunnels and I immediately look for her. She's beaming from ear to ear! She's squealing, "Let's do that again!!!!!" Ok.............. we played for three hours, bouncing from waterslide to basketball to hot tub...........loads of fun for a Friday night!!!

OMG!!!!!!!! I started Tivo-ing "Paranormal State" on the A&E channel. I watched them tonight. I'm sooooooooaddicted. It is a group of college students from Penn State. They go around the country investigating "sightings", "mediums", "ghosts".

This is good stuff. It is very real, very spooky, and very entertaining. Love it!

Speaking of spooky.......................Eric and I went to "I Am Legend" last night. Wow. I can tell you that there was a very wide range of emotions regarding that movie. As I watched it, I regretted going, but then I warmed to it once it was over. Mark and Dawn went with us, and we talked about that movie the whole rest of the night. Crazy stuff.

I hear this is a great book. I'm sure it has liberated hundreds of women. I have seen women on talk shows describe how they were provided a reality check while reading it. I will buy about 25 of these books and give them out to all the young ladies that continue to call my house looking for my sons. Am I serious? HELL yes! Did my friends and I call boys in 2nd and 3rd grade? Maybe. I don't remember that far back. But, even if we did, it was one call here and there. Max and Jay have these two girls calling them daily. Is that sooooo bad? No, not if it was even once a day. These girls call over 10 TIMES A DAY!!! Our phone number is listed in the school directory. My cell phone is also listed. The intent was for parents to be able to get ahold of me, not lovesick little girls. Last Friday night, there were 4 calls to my voicemail and 6 calls on the answering machine. The boys will be nice at first, answering the questions these girls have for them. Then, they will tell them to hang up, or in desperation, hang up on them. It doesn't matter. They call back. OR, they call my phone. Today, it started at 8:30 on a Sunday morning. After the phone rings 4 times, I tell the boys to tell them not to call back. They said they had already. I guess it's time for "Big Bad Mama" to get involved.

Not looking forward to the teen years......................


*Does anyone else have trouble uploading photos over the weekends? Anything more than one uploaded image and it takes FOREVER!! I have pix of our weekend that I want to post, but may have to wait until Monday...........

SOOOOOOOOO very exciting!! I got my own Carhart (Berne) coat and cover-alls. I have been using Eric's stuff, and let me tell you....it was a little....huge. I got my own, now, and it will make for some toasty warm ventures out to the barn. It will also come in handy when I put the van in the ditch after a snow. Hey, it was drifting, and skewed the edges of the road!!!!!
^%&*!!!! dogs!! Ok, well they were having fun , here, but don't EVEN get me started on the destruction and headaches caused.............................................

Since Ally got her horses early and Max got his quad early, Jay seemed to think he could get a gift early...................OK!!! The one thing he really, really wanted this year was Jabba's Sail Barge. Oh...did I mention that the kid is obsessed with Star Wars? Once that kid finds something he likes.....it's all or nothing. Anyhoo, I figured he could get his gift early, but it couldn't be that easy. I wrapped up a gift I was giving to my niece~ a tea set. Jay was all excited.....thinking, I'm sure, of the sail barge. He unwraps the tea set and looks disappointed. I told him he could now play tea party with Ally. No gratefullness at all. So, I go get the real present. And yes, it was very much what he was expecting.
(nevermind the BRA in the background!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT MINE!!!!!!)
I really had no doubt at all that Jay could put that damn thing together. In fact, it didn't cross my mind at all that he couldn't. The boy is a genius with Legos. He came through with a fabulous masterpiece. That boy will be an engineer someday...............
This is Gracie cuddling up to Eric as we are opening presents Christmas Eve night. As cold as Eric keeps the house, she's probably scared to death she'll die of hypothermia!!!!!! (Yes, WITH all that fur!!!!!!)
Umm....apparently the dogs haven't been fed tonight. Yeah, it's the stare-down. I KNOW you are intimidated!!!!!

I'm always under the impression that any early Christmas present is a good Christmas present. Knowing that we were to get the quad for Max, at least 3 days before Christmas, I told Eric I thought we should GIVE it to him before Christmas. Eric doesn't particularly like my ideas about early Christmas gifts. My reasoning (and very logical I should say) was that getting it BEFORE Christmas would allow him to actually ride it before we were to leave on Christmas day for Iowa. Eric bucked me on this, but we came to an agreement that he would get it Christmas Eve morning. So, Eric had to do some prep work on the 4-wheeler before we could get it running and ready to ride. As Eric worked on it in the garage, I think a little excitement crept into his "fun-hater" brain, because on Saturday as he was wrapping it up, he asked me, "I don't know if you'd object to this, but should we give it to him, today?" Object???? Really???? Ha Ha. That's funny. So very funny. I got started on a sign that read, "Merry Christmas, Max", while Eric set it up beside the garage where you couldn't see it from the house. I stood out by the garage, while Eric went in to tell Max that he needed his help outside. As he walked out, and saw it, his face said it all. Stunned.

For two years we have been telling Max we couldn't get a quad cuz it would tear up the yard, they are too dangerous, or that we just didn't have the money. And although all these are legitimate reasons, the last one was really the most truthful. The kid ONLY asked for this for Christmas. Nothing else on his list.
I had bought two old helmets from a yard sale the first year we moved here. I don't know why. So, while we waited for the helmet gift from Wrights, we made personalized helmets with the yard sale ones. Max's read "Mad Max" and Jay's was "Jedi Jay". I have to say, that little 4-wheeler is pretty fun and will be a very useful little Christmas present for the whole family. Although, I am still hoofing it to the barn, seeing as how that's the only real exercise I am getting right now:)