I hope everyone had as wonderful, fun Thanksgiving as we did! My DD and DGD came Weds. night so I got to wake up with a little one - all warm and rumply and cuddly. Then tripping all over her words to tell me everything that's happened in her world since we last saw each other, how fun! Later on while watching cartoons, Cuervo hopped up to one of his lookouts on the back of the couch, so Madeline climbed up to see what there was to see -- 
Too cute! I so glad I had my camera; usually these shots get away. Later more kids and grands came and went, and the groaning table was loaded and unloaded, and then came the highlight of the day! My DS went for a walk and came back in, casually asking me why there's a horse tied to the back of our truck. HUH? "Yea, a horse, you know; hayburners? Tied up to your truck" So we all trooped out.
She needs a tattoo that says "Do NOT mess with me"
Here's the funny thing about Cory and the Air Force. When she was born Vietnam was still underway, and I was at that time, very anti-military. (I plead the ignorance of the very young) Since 'Cory' is an androgenous first name, I gave her the middle name of Elizabeth specifically so the draft board would know she was a girl and not draft her.
What-ever!!! I keep telling my kids this story as an object lesson in "DO NOT try to plan your kids opinions!!!"
Now off to the shed and dig out the Christmas decs!!!
The pies are in the oven, the stuffing's all been mixed. The extra tables are out and the flowers picked. There's a 23 lb. bird on the back porch just chillin', and a mess in the closet where I looked for linen. Dan won't eat taters and Cory hates pumkin, but everyone loves cabernet, now isn't that somthin'? Why do we do it, why all the fuss? To give thanks and praise for the Blessings He's given us.
Heaven knows I'm no poet (obviously) but this little ditty expresses my feelings perfectly tonight. My family starts arriving any minute and for the next 24 hours I will be as happy as any woman can be, and I hope you are too!
Happy Thanksgiving!
My beloved old dog Nippy died today. She has been my buddy/shadow for 14 years, since she was about 3 years old. Some dogs are one person dogs and Miss Nip was one of those - devoted to me. There were some times that it felt like she was my only friend, too; times she stood by me thru sadness, despair, heartache, fear.....all that.
Our human friends marveled at her insistence at being at my ankle at all times - being a Heeler that was her place of course, but Nippy took it to a whole 'nother level! If I so much as stood to adjust my clothes she'd be up and right behind my foot, ready for whatever. The funny thing is, as my daughter pointed out, all my life I didn't like dogs; I'm a cat person. But something in her spoke to me, and we were best buds from day 1.
This picture will always make me smile. I don't have too many pictures of her because she always hustled to get behind me! I practically had to yell at her to SIT and she was whimpering and shaking the whole time.
Nippys big passion in life was chasing horses - she would take out into the pasture at mach 4 and run to nip the heels of the horses, then spin in place in a circle so fast and so tight you couldn't tell she was a dog, it was hilarious, then she'd trot back to me smiling and so proud of herself! We had to lock her in the house every time we had the horses out because it did get to be dangerous but she never stopped. Kicked in the head, one time she was knocked out cold and another time went into seizures on the spot. It was pouring rain and dark and she was in deep mud and I lost a boot in the mud trying to get to her and get her out. When we lived waaay out in the country she was a free roaming girl, but wouldn't leave our property. When she heard my car coming she'd meet me at the gate and race me to the house, and that dog could run FAST!! Her big thick tail never stopped even when she was running; we used to say if you tried to hold onto that tail her whole body would wag!
This last year was a rapid decline. She could barely walk, couldn't hear, became incontinent and would fall over. When we noticed that she never wagged her tail, not even a little bit, we knew it was Time. I had two friends from my mini quilt group over today, bless Lynn and Leslie for helping me thru this day. Bless my DH who took Nippy to the vet for me because I was too weak to do it.
I sure miss that dog.
What a cool, cool purse! I love those colors, they fit perfectly in my family room - gorgeous! Oh, guess what else? Look what was in the purse!
Oh yea, Babe - it's CHOCOLATE!!!! (((happy dance))) Talk about therapy --- I've been soooo good about passing on candy and sticking to a healthy eating plan, and today with my lip dragging in the dirt I came home to this and, well, let's just say there's no reason to feel deprived, now is there? Thank you, Mar!!!
Some strange, vicious virus has overtaken me, causing a side effect suspiciously like spring houscleaning. First the stash, then yesterday I rearranged the family room. One of the things I did was to finally hang an antique rifle that Hunny purchased from a historic saloon in Reno last year. It was pretty thrashed, and he restored it beautifully. The plan was always to hang it in the family room which is somewhat Western/cowboy themed but we never did. Till yesterday. I found a neat place for it and got it all mounted on the wall. Late last night, all was still and quiet and I was kind of drowsing in front of the TV when suddenly there was a mighty CRASH and that heavy rifle pulled out of the wall and landed on a credenza, knocking a display of antique horse tack down with it. Scared the snot out of me, I tell you!! Today the virus struck again after I got home and had that lovely attitude adjustment. After a virtuous dinner of vegetables and chicken (and chocolate) I stripped the china cabinet, washed everything and put it back together. I know - it's a strange thing, this disease! Now, I'm not going to tell you how long it's been since I cleaned this thing, but take a look at a whiskey bottle from way in the back:
And now look a bit closer at the tax stamp on the cap, still sealed:
LOL! OK, so it hasn't been that long. I was only 12 in 1967 so this wasn't likely to have been my bottle. It pretty well illustrates however, that cleaning out the china cabinet doesn't happen too often.
Now, after all that lovely chocolate and whiskey, I'm a bit ((yaaawwwnnn)) sleepy. I wonder what the next side effect will be?
All this would really be a lot more fun if I didn't have devastating news at work. We have to close up our clinic and move the whole thing lock, stock, staff and patients to another clinic 45 miles away, and we have less than 2 weeks to do it. Moving a dialysis clinic isn't like moving anything else, for starters it has to be a state certified facility with an immense water purification system via RO (reverse osmosis). Our patients must come in 3 days a week, and some already drive an hour to get here, now we're going to make them go another 45 minutes so it's going to be a huge hardship on them and their families and transportation providers. The first staff to come in the morning arrive by 3:15 am to start set-up and the first patients arrive by 5:15 am. Then all the logistics of a move like this, which falls on me. Hopefully I'll have tons of corporate back-up but it's going to be a tough month. If you don't hear from me I'l be under my desk whimpering.......
"MERRY CHR....." -- what's that? Oh, it's too early? I know, but as the Queen of all Procrastination, I need all the encourgement I can get. If I knew how to make lists in my sidebar I would, but since I don't, and since I hang around here a bit, this should keep me focused.
Maybe.
Besides, it's only 53 days left!!
