Off and Out

Well, I have been home for two days.  I took off yesterday and today just so I could get some things caught up at home, and today all I did was sleep! Yesterday I did get my living room cleaned, and I played with my dogs in the morning.  Then I went to Eler Beth's school to have lunch with her.  On the way I noticed I was seeing a lot of police cars.  Our subdivision is right outside the city limits, so we actually are serviced by the County Police, but I was seeing City, County and State police cars.  Some were behind me, I was meeting some, and some were parked near my daughter's school.  When I went to the front door of the school the doors were locked.  So I realized that something was going on and the school was on a lock down.  The receptionist came to open the door for me.  "We're not letting just anyone in or out, but you can come in," she said.  I asked, "Just who exactly are we not letting in?"  "Bank robbers!" she said.  "Well, I'm glad to hear it!" said I.

Seems that the Main Source bank less than a mile from our house and about 1/4 mile from my son's high school was robbed at gun point about 30 minutes earlier.  Since my daughter's school was within a mile of the bank also, they were also under lock down.  I haven't heard anything more about it today.  I don't know if they caught the guy yet or not.

I ran some errands after I had lunch with Eler Beth, then I went through summer and outgrown fall and winter clothes and bagged them up for Goodwill.  Today I was going to continue cleaning and working in my yard since the weather here is gorgeous!  Mid-to-upper 80's during the day and 60's at night!  Wonderful!

But after the kids left for school I lay back down thinking I'd just get another hour's sleep, and when I woke up it was 2:15 in the afternoon!  I guess I must have needed it.

I took the kids over to some friends' house to play this evening and Thomas and I had a little quality time to ourselves.  Now I am at my computer, catching up on alerts.  I guess maybe tomorrow I'll try to do some more housework.  I definitely will not sleep all day -- can't waste a good Fall day.  Tomorrow is the first day of bow season, but Thomas is working, and besides it's not quite as cool as he likes it to be for deer hunting.  But if he weren't working he'd be out there!

Well, more later.

Epsom Salts and What They Can Do!

A lot has been happening around here, and yet not really much of anything.  Two of the puppies have gone to their new homes.  The one with a lot of orange that I called Pumpkin has now been re-christened Rosco by his new owner.  It's an older gentleman, a friend of our friend Bob, who has been a widower for years and whose dog recently died.  His daughter lives with him, and they both fell in love with Pumpkin/Rosco.  He'll have a really good home there.  That was yesterday, and the day before Thomas' nephew and his family came by and took the little black female.   Eler Beth had been calling her Mera, but they'll re-name her, I'm sure.  She'll have a good home, too.  Andrew is keeping the brown one (that I call Traveler), so that leaves 5 pups to find homes for.

They are eight weeks old today.  They have been de-wormed and had their first shots, but on Wednesday one of them was sick.  He is a big boy, but we call him Tiny.  He has such a sweet nature.  Well, they all do, but there's just something about him.  He's like a big, sweet, teddy-bear of a boy, if you know what I mean.  Well, his belly seemed very large and he was whining.  I thought he'd either eaten too much and/or was constipated, or he had a parasite infestation that was making him sick.  I try to keep my dogs de-wormed and keep their yard clean, but you almost can't keep puppies from having worms of some kind.  They were due for their 8 week de-worming today anyway, so that day I just went ahead and gave him his dose early.  Apparently the de-wormer tastes pretty good to them because they drink it down really well from the syringe.  About an hour after I'd given it to him he had stopped whining, but was sleeping, and limp as a wet noodle. 

I've had pups and kittens that have, for whatever reason, not made it, and I usually can tell right away by the way they look and act if there's no hope.  I didn't think Tiny had that look, but I was still worried.  His eyes when he'd been awake earlier and whining were clear, not clouded over.  His breathing was good, and his nose was cold and wet.  But because he was so limp and I couldn't nudge him awake enough to do more than just barely open his eyes I was worried.

I had toyed with the idea of giving him a laxative but wasn't exactly sure which kind or how much.  Thomas got  home and immediately suggested that I give him a dose of Epsom Salts (what we refer to in our house as "Nasty Stuff")!!  To Thomas Epsom Salts is the cure for everything, and I am not exaggerating!  He has a lot of stomach troubles and he can mix up some Epsom Salts in hot water, drink it, and he immediately feels better.  I tasted a little once, just for the heck of it, and I can honestly say that I'd have to be held down and have it forced down my throat or at least be so constipated that I was desperate!  Well, I had actually thought of giving the poor little thing Epsom Salts, so I let Thomas fix a weak mixture and I put one teaspoon in the syringe.

I picked Tiny up and he was so limp that I had to support his head like he was a little baby.  I put the tip of the syringe in the corner of his mouth and pushed the plunger just a bit.  His eyes flew open and he started struggling in my hand, trying to turn his head away from that nasty taste!  He wasn't limp anymore!  I gave him most of the teaspoon, lay him back down in their house and waited.  Not even a half hour later Eler Beth ran inside the house yelling, "Tiny just ran out to meet me!"  I checked, and sure enough he seemed fine.  I'm keeping a close eye on him, but so far he's been normal.  So maybe he was constipated, I don't know.  But I know this -- no one will ever be able to successfully argue against the efficacious properties of Epsom Salts!  Not to Thomas, anyway!

Last Day of Summer

Tonight during dinner --

Andrew:  "Hey, tomorrow's the first day of Fall."

Eler Beth:  "Fall!  I'm not done with Summer yet!"         

Talk Like A Pirate

Monday, September 19 is International Talk Like A Pirate Day.  A friend of my son's told him this yesterday, and I was fascinated with the idea.  I may have to do something for it Monday at work.  I checked on the net and lo and behold I found the site for it:

I found a lot of interesting facts and fun things to do.  I found out what my pirate name would be:

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

My pirate name is: Dirty Mary Flint 

 You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr! 

http://www.fidius.org/quiz/pirate/

What's yours?

Other Things..........

Thomas is home, I've poured out my woes, and I feel better now!

I have done three loads of laundry today.  Still not caught up, but at least I've made a start!  I think I will go work with Scout for a while this afternoon.   Scout is the pup I kept for myself out of Fancy's litter this Spring.  He is five months old now.  He's such a well-mannered, smart little thing.  I need to work him on his leash a little.  The weather is beautiful today -- in the mid 70s I think.  The kids settled down before Thomas got  home, so they are free now to do their thing -- chores are done! 

Thomas is peeling and cutting up pears for pear wine.  He made some last year and it was DELICIOUS!  Neither of us really drinks.  We both hate beer and hard liquor (during a very bad cold we might have a hot toddy or a little brandy), but once in awhile I like a nice glass of wine.  I like my wine dry and Thomas likes it sweet and fruity.  Well where he works there is an old pear tree on some of the company property that is left over from some old homestead; I mean the tree is obviously old!  It produces the best old fashioned pears you have ever tasted.  They are nothing like what you buy in the stores!  We made several quarts of pear preserves last year and Thomas tried his hand at wine-making for the first time.  It turned out great!  It is as dry as I like it, with just a light pear flavor, and if he wants his to be sweeter all he has to do is add more sugar.  We gave away most of it, but we kept a few bottles to enjoy ourselves or serve when we have guests.  Anyway, the pears are ready now, so he and the kids went to pick some last week.  Now we have buckets of pears sitting everywhere!

 

A Mild Rant and Other Things.........

I don't complain much in here.  I don't like to complain, and who out there really wants to hear it?  But boy, am I frustrated today!  Sometimes I swear I feel so used, abused and worthless!  Thomas is working this morning, but I didn't have to.  The kids started out the morning just fine because they were busy watching TV or playing video games or whatever.  I gave them the morning off.  They didn't have to do any chores until the afternoon. 

Eler Beth had a little friend from down the street spending the night and this is one of those best-friends-love-hate-relationships.  They get along fine, then the bickering starts or this little girl (who doesn't have the happiest of family lives) starts getting jealous of my daughter and starts acting out.  She also has a little crush on Andrew, so sometimes Eler Beth starts getting jealous and possessive of her big brother if Andrew pays any attention to her friend.

Well the bickering started and Eler Beth threw a little temper hissy fit, and now I've sent the friend home and told the kids to get their chores done.  I don't know what Andrew's problem is, but now he's got an attitude and instead of ignoring Eler Beth's taunts he's reacting which is making it worse. 

I've decided to throw myself a little pity party.  Do I work 40+ hours every week outside of the home?  Yes!  Do I provide tasty meals every day, send the kids off to school each day fed, clean, healthy, in clean clothes (that I've washed, dried and put away), with homework that I've checked and sometimes stayed up way past my bedtime to help with?  Yes!  Do I feed and water their animals in the mornings on school days so that they don't have that extra responsibility in the mornings?  Yes!  Do I drive them to school functions, practices, friends houses, loan them a few extra dollars when their allowance savings is just short of the purchase price of whatever it is that they just have to have, drive them to the store to make the purchase in the first place?  Yes!  Do I require minimal (when compared to total household chores) work from them weekly?  Yes!  Do I deserve a Saturday where I can escape for a few hours into whatever pasttime takes my fancy, whether it be reading, journaling, watching a movie?  Yes!  Have they let me have that peace today?  No! 

I see unhappy, grounded kids for the rest of the weekend if attitudes, tones and facial expressions don't improve!  They have a certain amount of time today to get their rooms cleaned, Saturday chores done and attitudes straightened up.   And when dad gets home I'm so going to enjoy pouring out my woes into his ear.  (He always makes me feel better!) 

Well, this was a pitiful little rant, wasn't it?  But I do feel better, so I'm going for now.  I'm looking for a certain book on eBay, so I'm going to go do that right now.

FOUND!

My friend at work let us know yesterday that her cousins and their grandmother had been located in a shelter in Arkansas.  She had no further details at that time, but her aunt was on her way down to get them.  Thank you to all who contacted me.