2012 Spring!

Just when I thought the 2011-2012 Winter would never end (it was 12 years long, you know), spring has finally arrived! Last fall I planted bulbs for the first time in my flower boxes out front. I've been wanting to do that for a long time - I just never found the time or money to do it. I've been anxiously awaiting greenery to push out of the ground - my signal that spring is finally making an appearance. The greenery came through - but then it snowed, dampening my hopes. We have now experienced a few sunshiney days and the blossoms are popping everywhere! I had to cut the pink hyacinth right after I took the picture as it was really falling over...and low and behold there is another blossom coming beneath it! I took a picture of Sami's African violet because it has never had as many blossoms as it does right now. For me, this all symbolizes the hope we can find in this life. When things seem sad, slow, and dreary (READ: RAIN!), we can always dream about the spring blossoms. The hope that better things are coming keeps us buoyed until they really appear.

January 2012 Snowmageddon

I love snow. I come from snow country..Marquette, Michigan. It seems like the last few years have been less than snowy there, but I remember growing up it seemed like the snow lasted for years...then we had a month of blistering hot summer, and then snow again! We always had snow at Halloween - it was tradition. I don't miss the months and months of snow, but I like to have a couple days every year to enjoy the pristine beauty of new fallen snow. This year really delivered!

Mom came to visit from Michigan before the snow hit...she was delayed getting home because of airport closures. She was right in it with us though...helped us shovel out the driveway. It was a good thing we did that because the next day we had an ice storm and everything was frozen solid. We could at least get out of our driveway...well with the truck anyway. The cars were grounded for a few days.

Newby loved the snow. At first he wouldn't go in it...but we knew he really HAD to go out eventually, so we pushed him a little. After that he couldn't get enough! He loved to jump through it and push it with his nose. His belly was barely above the snow - so he ran everywhere to plow through!

We sure were glad when it finally melted enough to drive. David had a week off of school, and we lost power due to the ice storm for 2 nights and 2.5 days. I was SO thankful for our woodstove which kept us warm. Many friends ended up at motels. We learned about what needed to be added to our emergency preparedness kits, and that we needed our candles stored in our house, not in the shed!

Okay, OKAY already

Sami has been gently encouraging me (nagging) to update my blog. I told her I really didn't have much to blog about, but I am trying to stay in her good graces so I will do as she asks.
1. Our dog poops his weight daily. Gross fact, but nearly true. If he doesn't go at least twice when we take him for a walk something is wrong (and YES, I do take along bags).

2. Our family is trying to wean ourselves from sugar. Sigh. Yes, at the holidays. I don't know why, but we always seem to pick this time to "get healthy". We went on our first walk today and it felt good. We actually had a vegetable at dinner...and yes, corn is a vegetable. It is a Carruth vegetable.

3. I am working hard on family history. I really wish that more of my ancestors had kept journals...then those tricky to figure out relationships would be oh so much easier!

4. I am having trouble accepting that my baby is a high school senior. I think I'll show you his picture now...isn't he handsome? Looks just like his dad.


5. I am having an even harder time thinking about both my kids being in college next fall. I'm glad I have a year to get used to it!

6. Dan is finished teaching the three classes he worked so hard at this year. He is very glad to be done and is hoping he won't have to do it again! Just so you know, he is the expert at SIGN RETROREFLECTIVITY. Just ask him, he can tell you all about it.

7. We had our first fire in our woodstove last week. We've had another since then. We usually don't fire it up (no pun intended) until well into December. I'm thinking maybe we'll have some SNOW. Yup, I said the "s" word to all those who have an aversion. Get used to it...we are in a La Nina year.

8. I'm 1/3rd of the way through making my homemade Christmas gifts. I love doing it, and I love being a little ahead of the mailing time curve.

9. I'm happy that I gardened this year, but even happier that it is over now. I will clean the garden out soon, and ready it for next year. I'm excited to plan and think about the possibilities!

10. I now have 72 hour kits for all of the vehicles we own, plus a larger family sized tub with more emergency preparedness things in it if we should be home and need to leave in a hurry. I am so thankful that this is the year that I decided to get this done. It feels great to be prepared!

That is all for now. Love to all of you who read my blog..I hope to be posting more in a more timely fashion.

Happy Sami? Love to you too!

Garden Finale

Well I'm considering this years gardening a success. I was very happy with some things, and some things I will not repeat next year. The top two pictures show different angles - the tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, carrots, strawberries, peas and cukes all turned out great. The acorn squash got mad because I tried to move it where it didn't want to go and only gave me two squash...one of which the dog got. My onions are still 3 inches tall. They are still green as grass...but they stay the same size. The lettuce was great, but I didn't pick it all quickly enough so a lot of it went to waste. I will plant it differently next year. I had to replant the carrots, but the second time they came in like gangbusters...and they are all different colors! Tons of tomatoes - and they didn't mind being corraled by bungie cords attached to the fence. The pepper plants looked absolutely sick forever..and now that fall is on its way they are beautiful. I did get some jalapenos, but we'll see if the others mature enough to eat. I did get one red pepper that I ate - you can see it in the third picture of harvested items. It tasted great - but not great enough to pay $5 for the plant to get one pepper. The last picture is of flowers from David. He gave me dahlia tubers for mothers day this year and I planted them in the garden. I got so many beautiful blossoms! Next year I'm going to add potatoes and zucchini and remove radishes, squash, and peppers.

RIP Thomas, AKA Fatty

Thomas, our last surviving cat, went to heaven last week. He was 16 years old! His arthritis was so bad that he was walking like a bulldog. Every time he jumped off the bed he cried and cried. We made the hard decision to send him to heaven. RIP Fatty!


Sami has been begging me for new pics of Anubis, so here they are:

The Honeymoon is OVER!

Sweet Anubis....has turned into a little terror at times. If we leave him alone and he thinks we've been gone too long, or that we shouldn't have left at all, he tears things apart. Namely my work stuff - highlighters, pens, pencils, and ANY papers left on the arm of my computer desk. I've now learned to put things away - most of the time. He has also destroyed two pairs of Dan's reading glasses. Thank goodness these are glasses that he bought at Walmart and not at the eye doctor! We have a box full of newspapers that we use for fire starter in our woodstove that he has gotten into a couple of times...tiny bits of paper everywhere! And then, to top it all, yesterday he found these somewhere in the yard.....
Yep, two baby gray squirrels. He didn't harm them physically (mentally they'll probably never be the same!), but wanted to play. Fortunately I found him and them before they died. I couldn't just leave the sweet things there to die, so I drove them out to Tumwater to a wildlife rehab place. This sure has been an exciting adventure!

A new addition to the family

Meet Anubis! We brought him home on July 1, 2011 from Prosser, Washington. Yes we traveled almost four hours for a dog. It was very hard for me after Zeus died to not have a dog in the house - I missed Zeus so much! I started looking on shelter websites across Washington for a Shepherd mix. The only one I found (at the time, of course!) was this sweet looking lab/shepherd mix in Eastern Washington. When he was found he was very very sick with parvo, and was emaciated. He was 6-8 weeks old at the time. The shelter took him in and nursed him back to health. He is a very vibrant little fellow - that is growing and growing and growing! His legs are very long for his body, and the vet says he has at least 3 breeds in him. We think he is mostly lab...and he is a digger. He is very mellow and independent, yet loves us and wants to please. We are excited to have him in our family.