Dragging...

So, I'm trying to get back into the swing of working during the day again. And not just writing. Monday I started training for the census job, and the material is not hard, it's just tedious. To cover their butts, the government puts out truckloads of paperwork, hoping you'll get lost in the mess if you try to come back on them for anything. Literally, I have three manuals teaching me how to check addresses, and enter the information into a very basic hand-held computer. It's not rocket science.

The hard part is trying to stay awake during class. It is so, so dry.

Hubby is in Indiana right now, so everything comes down to me. Kids on the bus, training, pick up the kids, take care of the animals, feed the kids and try to catch up on housework. Today I took Annie in to the vet for an all day sugar-check. In addition to everything else.

Then that darn Teresa Reasor went and wrote this awesome book I've been reading when I should be sleeping. It's called Highland Moonlight. I think I got a total of about 4 1/2 hours of sleep last night. Thanks Teresa. ;-p .

Then I keep hoping to eke out just a few more minutes of time to work on an idea I had coming home from the workshop.

Sigh... I'm tired. And then Friday it looks like I'm driving to Louisvile.

I wouldn't know what to do if my life was somewhat normal.

This weekend was a blast. Friday was the booksigning at Barnes and Noble Books, and I know several authors sold out of their books. Yay, Girls!

After the booksigning ( $150 poorer, because I had to buy one from everyone) we went to Malone's for dinner. I REALLY wish I could have been 5 different places at once, to listen and participate with all the conversations that went on. Dinner was wonderful, and after several hours they finally booted us out.

The conference the next day was spectacular. I have so much information floating around in my head. Honestly, I usually nod off a bit when I have meetings in that type of setting, but not yesterday. I could have sat there another two days, just absorbing, and been happy.

I'm off now to try computer story boarding. Thanks Teresa. And maybe some script writing. Thanks Maddie.

I have too many ideas in my head right now not to go write today. Bye all...

Catching up...

So, this week has been especially busy. It started with the weekend being thrown off kilter.
Hubby works in Indiana during the week right now, and drives home on the weekends. This friday, on his way home, my brother-in-law called him and asked him if he wanted to go to Tennessee to the race at Bristol. Hubby actually hesitated, simply because he wanted to come home and see us. Isn't he sweet? But I encouraged him to go, because it was a once in a lifetime chance. Everything was already paid for, tickets, hotel, everything. Even most of the beer. (I think that was actually the deciding factor.)
I met him down on interstate 64 and swapped out dirty clothes for clean, told him I loved him and sent him on his way.
He had an absolute blast! My husband is not usually into races, but I think he may be on his way to becoming a convert.
Saturday, I took the kids to see Witch Mountain. It was surprisingly cute. For those of you that remember the original movies, you may notice the original kids, now adults of course, doing cameos in the movie. I had a pretty big 'DUH' moment when I realized. They looked familiar, but I just couldn't place them.
The kids and I built fence and worked on the garden Sunday. The sun was so nice, the three of us, as well as the three dogs, laid down in the field for a while and dozed off. Needless to say, we've gotten our first bit of sunburn for the season.
Monday afternoon hubby came home tired and happy. We relaxed for the day before I sent him on his way Tuesday morning.
Annie went to the vet Tuesday for a check up, and she's doing fine.
And today, I'm catching up on all the things I should have done this weekend.
Here's a funny one for you. We get after my son all the time to do good at school. He gets 'sticks' if he's bad. Monday and tuesday he got zero sticks, and I told him if he got zero sticks today (wed), he could go to the book sale and buy something. His teacher sent this note home :
'***** had a good day today, no sticks, UNTIL he went to the bathroom at the end of the day and locked the stalls and crawled under to keep the doors locked. He has received a stick for tomorrow.'
How the heck am I supposed to be mean mom when I read that? I glowered enough to make it to the truck, then I burst out laughing, out of his sight. What a stinker he is!! At least what he does is usually cute, and not destructive.
Sigh...

My Protector...

This happened the night I brough Annie home, but the post was running long , so I saved it for today.
It was just past 10 o'clock, and I was in the bedroom getting changed for bed when Cricket, the Pomeranian, started growling, and doing this funny chuffing/bark thing. I didn't really pay attention until she went to the back door and started doing the same thing. Ok, maybe she had to go potty, I thought. So, half-dressed, I go to the door and let her out. You should have seen the HUGE possum outside just beyond my deck. It weighed at least 15 pounds! Little Cricket goes out, barking her head off, when she sees this thing. I'm calling to her as I head back into the room to grab a gun and a flashlight. Yes, a gun. I've lost too many chickens over the years to varmints, and I take care of them myself. I prefer to do a live trap, then a trip to Clay Farm, but that does not always happen.
Anyway, I pull out one of my husband's rifles, but I could't find the right shells, so I pulled out the little Marlin 22 I gave him for Christmas one year. I grabbed a handful of shells and dropped them into my sweatsuit jacket pocket, then dug for a flashlight. Why is it you can never find a good light when you need one?
By the time I got out on the deck (in my underwear and shirt, mind you) the possum has waddled around the side of the house, with Cricket on it's heels. Murphy, all 190 pounds of him, wagged his way around the deck licking my legs as I shone (shined?) the flashlight, trying to see where Cricket was. I could hear her, but I couldn't see her. I tried to encourage Murph to 'go get it, go get it boy'. He just sat there. Murph is a sweetheart, he's just not real bright, poor thing.
So, off I went through the yard. I realized they had circled the house and headed back towards the chicken coop. Cricket ran back to me at one point, basically telling me to get my ass in gear, then took off again, barking her little head off. At the chicken coop, I looked around, but could see no possum. Cricket was still growling and chuffing, but she had lost it too. I shined the light in a broad circle, and finally saw a pair of eyes watching me. By the time I got the rifle aimed through the two rows of fence he had made it through, he was waddling down the hill. I cracked off a couple of shots, but I know I didn't hit him.
Cricket was so proud of herself, because she felt she had chased that huge thing off. So I praised her as if she had in fact done that. What a crazy little bad-ass she is! All three pounds of her.
Murphy never saw the possum at all.
I had hung up on my husband in the middle of all this, so I called him back and told him what had happened. He was at a bar with his buddies. He laughed his butt off, then told his buddies, who were horrified. They already think we're gun fanatics, now he's telling them his wife is running around in her underwear shooting rifles at wild animals at night. Yea, great image. Thanks honey.

Annie Update...

So, I haven't posted anything for a while about Annie. That was because I didn't know how things were going to turn out.

Last Friday, I thought Annie was a goner. She wouldn't get up, wouldn't eat. So, I called the vet closest to me, whom I had never been to, and they told me to bring her in any time. I carried her in expecting to have her put down, but the woman doctor told me, "Let me do a quick $12 test to check something." She whipped out a needle and drew a tiny amount of Annie's blood, then tested it on a human glucometer. "This dog looks just like a dog I have in the back right now," she told me, "who is simply diabetic."

Diabetic?

She told me that a dog's blood sugar is the same as a human's, running 80-120 for average.

Annie's was 400.

The vet told me that it presented very similar to kidney failure. The blindness was caused by the diabetes in addition to Cataracts Annie already had. She was not able to control her urine because she had a urinary tract infection from all the sugar in her body. Everything was explained.

Let me tell you, I was a mess when I took her in. And I dared not hope, just in case she was wrong and I would have to do it all over again.

The vet kept Annie and put her on IV fluids for several days, and began her on antibiotics for the UTI and insulin for the sugar. I checked on her on Tuesday, and I was amazed to find her with her head up and tail wagging when I called to her. It took a while to get her sugar down, it's still around 300, but the vet said you couldn't drop it too fast because that would cause its own problems.

I picked her up friday, and she walked out under her own steam.

The best part is, she can see. Not great, but certainly better than last week. The drawback is, I now have to give her two shots a day to keep her sugar down. I checked with the vet, and they do take boarders over the weekend, so if we do take a trip or something, I have a place I can leave her. When I asked her where I needed to get the insulin, she told me just go to Wal-mart. Same with the needles. The dogs use the same insulin as people do. Isn't that crazy?

What a tumultuous week. This has been weighing on me heavily. I'm still kind of waiting to see how well she recovers, and if her quality of life is acceptable. So far, I think she's doing good, but she could be better.

I'll keep you updated.

Word Count...

Ok, I didn't do as good as I had hoped on my word count. I only got a little over 2200 words down. My problem was, it was beautiful outside. I had to go out and get some work done. And enjoy the sun.
For writing purposes, I find that rainy days do the best. There is no guilt in sitting down at the computer for hours on end and not getting stuff done outside. If the sun is out, I should be out doing something. That's what my head tells me, even though my heart is pulling me back in the house to the desk.
I'm getting ready now to go on a long walk, and I'm probably going to work on fence after that. Have to keep the chickies out of the garden, you know. I'll come in around lunch and spend some guilt-free time at the computer as I eat.
What kind of weather is most productive to your writing habits? Or times?

Oh, Great...

So, March 16th will be a day people in Carlisle Kentucky remember. But not fondly. It's the day we made NATIONAL NEWS. Yep, not the nightly news, but the news shows that are after the nightly news. Theirs is a bit more sensational, a bit more controversial. Anyway, our local high school principal decided to body slam a student on video tape. You can look at it here. Supposedly, he had his reasons, but I don't know. The principal out-weighs the student by at least a hundred pounds, and puts him down not once, but twice. The lawyer for the principal says when you hear his client's side, thoughts will change.

I don't know.

And today is a lucky day, I guess. Remember I applied for the census bureau job months ago? I thought they had filled the positions, but I got the call today. I start training March 30th. The job will only run about 8 weeks, so hopefully it won't take up too much of my time. Anyway, we'd like to take a florida trip with the kids this summer, so the money will come in handy.

I've given myself the task of writing 3k by tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how that goes.

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY!!!!!!!

No writing done this weekend...

Which was not a surprise. I knew I wouldn't get anything done till this morning.

We headed north this weekend, this time to see my dad, who lives around the Columbus area. Saturday morning early (ugh, shoot-me-now early) we headed up to the convention center at 68 and Interstate 71. Hubby, my dad, my son and my step-brother went to the Ohio Gun Collectors Club there. I guess it's a pretty exclusive club. You have to pay dues and everything, so that kind of excludes the average flea-market-type gun seller. Little girl and I headed on up to Columbus to meet up with my step-mom and cousin. We went to the Dublin Irish Festival saturday, while the guys were at the gun show. It was cute. Not as big as the one in the summer, but still cute. They had a lot of kid friendly things to do- bouncy stuff, planting plants and other things. After that we went to the mall at Tuttle crossing. I had to find an outfit or two for the KYRWA Conference coming up in two weeks. I found exactly what I wanted, and maybe a little extra. And we had a great 'Girls Day Out'.

In the afternoon, we ALL met up at the house. The girls ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the boy's purchases, and they had to do the same for us. We had an awesome visit, posibly, just possibly, involving a little too much alcohol. ;) Somebody came up with the idea to go to our favorite mexican restaurant, and the only way logistically we could do it was with Dad's truck. I'm the DD, always have been, always will be, because I very rarely drink. So with me driving, step-mom beside me, kids behind in the jump-seats, and Dad, Hubby, step-bother and cousin in the back we headed to El Vaquero. They do not know what hit them. They're probably still recovering.

All in all though, it was a really good visit. No mishaps on the way home, and sunday a nice liesurely trip back to Kentucky.

Writing- zilch. I've got to get on the stick. I've had too many zilch days recently.

Soul Mate...

I honestly believe there is someone for everyone. A person that matches you perfectly. A person that finishes your sentences and buys you things you didn't know you wanted until you saw them. A person that you trust implicitly, with your body, your children, your secrets, your future. I also think almost everybody in the world yearns to find that one person.
I love this song. It's sad and heartbreaking. I know for a fact though, that the singer, Natasha Bedingfield, found her soulmate right after this song was released. She's spoken about it publicly.
Enjoy!


Thank you Devon Matthews for helping me load this up.

Bubblicious Sour Citrus....

So, I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture, but I though I would blog about it anyway. As a reminder, Cricket is the fuzzy Pomeranian my husband had to have before Christmas.
Last night, I hear my son say, "Oh, no, Bad Cricket!" then "Mommmmmm......" He comes carrying her out of the hallway, covered in something orange, all over her. What the heck was that?
Then I see her chewing.
She had found a piece of the kid's bubblegum (Sour Citrus I learned later) and was COVERED IN STRINGS OF IT FROM TIP TO TAIL!!!! It was all over her! She has very fuzzy feet she apparently used to hold the piece down so she could pull pieces off. SHE HAD GUM BETWEEEN HER TOES!!!!! She had also apparently sat on it too, because it was all around her a**.
I was crying laughing. She looked ridiculous. Then I got frustrated, because that stuff was not coming out of her hair easily. I finally had to take the shears to her.
The poor thing is butched now.
And she still has bubblegum between her toes.

Her Best Friend's Brother...

Also, I bought Kay Stockham's newest book Her Best Friend's Brother yesterday at Wallyworld. Even with all the stuff going on, I still managed to finish it late last night.

Excellent!!!

Once again, Kay takes you on a wild ride of emotion. I really felt the heroine's frustration, and anger and fear. It was terrible and wonderful at the same time. She really did a good job with this book.

Awesome job Kay!!!

Fun at the Circus...

So, in an effort to encourage my son to do better in school, I told him if he did good, and I quit getting calls from teachers, I would take him to the circus.

It didn't work.

Yesterday I talked to his teacher for twenty minutes on ways to get him to work. After he's given directions, my son will sit there like a bump on a log, or talk with his friends, or play. The result is the same- he doesn't get his work done. I admire his teacher for all the extra work she's done this year with him, and I agreed yesterday that she needed to stop being so helpful. No more 5 or 10 repeat warnings to get stuff done, no more giving him extra time. She and his reading teacher decided they were not helping him grade-wise. 3rd grade is so much harder than 2nd, and their giving him extra time and stuff was not preparing him for the responsibility the next grade requires.

I agreed with everything she told me. Hubby and I had actually talked about the same things this weekend.

She told me not to be surprised when he started bringing home incompletes and 0's.

Sigh...

As hard as it was to do, I told him he was not going to the circus- he was going to the neighbor's house and I was going to only take his sister. You should have seen the waterworks that created. But I stood firm, even though I felt terrible. He begged and pleaded, but I sent him down the hill.

My daughter LOVES school. She's a little social butterfly. She loves being the helper of the day, and actually came home crying at the beginning of the year because the teacher had not sent home homework. Two children could not be more different. And in her class, she gets good sticks instead of bad. (Sticks are a measurement system they implemented for discipline.)

She knew the circus was coming to town, and has been extra special good so that she could go.

The circus itself is just a dinky little thing, family owned. But they did impress me with a couple of acts. The first lady that came out actually spun in the air BY HER HAIR. If you look really close at the picture, she has her hair wound up in a special bun with a metal hook at the top. That's what they spun her by. I remember being picked up by my hair as a child, and I can't imagine ever wanting to do that again, and certainly not as an adult. They had balancing acts, and a clown act with two little boys that was adorable. They had a dog trick show, and a juggler that kept dropping his burning sticks on the plastic, but otherwise it was cute. In between their acts they hawked flashing toys and junkfood. The final act was a boxing kangaroo, and it was good he was last because he stunk up the whole armory. Overall, though, it was worth the $10.

My son seemed put out when we picked him up, so maybe he understood a little bit what I was trying to express to him by leaving him home. I guess we'll see huh?

Have a good day everybody. It's supposed to be almost 80 here today, so I'm going to till up my garden.

Oh, Please don't let me get pulled over now...

So, this is Moose. He was the focal point of my weekend. Yes, he is in the back of my truck.

My mom has two mini mares she wants bred soon. They are in foal now, and for those who are not horse savvy, after the mares have their babies they have a heat, called a foal heat. It is generally when they get re-bred with the next years baby.

Mom wanted my stud up there before the mares had their babies so they could get used to him being around.

Moose had no idea what was going on.

The last time I put him in the back of the truck, he went to the vet. I don't know if he remembered that or not, but he was not happy once I got him in the back. I led him up the deck steps, then hubby backed the Tahoe up to the deck ledge, and I led him in. I tied him down to the anchor in the back corner, and he immediately started pawing the floor with his mad little hoof. I had layered a tarp on the floor, along with a shipping blanket for traction, and they were immediately messed up.

I tried to explain to little man that he was going to meet some girls, but his mad little hoof continued. Finally, I just shut the hatch in his face and we took off.

Eventually, he settled down. The trip to Ohio, and Mom's house, takes about 4 hours, 5 with a horse in the back because you have to slow down for all the curves and accelerate and brake with more care. In all the straight stretches I tried to speed up to make up time.

The entire 5 hour trip, I'm hoping I don't see cops. How the heck would I explain having a horse in the back of my Tahoe? I started coming up with arguments in case I did get pulled over.

'Horse trailer? Why do I need a horse trailer? I have a 180 lb mastiff at home, taller than this mini actually. Do I need to hook up a horse trailer to take him anywhere too?' Then I was thinking it could go the other way too. 'Sure, sure, you can take a picture. And thanks a lot for the warning. I'll know better next time.' Riiight.

The trip was pretty uneventful though. Very few cops, which was a surprise. 23 out of Portsmith is usually crawling with them, but not that day for some reason. I stopped for gas and got a few looks when I opened the hatch to check on him, but other than that, he did great. When we arrived at Mom's house, he leapt (leaped?) out to the ground. I think he was pretty happy to realize he would be with other mini's, because he's only had my big horses to deal with for years. Actually, I'll probably never get him back. Mom feeds twice a day, has nice warm stalls for each one, turns them out during the day, and most important of all, he'll get to use his love sausage, which he hasn't done for many years. I have a feeling I will have an incredible fight if I try to take him away from all that.

Moose is on the left here, introducing himself.

We had a nice visit with my family, and headed south Sunday. The drive down was considerably easier, just two kids and a dog to deal with. While I was up there, I tried to show my mom how to log on here to see what was going on in Ky with her favorite daughter and her grandbabies. We'll see if she responds.

Hi Mom.

So, what did you do this weekend?

Free, free, free...

So, my thrifty sister-in-law is always finding great websites to save money or get free things. Coupons, books, nail polish. Yes, nail polish. She recenty sent me these websites for bookies.

Harper Collins has a First Look program if you go here. You can preview free books in genres other than romance. They just ask that you write a short 2-3 sentence review of the book. Also, Random House has a program called Read It Forward. You can check it out with this link. And, if you like Starbucks coffee, there is a group that offers free coffee cards for checking out their book and letting them know what you think by writing a review on Amazon or some other designated site. It's called the Reader Spoils program. You can find out more about it here.

I haven't signed up for any, but they looked interesting.

She sent me this as well. If you join this parenting website, you can get a free 11 x 14 photo canvas. You only pay shipping on the canvas. You can check it out here.

And finally, the nail polish. I don't generally wear polish, but I'll probably send away just to get a jar for my daughter. Check it out here.

Hope you enjoy all the freebies. Have to pass on thanks to Magdalena Scott for teaching a newbie how to inbed links.

Good morning all. I thought this was a beautiful sight to wake up to, as well as the frost-free-ness of the morning. I don't know about anybody else, but I'm ready for spring.

Yesterday, while I was feeding the horses, I heard this strange sound over my head, and when I looked up the sky was black with birds. BLACK! I was all starlings, those plain dark brownish birds that are everywhere, and propagate uncontrollably. I think that was why there were so many, because baby time is coming. A million does not seem like too big a number. The black cloud just kept coming and coming. Our hill is also only a little ways away from Clay Wildlife Farm, where they were probably going to roost. It was really neat though watching them all fly in formation.

The chickens freaked. Last year we had a hawk that snatched one of my best laying hens (of course) during the day, just swooped in and took her, and ever since then the chickies are pretty schizoid when they're out. I have 4 roosters, 2 banty and 2 full-size, and they all work pretty well together keeping the hens safe. There are three of them in the pic above, the two on the right and one on the left in the middle with his head down. I've actually seen more hen fights recently than cock fights. I have several youngs hens trying to figure out where they go in the pecking order.

Annie is doing good. I gave in and bought her canned food this week and she is really going after it.

Writing is suffering right now, thanks to Anya Bast. I'm in the middle of Witch Blood and can't put it down. I shouldn't have started it in the first place, but I'm procrastinating because I'm in a bad spot in my ms. Can't seem to work through it. And I don't know how to skip it and go on to the next scene, because everything pivots on this scene, Grrrr.......

Saturday Trials...

So, saturday started out being a bad day. We slept in a bit, and when we got up, we got ready to go to town. There was an equipment auction my husband wanted to go to, and I needed horse feed from TSC. When we went outside though, we realized Annie was not in the yard, nor in the surrounding area. My husband got on the four-wheeler to go look for her, and I got mine out as well. We looked for her for the better part of two hours, but there are a lot of hiding spots on a hundred acres. I knew, in the back of my mind, that some dogs just go away to die when it's their time, but I knew Annie had just gotten lost. So I kept looking. Hubby went in because he was froze. I went in the house for a while to warm up, then hopped in the truck to go down the road again. My husband had already gone down it on the bike, but I knew somehow that that was the direction she had gone. She's gotten to the point that it's hard for her to go uphill, so downhill I went, towards a neighbors house that had barking dogs. And there she was. Lying on the bank as the neighbor loaded cinder blocks on a trailer. I know I left an incredible impression on this guy, whom I had never met, getting out of the truck and blubbering the way I did, but I couldn't help myself. I was so happy to see that damn dog. I loaded her up in the truck and took her home. She seemed as happy to see me as I was her.

So, after everything had settled down, we finally loaded up to go to town. I bought another collar for Annie, with name tag, because she tends to pull them off and leave them. I also bought a goat bell for Murphy. My reasoning being that if the two dogs go walk-about, Annie won't get left behind because she can't hear Murph leave. I thought it was a good idea.

Murphy thinks he's in trouble.

He sees the bell as a punishment. It was the smallest goat bell they had, but still is pretty irritating. So, every time he moves, the bell rings. It's hilarious trying to watch a 180 lb dog tip-toe to keep the bell from ringing.

Another change is we are now chaining Annie up at night, to keep her from getting lost. I feel bad, because she normally has the run of the acreage, but I don't want to go through again what I did on saturday morning.

So, both dogs are mad at me, but I have peace of mind.

Also on saturday, I found that all the baby bunnies had died. I don't think Eva knows what exactly to do with them. Rabbits are very particular about their nests, so I was especially careful to stay completely away from it, but I don't know what happened. Luckily, I hadn't even told the kids we had bunnies.

Once we got home and settled down, I actually got a lot of writing done. Maybe it was the emotion of the day coming out, but things just seemed to flow. I'm in the middle of this ms, so I'm really trying to keep things flowing. I find mine tend to sag in the middle, so I'm really digging in to keep it interesting.

So, how did your weekend go? Better than mine I hope.