Man....

What a difference one glance makes.

So I am sitting here (kind of walking around, actually) and I think I need to get some stuff ready for delivery for ebay and PC. I cancelled a dentist appointment because I felt too overwhelmed by all I need to do today. I go out to say good bye to Rick, who by the way was disposing our dearly departed Fluffy (our teddy bear hamster).

Bye Bye Sweetie

Who died 2 days ago, and the kids don't know yet.... and I glance over and look at the Water turtle tank and think "Oh man, I need to clean that thing.... and soon) Then I see an open egg shell. OH DEAR!! They are mating and she has no where to lay her precious eggs!! SOOO. I drop everything and begin to not only clean there habitat, and GOOD! but, I have to dig up the sand box in the yard full of snow, not enough there, I need to exhume the sand table... phew, there is sand. Then I need to find a container, reconfigure the tank, dump out all the bad water. By lifting an extremely heavy glass tank. That felt wonderful on my riddled body from the stair fall. Build this, scrub that, fill it up, and put in the filters. And Finally. It is done.

Then I see Puff in his habitat. He needs a clean too. So I put him out on his stufty pile.

But usually, you see him like this. Under his Vikings blanket.

While I am trying to get all of this done and figured out, Bing is sitting on my feet every chance he gets.

I have now just given up on the day and am sitting here, decompressing.

K~

All in 10 minutes

Yes. That is a doggy shirt on Bing. Grandma bought it for him.

It is cute and just the right color too. hhmmmm.

What a morning or I should say all in one ten minute period of the morning. It starts out with me falling down the stairs, and end with me having to drive the kids to school, because the buses couldn't get through. So I drove the kids in my MINI VAN.... to school. I proceeded to sleep most of the day. The pain is not fun. Now I am waiting for the "4th child" to go to sleep, so I can go to sleep! We didn't call him Bing - after the cherry, for nothing!!
K~

I love Sloths!

These photos are from our visit to the St. Paul Conservatory. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! We had such a good time. The donation cost is very reasonable (because it is a donation :-) If you ever get a chance, you must visit this wonderful place. It is right next to the Como Zoo. So we were able to amble through there too.

This little guy is not the same one below. He is in the zoo part. I visit him every time I go to the zoo. This is by far the best posing he has ever done.

This guy is just loose in the conservatory. If I wanted to pet him, I would have just had to climb the tree!

Here are my monkeys by the Coy pond in the pink blooming section. There are the most gigantic Star gazer lilies I have ever seen in this room!

Orchids are everywhere in the conservatory! You can smell them and touch them (if you dare)


Here are my apes out by a bronze statue at the zoo.

I remember I posed by this statue after Rick proposed to me.

My sisters and I went to the zoo on a girls day and I stood by this guy, flaunting my ring!
K~

Where to get a good chunk of time?

Ok! I need to scrapbook already. I have more supplies to scrapbook then to crochet/knit!! And that is saying something!! I just need a good chunk of time to get busy with it! Man..... Where to get a good chunk of time, Where to get a good chunk of time, Where to get a good chunk of time. HMMMM. Any ideas??
K~

Getting the shop open!!

Well I worked very hard yesterday. I got my Pampered Chef stuff in order. I got 4 catalog shows on my March calendar and will be mailing out my packets today!! I even took an on line training (it was very good)! I put my 7 items up for sale on ebay as usual. I did several emails for the kids and their school stuff. Worked on getting a site for a community project I am working on (at a VERY grass roots level yet). Started scanning Cora's illustrations for my ECFE book. I wrote it, she illustrated it. What else!! Anyway, this am I have a phone meeting and coffee with my husband. Then back to the computer for a couple of hours and play around with Sam and Bing. Meeting tonight and the day is pretty much over! Phew!

K~


Drawing by Cora for my book.

Quiet

The house is quiet. All the children are gone. The Zoo is sunning and sleeping. AHHHHHH!

Candles lit.

Coffee next to me.

Piles of WORK to get through.

Fun stuff to do too.

What a nice sunny morning in Minnesota!

K~

just a small eye scratch.

I am sitting here with a wet dog shivering, wrapped in a Sponge Bob blanket. He is in between my arms on my desk. PU. Wet dog just is a smell one does not get used to. It is a holiday for the kids from school. We went on a 35 minute walk around the neighborhood, with Bing. He came home a muddy mess and needed desperately to be cleaned up.

Later we need to go to the eye doctor with Sam. He got between Nala (a 12 pound, angry (by nature) cat, fully clawed) and a puppy (less then bright - a very clueless when it comes to the cat hating him). Needless to say, warning Sam(4 years old) to stay away from the 2 during their conflicts, let alone getting in between the 2 during their barking - spitting match, falls on deaf ears. Sam ended up with a bit on his shoulder, a scratch above his eye and yes a scratch on the white of his eye!

I took him to the eye doctor and he does in fact have a scratch on his eye and now needs eye drops 4 times a day, along with his strep antibiotics! Man, that could have been REALLY REALLY bad. I am so thankful for the "little" injury. I just cringe thinking about how bad that could have been.

We are all fairing well and Sam is doing just fine. Thank goodness it doesn't hurt him at all!

K~

Strep... Very contagious

Well # 3 has it now. Poor little Peeps!! He is down for the count. Just got home from school said "my throat is as dry as a desert" and I took his temp. It's at 102! Oh man! So we have been dealing with this since last Friday at 3:30PM!! One solid week! I was just thinking that I have not been anywhere but my back yard, since Sunday from Noon to 2 PM. I have been home since then. Going a little stir crazy!!

K~

Lucky I have a happy place, too bad it's my desk area

I am waiting for a person to come and set up my "easy install" DSL.

You know what that means???

I am going to be able to actually get to my phone calls as they happen!!

I am so excited.

I am a bit perplexed, however, about the "easy install" "Oh, it is easy to do ma'am."

Yes, it is easy to install, but it doesn't work.

SO i have someone coming to do it for us for "FREE".

We'll see if it is my idea of free or their $25.00 free.

Well it took an experienced tech one hour to get me set up.

He was very nice.

This, however, was NOT "easy to set up".

Now at noon, I can start my day!!

K~

Repost of - Water dog

It kept bugging me that you could not see this post! So I tried AGAIN!!

Look at the size of those FEET!
He loves the water. Was I kidding??
I can hardly keep him out. He hears the water running and he runs to the tub. He paddles around and sinks ships. Then he takes a leisurely swim. We were going to get that Portuguese Water Dog, I mentioned in another posting.
We got a Minnesota Water Dog for MUCH LESS the price!!
K~

Hmmmm.... I wonder who did this?

Don't you wish

life was this easy to

figure out?? K~

Mother's log

Mother's log: Day 3

The ship has been overtaken with a mysterious illness. It affects the females different then the males. Everyone first feels tired and sick, followed by a high fever. This last for a day or two. The females tend to recover and move on. The males, especially the ones around 7 years, seem to carry the illness to another level of "wildness, followed by a convenient malaise" The males also seem to carry the illness with them for about 3 x's as long as the females. Lastly, the males only seem to be present symptoms more noticeably during school hours 7:30 AM- 1 PM, subsiding around 1 PM to 9 PM. Then oddly the symptoms present them selves around the bedtime hours..... HMMMM.

K~

Back to the books

My 40th birthday is fast approaching. I wanted to have a book written by my 40th birthday. I have accomplished this in a small way. I have done 2 books. One on Puff and one on ECFE. I really like them. They need small tweaking here and there, and the ECFE one needs illustrations. I want Cora to do them. But, I was hoping to be further on my longer book. Problem is, I can't settle on a project that I would want to work on for a while. I know it will be about my travels. That's about it. I have dabbled here and dabbled there. I have mind mapped and jotted, but I don't have a spark yet. I think I just need to be more purposeful. In the meantime, I am going to finish up my 2 small books and have them totally complete by July 31st!!

K~

Well I hope my last post that RE POSTED Came through! You all need to see the water dog. It shows up on mine now. Thanks for all of your Blog feedback. I am hoping to get my friend Cindy to start blogging. It would be neat to see what she has to say!!

I hope that today will go smoothly. So far Sam is at school and David, Cora and Bing are behind me in a "nest". I am working or I don't know if you can even call it that. I am trying to get something done here.

I will post a picture of Bing in the water on this so you can at least see him again.

K~

See it to believe it!

Look at the size of those FEET!

He loves the water. Was I kidding??

I can hardly keep him out. He hears the water running and he runs to the tub. He paddles around and sinks ships. Then he takes a leisurely swim. We were going to get that Portuguese Water Dog, I mentioned in another posting.

We got a Minnesota Water Dog for MUCH LESS the price!!

K~

Nuff Said!!

Nuff Said!!

K~

Smell the coffee!

Taking time to smell the coffee.

Well I did it. I blew off everything last night. It just got too hard to coordinate everything.

I am now, having a hard time getting things done for today.

I need to leave in 70 minutes and I am still in my pj's.

I don't know what ever happened to the organized, motivated, go getter that I once was.

I really think that I have become another person.

I don't think that it is all bad!! I just think that it is interesting.

The super organized, neat freak type A,

turning into a disorganized, slob, type B or C!! Is there a C??

Anyway.

I am having a cup of coffee in my favorite cup.

It is an original cup from the original Starbucks in Seattle.

I long to go there again. It was one of my most favorite trips!!

I need to just fantasize about that wonderful week. I was hoping to go again this April, but finances and freaky family issues are keeping me from that! BOO HOO!!!!!

It was so fun to see Lisa, Harper and Seattle. I think that I just need to work something out.

Maybe this Summer? Or over spring break?

Or I don't know.....

K~

I miss "Little" Harper. Oh and Lisa too!

Too Much, Too Little time and me!

Pebbles with attitude!

Being too many places at once. Doing too many things at once. Fitting it all in. I am struggling with that this week. I feel that I am running too much and doing too much. Some of the signs for me are sleeping (collapsing), frantically cleaning and organizing, Doing 2 back to back loads of dishes, eating popcorn, pop and scones for nourishment, and forgetting what color hair my kids have. No stay at home mom with 3 kids and 44 animals, should have 2 meetings on one night at the same exact time!! And of course, no one should have 44 animals! "This is crazy, This is crazy, This is crazy!!!" to quote Chevy Chase in Vacation. Of course that is when he is going to skinny dip with Christi Brinkley (you know "oh her, she's ugly"). So more then likely, I am going to just stay home. After all, it was -11 below zero for the actual temp today, today, when I went out for my appointment!! Now I think it is 8! Well I am off to see what Bing and Sam have gotten into since I stopped to type this. K~

Who is copying whom?..or is it whom is copying whom? or Whom is copying who?

Look at that sweet face.

He is ADORABLE!!

K~

Stretching it a bit

Time to get the shop open. That is a very common saying at our house. My dad used to always say it, but, he had a shop to open. We just say it to declare we are to get moving towards something. I think showering would be a good move for me. I have been in the same Colts T-shirt since Sunday morning. I am going to do a PC show tonight. I think, they may not appreciate the T-shirt as much as I do???? I also need to wrap up some things that need tending to. I need to create and post an agenda for a PAC meeting on Friday. I need to submit a PC show. I need to finish bookmark #3 of 10. I need to make about 7 phone calls and that is all before little Sam appears on the scene at noon.

Right now it is just beautiful out. It is snowing and not so cold. The flakes are big and just twirling down. I do love when it is just peaceful and quiet. I can look out my window and listen to the turtles clunking and the water flowing from the tanks. Puff is deciding whether or not to bang on his glass to get out and snuggle. Which by the way we did a lot of yesterday. Bing is resting after torturing Nala and doing his business everywhere he is not to. I have rearranged Pebbles and the snake to even a warmer location, and for the life of me, I can not figure out what is happening to all the water in the toad, lizard and frogs home!!?? I fill it every day and it is dry by the night!

Keeping it real.

K~

OH MANning!

OH MANning!!! I am so excited. They WON!! I said Indy all the way baby! AND well they went all the Way. Super bowl 41 did not disappoint! K~

I am so looking forward to the release of "Fowl Weather" by Bob Tarte!! I read his first book "Enslaved by Ducks". I know I have mentioned it before. Well, he is coming out with his second book in March. I tell you, if you have any connection to animals or quirky real life observation, you must read the first one and wait for the second. It is a wonderful book.

Parts seem written right from the Walsh family memoirs.

Our "Farm in the city" would, however, I would need to include my 4 humans that live here with me, as well. Bob Tarte truly captures the nuance's of animal and human behavior.

K~

What a difference a day makes.

What a difference a day makes. BRRRRRRR......................... and I mean BRRRRRRR.................... I was out in it all day too. Fun things though. I went to an appointment with David that went well, once we got there! Then we went shopping at Target. Then, Cora and I went on a mom and daughter date. We went to lunch and cross stitched together. We then went to Micheal's, a craft store. After, we went and I treated her to the most delicious chocolate cake in the world! and some hot chocolate. And for the last 2 hours, the kids have been playing like cherubs!! Man what a nice time so far. David went to a birthday party today and had a great time. Sam and Rick went to the "Glass building" finally. Sam has been waiting forever to see that. It is the Conservatory in St. Paul. They have an entire new section. It has a sloth, lizard, birds, and a giant snake. Look at Sam, and behind him is the snake!!! K~

Too much for me today!

I was going to write a lot today, then I got overwhelmed. So I decided to find a calm relaxing photo and just post that. This is Bing after a nice long fluffy brush. I was snuggled up to him until I took the photo. He was just so round and warm. I think I am going to take a nap. K~