Posts
Well, I've been fairly busy being creative lately. I have been working on a purse for quite some time now, and it's no where near finished. It keeps getting set aside due to something else happening. I'm hoping to get to sit down soon and really get some work done on it.
I did make my mom a "Cozy Kitty" for Mother's day. It turned out pretty cute. It's got a couple spots that didn't come out quite like the pattern, but I am still learning. I will post a pic of it and the link to the pattern soon. I've been planning to sit down and do a lot of sewing for years, but I'm just not good at making the time. I have a lot of fabric I've collected that I really need to get to work on.
I added to that stack over the holiday. Joann's had their memorial day sale, so Larry took me up there and I treated myself to adding greatly to my collection. Went a bit overboard, but there were so many pretty fabrics. And I didn't make a dent in all that I want.
I also found a pattern from a blog that I'm excited to get to work on soon. So you know what that meant...yep, another trip for some more fabric!! And it wasn't just an excuse I used. I really didn't have what I needed for it. I'm looking forward to getting started on that.
I also found last weekend, some little knitting tools I had been wanting on clearance. So I snatched those up so I didn't miss out on getting them. I've been practicing with them, but haven't gotten the technique down yet.
We also enjoyed a day at the lake fishing. It was crazy getting the boat in and out of the water due to all the people, but we found a very nice spot under a bridge to do our fishing. We brought our lunch, and just enjoyed relaxing. We were in the shade, so no one got burned. And I even got a couple little naps in in between bites. I ended up doing the best catching 3 Crappie, and 14 catfish (he was the only one big enough to keep). Haylee caught a few Perch. And Larry caught a couple Crappie. For the most part we just enjoyed the relaxing time.
Only other big things is my being sick, and going on Holly's field trip to the Ballpark in Arlington. We learned and saw a lot of neat thing. I will post about that another time though.
Hope everyone is doing well!! Now back to my chores.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Love thy neighbor
I'm currently having a very hard time with this command.
Back in February our neighbors across the street came to complain that my cats were coming into their yard and making messes. I didn't quite believe it due to the messes she described weren't characteristic of my cats or really any other cat for that matter. I gave her some tips though to try to help with steering cats clear of her yard. Ones that don't require anything but common house hold items. She has young children, and I didn't want to suggest anything that might harm them. Well this didn't work, so a week later she sent her husband over to talk with my husband. He didn't act quite appropriately for part of the conversation, but we did appreciate them confronting us with a problem they had. So I researched and found a "kitty alarm". It is a motion detector set at cat level that puts out a high pitch sound only animals hear and scares them away. We bought one of these for them and Larry set it up in their yard. They were happy with the results and thanked us a number of times for our cooperation.
A week later though I got a letter from the city in the mail that a neighbor complained of our cats running around. I grew up in a neighborhood where my cats were free to be outside (which is MUCH healthier for them and they are much much happier and better behaved when they get that outside time). This upset me dearly because I checked with neighbors when we moved here if they minded if our cats were outside and they all said it was fine. So I know it has to be one of these neighbors for the letter to be sent directly to us in the mail. Larry called the city and they said we did need to make the cats indoor cats. But said that they do agree it is healthier for animals to be outdoors, so they suggested getting an electric fence that works with the cats collars to give them a mild shock to keep them from leaving the perimeter.
So with this letter we made them indoor cats again. I took out their kitty door within the hour of getting the mail. As you know from a previous post, Flash didn't handle this well so I had to give him up.
After making them indoor cats, I went to retrieve the kitty alarm from the neighbors. Since we ended up fixing the problem in another way, I didn't see the need for paying for a pricey alarm for our neighbors. They were supper kind and asked if they could pay us for it so they could keep the strays from their yard.
So with this turn of events I was sure everyone knew my cats were inside now. I haven't had anymore complaints...
Until yesterday. I went to retrieve the mail and was supper excited to see the wedding invitation for another of Larry's cousins sticking up out of the pile. I have been looking forward to receiving this due to talking with Staci about her invitations a number of times. She was doing hers herself and I was excited to finally get to see it. My excitement was quickly squashed as I shuffled through the envelopes and found one from the city that I could see had a picture of a dog inside. I quickly opened this letter to just as quickly turn to boiling. It stated that a neighbor was complaining of an animal of ours was defecating (pooping) on their lawn. I couldn't figure this out. My cats haven't been allowed outside in 3 months. If they do get out it's for only a few seconds because we are on their heels catching them and bringing them in. As for our dog, she is old and only goes outside in the back yard so I can clean up her messes and so she can get her exercise and sunning time. When I do bring her out front she wont do more than pee and she will only do that in our yard. She likes certain spots to use the restroom and doesn't go outside of her areas. I never trained her to do this, it is just part of her personality. So it isn't possible that our animals are doing this. We are having a problem with someone allowing their dog to defecate in our front yard too, but since we don't know who we haven't said anything.
I called into the city to inform them of the false accusations made and to see if they could mark it somewhere that I have made my animals all indoor animals months ago. I told the gentleman that I was connected to that I had received a letter and felt that it was a mistake. He asked why and I told him about the previous letter we had and how I had brought my cats in immediately after receiving the first letter and not let them out since. I also told him about our dog and how she is. I told him of our problem with someone bring their dog to our yard to relieve itself. He said the complaint was for 3 loose cats. He said nothing can really come of the letters unless someone wanted to file and affidavit and that rarely happens. And since we fixed the problem we couldn't get in trouble. I told him I didn't want to take the chance of it going that far though. He was very kind and marked down that we had already fixed the problem and said we would not get any letters for at least 6 months. I said we shouldn't get any after that and shouldn't have gotten this one, because we work to fix problems immediately when they are brought to our attention.
A few hours after this talk something hit me. I have had a suspicion as to who has had the letters sent, but one comment of his confirmed it. "the complaint was for 3 loose cats" Only 2 sets of neighbors knew we had 3 cats. And one of those sets were the ones we had gotten the alarm for. They also know we only have 2 now. The others were ones I asked a number of times if they were OK with our cats being loose and each time they said yes. I have felt for a while that they didn't like us for some reason. They were very kind when we first moved in by making a meal for us due to my recovering from surgery. I thanked them greatly for this, sent a card, and told them to let me know if they ever need our help with anything. I don't think they like the fact that my husband has a fascination with cars and has a few (they are kept put away and aren't even in the driveway. The only ones we keep there are the 2 we drive all the time). I also don't think they like how we keep to ourselves for the most part. They are my parents' age, so we don't have much in common and I am not a nosey body who has to be in every one's business. I don't think she likes that, she is the kind who does need to be. I also think they just like to complain. I mowed my lawn for the first time in early March, and the husband drove up as I was finishing the front and he complained how they are going to have to start doing that all the time now since I started mine. (the yard has a weed problem that obviously has been going on for a few years due to how bad it is, and I was mowing it do a quick fix before my best friend who was visiting from out of town got there) Mowing doesn't make a difference of how often you have to do it.
So as you can see this leaves me struggling with that command. So prayers to give me strength with this would be appreciated. Hope is better for each of you. I am going to start my day now and see if I can't get it to be a better one than yesterday.
Back in February our neighbors across the street came to complain that my cats were coming into their yard and making messes. I didn't quite believe it due to the messes she described weren't characteristic of my cats or really any other cat for that matter. I gave her some tips though to try to help with steering cats clear of her yard. Ones that don't require anything but common house hold items. She has young children, and I didn't want to suggest anything that might harm them. Well this didn't work, so a week later she sent her husband over to talk with my husband. He didn't act quite appropriately for part of the conversation, but we did appreciate them confronting us with a problem they had. So I researched and found a "kitty alarm". It is a motion detector set at cat level that puts out a high pitch sound only animals hear and scares them away. We bought one of these for them and Larry set it up in their yard. They were happy with the results and thanked us a number of times for our cooperation.
A week later though I got a letter from the city in the mail that a neighbor complained of our cats running around. I grew up in a neighborhood where my cats were free to be outside (which is MUCH healthier for them and they are much much happier and better behaved when they get that outside time). This upset me dearly because I checked with neighbors when we moved here if they minded if our cats were outside and they all said it was fine. So I know it has to be one of these neighbors for the letter to be sent directly to us in the mail. Larry called the city and they said we did need to make the cats indoor cats. But said that they do agree it is healthier for animals to be outdoors, so they suggested getting an electric fence that works with the cats collars to give them a mild shock to keep them from leaving the perimeter.
So with this letter we made them indoor cats again. I took out their kitty door within the hour of getting the mail. As you know from a previous post, Flash didn't handle this well so I had to give him up.
After making them indoor cats, I went to retrieve the kitty alarm from the neighbors. Since we ended up fixing the problem in another way, I didn't see the need for paying for a pricey alarm for our neighbors. They were supper kind and asked if they could pay us for it so they could keep the strays from their yard.
So with this turn of events I was sure everyone knew my cats were inside now. I haven't had anymore complaints...
Until yesterday. I went to retrieve the mail and was supper excited to see the wedding invitation for another of Larry's cousins sticking up out of the pile. I have been looking forward to receiving this due to talking with Staci about her invitations a number of times. She was doing hers herself and I was excited to finally get to see it. My excitement was quickly squashed as I shuffled through the envelopes and found one from the city that I could see had a picture of a dog inside. I quickly opened this letter to just as quickly turn to boiling. It stated that a neighbor was complaining of an animal of ours was defecating (pooping) on their lawn. I couldn't figure this out. My cats haven't been allowed outside in 3 months. If they do get out it's for only a few seconds because we are on their heels catching them and bringing them in. As for our dog, she is old and only goes outside in the back yard so I can clean up her messes and so she can get her exercise and sunning time. When I do bring her out front she wont do more than pee and she will only do that in our yard. She likes certain spots to use the restroom and doesn't go outside of her areas. I never trained her to do this, it is just part of her personality. So it isn't possible that our animals are doing this. We are having a problem with someone allowing their dog to defecate in our front yard too, but since we don't know who we haven't said anything.
I called into the city to inform them of the false accusations made and to see if they could mark it somewhere that I have made my animals all indoor animals months ago. I told the gentleman that I was connected to that I had received a letter and felt that it was a mistake. He asked why and I told him about the previous letter we had and how I had brought my cats in immediately after receiving the first letter and not let them out since. I also told him about our dog and how she is. I told him of our problem with someone bring their dog to our yard to relieve itself. He said the complaint was for 3 loose cats. He said nothing can really come of the letters unless someone wanted to file and affidavit and that rarely happens. And since we fixed the problem we couldn't get in trouble. I told him I didn't want to take the chance of it going that far though. He was very kind and marked down that we had already fixed the problem and said we would not get any letters for at least 6 months. I said we shouldn't get any after that and shouldn't have gotten this one, because we work to fix problems immediately when they are brought to our attention.
A few hours after this talk something hit me. I have had a suspicion as to who has had the letters sent, but one comment of his confirmed it. "the complaint was for 3 loose cats" Only 2 sets of neighbors knew we had 3 cats. And one of those sets were the ones we had gotten the alarm for. They also know we only have 2 now. The others were ones I asked a number of times if they were OK with our cats being loose and each time they said yes. I have felt for a while that they didn't like us for some reason. They were very kind when we first moved in by making a meal for us due to my recovering from surgery. I thanked them greatly for this, sent a card, and told them to let me know if they ever need our help with anything. I don't think they like the fact that my husband has a fascination with cars and has a few (they are kept put away and aren't even in the driveway. The only ones we keep there are the 2 we drive all the time). I also don't think they like how we keep to ourselves for the most part. They are my parents' age, so we don't have much in common and I am not a nosey body who has to be in every one's business. I don't think she likes that, she is the kind who does need to be. I also think they just like to complain. I mowed my lawn for the first time in early March, and the husband drove up as I was finishing the front and he complained how they are going to have to start doing that all the time now since I started mine. (the yard has a weed problem that obviously has been going on for a few years due to how bad it is, and I was mowing it do a quick fix before my best friend who was visiting from out of town got there) Mowing doesn't make a difference of how often you have to do it.
So as you can see this leaves me struggling with that command. So prayers to give me strength with this would be appreciated. Hope is better for each of you. I am going to start my day now and see if I can't get it to be a better one than yesterday.
P.S. If anyone could help me figure out what to do to make this show my paragraphs rather than just being one huge one, I would appreciate it.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Weekends, Weddings, and Lemons
Well, this weekend the baby birds left the nest. And on Monday a new mom moved in. And as of yesterday there is still just one egg. I worried too much with the last mom every time the weather got bad, and with all this wind. The pot would swing like it's own little pendulum with out the other ball to hit. But the other ones survived, and if a new mom moved in within a day, it's got to be a good spot. I wonder, is it the same dad and he is bringing his new partner to the nest so he knows where to go?
This last weekend was a long one. Larry was extremely ill. He toughed it out though and made it with us to his cousin's wedding at the Annabelle Mansion. Gorgeous wedding! The perfect mix of glamour and casual. I had been looking forward to this wedding for a year, and it lived up to all my hopes for them.
The bride and groom Lia and Casey
My Family
Now to just hold my excitement till another cousin of Larry's has her wedding in June!!
Within the past few months I have wanted a lemon tree. I am trying to do better at drinking a lot of water, and I've learned what helps me is by putting lemon slices in it. And with the recent drastic jump in price of lemons at the grocery store, I would really like to grow my own. The idea to grow my own was given to me watching a clip of the Martha Stewart show a few months ago that showed you can grow them in a container in your house. I REALLY liked that idea. I have been looking, but I had not had any luck in finding one. That is until I opened up the Home Depot add yesterday and found them on sale for $20. So I am off in a bit to go pick up a lemon tree!! Now for my requested books to be shipped to the local library to help me make sure I don't kill it.
This weekend Larry is taking a much needed vacation to visit his family in East TX and spend some time with his dad fishing. He took Friday off and has Monday off due to working next Saturday, so he left Thursday straight from work. Holly and I are going to relax at home (I severely stained my neck muscles earlier this week, and felt like I was dying due to the pain. I am much better, but not willing to push it). I plan to work on my sewing project and rent a few on demand movies and just veg out. Larry is aiming to be back Sunday so he can join Holly and me to go out to my Aunt and Uncle's house for my Uncle's 50th b-day. We will get the chance to see our cat again, and Holly will get to feed their donkey as long as I remember to bring the carrots.
Have a great weekend all!!
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