To Tide You Over....

It's been a very busy few weeks around here. My family came for a visit last week and, since gas prices stayed above $4.00/gal., we tried to find local things to do.

We went to the local zoo on Tuesday. It was a cool sunny day and ideal for viewing the animals. I have more pictures to post, but that will have to wait until another day when Blogger is cooperating better. Until then, these will have to suffice. Here are just a few of the more photogenic animals we saw:

This white tiger was close enough to touch (if the glass weren't there!) He was beautiful and his paws were enormous. I thought this was a nice picture.

I think this crazy camel had an itch. He kept rubbing his belly and "boohind" (as Em calls it) on this tree stump. The best part is that I have a picture almost identical to this one from a visit a couple of years ago.

This peacock was all over the place. He even came within a foot of our picnic table.

This wallaby was munching on some grass and weeds. Cute little rodent, isn't he?

I have more pictures of these lions that I will post later, but they are my favorite animals at the zoo. So majestic and beautiful...and cats!

Oh the Humidity!

Ugh!

That's probably the best word for this week thus far. It's very hot and humid all of the sudden, after a rather short, cool spring. A couple of weeks ago, we were still under the threat of frost at night, now it is 90 degrees, windy, hot and humid for the forseeable future. What happened to spring?

Then, to make matters worse, Emily is sick. Tuesday afternoon, she fell while jumping on the bed and hit her head on her rocking chair...hard. She was fine the rest of the day and night, but woke up at 6:00 am Wednesday morning complaining of a headache and neckpain...and then her tummy hurt. We hurried downstairs into the usual "sick day" headquarters (the couch in the living room), popped in a video and grabbed a trashcan....just in time for the vomitting to begin. That lasted every 10-20 minutes until around 11:00, then I thought we were in the clear.

Thursday morning rolled around and after a quiet night, I thought all would be well, but it wasn't to be. Em was pretty lethargic and feverish, and then there was diarrhea and then more vomitting. Fun, fun stuff. So I started wondering if all this could possibly be the result of her hitting her head. The nurse at the doctor's office didn't think so, but she wanted to play it safe as did the doctor. So we went to the doctor's office, where they ordered a CT scan of Em's head. Let's just say that it was quite the experience. She was fine with the idea of the doctor taking a picture of the inside of her head...until she saw the scanning machine. Then she said, very quickly, "I think I'm feeling gooder now. I don't think I'm sick anymore!"

Three people later (myself included) we had wrangled Emily to a reclining position on the special "ride" (the table that moves up and down). She was not amused. But she was fine, so that's all that really mattered.

So all this to say, it's probably yet another tummy bug (most likely acquired during one of our numerous trips to each and every public restroom Emily sees, and then, must use.)

That's been our week in a nutshell.

A Visit to the Butterfly Garden

Emily and I visited a local garden center yesterday for the purpose of visiting their butterfly pavillion. (Or as Emily calls them..."buttflies") We've tried to see the butterflies for about 2 years now, but missed them everytime. This year, someone told us that they usually appear at the end of May, so off we went.

Still no butterflies.

But there were frogs in the two ponds. Miss Em is currently rather fascinated with frogs. She's found a couple of frogs in the backyard and has named them Mr. Tumnus (we were reading the Chronicles of Narnia at the time) and The Robinsons. (Yes, one frog, plural name!) So instead of "buttflies" we watched the frogs jump in and out of the water and peek at us.

Above, Emily trying to spot some frogs in the pond.

Emily, posing for a cute picture.

One lone frog, peeking out from the water, just slightly above the middle of the picture . Look close! (Or click on the picture to enlarge it a bit)

Things No One Should Ever Have To See

I saw this on a Popeye's sign while driving through a parking lot yesterday.

YUCK!

I saw this when I finished filling up the tank of my Ford Windstar minivan which averages about 15.8 mpg.

TRIPLE YUCK!!!

I especially like the note at the bottom, telling me to "have a nice day". Okay, I will when I get over the sticker shock!

A School-Year Completed

Emily's last official day of preschool (she still likes to call it "pretty school") was today. All the preschool speech programs had a celebration in the school's courtyard with snacks, crafts and games. Em had a lot of fun. I, on the other hand, was relegated to the birdhouse-making table which involved the used of yarn, toilet paper rolls, peanut butter and bird seeds....and preschoolers. I'm going to be smelling peanut butter for a long time.

Anyhow, I thought I'd post the first-day-of-school photos and the last-day photos to compare.

Above is Em's first day of preschool on September 18, 2007.

Above and below are Em's pictures from this morning. Notice the difference in height. She's going to be sooooo tall.

A close-up of Miss Em, who insists on correcting us if we call her sweetie pie (or anything else) and reminding us that her name is (in her own special pronunciation) "Emiwee Ewivef ". This of course, is Emily Elizabeth, for those who don't speak Emily!

A Walk in the Park

These pictures are a couple weeks old, but since nothing interesting has happened today, I thought I'd share them.

Above, Emily is watching her first kite fly.

Of course, this is the kite, complete with a picture of Cinderella.

Em, flying solo. She enjoyed the new experience for about 5 minutes, then it was on to something else.

Above is a picture of the river from our nature trail walk. This is the same basic angle as the picture on the header of this blog. That one was taken in the fall with all the colorful leaves still on the trees. This one was taken in late April/early May with no leaves and a noticeably high water level. (Note the absence of the rocks at the base of the trees.) It was a long, wet, snowy winter!

Garden Update: Day 4

So far, so good. Everything looks like it did when we planted it, meaning it is still alive and thriving after 4 whole days under my care.

Today, we planted a few more flowers to fill in everything.

I thought we needed a bit more color, so we planted a couple Gerber daisies in a dark pink/red, which I really like.

The daisies are on either side of the grassy-looking day lily plants,

The yellow flower is one-of-a-kind. It belongs to Emily and she picked it our herself and helped me plant and water it. It's not a great picture, but it is a yellow dahlia (which I also really like).

Nothing too special here. Just a closer view of some of my flowers, since the first set of pictures from 3 days ago weren't very close because it was raining.

So there you have it. That's my story!

Em's First Baseball Game

Okay, so I think Miss Em has may have gone to a game here once before, but she was too young to know if she did. So I present the pictures from her first trip to see the local minor league team. Andrew's employer has a box at the stadium, so we were able to enjoy nice seats on a very nice Friday night a couple weeks ago. "Our" team lost 9-1, but still it was a nice evening.

Daddy and Emily at the beginning of the game.

Em, watching the game with great focus.

Em, realizing that clapping your hands really hard makes them sort of hurt!

Emily, cheering on "her" team, which was pretty much everyone that did anything. But she did it with gusto~!

Uh...Daddy...Am I supposed to clap now?

Sweet Sounds

I love the sound of:

* Wind chimes ringing in the gentle breeze

* Birds chirping while the wind chimes ring
* Water trickling from a fountain

* Emily giggling uncontrollably while daddy "crushes" the "bug" (Emily)

* Emily saying "I love you and have a 'dood' night"

* Emily saying, after receiving a much-loved frozen coke, "Oh mommy, you are my favorite mommy in the whole world!"

My Rookie Garden

So I've mentioned before that I'm not really into gardening. I don't know the first thing about it except that I hated pulling weeds as a kid and I still do. I also don't really care to get hot, sweaty and dirty. And then there are the bugs....and spiders - need I say more?

But this year, after a very long, cold winter, the gardening bug hit. Well, maybe it was more of determination to beat something that has, up until this point, completely defeated me. That something...making plants live and grow and maybe, dare I hope it?...flourish into something beautiful and lasting. And so, I present to you my first, all-my-own-design, flower garden.

The above picture shows most of the thirty-foot long area that sits behind our pool and deck. The retaining wall was already there when we bought the house, but up until last fall, was completely covered with overgrown ivy and a few ugly holly bushes and weeds. The entire area was covered, even the vertical wall. Andrew cleared most of it out last fall and I finished yesterday. (Oh, the buckets will eventually be filled with live plants, but it's rainy and cold today.)

The tree is my Mother's Day gift from Emily and Andrew. It is an ornamental cherry tree. It looked bigger in the store. I've never attempted to plant a tree before, so this should be interesting. It should turn pretty colors in the fall and have showy white blossoms in the spring. We'll see about that! This sits at the corner of our property.

This is the view from the property line toward the cul-de-sac. Eventually there will be some type of border /edging, but I'm not sure what to use. I bought some black edging that goes in the ground, but I don't know. Until yesterday, it was roughly edged with river rocks, but it had become quite over-grown. Oh and the ugly plant between the two pinkish flowers and below the left bucket is one of the remaining holly bushes. I don't really like it, but I didn't feel like digging it up either, so we'll see how it looks. Right now, it's just ugly.

And finally, the long view. The complete garden...all thirty long feet of it. It looks pretty empty right now, but hopefully there will soon be mulch and in a couple of years, the perrenials should all spread, so it should fill out nicely. That is, if the curse of my black thumb doesn't make an appearance!

$3.95 Anyone?

Yes, gas prices here in northern Indiana have officially hit $3.95 a gallon.

Next week (or this weekend) it will be at $4.00. And then higher again.

It's time to drill.

The Money Pit (Aka - Our House)

We love our first home. It's spacious and for the most part, well constructed. When we first moved in, we thought, it's only 11 years old, it won't need much work anytime soon. Boy were we naive!Fast forward four years: Apparently, the crew who sided our house wasn't very good. Take exhibit A: Over the garage. A piece broke off during a winter wind storm and since that piece is no longer repairable, several other pieces have loosened up as well. We have a problem.

Exhibit B: The back of the house - Two pieces that are also broken and constantly coming unsnapped between the two windows. There are other pieces that are loose, but it's hard to tell from this picture. Apparently, the siding job was a lousy one.

Exhibit C: The side of the house, opposite the garage - More loose pieces. The one about half-way down is the most visible. There are pieces on the front that are loose/broken as well, but I don't have a good picture of them.

So now we face having to replace all of the siding after 15 years. It should have lasted 25-30 years, but because of poor installation, it's life has been halved. And we have to pay for it. We've had 4 contractors look at it, all of whom have agreed that it just needs to be replaced rather than repaired. The first was prompt in every way and gave us a very professional estimate, but we wanted a couple opinions. The next tried to sell us "His" "better" product for about $4,000 more. The third was $1500 more than the first and the last...well, we've never heard back from him, so in my opinion, he's out. Now I just need to call and see if our homeowners insurance will cover any or all of this. The fun never ends.

And did I mention that the deck really needs to be replaced too? Yep....the money pit we call "home"!

A Cinderella Story

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful, cheerful young doll named Cinderella. We've all heard the story a thousand times. The dead parents, the evil step-mother, the ugly step-sisters, the fairy godmother and so on. Yet still, despite all these traumatic events, Cinderella remained kind and gentle, with a song on her lips. That is, until she met Bella, the young German Shepard with a thing for chewing toys....hers or Emily's. And so now, I present you with the Cinderella story you haven't heard. I must warn you, this is no fairy tale with a happy ending. Oh no, this is a grisly story of pain and suffering and callous indiference for the feelings of this happy little doll and a sweet, mostly innocent young girl. I have the pictures to prove it. You see, it all happened one Saturday afternoon when the whole house was quiet. These times are rare and so whenever Emily is napping on a weekend, so are her parents. And it is then that the dastardly deed was done. Poor Cinderella was left laying on the floor, and while everyone was soundly sleeping, Bella, the beastly dog began her nightmarish treatment of the fair doll. Bella worked quietly, and to her credit, Cinderella made not a peep, but alas, she would never be the same again. And now, I give you the pictures - WARNING- they are graphic!

Poor Cinderella. She really was beside herself that day, yet still, wearing her ballgown and not a hair out of place. A real princess.

The carnage, up close.

Despite the obvious loss of four fingers, a forearm and complete dismemberment, Cinderella still gives us a brave and cheery "thumbs up".

The mangled stump...this will definitely make her chores much more difficult.

Yet still, despite the horror and trauma, Cinderella maintains her lovely smile. What a gal!

Cats are Definitely Better

Not to bring up this old debate (well, sort of) but I can say that no cat I've ever owned has CHEWED UP MY FAIRLY NEW CURTAINS while laying in her dog bed by the sliding glass door.


BAD DOG!!!!!!!!!


Enough said.

Our Not-So-Tiny Dancer

Miss Emily was in the mood to dance the other night, so I took advantage of the opportunity to take some fun candid pictures. She's quite the little ham sometimes.

The classic ballerina pose.
Irish jig, anyone?
Note the "dancing slippers" that are a full size (at least) too small. She still insists on wearing them.
Can you say "Flash Dance"? Seriously, could her little legs look any longer? She's 3.5 years old and 43 inches tall. She looks like a 5-6 year old, heightwise.

Emily's New Bathroom

Emily's bathroom (and the guest bathroom) needed a facelift. The former owners of this house had a young boy so the bathroom was painted navy and dingy white with a baseball border. This, of course, is unacceptable for a vibrant little girl like Em, so enter The Penguins! The picture below is of her new shower curtain with playful penguins snorkeling, surfing and lounging around.

The next picture shows her new over-the-toilet etagere storage area, the curtain (with cute penguin hooks) and the wall paint color ( it matches the mid-tone aqua color in the curtain).

Next up are her new towels to complement and contrast the cool blue-greens in the room.
And last, but not least, her new toilet paper/tissue box storage unit and the coordinating bath rug. It's even cuter in person!

Sick and Sicker

This will be quick. I'm no longer puking. That was a one-night thing, thank goodness. Now it's back to the same sinus infection/upper respiritory infection sickness that I had about 3 weeks ago. It feels exactly the same.

Last time, I suffered through the symptoms for about 9 days before going to the doctor to beg for help. He prescribed a round of Amoxicillin in the amount of 60 pills over 10 days time. I took it all, as directed and felt better. Then about two weeks later, it reared it's ugly head again.

This time, I went to the weekend clinic after two days of symptoms and explained that this was my second go-round. The doctor spent all of 2 minutes with me and prescribed some VERY expensive antibiotic called Avelox for 10 more days. I've taken two rounds and I still don't feel better. I'm also taking sudafed and mucinex, both of which make the symptoms more bearable, but barely. So that's the update from here. Fun stuff...

Kneeling at the Porcelain Throne

Photo found at: http://media3.guzer.com/pictures/dog_drink_toilet.jpg

Oh, there's really nothing quite as humbling as hugging the toilet. I spent all morning yesterday and all night last night doing just that, for two very different reasons.



I began yesterday feeling fine. So fine, that I tackled priming Emily's tiny bathroom. I must say, having to hug the toilet to paint around it is a special privilege. I even thought I might finish the whole job in one day (which for me, painting, is a record). But by afternoon, I wasn't feeling so perky. I waited until Andrew came home, ran to Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond to exchange some bathroom accessories that didn't match the paint as I had hoped and then grabbed some dinner for A and I at Chipotle (a great, very spicy Mexican restaurant). I wasn't very hungry, so I only ordered two soft tacos and a bag of chips. My stomach was feeling a little off, but I hadn't eaten much all day, I'd been breathing paint fumes and I just figured I had some acid churning around in there. Sometimes, food helps. Last night, it didn't.



By bedtime, I had a feeling it was going to be a long, uncomfortable night. I was right. I only stayed in bed for about 45 minutes at most. I just couldn't get comfortable. It was sort of like how I felt when I was in labor. Not terrible, but not comfortable either. Not super nauseous, but a little yucky. So I went downstairs to lay on the couch and watch a little tv in the hopes of distracting my brain enough that I could sleep through whatever was going on.



It wasn't to be. I kept feeling pukey, so I would get up, walk through the kitchen to the tiny half-bath and kneel at the toilet, accompanied by Bob the cat each time, falsely believing that she was going to be fed whenever I walked through the kitchen. But nothing happened. So after a while I would go back to the couch and try to rest some more.



But eventually, the urge to purge became too great, I knelt at the "porcelain throne" with Bob at my side, and prayed for it all to be over quickly. I hate vomiting. But there comes a point where what has gone in MUST come out and I begin to pray that it will happen quickly and completely in one effort. And so it did. And I felt better....and finally around 5:00 am, I drifted off to sleep curled up in the recliner.



Let's just say, it's going to be a long while before I eat at Chipotle again. I'm certain that it had nothing to do with my sickness, but still, it's lost all appeal to me for the time being, much to Andrew's great chagrin.



Then to top it all off, I'm almost positive that I am catching Emily's cold. My throat has that post-nasal-drip sore feeling. My glands are swollen and my eyes hurt.



Then again, at least I'm not puking anymore and just about anything is more bearable than that.

Infuriating Illegal Alien "Study"

WNDU, out of South Bend, IN., reports that "Study shows that illegal immigrants add to South Bend economy".

Oh really? How so? "Tell me more" you might say. Well here goes....

" 'If the undocumented population of South Bend was deported, the community would have much to lose.'

That's the conclusion of a study titled, "Coming to America: The Economic Impact of Undocumented Workers in South Bend."

It was conducted by the Notre Dame economics department and included 60 individuals, 40 of them undocumented, all members of St. Adalbert's Parish in South Bend's largest Hispanic neighborhood. Rev. Christopher Cox from the Church was part of the research team." (emphasis added)

The "study" mentioned that the illegals, on average, added a net figure of $3000 to the local and national economy. Then they go on to say that this figure is being spent only in the local economy. This is the second flaw of the "study". The first, of course, being that these people are referred to as "illegal immigrants" or "undocumented workers". Let's call them what we should...illegal aliens or criminals. Why sugar-coat it? This would only be accurate.

Then, of course, there is the usual liberal drivel about how there are all these jobs that Americans won't do. Hmmm....would these be jobs in the fast food industry or perhaps at Walmart or hotel housekeeping? I can assure you that if I had no education and needed a job to support my family, but was white, I wouldn't hesitate to take these jobs. So once again, the study is based on a false premise.

Next, the news story provides these two infuriating little tidbits of falsitude (is that a word?)

" 'The federal government has failed to provide a pathway to individuals who have been allowed to cross the borders to be legal so that they can fully contribute and give their tax dollars back to the nation,' McDowell says."

"The study continues to say, "The reality is that undocumented immigrants receive little government aid (often times out of fear of getting caught), are loyal taxpayers, and stimulate job growth in the community.' "

Again I say, Oh really? Seriously, the government hasn't provided a "pathway" for immigrants to legally cross the border and contribute and pay taxes? Am I really supposed to believe that? Then why is that so many generations of legal immigrants have made very prosperous lives for themselves while abiding BY THE LAW?

The second quote from the article is equally unbelieveable. The idea that illegal aliens don't receive aid from the federal AND local government is laughable at best. Maybe they don't receive a welfare check every month or week or however they come, but they do receive plenty of free or reduced-cost services such as health in the overwhelmed emergency rooms, free school lunches and school services and a host of other aid. Then there is the whole idea that these illegal aliens pay taxes. Okay, yes they pay sales tax like the rest of us, but how can they possibly pay federal taxes unless they have stolen someone's identity and social security number which counts as a second criminal offense.

And last, but certainly not least, why is St. Adalbert's Parish and Notre Dame University not reporting these illegal aliens? For this reason and the completely flawed and biased study, both should be ashamed of themselves.

***UPDATE***

As of Thursday morning, this article seems to have disappeared from WNDU's homepage. It can still be accessed through the link, however. As you might imagine, reaction was pretty "heated". Interesting, though. Most headlines stay on the homepage for MUCH longer than that.

We've Started a Rock Band!

Yes, you read that right. We (Andrew and I) have started our very own late-night rock band....and it's eating up all our free time.

Okay, so we haven't totally lost our minds...yet, but we did break down and purchase the Rock Band kit for the Xbox 360 and ever since, have rocked out on the drums and electric guitar. Andrew is the drummer (he actually is in real life too) and I play the guitar (or "concawr") as Emily has taken to calling it.

I had my doubts when Andrew first suggested that we might like this. After all, I couldn't figure out (as a "real" musician) how this could work, but I have to admit that it GREAT fun and VERY addicting. I can totally understand how teens and twenty-something college students can get into this. Not to mention, if I had all the time in the world, how awesome I could be on the pretend guitar. Seriously, I would rock!

So, if I'm not around much, or if you ever hear of this weird band called The Way-Cool Shredders" (Looonnngggg story) touring near you....you'll know how it all started.

I have tried (valiantly, I might add) to add the YouTube video directly to this post, but I can't figure it out. (It's not of anyone we know, just a good way to get a feel for the game.) Here is the link instead....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5IcFtJWUSIs

Well, Now I've Seen it All

I've been sick since....oh Tuesday I guess. I think it's the flu. I got the flu shot, why is this still happening? I feel lousy. I don't want to go anywhere or do anything. I'm currently sitting here typing while wearing a cooled gel eye mask. It's bliss. I'd take a picture, but that would require me to move....

Anyhow, I haven't been sleeping well and I've been awake at between 4:30 am-5:30 am every morning, too miserable to sleep anymore. This brings me to this morning's Fox News broadcast. (And a brief infatuation with Chuck Norris' Total Gym info-mercial.) I just assumed that I missed something when I heard the blurb on tv, but after reading the headlines on Fox's website, I apparently was more "with it" than I felt.

The headline reads:

Padded Lampposts Tested in London to Prevent Cell Phone Texting Injuries

That's right folks. London is now adding padding to their lampposts in order to prevent injuries to those pedestrians too stupid to put their cell phone down for two seconds and concentrate on walking instead of texting.

What's more, the article goes on to say that, in a survey conducted by a telephone directory service, "The survey found that almost two thirds of respondents lost peripheral vision while texting, and more than a quarter wanted lines on the pavement to create routes for texters to walk while using their phones.

The study claims that 68,000 people were injured in the U.K. last year while chatting or texting on their cell phone, Infomatics reports."

Someone please tell me that I'm delerious or hallucinating or as sick as I feel, because this is too dumb to be real...isn't it?