Hot Day

The day is a hot one.

Greg got into the pool to clean the sides down.

Amy jumped in because Greg is in there.

Now, Will has joined them.

I am the only smart person!  That water is cold!

Besides, somebody has to play nurse when they are ill!

Guess its time to play lifeguard now!  Oh yeah, they can all touch, they don't need me!

Loving Greg's day off work ~~~~~ Happy Confederate Memorial Day!

Happenings

Its been a busy week, full of emotional ups and downs here.

Last weekend, Greg and I helped chaperone a Youth outing for our church.  We all met at the local Dairy Queen for dinner and then off to the concert/conference downtown.  The concert was by Christian Stanfield and he did a really good job ~ and we like the music.  But man, we are getting old...I was prepared and took some earplugs.  As Emmalyn said "when I looked back at Miss Donna, her ear plugs were glowing a yellow color".  The bass was amped up super high on the music.  I don't remember the speakers name, but he was really good and seemed to hold most folks attention.  There are always attendants to any event that "wander" & can't sit still.  And it happened here too.  But our kids were all attentive ~ no one wandered off and all seemed to really enjoy themselves.  There were probably 17 youth that went from our church and 7 or 8 adults.  On the way home, we had 6 younguns piled in the back of our van singing to Greg's new "Go Fish" album he bought.  We enjoyed our ride home with Amy, Will, Morgan, Bradley, Emmalyn & Jonathan!

We've gotten lots of outdoorsy, backyard stuff done.  Grass got cut, new picnic table got a pretty coating of stain, tile table top removed & wood trim stained, more potatoes planted, flower seeds planted, lots of plant watering, taking care of chickens & bunny, cuddling new puppies, taking care of Licorice (she goes back on Monday to have her stitches taken out), church Bible study, canned 30 quarts of sweet potatoes, and started dehydrating onions.

We are coming to a close with our school year....everything is winding down.  We are keeping up with our Proverbs studies and still reading the Economics ~ but thats all.  There has been lots of reading going on at our house, since our trip to the library last week.  Amy & I are reading some Amish books by Wanda Brunstetter and Will is reading 2 of the Star Wars books.  They are also studying the Drivers Manual and hopefully in the next couple of weeks they will both get their learners permit for driving. 

We've got lots of crafts to work on and complete for the fair.  I've got some quilts to quilt, a cross stitch to finish, some embroidery projects I found, a needlepoint placemat to work on, some wood projects to paint, tilework to finish, and the list goes on and on.  Yesterday, I picked up my baby afghan to work on and got a 3 or so rows done on it ~ its pink and white striped.  So, we may not be busy with bookwork, but we've got plenty to keep us busy and productive.  

This will be a 3 day weekend for Greg!!!!!  Monday is a State observed holiday....Confederate Memorial Day.  We will have fun working on projects together all weekend!  Personally, I think all weekends should be longer than 2 days, but noone else has seen the logic in that thought!!

Have a great weekend y'all!  Happy Confederate Memorial Day!

Loss

During the night, our littlest puppy died.  Amy had nursed him all day and bottle fed him, and we thought it was a positive sign when he started sucking.  But when she checked on them this morning, he was gone. 

His mama, Licorice and his brother & sister are all fine.  I guess the little guy just didn't have the strength and health to survive.

The tears have stopped but the hurt is still there.

Around the Citystead

Amy bottle feeding our youngest chihuahua

cheery marigolds

Our happiest Tomato plant

Little Hen

Ripening Peach

flowers and birdseed - crooked hook!

Strawberries co-existing with green beans

love my Roses

Gregs Corn

waiting for these blueberries to ripen

beautiful little rosebud

Chip ~ the faithful watchdog

Our potatoes sprouted

Chip & Oreo checking out Will's table taking apart skills (we have to replace the top)

Licorice ~ our new little Mama & 2 of her 3 puppies

At the "lovely" time of 11:40 Sunday night, Licorice decided it was time to have some puppies!  The first one came quickly 11:45 or so ~ since he is all black and give the closeness of the hour, we named him Midnight.  2 - 3 very long hours later, Little Miss decided to make her entrance into the world, breach.  We worked on her a little bit, got her breathing, and back with mama.  And then.....nothing for hours.  We took Licorice to the vet because we were sure there was another puppy ~ xrays confirmed our suspicions and the vet thought it was 2, and one was breach.  Licorice stayed the afternoon with them, they gave her a shot to see if labor would resume, and ended up doing a c-section.  Little Mr. Dalmation spotted chihuahua was in a U position and couldn't go anywhere.  If they had not done surgery, he would have died and possibly Licorice.  I don't know if it was the surgery/anesthesia but neither Licorice or little spotty have their bonding down with each other ~ and he isn't nursing.  I made a trip to the co-op for puppy milk replacement and 2 tiny bottles.  Amy hasn't gotten him to suck yet, but he did get a full tummy...drop by drop!  Maybe they will warm up to each other soon.  

We are thrilled with the progress of the garden so far.  I love watching everything grow and am ready for ripe vegies/fruit.  We had to replace one of our fruit trees in the front.  After it bloomed and leafed out, the leaves yellowed & dropped off....since we just got it in Sept. it was still in its 1 year guarantee period, so we got a new one and Will planted it yesterday.  I really like all the little plants flourishing in the blue barrel.  I would like to get a couple more and plant them the same way ~ advantage.....the puppies leave it alone ~ too hard to dig in the little areas!

I am linking up with 

http://mysimplecountryliving.blogspot.com/2012/04/country-garden-showcase-week-17.html

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