I've been busy planting and now it is starting to bloom!

Here are some of the photos of my garden. It is still a work in progress. The first one is of the flowers by the front door.





This one is of the tree circle I've been working on. I have to widen it just a bit to get the last set of bricks in, but it turned out nicely, I think. The next images are of the flowers I put in our backyard. Some bulbs from last year managed to avoid being dug up by Bailey. I put in some impatiens and added some other flowers along the way. Not everything has flourished but I enjoy trying out new plants and seeing what I end up with in my garden.

Carly's been adopted!

Last Sunday, Carly was adopted by another swim family! She has a nice new home and they have changed her name to Marly. We are still hoping to find a new family for Annie. Both Annie and Carly are sweet puppies but they are not the right personality mix with our Bailey. Annie and Carly would get into horrific fights with each other. Annie still snaps at Bailey's face but not as badly as she used to do. Carly would not let Bailey eat and was possessive of toys and food. Since Carly has become adopted, Bailey and Annie are doing much better but we still think Annie needs a different home. If she doesn't find a new home soon, we will continue to work with her and may end up keeping her.

Been gone awhile but catching up

I've been really busy at work and at home and have neglected the blog for awhile. I wish I could say I have been stitching but I can't. I have been busy planting flowers for Spring in our yard. Last year was our first year in our new house and we had to pretty much wait to see what came up from the previous owner's plantings to know what we had or did not have. This year I planted some petunias, lamb's ear, gardenia, impatiens, elephant ears, violas, verbena, a balloon flower plant, a spirea and moved a big plant that was supposed to be a butterfly bush but turns out to be more like a hibiscus than anything I can identify. When the plants all bloom, it should be very pretty.

Nothing in the yard would have survived had we not put up some sort of fencing (even temporary fencing) to protect the flower beds from the dogs. Our Bailey dug up lots of bulbs this past year and though I was able to save most of them, I had no idea what they were when it came time to plant them again. In April, we took in two puppies from a rescue organization thinking they would make good playmates for our Bailey. Bailey is very shy and skittish but these two rascals are too aggressive and do not think they are smaller than Bailey. Bailey usually backs down if they are being dominant even though she out weighs them by 35 lbs! We named the puppies Annie and Carly.













Annie is on the left and Carly is on the right.

Bailey is now 10 months old and has become a wonderful golden. She is a gentle soul and a sweetheart! She is so pretty with her full copper coat and cream feathering.


That is about all the news for now. I'll try to post more often if life won't get in the way too much.

Progress!!!!!!!!!!

Oh what a whirlwind week! I started off still trying to get over bronchitis and coughing up a storm! Had to get back in to work before I was really over the stuff because we had 6 blood gas instruments going live on a networked setup and interfaced with a central system and our LIS. This was a challenging project but I'm happy to say we seem to have run into only a few problems and everything seems to be working well today! I'm so glad to see this as it will make my job so much easier!

Then two of our three tax refunds arrived this week so today I went and purchased our new washer and dryer. I'll be so glad not to have to truck all of our laundry to a laundramat and pay between $2.00 and $6.00 a load just to wash the clothes! My new machines arrive just before St. Patrick's Day!!!!!!!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!

Our DirecTV messed up this week and being so customer focused, DirecTV won't be out to our house until the 16th of this month to repair the problem! I am so fed up with them that I'm switching back to Comcast the minute our contract is up with DirecTV! I cannot tell you how unhappy we have been with DirecTV! It has NOT been a good experience! My only weekend off from two jobs and I can't watch any tv and enjoy some stitch time while watching tv. That is enough to make me absolutely furious!

Next week is our Bailey's graduation from JaeMarS obedience class. Bailey has done very well and has really grown from the experience. She minds well (except when she can't decide if she really wants to come in when you open the door). She knows her commands like Sit, Stay, Wait, Down, Follow, Easy, Jump, Tire(jump through a tire), Other Side and more. She now is so excited to use the agility equipment! Remember when she had to be kind of inched across the wooden bridge because she was so scared? Well......we are not scared of that any more! She is still very skittish but she is coming around on that too. She has been going to doggy daycare one day a week and that is helping her to learn about other noises and she has such fun, she is always pooped when she comes home from doggy daycare. She got her photos taken at JaeMarS this past week and we think our baby came out too cute!


That is about all my news for now. Until next time..........God Bless.

Yuck, Yuck, Yuck!!!

Well, the best laid plans............never seem to happen!

I had plans to try to stitch over the days off I had and wouldn't you know it, I got sick and couldn't even think to stitch! Stupid virus going around makes your head feel like it is going to explode everytime you cough. You cough and bring nasty stuff up. You feel hot, then cold, then hot again! Thank God for antibiotics, Robitussin DM and sleep!

Not much else going on around our house right now. We took Bailey to Doggie Daycare today for her "temperment test" and she passed with flying colors. She doesn't have an aggressive bone in her......she is more likely to be the one shying away from someone or something than going for it. We hated to crate her for more than a few hours on the one day of the week when Dad has to work longer hours so this might be a good solution. She can romp and play with her doggy friends and be safe while we work then go to obedience class in the evening.

Tonight is catch up on stuff not attended to while sick and then maybe I'll get to stitch a little.

YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!! DH IS EMPLOYED AGAIN!!!!!!!!!1

Today officially brought the good news we expected. My DH got a job! He's been retired since Jan 2008 and it has been nice to have him around the house more. Our plans were for him to try to find a job in 2009 that would be part time and allow him and I to reach some financial goals we want to reach faster. With the economy in such bad straights, I was wondering if he would not find a part time job. Fortunately he found one right up his field of experience and I think it will work out for him. For now, he will just work on three days a week and that will be fine.

The stitching frog visited my house this past weekend! I had to rip out much of what I had completed before on one area of my hero's project. I had to rip out the sillouhette of the one soldier because I was off by 1/2 stitch! GRRR!!!!!!!! Oh well, got a lot of the helmet of the other soldier done and hope to get more done in the coming days. Slow progress but I'm motivated now to get this one done!

Taxes, FAFSA and some fun

What a day!!!!!!! We started off the day with a nice drive to Mistletoe State Park and took Bailey for a walk in the country. The drought is still very apparent when you see how low the water level in the lake is at the park! We enjoyed seeing Bailey learn all the different smells and about the water in the lake. She was curious but still very skittish. She was not too sure about rocks in the water and the mud squishing between her paws.

Then home to work on the taxes and Ben's FAFSA for next year. I think I have the taxes just about ready for the CPA we are going to use this year. With DH retiring and getting a bonus to do so, selling our old house and buying a new one, my full time and part time jobs, too many changes for this girl to do the taxes by myself. Now, the real kicker is the FAFSA! It looks like our son might be penalized for his father's retirement in that the family contribution to his education went up by $30K due to the bonus being counted as income. The jury is still out but I won't be terribly surprised by how much the government says we have to pay! If I can get all this done and ready today, I might be able to sew or stitch some tomorrow! YIPEE!!!! That is my goal for this weekend.

This past week was a trying one at work with a difficult situation but hopefully it is now resolved and we can move on. I am still looking forward to possibly retiring in 2011 from my full time position. After meeting with my retirement fund, it doesn't look like it would be to my advantage to stay longer than the 30 years. Time will tell but for now, I think I will continue to count the days down until I see that 30 year mark get closer to becoming a reality.

This past month has been a challenge for DH and I with his diabetes. His blood sugars would fluctuate a lot from before a meal to after a meal and the doctor added new medications to his regimen. DH feels like a porcupine being stuck in his fingers 5 to 6 times a day and then having to take insulin shots that often as well but hopefully we are getting it under control. Every week I fax the logsheet to the doctor and he calls me with any changes to the schedule.

We continue to pray for Will Word. He's the son of a member of our Sunday School. Will was badly wounded in a rocket attack on his humvee in Afghanistan on Christmas Eve. If you would like to follow Will's progress, here is his blog. Janet (his Mom) has been keeping us posted this way on Will's progress and any specific prayer needs.

http://wordfamilyaugusta.blogspot.com/

Well........dinner is ready and I would like to relax a bit before bedtime. More later.