Thankful Thursday!

This was a SUPER day! My friend Jean and I took Buddy in for a check up and he passed with flying colors!!! YIPPEE!! Doc took x-rays of his front feet again to compare with the last ones and there was no more rotation of the coffin bone and other things had cleared up to the point where he is ready for shoes!! I was bouncing off the walls I was so excited, this is a huge improvement for him. Also I don't have to put the boots on him every day which was very time consuming and hard on MY knees holding him up as I vet wrapped them on. Another HUGE step forward! He can go out with the other horses an hour twice a day which is up from a half hour as long as he doesn't get into thick grass which isn't possible here as they have pretty much eaten everything down. Another big improvement for him so that he doesn't have to stay alone in the riding ring all the time. So I am very thankful tonight and happy that all the hard work, sweat and tears have paid off so far. I appreciate all of your good thoughts during this ordeal, so many of you have asked how he is doing and commented on how good he looks when I post pictures of him. Thank you sooooooooo much and continue to pray that he continues on this path to wellness that he is going on!

I got a note from Laura over at Organizing Junkie the other day. She was the one that won one of my totes on the Dog Days of Summer Give Away that so many of us participated in recently. She has been away for a month and got back yesterday and posted this nice write up in her most recent blog. It was one of my lighthouse totes and I am so pleased that she likes it:

When I got home from holidays I had some very special mail waiting for me. The first was this lovely tote bag I won in the Dog Days of Summer giveaway.Midlife Mom from Home on the Range makes these beautiful tote bags with her daughter in law and it is just so cute. I love that it has pockets inside and opens to a flat bottom. I'm going to use my new bag as my church bag and can hardly wait to show it off! If you are interested in seeing her other designs she can be reached at thediz(AT)adelphia(DOT)net.

I have been working on our new design and finished a funky little dog fabric tote the other night. See the paw prints on the front pocket?

It has the pocket on the front, a large pocket inside plus two smaller pockets for cell phones and camera. It's different from our other bags as it is made out of 26 squares, has a more square bottom and is wider rather then deeper then our other ones. These things are STURDY and are washable on delicate and tumble dry. I have been using one as a purse rather then a tote and love it. I think they will do well at the craft fair.

I am still trying to get caught up on all your posts since I finished with jury duty. Myrna over at Cherish the Word is getting ready to have an online Bible study and has a give away going on that you might want to check out. The Bible study is going to be Beth Moore's book A Woman's Heart and she is giving away 5 of the books!

I looked out the window to the back yard Tuesday when T was here and I think she was going to baptize Noodles in the birdbath!!! I think I intervened just in time! lol!

It's starting to thunder and lightening so I guess I'd better call it a day for today.

Monday Morning Musings

What a beautiful day it is here in good old Maine. It's breezy and warm but not humid, just the right day to hang sheets on the line which I did first thing this morning. I LOVE the smell of sheets that have been hung out on the line, it is just so good to lay my head on the pillow and take in that delicious scent.

Mom and I went out this morning to do errands. My car just seemed to want to go to the flower nursery again so I went along with it.......ahem.....We picked out four more flowering shrubs to be put in around the yard so I need to call my yard man (Bobby) and let him know. We got some Mock Orange that Mom says smells delicious when in bloom, two more hydrangea trees for out back, and another one, I can't think of the name of it but it attracts butterflies and it has pink blossoms.

They have lovely things at this nursery and the people that help you are very knowledgeable which is a big plus. My gardens are holding their own although those few days of temps in the 40's at night kind of shocked them a bit. I'm not ready to start covering them yet, but will have to when we start getting frost until I get tired of it and then they will all go in the compost pile. Our growing season is so short. The second picture is a trumpet flower and it is an annual that managed to survive the winter and came up again this year in my garden by the porch.

I love these decorative grasses. I took out the petunias that were looking a bit weary and put these in my urns plus some orange and yellow plants for fall.

My veg garden has been slow this year. I have the weirdest looking peppers. I must have bought the wrong ones or they were not marked correctly. I'll post a picture and maybe someone can tell me what I'm growing out there. The pumpkins are coming along well but I have only had one red tomato that is going in tonight's salad along with some of the cucumbers.


This is one of the new hydrangea trees that I got last week and Bobby set it out for me. It is the PeeGee variety and will turn pink and I can dry them.

This is another variety of hydrangea with a more cone shaped bloom that the bees and butterflies just love.

Of course I had to wander out in the pasture and take a few shots of some of my boys. Buddy is having his 20 minute grass break that he gets twice a day other then that he has to stay in the ring or in his stall with hay.

The ole' barn is still looking pretty good. You can't see but my weather vane on top of the cupola is a horse. Of course. Look at that sky today, just beautiful!

We were invited out to DIL's parents place at the lake yesterday. It was a great day to be in the water as it was very hot and humid. I did some swimming with Mimi and the grand kids and we all went out to the float where they all tried to push me off. Not Mimi, the grands! The water was perfect, not too cold not to warm, just very refreshing. Mimi put on a good spread for us as always and I ate too much as usual but everything tastes so good at the lake.

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D rode home with us a played in the new playhouse for a while. We are still waiting for the Mic*key and Min*nie cut outs for the shutters to be finished. Bobby (yard man) moved some plants and set them out on each side of the steps going into the play house so next year they will look good.

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FIL, Son, T & D came for dinner tonight. DIL was in the middle of a painting project with her Dad so we sent her home a doggie bag. One of my nieces stopped by to tell us that she got a teaching job today! She just graduated in May so was anxious to get that first job. It's right near the university where she went so she has only about a ten mile drive to work. She will be working with autistic children and has been doing that for the past year while doing her student teaching and really likes it so may go on and get her Master's in special ed.

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Tomorrow is T's last riding lesson for this summer. I will be there, camera in hand as usual. She helped me in the barn tonight after dinner, loves scrubbing out feed dishes and water buckets. Of course each horse had to have one horse cookie before she went home. I was giving Buddy a bath so she was bringing him handfuls of hay to keep him occupied. That girl has horse fever running through her veins. Wonder who she got that from?????

Thursday's Thoughts

I have been set free! My obligation to Jury Duty ended yesterday at 1 PM. I was not chosen for any of the trials I guess due to my conservative views on drugs and my association with MADD, Mother's Against Drunk Drivers. They really didn't want me on the OUI cases. I think I would have been a good one to have to offer my point of view on personal responsibilities but the lawyers didn't think so. So I left, feeling like the kid not chosen to play on the ball team but that's okay.

I called Husband and he was just leaving for lunch with FIL so I grabbed a free lunch with them at Captain Nick's where they have the best crabmeat rolls anywhere! To further my celebration I went to the flower nursery which was just a mile up the road and picked out some beautiful hydrangea trees to be set out in my front gardens. I've needed something with a little height out there and these will fill the bill.

My yard men arrived this morning with the three bags of composted materials that are to be mixed in with the soil around the new trees but without the trees. Hummmmm.......... the nursery people forgot to tell them about the trees. Oh well they went back out and got them and got them put in the ground.

A few nights ago my niece and her family came up to the ole' mini farm to play with the ponies and enjoy some barn culture. Barn culture consists of not stepping into something you shouldn't and not getting your fingers bitten off while feeding carrots to the horses. Husband came home early that day and we got the horses all shampooed, conditioner put on, Show Sheen etc so that they would smell good for the company. We got Kipper saddled up ready for three little ones to have rides and D went first around the ring three times and that was the end of his equestrian experience. He did very well but Kipper was itchy from being so clean. Horses like to be dirty. They like to roll in mud and sand. This is natures bug spray for them. All that work of shampooing was gone the minute we took the saddle off and he started rolling in the sand in the ring! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr..

C decided she didn't want to ride so we got Nick and Kipper out and let them show off a bit for the kids.

One thing the kids liked, AND their Daddy, was the Rhino 4-wheeler, they had fun buzzing around in that. Next we got out the Suzuki 4-wheeler and everyone had a turn on that. Notice how beautiful the sky was that night!

Most of these pictures I have pirated off my nieces blog. Is that illegal?? If so I am in BIG trouble! I'll have to implicate my friend Pea also as she told me how to do it! heehee! (Sorry Pea, we may have to share a cell!)

T had her next to last riding lesson before School starts. She loves the pony she rides there and he is very well behaved. She is going over the little tiny jumps and loves it, I think she thinks she is ready for the Grand Prix!

It's beautiful here in Maine today. I love cooler temps although it was 42* when I went out to the barn this morning. Yikes! That's a bit cold for August! Funsize is down with a sinus infection so I did chores this morning. Makes me appreciate her even more when I have to do it all by myself! :0) I miss you Funsize, get well soon!!!!

A weekend of memories.

It's Monday again. I guess I always say that but it never ceases to amaze me how fast the weeks go by especially the weekends. This was one busy weekend with the family and what a great time we all had.

It started out with the much dreaded, whoops, I mean much anticipated family portrait. Try getting 42 people together in a small inside studio because the outside shoot was rained out! So much for the beautiful backdrop of the Maine forest. It was impossible for all of us to be in the one room so it was decided we go to a restaurant with a nice big banquet room and set up there. We all grabbed our umbrellas, headed back to our cars and drove to the restaurant. Our three hour time schedule was already off by about an hour when we all we finally lined up with our best smiles on.

Being the Hot Flash Queen I insisted on the air conditioning being on -20* but there were only a few people with their jackets and knit caps on. The children were happily racing and tearing around so they were nice and warm. The photographer finally had us all in position, no one was crying, I think we all had our eyes open so we are anticipating a pretty good picture.

After that we decided the least we could do for the restaurant owner who so graciously let us use his room was to go downstairs and have some lunch. Can you imagine springing 42 people on a restaurant without prior notice????? Especially our clan, we do like to tuck away the food, which will show in the size of some of us in the family portrait.....ahem...... Some of us got a little antsy waiting for the food so entertained the rest with amazing feats:

Two hours later we were finished and everyone headed home or to the lake where our southern relatives are staying. Our three hour schedule turned into five hours but we all had fun talking and catching up on each other's lives.

Yesterday after church we all headed to The Lobster Pound Restaurant on the coast where we go every year for a lobster feast. It is a gorgeous area, we have been going there for over 30 years and are never disappointed.

To say that there was an abundance of food would be a huge understatement! The lobster stew is to die for as was everything else that we partook of. We all look forward to this meal not only for the food but for the time it gives us to be together as a family. We have a big part of the family here within a ten mile radius but also have family from different states so we don't get to see them as often as we would like. We're always amazed at how much the kids have grown and love how the cousins pick right up from where they left off a year ago when we were there.

My niece dcrmom and I had our picture taken together. I was hiding behind a fake plant as much as possible as she is reed thin, beautiful and young and I feel like an old wet hen beside her! heehee! I will have to somehow import that picture from her blog and put it on mine next time. She has always been very special to me and I think she is hilarious. With three little ones she has lots of good bloggy fodder plus she writes about some thought provoking things as well.

Well Blogger has decided to be ornery and won't let me upload any more pictures so I guess that's it for today. I'll just say Continued Next Time! :0)

Thursday's Thoughts

It has been a beautiful Thursday today. Mom and I went to the flower nursery and got some beautiful plants to set out. They still have a good selection so we could have bought the place out. Good thing we weren't in the truck or several hydrangea would have been headed for the ole' farm! Still may go back and get some, they were just gorgeous and I love to dry them and use them to decorate my Christmas tree, just tucking them in the branches here and there. It is very pretty.

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Yesterday I got an invite to go to lunch with dcrmom, her three gorgeous kids and my SIL. I'm never one to pass up a good meal out that I didn't have to prepare so I jumped in the car and met them at the restaurant. We had a good time catching up on family things and of course some blogging stuff. She is my Mentor you know. :0)

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The kids were sooooooooooo good! We were there quite awhile and they sat in their seats very patiently. A nice lady even stopped by our table on her way out to compliment us on how well behaved they were. That's nice, and I am going to do that in the future. Usually you just get stares from grumpy people when kids act like kids and make a little noise or something.

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Well Buddy stepped on my foot today..... I think he was getting back at me for squirting the applesauce with bute in it in his eye last week! I can't say as I blame him! His eye has been fine though and never did get red or irritated, guess I flushed it all out thankfully! Anyway I was wrapping one of his front feet when he decided to take a step with a back foot and it landed right on MY foot. Yikes, did that hurt! He's lost some weight but still is probably around 1200 lbs. I let a yelp out of me and pushed him off and I really think he was snickering! No broken toes, just sore tonight so I really can't complain. Do horses snicker??

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I have a new pet. Now this guy stays outside in my garden but I have been enjoying watching him each day for a few minutes. The pictures are a bit blurry but I wanted to get a close up but didn't get down on my knees I was just holding the camera down low trying to get a shot of him. He's really pretty, yellow and black. Don't know what kind he is, anyone know?? He's living in one of my coreopsis plants. I was trimming that plant yesterday and disturbed him and he went off in a huff but was back again today.

Got some beautiful lilies at the nursery. They are VERY fragrant so I had to keep the windows open in the car on the way home. I sprayed them with some deer repellent as I don't know if they are a delicacy for them or not and don't want to take any chances.

Here are a couple of pictures of my birdseed stealing raccoons that were here last week. They dumped the blue bucket over, kicked the cup out of the way and the feast was on! Well, until I noticed them and shooed them off and closed the door. This picture is blurry too as I took it through the sliding glass door. The one on the right is Mom and the other two are babies, plus there were a couple more hiding behind a chair. The middle one was laying right on his belly and woofing down the seeds!

Saturday we are having a family picture done of the WHOLE family. There are 41 of us counting Grampa, the 5 siblings and their families and grandchildren. Now how long do you suppose it will take to get all 41 of us saying Cheese! at the same time without closing our eyes??? This should make for some good bloggy fodder! The big thing has been what to wear???? The women, including myself, have been trying to figure out what the best thing is to wear that will make us look slim, young and wrinkle free. Now the photographer said that wearing white will add 15 pounds and wearing black will take 15 pounds off so guess what I'm wearing?????? BLACK, as in black everything! I don't think he was referring to underwear but I'm going to wear that black too just to make sure! heehee!

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Sunday after church we are all going to our favorite seafood restaurant on the coast, The Lobster Pound in Lincolnville for a meal. It is a tradition to go there when our family from the south is here vacationing. We have been going there for years and years. I have a picture of Son at age 2 that was taken there and he was holding a live lobster. Now he is 31 and we were going there even when he was just a baby. I love traditions and look forward to this outing every year. :0)

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Guess that's it from this part of the woods. Like my bio says, it's not terribly exciting but it's my life and I LOVE it!

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P.S. Blogger is giving me fits and running my paragraphs all together tonight no matter how many times I edit so that is why I put the ****** in here.

Mondays Musings & Tuesday Tidbits

It's Monday again, the weekends sure fly by especially when you're having a good time. It was lovely at the lake yesterday, the water was warm, the air was not humid, the sun was out with occasional puffy clouds drifting by and there was a nice breeze. The kids are really turning into really good swimmers, with both sets of grandparents with places on the lake they get a lot of swim time in. Next door is my husband's brother and family and they put out a big float with a ladder to climb up on and then cannon ball back in the water. I couldn't count how many times the cousins did that.



I went out too but took a tube with me in case I got tired plus I had three little ones swimming out with me and even though they had on life jackets I still felt such a big responsibility for them so wanted the extra protection of the tube. I'm a pretty good swimmer as I grew up on the lake too but I don't think I am strong enough to save someone else in deep water. I am starting back at the pool after jury duty and taking some private lessons to hone my swimming skills.



We went to a lovely wedding Saturday night. It was just beautiful with eight bridesmaids, flower girls, and eight grooms men. The bride had on a gorgeous dress that was very fitted at the top but poofed out in layers the rest of the way down. Wish I could draw it for you as I didn't get any pictures. Duh! It was very different and lovely. She surprised her groom by singing Lost In The Moment by Big And Rich to him. He was totally surprised and I could tell he was very touched.



As the bridesmaids came in with their hair perfect, the make up perfect, the dresses beautiful and not overly done I couldn't help but think how quickly our youth is gone and all of a sudden I find myself middle aged and having hot flashes and all the rest that goes with it. Don't get me wrong, I love this stage in my life, well other then the hot flashes and the added weight, but youth sure has it's advantages.



The Matron of Honor was the sister of the bride and she is the one that I went to the baby shower for last week. She looked so cute in her dress with her big belly sticking out! The dress was so tastefully done and not like the celebrities wear that is tight around the middle. It was nicely fitting, not like a moo-moo, but fell gently over her big bump.



The father of the bride sang I Loved Her First by Heartland to his daughter and there wasn't a dry eye in the place. I don't know how he gets through doing stuff like this without crying but he does. He sang You Are So Beautiful to his other daughter (you know the one with the bump) when she got married several years ago.


Okay, here it is Tuesday and I still haven't finished this. Yesterday DIL, her Mom and I worked in the sweat shop (what Husband calls my sewing room when we are all in there sewing together!) all day on a new pattern design for our totes. Mimi (DIL's Mom) is the brains of the outfit and she was teaching us as she had made one already. I am not a directions person, I have to have someone show me and then I am all set but to follow intricate directions, forget it! T and D played in the new playhouse and in the playroom which is right off my sewing room so they were busy.

It's HARD learning a new design but Mimi got us through it and we are delighted with the results. I think this may be even a bigger seller then our signature bags which are on point. When I get this one finished I will put in a picture for your input.

Today was T's riding lesson this morning and she had a good time. She has the biggest smile on her face when she is riding, she really enjoys it. T on the other hand gets a bit bored watching so we have to keep him busy. There are sheep next door so we walked over to see them and I asked him what they say and he said they say "MOO"! I said "no they say BAA" but he thought it was funny to tell me that they say Moo.

After that I went and got my neck adjusted at the chiropractor, then the feed store for grain and stall dry and then the nursery to get some plants to replace some that attract the deer and beetles. They still had a good selection and I came home and got them put in the ground. If the deer eat them tonight you will hear a grown woman crying all the way to the west coast!

Went out to give Buddy his medicine this morning and the syringe was sticking so I tapped in on the stall door and half of it came flying out and hit him right in the eye!! It is mostly applesauce with a half gram of bute in it so he didn't get much but I was horrified that I did that!!!! I flushed his eye out with water and then called the vet to see if there was anything else I should be doing. Thankfully he said I did the right thing and that there shouldn't be any more problem as long as I didn't get anything else in his eye like gasoline or motor oil! Nothing like a sassy vet! ha! Buddy is back on pain med as he had his feet trimmed and it made him sore again. This isn't unusual but I felt we took a step backwards which was discouraging.

Guess I will get this sent out as I need to get dinner going plus I need to catch up on your posts! I can see I'm going to have some good reading tonight.

I called dcrmom this morning who is in town and guess where she was??????????? Headed for Bar Harbor where the infamous pop overs are! Hummmmm.........do you suppose there was a feeding frenzy not unlike the ones I experience myself?

Thursday's Thoughts

Another jury free day! Yippee! It's cool and breezy, just my favorite kind of weather and did I mention NO HUMIDITY! :0) I seem to have tons more energy when it's not humid so today I plan on accomplishing a LOT!

Yesterday I did some things that I have been putting off and one was to print off tons of pictures that I have on my computer. I have a back up system but don't know how to use it so thought with all the thunder and lightening storms that went through last week I'd better get the best pictures printed off in case my computer got struck or crashed. Or exploded. Or whatever computers can do so that you lose your pictures.

It was hard picking the best ones as anything to do with my grandchildren I think is wonderful, (it's a grandmother thing) so I printed quite a few of them. Of course I printed all of the ones of Buddy, just in case....... I need to go to Staples today and get some more photo paper and go through a hundred gazillion more but I got a good start.

I got a wonderful surprise from my friend Pea at Peas Corner recently! She awarded me the Nice Matters Award! You can see it on my sidebar. I don't know what to say really about these awards that I have been getting. It is so touching to have people award them to me, I am very humbled by this. Thank you Pea, you sure have touched my heart and I appreciate it so much!!! :0) If any of you haven't met Pea you should take the time to stop by her place for a visit as she is one of the nicest gals I've met, although I think EVERYONE in Bloggityville knows her, she gets around to a lot of sites! :0)

Back to Jury Duty. You all know I asked your opinion about what to wear. I took your advice and dressed appropriately in nice black pressed capri's, nice Talbot's sweater, matching sandals, accessorized jewelry, hair combed and face washed. I say all this as there were some there that looked like they had just crawled out of bed and hadn't washed their face or combed their hair let alone taken a shower! ewwwwwww!

What is it with people? Now there were other's that were dressed nicely and looked like they had taken time to to look appropriate so don't get me wrong. BUT what about the others??? I am not kidding when I say some of them looked like they were ready to go do yard work or shovel horse stalls. It was obvious they didn't want to be there but neither did any of the rest of us and we didn't look like we'd picked something out of the bottom of the hamper to wear.

Seeings that I am on a tirade today I'll keep going. What about this GUM thing? I bet there were 25 people chawing and I don't mean chewing I mean chawing on a big wad of gum. It doesn't lend itself to making one look like a good prospect for a jury that I would want with them looking like a cow chewing it's cud. Okay, I've ranted long enough but I had to get these things off my chest! lol!

I went to a lovely baby shower last night for a gal that I have known since she was a little girl. She looked adorable with her big belly and she still has about a month yet to go. She's only about 5 feet tall and everything is way out in front so I don't know how she even gets a breath but she is doing fine.

The gifts were amazing. There are things now for babies that weren't around when I was having my son 31 years ago. We thought disposable diapers were just AMAZING and of course they were a big step ahead of the old cloth diapers that we had to rinse out in the flush and then wash. GAG! I was always afraid I would stick a diaper pin in my son too, but never did.

Anywho, there were things I had never seen before like sheets that zip around the mattress so that they stay in place. What a great idea, why didn't I think of that? The clothes were sooooooooooooooo cute, I had to pick up and look at everything. And soft, when did things get so soft and cuddly like the stuffed toys? And Crocs for a baby!!! The ohhhs and ahhhhhs were coming from all over the room. What fun that was!

Guess that's it for today. Need to go to Home Depot to pick up some ceiling fans that I am going to have installed at the cottage. That's the highlight of my day but it sure beats jury duty! :0)

Jury Duty

Not wanting to be late for my first day of Jury Duty I left the house about 40 minutes early. It took me about 7 minutes to get there. 7 minutes. Next I had to find the designated parking spaces which they told us about in the letter they sent with directions. I forgot the letter. After driving around for several minutes I decided to sneak into the YMCA lot and try to look inconspicuous which is hard as my Tahoe looks like a big black tank.

Anywho, with the parking issue taken care of for the moment I walked down to the court house and got into an elevator that could not have been more then 3X5 feet and being rather claustrophobic I prayed that the thing would get to the top floor without breaking down!!! It did. Thankfully.

Now I hate to sit and wait with nothing to do so I came prepared for the waiting which I was sure would ensue. I had my Ipod, all recharged and ready to go. I had a new Taste Of Home Christmas book that had come in the mail the day before. I had a paperback that I grabbed in the airport when I flew to Florida a few months ago and still haven't finished because it is boring but I refuse to give up on it. Now in case I did finish it I threw in another paperback that I picked up by Nicholas Evans, The Divide. I have school clothes that I want to order for T out of my favorite mail order catalog that has lots of horse themed clothes in it so I brought that in case I had time to make out the order blank. CWD Kids. Great children's clothes BTW.

Thinking I may get the clothes ordered I figured I'd better bring a couple magazines that I hadn't read yet so I grabbed Women's Day and TV Guide. Also had received a new Pillsbury cookbook that I get each month so threw that in to see if there were any good casserole recipes. I took my camera just in case there was something I was allowed to photograph like the judge or something. Terry's Village is a funky little catalog with lots of different seasonal items and I thought it would be good to check that out to update my decorations so into the tote that went.

In case the air conditioning was too cold I took a jacket, as if I would ever be cold with these hot flashes. DUH! In case I got hungry I took a little zip-lock bag of sunflower seeds and in case I got thirsty I took a bottle of water. (which I found out you can't drink in front of the judge!) Last but not least I took a note pad to jot down blogging fodder so that I didn't forget it before I got home.

I had all of this stuff in two tote bags and they were heavy. I didn't get a chance to use ANYTHING! NOTHING! There were too many instructions being given out, a video with more instructions to watch, questions and more questions from the judge concerning our appropriateness to participate in the upcoming trial and MORE instructions.

I made the first cut. Then the questions got more personal. Did any of us have any relationships with any police officers? Did we feel said relationships would bias our opinion concerning matters of this trial? We had to stand up and tell what our relationships were and how they would affect our opinions. That was it for me. We are friends with four different police officers and know how hard they work getting the 'bad guys' and usually the courts let them go. In not those exact words I got my point across so I was GONE by 12 o'clock!

No reading paperbacks, no ordering clothes, no Ipod listening, no cookbook perusing, nothing, zippo! So I schlepped the stuff back into the sardine can sized elevator, found my car still hiding in the YMCA parking lot and came home! I don't have to check in again until Aug. 22 when there are three more trials. Whew! I'm exhausted! :0)

Oh me, oh my, another award, thanks KC!

“As it goes, schmoozing is the natural ability “to converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection.” Good schmoozers effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello - all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship.”

KC over at Mindless Chatter Of A Busy Mom gave me this award today! I am thrilled and amazed and tickled pink! Thanks KC! I do enjoy meeting new bloggers and I do I hope I make people smile with my not so terribly exciting life. I started blogging as a journal for my grand kids but it has turned into more then that with the wonderful people that I have met here in Bloggityville! I have found people to be kind and encouraging when I am going through hard times and fun and hilarious so that I get a good laugh which is medicine to my soul! :0) I feel I have found some true kindred spirits! Thanks again KC, you were one of my very first blogging friends and I still love your posts about your family and life!!

It is raining here today. We need it so I am not complaining. It is Husbands birthday but we celebrated on Saturday at the lake so I am not going to make another cake. I think he liked all of the gifts he got which were mostly new clothes for work and a new safety helmet to wear while working with the chainsaw. This is D trying on Grampies helmet.

We had a GREAT time at the lake this weekend. On Sunday after church we had 17 children there not counting their parents! I spent a lot of time counting heads in the water but most everyone wore a life jacket so that helped. I even went in even though getting into a bathing suit is one of my worst nightmares especially with lots of people around but I didn't want to miss out on anything. I wish I had counted the number of hamburgers, hotdogs and chicken legs we served along with salads, chips and all the other yummy camp food.

Someone recently asked me about my cottage so I will post a few pictures. Now keep in mind that your camp is where you put things that you wouldn't put in your house! lol! I was really into applique for awhile so did quite a few wall hangings for the cottage as you will see......

This picture of a moose and her calf my husband took while out on a woods road further up north. Of course you have to have the obligatory wildlife bedspread and curtains.
We love our cottage. We have had many, many happy times there with our family, youth groups, friends and senior citizen groups. Our sons friends have practically grown up there with us as we used to spend almost every weekend there, summer and winter. It isn't very big and code won't let us enlarge it but it has two small bedrooms, kitchen, living room, one full bath down in the basement and a half bath on the main floor and a family room in the daylight walkout basement with two couches that fold out into beds. We spend most of the time outside when we are there anyway so don't really need more room but it would have been nice it they had let us put a second story on like we wanted and then we could have opened the whole main floor up into a bigger living room/kitchen combo.

The farrier was here today and checked Buddy's feet. He wants me to leave the pads off at night and keep his stall bedded really thick (which I am already doing). During the day he wants the pads back on with betadine soaked gauze pads in between the hoof and the pad as he is getting some soggy hoof issues and this will help dry them out a bit. He trimmed him up as you will see.

This left foot is the worst one and the one that had the tiny beginnings of an abscess so it is more sore then the other foot.

He felt there was some good growth and no new abscesses that they can get with this laminitis so that was encouraging. The sole is still soft and very tender and that is a concern of course but we are hoping that will toughen up. We go back for more x-rays in three weeks and if all looks good will put some shoes on with pads. Like I always say we aren't out of the woods yet but at this point we are still encouraged with his progress. Our farrier is wonderful and I trust his judgement completely and he and our vet work together on this so between the two I feel Buddy is getting excellent care. :0)

I start jury duty tomorrow so don't know how much blogging time I will be getting when I am home so don't think that I have fallen off the face of the earth!

Thanks again KC for the award and now I will pass it on to: Suzy at Suzy's Bloomers!