The week in pictures

Here you go. Sorry, no witty post this morning. I used up all my finger speed writing an incredibly long email to an old friend of mine. And I don't mean "old" as in "you're gonna be 46" old, I mean "I've known her for 34 years" old.

Eight wiggling, squawking black and brown fur balls. Their eyes are starting to open and one of them can even stand on all 4 legs!

Outside my office this week. What a gaggle (hee hee, I'm funny)
At least there were two of them taking care of things.
Right under my office window they were.

Let's get ready to garden.
Essential tools.

One must have the measuring tape to make sure the rows are evenly spaced and one must have the string to make sure the rows are straight. I was not in charge of this phase of the planting. I am, however, in charge of the next phase of planting, which is the rest of it, and more than likely will NOT include the string and measuring tape! I like a garden with "character" if you know what I mean.

In all honesty, bending over like that is just too hard on the back!

So, I've got a question for all you. Here's the situation. Last night #1Son was closing the restaurant, which meant he worked until about 12:15 - 12:30. I was tired and had been up since 4:30 so decided to head to bed at 9:30, set the alarm for 12 and get up and go get him.

And, if memory serves me right, I don't recall my parents coming to get me at midnight way back when, when I worked at McD's (Mother, correct me if I'm wrong). I remember getting rides home with my boyfriend or co-workers at the time. The boyfriend ride home was always the best! But wait, okay...so #1Son isn't answering the cell so I just drive over there. The lights are still on, there's a truck in the parking lot and some guy walking out of the front doors. Well, me and my imagination, what the hell is going on? Are they being robbed? Were they having a party?

I pulled into the lot and out runs #1Son. I'm on the verge of freaking out, thinking all the worst a mother of a 15 1/2 year can think, when he says:

"Mom, I'm sorry. We were really busy tonight and we're going to be another half hour. (Insert co-workers name here) will give me a ride home. I know I should've phoned, but it was just so busy."

I must've been sitting there with my mouth open and an either an incredibly pissed off look on my face, or one of shock. Because he said again:

"I'm really, really sorry mom".

You have to understand, #1Son DOES NOT apologize of his own doing.

"Okay, so you'll be home in 1/2 an hour then?"

Now, here's the thing. Should I be pissed at him? Or should I just not bother and be happy that he's getting good grades in school, has a job, is somewhat responsible, is healthy and still alive?

I'm really torn with which emotion to feel on this one. And which speech to give him. You know I need to give a speech! I mean, he does take advantage of us a lot of the time. Did he take advantage of me last night? Or was he just being a typical teenager, with no concern whatsoever except for himself? Is this my control freak issue coming to the surface?

They failed the test...

So, check this out. We hung the feeder last weekend, and a darn good thing we did

She stayed there for probably a good 4 minutes, just drinking and drinking and drinking. Which makes me think that we are the first ones to hang the feeders.

Oh, and check this out too!

Last nights sky. Isn't that incredible? I mean, the compression of the picture doesn't really do it justice, but it was waaay coool!!

And, right now, that's all I got for ya. It's drab and dreary today, so perhaps a little basement cleaning and puppy bonding is in order for today.

Oh, and just so you know, I conducted a little test with Facebook. If you remember back to my previous post about huge amounts of junk mail coming into my personal email and I blamed Facebook just off the top of my head. It was the only thing that made sense. I have other email addresses that I use for things like newsletters and what not and never thought to use one of those. I mean, if I'm finding friends, I really thought it best to use the email address that I check all the time. The others, well, not so much. Well, turns out I was right. I changed the email address on Facebook and waited it out. In just over 2 weeks, I now have 374 pieces of email advertising just about everything under the sun in my Spam folder. Some of which have the same names as those that have been coming into my old email address! So, if any of you have a huge amount of crap coming in, blame Facebook.

I am.

New kind of therapy

You ever have one of those days when your about to pull into your driveway after a long day at work, never mind the whole week and it's absolutely beautiful outside and you can't understand why there is no one sitting on the deck or out in the yard? And then, in your head you're saying "put it in reverse, back up, go somewhere else, far far away" because you just know that inside that house is three members of the opposite sex who are probably really pissed off at each other for some reason or another and a couple of them are laying on the couch watching Malcolm in the Middle and the other one is holed up in the bedroom watching a hunting show? And that you also know that the house is probably a disaster, with dirty dishes covering all the counter space and the laundry is piled up next to the hamper and the floor needs to be swiffered and that the coffee table probably has some sort of mechanical thing that someone was "trying to fix" on it?

And you really dread walking through that front door because you just know that it'll probably only get worse once you get in the house because all three of them will bombard you with stories of who did what to who, all the while the others will be denying what everyone else is saying? And then the urge to open a bottle of grape will overcome any shred of common sense you currently have and you'll head for the cabinet and run for the corkscrew?

Yeah, me neither.

But hey, if you should, I've discovered a new therapy. And it doesn't involved illegal drugs or over consumption of the grape.

Photo Therapy.

Not only does it make you giggle, looking back on the life you used to have, but it also allows all the love that you know you have for your family to once again re-surface, overcoming the urge to run away from it all (which I'm sure is the urge one would have if one was feeling as described above ~ snicker snicker).

I was looking for puppy pictures this morning as I've already had a couple of calls, to which I owe my fellow Shepherd breeder "BIG TIME" as she puts it. And in doing so, came across a bunch of old photographs that I had scanned last year. The quality leaves a lot to be desired, maybe because they're compressed, I don't know...

So for your viewing enjoyment and proof that it does really help, here you go.

Look how cute they are in their homemade costumes.

I know, I'll hide in here!

First day of school, for both of them. You can't really see the grin on #2Son's face, nor that #1Son is pointing at him, all the while laughing his face off.

Kissing fish!

Looking at some of these pictures made me realize that no matter how hard it's getting with them growing up and turning into rotten little, well, never mind, I still love them with all my heart. Their presence in my life, while making my hair go grey and my frown lines get much deeper, means more to me than absolutley anything. And I wouldn't trade any part of my life with them. I know, I know, I'm getting sappy.

But really, try Photo Therapy. It does work. Look, I posted a blog, bragging about the love I have for my children.

Oh crap, they're awake. Here we go again....

Remember the pictures, remember the pictures!!!

Happy Saturday, now get out there and garden!

It's not all puppies around here

Okay, yeah, right now it is. But we do do other things while waiting for our girl who I swear was in labour since last Thursday.

Anyway, here's the pile of eight.

A little sea of blackness. Actually one of the interesting things about this delivery was that she had a bit of a harder time with it (or so I think; everyone else thinks I'm nuts). It took longer between pups and she seemed to be struggling a little bit.

But, okay, back to what else we do around here. We take pictures. Lots of pictures. Some pictures you'll never ever EVER!! get to see, but some I like to share. And its been awhile since I've shared, so here you go.

Goose on the pond. There was a pair nesting back there however we haven't seen any little gooses (also called goslings I suppose).

Birds at the feeder this morning. I missed the Blue Jay, but I'm sure it'll be back tomorrow.

Rhubarb on the 3rd

Rhubarb on the 10th

I'll get a shot of the rhubarb today, once all the batteries recharge!

I'm told this is coyote dung...just looks like poop to me.

It's wet in the back bush. Very wet. Rubber boots wet. And in some areas, hip wader wet. Yet everything else is dry.

Eight

That's what she had. Five males and three females.

And they are very noisy....and cute! She is tired, as are we. When we went to bed it was two and sometime between then and now, she had another one. All are healthy. And noisy!

Pictures to follow.

the hour is late

and we are tired. But the Girl Dog is probably a lot more tired. She's had six pups. And the thinking going on here is that there's at least one or two more, maybe three, left to come out of her.



More in the morning....

Okay, they're really there

So, she didn't really screw with the weekend. She was just kidding!

Here's a shot of the first born son.



And she has subsequently had a girl and then a boy. SG is currently doing the mid-wife detail. Me? I'm watching the CMA's....