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We brought a new boy with us from Texas, well, at least he looks new to me. We finally caved in and decided to cut off Remy's hair and give him a boy haircut. He is just not the same without the curls. All my kids start out with these gorgeous curls and end up with my straight hair, wonder why that is. So, anyway, here is Remy with his "shortcut" (as he calls it). After a week I finally stopped looking at him every 30 seconds and after a few weeks I can tell him from Babo even with his back turned to me. Ha ! Let me know what you think.
I had to include this picture of all of us in the maze. Up to this day Pa and Nadja are still discussing who actually led us astray to get lost and who got us out. I am afraid Nadja will be teased about this for a long time, until something better comes up , that is ;)
Here is a shot from the Haunted Zoo night. I did not expect to like it as much as I did, we all enjoyed seeing all the wonderful displays, I think the adults more than the kids at times. Nadja and Sebastien chose to be dressed as pirates, Remy to my surprise chose the bumble bee costume, after a month of talking up all the Batman, Superman, Spiderman and Power Ranger ideas. He was super cute though.
We were so blessed this fall to have both Tan and David and kiddos and Mom and Dad come visit. We are working our butts off to finish up our back room so we can have a more comfortable set up for people visiting. Promise, David, no more sleeping on the floor !! The cousins had a ball playing together and I was able to get some last minute shots the day they were leaving. You will notice Milana not cooperating much, Remy pouting, Nadja trying to pull it all together for me, Babo sporting a Beatle haircut and Finn being Finn, silly, that is, but I still love the picture.
Oh my, could it really be I haven't posted since July? I'd better get my act together and post here more regularly. So much to catch up on, not sure where to start. We had a great summer, mostly filled with dogs and cats and what have you. In fall we enjoyed some good company and good autumn fun. Winter caught us unprepared with an ice storm and a week with no power. Please see following posts for details :) Here is a late summer picture of the kids and myself.
Jana
This challenge sketch was to create a tent topper card, with the main image reaching outside the top border of the cardstock base. I have never tried one of these before and had a lot of fun with this and using my new Seasonal Whimsy set. I used markers to "thump" the main image with different fall colors.
I started participating in Splitcoast challenges this past week and it has been a lot of fun. More direction on what to stamp, what sketch or color combo to use makes the design process easy. I also tried to step up my stamping a bit to make some more detailed cards. Here is the first one, the challenge was a color combo of pretty in pink, old olive and rose red (I had to substitute here with Purely Pomegranate), not a color combo I would use myself but it was fun and I think they turned out nice.
I took this picture the day Nadja got back from summer camp. She had a great time but we were glad to have her back home, the boys missed her more than they would admit to.
Remy and Babo got their free hair cuts from Trish while we visited. Remy's curls are now gone for sure, gonna miss them.
I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted ! We have since lost and found our puppy Samson and found a new home for Scout (the same people who found Samson took him home), so we are down to only two dogs. Adrianne and Samson are getting along well and life is back to normal in Newalla. We do , however, have an addition to our family in the cat department. Dutchess came to us from a farm in Wewouka and we could not ask for a better kitty. She has found a way to our hearts very quickly and added a lot of joy to the everyday things. I took only a few shots when we first got here but I will post more pictures soon. Is she sweet or what?
We just lost our fight with Parvo after two days of administering meds and fluids every hour round the clock to our two puppies. Bear and Moses both got Parvo virus probably around Monday but we were not able to diagnose it until Wednesday when Bear puppy started passing blood in his stool. Parvo is a deadly viral disease with symptoms that are pretty dreadful, has no treatments, and most pups usually die of dehydration before they actually die of Parvo, while they are loosing their stomach and intestinal lining and technically dieing a very painful and slow death. With excessive internet research li we administered everything possible, and even the vet confirmed that they would not have been able to do anything more than what we have done. Black dog breeds are the most prone to Parvo and are the least likely to survive. Bear passed away Wednesday night and Moses last night. We are all so devastated. The best thing to save your puppies from Parvo is to catch quickly (first signs are lethargy and depression, loss of appetite and loss of weight, eventually pups will vomit blood or pass it in their stool ), keep them hydrated orally or with enemas with pedialyte or like fluids, administer Parvaid every hour 24/7 and antibiotics 4 times a day. There is nothing else your vet can do than what you can do yourself, other than put the puppy to sleep if the fight seems to be lost. Bear had complications and he was loosing so much blood and fluid that we were never able to bring him back from the extreme dehydration, regarless of the fluids he was able to retain. Dehydrated pups have white gums, while healthy gums are light pink. Moses stopped vomitting on Thursday and was keeping down all his fluids , and even some soft food (solids should not be fed at this stage) and we were really hoping he would recover, but we lost him around 2:30 this morning, but he went peacefully and we praise the Lord for that.
We still have 4 pups to worry about, all are doing fine right now but the incubation period for the virus is 7-10 days. Even vaccinated puppies and even adult dogs can still get Parvo. It is very contagious and all premises need to be disinfected with bleach. We are hopeful and praying. Again, it's a sad day here in Oklahoma :(
Some good soul dumped a litter of pups on Dobbs , right on the road. Trish and I found them on our way back from OKC . The Animal Welfare told us they could not guarantee these pups would be offered for adoption, since with the overwhelming numbers of animals they receive these months (mostly unwanted puppies and kittens), they unfortunately have to put many to sleep. These guys were just too cute for that. They look like Border Collie mix, and here you have them - Bear (with the white muzzle), Oreo (black and white) and Moses (he is almost all black) . They are all boys and all well behaved. Adrianne is getting used to being the mother hen, ha ! Anyway, Oreo and Bear are going to be adopted by the Carters and they are just waiting here for their flea treatment, so we only have Moses to find a good home for. He is the most alert out of the whole bunch and very friendly. And we still have Samson and Scout in the middle of all this, since Scout just decided to move in with us, so 6 dogs all together ... going through the dog food FAST ! We are not far from putting up the "petting zoo" sign, ha !
I have to say I did not see it coming, but we did get a call about the puppy. Turned out he belongs to the neighbors across the lot from us on 162nd street, the Carters. They are really nice people and it was such a blessing to finally get to meet them and visit. Of course, we all had the blues though, all of a sudden the house seemed quite empty without a small puppy around. On one hand , we were glad puppy was safely back home and had a good family, on the other hand we did miss him . So, on Friday Trish drove us over to the place, where they picked theirs so we can pick a puppy of our own. Sebastien was so excited, he could hardly get through Thursday ;) Not an easy job, picking a puppy out of a litter, let me tell you. The owners were such a sweet older couple and they had an apple orchard and their place and a really nice garden. I got to taste mullberries for the fisrt time, I see the scent used often, especially in candles but I have not yet had the chance to actually see or eat them. They look a lot like blackberries, grow on trees and taste like a cross between a blackberry and cherry. Very yummy. Messy though, as they fall off the tree on the ground , where they get stepped on. Back to puppies, they still had 5 left out of the original 10, none colored like the Sammy (or Scout , which was his real name as we later found out). They really looked more like labs than anything, 2 black ones and 3 yellow. Sebastien had his heart set on a male pup, so we mostly looked at the three boys more closely. After long and hard decision making, he ended up choosing the biggest yellow guy, Butch. We named him Samson since he is really huge, but that's about how much he has in common with the real Samson, we should have named him Big Baby if we were looking for personality traits match ;) He is just a big yellow bear, totally mellow and I really mean MELLOW. You will usually find him where you leave him, or sleeping behind the couch or under the bushes. Under the steps of the front porch is another favorite spot. Thats as active as he gets, he doesn't lick or bite, bark or run, if you pick him up he will sit on your lap as long as you let him, like I said, a big baby. He is a sweetheart though and is slowly winning us over. It was a different transition since he is nothing like Sammy and it's amazing to think they are even litter mates since they don't look or act anything alike. He doesn't want much to do with Adrianne (even though at this point she does appreciate the company and would like to be more playful with him) or any of us, he just hangs out on the porch or under the bushes, you can leave the gate wide open and he would not even think of going out and exploring, the couch potato he is. He slept all night in his basket, I found him exactly where I left him, its just too funny. Babo and I are slowly adjusting to this personality, and I keep thinking - when exactly does mellow actually need to be labeled lazy ,ha! Either way, he is a dear, let me know what you think of him :)
I promised the kids we would get out and do one last search mission for Yuki, targeting some of the neighbor's yards. We walked up and down 160th and Prairie Night and found a few other cats, but no Yuki. It started to rain so we headed back home. Shortly after, Remy comes running saying , Mommy, there is a puppy at the back door that wants to come in. I though to myself, well, let's go and take a look at Remy's imaginary puppy but there he was, little guy, all wet from the rain and dirty from the mud. He had a collar so I figured he wandered off in the rain and got lost . We took him in and gave him a bath and later took him to the Derksen's house for a Memorial Day cookout. He was such a sweetheart, we all fell for him hard pretty quickly, even Ree, even though he probably won't admit to it ;) I started calling him Sammy (you can only call a puppy a "puppy" for so long before he needs a name) and it stuck. On Tuesday Babo and I went out and put signs out at Stella and Country Boy and on a couple of telephone posts nearby that we found a puppy, both hoping no one would really call and we would get to keep him. Adrianne wasn't sure about Sammy at first and growled at him, but it didn't take long for her to appreciate her little buddy. He has no fear whatsoever and likes to play with her and play rough. I know he is a mutt, probably has some Shar Pei in him judging by the nose, and some shephard considering his markings and furcoat, but you just could not find a sweeter pup.
We adopted a kitty, well, she really adopted us, came over one day and started hanging out on the front porch. She told Adrianne what's up and smacked her over the nose a few times and she would clearly establish herself as the only cat on the porch and drive away Gus every time he came close. Nadja named her Yuki and we really enjoyed having her around. I haven't seen many cats who like having their bellies scratched but this one sure did. We also suspected she was expecting and were looking forward to a litter of kittens (plenty of mice around here to feed on). One morning, however, Yuki wasn't at her usual spot and we haven't seen her since. Still hoping she just took a stroll to a neighbor's yard or hid to have her litter. Gus is happy to claim back on the porch though. I am posting two photos, one of Gus and Nadja, and the other one of Yuki, you get the picture who is the indoor and the outdoor cat around here ;)
We realized that with the 5 acres to keep, we would eventually need a riding mower. Well, when Dad came to town, it did not take them long to go out and get one. Remy thought having a tractor was the neatest thing and he sat on it for quite a while that morning. As if sitting on a still mower wasn't a thrill enough in itself , imagine the bliss when he actually got to ride and drive one ;) And did you see the serious face on Ree while he is driving, such a serious business this mowing, I tell you. Plus there is a gang of cheerleaders always cheering him on as you will also notice. After getting half the front yard done, however , the mower stopped and wouldn't start. Ree and Dad had to fix it later when they drove up to visit with mom. It's working great now and kids enjoy the weekend rides. A big patch of my blackberries got mowed over in the mowing enthusiasm, but I guess I can overlook that, ha ! It's fun to watch the damage we do as uneducated gardeners. A bunch of pretty Virginia creeper vines got chopped off in firm belief they were Poison Ivy, ha ! I have to say, they do a lot a like, though, so I can't really hold it against Ree. And the blackberries will come back next year.
Oh my, I haven't been here for a while, my little blog looks a little neglected. Let me see if I can recall all that happened during May, now that the month is almost over. Pa and Bama came to visit, our fridge broke down and stopped cooling, roof started leaking, we had some crazy storms and a few tornadoes, we adopted another cat (or she adopted us), we watched ton of Archie Bunker, we went to garage sales, saw Air Force dog handlers and their dogs, Remy had poison ivy rash, we got to see presidential candidate Hunter at our church, Bab and I had a birthday, we found a farm to get fresh eggs from, the new cat got lost, we found a puppy on our back porch on Memorial Day, we went over to Pastor Derksen's house for Memorial BBQ, met new neighbors, Tan and David are coming to visit tomorrow, roof is still leaking ..... I 'd say we had quite a month :) And I am sure I am forgetting a lot of stuff. So I'd better hurry up now and cover the most important events .....
I made this card and it looked really plain, so I played around with it some more and really like the way it turned out with the chocolate polka dot designer paper.
I couldn't resist getting these cute penguins in a group picture :)
Our baby just turned 4 today, time sure flies. He was very excited about getting to be such a big boy and telling everyone weeks in advance. We celebrated his birthday on Sunday since Ree was going to be at work on Monday and we did not want him to miss out. He had already missed enough birthdays as is. Kids get to pick their own cake on their birthday and Remy had fun picking his. We goofed around on the new tire swing a bit after lunch since it was so nice out and then had cake and party inside. Remy picked Happy Feet plates and favors and I snapped a few pictures of my "little penguins" in the yard. He wished for some Playmobil toys and that's exactly whats he got and the house was quiet the rest of the afternoon ... the boys were so preoccupied by playing, they did not come out until dark. We will throw the boys a real party in May, they are still deciding between cowboy or pirate theme. Lots of room here to rope some cattle or look for treasure , we will just have to see which it's going to be ;) Oh, did I mention the pretty card Mrs. Derksen made him??
