Let's See, What Day is It??

It must be Friday because I worked yesterday. I had planned to sleep in this morning, but Rick couldn't. So by the time the alarm went off enough times for him to wake up, I was awake too. So I was up at 6:30.
I lazed around all morning really, surfing the net, drinking coffee. I had a burst of energy around noon and unpacked my scrap stuff. I organized the things I need for the wedding/travel journal album I'm making for a friend. I'll get started on that later tonite.
I took two naps today, and have vegged out watching Comedy Central all afternoon. Watched a guy named Gabriel Igelsias, who was hilarious. We had pizza for supper and continued vegging out. I feel like such a slug.
I need to feed the flowers, they are water starved in this heat. Laundry to finish, and get motivated on something before bed. After all, it is 7:00 p.m.!

What a Weekend!

Hilltop crops are always well worth any distance you have to travel to get to one. Great friends, great food, much laughter and a few shenanigans are always to be had. I thoroughly enjoy myself at each an every one I've ever attended.
This weekend was no exception. Linda was there with her smiling face to greet us as we arrived. It took a good 20 minutes to hug everyone's neck before we could even think about where we were sitting, who we were near or what to unload first. I was excited to see all the girls! Thrilled to be sitting near Mar, as she's usually clear across the room from us. As always I love watching Kip create, and she didn't infringe on my table space, not once. I don't know why she has a reputation for doing that. LOL! The Ft. Meyers girls were there, and a treat to sit across from Sonia/Sophia, as I never get to sit by her either. I love those girls, Barb, GA and Sonia. Kelly worked her magic on our backs, gosh I'd love to bring her home with me! Her chair massages are phenomenal!
I brought a kit to get the creative juices flowing, and made 5 baby cards and 5 get well cards. One of the cards was a pop up card, which I loved doing! So I made two more of my own, a 4th of July card and

 

a wake up sleepyhead card. The sleepy head card was good for those mornings after we stayed up til 2 a.m.!

 

Friday, Teri took a break from studying and her and her daughter, Sara, joined us for a trip to Violettes with lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. First of all, I loved Sweet Tomatoes, but there's something wrong with a salad bar place that serves chocolate/chocolate chip muffins for dessert! YUMMY!
Sara was a doll! If I had a daughter, I'd hope she was like Sara! You can tell she loves life and is out to live it to the max. I just loved spending the day with her!
Violettes was the bomb as usual, with lots of neat things I just had to have. I wish I would have picked up the Flower Soft they had for sale. After we got to the Crop, Kathy & Teresa had some they were playing with and it was as fun as it looked. Well, another reason to go back.
A fantastic weekend, well worth the long drive that seems to get longer each time I make it. I wish I could go to the next one, but I don't see that happening with it being the week school starts. I'll get to see the girls soon at Jill's in North Carolina. Can't wait to go up there!!!! It's going to be a bash! Then a weekend home, then a weekend in IL for the nephew's wedding (while all the girls are at Tim Holtz's class :(). Then it's back to Tampa for Teresa Collin's class! I can't wait!!!
It's going to be one of the funnest summers in a long time.

I Know! I Need to Blog!

I need to blog! It's not that I've been sitting around totally depressed. I do still think about Kota dog, and miss him. But I've been busy. You know I stay busy!
We've moved offices at work. The HS data person and I flipflopped offices. I love where I'm at, it's out of the line of traffic, peaceful & quiet. But it is right next door to the Big P's office now. Not sure what I think about that! Now our people are all together, instead of mixed up all over the place.
My friend, Julie, came to visit. We grew up together, and hadn't seen each other since High School, 30 years ago. She's married now with two boys and one grandson, living in Virginia. We had a great time! I rented a convertible for her first visit to Florida. What better way to see Florida? I can't believe she's never been here!
Here we are! See we haven't aged a bit in 30 years!

 

Her only request was to eat seafood, breakfast lunch and dinner. So we headed to Crab's for dinner as soon as she got off the plane. We listened to the band, and drank bushwackers,while eating crab claws and crab dip!

 

The next day we headed out to do some scrapshopping and touristy things. But not before breakfast at the Reef, where we ate a delicious breakfast of a seafood Eggs Benedict and crab claws. We hit the beach for an hour and decided the waves were too flat and it was too hot to stay. Off to Gigi's in Foley for scrapshopping. We each dropped a pretty penny there.

Lunch was at Lulu's, where we watched the gulls, the boats and a few fish jump on the ICW. We had LA Caviar as pictured here and fish tacos. Were we ever lucky! Usually there is a good long wait for a table but we got right in, but when we came out to leave, there were hundreds of people waiting to get in.

 

I guess we started to show our age, because after that we were too pooped to party and went back to the house. We played in the scraproom. (who would have guessed she'd be a scrapper too!) It was early to bed and early to rise. Sunday was just too hot to do anything but hang in the scraproom. But it was great fun!
Now I'm off on another adventure, the Hilltop Memories Birthday Crop in Tampa. More on that later, as always,keep the bail money ready

So I Don't Ever Forget

I remember the first time I saw him. I wasn't looking for a dog. I'd gone over to a friend's house for a meeting, when I saw him. He was the last of the litter, the runt no one wanted. I picked him up and he snuggled on my chest and it was all she wrote. From the very beginning he as the best damn dog, quick to learn, easy to train and spoiled rotten.
I would put him on my lap while I sat on the sofa and my husband would say. "you know he's gonna weigh 75 pounds one day and he'll want to do that." and he did. His favorite place was in the recliner with Rick or Patrick.
He would never beg at the table, but lay patiently at the edge of the dining room while we ate. Let that first chair scrape back and he'd be on his feet, ready for his share. The boys loved to trick him by scraping their chairs on the floor.
He loved potato peelings. Whenever I boiled potatoes, he'd be by my side while I peeled them. Waiting for his treat.
I could open any package in the kitchen. But he knew what the grated cheese package looked like without me even opening it. He knew I'd put a pinch of cheese in his food everytime I made my salad for lunch, his treat for being a good dog all day while I worked.
Speaking of treats, every night, at 8 p.m., he go to Rick and sit patiently at his knees, eyeing the treat jar that sat on his end table. He'd look at Rick, then the jar, then Rick and then the jar. Once Rick opened the jar, Kota would wait patiently while Rick would lay a treat on one knee and then one on the other. He'd patiently do a trick and then get his treat. While he ate one, I'd sometimes reach over and grab the other. He'd always look up like "where'd it go, I know it was there, Where is it?" and then come sniffing to find it. or he'd do still another trick and earn his treat.
Patrick taught him to shake hands, and switch by saying, "no the other one". Patrick also taught him to "high five" which was actually paw to hand high five.
In the morning before I went to work I'd let him out the back door and tell him to be a good dog. He'd run to the front and bark at me while I walked to the car, telling me to have a good day too. At night, he'd usually be waiting in that same spot. When he'd see me pull up, he'd run the length of the fence and back. Almost to make sure the coast was clear for me to come home.
He was such a protector. He'd put himself between me and the world. I never realized this til Rick pointed it out to me. He'd stay between me and the door in the house, between me and the fence when I was out in the yard. He always let people walking by that this was his place, don't come near. Even tho I don't think he'd hurt anyone, unless of course he thought they were actually threatening me. Just ask Patrick, he could never raise his voice to me when Kota was around. Kota would bark and bark, telling him that Momma was boss.
On Saturdays, he knew the alarm hadn't gone off and that meant he could jump on the bed and snuggle with us. He knew on weekdays we didn't have time for that, but he knew once dad was up he could get up on the bed with me. Unless of course we were going to bed, if I got in bed first he knew he'd be in trouble if Daddy came out of the bathroom and he was on the bed, he was in trouble. I'd try to coax him up there, but he'd never come up, just on Saturday mornings.
We evacuated from hurricanes together, him and I. In 2005 when we evacuated alot, he knew what momma packing the car meant. For the longest time he thought every time I packed the suitcase, he should go too. But that was not always the case. I traveled alot and left him at home to protect the guys.
Our list of memories goes on and on, and I want to keep writing them to never forget. I won't forget. He was such a damn good dog.

He Was The Best Dog

We lost Dakota tonite. He waited til we were all home, gathered together, to say good bye. To say our hearts are broken is an understatement. He was the best damn dog.

Monday? It's Monday??

Wow! Where did the weekend go? I can tell you! First an update on my baby, Dakota.

We're still not sure what has happened with him, but he's picked up something, possibly a tick bite. We've never found the tick or any marks, but that is what symptoms he's showing. It's been a week since he's eaten anything solid. He's been eating Nutracal off of our fingers and drinking his water. He's been feverish, lathargic, and pretty unresponsive. We've had him to the vet several times and given him several antibiotics that he kept throwing up.(TMI, I know). Finally we seem to have found the right combination of antibiotics, steriods, thyroid, and something to calm his tummy. Today he ate his first solid food, boiled potato peelings (he loves them) and about a cup of dogfood out of Rick's hand. He also took two treats from Patrick so fast that Pat thought he was losing a finger! LOL! A great sign!
I think having a sick dog is worse than a sick kid. He hasn't whined, complained or whimpered. He just looks at us with those big brown eyes that say, Help me!
Keep him in your prayers.
Speaking of prayers, keep my friend, Julie and her family, in your prayers and good thoughts. She just found out her mom has bone cancer in her hip. Julie was supposed to come visit me Friday for the first time in 30 years, but this may have precedence.
So with all that going on, all the other stuff from this weekend seems trivial. Rick tried to play repairman in my shower, doesn't know his own strength and broke a pipe in half.
My Pampered Chef party was a blast. If you didn't get there, we missed you. If you need something, let me know! We learned how to tell the sex of several vegetables. Yeah, I bet you didn't know there were males and females.....I laughed so hard I thought I was going to need a depends..
Life goes on, and it's hot again. Hot and muggy!

Friday, Friday, oh so fun Friday

Today was my first official Friday off. Three day weekends, woohoooo! but to get here I had to work 4 ten hour days. Which was alright, I mean I was there already, and usually work about 9, so what's a bit longer? It's all worth it to have a 3 day weekend.
I spent today cleaning house, as tomorrow, Saturday, I'm having a few friends over for a Pampered Chef party. Plus I'm doing an extra good job to be a half step ahead for my friend, Julie's visit next weekend. Since we haven't seen each other in choke, cough, 30 cough, cough, years and she's never been to my house, I need to clean the rat trap up a bit. I even got out the pledge.
So the scraproom is clean, because you know everyone will want to check it out, plus Julie? she's a scrapper! After the Pampered Chef party, a few friends are staying to work on some domino necklaces. So the most important room is clean. As is the living room, dining room and most of the kitchen. I'll clean the rest of the kitchen tomorrow, after I make a mess making garlic, smoky shrimp for the party.
So if you're not doing anything, but, I'm betting you are, come on over. And if you are too busy, and just need something PC, let me know, we'll get it ordered for you and sent straight to your house. How cool is that?
I leave you with my last set of dominoes, the closest thing I'll ever do to those freaky face things. My children set.