Easter 2011

Yes, we did celebrate Easter around this house.  We also celebrated Easter at my sister's house where I left my lil camera that I had taken pictures with on Easter morning and didn't retrieve it until yesterday.  So we'll just pretend this post happened a couple of weeks ago.
To kick off the Easter celebration we participated in a couple of Easter egg hunts.  The first one was at our church where baskets and kids were flying at the word "GO".  I don't think that Maya got hit by this one but it was close.  Even if she did, it didn't leave a mark and we would never know otherwise because she is one tough cookie.  Unless she is seriously injured or in big trouble she doesn't cry. The other hunt was at school and I didn't take my camera...

Happy as a clam to be sitting next to her daddy.  She loves that he has started going to church with us.

The bunny showed up and left this pile of goodies for Maya.  She went straight for the Magic School Bus World of Germs kit.  She is ever so excited to get some nasties growing.

Maya loves critters! (stuffed animals)  She prefers smaller ones that she can hold in one hand easily.  Bananas is the little monkey in her left hand.  He is super cute and she takes him everywhere.  Speedy is the little hamster in her right hand. (they are Ty Beanie Ballz. just FYI) The Easter bunny knew how much she loves Bananas and found him a friend.  Maya could not be happier about her new round buddies.

Several attempts were made for a family pic without much luck.  I really hate myself in pictures but I'll share this one anyway.

We didn't color eggs this Easter but I found this video on the old blog from Easter 08.  Check it out! It is oh so cute and I did shed a tear watching and listening to that tiny baby's voice.
Hope your Easter was grand!  Like Maya says, "Mom, Easter is not all about eggs and bunnies, you know?"

The "Jolly"

Our back yard is the rain drainage system for our neighborhood.  Yep, nice, I know.  It's not something we or any kind of developer decided on.  This was God's creation.  You see, we live in the arm pit or elbow of our road.  The road runs by the front of the house and then curves around and goes by the side also.  It's kind of hard to explain but if you've ever been here you know what I'm talking about.

When it rains hard we get the run off from the road coming from both the front and the side down into the "jolly".  Our back yard is not a real steep incline from the woods to the house but there is definitely some elevation change. Therefore, the water runs into the yard and flows down into the woods and into the gully, or um, "jolly" as Maya so cutely refers to it.

In the woods there is a big 'ol cliff that the water runs over creating a waterfall that is oh so fun to play in.  But getting down there is a bit of a challenge.  It's steep and I would guess a 15-20 foot drop over the side of the cliff.  And the water only runs over when it's been raining hard enough for our yard to be said drainage system meaning that its wet and muddy along the sides of the gully and not so easy to traverse. 

Now, don't think that just because it's slippery and muddy and not all that warm that I'm not gonna put on my most loose fitting and tread-free Cr0cs and escort my daughter, one handed because the other is full of flowers that she has picked along the way, down to the fun of falling water at the bottom of the jolly.  After all, she did just say,"Mom, let's go explore and enjoy nature".  Yes, that is exactly what she said.

This stinker is so full of sass these days.  Not in a bad way really, but just this; hand on hip, smirky face I'm the princess of everything attitude.  She mostly saves this for us and is pretty normal outside of home, mostly...

She tried to stay out of the water but it was more than any 5 year old could stand.  So we danced in the drips.. 

..and splashed in the puddles.

She found this wonderful little "stage" as we were making our way back out of the jolly.  She did put on a little show.  Fisher was not going to be left out of all of the pictures.  After all, he was on his first hike after his surgery and wanted everyone to know he was back to his old self. 

Dad was waiting for us when we emerged from the woods, camera in hand and jealous that he hadn't been home in time to explore and enjoy nature with us.

What I Learned this Week

How dang exciting is this??  A carnival! Yes, I said carnival!
My friend Julie over at From Inmates to Playdates hosts this fun lil gathering every Tuesday and I threatened to participate many moons ago. So, without further ado, this is what I learned this week in no particular order or significance.

*If you are away from blogging for a bit it's not so easy to sit down and get back at it.  But when you do it is so much fun!
Maya was on spring break two weeks ago.  Don't think for one minute that I would be able or desire to sit at the computer and not devote my undivided attention to the one who I don't get to spend nearly enough time with during school.  Neither she nor I would have much fun with that. Not to mention that she thinks that anytime anyone is using the computer she believes it should be her.  Then I was sick as a dog and busy on top of that last week not leaving myself much time or again, desire to sit here.

*When your daughter's birthday falls so closely to Easter and Mother's day finding time for a birthday party is a little difficult.

*When you're 5 and you have cousins with birthdays close to yours, you can kinda ride in on their birthday party train and pretend it's yours too.

*When you're 5 there is a lot more to a birthday party than just having the family over for cake.

*When it's your 5th birthday and your mom leaves to go away for the weekend with some of the "ladies", Dad will probably be more upset than the birthday girl.

*The Women of Faith Conference is AMAZING! Spending the weekend with a bunch of wild and crazy and above all Godly women that I love is a blast.   Even when or especially when there are things hanging from the rearview mirror that should be neatly folded and packed in MY bag. HA!

*Having a fever at the age of 40 is the pits and I don't know how anyone can function like that.

*Wednesday night is a great time to go shopping if you have to go to W@l-M@rt.

*Granny was one hot lady when she was cooking Sunday dinner on the wood burning cook stove in August. (more on this later)

So, what did you learn this week?  Leave me a comment or even better, link up at From Inmates to Playdates and join in on the fun and leave a comment there too!

T-Shirt Quilt

In all of the renovation going on around here I have discovered a pile of unfinished quilts.  4 to be exact.  One is Maya's 100 good wishes quilt.  I have all of the squares sewn into strips but the strips still need sewn together to make the completed top.  That sounds so simple but it's really not.  I'm surrounding each square with sparkly fabric.  I'm scared to cut the long strips and am not sure where to go from here.  Once I get the top done I am sending it to someone who knows what they are doing to back and quilt it.
Another is a quilt that I started when I still lived at home (yes, a very long time ago).  Part of it was sewn by hand before I had a machine.  It is all together but one square...and I have lost that square.  I do have some coordinating fabric that I think I'll throw in there just so I can get it finished.
Next is an appliqué butterfly quilt that I bought the fabric for before Maya came home.  I haven't cut one piece of it and I've lost the pattern, nice.
Last is my t-shirt quilt .  We were at a music festival years ago and someone had the coolest quilt I had ever seen.  They were runners and had made the quilt from all the t-shirts they had collected from races they had run in.  I loved that idea!  So, I started saving t-shirts.  Shirts that we bought and then didn't really like.  Shirts that we out grew, or, uh shrunk.  Shirts with some special significance. And shirts that we stopped wearing because they were wearing out and I wanted to put them in the quilt.  For at least 15 years, probably more I have been stockpiling t-shirts in my cedar chest.  Finally I had enough to put that sucker together.

Here it is lying on our king size bed (yes, we do have to turn sideways to get down either side of the bed in our tiny room..but we sleep well, ha!).  This quilt is huge and I love it! It is backed with the backs of the t-shirts.  I didn't put anything in between because it is so big and heavy already and I tied it.  I am still trying to decide if I want to put a binding around the edges.  It's all sewn together around the edges though so it's ready to go even if I decide not to use the binding.  It's gonna be the best beach blanket ever!

My Ol' Boy

**WARNING! Contains some mildly graphic discussion and pictures related to dog surgery.  Don't want anyone to throw up on their phone or keyboard.

My first born child is a black lab named Fisher.  (Actually, my first born was a chocolate lab named Gibby but he was stollen from us on Feb 12, 2000 and my heart still aches when I think of that lovable bundle of brown boy...but I'll not go there.  If I'm being truthful, Maggie, our cat was our first born but she was always so hateful that she was just our cat, not our child.  Even though we all cried like babies and were terribly broken when we had to make the gut wrenching decision to put her to sleep...I'll stay away from there too.) He turned 11 years old last month.  He is 120+ lbs of sweet silliness.  He is lumpy and bumpy with many fatty tumors all over his body.  He even has an enormous skin tag on his chest that we've named Hunter, Fisher's partially absorbed twin.  He would never take home the blue ribbon from the dog show unless it was, according to my brother Jim, in the category of personality and congeniality.
One of the tumors on Fisher's belly was as big as a football.  It was on his left side and had grown so that it was really affecting his everyday life.  He couldn't sit without bending his leg at a very unnatural angle and he would make a noise each time he would lie down that sounded like he was being deflated.  No, not that noise, ha! It swung when he walked and he would get very embarrassed when I would pet him and rub it or talk about it.  Now, if you don't have pets that you love as your child then you may think I'm crazy.  But it's true.  He really does get embarrassed, by more than just his big tumors.  And if you watch him it is as obvious as when you or I are embarrassed.
A few weeks ago we talked to our vet (Dr.  Tom Isaac, Jr at Valley West whom I can not say enough good things about) and decided that it would be best to have it and another on his leg removed.  Years ago we had noticed the tumors coming on and he told us then that unless they were causing a problem they would not remove a fatty tumor.  Well, these had started to cause a problem.
He also had one on his neck that had grown so that it was about to pop the skin.  I know, eeeewww. But it gets worse.  It did pop.  We were eating dinner one evening and Fisher was in his usual position lying on the floor between Maya and myself.  He doesn't beg.  He just lays there waiting for a crumb to fall.  Mike hates it and will make him leave but I don't care one bit.  I looked down and noticed a puddle of "water" on the floor behind Fisher's head.  I thought Maya had spilled her drink but she was drinking strawberry milk. Upon closer inspection, I could see said "water" dripping from the mound on fishers neck.  Oh My Goodness the thing had popped!  Not like an explosion but just weeping and weeping.  More like a popped zit.  I know, eeewww.  I warned you.  Well, I left my dinner to attend to my furry child's dripping neck.  Two soaked dish towels and a wash cloth later the mound was gone as if it was never there.  And let me say it was just like water coming from that tumor.  No color, no odor and no slick or stickiness, weird.  That was on Thursday and his surgery was scheduled for Monday.  So Friday I called Doc and told him what had happened.  I suggested he needle the other tumors before cutting him just incase they were fluid filled too.  He agreed but no such luck.  The other two were fatty.

Fisher did great with the surgery, poor guy.  The recovery was nasty as he had drains in the incision on his belly.  Bllluuugggghhh!!! What a mess!  I slept downstairs on the couch with Fisher on his bed beside of me all week to keep and ear and eye on him through the night.  His Elizabethan collar was useless. It rubbed right in the center of the abdominal incision and snagged a staple on his leg the first night.  From that night on, I had to wrap him to keep things together and keep him from licking.  Mike took the couch for the weekend and then the next monday the drain came out.  That made things better but the holes where the drains had been continued to drain for a couple of days.

I removed the stitches and the staples and he's all healed up now.  What a trooper.  I was more concerned about the recovery than the surgery because we've had a bad recovery experience in the past but he did great, even at 11 years old.  We took a hike yesterday and he seems to be back to his old self and feeling even better.  I certainly think it was the right decision.

Spring Photo Shoot..Oh Shoot!

Every spring (and sometimes summer) we journey on over to our neighbors beautiful flowers and take some pictures.  By some I mean lots and lots.  And we usually end up with a hand full that are worth a hoot.  Between my meager photography skills and the almost always unwilling subject, getting any good ones is an arduous task.  Let me clarify.. by a "good one" I mean one that is not blurry (me), not over or under exposed (me) and the subject is smiling or at least doesn't look like she is in miserable despair (Maya).  Now, I like a candid unforced, natural looking picture but my subject turns on some serious melancholy when faced with a lens.  She will look everywhere but at the camera.
I have had Maya's picture taken professionally 1 time.  She was just over a year old and I didn't expect anything that would rock my world.  We had only been home with her for 2 or 3 months and our relationship was still pretty rocky.  She did OK.
I tried one other time.  She was almost 3.  The photographer got about 4 pics before we gave up and I said to her, through gritted teeth that I was sorry we had wasted her time.  We tried with me in the room, out of the room, helping to direct her, sitting quietly, anything to get Maya to cooperate.  She suggested that we look at the few she was able to get and I reluctantly agreed.  They were pitiful.  The photographers only remark was, "She looks soooo saaaaddd".  Yea, I know, gggrrrrr!!
Her school pictures, on the other hand, have been wonderful, hmmm?
I don't have editing software except for the little I can do in iPhoto so most of my pics are strait from the camera, a Canon EOS Rebel XSi with a standard lens, usually on the auto setting.  Like I said, meager skills.
So, here is a sampling of some of my favorites from this weekends shoot.  I have also posted some others and some of the same on FB.

Oh I love my beautiful, contrary girl!

The Day I've Been Waiting For

The redbuds have finally bloomed!!  I watch for these, my favorite blooming spring tree, as my sure sign that spring is here and the trees will soon be green.
Sunday, when we left here and went to church, I searched for any sign of life among my favorite little trees.  Nothing. Just as in all the days leading up to this one.  Then Monday came after a weekend of warmth and sunshine.  It was cold and gray.  I loaded Maya up to go to school feeling the cold and gray and praying for some glimmer of spring.  We summited a small rise up here on this ridge into a tunnel of trees.  Lo and behold my prayers where answered!!  My sweet, beautiful harbingers of all things warm and sunny!  My beloved redbuds in all their glory sat glistening in the morning dew as if they had been bloomed for days or weeks!  But no, it had happened that very morning just for me.  Thank you God for answered prayers..thank you!