Cyndi

It is cold here in East Tennessee. Chris has been stacking wood on the porch and from the looks of the temps for the next week…we are gonna need it. We have been getting up of a morning and leave together very early. I take Chris to Amanda’s to keep Perrin over there. There are several reasons for this, the driveway is a mess after all the rain and I don’t want any extra cars coming and going than necessary. It is a lot colder at my house of a day and I don’t want Perrin sick. Amanda don’t have to get up super early and drive all the way out to my place to drop Perrin off then drive out again late in the evening and not get home til 7pm or so. It works out good as we are saving a bit on wood usage and Chris can get things done on the internet during the day that he needs to do. Amanda has high speed and with Chris over there, she don’t mind him using it so it works out great. Only bad thing is it puts the dogs being alone for about 10 or more hours. That is not good, but we make sure when we get home to make up for it. Plus they have the weekends with us. Other than Amanda’s for babysitting, we are playing hermit of sorts. We like the seclusion of home and need that right now. We are at a time when we are second guessing everyone’s intentions and with that going on in one’s brain, it is best to spend some time alone so as not to get on other people’s nerves, unintentionally take advantage of others and not cause our stress to bleed out into the lives of others. We cause less trouble this way I suppose. Although I love Winter, I am longing for a hint of Spring, some finality, settlements, stability and knowledge of what is to be. Plus, I crave to see a bit of light past 5pm….without the use of oil lamps. Oh, one thing that is so nice right now, Chris has started placing large flat stones on the heater before bed. He takes them and puts them in the bed before we head that way. It warms the bed so nicely and then we can cuddle up with them for hours, keeping us warm in the night. Does anyone else sleep with rocks for this purpose?

So I adopted SadieMae and gave her probably the very first Yule she has ever had. We have kept her in the house and have been patient and slowly potty training her. She has taken some time, as we have to be extremely careful with her. This wonderful animal was horribly abused and I cannot even stand to think of what she has endured at the hands of man. If someone just stands up in a room, she cowers, hides and starts shaking. She was just terrified when we got her home.

SadieMae was taken to get spayed on the 30^th. That upset me and her both. I thought I was just going to die having to leave her there all day. She looked at me like “oh no, what did I do wrong for you to bring me back here?” The cages and other dogs barking just horrified her. I tried to explain that I was so sorry but that I promised to be back for her. Pick-up was 3pm-5pm and I was there at exactly 3pm. She was drugged but wagged her tail when she saw me. She could not drag herself out of the cage, so I crawled into it with her and kissed her a million times. I scooped her up and carried her to the car. She was well babied for days, carried out to pee and poop and carried back in. She lost so much weight those few days from not eating. Her appetite is back now and she slowly recovered.
During this time, I started taking her outside to sit beside me without her leash on. I gradually let this grow to letting her walk out the door beside us and I walked with her to her favorite bathroom spots and then back to the house. Eventually I got to where I would sit out in the field with her without the leash and just love each other. She has done very well.

Her potty training has went well, she will hold it sometimes for 12 hours until we get home to go out to do her business. She is eating well and the medication appears to have gotten rid of the worms she had. She has started putting on weight and is just beautiful. When I get home from work she turns into Mrs. I won’t take no for an answer lap dog. She crawls up into my lap, all 45 pounds of her and gives me my first evening bath. She will just lay there and enjoy the attention. Then she alternates between me and Chris. She is still pretty scared of him, will cower and hide when he moves and you would not believe the terror if he has a lantern in his hand. She will not enter the door until he hides it. We can let her out to do her business now and she will go for it and then come back to the door, but ONLY the door she went out, never to another door even if she is called.

Nights are best. Sometimes she will try to sleep on the couch, most times she just goes to bed with me. If she started on the couch I will feel her ease up on the bed in the middle of the night. She comes over to my side of the bed and lets me know she is there. I let her under the cover and we just cuddle up close to each other. She thanks me….over and over….and over, until I just tell her I love her and that is enough. She is just perfect to me.

She still has a lot of training to do when she is more at ease. She has started playing some and has even shown some protective qualities, when she growled at my reflection in the window because she thought someone was outside coming towards me. She gets a little over protective wanting Cletus to stay away from me at times, but we are working on that by not dividing them between us and showing both attention from each of us. Cletus is over protective as Chris, so that is something we will have to work on with both of them. 

I am thankful for her. She has brightened my life and I am so fortunate I was able to get her. I love her, she is a good dog, she is a perfect fit in our family and when I kiss that soft area of her droopy lab lip and hear her sigh….my heart smiles.

1. Where did you begin 2008?
I brought in the year at home in the trailer, in bed. LOL I figure the new year will get here whether I am awake to experience it not and if I don’t wake up, I’ll not care anyway. It is not worth losing sleep over.

2. What was your status by Valentines Day?
Well, I was with the man I love.

3. Were you in school anytime this year?
No, other than to see or spend time with the grandkids.

4. Did you have to go to the hospital?
ROFLMAO...yeah. I stabbed my wrist and injected chicken blood into my veins, I took a cedar tree and slammed it down on both my feet and I had one other instance that we won’t discuss.

5. Did you have any encounters with the police?
None involving me, other than calling them on other people.

6. Where did you go on vacation?
I did not take a real vacation this year, but we did spend a bit of time hanging out in the mountains here.

7. What did you buy over $110?
Gee...lemme think. I bought lumber to build a house, I bought a new car. I think that is about it.

8. Did you know anybody who got married?
No

9. Did you know anybody who passed away?
Yes, I lost someone very special to me this year. Jimmy was a Father to me and I miss him terribly. Also, I had an aunt die this past week and a few people from work.

10. Did you move anywhere?
YAY....yes! We built our little one room shack this summer and moved in May 27^th!

11. What sporting events did you attend?
Absolutely NONE!

12. What concerts/shows did you go to?
Again....none!

13. Describe your birthday.
I don’t remember. I think we went out for crab legs. It was alas....so long ago!

14. What is the ONE thing you thought you would not do, but did, in 2008?
Move

15. What have been your favorite moments?
Building my house, moving in, living without electricity or plumbing, getting a new dog, going to Nashville with my family for the day.

16. Any new additions to your family?
Yes, we got a new cat named Pole Cat who was a stray that showed up, a new kitten named Drop Dead Fred who was deserted and just adopted a new doggy named SadieMae from the animal shelter.

17. What was your best month?
JUNE! We were moved into the house and the stress from my old home was gone.

18. Who has been your best drinking buddy?
I don’t drink. LOL

19. Made new friends?
I made some new online friends and a few Freemasons that I like, but that is about it.

20. Favourite night out?
Any time I went out with my family.

21. Other than home, where did you spend most of your time?
Work sadly.

22. Have you lost any friends this year?
Only one to death. There was a few acquaintances that I knew online that I had liked and we had a falling out. I had hoped they were not past mending but, one must go on and allow time to make that choice I suppose.  

23. Change your hairstyle?
No it is as boring as it ever was.

24. Have any car accidents?
NO thankfully, this year there were none.

25. How old did you turn this year?
46? I think. LOL

26. Do you have a New Years resolution?
Only one, and I will keep that a secret, it involves my spirituality is all.

27. Do anything embarrassing?
I don’t get embarrassed easily. Cannot remember anything embarrassing this year.

28. Buy anything from eBay?
Attempted to, but I don’t think I got anything this year.

29. Get married or divorced?
No

30. Get hit on?
LOL yeah, but I am in love so, I just grinned and went on.

31. Been snowboarding?
No

32. Did you get sick this year?
Only from the chicken blood! LOL

33. Are you happy to see 2008 go?
Not really, it has been a wild and crazy year. At my age, you prefer time to pass slowly.

34. Been naughty or nice?
Mostly naughty I guess, but I do try to be nice.

35. What are you looking forward to most in 2009?
Getting things settled, finishing the house and finding out what Spring is like for us on the homestead.

SadieMae is starting to open up a little bit. I got home yesterday and she was so excited, she just crawled up in my lap and would not leave. When I sat on the couch, she headed right over there. I actually paid down for a bit to take a shirt nap and she got right on top of me and stuck her nose on my neck and snoozed with me. Well, we snoozed in between moments of Perrin sneaking around the table and screaming “Boo” every 5-10 minutes. LOL She will soon be used to loud sounds I think, especially with Perrin around. She ate very good yesterday, Rachael Ray’s dog food. I figure it fattened Cletus up and he loved it so it should put some meat on her little skinny bones. She seems to really like it as well. She used the bathroom outside all evening and is doing better on the leash. We were walking home last night and she walked all the way, she did very good. There are a few things we will have to adjust in the house for her. The cat food and cat water had to be moved to the counter so she would not snack on it all night. We will have to find a way to cover the drain buckets under the sink, as she wants to drink from them. I had to block off the closet because she was fascinated with the litter box. She slept in the bed beside me all night and Cletus slept in the bed as well…. Along with Cutie on our heads and Azrael under the cover with Chris. The first day I never gave her any commands or tried to alter her behavior in any way. I started this morning trying to teach her some manners and she did well. I was eating breakfast and she wanted to ease herself right up on me and stick her nose in my plate. I had to tell her no several times and even gently put her down and point at her to tell her no once. She did very well after that and just laid down at my feet by the couch and did not try to take the food. I was so proud of her. She also peed and pooped walking to the car this morning and I commended her greatly for that. She is just adorable, so very adorable. I cannot imagine what this poor baby has been through, there are times that she will just cower down and will not even look at Chris. It breaks my heart and I would love to find the person who abused this dog. I hope very bad things happen to them.

However, she has a great home now and is slowly learning that not everyone will hurt her and that love is a very good thing. She is getting along great with Cletus and plays with Perrin. She is slowly opening up and will continue to get better with time. This weekend we will be heading to PetSmart of somewhere and get all the Yule shopping done for the animals. I have tog et SadieMae’s stocking up as well and I am so excited, I cannot wait until they see what Old Man Winter brought them all.

Chris has been wonderful with her and I am so thankful for him. Remember he does not like dogs (lol) and especially does not like short haired dogs. He has been every so kind and gentle with her, just as he was Cletus. Thing is, Cletus just warmed right up to Chris immediately. They were best friends from minute 1 and he remained by Chris’ side ever since. SadieMae I think knows that when I got in her cage with her that first day, I loved her. She was so happy when Amanda brought her into the office and I was there ready to kiss her. She has remained by my side and will either be laying on the couch with me, laying beside the couch where I am, in my lap or following me every step I take. Jealousy rose its head a bit last night with Cletus and Chris. She got up on the couch and got close to Chris and Cletus had to give her a slight growl to inform her that was his Daddy. But for the most part, they did get along well. We have been blessed once more!

So the story goes…

I went to the shelter to adopt a Saint Bernard/Akita mix and well, that did not work out. He was very loving to me and gentle, but when Amanda came over to the shelter, he began to drag her around the room by her arm and actually broke skin with his teeth. I was then informed he had killed a cat and it broke my heart, but I could not risk any of the other family members getting hurt by the dog, so I had to walk away. I went on through the shelter and fell on love with another dog who was so scared, shaking and shy. Then some idiot woman informed me they THINK “he” MIGHT be part Pit Bull and in order to adopt her there was a home inspection, you cannot have kids, you have to have a fenced yard and crap. This was after I spent a LONG time in the cage with this dog. So once again my heart was just broken.

Of course the dog’s picture was in the paper Friday night with animals needing adoption from the shelter. I stopped by the shelter in Knoxville Sunday and I could not stand even looking at the dogs, so I just left depressed. But yesterday I called the shelter about the black dog. The lady I talked to said there were no special adoption procedures for the dog but she cold not understand why I would want it, it does not bark, won’t eat, is severely depressed and blah, blah, blah! Well good grief, that is why I wanted the baby. But, they said I could have her. I would not take any chances, so I called Amanda and she was 45 minutes away. She said she would go straight over there to get her before they changed their minds again. She did and the dog was in the front lobby where I work within an hour.

HER (shows how much the shelter knows) name is SadieMae and I love her so very much. She is Lab with a bit of Pit mixed in. She is about 10 months old. She is terrified of men, leashes and thunderstorms. I finally got her to eat last night, but she would not go out on a leash to use the bathroom. She won’t walk on a leash. She did great with all 3 grandkids, even with Perrin stepping on her feet a few times she never snapped, growled or got impatient with him. Chris had to carry her all the way from the road to the house (we have to park up there because my driveway is impassable with all this rain lately). Cletus was mega excited. She made a few low, tiny growls at him and he made a few at her. She paid no attention to the cats. She crapped and peed in the floor right before bed. Both of them ended up on the couch on each side of Chris. When he came to bed they slept together until 4am.

At 4am I felt something very cold on my face. I opened my eyes a bit to see some lightening outside and thunder. SadieMae was nudging my face with her nose. I whispered “come on up here baby” and she slowly and gently made her way onto the bed. She ended up underneath the cover with me and took her head to put my arm around her. I think she was scared of the storm. She slept under the cover with me until after 6am. Then she proceeded to use the bathroom in the house again (that is something we will definitely have to fix). This morning, with the encouragement of deer jerky, she walked all the way to the car on the leash. She was excited to see Amanda and Perrin this morning. She is adorable and I love her so very much. My favorite part is the droopy skin at the corner of her mouth that is so very soft and I love to kiss and kiss and kiss that soft skin. She loves me too and I am so thankful we could save her life and give her a good home. She will have a wonderful Yule with the family and I will be buying her stocking today, put her name on it and hang it up beside everyone else’s in the family. So... presenting to you my newest family member…SadieMae

I cannot concentrate. I cannot get something off my mind and I think maybe if I post it and get it out I will then be able to put it behind me and stop thinking about it.

A few weeks ago I went by the animal shelter to look, well I just had this gut feeling there was something over there that needed me. Like the day I got Cletus, I just stopped to look because I was pulled there that day and then there he was and stole my heart. So a few weeks ago, there I was at the shelter again. I walked slowly through the cage area and said “oh how adorable” a million times, petting puppies, old dogs, scared dogs, ugly dogs, etc. As I made my way down the cages I heard this huge, loud bark constantly…almost deafening. Then as I came to his cage, there he was. A Saint Bernard mix. He stood so tall with his shoulders the level of my ribs. His head even with my chest. “Oh my goodness you are just a big boy huh?” and then he jumped up on the cage door and wagged his tail, licked my hands and looked DOWN to me with these beautiful eyes that just melted my heart.

I wanted to be in that cage with him. I wanted to lay down and put my head on his chest and kiss the corner of his mouth. Logic thinking took over and I kept telling myself, no…he may hurt Perrin. Not intentionally, but good grief if he ever jumped on him he could break a rib! So I made myself say no. I went back to him several times and walked out with a tear in my eye.

Now, here I am, weeks later. I don’t even know if he is still there. I worry about him because he is so huge and no one wants a huge dog. I am afraid he will die before Christmas. I cannot get him off my mind and it is just killing me. I get tears in my eyes thinking about him.

I don’t know what to do!

Wow…it has rained like a LOT! 4-5 inches where I live. What does this mean in my little neck of the woods? Well, both culverts washed out. Yeah that was read correctly, BOTH of them. SO if it ever does stop raining and clear up, we have two culverts to fix now. The driveway is one long mud puddle, like a 1200 foot long mud puddle. The good news is, the pond is OVER full , the Spring is running like you would not believe, we have about 400 gallons or so of water for use, this rain will be good to start the summer out with next year and….I get to walk back and forth to and from the car on the other side of the property every day! It was cold this morning with ice all over the ground. As we started out walking to the car, the grass crunched under our feet and the moon was shining so brightly that we had no trouble seeing the details of ice crystals hanging from the small shrubs and plants along the way. It was beautiful.

I am thankful this is Friday. I am looking forward to this weekend so much. I did more crocheting last night. We had a long visit with Hazel as well, before we headed home. She asked me to take her to her sisters in Marietta, GA on the 20^th so she can spend a week with her. She wants to be with her at Christmas. I told her I would be glad to do that so we made plans to leave out mid morning and have lunch along the way. Tomorrow Chris and I will head to Nashville in the early morning to get out shopping done. I would do it closer to home, but there is a certain thing I want to get for the person I have to buy for at work and the only place I can get it is at the Earthbound Store at Opry Mills. Sunday, I plan to just quilt, crochet and knit. I guess I will can some meat while I do all that as well.

Today begins the busy part of this month for me. Meetings the first of next week, reports to get out as the deadline draws near, 3 parties next week then off work until the 2^nd. I also got a king size piece of foam mattress to wrap around Lakota since this is her annual “I think I will break a bone in my body” time. I figure if we wrap her in foam until New Years she will be fine for another year! (*only halfway kidding lol)

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. BE THANKFUL! Even if what you have is slowly dwindling away, be grateful you have something. So many have much less. These are hard times, but we will all make it through and become stronger with the experience.

So it has continued to rain, lots of rain, like 3-5 inches of rain. We certainly have enough water to last us for awhile. LOL We will be parking up on the hill and walking to the house until we can get gravel delivered to the driveway. In order to do that, the driveway has to be dry enough for the trucks to make it up and back. That may be awhile since we have inches and inches of rain soaked into the ground right now and no sight of when it may start drying out. BUT….as sick as it sounds, I am really enjoying my before daylight walks to the car in the rain. I also enjoy walking back to the house in the rain. I think that maybe I will continue that even after things are fixed. It has honestly been very nice.

I have been busy crocheting and knitting and trying to finish up some Yule gifts. I am WAY late in mailing some gifts out and worry they will not get there in time. Oh well…I guess we will see. If they are late…sorry. It will be a New Year Gift instead of Yule.

We had dinner with Amanda yesterday and made the Yule dinner plans. Dinner at 4pm Christmas Eve, Shannon is cooking a turkey, I am cooking deer chops, mashed potatoes (with the brown things especially for Lakota) and chicken/dressing. Everyone else brings one covered dish and one dessert. Oh and Shannon….Amanda is bringing….you guessed it….Mac N Cheese and Banana Pudding. Michael has to work, but hopefully we can convince him to come later with Adrian. Christmas morning everyone will send time doing the Santa thing with the kids (the cats and Cletus for me and Chris). THEN…. We are all meeting at the Chinese Restaurant in Cleveland at 5pm Christmas Day for Lakota’s birthday party! OMG….she will be 10 years old that day.

I guess me and Chris are going to Nashville on Saturday. This time it will be just me and him, so we can finish up some shopping. AND…. I will get my Yule Cards mailed out by the weekend so expect them soon!

Well the interview with the newspaper went well yesterday I THINK. We will see when the story comes out. I know that reporters can sometimes get things twisted and not exactly like you say them because they take a three hour interview and just jot down key word notes and all, I so could not be a reporter, they have to take those key words and write a whole story about them. Perrin was unreal during the interview. He was very desperate for attention and the only picture he agreed to was one of him coming from the outhouse. LOL Oh well, when it is in print, I shall share with everyone.

So it rained last night. It is very interesting, rain on our homestead. We have a driveway that is oh at least 1200 feet maybe more. It goes through 4 fields and crosses 2 branches. The culverts on not the best in the world either. AND…on top of all that….there is no gravel. So when it rains, we get mud and lots of it. Since Winter began, we make a slippery ride up our driveway every day. Lately, that ride has been getting more treacherous with several moments of sliding sideways and spinning tires. So last night I had a brain storm. When we got home about 10pm I told Chris I was going to park up in the first field and we would walk up to the house. That way, this morning after all the rain, we would not have a dangerous drive to the road. So we did. Of course it was already sprinkling. We had a nice walk up to the house though. The rain started pouring shortly after. It was actually very nice outside and I sat in the rocker on the porch for a long time before making myself go get in bed. Shortly after midnight a strong storm came through. I was surprised to discover that Chris and Cletus both slept right through it. I fell back to sleep and woke up again right before 4am with high winds and horrendous rain. The lightening was constant and once again, my two buddies slept peacefully through the storm. It lasted for a very long time and I laid quietly in bed waiting to see if the house creaked or made any sign of bending to the high winds. Apparently there were gusts over 30 miles an hour and I am proud to say, the house stood firm and did not make a sound, other than the rain pounding the tin roof.

I figured that it would stop by 6am but not a chance. We woke up, put my work clothes in a garbage bag, put on our hiking boots and made our way through the mud and rain to the car. About half way, we remembered that we had left poor Cletus locked up in the house. Chris went back to let him out and I have to say I must be totally nuts because the walk in that pouring rain this morning, in the dark, was just lovely! Soon Cletus was by my side and we discovered the 1^st culvert (Turkey Crossing) was flooded out. We made our way through the water and on to the car. I told Cletus to go home and he looked so pitiful it broke my heart. So Chris got in the back seat, took his coat off and got Cletus inside on the coat and he went to Vickey’s with us. They are gone for 2 weeks and Chris is spending the day at their house with Perrin so he can get some things done on the internet today. When we got there, Cletus was firmly placed on the back porch and forbidden to enter the house and there he remained the rest of the day! (Not really but I wrote that because Vickey reads this journal and she can stop reading at this point and I will tell everyone else what happened…bye Vickey) So…

We get to Vickey’s and it is still pouring rain and Cletus is filthy. So Chris went straight to the bathroom and ran a bath and I kept Cletus in one place not moving until the bath was ready. He did NOT want to get that bath but he had no choice. So he got a good hot morning bath and my goodness he smelled so much better like green apples instead of chicken shit. Then I made him lay in the floor on something of mine until he dried off. So now he will be stuck there with Chris and Perrin until I get home from work to pick them up and take them home. (OK Vickey, you can start reading this again…lol)

This morning I turned the TV on for Perrin and there was as special biography on Fred Rogers. Now those of you who know me know that I simply adore Mr. Rodgers and love him so much. It broke my heart when he died, because he was like my secret best friend. He had to be one of the most special people this world has ever had the pleasure of knowing. So anyway, I get to watching this thing and get all teary eyed. Did you know that when he had grandchildren, he loved them so much that he went to their home every single night and read a book to them and tucked them into bed. Can you imagine how honored you would be to have him for a Papaw? I had to leave for work and could not watch the entire biography and I swear I almost went into work late I wanted to see it so badly. He is certainly one of my top 3 lifetime heroes!

In other news, I love Chris so much. I mean seriously, how many men would give up all things modern to live like I dreamed of living, never complain about it and get up at 6am to walk through mud to the car? And be happy about it? He is really a good man and we compliment each other well. I am fortunate that I have him in my life.

My goal for the week? Stay dry, enjoy my daily mud walks, knit more scarves and maybe finish a crocheted blanket I am working on for a friend.

I am nervous about the interview with the reporter today. So nervous that I caught myself double checking things through the Mayor’s Office in regards to our house. Someone this morning told me I better have my building permit handy to show the reporter. I freaked because I was with the understanding there was not a permit needed. So I called the Mayor’s Office and verified and I was right, there are no zoning laws in the county and no building permit is needed. I double checked about the outhouse as well and was told again that it is perfectly legal as long as it does not drain onto anyone else’s property or a water source. So….we are good. Just jitters I guess. I will be leaving in about 2 hours to go home and do this thing and then come back to work. I have done stories for the paper before, with my environmental group and when I worked for the Forest Service, so I am unsure why I am so nervous about this one. I guess because I know my home is not some big fancy new, perfectly decorated house like most other homes that they show in the paper. It is just a one room home but I love it so much. However, just because I adore it does not mean everyone else in this county won’t look at it and think we are nuts. But, I guess we are kinda nuts to live like this and that is why they want to do the story. But we are not like radical or anything, we are doing it for no other reason than we just simply want to. Ah….I need to stop thinking. I have never been one to care so much what people think about me, but I certainly don’t want people to get the wrong impression with this story and think we are like inbred hillbillies with low IQ’s. I mean well there was inbreeding in the family long ago, but not in the last like hundred years or so and well, we do fit the definition of “Hillbilly” but we certainly do not have low IQ’s, I mean I have a MENSA IQ! Oh well…enough rambling, it will turn out fine….really….it will!

We had yet another great weekend, but oh my dear Goddess it was a cold one! Friday when I got off work, I headed to Amanda’s to pick up Chris and Perrin. Amanda arrived and we all went to Cleveland to shop. We spent a LOT of time at Hobby Lobby. Chris got things I cannot mention here because Lakota reads this. After spending forever there, Perrin was so tired and we decided to have dinner at Chili’s. We got home rather late. The house was cold because Chris was gone all day and there was no fire. It was so nice when it finally warmed up and we could snuggle in bed.

Saturday morning we got up, got chores done and headed out to do Yule shopping. Once again we found ourselves at Hobby Lobby. I managed to find a gift for someone there and lots of yard that was on sale. We left there and went to Burke’s Outlet to get more gifts and I found myself a nice sweater and a super cool skirt for really cheap! Both were just 17 bucks! At that point I told Chris to keep reminding me that we were shopping for other people. We had lunch and watched a little boy from Canada spill his milk all over his grandmother. We keep coupons with us at all times for free ice cream, milk, juice, apple dippers and such and hand them out to kids randomly in public.  I gave the child two coupons for milk at McD’s, two in case he spills his first one! Then a little girl beside us was turning 11 and was having lunch with her Mom and 2 sisters. I gave her one for free ice cream and before she left she gave me a hug and told me thank you. We then went to another store and I bought more yarn, actually it is not my fault this time. Chris bought the yarn for me. He encouraged me to pick out 20 skeins and he bought them, along with 9 stockings to hang for all the cats and Cletus. I figured since I was not accomplishing much in the way of gifts for others, we should just go to Lowe’s and buy our tree. So we headed there and picked out a beautiful tree. This nice man wrapped it for us and then helped us tie it to the top of the car. When we got home, we got it up in the stand, gave it a drink of water and I even put the lights on it. Mind you the lights run off of batteries and we cannot leave them on. We are saving the juice for picture taking for Yule cards next year and then we will turn them all on Yule and leave them on until the batteries die. We got a few decorations on the tree. We strung gum drops, marshmallows, beads and candy and put that on the tree. Chris found my Mam-maws red ball ornaments and the dove I got from her funeral flowers. I put those out every year, even when I had no tree, I hung them up in the house. We still have a lot of decorating to do, as we are making the ornaments, but I snapped a pic anyway. I finished the evening knitting a scarf and spending time with Vickey and Norm, as they were leaving Sunday for Florida.

Sunday morning arrived and we were almost out of lamp oil. We headed into town and picked up a gallon of oil and had breakfast. We told Vickey and Norm bye and they left out about 10am or so for Florida. They are spending 2 weeks with Chris’ brother and Vickey’s sister. We went on home and cleaned house, I finished the scarf and then crocheted a hat to match it. I then started another scarf and worked on that in between cleaning, moving things and decorating the tree more. We had a great day yesterday. When it got dark we went down to check on things at Vickey and Norm’s house and I knitted more. The fire was still going when we got home, but it was cold. The good thing is, Chris emits a tremendous amount of body heat for him to be so scrawny! I am so anxious for him to get in bed at night because I can utilize every bent part of his body to stick one of my body parts into and get them warm. Behind his knees is the perfect place for my super cold feet. LOL Last night we somehow ended up with a bed full of cats. I could not figure out who all was where so I grabbed my cell phone and used it as a light to discover, Cutie at my head, Flat Cat at my butt, Tree Cat at my feet, Azrael on top of me and Butter on the corner of the bed. So last night was spent listening to various purrs, sneezes, licking, growling (Cutie is not fond of her outside neighbors sometimes) and at times throughout the night I heard lots of crunching by the food bowl.

I would have loved to stay in bed and cuddle this morning. It remained cold all weekend and on Saturday, the ice in the driveway never melted. But I had my oatmeal with Perrin in my lap, it was good to get hugs from him this morning. Then I headed out to work. In other news, Tim left for Wisconsin last night on the company jet and Lakota did not take it too well. She don’t like the thought if her Daddy leaving for a week. He will be home before you know it though. Vickey and Norm were in Warner Robbins, GA for the night and seemed pleased with their trip so far. We are ready for the reporter to show up tomorrow for the story. I am a little nervous about it, but everyone says it will be fun…guess we will see. Have a great Monday everyone!


Getting the tree wrapped


Strapping it to the car


Ready to go


Starting the decoration

Yesterday morning before I left for work, I put a pot of leather britches on the heater. I put some potatoes in it and some country ham pieces. When I got home from work, the house smelled wonderful! We went out back and put the back soffit up. I hammered another finger…yay….that makes two in just 4 days. My thumb is slowly turning a nice purple color. We got the soffit up though and I put some creamed corn on the heater and started cooking some nice slices of country ham. Just as dark arrived, everything was done and on the table. A few oil lamps lit the table enough for us to eat. We had great conversation and a very good meal. Cletus, Cutie and Azrael finished off the fat trimmings from the ham and I got some of the earthy beans and potatoes to take down to Hazel. She said she had not thought about leather britches since she was a child. In my opinion, they could have cooked a bit longer, but they were very good. So I left the rest on the heater last night and this morning I added another potato to it. They will be delicious for supper again tonight. We stopped by to visit Vickey and Norm after leaving Hazel’s. I did a bit of crocheting. Some day I might actually finish Lakota’s Yule present. When we got back home we added wood to the fire and got snuggled up in bed. It was a peaceful night at my house. About 4am I discovered Chris putting a log on the fire, Azrael asleep on my back and Cutie under the cover asleep at my side. Me and Chris talked about Brokeback Mountain and Little Red Corvettes until he fell back to sleep. I slipped out of bed early and went outside to get more ham and cold water. A nice ham sandwich for breakfast and then Perrin arrived. When he hugs me bye of a morning and Chris gives me my go to work kiss, life always seems to feel so right.


Leather Britches cooking on the heater


What supper looks like to us


What supper looks like with a camera flash


Behold! Some of the bookcases...otherwise known as the closet wall


The livingroom area of the floor...DONE! We are about 1/3 through with
the flooring


Azrael makes herself at home on Mam-maws table....actually she is watching Chris through the window as he works on the soffit.