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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Last week was a rough one


This last week has been pretty hard to get through.  We loved a loved pet last week.  Baby actually belonged to our son Corry, but our family is close.  Very close.  Baby was all of ours.  We all shed tears.  We all feel the loss.  From our youngest family member, CJ to our oldest, my mother-in-law, we all loved Baby. 

Baby came into our lives as a pup.  It all started with her mom.  Her mom is Jasmine.  Jazz belongs to our oldest son Kris and Darlene.  They got her from Missy as a gift.  Her friend’s pit bull had pups and she knew what a good home Jazz would get with Kris and Darlene and their three girls.  Kris and Darlene got a second pup.  Thor was a Doberman.  He was Baby’s daddy.  Baby was the runt of the little of puppies that Jasmine and Thor had.

When Corry got Baby he lived with us.  We were in Rootstown then.  I loved her sweet little face.  She and her people daddy, Corry, stuck tight by each other.  They were buds from the beginning.  Corry worked with her and taught her so many, many tricks.  She was a super smart dog. 

Baby lived in my home a few other years too when Corry moved back here with us.  She was a great companion.  She was a protector.  She was unconditional love every moment of her life.

Sadly what took her was her own doing.  We had worked and worked and worked with her to get her to stop eating carpet.  She tore up the basement stairway carpet while she lived here.  We don’t really know why, she just did.  She seemed to stop for a while when Corry moved out and down the street.  Of course the house he moved to didn’t have a lot of carpet.  And then one day she started it up again.  This time it was bad. 

They had indoor outdoor carpet.  It tore her up inside.  By the time she stopped eating and started acting sick, it was too late.  Within the day, Corry got her to the vet and within the next 12 hours she had become septic.  Surgery went from a possibility to useless endeavor.  The vet said if they opened her up, they’d end up having to put her down on the table.  Instead of putting her through that, she had her family around her.  Even our Corry’s brother and sister came to the vet clinic to say goodbye.  We all sat with her and shared hugs for a last time.  It was hard.  Very, very hard.  But she is now pain free in heaven.  She can pal around with my dad until the rest of us are there.  Maybe he’ll teach her a few more tricks.  My dad would have loved her if we’d had her when he was alive.

Farewell, my buddy, my pal.  I miss you so much. 
 

~~~~~

Wow!  It’s not very long until this wedding!  I started thinking about what all needs to be done here and tried to make a schedule of sorts.  I discovered I should have been thinking a few weeks ago if I want it all done!!  Lol

I have my dress thanks to Rusty.  My purse was repaired thanks to Corry.  Now I need shoes and a slip.  Cliff is of course wearing a tux so his outfit is handled.  I handled my jewelry.  I found a set of my mom’s I wanted to wear that was broken.  I added a chain for the necklace, reworked the bracelet and decided that I’d wear the clip on earrings  because converting them would be something I couldn’t do myself. 

The wedding is going to be beautiful.  I can’t wait to take all the wonderful pictures I know I will.  And the week after Rusty and Caitlin’s wedding, I’m doing the pictures for one of Missy’s friend’s wedding.   Can’t wait!!

~~~~~

I would like to find a loveseat sleeper within the next two or three weeks.  A very cheap or better yet, free one.  We’re trying to get sleep areas situated.  I have my sister in one room and my brother and his fiancĂ© in another.  I need a place for Kennedy since we’re ousting her from her room.  We’re using her little flip bed for Emerson.  Don’t know if anyone else is staying here but we want to be prepared.  I think we can get a fold up cot from my mother-in-law.  I want the livingroom and the basement/rec room able to be used for sleep areas too. 

I also want the loveseat for after my surgery in case I can’t do the stairs.  I’m bringing back the lift chair we let my mother-in-law use and all the other handicap equipment we have lent out will be back.  I’m not to do the stair more than once a day for the first two weeks.  Can use the leg for anything.  As long as we have things set up at home and I have people to help me if I need it, they should let me come on home. 

~~~~~

Also in preparation for both the wedding and my surgery, I’ve been cooking and freezing meals.  I need to choose two to do this week.  I have stuffed peppers, cabbage rolls, a veggie casserole, turkey, etc. in there now.  I really need to make a list.  I have desserts for when they’re here planned too.  Strawberry shortcake, ice cream in waffle bowls, peach cobbler…  Some people loathe having guests.  I like it.  Especially when it’s my sooster and brooster.  J

~~~~~

I made a switch of my dishes.  My coca cola dishes are what I consider my “winter” dishes.  They red and Christmas-y.  I have them put away now and pulled out my brightly colored fiesta ware.  I have a hodge podge of colors so it looks Easter-ish.  They’re all seconds I’ve picked up on trips to the factory.  I’d like to go down and start gathering some smaller bowls and some serving pieces.  I have a couple platters but I don’t have bowls for veggies and other sides. 

I need to change out table covers, window stained glass decorations, throw blankets…  (I keep my house cold all year so we need to have blankets all around for folks to wrap up in.)

I’ve got about four blinds, maybe five needing to be replaced so I’ll be hunting for them in all my cheap shopping joints.  First I’ll be seeing if there are enough slats at the bottom bunched up that I could take them apart and fix them.  No sense spending the money if I don’t have too.  Can’t afford to anyhow. 

I got down most of the winter curtains.  Still need to do the diningroom but might hold off on that one a couple more weeks.  Before I do I want to find some way to camouflage the fact the curio cabinet is in front of the one side.  Why?  Because I like it there.  Simple.  I’m not putting up the livingroom curtains.  Maybe later but for now, the cornices will be the window treatment.  They have mini-blinds.  We’re good. 

We got one big job handled yesterday.  The dresser from the attic is now in the office and the filing cabinets that looked pretty tacky are in the attic.  Well one is.  The other is the night stand by the bed in the office.  I also purged through the gift bags, tissue paper, ribbon, etc.  It’s in the dresser for now but if the dresser is needed it will be boxed up and taken to the attic.

~~~~~
 

The weekend was a pretty busy one.  Kennedy marched in the parade with the zoo so we did the St. Patrick’s Day parade.  I always like it anyhow.  Something very cheerful about it.  Little Miss Melanie started out with two necklaces and by the end of the hour and a half parade, she had about 20 along with a huge amount of candy!

Saturday night we had four of the girls here.  Kennedy and Natalie stayed in her room and Morgan and Madison stayed in the office.  In the morning I did a little experimenting and made cinnamon biscuits.  I didn’t feel like doing rolls so I put the cinnamon glop in the bottom of a pan, sprinkled it with pecan pieces and raisins, laid biscuits on top and baked them.  When I took them out of the oven, I flipped the pan and the goo covered them.  Very yummy. 

~~~~~

 

Well that’s it for now.  I’m pretty tired and tomorrow is another day I’m sure will be filled to the brim.  Sending hugs and love to you all…

 

~~Mama Sage

Monday, March 4, 2013

Well now THAT stinks!!

I thought it was a good thing to use those space saver bags and store some things under the bed.  And I conveniently forgot about what I had stored there.  Well tonight I got curious as to just what it was that was stored under the bed in the office so I got down on all fours and started digging it all out.  My winter clothes!!  I really thought I’d purged through and tossed most of it.  There were my sweaters!  YES!!  I grabbed the bag and pulled.  Mmmmmm STUCK!  Great.  I grabbed bag number 2.  Tug tug tug tug STUCK!!  Now this isn’t funny.  All three bags had lost that suction that makes them skinny.  All three bags had grown to take up every nook and cranny under the bed.  They had gotten lodged in all the crevices between the boards on the bottom of the box springs.  Fun.  But I was determined so I tugged and pulled, maneuvered the clothes out of the bags and got it all out.  I have sweaters!!  I’m so happy.  I know.  Only 16 days until spring, but I’m still happy.  I’ll have them in the closet now and if we get a cold snap I’ll have something to wear.  It’s been pretty chilly without them. 

~~~~~

I’ve been working on making ahead meals for when we have wedding company and also for when I’m having my surgery.  Tonight I did up a big chub of bratwurst sausage into patties.  I cooked them all and also carmelized a ton of onions.  We had sandwiches with it for supper tonight and then I packed up the leftovers.  I took two patties for each guest and put them in a container and smothered them with onions.  When it comes time to cook them for a meal all I’ll need to do is grab out the bowl, dump it in a casserole dish, sprinkle it with water and put it in the oven to warm up.

I also have stuffed peppers ready for the crockpot as well as cabbage rolls.  I’ll just pop them in, sauce them, and voila!  A meal in a jiffy.  Well a slow cooked jiffy. 

I cooked a turkey last week and only used a little of the meat.  I kept the breasts as one piece to heat and slice for a turkey dinner.  The juices are also frozen and ready to make my sister noodles.  Her favorite.  I kept one package of meat off the bones for a casserole.  Possibly a turkey pot pie.  When I did it, I cooked up the bones and made some good turkey soup for a meal for us.  You can’t smell a turkey baking all afternoon and not eat some.  At least I can’t.  I’m not strong enough to do that.  I will probably do one more turkey and handle it much the same way.  I have several frozen turkeys and won’t want to deal with them from about the last week of April until I’ve healed from my May 14th knee surgery.

~~~~~

We had Emmi today while the kids went and added things to their gift registry.  It seems to be the same for nearly every young couple I’ve talked to about their registry that they don’t want to really register for much.  They found out why when they got nearly everything on the first list for their shower Saturday.  Now it looks pretty good.  Lots of choices in lots of price ranges.  Of course people don’t always shop off a registry and that’s fine.  Surprises!  And it’s always good to give money instead.  I’m one who likes to give gifts instead of money.  Unless I know that the couple is in real NEED of money, I’d rather go have some fun shopping for something fun, useful and unique.

~~~~~

Poor Baby.  That’s Corry’s dog.  She won’t quit eating carpet.  Again.  We thought when she moved out of here that the problem was probably solved.  She didn’t do it at their place.  Now she’s doing it again.  She was all bound up this evening.  Corry took her out to run even though the temperature was in the mid 20’s.  When she comes in the door here she generally chows down Nelly’s food as fast as she can.  She didn’t even want to touch it tonight.  All she wanted was the water.  Lots of water.  And her poor belly is all bruisy again.  No one ever figured out why.  It just does it now and then.  I thought it could mean cancer, but she’s still alive and it’s been a long time since that discoloration started.

~~~~~

We ran out to Acme for a few things tonight.  Just some things to get by.  Milk was on sale, 4 half gallons for $5.  The sell by date is a ways away so we bought more than what we’ll be using in the next few days.  They’re having a super meat sale too.  I can’t take big advantage of it but I did get some boneless skinless chicken for 1.89 a pound.  I’m thinking chicken parm sounds good for one day real soon.

~~~~~

Saved myself having to get a nice purse for the wedding.  I had a beautiful one my mom got that was made in Amish country.  The handle on it broke.  I tried fixing it and even my very old Singer couldn’t handle the thickness.  Corry took it to an alterations shop close by that he thought might do it.  For $3 I have a “new” purse.  YES!

~~~~~

Well time to wrap it up for tonight.  I’m hoping to get back to regularity but every time I say that, life gets in the way.  Instead of promising to be back tomorrow, I’ll just promise to be here whenever I can. 

Hugs to all

Until we meet again…

~~Mama Sage