*sigh* SIGH!!!!*sigh*

One sigh of regret, a HUGE SIGH of relief, and another sigh of regret.

I regret that the guest room is once again empty and I miss Mrs. Schmenkman terribly. But she was right when she said that I was going to be way to busy to miss her too much. I’ve been on a dead run since she left! Critter care, lawn mowing, trying to get caught up on the planting both at work and at home… (the rain is much appreciated but it can go away for the daylight hours please!) Mr C. is out of town so I’m all by my lonesome too.

The HUGE SIGH of relief is because Mr. C and I have been slightly worried about our future. The company he works for was bought out by their main competitor and the rumor mill has been buzzing about what was going to happen to the end of the business that he works in. A big meeting was called in Massachusetts today to discuss the direction the new owners are taking and the news is great for us, not so great for others. As of now, Mr.C. will retain his job and we don’t have to move!!! YAY!

The last sigh of regret is for the 90 + people that found out today that they will no longer have a job. It’s hard to celebrate when you know that so many are going through a really bad time right now.

I’m so thankful that God has once again taken care of us. I don’t know why I worry, He’s got the plan!

HOORAY

Mrs. Schmenkman is here!!!
As promised, we hit the ground running. Mr. C and ‘Honey’ have gotten the best of the twinkies so far but the festivities have just begun!
It took less than a minute for this to happen once we got home and sat down…

That Poppet, she’s predictable!

Today we’re off to the Big Cheap Store, I’ll have to wear extra comfy shoes!

Way Back Memorial Days

Memorial Day has to be one of my most favorite holidays. It is always looked forward to with much anticipation and it never fails to be a joyful, silly, dessert-filled, hair-doing, talking, shopping-till-we’re-dropping long weekend.
The reason it’s so wonderful????
That would be Mrs. Schmenkman, aka Capri Kel, my BFF.
I’m not exactly sure what year this tradition began… was it 1995 Schmenk?
If it was, than this would be a pic from that first year in North Carolina…

Here we are in 1996 with Mousie…

This is not long after we moved to Virginia…

And in 2003…

So many different hair-dos!

I want to make it perfectly clear to Mr. Schmenkman, aka ‘Honey’ that I am forever grateful that he suggested that first trip and even more grateful that he hasn’t protested that it has become a yearly tradition! THANK YOU ‘HONEY’!!!

And big thanks and a smooch to Mr.C. for spending every Memorial weekend fending for himself while The Schmenkmans are out gallivanting!
Here we are being silly in one of those photo booths…

So tomorrow is the big day… Mrs. S gets here bright and early and we’ll hit the ground running! I can’t wait!
Please forgive the big spaces between pics… I scanned them and forgot to crop!
More Way Back memories here… add yours!

A View From the Bedroom Window

That title sounds like it could be a horror film or something. It’s not, just a nice view of the iris that are blooming now…

The locust trees are blooming too…

Neighbor Mike’s pasture looks pretty with all of the buttercups blooming…

and a few more shots…

The best thing about these distance shots is that you can’t see the weeds!

Way Back When-sday/DaMaMa

Couldn’t let mother’s day go by and not acknowledge my Mom.
I’m the baby of the family. I came along later in life and quite a few years after my sister Capri P.
Let’s just say that I was quite a ’surprise’.
My brothers and sisters were all closer in age and weren’t terribly happy that I came along.
Mom was pretty much my best bud when I was a kid and she may have spoiled me just a titch… only because my siblings largely ignored me unless they were tormenting me.
She was always fun loving and cooked great dinners every night.
She is the best Mom in the whole world !
I don’t know why, but I really love this pic…

it just seems to capture her spirit.

Here we are on the beach up norf… that’s the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for those of you that don’t know.

Looks like it may have been kinda chilly for sunbathing.
Anyway, thanks Mom, you were the best way back when, and you’re still the best! I love you!

A Good Egg

Neighbor Mike went to visit his family so Mr.C and I are looking after the horses and chickens while he’s away.
It’s no hardship since I regularly go to see how Seymour is doing.
Apparently one of the hens must really like him cuz she’s layin some mighty fancy eggs…

That is not photo shop magic… that is eggsactly how she layed it!

A Morning Stroll On The Hill

We had a busy day yesterday working on a fencing project, but before we got started I took a morning walk with the camera.
I headed down the hill…

To visit the chickens…

And got a hearty “good morning!” from Truman…

And also from Gus…

Then Tux met me at the bottom of the hill and we went back up…

to check on the frogs…

and to see what flowers are getting ready to bloom…

or which ones already are…

Then we went to work, and took down this…

So we could build this…

in order to enclose Paddy’s enclosure to keep any curious kids from bothering her.
So now we have a fenced in sideyard and more gardening possibilities!

I’m thinking about painting the fence… white or green…????

Outdoor Enclosure COMPLETE!!!

It’s DONE!!! Well, except for bringing in some good sized branches for eating and building purposes. For Paddy to build with… not us. Our part is finished!

We might also have to tweak the intake for the filter as well because it seems to get clogged with ‘debris’ a bit to quickly. It’s a learning process.

As you can see, the water didn’t stay clear for very long…

Here she is checking out her new summer lodge…

Yes, it’s made of wood and she will most likely chew a hole in it. The point is that she will add her own entrance where she wants one. Maybe she block the one we made off… who knows? It’s shelter for now and she’s in charge of building herself something different if she wants to.

It wasn’t long before a new buddy moved in…

It was funny… when I turn on the filter the water goes into a whirlpool and the frog was just floating around going in circles, and so was Paddy. The frog was clearly confused and wasn’t quite sure what to do so he crawled up onto Paddy’s back for a free ride while he tried to figure things out. Of course I didn’t have the camera with me to capture the moment.

We went to Noah’s Ark Pet store and our friend Tom, the owner, gave us a nice discount on this guy…

Paddy had no reaction to it. It’s cute though.
Here she is checking things out…

She still doesn’t act totally at ease out there yet. We’ll leave her out for longer stretches of time until she feels like it’s home.

Way Back When-sday/Backyard surprises

When I took Paddy to swim in neighbor Mike’s pool, and when I put her in for the test swim in her new enclosure; it reminded me of a very long time ago (I was probably 6 or 7) when my brother’s friend (I think) ended up with a dolphin… yes a dolphin in his back yard swimming pool!
We got to go over and see it and I can remember just being soooooooooo amazed and enthralled with the whole day. It has been a memory that has stayed with me for my whole life.
The memory of the story behind how it all happened is very dim but I seem to remember that the aquarium the dolphin was in had sprung a leak and needed to be fixed so they needed to put it someplace and this friend of my brother’s was the lucky winner!
I mean really… could it get much cooler than this…

Test Swim

It’s about 3:30 in the morning, I’ve been awake since about 2:00. I knew falling back asleep wasn’t in the cards so I figured I’d give y’all an update.
Paddy’s new pond is filled up! The filter is working (with a few quirks that we’re working on). There’s an awful lot of mud still exposed in her ‘yard’ so were going to get some mulch and maybe some river rock to deal with that.
But once we got the pool filled I couldn’t wait to bring her up for a test swim…

“This is AWESOME!! Thanks!”

She dives…

She wrestles….

She likes it, hey Paddy!

We don’t have her ‘lodge’ made yet so she’ll continue to spend her nights inside the Palace. We want to give her a little time to become comfortable being in her new territory before we leave her out full time.