Happy Thanksgiving

I made a centerpiece for my boss’s Thanksgiving table.
I thought I’d share it with you all and wish you a very happy Thanksgiving.

I’m thankful for all of you.

Don’t forget ONE CLICK to VOTE for Suzanne.

Product Review/The Slip ‘n Grip

Our couches are big brown cushy leather. They are not really intended for people that are ‘dainty, delicate’ sitters… they are for floppers
and that suits Mr.C. and I just fine… we are definitely floppers… neither one of us would ever claim to be delicate or dainty!
We also have hardwood floors.
That presented a problem because when we flopped onto our couches, they tended to slide across the floor all helter skelter.
My first solution was to cut little circles of that grippy shelf liner or the stuff that is supposed to keep your rugs from slipping on hardwood floors. I placed the circles under the feet of the couch and love seat and it did work for a couple of days, but it wouldn’t be long before I would see the cats dragging them around the house.
I was pretty much resigned to just having to adjust the furniture daily.
BUT THEN…
as I was perusing the isles of our local Big Lots store, I spied these little beauties…

The Slip ‘n Grip Dual Function Furniture Pad made by Shepherd Hardware Products LLC

The inner ring is made of an anti-skid material so the furniture grips and stays put when it’s flat on the floor.
BUT if you want to move the furniture, you tilt it and it slips easily across the floor.

I snatched up two sets of four for a mere $3.50 each.
Then I had my handsome handy-man install them

(While the couches were tilted up I took the opportunity to vacuum up an embarrassing amount of kitty-fur dust bunnies!)

AND THEN we test-flopped them!


Mr C. and I both did highly exaggerated flopping and the couches stayed put! Never moved!
Four thumbs up from Mr.C and I

Don’t forget to CLICK HERE TO VOTE for Suzanne!!

Life Goes On

It’s no secret that I’ve not been myself lately. Aside from having the never-ending head-cold from hell for the past couple of weeks, I’m still working through the loss of Paddy.
It has really been a struggle for me. You all know that I’ve lost a good number of much loved pets in my life. Each of those losses left a scar on my heart, but losing Paddy has been much different.
I’ve been looking out into the gardens and seeing all of the clean up that needs doing, but every time I go out in the yard I’m overwhelmed with memories.
Paddy under her apple tree

Paddy in the pond

Walking with Paddy

Teaching Paddy about picking raspberries

Paddy fixing up her house

And how empty that house is now

The memories made my heart hurt, so I’ve been just turning around and going back into the house. Too sad to do a thing.
Yesterday I went out and again was tempted to turn around and go back inside but I forced myself to walk around and take inventory of things. Talk about overwhelmed! The weeds… the work!
But I told myself… “self, just weed this one little section and then you can go back inside and be sad”

Look at those weeds!
I did it though, I knelt down and pulled those weeds and stood up and surveyed my work…

I felt the healing begin, with each weed I pulled my heart felt a little bit lighter.
I got motivated… I PULLED me some weeds! I cut back those dead perennials

And then I started noticing that the frosts hadn’t killed everything… the chipmunks planted this sunflower for me and Jack Frost didn’t kill it!

Other flowers are hanging on too…
A purple coneflower

the pot of million bells on the back deck

Salvia May Night

And this Angel wing begonia only half gave up…

While I still don’t understand why God chose to bring Paddy home to Him, I’m seeing that life does go on no matter how cold the air is or how cold our hearts feel, and even though we may have sad times or hard times that Life Is STILL Good.

P.S. Don’t forget to vote for Suzanne… EVERY DAY until December 7th!
CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

24 Years and Still Goin Strong!

24 years ago today Mr.C and I made that trip down the aisle together.
Best thing that ever happened to me.
I will NOT be posting a wedding picture because it was in the 80s, I was a trendy hair dresser and my fashion choices were NOT classic.
Nuff said.

I will post some pics of my dream guy though… recent ones to show just a couple of the reasons he’s the best guy in the world.

#1… He makes me breakfast sometimes… the worlds best fried egg sandwiches!

#2… He helps with yardwork!

#3… He paints all the doors!

#4… He loves the kitties…

#5… He loves Paddy

#6 He helps with all the critter care

#7… He takes great care of his Dad

And the most important thing of all…
He loves ME!

Of course there are a gazillion other reasons he’s great…
He loves my family and my friends.
He never puts up a fuss when the Capris come and take over the house.
He’s a good provider.
He takes care of me when I’m sick.
He brings me coffee in the morning.

Oh I could go on and on… suffice it to say that I am one very blessed wife and I thank God every single day that Mr C is my guy!
Happy Anniversary Mr.C, I’ll love you till I croak too!
(that’s an inside frog-joke)

Rain, GLORIOUS Rain!

Prayers have been answered. Thank You God!

Way Back Birthday Boy

It’s hard to believe that this was taken 9 years ago!

Yep, that means that Mr.C. is 49 years old today!!

The folks that worked for Cam at the time threw him a party at work and they had this banner made. Of course I had to further embarrass him by hanging it from the front porch railing. (He secretly loved it!)

Happy birthday sweetie! I love you more every year!

Soon…

VERY soon, the front porch will be filled with laughing ,gabbing, happy, wining women!

Very soon, Poppet will be on lap overload trying to make sure that she gets her fur on each and every-one’s legs to make them feel welcome.

VERY soon… as in this afternoon! I can’t wait!

Front Porch Sittin

My new blogging friend, Angie, at Homegrown posted a picture of her beautiful and inviting front porch. She asked that other people do the same and send her a link so she can come visit.
Since I love my porch too I decided to join in…
Welcome to Sassy Cat Hill

There must be a cat on the porch at all times (in this case on the step)

The front porch furniture is looking mighty empty right now

The side porch is too

Hopefully, if all goes well, those seats will be filled with company soon!

But the best part of the porch…
…this VIEW!

Ahhhhh yes, I think a long slow glass of icy lemonade is in order!
Life IS good!

Check out Angie’s place and if you decide to join in on the porch sittin let me know too!

Product Pushing

We don’t have a pool anymore… maybe someday.
But for those of you who do have an inground pool I HIGHLY recommend this product!
I was so tired of going into work and opening the skimmers to discover many dead frogs, newts, salamanders, and toads. This product has saved the day… any many little lives as well!

It’s the Critter Skimmer an awesome invention! It replaces the cover of your skimmer with a new one that has a little ramp attached so if a little someone gets sucked into it they can just crawl up the ramp and escape!
I installed these on the three skimmers at Chesley and we haven’t had a single fatality since!!!!
LOVE IT I rate it a million gazillion stars!

*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 Productive Sunday

And once again I will thank the Good Lord Above for good and generous neighbors who let us borrow power equipment! (imagine Tim the Tool-Man Taylor grunting noises here) It was even delivered here bright and early this morning before the Crazy Dog Lady’s hubby had his first cuppa coffee! Now THAT goes above and beyond the definition of a good friend!
The start of the day…

Gittin-r-done…
(these pics are definitly NOT flattering!)

Man, I can dig a nice hole…

It FITS!!! (after just a couple attempts!)

Now the fun part starts… landscaping and making it purty.
We have to build a lodge for her to sleep in and Mr. C and neighbor Mike have to go shopping for some plumbing supplies to get the filter and sanitizer hooked up. Then we’ll fill er up and let the Princess give it a test swim. It was a good day!

The Trouble With Company…

… Is that they have to go home. A lot of people are happy to see company leave, but for me;  it’s always a sad day because it reminds me of how far away our families are and how much of their day-to-day lives we’re missing.
Capri D has finally convinced BFG to build her that long-desired chicken coop so she can collect fresh eggs each morning. How much fun it would be to go out chicken shopping with her!?!

Anyway, we had a wonderful weekend even though we didn’t do much of anything other than eat and enjoy each other’s company. Mr C. and BFG managed to go and wet a line in a neighborhood pond… no luck.
The best fun was had when we took Paddy to our neighbor’s built in pool for a swim in some deep water! They haven’t opened the pool yet so it doesn’t have any chemicals in the water and has enough algae growing on the walls to make it ‘kinda’ like a real pond.
She had a blast and so did we… Mr C and I both used the fishing waders to get in the water and play with her… what a wonderful opportunity!

A little hesitant, but getting her feet wet. 

 

A good deep breath and a dive!

 

C’mon Dad, dive under, the water is fine! 

Ok, time to head back to the palace for a nap!

 

We also had some visitors come on Saturday… cousins of my Dad.  This of course meant that Poppet found a couple of more laps to sit on…

Here’s cousin Joan who isn’t very fond of cats…

With cousin Dottie who was happy to provide a lap and a pet.

But she always went back to Uncle Jeff who gave the very best spanks!

 

So now the house is quiet again and  Poppet is asleep on the couch with not a lap to be found. *sigh*

Another wonderful weekend

It was a glorious, productive weekend! On Saturday Mr. C. and I pretty much finished all of the cutting back in the gardens and so many plants are waking up.

Yesterday I finished painting the chain link kennel panels which will be Paddy’s outdoor enclosure, in a nice flat black. Neighbor Mike expressed shock that I was painting nice shiny fence panels… I had to explain that nobody wants a shiny silver fence in a garden! He’s definitely esthetically challenged.
He’s also a bit challenged in the horse grooming department…

Poor Delilah has dork-bangs!

My friend and hero Peg, who used to run the wildlife center, stopped by for a visit on Sunday. It was so good to see her. She’s now saving critters down in the Florida keys. She was very impressed with Princess Paddy’s progress.

Mr. C left in the afternoon to go to Massachusetts for some business matters. That means I’ll be Paddy’s only source of entertainment for a few days… she’ll wear me out!

But the very BEST part of the weekend was yesterday evening when the phone rang and it was Da MaMa EEEK asking when I wanted visitors!!!
YAY!!! HAPPY DANCE!!!! HAPPY DANCE!!!!
BFG, Capri D, and DaMaMa are coming the first weekend in April!! That is, providing that BFG’s back will feel better enough that he’ll be able to handle the long drive down. Everyone please send up a quick prayer that it all works out. I just love it when company comes!

5 minutes

Mr. C. says that spring is here. He says that we’re done having fires and that it won’t get below freezing again.
I know better, it’s only the beginning of March, things will change in 5 minutes. But I’ll enjoy it while I can. Yesterday was beautiful and I walked around watching the flowers wake up before they cringe back under the covers…
More crocus are popping along the front path…

The forsythia is swelling…

And speaking of how much things can change in 5 minutes; yesterday evening as the sun was beginning to set I happened to glance out the front door and noticed a golden glow…

and the same scene 5 minutes later…

And I know that in 5 minutes it might look like this again…

Whatever God decides to give us, enjoy the beauty and anxiously look forward to what He gives us in the next 5 minutes.

I’ve Escaped!

The big news here on The Hill is that I got my new wheels!!

Due to the fact that I know important people in high places at Ford motor company (Thanx Mr. Schmenkman) I got a nice discount on my purty new souped up four wheel drive. Also got ZERO percent financing which is a deal that I just love to take advantage of.  Here’s the baby pics…

It came with 6 months free Sirius radio… I’ll get spoiled!

SNOW DAY!!!!

I’m a little excited to see the snow. It’s our first real, actual accumulating snowfall of the year. (sorry to you poor Michiganders)

I’m happy that I don’t have to leave the house and can watch it fall as I sip a nice cup of tea. I’m happy, because so far our fall/winter season has been pretty darned dry and I always worry about those drought conditions when it garden season rolls around again. We’re supposed to get 3″-6″.   That means I’m housebound for the next few days because Mr.C. takes the big redneck truck to work and MY 4 wheel drive has gone to car heaven or has been split up into a million different componants and sold at a junk yard. *SIGH*  O’well, I’ll try to use my time wisely and do some cleaning & organizing.

Fish for the Freezer!

Mr. C.  had a successful and fun trip yesterday…

I’m Thankful for…

Seatbelts and airbags!

Went to the body shop today to get everything out of my car since it has been officially totaled. Decided to take a few pics while I was there..

 

 

It doesn’t really look all that bad does it?

Let’s have a moment of silence for my little Tracker…

It was sure a good car and really held up under a pretty hard impact.

Just a tiny whine about the accident… why did it have to happen right after we had new brakes installed??  O’Well, at least there wasn’t too much gas in the the tank!