HAPPY THANKSGIVING....

We have so much to be thankful for every year, but this year, we are so very thankful that our son is alive and well. So with that said, we had a wonderful day. Thanksgiving at our house, we finished our redecorating project, and started in on cooking. I am exhausted.

My mom, sister and her family, my family and my oldest daughter's beau and 2 dogs joined us. Middle daughter's beau went to California to see his family. She was supposed to go too, but couldn't get off work...retail.. ugh.

Here's some highlights from the day!!

my mom playing the piano
me with one of my nephews

sleepy daughter my niece my beautiful kids and my mom with her grand kids, missing the little one...he was being a turd.

HEAVY HEART

Yesterday, we had to take our 15 year old Maltese Phoebe, on the dreaded one way trip. She was failing; had started falling. Almost like her back legs were giving out. She'd also stop, bob her head, and kind of like freeze. We knew it was coming soon. Mark orchestrated it, while I was out. I came back earlier than expected and asked Corbin WHY he was soaking wet? (It was storming, with serious RAIN) Corbin replied, 'don't ask', so I didn't. When it was time to go, Mark did tell me, then I knew why Corbin was wet. He was digging the hole, in our pet burial ground.




Why do dogs never just sleep away? Why is it always an orchestrated event? And, why is it we offer such a peaceful compassionate death to our beloved pets, but, watch PEOPLE we love, die in agony? Something isn't right here....

So, off my soapbox, back to reality ~ I'm sad, and so are our other doglets. Funny how they realize and mourn. They really can be quite human like.

I have Thanksgiving here in a couple days... and I've been redecorating (as you know)... and now I"m just sitting here with swollen eyes, feeling sad.

I work well under pressure.

ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER.....

I'm sorry for the lack of posts... I've been otherwise occupied. Really.

As you may recall, we refinished our floors. They look FAB! I am delighted.


But funny, how one thing leads to another. So I DID buy new family room furniture. My old stuff really had nothing major wrong with it. I have just had it since 1994... and frankly we were sick of it. So I stumbled on to what was to become our new furniture!! I haven't taken any photos as the room isn't done yet, so sit tight.

Well, we decided to paint. And that went fine without a hitch in the family room, the living room however. Not so much.

We had a border to strip. Now I like wallpaper, but slap me if I ever put any up again. We had to strip it and that my friends is not fun at all. Okay, I admit it, we were lazy and had painted over some of the old (I mean REALLY OLD) paper; not only on the walls but the ceiling too. So we put down tarps and spent a really long weekend tackling this.
We know how to live don't we?

I'd like to show you a picture of what is/was my dining room... most of the furniture was stored in there. It's like a 'hoarder' room huh? And check out the lovely dust that was on everything from the sanding.... ugh.... .

Now my dining room wasn't big enough to hold everything, so a couple large cabinets are in the hall, and the sofa is conveniently located in the kitchen. Where my son pointed out, he could lay on it and reach into the freezer for ice cream. We were sporting an 'efficiency' look.

Hum, I have Thanksgiving dinner here in one week and 2 days.


I work well under stress.....

QUICK KITTY UPDATE....

We got the other two. Actually at the same time, in the same little trap. They were so cute in there... in spite of the fact that one had it's hind foot caught and I about died. Right there, in my garage. Luckily, my neighbor had taken a vacation day, and was home (I forgot that Corbin was home, asleep~ of course). Anyway, we were able to pry the cage, push his little foot in and all was okay. Not injury at all!! I was so relieved.

So they went home with the WONDERFUL woman who adopted the other two. And..... she's keeping all 4!! They are lucky little inside kitties!!

Mama cat had her surgery, came back to my yard and SHOT out of her cage directly under my deck. She was a little on edge. Okay, a lot. She was yowling around, probably looking for her babies, which made me sad. But, I tried, I really did, to tell her they were living the high life, as pets. And, we all want better for our kids- right?

So, that's the end of the kitty story. Now, I must go paint. I'll update you all with my redecoration story soon. But, suffice to say, it's like a house of cards, pull one and it all goes. This shack is getting a face lift!!

FAB CONTEST

If you don't read Nie, you should. She is totally inspiring. What a beautiful person, with a tremendous purpose.

She's hosting a giveaway for a Tamron lens...which, if you didn't know, is the mother of all lenses. So hop on over and enter.

DUST....and CATS....

So in the continuing saga of the cats.. We've live trapped 2 kittens, the mother and one possum. Who'd like to adopt the possum?

Before you go crazy on me, the kittens are big enough to be away from their mom, so until we get the other two all's good. The mother is being spayed and will be re-released in my yard, as she is feral. And I mean feral. Poor dear, she didn't care AT ALL for the cage. Bonked her nose a time of two, I really felt bad. Anyway, the two captured kittens already have a home and the 1st one caught is already settling in nicely. And adored by her new 'big brothers'. I'm anxious to hear how the other one is doing. The possum has been relocated to a wooded area away from here, in case he's a dullard and keeps climbing in the live trap. And, let me say, I am SO GRATEFUL to the wonderful person who is helping me with this.

And, on to the floor. We moved ALL the furniture out of the two rooms.. wandered around and discussed some major remodeling ideas. We (Mark and I) are KINDA on the same page with these, so that alone is pretty darn amazing. he has some great ideas, we need to fine tune some of it and decide whether or not we want to dump money and effort into the shack...

But at any rate, we rented the dreaded sander and I jumped aboard and we stripped both rooms.

So now we have a half done project. The living room is empty and the pocket doors are shut. The TV room is covered with tarps keeping the floor safe (it has NO finish on it) and it's rocking a minimalist look. And frankly, I'm liking it. There's just a sofa, chair, TV and table. I think I just may have to throw half this crap out.

Seriously, I NEED new family room furniture, and I think there is no time like the present-don't you agree??