Thursday, January 31

That mouth o' mine...

Today I went to the dentist to get a cavity filled and I must say that whatever numbing agents they used were really strong, because this picture was taken about 2 hours after they numbed me, and I was trying my darndest to smile.


You know, I really ought to be smiling because today I got my last baby toofer pulled. Yay! That means that 4 teeth got pulled so far this year, and 2 of them were mine.
Well, I'm going to take that silly mouth of mine upstairs and put it to bed.

Lynae

Wildlife Seen in January

  • 2 Canada geese
  • 3 grouse
  • 7 deer
  • 7 ducks
  • bald eagle
  • barred owl
  • gray squirrel
  • red squirrel
January's backyard birds
  • bluejays
  • cardinals
  • chickadees
  • common redpolls
  • downy woodpeckers
  • goldfinches
  • hairy woodpeckers
  • northern shrike
  • pileated woodpecker
  • pine grosbeaks
  • ruffed grouse
  • white-breasted nuthatches

Sunday, January 27

Um... hi!

It looks like my neighbor blogger, Deb, gets a lot of visitors. And many of you were kind enough to stop by! I regret that I don't have something wise or witty or crunchy to share... all I have to offer these days is a look at my dear family and some other seemingly random pictures.

But thank you for dropping in! You're welcome to return, though I make no content guarantees. ;)

Saturday, January 26

Welcome to my life


Not everyone will understand this


And that's ok. One day I just had too much time on my hands. So there ya go.

Wednesday, January 23

Accounting error

Not many things stress me out more easily than money. Or, to be more specific, the appearance of my mishandling of it. (sigh)

It is becoming increasingly common for me to think we are flat broke, only to find that I've entered a transaction in the records more than once. I would expect that such a discovery would fill me with relief. But no, instead I could just cry for all the unnecessary stress I've caused myself and whatever habit I seem to be developing which is making it more common. (sigh)

On the other hand, now we can keep paying the medical bills. Whippee.

Potential

You know a book's got potential when the first sentence reads as follows:

Evelyn was an insomniac so when they say she died in her sleep, you have to question that.
So far it's a bit more something than I tend to enjoy reading anymore, but we'll see. And I believe that sentence lacks a comma, but want to trust the English major. So again, we'll see.

ETA: Salacious. That's what it is. Halfway through, I just had to stop. But it sure did have potential.

Tuesday, January 22

I think today is a home day

11 = The number of stitches we bought with our latest ER co-pay

10 = The number of units of insulin I started on yesterday

9 = The age of our latest stitchee

8 = How many dollars (and how many cents) I spent on myself at Subway in 24 hours

7 = Hours I slept between visits to the health care facility

6 = Gallons of gas I used for the two trips

5 = Children who have been wonderful throughout the chaos

4 = Children who have been stitched or stapled at some point

3 = Days until stitches can be removed

2 = Medications I no longer have to take

1 = God who has overseen this whole thing

Saturday, January 19

Blogger is now available in Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian!

Yeah, that's the news. Real exciting, huh? Man, I can really take advantage of that, especially if I can speak or read in any of those languages. But I can't, so I'll talk about stuff I know.

Um, since I last posted I've caught 2 more weasels. One got caught in a coon set and was alive when I got there, so I had to kill it. I wasn't afraid of killing it, I was just afraid of it. See, he wasn't afraid of killing me, and he really intended to. He thought he stood a chance, so he tried to mutilate my hand more than once. But yours truly has amazing reflexes (or did when faced with the possibility of getting bitten by an angry weasel, anyway), and so I did not get hurt. The other one got caught in a weasel box at an apparently excellent location (2nd weasel caught there). Unfortunately, I had to move that weasel box onto higher ground today, and I will tell you why...

See, there is a beautiful creek in town, and it is full of mink, coon, and weasel activity, so obviously it was where I wanted my traps set. And in the summer and fall, it looks so pristine and natural, and you would never guess it's full of stuff we won't mention by name. Oh yes, but the mink, coon, and weasels don't give a flyin' muskrat's butt what kind of creek it is, so I set some traps there. Well, this morning, the culvert with my weasel box in it had steam coming out either end, and on further inspection (looking in the culvert), there was a 1 1/2 inch deep layer of green, thick, smelly, warm stuff on top of the ice. I was not overjoyed to see this, and had to move my weasel box higher on the bank.

I have learned to play some more new songs on my guitar. I can now play "Everything Glorious" (David Crowder band), "Made to Love" (Toby Mac), and "Thrive" (Newsboys). I'll have to put some of these songs on video and put them on the www.

Alvin is coming along very well; he is trained to alert his master at the sounds of the phone, door knock, name call, fire alarm, and the stove timer, as well as picking up anything that gets dropped by accident. He's pretty much ready to go, and soon we will just be working with Annie, an Australian Shepherd who needs a refresher course.

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Monday, January 14

A peek in my window

It seems, from the look of the sidebar, I've been so busy reading and birdwatching that I haven't had time to post. 2008 is off to a wonderful start, indeed. I had more bloodwork done, and found out my numbers have improved respectably. I've already made appointments for myself with the doctor and dietitian, and all the kids will be seeing the dentist later this month. Maybe later this week I'll be brave enough to get my new driver's license and make a hair appointment, too.

School has been going very well this month. We now officially have another reader in the family -- just one more to go! Toby is studying Latin, Lynae is progressing on the violin. Neither is nearly as impressive as it looks in type. This may be why I've been so busy reading and birdwatching.

We are still working on Christmas thank you notes. I just took cards down yesterday. If we hit a lull here, I may yet post pictures of the kids' adorable gingerbread houses. Just as I typed that, Miss Grace came to show me her wonderfully supposed-to-be clean teeth (minus one) and moisturized face (and hair). I should be cherishing the sweet silliness of my last 5yo. I think I'll go grab some snuggle time with her, after wiping some lotion off, of course.

Saturday, January 5

Toby's back (dangit!)

Yeah, sorry to keep ruining you guy's's lives and eating all your steak, but I was requested to put a writing assignment on the www. I was given some sentences and told to improve them to make a good story.

"As Bill was walking his dog through previously unseen territory, he found an old man by a rocky stream, jumping up and down mourning the loss of his 'precious'. When Bill asked for the scoop on the 'precious' situation, the starving Hungarian monk replied that the bridge had disappeared and he had no shelter now,and to make things worse, a 2004 Chevy Silverado with Z 71 offroad packet had sped across where the bridge had been and landed on a school of crappie, the starving Hungarian monk's primary source of food. This made Bill feel sorry for him, so he said, "I might know where this bridge is." The starving Hungarian monk made it clear to Bill that he would do anything Bill asked if he found the bridge. So Bill devised a plan to make this old man eat a good dinner if he found the bridge. He told the starving Hungarian monk his plan, which, after a pause and some vertical and horizontal slashing motions on his chest, the old man accepted."

Today was an exciting day

I went to Isle today for the MTA mid winter meeting. When I got there, I went and saw how to make a weasel box, and when they were done, they gave me a weasel box, a trap, and some weasel lure. (Pretty cool huh?)

Then I set out to go sell my weasel skins. Did I mention I caught 2 weasels? I got $5 each, so now I was saving money, making money, and all I had to worry about was lunch. Yes, lunch. See, Lynae packed me a really awesome lunch, but in my hurry, I forgot to get it on my way out the door. So I had to pay $1.75 for the worst sloppy joe sandwich of all time.

Then there was an auction. I didn't have a ton of cash, but Mr. M said he would get me a good deal on some 110 conibears. He bought me 8 110 conibears, and then some people found out I was his student, and so a bunch of other people started giving me traps. In all, I received 22 traps at the meeting, and Mr. M also gave me 3 weasel stretchers.

I talked to Mr. R about setting 110s for mink, since I had plenty at this point. He told me how and where to set them, and he told me he has a book on trapping mink and will let me look at it. (These people are so neat.)

I also got some raffle tickets to sell, and if anyone is interested, I can sell you some with pleasure, because if I sell enough, they'll give me free stuff. (More traps.)
OK, the tickets are $1 each, and the prizes are:

G.P. 2008 Polaris Sportsman 500 auto 4x4 ATV
1st. Custom made fur jacket or stroller
2nd. Browning Silver Hunter 3 1/2" semi auto 12 Ga.
3rd. Browning A Bolt NRA edition 243 cal.
4th. Marlin 45/70 stainless steel guide gun
5th. Compound bow: parker, buckhunter w/sights, quiver,rest, hard case
6th. Weatherby vanguard varmint 22-250 bolt
7th. Mossberg silver reserve0/u 28 Ga.
8th. Ruger m-77 bolt action .243 cal.
9th. Knight vision hardwood camo black powder 50 cal.
10th. Benelli nova max 4 camo. 12 Ga. pump
11th.H&R excel semi auto 12 Ga.
12th. Stevens model 200 rifle
13th. Henry lever action .22 cal.
14th. Marlin 917.17 HMR
15th. Ruger 10-22 semi auto
16th. Custom made fishing rod, walleye or muskie, your choice.
17th. New England pardner pump12 Ga.
18th. Henry U.S. survival rifle .22 cal.
19th. Cricket youth (pink) .22 cal.
20-24th. $100 gift certificates to Gander Mtn.
25-29th. Browning fixed blade hunting knives w/ leather display case.

I don't know what most of that stuff is, but it sounds pretty cool. The drawing is going to be on August 2, 2008, so no hurry. Don't worry, I have plenty of tickets to sell.

Tonight we're having rabbit stew with two of the SYHs.