Spring!!!

It sure is raining and hailing and winding like spring!!
Here is some spring color for some eye candy!

Some of the Rhododendrons are starting to bloom, this one is such a vibrant red/fusia.

I caught Emma taking a nap, he he he....She wasnt to impressed about me sneaking up to the fence to take pictures LOL

I love Pansies! They are such a happy flower, Blue/purple is my favorite color. These were a Birthday present from my folks, I enjoy them every day out my kitchen window. I hope to buy a flat of my favorite Blue Daddy Petunias! I have missed them for two years now, they are a huge bloom, blue with viening, and scented, and very prolific flowerers, I cant wait to share! I am going to a Mothers day flower sale this weekend, she is the only grower that has these in our local area! $16. for a whole flat! I think there are 18 in a flat.

Comedy Relief....

Dublin is such a Ham! LOL

Jessie....

Today we let Jessie cross the Rainbow Bridge. She was a special dog, always watching over everything. If a dog came over with bad energy, she was always the one to put them in their place. Always gentle and kind. We will miss her.

She hadnt been eating for 3 days and we had been feeding her canned food and anything we could think of to get her to eat, for the past few weeks. The Vet thinks that she probably had a spleen or liver tumor, as that is really commmon in these old dogs, bleeding into her abdomen, she was very anemic and lethargic. She would have been ten in November. They dont live long enough.

We spent the weekend saying goodbye to her, she was special, even among Goldens.

One story about her special gentle nature. My cousin and his wife came over one day with their, then, only 11-12 mo. old little boy, Luke. This was right after we had gotten Jessie and she was 5-6 mo. old. We had her on the leash because she was still getting used to us, as we were her second home. We gave little Luke her leash and I had never seen a dog do this, but Luke would walk a few steps and lead her around and everytime he would stop, she would lie down, he would pull, and she would walk with him, he would stop, and she would lie down. They did this for some time. Jessie continued to always have this gentle kind nature. She was protective though, I have seen her face down strange men with her head lowered, growling and barking in the front yard. She was something else, this dog. Her and her predicesor, Jake, our first Golden Retriever, have made me thoroughly love this breed so much.

Now we arent dogless, but we dont have one that belongs to us, its been a long time since we have been without a pet dog, there is going to be a lot of adjusting. We have decided to just raise the Guide Dog puppies for awhile, probably until one doesnt make it, before we get a pet dog again.

Sunday stills....Barns

I love this old barn, it is the old Shippey Homestead barn in Klickitat county Washington. Somewhere I have a beautiful picture of it, on real film LOL this is from last fall. It has character and age and cool wagon wheels on the front, it is also a lot bigger than it looks. So here is my contribution to Sunday stills....Barns if you want to see more take the link, I cant wait to see what folks post! I love old barns.

Spring is coming! I just know it!!! Please please soon!

Spring must be here! The Hummers are back and I have already refilled the feeders. They are zipping around like crazy!

I still havnt figured out what species this bird is, it is only about 4" long, anyone have an idea? Wondering if it will come back again? Some kind of flycatcher? I lost my bird book, dang it, I have looked on the internet, but there is to much to look through, and I have to have an idea what I am looking for! LOL

Cant wait to be outside watching the Hummingbird antics again and taking pictures when it is warm! We are going to have a week of rain coming up, which means cleaning stalls! I have been leaving them out as much as I can, last night I felt bad because it started raining around 7:30, I fed at 6:30, (it was dry and warm, spring weather sheesh) so I went out and let them in, it was raining hard! and only going to be around 45F so I brought the spoiled girls in LOL.

Well the mystery is solved, the yellow bird above is.... a Ruby Crowned Kinglet. I sent the photos to Cornell Univercity and they got back to me really fast! I went to this website All about birds The woman who responded to my e-mail also requested that I help them out by voting for their site, so if anyone wants to contribute a vote please go here to vote for Cornells, All about birds and here if you cant find them she said To find All about birds and vote

Here are the complete instuctions, Thanks to Cornell, and all who are interested in voting! They have been nominated for a "Webby" award, and need votes.

1. Go to http://webby.aol.com/living/lifestyle and click "Register to vote"

2. Enter a username and password on the Web form.
3. The Webbys will send you a verification e-mail. Click on the e-mail and you will return to the site to vote.
4. Once you get back to the voting website it isn't easy to find "us". Just go here: http://webby.aol.com/living/lifestyle
 

The Chair Video.... and Remembering CJ Twomey

Please go here and see Tims Chair video. He recently had surgery for Glioblastoma brain cancer. He is working hard at recovering, going through the hell that is Chemo. He was a working Veterinarian, had a seizure at a clients home one day and their whole lives changed. Here is the link DVM's Wife, they are strong people, going through hell right now.

Just remember, no matter how bad you think things are....someone else is having a harder time than you are. I feel lucky my cancer has not come back, I had a grade 2 ependymoma in the 4th ventrical on my brainstem.  I deal with balance, blood pressure, vision, and many other issues, I cant work because of these issues, and do the best I can, I am here and I am grateful. I find much support in the adult ependymoma group that I belong to online, they are a group of wonderful people! With lots of experience and information about this desease, I am greatful I found them. Here is the link to the group if you are interested Braintrust, Adult ependymoma group 

My heart goes out to another blogger friend, Hallie and the Twomey family at Wonderful World of Weiners  Who have suddenly lost their 21 year old son, CJ, who sounded like such a wonderful life loving kid, my heart goes out to them, words dont suffice. Hallie and I had in common that we are Air Force moms, as two of my kids and her CJ are Airmen.

I know these folks only through blogging, it has become an amazing medium for me, meeting people I would never know about, hearing tragic stories, and many more happy ones, thank you! to all my blogger freinds! For making my life richer and fuller in getting to know all of you.

2010 Pet Fair with Guide Dogs for the Blind....

Sunday Dublin and I went to the Pet Fair, it was a lot of fun and we got to see a lot of different breeds of dogs, BIG and little!!

The Guide Dogs for the Blind booth at the Pet Fair. I dont remember everyones names, in the middle are Debbie, Kent, and Josh (the puppy).

In the red shirt is Kents son Alex and he has Jana at his feet.

Logger and Popcorn, she is biteing his foot LOL All of the puppies got along so good!

Dublin sitting on the mat, popcorn in front of him.

He was really good, a bit excited with all of the strange dogs around and all the noise! But I had the club leader, Mike, and Kent both take him for walks around the Fair and they said he did great! He was pulling and wanting to see the other dogs when I was leading him through, it helps to have someone else evaluate them, I am so happy he did good for them!

Pretty boy hoarding all the bones! LOL

Dublin and Logger chillin' watching Josh chew on his bone.

Little Popcorn, and her raiser. Popcorn is so cute, she is 4 mo. old now.

This guy stopped to visit, oh my he is the biggest Newfoundland I have ever seen! And there are two of them!

Popcorn got to meet him, you can kind of see how big he is with Josh in front!

This is the other Newfie, when asked the folks said they were cousins. This guy though is a trained service dog for the lady in the wheelchair! They are watching the stock dogs demonstration, there were also dock dogs and agility courses set up.

This big ol' Harlequin Dane is beautiful! There were quit a few Great Danes, he was by far not the tallest one LOL I love the coat patterns that they have.

I believe this is a pair of Pitbull puppies, there were all kinds of rescue groups there, Pitbull, Rat Terrier, Rehoming groups of all kinds, including the Humane Society.

It was a fun day, I love seeing all the different breeds of dogs, and guessing what they are!

Sunday stills....Potluck....

When I seen this theme all I could thing about was food LOL, I got over it, here are some of the pictures on my camera chip that I havnt uploaded yet.

Meghan riding Easy.

Puppies and People, after touring the libray on on outing.

Dublin playing with his toy, I am trying to get one that isnt blury LOL, he holds the bone with his paws and chews on it upside down!

Dublin and Popcorn at the NW Pet fair. More to come!

For more Sunday Stills click the link!

Bearskin rug.....or not

Still havnt been doing a whole lot lately, Dublin is getting out a lot, with Meghans help. He loves going places and lets us know he wants to go LOL. This day, he was hanging with Meg, LOL....

He is a little Polar Bear LOL. Doesnt he look comfy.
This weekend we are suposed to go to a puppy outing to the Woodland Wa. Tulip fields,(If I can get someone to go with me, I dont want to go alone) and then there is a Pet Fair and the exposition center that they want lots of puppies at, so I signed us up for a couple of hours, should be fun, ( must remember camera, must remember camera, LOL) My biggest problem doing public speaking is my speach, most people understand me ok, but there are some that just dont, it is not a confidence builder. I have restarted some speach therepy, but I am so bad about doing the exercises, they wont do me any good if I dont do them, will they (sigh).

Hail, rain, sun, rain, hail, sun, akkkk!!

Boy this Spring weather has been odd! It hailed so hard today that the roads turned white and the horses scrambled for shelter! The skiers sure are enjoying this spring cold weather. So are the Ski areas I am sure. More money! They did get a later start on the snow this year, as you could tell from the Olympics, they had to make snow. There is plenty now!

You can see Easy's head and Mickeys butt, LOL. Emma is inside in her stall and pissed off about it, I have been watching her close the last week or so, she has just been off on her right hind foot, I think she may have an abcess, she needs to be trimmed again and see if I can find it, I have the Epsom salts, and the Ichthamol ready, (((sigh))). I have her in where it is dry, she is so not happy with being left inside! It is so muddy out around the barn, I was wondering if one of them would have a problem, it had to be her, she is a pain in the butt LOL, a 1200lb. wiggle worm, I dont know if she will let me soak her foot or not, if not I will have to try to find a boot big enough for her and leave her in, she wont be happy with that! The big booger LOL.

The mares were hiding under the Redwood tree. You can see how the road was covered in the second picture. It didnt last very long but it was a lot of ice! I took these pictures from where it was safe, LOL, out of the front window! I cant wait for it to warm up!, and be less wet.

Saturday, Pizza and out with Jana....

Last Thursday night I exchanged puppys with another raiser family, they took Dublin and I took Jana. Jana is a black Lab female, she is a couple months older than Dunblin, who will be 9 mos. on the 11th! Can you believe it. We started out at Starbucks, Hubbys favorite place, LOL. Here is Jana at Starbucks. Its a little blurry, but she gave me such a cute look when I called her name, I have to share. Hubby usually get a Grande peppermint mocha, and I get a Tall soy chai tea, I have found the say agrees with my stomach better. Yumm Yum!!

Then we went to a neighboring town named Battle Ground, and went to the farm store Wilco where I used to work before my surgery. Shopped there, got a few things, including a new gargage can, and light bulbs, Wilco also is a True Value hardware. After we left there we went to a place called Rockys Pizza, for lunch. Rockys cooks thier pizzas with the cornmeal brick oven crust, very yummy!!!! Here is Jana waiting patiently under the table.

Rockys also has a really eclectic decore, here are some shots of this cool log building and decorations.

Some toy horses on the wall.

This photo is from the 40's, of Battle Ground Lake, a very popular fishing spot and it has hiking and horse riding trails around it. No longer can you drive right up to the shore, but a short walk from the parking lot and you come to this gorgeous dark green lake that is a couple of acres in size, the state stocks it with trout.

This building is a huge wooden log structure, the staircase leads up to more seating, on the other side behind me taking this picture is another staircase and meeting rooms, they also have a wonderful salad and pizza bar, a lot of video games and great atmosphere! You can see the huge roof beams in this photo. Battle Ground is about 19 miles from where we live, I worked up there for a year before I got sick. It is one of the fastest growing areas in the county we live in, lots of small and larger farms, which unfortunatly are getting gobbled up by housing developements.

This is the front order desk, they actually have pagers they give you that go off with a recording when your pizza is done.

We had a good day and Jana was a good pup while we were out! We stopped at Safeway for a few groceries too, on the way home, she was just a perfect girl all day! We have Dublin back now, traded back on Saturday afternoon.

Sunday stills Easter....

We do not do a whole lot for Easter, we usually get together with family. All the kids are grown up, not little anymore, so we havnt done Easter egg hunts in a long time, just good food and family. This year we also celebrated my Uncles 66th Birthday, he is my moms brother.

My Uncle John, he is two years older than Mom. We went to my cousins house for dinner, Uncle Johns oldest son. I have three cousins on that side of the family.

Meghan and my Mom, I love their dining room table, it seats 8, two on each side, lots of room.
We had Ham, steak, corn cassarol, a yummy zuchini, spinich and mushroom cassorole, mashed taters and an Italina wedding cake for dessert! It was all really good!!!! Oh and some smoked tuna that was awesome!!
It was nice to visit with everyone, its been to long since we all have gotten together.
That was our Easter, quiet and good company with family.
Thats my Sunday stills for this week.