Wildlife Appreciation

So yesterday I was appreciating the peacocks. Today one of my great huntresses brought in a chipmunk. It got away from the huntress and hid under the couch. We lifted the couch to see why Minnie was so interested in it. That is when it escaped somewhere else. About an hour later Minnie is making a ruckus in the bathroom. It was under a set of shelves. So Dave got his big old welding gloves and went chipmunk hunting. He said it ran up over his head and bounced off the walls. He did catch it and did the release thing in the woods. He thinks Mica brought it in and I suspect Minnie.

Oh oh oh oh

I went up to my neighbors to see his puppies and his garden. His garden is at least five times as big as mine. While we were looking at it and talking about it I kept hearing this banging noise. Finally I asked him what that noise was and he said oh it was probably the peacock attacking himself. Oh noooooo...... Peacocks see themselves in shiny things and think it is another peacock so they attack. I have nice chrome accents on my Mini and so it was attacking my car. Looks like most of the scratches should buff out. Guess I won't be taking the Mini to the neighbors house anymore.

Rotten Grass

So Minnie is again being the great hunter. She caught a mole yesterday and another one today. She also thought she needed to roll in some rotting grass. Boy that made her smell so good. Anyway it got her a bath. Turns out she doesn't like her ears to get wet (they had to be washed) and hopped out of the tub. Then she told me she was not getting back in and I couldn't make her. She now knows different. I am the Mama and I picked her up and put her back in. I had no choice as she still had soap all over her. She smelled much better. But now she is out playing with that mole so I have no idea how she is going to be when she comes back in.

And Change

Had a nice visit with Myk yesterday. He said the interview with an Oxford house didn't happen. He doesn't seem concerned. He wants to come home and maybe not go to an Oxford house. I guess time is going to tell. We do have an appt. for family therapy on Thursday. We'll see what comes of that.

Plans Change

Myk has another week of in-patient. He gets to come home for awhile on Monday to reconnect with us. On Sunday he has an interview with an Oxford House. My impression is they really want him to go to one of those as opposed to coming home. They don't want him in our little town. I totally understand. It could end up being that our last child has left the nest. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Myk

Myk is really looking good. He has now gained almost 30 pounds. His treatment provider is talking about him graduating the program next week and being able to come home on Tuesday. We'll know today whether that is what happens or not. Myk said he has actually learned a lot in the past four weeks. Says his perspective is different than before. He is also waiting to hear if he has to go back to detention or whether he is on house arrest when he gets out.
So the plan is if he gets out next week he will come home until the new Oxford House opens and then he will move there. That sounds somewhat reasonable to me. But I do still have my fear of what happens when he comes back to our small town with all his "friends".

Garden

While all the seed that we have planted has now sprouted, so too has the weed seed that was already there. You would almost think I was growing a squash field from the number of volunteer plants. Have to wait for it to dry up a bit in order to start weeding. And it looks like the flea beetles are back also. Grow quick bean plants.

Interest?

So I get the visa bill several days ago. I don't often look at the bill as I do it all online. I check the balances and I pay it online. So I am just about to shred it when I notice there is interest charges. Say what?? So I investigate further. Seems I underpaid the previous month by 4 cents and that prompted a $2.56 interest charge. Crap, crap, crap. At least it was a small bill and so the charge is small, but one I wouldn't ever choose to make. Good thing I had already overpaid the bill this time so it covered the interest charge so there won't be one next month.

Yes!

Bonusmails are back. It makes me so happy.

Puter Gremlins

Ah the rain has returned. It sounded so nice this morning. We have had a couple of really hot days and then a couple of pretty nice days. I like a nice mix of nice and rain. Rain is good for the garden and I don't have to water. And so now in the garden the corn, beans, peas, popcorn, brussel sprouts and sunflowers are up. :)
I do a point collector website. They send me emails and I get a few points for reading it. If it is something that interests me I may get more points. If I buy things online I always check to see if there is a link to where I want to shop on mypoints. I use the points for gift cards. Helps the budget a bit. May 1st came and I stopped getting the emails. Took me about a week to realize it. Then I waited to see. Finally I had to check it out. Mypoints said they have sent me 131 emails in the last 30 days. Then I had to contact hotmail. Turns out somehow mypoints ended up on my blocked list. I never put them on that list, but it sure works. So a computer gremlin must have done it. Now they are removed from my blocked list so I should be happy again once I start receiving my bonusmails.

Frugal Day

Today is a frugal day. I have went no where, which saves money and gas. I cleaned the house and did some laundry. Two loads went out on the line so that saves money going to the electric company. Dave is moving firewood into the woodshed for next season's heat. I love not giving my money to the PUD. I would much rather buy flowers.

Mini Garden Update

Well we had 98 degrees here today. So after it started cooling down we ventured down to the garden to see how it is doing. The baby bok choy and the radishes are up and the spinach is just barely starting. :) No signs of the other stuff, but it is all bigger seed.

Myk

My child is doing much better this week. He wasn't too happy last night as he had gotten the word that he had to put in extra time at in-patient. That is due to his history of relapse while doing out-patient. While it doesn't make him happy I think it may be a good thing. He is also strongly considering transitional housing. He knows he can't just come back to our small town where all his "friends" are and stay sober. He is learning some things at in-patient.
Before we left he gave me back some pants to exchange (and naturally now I can't find the receipt) and a Mother's Day card he made for me. He hasn't made me a card since he was in elementary school. I like it.

Quick Garden Update

So far nothing has sprouted which is to be expected. It has only been five days since we planted. The squash are doing fine. The cherokee purple tomatoes are turning a dusky color and I'm not sure that is a good thing. Guess time is going to tell.

Minis

I drive a Mini Cooper. I have liked them since the first time I saw one in 2002. In 2007 I finally became a proud owner of one. Dave kind of likes them also, but isn't too sure about their hauling capabilities. Sometimes he has to haul some tools with him when he travels north to Olympia. So this year they came out with a Mini Cooper Clubman which is a little bigger and has a little bit more capacity for hauling. I wasn't too sure about them from the picture he showed me.
Today I saw one in person running around our little town. Amazingly enough it is still cute, although not as cute as mine.

No Way

My child spells his name Myk. He doesn't want to be like all the other Mikes in the world. So today I am driving through our little town and I am following a vehicle with personalized license plates. It says MYKZMOM. No way. I haven't yet heard of another Myk and especially not in our town.

Busy Day

Whew. Time to sit back a bit and watch some TV. The morning was filled with cleaning
my brother's house and finishing mowing the neighbor's yard. It's a big yard and take several hours on a riding lawn mower.

Then this afternoon Dave and I planted the garden. I always like getting the garden up and going. It has a nice sense of accomplishment. This year we are trying a couple of new things. We have strawberry popcorn, spinach, baby bok choy and brussel sprouts to try and see how they do. Then we did the usual corn, beans, peas, onions, tomatoes, squashes and cucumbers.

After that the grandkids came over and we played for awhile.

Weirdness

So yesterday I was driving to work. I passed a small SUV on the side of the road with only three wheels. Thought it was strange, but okay it happens. Then I passed a cop car and two vehicles on the side of the road. Didn't really appear to be a fender bender but there was a guy between the cars looking rather upset with his arms crossed. Shortly after that I passed a tire on a wheel rolling down the fast lane of the freeway. Very strange and made me wonder if it was a full moon.

Visitation

I got to see my child last night. Visitation is every Thursday night while he is there. We had to sit through a video first and hear about the benefits of Al-Anon. Then we got some time to visit. While my child looks well and is gaining weight he still soooo needs to be there. He wants to come home and he wants to stay. He wants to stay in recovery court...he wants to opt out of recovery court. The treatment provider had talked to him about going to transitional housing after in-patient. He dismissed that out of hand, but then maybe not. He is a confused young man right now. He still has three weeks to go so we'll see how next week is and if he is clearer. What amazed me is he was clearer prior to going in.

Granddaughters

So yesterday was my day to spend with Elizabeth. We went to the mall and bought her an outfit off the sale racks. We had a lovely dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. We had a great conversation about all the things she is excited about in school. Owl pellets, the human body and reading. She is just finishing up third grade, but worried that she may have to do it again. I doubt it after talking to her. She reminds me of why I think home-schooling is neat. She would do excellent at it if she had a good teacher. She is so hands-on. Hopefully she contnues to thrive in the public school system.

While I was dropping her off I got to play with Adrianna for a bit. She is working on seven months old. She likes cat noises a lot. She loves her big sister and it shows. I noticed her legs are getting stronger and she can push herself up into a crawling position. Won't be long and she will truly be mobile. Then the world better watch out because she is going to do things her way.

Women in my life

"You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."
Christopher Robin

The first time I read this quote I thought of my stepdaughter. She likes to put herself last in her family, like she isn't deserving of good things. We certainly never raised her like that, but she managed to adopt that self-esteem level anyway. I think I recently got her to think about it when I said she was being a role model for her daughters and teaching them that this is normal and good.

Today I got email from a friend in an abusive relationship. I don't think he is physically so, but boy is he emotionally. She wants to get rid of him, but doesn't think of herself as strong enough to do it. I think she is wrong with all the trials in her life she has already survived.

I just want to tell the women in my life that we are all stronger, smarter and braver than we think we are. Sometimes we just have to prove that to ourselves. I have my fingers crossed for both these women, but the ball is really in their court.

Quiet Time

I have been blessed with some quiet time all by myself. My husband is out of town and my child is in in-patient. So I have been watching mediocre movies. I sat down tonight and watched "Factory Girl". I almost didn't watch it figuring I had seen enough not good movies. I actually enjoyed it. It had quite a cast of characters.

I picked up a fuscia basket today. It is called Moonglow. That means white centers and white outers with pink accents. Fabulous. It looks so right on my deck. Now I know that the hummingbirds really prefer the bright ones, but they will have to live with what I like this year.

Speaking of hummers. I had one quite upset with me a few moments ago. I filled the feeder and it just didn't like it being gone. Wasn't even a foot away from my hand as I rehung the feeder. It was like it was supervising the rehanging.

My blog??

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-Mark Twain

I don't know why, but I want to do this. I have a fascination with reading others' blogs so why not do my own. We'll see how it goes.