Erica’s Blog

OK, this dog is officially spoiled!  ;->  As she finishes up her Sunday treat of peanut butter frozen inside her dental Kong, I’m reading the ingredients on the empty bag of Wellness Super5Mix dry dog food (don’t worry, Cindy; a delivery is coming tomorrow from Jeffrey’s).  This dog eats SO well! 

Check out what’s in this stuff:

• lamb
• lamb meal
• whitefish
• ground brown rice
• ground barley
• oatmeal
• rye flour
• ground millet
• amaranth
• flax seed
• canola oil
• peas
• carrots
• whole sweet potatoes
• whole apples
• whole blueberries
• whole clove garlic
• alfalfa leaf
• yucc
• and a WHOLE BUNCH of vitamins & minerals I won’t list out.  This dog eats WELL.

So, she gets this stuff mixed with this other dry food called Great Life.  Once in a while, she gets some Merrick canned food.  Twice a day or so, she gets either a frozen raw chicken foot or a frozen raw turkey tail.  She also eats leftovers, especially any leftover meat (yes, she’s even had top sirloin, but no tri tip yet).   When I’m cooking, other things have been known to show up in her bowl, only to be devoured instantly, like raw ground turkey, avocado slices, and strawberry tops (doggie salad???).  She also gets little Old Mother Hubbard (really, that’s the brand; I didn’t make it up) biscuits in her red Kong bone when we go out and put her in her crate.  I tell ya, this dog ain’t lacking for good stuff to eat.  This “dog’s life” isn’t too bad.

Of  course, if you asked her for the last half hour, when she was whining b/c I wouldn’t let her go out b/c I smelled a skunk out there (which was probably precisely why she *wanted* to go out), she’d probably have said I was a mean mom who never lets her have any fun.  Oh, well.  Such is parenting, whether it’s with Thing One and Thing Two or “The Beast” (what we call Jenna when we don’t want her to know we’re talking about her).

I’m drooling and actually practically dreaming of knitting.  A week or so ago, I asked Hubby if it was OK w/him if I stocked up on some yarn.  www.joann.com was having a sale on Fun Fur and some other stuff for a couple of dollars off per skein.  I get free shipping from them anyway, and they were also having an “upgrade to priority shipping for free” special.  He said something VERY dangerous, “Sure, buy as much as you want, but only buy the stuff that’s on sale.”  We both figured it would save money in the long run if I bought it now on sale instead of waiting till I needed it urgently and would have to pay full price.  The box finally came on Friday.  Funny, the UPS guy wrote “Happy Mother’s Day” on the delivery slip. 

I think I posted before what I ordered, so I won’t list it all out now.  It’s a lot of Fun Fur and Homespun and ten or twelve skeins of Paton’s Divine.  I’m fantasizing about scarves, fuzzy flip flops, prayer shawls (see http://www.shawlministry.com/), and ponchos.  Fun, fun, fun!

Mother’s Day turned out pretty well.  I didn’t finish my MIL’s throw in time, but she knows it will be coming soon (it’s almost done).  Sent hubby’s stepmom some stuff from her wish list.  Got my mom some wine glasses b/c hers are 40+ years old and all clouded from many years in the dishwasher.  Also got her some smaller stuff.  I was going to make her some furry Fun Fur flip flops, but the yarn didn’t come till Friday, so I wrapped up the materials and gave her an IOU.  I’ll probably make them tomorrow or Tuesday.

I was nervous about today, but it’s been OK.  Ever since my first Mother’s Day, I’ve wanted an old-fashioned Mother’s Day corsage, and this year, Hubby got me one.  It had a rose and a ribbon for each of my three kids.  There were supposed to be two pink ones and one white one, but he got red instead of pink.  Hey — close enough!  I was just glad to have the corsage!  I had a really hard time getting it on correctly, so I ended up wearing it upside-dowin and using my pin with Paul’s picture to hold it on.  It looked pretty cool.

The girls were just as excited as I was about Mother’s Day.  It was really neat.  The first words I heard out of Thing One’s mouth this morning (after Jenna went in and woke them up early — argh!) were “It’s Mother’s Day!  It’s Mother’s Day!”

Thing One gave me a card that she’d made at school.  It was cool.  The front had a flower, and in the center of the flower was a tiny copy of her fall school picture.

Thing Two had already given me two great cards she’d made in class.  One of them was really big and inside had a picture of her and a note that said, “I love my mom because she makes my breakfast.  We have Mommy and [thing two] time when my sister is in school.”  The teacher wrote that part, but then she wrote her name on the bottom.  This morning, she gave me the gifts she had made for me:  a painted wooden picture frame with a picture of her in it and a “pearl” necklace with three pink foam roses glued onto it.  It was really special.  If she hadn’t made me the necklace, I would have worn my other “mommy necklace” (silver stick figures with birth stones for each of the kids, plus silver baby shoes with their names on the back), but I had to sport her gift.

I hadn’t been sure how it would go, being at church today, but it was fine.  I think it helped that we’re teaching in the 4y.o. & kindergarten class right now, so I wasn’t in the main service, seeing the pregnant women, remembering last year, etc.  They usually give out a flower to each mother at church on Mother’s Day, and this year they upgraded to roses (the last couple of years it was carnations), which was really nice.  They had also had a special video made to honor the moms. They had videotaped several kids from the congregation saying what they loved about their moms.  They had also gathered a bunch of pictures of moms in the congregation or moms with their kids and put that in. In the background of the photos they played a song.  I don’t know the name of it, but I know I’ve heard it before.  The chorus kept saying something about, “more than an emotion, love is a choice”.  Very appropriate for moms.  Another mom gave me a rose, too.   Some DINKs we’re friends with (Dual Income, No Kids) gave me a bouquet of tulips, too, so by the time we left church, I had a flower shop going on.  It was great!

Soon after we got home to church, we raced back up to the City to put in an appearance at our friend Zack’s three-year-old birthday party.  We didn’t get to stay long, but he was thrilled with his Thomas train toys and his Thomas underpants.  We told him he couldn’t do pee pee on Thomas (sound familiar, moms?!).  He’s such a cute kid.  Hubby teases his parents that he always sounds like they’ve been giving him helium shots. 

We got back a bit later than planned, and Poppa, Nana, and Auntie were here already.  I felt bad b/c apparently Jenna had had a potty accident in the crate.  At least they realized we didn’t expect them to clean it up.  I felt bad for Jenna, too.  We had taken her out to potty when we were home between church and the party, but I guess it didn’t hit her till later.  Poor thing!  She was pretty happy with her special Sunday treat, though — her dental Kong filled w/peanut butter, then frozen overnight.  

After we chatted a bit and had Nana open her gifts, we went to Kincaid’s for dinner.  Love that place!  Prime rib for Mother’s Day.  Yumm!  Everyone was really happy with it — the food was fabulous as always, and the service was great.  What more could you ask for?  OK, maybe a window table, but considering we only made the reservations a week ago, it was good.

Thing Two crashed out in the car on the way home, so Hubby just put her in bed in her clothes (hope *she* doesn’t have a potty accident tonight!).  Thing Two is getting ready for bed.  Hubby took Jenna out for a run.  He finally went and bought himself some real running shoes (Vans are for walking around & skateboarding — not the that he’s a skater — not for running).  He’s really happy about it.  I know Jenna will be thrilled.

Correction:  The plants identified earlier as forget-me-nots are actually morning glories.  I *did* plant forget-me-nots there, but they never came up.  Last year’s morning glories have apparently re-seeded themselves and came back.  The ones I planted this year don’t seem to be coming up, though.  Oh, well.

Spent a bundle at Lowe’s the other day.  I went in there for two hoses — a shorter one for the front since Hubby stole it for the sump pump for the “Mexican drain”, and a really long one for the back (so it can reach the driveway if I ever decide to wash my car).  In addition to the hoses, I also came out with:

• two pots of marguerites (pinkish daisy-type plants)
• two pots of English lavender
• two pots of nimesia (sp?)
• a pot with a nightshade plant/tree for the front
• a spring flag for the flagpole
• a plastic dish for underneath the peace lily on the hearth (instead of the tacky pie tin that’s been under there for about seven years)

My two new dilemmas about the back are:

1. Should I put down tan bark (or something similar) in the flower bed between the plants so there’s no bare dirt showing or should I plant some kind of ground cover?
2. Should I plant some pretty flowering climbing vines to cover the fence or should I wait until we eventually replace the beat up old wooden fence with a newer one?  I’d hate to have to pull out something I’ve spent time and effort growing.

Oh, and I found out that the big plant growing in the corner is called periwinkle.  For now, I don’t mind if it fills the whole corner.  I do wish it had more blossoms on it, though, b/c the purple flowers are pretty.

The roses are exploding in color right now.  I think I need to dig up and move the miniature white roses, though.  It’s growing, and it’s even blooming, but I wouldn’t say it’s thriving.  I’d hate to kill it in the process of moving it, but I’d sure love to see it do as well as the other roses are.  It’s a special plant b/c my friend Jeanne gave it to us at Paul’s memorial service last summer, so I think of them as “Paul’s roses”.