Things I've learned

While sitting in the freezing cold early yesterday morning I was thinking how much I hate to be cold and I have learned that I'd much rather be hot than cold at least until summer rolls around. Then I'd rather be cold than hot. Here are some other things I have learned over the years:

70 degrees in January is much warmer than 70 degrees in July.

You shouldn't honk at skunks when they are crossing the road.

Desitin comes off of fabric, like a couch for instants, with Dawn dish soap, applied full strength. Not hot soapy water, like one might assume, it must be applied full strength. By the way, it is really fun for a two year old to "paint" the couch with said Desitin.

Marshmallow can be roasted over an electric stove using a fork, but should first be removed from fork before putting in ones mouth. Burns on lips hurt!

Unrelated children, when spending enough time together, will begin to act like siblings.

Telling a four year old it's better to give than receive is useless.

Eggs will not cook on a sidewalk, even if it is 120 degrees outside. They will however attract a lot of ants, and are extremely hard to remove once they are sun dried onto concrete.

Please and thank you are not a foreign language and will be understood by everyone, and can be spoken by even the youngest of talkers.

Low temperature glue guns do work as well as hot glue guns, and don't burn.

It is important to remember when going for walks that as far as you have gone, is how far you must turn around and walk back.

Plastic reptiles and spiders MUST be put away every night before bed. Even plastic snakes will scared the good gollies out of me when walking around in the dark.

Children don't care if you sing the right words to a lullaby. They will sing the wrong words along with you.

Halloween temptations

I made two mistakes this week. First I bought halloween candy that I liked. Second I opened the bag, just to put it in the bowl. You maybe able to figure out the rest.

Cow Bells?

We have one neighbor, to our north. Our south and east is nothing, and I mean nothing, but a big empty field until you get to the river. Sunday morning Breana woke up bright and early, happy to inform me that there were cows in the field. Her Sunday morning entertainment, watching the cows, and when I say watching what I really mean is trying to scare them

into running off. The dog are more than happy to assist her in her attempts. These cows do not scare easily, so Breana gives up and comes inside for waffles. The dogs do not give up. They run wildly back and forth up the length of the fence barking their scariest barks, not to scary considering they are cocker spaniels. Eventually the cows move on and the dogs come in.

Story over, except when I take them out at 10:00 pm for their pre-bed potty break. The cows have returned, glad that I watered all these weeds for them over the summer. How kind of me. Really meant to just water my grass. Anyway, the dogs go crazy, because now it is dark and they can't really see the cows, only hear them moving around outside the fence. I am ready for bed, the dogs are ready to protect me from the beast beyond the great fence, or at the very least, show everyone how big and brave they are. They refuse to listen to me, so I am running around the yard, in the dark, in my PJs, barefooted. Not happy. I finally convince them to at least bark from the back yard. And I go to bed. I guess the cows left, or the dogs gave up, and when it was quite, they came in.

No cows yesterday, but again they were out this morning. Only one difference today, the dogs showed no interest. I guess cows aren't a threat to our home after all.

The rose buse

Before
After.

The rose bush. It was to big. Now look I have a side yard. It only took 3 days and countless cuts to chop down. I took a hand saw and by the sweat of my brow began the pain staking task of cutting each limb off one at a time. It was not easy. Getting to the base of that monster was a challenge. And I did it all by myself. Yeah me.
So the story goes like this. My daycare kids liked to go behind the bush where I couldn't see them and I didn't like that. I had been talking about removing it for months, maybe even since the first time I saw it almost a year ago. You couldn't see around it and it would grab you as you walked by it. I love plants and flowers, but this thing was too much for it's own good. Plus the flowers didn't even smell like roses. If they had I may have had to keep it. In any case all that remains is a stump. Which will probably start growing back soon if I don't do somthing more with it. I think I will need a stronger shovel.

And then there was 1

After much trying and heartace, all but one of the puppies have died. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Puppies

So I am an irresponsible pet owner and neglected to get my dogs "fixed". Now my puppies have puppies, which wouldn't be a big deal if they were not brother and sister. But they are and they did. And it probably would have been ok if my female didn't have a birth defect, a hair lip. In any case, she had 4 puppies on Monday night, 3 with hair lips, 2 with double hair lips, 1 is perfectly normal. The 3 cannot nurse, and I have taken on the duty of bottle feeding them. One died last night:( Not of starvation, but because of the hair lip milk was able to get into her lungs through her nose. Her breathing became very raspy and she wouldn't eat, then just before I fell asleep I found her dead. The other two are very small compared to there normal sibling, and I fear greatly for their lives. I am greatful for the sake of my momma dog that one will live, she is a wonderful mommy. I have been debating the logic of keeping these 2 alive and wondering if it would be nicer just to put them to sleep. But my heart keeps telling me to just give them a chance. What if some one had given up on my dog when she was a puppy? So I have decided to just give them a chance. I will do my best to keep them fed, and hopefully the milk will stay out of their lungs.
Something to be learned in all of this, stop procrastinating and do what needs done. If I had, all this could have been avoided. So I am tired, puppies need fed at night too. I feel like I have a newborn again. At least they will be able to eat solid food in 4-6 weeks!

Cell Phones

My 9 year old daughter thinks she needs a cell phone. We live in the middle of nowhere. My cell phone doesn't even get good service out here. But she has convinced herself she must have one. To make matters worse her friend, who I happen to babysit, got one and brought it over today. What a joke! I have heard all it's ringtones and have seen all her must have photos. Why does a 9 year old need a phone? Is it not enough to use the home phone, now they must be able to text and recieve pictures? She uses it as a toy, nothing more. I will not be getting my daughter a phone until she is much older and possibly able to pay for it herself! A cell phone for a 4th grader!