Major life changes

It's been a while since I've posted,and so many things have happened.
I basically have started a new venture ,quit my job of 7 1/2 yrs,and starting on my own.To a degree,I am working in an established grooming shop,doing like hair stylists do,renting a space to do my clients.
The job I left was not fitting to my way of customer service,and was becoming somewhat of a hindrance to my sanity to say the least.
That being said, I'm trying to start over,with a few of my old clients,and hoping more find me.
The main thing I have to say about this,is the loyalty of some of them.A few had talked to me,urging me to do this,and for them I thank you. Though I have done this in the worst of economic times, I feel better already... stress is a something that can effect you in many ways,for me it was severe depression and dreading each day I had to go into work. The small business I started with had become a behemoth of a mismanaged fiasco.
Although I love what I do,where you do it can be a large part of how well you do your job. I really care about my clients,they are a big part of my life,and I treat them as my own furbabies....
Also,in the midst of all this chaos,comes the holidays,I have my daughter coming for a week! We don't get to see each other much,she lives in Seattle,and though we talk on the phone,email,and play Scrabble online,it just doesn't replace a big hug when one of you needs it.
And my other daughter,actually a stepdaughter,but I hate to use that,it just doesn't feel right, I consider her my own too,is coming for a night with her 3 kids,this will be the first time in years we have had a holiday together in years .
So,the head count will be;
3 adults,3 children under 10, 3 big dogs,and 4 cats..... woohoo!
If this doesn't get you in the holiday spirit,nothing will.Or at least a gotta clean the house ,bathe the dogs,shop for food mood. All of which I do on a regular basis,but this means serious cleaning,bathing,and shopping.
And BTW, the game Scrabulous is no more, after undergoing serious legal issues, it has been renamed Lexulous.Works the same ,and we are still serious scrabble gamers,my family and friends. Check it out,if you love Scrabble, this is the game for you,you'll be hurrying to check your email to see if it is your turn.
Gotta go to work now,woohoo!
I sincerely hope anyone reading this has a better day than yesterday,and not a good a day as tomorrow.... God bless the troops!

Kittehs rock!

Ok,one more. For all us Scrabble and cat lovers..... this site has some of the funniest stuff.




more animals

Nuff said.

This just cracks me up.Nuff said.


more animals

Procrastination is my middle name...

To help with my constant procrastination,I have found a website called 43things.com . It tracks your goals and you can see others goals too.
Here's mine,
http://www.43things.com/person/Pyewacketcat

Such a list might be a help for some, I figure it can't hurt at this point.Maybe just have too much on the plate as it is... reading some other peoples lists,I find that I'm not alone in procrastinating,woohoo!
You can cheer others goals,and send comments,I have a cheer for quitting smoking so far.
One of my daughter's goals is to live closer to me, cheered that for sure! I miss getting to see her,we play Scrabble on email,another cool site is:
http://www.scrabulous.com/
But it's not the same as when we play in person,with her friends when I go see her.
When I go to Seattle,I get to ride Ferries, I love em! Seattle is a great place to visit,but too busy for me to live there,I couldn't afford to live away from the city and commute...

And they say life is like a box of chocolates....

I found how I want to be buried.Well, really I want to be cremated,but I'm not sure Beth will go for that.So,having a plan B works for me...

http://www.creativecoffins.com/index.html

I want to be a BIG box of chocolates!
Can you imagine,now what kind of music goes with that?
I guess my thoughts of Carol Kings "Way over yonder" will work out ok.
And ,actually,they are non toxic cardboard,so I can be cremated in it.
Burn,baby,burn comes to mind here.
You have so many options on the way to go now, you can even feed the fishies.Well,you really are made into a home for them.But if you aren't against water,fish or sharks,this could be it.

https://www.nmreef.com/AboutTheReef.aspx

I though the picture of the reef was more relaxing than the coffins.That's just me.Must be the heat here,making me think of these options.

"Cremation is growing in popularity as funeral and burial costs escalate and we see, almost daily, old cemeteries being moved to make way for new roads, shopping centers, etc. A case in point occurred in St. Louis last year, when the bodies of several hundred nuns were exhumed from an old church cemetery to make way for more pavement."
Found in an article on cremation.... how sad is that??
No longer will you be laid to rest,you're laid to wait for the new road.

Plant swappin

I have found a new site that I really enjoy, it's http://www.plantswap.net/


I am a DavesGarden addict too. And of course,there's P.Allen Smith,which has the most amazing gardens.....


After all, I am trying to learn how to keep plants alive,and make them happy,it ain't easy in Texas,at least not for me. Look up hubris,you'll get my drift....


I love growing things,vines are my new black this year,I have have started:

clematis,about 10 different ones,Silver Star Vinery is great for these!morning glories,white,blue and purple.
hyacinth bean vine,it was my mothers favorite.....
canary vine
chocolate vine,blooms are supposed to smell like chocolate,low fat!
so far,they are doing well.


I have more vine seeds to plant,
butterfly pea,blue
corkscrew vine
fairy vine
strangler or latex vine..despite the names,it is a pretty vine
white cypress vine

I'm going for a secret garden kinda thing,my daughter and I loved that movie,still watch it when I catch it on the tube. There was a lady that lived next to us when I was a kid,she had a yard like that,still remember her and her garden and the beautiful overgrown everything.
Gardening is in my blood,my grandmother and mother both had green thumbs,I'm working on mine,it is a bit light on the green.

My other passion is water plants,lilies,both miniature and regular size,mosiac plant,pickerels,and I learned you can put hostas in water! This is cool,and it is working for me too. It's the gardening I can do without worrying about plants dying from me forgetting them.
So if you have seeds to trade, info to share,or just like reading about plants,check out these sites, it is addictive,but what a great one to have.....

What is the Deal??

After I left Hobby Lobby the other day(I was going to use my 40% coupon for yet another goodie for the garden)I find that yard aisle is gone,and in it's place Christmas is going up!!! I had to think about how many months we have until the season is even near.This is early July,and as far as I know it is still in Dec. Soooo,do the math,this is getting rediculous,I will NOT think about it till at least Oct. I did not look,nor do I plan to,I'm still working on the YARD,people.... get a grip on the commercialism.

When I lived in Alaska,there was a time when I did relish the thought of Christmas earlier,but it snowed there .A lot. In Sept. even. And the days got shorter,it just lent to the early holiday episodes,you know,where you think about the tree,what you'll do with it this year,when you see the long aisles of decorations and stuff.And ,up there,back then ,you didn't have the choices you do in the lower 48,so you did need to be more diligent on hunting down new stuff that you really don't need,but heck,it's Christmas!

.

Started a new reuseit group...

I have started this group,hoping to help Mother Earth with the vast amount of unneeded waste going to our landfills,so much is easily reused.
I do try to recycle,reuse and keep the trash at a minimum,it's not that hard.
My daughter lives in Seattle, where it is a way of life,when I first went to see her,she let me know I didn't do it right,that she'd do it for me. We're talking trash here,but it is important to know what to throw away,and to recycle. I did call her the trash nazi at first,but I'm learning....
The point is, when we were kids, there wasn't all the crap there is now,you used it till there was no more,like machines,lawnmowers,tools,cars too.Now everyone has to has the newest,even if their old one is 1 or 2 yrs old...I have been guilty of it too.
I now am learning the impact of that lifestyle on the only planet we have,and changing my ways. I do still buy plants each spring,but I keep the little pots to start seeds in too.
Building a greenhouse out of old wood windows,and hope to be able to have a seed cache,so I won't buy more plastic. And have plants to trade for others I want.
Some of my friends and I trade stuff too,well, we pass it on to each other,we joke about going to each others houses,and seeing our old place there.
I don't take anything to the dump if it can possibly be used again.Just have to find the right person that needs it,I say.
So,here I am,not saving the world,just trying to help it.

Hiring a honest worker...

I have found in the past 4 years of owning my old house,I have done better work than most of the people I hired. I don't use big companies ,as a rule,I try to use a guy that needs to feed his family.It has been a real PITA, have some of the worst work to show for my trouble and money.I may as well have burned the money,or given it to a charity .

The day of the honest little man is gone as far as I can see, even the place I work at has gone bigtime,and pains me to see it.Money is the bottom line now,not good service.

Let's recap the jobs I hired out.

1.Rewiring the 1925 house to code,not done right,and has never come back to fix the outlets that still don't work, despite countless calls,and running into him at HD.

2.Having central heat/ac put in, never came back to check the complaint I have about the noisy unit outside. And they put a hole in the ceiling while up in the attic.

3. Having a slatted door put on the pantry,the one that was here was a old thing that was 4 in. short of the floor to vent the gas water heater. They put the door in upside down!

4.Having the old original bathroom renovated.Started in Jan. Still needs to come finish the trim,months later,haven't heard from him either.

5.The worst of all,hiring a person to lay the flagstone in the backyard.

Jesus,Mary and Joseph,would you have paid for this?? I did,I don't stiff people,I just pay and cry.

I can not for the life of me understand why people take a job ,and don't do their best,or worse,try to do something you have no friggin clue of what you are doing... you do that kind of work at your OWN home,not for pay at others homes. And to act like you know what you are doing,well,frankly,it pisses me off to watch them ,and think,I could have done that well.

Because I am a woman alone,I have been conned in these and more cases,buying a tool for instance.I go to HD or Lowes,try to find a guy that knows what I need,what do I get? Some BOZO that knows no more than I do,but talks down to me.... now that makes me furious.And I walk away,saying,never mind,I'll figure it out.And most of the time,I do.

I could go on,but I have to go do a job now... and I'll do it right.

So I went to Winstar today with some friends,had a good time,but I kept thinking how the money could be spent on more plants,it's a sickness. I still have lots of plants coming in from various coops I am in,so maybe it was just as well,less to plant and water.

Winstar is another world,lots of zombies plugging away at the machines,though there was a nice older lady that won 12,500.00 across the aisle from us,she was so cute,said she didn't even smoke,and she was wanting a cigarette.That's what I'd want. No,wait, I'd need the defibrillator. I can't imagine winning that much.

Has anyone noticed how Tommy Lee Jones' face seems to be melting? Saw him on a Barnett Shale commercial,he's for it of course,and while I like my men rugged,that's a stretch for me.What happened?He quit the collagen? The sun got to him? He has always been one of my favorites,but now,the thought(or fantasy )of waking up next to him is not what it used to be.But then,I'm one to talk.

The squirrels are taking a break,they were out in force yesterday ,while I was working in the yard,I think it's too hot for them too,haven't seen them this afternoon.... maybe break was what we all needed here.

Well. I think I might have busted the critter that kept getting my fish out of my pond. Bless it's heart.

I went out the other night,and caught his butt going up in the space they have torn in the ceiling of the workshop,gotta find someone to fix that too.... glad I didn't let the dogs out a moment earlier,I'd have had a mess on my hands.He/she sat there watching me,so I went and grabbed the camera.

Today, I put in a new bed for some hostas,ferns,and heucheras. Tried one of the little watering kits,you know,the ones that have a billion pieces,you lay the tiny hose out,then go back and cut and put in the t's and drippers.BS is all I can say to that crap. Who invented these damn things? Someone on crack I figure,and a whole lotta time.

Tomorrow,I'm going with friends to Winstar for the day,going to blow money on something other than plants this month. :)Been waiting on the guy that is supposed to be laying the flagstone to show up,I'm thinking he is getting replaced next weekend.Another reason I try to do things around here,you can't get a job done right anymore,unless you're Trump I guess. I heard about another guy a friend uses,may try him next week.

Cheesey,sure,but cute. One of my favorite commercials,in fact,here's a list.
Animals always crack me up.

1.http://youtube.com/watch?v=yTLcZ1BCmms

2.http://youtube.com/watch?v=nNlt0D_xba4

3.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8bzlJmQgGs&feature=related

4.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrktfb6RfLw&feature=related

Additions to family

I haven't added that last summer,Darla,a friend of my Aunts was terminally ill,and wanted me to find her 2 cats,Sissy and Baxter a good home. Try as I may, the right home wasn't jumping at us,lots of people inquired,but none were the right one,no other animals,older person or couple ,no young children. As I sit here, Baxter is putting his paw on my hand, to get my fingers off the keyboard ,and on him. The last time I visited Darla, I told her if we didn't find them a home,when the time came, they are coming home with me..... I had taken her pictures of the crew here,and told her I thought they would be fine,though they had never been around other animals.( I was really praying on this one).


But,when the time came,after the funeral, I went and picked them up, her daughters were with them those last days... I fixed them a room of their own,and closed them in for awhile, to get used to the idea of a new home,and to get used to the new smells of other animals in the house,they had a couple of inches under the door to visit.


It was not as hard as I thought, they got settled,the dogs didn't care,except Mollie,she was worried about them being closed up,she would go to the door and whine.Mollie was the first to stick her head in and say hello too,if you can imagine a140lb bloodhound/st.bernard cross being worried about the welfare of 2 strange cats. I dunno, it worked for us all.She is now the official greeter for the house.Works well for any strangers. :)


They have been here almost a year now, and other than the usual little hissy matches,Pyewacket and Precious,my other 2 are 12 now,and not as open to new as they used to be. But,it works for us....


Baxter and Sissy love the plantroom as much as the rest of us,and many thanks to Baxie, I am building a greenhouse this summer.He is a real plant monster,loves the plants,when I was raising seeds this winter, I had to fight him over them,he must have seen a big salad becuase I couln't keep him out of them.I was cleaning dead leaves off my ivy,and he kept coming over to help pull them off, finally ,when I wouldn't let him have them, he got in the trashcan I was putting them in... hence the greenhouse idea,been wanting one for a long time anyway.Yeah Baxie!
The dogs came over,looked in the can,looked at me like...Well what did ya do that for?

Ah June....

The year is marching on,and staying with this is hard.So many ideas,and projects,and then work.Love my job,animals are the best to share your workday with,provided they are ok with the process.Most are,and treats are always a good thing ,for all concerned.
While in the house this winter,mostly being in bed, sick with a flu that wouldn't die,I had the pleasure of joining some plant coops.Man,they are great,like a day at Macy's with 70% off on everything.I bought so many plants, I have to make new beds for them.I have hostas,lots of hostas,still waiting on some in the mail too.Clematis' have become an addiction too,found a great lady in Washington that has her own business,Silver Star Vinery,have to give Debbie a plug,hers are wonderful.. now I am having to find places for them to climb.
If you are a gardening freak,check out Davesgarden.com You won't be disappointed,so many great people and I'm learning so much too.
That's where the coops started.plants,plant labels,marker for the plant labels,hangapots for the plants,you have to see those too. It's hangapot.com
I even put in another small pond,and I found a minature water lily,Helvola.. the size of a quarter,blooms and leaves,got a ceramic pot for that one.See what I mean?
A friend was here today,and she told me she thought my drug of choice(plant addiction) was probably getting more expensive than the street drugs out there... she has no clue.*evil grin*
Of course I have to have soaker hoses,more pots,more mulch,more soil.. well, you get the idea.
A pic of the new pond for some of the new plants.

Did I mention the squirrels are back,and enjoying the feeders,theirs and the birds...

Where did the year go?

I'm finally getting back to this again,been too long,and not sure I can remember it all,so a short recap.
The rest of the summer of 2007,not much planting,it rained.
The fall,a blur,painting,holidays,blah,blah,blah.
2008!
Bought plants that are sitting,waiting... weather has been too freaky, I mean thunder and SNOW??? Did get the dafs out by the pond before they died.woohoo
I am chomping at the bit,ready to get more done,the new old bathrom is about finished,Billy did an awesome job,though he looks like he doesn't get my style,trying for a retro look to match the rest of the house.... I like it anyway.
As for the pond,this is the one and only water hawthorne that bloomed this winter,wasn't cold enough I guess.
Soon,the spring weather will be here,and I can get started on the plants.Did I say the squirrels have been quiet this winter? Haven't seen much of them,not breakin my heart.