Sissy and her Kittens...

It has been so long since I have been here, I hardly know what to say. Most all of my followers are already friends with me on Facebook so they are pretty up to date with how things are going. So instead of trying to catch everybody up on all the events since my last post, I'll just post about Sissy and her kittens.

Who is Sissy? well lets see if I can break this down. Two years ago I was posting about Orange aka Momma Kitty having her babies. At the same time her sister (I think) next door was also having hers. Hers were Stripey, Star and Midnight. Last year Stripey and Star had their babies in my yard, Star got killed so Stripey took in her sisters babies. I am not sure which sister was Sissy's mother in the beginning. So this year it was Sissy's turn. It seemed like she was pregnant way longer than usual but I think that is just cause she is soo tiny. Really she doesn't look like a full grown cat and pregnant made her look ridiculous.

Early morning like just after midnight on friday the 10th, Sissy had her first kitten. Nearly pure black with just a tad of grey on his legs. I named him Panther.  Sissy had him up against the house in the dirt and grass but I left her alone for fear that she would move them under the house. I wanted to be sure that they were in sight and hopefully be tame instead of her brother that wont even let me touch him. Tame kittens find homes! The second kitten came 2 hours later, dark grey with with on his face and legs. I named him Boo cause he was such a big boo boo for his mother, she really struggled to get him out. About an hour later came the third, a little girl this time, she was smaller than the boys so I named her Twiggy.

I placed a box out there for her and tried to get her to let them be in the box, she would have no part in it. I didn't like them being on the ground, I was fearful that ants were going to get all over the babies but she wouldn't let me do anything.

The next day my brother and his family were coming to visit. I checked the kittens only to find that Panther wasn't doing good. I brought him in the house, tried warming him up and feeding but all efforts failed. He passed away and my brother buried him. The best part of  the day was Sissy finally agreed to let the kittens be in the box.

That Sunday night we knew we was in for some nasty weather. I tried building up some kind of shelter to protect them. It was a down pour and the shelter I made wasn't good enough to keep out the rain. I rushed outside to snatch them all up and rush them in the house but only Boo was in the box, the towel under him was drenched and so was he. I got him all dry and assumed she had rushed the other kitten under the house. The rain stopped and she was going back and forth from the porch to the box. I kept waiting for her to go in the direction of where she hid Twiggy. She never did. I tried to give her back Boo and she wouldn't take him. I was beside myself as to where she could be, I hunted all around the house hoping to hear her cry. I basically gave up after nearly an hour cause it had started to rain again. Later standing in front of the door looking out, I saw her go to a spot on the porch. I rushed out and sure enough there was Twiggy just laying there hidden behind the water bowl. She was practically lifeless, gasping for air and all she was getting was rain. Thankfully after getting vigorously rubbed dry, she came around. Both kittens safe in the house.

We kept them in the back bathroom and was letting Sissy in and out to feed during the day but keeping her in at night. Things were going fine for four days, till one morning hubby went to use the bathroom and there was cat poop EVERYWHERE! I mean everywhere, in the tub, on the sink, on the medicine cabinet, even up on the towels in the rack above the pot. That was all the hubby could stand and she got booted outside. No sooner than my feet touched the floor I was cleaning the bathroom, before my morning pee or even a cup of coffee! We put her box on the porch but she kept bringing them to the door as if she wanted them back in the house. Something hubby wasn't going to go for. The next week was a struggle to keep up with were the kittens were, she kept taking them out of the box.

One very hot day I found only Twiggy in the box, panting her butt off and no sign of Boo anywhere! I rushed twiggy inside out of the heat and proceeded to search for Boo. Sissy was pacing all over the place looking for her babies. She acted like she had no idea where he was like she couldn't remember what she did with him. She was following me around, I'm waiting for some signal from her and she was like waiting for me to find him for her. I was seriously angry with her! After searching for hours I finally found him way out in the front yard. I wouldn't have found him if it hadn't been for her going and laying under the truck. I thought maybe she did take him that far. Sure enough there he was out in the middle of the yard baking in the sun and meowing as loud as he could, which really ain't that loud for a week old.

That next Sunday hubby built her a better shelter and she stayed there with her babies all day, no problems. I was satisfied that she was happy with them being there. The next morning her and her babies were gone. I had no clue to where she took them. I did a brief search with no luck. At this point I am like..I tried my best to keep her babies alive and this is the thanks I get! Screw it, your on your own! Yes, folks I lost my cool with her and had had enough. She was going to have to deal with it in her own. Later that day I heard one of them meow directly under the kitchen, so good at least I know they are under the house. So much for having tame kittens that would be easier to rehome.

For the next week I watch her go under the house many times. I check to see of any nursing signs, all is good. Or so I thought.

One night I heard a cat fight under the house, it didn't last long so I didn't jump up or anything. The next day I noticed Sissy acting all grumpy with any cat that even came close to the porch. We have four other cats out there so she was in a constant panic and running them off. Later that day hubby and I were hanging out on the porch and I happened to look down through the crack between the house and porch and saw a kitten. I got down on my belly and reached in and picked it up. It was Boo and he was not doing good at all. His nose and paws were white, he was cold, covered in fleas and very lethargic. I handed him off to the hubby and located Twiggy and pulled her up. She was fine and BIG (from runt to the biggest), just covered in fleas. We  gave them baths dried them up. I feed them every two hours and he was showing good signs of being back on the road to recovery. 

All was good again, except what to do. Do we continue to feed them or let their mother have them back? I was concerned especially after examining Sissy and only finding 2 teets with milk in them. My conclusion was that she didn't have much milk and Twiggy the stronger of the two was getting most of it, leaving poor Boo to suffer. I finally convinced the hubby to let her have them back but in the bathroom again so we could monitor their progress. We decided that she was not to stay in the bathroom more than 3 hours at a time. So far that part has worked out great. But after a few days of leaving them be, I noticed Boo's nose and paws where losing their color again and I could feel his back bone. While his sister is steadily getting bigger, alert and even slightly playful. I decided to start feeding him when Sissy went outside. At first it was not something he liked, so I added some critical care soft food to his milk, now he loves it and acts like he could never get enough.

They are now going to be 4 weeks old tomorrow. Boo is finally starting to fill out a bit, still nothing like his big fat sister but who knows he might catch up! I on the other hand need a babysitter so I can sleep!

My December... Day 5

Our local weatherman Bill Taylor says it best... another chilly night on the way.... light jackets for this evening as temps dip into the 50s by 8pm. then we're on our way to a low of 46 in the city...upper 30s possible in the Hill Country. Sunny and Springlike tomorrow afternoon with highs nearing 80. BIG FRONT on its way for Sunday night. This is the weather I love the most during the day but at night it is friggin COLD! Cold makes my back hurt and that is never good, so far that hasn't happened yet but this looming "big Front" that is supposed to drop the temps to lows in the low 30's and highs in the low 50's is gonna hurt. Heaters on full blast PLEASE! Yes, I know it is nothing compared to all the Northern states but I am a admitted Texas wimp! LOL!

Spring is back!

We had a slight cool front sweep in and my oh my was it nice. The last few days the heat of 88 and 100% humidity were pretty uncomfortable. I have 4 ac window units and with 2 going it was still 80 inside the house, miserable. But today...breezy and nice.

I had to go to town anyway so I took advantage of the weather and took my camera along. Blooms, green grass and animals having a blast. Spectacular day!

Hot weather and new camera...

I'm sure most of you know already that Texas is in the worst drought in 44 years and is being consumed by an explosion of wildfires. Let me just say...dang it's hot! The temps are now up into the nineties with heavy humidity, but still no rain. I can't even open the door without breaking out a sweat from the extreme heat.

Here at my house we haven't had any measurable rain since Sept. I do envy those who are getting rain, but yet I hear some are getting way too much rain with violent storms and even some tornado's thrown in. I watch Facebook status's and here lately I have had major concern for the safety of my friends and have a wave of relief when I see that those folks have posted again and are okay. Thank goodness.

I also learnt this morning that one of those wildfires is very close to my sister-in-law. The news was posting pics of places and hubby was calling out their names with a gasp. I think the hardest blow was the swimming hole that he played in many a summers while staying with his sister. We are both hopeful that they can get those fires under control. A little rain couldn't hurt either!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We have wild blackberries all over the place around my house. I have been trying to go picking for the last few days but I can't stay out there for too long. BUT I will keep trying cause well....they are FREE! I already have 5 bags in the freezer, would have had 7 but we ate some already! LOL! I just might try my hand at making a pie, that requires flour...right? Hmmm, I'd better go get some.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Soo remember the camera I soo wanted to the point of obsession. Well thanks to some donations and a sale, I was able to upgrade. No I didn't get THE camera of my dreams but I did manage to get...

Kodak® EasyShare Z981 14.0-Megapixel Digital Camera, with 26x optical zoom.

It should be arriving today!! I am super excited and want to thank all who donated to help me out with the camera fund. Yall are AWESOME!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay well I'd better get out of this chair and get out there and pick some berries before the heat melts them away. Yall have a great day!

Foggy Morning

I woke to Taco doing his "I got to go outside" noise, it sounds kinda like a snort/sneeze. It can be very annoying, but hey I can't complain, at least he tells me. My eyes fall on the clock, I groan. It's only been 4 1/2 hours! I stumble into the kitchen and then to the door. The bright light temporarily blinding me. Once I get my focus on, I realize the morning is so foggy I can barely see past the neighbors house. Photo op!


I quickly do a turn around and come in to get the camera and my flip flops. Yes folks I went out in the street in my nightgown! Not like anyone saw me, except for the neighbors dog, who greeted me with a some not so friendly barks. I had to make my presence known and then it was all wags between us. We walked to the field and I was taken aback by the pure spectacular beauty. I love fog, it makes all things glisten and the smallest things stand out.



The fog was disappearing right before my eyes, the timing of me getting up couldn't have been more perfect. Another 10 minutes and I would have missed it.

I walked back out of the brush (sorry excuse for trees).

To find cuteness waiting for me at the corner.

What a great morning!

Writer's Workshop: 10 Reasons

Writing prompt #5...10 reasons you like fall.

1) The colors!
Oh the pretty colors. Yeah I like green but the colors of the decaying leaves on some trees are just amazing. Sometimes living in the near desert of Texas, it's hard to tell when fall is actually here cause in some places even green is a rare color. The extreme Texas heat usually leaves everything a plain shade of brown, but I think everyone got a taste of that this year.

Back when we was traveling across America, I always looked forward to our return trip to the eastern states. Going through the Appalachian mountains was always my favorite, especially in fall. Getting up real high and looking at the beautiful landscape was breathe taking.

2) The cooler temps.
Like Sunday, was our first real taste of some livable days with out a/c. Yesterday morning was real nice and this mornings low was in the fifties. What I'm really looking forward to is a little reprieve to our electric bill. Getting that bill down to under a hundred for a couple of months will be well worth the wait. The weather will be so nice the chance of catching heat exhaustion on my walks or bike rides will be eliminated.

3) Clothing.
Not hot enough to have to run around with sweat stains and the minimal of clothing acceptable. Not cold enough to be bundled up in layers of clothes that you can't hardly move your arms. Just right for jeans and a t-shirt with maybe a light sweater in the evenings.

4) Pets.
Having the cooler temps will make having the dogs on my lap a more enjoyable experience. Just two weeks ago I was pushing them off of me in the effort to cool off my legs. There will be less aggravation towards them wanting to be on me and a whole lot more love and snuggling. I'm sure they are sick to death of hearing me say "It's too hot" and forcing them to go lay on the couch far away from me. They also sleep with me and two of the three sleep under the covers. I know for a fact that Stitch will be plenty glad for me to stop throwing off the covers in a fit of exasperation of being too hot.

5) Shopping.
The fall season is the time that I have to begin the winter stocking of our supplies. It is a hard and tasking job and yes I complain a bit, but really I do like it. It gets me out of the house and I enjoy the satisfaction I get when all is said and done. I know it sounds like: we live in the north or maybe that we are chipmunks, having to stock up for winter. Hubby's job is dependent on the weather and when the weather turns too cold; asphalt can't be laid, work is scarce and the pay checks get really small. So there will be no extra money for household, auto, pet or personal supplies. Now that I am thinking of it..I need to get started on that list.

6) Vacation.
I was looking forward to a fabulous vacation this year, but it looks like we will be staying at home. I was bothered by this for awhile but I have been researching places to visit here locally that we can enjoy. I have lived here for nearly 20 years and there is still so much about the area I have yet to discover. Two whole weeks of sleeping when I want, instead of being dictated to by an alarm clock. Oh the bliss!

7) The Cooking.
Even just last night hubby got all excited and rubbed his hands together in the anticipation of Chili. The summer heat tends to lead us towards quick meals like salads and sandwiches or just about anything that wont heat up the kitchen too much. When the fall comes with the promise of winter I tend to get out the soups, stews, chili and roasts. Can't wait to dig into the chili and cornbread. YUM!

8) The Holidays.
Not particularly the holidays themselves but the feel and spirit of them.

Halloween: gives me thoughts of children and their clever costumes, not the store bought ones but the creative ones that they dream up themselves. Then of course there is the CANDY and the house decorations (not mine but others). There is also the hayride to look forward to.

Thanksgiving: The family gathering of good food and good company. The preparation of thanksgiving can be gruel some but the reward of having family and friends to share with is awesome. Even if it is just me and the hubby and two small hens, the spirit of being thankful is always there. I also love the decorations of hay and pumpkins.

9) Photography.
I am really looking forward to the future photos that are just waiting to be taken or discovered. The anticipation has been gnawing at me for some time already. The trees will be thinning out and more of the landscape will be visible, things that were hidden behind the brush will now be reveled. I can hardly wait!

10) Crafts.
My craft of choice is crocheting. In the spring and summer it is nearly impossible for me to work on any projects cause the yarn doesn't flow to well when your fingers are sweating. Just in the week of slightly cooler temps I have managed to start a project and already have two other projects running through my head. AND that is just the first week of fall! I can do my crocheting up till about the beginning of march, then it starts to get a little too steamy outside. So when fall comes I tend to get into a creative mood and I love it!

Soo there ya have it folks...I love Fall!

For more great writing head on over to Mama Kat's place.

Oh, to have a good back again.

I can remember back about 20 years ago I could do anything, lift anything, move anything. I was strong, still am too a point. I think I reached that point, again, for the umpteenth time. The beginning of last week was spent moving slowly, carefully or not at all, apparently I slept wrong and had to roll out of bed. I spent a good deal of time just sitting in my chair watching tv, cause moving wasn't an option. The pain was extreme at times but was tolerable for the most part. I even started to get better by Wednesday night and was beginning to feel decent. I could do my chores and even walk at a normal pace, heck I even went grocery shopping Friday.

Talking to the bf (B) Friday evening about crochet stitches and our new projects, we realized that it was about time to get together and show our work. It is really difficult to try to describe stitches and patterns over the phone. We are both "Show me" kinda gals. So we made plans for Sunday.

Hubby came home early Saturday and asked if I wanted to go over to see her right then. I would have said yes but I was still feeling the slight twinge and thought it best to wait one more day. Besides, come to find out her hubby was planning a BBQ for Sunday. Wouldn't want to miss that, since he is like the best BBQ'er I have ever known. Hubby is good, but even he will admit his bf's (M) is better. (Yes, his bf and my bf are married, it's a little confusing)

Sunday morning all was well and we finally got ready to go. I have to do a mental check list to make sure I don't forget anything, cause I almost always do. I always manage to remember something I forgot about halfway there. I was good this time and didn't forget anything, amazing, I know!

Camera..yup
Smokes..yup
Nail clippers..yup
Patterns..yup
Yarn and project..yup
Family Reunion memory card..yup

(We will get to the nail clippers, I know yall are puzzled over them being on the list)

So we are on our way, I have just a tiny twinge but I'm tough I can handle it.

Let me just say the sky was gorgeous Sunday and with the promise of a cool front pushing though sometime today. There was a breeze and oh it was so lovely, even hubby said so and it takes temps down to the 60's for him to like it.


We are greeted by B's three little yappers(kin folk to my yappers). Thankfully her yappers love us like family and were very excited to see us. There was lots of spins, jumps, running, dancing and happy panting. B..well not so much! LOL! Even the "I'm gonna getcha" didn't bring as much as a reaction I got from her "Old Lady P" yapper, who ran through the house like I was hot on her tail. We love that game, okay she really loves that game.

We sat around and showed stitches, patterns, projects and clucked like old hens. M..started up the fire and oh the smell had my mouth watering, I was ready to sink my gums into whatever he had in the pit. It didn't matter what it was, I was ready for it. *Knife and fork in hand, banging on the table* kinda hungry!

While waiting I thought, now would be a good time to get my chore done. I got out those nail clippers. Why? You ask. Cause they are doggie nail clippers! LOL! Yeah I'm cracking myself up!

As soon as the dogs realized what I had in my hand, *flash* they were gooonnne!

G.. got up on the couch and faced the wall. That is his way of saying "I'm invisable". Sorry fella, not going to work this time, even if you are being funny. I clipped his nails right there on the couch. After bending over and wrestling every foot, I went to straighten myself upright. Ouch, that kinda hurt.

P.. I always have trouble with this old lady. We are the best of friends except for these moments, she will try to bite but hasn't gotten that lucky so far. Lord help her if she ever does! I found her back outside and as soon as I tried to bend down to get her, she bolted. I on the other hand did not bolt right back upright, it took some doing. I finally managed to get her back in the house, picked her up and put her on the table. Again did a wrestling match for each foot, while trying to keep her from making the great escape. By time I finished with her I was having some really bad pains in my back, but had to move on to the last and craftiest of them all.

A..I looked in her spot under the end table next to B's chair. Nope not there. I call her and why I though she would come running was stupid of me. I go outside and ask if she was out there. Yup, there she was hiding under B's chair. I reached down to get her and she flops over on her back. I take hold of her legs and literally dragged her out from under the chair on her back and she let me. Everybody was laughing! I picked her up and carried her inside to the table and proceeded to do her nails. This girl shakes like there is a thunderstorm directly over the house! Very hard to hold onto. I think it is her ploy, her sympathy card or something and it works everytime. Yes she nearly got away, with only two feet done! I had to catch her in mid-jump! I finally finished her up, but really all of them together finished me up!

I was stuck but good. I slowly made it to the front door and hubby saw instantly I was done in for. He helped me down the steps and asked if I was ready to go home. Unfortunately there wasn't the option to sit there in pain all day. I had to say.. Yes, my pain pills were at the house and I would have hated to sit there in pain and be a downer on the whole get together.

Soo we came home, hungry. I felt so badly for ruining his day. To my surprise and relief, he said..

"I'm not glad that you are hurting, but I am glad to be able to see the rest of the race!"

Yeah but what about supper? We were both pretty hungry and totally missed out on the BBQ. Well folks I will have you know that hubby cooked supper. Okay so what if it was:

Gordon's fish fillets
Pork and beans
Uncle Bens whole grain rice
with hot dog buns

I got fed by the hubs!!!

Soo, I sit here with an ice pack and a pillow, soon to be in bed. Wonder how I'm going to get out of bed...maybe Stitch will help me! LOL!

Take A Walk With Me..

As usual I went to bed at 4:30 am and was wide awake at 7:30 am. Ridiculous, I know!
I grabbed a cup of cold coffee, stuck it in the microwave and turned the computer on.
Nothing going on, on either of my pages. I shut the computer down and opened the front door.


Wow, it is beautiful outside; the wind is really nice and is really making the humidity tolerable. The sky is overcast, just the way I like it. There were small holes in the clouds that temporarily let the sun peek in for a few seconds. Just too beautiful an opportunity to pass up. I threw some clothes on, got my walking shoes on and grabbed my camera as I rushed out the door. Totally forgot about the coffee in the microwave. I rushed out so fast; I didn’t even know what time it was. I’m guessing 7:45 am.


I don’t know what it is about the tops of Johnson grass, but I really find them beautiful.


I was licked to death by the dogs up the road.

Now this important information, cause one of these dogs must have gotten into something dead. After having petted and walked away from them, I wiped the sweat from my upper lip. You guessed it! The smell of something dead was permanently stuck under my nose for the rest of the journey! Thankfully it was a faint smell instead of a powerful one.

I was surprised at how many dogs there was on this one little strip of road. The road has seven houses on it and I counted 13 dogs.

This particular day I found myself fascinated with gates. I was noticing everyone’s gates and how beautiful and interesting or even odd they all were.









Just to show you a few, of the more interesting ones.

I guess to sum it up this day was about gates and dogs. I the dog part just never seemed to end. I went from one dirt road to another and I was greeted by 3 German Shepard’s, they weren’t very friendly. Thankfully the owner was leaving and noticed me coming, he stayed long enough to make sure they didn’t do anything. After he had left I noticed this one just sitting there watching me.



I moved on and was shortly greeted by two more German Shepard’s and a Beagle. These ladies and short fella were super friendly. I saw a lady on a riding lawnmower and she stopped to chat. I learned more about this lady in five minutes than I have learned about my best friend in 15 years! Yeah she was a talker! I just stood there panting along with the dogs. I was in a dilemma as to how to get moving on down the road without being rude. Finally I just had to say I have been around the whole block and I’m almost done, I really need to get going.



Home again at last, hot and sticky. I look at the clock, its 10:30 am. I’m thinking “Wow I was gone a long time, how far did I go?” After my shower I call hubby and ask him to measure it out for me when he gets home.

3.5 MILES!!! Okay I know that is slow walking but HEY it is half a mile longer than usual and at least I’m walking. Well, not so good today! LOL!

Anniversary BBQ with Daughter and Grandsons

Okay well, lets just throw away Saturday's sadness and scariness and get back to more normal activities around here.

It was a really good week except that it has been so humid outside that it is practically dangerous to be out in. It is like breathing hot water with all the oxygen zapped from the air. There has been some nice moments of breeze, but the humidity makes it impossible to enjoy for long.

We did have a great day on Thursday with daughter #2 and the grandsons. Although hubby was a little on the cranky side. The kids (being kids) were coming and going, in and out. The door was hubby's biggest issue. The kids are not used to pawpaw's rules about closing the door after you go through it. Then when they did catch on, it was too frequently getting opened and closed. I think he was a little on the panic attack side. He pulled it off nicely and kept his cool. He joked, grumbled and locked us out!! Several times!! LOL! It was reported that I was begging to be let back in, I forget, it must have been the heat stroke!! LOL!

At the end of the day he said..I'm sorry we didn't have enough money to go out.
I told him that it turned out lovely regardless and Spending time with the kids was great, but exhausting!
He chuckled in agreement and said..I would have rathered had gone out! LOL! (He was just kidding!)
We then spent the rest of the evening laughing and chuckling over the kids antics.

Antics...

Hubby had chopped down the destroyed peach tree and left the limbs all over the ground. I kept seeing the kids stumble over them and had had enough and started dragging them away (in the heat of the day). 10yr old and daughter is helping, 5yr old picks one up and drags it away and announces...I'm done!! I couldn't help but laugh!

I'm sitting on the floor after fixing the broken leg to my coffee table (that is not 3yr old proof). Daughter is trying to get the boys to pick up all their toys and put them back in the toy drawer. She starts clapping and singing..♪This is the way we pick up our toys♪ I was putting the things back on the coffee table and suddenly felt under pressure to get my stuff off the floor!! LOL!

The back door remains locked and Pawpaw locked the front door. 5yr old goes to front door knocking, no answer. He then goes to the back door knocking and then again back to the front door. What did he want? His brother to come outside! All that, just to get brother to come out! Cracks me up!

5yr old found my gardening hat, is running around wearing it. 3yr old notices and wants one too. He then proceeds to try to get pawpaw's black felt bowler. Pawpaw grumbles NO to him and this produced tears and whines, but not for long. 3yr old grumbles right back at him in his best pawpaw impression! They had a stand-off! LOL!

The hat issue was not resolved. I got down some of my older gardening hats. Three grandsons, three hats. Should have been an easy fix. NOT! the fight ensued over who gets what hat and little one being the most stubborn was not a happy camper at all! He insisted he wanted pawpaw's hat, a bwack (black) one! I was going to send them off with my hats, but the fighting would not stop. Remove the hats from the scene and all should be well. How did that work out Daughter? Did they cry all the way home? Lets us know!

It really was a great day, even though it was boiling outside and pawpaw was grumpy. Sorry to cut this short but I have a massive amount of blog reading to do, most likely won't get but a 1/3 of it done tonight.

Lawnmower Man, Music and a Storm.

Well yesterday was a really good and productive day with a stormy forecast.

Tuesday I called brother J and found out he was going to be free for the next few days from work. He is starting his own lawn maintenance business on the side and well.....you know just how much I really hate to deal with the yard (like haven't touched it in two or three weeks). One topic lead to another and voila, I have my own personal Lawnmower Man!

I also talked to sister J about the music SonIL downloaded for me to my MP3 player. Next thing I know she is giving me homework to list some of my favorite artists and songs. I emailed her the list several hours later. A looooong list! I really like most all types of music from the 40's to about a decade ago and from rock n roll to country.
It was a very difficult piece of homework... "Oh I like that song!" Now come on brain, who the heck sings it?? What's that song that Cinderella (Not the cartoon) did way back when? Very difficult task indeed!!

From my understanding they were going to leave at noon, so as usual in my mommy mode I called several times, mostly to make sure he was up and on schedule. I know I can be a pain in the rear sometimes, especially with him. What can I say, he was the baby when I was still taking care of the kids and living at home. We were/are tight like that.

On to yesterday's events...

After calling him (and yes he was still asleep), I started to look for something.
I can't remember what that initial item was, cause I got lost in dragging out all of the items in the kitchen closet and tool cabinet. Seriously I had stuff everywhere! Every surface in my kitchen was littered with this and that, from paint supplies to screws and nails and JUNK!

I was sitting here taking a break from my work and checking my pages (which were dead, btw). A knock on the window scares the Cr** out of, Whiskers (who was sitting in that window), made me jump up and cuss and the dogs all start with the barking.
Surprise! It was hubby, who was laughing his head off at all of us fraidy cats!

Two minutes later brother showed up. Okay now..this boy (not a boy anymore, a 30 yr old man) was just too cute being all professional with me like I was a client (well really I was, I did pay him). I was resisting the urge to bust out laughing! Asking questions of what I wanted and not. Just way too cute! I had to leave him to it or I wouldn't have had the heart to let him do it.

Sister downloaded all the songs she had for me from their external hard drive.
4GB!!! YIKES! That is a lot of songs! It is going to take me forever to go through them all and only pick 2GB of them to put on my MP3 player! We had a good time chatting, while I continued on my task of organizing and putting things back in place.

I broke my rule of eating out and sister and I went to Micky D's to get supper.

Speaking of food...Earlier this morning my landlord dropped by and gave me a huge bag of plums. There was no way we was going to be able to eat it all, so I asked brother if he would drop them off at mother's on his way back home. He said yes.
(I'll have to call mom and find out if she got any of them, brother was eating a lot of them)
Good since your going there, you can take this..and this..and that. This is for sister M, this is for Boo and that is for Mom, oh yeah and this is for sister E and go ahead and give this to Dad(just to aggravate Mom)!

Back to the end of my story...

Brother worked his skinny little butt off and at times I was very worried about him. I happened to have looked at him in passing and the veins on the sides of his forehead looked like they were going to burst! It was a little freaky!

But my Yard is done all the way around and with trees trimmed! I have only managed to do that a few times and it takes me all friggin day! AND at least two days to recoop!

They were getting ready to leave and we could tell a storm was rolling in. Loading up the truck with all my offerings for them and other family members, the storm was moving in very fast. It went from calm and a little hazy with noise in the distance, to heavy wind with the storm practically on us. We was rushing back and forth to get all the stuff as quickly as possible.

The peach tree has been so heavy with peaches that the largest branch was laying on top of the house. I went out with arm full of stuff and had no problem walking under the branch. With the wind picking up as harshly as it did, it moved the branch and it was now drooping down on the steps. I had to duck to get under it.

Just after they pulled out and was on their way, I was showing the branch to hubby through the door window. Right before our eyes the wind picked up the branch and broke it, leaving it blocking the steps to the porch.

Brother Come Back!!! I have some more work for you!! LOL!