Sammie was neutered on Tuesday and consequently has been moving in some odd positions while he heals. He was asleep with his head behind those pillows, but woke up when he heard the camera turn on.



He is attempting to get up. This is how I feel when I do sit-ups.



Emily: "Hey, what the heck are you doing? You're shaking the whole couch."



Sammie: "I'm sorry. Can I sleep with you?"
Emily: "Stop touching me!"



Sammie: "P-l-e-a-s-e..."
Emily: "Fine, just be still."

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Fuller keeps watch.

I spent last week with a horrible head and chest cold, followed by throwing my back out. Guess I shouldn't have been lifting heavy boxes full of books from the floor to place on a shelf above my head at the Scholastic Book Fair. (KJ and I volunteered there several days.)

Anyway, after the back pain got so bad I nearly fainted, David took me to ER on Christmas Eve where they gave me wonderful drugs. I'm now confined to bed and on a muscle relaxer, anti-inflammatory, and a pain med. I don't have internet access from bed so you won't see me around for a while.

Have a nice holiday season!

KJ and I rang the bell for the Salvation Army yesterday. We did an hour together and he did another hour with a friend. It was fun, but the wind was blowing REALLY hard.




The talent show, open house, and play performance went wonderfully well Friday night. As promised, here are a few videos. My apologies as the video capabilities of my camera are terrible.

These first two of are my tap dancing class. I'm the one on the far left in the back. We had some technical difficulties with the player skipping due to our tapping.








This one is KJ playing his drums. He also performed with two boys playing guitars.



Scenes (ones that KJ is in) from a modern-abridged version of Romeo and Juliet.
This is KJ entering as Count Paris who is supposed to marry Juliet.




This is when Paris (KJ) enters the banquet with Juliet. KJ is in the yellow coat and Juliet is in peach.



In this clip, Paris dances with Juliet's mother while Juliet is dancing with Romeo.

KJ made an "A" on his final and passed Biology with a "C"!

He did fine in American Music History too, a "B" we think, but Biology could have easily gone either way. This means he can continue to take classes at MCC. Phew! I think we'll research any science courses closely before signing up....

In other news, Me-Me died and her funeral was this afternoon so keep KJ's step-mom's family in your prayers.

The homeschool co-op's modern-abridged production of Romeo and Juliet will be this Friday evening. We're also having a talent show beforehand. KJ is playing two numbers and I will be joining my tap dancing class for a couple of numbers. Videos will be forthcoming...of KJ, at least.

Court update regarding TSTSNBD: It has been set for a jury trial in April.

Tomato juice fiasco

We've had an axe murder...

Not really, but we did have a %$#@ tomato juice mess! Thursday evening, I needed to run to Wal-Mart. Sammie was outside so I called him into the house as I was walking out the door. When David (he had gotten off from work) and I returned about an hour later, Sammie, Roscoe, and Curly were all confined to the kitchen with the baby gate. The smell was horrible!! KJ said Sammie was stinking up the living room so he put everybody in the kitchen. After doing some sniffing of individual dogs, we determined that Sammie had been sprayed by a skunk. It wasn't as bad as Curly a few years ago so I don't think he took a direct hit. I had not noticed the smell as he passed me when I was leaving earlier. Of course, by this time, it was 8:30 at night so the feed stores were closed preventing me from buying that skunk odor bath stuff.

I put David to work finishing up supper, while I tackled the Sammie problem. I happened to have a large can of tomato juice (which I have since read doesn't really help). It was in the fridge so I microwaved it so it wouldn't be too cold. Judging from the way Sammie was shivering, I had not warmed it up enough. After saturating a good part of Sammie's fur with it, he somehow managed to flip the bowl into the air sending tomato juice EVERYWHERE. It was all over the shower walls, including the painted area waaaaay up by the ceiling. It was on the toilet, the floor, my shirt, my hair, and dripping down my forehead. I switched to rinsing, followed by regular dog shampoo. He has his head tucked under my arm here.

I rubbed a little lavender oil into his back fur where he couldn't lick it off to try and mask any lingering skunkiness. I wouldn't let him in our bed that night, but by morning he was mostly odorfree. His ears still smell skunky.

This is cute, but may offend so view at your own risk.

I was clued in to this by One Sixteenth. If it won't load, go here.

Edited to add: I could never get it to load so just use the link.

Okay, my friend, Kathy, asked when I was going to blog again since I've been missing-in-action. Of course, I talk to Kathy everyday so it's not like anything has happened that she doesn't know about.

*waving at Kathy*

Let's see...what have I been up to? Hmmm, apparently life has been boring, thank goodness, because I'm drawing a blank here. Tuesday before last, I had the migraine from hell, which lasted through Wednesday evening. I tried EVERYTHING I could think of, home remedies, massage, and strong drugs, but nothing helped. I refused to have another $600 ER visit for a shot so my doc prescribed a drug in addition to my normal one to see if it would knock out the headache. It did.

David and I have been fighting so much lately due to repercussions from TSTSNBD that I contemplated leaving him. Since then, I've decided to look on the bright side, be thankful for what I have, and stop worrying. Our marriage needs time to heal. It's been a good two days so far. Hopefully, I can keep it up.

David and I met some friends for Thanksgiving dinner at a local restaurant and had a wonderful meal. The best part was nobody had to cook or clean up. KJ was supposed to have Thanksgiving with his stepmom's family, but the great-grandmother is in the hospital so they had Thanksgiving dinner at the hospital cafeteria. Now, I have to say that this cafeteria has excellent food! We stop in there to eat sometimes when we're in the area. Please keep KJ's great-grandmother, Me-Me, in your prayers.

Remember the tent KJ was sleeping in? He has moved back in to his bedroom now so I took over the tent. No, I'm not sleeping out there, but it is a relaxing place to meditate, read, or journal. Yes, I've created the clubhouse I always wanted as a child. Yes, it's odd, but those who know me in real life also know that is pretty much me. I'll take pictures of the interior later.

KJ and I went to see MCC's production of Romeo and Juliet last Thursday. Our co-op is performing an abridged modern version on Dec. 12th. We both really enjoyed the play and KJ said it was very helpful for his own acting. He was Tybalt, but the director has switched him to Paris due to KJ's flirting skill.

Sammie got in BIG trouble yesterday. On Wednesday evening, I bought a pecan pie from a church bake sale outside the grocery store. David and I both had a piece that night. It was soooo good. The pie was in a large ziploc bag on the kitchen counter. After dropping David at work yesterday evening, I came home to find that Sammie had gotten the baggie down, torn it open, and eaten a large quantity of pie. I spanked him with the pie pan.

KJ had Taylor spend the night Saturday night and they decided to camp in the woods behind our house. You can't see the campsite from the house, but it's back in there somewhere.


They didn't decide to do this until it was nearly dark so I didn't venture back there with the camera. This is a pic that KJ took.


Here is one I took after the tent was put away.


Oh, did I say "put away?" KJ decided to leave the tent up for a while. He slept in it Sunday night and this afternoon for a nap. He was too scared, however, to sleep way out in the woods soooooo guess where he set the tent up?


Are you wondering what he has plugged in and is causing that lump in the side?


Voila!

#@%%!#%*&%

TSTSNBD is not going well. Today, we got bad news with a teeny bit of good in it. The case will most likely not be resolved soon, and we are looking at setting a trial date.

Crap, crap, crappity, crap crap crap!

random updates or tidbits of info

- TSTSNBD is looking up. I'm afraid to say more for fear I'll jinx it, but it may resolve positively by Friday. THEN, we can finally move on to addressing underlying issues such as the state of our marriage.

- I've discovered that all community college courses are not created equal. Some courses may be on an upper high school level, but some are friggin' HARD, HARD, HARD! For anyone living in my area, General Biology with Professor Justice is not a good first college course and will be MUCH harder than any high school Biology class you've ever taken. KJ is hanging on by the skin of his teeth, but I think he'll pass with a "C" which is what he needs to continue with dual-high school credit. He is learning stuff that I don't remember learning in college and I had Human Biology, Cellular and Molecular Biology, and Genetics.

- KJ loves his History of American Music class and will make an "A" or "B."

- We have dropped out of history co-op for several reasons.
* We are using History of the Ancient World but the co-op is using Story of the World and I'm having difficulty lining up the texts. I don't want to switch to Story of the World since we used it the first time around and KJ is too old for it now.
* KJ learns more history by reading and discussing one on one with me. When with the other teens, he just wants to socialize.
* The already-mentioned MCC classes and the time they consume.
* Next semester, KJ wants to take Commercial Music Ensemble: Rock Band which meets during our history co-op time.

- I have found out that the community college has a new program where I can get a tuition waiver for the dual-credit classes. I was wondering how we would continue to pay for them, so this came along at the right time.

- Neko, our deaf cat has been missing for 5 days and we are presuming she is dead. The odd thing is that she is an INSIDE cat and never goes out, doesn't even try. Seeing as how we have turned the house upside down and are not smelling anything... she must have gone out at some point. We have foxes, a bobcat, owls, hawks, and coyotes in the woods surrounding the property so I'm not sure she couldn't survive. I just can't figure out when or why she would have gone outside. The only other inside cat I've had run off turned out to be terminally ill and had left to die. Apparently, that is fairly common, but Neko didn't act sick... *sigh* I'll miss her middle-of-the-night meowing in the bathroom (her hangout).

- KJ wants to go with his church on a mission trip to Peru next summer. We'll see.

I just love the after-Halloween clearance sale. In addition to stockpiling candy, I picked up some dog costumes for $3 a piece, so we had a fashion show this evening. Sammie was a little bigger than I realized, so his costumes were too snug.

First, we tried to make Sammie a ladybug. Taylor was over and attempted to help me, as Sammie wasn't thrilled.


He REALLY did not like the hood.

Let me down!

You people, get away from me!!

"Awwww, this is much better. I feel more like a jack-o-lantern."

"This is me, totally me."

"I'm much happier when I get my own way."

Roscoe's turn was next. "I don't think I'm feeling like a devil."

"Do you have an angel, perhaps?"

"I don't have an angel, Roscoe, but how about a bumblebee?"

"Maybe.....no, I don't think I'm bee material."

"It is good to be king."

"This is sooooo me."

"I'll take my dinner now."

"Just wait a darn minute. I'M IN CHARGE AROUND HERE." (They didn't have any costumes in Curly's size.)

"How may I serve you, my queen?"

"I bow before you, Queen Curly."

"That's more like it."

Halloween

KJ was a decomposing corpse or a person whose flesh is rotting off or something like that for Halloween this year. He wore a "latex appliance" instead of a mask, which meant it had to be stuck to his face with spirit gum, and the edges blended with liquid latex.

What ghoul is complete without his iPod in a skull case? Maybe they bring their own haunting music?


We also made a cut and a burn on one hand.


Not in focus for some reason.

He and his buddy, Taylor, looked so cute together, but don't ever tell them I said that.

What do you get when you take one hard-headed dog...

who really likes to chase after things...

and add one mommie who in an effort to stop said dog from chasing a chicken decided to stick her leg out to trip up said dog? OUCH! He hit my leg with his head going full speed! I had a moment where I was worried he cracked something in my leg or gave himself a concussion. We're both fine though.

Sammie LOVES to put the chickens up. He loves it so much that he will go in the coop to get them to come out, just so he can herd them back up again. When the chickens are out, I put Sammie on his run until time for him to herd them up.

Sammie spends a lot of time destroying stuffed animals when on his run. Misplaced aggression, maybe? Yes, I know the run is not high enough, but I wanted him to have plenty of room to either side. It's a 100 feet long and he can go about 5-6 feet to either side. He's only on it when I let the chickens out.

Where stuffed animals go to die...

Thanks Mom #1

Mom #1 gave me an award.


"This blog invests and believes, in 'proximity' [meaning, that blogging makes us 'close' - being close through proxy] They are all charming blogs, and the majority of them aim to show the marvels of friendship; there are persons who are not interested when we give them a prize, and then they help to cut these bows; do we want that they are cut, or that they propagate?"

I have to give the prize to 8 more bloggers who in turn must paste the above text. (which is a really long run-on sentence, but with a nice sentiment)

I'm passing the award on to Bridgett, Dy, Redneck Mother, Karisma, Rosie, and anybody else who wants to claim it.

Good news and Bad news

The good news is that my PCKidz employer needs a teacher to take over her most-profitable area, and that I'm taking the job. I have already quit Dairy Queen *happy dance* since I'll start this week. I'll make at least the same amount of money and work half the DQ hours. *more happy dancing* No more late nights for me! I found all this out Thursday night and my euphoric mood lasted until Friday afternoon when I got the bad news.

The STSNBN (situation that shall not be named) is not going well at all. It is looking highly likely (though we haven't given up all hope) that David will have to do two years in prison. His health problems (insulin dependent for 40 years, blood sugar out-of-control, no colon, neuropathy, retinopathy) will probably have him dead or severely impaired before his sentence is up. He is trying to get his affairs in order and do what he can for me and KJ, but is working under the assumption that he won't be back. We'll know more in a couple of weeks, but there should be a resolution (good or bad) by the end of the year. Ironically, if he was under indictment for the same crime in ANY other county, besides the one he is being prosecuted in, he would already be on probation. (That's what our lawyer says anyway.)

FYI - Updated post

I updated the "nice excursion" post with pictures.

Took a little trip

My friend, Debbie and her son, Rodney invited me and KJ to join them on a little trip to San Antonio. We left here early Friday morning and returned Saturday night. We went to the San Antonio Zoo Friday morning. In case you didn't know, KJ dyed half his hair hot pink and the other half is kind of a lighter pink.





Debbie wasn't super thrilled about being bombarded by hungry lorakeets.


This is a tad bit better.


Awww, this is more her style...until this bird started nipping her ear. I tried to shoo it off and it got tangled upside down in her hair. Sorry, I was busy removing the bird and didn't get a pic.


We had lunch at the Rivercenter Mall and then went on to the Alamo.

Rodney had some ancestors at the Alamo and was taking a picture of their names.

I wonder what was so funny.

After leaving the Alamo, we just relaxed at the hotel. Saturday was SeaWorld! (Debbie had 4 free tickets.)

The park was directed for Halloween.