Gracie's First Birthday
Gracie's first birthday was New Years Day, and what a party that was! Over 50 guests.




*putting feet up and doing this on the new laptop my son-in-law gave me for Christmas*





I checked out the blogs of my friends and can't believe how much time they have on their hands! This is the first day I haven't been bogged down since before Thanksgiving. And I wonder how they do it.




Gracie's daycare center got temporarily shut down, so I went to Colorado to take care of her for a couple of weeks. She's just too cute! I'm so glad I had the time to bond with her. We spent her first Thanksgiving together. She was so cute taking a bite and giving the dog a bite of everything on her highchair tray. Nellie, her HUGE dog, is so gentle with Gracie. I also got the opportunity to introduce Gracie to the world of the internet. We surfed Disney, Fisher Price and various kid sites, but the one that made her laugh out loud was You Tube. She loves "Charlie Bit Me" and "The Laughing Babies".





I got home a few days after Thanksgiving and started preparing for Christmas. Since everyone's work schedules were different, we had Christmas from December 10th through January 6th. That's a lot of turkeys and cooking and work! I'd just get the house cleaned up from one group and the next would come for a few days.





The highlight of Christmas with Nick and Christin was watching their surprise when they both got laptops from Aunt Carrie and Uncle Dave.




Christin is really into her laptop and at only 8 years old knows more about computers than anyone I know. She's really into Taylor Swift, so of course we created a background, screen saver, and theme for her computer. She loves her little guitar cursor. And her favorite "pretend" game is Nancy Drew. We put together a Nancy Drew sleuth kit in and old purse of mine, and she and her friends play Nancy Drew all the time. So, of course, we had to get a couple of the Nancy Drew games for her computer. I loaded her computer before Christmas so it would be ready. I tested the Drew games to make sure they worked, until I got frustrated because I couldn't find the first clue on any of the games. Christmas comes, Christin gets her computer, sees the Drew games, loads the first one, and in less than 10 minutes she's found 16 clues! (She's also adept at opening childproof bottle caps!)




Nick is an enigma. He got a WII for Christmas and is busy with it. Most boys that play Star Wars want to be Luke or Hans. Not Nick. He wants to be Darth Vader. Do you realize how hard it is to find any video or computer game that allows a kid to be the bad guy?????? Well, when I was in Denver, I found one for the WII. You could almost buy a computer for what that thing cost, but what the heck, he's only gonna be little once. So I got it. His mom and dad got him the light sabers for the WII. Now he can destroy Jedi knights like they're ants!

As soon as we finished with the "holidays", Pump's Hunting and Fishing Lodge was open for business. Randy and his friends live and breathe rabbit hunting. My ringtone for him is Ozzie Fudd's "Kill Da Wabbit".... Anyway, the good news is, I don't change the sheets in any of the 3 extra bedrooms until AFTER rabbit season. I figure all those guys don't shower before bed anyway, and I'm not changing sheets for that crew every time they stay. Rabbit season doesn't end until Feb 15th, so they can live with it! They're lucky I cook and wash towels!

The dogs are doing really well this year. We have 10 beagles now. Max is our giant beagle weighing in at over 40 lbs. (can you believe that Tinkerbell - the toy beagle - is Max's half-sister?) Digger, Liza and Squeak are Lil's puppies from last spring. This is their first year hunting and they've taken to it like a fish in water. Digger is a true hound. When they get back from a hunt, and Randy lets them out of the transport box, all the dogs run for our woods ready to keep hunting..... except... Digger. He runs for the empty feed bucket and brings it up to the house to be filled!

Lil and Belle chase rabbits around our pasture and woods. Belle chased a rabbit that went into the drain tile pipe buried by the retaining wall. Now mind you, that pipe had at least 3 feet of dirt and gravel over it. Belle couldn't get into the pipe, so she started pulling on the end of the pipe. She pulled 15 feet of pipe completely out to get that rabbit! And she's only 14 lbs! Remind you of the Rubber Tree Plant song???

Duke, Blackie and Whitey are our oldest dogs. Duke still loves to hunt, but he's learning that he isn't the alpha dog for much longer. Blackie is our ornery little chit! But he's a great hunter. And that leaves Whitey.

Poor Whitey. He was born with deformed back legs that don't work independently. But he doesn't know he's handicapped. He's all heart and has more stamina than any of the dogs. He's a medium size beagle, about 20 lbs, and even though he can't keep cadence with the other dogs, he loves to hunt more than any of them. The first week in December he had an accident. While hunting, he ran into a briar patch after a rabbit and got a briar in his eye. We thought he was going to lose the eye. The vet had to treat it and sew it shut for a few weeks. When we removed the stitches, he had a healthy eye, so he gets to keep the eyeball. The bad news is that he'll never regain full sight in it, and it will always have that hazy blue covering over it. But that didn't stop Whitey. Then last week, while out hunting, he got caught in a trap someone had set. We thought sure he had broken a leg at the very least. We put him into the transport box, and went down the road to get the other dogs. When we stopped to get them loaded, Whitey jumped out of the box and took off in search for rabbits! Whitey kinda reminds me of Sunny. He needs to be packaged in bubblewrap before leaving the kennel!

Well gang, I've rambled enough, and I have cobbler to make before the hunters are here for dinner. I'll try to update again in another 2 or 3 months!

Back from dindin and wanted to show you how cute my little doggie is. She's a pain, but she is cute!

First Blog Post

Well, as you can see, my friends have shamed me into this. That's why the name. Today is my first Lil Mistake post. And I'll have to do this between cleaning up after the new dog and doing laundry and stacking firewood. Who knew a 2 lb toy dog could manufacture so much uh... doodie?

Today I went down into the basement to check the water softner. Got ready to leave and happened to look down. There was about a 3 foot long snake crawling over the toe of my shoe. Needless to say, I was startled to say the least. I didn't have anything to kill it with, so I summoned up my courage (drank a cooler), grabbed the push broom and started pushing the snake. It finally gathered up in a ball so I could push it into the dustpan and throw it out the door into the cold. I'm still shaking. Okay, okay, it was only a milk snake, but I never stop to ask them what kind they are. I just don't want them in my house!

I've been getting things together for the next treasure hunt. Christin, now 7, and Nick, now 5, are very into Nancy Drew and Indiana Jones. In the summer, at garage sales, I find neat little treasures that I can bury in the yard (10 acres) and I draw treasure maps on parchment paper. I burn the edges of the paper and tie them up with old looking ribbon, then seal them with wax. The kids love hunting for the treasure. They'll be here next weekend, so I've already started planning the treasure hunt. I found a gold Cortez filigre cross, an old copper/pewter cup, an old looking ring, a wooden treasure chest with a sphinx on top (which I painted gold), some acrylic diamonds that are about 1 - 1.5 inches big, a couple of boxes of colored glass beads that look like jewels, and of course a crystal skull. I have them all buried and I'm working on the maps in the evenings. Each kid has to have their own map to find their own treasures. They haven't gotten the hang of sharing the map yet!

Carrie called and we confirmed my itenerary for Colorado. I'll be leaving on Nov. 22 and stay until Dec. 2nd. She lives in Evergreen. They have a beautiful home 9000 feet up on a mountain. The road is something else to get to the house. It makes Pike's Peak road look like an interstate! When I get up that mountain, I don't go down again until its time to go to the airport to go back home. This time tho, we're going to Indian Springs to see if the mineral waters help my joints. Like she thinks I believe that is the reason! She likes to laugh at my knuckles turning white and my face fading to a whiter shade of pale when she drives me up or down that mountain! Guess I'll always be a flatlander at heart!

Randy just got back from taking the dogs out running rabbits. We're taking Mom and Dad out to dinner, so I'd better get ready. I'll post again if I can remember how. And, please be patient, I'll post pictures one day when I have time to wait on this connection!