I'm Back

Zig, Toad and I over Christmas. The snow was almost level with Toad's back!
Pic courtesy of Mom

I was not planning on taking a blogging vacation, but that is just what I did! It has been busy around here. It all started two weeks ago. Our Ziggy dog got really sick, I don’t know if dogs can get the flu or some kind of virus, but those were his issues. I cleaned up more puke in those four or five days than I have with both of our children. I did get really good at knowing when he was going to be sick and getting him outside before I had a mess to clean up. Even in the middle of the night, I knew the symptoms. Zig went two days with no food or water, I know going without food won’t hurt him, but I was getting nervous about the whole dehydration thing. I think he went four days without any food, and then he started to eat again, slowly but surely. Now he is all back to normal!

Just as he was getting better, Toad got sick! Thankfully he was only sick for two days, and nothing as severe as what Zig had been.

The day after Toad was better, Dopey, the cat, got sick. Are kidding me? What is going on here? He was only sick for two days though, too. We have never had a sickness go through all three of our animals before. I didn’t even know it could happen. That was just like when our kids were real young. The week Zig was sick; I didn’t get a full night’s sleep. I was getting up with him two to six times a night to get him outside. Aren’t you glad I filled you in on all of that now? Did you really miss my blogging?!

Last week we had a little mishap with our van. I won’t mention any names or what happened, but I will say we get a new bumper next week. Another lady gets a new door and a paint job on one side of her car. Oh yeah, our insurance will be going up, too. Nobody was hurt, though, and that is the important thing.

I used to do a lot of subbing in our local school district. Towards the end of the last school year, the school board decided not to have subs any more unless absolutely necessary. I missed seeing the students and employees on a regular basis. I did enjoy having much more time at home. Last week and this week one of the ladies that work in the IMC (library) was quite sick. I worked for her most of the two weeks. Working those days will certainly help our budget, but I forgot what it is like to work all day, every day, then come home and do laundry and make supper. I don’t know how some of you ladies and gentlemen out there work a full time job, then come home and do household chores, make meals, run children around, and still find time for the Lord, your spouse and yourself!

What are you all doing for the Super Bowl tomorrow? Do you even care about the Super Bowl? Princess and Trucker are going to our youth pastor’s house for a Super Bowl party. The King and I will have the game on, but it won’t be as exciting as it would’ve been had the Vikings got in! Yes, Chuck, I will be cheering for the Colts! Now I need to go talk to the King and see what kind of chow we want for the game tomorrow! Don’t know if we want some yummy snacks or a scrumptious dinner!

Watching the Morning News

Toad

This is what I found in the living room this morning when I turned on the light. The way he has the remote right next to him cracked me up! It also reminded me of a few others who live in this house!

I watch the Today show once or twice a year. I usually turn on a local channel to catch the local news in the morning, and then go to HLN to watch the national news. After I know if there is any thing major going on in the world, I usually turn the tv off. I had to do a few things after watching the local news this morning and when I came back into the living room there was a story on the Today show that got my attention.

They were interviewing the parents of a US Marine who died in Iraq. The soldier kept in touch with his parents while he was in Iraq, but they did not know he was keeping a video diary. After four months over there, he was killed. Some of his Marine buddies brought his video diary home to his parents. When they put the dvd in, they thought they were going to see pictures. He had been filming what he was doing on a regular basis. They got to watch him play with the local children, know where he was at and hear his voice. The Mom said she has not been able to watch the whole thing yet. That would be tough to do. Watching the short snippet this morning was tough, and he was not my son. I think anyone who watched that this morning had to be feeling some emotion when it was over. It made me stop and pray right then and there. I prayed for this particular family, I prayed for the men and women who are currently fighting and I prayed for the families who have lost someone due to the war.

The next news story I watched was much more uplifting. LT, a football player for the San Diego Chargers, had quite a surprise yesterday. When he opened his locker at the stadium before yesterday's game, there was a small box in there from his wife. He said he figured it was going to be a necklace. When he opened the box, he found the results of his wife’s positive pregnancy test! They had been trying to conceive for four years. He must have been excited; he played the best game of his career.

How was that for the news this morning? It went from one end of the spectrum to the other. One story was sad; watching a family deal with the death of a loved one. The other story so fun and upbeat; watching a family learn that they are going to be bringing a loved one into the world.

Walking or Talking?

material I'm using in a quilt for Trucker
pic courtesy of the Princess


The dogs and I started out for our walk last night. We got about one block from the house and one of our neighbors was outside, doing nothing, just enjoying the night. I have talked to him in passing before, but never held a conversation with him. Last night for whatever reason we started talking, and kept talking, forty-five minutes later we were still talking! I know, hard to believe that out of me!!





It was so neat to talk to him. He is going to be eighty in a couple of months. Not only do I like to talk, but I also like to talk to elderly people. I don't know if he will want to talk to me again, though. We started talking about different pets we have had over the years. He had a lot more to talk about there than I did, seeing as how he has had a lot more years to have a lot more pets. How can you talk about pets without talking about losing them? While he was talking about a dog he grew up with, and about when it died, he got all choked up and teary-eyed. What do you do when you are talking with an eighty year old stranger and he starts to cry? You cry with him!





We both got that under control and then he started talking about his wife having a stroke last year. He got choked up and teary-eyed. What do you do when you are talking with an eighty year old stranger and he starts to cry? You cry with him, again!





When we were done talking and I started to walk away, he said, "It was really nice talking to you." And it was nice talking to him. I do like to go for walks with the dogs, but I would give up a walk any day to have a conversation like that.





It was dark out by the time we were done talking so I just walked back home. When we got into the house, Toad hit his dog bed like I had taken him on a four mile hike. I guess walking a block, laying on the neighbor's yard for forty-five minutes and walking a block back home must be tiring.

Two Things and One Puppy

KoKo (3 months old) playing burrito or taco!

We got to puppy sit last weekend. Wow, do they have a lot of energy! You forget what puppies are like when you don't have one for a long time. It has been almost eight years since we had a puppy in our house, and Ziggy was a really mellow puppy. Twenty years ago we had a yellow lab/golden retriever mix puppy, and she was a wild thing. The King had fun playing games with KoKo, the little one we just watched. He calls it the burrito game or taco game or something like that. The King folds a blanket in half length wise and lays it on the ground. He next lays the dog on one end of the blanket and rolls them up in it. It is kind of humorous to watch, but I don't know if the dogs enjoy it as much!

Mom e-mailed this to me with her info in it. I was supposed to e-mail it back with my info. I figured I would blog it instead and share it with the rest of you! I am sure you will all be interested! Feel free to copy it and put in your blog with your own information.

Two Names you go by:

1 Candy

2 Bug

Two things you are wearing right now
1 sweat pants

2 slippers

Two of your favorite things to do:
1 spend time with family

2 read

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1 secretary job at the school

2

Two favorite pets you have had/have:
1 Butthead (the lab/retriever mix dog we had) (I didn't name her, the was the King's doing)

2 Ziggy (retriever we have now)

Two things you did last night:
1 shot my bow with the King and Trucker (never missed the target) (never hit the bulls eye either)

2 read our local newspaper

Two things you have eaten today:
1 Colby cheese

2 cucumber

Two people you last talked to
1 the King

2 Trucker

Two places you have been in the past year:
1 Michigan

2 Minnesota

Two favorite beverages:
1 water

2 hot chocolate or chai tea latte

Here is Trucker's list of two things

Two Names you go by:

1 Walker

2 Big Buck Killer

Two things you are wearing right now
1 Peterbilt belt buckle

2 Rockwood tee shirt

Two of your favorite things to do:
1 hunt

2 fish

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1 .454 Casull Revolver

2 .22 Revolver

Two favorite pets you have had/have:
1 Toad (our basset hound)

2 Toad

Two things you did last night:
1 covered school books with paper bag

2 shot my bow

Two things you have eaten today:
1 venison loin

2 fried egg sandwich

Two people you last talked to
1 Mom

2 Dad

Two places you have been in the past year:
1 Wisconsin

2 Minnesota

Two favorite beverages:
1 Root Beer

2 Mountain Dew

Stinkin' Dog

Do not let this picture fool you! They are a pain! When these dogs are in doggy heaven I am never getting another one!

Last week I blogged about the dog poop incident, I thought that was the end of the story. I was wrong. Let me bring you up to date.

After the dog poo thing, Trucker and I shampooed the carpets Monday evening. Not a big deal; the carpets needed shampooing and if the dog is sick he cannot help it. We got it all taken care of.

Wednesday night we get home from the King's softball game around 10:00 pm. When we pull into the driveway Trucker lets the dogs out to see us. They were not interested in us - they were more interested in the skunk in the yard. You know what that means - at 10:00 at night I am giving the dog a bath. Now our carpets stink, again! I hope that if we leave the house open and spray lots of flowery smelling sprays around we will get rid of the skunk smell sooner or later. It took a few days (a few smelly days), but the smell finally did leave the house.

Yesterday morning I let the dogs out as soon as I got up. By the time I am done feeding them and getting fresh water for them they are barking at the door wanting back in. As soon as I open the door and they run past me - I smell it. Not skunk, this smell made the skunk smell pretty, I do not know if this is rotten fish or garbage. It is a gross and disgusting smell, that is all I know. Back in the tub Ziggy goes. Back in the tub Toad goes.

This morning I sit down at the computer to check the news, weather and blog. Trucker comes in with the dogs behind him. What do you think I smell? The same smell I smelled yesterday! I still don't know if it is garbage or fish. I did not give Zig the pleasure of a nice warm bubble bath today. I took him outside and hosed him down with freezing cold water, shampooed him up and rinsed him off with more freezing cold water. I do not think this will teach him a lesson, but it was easier than getting him in the tub and dumping water over him.

I am hoping that I got him back outside quick enough that our house will not smell like he did. Plus I am burning a vanilla/cinamon candle. At least that will make our house vanilla/cinamon/garbage/fish scented.

Okay, I am done being annoyed now. When these two dogs enter their eternity I will be getting another one!

What A Day!

Yesterday had a poopy start to it, but the day got better. Ziggy was sick Saturday night, I knew this because we had to get up twice to let him out. He never has to go out during the night. When I got up Sunday morning, I see he made a mess on the living room floor. At some point during the night I guess he needed out again and I did not hear him. While I am cleaning that up, the King gets up. I ask him if he will go upstairs and see if Zig made any messes up there, too. He comes back downstairs and tells me yes, Ziggy left a pile in front of the ironing board. I finish cleaning the living room floor, grab the cleaning stuff and garbage can and head upstairs. I look at the floor by the ironing board and sure enough, there is a mess I need to clean up. I start to walk towards it and YUCK! I step, barefooted, in the first pile that neither of us saw! What a way to start the day.

picture courtesy of the Princess - This poor fish has a couple of nasty scars on him, don't know what got ahold of him.

Here is the better part of the day though! The King, Princess and I went musky fishing. Trucker had to stay home on sick dog duty! The King caught this 36 incher, nothing huge but always nice when you can boat a musky. The best part was when the Princess got a musky on. She had it on for twenty or thirty seconds, long enough for all of us to see it and long enough for her to get an idea of what it is like to have a musky on. Not long enough for her to know what it is like to boat one, she lost it. The King figured it was 40-42 inches. When I have a fish on, I don't talk - not the Princess. She carried on a one-person conversation the whole time. In the half minute she had the fish on, she said, "Is it a musky? How big is it? What do I do next? Can I get him mounted?" It was so funny to hear her babbling the whole time she is fighting the fish. I had my back to her but turned around just in time to get a glimpse of the fish and to see a big smile on her face. Or was she gritting her teeth? I think that is the first time she has ever had a musky on, they are a little stronger than a perch or bluegill!

This Could Be Bad!

We used to have three quilt shops in our little town. They all went out of business within a year of each other. Whenever I wanted or needed quilting supplies I had to travel thirty miles one way. Yesterday I made the trip; I needed material to make a table runner and we had to return the Princess's new camera as it does not work. I pull up in front of the quilt shop and it is all closed up, store empty, lights off and a sign on the door. Oh poop, you have to be kidding me. The Princess gets out to read the sign - and guess what - the shop moved to our town!! Woohoo! I went there today. I did good, only bought what I needed to make one table runner. Oh yeah, I guess I did buy one extra charm packet, but I'll put that to good use! You might not be too excited about the quilt store news, but it made my day.

I came across this little guy the other evening while walking. Ziggy didn't pay any attention to him. Toad did not like him. He got as far away from the little turtle as he possibly could, barking the whole time. Probably scared the eggs right out of him!! Ha!Ha!

I need to get off of here now. The Princess is making us some kind of pasta, tomato, onion and basil salad. With homemade pasta, too! What a gal. New tip high for her yesterday. She said she was never so busy in her whole life, but it was all worth it. She made $145.00! Way more than I ever made waitressing twenty-five years ago.

No Favorites

"It's God's own truth, nothing could be plainer: God plays no favorites! It makes no difference who you are or where you're from - if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open." Acts 10:34 The Message

I read this last night and really liked it. I'm sure there are people out there who have pleased God more than I have, but He does not favor them. He still loves me. He does not care who we are; what race we are, male or female, rich or poor, good family reputation or poor reputation. He does not care where we are from or where we have been; involved in drugs, excessive amounts of alcohol, sex outside of marriage or prison. As long as you want Him and are ready to change your ways for Him, the door is open. We don't even have to open the door, it is already open for us. That is so inviting when you go to someone's home and they meet you at the door and are holding the door open for you. Sometimes when I come home Trucker comes outside with the dogs to the van and is waiting for me to open the van door. I love that. It makes me feel so loved, like he cannot wait to tell me about something that is going on in his day. I think we all like to walk into a home with the door open and someone waiting for us, whether it is our own home or someone else's home. The idea of God opening the door is certainly a comforting and peaceful feeling.

Yesterday I posted about Toad getting into the King's lunch box and stealing a sandwich. Some time after I posted I saw a chewed up bag of dates on the floor. Well, I saw a chewed up bag with one date left in it - I probably had six or eight dates in there. I'm sure Toad is the guilty one. At least I hope the King didn't eat the dates before he left for work and leave the garbage on the floor. As I was telling Grampy and Miss Joy the Toad/lunch box story today, Grampy said, "I bet that was Toad's first date!" He thinks he is quite the funny guy.

Toad-ie Got A Spank-in'!

I caught Trucker and Toad catching a snooze on the couch yesterday. Toad woke up as soon as I moved over by them to get a picture, but I still love the picture. It is the background on our computer now. They were both sound asleep, so they must both be comfortable, but I don't know how they could be. Poor Toad is being used as a pillow and Trucker's 6'1" frame is only using half of a short couch.

This is not the only thing Toad got caught at yesterday. The King's lunch box is a soft sided, close with velcro box. After I packed his lunch yesterday morning, I left his box on the kitchen floor and left the room. I thought I heard Toad rummaging around in the kitchen, but as I went to see what he was in, the noise stopped. A few minutes later I heard the noise again. The King was on his way into the kitchen, so I continued on with what I was doing. Then I heard the the distinct sound of a hand swatting the back end of a dog and the King telling Toad, "You leave that alone, that is my lunch." "Get out of here, go lay down." Then I heard Toad running to the back of the house by the Princess's bedroom. Did he think she was going to save him?

I asked the King later what Toad was doing. He said, "That stinkin' dog had my water bottle out of the lunch box and laying on the floor, and had one of my sandwiches out of the box and most of the way devoured!"

Dog Talk

Kind of leash that I use to walk the hound doggers that allows you to walk two dogs at one time. I tried using two leashes, but that was dangerous! All three of us ended up in a knot!

Saturday evening the dogs were outside romping around in the driveway while I was getting my shoes on and grabbing the leash to take them for a walk. Ziggy had a tennis ball that he was keeping away from Toad. They were rolling around and play growling at each other as they were playing keep away with the ball. As soon as I stepped out of the house onto the steps, Zig turned and saw that I had the leash and was ready to go for a walk. He immediately dropped the tennis ball and came over by me. Toad did not notice me, so he was all excited when he got the ball away from Zig. He ran over to where the ball had rolled to, quickly picked it up and took off strutting towards the garage. By watching his walk, you knew he was all proud of himself for getting the ball away from Zig. You could see his cocky little dog strut walk, and I know in dog language he was thinking, "Oh yeah, I'm the dog"! That's when he noticed Ziggy wasn't chasing him around to get the ball back. Toad stopped and looked to see what was going on, then he also noticed me and the leash. He dropped the ball like a hot potato and came running over to join us for a walk. You probably had to see the whole scene to enjoy the humor in it, but it did make me laugh to myself.

It also reminded me of Jesus talking to his disciples in Matthew 16:24 when He told them, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me." He also told a crowd of people the same thing in Luke 9:23, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me." Zig and Toad were both being selfish and had to drop the ball and quit playing if they wanted to go for a walk. I also have had times when I had to quit being selfish and give up whatever I was whining about or playing with if I wanted to walk with God.

Dog Thoughts!

I was wondering about something the other day, so I thought I would share it with you. Do you think a dog can run out of pee? In a two mile walk, Toad stopped to pee seven times the other day. How can he keep doing that? Does their body keep producing more and more? Or, would he eventually lift his leg and find he was empty? I know, pretty weird thoughts! What can I say?

Maybe strange thoughts run in our family. Last night the King, Princess and I were sitting on the living room floor playing Clue. I had a cup of chai tea on the floor next to me. The Princess, who does not like chai tea, picked my cup up for a drink. After the second drink I asked her why she was drinking my tea and reminded her that she does not even like chai tea. She responded something like this, "I'm seeing if I like it yet or not, but it kind of tastes like dog hair." First of all, how can you compare chai tea and dog hair? Who knows what dog hair tastes like? Secondly, if you don't like something, why keep trying it to see if your taste buds changed? I know our taste buds change over the years, but I don't think they make that drastic of a change in five minutes!

Cry Babies

Ginger's family went to Florida for spring break, so she came to stay with us! She's a great dog to dogsit. Very mellow and well behaved. She likes to lay under our computer desk. All of a sudden the word I typed showed up in the font I used yesterday for my April Fools fun! I don't know how to get it back into English and that is the only word that did that!! Anybody know how to fix it? April fools on me! My lines look like they are double spaced, too. Who knows what this will look like when I post it! Now I got the word "computer" to show up in English, but my whole text still does not look right.

The Princess and I watched Marley and Me tonight. I liked the book better than the movie, but the movie was certainly worth watching once. But blubber, oh my goodness did we bawl like a couple of babies! We laughed, we cried, we laughed at ourselves for crying. I'm glad we watched that one at home and not at the theatre!

Crying over the movie reminded me of a movie I watched with my mother-in-law a long time ago. She had seen the movie before but I had not seen it yet. When the sad part was coming, she was already starting to cry. I started to cry because she was crying. The King and his Dad came in the house and there we were both crying and we weren't even to the sad part yet! What a couple of saps, huh?!!

I'm going to post this now and see how it all looks.

This Old Bowl...It Made One..It Made...

Toad (read yesterday's blog to learn about the Toad) pic courtesy of the Princess

(No comments about which one is the Toad!)

I made us some tomato bread over the weekend. I let the bread rise in this bowl, which is older than the majority of you reading this blog. If you are older than the bowl, leave me a comment and tell me about yourself!

The King's Grandma and Grandpa received this bowl as a wedding gift in 1929! A few years after Grandpa died, Grandma gave me the bowl. She said she never made any thing that required that big of a bowl any more.

I have used the bowl numerous times over the years. I think she gave me the bowl in the mid '90s. Many times when I am making cookies, bread, cakes, meatloaf or whatever else I might be making, I wonder how many batches of cookies have been through this bowl. If the bowl could talk, what stories would it have for us. I have to believe that it has seen a few tears as Grandma was making various things for her family or friends over the years. I am sure it has heard much laughter in her kitchen. I know it also has been used by a few teenagers that were learning how to cook; including our Princess and the King's Mom and Aunt. I couldn't even make a guess as to how many granddaughters may have used her bowl.

A few times I have thought about putting the bowl on a shelf and retiring it. Then I change my mind. I hope the bowl never gets broke, but if it does, it has served it's purpose for many years and many generations!

What about you? What kind of family heirlooms do you have? Do you use them or are they items that sit on a shelf and get admired from a distance?

I just stepped into the kitchen while I was waiting for the pictures to upload. The Princess was using the bowl to make cherry buckle for family dinner nite tomorrow at church! She poured the buckle into a heart shaped cake pan that I also got from the King's Grandma!

Happy Birthday, Toad!

Toad is our basset hound. We do not know when his birthday is, the Princess just picked today, for whatever reason that she like February 2nd. We don't even know for sure how old the mutt is!

It is a long story as to how Toad ended up being a part of our family. The King's sister was driving home from work on some old, gravel, seldom used road. She saw a dog in the ditch, being a dog lover, she kept watching him. She thought it odd that a dog would be out there, in the middle of nowhere, and there weren't any vehicles around, either. As she got closer to the dog, she realized it wasn't walking right, so she stopped to see what was the matter with him. That's when she realized the basset hound had been duct taped up. His front paws were taped together and his hind paws were taped together. Kelly reached her hand out to him to see how the dog would respond, was he friendly or mean. He was all friendly and wanted her help. Toad had already chewed the tape apart on his front feet, but the tape was still stuck to him; and he was dragging his hind legs. Kel was able to get the tape off of him and took him to the closest police station and told them the condition she found him in and where she found him. After she got home that night, I just happened to call her to chit chat. She told me about the dog. How sad is that? Who could do that to a dog? I will not repeat (or type) the names Kelly called the guilty one. After Kel and I's conversation, I told the rest of the family about what Aunt Kel found on her way home from work. That was mistake #1! After a couple of days of thinking about what this poor hound dogger had been through, I called the police department to see how the dog was doing that had been brought in. Whoever I talked to said the dog seemed to be doing quite well, and they were going to be turning it over to the humane society in a few days. By now the Trucker and the Princess were quite sure we should give this dog a much better home than what it had. Mistake #2, I called the humane society! They raved about how nice the dog was, and how he was doing well. That was the end of it for us! We had to wait two weeks for tests to be run on the dog and he would be available for adoption on a Saturday morning in June. Here comes Mistake #3, that Saturday morning, the King, Princess and I took a ride to the humane society to see the poor basset hound. The Princess did not know what she thought of him at first, she thought he was ugly, his head was to big and you could see his ribs. I had to agree with her, he wasn't the most handsome dog I had ever seen. I don't know as if I have ever seen a handsome basset hound, though, either! When people tell you looks don't matter, it's all about the personality, that is true. The humane society people let us go into a small room with the dog to see how he acted. He had a personality that grabbed you right away! He was so curious and wanted to play. And of course who could resist those big, droopy eyes and those long ears! Needless to say, when we left we were $85.00 poorer, but had a new dog. The paper work said he was one or two years old, after a few days of having him in our home, we think he was closer to the one year mark. Quite an active thing he was! He has given us many laughs over the last months! He has given us many annoying times over the last few months. Maybe I should say he has annoyed me over the last few months, the rest of the fam finds it all quite humorous. I like a dog that obeys immediately when I talk to him or her. Toad listens immediately, but he obeys when he is good and ready to. I like a dog that lays on the floor, Toad thinks he has just as much of a right to the couch and bed as I do! I must confess, I have told Toad more than once that if he doesn't watch it, he might get re-acquainted with the duct tape. Joke, joke! Ha!Ha! As irritating as he can be at times, I could never do some thing like that to any animal.

You will hear more Toad stories over the blogs. In the length of time that it took me to type this, I have chased him off the couch twice! The King says Toad has no feelings in his hind quarters, you can swat him pretty good to get him off the couch, but as soon as you leave the room, guess where he is again.

I was going to post a picture for you, but the pics are on the Princess's camera. Hopefully tomorrow I can have a picture for you. I am sure you will all think he is the cutest thing you have ever seen. In another year, all of you will be the proud new owner of a basset hound!

Walkin' With the Hound Doggers

I went outside yesterday, to start our walk, with Toad (our basset hound) already on a leash. Ziggy (our golden retriever) was already outside rambling around. Zig rambled to far and left the yard, quite unusual for him. Me, not appreciating when a dog does not behave, figured that was his own problem. I am not going to wait around for him, he will not get to go for a walk today. This is probably my "patience thing" that I talked about the other day! I doubt that Ziggy understands the whole concept of me not waiting for him because he left the yard! Anyway, Toad and I start walking down the road. We are half a block from the house when I hear foot prints thundering up behind me, it is Zig. I don't know if he heard us, smelled us or saw us; but running up to us he did, all excited to be going for a walk. It made me smile to myself to see him running and jumping around at the thought of walking with Toad and I. That whole picture made me think of how my Heavenly Father feels when I come running to Him and want to walk and talk with Him. Even though I was annoyed with Zig to begin with, it was all forgotten when he came running up to me and wanted to be with me.

Now I have to get some chores done around the house and then on to some more exciting things. I received a new quilting magazine with lots of neat quilts and table runner patterns in there. That is quite a motivator to make me want to get a couple of projects done so I can start a new one! I am working on a table runner for our dining room and need to get that done quick because I have my mother-in-law's book with the pattern in it and I need to get that back to her this weekend. Hopefully I can get that done this week. After that I need to finish my Mom's quilt that was supposed to be her Christmas present! I am such a timely thing, wouldn't you say, Mom?!! Now maybe I can stretch the time out and finish it for Mother's Day! Just kidding, Mom, my plan is to have it done well before then!