The girls go to school...

The last day of school fell on Thursday May 28th and I left in a hurry that day because a group of us went to Goose Loonies for a goodbye lunch. However summer school was scheduled to start the following Monday and I wasn't ready with lesson plans etc...so I'd planned to go back on Friday to get my classroom cleaned, organized and make lesson plans for the following week. I only wanted to stay for an hour or two but in the back of my head I knew I'd never have everything perfect by then! I knew only the front office staff would be on campus and even they'd be on a skeleton crew so I decided to take the girls with me so I didn't feel that need to get home quickly. Besides, with them in my classroom it felt less like work (or punishment) to be working and not getting paid! They did really good and only barked and a few strange noises that the janitors made in the room next door...only a few other teachers from the SPED department popped by my room and the girls got excited but never jumped up on anyone!

Sugar & Spice and Everything Nice!

On the last week of school Me and a few other co-workers planned a little baby shower for Kim (the new teacher in the Deaf Ed. Dept.). She is actually due at the end of May...but we, at work watched her belly grow since the beginning and wanted to honor that before we all left for summer vacation. I was able to collect a few dollars from most of the people in the SPED dept. and turned that into a $100 gift card for Babies-R-Us and then got a some decorations, punch, and a photo cake that featured her 4-D sonogram photo. Kim's cousin, Katie also works in the SPED department and she has a special cake lady she goes to...so she ordered a super rich (expensive) chocolate cake that was decorated to match the invitations I sent out. I didn't think a 9x9 inch cake would be enough to serve 30-ish people so I felt more comfortable having too much cake than not enough! I've gotta admit, it was a good cake but had everyone who contributed come to the party we would've had to cut into the cake I bought as well. Cake issues aside, the best part for me was the onesies! I wanted to have a couple white onesies printed with a Highland High School logo and then sew on some bootie ruffles to make them a bit more "girlie" considering our colors are blue and green. When I got to work a co-worker named Jefferi saw the onesies on my desk and told me she'd already put in an order to have some printed...but she loved my idea to add ruffles so a perfect compromise was made and a super cute product was created! When I found out that they hadn't been printed yet Kacey (an interpreter and super creative friend) and I went up and started snooping around to see what we could create! We had to cut some of the bigger designs to get them to fit on a tiny onesie...but when we were done they were perfect! I then took everything home and stayed up until midnight sewing ruffles (which I'd never done before). I messed up on two because the cotton fabric on a onesie is so soft it tears easily...ultimately I made 4 complete ruffled bootie onesies and then picked the two that came out the most perfect. They were a hit at the party and I was pretty proud considering the process began by ripping out the sides of perfectly good onesies then relying on my novice sewing skills to put "humpty-dumpty" together again! So just as soon as I got everything ready for the work shower I had to get started rolling diapers to create the diaper cake gift for Kim's actual baby shower that was the following Sunday on May 31st. I stopped counting somewhere after 100 diapers...then comes the making of the cake form and then finally adding the decorations. I made sure to chose some of the baby necessities off of her registry and then whatever else I could use to fill in the gaps! It wasn't as good as I wanted it because I'd envisioned ruffles on every layer but I ran out and didn't have time to get back to the store before the shower...but no one could've known that if I'd've kept it a secret! O-well, I was satisfied and it was cute either way...enjoy the photos!

Bringing in the Heavy Metal...

So for the longest time I have lived without trees in my back yard, thanks to Ginger channeling the spirit of a Beaver and eating through their trunks until they fell over! She also enjoyed chewing on the plastic sprinklers that were in the planters...I literally replaced the sprinklers once a week and most of the time I just had to turn them off because there were always new geysers shooting up all over the back yard. I had bought some brass topped sprinkler heads and that helped but she was STILL chewing on the plastic parts! I was venting to my brother one day when he mentioned that I could replace all the plastic with galvanized steel risers and brass tops...so the next time he came to town he helped me convert the whole above ground sprinkler system to metal. We even encased the grass pop-ups with metal grates made for trapping leaves in rain gutters...but they have seemed to do the trick! I am happy to report that it has been nearly 2 months and ALL of my sprinklers are still intact and working...GO METAL!!!! Now that I had reliable sprinklers...it was time to get new trees! I didn't mess around with small ones this time! I saved up some money and went out to my favorite nursery (cheap and reliable...San Antonio off of Houton Road) and picked out five 25 gallon palm trees! I then took the following Monday off of work and spent the day getting a sunburn (even though I was wearing 45 sunblock!) and digging out what was left of the trunks and root balls from the old mangled palms to get the holes ready for the new ones that the guys were bringing around 4pm to plant for me! I couldn't believe how easy they make planting such big heavy trees look...I swear they were done in about an hour (of-course I helped by pre-digging most of the holes!). So...after they were done getting the trees in the ground mom helped me start the 2 hour process of staking out and wrapping each tree in SERIOUS 4 foot tall chicken wire! It has now been a couple weeks and yes my backyard has more metal in it that most but my trees and sprinklers are all still in mint condition--a HUGE success!!!!

Paws in the park

I was invited to be a vendor at the Taft "Paws in the Park" event sponsored by the West Side Humane Society. I was super excited and spent the good majority of my spring break sewing new collar and leash designs. I spent so much time trying to perfect my display and for a first timer I was pleased with my presentation. However, I was outrageously disappointed with the turn out for the event. They didn't have any festivities besides simple games and contests. so nothing to really pull the people out there. At the events I've attended in Bakersfield they always have vaccinations, micro-chipping, licensing, etc. available at reduced costs so that people have a reason to show up that will benefit them! O-well I didn't sell much and neither did any other vendors strictly because of the minimal turn-out but if I ever get to attend a better event I defiantly have ample product and the set up ready to go! I was really frustrated about the whole thing but I guess no experience or trial run is bad because it just better prepares you for the next thing!

I have a new nephew!

So...on January 22nd at 5:48pm my Sister Sherry and her husband Matt welcomed their first baby into the world. A healthy baby boy named Carter Stone Grimes who weighed in at 6 pounds 11 ounces and 20 inches long. There was a little distress at birth because the cord was wrapped up over his little shoulder and the doctor had to use the vacuum to get him out quickly because at first he wasn't breathing! They said it didn't take the nurses too long to get him stimulated, breathing, and crying but it was long enough to scare everyone! Ever since they brought him home he's had almost constant visitors so he's quite used to being passed from arm to arm and can sleep through anything and everything! He has so far been a very quiet, sweet, and cute little guy and the family animals have been VERY curious about him!

Student Driver?

Any time I ever get outta the car Ginger takes the opportunity to keep my seat warm...separation anxiety for sure!

Ginger's 1st Christmas!

Today is Ginger's 1st Christmas and even though my immediate family had decided to conserve money and skip the gift-giving this year and instead just get together and enjoy each other's company I had to get the pups a little something! I bought 2 identical wish-bone shaped Nylabones that are made for chewing and teeth cleaning (not edibles) that I found for only 4 bucks each! I also bought two plush squeaky toys (one for each pup)...one was a squawking mallard duck and one was a high pitched squeaky squirrel. The girls were crazy excited when I got out their new toys...I gave them the bones first and waited an hour or so before giving them the stuffed toys so they could have time to chew before we played! They played for hours...but we'll see how long that "newness" lasts! Sadly it rained almost all day so most of our playtime happened in the house but they didn't seem to mind much. Then around 3pm the sky cleared up somewhat so I strapped on some Rollerblades and harnessed up the girls so that we could all get outta the house and get some exercise! I bladed and they pulled and ran for a solid hour and by the time we got home believe it or not they still wanted to play! I threw the ball for them for another 20 minutes or so in the backyard then fed them dinner, took a quick shower, and then left for my mom's house for our Christmas dinner and mom's birthday mini-celebration. I don't know what got into everybody but I don't think the 5 of us (me, mom, Wayne, Sherry & Matt) have laughed so hard in a long time...seriously an innocent bystander would've thought we were drinking and we weren't! It was a very fun night and yet it was a simple get together. Merry Christmas everyone...and Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Saved a Dog...on a Rainy Day!!!

So it's two days before Christmas and Leah and I had taken Baylie, Ginger, and Dakota to the dog park and in the beginning it was a bit cloudy and a tad windy but after an hour it started to get misty...then sprinkly...and after another 30 minutes or so everybody was cold and wet so we'd decided to call it a day. As we were leaving it began raining enough the windshield wipers became necessary. I was stopped at the light at Olive Drive and Fruitvale when Baylie barked in my ear. I realized she was barking at a beautiful big yellow male Labrador who was running across Olive drive through traffic. Luckily for him, he came running up to my car when he heard the bark. I hit my hazard lights and jumped out of the car. He had a collar but no tag, but there was a little piece of yellow plastic on the ring that looked like the same color my girls have that is for their microchip tag number! Anyways, he was nice to me and let me pet him with tail wagging and a smile on his face so I opened the back of my car and put him in! I just assumed in this nasty weather he was sure to get hit when someone couldn't stop in time with the wet roads! I then drove strait to the Coffee Road Animal Hospital (because it was the closest vet I could think of). I walked in and asked if they could scan him to see if he had a microchip and at first they couldn't find anything...but I insisted they try again because it looked like he used to have the yellow tag and sure enough, a number popped up! The desk clerk contacted the pet watch number to see if he was registered and got a contact number. We got ahold of the owner and she said her and her son were out of town! Luckily her husband had to work and hadn't left yet, but didn't get off work until 3 pm (currently it was almost 1 pm). Long story short, I gave the wife my name and number and told her I'd take the dog home with me and await her husband's call...I almost forgot to ask her the dog's name (figured that would be important considering I inherited a third dog for the next two hours). Once we got home we played ball in the back yard while we waited...Ginger really liked "Drake-o" (spelling?)...Baylie didn't mind him as long as he didn't sniff her hind-side! The funniest part was that he had clearly NEVER used a doggie door before...we had to show him how to get outside! So, the story had a happy ending...his owner came and picked him up from my house just after 3 as his wife said he would...he was very thankful and Drake-o had so much fun playing with the girls that we had to convince him to go home!

Almost as good as new!!!

Well...mom and I are first time re-upholsterers and I have to say we did a pretty darn good job!!! Unless you REALLY inspect it, or knew how bad it looked after Ginger ate it for a mid-day snack...you'd never even notice it is a patchwork masterpiece! It took approximately 3 weekends in a row to hand stitch each section of the couch...pushing a 4 inch needle through folds of fabric limited the number of hours per day mom's hands could take the punishment. I bought "pleather" from the fabric store, all the foam, needles and thread and thanks to "Black Friday" I got a pretty good deal and repaired the couch for under 60 dollars!!! The crappy part was that it isn't as strong as leather so sometimes the staples or stitches would rip out so it took a lot of careful consideration on how to go about the stitching process. The dumbest thing that happened during the process was me stapling in a lit flashlight! You see...I'd taken off the felt that covers the underside of the couch to do some mending from the inside and couldn't see well so I propped up a flashlight inside. I got the job done and it looked so good I got excited and then re-stapled on the felt and screwed on the feet and flipped the couch upright. A few minutes later mom was in a tight spot and needed extra light to see and then it hit me...UH...the damn flashlight is stapled INSIDE the couch! Ooops! :) Anyways, after that slight blonde moment setback we made quick progress, had some ingenious ideas for spray glue and staples to accompany the stitching and we're done! It is surely good enough to last until Ginger is out of the puppy stage and I save up enough buy new couches someday! Enjoy the Before and After!!! (Thanks again Mom! This couldn't have been done without you!!!)

Benadryl...Never Leave Home Without It!!!

So the other day I was watching a pre-recorded DVR session of that new show "The Doctors" and they were doing a special on what every person should always carry in their medicine cabinet and/or purses especially if they have loved ones with known allergies. The spoke about various cold medicines, thermometers, pain and fever reducers, allergy meds, bandages, gauze etc. Then for people with severe allergies they said you should invest in an epi-pen. Anyways, this show came on TV just a few weeks late for me but it made me remember my scary event! It was the Thursday after Thanksgiving I believe, and I got home around 5:30 and noticed that when the girls came in the house Ginger looked "different, tired, or even old...her eyes just weren't right!" I just wrote it off and assumed she'd been asleep and had just woken up when I got home. So, I fed the girls dinner and started making mine when I heard Ginger rubbing her side down the entire hallway and then she went out to the futon and was burring her face in the pillows and when I got her attention and saw her face I was HORRIFIED! In the matter of less than 5 minutes she had broken out in a crazy allergic reaction and I could literally watch new bumps pop up on her face, head, and along her rib cage! I could tell she was terribly uncomfortable and itchy...but the part that really scared me was that her poor nose was swelling up so much I was worried about her breathing! Ginger is a pup that hardly ever pants even when running and she was clearly breathing out of her mouth already! With the time (almost 6 pm) I knew my only option was the outrageously expensive emergency vet if I couldn't get the reaction to stop! I'd used the last of the children's Benadryl back during her spay surgery infection...so I threw both girls in the car and jammed to the Rite-Aid on the corner! Ran in and bought the Children's Fast Melt Benadryl times two boxes just in case! I got to the register and ended up in "Chatty-Cathy's" line who makes it her duty to talk as much as a manicurist!!! I'm on the phone with my mom at the time talking loud and frantic enough for the dumb woman to hear about me "needing to get the meds to her before she can't breathe" and she STILL had the nerve to tell me about the survey on my receipt that could result in winning a cash prize! I could have cared less at the time...I just needed to help Ginger before I had to pay an arm, leg, and foot at the ER Vet! I had already done the research about the milligram dosage for dogs and knew it was approx. 1 mg per pound of body weight and each of the Fast Melts were 12mg so I gave her 3 to stay on the safe side...and within about half and hour her facial swelling started to go down and within the hour the bumps on her ribs finally went away. The worst part is...I have absolutely no idea what set off the reaction in the first place! I scoured the back yard and even checked with the neighbors on both sides to ask if they had any bug sprayers or something come that was out of the ordinary...and nothing??? So I now keep stock of Benadryl in my medicine cabinet and in my purse in case it happens again when I'm away from home! (PS...not to worry, the pictures were taken AFTER the Benadryl was given to her)...and still the poor thing looked like one of those big green bumpy pickles (without the green part).

Halloween Fun at Work and at Home!

As of Wednesday I had actually come to the decision to get one of those T-shirts that just said something corny like "this is my costume" but the kids kept hassling me about not dressing up and I had plenty of co-workers say they couldn't wait to see what I came up with this year because I always come up with crazy costumes. So I guess I did succumb to the peer pressure of it all and decided not to be so ba-humbug about it and figure out something to wear. I bought new things minimally because it was two days before pay day and I actually have a pretty good stash of wigs and crazy makeup...so I created a costume that seemed to work even though it didn't have a "name". Katie (a friend and co-worker) who always has the spirit to dress up stopped by my classroom in the morning for a quick photo-opp. as "little bo-peep". We then had a pizza party during lunch for the kids in my class and I turned my math classes into a circumference finding pumpkin seed estimating goo factory as some of the kids got to carve pumpkins for the very first time! It was messy but fun on a Halloween Friday! I later came home to deal with trick-or-treaters in my neighborhood so I just left on the costume all day...most of which was fine but the wig gets itchy and hot! I took the time to get a couple of pictures of Baylie and Ginger in their witch costumes and some with me too and answered the door 5 or 6 times for kids I recognized. At around 8 the door bell rang and I peeked out the window to see only a few small feet so I answered the door to surprisingly find about 12 kids on my doorstep and a freakin' van parked across the street none of which I'd seen before! It took so long for me to pass candy out to each kid that eventually Ginger squeezed passed my legs and the crack in the door frame and ran out to "greet" all the people! I wasn't worried about my goofy puppy interacting with the people but I worry if the people are scared of dogs in general...so I quickly finished throwing candy into buckets and then went to get her...at this point I'd had enough stress and decided Halloween was over! I blew out all the pumpkins, turned off the spider lights, and tried to make my house as dark as possible so that people would stop ringing my bell then I riped off the wig and hit the showers to get off the crappy fake makeup and wash away the very LONG day! So Happy Halloween Everyone...it was fun while it lasted!

Houdini strikes again!!!

Well believe it or not the whole get to the vet before work on Thursday and make it back before 4th period (11:45) actually worked! They took Ginger to the back to get the suture line cleaned up and then about 15 minutes later they called me back into an exam room where the Vet met me with Ginger...who was now in an even BIGGER cone that the one I paid 13 bucks for on Monday! The Vet agreed that it was infected and gave us antibiotics but insisted that Ginger was somehow still licking at the incision even with the cone?!? In my opinion this is impossible but it is infected so who knows? I also asked the Vet to give her some kind of pain pill because she's so restless at night that her body is gonna be too weak to fight an infection! THEN...I get home on Friday afternoon at 3 (which was early thanks to it being Highland's home coming) and find Ginger VERY happy without her cone on!!! Yep! You guessed it, my little Houdini somehow chewed the cone off and proceeded to eat off each loop where the tie goes through so that it was impossible to reuse it! Her belly was again raw from licking so I risked my life to pour hydrogen peroxide on it to clean off the gazillion germs she no doubt licked into it! (OK, so that's a bit exaggerated but I'm telling you for a little thing she kicks hard and is quite strong!) Then it was a trip to Pet Co. to buy yet a third cone! At least the Vet exchanged the 1st cone for the bigger one without extra charges but I won't complain over a 13 dollar piece of plastic again because at the pet store I paid 17! O-well...at this point I'll do whatever it takes to get past this...I'd love to sleep in my bed again and not see her in so much distress! It has been 2 days now and thanks to the antibiotics, the pain pills and the children's Benadryl we are surviving...but sleep is still pretty priceless!!! Oh, and PS...Baylie still hates the cone...even her new pretty pink one!!! Four more days and counting for stitch removal...