Do You Feel Like Your Being Watched..? I Do!!

Take a look at this picture....

See anything odd..?

Once you see it, you will understand why I shudder every time I glance over the fence to our back yard neighbors. 

The first time I saw it, it was over on their porch.  I could've sworn one of our neighbors was just staring at our house.  It didn't help that it looked like the person wasn't wearing any clothes.  Lol!  I spent an entire afternoon trying to:

 A. Figure out what they were staring at.
 
And..

 B. How on earth they could sit there and stare for so long.

Then I realized something.  Who, or whatever it was, was on their porch step, and I couldn't see the rest of their body. Even from our upstairs window. Come to discover, it was only the bust of a human form.  That made me feel better.  Not to mention, slightly silly for assuming that we had creeper neighbors, who were planning to murder us in our sleep.

As you can see in the photo above (If you've found it) that the creepy figure is now in their play house, eternally staring at OUR house.

Here it is a bit closer...

I was so interested in seeing what it looked like, that I got my big camera, with the telephoto lense on, to get a good look at it.

And here is a close and personal view of our watchful neighbor...

If that's not creepy, I don't know what is!!

So, the next time you are at our house.  Come and stand on our back porch to see for yourself. 

Donated Blood... Yeah, Me!

One other thing I forgot to mention that was apart of my golden year was donating blood. 

Rewind over a year...

There was one Sunday, in our old ward, the man speaking that day commented about how one of his New Years Resolutions was to do something that he was afraid of.  For him, as for myself, it's needles... So he decided to donate blood to conquer his fear.

Well, I got thinking about it and decided that I should do something that had to do with my fear of needles during my golden year.  Well, taking up hard drugs wasn't an option, *Kidding.. Totally kidding!*  So I did exactly what he did.  I donated blood.  I thought about it all year and ended up getting it done RIGHT at the last minute.   That's right, on my birthday that would end my golden year.  Phew!  Just barely made it!  I don't have a picture of myself because, to be right honest with you, I didn't know if it was okay to take pictures in there, so.... This is my picture of it...

Yeah!  Well, I'm a huge baby and couldn't go alone.  So, my dear friend Amanda came with me to hold my hand.  That made it so much easier!  Thanks Amanda for coming! 

As for my after thoughts about it... I was really quite shocked about how easy and fairly painless it was.  I think that has to do with the fact that some person out there is really going to need my blood to help save their life, or the life of someone they care about.  So no, they don't lie when they tell you that you will have a sense of accomplishment by doing it. 

Now fast forward....

I got my blood donation card in the mail in the first part of January. I swear, if not the same day, but the day after I got a phone call from someone at the Red Cross wanting to schedule me for another donation.  I know most people hate it when they call, because they will, guaranteed! But I was glad when they called me.  It makes it so much easier. You don't have to remember to schedule your appointment.  They call you!   Works for me.  So... as you might guess, I set up an appointment.  It was so spur of the moment, that I didn't have anyone go with me this time. 

So here you go, a new and better picture from my donation on Jan 28....

Because of all the storms back east, they were really hoping to get people to donate.  One blood type was specifically mentioned, because it's so in demand, I guess. (I really don't know much about blood, to tell you the truth...)  Which is what my blood is. So hopefully my little pint donation will do some good. 

Lucky me, while I was waiting for my turn.  The lady at the desk pointed out that the date in which, people donating that day could donate again, was March 25.  They had a sigh up sheet that you could schedule your next appointment.  Awesome!

So yes, I'm going to donate again in March.  I still can't believe I'm saying (typing) that.  It doesn't mean I love needles now, by any means.  But knowing that your helping someone out really throws all that "needle fear" garbage out the window. 

Golden Year Ends... Kitten... Stitches.. etc...

Quick recap...

Golden year ended, many awesome things happened, also some sad.  I don't think I could've had a better year.  As for notable events that weren't blogged about...

I'm a mommy!  He's little and furry, but I totally think it counts.

His name is Bazil.  ( As in Bazil of Baker Street... The Great Mouse Detective) 

That's his name because he looks like a little old man, and to us, Bazil is an old man name.  Especially with that white hair coming out of his ears!

We got him on November 16, 2013 from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.  He was 8 weeks old when we brought him home (the picture above.)  We've decided his birthday is September 4, considering they never can really tell you the exact date.

Here are some pictures that span between when we got him to now...

Playing in the Fall decorations, as I attempt to get them put away.

He was teeny tiny when we brought him home.  We took him to the vet about 2 weeks after we brought him home, and he weighed 2lbs 7 1/2 oz

Cat and boxes... Of course he had to find the skinniest one to prove he could fit into it.

Yup, he believes the bed belongs to him...

 

 as well as our faces.

My mom brought her sewing machine to my house while Troy and Scheli are living there.  Bazil thought he needed to help with the mending.

 

He loves blankets!  He falls asleep in such strange positions sometimes.

He wants to be wherever you are so even my purse will do as a bed.

We gave him his first bath.  He looks so weird wet.  He's all white underneath!  He did good for us, but he would much rather remain dry.

He is our little baby.  I, in fact, call him "Baby Kitty" when he is being all snuggily. 

I get to spend lots of time with him and he makes me laugh multiple times a day. 

****************

As for the other big event....

 

I'll give you the embarrassing story first.

 

I was getting the Christmas Decorations out for the year.  I saw that this little Santa decoration had come apart from it's base.  This was seriously, the cheapest decoration I had...  I needed to get this big glob of hot glue off the base so I could make a new spot of fresh glue.  In my mind This was the best tool for the job....

Well, I hadn't been working at it a minute when I decided that sawing it off would be good...

The knife slipped, I felt a small poke, and thought dang, this isn't going to work... Then I looked down at my finger to see if I had even broken skin, and saw this...

At the time it was totally covered in blood.  I washed it off, not really knowing the extent of the damage.  I still had my wedding ring on and I could feel my finger swelling, pretty fast.  So I bit my lip and pulled my ring off over the wound.  That was a good time...  I didn't know how serious it was because I hadn't even noticed yet that it had stabbed all the way through to the other side.  I showed it Houston to see what he thought.  We came to the conclusion that it would be best if I went to instacare to get it looked at. 

I had to have stitches, of course.  5 total.  Houston held my hand the whole time, because I'm a huge baby.  If you look closely at the picture above, you can see fatty tissue coming out of the bigger cut.  When Houston was watching them numb it, he said it was really gross because that numbing stuff makes it swell more, so more of that tissue was coming out.  I didn't watch, so lucky me  I didn't get to witness that.

So, my $0.50 Santa decoration, turned into $404.50 Santa.  Most expensive decoration I own now.

Now lucky you I took pictures of my finger healing process...

Yummy huh? 

Lucky me, I didn't cut any tendons, so it was literally just healing up the skin.  But now my poor ring finger is even more mangled than it was before.

Well that's it for major events.  Well, I did go to Disneyland again... That will have to be in another post.

Back to the Sewing Machine... and Decorating for Fall

My interest in the sewing machine was rekindled when I was in desperate need of help to make my Halloween costume.  My aunt Luie is the best at sewing clothes so I went to her for help.  She is a smart lady.  She told me how, and made me sew almost everything myself.  None of that costume will be shown in this post.  That way it can be a surprise for Halloween!  Lets just say, it's big and furry. 

Now I need to sew Houston's.  I'll attempt that one on my own. (Sorry Houston)

Okay, now that I've been reintroduced to the sewing machine, I decided to list all projects I have to do.  Wow!  That list was huge!  Blankets, aprons, trick-or-treat bags, table runners, fabric to reupholster my dining table chairs and a make a bench seat.  Not to mention, I found some fabric I bought but, for the life of me, can't remember what I wanted to make with it...

So now it's putting all the projects in order of what needs to be done first.  That would obviously be Houston's costume.  But then I remembered something...  Me and the relationship I have with my mom's sewing machine...  I swear, every time I use it, it craps out and makes me hate sewing.  It not like the machine is malfunctioning.  I think that I just wasn't doing something right when I set up the thread and such that makes it not work right for what I'm doing.  I thought it would be better for me to start with a few easier sewing projects, just to get that blasted machine to like me. 

I've had the pieces cut for 2 aprons for a long time.  One kitchen apron, and one sewing apron.  Well, I'm trying to get a bunch of blankets sewn and tied so I thought it would be smart to get that sewing apron done first. The sewing machine started off kicking and screaming.  I broke 2 machine needles not to mention a few other stupid problems.   I pushed through and got it right to the very end, and that last part I just couldn't get, so my mom saved me and did it.  I think it was mostly because I was so blazing mad that the machine was up to it's old tricks.

Here's the apron.  It's not even close to perfect, but I'm pretty proud that 99% of it was sewn by me.

Trust me to pick the weirdest fabric.  It's all good.  I dig that 70's style fabric. 

The fabric is so busy that you can't see where the scissor loop is, or the pockets for that matter. 

Now that that is completed I thought I would try another easy one to have a second attempt at mastering that machine...  So I made table runners.  I had Halloween fabric to make them, but then I was in Joann's and found Christmas and Thanksgiving.  My mom was with me and liked that fabric I picked so I bought enough to make her one of them both.  So my project of 2 runners turned into 6 runners....  Yeah, I'm really good to myself...  I started those and found that they are really easy, and sewing machine gave me no problems... ( I was shocked)  

 Thanksgiving/Fall

 Christmas

 Halloween

Halloween

When I got all done I looked at the Halloween runners and wasn't exactly excited to put them on my table..  I'm more of a serious Halloween girl.  All my decorations are serious. Both of those runners don't fit that mold.... At all.  So I gave those to my mom too.  

That means I need to head back to Joann's to find Halloween fabric to make a "serious" Halloween runner for me.  I found some and bought enough to make 2 runners of it. (total now to 8 runners)

My mom and I decided to buy buttons to hold down the center of the fold on them so we went back to.... you guessed it... Joann's!!  Lol!  I only bought buttons for my Halloween runner, and my mom got buttons for her Thanksgiving and Christmas ones.  We couldn't get out of the store before my mom found this other Halloween fabric that she liked, as well as the back piece for it.  The funny thing is, I almost bought the exact same set of fabrics when I was in there to get me "serious" Halloween fabric.  Great minds think alike I guess.  So, she got that.

Holy cow, I'm long winded!!  Sorry just a bit more...

My mom, so badly wanted me to sew her new runner too.   I flat out refused because it was so simple to make and I had the two runners of my fabric to do still.  I gave her step by step instructions and she did it herself.  The whole time telling me how easy it was.... Lol!  She had enough of her top piece to make 2 more.  She said I could have it if I sewed it. There was no more of the back piece so she needs to go get it. THEN she wanted me to make the third one so we can take it to my sister.  

Good grief, that makes 10 total runners I will be sewing.  

Oh, and here is my Halloween runner...

I think I have had plenty of practice.  I can start on Houston's costume now.. Lol!

 ************************************************

As for that Fall decor...  I'm really glad we ended up in a house with a fireplace.  It makes it so much easier to decorate.  So here is my mantle, and my table. 

 Oh, and I bought the cutest thing to go on my porch. Once I find a place to buy a good sized bale of straw...

Metal Corn stalks!  LOVE THEM!  I can't wait to get them out there!

Anyway, I will keep up the posts on the endless list of sewing projects. As for now, I need to rest my fingers.  I can never make a blog post short. :P

The Rock Post

I have think of it as a blessing that all these rocks were in piles when we moved in.  Obviously someone we trying to clear them out of flower beds and such, but didn't get around to taking them away.  

There were 6 piles.  One in the front flower bed (Where the Dogwood bush is now) *see previous post. And there were 5 in the backyard. The front yard pile is not in this trailer.  I was able to put them in the garbage can without making it too heavy. (Thank goodness!) I started loading them in the trailer last Monday.  It was an interesting experience because you think that the rocks are all on top of the dirt.  Ha ha!  That would be way too easy.  Every pile had rocks under the dirt, so a shovel was useful. 

I was going to get the last and biggest pile out yesterday, which would mean I loaded them all in the trailer myself.... That was until I started picking up rocks and finding spiders that were looking at me like this....

Seriously!  They were acting like they wanted to attack me!  I don't like spiders when they are running away from me.  EVEN LESS when they're raising there legs, ready to attack!  It didn't help that there were at least 20 that I saw.  This was another reason to get rid of the rock piles.  Nowhere to live, so find a new home... In the neighbors yard!

I called Houston and told him I couldn't finish.  The spiders where just too much.  He laughed and told me to take the hose over there and spray them when I saw them.  (I didn't even think of that)  Well, I took the hose over, but instead of spraying them when I saw them.  I just totally drenched the whole rock pile, and watched as they fled.  I started picking up rocks again a little bit later, but to make things worse, the tire on the wheelbarrow went flat.  So I had to start filling buckets and carrying them over to the trailer.  That last pile was not very far away from the trailer, but after you've lifted ten buckets full over and up into it, you get really tired.  

So all in all, Houston had to help with the last 1/3 of the last pile. 

On a good note! It's all done!!!!

Hallelujah!!!

I'm sure there will plenty more rocks, but all of those will make trips to the dump in the garbage can. Hopefully we will find those future rocks a little bits at at time. 

Oh, As for all the yard work. I have gone through 2 pairs of work gloves in less than 2 months.  Houston says the most recent pair to get a hole should probably be covered with duct tape.  Otherwise we will probably go broke just replacing gloves for me. LOL!

***UPDATE***

We took the rocks to the dump.  They weigh you when you go in.  Here is how many pounds of rocks we took out of our yard...

Yeah... 

Our House... In The Middle of Our Street.

Most everyone who reads this knows already that we bought a house.  So, here it is!

(This is the listing photo)

We had almost bought another house in Eagle Mountain, but the location was not ideal for either of our establishments of work.  It didn't become really obvious until Houston had to drive straight from work in Springville out there to do the inspection.  So we backed out of it.  I didn't want to waste time, so talked to a real estate agent and said I wanted to continue looking right away.  

I saw the listing for our "now" house the same day and went through it that day too!  I couldn't get over how good the location was and the fact that I've always liked Victorian Style homes.  This is obviously not a real Victorian, but I'm okay with a knock off.  :P

I called Houston right away and said he needed to leave work to come and see it.  The owners only wanted the house listed and shown for 2 days so everything had to be fast.  

Long story short, they chose our offer and we are now in the house!  

************************

In case you didn't know this about me.  I am slightly OCD about things being a certain way.  So, first thing I did was paint all the bedrooms.  The house was all white except the living room. It was a very nice color so it stayed.  But everything else was white.  It felt like a hospital!  I did all bedrooms before we moved all of our stuff in.  Best decision!  I didn't have to move stuff around to get to the walls. 

I didn't paint everything all at once.  I want to change the main color too but we have deemed that a winter project.  As for now, I've been doing yard beautification.  I couldn't believe how the previous owners let the front yard get!  You can't see it from the photo above but there were SO many weeds in the flower beds.  So, I weeded like crazy and in the process I found a peony that I didn't even know was there.... Yeah, I was slightly bugged.

Once all the weeds were out I got to ridding the west side of flower bed of ivy!  That stuff is such a beast to get rid of. And I found a tree stump I didn't know was there either...  Thankfully enough Troy came over and helped us rip that one out so I could continue getting all the landscaping I wanted to get done before fall, which included putting a bush pretty much right where it was.  None of the original flowers are staying.  3 Peony bushes and 3 rose bushes are being dug up and taken to my parent's house.

I did paint one other thing..  The front door. I didn't like the green so I went red....

The shutters are green too, but I bought black ones, and they should be showing up today or tomorrow.  

Here are bushes that got put in. 

Green Mountain Boxwood

Red twig Dogwood

Midnight Wine Weigela

Here is before. That stupid stump is right there in the middle.  It kinda  hard to see.  Looks like a rock. It was huge when we started digging around it.

Here is after!!! the Boxwood and the dogwood on the right!

The Weigela is by the steps in the front of the house. It replaced the Peonies. Sorry no picture of it. 

We have so much work to get done before fall!  The front will be easy now that the big stuff is in.  I've ordered a bunch of bulbs, but they wont be here until October.  Now it's on the backyard stuff.  We got rid of giant compost pile, that wasn't done right and made the yard look horrible.  Now it's rocks.... Wait until I post of the pictures of the trailer that will take them away. There are SOOO many!   We are almost done.  One more pile left.  

Anyway, that's all the improvements so far.  "The Rock Post" will be next.

Maggie: February 2004-May 25, 2013

I got Maggie in 2005.  My mom was working at Macey's in Orem and came home one day and handed me a piece of paper while saying, "I'm probably going to regret this."  It was a flyer a lady brought in to put on the bulletin board at Macey's.  It said something like, "Great Dane/Boxer Mix needing a new home. Free"  Of course I jumped all over this.  My friend Erin and I went down to the store that the lady worked at, after calling her and asking about the dog.  I was in love the first moment I saw her. I called my mom right back and said I wanted her.  She told me to call my dad and ask him what he thought.  He worked in Orem at the time so he stopped by the take a look. He was a little reluctant to say yes, but did anyway.

Maggie 2005

The story of her previous owner was something like, the husband bought her as a pup and the wife didn't like her at all and told him to get rid of her.  He was in this lady's shop (that I got her from) telling her about it, and that he was probably just going to have her put down.  The lady told him not too, and she would find her a new home.  

When we got her home, it was hard for awhile. She whined all the time, and would destroy all kinds of things.  She even chewed the legs off one of my porcelain dolls.  She had really bad separation anxiety. We roughed it through this stage gritting our teeth.  

Once she accepted us as her family she was golden.  She used to chase our cat around, and the cat would jump out and scare her too.  It was hilarious to watch.  She had to make friends with my parent's dog Hanna, and that took a long time. In the end they were a tag team.

Maggie 2007

She would always do funny things. She had this growl.  It wasn't a mean growl, but people always thought so when they saw her do it to us.  She was talking to us.  She did this all the way to the end. 

She used to scare Hanna in the backyard.  Hanna started to lose her hearing so all I had to say was "Go get her Maggie"  and Maggie would run over, jump over Hanna bark as she landed on the other side.  Hanna would jump and then attempt to chase Maggie around the yard barking and growling at her. It was hilarious! Maggie would have this funny little smirk on her face as she ran off. 

She used to want to sleep on the bed with me.  I let her at first, but once I got married and would come to dog sit, that wouldn't work out too well anymore.  She learned quick that I had to give her permission to get on the bed.  But once I did, she would bound up and spread herself out at much as possible. Lol! 

The first time she met Houston, he was coming to pick me up.  He was sitting in the front room and Maggie wasn't sure about him.  She actually growled at him for sitting in "Her" chair. Houston was soon accepted and she moved to the play growl with him instead. 

Maggie 2010

When Phynix was born we all knew it would be the big test.... Would she be good with little kids...?  She was, she let Phynix crawl all over her. Play with her ears, her feet, and lay across her back. I don't think Maggie particularly liked it, but she knew she had to be patient.  She learned to just get up and walk away when she was sick of it.  

She only growled mean at someone one time. My nephew was down and he and a friend had walked into the backyard.  When they came back in, they were both wearing baseball caps pulled pretty far over their eyes.  She didn't recognize them and jumped up and put herself between the family sitting the living room and  the two boys.  She was ready to defend and protect if necessary. Once she realized who it was she calmed right down. I never felt afraid with her around.  I knew she would protect me and my family if it came right down to it. My mom never felt afraid being home alone with her there.  

Maggie May 25, 2013

In 2011, Maggie developed a "bump" on her backside and we, of course, were all concerned.  We went to the vet and he wasn't sure if it was a cyst or a tumor, but suggested we have it removed.  It was so close to her rectum and it could cause some serious problems. So, it was removed and we all moved on with life.  Well, in 2012, about a year later, it started to come back.  I was nervous and wanted it gone right away. So it was removed a second time.  

This year it started to come back again.  When I took her to the vet this time, it was a different guy and he said to not worry about it until it started to bother her. So, we didn't have it removed.  I did want to see if we could get it to become smaller, so did some research online.  The vet had said it was probably a fatty tumor. In my mind that means that she could lose some weight and it would help.  So, I started feeding her the really good kind of dog food.  I also found supplements that are supposed to really boost up the immune system and help reduce those fatty tumors.  I really started to work for awhile.  The tumor was getting a bit smaller. 

It worked for a little while but then the tumor started to get bigger. It would get bigger and smaller depending on the day, so we had no idea what was going on.  Just this last week it got really big.  I was stressing out over it and not knowing what to do. The surgery to remove it is around $700, and we had already done it twice.  

I decided to get her into the vet.  I told Houston beforehand that I just couldn't justify putting her down because of one thing.  If she was suffering I would do it, but she didn't seem to be. So, to the vet she went.  He looked at it and said that he didn't think he would be able to remove it because of it's size and how close to the rectum it was. He knew another vet who might.  So Houston took her into the other vet yesterday to see what he thought.

The vet said he could remove it, but that there would be a lot of problems and it would be $1300 instead of $700.  He said that the tumor had started to grow on her hip bone, so he would have to scrape that to get all the tumor removed.  He also said that it was so close to her rectum that it was pretty likely that he could nick a nerve and she would be incontinent for the rest of her life.  because of the type of tumor it is, it would always grow back.  We would have to have it removed again and again and again.  He also said that it's growing so fast that it could rupture at any time and she could possibly bleed to death.  And to top it all off, he said that the cancer had most likely spread, at least to her liver and possibly her lungs. He couldn't perform this surgery until Wednesday next week.

That was the worst thing to hear.  I was at work and had to finish off the day crying and deciding what to do for her.  I love her so much that I didn't want her to suffer.  I went straight to my parent's house after work.  When I got there, she ran to me and was wagging her little nub tale just as fast as she could.  I knelt down on the floor beside her. I was crying.  She gave me this look like, "It's okay, don't cry." She licked my tears off my face.  Then she lied down on my leg and licked my hand.  I think she knew it was time to go back to heaven.  Houston came and we took some pictures.  The last picture in this post is the very last picture we took of her.  Troy and Scheli came over so that Phynix could say goodbye. 

So I made the decision to have her sent back to heaven.  Based on how she was all day yesterday, I knew she wouldn't last until Wednesday, and I wasn't going to force her to. Before we left, Troy and Scheli gave me a great gift.  It was a cement hand print kit.  Troy was crying as he told me I could use it to print Maggie's paws on.  So Troy, Phynix, and I, all prepared it and got Maggie to put her paw prints in it.  I was so touched by this gift. 

Houston and I took her to the vet's office last night.  I held her and talked to her as they gave her a muscle relaxant, so she wouldn't be scared.  We told her how much was loved her and that we would miss her.  I held her as they gave her the shot and felt her spirit leave her body.  It was very peaceful.  She didn't struggle.  The vet tech, let us have lots of time with her, before and after she passed.  Houston and I both cried as we sat there with her. She was so pretty. She just looked like she was sleeping.

I will miss her so much. There will never be another dog like her.  She has such personality.  She was like my own child.   It will be really hard for awhile to put on a happy face.  My dad is very sad as well.  I worry about him.  He didn't take it well either.  She was his buddy when he was home.

I honestly believe that pets find their way to their forever homes through more than just luck.  Maggie was supposed to be mine.  She was such a bright spot in my life and everyone who knew her.  I will miss her everyday. But I know that giving her up was the best thing for her, even though my heart is breaking.