family – Page 17 – ToadMama.com

April 18, 2010

A LOVEly Day

Yesterday was awesome.

The skies were clear, the air was cool. Spring trees are still in bloom.

lovely_day_2 — Redbuds Still in Bloom (notice the heart-shaped leaf?)

lovely_day_3 — Blooming Redbud and Dogwood with Blue Sky Backdrop

Flowering trees. New Growth everywhere. Peace. Quiet.

I just love living in the middle of the woods.

Temps were a little cool for a motorcycle ride. We could’ve maybe done a bicycle ride, but we had to unclog a culvert instead. Fun, right?

“Fun” is not always about what you’re doing, or where you are doing it, but about who you are doing it with.

culvert_2 — A Lot of Dirt and Gravel was Clogging the Pipe

Of course there are no pictures of me working, though I did help. Really. It was my job moving the muck Hubby dragged out of the pipe.

“Fun” might not be the right word to describe the endeavor, but it was still a good day. Because we were together. And togetherness is especially important when it’s your 17th wedding anniversary.

anniversary_17-Apr-2010 — Old Couple, Odd Couple or Happy Couple? You be the judge...

The only thing that might’ve made it better would have been to have some kids or grandkids around. At least we have our furkids.

We capped the day off with a drive to our favorite Hampshire County restaurant, El Puente in Capon Bridge.

It really was a LOVEly day.

Our 17th anniversary.

Wow.

Time really does fly.

We’re both thankful for all the good times we’ve shared over the past 17 years and look forward to more togetherness in the future.

Happy Anniversay to us!

February 12, 2010February 12, 2010

A Change of Pace (Sorta)

For the last 10 days, I’ve focused on snow, dogs, more snow, dogs, more snow, the food we eat in the snow, dogs, snow, critters the dogs chase in the snow, etc. It’s gotten a bit, um, repetitive.

But not today. Today I actually get to focus on people. People that came to visit Hubby and I today. Wanna know who?

Amy and her kids. I didn’t have a lot of time to spend with them, since I don’t get snow days, but I did manage to get a few good pictures.

Um, most of the pics are of the kids playing in the SNOW. Sorry. That’s why this is only sort of a change of pace.

There’s quite a network of dog trails in our backyard. The bigger kids didn’t have too much trouble navigating.

Remember, we’ve had 45 inches of snow. I don’t know how tall Joey is, but he’s nowhere near that tall. The little guy was struggling.

I was leading the kids through the network of doggie trails. We were at the other end of the yard when Joey said, “G. My go inside.” He was tired of struggling through the white stuff. So tired, that he decided to go off trail for a short-cut. Big mistake. The trails are compacted and relatively easy to walk on. Joey isn’t very heavy, so he didn’t sink too much. Until he laid on his belly and slid off the wall into virgin snow.

As you will see in the following image, he got stuck.

I had to doctor the image a bit. Joey was not too happy about being stuck in the snow and he was panicking, so I didn’t have time for adjustments and my image was severely overexposed. After a couple of tugs on his arm, I did manage to pull him out. Unfortunately, one of his boots was left behind so Amy had to come to the rescue.

Joey was perfectly happy to go back into the house with Pop.

To see the rest of the shots, you’ll have to visit my Flickr page. Sorry, but it would take an eternity to post all of them here.

January 23, 2010January 24, 2010

Meg Update & Some Strange Excitement

Remember how sick Meg was?

sick_meg2 — "Oh, Mama. I don't feel good..."

After her brief (thankfully), but very scary bout with pancreatitis, Meg is back. See for yourself…

As for the STRANGE excitement…

big_burglar — This "strange man" mysteriously appeared...

Last night, while the girls were all outside, a strange man showed up in our kitchen. The minute she saw him, Belle started barking. Of course, K came running to investigate. She saw the strange man and started barking, too. Loudly. They both meant business. By that time, Meg showed up. She was barking, too, but her heart wasn’t in it. Especially after the strange man opened the door (the little girls were still barking), removed his big glasses (the little girls were STILL barking) and his yellow hat (barking continued).

The “strange man” was Hubby. I don’t think the little girls liked the yellow hat.

Later, after we finally convinced the little ones to come inside, things had settled down.

Thinking nothing of it, Hubby put the hat back on so he could return to the basement (he’s in the process of finishing it).

Well, that set the little knuckleheads off again.

They must really hate that hat.

January 22, 2010January 22, 2010

My Fambly

By the time stick figure family decals became popular, my kids were pretty much grown.

ToadMama's Fambly — My currently-living-at-home family.

Which is sad, because I really like these things. I wanted one, but was faced with the question, “Will the kids get pissed if they are not included? Will they say, ‘Aha, more proof that you love your pets more than us!'”

Why not include them? Because the kid stickers are little kids and our kids are big kids. It never crossed my mind that someone might offer stick figure teens. And I could have just added three big kid stickers, but then what about my son-in-law? He’d feel left out. And what about the three grandkids? And my granddog? That would mean one very long sticker, and my car just is not that wide.

I didn’t want to rock the canoe, so I resisted the urge to get one for my car. I bought one for Amy instead. So she could show the world her awesome little family. Then I realized I could add one to my blog. I just had to create one.

How? I googled “stick figure family” of course. That’s when I discovered this sticker. Funny, right? But then I realized, there are lots of people that HATE these decals.

Seriously.

Some folks think they are tacky. Others are afraid that advertising how many kids/pets you have is an open invitation for kidnapping. At least one believes people use the stickers to “keep up appearances.” You know, to show everyone they have a happy little stick figure family, when really their family is all dysfunctional and can’t afford pets. The list goes on. If you want to read all the crazy comments generated by one blog post, click on the link you just read right past. It’s quite entertaining.

It never ceases to amaze me how people can waste so much time and energy getting riled up over the silliest things. But then, I like the stickers.

I’d love to hear how my readers feel. Leave a comment. Go on, I dare you.

If you want to create a stick figure family of your own for your blog or web site, here’s the sticker generator I used.

January 20, 2010

A Wider View

I had a long g-chat (Google’s version of Instant Messenger) with Shannon this morning. She’s currently in Thailand, which she says has been her favorite country, by far, along her trek.

I haven’t said much about Shannon’s trip lately. She’s had some amazing experiences and has taken some really good pictures. You know how I love to share pictures, right? So today, I’m going to share some of her pix.

That’s my girl, Shannon, happy to be in a picture with a cow.

And what a nice cow, too. Shannon seems oblivious to the fact that she is squatting under a sign that says “toilet” in a land where squat toilets are likely the norm. Fortunately there’s also an arrow on the sign, pointing right. Or I’d be all, “OMG, she must be drunk. She forgot to drop her pants!”

The cow picture is nothing compared to this…

Yes, the tiger is real.

And check this out…

It was taken at Erawan National Park in Thailand.

I told Shannon I could have spent an entire day there just photographing the waterfalls. Check out some other people’s shots on Flickr.

There’s lots of gold in Thailand. Gold leaf, I think. But still, it’s gold.

The buddha above is just one example.

If you haven’t been following her and want to know the story, check out her blog. If you don’t feel like reading her blog, you should at least go flip through some of her pictures, which are organized in sets by location:

She’s been taking lots of pictures.

Again, that’s my girl! I taught her well…

But I have never, ever looked that cool and intriguing.

December 29, 2009

Friends in All the Right Places

Gift-wise, this has been an interesting Christmas.

I mean that in a good way, of course.

The first gift Hubby and I received came all of the way from Alaska. And, it arrived in the middle of a blizzard, which was awesome. It, by the way, was a box of home-made goodies from Mike’s cousin, June, and her family. The box contained yummy cookies–oatmeal, pecan sandies and chocolate chip (made with pretzel stix)–trail mix (a variety of nuts and dried fruits) and some homemade soaps.

There’s nothing like homemade goodness. The oatmeal cookies served as Hubby’s fuel on Sunday as he shoveled a path down the driveway through the 23 inches of snow we had. And Joey LOVED the trail mix. We all liked it, but he loved it!

Another very nice surprise gift was this intriguing and way cool object d’art.

It is made out of super-compressed graphite. That’s the stuff they make pencils with. So, not only is it cool to look at, every surface of the object writes like a pencil. Neat, eh? I LOVE stuff like this.

The leaf is about 6 inches long and fits perfectly in my hand, for when I need to write something of course.

This bath scrubby of mine was selected and paid for by my granddaughter, Brianna (age 9).

Our oldest grandson, Gaige (age 6), shopped and paid for Hubby’s gift…

… a small, ceramic dog. It’s about 5 inches long and 3 inches tall, at its tallest point. Gaige apparently knows that Pop loves dogs.

Meg is wearing one of the gifts I got from Hubby. The big blue and white thing hanging from her collar is my new Pet’s Eye View Camera, also known as a doggie cam. We can’t wait to go to the WV place so we can see what she sees on the way to and from Buddy’s house. Hubby also got me a digital picture frame, which I have wanted for years. Oh yeah, and a teleconverter lens for my camera, among other things.

My parents really surprised me with 3 bags of Seattle’s Best Hazelnut Coffee, which Mom had shipped direct from Washington state with the help of a wonderful friend. I got some shopping money, too. And a short story book. I’m addicted to short story books, in case you didn’t already know.

A dear friend sent Hubby and I a gift, which was accompanied by this card…

…that for some reason made her think of me. LOL!

As awesome as the card is, the gift is even cooler…

… real Belgian chocolate. YUUUMMMMMMM.

Oddly enough, we received it on the same day we received this…

This is the chocolate Mrs. Mac posted about that inspired me to try, and quickly become addicted to, Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels.

According to the Lindt Web site, this stuff “will surprise your taste buds with an unexpected alliance of nicely bitter, silky dark chocolate refined with tiniest crystals of “Fleur du Sel” – the flower, or the crown of the sea salt.”

It was personally hand-delivered by Mrs. Mac, who came all the way from Switzerland just to see us, and her family, and her friends, and her former co-workers, etc.

It is quite delectable. You have to like dark chocolate, though, which I do. Hubby and I may be fighting over this one.

Speaking of chocolate… I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the Rheb’s candy, which Hubby and I gave several folks for Christmas. We bought ourselves a box, too, of course.

This image shows chocoholic Meg who is simultaneously wondering “Why, oh why, is Mama taking pictures of all of her chocolate?” and “Is she going to give me some? Is she? I like chocolate!”

This is a snowman ornament I’ve had for years. I can’t remember if it was given to me by one of my girlfriends, or if I bought it myself.

I have the same issue with this ornament. Though I am pretty sure this was a gift from a girlfriend in a previous year.

I couldn’t resist sharing this doggie picture. K and Belle were jealous that I was taking Meg’s picture. So they joined in.

Wanna know why K looks so short?

It’s because she sits on the steps with her butt on one step and her front feet on the step below that. We think it is easier for her to sit that way because of her very long forelegs.

I hope you enjoyed this little gift recap. I hope you have friends in fun places, too.