What a Week!

Apple Man works 1 weekend a month at a local hospital.  So last weekend it was his turn which means it is my turn to hold down the fort with 3 children and a young fur person, Lolly.  Thinking I was going to loose it I had the brilliant idea I would take them all up to Moonlight for the first ski of the year.  After all I do have poster children:

Shameless bragging, Little Critter and Space Boy make the big time!

We needed to get our wiggles out, pick up our passes and try out our ski legs again.  So we/I get all three kids geared up and ready to go.  The only challenge being, I was not ready to go.  The three of them were sweating to death in their sub zero clothes so I told them to wait outside.  Normal Child charges out the door with Little Critter close behind and that is when I hear the yelping. 

I knew what had happened and I didn't even need to witness it.  I had warned the children not to let the dog out without a lead on because 1. she hates to go in the car and 2. she is going through a keep away phase.

Little Critter, trying to be good, had inadvertently slammed the dog's rear foot in the door in her effort to not get in trouble by letting the dog out.

So now I have a dog who looks like this

I am soooo hurt, give me a cookie.

That was Sunday.

On Monday I made an appointment at the vet for 2:30 to look at Lolly's foot.  At 11:30 I get a call from my neighbor, my husband was in a car accident, he's OK but his car is totaled.  Great. . . 

I get in my car with Little Critter and Lolly and drive the canyon to rescue him.  As soon as I get in cell range, I cancel the vet appointment and that is when I see this:

My heart sank. 

The good news, he really wasn't hurt, mad, but not hurt.  His airbag didn't deploy which means no front impact. 

What happened?  A guy was coming at him in his lane passing on a double yellow.  Apple Man slowed down and lost control on the ice and slid sideways into the SNOWPLOW right behind the illegal passer.  So now you know what a snowplow verses Subaru can look like.  It sheered the front two feet of his car right off.  Strewn all over the highway.  Quite frankly, I am just glad he is alive and unhurt.

The rest of the car looks great.

We had it towed home and will try to sell it as a parts car.

So as I finish preparations for Christmas, I am grateful for my family, our health and our now mostly recovered puppy.  I will look forward to 2012 with great hope that all the people and fur people I love will live to see another year and that all in our lives will be well again.

Cheers to 2011, may it teach me all I needed to learn in this difficult year.

Ugly Christmas Sweaters

The title is not a miss print and a pretty serious way to make some cash on ebay or a good excuse to have a party, depending on your point of view.
So I went to the thrift store yesterday, feeling uninspired by my lack of sales this week.  $62 for week, seriously?  It's Christmas, I should be at $620 for the week.  I needed a jump start and went to the thrift store to find it.
So with whinny 4 year old in hand, I charged in feeling like I owned the place.  Little did I know, Little Critter had adopted the same attitude.  So she grabbed my hand and charged over to the toy section with me glancing at the mugs and children's clothes along the way.  Finding nothing in the toy section worth listing (is everyone buying their Christmas presents for their kids at the thrift store this year?), Little Critter drags me to the book section.  Right past the mugs again and still I see nothing.
The whinning was getting to me and I am not feeling in charge or charged up anymore, 15 minutes of consistant whining can do that to ya.
I grab her little hand with her 'new' books in the other, wander over to the sweater area.  As Moses parted the Red Sea, so did the ebay gods part the isles for me. 
The first of 4 lovelies:

What makes this such a beauty is Santa's mustache:

I am pretty sure Santa did not have a black mustache where I came from.  Gives him the evil villian look.
So here are my other lovelies:

Pink and Brown are the new Red and Green

Mr. Polar Bear, your tails are crossed

Just pure Ugliness

So I am hoping to get theses listed by the weekend so I can ship them out.  I will ask between $29 and $39 (though I think they are priceless).
What will I do if they don't sell?  Well, I guess I'll have to have an ugly Christmas sweater party with my friends and supply the sweaters.  Hopefully, they will be bring the egg nog.
Happy Listing.

Pity Party and Redemption

Birthdays are always a bloody caution in our house.  I never know whether to go all out or not get sucked into the consumerism of it all.
So yesterday, my birthday, started out as a dud.  I had to take the puppy to the vet which went fabulous.  Clean bill of health and they hit me up for a $5 donation to the local shelter for this photo.

An English Shepherd and her girl

Totally worth it.  Love the pink boots on Critter.
So I run my errands which include buying my own birthday cake because Apple Man didn't make me one, but he is hit or miss anyway.  I was going to buy myself all kinds of presents too but I ran out of time.
So I get home when the kids' bus gets here.  Once the bus comes, my day is over until bedtime.  So, after getting the homework train started and out of the station, I remember the last thing Apple Man said as he walked out the door on my birthday.  "Oh honey, there's a big bag of scraps from that deer I killed last weekend, could you grind that up into hamburger and we can have hamburgers or meatballs for dinner"
Did he forget it's my birthday and the whole meat thing has me queasy to begin with.  I came to Montana a vegetarian 19 years ago.  So he just asked this Northern California Hippie Girl to grind meat for dinner on her birthday.  That's love I tell ya.
So this was my birthday 'chore'.  (Scroll down if you are squeamish).

Lovely.  Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate fresh meat but this?  On my birthday?
So the kids and I had a fabulous hamburger supper and store bought cake for dessert.  They sang me happy birthday and I cracked open a beer because what else ya gonna do?

Luckily, after Apple Man got home, he had this:

That man never ceases to amaze me.
In the bag?  A new pair of flannel jammies!  God I love that man!  So he has redeemed himself. . . again.

Stuffing and Unstuffing

Genetically, I am a hoarder.  I fight it, think I can actually do something about it, but when push comes to shove, I collect stuff.
I have a shelf full of books to help me combat the disease

I also collect books about how I want my house to look.

but all that ends up happening is my shelf collapses under the weight of all the books I collect.

Waiting for the weight of 3rd and 4th shelf to give way.

So none of that has worked unless you like dusting books.  So I tried this program.  I printed the list, made plans, filled it up the first 15 weeks and started to work.  I actually tackled a couple projects that were bothering me, so I got that goin' for me, which is nice.  But here it is, week 46 and I have completed 7, yes 7 projects.  That my friends, is pathetic.

One of my projects, already re-cluttered!  Ugh!

But beat my self up?  No, not me.  I am a scientist by trade so this is my proof, I have a genetic condition, I can't fight it.  I am not an organized, tidy, or simple person.  But I am here to tell you, I have another plan (that may or may not work).
I am NOT going out on Friday (or Thursday) to go shopping.  I am supporting this movement.

It is going to work for me for two, no three ways:
1.  If I don't buy anything, it won't accumulate in my house.
2.  I'm not a big fan of crowds or corporate greed.
3.  I am done shopping for Christmas, finished last month actually.  I am a bargain shopper, but all year, not just the day after Thanksgiving.

So my latest motto is '1 thing in, 2 things out'.  I have to say that has made the biggest difference. 
So as you are stuffing your face this Thanksgiving, think about unstuffing your house and don't shop on Friday.
Disclaimer: Sis, I mean me, not you.  Have fun at the craft fair, at least it's local.

Skiing with a Puppy

Our old dog was a ski patrol flunky.  The good thing about her was she was around skis from the get go.  She knew the command 'Out front' so she wouldn't get run over.  She could ride a chair lift and she could find us (no one else) if we ever got caught in a slide.
So the new dog, Lolly, was introduced to the sport last Saturday and this is how it went.

Lolly. . .Go!

First she sat on the skis.  Now this is a sign of how smart she is.  If you sit on the skis, you don't sink into the snow.  When you are this small, even a 6" storm is significant.
But then when we were skiing on the road she ate the skis.

This is not a sign of intelligence buy rather, an indication she is a puppy.
Just one more reminder, I have a puppy on my hands, not a well trained ski dog.
Little does she know, the best is yet to come. . . POWDER!

Lolly Pup Is Home!

What an adventure it is to fly all day on four different flights and end up at the exact place you started.  Yes I am crazy, yes I flew from Montana to Missouri and back in one day just for this:

Apple Man and his new helper!

I have friends who are commercial pilots and they wouldn't put their dogs in cargo so by God, neither would I.  I have a friend with a search dog who pretends to be blind, used the dog's search vest, and flies with the dog on the plane with him.  But I digress.
So puppyville, which is what our house has become, includes lots of laughter

Um. . I don't think this is a real dog.

lots of sleep deprivation (forgot about this part but at least sleeping through the night will be quicker than with the kids), and lots of ACTION!  If this dog is not asleep, she is full tilt.

Good Puppy

The thing I love most about this dog is she is everybody's friend.  Our last dog never met a person she liked.  I also love how smart, cute and sweet she is.  She's a keeper.
Welcome home Lolly, may the adventure begin!

Halloween For Kids and Adults

Halloween in a resort town is a bit different than regular suburbia.  First of all everyone from the whole town descends on 2 streets.  So those poor suckers have 200 trick or treaters and the rest of us dirtbags don't have to buy a single bag of candy.
They take it in stride though and even help a mom or dad out.  One house had hot hard mulled cider, one house had orange jello shots and most had coolers of beer. 
Me?  Well I had 3 little goblins er rather:

Dorothy, Rapunzel and Killer Klowns From Outerspace, to herd up and down said 2 streets.  Luckily my friends had a pre-trick or treat party with food for the kids and Chili for the grown ups.  This helped with the sugar high of the children and the er. . . buzz for the grown ups.
Not to be a total dirtbag, I too had treats for others, hence the beer wagon, I mean child hauler:

Notice the cup holder, no sippy cup here!

Hidden under the pom poms are the goods, don't want people to think I'm a lush.
Good times had by all, kids got lots of candy, mom got to be social and my friend finally made it out of his costume with a little help from his wife:

The robot costume seemed like a good idea at the time.

So next year, ditch the suburban drudgery and join the party in Big Sky!
Oh and me?  Well most who know me wouldn't believe it but I wore my high school cheerleader uniform and it still sort of fits.

Hope you had a good Halloween.
Picking up the puppy on Saturday, I'll keep you posted!

A New Beginning

So, in one week our lives will change for the better.  We will be adding this

to our lives.
So let me explain, we are a 'big' family, me, apple man (my husband), space boy (my oldest child), the normal one (my oldest daughter) and little critter (my youngest daughter). 

I say big because having more than 2 children is the tipping point at which there are more children than adults (I think they are old enough to have figured this out and use it to their advantage). 
It's crazy around here but I wouldn't have it any other way.
So back to the pup, she is a rare breed called an English Shepherd.  We lost our mixed breed lab rescue and are pretty sure she was an English Shepherd.  So this time I am getting a real English Shepherd.
We have a 50 acre apple orchard in Eastern Montana

as well as our 1+ acre home near Bozeman Montana.  We need a dog, there are bears and critters at all times of the day.  I miss my warning alarm.  These dogs are smart and in tune to the land and protectors of all.  Now we just need some sheep so she has something to do and to get the grass mowed around the apple trees.
This is where I begin.