25 Things

Did this on FB this week, so I thought I would be lazy and share on here too.

1. I started a blog last year and I love it. (www.ascapecodturns.blogsp

ot.com)
2. I have made many new friends on my blog whom I have never seen in person.
3. I love stationary stores. Something about all the paper, pens, stickers, books...
4. I take some pretty decent photos and at times have sold them.
5. My family is the most important thing to me in the world.
6. My friends are a close second.
7. M&Ms and chocolate chip ice cream would probably tie for 3rd.
8. Winter is not as fun when you can't ski everyday like you (I) used to.
9. I do like sledding with my girls though.
10. I would love to meet Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty.
11. When I was younger, I was in love with Eric from the Bay City Rollers.
12. I have one friend from first grade. (Yes, she used to love the Bay City Rollers, too.)
13. I have been in 6 weddings.
14. I have been to France twice.
15. I do not drink caffeine, nope not even coffee.
16. I love the beach any time of the year.
17. Ogunquit Beach (Maine) is the best beach in the country. Since I live on Cape Cod, I can't shout that from the rooftops.
18. I never had braces, but kind of wish I had.
19. I hope I can get at least one book published in my life time.
20. I love the 4th of July!
21. I want my kids to do things that they love, be happy and compassionate.
22. For pets I have a bunch of fish, a labradoodle, 7 horses and a goat named Millie.
23. I am allergic to all things furry amongst a host of other things which makes #22 ridiculous.
24. My house may not be neat, but my closets are.
25. I can't imagine living somewhere where I couldn't see the ocean whenever I wanted.

Oh and an update on Gretel... She is feeling better on her antibiotics. She does not have any major disease, just fighting some sort of infection. Thanks for all your good wishes!!!

Mother Nature

Dear Mother Nature,

I love the bit you did in the Year Without a Santa Claus. You certainly have a firm hand with those 2 boys of yours, Heatmizer and Snowmizer.

Anyway, what I wanted to talk to you about was today's weather on Cape Cod. You teased us with 5 perfectly snowman making inches of snow this morning after the kids got to school. Then you allowed it to rain. When I say rain, I mean RAIN.  There were about 2 inches of snow left by the time the girls got home from school. Not sledding material anymore because it was still RAINING. I went to a meeting tonight and on my way home noticed that the temp outside was 51 degrees. That is spring weather in Florida. I would have cherished the surprise warmth if not for the RAIN  that accompanied it. 

I took Gretel out for a pee a 1/2 hour ago and noticed there was no snow left AT ALL. And it is still RAINING and now we have about 35 mph winds blowing too. What did us Cape Codders do to piss you off so much today? Are  you exercising your power? Are you metapausal? Did your significant other tick you off? Was it those sons of yours arguing again?

What if I made you some brownies and we could get on with either spring or more winter. Please, I beg of you, no more of this teasing. I cannot stand the stress or the tears from 'where has the snow gone' questions. 

I am sure your choice in the matter will be obvious in the next few days. 

Sincerely "May stay in bed until May" Sue

The Vet

Gretel has not been feeling well the past few days. No real diagnosis from me the "not such a pet expert", but just knew she was not herself. She was tired, wasn't following me around the house, not getting up every time a door opened, basically just not herself. I tried to get a vet appt during the day, but couldn't get one until 6:30 tonight. K, B, Gretel and I drove the 20 minutes to the vet and herein is the scenario that followed...

We arrive at the vet, Gretel sniffs the entire yard, pees and I bring her in (where she sniffs the entire room). K brings her book and questions, B brings long division which she just learned and wasn't getting. G is trying to sniff everything while I stand on her leash and help B with division. 

me, "How many times does 3 go into 6?"

B, "18"

me, "Aurgh! That's 3x6!"

We get called into the office room. I kid you not, it was like a regular Dr's office where you sit in the examining room for 15 minutes. G sniffed, I picked things off of her, B struggled with div/mult, and K was reading a poster on dog  gingivitis. Then K checked G's teeth and decided she was almost stage 4. I told her to look at her own gums and compare. Then she proceeded to have a hot flash and took off 3 of her 4 layers. Can you have a hot flash when you are 11?

The Dr came in with no bedside manner whatsoever! She didn't even comment on how cute and clean G was. (Yeah, she was clean because she rolled in horse shit this afternoon and I had to give her a bath). She asked me what was up with her and I told her it was a feeling that I had that things weren't right. She basically rolled her eyes and asked me to help her put G on the table. Unfortunately K and B were at G's tail end . The "kind" Dr. stuck the thermom. right up G's ass right in front of the girls. They even studied the gingivitis poster just to avoid that scene. Then the Dr. said a bunch of words that resulted in drawing some blood. The words included Lyme Disease, Addison disease, poodles, blahblahblah....

She took G in the back room and we went back to the waiting room. K and B weighed themselves on the "dog scale". They took off at least 5 pounds for clothes. How do they learn that at such a young age? We don't even own a scale. G came out quite happy and finally noticed the cat in a basket on the counter. She growled at it and then ignored it and went back to sniffing. I told K to put on her 3 layers even though her face was still bright red. We finished B's division with the knowledge that she needs to practice her multiplication facts. The Dr. comes out and rattles off "antibiotics, plain wet dogfood, lyme test not positive for lyme, but other tick borne illness, platelets, maybe another disease, won't know for a few days, keep her away from horses and quiet for a few days." WTF. 

That bedside manor was received to the tune of $210. Poor little doggie.  Poor little wallet. Then I proceeded to have the hugest allergy attack on the way home which resulted in allergy medication and inhaler, a shower and a large glass of wine. Yeah, so it's not a proven fact that wine helps furry allergy attacks, but it sure helped take the edge off the evening. Now I have to go look up random words on google and find some multiplication flash cards. 

Nada

I cannot think of anything to write about tonight. It is cold outside, DH is fishing, hopefully he is not icefishing 100 miles off shore. B was home sick today. I think Gretel is sick too. How do you know if your dog is sick? She is either under the weather or has seasonal depression disorder. She's doing all the regular eating, drinking, peeing thing, but something is just not right. Hmm.

Yesterday the girls made a car out of our 2 office rolling chairs and attached a baby stroller to the back. I think it wound up being an SUV. It was complete with seatbelts(scarves) and cup holders. They informed me that they were coming through the drive through to get their lunch. They placed their order, and proceeded to window number 1 where I collected their "credit cards" and told them to proceed to window 2. There I gave them their wrapped grilled cheese, apple slices, chips, soda and lemonade. They ate in their "car" at the kitchen table. These are the times that my heart grows 15 times. I just love that they play together and enjoy each other and are so creative! They are certainly not perfect, but times like these, they come pretty close!

Have you ever put Wallies on your walls? They are like little wallpaper cut outs. Well they go on really easily, but don't come off very easily. I now have stubs for thumb nails. 

If your daughter wears an extra small at Aeropostale you can get really cute tshirts there today for $1.99. 

Have you ever played the game Catch Phrase? It is a riot! We played it this weekend with some friends and were in hysterics. This game has caused me to wet my pants more than once.

I've emptied my head, I think I can go to bed now.

35 Degrees and Sunny!

You know it is winter when a sunny, 35 degree day feels warm enough to go walk on the beach. My sister and I took Gretel and Bruce to exert some energy. Half the ocean was frozen, but they managed to find the part that wasn't. They seemed to be enjoying the 32 degree water, but I couldn't convince Karen that we should try it.

Needless to say, we have 2 tired doggies tonight!

The Gym

I worked out with my parents today.

Yeah, let me give you the full picture. 

My Dad has always been a runner or walker, skier, does exercises every morning type of guy. My mom on the other hand has avoided exercise like it might give her the plague her entire life. Well, ok, there was a time that she skied when she and my Dad were dating, but I think that was just to hook my Dad. Then there was the time she played basketball for a day and sprained her finger and that was that. 

So, my little town has a community center and it has a cute little work out room in it. It is less than the cost of a pair of Uggs to join for the year. They joined yesterday and then said Happy early Birthday, we got you a membership too. 

We all went today, together, at the same time, in our Olivia Newton John headbands and thongs and got "Physical".
                                                                                                   What's with the fat guys in the picture?

I am allowed a little exaggeration, this is my story. They both hopped (that's a bit of a stretch) on the treadmills, so that left me with the eliptical. I have always been afraid of elipticals, but decided I had nothing to lose since we were the only ones in the gym. After the first 2 minutes of going backwards, I figured out how to go forward and actually didn't mind it. 

Then my Mom asks me if I want her to show me the machines and how to work them. OK, very cute, but I am a gym rat from way back when people lifted rocks and stones instead of sitting on a sweet machine. So as I was reintroducing myself to these muscle burners, a man walks in and announces that he is new. Well you would think my parents had been at the gym for a year the way they jumped in to help the man. My mom was attached to some tortorous device, but insisted on giving the man directions on how to turn the "new person DVD" on from across the room. My Dad got the guy a chair so he could sit and watch and learn how to "work the room". 

All and all a very fun time at the "gym". Hours later, my thighs are feeling a twinge of "hey, you did something to me today". We left the gym together and my Dad said that we ought to go 5 days a week and the look on my Mom's face was priceless.

 Too bad I didn't have my camera.

Yes. We. Can.

Today was an amazing day in history. 

I didn't need to be in the crowds on The Mall to appreciate what was happening today.

I actually enjoyed being at my parents house all warm and toasty watching on a big screen.

Maybe one of the things I liked most was that Obama has a team attitude. We, as a country, got into this mess together and we, as a country, will get out of this mess. He offered up one of the most important words in the english language....hope.

On a lighter front, we can talk about Aretha Franklin's chapeau. The girls luckily got to watch the inaug. at school. B's comment to her teacher was "Who is that singer? I don't think she is on Itunes". She's the Queen of soul for Pete,s sake!

I loved the color pop of Michelle's outfit. Laura Bush's was a little bland, but I suppose she didn't want to out do Michelle. How cute was it that Michelle brought Laura a little gift?! 

And those 2 little girls. So damn cute! I keep thinking of the Disney show, Corey in the House. I suppose if you have never seen it, you will have no idea what I am talking about.....And the "kids" show last night was so great! My girls were thrilled that I let them watch the whole thing and stay up later than usual. Yeah, we'll be paying for that by Friday. The only singer we actually didn't understand was Bow Wow. What was up with his songs? You could say I am old that is why I didn't understand, but the girls didn't either. Phew. 

I am sure I will watch all the recapping tonight and think of more things to say. 

An African American as President. 

Awesome!