Back from my Scrapbook Retreat!

I left for the lake Thursday after lunch to meet my friends for our scrapbook retreat.  The retreat is located on a big lake about an hour and a half from the house.  It’s a really nice place and I’ve been looking forward to it for almost a year.  There were about 18 of us this time.  Some new ones who I didn’t meet the first time and some of the same ones. 

The first night I started out slow.  We got all our stuff unloaded and set up and did some visiting and gossiping.  Dinner was excellent but must have been full of salt because my ankles swelled up and it freaked me out so bad I thought I would have to go to the hospital (which was far away).  They had never swollen up like that other than when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant.  I stopped cropping (which killed me) and laid down with my feet up and drank a bunch of water.  I felt like my blood pressure had gotten high too.  I was right there with everyone so I got to be in on the conversation and probably was a little dramatic (jokingly).  I told everyone I didn’t want to remember this trip as the trip I died on.  They jokingly said it wouldn’t be and they had already eyed my scrapbooking supplies that they would divide up.

The swelling came down some and I continued to scrap until about 2am.   The rest of the time we pretty much ate, drank and cropped.  My feet  got swelled a little a couple of other times but nothing to worry about.  I’m not sure it was the food, the constant sitting for long hours, my blood pressure med or the alcohol (which wasn’t that much. )  I may call the doctor and get checked out.  The blood pressure meds I was on before I got pregnant had a diuretics in it and these current ones don’t.  The retreat food is the best but it may have more sale than I’m use to.

By Sunday I was ready to go home.  I got a lot done and we’ve already planned our next trip.  I had to wait till someone else was ready to leave because I was afraid I would get lost.  It’s so far in the country and I didn’t trust myself not to get lost.  I left around 1:30.

Of course when I get home…..my husband had just walked out the front door.  I’m getting out of the car and I hear a cat crying.  I asked him what that was and he said it was Dixie up a tree in the front yard.  I thought he was kidding….. He was not.  He claims she must have climbed over the back fence and got into the front yard and maybe something chased her up the tree.  She was high too.  He said he discovered her around noon.  She finally came down around 6 this morning.  I knew she’d come down eventually but since she is not a cat that runs free I was afraid she’d run away or get lost which is the main reason I was worried and upset.  I wanted to be there when she came down.  Thankfully she meowed and I heard her so I ran to the front door and then she ran up onto the porch this morning.  She had not been down long because I’d already been out there calling her around 4:30 or 5am but gave up because she had gone even higher.  I’m glad that ended well….I had already had too much drama this weekend.

The “Projects” coming to my neighborhood

I found out today that the city has bought up several apartment buildings at my end of town and are going to relocate the residents of the “public housing” there.  Their current residence  was downtown.  They plan on developing that area downtown (economic growth they said)  and want to de-centralize poverty in town by moving them all over the town.  Let’s just say I’m livid. 

There had been no reports of this plan on the news and the newspaper just recently found out.  It was all very under-handed if you ask me.  If I’d know I might have asked the mayor about it when my professional organization had him speak at our monthly meeting a couple of months ago.  They did this without giving the citizens of the neighborhood a chance to voice their opinion.  I’m sorry but we don’t want that in our neighborhood.  We currently have a nice quiet neighborhood with very littlel crime  and that’s going to change when you bring “public housing” into the neighborhood.  The public housing area where these people are coming from was so bad….Dominoes Pizza wouldn’t even deliver there..very high crime.  I don’t think moving them to a nicer neighborhood will change that…

One of the apartment buildings/complexes they bought is very close to my street and in our school district.  I’m not happy with this at all.  There goes my property value.  I feel so helpless……….

Evidently there was a neighborhood meeting monday night about it.  I asked the pastor at the church where little boy goes to daycare about it.  The meeting was at the church and the pastor also lives in the neighborhood.  He said Monday’s meeting had over 250 people and they had to have the police there (people were really pissed)  It’s probably a done deal but there will be another meeting in a couple of weeks.  I have emailed my councilwoman and will attend the meeting if I can.

Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cats and Flowers

These are things I can take pictures of that don’t move as fast as little boy does.  I’m slowly getting used to using my camera but I still have a ton to learn.  Hopefully soon we can take a day trip somewhere and I’ll be able to get some good outside shots…someplace other than my yard.

That’s Ernie in the first picture and the flower is some of the Candy Tuft that came up in my flower/herb garden from last year.  It brought a very nice pop of white to the otherwise brown yard.  I’ll be glad when the other flowers start coming up more.

Facebook Newbie

I have discovered that facebook can be both addictive and dangerous.  When I first started playing with it I thought…”Oh this is fun finding people” and it was.  Then I started getting too curious…..searching for relatives and old boyfriends (don’t worry I told my husband and asked if he wanted to find old girlfriends).  Of course back in the day I must have only dated men with common names like Smith or Reed and of course found multiple people by the same name and not knowing where they live now I couldn’t be sure it was them (no picture attached).  Then I looked up a guy who I used to work with and dated for about 6 months.  I knew he still lived in the area and had married etc.  I found him and got to see what his wife looks like….LOL.

Tonight I’m playing around and being a Facebook Newbie I fooled around too much and typed in a last known email address for a guy and accidentally invited this email to join facebook!  Thankfully I don’t think I put the right email or it doesn’t belong to anyone.  Supposedly you can’t cancel a invite but I did block that email and erased the invite so hopefully if it does go to someone…..it won’t work.  How stupid can one be.

So if you are going to search for old flames etc…make sure you know what you are doing…

I’m still laughing at myself right now.

Fat Dog

My dog Rusty has gotten so fat I’m not sure what to do.  I’ll admit I give my dogs too many snacks…probably out of guilt for not paying them much attention especially in the winter months but my other dogs are not as robust as Rusty.   I know I need to stop with the snacks every day.

Last summer when built a dog area (fenced a portion of the back yard) and maybe he just doesn’t have as much room to run but frankly all he did all winter is lay around and let the small dog lick all over him.  Of course he got fat….

I tried taking him to dog training last year as well but that didn’t go over very well because he doesn’t like to walk on a leash or at least I never could get him to.  I’ll admit I was not consistent but my little dog never had a problem with the leash…he loved walking.  It didn’t help the fact that every time we came home from training that my female dog (queen of the yard) would tear him a new one because he got attention.  She actually acted like she was going to kill him.  He just ignored her and was submissive but still I’m sure he didn’t like that and associated going walking or going in the car with getting abused when he returned.  Poor dog.

Today we were in the back yard cleaning up and mowing and frankly getting the back yard ready to enjoy during spring and summer.  We’d let the dogs out with us and that dog was so fat and stinky I knew that I would not be able to take him to the vet for his shots and to get his allergies checked out.  I don’t even think I could lift him if I had to. I decided to call the local mobile vet and have her come to the house to tend to my critters because it would be too dramatic to deal with getting Rusty to a vet the way he is now.

What else can you do with a fat dog who won’t walk?  Diet dog food?

Friday’s Cat

Dixie continues to get in the way when I’m trying to scrapbook.  She looks so smug here doesn’t she?  Silly little cat!

Fashion Critic

I wear a suit or jacket about once or twice a month when I have a meeting or our monthly professional organization meeting/lunch.  Being overweight I am not comfortable in dress clothes and I frankly it makes me look even less professional trying to look professional….(more reasons to keep at the losing weight thing). 

Today is our monthly luncheon so last night I start trying on jackets to see which ones still fit me and then I would walk into the master bedroom and look in the full mirror.  Little boy was sitting on the bed watching Batman Forever.  Every time I would walk in he would say “no mama” and shake his head….every time.  Then this morning after settling on a favorite black jacket, a red sweatery-type shirt and a nice black and white skirt….I walk in there and he says “No mama” again.  Then later in the morning I have taken the jacket off as I’m getting ready and walk in there and he says “Yes mama”……this made me laugh.  He preferred the outfit without the jacket evidently…..LOL.  Of course that look just outlined the fat around my waist so that’s a no go…even if little boy likes that look better….LOL

Fashion critic at the age of 3!

Bubba

I took this picture of Bubba this past weekend using my new camera.  I still have a lot to learn about it but I think this one turned out nice..afterall it’s Bubba!