In Loving Memory of...

Warning: if you don't want to read sappy, emotional stuff don't read on....

My companion of almost 15 years was laid to rest today. He has been here through my younger 4 children coming home from the hospital, letting them take over his dog house and sitting with them on top of the same dog house to the emotional trauma of divorce and the life changes it brings to a family.

I don't care what others say, Meatball was the greatest dog on earth. I can't stand thinking of him laying out there covered in earth...instead of curled up in a ball on the carpet.

He got old and ill....I couldn't help him any longer and am feeling so badly for it. I can't stop crying because of not being able to help him and hang on to him longer so he can be with his family.

I was thinking out loud today to the kids and said "animals are buried with their favorite toy but Meatball was too old to have toys anymore"....we buried him with a picture of all of us...we were his favorite everything.
You will be missed for a VERY long time Ball Ball Baby.

taking a bit of a blog break for some down time to mend my sore heart
see you soon
Lori

oh boy...

I am a little nervous about what to expect this week.
Well, one of the things is that our family dog of almost 15 years is going to be put to sleep on Tuesday...

Right after Dukey disappearing is not the perfect timing for our hearts but he is starting to have too many health issues and I don't want his quality of life to suffer.
So far he hasn't had any major stuff happening but now seems to have eye, ear and increasing arthritis issues.

So it is time to say goodbye to him.
The other major thing is I start new college classes on Wednesday and am not sure about the load of them with being a single mom and home schooler. How will it affect my family? Will I be able to do each of them to the best of my ability and school my kids too? sigh...
I am taking algebra 5 days a week, intro to human services 2 1/2 hours on Mondays and 1 1/2 hours on tue & thurs, and general psychology online.

These are each 5 credits a piece. To get financial aid (which I need) I need to take 12 credits each quarter.....thus the dilemma. Can I drop the online psych class and take a class online that is 2 or 3 credits instead that still goes to the human services degree?
I am calling my adviser tomorrow to see.

sheesh....being a mom and going to school is durned hard.
I am also planning the first month of our school year here at home this week. (insert crazy laugh here) :o)

Hannah had fun modeling the Giddy-Up Messenger Bag.
I had a great gal convo me on Etsy this past week asking if I made them and so I did make her the first one and have put up a listing for other people to order one in their little girl's three favorite colors in my shop also.
Now, I think I will sell what I already have listed and special orders from my shop and not put anything new in there for a few weeks just for the sanity of my family.

Happy Monday!

around home...

*working on two daily/school schedules for the kids and I.
I need to make one that is for Tuesday/Thursday and one for Wednesday/Friday because of the different times I have classes at college on those days.

*Tessa and Aliss taking out their viola and violins and playing around with songs they learned when they took lessons.

*Zack sifting through legos building creations...at the moment he is building some sort of building or tree house for his Anole to go into.

*Sophie and Hannah making clothing out of grocery bags and scraps of fabric....and the endless house/tent communities in the back yard before the rains set in.

*me working on a request at my Etsy shop. I am making a messenger style bag for girls with the Giddy-Up pony on the front flap and the horse shoe on the back. I am making it with a patchwork style strap that uses D-rings for it to be adjustable.
Very exciting!

*our house is getting a new roof next weekend. My ex-husband (Andy) is tearing off the original three layers and reroofing the whole thing with some friends.

*planning a small winter garden in the wheelbarrow garden (a refabbed old wheelbarrow Andy made into a flatbed with sides and I whitewashed). I found some organic romaine lettuce seeds at Walmart. Would also like some carrots.

* Hannah reminding me that she likes hamburger, tortellini, vegetable soup and me telling her soon.....soups, sweaters and snuggling up with good books....soon.

* feeling blessed that I have sold 4 items in my Etsy shop this past month.

*My purple Giddy-Up set made it to a treasury on Etsy this past week.
Thanks Reneesfashions!

Happy weekend to you!

it's twins...

Dukey still cannot be found. I am trying to move on while still hoping God will bring him home soon. Meanwhile we have new company visiting us....

Meet Leon...He is beautiful. the first day he came he was very skittish and only came for food...now he comes to be petted.
After Leon being here a couple of days we had another visitor...Owen...I had to do a double take.
It was quite sweet to see the reunion of these two brothers. Owen walked cautiously to Leon (dark faced one) and flopped down beside him and Leon proceeded to lick Owens face.
I really don't know what their outcome will be in our family. They both haven't had the operation and I don't want to pay for that without knowing if they will stay (even though it seems they call this home). If there was a local vet that believed in doing the neuter and release on stray animals that would be great but I don't know of any.This is the latest skirt I made. It's Sophie's, but this time I thought ahead and made one in a size 3-4 and one in a size 5-6 for the shop. I'm catching on. :o)
would be sooo cute with tights or knee highs and mary janes or boots and a sweater....lots of choices and could be worn with just about any color as I went all out with the colors involved.
But that's the way we like it round these parts. :o)

golden birthday...

Hannah turned 9 on the 9th. This means golden birthday.
Did I ever tell you she was born on 9-9-99?
AND on her Daddies birthday?
yep
I strapped on a pair of skates after 24 years for Hannah's party. it was rough going and I am sure I made some of the other adults who were watchings day. LOL
BUT...after about 30 minutes I got my bearing and it was a blast. skating away from the wall and hand rail is very freeing... LOL
Anyway, Hannah had fun and a wonderful birthday party.
hokey pokey anyone?....on skates no less.

littlest pet shop cake
the whole birthday gang...what memories they will have

Bunny goodness...

You have to see the cutest softie rabbits ever.....
here at Loobylu

Been doing some blog surfing in between making up flyers and canvasing the neighborhood the past couple of days looking for Dukey and came upon Claire's blog post today about her photo shoot with these little cuties; it sounded so familiar. LOL

Have a great weekend!

loop de loop...

I hesitated coming here with this news because many people mainly surf the net for great ideas or an encouraging word but, amidst my Imogene excitement and Hannah's Golden Birthday (pictures coming soon)...

Dukey (Sophie's cat-baby) went missing on the 10th.

I know this isn't a person and do understand that there are greater traumas going on in our world today and will be more in the future but we are hurting for our missing Dukey.
His brother went missing this spring and never came back...I couldnt handle that with Dukey.

when Dukey was a sick/scared kitten

He was very sick when he was a kitten and we seriously bonded...to the point where I now had a full grown meat head of a cat sleeping on my chest thinking he was still a kitten.
I now find myself driving slowly through neighboring blocks calling loudly out the window "Dukey Doo!" and not caring if others think I am crazy.

sigh.....
hearing your sweet 6 year old crying out her kitties name in her sleep is so very hard when you can't do anything to help (well,except for praying and even then we aren't promised a return).

so there you have it.

Introducing...

IMOGENE
School Uniform + Spunky = Imogene Dress

I seriously love this dress.
I had so much fun with it and have plans to make a few in the black & white plaid that I used on this one's french style cuffs.
Oh, it was so much fun! There's only one in the shop in the grey though because I only had enough of that particular fabric left to make Sophie her own dress...and who wouldn't; she looks so darned cute in it. :o)
What a great little model...and I can pay her in Jelly Bellies.


I also added to the shop a couple of Stripey Harvest Handbags and a Blue Leaf bag too! These bags are 95% repurposed fabrics from a furniture showroom...mine never wore out before I was ready for a new one. :o)

edited to say: I haven't a clue as to why I am being so bold with my words in the bottom of this post and have tried for 15 minutes cutting and changing font size to no avail, so just know that I am not yelling at you. LOL

Refreshed...

a small part of my community

Enjoying ---
:::getting up before the kids and reading "A heart like His" by Beth Moore to wake up my heart, and a big mug of coffee to wake up the body :o)

:::listening to my youngest on our piano giving me a concert for one and showing her the secret of numbered notes in the beginner piano books she is "playing"& watching her new little fingers try to listen to her head of what key to push when.

:::getting dishes done first thing in the morning and looking at a clean counter...amazing for me. (honesty is a good thing eh?)

:::soaking my son"s new white (what was I thinking?) skateboard sneakers overnight and seeing them almost white again :o)

:::knowing I am under His wings at this time in my life...the digital camera I was expecting without knowing where it was coming from has arrived in a miraculous form. It isn't as amazing as someone getting healed or a mountain being moved but still amazing to us...
4 years ago Tessa's dad had her first digital camera in his motorcycle's leather saddlebags with Easter eggs (the real kind) and forgot it there along with the eggs.

Lo and behold, there came a serious smell we couldn't figure out.
the saddle bags...
The camera was dead...seriously, smelly dead...I guess rotten, sulfur fumes can dis-configure electronics. Who woulda thunk?

Yesterday when the kids went to their dads overnight he handed her this camera he found in his stuff and said it had pictures of their ducks when they were ducklings (Tessa says babies).
This is her camera that was dead! Not dead now. How amazing is that?

So, we have a camera again and are having a photo shoot soon...like today or tomorrow..because I cannot wait to show you the Imogene dress and bags I have made these past two weeks that are going in my shop.

Have a GREAT day!
Lori

much better....

After the past couple of days today was a breath of fresh air. We walked to the annual Loggers Playday Parade. Hannah actually knows her birthday is getting closer when she sees signs going up across town telling the parade is drawing near.
The sun was out, the birds were chirping and candy was being thrown by the handful....the treat of a good parade. I love the bagpipe players, the kids love the candy and spotting friends on different floats...it's all good.

Happy weekend to you!

checking in...

Hi all!
Boy, that lat post was a doozy huh?

A few updates from it--
:: Chocolate Twinkle died in the night last night.
I have decided that my time having chickens in town has come to a close. We have three left and that's not quite enough for the work they cause PLUS I think I am just tired of added responsibilities that I don't need anymore.
The kid's dad will take them after he has built an added coop for them specifically from the rest of his chickens or they will kill them...that wouldn't be the intended outcome we are lookin for. :o)
So we are burying a chicken and being a bit sad about the pets that Aliss has lost to illness or other calamities of an animal.

:: Weed-wacking on the yard is done and mowing too. Check!

:: Weekly errands and doctors appointments are done. Check!

:: dog isn't scratching as much, hopefully it isn't coincidence. :o)

:: Heading to the lake after chores are done tomorrow. ahhhhh

:: finished the Imogene dress...can't wait to show it to you but the camera met up with the floor today. sigh (insert crazy woman laugh)...we are brainstorming a way to still take photos and put them online..we kinda need em for earning money. :o)

You may return to your regularly programmed life now....

Can you tell I am liking the colors today?

This day sure has been a potpourri of a day....

*found out on the church's email prayer requests that a young girl (9 years old) that was (hard to type that) the younger sister of one of the girls on Aliss's soccer team for 2 years died of Leukemia on Monday (yesterday). I could barely breathe when I read that today. I watched her get better and play with my girls on the sidelines at the soccer games and watched her get worse again...the last time I saw her was at the grocery store a few weeks ago.
No words for her family....lots of prayers though....

*too many errands to run earlier and took all of the kids. Not smart after feeling so emotional from Ronni dieing. Made the day seem l-o-n-g-e-r than ever.*have had a sick chicken in a laundry basket by the wood stove for the past two days. I think the Northern Red Mite has made her too weak to even walk around. Ironic that I am feeding a chicken, chicken broth. I dusted her with Food Grade Diatamaceous Earth today to kill the mites. I know, I know; chickens are farm animals and live and die but this specific chicken (who is a brown Aricana named Chocolate Twinkle) is Aliss's chicken. Aliss has had one cat die of feline leukemia, one cat ate the neighbors possum poison under their house and die and a rabbit that died.....she really doesn't need another animal to die-chicken or not.*been weed wacking under the fence line....seems we have grown a hedge of grass while I have been sewing. LOL

*did some online searching about my 14 year old dog...looks like he has topical yeast. I decided to treat him with giving him Primal Defense powder in his water, yogurt, beepollen granules, bone meal powder, sodium ascorbate (salt form of vitamin c), and adding a small amount of Bragg's apple cider vinegar to his bath water topically to de-acidify the yeast on his skin. I really don't want to put him to sleep if I don't have to. He does scratch himself and looks like some of the dogs I have seen online that after getting treated have grown fur back...I would love him to be able to grow older (he's already old LOL) gracefully.

then we had another cook out in the back yard....
can anybody say bedtime? I am tired....

good night