Gofer trouble

For a couple of weeks I have had a creature digging holes in my front yard.  I finally got a look at what it is that is a GOFER.

He is eating my grass.  He already killed some of the bushes in the front yard.

I posted his picture to my Facebook page asking for advice on how to get rid of it.

These are some of the responses.

• Caddyshack him!!
• Flame thrower!!
• Poison peanuts at the local farm/feed store!
• Chemical warfare!
• Claymore mine!
• .22!
• Drown him out with a hose!
• Post more pictures maybe he will get offended and go away!
• They make traps that shoot spikes down into the hole that will run him through as he runs by!
• Rodent Blaster!
• C4!
• This last one has a step by step instructions:

          1. Go to Redbox

          2. Rent Caddyshack

          3. Watch and learn

          4. Initiate knowledge

          5. Funeral

He is cute but has to go.

What I did to myself this weekend

I was very ambitious this weekend.  It was a beautiful Sat in March so I started pruning some trees in the front yard.  Unfortunately I hit my face with the pruner.  

It looks worse than it is.  I am sore but I am fine.

This tree needed pruning bad.

Lots of branches came off this tree.

I made four piles of twined branches from the two trees I pruned.

So while pruning is important to the trees.  Using your face to do it is not.  

This coming Saturday I will be doing the trees on the other side of the house.  I will not be repeating the same mistake twice.

Happy pruning

What can I do! Recovering from Surgery is boring

I had two surgeries two week ago.  I am happy that they were successful. However, it is the hardest thing to sit or lay around.  I feel good now, but I am restricted to light activity for four weeks.  That even means restricted from most house work.  I can not even carry the laundry baskets or vacuum or mop the floors.

Yes my family is helping me out, but I am going crazy because when they are all at work and school I just sit around looking at all the things that need to be done.  Yet I have to wait till someone comes home.

I have watched enough TV to last a life time.  I have read some books, surfed the web and napped.  Is that all you can do to recover from surgery, probably not.  If I do the things I want to do my husband with threaten to take more time off.  He needs to be a work.

So the bordem will continue for the next two weeks... Does anyone have suggestions.  I would welcome anything to keep me from going stir crazy.

New Years Resolutions

Welcome 2015!  I have a few things I would like to do or change this year.  I would like to get my Diabetes under control.  It is not bad right now but I still have a lot of pounds to shed and I need to avoid the sugars and bread.  This is easier said than done.  So for my first goal this year I am going to find health alternatives to cut the sugar and bread cravings.  And second because I know diet alone will not shed the pounds I will implement a work out time three times a week.  After I have established a good route I will extend that to five times a week.
Ok! I have written these down in hopes that I will succeed.  I will have to rely on prayers and will power.  Wish me luck.

Sewing & Stitchery expo Feb 28-Mar 3 I can not wait

I recently moved to Ft Lewis, Washington.  I was so excited to find out that the biggest sewing expo is held 15 minutes for me.  It is as big as the International Quilt festival held in Houston, TX, Which I went to when we lived in TX.  It will be held Feb 28 - Mar 3, at Puyallup Fair & Events Center, in Puyallup, WA.  I can not wait I just registered online at http://www.sewexpo.com/ .  I am taking three classes.  They are spread out through out the day so I can see the vendors in between classes.  I am saving my $$ so I can enjoy. I would recommend if you are a sewer and you live in Washington or not that far from to go.  These things are the best.  So many great things to see and inspiration always comes to me when I visit theses places.  

cyber bullies or hackers which is worse.

I don't know if I can say which is worse but now I can say I have been affected by both.  Last Sunday I was preparing a Sunday lesson for my primary class and my computer started acting strange.  My antivirus gave alerts but it said everything was OK.  I continued my prepping.  All of a sudden it all went crazy.  Folders on my computer started to erasing one by one right before my eyes.  Then I got a message that looked official but of course all they wanted was my credit card info and they would fix the problem.  I of course try to watch out for that kind of stuff, so I knew something was up.  I had been hacked.  I had so many viruses and all my stuff was well hidden in my computer.  The Geek squad had to set my computer back to the factory setting it was so bad.  I lost everything but I didn't give any money to the hacker just the Geek Squad.  That is OK.  I got a better antivirus and now I have a protection plan for my computer for 3 years. 

I am safe for now.  I just have to remember to back up the important stuff on my external hard drive.  I should have known better a year and a half ago my computer crashed I lost stuff then too.  The pictures well I can live with out those.  But I lost the genealogy work that I had recreated again.  Well I have to type it again.   I will back it up this time.  There are too many names to have to keep retyping. 

If you follow my blog you will have seen the blog post in which cyber bullies came to visit.  I will not go into it because it is in the past.  I thought that was a bad time in my life.  It really was not in retrospect.  and I guess being hacked is not that bad either.  It just really sucks at the time it is happening. 

So what do you think I really can't say.  I just know that it happens and it is all up to you how you handle it.  I plan to roll with it and learn from it.

The hardest move ever

We are finally unpacked and trying to have a normal schedule.  My kids are adjusting well.  I have just about set up my craft room the way I would like it.  Wow does that seem like every thing has gone like clock work.  That would be deceiving, it's by far been the hardest move ever.  So many things have gone wrong. 

It started the day we arrived in Missouri.  30 miles from the main gate the transmission in our truck died.  That costs about $4000 with towing fees and a new transmission.  Yikes!!! By the way it is still acting funny.

The day we moved in to our house we started noticing that we had new Marks on our ankles and they itched bad.  Well can you guess what it was FLEAS.  Yes the previous tenants had animals and they had these ugly bugs.  The housing people saw them and then sprayed.  The next day we moved in.  If any of you have had problems with these bugs you know it takes 4 to 6 weeks to get rid of them.  You have to vacuum, vacuum, vacuum your house to get the fleas out.  They just don't die.  When all the eggs have hatched its over.  The spraying only keep them from continuing to lay eggs.  Not knowing what was going on about the third day I saw them crawling everywhere.  I approach housing and they didn't know that they had a problem.  Well the end results where they have spent the last three weeks sending someone everyday to vacuum my house they have sprayed twice and I believe next week we will get our carpets cleaned again.  But the scares I and my five year old have are to many to count.  We discovered they like us and they bit us all over not just the ankles.

A couple of days in to being here.  We where rear ended in the burger king drive thru.  The young kid who hit us was smoking, and dropped his cigarette and was burning his unmentionables.  Serves him right.  The only person who got hurt was my husband.  he is having back and neck problems. The rest of us where fine.

So last about a week into the kids new school experience my high school child got his transfer grades from the TX school.  OMG they were bad.  The school only calculated the grades from the last 3 weeks he was at the school.  They were not even going to give him credit for the first 6 weeks grade period.  We finally fixed that and now he is good.

All of these things aside I think things are starting to get better.  My hubby started his school the kids have 2 weeks of school left and I can sew. 

We have about 6 to 9 months here and then well we do it all over again.

the sad fact about moving

The Sad fact about moving.  My house has never looked this clean.  I hate that about my house.  My room has never had this much floor space showing.  I usually have boxes of military stuff lined up by the wall on the floor. 

The boys room even when they clean it does not look this good.

The girls room looks like this for only five minutes.  My two year old has messed up the closet before I am even done cleaning but I can close that. 

The Teenager is not giving me too much problems with keeping his side of the room clean either.

I am still working on my husbands desk and the kitchen counters.  But I am almost done.  I am so proud of myself.

Yesterday I got the best birthday present of all time.

Yesterday was my birthday.  I had a wonderful day.  My thoughtful husband took me the 91 miles to Houston for the best quilt festival ever.  The Houston International Quilt Festival.  Wow.  I saw some great, great stuff.  I ran into someone who knows my mother from when she lived in North Carolina.  She has some great stuff.  Go check out her web site at Hissyfitz designs.  She has the cutest quilt called Cutie Patootie  my mom tested the pattern for this quilt.  My youngest daughter sleeps with this blanket every night.  While walking through the booths I saw this quilt on the wall and was really excited to meet the lady who designed it. 
I also visited the ladies over at Craftsy.  They were great too.  We walked till my legs hurt.  I saw great stuff. 
We walked through the gallery and wow.  I took only few pictures.  I should have taken more.  I was so tired last night I slept like a baby. 
I want to share two quilts with you.  The first one is amazing.  It won some big prize I forget which one but wow the detail was phenomenal.  I have always admired thread painting.  I have only tried it once. 

Sorry these two pictures are not right side up.  I am having a problem with my computer.  In the second picture, you can see the stitching on the boy.  The quilt is said to have over 4 million stitches.  It was awesome in person.  I don't know that the picture does it Justice.

I thought this one was so whimsical that I just had to have a picture.  It also has a lot of thread painting in it.   All in all I had the best birthday ever.  Thanks honey.  Love you.

First day of school

We have two first's on this first day of school.  This is my oldest child he started High School today.

This is my third child she started Pre school today.  This was her first day of public school and she got to ride the bus home from school she was in heaven.

This is my second child he started second grade.  He is my character one minute you get this reaction.  A scowl.

Next he is trying to kiss up.  I love him.

She was so cute about school today.  She was ready to go hours before it was time.  She had a great day! 

Summer kraziness

I am so sorry I have not blogged that much this summer.  I have been working on lots of things.  However I don't know how interesting they might be.  I have three major things I am doing:

 I built this garden box.  I planted pumpkins and they sat in my window sill until this box was finished.

 They finally are in the ground.

I built a garden box to grow pumpkins for my kids for Halloween.  I am so excited. I hope to update my growth on this blog.  It has been two weeks since I put them in the ground and they are not dead.  Wish me luck!

Next I am working with the local paper in my area developing coupon workshops.  I am really excited about this.

And last I have a lot a genealogy to retype.  I lost all my stuff on my old computer when it crashed.  Over 3000 names. Yikes!  My fingers are going to be tired.  At least I have most of it on hard copies.  I need to have family names ready for my teenager to do baptisms in Sept when the youth go to the Houston Temple.

Hope you are having a good summer so far. Stay cool!

So sad I have been working on a project but I cant seem to get it done.

I have been working on a ribbon rack.  However it means cutting wood.  I am not that sure of my self with wood tools.  So it is taking me forever to do.  Also I have been spending a lot of time searching for coupons and coupon blogs.  I must admit it might be taking over my life at the moment until I can get the hang of things.  My craft room is such a mess I don't even want to go in so my blogging has been sporadic.  Sorry to all my friends.  When I get balance again thing might get back to normal.

My new HP computer

I got my new computer in the mail yesterday.  It is a HP Pavilion something something entertainment PC. I am so not that computer smart.  I am fumbling my way through the process of getting to know this thing.  I like it don't get me wrong, but there is no manual to refer too.  It is scary to say the least.  I did however manage to download my printer software on line because I could not locate the disk.  Par for course. I can always find every thing but what I am looking for when it comes to the computer software department.  I need my own personal IT person.  Maybe my old dinosaur of a computer would still be running if I had my own IT guy.
Now I need to locate the software for my camera so I can down load this weeks adventure at the Children's Barnyard put on by the Texas A&M University.  I was simple.  My almost two year old could not get enough of the baby chicks.  Every time she caught one it peeped loudly.  She has some grip.  I will get those photos up soon I hope. 
Have a great spring day.  Well try to if you are in any of the bad weather areas of the country.  We got nothing.  We need the rain that everybody else is getting.  TX is a big place and we never get anything.  I am grateful. I am not really complaining but we really could use the rain.  Bye.

It was a hard crash

Over the weekend something terrible happened.  My computer crashed.  #$%^  Hum!  I am sad.  Thankfully we purchased a external drive the week before and I removed all my photos and put it on the external hard drive.  The only thing that is really important, that I am sad about, is that I can't retrieve all my addresses of all my friends and family.  Now that really sucks.  I don't have a old fashion address book.  Can you say duh! Or to quote charlie sheen "Not winning"

Computers are great they hold tons of information.  It is all at your finger tips.  However, it does give you a false sense of security.  It is going to be difficult to get some of these addresses because the phone numbers where also lost.  Email address as well.  What to do?  I can try facebook and ask my friends to send the info.  Yet some of those friends are not on facebook.  Well You know I am going right out to get the old fashion phone book today.

I did order a new computer on "aafees".  Yeah no sales tax.  I just have to be patient for it to get here.  In the mean time I am using my husbands computer.  Thank you Hubby.  I love you.

I should not be too sad about the computer it was 6 years old and very slow.  Now out with the old and in with the new and the old fashion phone book.  Bye.

I have never been a political activist BUT!

Last year when my CA drivers license was about to expire, I call the state DMV to see if I could renew my licence online.  I have renewed this way before, However, they have a limit on how many times you can do this.  I was told I had to come in to the DMV and renew in person.  Well as it happened we are living in TX which makes it difficult to just pop into the DMV and do this.  As my husband is in the military and his home of record is CA, his licence is good indefinitely until he is able to return back to CA to update his licence.  So I thought that they would have a policy in place for dependents of active military members.  I thought wrong. 

A few years ago the federal government changed the statue for dependent spouses to be able to stay residents of the home of record of the active duty military member.  That is great but that doesn't help if you still want to vote in the state of your home of record and can't get a licence there too.  I was upset I couldn't get my license renewed in CA so my only option was to go to DPS in TX and get a new drivers licence.  My husband and I call the local State representatives to inquire about this problem.  They listened to our complaint and agreed with are problem.  Dependent spouses of active duty service members should have the same priviage of having an indefinate license until they are able to return back to the state to update there license. 

  At the time we were told that it was to late in the year to do any thing about it but the next calender year they would work on it.  A few months went by and we had quite forgotten about it.  Then in Jan we got a call from the office of the state representative who took on the situation to fix the problem.  I am happy to say that for the last 8 months the local representatives have been working on a solution to this problem. We have gotten periodic email updating us on the progess of the bill.

Today we go an email saying that the bill will be heard today on the floor in the state senate.  I am really excited.  I hope that they agree to change the state law. 

This will not help me because I already surrendered my CA license, But it will help others that have had this problem or are in the future going to have this problem. 

What makes it really exciting to us is that our local reprentatives heard and acted on this.  A lot of times it is really disappointing because they listen nod and "say I see".  We all know that means "and this effects me how" and "I really don't care, thank you for your call or inquirey." 

Well I just want to say thank you to the State reps out there that take on the local causes and make it there own.  That is why we put them there and that is why we let them stay.

The long hard day

Have you ever seen this at your house and just had to snap a picture? This is one of the more pleasant afternoons that I have had . Both girls are asleep one more creative than the other. I wonder if that is a sign. Chip off the old block I say.

Do You Have One Of These?

Do You Have One Of These?

 And does it go with one of these?

I Love but hate "Ducky"! When she is lost. The world comes to an end. Yesterday half of my kids stayed home from church because we have had illness left and right at our house. My son calls during the lesson I am giving "We can't find Ducky?" I asked him to look in all the usual places. Of course if you have one of these they are not always in the usual places.

Can you guess where we found it?

THE FRIDGE!

I don't want to discourage use of ducky but good heavens i need to sew in GPS just to keep track of the dumb thing.

Speech class - How to make a chocolate cake by my son

My son is in 8th grade and they have to have a speech class. He had to do a how to speech today. So last night he made a chocolate cake from scratch.

 He used a the Betty Crocker Book.

Add the eggs.

Mix all the ingredients.

Pour in the pan.

Bake.

Decorate.

I am so proud of him.  He took the ingredients to school and made a cake in front of them. I picked up the batter after his class and then bake a second cake.  So we get to enjoy his chocolate cake tonight after dinner.  Fun us.  I didn't make it Yeah!

What are baths for

  I am linking to a new link party at bella before and after called

I don't know if you will laugh about this but I did.  Last night my 18m old had a cupcake and had chocolate all over her face, hair etc.

Isn't she so cute.  I totally took this picture before the .... Well anyway.  I put her in the tub and let her waste some time until she had to go to bed.  She loves to splash and play in the tub.  I was sitting on the chair in the bathroom blogging. Yeah I know I am addicted! When all of the sudden she started her "oh! oh! oh! oh! no! no! oh! oh! oh!"  thing that she does when something she doesn't like happens.  I looked at her she was holding her face shaking her head. So I looked into the tub. There was a whole lot of chocolate substance in the bath.  Way more than when she got in the tub.  You all know what substance I am talking about.  OH! did I laugh. Well what can you do?  Laugh cry it is all the same.  I just took her out.  Emptied the tub.  Cleaned the tub.  Filled the tub washed her and then dressed her and put her to bed.  Yes it is gross.  But it has not been the first time this has happened to me. I am sure it will not be the last.

Kids are awesome aren't they?

So go check out this new link party and laugh away.

Happy 2011

I know you are supposed to make resolutions when a new year begins, like lose weight, exercise more, become a neat freak and blah blah blah.  I just have one. 

Learn a new things. 

So the others are in there too but really they are every years resolution.  This way I know I will succeed.  Is this stacking the deck in my favor?  Is that wrong?  Happy New Year.