'Paca Play

My mom in Florida is moving in with me so Nik and the grandgirls came over to help me do some furniture rearranging and cleaning. Thanks, Meredith, for doing the bathroom. Of course, we had to go out and play with alpacas for a while.

JR and Elizabeth ↑


Meredith and JR - they both look like they are wondering just what they are supposed to do with that mint. ↑

...and here Elizabeth and I are trying to get a nose rub from Snickers.

Love Me, Love My Dog

The granddaughters stayed with me for a few days of their spring break. I considered not posting these pictures for fear their folks wouldn't let them come back to this unsanitary home, then realized they're critter lovers also.

JR update: He weighed in at 44.7 pounds last Friday at 7 months old. A loss of .1 pound in a week. I had decided that if he gained substantially, I was going to cut out his noon feeding. Not happening.....

Proud Birthday Granny

Thank you for the birthday flowers, Beth....and all the rest of you who remembered my birthday with cards and gifts. My age doesn't seem to stick in my head. I always have to say to myself - Let's see, born in '42, it's 2009, 2 from 9, ah ha - 67. Oh, my, that's closer to 70 than 60.

Meredith made some potholders to put in my Etsy store. You can see some on the desk above or in my shop - http://northstaralpacas.etsy.com/. The reason that I'm blogging about this is because it blows me away that a 9 year old can be so proficient. She does a lovely job weaving them on her loom, each one has a different pattern. She used my new Canon PowerShot to take the pictures in my little light box. She didn't like the color that she was getting so turned off the flash. I have no idea how to do that, then she showed me how to take movie clips. It's not fair, she's only 9!

This is totally her deal. After she downloads the pictures into the computer, I log in to my Etsy store and leave. She puts the pictures up, writes her descriptions-and-can "copy and paste"!!!!! I just recently figured this out. She calls me when she is done so that I can do a quick proof read and we hit Finish.

She took the cute picture of my sweet Max ▲. He does sleep a lot now that is is older.

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My two daughters and two granddaughters took me out to dinner, and the grand girls stayed overnight with me. That's always lots of fun.

Elizabeth, below is six, and keeps us laughing. Can't you just tell?

Christmas

So many blogs that I am reading talked about Christmas, so here I am doing the same. Little Max up above enjoyed our celebration day the Monday after Christmas. The grandgirls and my 3 adult kids were here. We missed Bob, my son-in-law, who had to work.
On Christmas Eve daughter Terre came and spent the night. We were going to Owosso to watch the grandgirls open their gifts on "the day" but stayed home because of some nasty, icy roads. T went home and I spent the day watching movies and eating junk food. Suprisingly enough, it wasn't horribly depressing, nor lonely.

Rob came home from Scranton, PA, the day after Christmas and stayed for a week. Lucky, lucky me. I love having my son around!!!! He did work his little hiney off though. This is a picture that Meg took of Rob plowing for me. He also repaired doors in the barn, moved many bales of hay, removed shelves in the basement, patched the holes, shoveled mountains of snow, hauled the snow blower to the repair shop, helped with chores every morning and night, even replaced my toilet seat (which I admit was getting dangerous)

On New Years Day we went to daughter Nikki, son in law Bob, and granddaughters, Elizabeth and Meredith's home in Owosso. Had a most lovely meal and got to play Christmas games. This pict is of Rob and Meredith taken by Meg. Again, I'll remind you to just click on the pictures for enlargements.

Many folks mentioned that the holidays would be really hard without Smitty. Probably because of all the forewarning, the days weren't so bad after all. I stayed pretty busy which is my way, I guess, of dealing with "stuff". We all missed him, of course, and I had many moments of that little lurch in my gut thinking of him and what he was missing.

Granddaughter Weekend

This is Elizabeth (age 6) watching television on my oh, so tolerant Cassie girl. I am very fortunate because since the girls were born, their parents have allowed them to come spend time here. I love having them and I think that they like to be here.

This weekend our big project was decorating Christmas cookies. Actually, Meredith (age 9) ended up by doing most of the decorating. I got called away and Elizabeth got "the b.... word." They aren't allowed to say they are bored here. I tell them that only boring people get bored.

After cookie decorating, we met Terre at the matinee in Alma to see Bolt. It was a fun time because we had to wear the 3-D glasses. I can't believe that I'm so sappy that I cry in a dog cartoon. Geese.

♪ ♫ TaDah ♫ ♪ I will send lots home with the girls and freeze the rest or I will be snacking big time. Need to save some until Rob comes home. He does like decorated cookies.

Blog Neglect after Great Weekend

What a really super weekend I had. Youngest granddaughter, Elizabeth, age 6 was here for an overnight. We played games, made yarn, petted alpacas, and went to dinner with Aunt Terre. The picture above is of her very first skein of yarn. EeeHaw! Maybe I'll have another fiber kid. My own girls aren't interested but both granddaughters are now. Elizabeth says that she wants to start knitting on her next visit.
When I took her home, I ran over to Frankenmuth to Zeilinger's to pick up some fiber that I had left. Oh, my! I have some really, really beautiful black and some white roving - about 5 pounds of each. Per usual they did a lovely job cleaning and processing it. Was Sunday afternoon and very quiet so I got to spend some time visiting with Kathy. She says the mill is processing lots of alpaca now. I have already spun a skein of the black and am working on the white now. It's incredibly easy to spin.

Remember how I mentioned that hauling buckets of water to the animals is tough in the winter because the hose freezes so I have to take it down? Look what Jim, Billie, and their grandson built for me. It's insulated and has a light bulb to keep the faucet from freezing. I am so fortunate to have friends who care....... Isn't it just the greatest?!?

Changes:

17. Even though I have an electric blanket, I wear socks to bed - usually the ones that Chris made for me.

18. With a little help from Billie, I refilled the windshield wiper fluid. Heh, heh, was easy to find because it had a picture of a windshield on it. I bought the kind that won't freeze up.

19. I find that I'm more assertive with service people because I think they may take advantage of me. I seem to have more guts to stand up for myself now.

My Little Corner of the World

Because I love to see other folks' work spaces, I just naively think that everybody does. This is our living room where I spin. Normally the drapes are open so that I get great light. Cassie, my Golden, is usually to the left of my chair, and Max, our Sheltie, lays along the wall to the right. Bliss, I tell you....
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Tomorrow I am going to Corunna to stay overnight with the grandgirls, get them to school on Friday, and bring them home for a week. Their folks are taking high school students to Costa Rica. And my other daughter is in Germany chaperoning high school students for two weeks. This daughter, Terre, is a high school counselor here in Ithaca. Don't you think that it's amazing and wonderful that kids today have such wonderful opportunities?