I’m Definitely NOT A Nurse!

                       

   I am really fumed this morning! I ALWAYS wait until the weekend of Memorial day to plant my garden. This year, Memorial day came a week early, but I planted my plants and a few seeds anyway. I was going to finish the rest today. Last night there was a frost here in Maine. I knew about it but thought it wouldn’t touch my plants…..NOT MINE! Well of course I did not cover the plants and guess what? I lost them all. What an idiot I am! My tomatoes and peppers and cukes and zuchinni and summer squash are dead. Now I think I will do it all NEXT weekend like I should have….water the seeds I planted and hope for the best. I have no other alternative….but it really ticks me off.

   I need to probably take a break from blogging….I know…I know…I keep saying that! Obie has been up and down. I am not sure at this point if it is me or him. What I mean by that is, I am not sure if I am giving the injections right or not. The needle is about 1/2” long and he has thick fur. I have to inject the needle into his neck through the fur and I can never tell for sure if it is in there or not? My husband helps me hold him and says it is in there. Then I have to pull back the plunger just a little to make sure no blood comes out. The reason for that is you don’t want to hit a blood vessel. If no blood comes out, I push the plunger and finish injecting him. The whole thing does not faze him at all, although there was one night he had that “ouch” look and he turned towards me like “what the?” Most days since we started this new regiment, he has been fine. There was that one day though. I got up early in the morning and there it was….the giant puddle of pee on the kitchen floor. Oh no!…not again! He was acting funny and drinking a lot of water again and wanted to go out. This is how it all started! I must have injected him wrong I thought? This is my routine EVERY day…. 9:30 a.m…….He gets a cup of dry food mixed with a 1/4 cup of wet and an antibiotic pill mixed in. When he is done, he gets his injection by Nurse Hatchet…..I mean me. The same exact routine at 9:30 p.m. We watched a video of a cat being injected the other day, on Google, and saw something we thought would help us. They shaved the back of the cat’s neck so they could see where they were injecting. Great idea! My husband got his electric razor out and we tried it. The razor is not strong enough or the right type. Now my husband has fleas in his beard! Just kidding….a little joke there.:)  Today, I am taking him to the groomer (Obie, not my husband) to get his neck shaved down to the skin.

   For as long as I can remember, I have been feeding our cat Baby and Obie every day at about the same time. They eat side by side. That has changed because he now has to eat twice a day. He cannot eat any treats or anything else. He was ALWAYS the clean up man. When she was done eating, she always left a bit of her food and he cleaned it up for her. Of course the new routine has to squash that. You should see the look on her face when he is eating twice and her only once! She’s pissed! She always has a bowl of dry on the window sill, but she’s still mad at me. It’s pretty funny. Oh boy….got to go….guess what time it is?…..yup…that magical, mystical hour……..it’s 9:30!!! Gotta go….  Thanks again for all your comments and prayers…..maybe I won’t be so crazy when I come back….or maybe not?

Black Gold, Texas Tea, And A Bubblin’ Crude….

       

   I am finally getting some things done over here on the plains! Obie is doing good and he and I are getting used to the injections. Actually it doesn’t faze him at all! It’s me that has to learn to calm down. Thanks for all of your comments and your prayers, once again! You guys are great!! No more peeing at all hours of the night, or on the floor. The incessant water drinking has stopped. We will see in about a week how his levels are doing. I hope I am administering it correctly. It’s still intimidating to me and I am sure that will change. He is fine….I’m not!! Now that he is better, I can move on to other pressing things like my garden! I am late! I had about 5 yards of composted (wintered over) cow manure delivered this last weekend. You know….that black gold that makes all things grow to huge proportions….If you’re lucky! I managed to get the old farmer to maneuver his pickup truck so he could dump it in three different places for easier roto-tilling. That is not a picture of it! I didn’t get a chance to get photos yet. That manure above is much more composted than mine right now! The tilling will probably happen this coming weekend. He finished dumping the stinky stuff and just reached right over, bare handed, and scraped the remainder off the tailgate! These Maine farmers just love the stuff! They live and breath it….wallow in it! I love to use it to grow beautiful veggies but don’t like wallowing! I decided NOT to shake his hand goodbye! :) I was wondering how big my garden was. I had never measured it. While on the phone, getting prices for tilling this year, the question kept coming up… “Well….how big is your garden?” I went out with a 12 foot tape measure (that’s all I had) and finally measured it. It is 24 feet wide by 42 feet long. It’s not nearly as big as I want it to be. The squash and pumpkin I plant, tend to take up a lot of space. I am going to have my tiller give us a few more feet both ways. My next step is getting my seeds and plants. My seeds come from Pine Tree Garden Seeds. It’s a cute little place not far from me. There are a ton of local women that work there part time and one of them is a friend of mine. She was the editor until this year….she just retired. They not only have great seeds, but just about anything else you would want to purchase having to do with gardens. This year I am planting some favorites that did well last year and some new offerings I would like to try. A winner seed from them last year were my rainbow carrots. and winter squash. I had great luck with Spaghetti Squash and with their delicious Butternut!  I didn’t like the corn. The stalks were not tall enough and the corn didn’t produce the way I would have liked. The stalks are important because I use them to decorate my yard in the fall. I will try a different variety this year from Pine Tree. I plant pickling cukes and straight ones. The crazy gourds are a must! I had great luck with these beets last yearand did not realize how much better fresh beets taste from the garden! Oh my God are they good! I had so many of these pumpkins last year I could hardly believe it! I gave many to friends and family.Last year I tried the purple pole beans and this year I think I am going to stick with the green pole bean.My tomatoes will come from a local nursery.My favorite are an heirloom called Brandywine. They are a big beefsteak type. For anyone from Maine….they taste like Amato’s Italian sandwich tomatoes!! Last year I grew purple and chocolate peppers and green and some hot. This year just green.

UPDATE: I started this post before Obie got sick. I added the update at the beginning today. I ended up not being able to get my seeds at Pinetree as they are closed through the holiday. I went to a local nursery today and got all my flowers for the yard and all my seeds and vegetable plants. I was quite surprised to find they had my rainbow carrots! Meanwhile a friend of mine gave me some summer squash and zucchini and a couple of cuke plants. It will be a big garden again this year, surrounded by sunflowers. We will get the “black gold” tilled in today or tomorrow and I am in hopes of getting my garden planted by Monday, the latest. I am excited to get started. I’ll take pictures if I can. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with this new onset of Diabetes with Obie so I may take a break from blogging for a while. Sorry I have not been by some of your sites…..I will soon and I think of you all every day! It’s in my blood now I guess! You all must be planting too or maybe you already got the jump on me. I hate being behind but that’s life. God had other plans for Obie, and hubby and I this week.:) He brought us to it and he’ll see us through it.

He’s Got It…..

                 

   Sorry I have taken so long to get back to you all about our Obie. It has been a crazy few days. Thank you for your comments and for your prayers. That was so sweet of ALL of you! He DOES have diabetes and we are starting his injections this morning. I couldn’t believe it! I am really nervous about it, although I have received instruction from the vet, it’s not easy. I know nothing about needles and my husband hates them. We have to get used to it now. Poor little Obie is doing pretty good considering. I will write more about it this weekend, but for now, I must concentrate on getting this all right, so he is better soon. He is also on antibiotics, every 12 hours for a slight infection. He must get injections of 3cc’s of insulin twice daily, 12 hours apart. That’s a hard one as we are on the go a lot. To come up with a time in the morning and 12 hours later that you will be home, consistently, is not always easy. He also has to eat with those injections. No more treats for Obie and fairly exact amounts of food each feeding. He will be fit as a fiddle soon………….(WE HOPE). Some big changes for him but if we do it right, he will be healthy and happy. I haven’t slept much so if I am not making any sense that is why! Thanks again for your prayers and concerns and your comments.:) There are a lot of animal lovers out there….like us.

 

          

   St. Francis of Assisi is watching over Obie and he will be fine.

A Sick Russell…

   I just wanted to let people know that my friend Dawn at C & G Design is having a blogaversary giveaway! If you would like to be a part of it, click on her link on the right hand side of my page. The one with the picture of Raggedy Ann dolls. She is giving away some wonderful handmade gifts that she made herself!! Check it out…she is a very talented girl! She’s amazing and always working on some sort of beautiful craft, or two, or three! I believe the drawing is June 1st and this celebrates her 1ooth post. Congratulations to my friend Dawn!!

   On a sadder note, my Jack Russell Terrier, Obie, is sick. He has been acting strange. He never pees in the house and has done that twice in the middle of the night this week, by the door. He seems uncomfortable and is drinking lots of water. Last night he was panting and he only does that if he is hot, or scared. The vet asked me to get a urine sample this morning, and bring it to them for testing. I just did that. I waited for the results. They were not good, but it could have been much worse. High levels of glucose and some white blood cell counts were high. What does that mean? A possible urinary tract infection and diabetes! He goes back for blood work at 3:00 today just to be sure. I will find out positively, then. Apparently the only treatment for diabetes in dogs, is insulin. That surprised me. He will have to get shots twice a day. I hope it’s not that, but it looks like it might be. Say a little prayer for Obie. I will let you know what happens. :(

                 

The Neighborhood Summer Carnival….

When I was between 9 and 12 years old, we used to clean out my mothers kitchen junk drawers and get all those treasures ready for a neighborhood carnival. Most houses have one junk drawer, where they place all those items they think are valuable, but really should be thrown out. We had two, because my father NEVER threw anything out. If we wanted to really clean house, we had to wait until he was away or sleeping. For some reason, he did not mind us getting into the junk drawers. Amongst the old batteries and spools of thread, old car keys and padlocks with NO keys, swizzle sticks, tacks, rubber bands and strings, were some real gems. We would use these junk drawer treasures in our annual summer backyard carnival. I lived on a fairly short dead end street. There were 10 houses on my street and I knew every one of the families that lived in those houses. Only four of the houses had kids that were close to my age. Extended family members lived close by back then. One of those 10 houses belonged to my mom’s sister, my Aunt Laura and her husband, my Uncle Sidney. Through a short path behind my house, just a two minute walk, you would arrive at my Aunt Olive and Uncle Edmunds house.... which was on the next street over…also my mother’s sister. In the summer, my cousins would come up from Virginia and stay at Aunt Laura’s (their grandmother), and they would come to the carnival, bringing some “good junk” from her place. There was another beaten path, from Aunt Laura’s yard, to another neighborhood gang of kids…the Reynolds kids. I think there were 6 of them….four girls and two boys, and many of them would come by too. Next door to my house, was a family with 5 kids….four boys and a girl. They were always a part of whatever we did. Across the street was one boy our age, and at the top of the road were a brother and sister who came down. God I did everything with these kids, so when it was carnival time on our road…EVERYBODY who could be there WAS!

All of the donated “carnival” items were priced out and put on tables, that my mother let us use, and were set up in my back yard. Some items were used as prizes and some were sold. My mother made fresh lemonade and cookies for us to sell at another table. We created our own game booths, like ring toss, or bean bag toss, a fishing booth, and we also had face painting. We had a board with balloons tacked to it, and you could shoot darts at the balloons for a prize. The darts came from my brothers dart board in the basement of my house. We always had a ping pong table, pool table, and darts in the basement. I learned to be quite a good ping pong player with three brothers! My mother would donate some of her old Avon jewelry she no longer wanted, and whatever else she felt comfortable getting rid of, when my father wasn’t around. For some of these kids, this WAS the place to buy a gift for your parents, for the upcoming Christmas season. It would be purchased and put away until the holidays. We had old marbles, kites, silly putty, key chains, old coins, kitchen gadgets, baseball cards, yo-yos, rubber snakes, and jewelry. We had old jiggers and shot glasses and paddles with balls, super balls and old silver and magic playing cards and more. The carnival would be an all day event. Word would get out to the kids, on the neighboring streets, and they would all come to see what they could win. Looking back now, that was one of the happiest times of my life. We were so free and full of life. How lucky I was, to have those neighborhood kids in my life! Back then, we could come up with a pretty creative plan and make something out of nothing. We took lemons and made lemonade. We had no video games, no cell phones, no instant gratification and we were NOT the “entitled generation” of today. Thank God for that. It was a different time, a more innocent time, and my parents saw to it that we put those creative juices, we were born with, to good use.

By the end of the day, when all the tables and games were packed up and put away, we divvied up our earnings, and headed to the place we always went after carnival…..Andy’s Handy Store! It was about a 1/2 mile walk. After a long day of carnival, we trekked, the lot of us, with our brown skin from a day in the sun, down to Andy’s, to get our rewards. Here is what it looks like today….similar, but not exactly the same.

That little building to the left, was not there. That is an ice cream shop now and there are picnic tables to the left of that. Andy’s was a magical place to go! They had one of those old glass cases, chock full of penny candy! You could get 2 for a penny and sometimes 3 for a penny. The man behind the glass case, would stand there, and very, very patiently wait on each of us, while we slowly requested what we wanted. “Could I have two mint julepsand three Mary Jane’s, a lipstick and a root beer barrel, three atomic fireballs and one red wax lips? Could I have an orange slice and two jaw breakers and five of those black licorice sticks and one paper of candy buttons. Oh no…could I have three of those candy buttons and only one fireball….or wait a minute…..what’s that over there?” He was so patient. One by one, we did that, and it took hours. In between helping us, he would have us wait a minute, while he waited on other customers. Then back we would go, to get bubble gum cigarettes,and wheels of licorice…..assorted colors of Swedish fish, were always in my bag and squirrel nut candies were a must have,along with Rock Candy stix which seemed so different to me. By the time we got home from Andy’s Handy Store, half our candy was already gone, and all the hard work we put into our little carnival, was all worth the effort, because this was our reward. Those little jewels of penny candy were all we wanted and we went to bed with a smile on our face that night. I am still a sugar addict, to this day! I am mostly addicted to fire balls. I ALWAYS have them in my house, my purse, my crochet bag, the pockets of my coats and in my vehicles! One item Andy's sold, that I never hear about today, were cinnamon toothpicks. Does anyone remember those? If I remember correctly, they came in a vile of cinnamon oil and you sucked on the toothpicks? I was their best customer, when it came to those, and fireballs! I think that is why I am still addicted to them today! What was your favorite candy when you were a kid?

A few years ago, I was fond of going to North Conway, New Hampshire, every year, around the holidays, to shop. I actually would go with one of those cousins, that attended the carnival. One of my favorite places to go was a candy store called YUMMIES. My cousin, introduced me to it. Their claim to fame, is that they stock all things that are unusual, fun, nostalgic and just plain crazy. They stock many hard to find, old fashioned items, including some thought to be extinct. It is truly a magical place to go. I am sure there are many other places in the country, that are similar to Yummies. One of my other favorite things to eat are Wasabi nuts, and they have quite an assortment of spicy eats! Here is a link... WASABI I thought I would share that summer memory with you all, and I challenge all of you to write one of your own!

If I ever have grandchildren (hopefully someday….I’m working on it!) I hope to teach them to be creative, and not be hindered by societal standards. I’ve grown away from the “keeping up with the Jones” mindset, and since I am married to a real “free thinker” it HAS to rub off after all these years! Having God or a “higher power” in my life, helps with that. As I start each day in prayer, I am reminded of just who is in charge, and it isn’t me! That allows me the humility, I need, to live a good life. I used to fill it with “stuff”, I thought I needed. I can become addicted to just about anything….that’s my personality. I try to be careful about blogging, because that can be one of them too. My addictions have changed over the years. There was a time when I drank too much. I no longer drink, and as my friend says, “I take life straight up today!” I LOVE that. I was just drowning any problem I had in a drink. I was the ostrich with his head in the sand, only my head was in a drink instead. I found out that there isn’t anything a drink could fix, because the problems were still there, despite my attempt to drown them. It was something much deeper I was looking for and needed….spirituality….and I found it. My other semi-addictions were yard sales, shopping, Ebay, collecting things excessively, overeating, smoking!….you name it and I will become addicted to it! So…I still do many of those things, but I keep them to a minimum (except smoking, unfortunately I still smoke and that is a real hard one for me.) I try to watch for the signs of overdoing, because I know myself. That’s just me. Life is good today, and I try to surround myself with positive influences. I got ticked off the other day at something, or somebody, and I was forming a big resentment, I guess, and I really didn't recognize it. I was judging someone. My husband said to me….”Did you read page such and such today?” No…I didn’t! So, I went and read page such and such in a little spiritual book we read. It said:

Try never to judge. The human mind is so delicate and so complex that only it’s Maker can know it wholly. Each mind is so different, actuated by such different motives, controlled by such different circumstances, influenced by such different sufferings, you cannot know all the influences that have gone to make up a personality. Therefore, it is impossible for you to judge wholly, that personality. But God knows that person wholly, and He can change it. Leave to God the unraveling of the puzzles of personality. And leave it to God to teach you the proper understanding.

Wow…..I was speechless when I read this. Enough said, and my resentment was GONE! Who the heck do I think I am to judge someone else, until I have walked in their shoes. Sorry…I kind of got off onto another beam here but I do hope to read about some of your experiences as children. :)

I know I said I would be gone for a while in blogland to get things done BUT!!…believe it or not….I started this story over a week ago and it was almost done and I saved it in draft. So, I am not actually telling a lie now am I? Ha ha There I go…worrying about what people think! :)

Bibo’s Mad Apple Cafe

   My two wonderful kids invited me to breakfast in Portland Mother’s day morning. For those of you who don’t normally read my blog and are just popping in, my son Kyle is 24 and will be 25 the end of May and my daughter Carissa is 26 and will be 27 in June.  My son has been living in Bangor for 6 years with a girlfriend, dog, cat, pet snakes, fish, and probably a few other creatures they have not told me about. For 6 years, I have only spoken to him by phone on Mother’s Day….if he remembers! There was the occasional “day after” mother’s day call! He came down here to temporarily stay with his big sister in her apartment on the third floor, to get a job and an apartment and then bring the girlfriend, snake, dog, cat and rest of the unknown critters down to join them. Good luck getting a landlord to welcome all that. I won’t go there….but I was excited to be able to spend mother’s day with both my babies this year! Kyle has been here about a month….maybe 5 weeks and we are all thrilled about it. My daughter made reservations at a little place called Bibo's Mad Apple Cafe for brunch for the three of us. I hung out at the apartment for a while with the kids and snapped some photos. My photos have been a bit blurry lately….not sure why. I called before I headed in town, which was a good thing, because I think they were both still in bed, and it only takes 30 minutes for me to get there. You all would have been pretty proud of me.  I made myself a little map and got there lickety-split….just like I knew what I was doing!!:) (For newcomers to my blog, I am directionally challenged) …and the kid were up and alive!

   She has a great place on the West End, three flights up, in a nice old apartment building. It’s a bit of a hippie pad and sooooo reminds me of myself when I was a young 20 something. She was a little “under the weather” from a birthday party she attended the night before and acting kinda goofy. There is a guy in Portland that is a street artist. One of his mediums (believe it or not) is tinfoil. He walks around the city carrying a couple big boxes of tinfoil. You ask him to make ANYTHING (my daughter says) out of tinfoil and he does it. She asked him to make her a guitar and a guitar stand. She watched him make them. This is her goofing with the tinfoil guitar. I didn’t get a picture of the stand.     She has a painting she got on the sidewalk at big trash day. This is in the bedroom….I love it. Why would someone throw this away? This is a little area where my son temporarily sleeps that she made up for him. Not sure why the grass skirt is there….not much privacy with that?  She found this vintage bureau at a building that was being renovated and she re-did it. My son is very comfy there. I decided to give him my old guitar and brought it with me. He tuned her up and gave her a whirl. That guitar has been with me since I was 15, when my dad bought it for me. It has been to California and Mexico and New Orleans and Canada and beyond. Now it will be making memories with my son. My hubby bought me a new Martin about 4 years ago. Carissa has a dog named Piper and Piper is the most loveable dog. She let’s you just lay all over her!     She has a little music area and most of the musical noisemakers I recognized. When I see musical items at yard sales I pick them up and give them to her. An area devoted to who else but her favorite…BOB DYLAN! This was painted by a friend. He just paints lovely things and gives them away she says. Again my camera was blurry but in person this looks like shiny tiles but it is not. Really pretty. She had many Monet’s and Van Gogh’s too…..two of my absolute favorite artists. A neat wooden female figures display hanging in a corner.

   Off to the restaurant we went. A cute little cafe and my daughter’s favorite place to have breakfast. I had never been there but I trusted her taste. What do we want to eat? It’s a hard decision because the menu sounds unbelievable! I’ll just look around at the place while you both decide.  Yup….It’s still raining outside. Ok….better get back to see if they know what they want yet? Oh for God’s sake! Children!! We are in a restaurant! Didn’t I teach you better than that! :):) Hey…the place needed livening up a bit. Ok…we finally decided. I had this….. Way off the diet with a maple waffles with raspberries, blueberries and strawberries, whipped cream with a side of bacon which as you can see was over done. I gave the bacon to my kids and the waffle and fruit were crazy good. My daughter had Eggs Benedict on English muffin with baby spinach and tomato.. and a side of sweet potato/russet potato/red pepper/onion and bay seasoning that was so freaking good I can’t tell you! I HAVE to try making that. My son had Canadian bacon and the same delicious potato side and little sausage egg sandwiches that were made with a wonderful seasoning combo…really unusual. Great meal……very cool place. My daughter gives it Five Stars or as she would put it “High Cinco!” Isn’t that the cutest bench out front? It was a grand morning with my two Gemini children. They sent me off with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and many hugs and kisses. I felt very grateful to be able to spend time with them. They wanted me to go to the movies but I had other plans with hubby and my mother and father in law. After all, my mother in law and best friend Alice is my second mother. I could not miss seeing her!! By the time I got to them and took a couple of photos, my camera died, but here is what I got……

Woody made the best Shrimp Curry  marinated and on skewers!

It was delish. Jecoda just decided to crash on the nice cool tiles and take a siesta for a while. There’s Woody….enjoying the day and waiting for that shrimp to be done! And I will respect my friend Alice’s feelings about not putting her picture on here….besides the fact that I cherish my life and don’t want to tick her off!!…Just kidding….I don’t want mine on here either as you can see!! We are in agreement about that! That’s all I got for pictures as my camera went Kaput! We had a great time. My brother in law Joe had marinated some large portabella mushrooms and then grilled them. They tasted like a rich buttery steak! We had them on rolls with baby spinach and a feta/tomato mixture and it was divine! I made a cheese ravioli/grilled chicken/roasted red pepper/garlic/scallion salad and we had Cole slaw and sausage and more. It was a day of going off the diet big time!! 

   I hope you all enjoyed your day. I lost my mom in 1998 and I miss her every single day. Rarely does a day go by that I do not think of her and my dad too who has passed. I tell people…. cherish the time you have with your folks if you are lucky enough to still have them in your life because you will miss them terribly when they are gone. This was one of the best Mother’s Day’s I have had in years because BOTH of my kids were able to spend time with me. How great is that! Thank you God. Now it’s time to focus on getting my garden in. Memorial Day is in two weeks and that is usually when all of us Mainers start planting. That means I need to get manure (still!!) and get my garden roto-tilled. Next I need to order my seeds and get my plants. So….I may be taking a break from blogging for a week. I will check you all out still though If I can. You are all so damned creative!! I am hoping my cousin Margaret and my friend Alice come back and share some with us all again……I miss them both!! Come on ladies…..get back here will ya????????? Have a great week ya’ll.:)