Girls Day Out and Lunch With Bugs

Grandpa's Gone, Coleen's bored and Grandma and Granny just want to get out of the house for a little while.  So we pack an "impromptu" lunch and head off to the mountains for a picnic.

Lunch is great and you can see that Coleen was ready to eat in this next photo:

We did however have some unexpected lunch visitor's flying around and landing on our plates and in our hair.  Besides the normal pesky wasps (how do they find food so doggone quick anyway?)....there were loads (and I mean "LOADS" of.....
these critters everywhere.

Can you guess what they are in this photo?  Yes, it's "blurry" but all that brown/orange stuff on the tree trunk is not bark.

Here are a couple more photo's...

These are believe it or not....Ladybugs! - They were everywhere, especially on the trunks of all the trees.  You could see them flying around through the air as well.  Several landed in our Chicken box and I'd have to pick them out and set them free.  Thankfully none of us ate any!

We didn't stay long because of the bugs but it was still a nice little outing.  One last picture up close before we go:

Would you believe there was a woman there trying not to step on any of them.  I mean come on...there were thousands of them everywhere so how could you possibly not step on at least one.

Yes I'm Still Alive

Hello! - Wow it's been a few months since I've posted.  Life got busy and sadly I didn't take time to post.  Never fear lots of pictures are about to appear as we play "catch-up" on what's been happening in my life.

May was one activity packed month.

We celebrated my oldest brother's 60th birthday May 6th (No pictures though, :o( as I didn't take my camera with me.)  He had us over for BBQ which we tried to eat outside but the weather didn't cooperate and it rained us back inside.

Sunday May 8th was Mother's Day.  Hubby gave me this beautiful hanging planter:

and Greta/Coleen gave me a lovely bouquet of flowers.Mike and Coleen fixed dinner (as Greta had to work until after 5:00) Here's a picture of them working on the Fried Chicken together.

Of course I can't leave out my own mom so here she is planting the flowers that I gave her.  (She hates her picture taken so it's rare when I actually get one of her).

The next weekend was the annual Hot Air Balloon Stampede here in Walla Walla but again the weather was really nasty so the only day they launched balloons was on Friday and I did not get any pictures nor did we go out to any of the event activities.

May 20 was my hubby Mike's birthday.  Coleen made him a Maccaroni Motorcycle Masterpiece for his gift.  Here they are together with the picture of her masterpiece.

The next day was the Open House at the Vet Clinic where we take our pets.  Our Pug, Cricket was the May "Pet of the Month" so we spent the morning showing her off at the event.  They had Pony Rides for the kids, a scavenger hunt, bunnies, kittens, goats, etc...there.  So the next pictures were taken at that event.

First up Cricket meets Buddy who is another 3-legged pug.  He's missing his right hind leg and she's missing her right front leg.  They sure looked cute checking each other out.

On one of the horses they painted the skeleton of what a horse looks like.  It was kinda freaky but yet, cool looking at the same time.  Coleen love this horse and spent the better part of the day petting it.

They had the cutest little goats there and I just had to get a picture of Cricket checking them out.  She didn't even bark at them which was good.

We tried to get Grandpa to let us bring this sweet little Kitten home with us.  He said, No but if it would have been me I would have said, YES!

Coleen tried roping and then got roped herself.

We didn't do anything special over the Memorial Day weekend.  The weather was cold and rainy so we just stayed home and did stuff around the house.  My mom & I did take flowers out to the cemetery but we ended up having to buy most of the flowers as are had barely started growing much less blooming at the time.

Coleen had her end of the School picnic on May 25th and since mommy was working Grandma got to go in her place.  We had a super fun time.  Here's a picture of the two of us together at the picnic.

So that's it for May.  Come back later to catch the June activities.

What Not to Feed Your Dog and a Cricket Video

Sunday morning right before church Cricket got a hold of Coleen's Super ball and chewed it up.  Naturally I was upset and concerned since I knew this kind of thing might cause problems so I called the on-call Vet right away and talked to her about the situation.

She advised me to just keep an eye on Cricket that she might have loose stools or vomit and if she started vomiting excessively to bring her in right away. She seemed okay all day on Sunday so we thought things were going to be fine.

Cricket seemed fine for most of the day on Monday but towards evening she started having the "runs" and was rather listless and not wanting to eat or drink anything. That evening she upchucked all over Coleen's back pack and had very watery and runny stools that showed traces of blood as well. (Sorry for the graphic description).  I got up every 2-3 hours during the night to check on her and got her to lick water off my fingers but she wouldn't eat.   

 Tuesday morning arrived and she gobbled up her food and was happy go-lucky so we figured she was getting better.  I called our regular vet and she suggested just keeping an eye on her and if her condition got worse to bring her in right away.  Cricket seemed fine again for most of the day but by evening was having the "runs" with a lot more blood in them.  So once again I spent a restless night checking in on her every few hours.  We decided then to take her in on Wednesday morning just to make sure nothing serious was going on.

She was bouncy and happy yesterday morning and eating again when I took her to the Vet.  She talked it over with me and since Cricket was going to the bathroom she didn't feel that she had a blockage and instead gave us Antibiotics to give her, some fluids to keep her hydrated and an antacid to help calm her stomach down.

I am happy to report that as of today she is doing much better and is showing no more signs of bloody stools and I think she has gotten all that nasty ball out of her system.

I took this video of her and one of our cats, Harley yesterday morning right before I took her in to the Vet so you can see she was feeling pretty chipper and was probably on the mend but it never hurts to make sure they are checked out.

On This Day

On this day 19 years ago I married this wonderful man! - He has truly been a blessing in my life and I am thankful every day that he chose me to be his wife.

We've had our share of "ups and downs" over the years but we've grown closer and our love has grown stronger. 

So happy Anniversary dear!

Don't we look young (and skinny!)

Thought I'd share a couple of other photo's of the day.

Open Wide!

With our parents.

Coleen's Baptism

Today was a very "special" day as our Granddaughter, Coleen was baptized.  For some weird reason I was not able to get the video on my camera but thankfully her mommy got one off her phone. 

We rejoice in the fact that Coleen chose to be baptized and has a wonderful faith in Jesus at such a young age.

Please watch and celebrate with us as you watch her baptism.