Lesson Learned?

I saw this news story on tv tonight. I felt sorry for the kid but as a parent I say kudos to the mom.

Sometimes as parents our discipline doesn't work. So occasionally we have to find creative ways to get our children to understand what they have done.

Anyway, take a look at it. You never know when you might need to come up with something creative.

Orchids

For some reason in the past several years I have collected Orchids. I do not have a green thumb by any means, but for some reason I have been able to grow Orchids and keep them alive & thriving.


They have been in our breakfast nook, so I just leave them there and don't move them. I have no idea what I am doing right so I just keep the same routine for them.




This is one we brought back from a trip to Hawaii. It went quite a few years without blooming. I kept threatening to throw it away but for some reason I kept it. A year ago it bloomed for the first time and it is now blooming again.


These flowers are all so beautiful and they bloom for a few months at a time. I just wish they had a fragrance to them to match their beauty.




This is one my neighbor Sharon gave me for my birthday 16 months ago. It has been in bloom since she gave it to me except for about 3 months. It is actually a mini orchid, not as large as the usual ones.

I prefer the Orchids that are not the usual lavender colored ones you see. I am enjoying getting them when they are a little different.

Happy Birthday Carly

Today Carly turned 12. I have to be honest and say that a couple of months ago I didn't think she would see her 12th birthday. We have been seeing a Pet Dermatologist in Edmonds and she has not had any new sores develop in over a month. She is still taking steroids and immuno-suppressant drugs, but we have been slowly reducing the dose.

A couple of weeks ago I bought Carly a bright caterpillar. At Easter I usually get a large stuffed toy from Costco and within a couple of days the dogs have it destroyed. They first go for the eyes, then the arms and legs come off. When I saw the caterpillar I knew I found the perfect toy. The dogs would have lots of arms and legs to rip off.

Unfortunately they haven't been too interested in playing with the new toy. Occasionally I can get them all charged up and they play tug of war with it.

In the past few days Carly has been dragging out her tennis balls to play with. Some of you may know that Carly can get 2 tennis balls in her mouth at one time. She also will get a tennis ball in her mouth and another toy. She does this to keep Allie away from her toys. I took them outside today and Carly let me throw the ball for her a few times. It was nice to see her back to her old self, but she is still quite stiff in the hips. She happily chased the ball around but then she was tired.

About a month ago I bought a new bed for Carly. She was having a hard time getting out of bed in the morning (I know that feeling) so I bought her a special bed. It was raised a little so she wouldn't have to climb as much to get up. Initially she sank into the bed and had an even harder time getting up. Gary put some firmer foam in the bottom and it has since worked much better, sort of.

Allie thinks the new bed is hers and since she is very territorial she now has possession of the new bed. So every night when they go upstairs to bed Allie quickly jumps into her bed and Carly gets the sleeping bag. I hope Jenny & Laura don't want their sleeping bags back because they now belong to Carly.

A couple of days ago Allie crawled under the blanket of one of their beds. If you have been to my house you know that I have about 6 beds for the dogs. Two of them are up in the bedroom. Allie is a Cairn Terrier (a Toto dog) and they are known for burrowing into rock piles (Cairns) and keeping out the varmints. Well, Allie is true to her breed and loves to burrow. She dug and got herself burrowed under the cover of one of the beds. Without knowing this Carly walked into the kitchen and the bed started growling. Carly immediately knew to stay away from the bed. A few minutes later Gary walked into the kitchen and the bed growled again. I am not sure if she had a little midnight snack in her bed or not. Eventually she came out and the kitchen was free again.

Old Toys Have New Friends

I saved a lot of the girls' toys, mostly the nicer ones. Some have sentimental value with them, and some were their favorites.

When Dayton & Daphne come for a visit I love pulling out the old toys. As I have been going through old boxes I come across some more toys. Some of these toys are a hit, and some they don't seem to care about.

This is a rocking horse we bought for Jenny when she was a baby. Over the years the girls spent hours bouncing on this horse. I would guess that it would not pass the standards of a toy for children today. But my girls survived it and my grandchildren will too.

Daphne bounced up and down on it and actually bounced out of the saddle a few times. Dayton was a little more cautious on it, but each time he got on he bounced a little more.


This is a toy we got when Laura was little. It was the biggest hit! After about 15 minutes it can become a little "irritating".

As it turns out I have 2 of these Playful Penguin games. Many times when we came across something the girls absolutely loved, we got an extra one or two so we had a gift for someone else. I guess I never found anyone else to give one of these Penguins to. As you can see from the prices tag it was fairly inexpensive, I only paid half of what the tag says. Also, I bought it at Yard Birds and Yard Birds has been gone for a long time.

Here is a little clip of Dayton & Daphne playing with the Playful Penguin. Just imagine listening to this for about 45 minutes.

I still have some more toys that I am looking for. That will have to wait until the next time Dayton & Daphne come for a visit.

This is just a great picture of Dayton wearing grandpas hat. Most people don't want to even touch this hat but Dayton thought it was fun.

And here is Daphne playing the piano. I think she might be a concert pianist someday.

The Days are Getting Shorter?

As many of you know, this weekend is Daylight Saving Time. At 2:00 am on Sunday, we set our clocks ahead one hour and loose an hour of sleep. We do this to take advantage of the longer and later days, using less energy to light our homes.

Did you know that a couple of weeks ago our days have actually become shorter? What am I talking about?

The earthquake that struck Chile on February 27, 2010 actually shifted the earth's figure axis about 3 inches. This is what has caused our days to become 1.26 microsecond shorter, one millionth of a second. It will take over 130,000 years to take one minute off. This is not the first time this has happened, in 2004 the magnitude 9.1 eartquake shortened our days by 6.8 microseconds.

On the other hand, the length of a day also can increase. For example, if the Three Gorges reservoir in China were filled, it would hold 10 trillion gallons of water. The shift of mass would lengthen days by 0.06 microsecond.

Is there any way we can choose which day is shorter and which is longer?

Mommie Dearest

In the past few weeks, some of you may have called my home and wondered about the interesting message on my answering machine: "Hi, you've reached Mommie Dearest and Papa Bear. Please leave a message". I thought I would explain what that is all about.

Last January when Dayton & Daphne were here they discovered my answering machine. They loved pressing the buttons and hearing the man in the box. One day, without my realizing, they recorded a new outgoing message for me. It was Dayton & Daphne talking & playing with my machine. I wish I could have saved it but I changed it back.

Our youngest daughter Laura heard about this and made her own recording, Mommie Dearest & Papa Bear. I know you are all wondering how I got the term Mommie Dearest and frankly so would I! I would like to think that it was intended as a term of endearment, maybe a little.

I was thinking of this the other day as I was cleaning out a closet of Gary's clothes. I absolutely HATE WIRE HANGERS! Whenever I find one I throw it out and I have a hunch that Gary finds them in the garbage and keeps them. I am not sure why I dislike them so much, but I prefer the plastic tubular hangers. My name of Mommie Dearest has nothing to do with the hangers, at least I don't think so.

Jenny used to say to me "You're pretty and special in my world". What does that mean, I am only pretty in her world? If I step out of her world am I no longer special?

I guess these are questions I am going to have to ask them!