Just What is Neutering?

Our two, younger girls went to see their friends, Grace and Abby to play Saturday afternoon. Today, I received an email from their mother, Sara, about a conversation she had with Macy. I'm posting it here because it's too funny to pass up.

A little background before you read the email below. Boots, our cat, is getting neutered on Wednesday and we've had a few conversations with the kids about what will take place and why. We wanted them to know that Boots will be sore and moving slow for a few days.

Here's Sara's email to me. Thanks, Sara for sharing this with me!

Here's a conversation I had with Macy the other day:

Macy:  "Does your cat still have its claws?"

Me: "Yes, cause they stay outside."

Macy: "We're having our cats penis taken off and his claws."

Me: "Oh, that's getting a cat fixed. Only I don't think they take off the whole penis, I think they take off the other body part, the testicles."

Macy: Oh yeah, the balls. They're taking off the balls.

Then later she repeated, "We're getting our cats balls taken off."

I held in my laughter all day long, until after the kids went to bed and I got to tell Josh about it, and it felt SO GOOD to laugh!  Grace was quite stunned you know. I just went through a sex book with her and she learned about it all.  She was actually speechless over this conversation, it was SO FUNNY.

Our Talking Fire Alarm

It's late into the night and Dan and I are sawing logs. In the fog of deep sleep I hear some woman say, "Low battery". I wonder if there is an intruder in our house. Never mind, that she's not being very stealthy if she's wandering around saying "Low Battery". I sit up and wipe the drool from my mouth and wonder where that voice came from. I poke Daniel and tell him that someone said "So sorry". He tells me that it's probably Shelby's cell phone. I tell him that it was some lady speaking.

Finally, Dan wakes up enough to tell me that it's our fire/smoke alarm speaking to us. "She" has freaked us out more than once. When we first moved in here, the kiddos were in the basement when the fire alarm went off and we heard her saying, "Fire, fire, fire!". The kids came running upstairs lickety split with the whites of their eyes showing wondering who the lady was yelling at them in the basement and expecting to see the house going up in flames.

She kept speaking to us the rest of the night at least hourly if not more. Good thing she wasn't a real person because I would have cheerfully shot a hole through her last night. Dan replaced the batteries today and, hopefully, we won't hear from the lady again for awhile.

I'm a Sick Puppy...

but some of you already knew that!

Dan forced me to go to the doctor today. :) I have a little bit of my Mother in me; she didn't take us to the doctor unless we were bleeding profusely in some manner. Then, it was still a toss of the dice as to whether she would haul us in. If we were bleeding, she would ask us if we wanted her to saw off the other leg or arm. Adore my Mom, but sympathy or empathy is not her strong suit. If we wanted that, we went to Dad.

Anyway, I was rattling and rolling while I breathed in my sleep last night and Dan thought I should go get it checked out. I think my immune system hasn't quite bounced back from the cancer treatments.

The doc said I have bronchitis/pneumonia. She gave me a shot of steroids in my bum, an inhaler and a heavy duty antibiotic. I hate to take antibiotics but sometimes the body just needs them to push it in the right direction.

Hopefully, I'm headed in the right direction. My husky, bar room voice will be gone soon. Guess I better make a little more money with it while I can.

Ha ha, just joking! :)

The "Do You Really Care About This Crud" Post

I'm sitting on my couch with my laptop. The fireplace is on (I wish I had a wood fireplace), snow falling outside, and a lazy kitten sleeping right in front of the fire.

I've been fighting a nasty cold for close to two weeks now. I've got a cough that sounds like I've been smoking  Camels since I was four. I thought I was getting over this cold and it seems to have circled back around on me. My nose is running today and it's making me grumpy.

We are settling back into routine since Christmas has come and gone. I am having less achy bones these days and for that I am so grateful. I'm guessing my chemo meds are finally working their way out of my system.

I went and got my Chia Pet hair cut today and I finally feel like it has some style. The Afro is gone! She told me that I have perfect Hallie Berry hair right now. Thank you very much. Here's a quick pic of the new do. Check out the hair and dismiss the pale skin, watery eyes and red nose.

We have been running quite a bit lately. Shelby has been to the dentist more times that I can count. She has 3 baby teeth that are not coming out of her mouth due to extremely long roots anchoring them in there. She had two pulled on Monday and then another one and a filling next Monday. She's been quite a trouper and will be glad to have this all over. We are also making trips to visit an orthodontist to determine if she needs braces on her teeth. Time for one of us to look for a night job.

My house could use a good cleaning right now. The laundry isn't washing itself. I should put supper on the stove pretty soon. But this couch is feeling pretty good. Maybe a little nap like kitty wouldn't be such a bad thing...

Home Made Pretzels

After we finished up school today we decided that we should try our hand at making big, soft pretzels like you can buy at the mall. I remember having a recipe from way back that I dig out of my black binder full of recipes from the past 25 years.

My kids are always hungry these days. No matter that they just finished lunch twenty minutes earlier. I'm guess we are being prepared for the "teenager days" when our house will be filled with four of them that have appetites the size of the Grand Canyon. Maybe it's time to buy a farm so we can raise our own food.

At any rate, these pretzels were delicious! We made the dough then shaped the pretzels into all different shapes. We boiled them in baking soda and water and then popped them in the oven for 10 minutes. Out came some super, yummy pretzels. We dropped them in melted butter and dusted them with cinnamon and sugar. A few of them we covered with pretzel salt.

The snack was a hit and I'm sure we will be making these again.

Pretzels
1 packet yeast or 2 1/2 tsp. yeast
1 1/2 c. warm water (115 - 120 degrees)
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
4 c. flour
course salt
melted butter
cinnamon and sugar for dusting
1/2 c. baking soda

Disolve the yeast in water
add salt and sugar
blend in flour one cup at a time
knead dough on floured board for a couple of minutes
roll into rectangle
cut into strips
roll strips until they are rounded
shape (pretzel, initials, etc)

boil water and add 1/2 cup baking soda. Gently set each pretzel into boiling water. Boil for 30 seconds and set on greased baking sheet.

Pop into a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. While still warm roll pretzel into melted butter. Either salt or dust (we dusted the heck out of ours) with cinnamon and sugar.

Chia Pet

I realized today that my hair is finally longer than my husband's again.

I pretty much look like a Chia Pet.
Or I could pass for Ken - Barbie's man.
If I was a football player, everyone would think that I was wearing my helmet 24/7.

Any way you dice it, I've got hair growing back and it's ugly. But it's my ugly hair and I'm glad to have it.