They Really Do Make Me Laugh

I smile when I see her so intensely creating her art. She'll do this for over an hour.

This one makes me laugh every day. I enjoy hearing him express his thoughts more clearly to us. It's also fun to watch his imagination and creativity go wild. Wild, yes, he's that too.

Goat Wrestling and Irony

Damn goat! I do not mean that affectionately either. Both of them charged into the barn as I opened the door while carrying an armload of hay. They headed for the grain bowls. I haven't had a problem wrestling one at a time by grabbing hold of a horn. This time I had two. I didn't have a good hold on the one with curly horns as he twisted his head with my wrist attached. There is an ice pack on it now as I write. Damn it. I've got plenty to do without nursing an injured limb to slow me down.
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Ironic how Mae was captivated by an episode of one of her favorite shows featuring the importance of sleep. Sleep? She's lucky to be cute and easy to deal with during the day. This morning for example, awake at 4am until 6am. If I let her cry it out at that hour she wakes up her brother, leaving no hope of catching any more winks. Rotten nights happen more frequently than smooth ones. Every time I wake up during the night I cringe, look at the clock and hold my breath before falling back into a wrestless sleep as I wait for her fussing to start. As I said, good thing she's cute. I do cherish them at this age, and I also dream of a day when I might sleep again.

Goddess

Today I used my gift certificate for a Goddess package at Athena's Day Spa. My family bestowed this wonderful gift on Mother's Day 2007. While enjoying aroma steam therapy (after a whole body exfoliation and prior to a one hour massage), I felt beautiful just the way I am. Being a mother of two young children and four months away from a 40th birthday, my focus is caregiving and catching up on sleep. For just two hours today I allowed myself to appreciate me for the earth mother goddess I have become and I feel beautiful.

Uncle Buster-Cool Like Fonzi

From the archive, Thanksgiving 1983.

This is us in 1970, probably my cousin Candee's birthday, notice the bow atop her head. I think Buster is helping her open a gift. He certainly wouldn't be feeding her with that cigarette between his lips. On February 17th we'll all celebrate Grammy's 90th birthday. I'm sure Dave will take good photos to post. Like Fonzi, Buster has spent time on the wild side. At the end of the day he is a good son, brother, uncle, spouse, father and grandfather who fights to do the right thing. I enjoyed watching my kids gang up on him Christmas Day, as he allowed Grammy and I to enjoy our meal in peace. I love watching cool dudes who are great with little kids.

Introducing...Mable Hoffman!

While going through my mom's cookbooks, I came across Crockery Cookery, by Mable Hoffman. Published in 1975, this is a keeper if ever there was one. Initially there was a black spot on her chin that looked like a mole, sadly it was only a speck of dirt. A mole would have only added to her mystique if you ask me. I leafed through every page of her cookbook. Rest assured, the next gathering at Deweybarn will offer one of Mable's lovely treasures. We may present a cheese or chocolate fondue. If you are lucky, you might be served the Cream of Cauliflower Soup (pictured below), mmmmmm.

Busy Goat Day

I worked at the hospital today and Dave had the kids. I got two funny calls from him about goat behavior. Bill E. Goat was spotted carrying a grain bowl around in his mouth. Unfortunately Dave was unable to capture a photo. I wondered why I had to search for all four bowls every night. The other call wasn't so funny. Peanut ventured into the front yard and is now eating my dogwood bushes. Hopefully he doesn't start wandering into the neighbors' yards. Dave tried several things to deter him. 1st, sprayed the bush with Bitter Apple. 2nd, sent Tazor after him. 3rd, tried chasing him away. 4th, and so far has worked, threw large pieces of wood against the barn roof which made a very loud noise. Maybe he'll get hit by a car. No, I really don't want that to happen.
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During one of our conversations today I was telling Dave of my surprise to be assigned to the busier station with a higher patient census. Being fairly new and only per diem I thought they wouldn't trust me with the more difficult station. Just as I was considering they must think I'm competent, Dave put things in perspective for me. He explained when running duty on the ambulance, the new guy always sits in the back and holds the puke bucket. I guess I got the puke bucket. It was alright, at least I didn't sink and was able to keep up.

More From the Archive

The Foster girls, Leta, Donna, then Reta. Of course it could be Reta, Donna, then Leta.

Once again, I think it's Leta on the left and Reta on the right.

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A few weeks ago, Dave brought up one of Reta's photo albums from Middlebury. It's fun going through old albums. We miss the Foster twins, Dave's mom Leta and his aunt Reta. We think of them often.