And the Days Go By

Riley & I had a ball volunteering that animal shelter this week. I'd bring home this little guy in a heartbeat if I wasn't already owned by three dogs. He's smart, good with kids, and just the happy little guy...not to mention too cute for my own good. We call him Fluffball. He might be glad to have different owners with a name like that.

We are going back this week to finish up her Girl Scouts Bronze Award hours, but she wants to keep volunteering, which means I'll get to keep volunteering. That's not a bad thing, I like that she already has the idea that just a little done by her can mean so much to so many. If everybody felt that way the whole world would be a better place. Plus, how fun is it to spend a couple of hours playing with dogs & cats?

Riley also had her soccer jamboree today...I missed it, had to work, but Gregg took pictures for me. I need to download them tonight after I get off work. Riley said her team won two of their matches & tied the third. She's having a lot of fun with soccer, so I'm glad she decided to go ahead and do it.

Doug just kinda hung out all Spring Break, did some little things around the house, watched 2 seasons of Big Bang Theory on dvd, and hung out a little with his cousin. I need to get him more involved in some things.

Gregg is working on the pro-street pickup today, sanding the doors. He should be good & stuffed up & wheezing from the dust tonight, since he wasn't wearing his mask...grrrr

Just when I was having a nice day...

I got home from the Animal Shelter, and there was a message from my sister-in-law on the answering machine. She's never nice to Doug & she started out this message that way. Then moved on to we are unthinking, unfeeling people who failed to contact her on her birthday. Doesn't mention that she failed to call all of us on our birthdays...including mine which is less than a month before hers.

Actually, I refused to do anything for her birthday since this is at least the 2nd in a row she's forgotten mine, but Gregg did try to call her...the only number we have for her has been disconnected. She was supposed to call Riley back and give her the new number a few weeks ago & failed to do so.

Riley overheard the message & was like "What the heck, she doesn't call us on our birthdays." So I'm not alone in my confusion about why we should care about hers.

I'm over my in-laws. They are selfish, self-involved, petty people and I have better things to do. This being said, why do they still have the power to ruin what had been a great day? I'm just going to shake this off & bake dog biscuits for the animal shelter with Riley. The cute little chocolate Chihuahua-his owner picked him up today! He is apparently quite the little escape artist & his name is Elvis. The cute little American Eskimo-goes up for adoption tomorrow. I'm hoping to help find him an awesome home. Today we walked the sweetest puppy. He's only about 4-5 mos old & is just huge, and based on his feet, will get even more huge. He's brindle & adorable. We started calling him King. It was pouring rain the whole time we were walking dogs & we got drenched, and still had a great time! Both of the female calicos that I really liked got adopted too! Now to work on the sweet boys still there.

What an afternoon

Okay, what the heck kinda bird is this? I don't know, but it's been hanging out at Mingus Park. I'll look it up eventually and find out.

And in big news the turtles are back! This is Big Boy. He's a Yellow-Bellied Slider, not native to Oregon. He was probably someone's pet & when he got big they released him in Mingus Park. The native turtles are Western Pond Turtles & there were none out when I was there today. There were three of them out yesterday, so they're out of hibernation too.

Riley is volunteering out at the animal shelter for her bronze award for Girl Scouts. She's made Happy Socks, and taken back cans to buy dog & cat food. Today, tomorrow, and Friday we will be out there volunteering. Today, Riley & I groomed & petted kitties...

And walked the small dogs. This little guy is an American Eskimo and is just the sweetest little guy. Very active & happy to be out & about too.

And this little dude is a Chihuahua...also happy to be out & about & very good with children, or at least with children Riley's size/age. We're baking dog biscuits tonight to take out tomorrow. It's really sad to see the animals out at the shelter & I'd take them all home in a heart beat, but 1-Gregg won't let me & 2-wouldn't be fair to the animals that currently live at our house, so instead I'm talking up the animals while I'm there trying to get people to take them home.

Causes

I'm not much for causes. The reason being is that people should always do the right thing, if they follow that tennant, there's really no reason for causes.

That said, people don't always do the right thing, either out of ignorance, they don't care, or they're greedy. And then there's the sad causes where no one is at fault, it just is what it is. These are the one's that break your heart.

I'm going to list the blogs of two little girls who are quite sick. The first one has an aggressive form of cancer that has caused a tumor in her brain. She's just undergone some really heavy doses of chemo & is preparing to start radiation. This is her 2nd round. She has good days & bad days, and I just cry for her & her family. And pray. It's about all you can do, she's in the hands of her doctors & God. Here is the link to her mother's blog: www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate

The other little girl is Gabriella and I've been following her a lot longer. She has been diagnosed with a congenital heart defect/disease and needs a transplant. This fall she had a stroke because of the heart issue. She's recovered from the stroke & is now on the transplant list. I really love her mom's positive attitude. Gabriella doesn't look sick & she's doing really well right now. Fingers crossed that this continues until she gets her "sparkly, new heart". Here is the link to her mother's blog: http://listeningthruthenoise.blogspot.com/

You can also find this link on Ashleigh's blog.

I also make Mother Bear Project bears for...Mother Bear Project. I crochet these cute little bears following their pattern & send them in. They send them out to children affected by HIV/AIDS in developing countries. These poor babies need comfort & this bear might be the only thing they have to provide this. My goal this year is to send in one bear a month for the whole year...so far I'm on track & might even be able to do more than one bear a month. If you'd like more information their link is: www.motherbearproject.org/

I also contribute to Angels for Hope. I make one crochet angel a week & send it out to whoever they assign me to for that week. The angels are always free and anyone can request one sent to whomever you know that might need one. The link for this organization is: www.angelsforhope.org/

And last but not least are the blankie bears. Blankie bears are a small granny square afghan with a teddy bear head. It's a pattern that I created for my great nephew Booger...known as Skyler to the rest of the world. My niece wanted me to make a baby afghan for him, since her grandmother has passed away. Grandma Beth always made a baby afghan for all the grandkids. I always make them a bear. I LOVE to make teddy bears. I hate to make afghans. The blankie bear was my compromise. I've made them for other friends' kids too, and I've sold a few. I still make them for this reason, but now I also make them & give them to Child Welfare to give to little ones going into foster care. I hear that the kids love these. I usually get 4-5 done a month, sometimes more, depends on what I've got for free time. I'd love to get more people making these so that there are more to distribute, I don't even put a dent into the kids who need them.

The picture at the top of this blog entry is what the blankie bears look like.

I'm not a photographer...but like to pretend I am

I love taking pictures...unfortunately except for rarely, they're just average & uninteresting. Here are some of the ones I've taken that I think have turned out very well. Above is the little wooden bridge in Choshi Gardens at Mingus Park. This was taken last spring. I love all the green with just splashes of yellow from the Irises.

I love this one just for the textures alone...you've got spikey, you've got lacey, and you've got just a splash of contrasting color. I also like the way the ferns frame the iris.

This little guy was eating bread crumbs I gave him & was not more than an arm's length away. Besides, what's cuter than baby squirrels?

Why, my alter-ego, Ashleigh is. Just ask her. Here she is whale watching this December out at Shoreacres.And I love this picture of Ashleigh with my apple tree in blossom. This was taken last spring, still waiting for the tree to start blooming this year.

Introductions....

Well, that was rude. Just started right in w/a political hot topic & failed to introduce myself. I'm Michelle, I'm 43 years old. I've been happily married to Gregg for almost 21 years, and we dated/lived together for just over 4 years before that. I have a 16 year old son, Doug, and a 10 year old daughter, Riley. I've worked for the Coos Bay Police Department as a 911 dispatcher for just about 22 years, although I also worked for them for 1 year & 4 months from 1986-1987, until a brain fart caused me to take a job elsewhere for a short time. I soon came to my senses & returned to CBPD.

My favorite color is purple, because my grandmother always made my stuff purple. She always did the same for all the grandkids, and to tell them apart she did them in our birthstone color. My birthstone is Amethyst, so my stuff was always purple. There was also the Donny Osmond influence, but I've grown out of that.

Dark chocolate Hershey kisses are about the perfect candy. They are, of course, dark chocolate, which is the BEST, and they are wrapped in purple foil...there's just no room for improvement.

I love to garden, and I love flowers. My daughter always wants me to pick a favorite flower, but I have a favorite in each season & couldn't single out one as my all time favorite. I look forward to each one when it's their turn.

My favorite author is Jayne Ann Krentz, in all various pseudonyms. She's been my favorite for over 20 years & don't think that will change anytime soon. I also like John J. Lamb & am very sad that his teddy bear series is ending. There are several others that I really like, but more later.

The New Health care bill

I'm not really happy about this. I don't like the idea of the government getting in the middle of my health for starters. I also don't like the idea of the government dictating to the insurance companies. They're starting to take over too many private businesses & that's not good for anyone. Part of the free enterprise system is that if you don't like how a business is operated, you can go somewhere else. This should count for the insurance companies also. My policy was just fine without the federal government telling them how to run things. I'm not much into politics, but people need to pay attention when stuff like this is happening & do what they can to stop it. The government is supposed to work for us, not the other way around, and we're definately heading in the wrong direction.

Welcome to It's all about Michelle

This will be just about what I'm doing, what I'm thinking, and where I'm going.