Here is the scoop for now. BD-Black Dog (I am refusing to let the kids name him) is still here with me. I misunderstood the initial amounts. I thought it was for diagnostics and treatment. Boy was I mistaken, the $500-$700 amount is just for them to find out exactly what his injuries are. So LABMED can't help yet because they only offer financial assistance for the actual treatment. So Shannon has been on the phone and found a vet that will do x-rays with anethesia and the bloodwork for $123.00 So I will be taking him there in the morning. Alex has offered his savings account but I do not want to let him do that.
I am now in the process of rethinking who our family vet will be. Hutch has been going to the first vets office.

Ok, now what do I do??

This beautiful big baby is laying on my living room rug.
Katie, Nichole a little help here.
While driving home my friend Shannon and her 3 kids, one is 9 the other are babies,saw this dog laying in the grass. She could tell he was hurt. He looked a lot like a dog she used to have. After she got out and looked closer she could see it was a problem with a back leg. She called me with a, this is what I found now what do I do. I jumped in the car with the 5 kids I had and drove to where she was.
He was having great difficulty walking, almost dragging a back leg. I gave him some water and some dog food. Yes I had a baggie of dog food in my car. We had taken Hutch with us to swim and I brought his food. The dog was very hungry and thirsty. No tag just a collar. I felt along the injured leg, didn't seem to be broken but when I got to the hip he turned and looked at me like "please stop". I think his hip is dislocated. After some discussion, knocking on the surrounding doors I put him in my van and we took him to Hutch's vet. 2 women, 8 kids and an injured dog waited in the exam room for the doctor. This could be very long, so I will sum up.
The estimated medical cost are $500-$700. We have no money for this. We have already paid $100. I called the KY LAB Rescue and they sent me to LABMED.org. The application for assistance was approved and I am just waiting for the vet to call and say bring him in. We have posted flyers, knocked on blocks and blocks of doors and a found ad will be the local paper tomorrow. So if we find the owner they will have to pay LABMED back for the medical care. If no owner is found, Shannon and I are not quite sure what we will do. The kids do tho, KEEP HIM!

And you thought you had seen all the pictures....

Here are some more pics from our wild weekend in TN.
Tabitha rocks the cabin!

We sat around here and burned some marshmallows. Oh and I knit by the flashlight that I wear on my head. Sorry no pic of that:)



The beautiful piece of ART that is Holly's spinning wheel.

What did your 7 yo daughter say yesterday?

We were swimming at my mom's yesterday when I got out the lemons. Lemon juice + the sun= lighter hair. Well, Olivia has been asking if she could color her hair. She wants it blond. I of course said no way you are much too young.
So I squeezed some lemon juice in her hair and combed it through. She got mad and said she did not want to do it that way she wanted to do it the natural way. Very confused, I said the natural way??? She said ya, AT THE SALON. I almost peed my pants laughing so hard.

Proof of (some) knitting...

Ceci is knitting a sweater
Tabitha is working on a baby blanket

It was a wild and wooly weekend.....well sorta

It started out great. Beautiful traveling weather, packed the van to the gills. Jemima came over, we left to pick up Meagan, then Holly. Then we were on our way. We got about 45 miles outside of Louisville and following Mapquest directions got completely totally lost. We had a good laugh about it, met some interesting characters along the way. We stopped and asked directions a few times. When these two fellas asked where we were going, I said "Tennessee". That elicited lots of laughter. Lets see, while lost we backed up a couple hundred feet on the side of the highway, we had missed a turn. Made a couple uees in the grassy median of the expressway and was itching to pass a truck painting the road so much, I got white paint on my tire and wheel well. But we finally made it. Our almost 300 mile trip became an almost 400 mile trip by the time we drove down the gravel driveway.

We had a fun filled weekend of knitting, spinning, (Stacy & Holly playing checkers)
drinking,hot tubing, knitting, drinking karaoke and games.(Meagan, Tabitha, Kirstie playing scrabble)
Some of them sang much better than me. (I gave it a good try though. We were missing someone, and she knows who I am talking about. It would have made a great weekend better.

We visited the Highland Winery We had a good time, it was a very pretty winery. Between the 7 of us that toured the winery, we came away with two cases of wine. I bought some really great cheese, black pepper cheese. The owner was almost insistant that we buy these ball caps that said "Wild Women on Wine" It was a cool hat but not at $18 a piece. She got more than enough of our money. I have some more for you, but the rest can wait for another day.
Holly of drivebyknitting will have some pics and stuff up soon.

The closest thing to a political post I will ever write.

I was reading my friend Prairie Gumbo and it got me thinking. I was going to leave her a comment but realized it would turn into something much bigger.
I have also be labeled apathetic, once by someone I love.
After many years of growing up, and six months of therapy I had an epiphany. I cannot fix everyone or everything. No matter how hard I try or the amount of guilt I pile on it just cannot be done. I can only be mentally and emotionally responsible for those living breathing beings in my little house in Jeff.
That is not to say that I am uncaring or unfeeling. I just have x amount of energy and it must be saved for the things I can actually do something about. Things I can change, things that directly affect me and mine. 9-11 was tragic, the war in Iraq, Bush should he stay or should he go, AIDS, gun control, illegal immigrants, I could continue two or three more paragraphs. While these are very important issues and do affect me in certain ways, I cannot fix them. Even my extended family, who I love, will become my burden to carry. If I allow even a little bit of my energy to become focused there, it will begin to consume me. I will begin spending every minute trying to figure out how to help or fix whatever may be going on.

Some days I have to turn off the news, I just can't take in all the horrors that are happening. I know it seems like I am burying my head in the sand, sometimes it feels that way to me.
So I don't even know all of the ridiculous things that Jerry Falwell had said. I may not be very religious or attend church, but I try to live a life of acceptance and tolerance. Even of things I feel are wrong. Everyone has the right to live the way they want(lest their life is hurting others) without me or anyone else trying to force our beliefs on them. We all know about the freedom of religion and speech, well we also have the freedom to care or not to care. Or in my case, to care as much as I am able.

I was tagged, twice while I was out of town...

Being tagged twice do I have to come up with 14 things? Well, I can try.
Where should I begin?
1. I am extremely afraid of birds. Phobic with a capital P.

2. I have only had two serious relationships.

3. As a kid I loved peanut butter and mustard sandwiches. Still eat them sometimes.

4. The only operation I have ever had is when I got my tonsils out. I was 33.

5. I love a good horror movie.

6. In the early 90s I owned a pink Geo Tracker convertible. Friends called it my Barbie car.

7. I cannot stand to see people chewing gum.

8. My favorite pet ever was my dog Woodstock. He looked just like Lassie.

9. I was pregnant and or breastfeeding for 8 years.

10.I married my husband about 5 months after our first date.

11.I wanted to be a veternarian when I grew up.

12.I don't think there has been any decent new music made in over ten years.

13.I own and have read 21 Dean Koontz books.

14. I used to read all the time, but now I knit all the time.
Whew, did not know if I could come up with 14 things.

Now to tag 7 of you.
Holly,
Jana
Mae
Vivian
Gina
Life's a stitch
Lora
If you have been tagged before it just shows how much we all like you.
Now for the fine print:
List 7 random things about yourself.
Tag 7 others.
Leave a comment on their blog to direct them to your site to get the rules.

If you were stranded out.....

in the woods, what would you take with you?? Well, I will find out exactly what you would need this weekend. I am heading out to the woods of TN. about noon Friday.
I know I am taking my new harlot book, lots of yarn/needles, my favorite beer and some chocolate. Not sure what the other 8
women will be bringing. But I do know that Holly is bringing her wheel!
I will let ya'll know all about when I get home Sunday.

It was to dye for

We had some colorful fun Monday after school. The one you may not recognize is
Alex's best friend Noah.
We used some sponges, plastic spoons and little medicine cups



The three big ones wore their shirts to school on Tuesday.

What does the mailman have in his bag???

Is it a purple box? Driving to pick the kids up from school last week, I saw my mailman walking and caught a glimpse of a purple box sorta thing. I was as excited as a kid on Christmas morn. Couldn't get home fast enough.
It was a purple box I saw!!
Thank you so much Anne I am loving the dishcloths. I will have to start knitting some for myself. The malabrigo chunky is just gorgeous! 208 yards, what will I make? Some dark purple cotton (looks blue in the pic)to make my first dishcloth. And my first Harlot book.
Can't forget the damn good dark chocolate.
I've said it before, go find yourself a fun swap and join in. It is the best way to guarantee you get something besides junk mail!

I guess I should tell on myself. This past week has been an extra extra kids bickering, fighting, being mean to each other week. So as they were fighting over some cookies this afternoon, I suffered a momentary break of reality and proceeded to stomp the living shit out of the gallon sized baggie of some really good homemade cookies. We now have a 1/2 baggie of cookie crumbs/dust. If we had ice cream I guess we could sprinkle the crumbs on top....

Ok, Ok

It has been sometime since I was here. This has been a crazy week. We had three different drs. appointments, I spent the entire school day on Friday helping with field day. Got a sunburn for my efforts. I have wrestled on and off with the sewing machine. I got the bright idea of making Mother's Day gifts for several mothers I know. I have been following this tutorial, it seems simple enough. I should have just stayed with knitting. On one side of the pouch is a photo of that recipient's child or grandchild. I printed the pictures on a home printer using inkjet fabric sheets. The six lined zippered pouches that I made are completely flawed to the point that I almost don't want to give them as gifts. I finished my second Amandalace headband. I gave it to my niece, Zoe for her b-day yesterday. I forgot my camera of course, so I am waiting for my brother to send me a pic.
The kids only have 7 days of school left. Then the chaos will ensue.

Look what I bought

From White Oak Studio. I tried to take my own photo but it was not doing it justice. The yarn is so much more beautiful in person. How do you buy yarn?? I buy yarn with my heart not my head. I see, it speaks to me but does not tell me what it wants to be just that I must buy it. So I have 225 yards of wonderful 100% sport weight merino wool, from Louet Gems. It is hand painted. You have to go check it out. It is called The Pink Panther. What am I going to make? Right now I have no idea. But I am satisfied just admiring it.

My first Eye Candy

The "What's on your fridge?" got me to thinking about some of the stuff that I have around here that would be neat to show you. Then I saw some pics over at Lora's . So I give you "What's on your walls?"
This is a wall in Olivia's princess room. It was painted by my brother. On the left hand corners of the pic you can see a post of her pink bed and the edge of the sun.


These two paintings were done by the same artist. One of his mediums is food. I worked for him in a little kitchen in the back of a bar. One painting was a wedding gift from him and my mother bought the other one. I have never been able to pick a favorite. I love them both.


This one was a Christmas present from my mom. She got it at a local art show

This is one of my very favorite songs

I took them all

with me to knitting tonight. I ended up only working on the gusset for the tote'em bag. Lets see, Stacy loaded some yarn with beads and then talked on her cell for 38 minutes. No I was not timing her, the cell told us. Tabitha worked on a moss stitch baby blanket. Ruth worked on a pumpkin suit/outfit for her baby that is due in October. Loretta cast on over 100 stitches for a very cool sweater. She is really happy with the knit picks yarn she chose. A very soft cotton blend. Ceci cast on for the sleeve she frogged earlier in the day. There was laughter, some of it very loud. I don't have to tell you how rowdy knitters can be. No hot drinks, but mocha shakes, iced ginger tea, a fruit smoothie kinda thing and a chicken salad sandwich. Stacy got a present from Tabitha and her shake was my treat. Stacy's birthday is Thursday. If you close your eyes you can smell the great coffee and hear music and the whir of the espresso machine. Did you enjoy knitting with us?
I hope so.