Tumpy

Have you guys ever met Tumpy? Tumpy is the newest addition to my "litter" of pups... he came to live with me about a year ago. He is a fat little dachshund who has the most precious personality ever! He makes really strange throat noises, that sometimes sound like a little kid is yelling in the room. He will lay in the floor for hours, rolling, making those noises, playing with a toy, just entertaining himself. He is squishy and loving... he loves to be held. He gets very jealous when we rub another dog and quickly goes over to bite the other dog's leg while it is being rubbed. If we rub Tumpy for a few minutes and stop, he'll whine until we start back. He cannot jump onto the bed.. he has to have a footstool. He can make it onto the couch, but sometimes has to try more than once. He is rotten! Tumpy has a weight problem... the vet sent a message to me to stop feeding him so much! I need to help little Tumpy lose weight, but it's so hard with two other dogs in the house who do not have a weight problem. I put their food out and if they choose not to eat at that moment... well Tumpy will eat it for them. I'm not sure how to fix this problem, as I don't believe in anyone ever being hungry!!! Has anyone else had this problem.... how to help one dog lose weight while making sure the other two get enough to eat? Any advice would be helpful, as I do love our little Tumpy!

ps... I have a friend who has a small dachshund like my Sweet Pea. She came over to visit the other day and brought her 13 year old daughter with her. The daughter fell in love with Tumpy. Her mom told me that since she met our Tumpy, she has been trying to "overfeed" their little dachshund because she wants him to be fat like Tumpy. So far, she said her dog has only developed diarrhea. :o)

Monday

Today I give you a photo of my future grandchild and the dog. :o) Isn't this cute??? Today will be a busy day for me, as I am having dinner guests tonight. I worked this weekend, so today is house cleaning day and getting ready for dinner! There is a family in our church, whom we adore, that "took us in" right from the start, when we moved here. We have been going to the church for probably three years now, and they have become good church friends of ours. I decided it was time to have them over and have some fun! The husband is a guitar player and singer and I've asked him to be the "entertainment" tonight. It should be fun! Have a great Monday!

Busy me!

I've been busy having fun. Once I finally got started cutting fabric, I can't seem to stop! I was up until after 2am this morning, working on my quilt plans. There will be a few embroidered blocks in the quilt. I found these designs on the internet from a coloring book (page) site.

Did I ever show you my light box? My husband bought this for me as a Christmas gift one year. One of the best gifts ever... makes transferring patterns so much easier. I used to tape the pattern and the fabric to the glass storm door... worked well, but this is much more comfortable!

One of the fishies... will be embroidered in colors to match the fabrics.

I'm finished transferring designs, so I just packed up the light box and cleaned my work area some. Looking forward to sitting down to embroider. What have you been working on?

weekend plans

My husband has promised to take me to see the movie: Julie and Julia tomorrow evening. I have been waiting for this movie to come out. I wish all my blogger friends could go with me. Anyone seen it yet? I am working this afternoon and my poor husband came home to even more yard work this weekend. We had a rough storm Wednesday night and we had four of these trees to go. He has been busy cutting them down and removing them. Now the poor guy has to mow the lawn. I feel bad for him because he works away from home all week, just to come home and do lots of yard work.

The trees that we lost were our Bradford pears. The wind split four of them down the middle. We have a few more that we will probably go ahead and take down, as well. The former owners of our home planted them too close to the house and now that they are mature, they need to come down. It'll be nice to open up the yard a little.

Easy Yummy Snack

I want to share with you the easiest yummy pizza snack ever! Kids and adults, alike, love these little pizzas. The ingredients are : flakey canned biscuits, shredded cheese, pepperoni, and pizza sauce. After stretching the biscuits to make a "cup" inside your pan, put in a teaspoon of sauce, one slice pepperoni, and sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 375 degrees until they are lightly brown.
These are also good when they are cold, so they make an easy snack to take to a party or get together at work. I usually make two packages at a time for my family and they are usually all gone in no time. The possibilities are endless, as far as your toppings go, but we stick with simple pepperoni and they are always good. Enjoy!

Crabapples

I have a large crabapple tree just outside my back door. When we first moved in, we thought it was a persimmon tree, but later realized those little things were crabapples. The tree is beautiful in the spring when it blooms... it is usually loaded with pink flowers and it's one of my favorite spring time sights. I've never really understood why anyone would want a crabapple tree, as the fruit is not really edible. However, I looked up crabapples online today, and saw where people actually use them with regular apples to make cider and jams. My dogs love them, and think it's a treat to be able to "sneak" them inside the house when they come back inside. I used to take the crabapples from them, but after I realized they don't actually eat them, I started letting them have the apples. They toss them around and play with them in the floor, until I decide I have too many crabapples in the floor. They don't mind when I throw them away, as they know there are more just outside the door. Yesterday my son and daughter in law brought sweet little visitors with them when they came over. These two little boys are their nephews and I found out that little boys also like crabapples. The only toys I have around my house are dog toys, so the boys had to find something else to entertain themselves with. Crabapples!

I posted the wrong picture, but this is Andrew underneath the crabapple tree, checking out my frog. I have one picture with him and the frog, where he has a crabapple in his hand. Andrew is the only one short enough to stand underneath the tree, as it grows very low to the ground. Too bad he wasn't strong enough to pull up all the "volunteer" crabapple trees that have popped up. That's a very hard job for me... crawling underneath the tree to pull baby trees.

Matthew has his shirt full of crabapples here. He stood on the steps and threw the crabapples as far as he could throw. He has quite an arm for a little guy! Can you see the crabapples in his folded up shirt?

Here's a picture of the whole tree, so now you can see how little Andrew is, to be able to stand underneath it.

Look at all the crabapples! I am amazed at how many are on the tree this year.... a bumper crop! Too bad we can't eat them. :o) I hope the tree lives for many many years, as I want my future grandchildren to collect and throw crabapples on a Sunday afternoon, too. Yesterday was a good day. :o) Thank you Ashley and Will!

My birthday gift

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me! I have a birthday this week and look what I finally got! Actually, this picture is not mine, but mine will look like this as soon as my husband's friend finishes my new wood top.

I've always wanted a Singer sewing base made into a table. I learned how to sew on a treadle singer sewing machine that once belonged to my Grandma Addie. Through the years, my mom gave the sewing machine away... before we realized we would ever miss it. I have always "wished" it back.

Last week my daughter and I visited an antique shop in our little town, that we had never visited before. (we've been here almost six years) We were looking for an end table for her apartment. Not only did we find her table, but very near to her table was a perfect Singer sewing machine base with a glass top. The price was good and I bought it and brought it home. I called my husband to tell him not to worry about my birthday present. :o) (he liked that!)

I found this picture on the internet of how I want my table to look. This morning he carried my sewing table off to his friend's house in Burlington to get my new top made. He said I will have it back before my birthday, which is later this week. Yay!

I'll post a picture of mine when I get it back. Happy Birthday, me!

Baby H

Ashley, my beautiful daughter in law, invited me to go along with her and my son to view the ultrasound today. Baby H is official.... I saw it and heard its heartbeat. Daughter in law (mommy to be) is in the white and black blouse, standing next to her mother in blue.

Me and my son (who was just a baby himself a few weeks ago, it seems) watching the ultrasound.

Will and other granny watching the ultrasound.... so serious!

You can't see much, but our baby is on this screen! Seven weeks and one day! :o)

Two happy grannies to be! I'm going to be a GRANDMA!!!!

Good news!

I received the news I've been longing to hear last week. I'm going to be a grandma! Yay! Happy, happy me! My son and his wife found out they are going to be mommy and daddy sometime in February. Wow, isn't shopping going to be so much more fun now? Please pray for a healthy baby and a good pregnancy for our little mommy. Yay! Happy, happy me!

Happy August!

I know, today is the first day of July. But I wanted to share with you my August block in the series I'm working on. I'll change the design in my frame out on July 31. Now I have to start on September's design. I need to stay ahead.

Progress report: We finished taking down all the wallpaper in the bathroom. Now we have to prepare the walls and pick out a paint color. I am happy to say that I no longer have ANY wallpaper in my house. It took us almost five years to get it all down, but it's done!

Do any of you Facebook? I recently joined and have almost become addicted. I'm working on that. There is a little voice in my head that tells me to just delete the whole thing, but I haven't been able to do so. I spend way too much time on the computer. I think about all the things I could get done if I could just make myself do them! Anybody else with that problem?

Hope your July will be splendid. Happy 4th to you all! I'll be working .... but that's okay. Double time pay! :o)

Slice of Heaven

On Monday my husband drove me down to where we hope to retire one day. This is New Bern, NC.... one of the prettiest towns ever! We dream of being able to retire here one day, but if we never do, I hope God will have this very same view in front of my mansion in heaven! :o)

Accomplishment

I really am trying to get away from the computer, but wanted to show you something. I started and completed this stitchery this week. This embroidery is a year long series of designs by Kathy Schmitz. There is a different block for each month, this being the block for July. I plan to start on the August block right away, so I can change out my piece next month. Okay, back to the kitchen to unload the dishwasher! (I'm also taking down wallpaper this week!)