Thanksgiving, Birthdays, Christmas.....

Derek was giving me a hard time at Thanksgiving for not posting anything since Halloween, and now it is almost Christmas! I am just a slacker I guess. We have been busy though!


I got in trouble with Code Enforcement for multiple violations, (I am officially White Trash in the eyes of the City now...), one of which was that my "weeds" were too tall. But I just couldn't disturb the butterflies! There were at least 30 every day. It is all taken care of now, and I am finally off of the City's shit list (I hope!).


Mom and Alison went to Mexico. Mom and Tim used to go every year, so this was a sad trip. They managed to have some fun though! That is mom and friends, Al is behind the camera.


I need to crop this picture so that you can see better, the girls actually have camel toes!!


I don't think that they got brave enough to actually visit the Camel Toe Cantina!

Richard and Lindsey had birthdays. Lindsey turned 22, and Richard 13.


Richard had an idea for his candles... he put one in the middle, with the other 12 in a circle around them leaning in so that there was one huge flame! And it did get huge!


I think he had a good time! :-)


His big present was Guitar Hero World Tour. He already had Guitar Hero, so now he has the drum set, 2 guitars, and the mic. He recently figured out that you can use the xbox live headset that came with the xbox to sing while playing guitar or drums. This game has been so much fun!

We went to a Renaissance Faire in Las Cruces.


The greyhounds are always my favorite part. I want a rescue greyhound someday.




Pumkin bread, made for Thanksgiving.

Richard, mom, and I spent Thanksgiving with Derek and Teri. I usually offer to work so that I don't get the inevitable "what ARE you going to eat???" Hmmmm, 20 dishes on the table, only one has meat, I just cannot imagine what I will find to eat!!! But it was mom's first Thanksgiving without Tim, and Richard and Dianna have a tradition of always spending Thanksgiving with Dianna's family, so I figured I should be there! It was fun. We missed Tim a lot, and some of the other usual attendees were absent too due to illness and other events, so we missed them as well.


Richard and Lauren BOTH got Outstanding Instructor awards at TaeKwonDo! It was really cool. I think it is the first time family members have won the award at the same time, or at all. It was definetely the first time someone (Lauren) was nominated for both Junior and Adult awards. Lauren got the adult award, pretty amazing for a 16 year old! I may be a little biased, but she really is more responsible than many of the adults, so it really is no surprise that she got it. I am really proud of both of them.


Richard and I got toe socks. His have a Christmas monkey and mine are striped. Yes, I said (ok, wrote...) monkey. It is a Christmas monkey! How can you pass up something so weird and cute? I love socks, it is a weird obsession.


We found this sign while sock shopping in Kmart!


I got the Christmas present of all Christmas presents (early of course)! A Leg Lamp!!!!! I am so excited, the leg actually lights up! I would eventually like to have the full size one, but this is soooo cool! Thanks mom!


This is pretty blurry, but I couldn't get a good picture of the tree with the lights on with the camera phone. The dogs knock half of the ornaments off with their tails, and the cats knock the other half off climbing up it!

So, I missed a bunch of stuff but that is some of what has been going on. More pictures soon!

Happy Halloween!!

Richard and Lauren and I carved pumpkins last night. We used a combination of patterns and free designs, and even experimented with sculpting. It was a lot of fun.

I may be a little biased, but I think Richard's jack-o-lantern is the cutest, sweetest ever!

He carved his kitty's name in the side, Ra.

We weren't sure how Lauren's would turn out, just because it has some really small thin parts. It is great though! He is so cute!

Lauren carved her initials in the side...


and a smiley on the other side.

And then there is my crazy one.

Too big? Puleeze!

Richard's aunt Alison got him this chair when he was just a little thing, 3 or 4 years old. He loved it, but a few years ago it somehow (Tim???) found its way into the garage. We found it recently while looking for something else. Mom wanted me to donate it because Richard is "too big" for it. But you know what a packrat I am, I couldn't get rid of it, so we brought it to our newish house. Now it is again Richard's favorite chair, it is his gaming chair and he thinks it is a perfect fit!

ZZ Top

Richard's tribute to ZZ Top.

Trinitite

Here is a picture of some Trinitite in Richard's hand.

Cancer, Football, Mexico, Black Dog

I really don't like not having internet access at home. We have done tons of things lately but I just haven't found time to get to the computer at mom's house to post them.

Richard and I went to an Aggie football game with my nephew and his grandpa. It was a lot of fun, even though NMSU lost. The university was raising money for breast cancer research, and the whole stadium was wearing pink, it was kind of a crazy sight. That is Richard in the picture, with his 18-year old cousin next to him, both in their pink shirts.

We went to Trinity Site last weekend. We joked that we got radiated in sympathy for relatives that have cancer.

Mom and Alison left for Mexico today. They should have a good time. Tim and mom always went together, so this should be an emotional trip. I imagine that there will be lots of toasting him with Tequila Rose on the beach.

Black Dog is doing much better. She has gained back the 15 pounds that she lost while she was sick. I was sure that she had reached her end, she is 14ish, but she is back to her old happy self again!

Cottonwood Festival, Movies, and Black Dog

Mom, Richard, and I went to the Cottonwood Festival last weekend. It was pretty nice, a little rainy but not too bad. It is held every year on Labor Day weekend here in Alamogordo (Alamogordo means fat cottonwood tree).

People kept saying that there were more booths than usual, but it seemed the same to me. We checked out most of the booths (didn't buy anything though), got green chile burritos, and then sat and listened to the live music. Richard's friend's step-dad plays sax in a band, and even though they were missing a member they went on and sounded great. They practice in their garage across the street, so I get to hear them on a regular basis (which I love). They usually play on my watering night, so I go out and water my plants and listen to music. Cool.

The next band played a variety of music, but mostly rock. They were pretty good too. Richard really enjoyed himself.

After the Cottonwood Festival we went to Lowes, where Richard the Spartan guarded the aisle.

It was a good thing too, there was a crazy purse wielding lady trying to get to the stepping stones!

This week our local theater was having a "back to school" special, so Richard and I went on a "not back to school" movie binge. We saw 4 movies in 2 days! We saw Clone Wars, Babylon AD, The Dark Knight, and Death Race. They were all pretty good, but Death Race surprised me the most, I loved it!

Alamogordo is having an infestation of stink bugs, they are everywhere! They were actually falling off of the roof of the theater!

This one was getting a free meal by canabalizing on of his squished comrades.

It is still raining lots here, so we still have shrooms....

And the last peice of news is that Black Dog is still (or again?) sick. She has lost 10 or so pounds and looks terribly skinny. She is finally eating again and not throwing up as much. Hopefully she will gain some weight back soon. I may just have to invest in Veterinary insurance if this keeps up! Poor old dog. Every time I think this is it for her she pulls through. I think the one time that I think she will be ok will be when she leaves us.

Mom, Richard and I were going to go to the State Fair next week, but I don't think that we can leave her. Dianna, Richard and the girls could take care of her medicine and let her out and all, but she needs to eat small amounts every few hours. I think we will have to skip it this year. That is ok, she is more important. She has had 14 good years, and you never know how much longer she (or any of us!) will be here. Cleo died while Richard and I were out of town 2 years ago and I haven't quite forgiven myself for that. We don't stay home all of the time in fear, but I don't think we should leave town while she is sickly.

Oh, and to end on a lighter note, here is one of our most recent buggy visitors. She came knocking on the skinny window next to the front door. The cats were going crazy inside!

Wanna Smurf?

I got a new Smurf watch, so cool! I am not sure "Wanna Smurf?" means to me what it is supposed to!

Homebodies

I was going to write that Richard and I had been homebodies lately, but really we usually are! Richard goes through phases where he likes more human contact, then less for a while. I do my best to provide what he needs. Lately he has wanted to stay home a lot, which is fine with me! Home is usually where I would rather be.




The other night he picked up one of my crossword puzzles and started to fill it out. He stopped when he hit a few that he didn't know. He said he was trying to do the clues all in order. I showed him some of my half-finished ones. I never do the clues in order. The next night he was looking at a Sudoku puzzle that I had laid out to work on later.
He really had never showed any interest in those type of puzzles before. I thought maybe word and number puzzles just wouldn't be his thing. I am kind of a puzzle-geek (well, really an all-around-geek!), but I know plenty of people who never enjoy that kind of thing. It would be fine with me if he never liked them. But now I think he just wasn't ready yet. Hmm, another thing that I am glad that he didn't have forced on him too early through school. This may be a passing interest, or he may become a puzzle-geek too. Either is fine with me.




The dogs have been doing so well. Richard and I have been helping them learn that the house doesn't need to be marked, and that neighbors don't like it when they bark at night, and that the cats don't like to have their butts sniffed while they are eating. They are really learning quickly. Shylo just loves having friends to play with.
The cats are tolerating them, and Ren, who used to be called Devil-Cat for her dog attacks, is actually liking them! It is amazing what the simple removal of a uterus will do. If anyone reading this doubts the benefits of spaying and neutering early, please reconsider! With uterus intact, Ren would attack any dog she saw (and I mean *violently* attack!), as well as any humans in the vicinity. Now, sans-uterus, she is the sweetest thing, she actually sleeps within a foot of the three dogs. It is incredible.











Sydney is adorable, a typical black lab puppy. She has a ton of energy. We found out that she came from Tularosa, the owners got rid of the whole litter of pups way too young. Syd was adopted, but the new family returned her to the Humane Society because she was getting on the counters to get food. Well, she was a puppy! And missing her mommy! And probably hungry! Anyway, she hasn't done that at all at our house. In fact she is really well mannered.



And then there is poor Uno, who was neutered at almost 2 years old, and doesn't understand why it isn't ok to mark his new home. He is a sweet dog, he just had those hormone producing testicles for way too long. Now he just has an empty scrotum (ever seen a dog that was neutered as an adult? pretty funny...) and that empty eye-socket. Maybe we should have named him Lucky, like that old joke.








Shorty, one of the cats that lives at mom's house, is watching Richard mow the lawn through mom's front window. I just thought this picture was cute.






Richard came to my rescue the other night. I have been kind of distraught because I could not find my Across the Universe DVD. At first I was annoyed, but its absence was really starting to upset me. I love it, and I was set to buy a new one. Richard remembered the broken DVD player, he thought it might be in there. Next thing I knew he had gotten it out and was taking it apart. There was my DVD! Yay!!
I was so thankful, and he continued to explore the insides of the DVD player. A happy ending!

Uno

Uno always has his head cocked to the side so he can see better from his one eye. He is so cute!

Shuttle Camp

Getting ready to launch.

Shuttle Camp

Richard "graduating" from Shuttle Camp.

New family members!

We got 2 new dogs. Uno is the little brown one that is missing an eye, Sydney is the black one, and then there is Shylo, the multicolored one. We have had her for a while. They are all getting along great, they have been playing lots with Shylo, and they all seem really happy. They even get along with the cats! This picture was taken by Lauren at the vets office. It is a really good one.

Shrooms!

It has been so wet, there are shrooms growing from the gate!

More yard stuff

Just some yard pics.