This is getting to be a problem

Mr. Bear was here again. This is getting scary because he is walking right up to our back door. The PA Game Commission is coming today and maybe they will put in a trap. Here are the latest footprints. He’s a big one!

THE GARDEN SYMPOSIUM

Here I am at the Garden Symposium looking at an item with Mary Jane Hand the owner of Grandma’s House, a tea shop in Bradford. It was a great way to spend a Saturday with talks on Gardening in Zone 5, Creating paths, Container gardening, and Making a cutting garden.

AHH, FINALLY!

At last! Spring. This is what we’ve been waiting for…daffodils, tulips, little grape hyacinths. The wonderful color after a long, grey winter.

ONE THING..AND ANOTHER

Here’s a little heath update. Don is doing better since taking out his catheter on Sunday. Gradually he is getting stronger. I went to the orthopedic surgeon today and will have surgery on my torn meniscus soon. It is hard for us both to be down at the same time. It will be nice when we both return to better health. It’s hard to get anything done when he can’t lift and I can’t walk. But we are managing ok.

Here’s a picture of Sadie getting into her usual trouble. She will find anthing she can to chew on. You have to watch her like a hawk. Not only will she chew, but she will eat everything. Today outside she chased and caught and ate a fly.

Can you believe it’s 80 degrees?

What an absolutely beautiful day it is. First thing this morning I took Sadie out only to discover that the bear had been swimming in our pond out back.  How did I know? There was a huge splash of water on the rocks leading out and wet prints all across the courtyard. This picture I took quite a bit later, but you can still tell. It is really scary to know that the bear is so brazen. I won’t go out after dark anymore with Sadie. We are getting a fence for this area…I hope that deters him a little.

Today i uncovered the lion fountain and plugged it in. sadie absolutely loved it! She also likes climbing in the bathtub and having you turn on the faucet.

A SPRING TABLE DESPITE THE SPITTING SNOW OUTSIDE

 Welcome, you tablescape addicts! Everyone looks forward to Susan’s wonderful post which allows us to travel all over the country and peek into the dining rooms, kitchens, and porches to see how girls set pretty tables. You can visit by clicking on BETWEEN NAPS ON THE PORCH on the right hand side of my blog. Today’s table is set for spring despite the still cold weather in Bradford this morning. It will go from 32 today to 77 on Saturday. I must say I prefer the warmer weather. Well, back to my table. The little birds and nest welcomes spring. The plates and cups can be found at the dollar store and the swirled glasses (plastic) I was lucky to find at Target. The dotted placemats were on the backs of some summer placemats at Bon Ton. I put some greenery in the candle-lier. I hope you enjoy it.

 

AN UPDATE

 

Well, what’s the latest? First Happy 39th birthday to Chris yesterday. It’s hard to believe that he is that old now. I remember the very first Earth Day was on his birthday in 1970 and it snowed. I was so excited about having a child and when I took him home our friends came and stayed all day.  I was so tired out that day. It’s funny what you remember. I loved being a mom.                                                                                         The other piece of news is that my bad health saga continues. I have a torn meniscus in my knee and will have to have surgery soon to fix it. It started out with a very painful knee that I couldn’t bend at all. I limped around the whole week Don was in the hospital and weeks after. Now it is painful only when I put a lot of weight on it, as in getting up and down from sitting, or bending it wrong and having it crack. Even getting up from the toilet presents a challenge to make it not turn the wrong way.                                                                                     Hopefully Don will have his catheter removed Friday. It’s been a long haul for him and that would make it so much more comfortable.   

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JUST A TRIM, PLEASE.

 While Ryan was here he trimmed the crab apple tree in the front yard and then Jenny and he took all the branches to the burn pile. It looks so nice now. Thanks, Ryan and Jenny!

MORE PICTURES

FOUND IT!

 

    Yeah! I finally found my camera…and guess where it was? Outside under the maple tree in the back yard. I must have dropped it out of my pocket when I was chasing Sadie and trying to get her to drop the dead mouse carcass that she found (I’ll have to tell Top Gun to be more neat about the dead bodies).

Sadie and Sean had the best time playing tug of war with Sadie’s new rings. Of course the next day Sadie chewed the binder off the rings and they came apart. Sadie will chew anything she can get her teeth on, including your fingers. I keep substituting chewies and hoping that soon she will grow out of this puppy stage.

What fun!

 

IT’s Sunday already and the week has passed so fast. No pictures are included in this post. Not because I didn’t take any..I took a ton of them. It’s just that I misplaced my camera and can’t find it anywhere. I’m hoping that it will show up when I put my house back together after the kids’ visit.

     I had an absolute blast with the family, especially Sean. He has got to be the best baby on the planet. He has such a happy disposition and smiles all the time. Ryan and Jenny have done an extraordinary job raising him. THey are such calm parents and have taught Sean to be a problem solver. They don’t jump to his rescue every time he  has a problem. They give him a chance to figure things out for himself. It’s not that they don’t give him a lot of attention, they do. But they also give him space to be a baby. He just learned to walk and is hitting his forehead a lot when he falls since he doesn’t yet know how to catch himself with his hands. He has such a good bedtime routine…he takes a bottle a little after eight and then at eight thirty on the dot he gets put to bed. He’s usually very tired by that time and goes right to sleep. Only one night he cried a little, but put himself to sleep after a few minutes. He was wonderful on the plane. And when we went to dinner at Applebee’s he just was so well behaved the whole time. i have never heard him whine about things. What a great baby!

It’s time to see Sean again!

Tonight is the night…the plane is coming in and on it will be Ryan, Jenny and of course, Sean.I will be driving up to Buffalo to pick them up. Unfortunatley their plan gets in at 10:30 pm.  I am so excited to see them again. We were down for Sean’s birthday the beginning of March and now they are coming to see dad. That will cheer him up considerably to have the baby home. Papa is just enamored with him. And me…well, let’s just say that his feet won’t hit the floor, I’ll be holding him so much. Sean is walking now and that will be new for me to see. I hope that Sadie will mind her manners with Sean and not bowl him over by jumping. She gets so excited when someone new shows up.  Don is going to the dr this afternoon. It can’t be too soon that he gets that catheter out. I don’t know if he will take the staples out yet or not. Don will have to learn patience because this recovery will not be speedy. But he is doing well considering.

On the recovery road

Just a quick update on Don. He’s sacked out at the moment. This surgery did him in, for sure. He’s starting to eat a little, after all, his tummy didn’t have much food for a week so he has to take it slow.

LOOK WHAT THE GARDEN FAIRY BROUGHT ME!

Now Linda, you know you will want one of these. LOL

Spring in Bradford

Welcome all you Tablescape fans. Thanks again to Susan and her blog Between naps on the Porch for sponsoring this great event every week. What fun! Hop over and see all the great tables.

Too cute!

How cute is this flower arrangement…a little cat and dog? When it came from Sadie and Top Gun I knew there could only be one person who sent it…my friend and adoptive aunt to my pets…Linda Green. How sweet she was to think of Don.

A big breakthrough last night…Top Gun actually played with Sadie. He chased her around. That was more than the swats that he had been giving her every time she came near. He still keeps one eye on her at all times and lets her know who is still tops at our house.

We are doing a lot of this lately. Even though Sadie loves the snow and rolls in it and chases leaves around, mom will be glad when it all melts away and it’s not so cold to take her out. She is catching on to the training when mom remembers to get her out often.

Oh, Happy Day!

Thank you everyone for your prayers and well wishes during this tough time for us. Don is home from the hospital now and is feeling much better. Six days in the hospital was not fun and he’s grateful to be back home. Now he will be on the road to recovery. I appreciate all the support you have given us. Thanks again.

Is this a test?

I know sometimes life is a test. I hope I pass this one because it is quite difficult. Don is still in the hospital and isn’t doing too great right now so it is difficult to spend almost all day at the hospital with him. When I do get home there is Sadie to play with and attempt the housebreaking. And the normal housekeeping chores. Luckily most of the time I sleep well, but it is exhausting running back and forth to the hospital. Luckily it’s only five minutes from my house. I am so grateful for that. I hope that today will be a turning point and he will start to do better.

Beautiful East Tennessee Day

Here are some new pics of Sean enjoying the nice TN weather.

Time to get sneaky

Ok, now we have resorted to trickery. It seems that Sadie will be very quiet if you go out the kitchen door. I think she has figured out that you are going away and won’t be back for awhile. But, if you close her plywood barrier between the kitchen and dining room and she knows you are in the house she will become a raving maniac, barking furiously and jumping against the plywood gate relentlessly. In order to get anything done in the house, I walk out the kitchen door and enter through the sunroom where she can’t see me. Yes, my baby is making me deceitful. 

     Today is Don’s prep for his surgery tomorrow. It’s a half gallon of the worst tasting drink you can imagine. Even with flavoring he could hardly get it down. And he can only eat a few things like jello and broth. He will be glad to get it over with tomorrow morning and get it behind him.

Better Days

It is just amazing! I feel like I had been carrying a heavy burden and someone took it off my back. I feel wonderful! No pain. I just feel so very good. I didn’t realize how bad I had felt. Today I’m babysitting Sadie.(Don went fishing and yes, I know it’s pouring down rain, but starting tomorrow he won’t be fishing for awhile.)  .she sure requires a lot of watching. The minute you are not looking she sneaks off in a corner and you know what happens then. She is getting the hang of going out to do her business about 40% of the time. I’m trying to make a point of getting her out every hour but she isn’t exactly on that kind of schedule herself. I know this is a process and in a few months hopefully she will be housebroken and trained not to chew everything she finds. This is a lot like having a new baby.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

Just to let you know..everything went well thanks to modern painless dentistry. The tooth was out before I even knew it. Now on to better things.