Where To Begin?

It has been almost a month since I have updated my blog, and a lot has happened.  First I would like to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR.  May all of you have a blessed, healthy, and prosperous new year.

Jana and I both were sick for most of the month of December.  Not sure what we had but it sure took a long time to get better.  We didn’t get to do much shopping.  It was a good thing we had all of our Christmas shopping finished.  We had our Christmas decorations up before Christmas so that was a plus.

Jana and I spent Christmas Eve together here at my house.  We exchanged our presents.  We laughed and cried.  It was a good evening.  Christmas Day was spent with Kevin, Renea, Stephanie and Ryan.  Kevin and Renea had a wonderful dinner for all of us.  Ryan didn’t stay very long because he was sick.  We exchanged presents before dinner.  Kevin’s family and Brian’s family gave me the lights and everything needed to install them for the front of my driveway.  They probably won’t be installed until the weather improves.

I guess most of you have heard about all the rain and tornadoes we have been having.  We are fortunate that we haven’t had the flooding and tornadoes that hit in other parts of the country, but we have had enough.  We have had a lot of flooding.  In fact, Jana and I didn’t get to church on Christmas Eve for the communion service where I attend; nor did we get to Mass on Christmas Day.  This was because of the flooding.  We had ten inches of rain over those two days.  We have been referring to my front yard as Lake Aker.  Yesterday we had almost three more inches of rain along with tornado warnings.  We spent some time with Kevin and Renea to be on the safe side. More flooding. Today the sun is shining, but rain is supposed to arrive tonight – strong storms again!  We did get to Mass on Saturday and church on Sunday.

I bought another shed.  Kevin put it up right next to my other one.  This is one of those “tough” sheds made by Rubbermaid.  It has a ten year warranty so it should last a while.  I will be using it to store items in so Kevin doesn’t have to put them in his attic.

I am getting a little better with Windows 10.  I have been reading the book of instructions that I bought, and have been experimenting with it.  It sure is different than what I am used to.  I have been taking pictures of my decorations, etc. and I have been able to download them to my computer.  I have figured out how to print them.  However, I have been having trouble learning how to resize, crop, etc.  Once I learn how to do that I will post some pictures.

For those of you who don’t know, Jana’s dog, Smoky, has cancer.  She was give two to four months before Jana left Cincinnati to stay with me.  So far she is doing okay.  We can see some changes with her breathing, but other than that she seems to be doing okay.  Her and Penny are still doing great.  They do their touching of noses every morning and sometimes other times during the day.  When Jana takes Smoky out for a walk. Penny watches her from the window or door.  And…..Smoky is still very protective of Penny.  If Jana or I correct Penny (and she does need correction) Smoky barks at us.  In fact, she has gotten between me and Penny when I got after her for messing with the Christmas tree.  Penny has gotten very brazen.  I have a tendency to shake my finger at her when I correct her, and she now hits at my finger with her paw.  I really need to stop laughing when she does this J

Yesterday Penny was laying on the dining room floor waiting for her lunchtime treats, and Smoky was standing in such a way that her tail was above Penny.  Of course, she was wagging her tail and Penny thought that was fun.  She was batting it with her paws, and we don’t think Smoky even realized it.  We had a good laugh.  They have been entertaining us in one way or another every day.  Love those girls!

What a Week!

What a week it has been!  First I got sick.  It started Saturday before last and still hanging on.  I think it is just a miserable head cold, but I sure have been coughing, sneezing and all that good stuff.  It has now been over a week.  Of course, several days ago Jana started and now she is as miserable as I was last week.  We are tired of being in the house, but we don’t want to go anywhere to share this misery.  We didn’t even go to church this weekend.  Renea made our favorite “hillbilly lasagna” yesterday for supper and brought some to us.  Sure did taste good.  She even included garlic bread.

The cow has been back.  Kevin and Renea have seen it.  I just have cow patties in my back yard – large cow patties.  I don’t know if it is the cow or deer, but something has been knocking down my birdfeeders in the back yard.  They have completely destroyed one of the feeders and ate all the feed.  The finch feeder is still okay and they have not been able to get the seed out of it.  I guess I will take them down for now.  The animal(s) seem to stay in the back yard.  They are not bothering the ones in the front yard.

Jana and I have finished decorating.  We have been taking pictures.  If I ever figure out how to use the picture program on my new computer I will put some on my blog.  I am really happy with how my tree looks with my home made ornaments.  We decided to hang our stockings on the railing between the dining room and living room.  Miss Penny thought that was wonderful.  When Jana first hung them she tied the yarn in a bow.  Immediately Penny figured out how to untie the bow and the stockings fell to the floor.  She was so proud J.  Jana then tied the yarn in a knot and she hasn’t been able to do anything about that.  Of course, my stocking has a yarn ball on the top (santa’s hat) and she has been pulling that apart.

Penny and Smoky are doing just fine.  I had mentioned that Smoky barks at Jana and me if we correct Penny when she does something she shouldn’t.  The other day I tried to move Penny from under Jana’s Christmas tree because she was chewing on the branches.  Smoky got between me and Penny and started barking.  Penny just looked at me as if to say HA!

The weather has been so nice the past couple of days that we have some of our neighbors riding their horses down the road.  Smoky has been busy keeping any eye on them and barking at them as if to say don’t come in this yard!

Neither Jana nor I have been able to get a picture of Smoky and Penny touching noses, but they still do it every morning.  They spend a lot of time together.  Penny has started checking out Smoky’s tail.  We guess it is because Smoky is always checking Penny’s butt so Penny is trying to figure out why. 

Hopefully, in the next few days we will be feeling good enough to get out of the house and go shopping.  We are both getting cabin fever.  I opened all the windows both yesterday and today.  We have also been spraying with Lysol.