Saturday, February 17, 2007
Update on John
Friday, February 16, 2007
The Accidental Shepherd
Monday, February 12, 2007
Starting to celebrate a little early -
Saturday, February 10, 2007
A Sad Day
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Eagles, or here birdie, birdie, birdie...

Oh - there it is - right in the center of this photo
Well, here, let me blow it up a little more... yup, that was it - well, really we saw about 5 eagles - big disappointment, but we were relatively close to home - there were some folks who had driven a hundred miles or so to see this "rare" event - and they had cameras with lenses on them the size of my forearm!

I really wish I had taken a picture of some of the "tourists" - they were going to get a picture of an eagle it it killed 'em (and carrying one of those big lens attachments around practically would) All in all, though, it was a very pretty day -
So, here's the deal - I think all those eagles were sitting up in these hills - watching - and about every 1/2 hour, the head eagle calls out to one of the other eagles: "Marge, (I'm sure there must be eagles named Marge) it's your turn to go get you picture taken by the human beans - so get out there and fly one for the gipper" or something like that... What do you think?
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Sheep Saturday
It's just hard to come up with six wierd things about myself LOL!!)
probably one of John's all time favorite sheep - she has an udder problem, so sadly, he will not be able to breed her again.
And finally what's not to love here - no it's not some rare "siamese sheep" joined at the horns, it's just the boys having a little discussion on who gets the good bye snuggles from me in the morning.
Well, I'm off the watch "Law & Order, Criminal Intent" - I was really wanting to watch "Crossing Jordan" tonight, but I forgot - and if I had remembered, you wouldn't have gotten to see our flock. Later...
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Snack spreads for church
This one is Orange-cranberry with toasted Pecans - that's a glob of orange marmelade - it was supposed to be in the center.
This is "Seafood Caesar" spread - made with Surimi, celery, green onions, and caesar salad dressing. It was good on the bagels but REALLY good on the Triscuits that Theresa brought. I've been eating the leftovers on Ritz Vegi flavored crackers. Yum.
Monday, January 22, 2007
A good way to start the week...
Sometimes they are silly, sometimes they are really funny, sometimes they are too close to home. they are always "clean".
Here's today's funny (it falls in the "too close to home" department) :
Three older ladies were discussing the travails of getting
older. One said, "Sometimes I catch myself with a jar of
mayonnaise in my hand in front of the refrigerator and can't
remember whether I need to put it away or start making a
sandwich."
The second lady chimed in, "Yes, sometimes I find myself on
the landing of the stairs and can't remember whether I was
on my way up or on my way down."
The third one responded, "Well, I'm glad I don't have that
problem; knock on wood," as she rapped her knuckles on the
table. Then she told them, "That must be the door; I'll get
it!"
Ha, ha, ha! Have a good day!
Saturday, January 20, 2007
In Memory -
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Wishful Thinking.........
Monday, January 15, 2007
Snow, snow, go AWAY!!!
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Not again?
The roads have been pretty scarey - but I made it to work every day - here's our driveway after a lot of shoveling on the part of my DH - It's pretty much a straight shot now that the county has been through a couple of times -
Yesterday John took me in, with my 8 dozen cookies in hand - they disappeared in no time at all - To celebrate my birthday my friend & co-worker Tamara took me to lunch at our favorite Chinese buffet - and John came and picked me up at the end of the work day & we went to the Black Angus for dinner and then off to get groceries for the next week. All in all, it was an OK birthday!
When I got home from work on Wednesday, John said "We got a package from Skittles!" What could it be - we couldn't imagine - Our friends Kathy & Ralph from Sheep Thrills Farm sent us a this cute little ceramic ewe - I have decided to name her Penelope - & she wants to know what all this cold white stuff is? She looks like she'd like to go back to Arizona - but from what I hear, it's not much better down there Penelope - welcome to Marietta Shetlands!
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
When it's your birthday, You bring the snacks...
Monday, January 08, 2007
Caps to the Capitol
My crocheting skills are pretty rudimentary - I can crochet a baby blanket - my favorite pattern is called "Alternating Puff" - two SC, then 3 DC in one SC, etc, etc. It makes a very cool pattern - especially in a variegated baby yarn - (I always use a yarn that can be thrown in the washer & dryer - I figure that new moms don't have time to screw around with fancy care for baby blankets)The blanket I just finished was actually started for a little girl who is in kindergarten now - so, I'm not a very fast crocheter either...
But something recently caught my attention. In mid December, My friend Nancy, who has a yarn shop in Bellingham called NW Handspun Yarns ( http://www.nwhandspunyarns.com/index.php ) emailed an "Action Kit" from Save the Children & Warm Up America Foundation called "Caps to the Capital" http://www.savethechildren.org/campaigns/caps-to-the-capital/# - Actually that's the link for the Save the Children Foundation web site page about this project. Quoting from their web site: "After Save the Children's State of the World's Mothers 2006 report highlighted simple, low-cost practices that could save newborn lives, like
warming their heads with a knit or crochet cap, Save the Children received numerous calls and e-mails from Americans around the country wanting to organize their friends and family to knit and crochet caps for newborns in developing countries."This blossomed into a project that culminated on Jan. 2, 2007, with over 50,000 caps being made in all 50 states and donated to this wonderful cause. Called "Caps to the Capitol" - the Save the Children Foundation was going to present the caps with messages to GW to show that Americans want to do more to save the lives of newborn children all around the world. Here is a link to their video - it was very cool to watch and realize that my three caps were part of this big project http://multimedia.savethechildren.org/video/caps-2006.asp
The Action Packet had directions for caps - knitted & crocheted - I figured, OK, I can try that -(they requested that you use the patterns that they provided, because they were smaller and designed to fit the heads of babies born in developing countries - many are born premature and have very tiny heads) So, I made the first one, had to take out part of it, because I didn't read the directions right and left out "rows 9 - 13".... Oops - well if at first you don't succeed... anyhow, I think they look like little Easter eggs, don't you . . . As you can see, I ended up making three of them and got them to Nancy's shop the day before she was going to send them in. She had 137 caps just from here in Whatcom County - I wish I'd had my camera, she had them strung on a line in her store windows - they looked very festive! Many Thanks & Kudos to Nancy for spearheading this local effort!
I figure they will do this again, so I'm working on some more caps - next time I'll be ready, and next time, I'll make sure I let you know sooner, so you can knit or crochet a cap of your own to help save a child's life.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Christmas - Belated
ing anniversary - and got together at their home in Mossyrock. It was fun for all (except my sister, who had way too many holiday parties this year) - all three of my nephews were there & their families - in order of age - Chris, Jen & Parker, with his mom (my sister)
That's Jake smooching the family dog - his girls are going to be basketball stars, I think - they are getting so tall! His wife is a "Jen" too!

And these two handsome guys are Ben and Dante' - Ben is going to school at Central - He'd like to be a teacher - watching him with the kids this past weekend, I think he'd be a good one.
Here they are with Ben's mom & dad - the white lady in the bunch, that's my other older sister.


This is my "baby" sister Nance - (that's Aunt Nance to you, Parker). Even though we talk every week, we don't get to see each other very often. Nance is a "shopper extraordinare" - she's one of those people who start shopping for Christmas in January, for pete's sake! (it's worth it tho - she gives great presents!!)

Last, but not least, me and DH/the shepherd - an "only" who gracefully (mostly) puts up with my family 2 or three times a year - and who is mystified by the fact that I have to talk to my sisters at least two or three times in the week before I 'm going to see them - (we have to plan, you know!) We had a blissfully uneventful trip down & back (it's about 200 miles or so one way) - although, he asked me how I knew that, seein' as how I slept most of the way...ha, ha, ha
All in all, it was a GRRREATTT! weekend.

See, we promised we'd be nice to the farm sitter - we didn't butt at him even once!
Friday, December 29, 2006
Sheep Saturday

I realized that the sheep had been sorely neglected on my blog lately -
This is Gabriel (in Black) & Tara (in fawn) They were over to visit with Thorson for a couple of weeks between Thanksgiving & Christmas - We're pretty sure he "did his thing" and they have gone back to their home at our friend Nancy's farm. The same day we moved the girls, we moved Thorson to his new home at Karen's. She was very excited about having him come join her flock, although, I haven't heard anything from her for a week. I hope her place is still in one piece...
So, this is who we've go left, - the goofballs - (aka, Gizmo, the Wizard and Cimarron) and 5 of these girls, but, I'm really bad at remembering which ones are which -
I can pick out Pearl & Gwendolyn - they are the "babies" - AnnaDee, Susie & another one, whose name escapes me right now, probably because it is almost midnight - and I still have a few Christmas presents to wrap - We're going to my sister's for an overnighter - to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary & have a belated Christmas with my sisters & their families! So have a great weekend & Happy New Year from the flock at Marietta Shetlands & their shepherd & his wife (that would be me)
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Excuse me while I RANT!
So here's what I have to say about this:
#1 - It is scary, but amazing that our purchases are tracked that closely. Shades of Big Brother!
#2 - It pisses me off, because I don't use my check card on line - and I haven't used it anywhere but here in Whatcom county, so that means someone right here in my home town cloned my card!
#3 - When, at the advice of my Credit Union, I called the sheriff to report the "theft of my number" - this proves diligence to the credit bureau people, - the deputy basically said that he'd give me a case number, but they don't have the time or resources to check these kind of problems out - he advised me to call the FBI (?)
#4 - I did call Equifax & put a Fraud watch on my credit account - BTW, that number is 1-800-525-6285 - write it down - it goes directly to their fraud department. Nice lady - tried to "up-sell" me to a paid version, but wasn't rude when I declined. They will contact the other two credit bureaus and the fraud watch is free for 90 days.
The good news? VISA & my Credit Union had the money back in my account by 5:00 p.m. today - I found that quite amazing too - Thanks WECU!
So, I'm glad this happened AFTER I finished my Christmas shopping - it's a pain in the backside, tho, because so few people take checks anymore. I'll just have to tough it out until I get my new card, I guess...
Hope New Years is happier! I still have Leigh's wierd meme, a story about crocheted baby caps and Sheep Saturday - lots of things to write about before the end of the year!
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Merry Christmas

Wednesday, December 20, 2006
A Christmas Miracle
My girlfriend from church choir is a hard working gal. She works long hours as a housekiiping supervisor for a large local resort, but I know that the "supervisor" title is mostly glory - a lot of extra work and not much extra money. She drives an early '90's car and lives frugally in a little trailer out in Birch Bay with her pets.
She recently was having some car problems so she went to a local auto service center - the news that she got was not good (especially before Christmas) She need to have the ball joints replaced on her car - it was going to cost almost $350.00. Hastily scribbling some budget figures on the back of an envelope, she told the repair man to go ahead, as she needed her vehicle to be reliable so she could get to work & church - grocery store, etc... Then she turned over the envelope and was dismayed to realize that she was scribbling on the back of her Puget Power bill - there was another "budget" figure she was going to have to figure in.
Then the repair man came back out and told her that he had more bad news - her car needed new bearings too - another $200! Near tears, she told him to go ahead - no good to do one part of the job without the other - she'd put it on her credit card. She was so upset, she didn't even notice the other people who were in the waiting room with her. When her car was finished, she went up to pay the bill. The repair man went over what he had done to her vehicle and indicated to her, very clearly that "this is the amount that will go on your card"
It was only $250.00! When my friend, who thought he was making a mistake, said that she thought it was going to be more, he said "The lady sitting next to you paid $300 on your bill" -"She said she had the means to take care of it"
IS THAT NOT THE COOLEST THING!! It just makes me cry every time I think about it, and I knew that you'd love to hear the story. And may I say "Many blessings" on to the generous lady who helped my friend pay her bill.
I hope you and your family have a fantastic holiday season and a wonderful Christmas!
XOX to you! Tina


