the big chase

i was lazy this morning and slept waaaaaay in. when i entered the kitchen for my daily coffee routine, siesta was solidly perched, ears up, facing the stove and i knew that the day had finally arrived. i have a mouse in the house.

here's how it all started. last summer i had a mouse in the garage. he was cute and i did not have the desire to kill him, so i let him stay.

then, this fall/winter i have noticed siesta spending an inordinate amount of time in the basement. ears up, staring at the freezer. finally a couple of weeks ago, i bought one of those big boxy 'no kill' mousetraps, which actually should be labeled 'no trap' because it has not offered up any mice.

so, it was only a matter of time.

what ensued as i was grinding coffee beans was hilarious. i heard a loud scuffle in the living room. i see the little feet and long tail running across the wood floor. siesta was right on it, and trapped it in the corner.

soon, she had her prey between her two front paws and looked at me like 'what the heck do i do now?'

seconds go by, mouse is free and running again. this time she actually picked him up with her mouth, tail hanging out the side, and started prancing around. i could not have been prouder than if she had graduated from college.

as i ran to the front door, hoping that she would complete the deed by actually bringing her catch outside, i heard more scuffling, and alas, the little rascal is free again.




at this point, i think perhaps a bit of peanut butter and the death penalty might be in the best interest of all of us.

meet siesta

well, i think we have a name here.

she is still living in the basement, and still hissing whenever she gets a whiff of been. but you know what, she is very cute and already has won my heart. she has her vaccinations, and i have been calling her george.

phillip rejected that quickly ("you can't give her a real person's name") and came up with...siesta.

i have to admit, that is a pretty good one. and since i have been famous for naming pets names like pooch, and tigger, and well, beener, who am i to judge?! so, don't tell him i said so, but he wins.

welcome to the family, siesta, hope you can stay awhile :)

mellow.

siesta and i road-tripped over to fern yesterday for a whopping FIVE hours. i was dreading the whole thought, but still, she has to get used to a new life sometime.

a couple of weeks ago, i put her in the car during an open house, and thought seriously she was going to die from whaling and pacing during the 10-minute ride. it was pitiful. then, she circled around and around in the basement and would not come upstairs. too scarey.



yesterday was more of the same on the ride over. but i have employed a secret magic potion to entice her into loving the house itself. it's called feliway, and it's a magic cat drug. made of pheromones, the same ones that cats use when they rub their faces on things because they are happy. siesta likes pheromones.

anyway, initially, she had the same behavior. over the course of a couple hours, i sat down on the living room floor (where i had placed the diffuser)...and coaxed her over.

much to my surprise, she stretched out and flipped upside down, purring....!!!

yay! she also managed to find what i knew would be her favorite spot, my lovely just re-finished buffet.

the only problem of the night was when i thought she got outside, and then accidentally locked myself out of the house with a faulty screen door. which i broke to get in. another thing to add to my wish list, apparently.


anyway, if you have a nervous kitty, i would highly recommend trying. i know for sure that I AM CALMER because i have hope that she will adjust easily!

friday goodness

lots of good things going on this week, in no particular order. i am going to give credit to God, for providing nearly 50 degree temps and a hope for spring, and a unique sort of calm and joy which is propelling me as i work on all sorts of new stuff.

last night, chris tomlin was good, too. i esp. like his buddy louie giglio, who is a pastor and inspirational speaker. he talks alot about God and astronomy, science, etc. last night was cool, he talked about all creation worshipping God. siesta and i often listen for the 'rocks crying out' - so that was neat :)




then, there is carl. i absolutely love my new little buddy app. siesta hates him. when you talk to him, he repeats what you said in a high tech babyish voice. i die laughing. he repeats me dying laughing. hours - or at least minutes - of fun!

speaking of, i have 37 apps now. how the heck did that happen? this phone is the most miraculous, magnificent invention since the .... well, the phone. it's really fun ;)




okay. on to more good things. i have a new beverage from a can. last weekend, i shopped at a new grocery store, and i could not find my old fave, fresca. for you people who are not into fresca, what makes it good is the slight grapefruit undertones. grapefruit and metallic chemicals of some sort...yum!

anyhoo, i saw a very nice design/packaging concept called sierra mist. name seems a little too good to be true, but they had a grapefruit version! oh my. wondering if any of my friends (ahem, anne) can tell me if potassium benzoate is REALLY all that bad for you. like a 12-pack of it per week. or something like that :)

ha. anyway, all is well with my soul, if not my intestines. have a great weekend, guys!

goodbye march

Siesta remembers her old favorite spot...I think.

Yes, I did start planting this weekend. Rosemary (yum) and a baby fern, of course.

happy monday, folks.

i don't remember feeling so good on a march monday, well, EVER. probably because it's not really march anymore, it's more like june. after 85 degree days this weekend, we dakotans are confused. it seems too early for green grass, grilling and hot summer nights. but yet, here we are. and most of us are happy about it. last night, i went for a walk at 8pm, and there were tons of families doing the same thing! it was like a parade! it could be the new neighborhood that is just different from the old, but i think it really IS the weather that brought so many out...so good.

today, the men come to finish installing the bathroom fixtures. i did NOT finish the walls, but I got a start. wallpaper is easier to install on HGTV than it is in person. i swear, i almost, almost ripped it all down. thankfully, it is not quite as hideous upon drying. i am not looking forward to finishing, however.

then next monday, because apparently i am into torture, the landscapers are coming. i cannot tell you how happy i will be to NOT have ron, glen, curt, dylan, paul and joel stopping over to mess up my house every day!!! sheesh! i'm not even lying! that is far too many people for this hermit to deal with :)

 

the good news is that siesta is becoming more comfortable with people again. like me, however, she is probably happier with the bunnies and squirrels that hang outside the window all day ;)

have a great day!

new bed

well, siesta got a couple of new beds this week. the old couch (nasty!) is finally gone, and i also decided to do away with siesta's really gross cat bed that she loves so much, and get her a similar new one.

guess which bed she likes the best?!

:) ha. in other news, she is a pretty good girl. has not really "gone off" on the new sofa too much, except for a couple times when she was just really excited and havin' fun. amazingly enough, this "retraining" has been fairly smooth.

i am not sure who is training who though, because last night i drug the old, hairy nasty cat bed out, and she proceeded to jump in and take a LOOOOOOONNNNGGGG sleep.

fruits and nuts

there are not words (and unfortunately BARELY photos) to describe the chaos around this place lately.

it all started because i'm an enabler. i wanted to help siesta hunt birds, which God made her to do, even though she lives in a house with wood floors, smooshy beds, and no birds. i feel bad about that.

so i bought some fruit and nut bird seed at the local bird seed retailer. and put up a couple of feeders. right near the front window in the living room.

and NUTS IS RIGHT! i cannot get a picture of them to save my life, but i swear, i have like 57 birds right out my front window right now! they are HUNGRY!! they are super duper excited! so am i! (ps. siesta is napping. like i said, i am doing this for her :))


look at em all! okay, you cannot see them but TRUST me, they are there. they are hilarious to watch! in 2 days, they have eaten a $6.99 bag of nut and fruit bird seed. WOW. that's alot but they seem to be worth it :)

as soon as i get a moment, i am heading out to sam's club to buy a GIANT container of said seed. hopefully something that will last at least a week...who says winter is not fun?!

learning to edit

so, over the weekend I rearranged my office for summer. mostly, i wanted myself (and siesta) to be able to look out the window and daydream more - like we need that.

but as i sit here on day 3 of working in the space, i'm reminded of how calming it is to see order instead of clutter. i have mostly friends who know how to edit things down, and keep spaces clean and orderly. i have NEVER been one of those people, because i love all manners of stuff too much.

but, i am trying. some of you may not think of these pictures as 'spare' - but I'm telling ya, they have come a looooooooong way.


i think perhaps I am becoming an editor.

yes, Siesta is batting 1,000 for 'getting in the shot' - what can I say? she is gifted.

battle of the beds

we're "sleeping around" these days at my house. it started out innocently enough, my little mentee j. was so thoughtful, and gave me a perfectly pink cat bed as a post christmas gift...it was meant to be for siesta, and she loved it right away.

until been decided that HE needed a new bed.

so yesterday i made things right, by purchasing another cat bed....anybody who owns cats knows that technically, anywhere they choose to sleep is their bed, but yet again, this new one seemed sought after. i was worried for a minute that been would decide he was a 2-bed kitty, since sleeping is his main hobby.

in the end, siesta seems to have won out on this one, and both kitties are napping away in their new digs. from now on, i remember to buy gifts equally ;)

siesta seconds that!

hmmm. only moments after posting about messy housekeeping, i walked down the stairs to discover this fiasco...leftover from a night of fun in the basement! i guess siesta likes to party with salsa while beener and i are peacefully sleeping upstairs.

as i was cleaning this up, she was laying there snottily thumping her tail, watching me carefully avoid the glass shards with my bare feet, and i could swear i could hear her saying "that's RIGHT, sistah, messes rule."

:)

the dreaded error 3259

okay.

so it's not even 9am yet, and i am kind of freaked out! apparently, i am like one of pavlov's dogs and i did not realize it. because i am missing the sound of the "ding" of my email.

my email system has been down since yesterday (pray for my friend Dave to not have a heart attack, and for it to be all better!), and i almost cannot STAND it that i am sitting here, stranded from the world! THANK GOODNESS i have y'all, or i would really be going nuts.

okay, that is just weird. as much as i like all of the internet friends i have, i think perhaps i need some real humans. or siesta. yea, she'll do in a pinch.

here, kitty kitty kitty....

:)

lying them down

whew. finally friday. i am always so relieved to get to this day, as it usually is an 'office' day for me, no meetings or outside distractions.

i should be working on the stack o' things i have to do, but i do keep thinking about other things. like the new bible study i'm doing.

it's called 'lies women believe' - and at first, i was not too excited about it. i was figuring it was just another christian self-help book that told us if we did things in the correct 1. 2. 3. order with Jesus, all would be well. sometimes, i am not so good at doing things in all the right order, and when i do, i find myself dug deeply in the pit of legalism, which is worse than just being screwed up :)

ha. anyway. God (so far) has been using the book, by showing me the ALL TIME, BIGGEST LIFE-LONG LIE that i fall for all the time! fear! as much as i have known the Word and its take on fear, i have never, ever successfully rid it from my day to day life. i get scared about everything, big or small.



the latest, biggest fear comes concerning my little fur friend. i think you guys know how much i love and treasure my siesta. she is just a great gift of comfort and joy at the end of my day, every day, as a single woman. i have a deep, deep love for animals, which has been there my whole life. i find they bring peace and 'rightness' to the world for me. it's really hard to express in words, but i guess i'll have to leave the rest to your imagination.

long story short, i had her vaccinations done on november 12th. several weeks later, i noticed a lump at the site of the injection. i brought her to the vet immediately, and found out there is usually not a problem, as most injection lumps disappear within 2 months. i have brought her back twice to have it checked, and as of today, it still exists.

words cannot describe how much afraid i have been that she might have cancer. 'the' cancer that i am afraid of is very rare, but apparently very real. i'm not going to even name it, or give it much more credence, because this post is not about the cancer or even the lump.

this post is about how God is using this experience as an OPPORTUNITY to illustrate to me how he is more powerful than fear. i tell ya, people, this is nothing short of amazing in my life. i cannot begin to illustrate the process, but it's been a combo of my own prayers and the Word, my new bible study about lies, and some teachings i've had that talks about the 'river of life' existing in my core, or belly.

see, the fear has always lived right there. on any given day, actually MOST days, of all of my 48 years, in some sense, i have lived with the fear IN THAT PLACE. and God, in his huge mercy, has begun to replace the fear with His Spirit. it hasn't happened automatically for me. i have had to approach Him and ask. however, it has worked to do that!!! wow, what a concept that to think that in all of the unknowns, the uncontrollables of this life, i can have PEACE.

yay God!!!!! people, this is monumental for me. i believe God is in-process to showing me that NOTHING, NO ONE or NO THING can separate me from Him, and His power and loving provision rests over me in ALL THINGS.







i am so very grateful. i wish the same for all of you, in whatever lies are most crippling in your life today. let's thank Him together, okay?

pioneer woman my foot

i'd like to think i can outpioneer that ree woman today. how, you may ask?

it's 16 below zero right now, and i am going to GO OUTSIDE. to feed the birds. who are fluffy little balls with their heads stuck under their wings right now.

i will wear my pj bottoms and my sorrels. we'll see how long i last.




in other news, siesta started pulling her stitches out of her body with her teeth yesterday. why should i be surprised? after freaking out that her insides would 'pop out' - i called carey who said animals are instinctive this way. my instincts are that i don't want to see cat leg guts on my couch ;)

he he.

anyway, she is a serious super healer. i actually think the wound is pretty safely closed, so i am going to let her pull away at the remaining stitches. it will save me the trouble in a week or so when it will be MY JOB to remove them!

sigh. at least it's not monday :)

whether

so, the a/c guy came today to see what is up with my central air. after 3 days in the mid-90s, i've kind of adjusted to the heat, in fact, i enjoyed yesterday alot.

he walked up to the yard and said "i bet that one is dead. i replaced 2 just like it this week, it's ollllllllllllllllllllld. i make no guarantees for anything on this one." (ps. wouldn't a "hello" have been nice to start things off?!)

anyway, i left it in his capable hands, and he sheepishly came back from the basement holding a filter that looked like a few cats might have been sucked of all their fur and stored in it, and said "it seems like it's working, i just replaced THIS."

wheeeee! i somehow knew it would be okay, because i don't really have the cash for a new a/c right now.

the funniest thing is, immediately after he finished his service call and left, i turned the FURNACE on, because siesta was rolled up in a comforter, and i had to put a long sleeved shirt and sweater on today. seriously. you cannot make this stuff up :)

happy day.

floater

karen asked me to post a new pic. not sure this one is much better, but here ya go.

all week long, i've been thinking that andre the betta fish is ready to head for fish heaven. i know from having aquariums when i was a kid that when a fish starts to act a little bit sick, they are good as dead. usually means a day, maybe two.

now just take a look at andre. he is laying in his bowl halfway facing up! NOT good. funny thing is that he has been doing this ALL WEEK LONG. he still eats, and moves when siesta tries to bat him around the water. obviously though, he either lost his balance and is half floating, or just playing a mean trick on me.

NOT good. i wish i didn't worry about a fish, but i do.

too bad i can't lay hands on him to pray for him :)

trying new things

is scary. this is siesta's christmas present - a new handmade bed from the no coast craft fair. yesterday was her FIRST day to test the waters, after quite a few weeks.

nope. not going to be able to do it, quite yet.

if i had a million dollars

i saw this list this morning, and it made me think about how weird it must be to be a totally rich rock star person. let's face it, john lennon's to-do list looks kind of like an 84-year-old retired person's list. i'm somebody who enjoys having something TO DO during the day. not sure waiting for the HBO man would be so fulfilling.

it looks like he had something to do with 'marmalade' on his list, which is possibly why i love him anyway.

that being said, the mind started wandering to what WOULD i do if i had a million dollars like john had?


i'd probably still surf the interwebs.
i'd buy siesta a really expensive cat bed.
i'd keep my job, but possibly skip the meeting i have this afternoon.
i'd keep my house, and probably also get a cabin in the woods.
i'd keep thrifting for .99 items
i'd think about ALL the things that we could do at mercy church that we want to.
i'd dress better and have a decent haircut.
i'd bake cookies for the neighbors for valentines day coming up.



wait. couldn't i do most of those things WITHOUT a million dollars?

sigh. sometimes you just have to admit that you're a procrastinator, and ask God to get you off your holding pattern. whatever you want to do in this life, DO IT.

:) happy day.

greetings from a tired person.

hi all. how was the holiday? mine was glorious! i loved the whole day. all of it. i really loved when i drove back to sf at sunset, because the sunsets here in south dakota are the best on the planet. note: that photo is ugly compared to the real thing. the real thing was amazing! it must have been really good, because about a gazillion people posted sunset photos on christmas day.

in other news, i used to be organized.

i admit there was a point yesterday, though, when i thought to myself "this doesn't seem very much like vacation." probably because i did not eat lunch until 5pm. and probably because i am realizing there is NO darn way this kitchen will get done this week, unless i kill myself, which may not be a very good idea.

they say it gets worse before it gets better, so i guess i am heading in the right direction. today, i get to paint my chalkboard wall. i have no idea how THAT will go, so i am choosing to think about what i want to draw with chalk when it's all finished ... where does one go to get chalk, anyway? there are so many things to do with a chalkboard wall, i almost cannot stand the anticipation.


i could go functional...


or goofy...


or pretty...


or sassy...


or mushy...
lots of options. i guess i better get the wall done, first. but wow. fun things lie ahead.





i did get some small stuff done before i started the big project. like taking my china cabinet from this:


to this:




oh. and i also made a clock. well, sort of. i defaced/refaced an old one.






anyway. lots going on. it feels crazy to think that it's the end of 2011 already. almost. and that yesterday i brought the garbage out BARE foot. i love the surprise warm streak we've been having! it makes me want to plant my garden and get outside to feel the rays.


i might also join siesta in her day's work at some point! i mean, what could be better than a tuesday afternoon nap?



happy day :)

grey(ish) gardens

i finally got to spend some time in my secret garden this morning. thinking, praying, and resting with siesta. i am so bummed that i have almost not been here at all in august, these days and weeks when it is my favorite time to be here.



have you ever seen the film grey gardens? it's creepy and still kind of cool at the same time. i think little edie and i may have a couple of things in common :)

i was trying to figure out why i love the jungle so much. i think it is starting to make sense to me. in the spring (which i also love, btw) i am the one in control. i plan and look and make the rows and tend to the weeds and have what most people think of as a green thumb. i do my best to create something beautiful.

inevitably, by this time of the season, i have gotten too preoccupied with other things, and start to lose control. or interest. the weeds become bigger and stronger, the plants (esp. this year with all the rain) become GIGANTIC, some die, and some thrive, and some take over the whole shebang. control starts to shift back to its original owner.

and by now, it's more about God's design, how he makes things go together. all of my planning and tending and trying to control things cannot even compare to the crazy, beautiful mess that God allows and manages and creates. his garden is infinitely more beautiful than mine. in some ways, my garden kind of reminds me of hiking last week in the woods. untended by us, but not by him. His hand on every little plant and bug and tree and creature. you can FEEL it.

i feel safe there (and here). covered by peace.


sigh. so joyful of God's creation. so glad that i can enjoy this haven for awhile yet. thank you Lord!