CAUTION: Lots of Pictures

For those people that feed moose...

And we got a kick out of this sign:

Near as we can tell, it means: "Watch out for businessmen saying 'yes'"

It seemed like P and Wayne really bonded over the 4-day Memorial Day weekend. 

 I got to plant flowers, with the hope that there will be no more hard frosts. Wayne set out some towels for Penelope to sit on and watch while the flowers were being planted. (So she doesn't come across any gopher guts.) Ruby the cat decided to come play. Ruby would burrow under the blankets until Penelope came and grabbed her. Then she would move a lithe further under the blankets...etc. It was actually very cute.

Reaching for the tail:

In the picture below, Ruby is actually under the blue towel.

 The most exciting thing to happen around here was our friends Rorke and Leatha came to visit us! And their daughter Reann, who is almost 4. I tried to get a picture of them together .... it was a failure:

(Love Reann's expression!)

Neither of the girls know how to stay still for very long:) 

 Love this pic of Leatha & P....just before this P was giving Leatha mega snuggles.

Spring Update

Watch your step

The cats have been bringing home lots of dead things lately. I am one of those people who jump five feet in the air when they see a mouse, so I am glad to see the cats catch them. This past week has been a bit of a rodent extermination around here. We have had a large vole and several other large rodents. I have noticed the mice around hear are rather large, however, the last few have been exceptionally large with a fluffy tail. I wanted to know what kind of mouse had a fluffy tail. Yesterday Ruby the cat came to the yard and set down her latest kill. I went over to look at what was not a mouse, but a baby squirrel! After a few days and several more of them, I realized they weren't squirrels, but baby groundhogs. She must have a knack for catching them, because she has her taste set on baby groundhogs. We are glad to see them go - they dig up the yard and have even broken our sprinkler system.

We now must watch where we are walking in the yard, and be careful when letting the cats in the house. Upon coming home late from our last trip, we stepped up to the dark house and unlocked the door. As I stepped in, I felt a lovely squish under my foot. "UUgghhhh!" I said, "I think the cats left a mouse on the step for us." "Yep," Wayne said. "I stepped on it too."

Penelope

Penelope is enjoying spring. She seems to like going outside and watching mom and dad do yard work. I had been putting her on a blanket on the grass, but now I am petrified she will find a dead rodent to play with. She loves animals - including the neighbor's dog, who often gets loose and comes over to visit. Once we had just gotten home, and I was getting Penelope unbuckled. The golden retriever came from nowhere, was into the car and practically on top of the carseat within seconds. She continues to be enthralled with the cats, and I am amazed she hasn't gotten scratched yet. She is rather violent with them, pulling and squeezing if she gets ahold of them. The cats must sense what I would do with them if they were naughty!

Running

My career as a professional runner has been on hiatus, but was revived again when Wayne drug me out for a run last week. The weather has been perfect lately, and it feels good to get out in the evenings with the stroller. And, I am actually 'running.' I used to define 'running' as putting on cute work-out clothes, attempting to run half of a block, and walking for the remainder of the way. I remember being 'in shape' and 'running' a 5K, of which I ran about 2K and walked about 3K. However, somewhere between getting pregnant and taking care of a seven-month-old, I found something inside that either wasn't there before, or I didn't know I had. Maybe it was morning-sickness. Maybe it was childbirth. Maybe it is the fact that for 20 minutes I don't have to hold, feed or change a baby. Whatever it is, last night I ran a mile and a half without stopping. This may not seem like much, but it is a lifetime achievement for me, and I am not exactly 'in shape.'

Lilacs

We have lovely lilac bushes in front of our house. They normally look magnificent every spring, almost ready to bloom, when we get a hard frost, and the buds all droop and die. This year we have not had much for cold cold weather, so we have gorgeous lilacs!

Lawn Mowing

Wayne is still enjoying his old-fashioned mower. However, our backyard was only mowed once let year, so is overgrown again with weeds and sagebrush-a job too big for the manual mower. Our waiting to buy a mower paid off, last weekend Wayne found an excellent mower in the classifieds for 80 bucks. Just watch out for dead carcasses!

 Above: Penelope uses her feet instead of her knees to crawl or pull up sometimes.
Below: Pestering the cats.

 Lilacs!

The cat that chases Penelope

Since learning to crawl, Penelope has been chasing our black cat, Ruby, around the house. Ruby will let her get pretty close, then run off. The orange cat, Orangie, seems to like Penelope. A lot. He nuzzles her whenever he gets the chance, even knocking her over once in a while. Penelope loves it. Here is a video of them playing:

Spring!

Spring has arrived to Northeast Nevada. Ah, the sound of children's laughter and smell of barbecue over the still brown landscape. We might see some flowers in another few weeks, if it doesn't snow. Then early June we can put in our vegetable gardens when the last frost may or may not have come, and hope for a 90 day growing season. 

But, first things first: brown or not, the lawn must be mowed. Here in the high desert, we sometimes have problems growing things. The grass won't grow and the weeds and sagebrush won't stop. Yes, I said sagebrush. You know how some people have trees that sprout in their yards where they aren't wanted? We have that too, only our trees are called sagebrush, because a) there are no trees and b) the sagebrush is as tall as small trees. Anyhow, the sagebrush seems to just grow wherever it wants to, including our yard. When we first moved in, we had a guy mow the overgrown weeds in the small pasture behind our house. He asked if he should mow the sagebrush also. We weren't sure, and the guy reassured us that it would grow back in just a few years. I don't think I believed him then, but now there are sagebrush coming up in our front lawn.

Last weekend Wayne took the manly walk out to the garage to start the mower. I heard no motor start, and Wayne was back a few minutes later. I lost him somewhere around pull-start and carburetor, but the bottom line was the mower was not working. We considered taking it to the lawn mower place to get it fixed. You know the place - every town has one. You know it's the lawn mower place because there are between 50 and 100 old lawn mowers piled out front. Since our mower was pretty worn out anyway, today we decided to go to town and buy one. 

Well you know Wayne. When it comes to buying things he only considers the biggest and best. I cringed as we walked through the lawn mower isle. Wayne started eyeing something called a lawn tractor and I reminded him we had previously agreed on getting something 'cheap'. I then took the wifely duty of holding the baby and waiting for him to compare torque and blades, when something strange happened. Wayne walked over to a mower and said, "Awesome! This is totally what I'm getting!" I immediately looked at the price tag, which was....hmm, that can't be right. I then looked at the lawn mower, if you could call it that. Remember the old-fashioned mowers? They don't run on gas, you just push it and the blade spins and cuts grass? I have a vague memory of Grandpa Cloyd using one when I was little, and we thought it was THE coolest thing we had ever seen. Well, Home Depot had a brand new old-fashioned mower, and Wayne was in love. His eyes sparkled just like the time he came home with a shiny, fast motorcycle. And it was the cheapest mower in the store!

Now some pictures....(if you scroll through the many Penelope pictures you will be rewarded at the end with some pictures of Wayne and his new mower!)

 Penelope continues to be enthralled with the kitties:

 She pulls up to see her on the couch...

 ....until the Ruby moves away.

 Then crawls to her on the floor.

 Penelope & Ruby circled the living room several times that day!

 Ruby would flick her tail, usually evading Penelope's pterodactyl grasp.

 Penelope made it through the day scratch-free!

 Now, to demonstrate Penelope's 'standing up on my knees' move:

 And finally....Wayne mowing!

 Penelope and I but on bonnets, worked on a quilt, and sipped homemade lemonade....oh, wait, this is 2012 and we wore hats and sunglasses, sat on our quilt and sipped Starbucks!

 I would have gotten some pretty cute pictures, had Penelope removed her hands from her mouth for any length of time.

 The brown lawn, the eccentric lawn guy and baby-girl playing.

 We put Penelope's high chair out on the porch so we can eat out there. She mostly eats her seat belt. Occasionally we give her some food.

 The cool kids:

5 Months Old

Penelope is already 5 months old!
Sitting up like a big girl on the chair.

Smiles

The cats presiding over their domain.

Penelope & I went outside to keep Wayne company while he washed his car....we had a stowaway.

Wayne doing some serious car washing.

Penelope was watching intently.

Penelope in her swing.

I think she thought she was playing peek-a-boo...not too good at it yet.

Finally found her head again.

Wayne and Penelope still read a lot of Harry Potter. Penelope is holding her bottle here. She likes to be bigstuff and hold it, but isn't especially good at it yet.

Penelope has been enthralled with the kitties lately.

Oh Blogger, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways

Some people are addicts. There are internet addicts, Pinterest addicts, and Facebook addicts. I am a blog addict. Hello my name is Sheena, and I am a Blogaholic.

Why do I love blogging so much? I am not sure. I definately appreciate compliments on my blog. I love it when someone tells me they really got a kick out of something I wrote. I am also flattered when some random person, who I didn't think knew how to turn on a computer, tells me that they read my blog. But the biggest reason I like blogging is probably because I make myself laugh. Literally, I will be sitting here writing and totally crack myself up. As I writhe in fits of giggles, Wayne will calmly look over, sigh, and say, "What are you blogging about now?" If I really get going laughing, Wayne usually gets suspicious and asks to proof my post. This is bad news, because once I show him, he usually vetos the funniest ones. OK, he says they are a bit 'innapropriate' or 'embarrassing'. But at least I get to roll in the floor laughing for a while.

It is also theraputic for me to blog. On those rare days when Penelope decides to take a nap longer than an hour, I can be found making a cup of coffee and sitting down at my laptop. It is likely much cheaper than the shrink I will need after 4 more kids.


Now that I have picked myself up off the floor from laughing about that last sentence, I have several smaller subjects I have been meaning to blog about:


My husband does everything I tell him!!
Wayne is such a good husband he does exactly what I tell him! Case in point has to do with the cats: 1) I tell him the litter box is stinking up the laundry room - He moves the litter box to the garage. 2) I tell him the cats are going to make a mess in the house - He moves the litter box inside of the door. 3) I tell him the litter box doesn't allow the door to open all the way, thus not allowing easy access while carrying a car seat - he moves the litter box from behind the door to right in front of the door. 4) The litter box is just inside the door, so even though you might accidently step in the litter on your way in the house, the door does fully swing open. And he did everything I asked!

Sleeping Through the Night
I recently ready somewhere that according to the medical field, babies that sleep through the night are sleeping at least 5 hours non-stop. I don't know about you, but if I sleep 'through the night' I am going to sleep a whole lot longer than 5 hours. I'm talking pre-baby here, as my definitions for sleep, nighttime, rest, and sanity have recently changed. Babies are supposed to get around 15 hours of sleep per 24 hour period, and the medical field thinks that 5 at one time constitutes as an entire 'night'? Perhaps doctors need to start going to college for more than 8 years.

It all blends together

After I wrote my post about what is in a diaper, I realized that I didn't really know how or at one point the diaper got tangled with the bed sheets. Once I started thinking about it, I realized that most nights are a huge blur. On the weekends, Wayne and I will discuss at what time Penelope woke up, how many minutes she cried, when she nursed, etc. It will take a half hour trying to come up with the correct order of events and we still don't agree on the timeline.

This reminds me of an experience a couple years back. Relatives were staying with us with their three children. During the night, I awoke to a very loud thump, followed by the baby screaming. In the morning, I was relieved to find all three children unharmed, but still asked what happened. Both parents looked at me with blank expressions. I elaborated and told them how I heard what sounded like a baby falling out of bed onto the floor, followed by screaming. The dad had no recollection of the event at all. The mom said something like, "oh yeah, I think the baby was in the car seat sleeping still at that point, well, I'm not sure, maybe he was in bed with us. Yeah, I just picked him up and went back to sleep."

At the time I was horrifically flabbergasted that both parents would have vague recollections of the nights' events, when I was awakened with heart pounding in the next room. Now I can empathize - it really does all blend together.

Carry a big stick

Frequently while driving down our road, we see a man out walking. This isn't a big deal, but we have noticed that he is always carrying something. At first I thought it was a ski pole, or whatever those poles are people use while walking. A walking stick I guess, except he never really used it. He just carried it. Then I began noticing that it wasn't a walking stick at all, it was a golf club. It got to be somewhat of a highlight on the way to town. ("Look! It's the golf club guy!") We finally decided that this weird guy was paranoid either about cars running him off the road, or a very ferocious dog, and we gave him plenty of space as we drove by.

Just recently, however, we were driving and saw a woman pushing a stroller and carrying a baseball bat! No, we don't have a baseball field anywhere near us. So the mystery is still to be solved. And I am considering carrying a rifle when I go out walking. For what, I'm not sure, but there must be a really good (bad) reason.

Wayne waters the cats

Just a quick picture to demonstrate how Wayne waters his cats:
With a fancy caraffe, Wayne brings out fresh water for his kitties. Even though I have bought him a nice water dish, my glass bowls keep dissapearing. Later I collect several of them from the garage and front step and wash them, only to find they keep dissapearing....