Stay Longer

I was thinking that maybe my son might want to stay away from home a little longer. It isn't that I don't miss him - because Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I miss him so much!  It isn't that I don't want to feed him - because I miss cooking for him and I know he has to be starving.  It isn't that the doodle doggies don't constantly look for him to walk in the door - because there is the biggest doodle welcome committee just dying for their best buddy to come home. AND it certainly isn't because this morning when I went to go tend to his indoor winter garden, TWO of his tomato plants had broken and fallen over! Nooooooo!  How could you do this to me???? I have been faithfully caring for his garden and now ....2 broken pitiful tomato plants are just lying there in the soil.  I wonder if perhaps my son would like to stay away until........let's say spring rolls around and I can go find replacement tomato plants! Well here's hoping the rest of his garden survives. Maybe I should start baking his favorite cookies and homemade rolls and pie and cake and begin assembling gigantic man-sandwiches. Perhaps he will be so overcome with deliciousness, he won't notice that 2 of his tomato plants have a serious height problem.  Good plan.  I better get to the kitchen!

Extra Spicy!

Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I have really been enjoying our dinners this week.  My son cannot eat anything spicy.  I should rephrase that. My son cannot eat anything that even has a minute hint of something spicy in it such as if one single particulate matter of cayenne pepper were to somehow be dropped into a gallon of soup...he would know. He likes his food BLAND.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I do not.  We love spice!  We love "Oh WOW! That burned my entire esophagus!!! Can I please have some more?!"  So this week, we are eating everything my son hates.  My son totally applauded this idea.  He said when he is away this week starving, he will still think, "glad I am not home eating what they are eating!"  Tonight I am making a super spicy cherry tomato pasta sauce with .....OLIVES!  Oh how my son HATES olives.  Well I mean he LOVES Olive the Doodle Doggie - just not green olives or black olives or any kind of edible olive.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I are counting the minutes until dinner.  Spicy Pasta? Yes please!  Tomorrow we might just have Soup O Fire! We have got to get it all in before Mr. Bland Boy returns!

Not Even Chopped Liver

Day two and the tomato plants don't suspect a thing. They cannot tell that my son is not the one dutifully watering them.  They do not know that I am the one turning on their grow lights.  Day two and the plants are oblivious to my son's absence.  The doodle doggies however are not so easily fooled.  Without a doubt - they know my son is not here.  They have been giving me the stink eye all day long.  I made the egregious error in getting the mail at the approximate time my son usually walks in the door after school. I was greeted by a stampede of happy doodles until..........they literally skidded to a stop.  "HEY!  YOU ARE NOT OUR BOY! YOU ARE AN IMPOSTER AND WE ARE TOTALLY NOT AMUSED!"  The saying, "What am I? Chopped Liver?" didn't even apply!  I was worse than chopped liver.  The disappointment was clearly visible.  I apologized to the doodle doggies for giving them false hope and promised to get the mail at a more appropriate hour tomorrow.  As they all sulked and pouted, I decided they needed a good game of fetch and got out the LIGHT UP FRISBEE!  Suddenly I was better than chopped liver! OH BOY!  FRISBEE!  WITH LIGHTS!!!!! LET'S GO!!!! YAY!  Day two....the doodle doggies don't suspect a thing!

Please Tomatoes......Don't Die!

My son is gone for the entire week and the house seems soooooo empty.  It just isn't the same without him here.  Before he left, he gave me strict instructions for taking care of his garden.  He has been working on his winter garden and has quite the set up with grow lights and a misting station. My son is even growing several tomato plants for me because I LOVE tomatoes. It is well known that I do not have a green thumb.  I have NO plants in my house.  I am way too busy taking care of doodle doggies and doodle puppies that I simply don't have time to properly care for an indoor plant.  Let's face it - a cactus would perish under my care.  So who does my son entrust to properly care for his beloved indoor garden???? ME! So much pressure!  I can't let his wheat grass die.  I can't let his tomato plants die. I can't let anything in his garden get spindly, yellow, brown, or crumble up and die.  I have set my alarms on my phone so I can dutifully go upstairs and mist and change the lighting and then mist again.  Please tomatoes....don't die!  I have one job this week......keep the garden thriving.  I think I will go mist again.  4 days to go!

Let's Do That Again!

I had the most adorable puppy pictures all loaded on my computer and when I went to go upload them to our website.....POOF!  They all vanished!  Every single picture!  I tried everything to find them but they were all gone! I had the cutest pictures too!  So of course we had to retake all the puppy pictures. I called Mr. Yesteryear Acres and said, "Do you know what would be fun? Taking Puppy pictures....again!" The mommy dogs just looked at me like, "Ummmmm hello? Weren't you just here? Why are you moving my babies again?" Mommy dogs aren't exactly thrilled with Puppy Picture Monday. They don't like us to take away their puppies and pose their puppies for adorable pictures. They kind of whine and whimper as they wait for us to be done with their babies. I have to say, "Dear Mommy Doggie, I promise to be very quick in taking pictures of your babies and I will return them to you right away." Thankfully the Mommy doggies were very cooperative and the second round of pictures were also adorable!

Here are our puppies that are being donated to families with special needs

Aren't they adorable? 

They are going to bring so much love and happiness to their new families!

Here are Sweet Pea's new Goldendoodle babies

She has 6 boys and 4 girls

And they are so cuddly 

They are such cute little teddy bears

Marmalade's Double Doodle Puppies are now 2 weeks old

They are the most beautiful golden color

And have super silky coats

They are butterballs of cuteness!

Happy Monday!!!!

I'm Sorry Tummy!

All day yesterday my stomach was still acting a little unsettled from the horrible attack of the mutant Brussel Sprouts.  I didn't eat anything all day in fear the Brussel Sprouts would attack again.  Last night I felt so much better, I forgot about my misery and ate something I love for dinner.  Big Mistake! I am sorry tummy!  I don't know why I didn't stick to chicken noodle soup and crackers.  My stomach gurgling was so loud that Mr. Yesteryear Acres could hear it over the television.  It acted up all night.  Today, I have sworn off food! I am finally getting my appetite back and am afraid to eat.  I made a nice dinner tonight with all the fixings including homemade rolls and slow cooked baked apples. I am thinking I better just stick to one singular roll.  Maybe tomorrow I can work up to  a serving of oatmeal.  Take it from me, never ever ever never ever ever never eat Brussel Sprouts that you roasted 3 weeks ago.  Well unless you want the BEST guaranteed diet on the planet!  It makes for an excellent colon cleanse! I just wouldn't recommend it!

April in October

Today I got to see my very good friend April!!!!!  She came all the way to Ohio to go to the Quarter Horse Congress and I drove over there to go say "Hi!"  I can't have April all the way here in Ohio and not give her a big hug.  She is just the sweetest person ever so I was glad for my April in October. We made sure to cover a lot of ground at the Congress.  Have to see it all!

I don't know about you.......but this is NOT my idea of a sundae!  

No surprise here - this was my son's favorite part of the horse show.  

TRACTORS!

Bri and I enjoyed the pole racing event

I even got to meet April's daughter. YAY!

My son and Bri had to check out all of the Gilligan Complex

I masterfully tricked April into getting a picture with me

Her daughter was my accomplice

Who doesn't like horse chairs?

My son's absolute favorite part of the entire Horse show was 

the huge display of tractor trailers and trucks

He wanted to drive home with this model.

After the horse show we were all able to go out to dinner and have a ton of laughs.  April in October?  Yes please!

Volcano Rumblings

If you were to come to my house today and listen carefully - you probably would hear what sounds like a volcano ready to erupt. You might wander around my house wondering, where is the volcano? You might think that the eruption sounds imminent and the whole situation sounds pretty severe.  You would be correct. It seems as though I had a lack of clear judgment this afternoon in deciding what to eat for lunch. On the top shelf of the refrigerator I found a dinner plate wrapped up with some brussel sprouts and roasted sweet potatoes and I thought, "Hey, I will eat that for lunch!"  I love brussel sprouts! I love sweet potatoes! And so I ate them. I ate them all.  About an hour later, my stomach started to hurt SO BADLY!  It is rumbling.  It is gurgling.  The pain is severe! It sounds as though a volcano is inside my stomach and is ready to erupt at any moment.  The doodle doggies are all looking at me with their heads tilted to the side trying to figure out where that awful sound is coming from.  Every now and then the doggies jump up and stare at my stomach.  It is really that bad.  I feel as though I might expire.  In my misery, I looked at the calendar and tried to figure out just when did we have brussel sprouts for dinner?  Ohhhhhh nooooooo.  Seems as though it wasn't this week.  Seems as though it wasn't last week either.  Seems as though that plate should have been eaten a while ago!!!!!  I hope I survive the battle that is currently raging inside my stomach. Right now......I am clearly on the losing side!

Eclipse Failure

All day long today I planned on going outside right at 5:30pm so I would be ready for the solar eclipse. I was going to take pictures.  I was going to share the moment with Mr. Yesteryear Acres. I was going to share the moment with my doodle doggies.  It was going to be a Solar Eclipse Evening and I was 100% ready for the big event.  And then...........I was cleaning the house and I was taking care of doodle puppies and I was taking care of doodle doggies and I was making dinner and then.......I noticed darkness outside my kitchen window as the sun had already set!!!!  I missed it!  I missed the whole thing!  I don't know how time got away from me, but it did.  I didn't even make it for the sunset! Man! A major celestial event.....just slipped right by me.  So I don't have doodle doggie eclipse pictures.  I don't have Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I enjoying the Solar Eclipse together. What I do have is the memory of how I almost went outside in time to see the solar eclipse, happy doodle doggies, happy doodle puppies, a clean house and a fantastic dinner.  That's almost celestial right?!

Well That Didn't Work

My super awesome idea about putting all of my DVDs onto an external hard drive did not work.  Evidently there is something called copyright laws and I guess even though I was only going to share my movies that I already purchased with my sweet daughter while she was deployed......my computer says NO. It actually said, "NO, FAIL, UNEXECUTABLE, FILE ERROR, UPLOAD ERROR, MISSING AUDIO FILE, NO WAY JOSE, NOT GOING TO WORK, STOP TRYING, ARE YOU KIDDING ME, WHY WON'T YOU GIVE UP and BEEEEEEEEP" I have finally accepted that my idea, although super awesome, is not happening.   So what to do?  Well that's easy - just come up with another brilliant super awesome idea!  So I did!  And now I am working on a new project.  Last night I spent about 5 hours on it and then started up again this morning. I am afraid that my tech-savvy daughter will figure out what I am doing so I can't share my project idea quite yet.  I want to surprise her!  Let's just say.....my present is SO full of love - she will feel our love all the way across the ocean and to the far recesses of the faraway lands of her travels. I might not have the security clearances to know exactly where my daughter is - but she will have all the security of love sent from home.  I will share my idea as soon as I am finished. It is awesome!!!!

Most Important Meal of the Day

Until I reached the ripe old age of 46 - I never ate breakfast. Never.  I don't particularly like breakfast foods and stopped eating breakfast rather early in life.  I woke up, went about my morning with a cup of coffee, and waited for lunchtime to roll around before I would eat.  Well then I went to a medical health facility where I took classes in nutrition and lo and behold - breakfast is actually a really important meal. One of the nutritionists/exercise physiologists asked me to try to eat breakfast for one month.  She would be happy if I just ate one bite of peanut butter or one spoonful of cottage cheese or a small handful of nuts.  Just eat something healthy.  And so I did. And of course, it didn't take long until I realized that breakfast was important.  I was able to make nutritionally sound lunch choices.  I wasn't ravenous mid-day.  I was also able to control my weight which really surprised me because I was ADDING a meal.  Since my breakfast discovery, I have been really good at eating breakfast every day.  It has been 3 years of eating breakfast and while it is far from my favorite meal of the day, I do eat it.  Some mornings I have a sad look on my face as I force myself to eat a bowl of cereal or cup of cottage cheese. This morning however, I had a huge smile on my face because I had a DELICIOUS breakfast! Mr. Yesteryear Acres made me a bowl of Steel Cut Oats with baked bananas and fresh blueberries. Oh my gosh!  My eyes almost watered with tears of happiness when I took that first bite.  It was that good.  Hey.  Maybe breakfast isn't so bad after all!

Doodle Puppy Happiness

Our Puppies are here!  We have new babies to love!!!!! Our sweet Marmalade delivered her Double Doodle babies.  Marmalade must love boys because we only have one girl in her litter and the rest are bouncing baby boys.  Marmalade is taking excellent care of her new little ones. AND...Our Goldendoodle Puppies are here!  Sweet Pea delivered her goldendoodle babies and mommy and puppies are all doing great.  Here are the new doodle puppies...

Marmalade's Nine Beautiful Double Doodle Puppies

They already have beautiful coats!

Marmalade's Little Girl

So much love!

Sweet Pea gives each one of her newborn goldendoodle babies a kiss

She is a great mommy

And we have 10 newborn Goldendoodle Babies to love!

Happy Doodle Puppy Happiness Monday!

You can't change a calendar!

This morning....no wait....this... pretty much still night time/almost morning, I got up to help Mr. Yesteryear Acres get the puppy mobile ready.  Last night I went to bed so late so when the alarm went off at O'Dark-Thirty, I felt like I had just closed my eyes. The puppy mobile had to leave when the only bright object in the sky was the moon.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres was the lucky puppy delivery guy this morning.  The reason he was the chosen one is simple.  His name was on the calendar!  Way back when I made the calendar on October 1st, I knew about the puppy delivery day.  So I wrote his name on the calendar.  It clearly said, "Mr. Yesteryear Acres, Puppy Delivery Day, October 19th."  So obviously I couldn't be the one to make the 12 hour journey today.  My name wasn't on the calendar!  Mr. Yesteryear Acres accused me of trickery - but that just isn't true.  His name has clearly been on the calendar all month long. You can't change a calendar! So even though I clearly would have gone - my name wasn't there.  So now, as Mr. Yesteryear Acres makes the long drive home all alone........I think I will make a bowl of popcorn! And eat the whole bowl! Sorry Mr. Yesteryear Acres!  Don't worry, I know my name will be next!!!!!  Travel Safely!

Impromptu Birthday Party

Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I just got back home from a last minute birthday party for his sister. We all met at a restaurant near Mr. Yesteryear Acres' parents house and had an awesome time. My son was so sweet to stay home to care for our doodle puppies and doggies so that Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I could go join the celebration. Mr. Yesteryear Acres younger brother hasn't been home for a year and a half and he flew home for the party which made the whole evening even more special.

The best part of the whole night was listening to Mr. Yesteryear Acres' sister and brothers all reminiscing about their pets they have loved throughout the years. If you hear Mr. Yesteryear Acres mom's side of the story - one cat was just named "yellow boy" but evidently that was NOT the cat's name and each sibling remembered it differently.  It was so funny.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I wished we could have stayed longer as we were having a blast, but we needed to get back home to the doodle puppies.  Tomorrow is a big puppy day so we couldn't be out too long. Luckily - we were able to stay just long enough for the most important part....

CAKE! Mmmmmmm sooooo good!

Happy Birthday Mr. Yesteryear Acres' sister!

Just remember.......I am the young one! HA!

Birthday Grits

Today is Grits' one year birthday!  She is my sweet Birthday Grits!

Grits and I decided to take a birthday walk together 

Grits says this weather is Grrrrrreat!

I love all the colors of Autumn. 

The bean field is really turning an amber color now

Grits is my bestest buddy 

and great doggie

Where should we go next?

Grits decided she wanted to go to the pond

and of course......go swimming

Next up.....a sweet visit with the horses

It just isn't a birthday without a Horsey birthday kiss!

Grits says, "I'll race you to the top of the hill!"

She always wins

Time to head home

Happy Birthday Grits!

Come Back!

My dearest beloved SUV hasn't been feeling so well since its return from the body shop.  It looks great from the outside, but on the inside my poor SUV is still hurting.  For instance, if you would like to use windshield wiper fluid - you are not going to have any luck with that. If you want to use the rear defroster - you are not going to have any luck with that either.  If you would like to close the back hatch and have it lock, you're out of luck. You also can't have power mirrors, seat adjustments, rubber gaskets that stick around the doors or windows, power windows.....I think you get the picture. Sigh.  Back to the shop. I think I felt a little tear roll down my face as my SUV left the driveway.  Sniff. Sniff.  Come back!  I already miss you!

Tech Guru Needed for Deployment Gift

To say I love movies might just be an understatement. I have quite the DVD library and I love each and every movie in my collection. Because we are always home with our cute doodle puppies and doggies, going out to the movies isn't an option so we have movie night at home.  My collection hasn't grown much in recent years due to the ease of downloading movies off the internet but it is still a nice collection. I really want to share my DVD collection with my sweet 1st Lieutenant daughter. I want to copy my DVDs to an external hard drive and give that external hard drive to my daughter.  She will be deploying very soon and will be gone for 9-12 months.  She is going to be without an internet connection for most of that deployment.  There will be no way for her to download content - movies or music or anything internet related. She has strict regulations as to how much stuff she can bring on board and very limited storage space. Bringing a stack of DVDs just won't work. Does anybody know how to copy a DVD movie to an external hard drive?  I know there has to be some encoding changes and compression modifications but I just don't know where to start and how to get that done.  I am willing to spend hours swapping discs to fill the hard drive - but need help figuring out just how to do it.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!  I think a deployment gift filled with hours of movies might just be the perfect send off!  Thank you!

Late Night Potty Runs

The puppies and I go outside for potty breaks every two hours. Rain or Shine. Sunshine or Snowfall.  Dark or Light.  We have a set schedule and keep to it. Last night our late night potty run seemed to be a lot later than it actually was.  It is getting dark so early now that by 7:30pm darkness was falling. It won't be long before we change the clocks back and then I will really be out in the dark. Thankfully the puppies don't mind at all.  They rather like romping around just as the sun is setting.  That way when I start rounding them all up, I can have fun looking for them as they start to blend into the landscape.

Here they are last night having a meeting about how fun it will be to disappear into the bushes...."As soon as that sun sets - let's hide!"

Ready....Set...Go!

Silly little puppies.  I didn't even need to break out the flashlight and got them all back in just as the last little bit of light remained. They said that was a lot of fun and can't wait for their nighttime fun again tonight!

Double Doodle Monday

We are on puppy watch here!!!  Our sweet Marmalade .....

will be having her Double Doodle babies any time now.  Marmalade's puppies will have long wavy coats and will be so adorable!  We can't wait!

Eloise's Double Doodle puppies will be going to their new homes this weekend.

They are so adorable too!

Warm afternoons are perfect for snuggling

Chasing leaves is pretty fun too!

Got it!

Did you see me catch that leaf?!

Waiting for our favorite boy to come home

When will he get here?

I hope it is soon!

I see him!!!!

Wanna know a secret?

Your my best friend!

Life is good!

One week to go

And these cuties

will all be with their new families

But until then - more belly rubs please!

Can I have one too?

Leaf Hats are the best

I think it looks awesome with my outfit

It goes with everything!

Have a Happy Monday!!!!