Team Yesteryear Acres

Well once again we were greeted with dreary grey rainy cold skies here at Yesteryear Acres.  We did have a peek of sun yesterday and I am so mad at myself for not getting the puppy pictures done when I saw the sun!  We had visitors here and I just didn't have time to squeeze in the picture taking and thought I would just get all the photos done today. Sigh.  It just isn't worth it to go get bad pictures of adorable puppies. Tomorrow promises to be MUCH better weather wise and I am looking forward to a nice sunny photo shoot.  I think the puppies will be equally excited.  We all miss the sun!!!  Today was spent doing normal doggie things.  Puppies all got their ears cleaned, their nails trimmed and a good brushing.  Their bedding was all switched and cleaned out and we got the rest of our indoor big doggies all trimmed up and ready for winter.  Our poodles get really FURRY feet and they just soak up all the mud outside like sponges.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I worked together as a team and got a lot of doggies all cleaned up today and looking mighty fine.  We have neatly trimmed feet, nice clean ears, under tails all trimmed.  It was quite a good team production. Usually one of us does all of it alone while the other one works on a different project but with all the grey dreariness around, we thought it would be much more fun to do everything together.  It was nicer and MUCH faster this way! We got a lot more done than we would have if we had done it separately.  We even made time to have lunch together which was a very welcome break.  Tomorrow Team Yesteryear Acres will be taking gorgeous fabulous photos of the puppies.  Stay tuned for irresistible cuteness!!!

Everyone Loves It Here

Everyone loves it here at Yesteryear Acres.  Everyone.  The birds love it.  I say hi to the little birdies every morning.  The horses love it.  I lovingly gaze out at our pasture and smile when I see my beautiful horses. The doggies love it.  Every day the doggies run around and play and have fun and their tails are always wagging. The puppies love it. Every day the puppies are happy and well cared for and always give us the best snuggles with all the love in their hearts. The cats and kittens love it.  We have rescue kitties and cats happily residing at Yesteryear Acres and even though we didn't invite them, we still feed them and love them. The fish and frogs and bunnies and fireflies and dragonflies and even a coyote or two - ALL love it here at Yesteryear Acres. The deer especially love it.  I shared my garden with the deer this year and they all had a bountiful harvest of corn, tomatoes, beans, pumpkins, beets, lettuce, spinach, popcorn, and carrots.  See how much I love all the creatures? I even shared my garden! You would think that would be enough company. You would think that that would be enough creatures. So WHY oh WHY do the yellow jackets have to love it here? There is no room for them!  We pretty much thought we had the yellow jacket problem finished.  We had planned on moving back upstairs.  We had planned on celebrating the end of our unBEELievable week......when right around noon today......THEY ARE BACK! WHY! WAH! Here is how many we killed in our house in just one hour:

Back to the Drawing Board.  We did find a secondary nest in the brick work today.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres is armed and ready for tonight's attack at dusk.  Take fair warning yellow jackets....You. Are. Not. Welcome!

October????

When you think of the very first day of October, what comes to mind? Is it a brilliant blue sky with a crisp breeze? Golden colored leaves, fire red leaves and vibrant orange leaves dotting the hillside? Pumpkins, apple cider, a light jacket and a I am so glad to be alive kind of a day? Well - me too.  That is what I think of when I think of October. In fact when Mr. Yesteryear Acres woke me up this morning to say, "Happy October First" I didn't even mind because I thought, "ahhhh October! AUTUMN is HERE!" I didn't even mind that Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I woke up in the living room as we are still sleeping on the couches because TODAY is OCTOBER.  A whole new month.  A whole new brisk happy brilliantly colored start to a month full of Autumn happiness. Or is it? Ummmmmm. Hello? What is that drizzly cold dreary grey bleakness outside? Certainly it isn't the first day of October!  Why is it that I need a jacket? And a sweatshirt?  And a raincoat?  Where is my brilliant sunshine? Where is my quilt of beautifully colored leaves? Why is it raining....again?!  I was really really kind this spring. I didn't blame Mother Nature at all for giving us the wettest spring ever.  I didn't yell at her for the months of "mud season" instead of the beautiful new blossoms of springtime. I got used to everything being chocolate brown.  BUT Autumn is another story!  I want crisp leaves! I do not like soggy.  I want orange and red and gold leaves - not wet brown wilted ones.  I like fresh made apple cider and walking in the woods and all that wonder of a beautiful autumn day.  I think I might have to protest! I think I might have to make my unhappiness known! I demand a traditional Autumn!  I allowed September to yet again be "ONE OF THE WETTEST MONTHS OF ALL TIME".  I have heard that so many times this year, it isn't even newsworthy.  Please October, PLEASE do not be wet. Please do not be dreary.  Please be a beautiful October.  Thank you.  I will wait patiently..... with my cup of apple cider.....that I heated up....in the microwave....because it is too cold and too wet to enjoy a nice cold glass of cider. Hint. Hint. Autumn....I am READY!

Looking Up

I am happy to report that our yellow jacket numbers are greatly decreasing! Today our total count of yellow jackets killed in our home is ... eleven.  11!  That is amazing.  This is from over 300+ earlier in the week. Yesterday we still killed over 100 bees in our home, so 11 is AWESOME.  I mean awesome in that I only had to kill 11 bees, not awesome in that ELEVEN bees still found there way into my home and were secretly lurking awaiting their mutant lethal attack.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I are still sleeping downstairs on the couches.  Did you know that if you sleep on the couch, your back is EXACTLY in the correct position for a COLD WET DOG NOSE to nudge you?  I bet you didn't know that. I bet you didn't think about the one moment you were actually sleeping on the couch, is the exact moment your doggie would like you to know it is staring at you. Nudge. Nudge.  "HELLO HUMAN! YOU ARE SLEEPING ON THE COUCH! HI!" Of course the doggie doesn't want anything.  Just to say hello.  Such a good doggie.  Who doesn't love cold nose nudges at 2:00am? Did you also know that Mr. Yesteryear Acres is merely keeping me company each night?  He is NOT too afraid to sleep upstairs. Noooooooo. He doesn't want me to be alone. Isn't that sweet? I asked him if he were going to sleep upstairs tonight and he said no. He doesn't think I am quite ready for that. Awwwww. He is so thoughtful.  We won't at all mention that he is secretly thinking he doesn't want to be snuggling in bed with a bunch of yellow jackets. We will let him continue to protect me downstairs.  I have to say that the distance between the 2 couches does make the sound of his thundering snoring go from let's say the sound of a 747 to that of a small jet so that is a plus.  Another plus is that I learned that one should NOT make homemade apple crisp if one's house is being invaded by yellow jackets. See?  I have saved you from thinking that is a smart idea, even though you probably already made the connection that peeling fresh picked apples is not a wise and intelligent thing to do in a house full of bees. I had to learn the hard way.  I did finish the job and of course it was delicious BUT believe me when I say - that is the one and only time I will make my family apple crisp in a house full of bees.  Enough said on that subject.  Please do not ridicule me for not having the forethought of bees and apples - bad combo.  Lesson Learned. I also have GREATLY increased my eye/hand coordination. I can swing a badminton racket and kill a bee in seconds flat.  I think Wimbledon may be calling me. I am just that good. The other bright side into things are looking up is somehow the puppies all escaped the yellow jacket horror.  The puppies are on the other side of the house and managed to all escape sting-free.  The only doggie to suffer was Olive and she recovered quickly.  She also decided that she would no longer chase the bees in the house.  Lesson Learned for Olive.  We are all just SO much smarter now.  I guess I have to thank the thoughtful bees for invading my home and giving me a terror-filled week. Now that the humming is slowing down, I appreciate silence more than ever before. Let's hope that tomorrow is buzz free!

Cave Man

I didn't know that I was destined to be a cave man.  Well not really a "cave man" per se but rather a person with an arm that looks exactly like the club of a cave man. After a long sleepless night my arm continued to grow in both size and hue.  This morning it was beet red and looked just like a cave man club.  I was thinking - probably not a good thing.  Turns out - I was right.  So now I am on medication which makes me V E R Y, V E R Y,   S   L  E  E  P  Y.  I feel like I am living in the bottom of a well.  I do not do very well on medication as I am ultra sensitive.  I take children's doses of things and still have reactions.  I try very hard to stay clear of all medicine but evidently my doctor said that the medication is absolutely necessary so I am taking it.  My doctor also prescribed an Epi-Pen as she fears the next time I am stung will not be a pretty sight.  Hmmmm. I am thinking that THIS time wasn't pretty. I shudder to think about what the next time will bring.  All-in-all the conversation with the doctor was quite bleak. Having survived a heart attack evidently does not go well with using an Epipen.  The conversation kind of went like this - well if you are GOING to die BEFORE the ambulance arrives, you can use the pen.  But you need to make sure the ambulance is VERY close because using the pen might kill you. Oh wow.  Thanks.  I love bees even more now.  I feel quite joyful.  Evil Epi-Pen vs. Evil Bees.  Perhaps I should relocate to Antarctica.....except I hate the cold. And the doggies aren't quite fond of frigid temperatures either. But if it is cold enough -the doggie poop DOES freeze making it rather easy to pick up and dispose of - so that is a plus! For now I guess I will continue to arm myself with 2 flyswatters, a badminton racket, a can of sudden death, and the hope that the gigantic yellow jacket hive living inside the brick wall of my house all die soon!

You Wouldn't Want to BEE me!

So here's the thing. This story does NOT have a happy ending.  This story does not end with...."and then Nutmeg was there all along!" This story involves sleepless nights, mutant yellow jackets and a real life horror story. It all started last night when Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I crawled into bed around 12:30am.  Within 5 minutes of closing our eyes, Mr. Yesteryear Acres yells, "TURN ON THE LIGHT! TURN ON THE LIGHT" I leap out of bed and turn on the lights and there on Mr. Yesteryear Acres' face was a yellow jacket.  We got it off without it stinging him and then proceeded to kill 4 more yellow jackets that were in the room.  We quadruple checked that the coast was clear and then gingerly crawled into bed. At 3:33am I wake up yelling I have been STUNG! Yes. In my sleep.  When I was doing nothing threatening except dreaming of a peaceful night's rest I GOT STUNG.  And evidently it was some massive mutant yellow jacket because my arm is HUGE.  It is all hot and swollen and gigantic.  It keeps getting more red and more swollen.  This morning it looked like this:

Which may not look that impressive but if you look carefully you can see it almost reaches my wrist and up to my elbow.  Well now it is past my elbow and beet red.  I have used ice and advil and benadryl - all to no avail.  So back to last night - the second I yell, "I have been STUNG" - I immediately grab my pillow and run downstairs because there is NO way I am sleeping up there.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres follows right behind to "keep me company" but we all know he doesn't want to suffer the same fate!  We set our alarm clocks for 6:30am so we can go outside and put expandable foam in the missing mortar in our bricks because that is where all the bees are congregating.  So at 6:30am sharp armed with a ladder, gloves, spotlight, and a can of foam we head out.  The bees are already swarming so Mr. Yesteryear Acres sprays the foam into the 2 holes as fast as he can and runs down the ladder.  Well now the bees are M A D!  They start coming in the air conditioning slats and the tiniest little holes in the window rope levers.  We start spraying and removing the air conditioner as fast as we can. I am armed with a fly swatter trying to keep the bees out while Mr. Yesteryear Acres is removing the window air conditioning unit. It is all very terrifying to me. I feel as though I am in a horror movie. So now we think we are through the worst of it.  I decide we should go take a walk and look at the sunrise and watch the beautiful colors light up the morning sky.  Well when I say that was the only moment of peace we had all day - that is an understatement.  The REST of the ENTIRE day has been spent with me holding TWO flyswatters and killing bees as they slowly find their way into our house one by one.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres has killed hundreds upstairs and I have killed dozens and dozens downstairs.  It is AWFUL.  Every time I take a step, I look for bees.  If I sit down, I have to look if a bee is there.  I can't drink my coffee without worrying about a bee on my cup. I can't put my hand on my computer mouse without looking for a bee. I literally have been getting up and killing a bee every 5-10 minutes ALL DAY LONG. As I sit hear and type my blog, I can hear a new bee. It is somewhere in this room.  I have to go and stop writing and get up to go find out where it is so I can kill it before it stings me. This is miserable.  I have to admit - when I went out the door this afternoon to take my son to cross country practice and a bee was in my HAIR and then one crawled up my son's leg and stung him - I cried a little bit.  I am not one for a pity party but honestly. I do not like bees.  I do not like being stung by bees. I do not like the agonizing pain in my arm from being stung.  We have a plan for tomorrow morning's early dawn assault.  I went shopping and have an arsenal of bee killing sprays. My favorite one has to be the one called "SUDDEN DEATH".  I bought 8 cans. I am going to sit with a can of Sudden Death in my lap all night long. There will be no sleep at Yesteryear Acres tonight.  It is war!

Apple of My Eye

Today's mission....PICK APPLES.  I have never been so late in the season getting my apples in.  I mean it is almost October and I have yet to get my apples picked.  We have been so busy that the apple picking has been pushed to the end of the list week after week. Well not today!  Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I started the day early so we could make time to fit in apple picking.  I usually go with the kids and we get the apples picked but since we didn't get that done in time, Mr. Yesteryear Acres said he would come help.  He hasn't gone for years so he was actually pretty excited about our day. We arrived at the orchard by 10:00am and got busy.  The orchard was pretty picked over but we had expected that given the late date. In just glancing from the outside, every tree looked picked bare but once we got in between all the branches and stooped way down low and used the picker for the apples way up high, we were able to easily accomplish our mission. We ended up picking one bushel of Granny Smith Apples and 3 bushels of Melrose Apples and were quite pleased.  Once we got back home we had to work double time but it was all worth it.  This afternoon I got a text from Mr. Yesteryear Acres. He said, "You are the Apple of My Eye." Awwwwww. I think I will bring him with me when I pick apples next fall. He is a very good apple date!

Good Little Picture Takers

Well even with my goopy bad eye - I still managed to get today's pictures done. I was really lucky that I had very cooperative good little picture takers.  As always there were the puppies that knew how to strike a pose:

and puppies that would just patiently wait for their glamour shot

Like this?

Or do you prefer the profile shot?

There were those puppies that just slept through the entire photo shoot

Dreaming about doggie biscuits

Then....well I heard Mr. Yesteryear Acres say,

 "Have you seen my blue handkerchief?"

Who me?  No. I haven't seen it all day.

And my favorite...

"Put the blow dryer away!"

I am cute enough!!!! 

Happy Puppy Monday Everyone!!!!!

Poopy, Weepy, Goopy, Smelly

Bad days.  We all have them.  Sometimes we get more than our fair share - sometimes less but when a bad day is upon you - it feels as though it is upon you to stay.  Today was a bad day. It started the moment I opened my eyes. No wait - that isn't right.  It started the moment I opened my eye. As in one eye because the other eye was crusted shut in what I assume is a lovely case of conjunctivitis.  Now I haven't had pink eye since I was like 12 - but for some reason, today, out of the blue, with no precipitating cause - my eye is all red and yucky and gross.  From that moment on - my day went seriously downhill.  At 11am this morning I emailed my daughters "The Top 10 Reasons Why My Morning is LESS than Stellar".  I wrote it with as much humor as I could muster given that by 11am this morning I had a good solid 10 things that had gone really wrong. Since then, I have more than doubled my list. No one wants to hear a long list of poor pitiful me stories - so I will give you the cliff notes version.......my day involved finding dog poop.....barefoot, misplacing something very important which I still can't find, ruining a batch of cookies, and finding no less than 50 yellow jackets in my daughter's ROOM swarming with a vengeance. Yes. It is that kind of day. A poopy, weepy, goopy, smelly, mad buzzing bee day. The only good thing about a day like today is .....is.......well I can't think of anything RIGHT now but I am sure there is something in there. Maybe I will think of it as I get in my car. I am off to go buy more bee/wasp spray.  For some reason ... we are empty.

Dance? Yea Right

For anyone over the age of let's say 30 or so - I bet you are keenly aware of the effects of the earth's gravitational pull. I bet you are keenly aware of the effects of a sluggish metabolism. I bet you are also keenly aware that if you eat an entire pint of ice cream....it will never leave your side(s). Sigh.....so I am forced to combat all of this by sticking to an exercise routine. I try to walk every day when my son has cross country practice but last week was so busy I only walked once which is clearly not enough to ward off evil gravity effects. In preparation for the upcoming winter months, I purchased a "game" so I could dance away that darn sluggish metabolism. I found what appeared to be a good one in the "GAME" section. As in... Game: an activity engaged in for diversion or AMUSEMENT. This "game" is called Gold's Gym DANCE workout. Do you see how the word DANCE is in big letter? In reality this particular "game" is written like this:
Gold's Gym
DANCE
workout
So you see when I went to get this as a birthday present to myself, my thought process was something like this....OH DANCING!  I LOVE dancing.  I could dance all night. I could close down the disco.  Bachata, Salsa, Cha Cha, Meringue...Dance dance dance.  This is going to be great.  I am going to exercise and not even KNOW I am exercising.  I probably will be 2 sizes smaller when I am done with this.  I love dancing. I love games! I can't wait.
So today in an attempt to make amends for my missed days of walking - I tried out my new game.  Evidently the words, "Gold's GYM" are there for a reason.  Evidently the word, "WORKOUT" is also there for a reason. The reason being ....plain torture.  Since when does "dancing" include the words, "Engage your Core, Work your gluts, Tighten those abdominal muscles and other bad words like Squat, knee lift, lunge and stretching. The music was soooo soft in the background it was clear I wasn't at the disco. There were no disco lights.  There was no disco vibe.  12 more squats to go is NOT a disco feeling. I did end up finding some intermediate and advanced latin "dance" routines I liked.  I guess I will just block out all the bad words and see if I can make this work.  I will pretend it is all about the salsa. I will strain my ears to listen to the latin music in the background. Most importantly...I will have a GIGANTIC glass of water right next to me. I will need some reinforcement next time when I have all that FUN doing my "DANCE" workout !!!!

FALL TV

Happy First Day of Fall!  It is officially Fall!  Autumn is here!  And I know you are thinking I am going to talk about the beauty of the season, the tapestry of colors woven into the leaves on the hill, the glorious palette of hues and glows and embers and such.... well even though fall is by far my favorite season, I am not going to talk about the beautiful leaves today.  We will save all the glory of Autumn for another day.  Today is all about FALL TV. YAY!  FALL TV IS HERE!  No more reruns!  No more summer fill-in shows!  REAL TV is back!!!!! I am so happy. I love season premieres. I missed all my old friends.  I mean how is Gibbs doing?  What will Simon Baker do?  How will the castaways fare on Survivor?  SO many questions. So much to look forward to!  This week has been super busy here at Yesteryear Acres so I have all the new shows recorded and am hoping that this weekend we will get to see a few of them.  I have been anxiously awaiting the new fall season and am glad it is finally here.  My goal for the weekend.....popcorn, pajamas, puppies and premieres!  It is the perfect combo of goodness and happiness!!!!  Now if I can only make it all happen. It is actually a tough assignment. We normally don't sit down until after 10pm - which means by 10:15pm Mr. Yesteryear Acres is fast asleep but I am determined to start a fall TV festival of watching by 8:00 at least one night this weekend. Gibbs has waited long enough!

Why yes Olive, I was thinking the exact same thing

It is a good thing I have dogs. Dogs are great to talk to.  Dogs are great company. Dogs always agree with you. Dogs always think you are right.  Can you say that about ANYONE else you know? Of course not. That is why dogs are awesome.  Today Mr. Yesteryear Acres and my son have been away at the Farm Science Review. They left early this morning and won't be home until this evening.  That left me all alone for the entire day.  At first I was like WOW! I am ALL alone!  This is AWESOME!  It is so quiet! I can do whatever I want! I can watch whatever I want! But of course, I didn't do whatever I wanted nor did I watch whatever I wanted because I worked all day.  The longer the day went on, the more I realized that having the house to myself wasn't actually that great. It was a bit too quiet.  It was a bit too lonely. I didn't want to be a crazy person and start talking to myself because that would be weird so it was then that our labradoodle Olive and I started having more and more conversations together.  At first it was, "Olive, let's go to the kitchen so I can heat up my coffee".  Of course Olive was right there to help me.  As the day progressed it turned more into, "Olive we need to get the flour out so we can make bread, and Olive do you think we should make potato bread or honey oatmeal bread, and Olive we really have to start these dishes because we need this measuring cup again, and Olive I wonder what is in the mailbox followed by reading all the mail to Olive because obviously she was deeply interested. I am sure that is a very normal thing to do. I am sure that Olive appreciated my in depth conversations with her.  I mean she looked like she was interested. She wagged her tail every time I asked her a question. I guess I only need to start worrying if I let Olive start the conversations and actually do the cooking part.  So if you ever hear me say, "Olive - that is WAY too much butter that you put in our bread recipe....." I am guessing at that point - I might needs some company!

The Escape....Non-Escape Artist

So one of the really fun and joyful things about having a nursing mommy dog in your home is that they like to drink a lot of water. I mean a lot of water.  The more puppies they have - the more water they like to drink.  The extra fluids is necessary so they can make more milk.  More milk means happy puppies.  So of course - you give them all the water they can drink.  Well sometimes when they drink soooo much water.....nature calls....in the middle of the night...when the humans are sleeping. You are sound asleep in your bed, happily dreaming again when, "HALOOOOOOOO HALOOOOOOO I HAVE TO PEEEEEEEEEEE" interrupts your glorious sleep time.  Although it sounds just like this, "BARK BARK BARK HOWL BARK" - but the mommy dog is definitely saying that she has to pee.  It takes a very trained and educated ear to decipher dog talk, luckily -everyone here at Yesteryear Acres is fluent in dog talk. So last night at 2:30am, "HALOOOOOOOOOO" can be heard in our house. Mr. Yesteryear Acres lets out the mommy dog so she can go pee. Up until this point - it is all going swimmingly for me.  I am in bed. I am asleep. Mr. Yesteryear Acres is the one letting out the dog. YAY! Then, out of nowhere, I am shaken awake by a frantic Mr. Yesteryear Acres. (It is at this point in the story I will direct you to re-read the title of today's blog just in case you are getting worried....it all ends well.)  Mr. Yesteryear Acres yells that Nutmeg is gone. Nutmeg is NOT the mommy dog - but somehow she got out and is gone. I fly out of bed, grab a flashlight, throw on my crocs and start looking for Nutmeg outside.  Meanwhile a grief stricken Mr. Yesteryear Acres jumps in the car with a spotlight and starts driving down our road desperately searching for Nutmeg.  I am out in the wet. I am out in the dark. I am all alone crying, "NUTMEG.....NUTMEG."  Out of the bushes jumps....a rabbit.  Not Nutmeg.  Then a wild cat runs across the path -again not Nutmeg but now I am afraid of the boogie man jumping out of the woods.  I walk to the pond. I walk to the end of the garden - which in case you are wondering is like a good 1/2 mile from our house. No Nutmeg, although the horses all run out to see what the heck I am doing so at least now I have company.  I start walking back to the house when I hit a slope of mud and yes FALL DOWN. I now have mud soaked pajamas.  My hands are covered in mud and my ankle and wrist really hurt.  As I limp back all muddy and sore, I still call, "Nutmeg! Nutmeg!"  NO Nutmeg.  An hour passes and Mr. Yesteryear Acres returns and sadly gets out of the car. He can't find Nutmeg. He is sick with worry. It is at this point I say, "Are you SURE Nutmeg escaped?" He says, "yes, I didn't see her anywhere."  I asked, "did you check her dog bed area?"  Wellllll he might have walked by it quickly, but didn't really check because he called her name and she didn't come and he assumed she was gone. (I am sure at this point you are almost smiling because you know I am standing there with a mud covered butt, and am soaking wet and it is 3:30am in the morning, and I have been walking outside in the dark for an HOUR - and you already know how this story is going to end).  SOOOOO yes.  I go and look - and WHOA would you look at that!!!!!  There SOUND ASLEEP is......NUTMEG.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres runs in and just starts hugging Nutmeg and she wakes up thinking WHAT THE HECK! Why are you hugging me?  I was SLEEPING.  I told Mr. Yesteryear Acres I have never been so mad yet so darn HAPPY as I was at that moment.  Nutmeg was safe.  All was well.  Now all that was left was for me to find some new pajamas! Goodnight Nutmeg!

Gee! Oh! Me Try.

Oh yes. It is that time of the year again. Homework time. How I dread it. How I loathe it. How I.....DON'T REMEMBER IT!!!!  I have easily skated by the past few years because my older daughter would help my younger daughter, my younger daughter would help my son and I would make dinner.  Excellent arrangement!  I mean let's face it - by the time they are in AP Calculus - I am of little help.  I am a whiz at Algebra. I am even pretty darn good at Algebra II. I have to say I am excellent at Statistics. But Calculus? Um. No. So now my 2 girls are gone and I have a 9th grader in Honors Geometry. Geometry. As in the class I hated the MOST when I was in high school way way way way way back in the day. I still can remember how much I dreaded that class. PROVE ....IF A, then B and on and on and on. Ugh!  So last night my son needed help with his Geometry homework. It started with patterns. Yea!  I am great with patterns. "Oh look - you just times it by 3, divide by 2 and add 6". Simple! Yea!  Then it progressed to if you had a polygon with n sides how many diagonals can be made for each polygon. Or .... if you were to have n lines that are neither congruent or parallel how many intersecting points would there be given the n number of lines. Yes. Right. Sure. Now for all your math majors with your hands in the air saying, "Pick me! Pick Me!" please remember ...I. Am. Not. A. Math. Major.  I am not even a science major.  My older daughter is a science genius. She is majoring in Chemistry at the Naval Academy.  She isn't here. I am here. I am here drawing diagonals inside of 3 sided polygons, 4 sided polygons, 5 sided polygons and on and on until I can figure out some pattern of n(n-3)/2 type thing. My son and I worked together for hours.  I think the homework was supposed to take 30 minutes. sigh.  I am ready for tonight's assignment unless of course it starts with IF A; THEN........I am running away!!!!! GEE! OH! me try!!!!!

Monday Monday

After my long weekend, I have to admit, I did not get up on time this morning. I was certain I would get up at 6:30am but then crawled back into bed for just a little snooze and woke up almost two and a half hours later. Ahhh there is just nothing like your own bed.  It was most definitely a good night's rest.  Once I got up - I worked double time to make up for the leisurely morning. As always, my list of things to do was forever long. I had to unpack from my trip. I had a lovely sink full of dishes waiting for me. I had puppies waiting for me. I had a mountain of laundry waiting for me. I had grocery shopping waiting for me. Evidently - I was missed.  I ended up getting everything done including making cookies for my son but I did not get the Monday picture updates done. Mr. Yesteryear Acres had a long list of things to do as well and we weren't able to get the pictures done before the afternoon rains came.  The pictures are SO much better when I get the natural light from outside, so I decided to wait until tomorrow.  The weather is supposed to be much better and that way I can get some awesome new pictures.  The puppies are all doing great and they enjoyed their nail trimming and brushing today. They will be ready for their photo shoot tomorrow.  Up next - vacuum packing hamburger meat and pork chops. Ooooh ahhhhh! Gotta love buying in bulk!!!! I know it will be hard, but please don't envy my evening. I am sure you wish you were here. Nothing beats hours of vacuum packing!!! Joy!

We are Home Already?

I ended up leaving Annapolis a lot later than I planned.... it really is so hard to say goodbye.  Even with the extra time together, it was really tough driving away.  I don't think I will ever get used to that.  I know that it is an inevitability - but it never gets easier. Every time I have to say goodbye, I have to choke back the tears.   Once my mom and I were on the road - the time really flew.  It is a long drive home but we talked non-stop and the miles just kept flying by. We talked about our weekend.  We talked about the next time we take a road trip.  We talked about our ultimate dream vacation. We talked about what is the best way to travel, where we would like to go in the world, values, morals, integrity, world politics - the works.  It was a lot of fun.  Despite the fact we drank a TON of water - we made it home with only 2 stops.  That is pretty good! In fact when we only had 5 minutes remaining we both said, "We are home Already???"  7 hours of driving and we didn't feel a single minute of it.  Now that is a great travel partnership!!!!!!!  Thanks for the road trip Mom!!!!! That was a great weekend!

Being Together - Always Good

Today I got to spend the day with my daughter. There is really nothing better in the whole world than being with the ones you love. My daughter's spirits have definitely been lifted from our visit and I am so happy as well. The whole day was just spent being together. She is a happy, smiling, upbeat, happy fun person and I never tire of her company. I will be so sad tomorrow morning when we have to say our goodbyes. I am leaving her with all my homebaked goodies - and of course - all my love. The visit was far too short and I will be counting the days until we are together again. I know they say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but for me - that is impossible. I love her with all my heart and soul.

I am definitely not a city traffic girl

So today I drove into Bethesda, Maryland.  Perhaps many of you - maybe even every single one of you will be thinking - that is a very busy city.  I, of course, did not have that thought. I didn't realize its proximity to Washington, DC.  I did not realize it was a major metropolis. I didn't realize that when a light turned red - it was merely a suggestion to go slower. I didn't realize that everyone honking behind me while I was stopped at the red light meant that I was in fact to RUN the red light because red lights do not have the same meaning here.  I learned quickly that I was not a good driver for the city atmosphere.  I learned quickly that when my GPS indicated that I had 3 minutes left of my journey there would be an additional 20+ minutes of travel time because I would not be moving any faster than a snail's pace. And ultimately I learned that I am definitely not a city traffic girl.  I dare say this shall be my only venture into Bethesda. I am quite grateful for my mom who took over the driving duties and got us safely to our destination.  She grew up in New York and was a complete pro. We are happily safely in our room. Whew!  Guess who is driving us out of the city.........NOT ME!

The Hard Part

I have been busy since the second my feet hit the floor this morning. I had way too many things to do and not enough hours to get it all done. Was that the hard part of my day? Nope.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres picked some tomatillos from our garden and I made a delicious Tomatillo and Avocado dip.  It is scrumptious.  You have to husk the tomatillos and boil them and then you blend them with olive oil and garlic and make a wonderful dip with fresh Avocado. Was that the hard part of my day? Nope.  I finally made this recipe for Snickers Cookies that was given to me by a dear puppy family.  You make this yummy cookie dough and then take mini snickers bars and wrap the dough around each individual mini snickers bar and then bake them.  When I say YUM - believe me - it is an understatement.  Was that the hard part? Nope.  I put together puppy packages, gathered blankets, did the laundry, washed the dishes, cleaned the puppy area.....again not the hard part of my day.  I made fresh from scratch homemade rolls - a double batch - and the whole house smells absolutely delicious.  So easy! Not hard!  I went grocery shopping and picked up things for my mom, my son, my daughter, my husband - again simple.  I took my son to cross country practice, picked him up, took him to the varsity girls volleyball game, picked him up. Not a problem. I made buttermilk pork chops, slow roasted cabbage - fresh picked from the garden, and scalloped potatoes for dinner.  You would think that MIGHT be the hard part of the day - but you would be wrong.  I packed my suitcase, gathered up all the things on my daughter's list, picked out some movies, got the cords together for the DVD player so I could hook it up in the hotel room, backed up my computer, charged my electronics, went through the mail.......all in a day's work. Not hard.  So what was the hard part of the day????????? Oh - well I believe it was when my son walked in and said, "OH WOW COOKIES! OH WOW HOMEMADE ROLLS!  OH WOW GUMMY BEARS!" and then I said - they are for your sister. At that moment...... THAT look......yes.....that was the hard part of the day. I am sure you can imagine. It looks like this mom has more baking to do when she returns from the Naval Academy.  I am afraid that look will remain on his face until I make amends. He gave me some suggestions - More homemade rolls, more snicker bar cookies, golden graham smores, puppy chow and I could make some fresh squeezed lemonade and maybe some homemade ice cream. Gee - he is SO helpful!!!

Cyber Hug

Moms are great aren't they?  They love you more than anyone in the whole wide world and would do anything for you.  My mom is like that. That makes me pretty lucky.  I am like that.  That makes my children pretty lucky.  This week has been kind of a hard week for my older daughter.  You know the expression, "You can only be as happy as your least happiest child"?  Well it is true.  I have been feeling her pain all week long. She has been in my thoughts every second this week.Today a light at the end of the tunnel appeared and I can't tell you how my spirits were lifted.  Even though I personally wasn't going through her ordeal, I felt every moment.  I sent her plenty of cyber hugs, but that just isn't the same as the real thing. I think it made us miss each other even more. Today, we finally had some much needed laughs and things are feeling much better. This weekend is going to be even better than today. My mom and I are planning a little road trip to visit my daughter at the Naval Academy.  We are bringing her care packages and smiles.  Nothing feels better than that......for her....and for me.  Good food, good company, good movies, good shopping.... good times!  I can't wait to see her.  Guess I better start baking!!!!  I already have a long list of requests. Friday will be here before I know it!