1 more week!

And we are heading out for vacation!!! I'm getting excited.

Here's where we are staying in Gatlinburg...

Pretty neat huh!? I figured since we're going to be in the mountains, we might as well embrace it all and stay in a cabin! Woohoo!!!

Empty Nesters

sniff sniff

We are officially empty nesters now. Our little peeps flew the coop last night. For the last couple of days, they've just been flying around the garage. Last night though, they took the big daring plunge and headed for wild blue yonder.

Bye bye birdies

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck...

blah blah blah.

First of all, I love nature. Most of it fascinates me. Even bugs. In our neck of the woods (hahaha) we have squirrels and chipmunks and raccoons and possums. Sometimes deer and we've even seen a fox or two. Now I can add a woodchuck to the list. Did you know that a woodchuck and a groundhog are the same thing? Anyway, the other day when I let the dogs out, they went speeding to back of the yard, where the mini barn is. I looked up just in time to see Pepper in hot pursuit of a woodchuck, down its hole! Good grief. Well, I looked them up. They're pretty destructive. Naturally I want it to go away. So I looked that up too. This afternoon I called several wildlife removal places...do you have any idea how much it costs to remove a woodchuck? Whoa! Now I'm hoping that the dogs scared it away for good because$300 is a lot to spend to get rid of a rodent. Geez, maybe we should just get a shot gun!

Things that made me laugh hysterically last night...

I dunno, I was in a funny mood I guess but these t-shirts made me laugh till I cried!

Tweet tweet

There's the mama, delivering lunch...

And look at the babies!!! Geez, just last week they were tee-tiny ugly pink things. My goodness they grow up fast.

Lest you forget...

Memorial Day Order
I. The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form or ceremony is prescribed, but Posts and comrades will, in their own way, arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

We are organized, Comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose among other things, "of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers sailors and Marines, who united to suppress the late rebellion." What can aid more to assure this result than by cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead? We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the nation can add to their adornment and security, is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.

If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain in us.

Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains, and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledge to aid and assist those whom they have left among us a sacred charge upon the Nation's gratitude—the soldiers and sailors widow and orphan.

II. It is the purpose of the Commander in Chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to call attention to this Order, and lend its friendly aid in bringing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith.

III. Department commanders will use every effort to make this Order effective.

—General Orders No. 11, Grand Army of the Republic Headquarters[1].

Bath time and other things...

I gave Pepper a bath last night after I groomed her. Man does she look funny wet! I must say though, she looks especially pretty today. Not so rascally anymore. I can't wait to get my hands on Greta!

The little peeps in the helmet are growing by leaps and bounds! They're all fuzzy now. I don't think there are 6 of them anymore though. The last few days I've only seen 4 of them. They should be ready to leave the next next week so I'll keep my eyes open!

And here we are at the end of May already! Whoosh goes the time. 3 day weekends are always a good thing to look forward too. This weekend, we have lots on the agenda...We want to go see Angels and Demons. There's a great sale on landscaping stuff at Menard's. Only .99 for retaining wall stones! We're going to get some for our newly designed front yard. And there's always the bathroom to work on. I mean, it's only been a year now...it has to get finished eventually...doesn't it?

Oh, and it's time to start making our hotel reservations for our 20th anniversary vacation!!! I'm getting excited :-) Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. Mountains, caves and rolling green hills. Ahhhhhh.

Life is good

You know, I love the whole Life is Good line. They have the best graphics on their shirts...like these...

But the opposite line, Life is Crap, is pretty funny!

I could have used some of theses...

I might still like to get the dentist one, just on principle. On second thought, he's one of the few people I really wouldn't want to tick off!!!

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Sheer bad luck

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

the breakfast club...

Speedy growth

I had no idea that birds grew so fast.


The 1st picture is from 5/17, and the 2nd one is from today! Notice the yummy dinner waiting for them when they wake up...

A couple of them already have their wings!

How much do YOU know?

Think You Know Everything?

The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for Blood plasma.

No piece of paper can be folded in half more than seven (7) times. Oh go ahead...I'll wait...

Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes or shark attacks.

You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.

Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty (50) years of age or older.

The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one (1) olive from each salad served in first-class.

Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. (Since Venus is normally associated with women, what does this tell you ? That women are going the 'right' direction?)

Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning .

Walt Disney was afraid OF MICE!

PEARLS DISSOLVE IN VINEGAR !

And the best for last.... Turtles can breathe through their butts.

More peeps?

As it turns out, there are SIX little peeps! We feel a sense of responsibility for them now. It's weird.

We had a really great weekend. We went out for breakfast, you know I love breakfast.

Went to a couple nurseries and picked out a few things we both liked.

Got all the house chores done.

Saw Mom off for her trip.

Visited a few car dealerships, where I think I've discovered my next car. I like the Ford Edge best, but...cha ching!!! My next fav was the Toyota Scion. Not the sedan, the square one. It's got everything I love about my PT. Pretty cool.

Bought a new electric lawn mower. No, we didn't get an electric mower to be green. We have a small yard and decided it would just be too much of a hassle to have a gas one. We like it already. It's quieter and much lighter than a gas mower. Even I could do it :-) I won't, but I could.

Designed our front yard landscaping!

And Bill totally cleaned out the man cave and took down the Christmas lights!

I am lovin' this awesome Spring weather.

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Learning new things

Today at work I found the coolest web-site. It's for creating a survey. You know, when you go to those boring work training sessions or seminars, and you get that stupid survey at the end to fill out? Well, there is a web-site called surveymonkey.com where you can create your very own survey and send it out via email. Everyone you send it to answers it and clicks the 'done' button and you can go back into your account and all the answers are collected for you! It's pretty neat. You can make up your own questions or a template is provided.

Other than that newly discovered fun thing, today is dragging. I have a terrible case of eye boogers, which is REALLY annoying.

I want to go home and see the babies. From what I've read, they will be ready to leave the nest in 2 weeks. They must grow pretty fast, I'll have to keep an eye on them or I will miss it! Oh, and they're called, Carolina Wrens. Last night, Bill was working in the man cave and he said the mama bird just kept flying in and out, presumably with tasty treats for the peeps.

The best part of the day so far is...I'm not sleepy!!!! I think I've discovered that it's the allergy medication that is making me sleepy, so I didn't take it today. I guess I'll find out later if that's it or not. Oh, and the other funny thing today, happened to me when I was leaving the house this morning. I got in the car and started to pull out of the driveway when I noticed 3 checkered flags in the flower bed. Man he's funny. He teases me all the time about decorating for every little thing but he saw those race flags in the garage last night and stuck them out in the flower bed. (the Indy 500 is right around the corner) Thanks for playing honey!!!

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We have babies!!!

Click on the baby pictures to see a close up!

*sigh*

Tonight is the season ending of LOST.
I don't mind their format, doing the whole season back to back, like 24. But dang...waiting 9 months for the new season is the pits! It seems like such a long wait, but it gets here before I know it and then I realize how fast the time is flying by and that's followed by the recognition that I'm getting old. RATS!

Also today, I have 2 hours at the dentist to look forward too. AGH!
I'm not afraid it will hurt, but just the thought of 2 hours at the dentist! Ick.

And our little mama bird is still nesting, no peeps yet. From what I've read, they should be cracking out of their eggs this week sometime.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Mother's come in all shapes and sized...

Remember the for the birds post?
http://indyscootergirl.blogspot.com/2009/04/for-birds.html

See the little eggs? You can see 2 but there are 3 of theme

And there's the mama. Nice little cozy home she's got there!

Other interesting things this week....

This week, the oldest living dog in the world celebrated it's 21st birthday. Previously, the oldest living dog was a Beagle mix who died when he was 28!!! Whoa.

It's Voracious Brew week in Seattle.

It was Teacher Appreciation Week.

If you’re creative, you just might be psychotic: (gee, that's great news)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/features/creative-minds-the-links-between-mental-illness-and-creativity-1678929.html

Indianapolis has had 11 inches of rain since March 1st. It's so pretty out there!


And check this out;

A child plays in the surf just south of Santa Barbara, California. The shore is made red from the flames of an out-of-control fire in the area. The blaze has consumed dozens of houses, injured several firefighters and forced more than 30 thousand to evacuate their homes. Aaaaaand, in case you need a nudge ~ Don't forget your Moms on Sunday!!! ~

Names; part 2

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER

Move over, baby Emily. Emma is the new top name among baby girls, ending Emily's 12-year reign.

Jacob remained king among the boys in 2008, his 10th straight year at the top, the Social Security Administration said Friday.

Biblical names dominate the top choices for boys while popular culture appears to have influenced some of the girls' names.

Emma debuted in the top 10 in 2002, the same year that Jennifer Aniston's character on "Friends" gave the name to her TV show baby. In the latest lineup, Emma was followed by Isabella, Emily, Madison and Ava.

The top five boys names remained unchanged from 2007. Jacob was followed by Michael, Ethan, Joshua and Daniel.

Little else changed among the top 10 for either sex. Alexander joined the top 10 at No. 6, while Andrew dropped out. Among the girls, Chloe inched her way up to No. 10 while Hannah dropped out.

Happy Odd Day!

No, not like for odd people ~ for odd numbers.

Today's Odd Day Is 1 In 6 Per Century

Prepare to be challenged by your mathematical skills today as you may be asked by friends and teachers about your knowledge of odd day. Indeed, today, 5/7/09 is the Odd Day, which happens only six times per one hundred years.
This is the third odd day of the 21st century, one in six. The reason it's called an Odd Day is because it features three consecutive odd numbers: 05/07/09.

What will they think of next. Why didn't they call it Primary Numbers Day? Is there such a thing as Even Day, I wondered out loud. Hmmmm. You could Goggle it, but you won't find it (coach). There is no such thing. Well, there is, but it's not actually news worthy. I think that's discriminatory. Odd Day must have been presented to odd news people by an odd person to get such odd attention. Don't you think? I like being odd occasionally, but I'm more fond of even numbers myself. My birthday is on an even number (odd year). I got married on an even number (odd year).

Ewwwwww, this is getting creepy!

What's in a name...

I see a lot of names, all day long, at work. Some folks have pretty wacky names. That whole inappropriate email address thing is a choice, but having a wacky name isn't. So...here's some tips for what NOT to name your kid;

If your last name is Stein, don't name your son Frank Newel.
If your last name is Flower, don't give your daughter a name like Rose or Daisy.
If your last name is Brown, it's not funny or even clever to name your son Charlie.
And you might think you're a comedic genius, but if your last name is Martin and you name your kid Rowen, you're just dumb. Same goes for those people who name their kids Prince, Charles or King, James. Really, that's SO not cute anymore.

Does anybody like the dentist???

Seriously. Okay, I have to admit, I really do like my dentist. My motto used to be, if it doesn't hurt, I'm not going. Now, I go faithfully ever six months. He's the BEST! As a matter of fact, I've been going to him since 1995 and I am no longer afraid to go. He's gentle and kind. He has a good sense of humor and he probably loves me ~ I'm paying for at least 1 of his 3 kids college education! Aaaand, even though he doesn't have to anymore, he still calls me the day after I've had work done, to see if I'm doing okay.
Even so, I still don't like having dental work done. I guess it's not so much the pain now as it is the money. Good grief. Plus, it's never easy for me. It's never just a filling. (rolling my eyes) It's always a crown. Maybe I have 6 or 7 teeth that are still natural. I HATE MY TEETH! My man has ONE cavity his whole entire life. Why is that fair? Huh? Why? Well, it's NOT. Grrrrrrrr. Do you know how much a crown costs?????? And there is no such thing as good dental insurance anymore. *sigh*

Todays happy thought is

Do I really need to say anything? *sigh*

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