First Born Survey

Here you go mommies- a different kind of survey for a change - it's all about your your first born! Just copy and paste it!
Another Facebook survey that works here too. :-)

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Nope.

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Oh, yes.

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? surprised/scared/sick/excited

4. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 23/24 (conception/birth - duh)

5. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? home test

6. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? Stan - although he was there at the beginning so you'd think he'd have known...

7. HOW DID YOU TELL YOUR FAMILY? "Baby 88" T-shirt under the Christmas tree for the TX family. Called the rest.

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Definitely not - had a friend who was so disappointed when the doctors were WRONG.

9. DUE DATE? August 10, 1988

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Yeppers. Ate crackers in bed, at work, at church...

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Food - it never tasted better; I was always hungry.

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? Getting fat, the heat (summer pregnancy!) & ugly preggy clothes

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? boy

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? Only when shopping for clothes before he was born - not much to choose from for boys & beautiful little girl's stuff.

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN? 50+. Do not tell a soul. Promise?

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER(S)? yes

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? I knew.

18.DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? No - just got big. Was teased unmercifully about having twins. I asked the doctor if the baby was possibly too big for me to deliver. He said "No". Wrong answer!

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, TX (all my kids are Texans by birth, and they better not forget it)

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 36, all miserable. That kid was happy & healthy where he was.

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Stan in my green 69 Mustang

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? I'm pretty sure Stan was there - dressed quickly in blue for the surgery & commenting on how interesting it was - I had to remind him that I was not a science project. I believe they made him leave when I started yelling at the doctor.

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? C > Because my temp started going up & the labor was not progressing. At my 1st Dr. visit, I asked if he could just knock me out & let me know when it was over. He said "no" then wound up having to put me under.
He wouldn't put in a zipper either...

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? Of course. Major surgery, hello?

25. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 9 lbs, 14 oz

26. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN? 9-9-88

27. WHAT DID YOU NAME YOUR CHILD? Jacob Benjamin

28. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? 20 years, 5 months, 1 day

One Liner

My boy's current favorite one-liner which Jacob picked up from the Medieval Faire "ratcatcher" & Andrew shared with the family the other night:

"Three baby seals walked into a club."

Confusing Temperatures

I have been enjoying the cold temperatures. It's hard to face our sweltering summers in the years when winter never seemed to show its face. The past couple of winters have really confused some of my plants though.

Here is my beautiful rosebud of a daughter with our nectarine tree. Most fruit trees benefit from freezing winter temperatures. They do not, however, do well when temps are freezing one week then nearly 80 for a spell the next.

That's when they bloom. In January. In February. In between every major cold snap until by the springtime they have surrendered and produce
NOTHING. No fruit.







My only productive fruit tree this past year was my 8 year old tangerine, and I'm hoping it doesn't bite the dust with all the freezes we're having this year. Stan & the boys religiously tuck it in it's blankie for each freeze. See the green leaves sprinkled on top of the brown?





While Rachel & I walked around photographing, Molly followed us with this heavy log. She could barely pick it up. Persistantly, she persued us, hoping we would toss that beam - not that we could heft it very far. You can see the grass is frozen dead here
and still pretty green here closer to the house = blessed with sprinkler system & overhead trees.





Here's my winter garden, still hanging in there: onions, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohl robi (new for us - if it does well, I'll have to find some way to cook/eat it! > suggestions are welcome), & collards. None very close to harvesting. All enjoying the rain and cold and sun.




These little bulb flowers surprised me. Along the house on this side is dead space. Everything I plant here dies. Until now! I rescued these plants from the trash, expecting them to die when planted here - not willing to spend more $ on plants that were doomed. Sure enough, they didn't show their pretty pink faces for a couple of years. I forgot they were there. They started blooming during our last hard freeze and are still at it.
Any idea what they are?

This is my Jacobina, one of a pair. They came back after freezing last year and bloomed their pretty pink-purplish blossom cones.

I'd show you my frozen poinsettia but it looks just like this. It, however will not resurrect. It was one of the gamma rayed dna spiky leaved variety. Beautiful but always made me think of Spiderman...

Our sprinklers ran, providing us with bejeweled Monkey grass and icicle laden bushes.





The sprinklers ran about 10 a.m. today. I agree with a couple of friends who say, "If it's gonna be this cold, we want SNOW!"




Then there's this. Not pretty. Not confused. Very icy.






Makes me glad to have one of these. Time to fix some hot chocolate!

Initial Game

Carol started this in Facebook & I figured I'd give it a shot here.
Who wants to play?

It's harder than it looks! Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag 10 people (and lots with your same first initial!). Tag me back please! Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real . . . nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

I thought you might like to see her answers too so left them.

1. What is your name: Carol ...Patti
2. A four letter word: clap... perk
3. A boy's name: Caleb... Paul
4. A girl's name: Catherine... Peggy
5. An occupation: Cop... policeman
6. A color: Chartreuse... PINK
7. Something you wear: Collar... poka-dot socks
8. Something found in your kitchen: Coffee Maker... pizza pan
9. A food: COOKIES!... pancakes
10. Something found in the bathroom: Curling Iron ...powder
11. A place: California... porch in Pennsylvania
12. A reason for being late: Carelessness... partying
13. Something you shout: CowaBunga!... Put that down!
14. A movie title: Cinderella... Princess Bride
15. Something you drink: Cappuccino... punch
16. A musical group: Cranberries (Linger)... Petra
17. An animal: Capybara... pony
18. A street name: Cherry St... Peach St.
19. A type of car: Cadillac baby... pinto
20. The title of a song: Come On Feel the Noise (Quiet Riot)... Pastor Dancing (BOB)

A Spoonful of Jewelry

Have you ever heard of spoon jewelry? I recall (waaaay) back in the 70s having silver spoon rings. I wore mine on my big bells belt loops trying to start a fad. I think I just managed to dent my mom's washer & dryer innards.

You may recall that I told you Don't Give Him Crackers is giving away stuff all week. Today's "prize" is a spoon pendant - just beautiful. You should look at it & tell her to give it to me.
(Jedi mind wave: "Patti should win the pendent")

To see even more interesting pendants, head over to the pendant's maker's blog, My Life is Written on an Etch-a-Sketch and notice that she is also having a give-away celebrating her 300th blog.

I'm thinking I'd better get really thrifty like DGHC or really crafty like MLiWoaEaS prior to my 300th blog.

Or not.
Keeping up with the Joneses has never been a priority for me.
But you never know. :-)

Time to Regulate the Trees

Andrew is taking Ethics at the college this semester. His first assignment was to write a one-sided essay entitled "(something)ticks me off" providing two reasons justifying his claim that the "something" was immoral. He has already been mentally wrestling with this professor who claims that all Christians are bigots so kept his paper light.

Trees Tick Me Off

Trees are immoral. They are the most plentiful large life forms on earth, but they are not currently helpful to other life forms. They are, in fact, detrimental to the health of the surrounding people, animals and smaller plant life. The two main reasons trees are immoral are that trees are dangerous and that they litter.

Trees are immoral because they are dangerous, not just to humans but to animals and other plants also. It is wrong to needlessly hurt animals and people but trees will do this. Trees are dangerous in many ways. They drop sticks and branches and any person, animal or plant not watching carefully could be hit, crushed or potentially impaled. Things dropped from trees such as sticks, branches, pine cones, and sweet gum balls are a hazard to barefooted people or animals who tread upon them. Trees have also been known to fall over and crush any unsuspecting person, creature or plant. Falling trees have also hit houses, sometimes injuring the occupants. Trees do not have the decency to move when something is coming. Cars hit them all the time, making the trees accomplices in causing injury and death. These incidents could be avoided if trees would just get out of the way.
Trees are also immoral because they litter. Litter is harmful to other life forms and is unsightly. There are laws against people littering but trees somehow get around them. Trees litter by dropping sticks, branches, leaves, pinecones, bark, and themselves, all over the place. They drop so many leaves that they will cover the grass or smaller plants, keeping them from getting their life light from the sun and leading to starvation and death. Leaves will also conceal other objects such as rocks and logs which animals and people trip over. I understand litter is usually considered anything non decomposable or unnatural, but what causes more trouble than a big branch or tree across the road? There is not time to wait for it to decompose, someone has to go and move it. For being some of the oldest things on earth they should know better than to drop their waste just anywhere.
The solution to this problem is apparent. Regulations must be made pertaining to trees. There needs to be harsh punishment for injuries or deaths caused by trees, as well as for litter. There must be specific areas for trees to deposit their waste out of the way, where it can be used safely for compost. If laws are not implemented, trees will undoubtedly remain as immoral as ever.

Give-a-way Week

But not on my site.

Dayna (with a Y) turned me on to Don't Give Him Crackers who is celebrating her 500th blog & 2 year "bloggy-versary" with a week of give-a-ways. Cool!

Be sure to check it out all week to see what cool things are given away - and don't forget to enter!