It's a Hard Knock Life

Rudy had a play date this morning with Hobbit. I think he is plum worn out. Look closely. That is a chew toy in his mouth. And he is sound asleep.

Lazy Days

Rudy and I have been lazy. Not that we haven't been doing ANYTHING. We've taken a trip to the ranch to be hermits. We've celebrated my birthday. We've been spinning and knitting and scrapbooking. We've played with The Zoe. We've been chilling. It has been great. 

We feed him. Honest.

Ya think?!

We're in bed last night. Cuddle Buns, Rudy, and me. I'm reading. Cuddle Buns is ready to drift off. Then he says: "Do you think Rudy is spoiled?" I look over to see Rudy, under the covers next to Cuddle Buns with his head on Cuddle Bun's pillow. Looking at me like....WHAT?

My Rancheros

Zoey and I left for The Ranch on Thursday. What a time we had! The Ranch is NW of Hamilton way NW of Temple. It belongs to Cuddle Bun's brother and his wife. It is an awesome retreat!

We fed the cows and got to pet them.

And take their pictures. (With that camera, Zoey's shots look strangely like Cinderella.) (She is a very serious photographer. Takes after her gramma who apparently has dropped out of her online photography class.)

We walked all over nearly 100 acres. (Yes....her pants ARE falling down. They were wet and muddy and therefore a  heavy weight. They probably would have fallen down anyway. The girl has no butt! )

We walked up the "mountain" 4 or 5 times for these views:

A glorious view, isn't it?

 We found the windmill several times.

And Rudy got to wade in the pond. Zoey only got close enough to throw deer corn into it for the fish.

Our walking was off-and-on all day on Friday. Beautiful day for walking. On Saturday it snowed. NOT KIDDING. Not a real snow, according to NW Iowa standards. But it was snow! Momentary snow. With winds at 30 mph. So, cold, wet, horizontal snow.

Rudy and I came home Saturday evening while Zoey stayed with her Daddy for an extra day. Rudy was exhausted. After a bath (no way he was getting into bed with me with mud encrusting him and pond stink on him!) he passed out. Burrowed under the pillows and all tucked in.

Day 5 of Rudy Watch

I didn't mention this earlier because I didn't want all 3 of you to worry, but Monday morning when I got up I felt the need to rush Rudy to the vet. He hadn't been eating for about a week. Not hardly at all. He was still frisky. Still drinking. Still playing tug. Just not eating. I tried a new food, and Monday morning, bright and early, after sampling the new food, he threw up. So I immediately called the vet.

Dr. Key (bless him...he's been our vet for as long as we've lived in Humble and had pets) checked him out and found nothing wrong. He said, "You know what it's like. We don't always feel like eating either." I think my stomach growled when I assured him that I had indeed no idea what he was talking about. Dr. Key offered to do blood work but thought we should just watch him for lethargy, yadayadayada.

So, I brought him home (Rudy, not Dr. Key) and we have been watching him. More so than usual. Cuddle Buns has been giving me reports in the morning before he goes to work to let me know if Rudy just peed or peed AND pooped during his pre-dawn outside time.

And now I have probably created a binge eater. Everytime poor Rudy takes a nibble I cheer and tell him what a good boy he is. Today he ate all of his breakfast AND all of his dinner. He was very proud. As was I.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day. The kind of day I used to spend in a windowless school wishing I could escape to enjoy the warm weather with no humidity. We only get about three days like that a year here in the Houston area. 

Rudy spends most of his day outside when it is nice. Today, I sat outside for a long while with him. Luxurious. Brilliant sky. Breeze that moved the wind chimes. Birds chirping like crazy.

I tried to get a shot of the intense green of the trees against the splendid blue sky.

Rudy wasn't paying any attention to the weather or the sky or the breeze in the trees. He was busy trying to burrow under the fence to properly meet his new friend. They were nose-to-nose all day. We might need a play date.

TO THE LIBRARY LADIES (and really to most everyone I've seen this week): Thanks for looking so patiently at Rudy's baby book and cooing the expected oohhs and aahhhs. I agree. He was the cutest baby ever. And still is!

Fridge Art

Rudy can't draw yet, so I have none of his work from our fridge to display. However, with three of the grandkids destined for The Louvre, he will have some catching up to do. (He's much younger than they are, to be fair.)

When she becomes famous, I'm sure psychologists will have a field day with Zoe's early works.

She also works with magnets. 

Only the "U" gets to sing in the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics thingy. All the other letters are used in an upsweep fashion that she diligently checks for order when she comes over. I'm sure I've seen some of her future performance art, as well.

At the top of the fridge is a masterpiece by Maddox. He works in tape. This jet liner is several sheets taped masterfully together.

Maddox spent hours at Christmas taping together telescopes for Gramma and Gramps as well as other murals. I can't wait for him to discover duct tape. Think of the possibilities!

This rocket ship is by Hayden. (YES. It IS a rocket ship.)

If you read closely, you will discover that he has indicated that the ship runs on electricity and not on fuel. Very forward thinking child. Another amazing thing about this art work is that only months ago, he flat out refused to hold a pen or pencil unless bribed with M&Ms  or Hershey Kisses. Amazing stuff.

At this point I would like to say a special THANK YOU to Cuddle Buns. He has been such a good sport putting up with my artistic endeavors. Although not as creative or even productive as my grandkids, I do dabble. For the last few days I have had an extra table set up in my kitchen for my scrapping attempts. Now, that in-and-of-itself is a pretty big deal. BUT, when you consider that my kitchen is the size of a postage stamp, he has truly been heroic in his silence of this mess creative exploration. 

The table started out in the living room. But, we spend a fair bit of time in the living room, and I thought it should have an air of order. Besides, all my knitting stuff is in there.

I guess being prepared should be part of your budget...

Today a friend and I trekked over to the Lonestar Scrapbooking Company to pick up our passports to begin this weekend's Crop Hop (don't ask Cuddle Buns about it--he just rolls his eyes) and we stopped at Mercer Arboretum so my scrapping/gardening friend could exchange a t-shirt at their gift shop. I haven't been to Mercer for years. We took a quick tour (it is still winter, after all, and not much blooming/growing yet) and then went into the gift shop. It really was a cute little place. The proprietor is trying to fill the shop with unique gifts made locally. Most are. I especially liked the garden sculptures made from gardening tools and implements. But I instantly fell in love with this bronzy looking tree in the window. I'm thinking of all the wonderful Easter eggs my mom made when we were kids and thinking it would look great in the middle of my table all year long, decorated appropriately for each season.

It wasn't for sale. The proprietor told me she had purchased it at Costco and was getting ready to put magnets on it that would be for sale. She pointed out another she had with jewelry hanging on it.

Man. Another use for said tree!

So, I just got online to see where our nearest Costco was and to see if maybe I could just go ahead and order it and have it shipped right to me instead of driving clear across Texas to Willowbrook (Google Maps says 16 miles. My foot.)  I didn't find the tree, but LOOK WHAT I FOUND!

You can order them online. Just put them in your shopping cart. Wonder where you would store it until you need to use it. Wonder what the postman would think. Wonder what the neighbors would think. : )