Another Day

We are not going to Baltimore because Mom fell yesterday.  She says she didn't fall but won't say how she got on the floor. She didn't feel well all day. I sat there yesterday until 3PM while she slept and came back at 7pm.  This morning I called her and she said she was dressed, nothing hurts and she just feels sleepy. It gives us three extra days to get ready for the puppy and Christmas.

Getting ready for Christmas

All my shopping is done and the house is nice and clean(that is because we hosted the Lions Christmas party on Sunday). Now all we have to do is set up all the beds and mattresses for 16 overnight guests for Christmas.  They will start arriving on the 19th of December.  Unfortunately we won't be home because we will be in Baltimore on the 19th for daughter Amy's graduation with her master's degree. By the 21st almost everyone will be here. We will also be picking up our new puppy that we will be raising for Leader Dog. We will name her Mindy. She is a black, Labrador-golden retriever cross. The dog we raised last year, Penny is almost finished with her training and in a month will be assigned to a blind person. We are very proud of her. Honestly we didn't think she had a prayer. That day is also my Mom's 96th birthday, but we will celebrate on the 22nd. So it looks like a busy season with a 7 week old puppy.

Obedience Class

We took Penny to the Leader Dog obedience class, like we do every Tuesday night. She was slightly more distracted than usual as the class was outside. The teacher had brought a singing frog  as a distraction for the dogs,  All through class Penny had only one goal - KILL THAT FROG. After class the teacher told us we had done a wonderful job with a difficult dog and not to take it personally when she is career changed.  (That is the nice way they put it when she flunks out.)

Quilting

I have made close to 50 quilts in my lifetime and most of them have been hand quilted.  I have been trying to learn to do machine quilting.  I have a beautiful Bernina machine with a stitch regulator but it is not as easy as it looks. I tried a baby quilt that I want to give as a shower gift but it just didn't look right so I ripped out the machine quilting and I will get out my hoop tonight.

Penny Eats Everything

Penny turned  one year old last week. She is a really good dog and can be very well behaved, except, she eats everything. Anything that falls to the ground disappears immediately. There are the usual, napkins, paper towels and Kleenexes. She also eats any scrap of paper, or plastic.  We have removed from her mouth wine corks, bottle caps and Swifter dusters. (well she swallowed the Swifter duster and we had to bring it back up. ) In my sewing room she has swallowed straight pins and enough fabric to make a small quilt. Hubby thinks the colored poop is funny. We cannot let her run even in the backyard because 3 times now she has eaten something toxic and goes through a few hours of vomiting and diarrhea. We have cordoned off the rhubarb and we know she isn't eating the rhododendron or hydrangea.  I personally picked all the toadstool out of the front yard today.

Snow on the Mountain

Hubby worries a lot that Penny will never live long enough to become a Leader Dog. That is because she will eat anything. I am sure if we gave her a bucket of nails and dirty Kleenexes for her dinner she would finish the whole thing. Yesterday she ate some Snow on the Mountain.  We had gone through our whole garden with the list of toxic plants.  Hubby even put chicken wire around the rhubarb.  We don't grow Snow on the Mountain, but the neighbors do and nothing can control that plant. Penny really felt bad. Even though I took it away from her right away, penny was really feeling bad.  She was salivating heavily and acted like she had a tummy ache.  Today she is fine.

The Farmer's Market

Today we went to the Oakland County Farmer's Market.  We bought our vegetable plants for the garden.  In Michigan it is a standard rule not to plant before Memorial Day because of the danger of frost. We had been to the market earlier this spring and bought the hanging baskets for the front porch and the fuchsia for the humming birds, but those I can bring in if need be. Today the market was very crowded.  We took Penny and she was pretty good.  I walked her up and down between the flower vendors while Hubby picked out the vegetable plants.  We then went to Telly's nursery because Hubby had a question about his roses and the rose lady there is tops. Then we made a quick trip to Uncle Luke's Feed Store and got home in time for the roofing contractor to give us an estimate.