This is the other corner of my backyard. Only this isn't a true depiction of what it now looks like. The fence line to the right in the picture has about a 6 to 12 inch deep trench dug along it. Courtesy of the Beagle.

Landscape Help Please!

This is one corner of my yard. We had to lay chicken wire on the ground and up the fence. The Beagle loves to dig. I couldn't imagine what he was digging after. My neighbor told me there were gophers. No way I said. Yes, way. My Beagle, Tyke, was ever so nice as to present me with a dead gopher at the back door. So, the digging continues. The chicken wire stopped him from going under the fence but it did not stop him from digging.






This is the present view I see most often from my dining room and living room window. A far cry from the beautiful flowers I long to see.

I have racked my brains trying to think of a solution. The idea of a shock collar was the first idea. However, our fence line shares three yards, all of which have children. The yard behind us has 3 boys that just love our dogs. I love to look out the window and see Little Girl laying on her back with little hands stretched through the fence to scratch her belly. So then the idea of the kind of collar that requires me to push a button to shock the dog. That would work if I were home to shock him. Honestly, the whole idea of shocking bugs the snot out of me. Is there one out there that would sound a high irritating to the dogs frequency? OK, so here's my new idea. You know the barrels that they cut in half to plant flowers and plants in? I could put three in the two back corners of the yard. Then I could plant all different kinds of flowers in it. I want something that will trail the fence too. This idea will most likely be a bit expensive. If you guys have any suggestions please feel free to let me know!

My dear husband has cooked a to die for pasta dish, so I must leave you to go eat. Have a great Sunday.

Great Day

Today was a great day at work. Tonight we went out to eat. We took a friend out with us.
When we lived in Virginia Bch., Va we met a young single marine. We had him over a bit for dinner. Then the Corps took us different paths only to bring us together again in 29 Palms. At the time he had gotten married and had his first son and expecting his 2nd. Once again the Corps took us different directions. A couple days ago Michael said he was here. He is actually stationed in Okinawa and is here TAD. It was so great to see him and visit. He has since divorced and remarried and has a 4 yr old daughter. Lots of time has passed since we've seen each other. I love to listen to the 2 guys share stories and memories of past duty stations. It was a nice relaxing evening.

I have a new vacuum cleaner! I burned the motor up on my last one. The new one has a light that indicates if the carpet is dirty or clean. It was quite intriguing. My husband finally said that perhaps I should vacuum more regularly and try to get the clean light to come on over a period of time. I live in the desert with two kids and two dogs. LOTS of sand.

I had another flat tire. I'm not used to having flats when the tread is still good. Usually it's flat because there is no more tread.

Funny how when I go to work things start to break. I do tithe, so that's not what I'm missing. Michael used to get so upset. Seemed like every time we started to get a little financially ahead some thing big would bust. (flat tires and vacuum cleaners are not big) He would be frustrated that we would have to spend the $; I would be very grateful that we had the $ to replace the item. I do agree that we are going to have to figure out how to eat at home even though we are now both working. I wonder if I could find a maid AND a cook. If we could agree on the pay and I would accept the quality of the job done I'm sure my daughter would help out. Some how, clean to my standards in exchange for free transportation and food doesn't cut it for her. She did clean for me for a while, but I was relentless in my standards. Always found something that wasn't done quite right. I don't blame her for quitting. Even with pay that gets old and frustrating. Good grief did I get side tracked!

No much going on here. Just work and school.

Random Thoughts

Every now and then I have these 'you know you're old when' thoughts. Now, I really don't think of myself as old. However, the other day I was finishing up the paper work on a patient and realized he was born the same year I graduated from high school. The patient was 24 years old!! No way, you've got to be kidding me.


Julie asked where the kids were going to school now.
Gabrielle is going to the local Jr. college. We enrolled her in the High School completion program. She is taking two college classes that counts as High School and College credit. This has been an incredibly hard thing for her. She is doing a terrific job! What I am so enjoying is seeing her self motivation. She is a procrastinator (self labeled) and she'll let things pile up and then stress herself out. She comes to me and I send her to her school counselor. This lady is a no nonsense lady and she talks very straight to Gab. We had a 3 way conversation several months back when Gab wanted to quit. This is the last stop for a high school diploma. Quitting is not an option. She really wants the diploma she just really stresses out. Once she's over the bump and refocused she's good to go. Yes, it is exhausting!! Right now she's actually talking about taking a summer class. That encourages me. I have had to pull myself back and make her be responsible for herself. I can not tell you how wonderful it is to have another adult verbalize to Gab the same things that I have already told her. Talk about validation. My relationship with Gab is a real challenge. I do love her so much, but we bump heads continuously.
Kevin goes to Calvary Baptist Church School. We did a lot of talking and debating on home schooling next year, as I'm sure you guys remember. However, he will continue next year to Calvary. All of his friends will graduate this year. However, his teacher has decided to stay another year. Now, with me working at least 30 hours a week if not more, he'll need to go to school. Kevin should be a Sr. next year, but he actually has 2 more years left. His dad, teacher and I laid out this plan knowing that he would be in school an extra year. He just needs extra time to finish up and get a good diploma. While, he is handling things much better now, I still fear him quitting after next year whether he's done or not. There are a few options available when we get to that point next year. I was going to go into it now, but that's over a year away. :)
The bus they are riding is the Morongo Transit Authority. The buses run between 29 Palms and Morongo. Kevin has actually run into 2 kids that he remembers from 7th grade. Kind of neat. Gab talked two of her friends into riding the bus with her last week. I think it was a one time thing; made me laugh. The kids riding the bus is actually going to save me a bundle in gas $.

I knew this was going to be a long week when on Monday I told some one to have a good week end. Thank goodness, Kevin and I both have tomorrow off. We both can't wait to sleep in!!!!
We are having a hard time adjusting to getting up so early. We used to leave the house at 0730, now we leave at 0630. That hour makes a huge difference!

I thought I had more to ramble about. Michael is waiting on me to finish proof reading his screen play. He's been working on this for about 2 years now. He found a company that will critique it. He sent it off once and we got back the suggestions, he re wrote it and sent it back again. It was again sent back for some changes, but this time people seemed really interested in it's possibilities. So, if some one actually buys it and we make millions I'll let you guys know---So you can go see the movie of course. It keeps him busy and out of trouble. Think he'll let me be a kept woman if he hits the big time?! I won't hold my breath. :)

Life

Good Morning!
I am actually at work. Our first case cancelled and the next case isn't until 1200. So for the moment I can do some personal things.

I have gone back to work more full time then part time. Supposed to be just part time. My husband really likes for me to work. It has been a bone of contention for many many years! Fortunately I really do enjoy my job. I just always felt that my place was at home with my kids and keeping house. Unfortunately, I never did a real good job at either, which strengthened my husband's desire to have me working. Blah, blah, blah.
Now, that my kids are soon to be 18 and 17, my husband once again started encouraging me strongly to go back to work full time. Then a position actually opened up, so I compromised. I signed for part time with the agreement to work more as needed. That gives me some freedom to take what days I need to keep up with the kids and the house. The kids are riding the public bus back and forth to school. Boy, was that fun. They really balked it at first but have adjusted well. I knew that once they got over the initial fear of the unknown they would be ok. It actually gives them more independence, which is ok. Kevin has no desire at this point to learn to drive, so learning the bus system is a good thing. Gab actually gets herself up and moving now. And she comes home from school when she wants to; she doesn't have to depend on me for transportation.
I suppose I could write forever and bore you to death, but since I'm at work I'll stop for now.

A Shopper...

... I am not!
Remember my grandmother, Mama Fish? She was a shopper. I honestly don't really remember doing any real shopping with her. I remember being in a mall once with her and my Daddy Joe and listening to them talk about how to get out. Yes, they were lost inside the mall. :) My most favorite memory of shopping with Mama Fish was the card store. This Lady loved cards. She would stand for what seemed like hours and read the cards. She would laugh and cry. Then we would smell all the little scented candles together. I honestly can't remember how often we did this together, it may have only been once, but it has been a memory that I treasure. She loved to send people cards too. She taught me one day that she gets all her birthday cards together at the beginning of the month, signs them all and addresses the envelops. Then she writes the date on the card where the stamp goes. Then they are all placed in a special place on her table, I can still see it in my mind's eye. She put them there so she would remember to mail them. Back to shopping, apparently, she liked to look at and touch every thing in the store. And she loved shoes. This became apparent to me when Gabrielle was born. Gabrielle was the benefactor of many adorable shoes. Gabrielle inherited the shopping gene!

This became apparent to me very quickly in life. Now I believe Mama Fish shopped that way all the time. Gab only shows the gene when it comes to clothes and shoes. At first I was so very thankful when she learned to shop in thrift stores. Man, she was so creative and could find some great buys! Then I begin to realize that she believed that thrift meant disposable. Only they are never really just disposed of, just shoved to the back on the closet. I do believe the child has enough shoes to wear a different pair for every day of the month for 2 months with out repeating. No, I didn't teach her this, at least not by example. I'm sure it's the Mama Fish gene.
Course, then again after reading blogs I begin to think maybe just maybe she and my Mama Fish are normal and that I'm missing a gene some where. :) Now once Gab has made a purchase she is done. No that's not correct. Once she has spent all her allotted money she is done. Which, if you are the non shopper tagging along is great! If you are a shopper wishing to keep on then you are out of luck.

Me? When I was a teenager I bought brown sandals because they went with every thing. More then one purse? Most of the time I didn't even carry a purse. I also prefer to shop alone. Yikes! That's some thing I probably shouldn't admit to! I just have a really hard time exclaiming over every item on the rack. Oh How cute is this! and so forth. The other thing I can't seem to do is buy just one shirt. Gab is great at that. Not me. When I go shopping, about once every 3 years I buy a whole seasonal wardrobe. You know three outfits and one pair of shoes to match all.

All this comes after a day of shopping with my wonderful daughter. It helped me to love her and trudge after her as I saw the similarities of my Mama Fish come to the surface in her. I don't know if I'll ever learn to be a shopper or if I ever want to learn. However, I can learn to enjoy to share the experience with others.

Praises

1) Kevin went two weeks with NO home work! That my friends is a miracle. His dad spent a week at school with him just observing; then he put an incentive in place to encourage Kevin. At the same time Kevin's teacher put an incentive in place as well. They each did this separately, unaware of what the other was doing, but at the same time. We are so proud of Kevin.

2) My husband is back. Where did he go? No where physically, but he has been struggling spiritually. Couple months ago I noticed him reading his Bible at night. Couple weeks ago I started falling asleep listening to him memorize scripture. After an incident in the house and a huge teary conversation between the two of us he began praying with me again. Is it every night and routine. NO. But praise the Lord it is there! There is so much security in knowing that your husband is having a relationship with God. I know what my role is to be as a wife regardless of what my husband is doing with his relationship with Christ; but can I just say that know he is walking with Christ makes it so much easier to keep my mouth shut and trust!

3) My friend's and I have been praying for a certain young man to join us at church and last Sunday night he did just that. He even stayed for the youth activity afterwards and seemed to have a great time.

God is good!