Ball Don't Lie

Need I say more?

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Spartan Saturday

There is a Fathead on the wall of our great room in our house.
It came via UPS yesterday. Yooper was very excited about this. He ordered it a few days ago. He ordered two. One for our home and one to wear proudly in our clinic. Wolverine fans will like him even more. This will make a great conversation piece.

This is a Michigan State University Spartan sign. Today the MSU Spartans play University of Connecticut for the NCAA basketball final four game.
Have you figured out we are huge Spartan basketball fans?


The Fathead sits above our entertainment center which surrounds our television. We have to watch this game with rabbit ears attached to our TV because our satellite provider has told us we can not receive "local channels". We haven't been able to receive "local channels" through our satellite provider for 10 years.
The game is on CBS. It is 2009 and we have a big screen TV and we have to use rabbit ears to get reception and watch our Spartans. I can't believe rabbit ears still exist. I can go on the internet with my cell phone and read my blog.......but I have to use silly antenna thingys, called rabbit ears to watch a basketball game on television.

The joys of living in the country.

GO SPARTANS!!!!!!!!!!!

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Summer Dream

I had a dream last night that it was summer.



I was so excited and happy and relieved summer had finally graced herself upon me. I was warm. Sun filled my face, giving me a warm glow. I felt sand between my toes, reminding me I had to sand down the calluses cold, dry winter months had grown on my feet. Not to mention remove the remains of 2 month old nail polish on my toenails. Oh how I've longed to walk barefoot outside, to toughen up my feet.



I dreamed it was summer. I could smell flowers. I heard a hummingbird sneaking nectar from a nearby flower. The smell of freshly cut hay drying in the hay field, calmed me. I even welcomed the sound of a neighbor's lawn mower humming along in the distance.



As my dream went on, I soon realized it was the end of August. Summer had suddenly ended, even before it really began. Time in my dream only allowed a day of summer. I was sick and sad, feeling completely devastated. How could summer go by this quickly? Summer suddenly ending was like a death! I felt myself completely mourn this loss.
I woke myself up from this dream. Or maybe it was the rain and wind that began at 5 o'clock this morning pounding on my windows. The rain and wind that has gone on all day long..........
Cold, wet rain with gusting winds. Sometimes snow has been tossed into this mix.
I'm dreaming for summer. And when it finally does arrive, I sure hope it lasts much longer than a day......
I'm also dreaming of a macro lens...................

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Sky Watch Friday ~ Let There Be Rainbows ~

I know skies around here will soon share these. I also know that our hay field will soon be this green and not so brown, dead and barren looking as it does currently. I've been going through my picture files from the past year and found this full rainbow shot. A storm had just passed by bringing out a rainbow.

As I was going through all of my pictures on my computer I suddenly realized I have had my Nikon for a year. I've found it interesting to see how every couple months I had progressed with actually learning what my camera is capable of, and what I wasn't! I started with Auto mode then graduated to Aperature Priority mode then have just about mastered Manual mode, and I haven't looked back since. If anyone of you is interested in what "shootin' gear" I use, I'm thinking of blogging about it and sharing what I use. If that interests you, stay tuned. If the thought of cameras bore you to tears, then please go vacuum your home, because that is what I really should be doing.

Without further ado, go check out other Sky Watch Friday skies and see what horizons others have captured with their cameras.

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Cat Takes Over Bird Feeders

I enjoy watching birds. I like sitting by the window watching them fly in and visit my bird feeders full of yummy seed for them to feast on. Yooper put in a delightful bird feeder hanger, pole, thingy a couple years ago. The post that holds each and every feeder was actually from an old tree that came down on our property. Yooper post hole dug a hole(say that really fast!) and propped the tree in top side down. I was flabbergasted.

"Honey, it should stand up like it was. Root side down."

He liked it just the way it was. So it stands next to our house like a totem pole. A bird feeder totem pole.

I'm over the whole upside down dead tree thing now.

Now I just like to feed birds and watch them visit.

It is fun keeping track of the different types of birds that vacate the area. Especially now with spring here. At least I think spring is here. Red-winged black birds, mourning doves, chickadee-dee-dees, and various others that stop by for a snack.

Lately though I've been noticing a decline in birds visiting. What used to be a mad frenzy of birds eating away at their meals has suddenly dwindled. Now that the deep snow has all but disappeared, a certain feline has been habitating the premises. I'm sure it has to play a part in bird's finding food elsewhere.



And that infamous feline is none other than my lovely, obnoxious, sassy barn cat, Roxie.






As if I didn't feed her enough cat food, she feels it is necessary to eat what the birds have left behind. Birds are such messy things. Look at that scatter of seed all over the ground below their feeders.





There is a problem with Roxie being in the vicinity. She likes to see what all the fuss is about up above her. What bird in their seed size brain would swoop in now for a snack?





Oh to have nails like hers.





Suet cakes. They peaked her interest no doubt.

I'll have to remind her that she is indeed a cat. Not a bird. But a delightful feline.

BORED-OUT-OF-HER-MIND!

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Happy April Fool's Day!

No foolin' around now, hear me?
I've already been fooled once by Ruby and twice by Yooper today.
Trust no one!

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I Heart Faces ~ Pets ~ Anything Goes ~

And my entry for I Heart Faces goes to picture number...............................................



drum roll please......................


...................














..................................................








Have you guessed?.........................................











Are you peeking?





There was a tie actually.........................



So I asked my heathens, I mean favorite kids ever to help pick...........................



And they broke the tie by two votes...............................



I didn't let them cheat........................


And I didn't try to tell them which one to pick..................................

It is this one.
Miss Ruby, star of the weekly Ruby Tuesday shindig.

Taken in 2006 with my film N55 Nikon, 400 ISO(which was the only type of film I bought back then. If I only knew then what I've learned now............thank goodness for digital cameras!)

Thank you my fellow blogger readers for helping me pick an entry for the I Heart Faces pet photo contest. Did you know there were 6 votes for picture 1, 6 for picture deux and 6 votes for picture three? Are you kidding me? I mean come on, how does that happen. Thank goodness for my kids help. Such hard decisions I've encountered today. You can see how it all went down here.
Well just kidding.
Thank you my friends. Be sure to stop on over there to see more cute pictures of beloved pets, large and small, hairy, furry, slimy, big and tall, fat and pudgy. Above all, we love them so.

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Ruby Tuesday ~ Help Me Choose!

Over at I Heart Faces , they are having a special pet photo theme, "Anything Goes", and I am trying to decide on which picture of Ruby to enter. I have gone through the 123,000 some picture files of her taken within the last six months without much luck. I've narrowed it down to three pictures, but can only enter one. So my fellow readers, I need some help here choosing which one. I'm terrible with decision making so I'm leaning on all of you for help.
I only have until tonight to enter, so if you would kindly choose which one you like and think I should enter, I'll tally up the votes and won't hold any of you accountable for the final outcome. HA HA!
Here goes:

Picture numero 1:
My personal fav pic of her. Taken in 2006, with my FILM Nikon N55. I remember this because I was trying to finish up that roll of film in my camera after just coming back from our family trip to the Grand Tetons. This is one of the last two shots left on that roll. I so don't miss film cameras!


Picture numero deux(2):


And picture numero 3:

Leave your vote in the comment section! Thanks so much. I'm counting on you all to help me choose!

Phew, I feel so much better now.

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Mixed Up Monday

My kids, heathens, rugrats, children I birthed are on spring break this week. Spring. Ha. Ha. Very funny. Mother Nature pulled a fast one on me. It was 23 degrees this morning and birds flying around all looked as though they were suffering from serious brain freezing action.
I am not used to my kids being home. Except for their 11 snow days, one just about every week this winter, them being home all week will be my biggest challenge. Not only for my sanity but also for keeping them in line to be well behaved children once they re-enter their school doors next Monday.
I'm trying to get used to the noise this morning. I love my mornings once my kids have been booted out the door and onto their bus, I'm at peace with my cup of coffee and my surf through cyber world, the internet. Not this morning. No quiet. No solace. No peace. Just loud rambunctious heathens terrorizing their Webkinz. Their shouts of "Stop it!" and "I'm going to tell mom!" and "Your'e going to get it!" which equates to brother-sister rantings.
I threaten them with a math test or to write up a thesis on behavioural problems in children during spring break. My kids have mastered rolling of their eyes......
I'm trying to get used to my daughter barging into the bathroom while I am attempting to shave my legs in the shower as she yells for help to fix her el cheapo watch from her McDee's happy meal.
I'm trying to get used to the "Mom, I'm bored" comments I hear throughout the day. I reply back I wish I could be as bored as them. Then I hand them a Swiffer Duster, a bottle of Windex with a roll of paper towel, and urge them to get busy, or else I'm gonna tell their dad.
I'm trying not to cringe at the messes of Webkinz, matchbox cars and other pieces of plastic that assume a role in my kids attempt at playing.
These past few days have not been very condusive to having anything to do with this



or this, since there is now snow and ice covering our driveway.



And all traces of puddles are now ice rinks and it is much too cold to withstand jump rope.



Ice lines the perimeter of our basketball hoop making it too slippery to shoot hoops. Note, this picture surely does not display OUR basketball court. It was taken in January while we vacated the Orlando area.



Unless my son wants to participate in a polar bear plunge, swimming is absolutely out of the question.
Since my little hellions will be home all week, I have projects planned for them. Completely emptying and cleaning my son's fish tank. Tearing my daughter's room apart and making it look like a little girl's bedroom and not some sort of tornadic disaster. Inviting other kids over to our home so they can entertain(terrorize) each other and give me solace.
Thursday, I've been enlisted in working with Yooper at our clinic all day. My mom will have my little heathens all day and she can deal with them. Then I will have to deal with "going to work with my husband day", and being the employee he's having an affair with. Ooooh, I'm liking the sounds of Thursday already!
If any of you have kids on "spring" break, what do you do all week? Have plans? Or were you smart like others and traveled somewhere warm with theme parks and pools and 80 degree temperatures?

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