Texas Lady

Finally I got to devote some time to sewing!  Yesterday and today I participated in two Babylock seminar/workshops locally.  We had instruction and information in the mornings then in the afternoon we sewed projects.  Yesterday we each made a clutch bag; today we made jewelry travel bags.  Neither project was absolutely perfect and I’ll probably not do these projects again, but I will definitely use the knowledge I gained and the tricks I learned on the projects I have planned.  (I’ll take some photos and post them tomorrow)  And it gave me some ME time outside the house, away from the dogs, even if it meant they had to remain crated longer than normal.  Sometimes I just have to put myself first for my own sanity.  These two days were definitely “reclaiming my sanity” days.

I’m ready to be productive again; it’s been too long for my liking.  The puppies are getting old enough now that I think I’ll be able to start sewing again here at the house.  Friday Keira will get spayed and micro-chipped and have a floating dew-claw removed but, other than that and getting my nails done one day, it should be an easy week…..I hope.  Keira will follow wherever I go in the house (or outside, for that matter) but Zoe will get stuck in one room and if I walk away she won’t follow, then she will sit and cry until I come and get her.  I will pick her up and put her in the doggie bed in my sewing room and she’ll sit in there and play with any other dogs that come around, and she’s content to just hang out.  I jockey the others from crate to freedom all day and if I need to do something which requires any amount of brainpower I will crate a lot of the dogs so they don’t distract me or cause me to do something unsafe.  It’s not like their crates are prison.  They each have at least 2 or 3 (sometimes more) fleece blankets color-coded for specific dogs in their particular crates.  Some are embroidered with their names.  Max has about 8 blankets, an old comforter and a sleeping bag (because of the density of the padding for a 90 pound dog’s crate).  They have food bowls inside their crates (the puppies have water and food).  They all have toys to play with or chew on, so they’re not exactly being injured if I make them go to their crates so I can do something that has nothing to do with them.  I have multiple patterns to make for the dogs as well that I haven’t been able to even start since I’ve been so busy.  Right now I see in my crystal ball that there is sewing in my near future.  Abracadabra!!!!!!!!!

Today Ronnie didn’t have to work so we’ve just kicked back, played with the dogs, watched a lot of television, updated our rescue website, etc., just a lazy, happy day.  I’m sure if I’d tried harder I could have accomplished something but I really didn’t give a damn.  It was nice to have my husband home and happy, and to enjoy our animal children.  I took a bunch of photos but the one above will give you an idea how big the puppies are getting and how their coloration is developing.  They were both solid white when we brought them home but now they’re turning a caramel color in places.  That’s what Bandit did, too.  When we got him he was mostly white and the colors developed over time.  He’s a beautiful dog and has a wonderful personality besides; he’s been a lovely addition to our canine family and will be 3 years old in July (we’ve had him since he was 8 weeks old).

I got my jury summons in the mail yesterday so I know where I’ll be at the end of May.  I haven’t been called for years so I really can’t complain.  Since I’m retired I have plenty of time and don’t have to deal with trying to get time off work.  This will be different.

I signed up for a sewing seminar on Friday; it’ll be the first with my new serger.  I am supposed to get instructional classes with both of my new machines but between my schedule and the shop’s schedule that hasn’t happened yet.  So this will be the first class at this particular shop.  Maybe I can get some of my questions answered while I’m there.  They also have one on Saturday for sewing but I haven’t signed up yet.  I’ll see how I like this one and go from there.  I really hope I like them because I’ve loved every other class I’ve taken anywhere else.  There’s a great class of people who do sewing and I find myself enjoying their company no matter what the class has been for or where it was held.  I hope that holds with this shop.

Ronnie’s family lost another member today due to a brain aneurysm.  She was only in her 20’s and was an only child so it is a big loss to her parents.  It’s always sad when a parent loses a child; it’s not supposed to work that way but it does far too often….sigh….

OMG has it been busy lately!!!!!!!!  I’ve vacillated between busy as hell and tired as hell for the past couple of weeks.  I don’t think there’s an in-between anymore!  By adding 3 dogs to the pack (total of 10 dogs now) I have lost the little time I had for myself.  I’ve only had a couple of hours to sew since we got the pups last month.  I intended to sew today and let Ronnie babysit the dogs but I was too tired to give a damn.  I wouldn’t take anything for the puppies but I didn’t know they would be so time-consuming.  Guess it’s been too long since we had puppies around here, but I can’t let them out of their crates unattended, they have to be watched outside or inside, and that eats up so much time.  I was already circulating the dogs in and out of crates but at least the big dogs didn’t have to be monitored so closely; I could let them run free for a bit before I did the next swap.  The good thing is that they’re growing, happy and healthy.  They went to their first adoption event on Saturday and got a lot of attention.

Here is Ronnie eating a Cuban sandwich and watching the babies on the patio of the vet clinic where the adoption event/garage sale was taking place.  I had left my camera at home so was taking photographs with my phone.  So far I think I’m the only volunteer that took any pictures at all.  Pups in the photo are Keira, the white female Chihuahua puppy, and Gino, the brown male Chihuahua.  They were both very well-behaved and the weather was gorgeous.  Our rescue organization made about $1300, too.  Can’t beat that with a stick!

Being so busy has really messed up my WW program, too.  I’ve been so distracted that the past week my program went to hell.  I’m intent on getting control of it again this week.  I’m beginning to get my head together again ( I think, I hope) and that’s at the top of my agenda.  I don’t have as many appointments this week as I did last week and Ronnie is doing much better post-op and doesn’t have another doctor’s visit until the end of next week.  I have some phone calls and some “ME” appointments (facial, nails) and I have to get ahold of Maximus’ trainer and figure out how we’re going to handle that.  Two dogs have to go in for grooming but no more vet visits until the 22nd (for the puppies), thankfully.  Vet visits are 35 miles round-trip and sometimes I go 2 or 3 times a week.  That is very time-consuming, as well, but you do what you have to do when you do rescue.

I had sewn a few small toys with bells inside for the puppies to play with and intended to make some “cat toys” to sell at adoption events and that’s all I’ve done sewing-wise for over a month.  I have so many projects ready to be started or finished and so many more in my head yet to come, but they’ll have to wait while I play catch-up with my life.  It had really started to get the best of me toward the beginning of the week, but I’ve felt a lot better the past few days so I hope I’m coming out of my slump.  It’s supposed to be a pretty week and that always helps the Seasonal Affective Disorder slump I go through.  I have my fingers crossed anyway.

We had another nice day today.  Since I stayed up until almost 5 AM last night (this morning?) I slept in but I knew Ronnie wanted to go shopping for some new western shirts today so I tried to wake up as soon as credible.  We went a couple of places and bought him about 4 shirts then went out for oriental food before finishing the errands.  After all the hubbub was over we came home and took the dogs out on the patio so they could play and we could take photographs.  Ronnie’s nephew came by and we had a pleasant visit while the dogs played and rolled in the grass.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we took over 500 megs of pictures.  We got one of our former foster dogs (Gino) back because his owner could no longer care for him so we have him up for adoption again.     Top photo: Zoe is standing between my feet where you can really see how tiny she is.)

Second photograph : “Are you my mama?”, says Zoe to Mimi.  Gypsy, Zoe and Mimi on the patio today.  Mimi has adopted the two new white puppies.  She must look like their mama because they both went right to her.  She even let Zoe nurse yesterday.  She corrects them and plays with them.  We’ve never seen this side of Miss Mimi so it’s been a very pleasant experience.

Bandit listens to every word that Keira says to him.  He knows she’d never lead him wrong.  Knowing  sweet Bandit he’d never tell her she was wrong.  He thinks she’s pretty damned cute.

So we have this new flyer out for Gino’s adoption.  He’s a sweet little Chihuahua boy, who has been neutered and is up to date on all shots and has been started on his monthly heartworm preventative.  All that boy needs is a furever family to love on, and a lap to lounge in.  He’s only 19 months old and weighs 5 whole pounds.

You can contact me, Cheri Lindsey, at dustyrose@verizon.net  or call 409-692-9962, or you can contact Tails in Transition Animal Rescue and talk with Ashlee 713-530-2542  Email: picklepms@gmail.com or info@tailsintransition.org   Please allow 24-48 hours for a reply as she attends college and works full time.

Our online adoption application can be found here: http://formsmarts.com/form/qx0

Got the professional photos of the new babies and they are precious with a capital P!  They’re posted at the bottom of this entry.  Both girls are doing well and growing.  Keira (big puppy) is what our vet calls “a ball of fire”.  She is rough and tumble and never runs down.  She was too rough with Zoe so I had to put them in separate crates.  I was afraid she was going to hurt Zoe in some way that couldn’t be fixed (like losing an eye or causing nerve damage) and I couldn’t allow that to happen.

I took Zoe back to the vet yesterday to get her skin rechecked and she’d gained 0.2 pounds, up to 1.1 pounds this week.  What a hefty girl, huh?  NOT!  I don’t know what Keira weighs this week but she’s getting to be a little chunk; I’d say she’s over 3 pounds now.  The main thing is that they are both alive, healthy and happy; the rest is incidental.

I did get in the sewing room one day and made some small-dog toys for the girls with bells inside.  The weren’t as easy as I expected them to be but I did sew that day long enough to find out what “didn’t” work, so hopefully I now know what will for when I go back and do some more.  Today was the day for Ronnie’s pre-ops so we were gone all day.  Since Ronnie’s surgery is late Thursday Maximus and I are going to have to miss this week’s training class, so we’re going tomorrow instead.  Wish us luck!  This will be the first time Maximus has gone to a training class by himself and I’m hoping for the best.  This is the guy who trains for obedience and socialization which are two things Max needs in the worst way.  I went to the first meeting for the 8-week course last week but we weren’t to bring our dogs so tomorrow will be the first time Max will see Jason and vice versa.  Ought to be interesting, to say the least.  I really have high hopes for this class.  This guy came highly recommended by rescue peeps who would know.  And he’s also local, like his house is less than 5 minutes away and the classes are in the next little town from our little town.  Too cool!  The last trainer was in Galveston so it took more planning and driving to make those work.  Bandit and Maximus learned to sit and down on command and “sometimes” they will stay for an infinitesimal amount of time.  LOL  Not their fault their momma (ME) stopped teaching them and only remembers “some”times to practice it with them.

My daughter brought me her laptop yesterday for repair but it wasn’t anything I could fix so I dropped it at the shop today.  When I bought the new Desktop computer I moved my new laptop into the sewing room.  The battery was completely charged up, the plug was unplugged and nobody bothered it at all.  But when I tried to boot it up it wouldn’t so I figured I was going to have a job to do to get it up and working properly again.  It is still under warranty so it’d had to be shipped to HP for repairs.  We didn’t figure it out but all the sudden it started working again by itself.  Weird shit.  But it’s still working and that’s all that matters now.  Now it’s been relegated to the sewing room and the desktop is on my desk, maybe until the new wears off and if I continue to like the desktop it may stay this way.  The desktop has a 23″ screen, the laptop 19″, so either of them will beat the 14” laptop that was in there.  It’s hard to work on embroidery design software on a little tiny screen.