Summer Returns

The cooler weather didn’t last long, the heat has returned today with a vengeance. I remember a few years ago when I first got my first swimming pool that the water was cold all summer. I had to get a solar blanket for it, I didn’t think that having a pool was worth the cost of the chemicals because it wasn’t used that much. Some friends that I know got rid of their pools after that season because it was never warm enough to swim comfortably.

I got the pool for my Grandkids because I wanted them to learn to swim. It worked well, my oldest Grandson can swim well and my two oldest Granddaughters are floating, dog paddling, and swimming expertly underwater.

This year has been the best year ever for owning a swimming pool in southern Indiana. The girls have lived in the water this Summer. They are dark brown from the sun and their hair is a couple of shades lighter. But today the water was cold after a couple of cool nights. They were shocked in more ways than one when they jumped in because they are used to nice warm water. They keep getting out to warm up in the sun.

It’s hard to believe that it is almost September, this Summer has been just one long, super hot, steamy blur. It started out stormy with lots of rain and is ending up dry and dusty. We have gone from grass that wouldn’t quit growing to grass that is drying up and not growing at all. I wonder what this Winter will be like.

Babysittin'

This week was Spring Break for my oldest Grandson. His Mother had to travel to another state, so he has been here for four days, he is going home tonight.

My other Son and his Wife traveled to another state today to attend a gun shoot. So I am watching their two youngest children for the day, ages 17 months and 3 years. They arrived at 5:30 this morning and will be picked up late tonight or during the early morning hours.

I woke up this morning early to receive the kids and had a terrible headache. Thankfully both went back to sleep after their parents left. My head hurt so bad that it made me sick to my stomach. I didn't have anything but Aspirin to take and I couldn't hold them down long enough to help. I finally went back to sleep but my headache has continued all day.

This is my 17 month old Grandson's first full day without his Mother. He is still nursing and has never had a bottle in his life. He has only recently, like in the last two weeks, learned to drink from a sippy cup.

Since his Mom knew that she was leaving him she tried him on Cow's milk yesterday and he wouldn't drink it. He did drink it for me this morning but very slowly and with disgust. His Mom pumped and left about 5 ounces of her milk for him. When I offered it to him he chugged it and cried for more even though it was ice cold. Nothing like Mother's milk! More later...(kids to take care of)

...It is now 11:00 pm and his sister is fast asleep after a busy day with no naps, he on the other hand had an early evening nap and isn't ready for bed. He keeps going to the door and looking up at it, waiting. At one point he laid down in front of the door and I thought that he might go to sleep but I think that he is just watching and waiting for the return of his Mother, he has surely missed her today, poor thing.

A Family Evening

We were so blessed to have all of our family with us on a sunny and warm evening recently. My oldest Grandson and I went for a walk before everyone else came. We went right down into the creek onto a new sandbar that has formed this winter on our stretch of Indian Creek. We have a rather large island with big trees on it, where the creek splits, but now a new island is forming beside the first one. This is good for us because Indian Creek was eating away at our pasture, now it is going the other direction.

I took a few pictures of the creek and the islands. My Grandson did what most boys do he skipped rocks and got his feet wet.

Later our youngest Grandson got to chase a few chickens and meet Angus.

Ladybug Wars

After the first year of welcoming Ladybugs into our home as carriers of good luck, I found that this was just a myth. The following years have been all out war. I found that spraying my windows, outside and inside walls with Raid "Ant and Roach" spray was fairly effective. But last year only a few Ladybugs showed up on our doorstep in October, so I thought that I was either winning the war or their numbers were just dwindling.

I was wrong, as usual. This year they came back with a vengeance. They caught me totally unaware and unprepared. Their numbers have greatly increased and their immune systems are in top notch shape. Someone needs to be studying their immune systems instead of developing all of these wacky flu vaccines.

The first day of their return was in swarms of Biblical proportions. My Grandchildren were here and had planned to spend that beautiful, sunny, Autumn day in the great outdoors. They eventually gave up that dream and complained to me that the Ladybugs were being overly annoying to the point of aggression. I went out with them a few times and we had to stop at the door to scrape them off of one another's clothing before coming back into the house.

I jumped online with my speedy dial-up to see what to do since I had no Raid available. The article that I read suggested Lemon scented household cleaner, any would do. I tried it and it seemed to work as well as the Raid. But even Raid couldn't have kept them out in these numbers and with this determination.

When my DH got home from work on the second day of the attack. He had heard from others who were experiencing the same battles, that Lemon scented candles burning inside one's home could turn away these invaders. He also heard that Wasp and Hornet spray would kill them. I have never tried this but desperate people have desperate ways.

Of course, I had no Lemon scented candles but he had also heard that they don't like Blueberry candles. Believe it or not, I did happen to have one Blueberry scented candle in my candle drawer. With a feeling of this being our last great hope, I triumphantly lit the Blueberry candle in our only bedroom window which happens to be the weak point of our defense.

It really did a great job, I am not saying that it was 100% effective but it was about 89% effective and that is really good when dealing with Ladybugs. Next year I will be armed with both Lemon and Blueberry candles. I will also have Raid "Wasp and Hornet" spray on hand just in case things get ugly.

August Already?

Where did the summer go? Where did the year go?? I can't believe that I have only blogged one time this month. I can't believe that it is already the 14th of August. Christmas is just around the corner. I am trying not to panic...

If you are young, enjoy your youth while you still have time because as you get older the faster time goes by. I was young once and it wasn't that long ago. Days used to have so much time in them. Weeks took forever to go by. A month was nearly an eternity. Not anymore, years are more like weeks used to be.

This summer has just flown by. School has already started or is getting ready to start. I have been spending some quality time with the Grandchildren and they are about to kill me. Seriously, swimming with Grandkids can be hazardous to your health when you are an old Granny. I am so sore tonight as I type this that I can barely move my head and the calf of my left leg is swollen and tender from horrible leg cramps.

The problem is when your oldest Grandson says that you can't dunk him, well, then you just have to prove to him that you are still in control and he isn't as big and tough as he thinks he is at 10 years old. He is big enough and tough enough for me to lean on while trying to walk to the house after I had dunked him several times and my leg cramped up when I tried to go up the ladder to get out of the pool.

I got the pool because I wanted my Grandkids to learn to swim, which is something that I never got to do when I was a kid. They are all doing pretty well, the oldest can swim like a fish and the next to the oldest is diving and swimming with her face under the water with water wings on.

The others still have a ways to go but the trick is to keep them in the water as much as possible. Our two year old Granddaughter is just sure that she can swim. She has no fear and tries to break free of your grasp. Her Mother, Papaw and I just do not have the courage to let her try it.

The Flu Bug

We have taken on a few extra responsibilities over the last several days and that has kept us almost totally offline. We had a terrible windstorm that forced me to keep the computer shut down because of the instability of the electricity, it kept flickering but never went completely out.

Then what was suppose to be a sleep-over for our three Granddaughters turned into a round the clock vigil, when two of them came down with the flu. My DH was puked upon twice and I would not even venture to guess how many times we held a bucket for our oldest Granddaughter.

The first night I slept on the floor beside our oldest Granddaughter's bed and tried my best to keep her fever down and the mess to a minimum. My poor Husband slept with the youngest one, and the bed was nearly a total loss. I have done more laundry over the last few days than I even care to think about, even the dog has thrown-up.

Since the girls have a new infant brother we chose to keep them here for a few days away from him, but the oldest girl just was not getting any better so her parents came after her today. The other two are still with us and fully recovered.

I think that I might even be able to sleep in an actual bed tonight for the first time in two days. I was a little surprised at myself because I actually slept well on the floor and woke up when I needed to throughout the night. I was not even that sore the next day.

Angus is doing very well for those who have asked, he is actually outgrowing the calf who his mother tried to steal, and that calf is nursing both Angus' mother and his own mother.

Thank you so much, Rachel, for getting back to me, but his scours had stopped before I received your message and I didn't receive your message until several days after you had left it.

I am hoping that things might return to somewhat normal soon, but cannot guarantee that for a couple of weeks, I will post when I can.

I Have Returned

It has been nearly a week since my last post, I have gone though a very stressful time, it was called Christmas. We had Christmas early here to give our kids the freedom to keep other family obligations. Christmas should be enjoyable and I did have a good time after everyone arrived, it was the preparation that was stressful.

Having a two year old Granddaughter is just the best, that age is so much fun. The older kids were fun too but after they reach a certain age they tend to be a easily disappointed. Our oldest Grandson wanted expensive gifts this year, Nike Shocks, a Carhartt jacket and a Bible. He really liked them but there were no toys to play with. I remember that age and the disappointment, like something important is missing.

We had our Christmas on Monday evening, then yesterday I just relaxed and didn't spend much time on the computer. We went to town last night after the icy roads cleared up. We ended up at Wal-mart and the famous last words of my DH were; "Just go ahead, look around and I will find you." I wanted to set up a meeting spot but he thought that he wouldn't have a hard time locating me. Needless to say, we both spent hours looking for each other.

We met people that we both knew and they tried to help us out by telling us where they had last seen the other person but that didn't help much. We would run into the same people later and get directions from them again but to no avail. I finally just sat down on a bench in the middle of the store and waited. My feet and back were killing me from the miles that I had walked. He finally wondered by and sat down with me. I suppose if you lived a boring life and liked treasure hunts, you could make it into a healthy pursuit with lots of exercise.

After the 10 mile marathon, we went to McDonald's for an Eggnog Shake, my favorite. Of course, they didn't have them, for the last three weeks every time we have gone there they have told us that their machine was broken. Last night they told us that they had run out and wouldn't be getting anymore in, I was devastated. For the record, the McDonald's in Bedford, Indiana is poorly managed.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, it was very cold here over the weekend and with my Christmas preparations, my dear, sweet Husband took care of all of my animals while I stayed warm and comfortable inside the house.

He fought frozen water tanks and frozen hoses and on Monday morning he brought me a frozen Rooster. Poor Bootstrap was just about dead. He was weak and could hardly support his own head. I sat down and held him for awhile, pried his frozen beak open and rubbed his stiff legs and feet.

Because of his fluffy, new feathers, I couldn't tell that he had lost a lot of weight. He had been acting strange for awhile but he was molting and I thought that was his problem. I wormed and deloused him because he had some leg mites, I also coated his legs with vasoline and made him a straw bed with food and water in our back room. His comb turned blackish purple, but he is eating and drinking and slowly regaining his strength.

My one egg day was just that, one egg for one day. The next day I got five eggs and have gotten 4 to 5 eggs every day since then. The weather has been all over the place, freezing cold, warm and sunny, ice storms, snow flurries, strong winds and right now as I am typing this, I hear thunder and it is suppose to get up to near 60 degrees after an ice covered day yesterday.

Now that my Christmas stress is completely relieved (it feels so good), I will be blogging again. This blog is one year old, I started it on Christmas day last year, it has had over 10,000 views according to my hit counter and those are not page reloads.

I never dreamed that people would find my life interesting in the least, I have never understood this whole social networking business, like My Space or Facebook but I guess it has it's purpose. I know people who have nearly abandoned television altogether for My Space and connecting with their friends. All of their spare time is spent there. I do enjoy reading other people's blogs and finding that there are actually other people out there who live the same sorta life that I live.

** Happy Birthday, Jackie!! **

He's Here!

My three Granddaughters got to welcome their new little baby brother to the world Friday afternoon at 2:30, he weighed in at 7 lbs. and not quite 2 oz. He was 19 in. long and has a full head of dark brown hair.

Google My Life

I guess that I am totally dependent on Google to run my life. I use igoogle for my home page, gmail for my e-mail, Google Reader for my favorite blogs, website articles and my blog comments. Google is my only search engine. Google maps and driving directions help us find our way, Blogger and Blogspot for my blog. I use Google bookmarks. I did use the Google desktop search for finding things on my computer before my hard drive got so bloated that I needed to get rid of some of the excess fat, I also use Picasa2.

I get a little frustrated when I lose something around the house. I sometimes want to sit down and type in the item in a Google search to find out where it is. Then I sadly remember that Google doesn't have my house categorized and indexed, or at least I don't think that they do. Google does know too much about me, it serves me ads about horses, chickens, goats, children, vet supplies, farming, pets, internet technology and electronic gadgets.

It is really pretty scary, they will probably come up with a chip to install in our brains soon to help our memories and give us access to a huge knowledge database. They will have us in a category and index us along with all of our thoughts. We will no longer be human but walking, talking googlebots.

We Caved

I had already decided that we would not buy Elmo Live for our almost two year old Granddaughter for Christmas. But we took her and her older sister to Walmart today while their oldest sister went to the Doctor. The youngest really loves Elmo but we were going to be a little bit more practical than that.

But there he was on the bottom shelf and fully accessible to toddlers. She was so thrilled with him, kept kissing him and looking up at us laughing. What were we suppose to do?? We were snared, caught in a trap, forced to do something against our will.

I've got to give credit to those who come up with these marketing techniques. He is right there in his packaging completely exposed to little hands and in working order. Placing him on the lower two shelves was just a stroke of genius. His cute little voice inviting a kiss was just too much for anyone to resist.

So, we ended up coming home completely defeated and are mustering all of our remaining resources together in a vain effort not to give him to her before Christmas. But wait, I nearly forgot, maybe all is not lost. She has a birthday before Christmas, so we can give him to her early after all.

No Turning Back

Well I made a decision yesterday and there is no turning back. I wanted to wait until December to breed Collette and Paris but Collette was obviously ready yesterday and so we put her with Cooter. The timing was perfect because she stood for him and he got the job done. If she conceives, she will be kidding in mid-March. I would like to have Paris kidding in mid-April. So I will put her in with him next month.

I plan to milk Calico all winter then breed her in the Spring. Putting Collette in with Cooter has also solved my wondering goats issue. Paris and Calico have not gotten out of the fence since Collette has not been there to lead them.

Angel and Abby have finally become friends, they were just tolerating each other but they are finally starting to play together. Abby is just a little more playful than Angel, you would think that she was the youngest.

We enjoyed another nice night under the full moon last night. My DH built a fire under the big Maple tree where our Grandchildren love to play. It is right next to the goat lot. The Grandkids have gathered sticks there for a couple of years and they are always going to the stick pile to play. Their mean old Papaw burnt all of their sticks last night. I told him that he was going to be in some serious big trouble.

The reason that he was burning the kid's stick pile was that we had bought new fence and was going to enlarge the lot to include the big Maple. But while burning the pile and sitting there watching the fire. We decided that losing their favorite spot might give them issues later in life, so we are going to preserve the area and fence the tree outside the goat lot.

We are even going to add a concrete bench to the spot under the tree. The only problem that I see with our plan is that they can no longer call it "The Stick Pile". Unless they get busy and gather a bunch more sticks.

The Girls

Yesterday was just fun, the girls were here. When my oldest Son called and he heard the commotion in the background, he asked, "if the girls were here?". That terminology will have to change when their new brother arrives.

The girl's ate, which is one of their favorite things to do, boys don't seem to really enjoy food like girls do. Then their Papaw took them swimming in what I thought was a really cold pool. Their poor Papaw thought so too, when he got in, but they didn't seem to even notice. Even the youngest one who is a year and a half didn't complain.

After swimming they ate again. Then I took the oldest two girls for a walk to where they plan to build a new house on the back corner of our property. We have to walk through the Enchanted Forest to get there.

The horses have many paths through the Enchanted Forest and the youngest girl who was leading the way kept asking which path to take. I told her that she would have to choose her own path. She had a hard time with that concept, she didn't like making that decision.

The oldest girl was walking behind me on the path, she was talking non-stop. Sometimes it gets a little difficult for these two sisters, because they both love to talk as much as they love to eat.

When we finally made it to our destination, the youngest girl announced that she was itching all over. The oldest girl asked where she was itching and she again said, all over. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that there were some places that she wasn't itching, so she started a running list of all of the places that she wasn't itching, body part by body part.

We started on our journey back home, with the youngest still reciting different names for the same body parts. I told her that we would stop at the first good "sitting" boulder that we came to in the Enchanted Forest and she could scratch the places that itched. The good thing about living in the Limestone Capital of the World is that your Enchanted Forests have good places to sit down.

When we got to the first boulder, it was too big for the girls, ages 4 and 5 to get up on, so I had to lift them. I had a canteen full of sweet tea that I handed to the youngest one, who drank, then shared with her sister. Things were going fine, everyone was sharing and no one had even remembered to scratch.

Then that all changed when the oldest one thought that the youngest one should let her hand the canteen back to me to drink and the youngest one wanted to hand it back to me. So, tempers flared and the oldest one gave the youngest one a slight shove, to which the youngest one answered with a grab and a vicious pinch that resulted in a sharp and loud slap across the cheek. It all happened so fast that I had a hard time separating them.

The peacefulness of the Enchanted Forest was then shattered by the wailing of the youngest Princess. Enchanted Forests tend to lose their charm when the beautiful Princesses are wailing. I finally managed to distract her enough for peace to return. We continued on our journey, talking, listening, choosing paths, picking flowers and picking up rocks.

All in all, it was just a perfect day, they caught some chicks with the help of their Daddy and Papaw. Then of course, they helped me milk.

Too Much Milk

Since I sold Copper, I am milking two goats each day, that results in a lot of milk. It also results in a lot of dirty dishes and no refrigerator space. My sink is piled high right now but I did give my Son one and a half gallons of milk last night, so that freed up some space in the fridge.

I need to find someone to buy part interest in one of my goats, so that I don't drown here. I am already feeding milk to my chickens, dogs and cat. My Schnauzer looks like she could pop at any given moment and my cat is too fat as well. Angel usually gets milk once per day but she must still be growing because she isn't bloated like the other two.

Here are a couple of pictures of our fat cat, Garfield. He loves being packed around by our Granddaughters. You would think that he would run when he sees them coming but he just loves the attention.

Swimming

One thing that I never learned to do when I was a kid was swim. I always regretted that, I wanted my Grandchildren to learn, so I bought a swimming pool a few years ago. Our oldest Grandson, has spent a lot of time in the pool and learned to swim underwater very quickly. He could just not figure out how to swim on top of the water or even dog paddle. Finally this summer he has learned to swim like a fish, he can swim on top of the water, dog paddle and float.

We spent a couple of hours in the pool yesterday, we raced from one side to the other many times, using every form of swimming that we could think of. He can't beat me but it won't be long before he will be able to.

I am jealous of the fact that he can swim on the bottom of the pool, I have not mastered that yet and may never be able to. I am a natural floater, no matter how hard I try to swim completely submerged, something is always surfacing.

I love my pool, it is the one place that I can be very active and not have back pain. I also love taking care of a pool, I got that from my Dad. He took care of the swimming pools for the Monroe County Community Schools before he died of cancer. It was at a time when they first started putting pools in schools. He had worked in maintenance for the school system for many years and they sent him to training when the first pool was built.

I used to go with him to the big filtration room at Bloomington North High School in the evenings and watch him test the water and add chemicals. That huge new pool was always sparkling clean and clear.

I don't use any chemicals in my pool except for bleach. I have a large sand filter and it seems to do it's job. My pool water was clear enough yesterday that I threw 10 mostly clear marbles into it and my Grandson dove for them.

My goal is that all of my Grandchildren learn to swim. I think that just having plenty of access to a pool at a young age is the key to learning.

Easy Goat Milker

I milk using my own hand milker made with a good quality spray nozzle with a stream setting, standard aquarium 7.62M tubing and a 20 ml syringe barrel, this size syringe fits my doe perfectly but my neighbor is using the same size on a doe with very small teats and she says it works great.

I wash the teats and get them good and wet before applying the syringe, this not only cleans them but the wetness helps speed up suction.

I have a stainless steel pan and a lid with a small hole in it, when I am done milking I don't even have to strain the milk, it goes right in the refrigerator. The pan never gets close to the doe, so we don't get any contamination.

I do one side at a time but from the same side. This milker only breaks suction when the teat is empty. My doe gives a gallon of milk per day and this is quicker than hand milking. I do hand milk to strip the bag out occasionally after I am done but I always get less than a cup which goes to the dog, cat or chickens. Chickens love goat's milk by the way.

We run cold water through the milker as soon as possible, then hot water with a little detergent added, then rinse. It isn't hard to clean, all you have to do is hold the syringe barrel under the tap and start squeezing the nozzle.

The best part is that my doe hates being milked and is a kicker but she stands still for this method. Today for the very first time, I opened the gate and she went to the barn and jumped up on the milk stand all by herself. This is real progress!

This picture was taken before I got my stainless steel pan.

My husband has always enjoyed milking by hand but he really likes this, we kinda fight over who gets to milk now. This has taken all of the worry out of getting the milk dirty and I can sit down beside the milk stand and relax for a few minutes. I switch hands back and forth, so it isn't as tiring as hand milking. Even my young grandchildren can milk with this.

If you want to make one for yourself, make sure there are no holes in it anywhere to break the suction and having a good nozzle is important, you have to have a nozzle with a stream setting.

Saturday

We got several things accomplished today. One of our Granddaughters spent the night with us last night, so she kept me hopping all day while my poor DH was at work. We spent most of the day yesterday in a Lawyer's office, so I am not completely over that yet. The hardest thing on my back is sitting for long periods of time, so all I wanted to do today was recline and rest but my Granddaughter had other ideas.

When my husband got home from work, we had someone come to look at horses, then after they left, we started the milking and feeding. We moved Calico with the new babies out of the barn stall and into the goat lot with the others. Jasper was being a little too buckish and wanting to fight the new babies, so we banded him. That is, we wethered him, he is a buck no more. I usually like to wait until they are three months old to do this but Jasper is way to mature for his age in more ways than one. Needless to say that took some of the fight out of him.

Jasper also knocked one of his caps off, that is the remains of his burnt horns. They usually fall off on their own after a couple of weeks, I was beginning to think that Onyx and Jasper's were never going to come off. He knocked his first one off fighting with Calico. Onyx still has both of hers.

Tomorrow is our 34th anniversary and my Husband is trying to be nice but he is having a hard time of it. You see, Angel chewed his hose in two again. I don't know why she wants to get me in so much trouble. I offered to buy him a new hose but that didn't seem to help matters at all. I think he wants Angel's head on a platter. She really is doing much better and we are getting close to being out of the puppy stage but I am not sure I can keep covering for her.

Granddaughter

My oldest, unmarried Granddaughter is 4 years old. She is extremely smart by anyone's standards and not just by mine or her Grandfather's. She has already decided what she is going to be when she grows up; a ballerina, a doctor, a figure skater and a Mommy. This changes from time to time, so I may have left something out. She has pretty much given up the desire to be a Princess and doesn't want to just be beautiful or just be smart, she wants to be both and is accomplishing this right now.

Her Mother recently taught her how to dial both sets of Grandparents and 911 on the phone, in case of emergency. They were all at my house the other day when my telephone rang and I answered it. This little voice started talking to me, asking me who I was and then saying some other things that I couldn't quite make out. I thought that it was a wrong number and I was being nice, I asked who she was wanting to talk to and who she was.

We had talked for a couple of minutes and I kept thinking that it sounded just like my Granddaughter but she and her sisters were all playing in my bedroom and living room, it couldn't be her. Then when I ask her who she was again, she gave me the name of my other daughter-in-law, her Mother got a strange look on her face and jumped up out of her chair and went into our bedroom.

My Granddaughter was hiding on the other side of my bed, on the floor, using her Mother's cell phone. I heard her Mother's voice coming through the receiver of my phone and the little girl that I was talking to started giggling and I finally figured out what was going on.

Early the next morning my telephone rang and I answered it. It was my Granddaughter and she had lots to talk about, she is never at a loss for words. I asked if her Mother knew that she had called me and she said that her Mother was right there in the same room with her. Her Mother does sometimes let her call me but I was suspicious this time.

She told me that her sisters were still asleep and at times her voice would get very soft, like she didn't want someone to hear her. Finally after about 15 minutes of listening to her fill me in about all of the exciting things going on in her tiny world. She suddenly said goodbye and quit talking. I asked her why she was saying goodbye and she whispered that she didn't have to say goodbye right now but that she might have to say goodbye at anytime. So, I ask her again if her Mother knew that she was on the phone and she again said. yes.

Then I could hear their dogs and her Mommy letting the dogs out and I heard her Mom ask who she was talking to. Then her Mom was on the Phone asking how long she had been talking to me. I told her about 17 minutes, she was relieved that she hadn't called me at 6:00 in the morning. She also told me that she had been hiding under the dining room table the whole time and that she had taken the phone off of it's charger on the kitchen counter.

Oh, Deer

Every evening we have two deer that visit us, they always show up while we are doing the evening feeding, they aren't the least bit concerned about us. Angel would bark at them when they first started showing up but she has gotten use to it and now ignores them. They know they have a safe haven here.

Well, we were blessed this evening with all of our Kids and Grandkids coming for a visit and they just happened to be out target shooting with a new BB gun that my Grandson got for Christmas. I just hope that our deer weren't too traumatized and will come back tomorrow night. I also hope that my sons will mature some day.

Still Waiting...

I order most of my Christmas gifts online, I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon.com. I also get one of those LTD Commodity catalogs and the Grandkids love to look through it and pick out junk that they want. I learned very quickly that if you order from them, you had better do it as soon as the catalog comes out or you won't get your stuff before Christmas. Also you are always in the dark about how much shipping and handling charges will be, they ship all of the items separately to make the most money they can and when it is all said and done, you cannot believe how much this junk has ended up costing you, that is why they sell stuff so cheap.

So, I started using Lakeside Collections, which carries the same products and actually is an alias of LTD, but they let you pay shipping and handling fees upfront. I seem to get my stuff quicker with them, but here it is the middle of January and I am still waiting for one Christmas gift that never came.

I also used a "Buy It Now" button on an auction on eBay, the seller is in Lithuania, but had very good feedback and sells tons of stuff on there, so I thought I was safe. I paid for the two items on November 16th and today is January 17th, the package still has not arrived. The first time that I contacted him about not receiving the items, he told me that it sometimes takes a month. That would have been in plenty of time for Christmas.

I think that I have been patient enough, I have filed a dispute with eBay but he hasn't answered it for a couple of weeks now. The worst part of this is the fact that my husband told me I was stupid to order something out of Lithuania and that I just got taken. I hate it when he turns out to be right like this.

I had some online returns this year which was a first for me. I had to return my Grandson's Heelys to Amazon.com, they are the tennis shoes with the wheels in the heels for all of you out of touch people. Anyway the return was very easy, I even printed the return label right from their website and didn't have to buy postage.