Obsessions...

I love my Chihuahua. She is my baby, and I'm not sure what I ever did without her. She is not warm and fuzzy with strangers - she really doesn't take to much of anyone but Keith and me. We have seen her warm to a VERY few couple of friends, but cautiously, and only on her terms. But with Keith and me, she is very attached (I'm the runner up, to tell the truth). If we have been out of house for awhile, she was us to sit down and hold her until she feels better. She must sleep between us - touching one of us or, preferably, both of us. She has to move from room to room if we are moving around the house, and just about can't stand it if we close a door to keep her out.

UNLESS, that is, El Toro of Love or Christ-moose is in town. These are stuff animals that have been picked up along life's way, and found their way into this Chihuahua heart. She loves them very much; her little ears perk up that the mention of their names. Oh, how she loves them. If they happen to be lying around, she becomes completely obsessed. She will not leave them to go outside, to eat, to sit with us - nothing! She lays beside them with her head resting on them, she does unspeakable things with them (until her mother informs her that we don't do those things in this house), and she chews on them. (This would be why El Toro and Christ-moose don't get to hang around the house much.) She will not leave them - the obsession is real and it's deep.

So this week, we noticed that Busy-bel was hanging out in my sewing room a lot. She was snappish with Beau (more snappish than usual), and she was sitting on a box with my quilt. At one point she was guarding the door to the sewing room to keep Beau from going in. I wasn't paying close attention to it, but we wondered about her behavior. What was up with her? Then yesterday I walked past the box and happened to glance in it, and realized that she had found Christ-moose, who was packed in that box. It cracked me up! That explained it all - I guess she assumed Beau would be just as taken with Christ-moose as she is.

Christ-moose and El Toro of Love have gone out of town, and may never see the light of day again.

Stuff and Things

Good morning, everyone!

I am sitting in Panara this morning, mostly because we are out of power from storms that rolled through Memphis yesterday. It was one place that I knew I could use the wifi, and they would have plugs - both the computer and the phone needed juice. It's a great world when you can plug up, get a good bagel and have a glass of tea (all that and AC, too!). Interestingly enough, I have seen 3 parishners since I've been here!

We have a new addition to the family. Keith has been talking about getting a basset hound for some time. I found one "free to good home" on Craig's list. I thought I would garner some points for showing it to Keith. I just knew that 700 people would be responding to the add, and we had no chance of getting him. (never, ever assume! Why don't I listen to my father??) Well, long story short, I sent my response, and the owner emailed me RIGHT BACK and said that we were the family he was praying for. Lucky me. :) We picked him up on Thursday morning. He is one honkin' big dog. Beautiful, sweet, good and vocal dog - but BIG. He only has 5" legs, but when he stand on his hind legs, he stands as tall as me!

The girls are adjusting (Isabel is S L O W L Y coming a long). He love them, but they are a little scared of him. It has been fun watching them together. He seems to be ajusting well to life at the Boettners. Here is a pix of him:

In other news, I have not found work yet. I and found a lot of other things to do, but now work. I have been busy helping friends, visiting, and school. I could get used to his housework stuff.

I have to run. Time to meet Keith, and go see if we have any power.

Peace!

Random Photos...

Here are a couple of pictures of my (somewhat messy) sewing room. The quilt on the wall was made by my mother, designed by my sisters, and financed by my dad (it actually says that on the back of the quilt!) Each of the color blocks are actually envelope pockets. It was my graduation gift, and I love having it up on my wall. The wall color came with the house, but it seems to be working for me.

This is on the opposite wall. I took peg board, painted it, added spacers on the back, and the trim on front. I love it. It is now full of sissors, cutters, rulers, and other odds and ends. The table is a solid-core door that weighs about a billion pounds. I put the handles on both ends to help with haulin it around. The saw horses can be raised, but since I am short, I haven't felt the need. Since these pictures were taken, I have added some shelves in the closet for my stash, a small book shelf just inside the door for my books, and a stand for my TV. I love spending time in here, and have been known to just sit at my table and watch TV because I had nothing else to do. :) (or because I was avoiding homework, but that is the horse of a different color!)

This is the BEAUTIFUL stand of Irises in the backyard. Some of you may know that these were my Grandma Hartleroad's favorite flowers, so it was a wonderful surprise to see them coming up. If you look, there is one yellow one among all the light purple ones. Since taking this picutre, we have several dark purple ones pop out. I love them.

Here is a close-up of one.
Finally, here are some things I have been doing with my new machine: I made them for Z., who seemed to love them. I especially love the pink dress. It came out very cute. I am supposed to be getting some picks of the doll in the cloths, but haven't seen them yet (hint, hint).

I was laid off from work about 8 weeks ago, but have been keeping busy with things around the house, and hanging out with friends at the BumbleTees shop. I'm trying to find another job, but am enjoying the time off for now. It's amazing how many things there are to do when you don't have to bother with getting up and going to work.

Finally, I'll leave you with pics of the girls...

Isabel (she-who-must-be-obeyed)

and Corkey (she-who-obeys...well, most of the time) before the summer cut.

2009

I just thought I would spend some time and catch you all up since my last post. (This one is for you, Chuck!)

I helped a couple of girl friends with the Christmas Pageant. It was great fun (albeit a little stressful), and we had a great time - we spent all day Saturday before the show working on costumes, and had some great results. I don't have pictures, as I was herding sheep, wise men and trying to keep baby Jesus quiet (yep, we had a live one - Jon David). We are wondering who is going to have the baby for next year...

Christmas Eve service was beautiful. I really enjoy that particular service, watching a child place Jesus in the manger, and thinking about what St. Mary must have been thinking on that night so long ago. Christmas Day was a nice quiet day for Keith and I. I actually came down with a nasty cold on Christmas Eve, so it was nice that we had planned to stay home and enjoy the day by ourselves. Frankly, the month had been so busy with our open house*, the pageant, Christmas, etc. that we were not able to get the trees decorated, or the house cleaned. So, we got up, decorated the trees (yes, we had 3 of them!), cleaned the house, got cleaned up, made our Christmas meal, and had "Christmas" about 4 p.m. It was perfect. I had the day after off, and was able to really just rest and try to get over the cold. (Believe me, I know it doesn't sound nice, but it was for us!)

New Years Eve, we opened the house to anyone who didn't have something else to do that evening. We thought it would end up being 5 or 6 folks. We had 25 people come over and had a great time! We did the countdown at about 10p.m., so those with kids could get them home if they wanted. We played games, drank "Marcia-ritas", and ate lots of good food. (we did this pot-luck, bring a food and beverage and come!) What a great time. It was the first entertaining we have done, and we are planning more. Its nice to have room to have folks over! We spent the rest of the weekend quietly - not doing too much.

Sadly, Marcia moved to California. She is a good friend - someone I could hang out with when there was nothing going on. She was always up for company and/or a shopping trip. We are still in touch, and she has promised to come visit us often. I am sorry that she left, but am happy that she is doing something she loves. (and she gets to leave Memphis, too!) Love you, Marcia!

Since then I have started and almost finished my Managerial Accounting class. It is going well, but the final is making me a little nervous. I also got a new sewing machine, which I love and am working on getting my sewing room organized. I bought a solid core door (do you know how heavy those are????) and painted it a nice soft green to go in the room on saw horses. I have a pegboard that I am going to paint and frame to use to hold tools such on. I have big plans for that room, but it is getting smaller by the minute - so some of them may not work. We'll see. I am hoping that Elise (hint hint) will be coming over soon to help me arrange it, as well as some of the other rooms in the house.

Keith is busy with church stuff. It's amazing how much work there is when you double the size of the congregation! But he enjoys every minute (well, most minutes) of it. He is doing well, and has maintained his weight loss. lucky boy. We are so happy to be here at St. James at this time. We see so much growth - spiritual and size - it is exciting to watch and see where God takes us.

Well, that just about does it. I don't have much more to report. I am taking a trip to Jonesboro, AR on Saturday (it's about 1 1/2 hours away), to visit friends from seminary. Di just had a new baby, and I need to get over there to see him! That and get out of Memphis for a little while. I am looking forward to the trip. Other than that - on to lent, and then the most wonderful season of the Church Calender - Easter! Our Easter Vigil is my most favorite service of all. But we must get through Lent first...can't get to Easter without going through Good Friday.

I hope you are all doing well. I will try to do better keeping this thing updated.

PS: Congrats to my brother David and his wife Rachel who just bought their first home! I'm so happy for you all, and proud of you, too! Kiss that baby for me!

*(FYI: our open house is a breakfast we put together for the church. Because we have gotten so large, we actually had the "open house" in the church hall so we would have room - even the new house is not big enough!)