This is why you haven't heard from me. I am sitting in what is essentially a pasture (my neice Sheri's..that's her laughing at me...front yard). There are cows off to my right. We have some extension cords strung together connected up to an outside electrical outlet, and I am using something called an aircard. Well, it didn't work.
We had a big family get-together to celebrate the 4th at Sheri and Melvin's house which is near the little town of Boling, TX. Lots of family showed up: Melvin's parents...we were also celebrating his father Gene's 85th birthday. Sheri had put 85 candles on his cake; amazingly the smoke alarm did not go off when he blew them out. My neice Laurie (Sheri's sister) and her boyfriend Jimmy, her son Jeff who just graduated from Texas Tech and his girlfriend Faren, my neice Marla and her husband John, Sheri's daughters Lauren, who is in college, and Sierra, who is 11. My sister Kiki came with me; it was a beautiful drive down through the country to get there.
Last night all hell broke loose when nine dogs, including mine, rushed through the pasture gate and stampeded the horses. For a long time. And Toby was (foolishly) leading the pack (the others all knew to stay back from the horses' heels). We finally got that situation under control, amid much dust, and mud, and barking, and shouting and snorting. Then Toby spotted a loose chicken in the barn foyer. He caught but hadn't managed to hurt it much when we pulled him off and tossed the chicken into the main part of the barn where it lay motionless in the dirt. Kiki went to get it and it hopped up and flew away. Then she tried to catch Pedro the new burro to lead him to his stall, and he tried to bite her. I locked Teddy and Toby in an outside kennel to remove them from further temptation, and they barked and yowled nonstop in protest. We finally got everyone fed and put up. Tonight things will go much more smoothly.
After that, we took all ten dogs on a 'pasture walk' down to the end of my sister's property. Teddy stayed with me but Toby joined the other 8 in running all over the place looking for skunks or anything else of interest. When we got to the pond, Kiki's puppy Harley was swimming. Toby paced back and forth in the shallow water for a while, then leaped into the deep and swam to the other side (this is the dog who will not walk through a puddle or go near sprinklers). This was followed by much rolling in the grass and looking quite pleased with himself. We had taken Maggie and Teddy to Petsmart for grooming and both still looked pretty good at the end of our walk. Last night we watched "Billy Elliot" which was good but the play in NYC was better.
My sister's Bell's Palsy got much worse on Saturday, and she was a mess. Her eye was really bothering her and her nose was running on the affected side. Today we picked up some eye patches for her to wear for a few days. We are going home to make peach jam and patch her up.
My nephew Will left last night to return to his internship at the Pentagon in DC. Wesley has been in and out on his motorcycle. My brother-in-law Carrel and the boys finished laying the hardwood floor in the dining room yesterday and we are almost ready to start painting that room. It is going to be beautiful when we get it all put together.
That's it for this morning....I miss everyone but am having a fabulous time being a Texan!