No More Monkey Mountain

Ok. Enough of the Monkey Mountain. Sorry to have kept you hanging for so long.

It's Oscar time here at Myers house. Which means the annual Oscar party. The same group of friends have been gathering to watch the Oscars for a long time now. We used to dress to the nine's in the most gawdy prom dresses we could find. But ya know it's like a 4 hour show. Sitting in sequins with a neckline that pinched just wasn't cutting it. Some years we dress according to the movies. One year my sis and I went as cowboys with fishing poles and arrived inseparably hugging ala Brokeback Mountain. This year's theme was comfort. My friend Diane K. does it up right. I won the Oscar for guessing the most Oscar winners.


I love the Oscars. More so this year because I've actually seen 6 of the movies nominated.

Last fall Jackson studied the Dave Ramsey fianncial management series for teens. His Sunday School teacher challenged the kids to spend $5 in a way that would honor God. Jackson used his to buy dog bones. Then this weekend we visited the shelter and loved on some of God's sweetest creatures. Including the very long and lanky Pistol Pete. He just loved Jackson and his neck. His light little kitty dough action tickled. Jackson just might be a really good dog trainer but he could easily be the cat whisper. He's got a way with the kitties. By the way it took him about 3 minutes to get to the usual "hey could we keep this one" question.

I've been researching family history. The Midwest Genealogy Center nearly caused me to collapse in an overwhelmed heap. A place with an entire shelf of books on little old Keytesville, Missouri. Oh my. John was a good sport and came along for the grand tour. For some reason I thought it might only have records from Missouri in a part of a regular library. Oh no. It houses records of all 50 states. Census records, passenger list, hundreds of thousands of obituaries, civil war records, revolutionary war records, and even slave and plantation records.

And now something completely different.......

Just for the record a tornado has not swept through my neighborhood. But the kids have been having a blast making various forts and unexplained creations in the trees behind the house. They spent the better part of a Sunday afternoon plunking around out there. Can't quite describe what the heck it is. But they are having an awful good time being kids.

A Day on Monkey Mountain

Jackson and I climbed Monkey Mountain. It was a steep climb to a beautiful prairie vista like open space.

With a beautiful view.

The next day was super. Well it was Super Bowl Sunday. We watched the big game with Mom and Harold. Deb and the girls joined in the party.

Catching Up

It's been rather quiet on the Myers home front. We're hunkered down from the cold and in pursuit of good tv. And/or entertaining ourselves. I live with two of the worlds funniest comedians. One night I responded to Brady's bleating calls for food. And this is what I found. John is just too funny. Part two of his jinks was discovered the next day when Jackson went to get in his backpack and discovered the head of this picture sitting in his binder.


We do on occasion venture out into the world. We gotta eat after all. Sunday I journeyed out to welcome a new baby to the family. Grandma Vernie and grandma-to-be Laura enjoyed watching the sea of pink presents.

We on occasion welcome a visitor into our cozy little cottage. One day last week Erin came a- visiting. We got down and dirty. She suggested that we make worm pies like we did last summer. And since that for obvious reason just wouldn't work we did the next best thing. We made a mess of the kitchen. We put food coloring on bubbles. We made a little mud and we made a goopy egg mixture mess. Complete with a dash of pepper.

My Favorite Things

Between PTA meetings, library duty at Jack's middle school and all the other things that take place here at Myers house, I was able to squeeze in some time this afternoon with my favorite girls. Which of course meant hanging out with Hank. He's grown a bit since Christmas but he's still just a little bit of a thing. Uncle Johnny bought him new teeny little tennis balls just his size. And we played and played.Then he did that doggie thing.... he curled up and went to sleep nestled in his aunties arms. Then their sweet little kitten Grayson climbed on up and snuggled in my other arm. Time spent on a very cozy chair with two little critters warmly in your embrace while listening to Lauren's new piano lessons and while watching Erin's new ability to do a somersault. Hey guys doesn't get better than this.

Someone forgot to tell Hank that he's supposed to be a little foo foo dog. He's got some serious personality. I don't know how Deb gets anything done.

Doesn't look like we had an ounce of fun huh. Check out Lauren's especially toothless grin. Wonder how Theadora is tackling those thistles off of thumbelina isle. Just wondering.

Hemolytic Anemia Part 2

This family has a thing going with a canine disease called Auto-Immune Hemolytic Anemia. The wretched rare blood disorder took the life of our first dog. Our beloved Elwood. Five years ago it snaked its way into our lives again through our Colby. She won her battle through steroids and a medication used to treat MS in humans. And with the help of a doggie internist. Betcha didn't even know there was such a thing. I didn't either. The disorder causes Colby's system to attack her own red blood cells. And steroids caused her to gain a whooping 20 pounds in about a month.

About a week ago Colby took sick. This morning the vet got her blood results and she's having another episode of Hemolytic Anemia. So we're back on the 'roids. Hopefully she'll respond well. Last night the fever broke. And she's a happy camper again tonight. She even played with Cooper.

Gotta tell ya Colby just may be the world's best dog. She's the sweetest thing. She walks contentedly right beside you. Even at the dog park when most dogs go every which way. Everyone needs someone who just walks right beside them. And next to John & Deb that's my Colby. She's taken to sleeping right next to my bed. Which my sweet Rayna did no matter where in the house I dropped to sleep (she's been gone now for about 2 years- but she lived through all those early morning baby feedings!) John reminds me that Colby was a sassy little in her younger years with a penchant for Jackson's little hockey gloves. Something 'bout that smell of fresh leather combined with the rubbery sweat smell of a little boys was just irresistible to her. Not only did it mean having to buy another pair of gloves (the folks at the hockey store thought this was hysterical) but it meant having to clean up recycled pieces of hockey gloves all over the back yard!

Now for something completely different. With the final Alaska quarter firmly in place, I have completed an entire state quarter book. My Granny bought me this book- and for many years she made sure that we had the newest quarters thanks to her niece that worked at the local bank. This one's for you Granny. That's the thing about grief and lose. You're sailing along dealing with it. Then you get shot with an intensity of pain that takes your breath away and brings such a stab of pain the tears literally burn your eyes. Granny's been gone for just about a year now. She'd have gotten a kick out of the quarters.

Happy New You

Happy New Year! I hope, dear blog friends and readers, that 2009 will bring all sorts of good things to your world and to mine. The Myers continued our New Year's Day tradition of hiking in the woods. Nothing beats pondering resolutions and the year ahead like the quiet of the woods.

This past weekend we celebrated an amazing accomplishment~ my great Aunt and Uncle's 60th wedding anniversary. Their daughters hosted a beautiful reception.

Speaking of beautiful..... doesn't my Aunt Bet look great.

Santa's Surprise

Santa's bringing something special to Lauren and Erin and that something special is hanging out with me until that big day. He is just adorable. My sister adopted him from a local rescue group- he's part Rat Terrier and part whatever visitor the mom "entertained" perhaps a cattle dog. And he's only about as big as two baked potatoes. Or as big as Cooper's entire head.

Our baby went to visit Santa today. He was very curious about all the Christmas commotion. And he chewed on Santa's fur. Need you think I'm completely crazy. We weren't the only dog in the line with all the children. A pretty yellow lab was a few folks in front of us.