No Law Against Cuteness!

Remember this post?  Leslie has been such a dear friend over these past 20+ years.  Not only does she supply me with a year's worth of raspberries every summer, she also brought me the Downtown Abbey book to borrow when I was hunkered down on the couch for 2 weeks with this year's viral plague.  How did she know to bring it...I hadn't told her I was sick!

Well now she has the world's cutest baby goats living at her house.  Envy doesn't begin to cover it!  I had the pleasure of visiting them yesterday.  She has four of the cutest goats I've ever seen. They were born on Mother's Day, how appropriate!  Their coloring is so wonderful, ranging from black and white (think "oreo" cows...I know they have some kind of official name, but I think oreo just about covers it!) whose  name is Bo--a la bovine, there is a multi-colored one named Dexter, (correct me, Leslie, if I've got them wrong!), another one that's kind of grey and brown named Abner and a very feminine one named Clementine.  I was hoping Leslie would turn her back for minute so I could abscond with one!  Watching their antics is a never-ending source of joy and entertainment.  I don't know how she gets anything done, you could spend all day laughing at them as they jump, hop, skip, twitch and contort themselves.

Check out the cuteness.  Warning:  the following may cause you to acquire farm animals!

Wannabe Farmer Ridgely holding...I think...Dexter

Lil' Abner

Sweet Clementine...she loves to snuggle

Dexter

Ever feel like "climbing the walls"?  Abner's giving it a go!

Clementine was intrigued by my shoelaces....

Success!  Pretty impressive since it was a double knot!

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They have their own playground.  The teeter-totter is a favorite

This is Bo, see his beautiful blue eye!  I don't think I've ever seen a goat with blue eyes before.

Such a fun time...thank you, Leslie, for letting me live your life vicariously!

The Puppy That Could!

This is Palmer, my neighbor Jeanne's,  dog!

He's 10 years old.  He  thinks he's still a puppy, but he's had a tough 8 month battle with a nasty infection in one side of his nose that took a village to deal with.  Last October, Jeanne noticed that he had a perpetually runny nose and a weird cough/hacking issue.  The nose got worse and worse developing into a really nasty discharge and which sapped all his energy.  He wouldn't bark anymore, it seemed to hurt his throat.  Vets couldn't figure it out.  Every test known was performed, MRI's, the whole works.  they even took him to a vet specialist down in Lynwood, everyone was stymied. They tried one antibiotic after another but nothing helped and it just got worse and worse.  Jeanne was supplementing his diet with yogurt to try to keep his digestive system intact and unaffected by all the antibiotics.  She was up at 5 am every day to make sure his meds were given in a timely manner.  She was beside herself, thinking she may have to put him down because she would not allow him to suffer.  He is such a trooper, he would try to play a bit, but his heart wasn't in it and after a minute or so would plop down amd sigh.  I was making daily trips over there to give him puppy massages which seemed to help take his mind off his misery.

Vets had performed several tests for fungal infections, but they kept coming back negative.  But ultimately was the only option not tried, so in February they put him on an anti-fungal and we crossed our fingers.  It took about 3 weeks before we noticed any real improvement, but it was obvious that it was working, albeit slowly.  

Today his nose is almost completely healed.  The discharge is gone, he barks again, his energy is back and we are celebrating!

This is the puppy we know and love:

May 1st -- 34th Anniversary and a Busy People Day

Today is our 34th wedding anniversary.  We celebrated in unusual ways.  Our church celebrated Mother's Day today, so that Mom's can spend the official Mother's Day with their own families. The men of our church prepared a fabulous luncheon for the female portion of our congregation!  There was BBQ chicken expertly marinated and prepared by Joel--three kinds:  honey mustard, teriyaki and traditional BBQ sauce.  

There was some important discussion about the which kind was which and whether it was cooked properly.  They commiserated in the kitchen, figuring out what goes where and how.

There was a plethora of fabulous salads all prepared by the men.  

This is Wally's contribution.  He was still cutting up fruit at 10:00pm last night when I went to bed!  He's a night person....I'm not!

Meanwhile, we ladies sat about in leisure and chatted

Don't feel badly, the men waited until we all went thru the line and then they got to eat.  

This is our dear, dear Pastor Bob!

And here he is with wife, Cynthia.  No more amazing pastoral couple has existed in my world!

After this fabulous lunch, we headed north to Ferndale to visit with one of my former library assistants from Sehome High.  She graduated in 2003 and we've kept in touch.  She's a wonderful woman.  I was so impressed by her when she was at Sehome, she was so much more mature than her classmates.  Now a wife to Paul--also a Sehome grad, although they did not fun in the same circles in high school and only connected a few years after graduation.  And she is  Mom to Leo, who's 2, and Zoe who is one month.  They are here visiting Paul's parents and were having a open house so friends could stop by and say hi before they headed back to Denver where they moved 5 years ago.  It was such a treat to see her "all grown up" and to meet her kids.  

What a great way to celebrate an anniversary--spending time with people we love!