DOGWOOD ACRES, 2/25/08

DOGWOOD ACRES, 02/25/08, ELANE CRUM

Hello friends. Looking at the school closing list this morning, I see that our girls are back to school. The last two weeks have given them quite a break with school in session only two days out of ten.

The ice kept me in only one day which proved to be a great day to cook. Rick seemed to enjoy the Venison meatloaf which was a change from his standard can of soup.

Ice on our steps seemed to get worse with every passing day and finally got the best of Rick on Saturday. Erin had talked him into bringing in her Angel Puppy to play with and he made a bumpy exit down the steps from the kitchen deck. After picking himself up and assessing the damage he went on out to the pen and brought the little angel back in. With all the bumps, bruises and sore muscles he is acutely aware of how much worse it could have been.

Ashton, Erin and I visited Justin and Kasie Friday night so that Justin could put their new Chipmunks CD over on to the MP-3 player and Ipod. Some music is timeless and apparently the Chipmunks fall into that category. Frankly, I am glad they got it transferred so I don’t have to listen to the little critters on my car CD player.

Erin was preparing for a 70’s day at school so we took my old jewelry box with us to Justin and Kasie’s and used that time to see what I still had. Unfortunately I had gotten rid of the funky stuff but they still had fun looking at what I had not parted with. There was the four leaf clover pins that were a gift for playing Pomp & Circumstance for Taneyville School’s 8^th grade graduation. I was in the 7^th grade that year and in my 2^nd year of piano lessons, don’t you know that was good?

We also found a pretty little white gold cross on a delicate chain. Rick gave it to me ever so long ago but over the years it had become tangled with several other chains. I handed that over to Justin who patiently and tenaciously separated them without breaking anything.

There was several beadwork necklaces that Granny Nettie had crocheted and I had worn proudly. While all three girls thought they were interesting, I could tell that none would wear them, not even for sentimental reasons. Erin liked the mask pins that Janice Wolf had made (yes Jan, I still have them) and Ashton was rather taken with a sparkly heart necklace. We all loved looking at Grandpa and Grandma Bilyeu’s pictures in the little gold locket he had given her more than sixty years ago.

Christie’s granddaughter, Vanessa, played in the basketball tournament at Sparta Saturday night and we filled the family (pews) for that. They played a good game with Galena and won by several points. Tuesday night we will go back to see them play Sparta. (picture of our family who was at the Saturday game) Bill, Dawn, Jim...Dakota,Christie,Makaylee,Sean...Tanja,Elane,Ashton & Erin)

....ooops....not quite finished with the newspaper column on Monday morning I had emailed it to my office with intentions of finishing there and then would email to Taney Co. Times...well, got to the office and it wasn't there, so improvised by writing what is below for the newspaper....so Dogwood Acres Online this week gets more than the newspaper got!

Hello friends. Time and Technology have thrown some challenges into the way of Dogwood Acres this week. I had a column written, then through some email fluke, cannot get to it in time for publishing. For those of you who never use the internet, I am sure that makes no sense and I apologize. I considered just not writing, but hate to not at least say "Hello friends".

When I left home this morning Rick was on his way outside to check on the puppies. They think they are such big dogs now and love playing in the leaves while he cleans out their run. He says puppies are much messier than big dogs, so this stage of "puppy love" may be coming to an end.

Rick's mom called Saturday to let us know that Uncle Cecil (Bashaw) is in a Portland hospital with pneumonia. Although in his 90's Uncle Cecil is never sick enough to go to the Dr. and certainly not the hospital. We trust that he will soon be back home in his easy chair.

Christie did come by our house Sunday night with a bit of news from the Biggs Family Kitty Litter. Mooch (Daddy's cat) had three babies and perhaps another yet to come. She said if any of them came out yellow they would be left on Jim's doorstep but I have not heard the outcome of that. Jim has said there may be another litter of puppies soon to be born at his house. Chances are he will leave them on Christie's doorstep.

Well, I know this is short, but perhaps a little news is better than no news. I will try to do better next week. Bye for now.