Jiminy Cricket

Darren called me outside the other day to look at something he and Coco had found. I walked out to see this on the side of the house...

Have you ever seen a cricket this big?

I'm definitely not a bug person, but I think this is a really cool picture. And you know what? Darren took it on his phone! I would have never believed it.

Apparently, bugs have a pretty good life around our house. We have a lot of them, so we must be "the spot".

Home Sweet Home

This weekend, my in-laws were in town and while the boys were at the barber shop so that Pops could get his hair cut, Mama Jackie and I went across the street to Hobby Lobby. While we were there, I talked myself into buying some flowers for the front porch. A few months ago, I had bought a door hanger basket from Southern Living, but never bought any flowers to put in it. All of a sudden, I was in the mood for flowers!

The front door. I would love, love, love to put some more white trim around it and paint it red, and then put the street number on the door with vinyl letters. But alas, this isn't "our house" so I'm going to let that idea go.

Oh, and I really like how the pots turned out. I bought terra cotta pots for $3 each and then spray painted them with an oil rubbed bronze spray paint.

The flower pot to the right. I was only planning on using the yellow flowers, but I needed some fillers. I thought I bought 4 bunches of yellow, and I wound up only picking up three. I like how it turned out though.

The flower pot to the left of the door. I really, really love this little garden stake. I bought it a few months ago and had it in a flower bed on the other side of the house, but it was really "lost". It was far too small to be put in a large bed. Once I got these flowers "planted", I went and got that stake, bent it in half and then stuck it down in this pot. I really like how it turned out.

This is, by far, my new favorite thing about the front porch. I just had to have that bucket, when saw it, and I am really happy with how it turned out. I just love the feathers and the greenery pieces that hang out. I am pretty cheap though and I never could find flowers that I liked that were cheap enough! I finally found a bunch of greenery, that had these feathers in it, for $11.99. Lucky for me, all floral was 50% off this weekend. So, I bought all of the flowers for the front porch for just $46. That works for me! We never use our front door, but I can't help but go out that door about 5 times a night, just so I can see the flowers on the way back in! They make me happy! Hope all is well with each of you!

Lunch Is Served!

With the surgeries (we are up to three now), the soreness, and all of the medicine, Coco isn't quite back to herself yet. Everyday is better than the last, so we are grateful and we are headed in the right direction!

The medicine seems to upset her stomach some, but of course - it's a necessary evil. The first week she was sick, I could get her to eat turkey hot dogs (where I would hide her medicine) and nothing else. Then, she just stopped eating all together. I've tried pretty much everything, with no success. I called her Dr. and he said to try giving her chicken and rice or canned dog food. So, we tried the chicken and rice and she ate it! Woo hoo! I was able to hide her medicine in it and she ate all of what I gave her! I don't know that I have ever been so happy.

This is pretty much my favorite thing to see these days!

I kind of feel bad that I stalk her - to make sure she eats, drinks plenty of water, gets her medicine, potties, her wounds get cleaned, she gets a warm compress each night to bring down the swelling, she doesn't jump up on or off of stuff, she doesn't get too hot outside, etc. She goes back today for a check up and possibly to replace some stitches that were taken out a week or so ago. It's a long story, but the skin around the stitches was dying and pulling away from them, so the Dr. took them out and we left the wound open for a week to let them try to heal on their own. I think they have done really, really well so we shall see what the Dr. says today!

Hope all is well with everyone and you enjoyed a wonderful (and safe) 4th of July!