Toadfrogs and Elephants

Madison turned back into an escape artist this week. My mean neighbor had told me last week that she saw my dog out and had tried to catch her. I didn’t really believe her because Madison was in the backyard when I got home. Well, yesterday I looked out my window to see Madison in our side yard sniffing around. The side yard is not fenced in. I looked for a hole but couldn’t find one. I even put her back out and watched her to see what would happen and she just ran around. Last night Wade and I were having dinner in Greenville when we got a call from our neighbors saying Madison had jumped the fence. We have a 4.5′ fence! When we got home we put her in the backyard and then went outside the fence and called her. Sure enough she took a running start and then half jumped half climbed (with the help of the ivy) our fence. Guess that means we are working on the fence this weekend.

Most of my potted plants have been sitting on the kitchen counter since we moved in February. The majority of those belong in the planter Wade designed for a class. The planter is named Chester and I mentioned more about it here. Chester finally has a home in our new house. He seems to be doing well in the sunroom with my new herb garden in the window.

Wade and I have decided on green for our living room walls. Now we just have to strip all of the molding, sand it, prime it, paint it, and paint the walls. That is a lot of work! I painted one wall of the living room so that we could start rug shopping.

After church, we all headed up to the outlets in Gaffney. I was hoping to find a rug, but no such luck. In the end, even Mom and Carolyn didn’t buy anything. We did introduce them to lunch at Moe’s!

We have visitors for the holiday weekend. My mom drove down with her friends, Carolyn and Jay Siener. Jay is a home builder/renovator and offered his help on projects. My mom and Carolyn offered their help with decorating. Wade and I jumped at the offers.

After a long day of working outside and in the attic, I now have a water spout in the backyard. I was having to use a pitcher of water to fill the dog’s water bowl. There was a water spout on the inside of the garage closest to the house. Jay and Wade ran pipe up that wall, across the garage, and out the other side. Now I can easily water the dogs. Maybe I’ll even look into an automatic water bowl. Lazy aren’t I?

Mom and Carolyn were a lot of help, but I think my favorite was the jar of berries for my bedroom. Simple but pretty.

Wade and I now have our first foster dog. I got an email asking me to pick up a Brittany Spaniel in Greenville. All I knew about her was that she was 8 years old and overweight. I was still shocked at her size. She should weight about 40 pounds and is about 20 pounds overweight. The poor dog couldn’t get up into my car by herself. Wade quickly named her “Tubbles”.

The upside to her being overweight is that she isn’t overly hyper and doesn’t jump up on people. The minute I bring her inside she finds a dog pillow and doesn’t move until morning.